59.Some curious interviews took place with Sutherland and one White, a curate, of which he afterwards published an account. The following is a specimen:—“Then came one Mr White, a curate, to persuade me, who said to me, ‘What are you doing? Do you not know that these men are guilty of the sin of rebellion, and rebellion in Scripture is as the sin of witchcraft?’ ‘I answered, I know the Scripture, it is in 1 Sam. xv. 28. That was Saul’s rebellion against the immediate revealed will of God, in sparing Agog and the best of the flocks; and that it was like that rebellion spoken of in the Israelites, when they rebelled and refused to go to the land of Canaan, according to God’s command, but would have chosen a captain and gone back again to Egypt. He then instanced Shemei, who cursed David and flang earth and stones at him; yet David forgave him, and much more should the king forgive the Galaway men who respect and pray for him, and would not let a hair of his head fall to the ground if he were among them.’ ‘But,’ says Mr White, ‘David was a prophet and a merciful man!’ ‘Ho!’ says I, ‘ye will not take a good man for your example, but an ill man; what divinity is that?’ At which, the soldiers laughing, he said in his anger, the devil was in me, and that I had to do with a familiar spirit. I said, than he was an unnatural devil, for he was not like the rest of the devils who desire the destruction of many, that he may get many souls, but the spirit that is in me, will not suffer me to take good men’s lives; so at that time Mr White went away as ashamed.”Life and Declaration of William Sutherland, pp. 4, 5. Wodrow says of this declaration, I am well assured it is genuine, and formed by himself, vol. i. p. 260.
59.Some curious interviews took place with Sutherland and one White, a curate, of which he afterwards published an account. The following is a specimen:—“Then came one Mr White, a curate, to persuade me, who said to me, ‘What are you doing? Do you not know that these men are guilty of the sin of rebellion, and rebellion in Scripture is as the sin of witchcraft?’ ‘I answered, I know the Scripture, it is in 1 Sam. xv. 28. That was Saul’s rebellion against the immediate revealed will of God, in sparing Agog and the best of the flocks; and that it was like that rebellion spoken of in the Israelites, when they rebelled and refused to go to the land of Canaan, according to God’s command, but would have chosen a captain and gone back again to Egypt. He then instanced Shemei, who cursed David and flang earth and stones at him; yet David forgave him, and much more should the king forgive the Galaway men who respect and pray for him, and would not let a hair of his head fall to the ground if he were among them.’ ‘But,’ says Mr White, ‘David was a prophet and a merciful man!’ ‘Ho!’ says I, ‘ye will not take a good man for your example, but an ill man; what divinity is that?’ At which, the soldiers laughing, he said in his anger, the devil was in me, and that I had to do with a familiar spirit. I said, than he was an unnatural devil, for he was not like the rest of the devils who desire the destruction of many, that he may get many souls, but the spirit that is in me, will not suffer me to take good men’s lives; so at that time Mr White went away as ashamed.”Life and Declaration of William Sutherland, pp. 4, 5. Wodrow says of this declaration, I am well assured it is genuine, and formed by himself, vol. i. p. 260.
59.Some curious interviews took place with Sutherland and one White, a curate, of which he afterwards published an account. The following is a specimen:—“Then came one Mr White, a curate, to persuade me, who said to me, ‘What are you doing? Do you not know that these men are guilty of the sin of rebellion, and rebellion in Scripture is as the sin of witchcraft?’ ‘I answered, I know the Scripture, it is in 1 Sam. xv. 28. That was Saul’s rebellion against the immediate revealed will of God, in sparing Agog and the best of the flocks; and that it was like that rebellion spoken of in the Israelites, when they rebelled and refused to go to the land of Canaan, according to God’s command, but would have chosen a captain and gone back again to Egypt. He then instanced Shemei, who cursed David and flang earth and stones at him; yet David forgave him, and much more should the king forgive the Galaway men who respect and pray for him, and would not let a hair of his head fall to the ground if he were among them.’ ‘But,’ says Mr White, ‘David was a prophet and a merciful man!’ ‘Ho!’ says I, ‘ye will not take a good man for your example, but an ill man; what divinity is that?’ At which, the soldiers laughing, he said in his anger, the devil was in me, and that I had to do with a familiar spirit. I said, than he was an unnatural devil, for he was not like the rest of the devils who desire the destruction of many, that he may get many souls, but the spirit that is in me, will not suffer me to take good men’s lives; so at that time Mr White went away as ashamed.”Life and Declaration of William Sutherland, pp. 4, 5. Wodrow says of this declaration, I am well assured it is genuine, and formed by himself, vol. i. p. 260.