BOOK IX.

A.D. 1674-1676.

Divisions among the ministers respecting the church and self-defence—Armed meetings—Severities increase—Lord Cardross—Religious revivals in the North—Mr M’Gilligan—Civil oppression—Home of Polwart—Finings—Durham of Largo—Magistrates of Edinburgh—Sufferers sent to France as recruits—Proclamation to expel the families of gospel-hearers from the Burghs, and enforce the conventicle act—Instructions for the indulged—Progress of the gospel—Rage of the prelates—Mitchell tortured.

Unhappily the seeds of division which the indulgence had sown among the Presbyterian ministers, were beginning to take root; and the different opinions that afterwards reached so great and ruinous a height, showed themselves in the discussions which took place during this year upon that important question—How the Presbyterian church was to be continued and supplied? The documents preserved are very scanty; only it appears that the propriety of ordaining a minister, except to a settled charge—of preaching within the nominal bounds of an unsettled presbytery—and the authoritative right of synodical meetings, were among the questions about which differences had sprung up among the brethren. And from the care with which they endeavour to provide against one minister noticing the conduct of another “in their preaching, and warning the people of the evils of the times,” it seems pretty evident that this baneful practice had already commenced.

At the close of the year, the state of feeling and anticipation among the suffering Presbyterians was extremely dissimilar, as wefind by the writings both of public men and private Christians which have been preserved. Numbers rejoiced in the bright and sunny side of the cloud, in the increase of faithful preachers of the gospel—in the desire for hearing that seemed to be abroad—and in the delightful and not rare instances of the power of the Spirit that accompanied the publication of the word; and they anticipated a speedy and a glorious renovating morn for the church. Those that studied the signs of the times, saw in the apostacy of some, and in the falling away of others who had been esteemed pillars; in the mournful waxing cold of the love of many; in the bitter dissensions of professors; and in the general abounding iniquity—the dark and dismal tokens of a deserted church; and, although they knew and believed that the cause of Christ could never fall, and hoped and rejoiced in the hope that a glorious day would yet arise upon Scotland, wept and made mournful supplication for the sins of the people among whom they dwelled, and anticipated heavier judgments for unimproved mercies, until a returning to Him against whom they had offended should again draw down the blessing.

The increasing severities which now began to be used towards the conventicles likewise occasioned a difference of opinion among the godly ministers and people as to the right of self-defence in hearing the gospel. The injunction of Christ as to individuals is clear, when persecuted in one city, flee into another; but in Scotland, where the throne of iniquity framed mischief by a law, and where the whole Presbyterians, who formed a large majority, were at once deprived of their civil rights, as well as their religious privileges—and where a constitution as solemnly ratified, and as sacredly sworn to, as any mutual agreement between rulers and people ever was, or ever can be, had been wantonly destroyed by a wretched minority of riotous unprincipled sycophants, and place-hunting apostates—the question involved, in the opinion of many, not only their duty as Christians, but as citizens. Paul had taught them that these were not incompatible, and their fathers had vindicated both in the field. The young men were generally of this opinion, and began to come armed to sermons about the commencement of this year [1675], and talked of imitating theexample of the days of the congregation. The elder and most esteemed among the ministers were divided; while, in general, they allowed the soundness of the principle, they differed as to the propriety of the time. Among these appear to have been Mr Welsh, Mr Blackadder, and Gabriel Semple; others, at the head of whom stood Fraser of Brea and Kirkton, were entirely averse to any resort to arms. The former thus states his views of the subject:—

“A violent persecution had broken out; and then there began to be fining, imprisoning, taking, and summoning of persons, disturbing of conventicles with soldiers. But yet the gospel prevailed more and more, and we were like the Israelites in Egypt, the more we were afflicted, the more we grew and multiplied. Some hot heads were for taking the sword and redeeming of themselves from the hands of the oppressors; at least I had ground to fear it. But I opposed rising in arms all I could, and preached against it, and exhorted them to patience, and courageous using of the sword of the Spirit; and I did not see they had any call to the sword, and their strength was to sit still; and if they did stir and take the sword, they would therewith perish; but if they patiently suffered and endured, God would himself either incline to pity or some other way support and deliver them. I had influence with the people, being popular, and whilst I was at liberty I did what I could to keep the people peaceable. The truth is, there were great provocations given, so that we concluded it was the design of some rulers to stir us up that we might fall. Ministers still preached and laboured among the people; conventicles increased; many were brought in; the work of God, in the midst of persecution, did always prosper, until we destroyed ourselves, first by needless divisions and difference of opinion, happening by reason of the indulgence; and thereafter by rash and unwarrantable taking up of arms.”

Gentlemen in Scotland at this time, it requires to be remembered, always wore arms as a part of dress; and the substantial heritors and yeomen were in general accustomed to be accoutred when they went from home, so that part of the meetings at field-preachings had always consisted of armed men, who, before this,had offered upon several occasions to defend their ministers at the risk of their lives, but had been refused, and who now thought that in protecting their assemblies from robbery and dispersion, and themselves from imprisonment, fining, or slavery—the inevitable consequences of being seized upon these occasions—that they were doing no more than was required by the law of God, and authorized by the law of their country, of which the prelatic party, and not they, were the invaders and violaters.

Many contests had already ensued. The Episcopalian myrmidons in Linlithgowshire, and even in Fife, had repeatedly drawn blood, while the patient hearers of the gospel had only fled before them. The rough borderers were not equally submissive.[79]At Lilliesleaf, and throughout some of these districts, they had stood upon the defensive and beaten off their assailants; and affairs were in this situation during the greater part of this year. Upon the complaints of the prelates, troops were ordered to scour the country in different directions. Edinburgh and Glasgow were again fined each in the sum of one hundred pounds sterling; and in addition, a detachment both of horse and foot were quartered in the latter city. Mr John Greg, for preaching at Leith mills, was sent to the Bass; and a Mr John Sandilands, for hearing a sermon near Bathgate, was fined three hundred merks. Nor were the nobility themselves spared. One of the most cruelly oppressive cases was that of Lord Cardross.

79.Let it be always borne in mind, that the whole crowd who attended field-preaching, were not influenced by gospel principles, nor could be considered godly men, any more than that able disputers and fierce contenders for the pure faith, are always themselves believers. It is an awful consideration, that the most strenuous fighters for the purity of God’s word—the Jews—were infidels, and thus addressed by our Saviour—“Ye have one that condemns you, even Moses, in whom ye trust;” and the best written “Plea for the Divinity of Christ,” was written by a man who turned a Socinian. Beware of zealots!

His lordship being confined in Edinburgh in the month of May, his lady, who was far advanced in pregnancy, remained at home, with only a few attendants. Sir Mungo Murray, taking advantage of this circumstance, under cloud of night, accompanied by a posse of retainers, went to his residence, and outrageously demandedthat the gates should be opened to him, else he would force his way and set fire to the house. Situated near the borders of the Highlands, the inmates naturally supposing them banditti, refused admission and demanded who they were? To this no answer could be obtained, but “Scottishmen,” which increased their alarm; yet fearing the worst, as there were no means of defence, and no defenders, the gates were opened, when the ruffians rushed in; and, after searching the whole apartments in the most tumultuous and indelicate manner—forcing Lady Cardross to rise from her bed that they might search her chamber—and ransacking his lordship’s private closet, they seized Mr John King, his chaplain, and Mr Robert Langlands, governor to his brother, afterwards Colonel John Erskine, and carried them off. Langlands was dismissed after being marched ten miles; Mr John King was rescued by some countrymen who had profited by his ministry. For this proceeding they had no warrant; and Lord Cardross, immediately upon being informed of the outrage, presented a complaint and petition to the privy council; but, instead of receiving any satisfaction for the gross violation, not only of his privileges as a nobleman, but his rights as a subject, he was charged with having been guilty, art and part, in the rescue of Mr John King, although he was sixty miles distant. For harbouring him in his house, and for his lady’s having been present at many conventicles, and for these complicated crimes, he was sentenced to be imprisoned during his majesty’s pleasure in Edinburgh Castle, to pay a fine of one thousand pounds sterling, besides various sums for the delinquencies of his tenants.

Fining, imprisonment, and exile being found inadequate to the suppression of conventicles, other and more rigorous methods were resorted to. The houses of some of the principal gentlemen in the most infected counties were seized, and garrisoned by parties of horse and foot, that the least appearance of any gathering for hearing sermon might at once be put down, with as much care and celerity as the gathering of a civil, or the landing of a foreign, enemy; and a number of the most faithful, diligent, and able ministers this country was ever favoured with, were “intercommuned,” their presence declared infectious as the plague,and every loyal person prohibited from conversing with or doing them any office, not of kindness, but of common humanity, under the pain of being placed themselves without the pale of society.[80]

80.The names of these were—“David Williamson, Alexander Moncrief, William Wiseheart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, George Johnstone, Robert Gillespie, John M’Gilligan, John Ross, Thomas Hogg, Stirlingshire, William Erskine, James Donaldson, Andrew Anderson, Andrew Morton, Donald Cargill, Robert Maxwell, elder and younger, James Fraser of Brea, John King; and with these a good many ladies and gentlemen were joined, besides many of lower rank, altogether upwards of one hundred persons.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 394. This revival of a dormant and iniquitous law was peculiarly oppressive, as all who conversed with the intercommuned being liable to the same punishment, thousands might he unwittingly implicated, and laid at the mercy of their rapacious rulers.

But one of the persecuted themselves remarks—“Although this seemed to be the first storm of persecution that yet had fallen upon us, and that now the adversaries had boasted of an effectual mean for suppressing conventicles, and establishing prelacy and uniformity, and the good people feared it; yet the Lord did wonderfully disappoint them, and made and turned their witty councils into folly—for this great noise harmed not at all, it was powder without ball. For, as for myself, never one that cared for me shunned my company; yea, a great many mere carnal relations and acquaintances did entertain me as freely as ever they did; yea, so far did the goodness of the Lord turn this to my good, that I observed it was at that time I got most of my civil business expede. And as the Lord preserved myself in this storm, so I did not hear of any intercommuned, or conversers with intercommuned persons, that were in the least prejudiced thereby; nay, this matter of the intercommuning of so many good and peaceable men did but exasperate the people against the bishops the more, and procured to them, as the authors of such rigid courses, a greater and more universal hatred; so that the whole land groaned to be delivered from them.”

Danger, indeed, seemed to endear the ministers to the people; and the risks they ran, and the many providential occurrences which attended their meetings, produced a high degree of excitement, that tended in no small measure to secure large and attentiveaudiences, and prepared their minds for a solemn reception of the doctrines they heard, at the peril of their lives.

North of the Tay there were but few Presbyterian ministers, and they had not hitherto been very closely pursued; but among them were some of the most excellent, and these of course were included in the act of intercommuning—for their labours had been equally abundant with the rest. Mr John M’Gilligan of Alness, was one of not the least conspicuous, either for success or for suffering. On September, the very month following his being denounced, he dispensed the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper at Obsdale, in the house of Lady Dowager Fowlis, assisted by Mr Hugh Anderson, minister of Cromarty, and Mr Alexander Fraser, minister of Teviot. According to the account preserved of it, it seems to have been one of those heart-enlivening seasons which the Lord sometimes vouchsafes to his church in the day of her visitation. “There were,” says the narrator, “so sensible and glorious discoveries made of the Son of Man, and such evident presence of the Master of assemblies, that the people seemed to breathe the very atmosphere of heaven; and some were so transportingly elevated, that they could almost use the language of the apostle—‘whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.’ The eldest Christians there, declared they had not been witnesses to the like. They also remarked that the Lord wonderfully preserved them in peace.”

Some rumours of an intended communion having got abroad, the sheriff-depute was ordered by the bishop to prevent or disperse the meeting. He accordingly sent a party to apprehend the minister; but he not knowing the spot, directed them to proceed to his house at Alness, naturally supposing the meeting would be there. The soldiers, upon finding the nest empty, attacked the orchard—a much more pleasant amusement, that detained them till the forenoon’s service was over at Obsdale, where, before they arrived, Mr M’Gilligan had got notice, and was under hiding, which, when they found, they retired without disturbing the congregation; and the sacred solemnities proceeded without any further interruption. Mr M’Gilligan, however, was obliged to abscond; and one of his neighbours, Mr Thomas Ross, beingapprehended at Tain for a similar offence, was sent to the Bass.

Civil tyranny is always so interwoven with ecclesiastical persecution, that it is seldom we are able to separate the two. But the sufferings of Sir Patrick Home of Polwart, although they undoubtedly originated from his religion, were ultimately effected through the medium of his patriotism: he legally, by a bill of suspension before the Court of Session, resisted a wanton stretch of power in the privy council, and endeavoured to rouse the opposition of the gentry of Berwickshire towards an oppressive, unjust tax for planting garrisons among them in time of peace; and for this undoubted exercise of his right, was committed, by order of the king, prisoner to Stirling Castle, and declared incapable of holding any place of trust; and the heritors succumbed, although the other fines extorted from the shire this year amounted to nearly twenty-seven thousand pounds Scots.

Nor were the indulged suffered to enjoy their limited and precarious pardon quietly; their stipends were withheld or tardily paid, and that only upon their producing certificates from the sheriffs that they had kept no conventicles for the last twelve-month; but their most vexatious trials were the natural consequences of their acknowledging the power of the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical affairs, and owning his warrant, rather than the authority of Christ, as the rule in their ministerial labours. Complaints were brought against them, and they were summoned before the council for not celebrating the communion on the same day in all their parishes—for irregular baptisms—and for having preached in churchyards and other places than the kirks; but, above all, for having presumed to authorize young men to preach the gospel, and ordained others to the work of the ministry; and, at a time when a long tract of unseasonable weather seemed to threaten a famine, they had usurped a power which belonged to majesty alone, or his delegates, and had appointed a fast in their several congregations! Through the interest of Lord Stair, however, these grievances were not pushed to extremities this year.

[1676.] Whatever circumstances might induce any occasional relaxation in the severity of the persecution, the spirit remainedthe same; and no opportunity was suffered to escape by which the preaching of the gospel might be put down by men calling themselves Christian bishops. The soldiers in the garrisons were their willing instruments, and as they shared in the plunder, were active in the pursuit; yet meetings for hearing the word continued to increase, and the ordinances of religion were administered with a solemnity and power, often at midnight, which rendered them the general topics of interest and conversation among the people, and still more the objects of aversion to the prelates. Finings for “conventicles” were therefore inflicted by the council with unmitigated rigour. Durham of Largo, for offences of this nature, and harbouring that “notour traitor,” John Welsh, was early in the year mulcted of nearly four thousand pounds Scots; Colonel Kerr, several ladies, and some citizens of Edinburgh, were legally plundered in various sums each, of five hundred merks, two hundred pounds, and one hundred pounds Scots, for being at house conventicles within the city; but the magistrates having also suffered for these “enormities,” being soused for not preventing what they had never previously heard of, they were allowed to reimburse themselves by fining the culprits, who were thus punished twice for one crime.

A more revolting case of wanton cruelty was, about the same time, exercised towards some poor men who had been guilty of attending sermon in the fields near Stirling. Towards the end of 1674, they had been seized in the act and carried to jail; eight, by some means or other, had got out—and the remaining seven sent the following affecting petition to the council in the month of February:—“The petitioners, being prisoners in the tolbooth of Stirling, these fifteen months by-past, some of us being poor decrepit bodies, and all of us poor creatures with wives and families, we have been many times at the point of starving, and had long ere now died for want, if we had not been supplied with the charity of other people: The truth whereof is notour to all who live near Stirling, and which the magistrates have testified by a report under their hands: Wherefore, it is humbly desired that your lordships would compassionate our pitiful and deplorable condition, and that of our poor starving wives and children, andorder us liberty, we being willing to enact ourselves to compear and answer before your lordships whenever we should be called.” Of those who signed, one, Charles Campbell, was upwards of sixty, and one John Adam, near seventy years of age; the others were labouring under severe bodily indisposition. Yet, instead of being moved by the pitiful tale of these harmless, aged, and sickly prisoners, the council, with an inhumanity which it would not be easy to designate properly, ordered them to be turned over as recruits! to one of Lauderdale’s minions, a Captain Maitland, then an officer in the French service; and on Friday, February 18, at midnight, they were delivered to a party of soldiers, fettered and tied together, and marched off without any previous warning. But they went cheerfully away, although they knew not whither; for they knew the master whom they served would never leave them naked to their enemies in their old age.

These severities were followed up by a fresh proclamation against conventicles, in which, with the most hypocritical falsehood, after lauding the king’s princely care and zeal for the interests of the Protestant reformed religion and the church, and lamenting the sad and sensible decay religion had suffered, and the great and dangerous increase of profaneness, through the most unreasonable and schismatical separation of many from the public and established worship, and the frequent and open conventicles, both in houses and fields—magistrates were required rigorously to apprehend all who were intercommuned, and to expel their families from the burghs, together with such preachers and their families as did not regularly attend public worship—to enforce the acts against conventicles and separation, under a penalty of five hundred merks if they did not annually report their proceedings, and five hundred or upwards additional, for every conventicle that shall have been held within their jurisdictions, besides whatever other fine the council might choose to inflict. All noblemen, gentlemen, and burgesses were forbid to entertain any chaplin, tutor, or schoolmaster, under penalties proportioned to their rank, from six hundred to three thousand merks; and informers were, according to the system of the times, by the same proclamation, encouraged and rewarded by a share of the fines.Committees were also appointed to investigate and punish transgressors, who fined and imprisoned many of the most respectable heritors and gentlemen, particularly in the west, and outlawed others who had declined answering their summons.

Enemies to the gospel of Christ, the prelatic rulers did not confine their opposition to the preaching of the “outted” ministers, the indulged were at the same time subjected to greater burdens. It was evidently one of their main objects to produce division among the Presbyterian ministers; and as we have seen the indulgence was admirably calculated to effect this, yet the breach being neither so wide nor so violent as they wished, “instructions” were issued to them by the council. Assuming that they had accepted of liberty to preach under conditions, the council accused them of violating their engagements by baptizing without the necessary certificates, and preaching in other places than their own kirk, without any license from the bishop; and they added this injunction, that they should not employ or allow any of their brethren to preach for them who had not also obtained similar liberty. The indulged eluded the charges, by alleging that they accepted of the indulgence as a boon from government, not upon conditions, but as a favour granted; and the instructions they considered as orders upon which they were to act at their peril. But this neither satisfied the council nor their brethren, both of whom concurred in thinking it an evasion rather than an honest justification of their conduct. With the injunction they appear to have complied also—a very unsatisfactory procedure—which induced some, particularly of the younger unindulged preachers, to visit the boundaries of their parishes, and led to heart-burnings and mutual accusations between those who thought they might yield a little to the pressure of the times, and those who in nothing would recede from their avouched principles. These differences, which afterwards unhappily led to coldness and estrangement among the friends of “the good cause,” did not produce their most mischievous effects till the oldest, stanch, tried worthies were removed from the field. Meanwhile, the dispersion of the ministers, who, when they were scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word, was eminentlyblessed to promote that gospel it was intended to destroy, and conventicles multiplied on every side both in houses and fields.

Of the period from 1673 to 1679, Shiels gives this animating picture on reviewing it many years after, when the holy excitement had subsided, and temporal prosperity had began to diffuse its seductive influence over the revolution-church:—“When by persecution many ministers had been chased away by illegal law sentences, many had been banished away, and, by their ensnaring indulgences, many had been drawn away from their duty; and others were now sentenced with confinements and restraints if they should not choose and fix their residence where they could not keep their quiet and conscience both—they were forced to wander and disperse through the country; and the people being tired of the cold and deadcurates, and wanting long the ministry of their oldpastors, so longed and hungered after theword, that they behoved to have it at any rate, cost what it would; which made them entertain the dispersed ministers more earnestly, and encouraged them more to their duty; by whose endeavours—through the mighty power and presence of God, and the light of his countenance now shining through the cloud, after so fatal and fearful a darkness that had overclouded the land for a while, that it made their enemies gnash their teeth for pain, and dazzled the eyes of all onlookers—the word of God grew exceedingly, and went through at least the southern borders like lightning; or, like the sun in its meridian beauty, discovering so the wonders of God’s law, the mysteries of his gospel, and the secrets of his covenant, and the sins and duties of that day, that a numerous issue was begotten to Christ, and his conquest was glorious, captivating poor slaves of Satan and bringing them from his power unto God, and from darkness to light.

“O! who can remember the glory of that day, without a melting heart in reflecting upon what we have lost, and let go, and sinned away by our misimprovement—a day of such power that it made the people, even the bulk and body of the people, willing to come out and venture upon the greatest of hardships, and the greatest of hazards, in pursuing after the gospel, through mosses, and muirs, and inaccessible mountains, summer and winter, throughexcess of heat and extremity of cold, many days’ and nights’ journeys, even when they could not have a probable expectation of escaping the sword of the wilderness. But this was a day of such power, that nothing could daunt them from their duty that had tasted once the sweetness of the Lord’s presence at these persecuted meetings.

“Then we had suchhumiliation-daysfor personal and public defections, suchcommunion-dayseven in the open fields, and suchSabbath-solemnities, that the places where they were kept might have been calledBethel, orPeniel, orBochim, and all of themJehovah-Shammah, wherein many were truly converted, more convinced, and generally all reformed from their former immoralities; that even robbers, thieves, and profane men, were some of them brought to a saving subjection to Christ, and generally under such restraint, that all the severities of heading and hanging in a great many years could not make such a civil reformation as a few days of the gospel in these formerly the devil’s territories, now Christ’s quarters, where his kingly standard was displayed. I have not language to lay out the inexpressible glory of that day; but I doubt if ever there were greater days of the Son of Man upon the earth, than we enjoyed for the space of seven years at that time.”[81]

81.Hind let Loose, p. 132.

The border districts, so notorious in our earlier history as the fields of constant plundering and murder, exhibited now amid their wild scenery a warfare of a very different description. “What wonderful success,” says Veitch, “the preaching of the word has had by ministers retiring thither, under persecution, in order to the repressing, yea almost extinguishing, these feuds, thefts, and robberies, that were then so natural to that place and people, is worth a singular and serious observation. These news ought to be matter of joy and thanksgiving to all the truly godly in Britain, that, though the ark, the glory, and goings of our God be, alas! too much removed from Shiloh-Ephratah, the ingrounds, the places of greater outward plenty and pleasure, yet that he is to be found in the borders of those lands, in the mountains andfields of the woods. Some of the gentry on both sides of the borders have been forced both to see and say that the gospel has done that which their execution of the laws could never accomplish. And is not such a change worthy of remark? to see a people who used to ride unweariedly through the long winter nights to steal and drive away the prize, now, upon the report of a sermon, come from far, travelling all night, to hear the gospel; yea, some bringing their children along with them to the ordinance of baptism, although the landlord threaten to eject the tenant, and the master the servant, for so doing.”[82]Mr Gabriel Semple gives a similar statement. “These borderers were looked upon to be ignorant, barbarous, and debauched with all sort of wickedness, that none thought it worth their consideration to look after them, thinking that they could not be brought to any reformation. Yet, in the Lord’s infinite mercy, the preaching to these borderers had more fruit than in many places that were more civilized.”[83]

82.Memoirs of William Veitch, written by himself, published by Dr M’Crie, p. 118.

83.Semple’s Life MSS., in Dr Lee’s possession, quoted by Dr M’Crie, as above.

What ought to have filled the breast of every right-hearted minister of the gospel with joy, excited the fellest passions in the bosoms of the prelates, who evinced their filiation by doing the deeds of their father, (John viii. 44,) furiously seeking to destroy those who declared the truth; because, wherever a Presbyterian preacher came, the Episcopalian churches were forsaken, and the curates were left to harangue to empty pews. Political squabbling for power between Hamilton and Lauderdale, had diverted the attention of the two parties for a while from Scottish ecclesiastical affairs, which the ministers eagerly took advantage of to pursue their sacred vocation, judging wisely that the respite which they enjoyed would be at best precarious. When Lauderdale gained the ascendency, they anticipated a longer continuance of the “blink;”[84]but the clouds soon gathered thicker and darker. He knew he could only maintain his own elevation by exalting Episcopacy; and he quickly showed that his repeated declarations were not empty bravadoes. More correct in their calculations,the bishops improved the opportunity; and the council, his and their ready tool, issued fresh proclamations against conventicles, increasing in severity as they increased in number.

84.“Blink”—a glimpse of sunshine in foul weather.

Averting their eyes from the loveliness of these bright prospects that shone around them, they mourned withal “the sad and sensible decays religion had of late suffered, and the great and dangerous increase of profaneness through the most unreasonable and schismatical separation of many from the public and established worship, and the frequent and open conventicles, both in houses and fields, by such as thereby discover their disaffection to the established religion, and their aversion to his majesty’s authority and government, endangering the peace of the kingdom, and dividing the church under pretence of scruple:” therefore, to manifest their zeal for the glory of Almighty God, the interests of the Protestant reformed religion, and of the church—to secure the same by unity in worship, and procuring all due reverence to archbishops, bishops, and all subordinate clerical officers—the magistrates of the several burghs were specially required to seize upon all persons who were, or should be, intercommuned, and to remove the families of such from all places under their jurisdiction, together with all preachers and their families who did not attend the public worship! All noblemen, gentlemen, and others, were strictly forbid to afford shelter or aid to any intercommuned person, upon pain of being themselves intercommuned; and whosoever should discover those that transgressed, were to receive five hundred merks reward immediately. Magistrates were also rendered liable to severe fining, if they did not rigorously fulfil the imperative duty of searching out and punishing all such as worshipped God after the manner they chose to call heresy.

What means they thought lawful for obtaining information from suspected persons, is evinced in their treatment of James Mitchell, who made the unsuccessful attempt upon Sharpe. He had left the country at the time, and did not return till he supposed the affair was forgotten, when he married a woman who kept a small shop not far from the primate’s town residence. In passing this way, his Grace observed a person eye him keenly, which rather alarmed him, as he thought he recognized his foiledassassin; and he caused him to be arrested. A pistol, loaded with three bullets, being found in his pocket, increased his terror, and he became extremely anxious to know the extent of his danger. Accordingly, before the prisoner was examined, he swore by the living God, if he would confess the act, he would obtain his pardon; and a committee of the privy council, consisting of Rothes, Lord Chancellor; Primrose, Lord Register; Nisbet, Lord Advocate; and Hatton, Treasurer-depute, authorized by the Commissioner, gave him a similar assurance. Disappointed, however, by his confession, as they expected to discover a conspiracy, on finding he had no accomplice, and unwilling that he should thus escape, they remitted him to the Justiciary Court, evading their solemn engagement by a jesuitical quibble, that the promise of securing his life did not guarantee the safety of his limbs. Having received a hint, as he was passing to trial, he disclaimed his confession at the bar; and there being no other proof, the judicial proceedings were abandoned, or, in Scottish law-phrase, the “diet” was deserted, and he was remanded to prison, where he remained till January this year, when the spirit of cruelty which appeared to actuate the then rulers against all who were rigid Presbyterians, especially preachers, urged them to subject their unhappy victim to the torture.

About six o’clock in the evening of January 18th, Mitchell was brought before a meeting of Justiciary, where the Earl of Linlithgow sat president, and questioned whether he would adhere to his former confession. He replied, that the Lord Advocate having deserted the diet against him, he ought to have been, agreeably both to the law of the nation and the practice of the court, set at liberty, and therefore knew no reason why he was that night brought before their lordships. Without any attention being paid to this strictly legal objection, he was again asked, if he would adhere to his former confession? He refused to own any confession; and Hatton most outrageously exclaimed, “that pannel is one of the most arrogant cheats, liars, and rogues I have ever known!” Mr Mitchell retorted, My lord, if there were fewer of those persons you have been speaking of in the nation, I would not have been standing at this bar. The Presidentsaid, “We will cause a sharper thing make you confess.” “I hope, my lord, you are Christians and not Pagans,” was the prisoner’s response, with which the business of that evening closed.

Upon the 22d, he was brought before them in the lower Council-Chamber, and the question repeated, the President at the same time pointing to the boots, said, “You see, sir, what is upon the table; I will see if that will make you confess.” “My lord,” answered Mitchell intrepidly, “I confess by torture you may make me blaspheme God, as Saul did compel the saints; you may compel me to call myself a thief, a murderer, a warlock, or any thing, and then pannel me upon it; but if you shall, my lord, put me to it, I here protest before God and your lordships, that nothing extorted from me by torture shall be made use of against me in judgment, nor have any force in law against me or any person whatsomever. But to be plain with you, my lords, I am so much of a Christian, that whatever your lordships shall legally prove against me, if it be a truth, I shall not deny it; but, on the contrary, I am so much of a man, and a Scottishman, that I never hold myself obliged by the law of God, nature, or the nation, to become my own accuser.” Hatton rudely answered—“He hath the devil’s logic, and sophisticates like him; ask him whether that be his subscription.” “I acknowledge no such thing,” said the pannel, and was remanded to jail.

Two days after, the judges, in formal pomp, arrayed in their robes, and attended by the executioner with the instruments of torture, like true inquisitors, first attempted to terrify their prisoner, before they literally put him to the question. It was in vain. They could not shake him. Had they not been dead to every nobler feeling of our nature, they must have quailed when he thus addressed them:—“My lords, I have now been these two full years in prison, and more than one of them in bolts and fetters—more intolerable than many deaths. Some in a shorter time have been tempted to make away with themselves; but, in obedience to the express command of God, I have endured all these hardships, and I hope to endure this torture also with patience, on purpose to preserve my own life, and that of others also, as far as lies in my power, and to keep the guilt of innocentblood off your lordships and your families, which you doubtless would incur by shedding mine. I repeat my protest. When you please, call for the men you have appointed to their work.” The executioner being in attendance, immediately tied Mr Mitchell in an arm-chair, and asked which of the legs he should take? The lords said, “Any of them.” The executioner laid in the left; but Mr Mitchell taking it out, said, “Since the judges have not determined, take the best of the two; I bestow it freely in the cause.” He was interrogated about his being at the battle of Pentland, his meeting with Wallace or with Captain Arnot—all of which he could veritably answer in the negative. The tormentor then began to drive the wedges, asking at every stroke if he had any more to say? To this he generally replied “No.” After a while, when the pain began to be excruciating, he exclaimed, again addressing his inquisitors—“My lords, not knowing but this torture may end my life, I beseech you to remember, that ‘he who showeth no mercy, shall have judgment without mercy;’ for my own part, my lords, I do freely and from my heart forgive you who are judges, and the men who are appointed to go about this horrid work, and those who are satiating their eyes in beholding. I do entreat that God may never lay it to the charge of any of you, as I beg that God, for his Son Christ’s sake, may be pleased to blot out my sin and mine iniquity.” At the ninth, the sufferer fainted through the extremity of pain. “Alas! my lords,” said the executioner, “he is gone!” The unfeeling wretches told him “he might stop,” and coolly walked off. When Mitchell recovered, he was carried in the same chair back to his prison. Here he continued till January 1677, when he was sent to the Bass.

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