them all up to him in the Air O Glorious Meeting a Meeting without a parting a Meeting for Joy unexpressible then shall they be set down on the Right hand to receive their Sentence as the Reprobate have done already in our Paper in order of GOD's appointment they shall be last as you may see in that 25th Chap. of Matth. out of which we drew their Sentence and then shall the Sentence of the Elect be pronunced as follows in the 34 Verse of the said 25th Chap. of Matth. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Now my Dearest Friends to answering my former Suits which as they are both your Mercies and Duties so are attended with such unspeakable Advantages as we have a little hinted at I shall desire you yet to add two more The first is That one and all of you may with me with our whole Souls sing and say and say and sing Bless O my Soul the Lord thy God and all that in me is be stirred up his Holy Name to magnifie and bless The second is That all of us with one Soul may cordially join in saving Even so come Blessed Lord Jesus Christ come quickly Amen Thus with his whole Soul says JOHN DICK 1st October 1683. Having through Divine Assistance brought my Testimony to this period it may be supposed my Vital Spirits are not a little wearied and sure I am I shall need to use no Argument to perswade any that know me Well that I have never in my Lifetime been so long Serious together as I have been since my Ever Blessed LORD and Master in his Holy Providence brought me under this so Lovely Chain Lovely indeed yet the Sweetest time ever I had in my Life time next to that little time of our Espousalls for which my Soul shall Bless him forever I say since it is so I hope none will Offend if for my Recreation I break here a Jeast or two in Referrence to which I hope the rather I have my Blessed Master's Permission that therein I intend to do Despite to and Spitt in the Faces of a few such as have with most Violence and Hellish Boldness not only done Despite unto the Spirit but also Monstrously Spitten in the Face of my Blessed Lord and Master The Nature of my Jests shall be such as we call in Latin seria mixta jocis and in broad Scots half Jest half Earnest And First by way of Advertisement to all who concern themselves in the Reformed Churches of these Kingdoms that they use their Moyen with these makers of Mugs whether in that place of Scotland called Muir-madzoun or any where else up and down the Nations that in Imitation of the Hâ—llâ—nders who that they might in Rememberance of the Cruelty of that Monster for Blood Thirstiness the Duke of Alva caused Impress his Picture upon the Face of the Brandy Bottles they would upon all the Mugs they shall make after this imprint on the forepart thereof the Picture of this our Duke of Alva I mean York and upon the back part thereof the Picture of that Pitifull thing Claver House and because they must not want a Chaplain upon the Bottom of these Mugs let the Picture of that Monster the Bishop of Edinburgh be Impressed to this effect that all the Carlâ—nes in the Country may have occasion once in the Twenty four Hours to vent their Disrespect to these Abominable Wretches that so with their Names their very Pictures may Stink also and because their Physiognomies may by the Spectators be mistaken I would advise their several Names might be Adjoined to their Pictures least theâ— looking to Yorks Picture might take it for that of a Serpent or to Claver House his Picture for that of a Snake or that Monster the Bishop of Edinburgh his Picture for that of a Meer Swine Wallowing in Filth Yet I will not be Peremptor here for the mistake will not be great in any of these And now having mett with the Bishop that you may see I wrong him not be pleased to take a glance of him in these particulars following And first In a Dialogue betwixt him and that prodigious Drunkard Mr. Trotter one of his Underlings even that Trotter who it would appear having anticipated the Dyet of drinking our Dragie had got himself so full that Morning our blessed Lord set us at liberty that he took Stowre for Smoak and the glancings of his own firie eyes for Light Matches which occasioned his so disorderly deserting of the Pulpit a place he never deserved to set his foot in to the no small Confusion of his Auditors as follows Having met together Occasionally the Bishop says to Trotter How now Mr. Trotter I am informed you are a Scandalous Drunkard Mr. Trotter My Lord do you Believe that Bishop Yes I must believe since all Men says so Trotter I am very sorry for that my Lord for though all Men say you are a Scandalous Adulterer yet I do not believe it Bishop say You so Trotter Yes Bishop Then to be quitts with You neither will I believe the other 2dly You may inform your of the Nature and qualities of that his Snuff-Box which as I am informed is in the Hands of Sir Charles Halker which I am Confident that Generous Gentleman keeps for no other end but to be a Witness against the Madness the abominable Madness of that Mock Prophet one of whose Prophesies we come to offer to your Consideration in the third place as follows He being on the Castlehill of Edinburgh in Company of the Duke of York and others in the latter end of 1680 or beginning of 1681 looking to that great Comet that did then appear and being asked by the Duke What his Thoughts of the Comet were He answers I look upon it as a Torch in the Heavens to light your Royal Highness to the Throne Did this Prodigious Monster know what he was saying when he spake this Did he not know the many standing Laws of this Kingdom were Bars in the way of this which are yet standing and still shall stand I mean these made against Popety and Papists having any Place of Publick Trust in the Nation Does not this Wretch know that thir Laws are standing and must stand being sounded on and agreeable to the Word of GOD and enacted by free Parliaments Does not the Infatuate Wretch know that any Act made to the contrary can never come in the List of Laws in this Nation as being down right contrary to the Word of GOD and enacted by unfree Parliaments Must we weary our telling him this again and again And did not this Monster for arrogant Boldness in daring Heaven know that by the Word of GOD our Supream Law it is enacted That the Idolater shall die the Death Or is he so wretchedly blind as not to know That that Antichrist that Man of sin and all his Limbs of which this Duke
to Tye your People as it were with Fetters of Iron till they get their Throats cut by that Atheisticall Papisticall Malignant party to whom you have lent your Ear now these two and Twenty Years and refuse all hearing to your most faithful and Loving Subjcts I mean such as are desiring as to give the Almighty GOD what is due in the next Place to give Cesar what is his are all these small Faults think you Is it a small thing think you to strive with the Son of GOD for State and to presume to thrust him out of his Chair in his Church which is his due as only head thereof And yet to cause your Subiects Swear this is horrid Blasphemy Is it no small Sin think you to lift up your self above the Almighty and to set up your Humane Laws above his Divine ones I say are all these small Sins If you either say or think so I must take leave to tell you I differ from you in Judgement and must further tell you my Sentiments thereof and indeed great Sir I look upon all these things as most Horrid Acts of Rebellion against the Almighty what Sir if the meanest of these Intrusted by your Majesty in any Publick trust had offered the Thousand part of that Indignity to your Majesty as to have openly and Avowedly before the Sun torn a Contract betwixt your Majesty and the rest of your Subjects and told all your Subjects that from this his Deed they were obliged to joyn with him in this same Contempt of your Majesty and should have further told your Majesty's Subjects that your Power and Authority wsa to Cede to his and that your Majesties just Laws made in free Parliaments were to vail their Cape to his petty Acts and so forth of the rest would not your Majesty have thought such a Person stark Mad and have caused drag him out as a Traitor and Rebell and that justly for so doing And truely whatever might have Justifyed your Majesty in so doing can not but Infinitely more justify our most Glorious GOD in Serving your Majesty and all under you who have Concurred in this Rebellion at that Rate of Draging you forth and giving you your Portion with the Workers of Iniquity this will be the more clear if your Majesty consider what I have hinted before and what is more fully contained in the Author abovementioned and this your horrid Rebellion against the Almighty is not a little Aggravatee from the Peaceable Restauvation you was Trysted with so immediately before the same what was this your return for that so signall Providence Sure you cannot think that in this you were in your Duty I hope by this time your Majesty is rightly Airted where to find out the Traitors and Rebells in your Dominions even there where any are who have Instigated and Counselled your Majesty to this Horrid Rebellion whoever they be if it were even your Brother the Duke of York to the meanest under your Majesty now having in some Measure laid before your Majesty the Greivousness of these Sins with which your Majesty and these to whom with your Majesty I Address my self are called to charge your and Mourn For I am in the next place come to the second part of of my Task which your Majesty may Remember was to Expostulate with you for a return from the same to GOD's Glory ahd your own Souls Eternal Well being which in the Assistance of my GOD I shall essay as follows Now let me obtest you all in the Bowels of my Blessed Lord Jesus Christ if you have any Respect to the Glory of GOD to the Eternal well being of your own Immortall Souls to the well being of your Posterity and to the Peace and well being of these Nations of which you are all Members thought of different Sizes in the fear of GOD that you wobld lay a side your Enmity against GOD and followed that Advice given in the Second Psalm from the 10 Verse to the Close and that you may be the better helped to this Read and ponder well that whole Psalm not forgetting to pray over your Meditations thereupon and set some time a part for considering the greatness of the Affronts you have to Jeovah in all these Acts and Actions we have been weakly hinting at considering therein your Unparalleled Despite done to the Spirit of God in setting your so palpably against the Almighty and setting up your Mock Laws against and above that unerring Law of his I mean his Blessed will Revealled in his Word as also the Weight of the Blood you have Engaged your Shoulders under in exceuting these your Abominable wicked Laws which is no less then the whole Blood shed since the Blood of Righteous Abel to this very hour for this consider thar Passage in the 23 of Mathew from the 29 to the 37 Verse the more Faithfull you are or any of you shall be helped to be in Judging your in this matter the greater hope in your case I pray God none of you be so far left to your as to offer to shift off this Charge which I am sure you shall never have gaound to do till you have Solidly Answered all that is written in the Word of GOD for binding the same upon you as also in the abovementioned and amongst the rest in this poor and Feckless essay of mine which I declare as in the sight of GOD I have Ventured upon next to the Glory of GOD and the good of his people with an Eye to the Everlasting Well-being of the Souls of one and all of you even of my most inveterate Enemy Mr. Paterson Prelate of Edinburgh as you call him and because neither time will allow nor is this so properly my Task I Recommend it to you for your help here to consult the Writings of our Faithful Divines both in Britain and Ireland where you may meet with what may before your better help in this indispensible necessary duty and whither I come speed or not I must advise you also even to consult in this matter such of your faithfull Ministers as are yet amongst us I think it but reasonable you should Essay this in the time of your Health which not a few of you have ventured upon at your Death fearing that then it may prove too late for seldom is late Repentance sure Repentance Now if you shall be helped of the Lord to grant me this my Suit which is so much for the Glory of GOD the good of your own Soul the good of your Posterity and of the Lands wherein you live I do nothing doubt but e're all be done you shall find Reason to bless the Lord and to alter your Sentiments not only of me but of all who with me have been so tender of your Souls as not to dare to harden you in your sinful Courses by Concurring and going alongst with you in these so Horrid Abominations and shall not only think but find it
Britain and Ireland imitating this Laudable example when ever they perceived that Dreadfull Plague of a more dangerous Nature then Leprosie and yet more Infectious which I take to have been the reason of their Separation I mean our Kings horrible Adulteries Perjuries publick and Private Oppositions to the Almighty with that Abominable endeavour to introduce Popery anent which you may see more in my now Glorified Brother John Wilson his Testimony I say what if they had by a Sentance of Excommunication set him apart by himself And what if the People had owned them by so doing Sure I know none that has the least smack of Religion would have Condemned this and I pray God the Ministery yet living may be brought to the Sense of their guilt in omitting this but whatever be in this sure I am the people Violented for not Concurring in these Abominations cannot be Condemned for standing to their own Defence This will be yet further clear to any who considers what I have offered by the Enemies of our Blessed Lord for my Satisfaction in this matter And first Having made use of our Blessed Lords Precept to his Disciples when about to leave them in a Persecuting World to wit But now he that has no Sword let him Sell his Coat and Buy one Sir William Paterâ—on told me the same that he told my abovementioned Brother to wit that there was meant the Sword of the Spirit to which I Answered were these two Swords of the Spirit Produced by the Disciples saying here are two were these two Swords of the Spirit To this he replys no more then the Stone of the Wall behind him And now further I would advise that Gentleman as he tenders his Souls Eternall Well-being that he seek Repentance of God for this so horridly Blasphemous Expression which is no other then to Charge our Blessed Lord with Commanding of Simon how Hainous a Sin this is I leave to any tender Conscience to consider Next that Gentleman Mr. Banerman who they said Represented the Kings Advocat there of whom eâ—re I proceed further I must tell you my thoughts I thought indeed he there Represented the Devil I think not Groundlesly for the Devil you know is stiled the Accuser of the Bretheren how near he Resembled him I leave to the Readers consideration Another thing said of the Devils is they Believe and Tremble whether this Gentleman Believes or not I shall not Determine but sure I am he he Trembled and so Repeating my Concessions offers this Defence a good self Defence that he has heard of self Defence betwixt single Men but there was no self Defence by Multitudes against Law I think indeed to Repeat this vain Defence Refutation Sufficient but confuting the Advantage of others I shall divide it it is in it self in two parts the first is this Man seems to yeeld that one Man may Legally Defend himself against another and what if he be not able to prove that two or three of us were still against one I hope if he prove not this against all he must Liberate all that were not Chargeable with this and so was bound to have Defended me conform to his own concession I think this Gentleman should have Condecended who these priviledged Persons are that they may Defend themselves and who not But to the Second Branch that there is no self Defence by Multitudes against Law Justifiable where was this Mans Memory that he will have my Innocent and just self Defence against Law Did I not tell him Immediately before that there could be no Law against express Texts of Scripture And that I might the better prove this Desired they would grant to me that the Word of God was the Supream Law to which all other Laws behoved to strike and vail now this being Refused me and nothing in the least offered for my Satisfaction I hope none will Doubt but these Men Avowedly before the Face of the Sun set themselves and their Laws up above our God and his Laws so that all I have for the Ground of my Sentence upon the Matter is this though God himself hath said you are Right and though his Word which you call his Law say so too yet we have a Law and by this Law you most Dye who would not Rejoice in a sentence of this Nature that does so nearly Resemble that Blasphemous one passed upon his Blessed self Bless O my Soul the Lord thy God there is an Expression in my Subscribed Declaration which I know our Enemies upon Christs Account do not a litle startle at and I am Apprehensive may seem harsh to some of our reall Friends upon mistake the Expression is this that the Enemies invasion made at Pentland and Bothwell for the Adhering to their duty was Service done to the Devil and the Lords Peoples Innocent self Defence being so Assautled was Service done to God For Satisfaction both of Friends and Foes in this matter I shall offer to your Consideration what follows I hope our Enemies themselves will not deny the Presbyterian Ministers of the Church of Britain and Ireland to be Faithful Ministers of Christ Jesus if they do they should have done us the Justice to have intimate the same with the Grounds thereof Sure I am the behaviour of the grossest of them would seem to cry aloud the contrary when they come to a Death-Bed where rejecting these perjured Atheistical blasphemous Hirelings they call for a Presbyterian Minister witness Mr. John Elis and the last Chancellor with many others I hope none of our Friends doubt this so then we shall take this for granted Well then if they be Ministers as we most firmly hold especially having nothing from our Enemies to the the contrary but rather a firm Confirmation as I have said I hope ye will grant me also that they are bound to obey that Commission in the last of Matth. two last Verses Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always unto the end of the World Amen I hope I need use no Argument to reinforce this this being the Command and Commission of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ in it self sufficient to bind all and needing the sufferage of no Mortal Let it stand as a sure Truth then that our Ministers are Christ's Servants and that our blessed Lords Commission to them to Preach is still binding and shall be to the Worlds end I hope I shall need to be at little pains to prove that by that same Commission the Lords People are obliged to hear I hope none will doubt this whoever has Read that Word Rom. 10.14 How can they hear without a Preacher Now the case being thus that our Ministers are Ministers and by vertue af their Commission they are bound to Preach and consequently we bound to hear and that
could not but have felt it to be for which my Soul shall ever bless his Name and I hope I shall not be left alone here expecting the assistance of not a few in these Nations in this matter who have in this particular to the refreshment of their Souls found a new Proof of our GOD's being the Hearer of Prayer I say again these things being so I hope none who are not engaged in the same rage against GOD with these his Enemies and ours upon his Account will doubt but their whole procedure against me in this matter has been a Decreed and intended Murder not only against me but also my Blessed LORD and Master in and through me And least any should mistake me here let them but consider these Three Scriptures First He that touches you touches the Aple of mine Eye Secondly In all their Afflictions he was Afflicted Thirdly Paul Paul Why persecutest thou me And I hope the mistake shall be rubbed off And now having through the Blessing and Assistance of the Almighty gotten my Testimony brought to this Pass that the case betwixt his People and them is clearly stated to evidence that not only I but such others of our perswasion all the Nations over are indeed Christians I resolve in the LORD'S strength as he shall assist to leave behind me a Testimony of my Tenderness both to the Souls and Bodies of such as has given no small Proof of their Thirsting after my blood in dealing with them as follows And now unto his Majesty our King must I Address my self and to all under him from his Brother the Duke of York to all the Counsellors whether Publick or Secret in the Three Kingdoms and under them to all the Sheriffs Justices with their Clerks and Pendicles of Court even to these of the meanest Office I mean the Dempsters and after these to the whole Magistrates of Burrows with their Pendicles to the lowest and then to all the Members of these Parliaments since his Majesty's Restauration whether such as did sit there by Birth or were Elected and as to these Elected even to their Electors and in a Word to all and sundry who have concurred with Homologate or Ratified your Unjust Sentences pronunced against the Almighty whether more directly or at least in his Members Now as to you all and sundry I declare in the Entry of my Address as in the sight of Jehovah whose I am and before whom both you and I e're long must stand naked and bare to answer for all we have done in the Flesh That my design in this my Address next to the Glory of GOD the Good and Edification of his People and consequently the advancement of his Work The Third thing which the LORD my GOD has held before my Eyes in all this my Trial has been your Conviction from the highest to the lowest if possible and that I may the better reach that end my Blessed LORD has determined my Heart to follow this Method First To deal more particularly with you in laying before your eyes the Egregiousness of your Sin Secondly To Expostulate with you to return from the same to GOD'S Glory and your own Souls Eternal well-being And Thirdly And if in this I prevail not to remonstrate the hazard of refusing this my Warning And Fourthly To take Instruments upon what the LORD by me the Unworthiest of his Servants has been doing for you and of your Refusal I mean as to so many as shall be so far left of the LORD as to refuse the same and Oh! that there might be few such then I am to leave my Companions in Tribulation and Brethren in our ever Blessed and Eldest Brother Christ Jesus the LORD of Glory with a word of Exhortation and so Conclude Now Great Sir for to you and all under you and who instigate you to and concurred with you in these Soul-destroying Practices I am in the strength of Jehovah to remonstrate I Address my self and in the first place must take the liberty to tell you in the Name of my great Lord and Master Jesus C rist that it is not unknown to your Majesty nor any of these to whom I Address my self jointly with you that not only at your Coronation your Majesty and all under you from the highest to the lowest but also before these whole Nations were and yet are engaged in a most Solemn Covenant with the Ever-Living GOD Party Contracter on the one hand and your Majesty and all under you in these Nations from the highest to the lowest on the other hand to the observance of which Covenant these Nations and all in them shall forever be bound and obliged from the highest to the lowest while Sun and Moon endures neither is there any imaginable way of Dissolving the same especially considering that therein our Obligation being only to Amend our Lives and to Worship the Almighty GOD conform to his own Appointment and to oppose our our Lives and Fortunes to all courses and ways inconsistent with these ends these being Moral Duties to which we were Antecedently bound as is the Nature also of all the Duties we are obliged to by these Covenants Now Great Sir the Case being thus I hope ye will not judge your self obliged to such as makes this Defence for breaking of these Covenants that your Majesty was forced thereto for indeed I look upon it as a great imputation upon your Majesty especially being Stiled Defender of the Faith to have been in any measure under either Necessity or Constraint to have joined in a Duty so absolutly necessary and if there was any thing of force where was the Intimation thereof sure I am there was nothing thereof publickly to be seen and yet giving but not granting it had been so your Majesty and all under you were unexpressibly more obliged to the performance therefore then were the People of Isreal to the performance of that made with the Gibeonites as may be seen above nor shall I think your Majesty will think your self obliged to them who should for Vindication of your Breach of these Covenants offer this Defence that your Majesty is under Covenant of a posterior date bound to the Pope and some of his Creatures to introduce Popery and to Emancipate these Territories to that Antichristian Yoke if any such thing be as the Carriage of the Court this considerable time too loudly insinuates Sure I am it were more for your Majesties Honour and the Glory of God and the good of your Nations to break that Covenant than to keep it it being a Covenant made against the Almighty which by no imaginable pretence can be justified but leaving these things to your Majesties consideration and to the consideration of such as may with you be concerned herein I must make bold to ask again by what Authority you came to Dissolve this Contract yea I may say and that upon good Grounds as Glorious a Contract as ever was made on Earth while
that such of you as have Sworn the Test have as I Remember in the 15. Article of the Confession of Faith you have Sworn to therein Declared it to be a Good Work to Releive the Opprest Defend and Patronize the Harmless I say so much the rather that your present practice and that your Oath Clashes together are you not concerned to know what you will Answer in that Day And indeed for my part I can conceive no Answer you or any of you can have to these or any of these things therefore I yet Obtest you to take my Freindly Warning Now Dare I Flattter my self so far as to think that I have got any of you that Length as to Speir what shall we do And Oh that I were so however I shall out of Tenderness to the Glory of GOD the Good of your Souls and the well being of these Nations and the well of your Posterity Adventure in the Strength of my Blessed LORD to Advise you as follows And first Great Sir be Intreated to lay aside your Enmity at my Great Lord and Master and you under him to whom together with his Majesty I Address my self Be intreated and I obtest you in the Name of GOD so to do and to concur with me in Advising his Majesty thus with me and as that in Testimony of your doing so His Majesty with your Advice and Consent would call a free Parliament in his several Dominions which may meet without either Preâ—â—mitationâ— oâ— Restrictions in which let the first Act be the Appointment of a Fast to be keeped for many days by all the Faithfull Ministers Living in these Kingdoms who have been so much Discountenanced to the Dishonour of GOD these 22 or 23 Years till the Performance of which be ended Let this your Parliament be Adjourned then let your next Work be to Empty all the Prisons in the three Kingdoms of all the Honest Christians you have in Prison there for no other reason then that they are such And in the next place in their Room let these prisons be filled with all that have given his Majesty unfaithfull Council since his Restauration as formerly beginning with his Brother the Duke of York and so from him to all the rest in order forget not the Prelates and such of their Underlings as have been too too Active in driving on these Defections and that Damnable Apostacy and as to their Treasonable Practices let them all be brought and Arraigned before these Parliaments Then let there be an Act Emitted for the Presbyterian Ministers in the several Nations to meet in a General Assembly for considering what may be the most effectuall course for settling the Churches in these Nations and for Removing these Abominations and Abuses that have been introduced through want of the Hedge and over the Belly of Covenants Sworn to the Almighty standing still in Vigour to the great Dishonour of GOD and Utter Confusion of these Nations both as to Church and State If I get but these granted I hope it should be a very good beginning and bad Councils being once removed and better brought in their Room with Dependance on the Almighty for a Blessing I doubt not would ease me of the Travell of further Counciling for which I am sensible of my own insufficiency and yet I think this I have given none of the worst and I can assure one and all of you in following the same you shall not only do GOD good Service but your also and these Nations and your Posterity It's like some may think my advice here is the less solid that I advise some to act against themselves and some near Relations to act against on another But I hope such shall easily alter their opinion when they consider that sometimes it is better for the Body to have some of the Members cut off then to have all indangered together And though amongst Naturalists for persons to act seemingly contrary to themselves may not sound so well yet I hope amongst Divines it may who know it is no Disparragement to the best of Mortalls to come in time to our Blessed LORD with the Rope about their Neck and acknowledge their Guilt Submitting themselves to his holy Majesty for what of Punishment he shall see fit to inflict And as I advise his Majesty to do this in time as the best Council I can give him so do I advise all under him to do the same And not only so but as a Testimony of their Stupendious Loyalty they Crack so much of to our King that they would now come and give a proof thereof in coming to his Majesty and this free Parliament to offer themselves to Tryall Sure I am if they be consistent with their principals they are bound in Duty to do this and I know nothing they can object to the contrary that will not abundantly more serve our turn in our present case and come there when they like I am confident they shall never find Judges nor Advocats under such a Constitution as to grounds and reasons for their Procedure as we have found there in our cases I make no doubt but that they shall get it made out to their own conviction that they have one and all of them been not only most Horrid Traitors and Rebells against the Majesty of Heaven but even against our own King also and that these have been likewise guilty not only of all the Bloodshed since his Majesties Restauration but also since that of righteous Abel even to this Hour I mean here the Bloodshed of the Righteous Now having in some measure removed what might be objected against my Advice I shall leave you to consider whether you will embrace it or not and I dare here confidently averr there was no more intended by the Presbyterians in Scotland in these two risings at Pentland and Bothwell than this or something of this Nature our doing the same in Arms being constrained from that Monstrous Act Discharging any such Address under the pain of Treason and though I have not much hopes to prevail with you yet I doubt not but herein I have been in my duty and who knows but in part even for this end my GOD has set me at Liberty to tell you what you would not Suffer me to Speak when standing at the Bar before you The hearing and Embracing of this my Advise I am sure should be so far from prejudging any of you that I doubt not but the Embracers if any such shall be shall have our GOD to Bless for it and for the Refusers that shall yet still with Pharoh harden their Necks in Rebellion against my Blessed LORD and Master I can Assure them from our Unerring Law the Word of GOD that they shall not have Ground to Crack of it but that thereby their Judgement shall not only be more certainly Entailed upon them and their posterity but also I doubt not even the former also for indeed I think our Blessed
LORD is saying nothing less by these Dispensations then this what will not these Stupendious Rebles come and hear Honest Ministers who are ready and willing to give them Warning that their Mouths may be for ever Stopped he'll send them a Warning another way which if they will Refuse then have at them so then I come to my last Task with you the Enemies of our GOD and our's upon his Account and it is to take Instruments upon all my Blessed Master has in and by me the Fectlessest of his Servants been doing with you in all my Tryals as follows Most Holy and Infinitly Glorious GOD the Father of my Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and my Father in and throw him I earnistly beg of thee for thy great Names Sake for thy Glorys Sake for the Son of thy Loves Sake and for the love thou bears to thy poor people in these Nations that what thou has in thy infinite Wisdome been doing in by and throw me to and with these thine Enemies be keept written in large Characters in the Book of Rememberance till the great Day of the Lord for a Testimony and Witness against all such of them as shall Contemptously refuse what I thy poor servant has been helped of thee with an Eye to thy Glory the good of thy people the Conviction of these thine Enemies and even the good of the Souls of such of them as shall give ear to what from thy word I have in thy strength offered And now again to you stiff Necked Rebeles against my ever Blessed Lord and Master must 〈◊〉 in the strength of my God intimate what you are to expect for your small Sentence in the Great Day if you continue in this your Rebellion even this which you will find written in the 25 Chapter of Matthew 41 Verse I â—ay depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and and his Angels and of the Reasons there and elsewhere in the Lords Word given for this your Sentence you have ground to expect your carriage to the rest of the Lords People and me amongst them shall not be the least afflicting and astonishing to you Now having ended with our blessed Lords Enemies I come to my last Task in this my Testimony which is to speak a short word by way of Advice and Exhortation to all my precious Friends under which Compellation I comprehend all that love our Lord Jesus Christ and wait for his coming all that have given themselves to him in a Covenant never to be forgotten all that are keeping up the Fight against their Corruptions and Strugling in the Strength of our Lord against a Body of Death and in short all that are sincerely Arting Heaven-ward whither such as are farder or shorter way advanced in their Journey and to these and all such of whatsomever Nation Countrey Tongue or Language they be whither at Home or Abroad of whatsomever perswasion consistent with the Foundations of Religion And particularly to all under the Cross whither Abroad in Hungary France Germany or any other elsewhere who are in the Furnace or at Home in these three Kingdoms and to you all and every one who in the Strength of our blessed Lord shall be helped to run that Race with patience and finish your Christian Course with Joy I hope I need not use Arguments to prove that the day of the Lord which we have been speaking of above which to the Wicked and to the Enemies of our blessed Lord shall be so terrible shall be to you the beginning of days or rather the beginning of a day which is never to have an end and that this day may be the more Joyful to one and all of us I shall obtest you all to join with me in the pursuance of these few Christian Exhortations following And first in general let there be a cordial endeavour in the Strength of our blessed Master the more this be imployed the better speed shall we come as to strive against every Sin without exception so to close with every Commanded Duty with delight the more Universal we be in either the more sincere in our Resolutions this way the more dependantly upon Christ Jesus we go on in this Course and the more self denial and denial to all other Airths we be blessed of the Lord with the better speed surely shall we come But secondly and more particularly let us all Unanimously Concurr in the endeavour after the cordial and sincere performance of these particular Duties following And first I would offer for your Exercise that indispensible necessary Duty of Repentance in exercising whereof I shall offer these few Christian Advices First Let us Digg deep in this Mâ—tter and never rest till we come to the Root I mean Original Sin and after we have Dwelt by Meditation upon the sadness thereof let us in the next place take a View of all our actuâ—l Transâ—ressions flowing therefrom of our Sins as well of Omission as Commission of our Younger as our Riper Age against the Law as against the Gospel these sins that thence cleaves to us in our best performances not forgetting these sins called our own and the sins that do easily beset us and all these and many others which you my find out by perusing great and Reverend Mr. Durham upon the Commands not only as to our every one of us for himself but all of us for each other and in a special manner be mindful of the publick National sins and that not only in the Land where you have your Residence but also all the World over In sum let every thing done to the Dishonour of GOD by whomsoever be the Object of your Mourning before him And I pray forget not these sins whereby our blessed GOD is not only diâ—honoured But also the Generation of the Wicked hardened and the Generation of the Righteous stumbled and offended I pass these the more generally that bâ—ing Interrogate by the Enemies anent a few of them I was by my blessâ—d Lord determined thâ—n to pass it with this Answer That I judged it noâ—e of mâ— Duty to publish any thing of that Nature to them with an Eve to that Prohibition Tell it not in Gath publish it not in Aâ—kelon which is indeed the Reason I medle not with these things here having intended this for publick View and being resolved in the Lords Strength either by a distinct Line to the several Parties offending the like freedom I expect also from them knowing that in many things not to say in every thing we offend all or by laying my self open to what my blessed Lord may offâ—r otherways to Communicate my Sentiments of thâ—se offered whither to these who have gone aside to the Right or Left 〈◊〉 2dly Let us in our Repentings study to have the Dishonour done to our bâ—essâ—â— Lord more weighty upon our Souls than the hazard our Souls lyes under 〈◊〉 thence though we may have an Eye to both yet let the former
intimate your hearty and earnest desire to them that they would again turn unto the Lord's way and not any longer either indanger themselves or wrong the cause of Christ 4thly Let your whole complex Carriage towards the Smell of God and of Tenderness towards both their Souls and Bodies I dare not advise to Reason with either for I have hitherto found that not only hardning to them but also indisposing to the Essayer A better help in this case I am sure will be the pursuance of my Sixth Advice in order to Preparation for our Blessed Lord's coming and that is let one and all of us stir up our Souls and all that is within us to wrestle for a speedy coming I am sure one Sight of his most Amiable Countenance among us would avail more in these matters and every thing else that is wrong among us in bulk than all the feckless Essays we can make though it be yet our Duty in our Stations to use our utmost Endeavours for reclaiming any that go astray I have been under a necessity to give this hint neither is there more discovered thereby than the Physicians know already having hinted so much in their Examination of me My Seventh Advice shall be O study study a Soul-hunger after our Lord and Master whose compassions could never suffer him yet to tarry long away from any that were at the point of Starving through his Absence I shall add this Caution here look that it be Himself principally if not only you hunger and Thrist after for though we may indeed have an eye upon the many precious things that attends his coming yet these all how precious soever they bear but the Shell his Blessed Self being the very Kernell and Soul of the Mercy yea it is Himself that makes Mercies such Now my Dearest Friends in the Exercise of these Duties we have shortly hinted at both before and here more particularly upon this head with what others Our Blessed Lord Himself may art us to whether immediatly by His Spirit or by His Servants of the Ministry I do nothing doubt but either of these Comings of Our Blessed Lord and Master shall be rendred the more Refreshfull unto us That this may be yet a little more clear we shall hint at a word in Reference to either And first You know that Mercies coming in the Covenant Channel are the sweetest and most Soul refreshing Mercies and as to either these mercies that come to us in the way of Duty these being contained in the Covenant tho' not from any Vertue in themselves yet by Our Blessed Lord's appointment in the Covenant and through Vertue transmitted by his Blessed Self to them in the Covenant I say Mercies coming that way are twice Mercies and Our Lord's coming to his in that way the Mercy is still the more refreshfull in this Respect that to that of his coming which is Mercy Mercy in it self yet to these it is yet more Mercy as coming to their Distinct Perception in the Covenant Channel whereas while coming to others His coming shall be to such as a Dream who while they be well wakened shall be out of case to feel the Sweetness of the Mercy Now let me again Obtest you Dearest Friends to make Conscience of these Duties as you have a Respect to the Glory of GOD the good of his Cause the good of your of your own Souls the Conviction and if not attainable the Confounding of Enemies And beside what of Advantages this shall afford you at his comings with Deliverance in time which shall yet neither be few nor small you shall undoubtedly find much Consolation therefrom at that his great and last coming To which this in a word you have heard before our Blessed Lords coming to Judgement shall be to the Wicked so very Terrible that they shall seek all possible means for shuning the appearance which yet they shall never get done and though they great and small shall cry to Hills and Mountains to fall upon them to cover and hide them from the Face of the Lamb yet shall all this Crying be in Vain But to you to you that are in Covenant with the Almighty in and through our Blessed Lord and have been helped with the wise Virgins To keep your Lamps Trimmed this appearance shall be so far from being a Surprizall that it shall be the most Joyfull Sound ever you heard in your time O how Soul Refreshing shall it be to you when at the call of the last Trumpet you have Raised up your heads through these Mooles and having Soul and Body Joyned together again at the very first Peep as you look up shall you see the Lamb of GOD Sitting on his Throne which shall so much take up all your Senses both Internall and Externall Spirituall and Bodily that you shall not be in hazard of being Frighted with the Screicks of the Reprobate and Wicked but the whole Motions of our Souls shall be O To be at him O To be at him O how Soul Ravishing shall the sight be And now must we halt here a little till the Elect be gathered together during which time let us vent our Meditation of the difference that will be betwixt the Elect and Reprobate the Reprobate saying Oh alace for ever yonder he is for the dishonour done to whom we could never shed a Tear the Elect says well's me yonder he is upon the account of the Dishonour done to whom I have had many a sore Heart and have shed many a Tear The Reprobate says Oh! he is yonder whom I could never either Love or Fear Says the Elect blessed for ever be the sight yonder he is who helped me both to Love and Fear him the Reprobate says Oh! for-ever yonder he is whom I could never be perswaded either to believe or patiently to wait for Says the Elect Rejoice O my Soul for ever yonder he is that helped me by his Spirit both to trust in and wait for him the Reprobate says Oh and alace yonder he is towards the Meeting of whom all the Exhortations in time could never move me to make preparation says the Elect Glory to his Name for ever he is there now for Meeting of whom he helped me many a day to be Trimming my Lamp Says the Reprobate Oh and undone for ever yonder he is whom in his Members I not only persecuted but Murdered many a time Says the Elect endless blessings on his ever Glorious Face for whose sake â—he helped me to suffer Persecution says one and to be Hanged on a Gibbet Beheaded or Drowned say others and so forth of all the rest of the Duties the Elect have been helped to perform and against the performance whereof the Reprobate have been hardened or rather have hardened themselves Now may we suppose the whole Elect to be gathered together and looking many a greedy look to be at him then may we suppose our blessed Lord and Master by his Omnipotent Arm halling
time My Lords if ye had no other to Enquire at then me ye might have caused take me from the Court of Guard to the Gibbet Do ye own and adhere to all your former Actings I both own and adhere to all that I have done in the Vindication of my Principles and in the Reproving if not the Converting of Christs Enemies either with my Tongue or Pen and am willing to Seal the same with my Dearest Blood Follows an Account of what passed betwixt the Lords of Justiciarâ— and Mr. John Dick when his Sentence was reintimate to him the next Day after he was taken THE Lords hearing of it being Conveened he was brought from the Tolbooth and put in the Pannel before them to whom he gave a Bow and so the Clerk at the Command of the Lords Cryed to the Macer saying Macer Command Silence then they called Mr. John Dick to whom he Answered here I am and so the Clerk Read as follows Mr. John Dick now standing in the Pannel having been apprehended before to wit in August last and having been several times before the Lords of Council and Justiciary was Sentenced and Commanded upon the fifth Day of September 1683 to be Hanged at the Grass Mercat of Edinburgh upon the 26th of of that instant but the said Mr. John Dick having Broken the Toolbooth of thâ—s Brugh upon the 16th of that instant and several others with him and so made his Escape before the time that he should have been Hanged and he being apprehended and now standing in the Pannel these are to Warrand Authorize Command and Charge the Magistrates of this Burgh to Cause Carefuly Conduct him to the said Grass-Mercat of Edinburgh to Morrow between two and four in the Afternoon and there to be Hanged up till he be Dead under the pain of the Act. c. At the hearing of which he gave a Bow to the Lords and said now my Lords the Sentence that your Lordships passed upon me both before and now is both unreasonable and unjust and contrar to the Laws of this Nation however it is very welcome to me upon Christ's Account But I remember two things that I demanded before and now I demand them again The first was That the great Jehovah is Judge of Heaven and Earth and that all the Kings and Princes therein are but his Deputes and Servants this was granted me before The Second was That the Scriptures are the Supream Law and that all the Laws of this Nation and all other Nations are to be regulate thereby and strike and Vail their Capes to this this they refused me before and now I demand it again but he got no Answer So he cryed now my Lords I take the Great GOD to Witness and each of your Consciences to Witness against your and all of you and the rest of this multitude to Witness against you that hears me that ye have again refused me this to grant it to me and tho ye have judged me once before and now again unjustly Yet remember that at one Day GOD will Judge you and Reviving my Blood and the Blood of all my Brethren that has been shed unjustly and they cryed that they would take him away and not suffer him to speak any longer so he rapped upon the Breast of the Pannel and cryed out GOD even my GOD shall Judge you as ye have Judged me and that ye shall find but GOD forgive you and I forgive you if it be agreeable to his Eternal Decree and so he was taken away crying as he went to the Door of the Outter House saying well I am refused of that which none but Heathens could have refused me of but I bliss the LORD for it and many of my Christian Friends knows my Mind of these things and others may know it when I am gone Followes his Words and Carraige in the Laigh Council House that Afternoon he came from the Tolbooth before he went to the Scaffold as was there present after the Reading of the Sentence Mr. Ramsay one of the Ministers of the Old Kirk of Edinburgh offered to Pray to him to whom he Replyed Sir how dare you presume or how dare you have the Confidence to pray in my Presence since ye are Fighting against GOD and Persecuting Christ in his Members ye have not only Abjured the Covenant but is Murdering the Souls of the LORD's people and to Crown all your Abjured ones and Abominations Have he not taken that Abominable Test. Mr. Ramsay Answers Well Sir will ye pray your self then Yes if the Bailie suffer me I will if ye will promise to make no Reflections in Prayer But he Answered that he would make no such promises But said he whatsoever GOD gives me to pray that will I pray And so the Baillie again Refused to suffer him if he would not promise not to have any Reflections in Prayer but he Answered as before But Mr. Ramsay pressed the Baillie to give him Liberty to pray and he began to pray thus O Lord God the Great God and my Covenanted God and the Covenanted God of Scotland For Christs Sake come with Deliverance to thy Church and People and help them Vindicate and make great thy Glory And so the Bailie cryed to take him away The last Words and Carriage of Mr. John Dick who Suffered in the Grass Market of Edinburgh upon the Fifth of March 1684. WHen he went upon the Scaffold he Beckned to the Multitude beginning at North side thereof and so turning himself Round with a Smiling Countenâ—nce and no less Couragious then pleasant Demonstrations without the least of Terrour or being Troubled either with Death near approaching or the manner of he Death he was to Die this in a Princely like Posture he presented himself in the â—ight of all there present And then with his hands Falded together and his Eyes â—fted up to Heaven for a little looking not only stedfastly but Eagerly and so treaching furth his hands he began thus The great Confluence that are gathered together here manifestly declares to me that many if not the great part of this Multitude expects and looks for some thing more than Ordinary but ye may be disappointed I nothing doubt but all of this Multitude at least the most part knows and have heard that I have had near six Months Respite more than was allowed me by Men which time was granted me in the Goodness and Mercy of GOD through my Escape which Mercy I mean this time that I have had since my escape I look upon it to have been given me for these two and in both these that GOD may be Glorified And First That having so much more time I might have the Liberty and Priviledge more fully to exhibite and give in my Judgment At which Bailie Chancellor called to Bear but he stops him saying Beat not and so he proceeded saying Secondly That having so much more time I might the better make ready and prepare my self for that
very much pâ—eponderate 3dly Let there be much singleness and Heart honesty in the Business 4thly Let there be much Dependance on the Lord and prayer for Grace in order to a right Performance These and many others for which I Recomend you to our Faithful Ministers mâ—y be useful in this matter and for our farder Encouragement in performance of this so very Necessary a Duty let us consider that the Christian performance thereof will not only be Refreshful to us in that great day of the LORD but may be even so also in time as will be clear to any that will but Read over the 9th Chapter of Ezekiel and this not from any Vertue of the Duty as proceeding from us but of free Grace let this be Understood in Referrence to the Rest of the Duties also The Second duty I Propose for the Object of our Sincere Endeavours is the fear and Love of GOD I bring thir in together the rather that they are Selâ—om if ever Separate as it is also with all the other Graces of the Spirit though some of them may be at some times both more or less felt by the party himself and more or less Visible to others and for our help here let us Dwell much upon the consideration of that Mystery of Love Vented towards lost Mankind in that Transaction held by the Holy Trinity before the World had a Fundation I say let the Serious thoughts of that Fountain Love whereby GOD so Loved us so Loved us that GOD the Father was pleased to want the Refreshfull presence of the Son and GOD the Son not only to want the most Amiable and Desireable Company of the Father but also to take upon him our Nature and come down and Dwell amongst us in the World Rendering himself upon our Account Lyable to all the Miseries of this Liâ—e Sin only Excepted even to Death it self and all for us And GOD the Holy Ghost freely undertaking what was Cut out to him for Task by the Father and Son in Reference to the further Manifestation of this Mystery of Love in Applying the Favour so freely Bequeathed on Poor lost Mankind and us amongst the Rest and sure I am this Seriously Dwelt upon and Prayed over can hardly miss to take effect towards the Warâ—ing of our Hearts Godwards and begetting in our Souls a Filial fear of doing any thing to the Dishonour of that Glorious GOD who so Loved us and if to this Meditation we add that of considering the great pains our Blessed GOD has been and is at about us in his Holy Works of Providence Ordering and Overuling all the Various Revolutions in time as for his own Glory so for the Good of the Elect so that even these Dispensations that to Poor short Sighted us are looked upon Tending to our Ruine many times are by that Holy Providence of GOD Ordered for our yet greater Advantage so that there is no Serious Observer but shall be Forced e're all be done to set to his Seal to the truth of the Scripture all things shall Work together for Good to them that Love GOD I say Dwell upon these things till you and I get our Hearts wrought up not only to Cordial Loving of our ever Blessed GOD but also to a Filial fearing of doing any thing whereby his Glorious Name may be Dishonoured and for Asistance here let there be much Dependance for the outletting of the Spirit and if this Love and fear be within it will not Fail to Vent it self in effect I mean Strenuous Endeavours to live much to the Glory of GOD upon which I shall desire we lay no other stress then the Probation of these Graces being within The Third thing I offer for the Object of our Sincere and Cordial Endeavours is the Actual Excercise of the Grace the Noble and Fountain Grace of Faith as also of Patience thir can also hardly be Separate since he that Believes makes no haste I doubt not to say it that I hope there are not a few thousands in Britain and Ireland who have these Graces in the Root and Habite who are too too much Strangers to the Actual Exercise thereof at this present time and this is so much the Sadder that there has no Bitt of the short and Evil time I have had in this World Cryed more Loudly for the same And do ye not think that our Blessed even our Blessed LORD may very truly say to us what he said to others before in our Case that he can not do many Mighty Works amongst us because of our Unbeleif I Doubt nothing but that there are many Christians in Britain and Ireland and other Places all the World over that would willingly have our great LORD appearing in their Behalf why is it then that we look so like a People under a Combination to bind his holy hand to Speak so with holy Reverence for though indeed our Faith as it is our Act can not Merite at the Hands of our Blessed LORD that he should appear yet it being a mean of his Blessed appointment and a Gift of his own giving whereby in his Holy Providence he Disposes his People and puts them in Capacity to Receive his Favours the least we are called to do is to Importunate the Throne of Grace for the Exercise thereof and for our Encouragement herein let us not only Read but Seriously consider that 11 Chapter of the Hebrews where we shall meet with a Glorious Company of Believers and of the special and great Blessingâ— Attending that their Beleif and with this we have added Patience that by our Impatient Thristing even after that which may be the Object of our Faith we do not Marr the Work with our own Hands and though our Blessed LORD as to his comings and goings be nothing Determined thereto by any thing in us yet are we called to the Excercise of Commanded Duties as much as if thereby we were Meriting the thing Courted for and so as to see our Best Performance but Filthy Raggs I do the rather Urge the Pursuance of this Grace of Patience for this that I doubt not but the want thereof has been one of the great Sins in our Day whence have all these Dreadfull Acts of Compliance Flowed but even from this the LORD delayes his coming c. O Dreadfull Relation to leave the way of the LORD because he will not Indulge our Humour so far as to come at our Nod I say then let us Study Faith and Patience in wâ—iting for our Blâ—ssed LORD and Master who as he will come and will not Tâ—râ—y so the time of his coming he keeps in his own B â—ssed â—and being an Absoluâ—â—ly free Agent and well worthy is he to have it â—o upon many consiâ—â—â—ations â—mongst the Rest that hiâ— Blessâ—d timâ— is the I â—â—y aâ—â—iâ— trust in him for â—ure I am there was never one that through Grace has bâ—en Helped â—o to do have ever Repented it neithâ—r was there evâ—r