BOOK I.

A.D. 1604.-A.D. 1660.

Presbytery, the favourite form of religion in Scotland with the people, opposed by James VI.—At first opposed afterwards sanctioned by Charles I.—Solemn League and Covenant—Confession of Faith—Defeat of the Duke of Hamilton and death of Charles—State of the Church—Charles II. crowned—Divisions among the Presbyterians—Resolutioners—Remonstrators—Protectorate of Cromwell—State of religion during that period—Restoration—Sharpe sent to London—Religious parties in Scotland—Sharpe’s double dealing—Sudden change of manners—Rejoicings—Fears of the Remonstrators—Difference with the Resolutioners—First measures of the King—Promotes the enemies and persecutes the friends of the Covenant—Proceedings of the Committee of Estates, urged on by Sharpe—King’s letter to the Edinburgh ministers—Exultation of the Resolutioners—Persecute their brethren—Committee of Estates order Lex Rex, &c. to be burned—Proclamation against the Remonstrants—Interference with regard to elections—Proclamation for a meeting of Parliament.

Ever since the days of the Reformation, Scotland has been distinguished by the attachment of her inhabitants to simplicity in the forms of their religious worship, and a dislike to pomp or lordly power in their ministers. Presbytery, of which these are the prominent features, has in consequence always been the favoured mode of ecclesiastical polity with the people; unfortunately her monarchs, previous to the Revolution of 1688, were as decidedly averse to it; and their tyrannical attempts to substitutea hated hierarchy in its place, involved the country, for three generations, in contention and bloodshed, persecution and distress, till the struggle issued in the final expulsion of the Stuarts from the throne.

James VI., after having given the Presbyterian church the royal sanction, and paid it the highest encomiums as the “purest kirk upon earth,” and having repeatedly promised and vowed “to support it against all deadly,” spent the greater part of his life in endeavours to overturn it. He succeeded in forcing upon an unwilling people a kind of mongrel prelacy, and left to his son the hazardous task of finishing his designed uniformity in religious worship between the two kingdoms.

Charles proceeded with more violence; and, by attempting to obtrude a detested liturgy, he destroyed the fabric it had cost his father so much king-craft to rear, and led to the remarkable renewing of theNational Covenant, which, early in the year 1638, was subscribed with enthusiastic fervour by all ranks throughout the land. A free General Assembly, convened at Glasgow in that year, November 21, accomplished what has usually been termed the second glorious Reformation, by restoring Presbytery to its primitive simplicity, and sweeping away all the innovations against which they had so long struggled. The proceedings of this assembly were afterwards solemnly confirmed by the estates; and Scotland for a short period enjoyed a hollow peace, while the king was contesting with his English parliament. Afraid, however, if the king overcame in the contest, that they would hold their own liberties by a very feeble tenure, they entered into a solemn league and covenant with the parliament for the mutual preservation of their religion and liberty, for promoting uniformity in worship and doctrine between the two nations, and for exterminating popery, prelacy, and schism: their weight decided the fate of the war.

When the English hierarchy had fallen, and the king’s power was reduced, an assembly of the most learned divines that perhaps ever met in Britain, was called by authority of the English parliament. Assisted by commissioners from Scotland, they drew up the admirable Confession of Faith, with the Larger and ShorterCatechisms, still the standards of our national church; but they differed on the Directory for Worship, against which some of the most learned of the Independents dissented—a prelude to more serious differences.

After Charles had been beaten out of the field, and was intriguing in a variety of ways with the army and with the English parliament, a majority in the Scottish estates, headed by the Duke of Hamilton, rashly “engaged” by a secret treaty to attempt his rescue. The church opposed war with England, as Charles would give only an equivocal pledge for supporting the establishment of Presbytery in that country; and they feared his duplicity in case he regained unrestricted power; and the minority in the estates also “protested” against it. The engagers being defeated at Preston, the protesters, whose leader was the Marquis of Argyle, came into power, and Scotland separated into two parties. Shortly after the defeat of the Scots, the king was brought to trial and executed, in spite of their remonstrances, which, now that they were divided among themselves and had no army to back them, were little regarded.

At this time the church of Scotland reached her greatest pitch of splendour. “For though,” says a contemporary historian, “alwayes since the assembly at Glasgow the work of the gospel hade prospered, judicatories being reformed, godly ministers entered, and holy constitutions and rules daily brought into the church; yet now, after Duke Hamilton’s defeat, and in the interval betwixt the two kings, religion advanced the greatest step it had made for many years: now the ministrie was notably purified, the magistracy altered, and the people strangly refined. It is true, at this time hardly the fifth part of the lords of Scotland were admitted to sit in parliament; but those that did sitt were esteemed truly godly men; so were all the rest of the commissioners in parliament elected of the most pious of every corporation. Also godly men were employed in all offices, both civil and military; and about this time the General Assembly, by sending abroad visiters into the country, made almost ane entire change upon the ministry in several places of the nation, purgeing out the scandalous and insufficient, and planting in their place a sort of godlyyoung men, whose ministry the Lord sealed with ane eminent blessing of success, as they themselves sealed it with a seal of heavy sufferings; but so they made full proof of their ministry.

“Scotland hath been even by emulous foreigners called Philadelphia; and now she seemed to be in her flower. Every minister was to be tried five times a-year, both for his personal and ministerial behaviour; every congregation was to be visited by the presbytery, that they might see how the vine flowrished and the pomegranate budded. And there was no case nor question in the meanest family in Scotland but it might become the object of the deliberation of the General Assembly; for the congregational session’s book was tried by the presbytery, the presbytery’s by the synod, and the synod’s by the General Assembly. Likeways, as the bands of the Scottish church were strong, so her beauty was bright; no error so much as named; the people were not only sound in the faith, but innocently ignorant of unsound doctrine; no scandalous person could live; no scandal could be concealed in all Scotland, so strict a correspondence there was between ministers and congregations. The General Assembly seemed to be the priest with Urim and Thumim; and there were not ane hundreth persons in all Scotland to oppose their conclusions: all submitted, all learned, all prayed; most part were really godly, or at least counterfeited themselves Jews. Than was Scotland a heap of wheat set about with lillies, uniform, or a palace of silver beautifully proportioned; and this seems to me to have been Scotland’s high noon. The only complaint of profane people was, that the government was so strict they hade not liberty enough to sin.

“But this season lasted not long.” The Presbyterians, who were averse to the ruling party in England, as sectarians in religion and republicans in politics, immediately proclaimed Charles II.; and commissioners were sent to the Hague, where he was subsisting on the bounty of his sister, to invite him upon conditions to assume the government. During the negotiations, while the terms were discussing, he authorized Montrose, already too well known for his cruelties, to attempt his unconditional restoration by force; and it was not till he heard of his failure, that heconsented to take the oaths and become the covenanted king of Scotland.

His arrival, however, instead of uniting, occasioned deep and irreconcilable dissensions among the Scots—between those who distrusted, and those who affected to believe, his professions; yet as the church continued to maintain the ascendancy, they were kept within bounds till after the fatal battle of Dunbar. But when it became necessary to supply the loss occasioned by that disaster, they became apparent. The king required that all those who had hitherto been excluded as malignants, who had favoured the engagement, and were understood to be friendly to his unlimited power, should be restored to offices of trust both in the army and state: this was resisted by the strictest and most devout of the Presbyterians, who, considering them as enemies to the church, dreaded their admission into the king’s councils, while he himself was suspected. The virtues of the king, and his inimitable improvement in adversity, were deemed sufficient answer, and resolutions favourable to their claims having been obtained by surprise from the major part of the commission, a schism took place by the minority protesting against the concession.

From this date the Presbyterians separated into two parties, who distracted the country for several years by their violent contentions; those who arrogated to themselves the praise of liberality and loyalty—their superior regard for the decrees of the church and the letter of the covenant—ranging under the name of resolutioners; while those esteemed the most holy, indefatigable, and laborious ministers, who preferred the spirit to the form of their religious constitution, were numbered among the protesters. They were likewise called remonstrators, from having followed up their protest by a remonstrance. Meanwhile Charles was crowned at Scone with great solemnity, the Marquis of Argyle, who was attached to the resolutioners, putting the crown upon his head; but the divisions continued till Cromwell obtained the supreme power, who granted free toleration to all sects, and liberty to the Presbyterians in every thing, except permitting the General Assembly to meet, which some of the more pious considered no bad service.

This period, down to the Restoration, has ever been considered as that in the Scottish church most remarkably distinguished for the prevalence of real personal religion; and it was evident that God was preparing a people in this land for a day of hot and fiery trial. “I verily believe,” says Kirkton, “there were more souls converted to Christ in that short period of time than in any season since the Reformation, though of treeple its duration. Nor was there ever greater purity and plenty of the means of grace than was in their time. Ministers were painful, people were diligent; and if a man hade seen one of their solemn communions, where many congregations mett in great multitudes—some dozens of ministers used to preach, and the people continued as it were in a sort of trance (so serious were they in spiritual exercises) for three dayes at least—he would have thought it a solemnity unknown to the rest of the world. Besides, the ministers, after some years, began to look at the questions about which they had divided, as inconsiderable: also it was found error made no great progress, the genius of the people being neither very curious nor easily changed.”

The numbers who stood the test and suffered to the death, bear witness that the religious state of the country at the Restoration, as given by him, must be substantially true; as the numbers who apostatized make it evident that many must have dissembled. “There be in all Scotland some nine hundred paroches.”[1]“At the king’s return every paroch had a minister, every village had a school, every family almost had a Bible; yea, in most of the country, all the children of age could read the Scriptures, and were provided of Bibles either by the parents or their ministers. Every minister was a very full professor of the reformed religion, according to the large Confession of Faith, framed at Westminster by the divines of both nations. Every minister was obliged to preach thrice a-week, to lecture and catechise once, besides other private duties, wherein they abounded according to theirproportion of faithfulness and abilities. None of them might be scandalous in their conversation or negligent in their office, so long as a presbyterie stood; and among them were many holy in conversation and eminent in gifts. The dispensation of the ministry being fallen from the noise of waters and sound of trumpets, to the melody of harpers, which is alace the last messe in the banquet. Nor did a minister satisfy himself except his ministry had the seal of a divine approbation, as might witness him to be really sent from God.”

1.These were divided into sixty-eight presbyteries, which were again cantoned into fourteen synods, out of all which, by a solemn legation of commissioners from every presbytery, they used to constitute a national assembly.

“Indeed, in many places the spirit seemed to be poured out with the word, both by the multitudes of sincere converts, and also by the common work of reformation upon many who never came the length of a communion; there were no fewer than sixty aged people, men and women, who went to school, that even then they might be able to read the Scriptures with their own eyes. I have lived many years in a paroch where I never heard an oath; and you might have ridde many miles before you heard any: also, you could not for a great part of the country have lodged in a family where the Lord was not worshipped by reading, singing, and public prayer. Nobody complained more of our church-government than our taverners, whose ordinary lamentation was, their trade was broke, people were become so sober.”[2]

2.Kirkton mentions that the English often offered the protesters the government of the nation, which they refused, till Cromwell, “weary with their scrupolosity, and being highly caressed by Mr (afterwards Archbishop) Sharpe, his large proffers in behalf of the resolutioners, was forced to allow them equal liberty, and so they continued in a balance till after his death.—Hist. of the Church of Scotland, pp. 48-56.—Law, in his Memorials, has a similar statement. “It is not to be forgotten, that from the year 1652 to the year 1660, there was great good done by the preaching of the gospel in the west of Scotland, more than was observed to have been for twenty or thirty years before; a great many brought into Christ Jesus by a saving work of conversion, which was occasioned through ministers preaching nothing all that tyme but the gospell, and had left off to preach up parliaments, armies, leagues, resolutions, and remonstrance, which was much in use before, from the year 1638 till that time 52, which occasioned a great number of hypocrytes in the church, who, out of hope of preferment, honour, riches, and worldly credit, tooke on the form of godliness but wanted the power of it.” P. 7.

Such was the delightful picture drawn by an eyewitness; and to render it perfect and permanent, the Presbyterians longed withdesire for the restoration of their king, whose presence alone they believed would remove the only spots that in their eyes dimmed its lustre—the suspension of their General Assemblies, and the late sinful toleration. As soon as there was the least prospect of the desirable event, several ministers in Edinburgh—resolutioners—dispatched Mr James Sharpe to London, with instructions to watch over the interests of the church, particularly of their own party; and as they knew that the king had a strong antipathy against the remonstrants, who, during his stay in Scotland, had been assiduous in their upright though ungrateful endeavours for his conversion, and incurred his displeasure and that of his confidants by their uncourtly reproofs and uncompromising adherence to their principles, they were anxious to separate themselves from this the honestest portion of their brethren, and directed their agent carefully to remind his majesty of the difference between them and their more uncomplying opponents.

During the protectorate, as no persecution had been allowed on account of religious opinions, a few in Scotland seem to have adopted the tolerant maxims of the decried usurper; and although sectaries never flourished in that soil, they seem to have been sufficiently numerous to have excited the fears of the resolutioners, who, insensible to the benefits they enjoyed under the toleration of Cromwell, and eager to secure the liberties of their own kirk from the oppression of the prelatists, were equally anxious to guard against any freedom being allowed to those whom they termed fanatics.[3]

3.Mr Robert Douglas writes to Mr Sharpe, May 8, 1660:—“Your great errand will be for this kirk. I am confident the king will not wrong our liberties whereunto he himself is engaged. He needs not declare any liberty to tender consciences here, because the generality of the people and whole ministry have embraced the established religion by law with his majesty’s consent. It is known that in all the times of the prevailing of the late party in England, none here petitioned for toleration, except some inconsiderable naughty men.” And the ministers of Edinburgh,i. e.resolutioners, in a letter, May 10, to the Earl of Rothes, who was going to meet the king at Breda, use the following remarkable expressions: “He [the king] knows likewise how much the people adhere to the establishment of the church; so that there is no pretext for an indulgence to such as shall recede from it, but many inconveniences would ensue upon the granting it.” Correspondence between Messrs Douglas, Dickson, &c. with Sharpe.Wodrow’s Introd.

There was, besides, a third party, who, although previously discernible to those who understood the signs of the times, sprang up at once upon the afflicted vision of the resolutioners, when the rays of royalty again beamed above the horizon—a new race, who, having never been acquainted with the work of reformation, nor with the just proceedings of the nation, but weary of Presbyterian strictness, were ready to condemn the covenant and all the loyal and honest acting of the covenanters. These, consisting chiefly of young men of rank, were prepared for any change, and were supposed, in general, to be rather favourable to Episcopacy. A knowledge of this circumstance, and the frequent representations of the alarming fact by his correspondents, seem early to have influenced Sharpe to desert his employers and go over to the enemy.

In May, he went upon an embassage to Charles at Breda, and there was confirmed in the treachery which he completed shortly after the king’s landing in England. His villanous hypocrisy in managing the overturn of the polity he was dispatched to support, was consummate; yet now, when we know the part he played, it is not difficult to perceive, in his most specious letters, an overacting which must have betrayed him to men less confiding than his employers.[4]Besides preventing all access to the king, and representing the chief leaders in Scotland as favourable to prelacy, he dissuaded his friends from addressing against it, and cruelly widened the breach between them and the protesters. His ambition was stimulated by his revenge; he wished to gratify his private resentment against the most eminent of the latter—Samuel Rutherford, James Guthrie, and Lord Warriston. Yet, however much we may detest the traitor, it is matter of high gratulation that his mission failed; for, had he acted faithfully and succeeded, he would have procured for Scotland an iron yoke of political presbytery, which might indeed have preserved the beloved polity secured by acts of parliament, by prohibitions, andby every civil pain and penalty by which churchmen support their power; but he would have destroyed religious liberty, and delivered the nation over to a thraldom which would have been worse, as it would probably have been more permanent, than the prelacy that ensued—it would, it is likely, have been more moral, but it might not have been less oppressively severe.[5]

4.“I profess,” says Mr Douglas, “I did not suspect Mr Sharpe in reference to prelacy more than I did myself, nor more than the apostles did Judas before his treachery was discovered.”Wodrow’s Introd.

5.There is much retribution in this world, although it be not the place of final account. Here especially God punishes his own people. The wicked may prosper in their wickedness—“he sees their day is coming”—but the Lord will never suffer his children to sin with impunity. This was remarkably exemplified in the case of these good men, who were now so anxious to prevent their brethren from enjoying liberty of conscience, in order that they themselves might engross the royal favour and the chief places in the church; their own agent betrayed them; and the very means they were using to accomplish their improper and selfish aims, were turned against them, and became the instruments of their correction.

When Charles was at last restored to the wishes and prayers of his people, as if some enchanter’s wand had touched the frame of society, the whole kingdom in an instant changed, and, from a state of grave seriousness and exemplary decency, burst out into one disorderly scene of riot and revelry; and the day of thanksgiving for this happy event was celebrated in Edinburgh in a manner that had been very unusual in that capital for at least a quarter of a century. After sermon, the magistrates proceeded to the cross, on which was a table covered with sweatmeats, and the well ran with wine; there, amid the flourishing of trumpets and the beating of drums, the royal healths were drank, and three hundred dozen of glasses broken in honour of the day! On the Castle Hill, fireworks were exhibited, the principal figures in which were Cromwell and the Devil, who, after diverting the multitude with a flight and pursuit, exploded and disappeared amid shouts of applause.

The considerate part of the community viewed the unconditional recall of the king with very different sensations; but these, in that frantic hour, were few in number, and chiefly consisted of the remonstrators, whose dark forebodings were deemed the offspring of their own guilty consciences accusing them of their former disloyalty. In vain did they ask for evidence of his being changed from what he was, before they could trust their libertiesinto his hands without security. They had all along been jealous of Sharpe, and their suspicions had been heightened by some surmises of his transactions at London; but all their advances towards their brethren had been repulsed by the resolutioners, who put the most unbounded confidence in that traitor’s assurances of the king’s friendly countenance towards themselves, and his intended vengeance upon them. The first measures of Charles, however, put an end to the differences of the truly pious among both parties, who were soon undeceived, and sent to the furnace to be refined together.

All the high offices of Scotland were disposed of to men either of no religion, or of that very accommodating kind which is always found on the side of interest and power. Middleton, a soldier of fortune, created an Earl, was appointed commissioner to hold the next parliament; the Earls Glencairn had the chancellorship—Crawford, the treasury—Rothes, president of the council—and Lauderdale, secretary of state, and one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, (the only Scottishman admitted to this honour;) Sir Archibald Primson was clerk-register; and Sir John Fletcher, king’s advocate. Meanwhile, those who were esteemed the leaders of the covenanters, although they had ever sturdily maintained their loyalty, after the greater part of the others had yielded, were thrown into prison and threatened with prosecutions for treason. The Marquis of Argyle was seized at London, whether he had gone to congratulate the king, and sent to the tower; and orders were forwarded to Scotland, to Major-General Morgan, commander-in-chief, to secure Sir James Stewart, provost of Edinburgh; Sir Archibald Johnstoun, Lord Warriston; and Sir John Christy of Carswell. Warriston escaped for the time; but the other two were arrested in a somewhat ludicrous manner. The General having heard that Christy was in town upon private business, waited upon the Provost, and required him, in virtue of his office, to apprehend Sir John and carry him to the Castle, which his lordship having done, when he was about to take leave, with many expressions of regret, he was informed “that it behooved him to bear his friend company;” nor did he obtain a release till about ten years after.

Until the meeting of a new parliament, the administration of Scottish affairs was intrusted to the surviving members of the committee of estates, nominated by the last Scottish parliament; and as they had all concurred with the king in swearing the National and Solemn League and Covenant, it was expected that they would at least be favourable to the established religion of the land; but it very soon appeared how little confidence can be placed in the professions or even oaths of public men, when the stream runs in an opposite direction. Their first meeting, at which the chancellor presided, was held in Edinburgh, August 23, and their first act was a proper prelude to the tyranny about to be inflicted on their country.

On that day, a few of the protesters, who had in vain endeavoured to convince their brethren of the critical situation in which the Presbyterian church stood, met at Edinburgh to draw up a humble address and supplication to the king, suited to the emergency. They were in all nine ministers, of whom the chief were Mr James Guthrie of Stirling, and Messrs Traill, and John Stirling of Edinburgh, with two ruling elders. As the meeting and its object were no secrets, the chancellor and committee dispatched messengers, who seized their papers, containing a scroll of their supplication, with copies of some letters to their brethren in Glasgow, requesting a full meeting for considering the subject; and immediately after issued a warrant for imprisoning in Edinburgh Castle the whole of those who had been present at the unlawful conventicle—terms about to become of frequent use and of fearful import.

The scroll consisted of declarations of their abhorrence of the murder of his majesty’s royal father, and the actings of the late usurping power—of thankfulness for the Lord’s preservation of his own sacred person, and for his quiet restoration without the effusion of Christian blood—professions of zeal for the glory of God, the good of the church, and faithful and loyal tenders of all the duties of honour, subjection, and obedience, due from humble and loving subjects to their native and lawful sovereign; but they expressed their fears of the popish prelatical and malignant party, of their attempting the overthrow of the pure religion as established,and the re-introduction of all the corruptions which were formerly cast out;[6]and they reminded his majesty of his and their solemn engagements to God, of the Lord’s mercy to him and them, and their mutual obligations to faithfulness in the performance of their vows.

6.These excellent men, for such undoubtedly they were, who had enjoyed undisturbed liberty of conscience and freedom of religious worship under Cromwell, thus adverted to that period, and thus would have requited their protectors.—“Neither are we less apprehensive of the endeavours of the spirit of error that possesseth sectaries in these nations, which, as it did at first promote the practice of a vast toleration in things religious, and afterwards proceeded unto the framing of the mischief thereof into a law, so we doubt not but it will still be active unto the promoting and procuring the same under the specious pretence ofLiberty for tender consciences. The effects whereof have, in a few years past, been so dreadful, that we cannot think of the continuing of it, but with much trembling and fear.” Then follows a text upon which the whole annals of the persecution will form a most striking and instructive commentary. “Therefore, knowing that to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates appertains the conservation and purgation of religion, and that unity and peace be preserved in the church, and that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions or abuses in discipline and worship prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed, We, your majesty’s most humble subjects, do, with bowed knees and bended affections, humbly supplicate your majesty that you would employ your royal power unto the preservation of the reformed religion in the church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, and unto the carrying on of the work of uniformity in religion in the churches of God in the three kingdoms, in one confession of faith, form of church-government, directory for worship, and catechizing; and to the extirpation of popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine,” &c.

They were therefore charged with proceedings expressly derogatory to his majesty’s royal prerogative, and tending to the disturbance of the present peace of his majesty’s dominions; and next day the committee of estates prohibited, by proclamation, all unlawful and unwarrantable meetings and conventicles in any place within the kingdom of Scotland without his majesty’s special authority; and likewise all seditious petitions and remonstrances under what pretext soever which might tend to the disturbance of the peace of the kingdom, or alienating or diminishing the affections of his majesty’s subjects from their due obedience to his majesty’s lawful authority, and that under the highest pains. Sheriffs and magistrates of burghs were ordered to be careful within their respective bounds, that no such pernicious or dangerousmeetings should be permitted, but that they should be prevented, hindered, and made known to the executive. These proceedings were ostensibly directed against the remonstrants alone, but were intended to answer the double purpose of overawing the elections for the ensuing parliament, and paving the way for the complete overturn of freedom in the state and presbytery in the church.

Mr Sharpe, on his arrival from London, gave a keener edge to the proceedings of the committee, and, by his duplicity, prevented the good men among the resolutioners from taking any steps, either for their own security or the relief of their oppressed brethren. In answer to an epistle from his employers to the king, entreating his favour and countenance for their church, he brought the following, addressed to Mr Robert Douglas, minister, Edinburgh, to be by him communicated to the presbytery:—

“Charles R., trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. By the letters you sent to us with this bearer, Mr James Sharpe, and by the account he gave of the state ofour churchthere, we have received full information of your sense of our sufferings and of your constant affection and loyalty to our person and authority: And therefore we will detain him here no longer—of whose good services we are very sensible—nor will we delay to let you know by him our gracious acceptance of your address, and how well we are satisfied with your carriage and with the generality of the ministers of Scotland in this time of trial, whilst some, under specious pretences, swerved from that duty and allegiance they owed to us. And because such, who by the countenance of usurpers have disturbed the peace of that our church, may also labour to create jealousies in the minds of well-meaning people, we have thought fit by this to assure you, that, by the grace of God, we resolve to discountenance profanity and all contemners and opposers of the ordinances of the gospel. We do also resolve to protect and preserve the government of the church of Scotland as it is settled by law, without violation, and to countenance in the due exercise of their functions all such ministers who shall behave themselves dutifully and peaceably as becomes men of their calling. We will also take care that the authority and acts of theGeneral Assembly at St Andrew’s and Dundee, 1651,[7]be owned and stand in force until we shall call another General Assembly, which we purpose to do as soon as our affairs will permit. And we do intend to send for Mr Robert Douglas, and some other ministers, that we may speak with them in what may further concern the affairs of that church. And as we are very well satisfied with your resolution not to meddle without your sphere, so we do expect that church judicatories in Scotland and ministers there will keep within the compass of their station, meddling only with matters ecclesiastick, and promoting our authority and interest with our subjects against all opposers: and that they will take special notice of such who, by preaching, or private conventicles, or any other way, transgress the limits of their calling by endeavouring to corrupt the people, or sow seeds of disaffection to us or our government. This you shall make known to the several presbyteries within that our kingdom. And as we do give assurance of our favour and encouragement to you, and to all honest, deserving ministers there, so we earnestly recommend it to you that you be earnest in your prayers, publick and private, to Almighty God, who is our Rock and our Deliverer, both for us and for our government, that we may have fresh and constant supplies of his grace, and the right improvement of all his mercies and deliverances to the honour of his great name, and the peace, safety, and benefit of all our kingdoms; and so we bid you heartily farewell.”

7.The acts of these Assemblies were almost entirely levelled against the remonstrators.

Delighted with this most gracious epistle, the Edinburgh presbytery printed and caused it to be transmitted to all the presbyteries in Scotland, praised it from their pulpits, and procured a silver box to preserve the precious original. It was not to be supposed that, under language so explicitly guaranteeing the government of the church of Scotland, as settled by law, that, by any lurking inuendo, Episcopacy could be meant, the resolutioners therefore considered the day as their own, and, with premature speed, hasted to chant their victory. They warmly thanked his majesty for his letter, which they told him in their address they had receivedupon a day formerly devoted by them to mourning, September 3,[8]which had revived their spirits, and excited them to bless the Lord who had put such a purpose in his royal heart to preserve and protect the government of the church without violation; nor was the “choice of such an able and faithful person,” as Lauderdale, “for the weighty employment of secretary less an object of gratulation!” But while we look back with pity upon the speedy dissipation of all the good men’s hopes and anticipations, it is impossible not to feel that they in some measure merited them for the facility with which they allowed themselves to become the dupes and the tools, in persecuting their own brethren, of these very men by whom they themselves were afterwards persecuted.

8.The anniversary of the battles of Dunbar and Worcester—an ominous coincidence as it turned out. Another was remarked at the time. “It was a sad observation, that that very day of the month being the 23d of August, on which the protesters were apprehended, was the very same day whereon 100 years before the popish religion had been abolished, and the true religion established in parliament; and some feared this might be the turning of the tide backwards.”Kirkton, p. 73.

Sharpe, whose composition the letter was, followed out his plan of dividing the ministers. He was well aware that the remonstrators were the most acute and least liable to be imposed upon of the Presbyterians; he knew also that they suspected him, and he hated them; he therefore, by an insinuation in it, pointed them out as persons who, under specious pretences, had swerved from their duty during the usurpation; and the church judicatories hastened to inflict punishment upon them for this indefinite crime—“Our synods after this,” says Kirkton, “doing little other thing than censuring and laying aside those of that way. And though the preceding harvest before the king’s return all the synods of Scotland hade agreed to bury by-past differences, yet, upon the receipt of this blessed letter, the old wounds opened; and wherever the public resolution-men were the plurality, the protesters were censured upon the burried differences. In the synod of Merse, they laid aside five ministers; in Lothian, many were laid aside both in Lithgow and Biggar presbyteries; so it was in Perth and in the north: and the truth is, had not the course of synods been interrupted by the introduction of bishops,few had keeped their places who were afterwards ejected by that infamous proclamation at Glasgow in the year 1662.”

Nor was the committee idle; Mr Patrick Gillespie, principal of Glasgow College, was brought prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, and Mr Robert Row, minister of Abercorn, and W. Wiseheart of Kinniel, were confined to their chambers in the town. Having forbid any meetings for petitioning, they proceeded to display their antipathy to those principles of freedom, for which their fathers had contended, by emitting a proclamation against Rutherford’s Lex Rex—a work which was held in high estimation by the covenanters, as it advocated the cause of liberty and the legitimate limitations on power, with an energy and clearness the enemies of freedom could not bear; and another work, supposed to be written by Mr James Guthrie, entitled “The Causes of God’s Wrath against Scotland,” which enumerated the sins of the land, princes, priests, and people, with a faithfulness that was intolerable. They declared these two books to be full of seditious and treasonable matter, animating his majesty’s good subjects to rise up in rebellion against their lawful prince and sovereign, and poisoning their hearts with many seditious and rebellious principles, prejudicial to his royal person and authority, and to the peace of the kingdom. All, therefore, possessed of copies of the obnoxious publications were required to deliver them up to the king’s solicitor within a certain time, under pain of being considered enemies to his majesty’s authority, and liable to be punished accordingly. They were both burnt at the cross—a favourite, if not a very convincing, mode of answering such like productions. With revolting meanness, they at the same time caused the inscriptions to be effaced from the tombs of Alexander Henderson in Edinburgh, and George Gillespie at Kirkaldy—men who needed not the frail remembrance of a monumental stone to make their memories live in the recollection of their country, and whose services have more lasting record than a graving-iron could bestow.

Some few days after, they made a still more explicit disclosure of their aversion to the “good old cause”—a sneering form of expression become fashionable among the courtiers—by another proclamation directed against the remonstrants and their adherents,not only forbidding meetings for consultation, which were still legal, but likewise any adverting, in their sermons or otherwise, to the state of the church, or the danger to be apprehended from the introduction of the exploded and hated prelatical offices and forms; and, as they knew the effect of popular preaching, they appear to have been most anxious at once to suppress all pulpit opposition to the course they were about to pursue.

Of the watchmen upon the Scottish Zion, the remonstrants had been the most wakeful and most jealous of encroachments upon the established covenanted constitution of the church and state, and the committee were assured, that when they apprehended danger, they would not be silent; they therefore expressly commanded that none, in sermons, preachings, declamations, or speeches, should presume to reflect on the conduct of his majesty or his progenitors, misconstrue his proceedings, or meddle in his affairs or estate, present, bygone, or in time coming, under the highest penalties; and if any who heard what could be construed into slander against the king did not reveal it, they were to be liable to the same punishment as principals. This proclamation, the anti-type of so many furious attacks upon the liberty of the lieges, was calculated to ensnare those who, being accustomed openly to speak their sentiments, were not prepared at once to renounce all mention of public affairs in common conversation or public discourses, whether ministers, elders, or private gentlemen; and numbers of each description were immediately made to feel its oppressive weight.

Had a free election been allowed, notwithstanding the loyal phrenzy of many, and the hypocritical pretensions of more, there might some troublesome members have procured admission to the estates; but those whose influence and opposition were most dreaded, being by this proclamation placed in very delicate circumstances—as evidence of unguarded expressions might easily have been procured—were happy to escape censure, and did not stand forward at the only time when they could have done so with some probability of success, in support of the constitution, freedom, and religion of their country. The committee, however, did not rest here: with the most unblushing effrontery, althoughconscious themselves of having to a man complied with the English, they hung out a threat of prosecution for this common and inevitable fault, which damped all who seemed inclined to assert the independence of a Scottish parliament, or the privileges they had obtained from the crown during the late struggle.[9]

9.Of the nature of these prosecutions, the reader may form some idea from the following:—“Mr James Nasmyth, minister of the gospel at Hamilton, was sisted before the committee for words alleged to have been spoken by him many years ago. About the year 1650, when Lambert was in the church, it was alleged he pressed his hearers to employ their power for God, and not in opposition to the gospel, otherwise they might expect to be brought down by the judgement of God as those who went before were!”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 12.

Besides to pinion the country gentlemen more effectually, they tendered a bond to all of whom they were suspicious, which they obliged them to sign, with a sufficient cautioner, each binding themselves—besides disowning the remonstrance—that they should not in any way or manner, directly or indirectly, plot, contrive, speak, or do any thing tending, or what might tend, to the hurt, prejudice, or derogation of his majesty’s royal person or any of that royal family—that they should not do any thing, directly or indirectly, tending, or that might tend, to the breach or disturbance of the public peace, nor connive or concur with any person whatsoever who should contrive any such thing; but, to the utmost of their power, stop and let any such plot and doing, and appear personally before the committee, sub-committee, or parliament, upon a lawful citation; and, in case of failure, the parties bound themselves to pay a high fine, besides whatever other punishment might be inflicted.

For a justification of proceedings so unwarrantable, we must look to the sequel; it was not because the parties accused were inimical either to kingly government or to the person or right of Charles, but because the plan was already formed for sweeping from the face of the country, had it been possible, whatever was lovely or of good report—whatever in the institutions of the state or the polity of the church was calculated to present any obstruction to the tide of obscene licentiousness and faithless despotism that was now fast flowing upon them. Their stretches of poweragainst the liberties of the country, do not, however, seem to have occasioned any remonstrance; and the synod of Lothian was amused with a proclamation for calling a General Assembly, which Mr William Sharpe had submitted for their amendment; but the last acts of the committee, levying a cess, excited some remark as to the legality of the tax or their power to exact it.

On the 1st of November, a proclamation announced the meeting of parliament; and the same day another, that the king had committed to them the consideration and judging of the conduct of all his subjects during the late troubles, from whom alone he would receive any applications, and promising, after his honour and ancient royal prerogative were vindicated, he would grant a free, full pardon and indemnity—a promise which, although conveyed in very specious language, and accompanied by an assurance that there was nothing his royal bosom was more desirous of than that his people should be blessed with abundance of happiness, peace, and plenty, was received with suspicion, and, like almost all the other acts of grace, afforded little relief to the unfortunate, while it secured the persons and plunder of those who had pillaged and oppressed them.

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