Engagements whereby this whole Nation is perpetually joyned unto the Lord and also ever animat yow to Do or Suffer for the Lords great Name and these precious important concernments as He requireth lest if ye either faint in your mindes or give up your selves to the delusion of some carnal distinction quiting the founder for the safer part against the explicit Testimony or implicit inclination of your own Consciences which later if sincerely aiming at the glory of God and in nothing repugnant to His holy Word is no otherwise to be regarded in times of temptation then as that promised secret leading of the blind in the way they know not you not only lose your Crown but provoke the Lord to cause all the Churches know by your plagues that He it is who searcheth the reins hearts But unto these few names in Scotland that have appeared zealous for God have not forgotten His Covenant in these declining times all these who favour their Righteous Cause The Lord who liveth was dead and is alive for evermore Amen knoweth your works tribulation poverty but yow are rich and also the blasphemy of them which say they are Christians are not but are the synagogue of Antichrist Fear none of these things which yow do or shall suffer your afflictions are but for Triall and may be Short be Faithful unto the death and ye shall have the Crown of life And as ye love God the Father of our Lord Jesus who gave His only and eternall delight unto the death for us Sinners as ye love our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood as ye love the Holy Spirit of Grace who breatheth all this love into our hearts and comforteth and sealeth us unto the day of redemption as ye love the blessed Gospel in the light whereof all this love is revealed and God therein mainly glorified as ye love the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood as ye love for your own souls and for your posterity eternal life as ye love poor Scotland and it's deliverance from the dreadful and imminent wrath of God and as you love the preservation of all Interests either Spiritual Temporal or Eternal Adhere stedfastly to the holy Covenants that Sacred and Firm Bond and Engagement unto all duties of Religion and Righteousness our blessed sealed Charter of all the Lord's blessings and ordinances especially of that great Ordinance of the Ministry and Government of the Lord's house which He himself hath appointed the hedge of all other Ordinances and the great and most effectual mean of the Gospel's establishment and advancement For as it is only the holy zeal of God inspired and animated by the fervent love of our Lord Jesus and the fear of the Lord 's great Name and the regard of His sacred Oath that can make you of quick understanding in these perillous times for the discovering of both duties and dangers and strengthen you with all might either for Doing or Suffering that you may endure unto the end so you may be assured that if the Lord's thoughts toward Scotland be thoughts of peace and not of evil to give us an expected end as we have great ground and perswasion of hope it shall be upon the broken plank of this despised Covenant that this tossed and ship-wrackt Church shall be preserved in midst of all these fluctuations and at length attain to it's desired haven of Peace and Truth Yea though this Apostacy and persecution should prevail to wear out the saints of the most High and the Lord because of the overspreading of abomination should determine and bring upon us utter desolation yet shall this your faithfulness be your Peace joy and Victory Let all therefore that desire to be found faithful look unto Jesus and his joy that with Him enduring the cross and despising the shame we may neither faint nor be weary but in end be partakers of his Victory Throne and Crown Thus we have seen and declared the great Work of God in this Land from the first times of our Reformation unto this day we have also teen our manifold provocations whereby we have often Turned Tempted and Provoked the most High and all these judgements Temptations and Discoveries wherewith by the space of now more then an Hundred years he hath corrected and exercised us and we are at length arrived unto and have considered the present state and posture of our affairs Wherein though 1. the extremity of Apostacy exceeding all that any age can parallel and aggreageable by all the circumstances of most clear and glorious Manifestations most solemn and sacred Engagements most sudden and causeless backsliding and most national daring and violent defection that any Church can be charged with 2. The extremity of Persecution and Violence which considering either the Actors once ring-leaders now Apostats from the same Holy Covenant which they persecut or the Manner by Hostile and Military Force without so much as regarding their own Lawes which they pretend for warrant or the cruelty and excess whereby mens lives are imbittered making them prefer Death to the slaveries and insolencies which they sustain Are not to be instanced in any Christian Church 3. The extremity of Sin and profanity and of the enemies boasting and blasphemy whose mouths are set against the Heavens and all the spite of their tongues and indignation of their hearts against the holy Covenant and tenderness of conscience over which and all their followers they wickedly insult and rejoyce And 4. the extremity of mens fainting and deserting so Good a Cause Which in their hearts they secretly own and approve but dare not avow yea are ready to deny for fear of the Adversaries Though we say these extremities undenyably apparent in our present condition do sadly denounce unto this Land the worst and most woful of all extremities even utter forsaking and desolation and that the End is come yet notwithstanding all these hopeless and desperat appearances it is the Lord who causeth light to shine out of darkness and saith in the evening it shall be light who saith unto dry bones live and calleth his People out of their graves who even calleth things that are not as though they were in whom all the seekers of His face ought to rejoyce and joy in the God of their salvation Therefore although that over and above all these menacing evils the power and pride of the Enemy should yet more prevail even many degrees above all the appearances of Human Hope or Help all Neighbouring Nations should not only give them the leisure and conveniency but with all their might conspire and concurre with our enemies to intend their persecution strengthen their Apostacy yet are the Lord 's Faithful not only partakers of that River the streams whereof make glad the City of God though surrounded with the siege of of Nations Batteries of mountains and
VVorld had been but fevv so his VVords at that time should not be many He spoke to the People the speech and Testimony vvhich he had before vvritten and subscribed Having done speaking to the People who heard him with great attention he sung a part of the 31 Psal and then prayed with such povver and fervency as forced many to vveep bitterly Having ended he gives his cloak and hat from him And vvhen he turnned himself and took hold of the Ladder to go up he said vvith an audible voice I care no more to go up this Ladder and over it then if I were going home to my Fathers House And as he went up hearing a great noise amongst the People he called dovvn to his fellovv-sufferers saying Friends and Fellow-sufferers be not affraid every step of this Ladder is a degree nearer Heaven Then having seated himself thereon he said I do partly believe that the Nobles Counsellors and Rulers of the Land would have used some mitigation of this punishment had they not been instigated by the Prelates so our blood lyes principally at the Prelats door But this is my comfort now that I know my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my skin worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God vvhom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold pointing to his eyes and not another though my reins be consumed in me And novv I do vvillingly lay dovvn my life for the Truth and Cause of God the Covenants and VVork of Reformation vvhich vvere once counted the Glory of this Nation And it is for endeavouring to defend this and to extirpate that bitter root of Prelacy that I embrace this rope the Executioner putting the rope about his ncek Then hearing the People weep he said Your vvork is not to vveep but to pray that vve may be honourably born through and blessed be the Lord that supports me Novv as I have been beholden to the prayers and kindness of many since my imprisonment and sentence So I hope you vvill not be vvanting to me novv in this last step of my journey that I may vvitness a good Confession And that you may knovv the ground of my encouragement in this VVork and vvhat my hope is I vvill read to you the last Chapter of the Bible And having read it he said Here you see the Glory that is to be revealed upon me a pure river of vvater of life and so forth read the place vvhere the Throne of God is and the Lamb is in it vvhere his Servants serve Him and see His face and His Name is in their foreheads and the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever and here you see my access to my Glory and revvard Let him that is a thirst come and vvhosoever vvill let him take of the vvater of life freely And here you see also my vvelcome the Spirit and the Bride say Come Then he said I have one vvord more to say to my Friends looking dovvn to the Scaffold vvhere are you You need neither lament me nor be ashamed of me in this condition for I may make use of that expression of Christs I go to your Father and my Father to your God and my God to your King and my King to the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and to the City of the Living God the heavenly Ierusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant And so I bid you all farevvell For God vvill be more comfortable to you then I could be And he vvill also novv be more refreshing to me then you can be farevvel farevvel in the Lord. Then the Napkin being put on his face he prayed a space vvithin himself after vvhich he put up the cloath from his face vvith his ovvn hand and said he had one vvord more to say and that vvas to shevv them the comfort he had in his Death saying I hope you perceaved no alteration or discouragement in my countenance and carriage and as it may be your vvonder so I profess it is a vvonder to my self and I vvill tell yovv the reason of it Besides the justness of my Cause this is my comfort vvhich vvas said of Lazarus vvhen he dyed that the Angels did carry his soul into Abraham's Bosom so that as there is a great solemnity here of a confluence of People a Scaffold a Gallovvs and People looking out at vvindovvs so is there greater more solemn preparation in Heaven of Angels to carry my soul to Christ's bosom Again this is my comfort that it is to come in Christ's hands and He vvill present it blameless and faultless to the Father and then shall I be ever vvith the Lord. And novv I leave of to speak any more to creatures and turn my speech to thee O Lord and novv I begin my entercourse vvith God vvhich shall never be broken off Farewel Father and Mother Friends and Relations Farevvel the VVorld and all Delights Farevvell meat and drink Farevvel Sun Moon and Stars VVelcome God and Father VVelcome svveet Lord Iesus the Mediator of the nevv Covenant VVelcome blessed Spirit of Grace and God of all consolation VVelcome Glory VVelcome Eternal Life VVelcome Death Then he desired the Executioner not to turn him over untill he should put over his ovvn shoulders himself vvhich after praying a little vvithin himself he did saying O Lord into thy hands I commit my Spirit for thou hast redeemed my Soul Lord God of truth Thus in the 26 Year of his age he died as he lived in the Lord. FINIS Some Instances of the Sufferings of Galloway and Ntthisdale BEcause in the former Deduction mention is made of a Paper containing some of the Sufferings of Galloway and Nithisdale it is not inconvenient for more Particular Information to subjoyn a few instances out of the same Paper And first at three several inroads which the Souldiers have made into that Countrey in the Years 1663 1665 and 1666. they exacted from the People there for adhereing to their old faithful Ministers and not submitting to the Ministry of those whom the Prelates violently obtruded upon them the Summes of Money underwritten viz. Â Lib. S. d. From 49 Families in the Parish of Carsphairn 4864 17 0 From 43 Families in the Parish of Dalray 9577 16 8 From 49 Families in Balmaclelland 6430 10 0 From 9 Families in Balmacghie 425 11 8 From 2 or 3 Families in Tungland 166 12 0 From some poor Persons in Tuynham 81 4 0 From 20 Families in Borg 2026 17 4 From 9 poor Families in Girton 525 10 4 From some poor Families in Anwith 733 6 4 From 34 inconsiderable Families in Kirkpatrick-Durham 2235 6 0 From some few Fam. in Kirkmabrek
answere for itself if according to the Patience Learning Justice of many thow do not Refute and condemn before thow know it or brandish big words as he who upon a Coronation-day offereth duell to all who question the Kings Right when he knoweth that for Major Vis none dare appear in the contrary But in the passing take a word of the National Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant and Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement unto Duties that at one view thow may'st see Scotlands Engagements and Breaches the Faithfulness of many flood of Sin and Suffering that hath overflowed the Land Here is the Terminus a Quo and ad Quem of our Backsliding whereof though the most skilled Artist cannot pourtray to the life the whole body the form is so monstruous Complexion so strange he may well darkly represent some Lineaments of fingers and toes that the reader may know Ex ungue leonâ—m yet the Author hath nervously asserted the Truth and drawn matters of Fact with such True Collours that he can only be accused for a Picture fairer then the live-face of many Persons Actions To winde up all be not discouraged upon the one hand nor insult upon the other by the Death of many Mighty men of God Co-workers and Eye witnesses of his Work within these few years past and the stripling-stature of many survivers who have not attained unto the dayes of the years of the life of their Fathers and being but of yesterday can know little of the Lords ancient kindness to the Land except what thâ—ir Fathers have told them For as he hath reserved a numerous remnant of Holy Learned and Faithful men a rich cluster wherein there is a blessing and we have reason to bless Him who gave not our Church dry breasts a miscarrying womb so he can make the barren bear seven become a Joyful mother of many Children and as he hath work for them will raise up both Shepherds and Principal men It is true alas there is grown up a most degenerat Off-spring of all Qualities some whereof and not the meanest being as profane as Machiavel who teacheth Rulers to keep promise and Oath no longer then with pretended advantage they can break and that it is a prejudice to be Really Religious but not so honest as He who notwithstanding affirmeth a Necessity of Seeming to be Religious which they are not accompt no man to be a Man who by Whoring Swearing Drinking Spending all or more then they have do not class themselves into their new Profane Orders become as Cartesian in their Religion by Atheistical doubtings disputings about God the Holy Scripturs Heaven Hell c. as others are in their Philosophy But here is an Advantage that by Discovery and distinguishing betwixt the precious and the vile the Lord hath made this Defection contribut more to the Facility as well as Necessity of a future Purgation of the Church then all her Judicatures could ever effectuat without it And further as he hath frustrated many chief Authors and Promotters thereof of their Hopes and Designs and called Nobles Prelats and others to an accompt before they well tasted the expected sweetness or were warm in their Places or Promotions So though Herod Pilat may aggrie against the Innocent yet where men are like Samsons foxes only tied together by the tail of common Corrupt Principles whilst their heads of Self Interest and designs look different wayes what such a Position Conjunction and Aspect prognosticateth let Scripture Reason and Experience be consulted and they will tell Let us not in the meantime mistake Gods Work Wayes Doings nor Intentions neither be envyous at evil doers nor yet be Curious nor Anxious about futuritions much less limit the Holy one to Means Method or Time but bear the Indignation of the Lord because we have sinned till he plead our cause waiting upon him who is a God of Judgment and waiteth that he may be gracious and in patience possess our souls for though we do not he knoweth his own thoughts toward us it may be they are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give an expected end and that when he hath ripen'd Deliverance he will bring us forth to the Light we shall behold his Righteousness It is a crime of the highest nature with our Rulers to complain or supplicat for redress Others are either of deaf ears or feeble hands and cannot help and seeing we can do no more for the Cause and Covenant of God for our Mother-Church the Land Ourselves Our Brethren Posterity let us open our cause to him who tryeth the Righteous O Lord Hear O Lord Forgive O Lord hearken and do Defer not for thine own sake O my God For thy City and thy People are called by thy Name AMEN The Testimony of M R JAMES WOOD Minister of the Gospel and Professor of Theology in the University of S. Andrewes for Presbyterial Government I MR JAMES WOOD being now shortly by appearance to render up my Spirit to the Lord find my self obliged to leave a word behind me for my just Vindication before the World It hath been said of me that I have in word at least reseiled from my wonted Zeal for Presbyterial Government expressing my self concerning it as if it were a matter not to be accounted of that no man should trouble himself in the matter practice thereof It is true being under sicknes I have some times said I was taken up with weightier matters then any external ordinance and what wonder I said so being under such wrestling anâ—nt my interest in Iesus Christ which is a matter of for greater concernment Surely any Christian in this Church that knows me will judge there is a wrong done to me For since the day that the Lord convinced my heart which was by a strong hand that it was the Ordinance of God appointed by Iesus Christ for governing ordering his visible Church I never had the least change of thoughts concerning the necessity of it nor of the necessity of the use of it And now I declare before God the World that I account so of it still And that however there be some more precious ordinances yet that this is so precious that a true Christian is obliged to lay down his life for the profession thereof if the Lord shall see it meet to put him to the tryal And for my self if I were to live I would account it my glory to seal this word of my testimony with my blood Of this my declaration I take God Angels and Men to be my witnesses and have subscribed thiâ— presents with my hand the 2 of March 1664. about 7 hours afternoon before Mr William Tullidaf and Mr John Carstairs my Brother in Law and John Pitcarn writer hereof M R JAMES WOOD. AS the Matter of this Testimony is very considerable especially from so Great a man as Mr Wood was So the occasion
Judge as I desire Salvation and do expect eternall Salvation and happiness from Him from my Birth to my Scaffold I am free from any accession by my Knowledge concerning Counsel or any other way to his late Ma. death And I pray the Lord preserve his present Maj. and to pour his best blessings on his Person and Government and the Lord give him good and faithful councellors Turn-about to his Friends he said Many Christians may stumble at this and my Friends may be discontented But when things are rightly considered my freinds have no Discredit of Me nor Christians no Stumbling block but rather an Encouragement The last Speech and Testimony of M R JAMES GUTHRIE Minister of the Gospel at Sterlin at his Death at Edinburgh Jun. 1. 1661. which a day or two before his Death he wrot and left with some of his Friends sealed and attested under his own hand MEn and Brethren I fear many of yow become hither to gaze rather then to be edified by the carriage and last words of a dying man But if any have an hear to hear as I hope some of this great confluence have I desire your audience to a few words I am come hither to lay down this earthly Tabernacle and mortal flesh of mine and I bless God through His Grace I do it willingly and not by constraint I say I suffer willingly If I had been so minded I might have made a diversion and not been a Prisoner But being conscious to my Self of nothing worthy of Death or of Bonds I would not stain my Innocency with the suspicion of guiltiness by my withdrawing neither have I wanted opportunities and advantages to escape since I was Prisoner not by the fault of my keepers God knoweth but otherwise But neither for this had I Light or Liberty left I should reflect upon the Lord's Name and offend the Generation of the Righteous And if some men have not been mistaken or dealt deceatfully in telling me so I might have avoided not only the severity of the Sentence but also had much favor and countenance by complying with the courses of the time But I durst not redeem my Life with the loss of my Integrity God knoweth I durst not and that since I was Prisoner He hath so holden me by the hand that he never suffered me to bring it in debate in my inward thoughts much less to propone or hearken to any overture of that kind I did judge it better to Suffer then to Sin And therefore I am come hither to lay down my life this day And I bless God I die not as a Fool Not that I have any thing wherein to glory in my self I acknowledge that I am a Sinner yea one of the greatest and vilest that hes owned a profession of Religion and one of the most unworthy that hes Preached the Gospel my corruptions have been strong and many and have made me a sinner in all things yea even in following my duty And therefore Righteousness have I none of mine own all is vile But I do beleeve that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners whereof I am Chief Through Faith in his Righteousness and Blood have I obtained Mercy and through Him and Him alone have I the hope of a blessed conquest and Victory over Sin and Sathan and Hell and Death and that I shall attain unto the Resurrection of the Just and be made Partaker of Eternal Life I know in whom I have beleeved and that He is able to keep than which I have committed unto Him against that day I have Preached Salvation through His Name and as I have preached so do I Beleeve and do commend the Riches of His Free-grace and Faith in His Name unto yow all as the only way whereby ye can be saved And as I bless the Lord that I die not as a fool so also that I die not for Evil-doing Not a few of yow may happily judge that I suffer as a Thief or as a Murtherer or as an evil Doer or as an Bussy body in other mens matters It was the lot of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and hath been of many of His Precious Servants and People to suffer by the World as evil Doers as my soul scareth not at it but desireth to rejoice in being brought into Conformity with my Blessed Head and so blessed a Company in this thing so do I desire and Pray that I may be to none of yow to day upon this account a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence Blessed is he that shall not be offended at Jesus Christ and his poor servants and members because of their being condemned as evil doers by the World God is my record that in these things for which Sentence of Death hath passed against me I have a good Conscience I bless God they are not matters of Complyance with Sectaries or Designes or Practices against His Majest Person or Government or the Person or Government of His Royal Father My heart I bless God is conscious unto no Disloalty Nay Loyal I have been and I commend it unto you to be Loyal and obedient in the Lord. True Piety is the foundation of True Loyalty A wicked man may be a flatterer and a Time-server but he will never be a Loyal Subject But to return to my purpose the matters for which I am condemned are matters belonging to my Calling and Function as a Minister of the Gospel such as the Discovery and Reproving of Sin The pressing the holding fast of the Oath of God in the Covenant and preserving and carrying on the Work of Religion and Reformation according thereto And Denying to acknowledge the Civil Magistrat as the Proper Competent Iudge in causes Ecclesiastical That in all these things which God so ordering by His gracious Providence are the grounds of my Inditement and Death I have a good Conscience as having walked therein according to the Light and Rule of God's Word and as did become a Minister of the Gospel I do also bless the Lord that I do not die as one not desired I know that by not a few I neither have been nor am desired It hath been my lot to have been a man of Contention and Sorrow But it is my comfort that for my own things I have not contended but for the things of Jesus Christ for what relateth to His Interest and Work and the well being of His People In order to the preserving and promoting of these I did Protest against and stood in Opposition unto these late Assemblies at St Andrewes Dundee and Edinburgh and the Publick Resolutions for bringing the Malignant Party into the Judicatories and Armies of this Kingdom conceaving the same contrary to the Word of God and to our Solemn Covenants and Engagements and to be an inlet to Defection and to the Ruine and destruction of the Work of God And it is now manifest to many consciences that I have not been therein
NAPHTALI OR The Wrestlings of the Church of SCOTLAND For the KINGDOM of CHRIST Contained in A true and short Deduction thereof from the beginning of the Reformation of Religion until the Year 1667. Together with The last Speeches and Testimonies of some who have died for the Truth since the Year 1660. Whereunto are also subjoined A Relation of the Sufferings and Death of M R HEW M C KAIL and some Instances of the Sufferings of Galloway and Nithisdale LAM 1 12. Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger MIC 7 8. Rejoice not against me O mine Enemy When I fall I shall arise When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me ISAI 14 32. What shall one then answere the Messengers of the Nation That the Lord hath founded Zion and the poor of the People shall trust in it Printed in the Year 1667. AD LECTOREM NOn hîc Herculeae sunt cum sudore palestrae Nullus Olympiaco in pulvere Ludus iners Pro sadore cruor Christi de Corpore manat Ardua pro ludo est lucta rapina neces Scotica bis denis luctata Ecclesia Lustris Penè dedit victas lassa labore manus Duros passa Patres dudum velut ame Novercas Vi premitur Stygia fraude subacta gemit Constitit effraenes contra tumidasque procellas Proque Fide steterat dum stetit ulla fides Nusquam cana fides nunc est jurataque Coeli Numina mortales vinc'la nec ulla ligant Credula dum nimis est fida haec Ecclesia vanà Spe lusâ rupto Foedere strata jacet Strata tamen non tota jacet de pulvere surgit Auricomum tollet mox supra astra caput Ipsa triumphalem currum Crux saeva ministrat Sanctorum sanguis fertile semen erit Ecce Sacerdotum turmam Regumque Coronam Pendentem infami de trabe Lector habes Cerne oculo Heroum facies corpora cernas Verba audi videas pectora plena Deo Hîc loquitur Princeps magno cum Judice Vates Et Juvenes Vatum spes animosa senum Hîc Generosa cohors Miles Mercator agelli Cultor Arte rudis spirat ab ore Deum Disce immortalem hinc Animam vitamque futuram Nulla est pro Christo mors male grata pio Pro Christi Crux est diademate Laurea restis Faedere pro Sancto est vitta monile decus READER THE LORD in great mercy having wonderfully and with an outstretched arm notwithstanding all the opposition of Sathan and earthly Principalities redeemed Scotland from the Power and darkness first of Gentilism and then of Antichristianism by raising of some burning and shining Lights and other Instruments fitted for that Work Whereby the Light of the Glorious Gospel from a very small beginning did increase more and more untill at length shining with brightness and heat as the Sun in his strength it filled the Land with knowledge in so much that the name thereof became Jehouah Shammah the Lord is there And having built to Himself a house upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles not only sufficiently instructed with righteous Laws and Judgments for Doctrine and Worship But also provided with all Ordinary Officers necessary in the Christian Church and with a form of Church-Government of his own Institution distinct from and without any prejudice unto the Civil Government of the Kingdom Whereby the Church of Scotland for Soundness of Faith Purity of Worship Excellency of Government Freedom and Power of the Gospel beautiful Order and Unity was not inferior to any if not preferable to most of the Reformed Churches and therefore was deservedly famous and esteemed amongst them Having also for an hundred Years from it's first National Establishment preserved the same from utter overthrow notwithstanding the many various and renewed endeavours of men by force and fraud to reduce it unto the same Errors Ignorance and Superstitions wherein it self at first lay buried and under which others groaned And several times revived and restored it when by it's own Impurity Indifferency and Formality it began to decline or by the Treachery Subtilty or Violence of others it was oppressed Thereby not only disappointing confounding and many times ruining the Adversaries and comforting and strengthening the faithful But also alwayes rebuilding to Himself a Temple the glory whereof did far excell and darken the glory of the former And having many times engaged the whole Land to Himself by several most solemn Obligations of voluntary Surrender and Resignation by frequently renewed Oaths and Covenants So that within these few Years past there were not many persons of age of whatever degree and not so much as one Preaching Minister in all the Land who not only did not make publick profession of the true Reformed Religion but also subject themselves unto the Presbyterial Form of Church Government and Discipline who did not which we desire to be noted for that effect in their own persons swear and subscribe with the hand unto the Lord in the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant In so much that as to the publick Profession of the Truth and almost as to the number of persons the Church of Scotland was of equal extent with the Nation and in that respect of all other National Churches did most resemble the old Church of the Iewes The Lord I say having to the conviction and acknowledgement of our selves and others done such great things for us whereof we are glad the present Apostacy whereby Scotland's Bethel is become Bethaven and the Land that was sometimes Holiness unto the Lord is become alas too Edom-like the border of wickedness an Aceldama a Tragical Theatre of blood persecution ought to be unto us no less matter of Sorrow Shame and Fear then it is Sin in itself Wonder and Amazement unto others Who can hear our Covenanted and Kindest Lord who hateth putting away and defieth us to shew the bill of our Mothers divorcement who groaneth under our Backslidings being pressed therewith as a cart full of sheaves complaining that He is broken with our whorish hearts and therefore declaring that He will be no more our Husband nor we His Wife and that His heart cannot be toward us But that He will drive us out of His house and love us no more and not cover the lip for Shame And in consequence thereof who can behold the Fathers house not only defiled by turning it into a house of Marchandise and den of theeves but the Temple casten down to the ground and the Adversary in the midst thereof insultingly and scornfully set up their ensignes for signes of Triumph And furder behold the blood of the Saints shed like water and their flesh given to be meat to the fowles of the heaven and beasts of the Earth and
whereof She was in Possession three hundred years before there was a Christian Magistrat in the world Authorizing it And will Imprison Confine Condemn and Banish Ministers for pleading and Practising this Right as King James did not a few in and about the Year 1606. and the Present King of late by Parliament Council and Commissioner did interdict all the Lawfull Assemblies of the Church which did not derive their Power from the Abjured and Perjured Prelats and if he will not only claim the only power of indicting â—â—lemn Fasts and Thanksgivings as de Facto is done these â—or 6 years past but also institute a day to be Aniversarily â—oly for ever which no mortal man can do If I say 〈◊〉 will thus Invade the Kingdom of Christ confound it 〈◊〉 the Kingdoms of the World and equally Exerce the â—overnments of both no man needs pronounce but rather fear the Domesticall and Personall doom Executed upon Saul and Uzziah for usurping the Priests office How in â—quall dealing is it that He who clamoureth so much of other men and particularly Ministers wandering without their sphere and overstretching-meddling with Civil affairs should himself be Circumscribed and move within no Fixed sphere Is it not enough that He have a Power Objectively Ecclesiasticall about Church affaires but he must also have a Power Formally Ecclesiasticall whereby he may Exerce Acts purely Spiritual and proper to Church Officers Will it not suffice him that he have an Externall Power of providing for the Church and protecting of her from Outward Violence or Inward Disorder but he must also have an Internall power of Doctrin Government and Disciplin the several Forms Acts thereof Is is not Sufficent that he have an Imperat Power whereby He may command all his Subjects as such to do their respective duties but he must also have and Elicit power whereby he may at least materially or equivalently Exerce Spirituall Acts in his own person Will it not please him that he have a Civil Power of Punishing Church Officers as Subjects for Civil transgressions but he must also have a Spiritual Power of Censuring them for Ecclesiasticall offences Will it not content him that he have a Secundary Power of Judiciall Approbation or Condemnation of what the Church hath already found and declared to be Truth or Error but he must also have a Primary and Immediat Power of Cognition of Truth and Error Antecedent to any Judgment of the Church thereanent Will it not satisfy him that he have a Discretive Power whereby he may not Implicitely Ratify Ecclesiasticall Sentences but he must also have a Definitive Power of Authoritative Decision And in a word is it not enough that he have a Cumulative Power of Confirming and Strengthening the Power and Priviledges of the Church but he must alsâ— have a Privative Power whereby if he please he may destroy the same That the Lord hath had and to the Worlds end will have a Church none who beleeve the Authority of the Holy â—criptures can deny or question And that he hath fixed Discriminative boundaries betwen his own and the Kingdoms of the Earth that is betwen his Church and other Civil Societies and their respective Governments is no less evident For though both consist of Men and sometimes of the same Persons though both have Order and Government a Power to Exercise the same and that Derived from God and the Persons invested therewith should be qualified and in the Exercise thereof should walk Absolutely by the Rule of the Word Punishing and Censuring after clear Conviction by Confession or Probation And should Ultimatly aime at the Glory of God and Good of the People and for that effect be mutually subservient and useful one to another in these amongst other things they aggree Yet they are Formally distinct For they consist of men under distinct Notions and Relations Civil Society and Policy is founded upon the Light and Law of Nature Ecclesiasticall by Revealed Positive precept The one is Common to all men as Men the other is Peculiar to those who profess the True God The Form of the one may be Monarchical the other not The object of the one is Civil the other is Spirituall The Nature of the one and Manner of Exerceing it is Magisterial the Other Ministerial The Acts and Sentences of the one are Corporall rhe other Spiritual The Immediat Rule of Exerceing the one is the â—awes of the Land and the other the Word of God and â—cclesiastical Constitutions aggreeable thereunto The one â—s performed in the Name of the Supream Magistrat the other in the Name of Jesus Christ The Immediat End of the one is the Good of the Common-wealth the other the Good of Souls Yea though the Church and Common-wealth of the Jewes of all others that ever were did most aggree yet were they Formally distinct for they had ordinarily distinct Rulers the Priest and Levits for the one Judges and King 's for the other They had distinct Acts Sacrificing praying c. in the Church Death Banishment Confiscation Inprisonment Ezra 2 26. in the State They had distinct Objects the Matters of the Lord and the Matters of the King 2 Chron. 19.11 Distinct Lawes the Ceremoniall for the Church the Judicial for the Common-wealth and the Morall for both They had sometimes distinct Members when these of the One were not admitted to some Priviledges of the Other The Form of the State did alter from Judges to Kings but the Churches was unalterably the same And they had their distinct Periods of Duration for the Church continued though corrupt after the Civil Government was overturned by the Romans And as the Church and State of the Jewes were in these things distinct so had they their distinct Governments and Judicatories for Exerâ—â—ing the same Respectively For Exo. 24.1 there are 70. Elders who v. 14. appear to be vested with Authority and to have Aaron and Hur for their Presidents or Moderators now these 70 Elders cannot be the 70 who Numb 11. shared of the Government with Moses for these mentioned Exod. 24. were in Authority when the Israelits were at Sinai whereas the other mentioned Numb 11. were chosen after they went from Sinai neither can they be any other 70 in Civil Authority because before the Election of those Numb 11. Moses was alone in the Government Again Deut. 17. there are distinct causes viz. Blood Blood plea and plea which were Civill and Stroke and Stroke which whether it was Leprosy belonged to the Priests to Judge of Lev. 13.3 Distinct Rulers viz. the Priests the Levets and the Iudge who v. 11. are distinguished by the disjunctive particle Or Distinct Acts of telling or exponing the Sentence of the Law of telling Iudgment v. 10.11 distinct Penalties of Death and puting the Evill from Israel v 12. Further in â— Chr. 23.4 Ye will find 6000 of the Levites who were Officers and Iudges which must needs have been in Ecclesiastical affairs
anointing conjuring hallowing of GODS good creatures with the superstitious opinion joyned therewith his Worldly Monarchy and wicked Hierarchy his three solemne vowes with all his shavelings of sundry sorts his erronious and bloudy decrees made at Trent with all the subscribers and approvers of that cruell and bloudy Band conjured against the Kirk of GOD and finally wee detest all his vaine Allegories Rites Signes and Traditions brought in the Kirk without or against the Word of GOD and Doctrine of this true reformed Kirk to the which we joyne ourselves willingly in Doctrine Faith Religion Discipline and use of the Holy Sacraments as lively members of the same in Christ our Head promising and swearing by the Great Name of the Lord our GOD that we shall continue in the obedience of the Doctrine and Discipline of this Kirk and shall defend the same according to our vocation and Power all the dayes of our lives under the pains contained in the Law and danger both of Body and Soul in the day of GODS fearful Judgment And seeing that many are stirred up by Sathan and that Roman Antichrist to promise sweare subscribe and for a time use the Holy Sacraments in the Kirk deceitfully against their own Consciences minding thereby first under the external cloak of Religion to corrupt and subvert secretly GODS true Religion within the Kirk and afterward when time may serve to become open enemies and persecutors of the same under vain hope of the Popes dispensation devised against the Word of GOD to his greater confusion and their double condemnation in the day of the LORD JESUS Wee therefore willing to take away all suspicion of hypocrisy and of such double dealing with GOD and his Kirk Protest and call The Searcher of all hearts for witnesse that Our mindes and hearts do fully agree with this our Confession Promise Oath and Subscription so that Wee are not moved for any wordly respect but are persuaded onely in our Consciences through the knowledge and love of Gods true Religion printed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we shall answer to him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed And because we perceave that the quietness and stability of our Religion and Kirk doth depend upon the safety good behaviour of the Kings Majesty as upon a comfortable Instrument of Gods mercy granted to this Countrey for the maintaining of this Kirk and ministration of Justice amongst us we protest and promise with our hearts under the same Oath Hand-writ and Pains that we shall defend his Person and Authority with our goods bodies and lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of our Country ministration of Justice and punishment of iniquity against all enemies within this Realm or without as we desire our GOD to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our death and coming of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory Eternally Like as many Acts of Parliament not onely in general do abrogate annull and rescind all Lawes Statutes Acts Constitutions Canons civil or municipall with all other Ordinances and practique penalties whatsoever made in prejudice of the true Religion and Professours thereof Or of the true Kirk-discipline jurisdiction and freedome thereof Or in favours of Idolatry and Superstition Or of the Papisticall Kirk As Act. 3. Act. 13. Parl. 1. Act. 23. Parl. 11. Act. 114. Parl. 12. of King Iames the sixt That Papistry and Superstition may be utterly suppressed according to the intention of the Acts of Parliament repeated in the 5. Act. Parl. 20. K Iames 6. And to that end they ordaine all Papists and Priests to be punished by manifold Civill and Ecclesiastical pains as adversaries to Gods true Religion preached and by Law established within this Realme Act. 24. Parl. 11. K. Iames 6. as common enemies to all Christian government Act. 18. Parl. 16. K. Iames 6. as rebellers and gainstanders of our Soveraigne Lords Authority Act. 47. Parl. 3. K. Iames 6. and as Idolaters Act. 104. Parl. 7. K. Iames 6. but also in particular by and atcour the Confession of Faith do abolish and condemne the Popes Authority and Jurisdiction out of this Land and ordaine the maintainers thereof to be punished Act 2. Parl. 1. Act 51. Part. 3. Act 106. Parl. 7. Act 114. Parl. 12. K. Iames 6. do condemne the Popes erronious doctrine or any other erronious doctrine repugnant to any of the Articles of the true and Christian religion publickly preached and by law established in this Realme And ordaines the spreaders and makers of Books or Libels or Letters or writs of that nature to be punished Act 46. Parl. 3. Act 106. Parl. 7. Act 24. Parl. 11. K. Iames 6. do condemne all Baptisme conforme to the Popes Kirk and the Idolarry of the Masse and ordaines all sayers willfull hearers and concealers of the Masse the maintainers and resetters of the Priests Jesuites traffiquing Papists to be punished without any exception or restriction Act 5. Parl. 1. Act. 120. Parl. 12. Act. 164. Parl. 13. Act. 193. Parl. 14. Act. 1. Parl. 19. Act. 5. Parl. 20. K. Iames 6. do condemne all erroneous bookes and writtes containing erroneous doctrine against the Religion presently professed or containing superstitious Rites and Ceremonies Papisticall whereby the people are greatly abused and ordaines the home-bringers of them to be punished Act 25. Parl. 11. K. Iames 6. do condemne the monuments and dregs of by-gone Idolatry as going to the Crosses observing the Feastivall dayes of Saints and such other superstitious and Papisticall Rites to the dishonour of GOD contempt of true Religion and fostering of great errour among the people and ordaines the users of them to be punished for the second fault as Idolaters Act 104. Parl. 7. K. Iames 6. Like as many Acts of Parliament are conceaved for maintenance of GODS true and Christian Religion and the purity thereof in Doctrine and Sacraments of the true Church of God the liberty freedom thereof in her National Synodal Assemblies Presbyteries Sessions Policy Discipline and Jurisdiction thereof as that purity of Religion and liberty of the Church was used professed exercised preached and confessed according to the reformation of Religion in this Realm As for instance The 99. Act. Parl. 7. Act. 23. Parl. 11. Act. 114. Parl. 12. Act. 160. Parl. 13. of King Iames 6. Ratified by the 4. Act. of King Charles So that the 6. Act. Parl. 1. and 68. Act. Parl. 6. of King Iames 6. in the Yeare of God 1579. declares the Ministers of the blessed Evangel whom GOD of his mercy had raised up or hereafter should raise agreeing with them that then lived in Doctrin and Administration of the Sacraments and the People that professed Christ as he was then offered in the Evangel and doth communicate with the Holy Sacraments as in the reformed Kirk's of this Realm they were publickly administrat according
convince us of the manifold willfull renewed breaches of that Article which concerneth the discovery and punishment of Malignants whose crimes have not onely been connived at but dispensed with and pardoned and themselves received unto intimate fellowship with our selves and entrusted with our Counsels admitted unto our Parliaments and put in places of Power and Authority for managing the publick affaires of the Kingdome Whereby in Gods justice they got at last into their hands the whole power and strength of the Kingdome both in judicatories and Armies And did imploy the same unto the enacting and prosecuting an unlawful Engagement in warre against the Kingdome of England Notwithstanding of the dissent of many considerable members of Parliament who had given constant proof of their integrity in the cause from the beginning of many faithful testimonies and free warnings of the servants of God of the Supplications of many Synods Presbyteries and Shyres and of the Declarations of the Generall Assembly and their Commissioners to the contrary Which ingagement as it hath been the cause of much sinne so also of much misery and calamity unto this Land and holds forth to us the grievousnesse of our sinne of complying with Malignants in the greatnesse of our judgement that we may be taught never to split again upon the same rock upon which the Lord hath set so remarkable a Beacon And after all that is come to passe unto us because of this our trespasse and after that grace hath been shewed unto us from the Lord our God by breaking these mens yoke from of our necks and putting us again into a capacity to act for the good of Religion our own safety and the Peace and safety of this Kingdowe should we again-break his Commandment and Covenant by joyning once more with the people of these abominations and taking into our bosome those Serpents which had formerly stung us almost unto death This as it would argue great madnesse and folly upon our part So no doubt if it be not avoided will provoke the Lord against us to consume us untill there be no remnant nor escaping in the Land And albeit the Peace and Union betwivt the Kingdoms be a great blessing of God unto both and a Bond which we are obliged to preserve unviolated And to endeavour that justice may be done upon the opposers thereof Yet some in this Land who have come under the Bond of the Covenant have made it their great study how to dissolve this Union and few or no endeavours have been used by any of us for punishing of such We have suffered many of our Brethren in severall parts of the Land to be oppressed of the common Enemy without compassion or relief There hath been great murmuring and repining because of expense of means and pains in doing of our duty Many by perswasion or terror have suffered themselves to be divided and withdrawn to make defection to the contrary part Many have turned off to a detestable indifferency and neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of God and the good of these Kingdoms Nay many have made it their study to walk so as they might comply with all times and all the revolutions thereof It hath not been our care to countenance encourage intrust and employ such onely as from their hearts did affect and mind Gods Work But the hearts of such many times have been discouraged and their hands weakened their sufferings neglected and themselves slighted and many who were once open enemies and alwayes secret underminers contenanced and employed Nay even those who had been looked upon as Incendiaries and upon whom the Lord had set marks of desperate Malignancy falshood deceat were brought in as fit to manage publick affaires Many have been the lets and Impediments that have been cast in the way to retard and obstruct the Lords work and some have keeped secret what of themselves they were not able to suppresse and overcome Besides these and many other breaches of the Articles of the Covenant in the matter thereof which it concerneth every one of us to search out and acknowledge before the Lord as we would wish his wrath to be turned away from us So have many of us failed exceedingly in the manner of our following and pursuing the duties contained therein not onely seeking great things for our selves and mixing of private interests and ends concerning our selves and friends and followers with those things which concern the publick good but many times preferring such to the Honour of God and good of his cause and retarding Gods work until we might carry alongs with us our own interests and designes It hath been our way to trust in the means and to rely upon the arm of flesh for successe Albeit the Lord hath many times made us meet with dispointment therein and stained the pride of all our Glory by blasting every carnall confidence unto us We have followed for the most part the counsels of flesh and blood and walked more by the rules of policy then Piety and have hearkened more unto men then unto God Albeit we made solemn publick profession before the World of our unfained desires to be humbled before the Lord for our own sinnes and the sinnes of these Kingdoms especially for our undervaluing of the inestimable benefit of the Gospel and that we have not laboured for the power thereof and received Christ into our hearts and walked worthy of him in our lives and of our true and unfained purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all other under our power and charge both in publick and private in all dutyes which we owe to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a reall Reformation that the Lord might turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Kirks and Kingdoms in truth and peace Yet we have refused to be reformed and have walked proudly and obstinatly against the Lord not vâ—lueing his Gospel nor submitting our selves unto the obedience thereof not seeking after Christ nor studying to honour him in the excellency of his person nor employ him in the vertue of his offices not making conscience of publick Ordinances nor private nor secret duties nor studying to edify one another in love The ignorance of God and of his Son Jesus Christ prevailes exceedingly in the Land The greatest part of Masters of families amongst Noblemen Barons Gentlemen Burgesses and Commons neglect to seek God in their families and to endeavour the the Reformation thereof And albeit it hath been much pressed yet few of our Nobles and great ones ever to his day could be perswaded to perform family duties themselves and in their own persons which makes so necessary and useful a duty to be misregarded by others of inferior rank Nay many of the Nobility Gentry and Burrows who should have been examples of Godlinesse and sober walking unto others have been ring-leaders of excesse and rioting
as this Apostacy arising from small beginnings by fair and smooth pretensions crafty insinuations Court-flatteries false calumnies and suggestions open and gross perjuries and violent dissorders according to the working of Sathan After great and long opposition by Conferences Warnings petitions faithful and constant Testimonies and sufferings of the Zealous Witnesses of our Lord both unto bonds banishment Sentences of Death against the again aspiring Prerogative and usurping Prelacy under it's shaddow did in the secret and holy Judgement of God chang the Glory of God and of our Lord Jesus into the Similitude and Image of the Roman Beast turning the Power of Godliness unto Formality his faithful Ministers into corrupt Hirelings the Power and Life of Preaching into Flattery and Vanity the Substance of Religion into empty and ridiculous Ceremonies the Beauty and Purity of the Ordinances into Superstitious Inventions of Kneeling Crossing Holy Dayes and the like the Beautiful and Powerful Government of Gods House for the Edification of Souls to a Lordly Dominion over Consciences and violent Persecution of mens persons And in a word the great End of the Glorious Gospel and it's Blessed Ministry even the salvation of poor sinners which is the pleasure of the Lord the fruit of the travel of His Soul the Joy of Heaven the Crown and Glory of the blessed Apostles and the End of all things and of the second Appearance of the Great God into an Empty Title and specious pretext for the fulfilling of mens lusts and pleasures the establishing of their Power and Tyranny and the ruine and exterminion of all such as opposed and mourned for all these Abominations Thus this Work and Kingdom of Darkness did advance apace and had almost attained unto it's full maturity of hurrying this poor Land and Nation headlong into that Gulf of Confusion Error and Superstition whereinto Popery did formerly involve us when it pleased the Lord according to His Great Mercy and faithfulness to remember His Covenant though we had fearfully forgotten it and in the midst of that growing darkness and those manifold Confusions to cause His Spirit to move and Light to arise upon this Land about the middle of the Year 1637. Which appearing in the former Power and Glory did from a very small and improbable beginning even the opposition of a few weak Women to the introducing and reading of that Carcase of formality the Service-Book then ready to be imposed proceed in such an Univerâ—al Vigorous Regular and Powerful method through the whole Land without the least mixture and ingredient of force and Violence but only by these most warrantable and inquestionable meanes of Petitioning Remonstrating Protesting and renewing their Covenant with God and amongst themselves that before the end of the Year 1638. the Work of God was revived with more Glory and Splendor then ever formerly it had attained We know that not only the Renewing of the Covenant especially with the enlargement explaining the same in order to the Novations in Worship and Corruptions in Government whereunto this Church had Apostatized and the bond of Mutual Defence thereto added but also their Protestings joynt Petitionings have been condemned as Seditious Rebellious But seing the same both from the clear Word of God the pure Light of Nature the Zealous and Valiant Practices of our first Reformers and the Lawes and Constitutions of the Realme are clearly warranted And by the Power and Presence of God were signally approved and by the supervenient Acts of the King Parliament and Generall Assembly so fully established and confirmed And seing that they only were and are condemned by such as either being the Children of the Devil filled with all subtilty and mischief and enemies of all Righteousness cease not to pervert the right Wayes of the Lord or by such who for advancement of their own Interests have sacrificed all Conscience and Reason to Ambition and Covetousnes or by such who in base and open flattery of the King and of the Powers and neither knowing nor regarding any other Interest or Concernment then that which dependeth on their Pleasure do set and serve the same in place of the most High Or lastly by such who never did nor do concern themselves in such enquiryes but affect a pretended Gallantry in Gallio's Indifferency therefore remitting such as are further desirous of satisfaction unto the debats Papers of these Times and especially unto the late large Apology we shall only mention the steps and progress of the Lords Work and our Engagements therein according to our first purpose In the beginning of the Year 1638. great multitudes of people consisting of all Ranks being awaked by the Arbitrary imposing of a Service-Book more corrupt in some things then that of England and the Book of Canons and the erecting and violent exercing of the High Commission-Court to the perverting of the Pure Worship of God the utter subverting of all regular Government and the confounding of all things Divine and Humane and the destroying of our Civil Liberties and conceaving the true cause of all the abounding Sin imminent calamities of these Times to be the violation of the National Covenant formerly thrice sworn in the Land they again most Solemnly with a very wonderful gracious mixture of Tears and joy renew the same almost in all parts of the Land with the addition above mentioned to forbear the practice and approbation of all Innovations in Worship or Corruptions in Government until the same should be lawfully determined and that other of Mutual Defence and Assistance in the prosecution of the ends of that Covenant against all sorts of persons whatsoever And in November the same Year the Generall Assembly at Glasgow determined anent the foresaid novations and corruptions disproving and rejecting under these heads the five Articles of Perth the Government of the Church by Bishops the erecting of Prelacy therein and all the Corruptions flowing therefrom whereby the Oath of the Covenant is clearly explained and purifyed In the Year 1639. the Prelats being routed run to Court 〈◊〉 up the King England and Irland with all their Friends and Popish partakers in Scotland against the faithful Covenanters as Rebellious and Seditious Persons But they having prepared for their own just Defence the Lord by His outstretched Arm and Power dispelling all these menacing clouds and imminent storms doth by a Pacification concluded reduce a fair calm The King therein aggreeing that an Assembly and Parliament shall be held and that all matters respectively shall be therein determined The Assembly sitting in August thereafter the Kings Commissioner being present and assenting doth ratify the conclusions of the last Assembly at Glasgow and the Commissioner and Secret Council subscribe the Covenant as it was then explained and at the Petition of the Assembly it is enacted to be again subscribed for the Fifth time by the Body of the whole Land But no Faith Honesty nor Honor binding the Prelats and a Court by
his own folly whereby the Lord did bring him to such a manifestation of his Grace and declaration of His Glory he to the admiration of all in his most constant and Christian suffering by his blood sealed the Truth and glorified God 3. That others of them though obscure and illiterate men upon the Scaffold hurried and interrupted in the declaring of their Testimony by the Prelats Orders and the rudeness and inhumanity of these that executed them yet did bear witness to the cause of God and of that grace and assurance whereby the Lord upheld them to the admiration and astonishment of all the beholders 4. That though at Glasgow and Air where eleven of them were executed all mean Countrey-men and some of them of decrepit age and others of them very young not exceeding 18 years their enemies caused beat drums about the Scaffold that they might not be heard a barbarity never practised in Scotland and rarely heard of except in the Duke of Alva's Martyring of the Protestants in the Low-countreyes yet were they so litle thereby amazed that both by words of of Praise and thanksgiving to God that had honoured such plough-men as they termed themselves to be His witnesses and the constancy of their countenance and whole carriage they did bear such testimony to the Holy Covenant as both many were thereby confirmed and their Enemies ashamed 5. That though some of them did appear weak and faint-hearted at first yet so powerfully and abundantly was it given to them in that hour that out of weakness they were made strong and declared that they had seen such glimpses of the Glory of God betwixt the prison and the Scaffold that all fear was clearly discussed And particularly a young Countrey-boy not much above sixteen years of age being condemned at Aix mostly because he did refuse to take the Declaration which they told him was the renouncing of that Covenant which he had taken at Lanerk though both through fear and ignorance of the very grounds of Christianity he fell into great anxiety neither daring to die nor yet to redeem his life at the rate proposed Yet after the Prayers and Conference of some that had access to him at Irwin two dayes before his death on the morning that he suffered he appeared so much changed both from the depth of fear and perplexity unto great resolution and joy and so much enlightened with the knowledge of God in our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of Salvation through His Name that all that saw him do bear testimony to the Grace and wonderfull Work of God of that joy of heart that carried him to the Scaffold leaping and praising God From all which particulars and from the severall Testimonies and Speaches which these left behind them in writing we must conclude and rejoyce that God out of the dark cloud of such a sad and astonishing providence which lately overspread us hath brought forth so blessed and bright a cloud of Witnesses strengthened and filled with so much grace and glory to bear Testimony unto His Name Covenant and Cause and for the confirmation of all that love and wait for His Salvation We have hitherto ommitted to say any thing to that Oath of Conjuration taken by the Militia of Edinburgh and the concurrence and assistance of many others who did either Actually rise in Arms for the suppressing of God's People and Cause or since the Conflict did stop apprehend and spoil them in the cross way and have been assisting and abetting to their deaths and persecutions either as Guarders of Prisons Courts or Scaffolds or as Iudges Clerks Advocats Assizers or Officers in the Dooms pronounced against them If after all the truth equity and reason that have been represented and the Power and Glory which God hath declared men will not hear and fear nor be converted neither the tongues of men and Angels nor of such as should return from the dead would be of any force or persuasion to prevail with them Is it possible that Edinburgh should think that the pretence of a new invented Oath of alleageance and fidelity to the King and for the defence of his Authority against all Insurrections and Rebellions wherein the Prelates and the Up hold of their wickedness and the Subjecting of all the Godly to their lust and tyranny were and are clearly intended and designed shall warrand them in the great day of the Lord who is terrible unto the Kings of the earth for taking part with Rebels and Apostats against the God of heaven and for opposing and oppressing of such as continuing stedfast in the common Cause and Covenant for which Edinburgh was once very honourable and eminent did only endeavour to liberat themselves from that intolerable Bondage both of Bodies and Consciences more grievous then death under which they groaned doth Edinburgh thus not only condemn the practice of Our Noble Ancestors and Reformers who accounted it neither Insurrection nor Rebellion to set themselves for the defence of the Gospel against the then Powers who did endeavour to oppress it but by this Oath abandon both Religion and Liberty in this so perillous and backsliding a Generation to the lust and tyranny of abused Authority and whatsoever it shall please to impose without control or contradiction Do they thus remember the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant once so powerfully sworn and owned amongst them and the mutuall defence and assistance wherein every one of us is thereby bound to another to the uttermost of our Power against all sorts of persons whatsoever and not to suffer our selves by whatsoever Combination Terror or Perswasion to be divided and withdrawn from that blessed Vnion therein contained While on the contrary they conspire and conjure themselves against such whom they are not only bound to assist but also to relieve of all the persecutions and oppressions which they suffer and sustain only for their adherence to the same holy Covenants Surely these things being duly considered this Oath in stead of qualifying the Declaration in lieu whereof being more general plausible and insnaring it was contrived and imposed will be found a practical application of all the Wickedness and unrighteousness which is therein only speculatively declared and may in the righteous judgement of God by reason not only of the equality but even of the excess hereof to London's sin bring upon Edinburgh London's plagues and judgements We need not here insist to testify against the rest who in any sort concurred or assisted in the opposition and persecution above-mentioned the meanest part of whose accession doth far exceed Paul's keeping the clothes of such as stoned Stephen If we consider that the suffering and not opposing to the utmost of our power the shedding of innocent blood doth involve all under that certain denounciation made by Ieremiah unto the Princes of Iudah and all the People Ier. 26 15. saying Know ye for certain that if ye put me to death
people who though continually afflicted and persecuted in their bodies though their souls be exceedingly filled with the contempt of the proud yet have not nor dare not deny the Lord His Work nor His holy Covenant whom though the Lord hath caused to turn back from the enemy and given for a spoil to them that hate them yea given them as sheep for meat and made them a reproach a scorn and a derision yet have they nor forgotten the Lord nor dealt falsly in His Covenant O! that men would consider this Grace of God whereby as he conforteth and sustaineth his servants in all their afflictions so he warneth backsliders to return and all to flee from the wrath that is to come and to save themselves from this wicked generation Which Grace as it allayeth to the Faithful the smart so ought it to remove from all the scandal of our Lord's cross and is indeed that strength and presence of the Captain of our salvation who was made perfect by suffering with all His sufferers giving for the present joy and peace and afterwards assured victory Now seing it is the Lord who hath so visibly brought upon us these sore Trialls that such as are approved may be made manifest and so graciously delivereth them from the temptation thereof yea thereby refineth purifyeth and maketh many white that they may be more abundant Partakers both of His Holiness and of His Glory and also eminently beareth witness to the Truth Grace and Power of His great Work His holy Covenant and precious Ordinances and Ministry amongst us clearing them by His own Testimony of all these calumnies wherewith either through the invention of some men's malice or the occasion of other mens weakness and sin they were formerly aspersed we shall shut up this discourse with this one word of exhortation Great hath been the Sin of this Land in not believing and obeying the glorious Gospell in not receaving the Lord Jesus in our hearts and witnessing His Light and Grace and Glory in our lives and conversations but in resting on the outward forms and appearances of the true Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government without labouring after the power of Reformation and beauty of holiness the only grace and blessing of all these enjoyments and in perverting and mannaging the possession and profession of all these things unto selfish ends and worldly advantages O foolish people and unwise have we thus requited the Lord for all these mercies of His Gospell pure Ordinances and Holy Covenants to corrupt and deprave them from that great end of the Glory of His grace and mercy in our salvation unto the base designs of serving and satifying our own lusts to His dishonour And therefore is it that the Lord having often in his mercy corrected and warned us hath now at length given us over unto this horrid Apostacy and Defection whereby as the latent malice and hypocrisy of many and the great fainting and want of zeal in all have been manifestly discovered so the Lord is feeding the wicked with their own delusions and putting the zeal and constancy of all to the Test and in effect ripening this whole Land either for a glorious deliverance from that perverse spirit and generation of Antichrist that hath been long mingled in the midst of us and even from the dayes of our first Reformation hath retained and continued the old enmity against the Lord Jesus and His blessed Gospell and Kingdom or else for a totall and final overthrow in utter darkness and desolation And therefore O Scotland because the Lord loved thy Fathers and delighteth not in thy destruction hath He after all our fearful backsliding and sinful fainting and departing which testify against us neither left Himself nor us without a witness but raised up amongst us His own faithful Servants and our brethren with whom we are all equally and indissolubly engaged in the same righteous Cause and Covenant by the mighty power of His grace from the pure zeal of His Glory enabled them first to venture and then to lay down their lives for the Testimony of His Work and Covenant that we may yet at length consider and understand that these were no more the labour and devices of carnal designs then that corruption and weakness of flesh blood could triumph both over it self death hell the chief of terrors O! that men would therefore lay to heart their bonds Engagements unto the Lord repent of their backslidings and cease from their opposition to His Cause Covenant at least that such whom the Lord hath not abandoned unto that depth of Apostacy whereunto others have made defection would yet be wise instructed repent of their fainting Neutrality in the cause of God their connivance or complyance with the declared enemies thereof beware of that wicked Declaration against the Covenant or any other Oath and Subscription likely to be the snare and temptation of these times which either under the pretext of Peace and Order or of due Obedience unto lawful Authority may be wickedly invented and imposed really for the suppressing of Truth and advancing of this Rebellion against the most High God and the establishing of this Antichristian Prelatick Tyranny We have already fully detected the mask and design of such impostures He who hath given Authority and Power unto Kings and Princes and rendered the same Sacred by His holy Sanction and Command as he hath often punished their Ingratitude and Usurpation against His own Soveraignity so will He not hold that people guiltless who being both His Creatures and sworn Subjects either connive at or comply with such Rebellious Princes in their wickedness Shall both the Law of God and the very Propension of the heart and blood to the love and obedience of Parents cede to the obedience of Kings and Rulers for the good and preservation of the Common-wealth and shall not far more all Alleagiance obedience to the same Kings Rulers cede and give place to our Obedience to the Most High our only Soveraign Lord and the conscience of His holy Oath and Commandments for advancement of his glory the great and only end of all things Fix it therefore in your hearts first to love and fear the Lord our God and then to honour and obey the King and let the sincere and inward love of our Lord Jesus Christ the dear esteem of his precious Gospel and the remembrance of our most sacred and solemn Oaths and Covenants and of that beauty power and glory of His pure Ordinances Ministry and Government which we once enjoyed alwayes dwell in your hearts and ever determine and establish you to resist and disown all wicked Usurpations against the Lord and His Anointed all Invasions against His Crown and Prerogative all Corruptions and Humane Inventions in His pure Worship and Ordinances all perversion of the true Government and comely Order in His house and alâ— violations of these indispensible holy
insurrections of the Universe against it and are built on that rock against which the very gates of hell cannot prevail and do also know that their God whom they fear is able to deliver them from this fiery Triall and He will deliver them from their persecuters and if not that nothing save the design of greater glory to this own Name in a greater mercy and salvation to His People shall impede it but all that love the Lord's Salvation have also fair ground of hope that the Lord as he will pour out His wrath upon his adversaries so will He remember for Scotland his Covenant awake and give a shout against His enemies and that now when He seeth their wrath how they behave themselves strangely and say our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this the Lord will bring forth for His remnant even that holy seed which shall be the substance of this Land that Deliverance which is laid up in store with Him and sealed up amongst His treasures For unto God belongeth vengeance and recompense even the vengeance of His broken Covenant of His dear Saints blood and of His polluted Sanctuary The adversaries foot shal slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that our power is gone and there is none shut up or left And the Lord shall say see now that I even I am He and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever if I whet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgement I will render vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh and that with the blood of the slain and the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy Rejoyce O ye Nations with his people for He will avenge the blood of His Servants and will render vengeance to His adversaries and will be mercifull unto His Land and to His People This is the Song which God hath taught us and therewith we shut up and seal the FAITH AND PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS AND now having finished the Narration intended of the Work of God and having seen and being persuaded that all the degrees and Passages of its Progress and Advancement were the very vestiges of the Lords ascendent Power and Glory which He hath also sealed by the Salvation of many thousands for our assured confirmation that as this Work is of God so shall it not come to nought But that these Antichristian 〈◊〉 who oppose it though in the same Spirit and Power of Darkness which hath mainly caused and procured all the sin temptation and ruine that hath befallen any Gospel-Church 〈◊〉 the blessed coming of our Lord JESUS in the fleâ—h they should arise unto yea surmount the very height of the Papacy and Antichrist himself in their Persecutions Tyranny They shall nevertheless in the end be found even to fight against God and perish for ever in their gain-saying As we do therefore desire to remain stedfast immoveable and always abounding in the Work of the Lord and every point and circumstance thereof without fainting or wearying even unto the Death in and over which the Lord hath caused His faithful witnesses so gloriously to Triumph so we do only here subjoyn for the clear and unanswerable conviction and condemnation of the perfidy and wickedness of these accursed Prelates both before the World and even in their own consciences if any sense thereof do yet remain That though we had never seen any of these great and glorious things whereby the Lord since the Year 1637. did revive confirm and magnify His Work amongst us and that the National Covenant had net been since retaken much less explained and established nor the League and Covenant ensued it Yet since the same doth still stand in the plain and simple terms wherein it was conceaved and in that sense and meaning wherein both it 's express Words and all the circumstances which we have before observed do plainly evince that it was at first taken as this Covenant doth remain unto this Day notwithstanding all the Prelats wickedness perjury and violence unrepeal'd or condemned and by no contrary explanation or gloss either is or can be detorted from being an undenyable abjuration of accursed Prelacy and all it's corruptions so is it a certain fixed and immoveable foundation for all the Work of God that hath ensued and a very sure ground of confidence to all who seriously perpend and firmly adhere to it that the Lord who loved us of old and chosed our Fathers shall yet again by his mighty Spirit and Power turn the hearts of the Children unto the Fathers and bring us back unto the Lord God of our Fathers and upon this same Foundation yet repair our breaches build up the old wastes raise rear up His Glory FINIS The last SPEECHES AND TESTIMONIES Of some who have Suffered for the TRUTH IN SCOTLAND Since the Year 1660. The last Speech of the MARQUES of ARGILE At his Death in Edinburgh May 27. 1661. MANY will expect that I speak many things and according to their several opinions and dispositions so will their expectations be from me and constructions of me But I resolve to disappoint many for I come not hither to justify my self but the Lord VVho is Holy in all His wayes and Righteous in all His VVorks Holy and blessed is His Name Neither come I to condemn others I know many will expect that I will speak against the hardness of the Sentence pronounced against me But I will say nothing to it I bless the Lord I pardon all men as I desire to be pardoned of the Lord my self Let the will of the Lord be done That is all that I desire I hope that ye will have more charity to me now then yee would have had at an other time seing I speak before the Lord to whom I must give an account very shortly I know very well that my words have had but very litle weight with many And that many have mistaken my Words Actings both Many have thought me to be a great Enemy to these great works that have of late been brought to pass But do not mistake me good People I speak it in the presence of the Lord I entered not upon the Work of Reformation with any design of advantage to my self or prejudice to the King and his Government As my later Will which was written 1655. and thereafter delivered to a Friend in whose hands it still remaineth can show As for these Calumnies that have gone abroad of me I blesse God I know them to be
mistaken nor was not fighting against a man of straw I was also desirous and did use some poor Endeavours to have the Church of God purged of Insufficient and Scandalous and Corrupt Ministers and Elders for these things I have been mistaken by some and hated by others But I bless the Lord as I had the testimony of my own Conscience so I was and am therein approven in the consciences of many of the Lord 's precious Servants and People and how little soever I may die Desired by some yet by these I know I do die Desired and their approbation and prayers and affection is of more value with me then the Contradiction or Reproach or Hatred of many others the love of the one I cannot Recompence and the mistake or hatred or reproach of the other I do with all my heart Forgive and wherein I have offended any of them do beg their mercy and forgiveness I do from my soul wish that my death may be profitable unto both that the one may be confirmed and established in the straight wayes of the Lord and that the other if the Lord so will may be convinced cease from these things that are not good do not Edify but Destroy One thing I would warn yow all of that God is wroth yea very wroth with Scotland and threatneth to depart and remove His candlestick The causes of his wrath are many and would to God it were not One great cause that Causes of Wrath are despised and rejected of men Consider the case that is recorded Ier. 36. and the consequence of it and tremble and fear I cannot but also say that there is a great addition and increase of wrath 1. By that deludge of Prophanity that overfloweth all the Land and hath reins loosed unto it every where in so far that many have lost not only all use and exercise of Religion but even of Morality and that common Civility that is to be found amongst the Heathen 2. By that horrible Treachery and Perjury that is in the matter of the Covenant and Cause of God and Work of Reformation Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my People have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Shall be break the Covenant and prosper Shal the throne of iniquity have fellowship with God which frameth mischief by a Law I fear the Lord be about to bring a Sword on these Lands which shall avenge the quarrell of His Covenant 3. Horrible Ingratitude The Lord after 10 years oppression bondage hath broken the yoke of Strangers from off our necks but what do we render unto Him for this goodness Most of the fruit of our delivery is to work wickedness and to strengthen our Selves to do evill 4. A most dreadful Idolatry and sacrificing to the Creature We have changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible Man in whom many have placed almost all their Salvation and desire and have turned that which might have been a Blessing unto us being kept in a due line of Subordination under God into an Idol of Jealousy by preferring it before him God is also wroth with a generation of Carnal Corrupt Time-serving Ministers I know and bear testimony that in the Church of Scotland there is a True and Faithful Ministry Blessed be God we have yet many who study their duty and desire to be found faithful to their Lord and Master And I pray you to Honor and Reverence and Esteem much of these for their Works sake And I pray them to be encouraged in their Lord and Master who is with them to make them as iron-pillars and brazen walls and as a strong defenced city in the faithful following of their duty But oh that there were not too many who mind Earthly things and are enemies to the cross of Jesus Christ who push with the side and shoulder who strengthen the hands of evill doers who make themselves transgressors by stustudying to build again what they did formerly warrantably destroy I mean PRELACY and the CEREMONIES and the SERVICE-BOOK a Mystery of iniquity that works amongst us whose steps lead unto the house of the great Whore BABYLON the Mother of fornications Or whosoever else he be that buildeth this Jericho again let him take heed of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite and of that flying roll thereatened Zech. 5. And let all Ministers take heed that they Watch and be Stedfast in the Faith and quit themselves like men and be strong and give faithful and seasonable Warning concerning Sin and Duty Many of the Lords People do sadly complain of the fainting and silence of many Watchmen And it concerneth them to consider what God calleth for at their hands in such a day Silence now in a Watchman when he is so much called to speak and give his Testimony upon the Peril of his life is doubtless a great Sin The Lord open the mouths of His Servants to speak his word with all boldness that Covenant-breaking may be discovered and reproved and that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ may not be supplanted nor the souls of His People destroyed without a witness I have but a few words moe to adde All that are Profane amongst you I exhort them to Repentance for the day of the Lord's vengeance hasteneth and is near But there is yet a door of mercy open for you if ye will not despise the day of salvation All that are Maligners and Reproachers and Persecuters of Godliness and of such as live godly take heed what ye do it will be hard for you to kick against the Pricks You make your selves the Butt of the Lord's fury and his flaming indignation if ye do not cease from and repent of all your ungodly deeds All that are Neutral and Indifferent and Lukewarm Professors be zealous and repent lest the Lord spew you out of His mouth You that lament after the Lord and mourn for all the abominations that are done in this City and in the Land and take pleasure in the stones and dust of Ziâ—n cast not away your confidence but be comforted and encouraged in the Lord. He will yet appear to your joy God hath not cast away his People nor work in Brittain and Ireland I hope it shall once more Revive by the Power of His Spirit and take root downward and bear fruit upward There is yet a Holy Seed and precious Remnant whom God will preserve and bring forth but how Long or Dark our Night may be I do not know the Lord shorten it for the sake of his Chosen In the mean while be ye patient stedfast immoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord in love one to another Beware of Snares which are strawed thick Cleave to the Covenant Work of Reformation Do not decline the
Cross of Jesus Christ choose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasurs of sin for a season and account the Reproach of Christ greater riches then all the Treasure of the World Let my Death grieve none of you it will be more profitable and advantageous both for me and for you and for the Church of God and for Christs interest and honor then my life could have been I forgive all men the guilt of it and I desire you to do so also Pray for them that persecute you and bless them that curse you bless I say and curse not I die in the Faith of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Protestant Reformed Churches particularly of the Church of Scotland whereof I am a member and Minister I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and Generall Assemblies Popery and Prelacy and all the trumpery of Service and Ceremonies that wait upon them I do abhor I do bear my witness unto the National Covanant of Scotland and Solemn League and Covenant betwixt the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland These Sacred Solemn Publick Oaths of God I believe can be loosed nor dispensed with by no Person or Party or Power upon earth but are still binding upon these Kingdoms and will be for ever hereafter and are ratifyed and sealed by the conversion of many thousand souls since our entering thereinto I bear my witness to the Protestation against the controverted Assemblies and the Publick Resolutions to the Testimonies given against the Sectaries against the course of Backsliding and Defection that is now on foot in the Land and all the branches and parts thereof under whatsoever name or notion or acted by whatsoever party or person And in the last place I bear my witness to the cross of Jesus Christ and that I never had cause nor have cause this day to repent because of any thing I have suffered or can now suffer for His Name I take God to record upon my soul I would not exchange this scaffold with the Palace or Mitre of the greatest prelate in Brittain Blessed be God who hath shewed mercy to such a wretch and hath revealed His Son in me and made me a Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and that He hath daigned in the midst of much contradiction from Sathan and the World to seal my Ministry upon the hearts of not a few of His People and especially in the station wherein I was last I mean the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin God forgive the poor empty Man that did there intrude upon my labors and hath made a prey of many poor souls and exposed others to reproach and oppression and a famine of the Word of the Lord. God forgive the misleaders of that part of the poor people who tempted them to reject their own Pastor and to admit of Intruders and the Father of mercies pity that poor Misled people And the Lord visit the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin once more with faithful Pastors and grant that the Work and People of God may be revived thorow all Britain and over all the World Jesus Christ is my Light and my Life my Righteousness my Strength and my Salvation He is all my Salvation and all my Desire Him O Him I do with all the strength of my soul commend unto you Blessed are they that are not offended in Him Blessed are they that Trust in Him Bless Him O my soul from henceforth even for ever Rejoyce rejoice all ye that love Him be patient and rejoice in tribulation Blessed are you and blessed shall you be for ever and ever Everlasting Righteousness and Eternal Salvation is yours All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Remember me O Lord with the favour thow bearest to thy People O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thy Inheritance Now let thy servant depart in peace since mine eyes have seen thy salvation JA. GUTRHIE The last Speech and Testimony of the LORD WARIST0N At his Death in Edinburgh July 22. 1663. Right Honourable much honoured and beloved Auditors and Spectators THat which I intended and prepared to have spoken at this time in this condition immediatly before my death if it should be so ordered that it should be my lot is not at present in my power having been taken from me But I hope the Lord shall preserve it to bear my Testimony more fully and clearly then now I can in this condition having my Memory much destroyed through much sore and long Sickness Melancholy and excessive drawing of my Blood Though I bless the Lord my God that notwithstanding of the forementioned distempers I am in some capacity to leave this short and weak Testimony I desire in the first place to confess my Sins so far as is proper to this Place and Case and to acknowledge Gods Mercies and to express my Repentance of the one and my Faith of the other through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ our gracious Redeemer and Mediator I confess that my Natural Temper or rather distemper hath been Hasty and Passionat and that in my Manner of going about and prosecuting of the best pieces of work and service to the Lord and to my Generation I have been subject to my excesses of Heat and thereby to some Precipitations which hath no doubt offended standers by and lookers on and hath exposed both Me and the Work to their mistakes whereby the beauty of that Work hath been obscured Neither have I in following of the Lord's work His Good Work been without my own Self-seeking which hath severall wayes vented is self to the offence of both God and Man and to the grief thereafter of my own Conscience and which hath often made me groan and cry out with the Apostle O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And to ly low in the dust mourning and lamenting over the same deprecating God's wrath and begging His tender Mercies to Pardon and His powerful Grace to cure all these evils I must withal confess that it doth not a litle trouble me and ly heavy upon my spirit and will bring me down with sorrow to the grave though I was not alone in this Offence but had the body of the Nation going before me and the Example of persons of all Ranks to insnare me That I suffered my self through the power of temptations and the too much fear anent the straits that my numerous Family might be brought into to be carried unto so great a length of Complyance in England with the late Usurpers which did much grieve the hearts of the Godly and made these that sought God ashamed and confounded for my sake and did give no small occasion to the
Adversary to reproach and blaspheme and did withall not a litle obscure and darken the beauty of severall former Actings about His blessed and glorious Work of Reformation happily begun and far advanced in these Lands wherein He was graciously pleased to Employ and by Employing to Honour me to be an Instrument though the least and unworthiest of many whereof I am not ashamed this day but account it my Glory how ever that Work be now cried down opposed laid in the dust and trod upon And my turning aside to comply with these men was the more aggravated in my person that I had so frequently and seriously made profession of my Aversness from and Abhorrence of that way and had shown much Dissatisfaction with these that had not gone so great a length for which as I seek God's mercy in Christ Jesus so I desire that all the Lord's People from my example may be more stirred up to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation 2. I do not deny on the other hand but must Testify in the second place to the Glory of His Free-grace that the Lord my God hath often shewed and engraven upon my Conscience the Testimony of His Reconciling and Reconciled Mercy through the Merits of Jesus Christ pardoning all my iniquities and assuring me that He would deliver me also by the graces of His Holy Spirit from the spait tyranny and dominion thereof And hath often drawn out my spirit to the exercise of Repentance and Faith and after engraven upon my heart in legible characters His merciful pardon and gracious begun cure thereof to be perfected thereafter to the Glory of His Name the Salvation of my Soul and Edification of His Church 3. I am pressed in conscience to leave here at my death my true honest Testimony in the sight of God and Man to and for the Nationall Covenant the Solemn League Covenant the Solemn Acknowledgement of our Sins Engagement to our duties to all the grounds Causes of Fasts and humiliations of the Lords displeasure contending with the Land And to the several Testimonies given to His Interests by Generall Assemblies Commissioners of the Kirk Presbyteries and by other honest and faithful Ministers and Professors 4. I am pressed also to encourage His Doing Suffering Witnessing People and Sympathizing ones with these that suffer that they would continue in the duties of Mourning Praying Witnessing and Symparthizing with these that suffer and humbly to assure them in the Name of the Lord our God the God of His own Word and Work of His own Cause Covenant and People that He will be Seen Found and Felt in His own gracious Way and Time by His own Means Instruments for His own Glory Honor to return to His own Truths and Interests and Servants and revive His Name His Covenant His Word His Work His Sanctuary and His Saints in these Nations even in the three Covenanted Nations which were by so Solemn Bonds Covenants Subscriptions and Oaths given away and devoted unto Himself 5. I exhort all these that have been or are Enemies or unfreinds to the Lord's Name Covenant or Cause Word Work or People in Britain and Ireland to Repent and Amend before these sad judgements that are posting fast come upon them for their sinning so highly against the Lord because of any temptation of the Time on the right or left hand by Baits or Straits whatsoever and that after so many Professions and Engagements to the contrary 6. I dare not conceal from yow that are Friendly to all the Lord's Interests that the Lord to the commendation of His Grace be it humbly spoken hath severall times in the exercise of my Repentance and Faith during my trouble and after groans and tears upon these three notable chapters to wit the 9 of Ezra the 9 of Nehemiah and the 9 of Daniel with other such sutable Scriptures and in the very nick of fervent and humble Supplication to Him for the Reviving again of His Name Cause Covenant Word and Work of Reformation in these Covenanted Nations and particularly in poor Scotland which first solemnly engaged to Him to the good Example and Encouragement of His People in the other two Nations to do the same also That the Lord I say hath several times given to me good ground of hope and lively expectations of His Mercifull Gracious Powerful and Wonderful Renewing and Reviving again of His fore-mentioned great Interests in these Covenanted Nations And that in such a Way by such Means and Instruments with such Antecedents Concurrents Consequents and Effects as shall wonderfully rejoyce His Mourning Friends and astonish His Contradicting and counter-acting Enemies 7. I do earnestly recommend my poor Wife and Children and 〈◊〉 posterity to the choicest Blessings of God anâ—â—o the Prayers and Favour of all the Lord's Children anâ— Servants in their earnest dealing with God and Men â—n their behalf That they may not be ruined for â—y Cause but for the Lord my God's sake they 〈◊〉 be favoured assisted supplyed and comforted 〈◊〉 so may be fitted by the Lord for His Fellowship and Service whom God Himself hath moved me often in their own Presence and. with their own Consent to dedicate devote and resign alike and as well as I devote and resign my own Soul and Body to Him for all Time and Eternity 8. I beg the Lord to open the eyes of all the Instruments of my Trouble that are not deadly Irreconcileable Enemies to Himself and His People that they may see the wrong done by them to His Interests and People and to Me and Mine and may repent thereof and return to the Lord and may more cordially own and adhere to all His Interests in time coming The good Lord give unto them Repentance Remission and Amendement and that is the worst wish I wish them and the best wish I can wish unto them 9. I do earnestly beg the fervent prayers of all His Praying People Servants and Instruments whether absent or present wherever they be in behalf of His Name Cause and Covenant Work and People and in behalf of my Wife Children and their Posterity And that the Lord would glorify Himself edify His Church encourage His Saints further His Work accomplish His good Word by all His Doings and Dealings in Substance and Circumstance toward all His own 10. Whereas I have heard that some of my unfreinds have slandered and defamed my Name as if I had been accessary to his late Majestie 's death and to the making of the Change of the Government thereupon the great God of Heaven be witness and Judge between Me and my Accusers in this for I am free as I shall now answer before his Tribunal from any Accession by Counsel or Contrivance or any other way to his late Majestie 's death or to their making that change of Government And I pray the Lord to preserve our present King his Majesty and to pour out His best blessings
upon his royall Posterity and to give unto them good and faithfull Counsellors holy and wise Counsels and prosperous successes to God's Glory and to the good and interest of His people and to Their own Honour and Happiness 11. I do here now submit and commit my Soul and Body Wife and Children and Childrens Children from generation to generation for ever with all others his Friends and Followers all His Doing and Suffering Witnessing and Sympathizing ones in the present and subsequent Generations unto the Lord's choice Mercies Graces Favours Services Employments Impowerments Enjoyments Improvements and Inheritments on Earth and in Heaven in Time and Eternity All which suits with all others which He hath at any time by His Spirit moved and assisted me to make and put up according to His will I leave before and upon the Father's Mercifull Bowels and the Son's Mediating Merits and the Holy Spirit 's Compassionate Groans for now and evermore Amen The Joint Testimony of these who died together in Edinburgh Dec 7. 1666. subscribed by them in prison the same day of their death Men and Brethren THis is a great and important work both for us who are now to render up our spirits to Him that gave them And for yow who are not a litle concerned in the Cause and in our blood by justifying or condemning our sentence And therefore as we speak to yow as Dying men who dare not dissemble with God or man nor flatter our selves So ye should not be idle curious or unconcerned Spectators We are condemned by men and esteemed by many as Rebels against the King whose Authority we acknowledge But this is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that we suffer not as Evill doers but for Righteousness for the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ And particularly for our renewing the Covenant and in pursuance thereof for Preserving and Defending of our selves by Armes against the Usurpation and insupportable Tyranny of the Prelats And against the most unchristian and inhumane Oppression and Persecution that ever was enjoyned and practised by just Rulers upon Free Innocent and Peaceable Subjects The Covenant and Cause being so just in themselves and the duties of Self-preservation and mutual Defence in maintenance thereof being to Judicious and unbyassed men so clear we need to say the less for vindication of our Practice Only the Lawes establishing Prelacy and the Acts Orders and Proclamations made for Complyance therewith being executed against us by Military Force and Violence And we with others for our simple Forbearance being Fined Confined Imprisoned Exiled Scourged Stigmatized Beaten Bound as beasts and Driven unto the mountains for our lives And thereby hundreds of Families being beggared several Parishes and some whole Country-sides exceedingly impoverished And all this either Arbitrarily and without any Law or respect had to guilt or innocency Or Unjustly contrary to all Conscience Justice and Reason though under the Pretence of iniquous Laws and without regard had to the penalty specifyed in the Law And all Remonstrating of Grievances were they never so just and many and Petitions for Redress being restrained by Laws condemning all former Remonstrances and Petitions in the like cases There was no other remedy left to us but that last of necessary Self-preservation and Defence And this being one of the greatest Principles of Nature warranted by the Law or God Scriptural Instances and the consent and Practices of all Reformed Churches and Christian States abroad and of our own famous Predecessors at home It cannot in reason or Justice be reputed a Crime nor condemned as Rebellion by any humane Authority Though we be not the first that have suffered for the Cause or God within the Land yet we are among the first that have been Legally condemned and put to Death Expresly for taking the Covenant And we are so far from being ashamed thereof that we account it our honour to be reckoned worthy to suffer for such a Cause And cannot but bless the Lord that we have such a cloud of Witnesses in this and other Reformed Churches going before us in the same duty for Substance and in Suffering therefore We cannot but regret if we could with tears oâ— blood the Nationall and Authorized Backsliding of the Land by Perjury and breach of Covenant The overturning of the Work of Reformation The great Desolation of the House of the Lord by smiting of the Shepherds and scattering of the Flocks The Intrusion of so many mercenary Hirelings into the Ministry who because of Apostacy Perjury Ignorance and Profanness can neither be acknowledged as God's mouth to the People in Preaching nor employed as their mouth to Him in Prayer The abounding of Popery Superstition and Profanness by unheard-of Oaths Blasphemies Uncleannesss and Drinking even in some whose Office and Place requireth them to be more Examplary And the shedding of the Blood of the Saints by the rage of Persecution And therefore we cannot but disown all these abominable Laws Courses Practices declare our abhorrence of the same dissent therefrom Protesting before Angels and Men that we be not interpreted as consenters thereto and beseeching the Hearer of prayer that we be not involved in the guilt thereof nor partake of the plagues which follow thereupon As this Land was happy above all Nations for the purity and plenty of the Gospel and for a Form of Church Government more conform to the Patern in the Scriptures then in others of the Reformed Churches So we acknowledge His great goodness to us in speciall that gave us our lines in such pleasant places For we have such full perswasion of the Truth of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland And have felt so much of the Power and Sweetness thereof that we do here declare our firm belief and perswasion of and adherence to the same in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Nationall Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant the Confession of Faith Catechisms Directory of worship and Propositions for Government Accounting it our honor and happiness to have been born in it to have lived in Communion with it and now to die through Grace Members Witnesses and Asserters thereof And further as Christians and as Members of the same Church and Common-wealth in the Fear and zeal of our God in Love to our Brethren in desire of the Perservation of Church and Kingdom and for our own Exoneration now when we take our leave of the World We do seriously and in the bowels of Christ Supplicate Warn Exhort and Obtest yow all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom from the King to the meanest of the Subjects according to your old Principles Professions Promises Declarations Oaths and Covenants faithfully to Own Maintain preserve and Defend the said Religion And after the example of our Noble and Renowned Ancestors to quit your selves like Men Christians in endeavouring by all just Means according to your Places and Powers to shake off this heavy
is not for evill doing that I now suffer although I be charged with Rebellion against the Kings Authority yet 1 declare before God and you all that in all this matter I never intended to wrong his Majestie 's just Power and greatness but for conscience sake did respect Authority as the Ordinance of God appointed for the punishment of evill doers and that I wish his Ma all welfare both in this life and the world to come and that it may be his happiness to consider his Obligations to God and Perform the same that so it may be well with him and his Posterity to many generations and I pray God make him a friend to His Cause and the truly Godly who own the same though falsly called Phanaticks or turbulent persons I declare I have such persuasion of the Interest of Religion Reformed and sworn unto in the Covenant that I dare venture not only to lay down my own life but if every hair of my head were a man they should all be put to venture for this cause I would not have the world to stumble at the Cause because of my death after this manner for I rejoyce greatly in it and I desire every good Christian as they tender their own souls that they would grip fast lay hold on and cleave to Jesus Christ and His way My coming out at this time I say was not against his Majesty but for the Covenant which is now troden under foot my intention was for the Cause of Christ I take God to witness it was nothing else I came out for and for that I am free to lay down my life I bless God I am much encouraged in this and not at all afraid to die for so good and clear a Cause and I hope He will bring me thorow all my difficulties in this dark shadow of death I hope I have the peace of a good conscience and have had some glimpses from Jesus Christ of His countenance and reconciled Face since I came into this prison for which I desire to bless His Name with all my soul heart and spirit And I rejoyce that He hes made use of me to suffer for His Cause And I think it too litle not only to lay down my body but if it were possible even my very soul at the stake for that Cause and for Jesus Christ my good and kind Master who hath loved me and given Himself for me I give the Lord thanks that I had some of His Presence since I came into this condition and again I say I am much encouraged and not afraid to die and bless Him that I die not as a murtherer or evill door or Rebel to Authority but for such a cause as this O that it were the happiness of my Nation of England once to subiect themselves unto the sweet yoke of Christs Reformed Government under which this Nation of Scotland hath enjoyed so much of the Power and life of the Gospel by a faithful Ministry according to the Covenant sworn by them both And now my dear Friends in Christ and fellow-Covenanters though I be a stranger in this Land being an English-man but trifted by providence in the prosecution of my calling to have my residence for a time here in Scotland which I look upon as a singulare evidence of God's special love to me though I be a stranger I say to many of you yet I must be bold as a dying friend to beseech you by the mercy of God and by your appearance before Jesus Christ when we shall have to do with none but Him as our Judge that ye be faithfull and stedfast in the Cause of God and Covenant which ye have sworn with hands lifted up to the most high God which no Power on earth can loose you from and that ye keep you from snares unto the contrary and not suffer your selves to fall into a detestable Neutrality and Indifferency in that Cause of God And especially that ye keep your selves free of any Engagements by word or write that may wrong your Oath of the Covenant I commit my Wife and Children to His care who careth for them that put their trust in Him before the Sons of men not doubting but they shall be eyed with goodwil and favor by the Godly after I am gone And now I render up my Spirit to Him who gave it me and for whose sake I now lay down my life To this God my Covenanted God be glory blessing and praise for now and ever Amen That this is my mind and Testimony which I leave behind me I witness by my ordinary subscription R. SHIELDS The Testimony of HUMPREY COLHOUNE At his Death in Edinburgh Decemb 22. 1666. Dear Friends and Spectators I am come here this Day to this Place to die this Death for crimes for which I thank God my Conscience doth not condemn me My crime as is alleaged is for Disloyalty against the King's Majesty Yet I thank God that my appearing lately with the Lord's People was from my sense of my obligation in the Covenant and the sense of the wrongs done in the Land and the crying oppressions committed therein This was the end of my appearing for the Lord against His enemies to bear witness against the same The which obligation of the Oath of God I judge that none on earth can loose the Conscience from I bless the Lord again and again I die for this Oath and Covenant And I thank God also that I have by the great mercy of the Almighty God in Christ Jesus obtained mercy and forgiveness for all my transgressions both against the first and second Table of the Law And that through that Ocean of grace which is in the Lord Jesus Christ I believe that I am justified and sanctified and believe now to be glorified with Him by that blessed blood of His which hath purchased this Salvation to me through faith in the same made application of according to the good Covenant of grace He hath performed this out of his vvonderfull and incomparable free-grace And this is my joy and exceeding great rejoycing and consolation and all my salvation for vvhich I am Grace's debtor throughout all Eternity I die vvith this my Testimony my adherence to the National Covenant to the Solemn League and Covenant to the Work of Reformation a great length carried on and now overthrown most sinfully by ungodly Men vvho have established their Apostacy by Law which no just Power on earth could ever do Also I adhere to the Presbyterial Government the Confession of Faith Cathechisms Larger and Shorter And to the Solemn Acknovvledgement of the Church of Scotland And Publick Testimonies thereof against the sins of the time This day I rejoyce that He hath counted me vvorthy to lay dovvn my life for Him as one that beareth vvitness against the breach of all the Sacred Oaths and Ties that were established in this Land yea by the just Laws both of God and Man which never could