15.Sir George M’Kenzie, an unquestionable evidence, says—“At his death he showed much stayedness, as appeared by all his gestures, but especially by his speaking to the people, without any commotion, and with his ordinary gestures.”History, p. 47.
15.Sir George M’Kenzie, an unquestionable evidence, says—“At his death he showed much stayedness, as appeared by all his gestures, but especially by his speaking to the people, without any commotion, and with his ordinary gestures.”History, p. 47.
15.Sir George M’Kenzie, an unquestionable evidence, says—“At his death he showed much stayedness, as appeared by all his gestures, but especially by his speaking to the people, without any commotion, and with his ordinary gestures.”History, p. 47.
Having again spent some time in devotion, he distributed some last tokens of remembrance to the friends who were with him. To the Earl of Caithness, his son-in-law, he gave his watch, saying, with a smile, it was fit for men to pay their debts; and having promised him that watch, he now performed it. After hisdoublet was off, and immediately before he laid his head upon the block, he addressed those near him—“Gentlemen, I desire you and all that hear me, again to take notice and remember, that, now when I am entering into eternity and to appear before my Judge, and as I desire salvation and expect eternal happiness from him, I am free from any accession, by knowledge, contriving, counsel, or any other ways, to his late majesty’s death; and I pray the Lord to preserve our present king his majesty, and to pour his best blessings upon his person and government; and the Lord give him good and faithful councillors.” Mr Hutchison, his attendant minister, on bidding him finally adieu, used a Scottish phrase, peculiarly emphatic—“My lord, now hold your grip sicker.” The appropriate force of the expression was felt by the sufferer. “You know, Mr Hutchison, what I said to you in the chamber, I am not afraid to be surprised with fear;” and the Laird of Skelmorlie, who took him by the hand at this awful moment, felt that no tremour in his veins belied the assertion. He then knelt, offered up his last prayer, and upon dropping his hands, the appointed signal, the axe of the maiden fell, and his spirit fled to his God and Saviour. His body was carried to Dunoon, and buried in Kilmun church.
Argyle has ever, by the unanimous verdict of his Presbyterian countrymen, been considered a martyr, not for the form, but for the reality of their religion. The form, perhaps, he might have consented to modify—the essence he never durst think of forsaking. There was a consistency in his adherence to his principles that claims our admiration, especially as he sealed his testimony by his blood. He may have given, as many of the excellent men of his day did, an undue importance to points of inferior moment, but the fundamental truths of the gospel were his hope, as, in so far as we can trust the testimony of his friends, its precepts had been the rule of his life. It is refreshing to know that his persecutors did not share his spoil. Through the intercession of Lauderdale, Lorn procured from the king all his father’s estates and titles, except that of Marquis.
Mr James Guthrie, minister at Stirling, remarkable for his piety, zeal, and consistency in the cause of reformation-principles,followed his friend to trial and judgment.[16]He was peculiarly obnoxious to Middleton, having pronounced sentence of excommunication upon him, and was considered the chief of the remonstrators, who had uniformly resisted communion with the malignants; but he was no less distinguished for his intrepid opposition to the government of Cromwell, whom he had boldly stigmatized as an usurper, at the time when all those who now made such flaming professions of loyalty had crouched before him. Revered and popular among the lower ranks, he was not less respected among the worthy of the higher; for, although constrained by terror to condemn, no political victim was ever sacrificed with more reluctance by the subordinate ranks of the priesthood of mammon, than was James Guthrie; and even the Moloch at whose shrine he was immolated, expressed his regret, and bore testimony to his worth—“Had I known,” said the callous-hearted Charles, when he heard of Mr Gillespie being suffered to live, “that they would have spared Gillespie, I would have saved Guthrie!”—a noble testimony, but happily too late to deprive that holy man of the honour his Lord had provided for him with them who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. He was arraigned before a court, of which the director and the president were his personal enemies, and of which a majority had already prejudged his case. His pursuers were men who had yielded to the blast that he had braved, who had deserted their prince in the hour of his extremity, had flattered the very powers that he had withstood, yet now came forward with a flagrant effrontery to charge him with favouring an usurpation to which they had done homage, but which he had suffered for withstanding.
16.“He was the son of the Laird of Guthrie, and so a gentleman. When he was regent in St Andrew’s, he was very episcopal, and was with difficulty persuaded to take the covenant. There goes a story, that, when he first yielded to join with the covenanters in Mr Samuel Rutherford’s chamber, as he came out at his door, he mett the executioner in the way, which troubled him; and the next visit he made thither, he mett him in the same manner again, which made him apprehend he might be a sufferer for the covenant, as indeed he was.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 109.
16.“He was the son of the Laird of Guthrie, and so a gentleman. When he was regent in St Andrew’s, he was very episcopal, and was with difficulty persuaded to take the covenant. There goes a story, that, when he first yielded to join with the covenanters in Mr Samuel Rutherford’s chamber, as he came out at his door, he mett the executioner in the way, which troubled him; and the next visit he made thither, he mett him in the same manner again, which made him apprehend he might be a sufferer for the covenant, as indeed he was.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 109.
16.“He was the son of the Laird of Guthrie, and so a gentleman. When he was regent in St Andrew’s, he was very episcopal, and was with difficulty persuaded to take the covenant. There goes a story, that, when he first yielded to join with the covenanters in Mr Samuel Rutherford’s chamber, as he came out at his door, he mett the executioner in the way, which troubled him; and the next visit he made thither, he mett him in the same manner again, which made him apprehend he might be a sufferer for the covenant, as indeed he was.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 109.
On the 20th of February, he received his indictment, the general charges of which were—his accession to the remonstrance—hiswriting and publishing that abominable pamphlet, “The Causes of God’s Wrath”[17]—his contriving, and writing, and subscribing “The humble Supplication of 23d August last”—but, chiefly, his declining, in the year 1650, his majesty’s power in matters purely ecclesiastical, which branch of the royal prerogative the present managers were determined to assert, as they traced, and justly, the chief, if not the whole, of the misery the nation had endured under the king’s father and grandfather, to the opposition made by the ministry to this anti-scriptural jurisdiction, or, in the language of Sir George M’Kenzie, “because this principle had not only vexed King James, but was the occasion of much rebellion.” The indictment, framed upon certain obsolete or repealed acts in favour of popery, prelacy, or the kingly power, passed before the last full establishment of Presbytery, charged him with convoking the lieges without warrant or authority to the disturbance of the state and church. After it had been read, he addressed the Lord Chancellor—
17.“The Causes of God’s Wrath,” printed after the fatal defeat at Worcester, which ruined the hopes of the Presbyterians and their covenanted king, contained a faithful and pungent enumeration of the sins of all ranks, public and personal, in which the misconduct of the royal family and of the nobles—their defections from duty and the oaths of the covenant in public, and the immorality and ungodliness of their conduct in private—were treated with great plainness and particularity, accompanied with strong exhortations to repentance as the only way to avert the judgments of an offended God. Nor were the sins of the ministry or the people slightly passed over; it was an earnest, deep call upon the nation to consider their ways at a time of great public suffering, when the land had been scourged by the presence of two armies, of which their own had not been the least oppressive, and when a threatened famine and an actual scarcity was afflicting them. Its truth was its treason—it had the honour of being burned.
17.“The Causes of God’s Wrath,” printed after the fatal defeat at Worcester, which ruined the hopes of the Presbyterians and their covenanted king, contained a faithful and pungent enumeration of the sins of all ranks, public and personal, in which the misconduct of the royal family and of the nobles—their defections from duty and the oaths of the covenant in public, and the immorality and ungodliness of their conduct in private—were treated with great plainness and particularity, accompanied with strong exhortations to repentance as the only way to avert the judgments of an offended God. Nor were the sins of the ministry or the people slightly passed over; it was an earnest, deep call upon the nation to consider their ways at a time of great public suffering, when the land had been scourged by the presence of two armies, of which their own had not been the least oppressive, and when a threatened famine and an actual scarcity was afflicting them. Its truth was its treason—it had the honour of being burned.
17.“The Causes of God’s Wrath,” printed after the fatal defeat at Worcester, which ruined the hopes of the Presbyterians and their covenanted king, contained a faithful and pungent enumeration of the sins of all ranks, public and personal, in which the misconduct of the royal family and of the nobles—their defections from duty and the oaths of the covenant in public, and the immorality and ungodliness of their conduct in private—were treated with great plainness and particularity, accompanied with strong exhortations to repentance as the only way to avert the judgments of an offended God. Nor were the sins of the ministry or the people slightly passed over; it was an earnest, deep call upon the nation to consider their ways at a time of great public suffering, when the land had been scourged by the presence of two armies, of which their own had not been the least oppressive, and when a threatened famine and an actual scarcity was afflicting them. Its truth was its treason—it had the honour of being burned.
“He was glad,” he said, for he pled his own cause, “that the law of God was named first as being indeed the only supreme law, to which all other laws ought to be subordinate; and there being an act of the first parliament of James VI., by which all clauses of laws or acts of parliament repugnant to the word of God were repealed, he hoped their lordships would give most respect to this, that he might be judged by the law of God especially, and by other laws in subordination thereto. As to the acts of parliament upon which he was arraigned, he asserted the legal maxim,that where any difference between acts occurs, the last is that only which is to be considered obligatory; and he farther affirmed, what almost all his judges had previously, repeatedly, and upon oath allowed, that it must also be granted that laws and acts of parliament were to be understood and expounded by those solemn public vows and covenants contracted with God by his majesty and subjects, which were not only declared by the laws of the land to have the strength of acts of parliament, but, both by the law of God and common law and light of all the nations in the world, are more binding and indispensable than any municipal law and statute whatever.”
The general charge of abetting Cromwell, he defied all the world to prove if he had justice allowed him; nor was it attempted. His approval of the remonstrance he did not deny, but this he only did in a legal manner, as a member of a legal assembly. His participation in the authorship of “The Causes of God’s Wrath,” he avowed and defended. But in this he said he acted merely and singly from a constraining power of conscience to be found faithful as a minister of the gospel, in the discovering of sin and guiltiness, that it being acknowledged and repented of, wrath might be taken away from the house of the king and from these kingdoms. “Your lordship knows,” continued he, “what charge is laid upon ministers of the gospel, to give faithful warning to all sorts of persons, and how they expose their own souls to the hazard of eternal damnation, and the guilt of the blood of those with whom they have to do, if they do not this. And you do also know, that the prophets and apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ himself did faithfully warn all men, though it was their lot, because of the same, to be reckoned traitors and seditious persons. My lord, I wish it seriously to be pondered, that nothing is asserted in these “Causes” as matter of sin and duty, but what hath been the common received doctrine of the church of Scotland, the truth of which is confirmed from the word of God; and as to matters of fact, as far as regards the royal family, they are no other than are mentioned in the solemn public causes of humiliation condescended upon and kept by the whole church jointly, and his majesty and family, with the commission of the GeneralAssembly and committee of estates, before his coronation at Perth.”
He also avowed the “Supplication” at Edinburgh, which he vindicated as containing nothing more than a humble petition concerning those things to which his majesty and all his subjects were engaged by the solemn irreversible oath of the covenant, with a serious representation of the dangers threatening religion, and the duties of that sacred obligation, and did only put his majesty in remembrance of holding fast the oaths of the covenant. The meeting was presbyterial, and therefore legal; and was, besides, a quiet, orderly convocation, without tumult, and requiring no particular warrant.
Respecting his declining the king’s authority in things sacred, he unhesitatingly acknowledged that he did decline the civil magistrate as a competent judge of ministers’ doctrine in the first instance.[18]His authority in all things civil, he said he did with all his heart allow; but such declinations were agreeable to the word of God, which clearly holds forth that Christ hath a visible kingdom, which he exercises in or over his visible members by his spiritual officers, which is wholly distinct from the civil power and government of the world—to the Confession of Faith and doctrine of the church of Scotland, which acknowledge no head over the church of Christ but himself, nor any judgment or power in or over his church, but that which he hath committed to the spiritual office-bearers thereof under him, and had been the ordinary practice of that kirk since the time of the reformation from Popery; and were also agreeable to, and founded on, the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant, by which the king’s majesty himself, and all the subjects of that kingdom, were bound to maintain the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of that church, with solemn vows and public oaths of God. “Upon these grounds, therefore,” said he, “it is that I gave in and doassert that declination for vindicating the cause, dignity, and royal prerogative of Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, but with all due respect to his majesty, his greatness, and authority.” Then, after discussing the several acts of parliament that had been quoted, he thus concluded an able and argumentative speech:—
18.The error of these good men was, in allowing the civil magistrate the right of judging of a minister’s doctrine in any case whatever, so long as he kept within the proper bounds of his pastoral duty, and inculcated only religious tenets, and did not meddle with seditious or treasonable matters.
18.The error of these good men was, in allowing the civil magistrate the right of judging of a minister’s doctrine in any case whatever, so long as he kept within the proper bounds of his pastoral duty, and inculcated only religious tenets, and did not meddle with seditious or treasonable matters.
18.The error of these good men was, in allowing the civil magistrate the right of judging of a minister’s doctrine in any case whatever, so long as he kept within the proper bounds of his pastoral duty, and inculcated only religious tenets, and did not meddle with seditious or treasonable matters.
“That I did never purpose or intend to speak or act any thing disloyal, seditious, or treasonable against his majesty’s person, authority, or government, God is my witness; and that what I have written, spoken, or acted, in any of those things wherewith I am charged, hath been merely and singly from a principle of conscience; that, according to the weak measure of light given me of God, I might do my duty in my station and calling as a minister of the gospel. But because the plea of conscience alone, although it may extenuate, cannot wholly excuse, I do assert that I have founded my speeches, writings, and actings, in these matters, on the word of God, and on the doctrine, Confession of Faith, and laws of this church and kingdom—upon the National Covenant of Scotland, and the Solemn League and Covenant between these three kingdoms. If these foundations fall, I must fall with them; but if these sustain and stand in judgment, as I hope they will, I cannot acknowledge myself, neither I hope will his majesty’s commissioner and the honourable court of parliament judge me, guilty either of sedition or treason.”
This trial lasted from the 20th of February till the 15th of April; and the most strenuous efforts were made to induce Mr Guthrie to submit and plead for mercy. He was even offered a bishopric; but he deemed the object for which he contended too important to be yielded up for any consideration of temporal aggrandizement. When the protracted proceedings were drawing to a close, on the 11th of April, after his defences, which were very elaborate, had been read, he finished his pleading by a pointed and solemn appeal, which was heard with the most profound attention, and induced a number to withdraw, declaring, in the language of Scripture, “They would have nothing to do with the blood of that righteous man.”
Addressing the Chancellor, “My lord,” said the intrepid ministerin conclusion, “I shall, in the last place, humbly beg—having brought such pregnant and clear evidence from the word of God, so much divine reason and human law, and so much of the common practice of the kirk and kingdom in my own defence; and being already cast out of my ministry, driven from my dwelling, and deprived of my maintenance, myself and my family thrown upon the charity of others; and having now suffered eight months’ imprisonment—that your lordships would put no farther burden upon me. But, in the words of the prophet, ‘Behold! I am in your hands, do to me what seemeth good to you.’ I know for certain that the Lord hath commanded me to speak all these things, and that if you put me to death you shall bring innocent blood upon yourself and upon the inhabitants of this city. My lord! my conscience I cannot submit; but this old crazy body and mortal flesh I do submit to do with whatever you will, whether by death, by banishment, or imprisonment, or any thing else, only I beseech you ponder well what profit there is in my blood; it is not extinguishing me or many others that will extinguish the covenant and the work of reformation since 1638. No! my bondage, banishment, or blood, will contribute more for their extension than my life or liberty could, were I to live many years. I wish to my Lord Commissioner, his Grace, and to all your lordships, the spirit of judgment, wisdom, and understanding, and the fear of the Lord, that you may judge righteous judgment, in which God may have glory, the king honour and happiness, and yourselves peace in the great day of accounts.” But all was of no avail; his life was determined on as an example to the ministers, and he was found guilty, upon his own confession, of the charges brought against him. Sentence was delayed till the 28th of May, when the doom of a traitor was pronounced by the Earl of Crawford, in absence of the Chancellor. As he arose from his knees—for he had been ordered to kneel—“My lords,” said he, “may never this sentence more affect you than it does me; and let never my blood be required of the king’s family!” He had assisted in managing his defence with an eloquence, acuteness, and legal knowledge, that drew forth the admiration of the professional gentlemen who were his advocates.
When his case was decided, and he was removed to wait till his sentence was written out, while he remained amid the soldiers, and officers, and servants of the court, he afterwards declared he never felt more of the sensible presence of God, of the sweet intimations of peace, and the real manifestations of divine love and favour, than when surrounded with all their bustle and confusion. From that time till he went to the scaffold, he remained in a serene, tranquil frame of mind. On the day of his execution, June 1, several of his friends dined with him, when not only his cheerfulness, but even his pleasantry, did not forsake him. After dinner, he jocularly called for a little cheese, of which he was very fond, but had been forbid by his physicians to eat on account of a gravelish complaint, saying, “I hope I am now beyond reach of the gravel.”
He delivered his last speech from the ladder with the same composed earnestness with which he was wont to deliver his sermons. “He thanked God that he suffered willingly, having had it in his power to have made his escape, or by compliance to have obtained favour, but he durst not redeem his life with the loss of his integrity.” “I bless God,” he proceeded, “that I die not as a fool, not that I have any thing wherein to glory in myself. But I do believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, whereof I am chief; through faith in his righteousness and blood, I have obtained mercy, and through him and him alone have I the blessed hope of a blessed conquest over sin and Satan, death and hell, and that I shall attain unto the resurrection of the just, and be made partaker of eternal life. I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him unto that day. I have preached salvation through his name; and as I have preached, so do I believe, and do recommend the riches of his free grace and faith in his name unto you all, as the only way whereby ye can be saved.”
“And,” continued he, “as I bless the Lord I die not as a fool, so also that I die not for evil-doing. God is my record, that in these things for which sentence of death is passed against me, I have a good conscience. My heart is conscious of no disloyalty. The matters for which I am condemned, are matters belonging tomy calling and function as a minister of the gospel; such as discovering and reproving of sin, the pressing and holding fast of the oath of God in the covenant, and preserving and carrying on the work of reformation according thereto, and denying to acknowledge the civil magistrate as the proper, competent, immediate judge in causes ecclesiastical.” He then warned his hearers that the wrath of God was hanging over the land for that deluge of profanity that was overflowing it; for their perjury and breach of covenant—“Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this! shall he break the covenant and prosper? shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with God, which frameth mischief by a law?” for their ingratitude; for their dreadful idolatry and sacrificing to the creature—a corruptible man, in whom many had placed almost all their salvation and all their desire; for a generation of carnal, time-serving ministers, men who minded earthly things, enemies to the cross of Christ, who pushed with the side and shoulder, who strengthen the hands of evil-doers, and make themselves transgressors by studying to build again what they did formerly warrantably destroy.
Next, he earnestly exhorted the profane, the lukewarm, and the indifferent, to repentance, and the godly to confidence and zeal, expressing his belief that God would neither desert his people nor cause in Scotland. “There is yet,” exclaimed he, “a holy seed, a precious remnant, whom God will preserve and bring forth; but how long or dark our night may be, I do not know; the Lord shorten it for the sake of his chosen. In the mean while, be patient, steadfast, and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Beware of snares, decline not the cross, and account the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasure of the world. Let my death grieve none of you. I forgive all men the guilt of it, and I desire you to do so also. Pray for them that persecute you; bless them that curse you; bless, I say, and curse not!” After bearing testimony to the faith of the gospel, the doctrine and discipline of the church of Scotland, the protestation, and against the course of backsliding then afoot in the land,
He ended in this strain of triumphant exultation, well becominga martyr for the truth—“Jesus Christ is my light and my life, my righteousness, my strength, and my salvation, and all my desire. Him! O him! do I with the strength of all my soul commend unto you; blessed are they that are not offended in him. Bless him, O my soul! from henceforth even for ever. Rejoice, rejoice all ye that love him; be patient and rejoice in tribulation. Blessed are you, and blessed shall you be for ever and ever. Everlasting righteousness and eternal salvation is yours; all is yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s!” His last words were—“Remember me, O Lord, with the favour thou bearest to thy people. O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy chosen; that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation; that I may glory with thine inheritance. Now let thy servant depart in peace, since my eyes have seen thy salvation!”
An obscure individual, named William, sometimes Captain, Govan, was executed along with Mr Guthrie. He met death with the same joyful confidence, resting on the same sure foundation. For what specific charges he suffered, is uncertain. In his speech which he left, he says it was for laying down his arms at Hamilton, as all the company did. Sir George M’Kenzie alleges it was for joining in the English army in 1651. “But so inconsiderable a person,” he adds, “had not died if he had not been suspected to have been upon the scaffold when King Charles the First was murdered, though he purged himself of this when he died; and his guilt was, that he brought to Scotland the first news of it, and seem’d to be well satisfied with it.” His chief crime, however, appears to have been that he was a pious, consistent, and zealous Presbyterian. Mr Guthrie was turned off first; and his behaviour must have tended greatly to strengthen his fellow-sufferer, who, in his last speech, after exhorting the licentious and the lukewarm to repent, remarked—“As for myself, it pleased the Lord, in the fourteenth year of my age, to manifest his love to me; and now it is about twenty-four years since, all which time I professed the truth which I suffer for and bear testimony to at this day, and am not afraid of the cross upon that account. It is sweet! it is sweet! otherwise how durst I look onthe corpse of him who hangs there with courage, and smile upon that gibbet as the gate of heaven?” When he had ended, he took a ring from off his finger, and gave to a friend, desiring him to take it to his wife and tell her—he died in humble confidence, and found the cross of Christ sweet. Christ, he added, had done all for him; and it was by him alone he was justified. Being desired to look up to that Christ, he replied—“He looketh down and smileth upon me;” and mounting the ladder—“Dear friends,” said he to those around him, “pledge this cup of suffering before you sin, as I have now done; for sin and suffering have been presented to me, and I have chosen the suffering part.” When the rope was put about his neck, he observed—“Middleton and I went out to the field together upon the same errand; now I am promoted to a cord and he to be Lord High Commissioner; yet for a thousand worlds would I not change situations with him! Praise and glory be to Christ for ever!”
Besides those who suffered unto death at this time, many others were prosecuted and punished, by removal from their office, imprisonment, or exile. Among these, the most conspicuous were, Mr Robert Traill, minister of the Greyfriar’s church, Edinburgh. He had been in the Castle while it held out against Cromwell, had encouraged the governor and garrison to be faithful to their trust, and had received a severe wound during the siege; yet he was now charged with disloyalty and a participation in all the obnoxious transactions for which Mr Guthrie laid down his life. His indictment had been drawn up, as all the libels of that time were, with great acrimony and peculiar virulence of expression, to exaggerate the crime of disloyalty, which formed the prominent feature of the accusation. In replying, Mr Traill averred he durst appeal to the Lord Advocate’s own conscience, whether he believed him to be such an one as he had represented him, and complained of bitter and injurious words, but abstained from any angry retort. “I have not,” was his meek answer, “so learned Christ; yea, I have learned of him not to render evil for evil, nor railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; and therefore I do from my heart pray for the honourable drawer up of the libel, as I would do for myself, that the Lord would bless him with hisbest blessings, and would give him to find mercy in the day of the Lord Jesus!” When the remonstrance was presented, he was confined in the garrison; but, with respect to the other charges, his replies were similar to Mr Guthrie’s, although not perhaps quite so strongly expressed assertions of the legality, propriety, and the imperative necessity of ministers being faithful in the discharge of their duty. He had been seven months confined before being brought to trial; and to that he alludes in the following solemn conclusion of his defence:—
“Now, my lord, I must in all humility beg leave to entreat your lordship that you would seriously consider what you do with poor ministers, who have been so long kept, not only from their liberty of preaching the gospel, but of hearing it—that so many congregations are laid desolate for so long a time, and many poor souls have put up their regrets on their deathbed for their being deprived of a word of comfort from their ministers in the hour of their greatest need! The Lord give you wisdom in all things, and pour out upon you the spirit of your high and weighty employment, of understanding and the fear of the Lord, that your government may be blessed for this land and kirk—that you may live long and happily—that your memory may be sweet and fragrant when you are gone—that you may leave your name for a blessing to the Lord’s people—and that your houses and families may stand long and flourish to the years of many generations! Above all, that you have solid peace and heart-joy in the hour of the breaking of your heart-strings, when pale death shall sit on your eyelids—when man must go to his long home and the mourners go about the streets: for what man is he that liveth and shall not see death? or who can deliver himself from the power of the grave? Even those to whom he saith, ye are gods, must die as men; for it is appointed to all men once to die, and after death the judgment, and after judgment an endless eternity! Let me therefore exhort your lordship, in the words of a great king, a great warrior, and a holy prophet—Be wise, be taught, ye rulers of the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but for a little. Thenblessed will all those, and those only, be who put their trust in him. Now the Lord give you, in this your day, to consider the things that belong to your eternal peace, and to remember your latter end, that it may be well with you world without end!”
An address such as this, from a prisoner at the bar to his judges, who had his life and death in their hands, could not fail but to have been productive of a powerful effect upon the minds of such as were not altogether hardened against every impression, and presents the sufferer for truth and a good conscience upon a commanding elevation, unattainable in any other cause, fearless of personal safety, and anxious only that, while he be found faithful in the service of his master, his persecutors may enjoy the same privilege. How forcibly does it recall the Apostle’s address to Agrippa—“I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” Mr Traill was remitted to prison, where he lay for some time, and was afterwards banished to Holland. While uncertain of his fate, he thus wrote to another minister from his prison—“Your imprisoned and confined brethren are kindly dealt with by our kind Lord, for we have large allowance from him could we take it. We know it fares the better with us. You and such as you, mind us at the throne. We are waiting from day to day not knowing what man will do with us. We are expecting banishment at the best; but our sentence must proceed from the Lord, and whatsoever it be, it shall be good as from him, and whithersoever he send us, he shall be with us; for the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof!”
A remarkable trait in all these proceedings is, that the men now persecuted for alleged disloyalty were the men who, when the throne was prostrate, and when these their persecutors had in general deserted the cause as desperate, rallied round the standard of royalty, refused to bow to the invaders, and had suffered for their attachment to the legitimate prince! and it seemed as if the measure of ingratitude meted out to them, was to be in proportion to the steadfastness with which they had adhered to the fortunes of that family in their lowest depression.
Mr Alexander Moncrief, minister of the gospel at Sconie, inFife, had particularly distinguished himself by his loyalty during the usurpation and domination of the English—and had subjected himself to imprisonment by boldly praying for the king; and so far had he been from joining with the sectaries, that he presented a petition to Monk against their toleration; but he had approved of the remonstrance, and had assisted in drawing up “The Causes of God’s Wrath;” and he was therefore a proper object for persecution. Highly esteemed in the country where he lived, the greatest interest was made to procure his life; and two ladies of the first rank presented a handsome service of plate to the Lord Advocate’s wife—a practice, it seems, not uncommon in these times!—to procure his interference; but the plate was returned, and they were told that nothing could be done to save him. The Earl of Atholl, likewise, and several members of parliament, were anxious to protect him, but were informed that he could expect no mercy, unless he would consent to change his principles. When this was told to his wife, her reply showed her to have been a woman of a similar spirit. “Ye know that I am happy in a good husband, to whom I have ever borne a great affection, and have had many children; but I know him to be so steadfast to his principles, where conscience is concerned, that nobody need speak to him upon that head; and, for my part, before I would contribute any thing that would break his peace with his master, I would rather choose to receive his head at the cross!” Yet the numerous applications in his favour from persons of influence—without his knowledge—procured a mitigation of his punishment; and, after a tedious confinement, he was only rendered incapable of all civil or ecclesiastical employment, deprived of his living, and forbid to enter his parish.
Mr Robert Macwaird, minister, Glasgow, who had likewise maintained his loyalty to his king in the face of his enemies, was included in the noble band of sufferers; but the accusation against him differed somewhat from the others. When he perceived the general and awful course of defection from the very profession of religion, and the design to overturn the whole covenanted work of reformation, he commenced a series of sermons, in his week-day exercise, from that striking text, Amos iii. 2.“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” In these, he first addressed himself to his hearers, and pressed upon their consciences their personal sins—for these worthies, who stood in the front of the battle while contending earnestly for the national religion, never failed to inculcate the inutility and danger of a public profession without personal holiness—from personal, he ascended to general and national sins; and, adverting to the open profligacy and backsliding which pervaded a nation once so high in profession, and so favoured in privilege, he pathetically asked, “Alas! may not God expostulate with us, and say, ye are backslidden with a perpetual backsliding, and what iniquity have you found in him? We are backslidden in zeal and love. The glory of a begun reformation in manners is eclipsed, and an inundation of profanity come in. Many who once loved to walk abroad in the garment of godliness, now persecute it. The faithful servants of Christ are become enemies, because they tell the truth. The upright seekers of God are the marks of the great men’s malice.” And, interjecting this most remarkable prayer—“May it never be said of faithful ministers and Christians in Scotland, ‘We have a law, and by this law they must die’”—he continued, “Backsliding is got up to the very head and corrupts the fountains; and wickedness goeth forth already from some of the prophets through the whole land! Are these the pastors and rulers that bound themselves so solemnly and acknowledged their former breaches? How hath the faithful city turned an harlot?”
These expressions, and many others of a like import, excited the enmity of those whom they convicted, and to whom the exhortations to repent and to return were addressed in vain; and some of the apostate tribe transmitted to the managers information against the preacher, as having been guilty of treason. The following passage was that upon which the charge chiefly rested. After entreating his audience to mourn, consider, repent, and return—to wrestle, pray, and pour out their souls before the Lord, he encouraged them, by remarking, that “God would look upon these duties as theirDissentfrom what was done prejudicial to his work and interest, and mark them among the mourners inZion.” Then came the treason! “As for my own part, as a poor member of the church of Scotland, and an unworthy minister in it, I do this day call upon you who are the people of God to witness, that I humbly offer mydissentto all acts which are or shall be passed against the covenants or work of reformation in Scotland. And, secondly, protest, that I am desirous to be free of the guilt thereof, and pray that God may put it upon record in heaven.” For this discourse he was arrested; and, on the Thursday following Mr Guthrie’s execution, was brought before the parliament.
Expecting nothing else than to follow that great man to heaven from the scaffold, he was equally courageous and unhesitating in his behaviour; and, when called upon to reply, June 6th, thus honestly avowed his sentiments:—“My lord, I cannot, I dare not, dissemble, that, having spoken nothing but what I hope will be the truth of God when brought to the touchstone, and such a truth as, without being guilty of lese-majesty against God, I could not conceal while I spoke to the text, I conceive myself obliged to own and adhere to it. So far from committing treason in this, I am persuaded that it was the highest part of loyalty towards my prince, the greatest note of respect I could put upon my superiors, the most real and unquestionable evidence of a true and tender affection to my countrymen and the congregation over whom the Holy Ghost made me, though most unworthy, an overseer, to give seasonable warning of the heavy judgment which the sin of Scotland’s backsliding will bring on, that so we may be instructed at length to search and try our ways and turn to the Lord, lest his soul be separated from us; for wo unto us if our glory depart! No man will or ought to doubt whether it be a minister’s duty to preach this doctrine in season and out of season, which yet is never unseasonable, and to avow that the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways; and if any man draw back, his soul shall have no pleasure in him. And if so, what evil have I done, or whose enemy am I become for telling the truth?
“But in order to remove any thing that may seem to give offence in my practice, I humbly desire it may be considered that a ministerial protestation against, or a dissent from, any act oracts which a minister knows and is convinced to be contrary to the word of God, is not a legal impugnation of that or these acts, much less of the authority enacting them, which it doth rather presuppose than deny; it is just a solemn and serious attested declaration, witness, or testimony, against the evil and iniquity of these things, which, by the word of God, is a warrantable practice, as is clear from Samuel, where the prophet was directed by the Lord himself to obey the voice of the people, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them; also Jeremiah xi. 7. There is no act of parliament declaring that it shall be treason for a minister to protest, in the Scripture sense, against such acts as are contrary to the covenant and the work of reformation; nay more, there were acts by which the covenants and vows made to God for reformation in this church, according to his will revealed in his word, received civil confirmation; and I, as his unworthy servant, was authorized to protest that these rights be not invaded—that these vows be not broken!
“Nor may I conceal, that, when I reflect upon and remember what I have said and sworn to God in the day when, with an uplifted hand to the most high, I bound my soul with the bond of the covenant, and engaged solemnly, as I should answer to the great God, the searcher of hearts, in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, never to break these bonds, nor cast away these cords from me, nor to suffer myself, either directly or indirectly, by terror or persuasion, to be withdrawn from owning them—when I recollect that, had they been even things indifferent, I durst not have shaken them off when I had sworn to God, and consider that, instead of this, they were duties of indispensable obligation antecedently to all oaths, and remain unalterably binding independently of them—and when I considered my duty as a minister, to give warning, to declare, testify, and bear witness against the sin of violating these covenants, in order to avoid the wrath that shall follow, and that under no less a threatening than banishment from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power—I had no choice.
“Now I humbly beseech I may not be looked upon as a disloyalperson, either as to my principles or practice; and so clear am I that there was neither iniquity in my heart, nor wickedness in my hands, against his majesty, that I only wish the informer’s conduct, be he who he may, in the place where I live, were compared with mine, and the issue of my trial depended on this—whether he or I had shown most loyalty during the prevalence and usurpation of the enemy; but I suspect he has rather a little more prudence than to agree to such a test. But as for me, my lord, while I wait the coming forth of my sentence from his presence, whose eyes behold the things that are equal, I declare, that however I cannot submit my conscience to men, yet I humbly, as becometh, submit my person.”
This case appears to have been ably managed; and the parliament delayed proceeding to any immediate decision. In the interval, he presented a supplication withdrawing the words “protest and dissent,” as too legal and forensic, substituting the words “declaring and bearing witness.” The reasons which he assigned for so doing are satisfactory, and show that the witnesses of this period did not stand with obstinacy upon any irrational punctilio, or foolishly rush upon suffering for the sake of unmeaning distinctions or of favourite phrases. “I am brought,” are his expressions, “to offer this alteration, not so much, if my heart deceive me not, for the fear of prejudice to my person—though being but a weak man, I am easily reached by such discomposing passions—as from an earnest desire to remove out of the way any, the least, or remotest, occasion of stumbling, that there may be the more ready and easy access, without prejudice of words, to ponder and give judgment of the matter; and that, likewise, if the Lord shall think fit to call me forth to suffer hard things on this account, it may not be said that it was for wilful and peremptory stickling to such expressions; whereas, I might, by using others, without prejudice to the matter, and no less significant, have escaped the danger; and lest I should seem to insinuate that a minister of the gospel could not have sufficiently exonered his conscience without such formal and legal terms.” But it was necessary to get rid of men whose abilities were dreaded by their apostate brethren, and whose consistent piety would have been astanding reproach to the new prelates. He was therefore, before parliament rose, sentenced to banishment, though, by an uncommon stretch of moderation, he was allowed to remain six months in Scotland—one of them in Glasgow to arrange his affairs—and empowered to receive his next year’s stipend.
What rendered these rigorous proceedings towards the ablest, the most pious, and most conscientious loyalists, more flagrantly unjust, was, the lenity shown to others who had been deeply implicated in active compliances with the usurpers, not only after their power became irresistible, but even while Charles was in the country and at the head of an army. The Laird of Swinton had been suspected, in the year 1650, of corresponding with Cromwell, and being summoned to answer before the parliament at Perth, was forfeited for failing to appear, on which he joined the English, and was appointed a judge; but having now turned a quaker, he was pardoned, and went to the north, where he succeeded in making a few proselytes. Sir John Chiesly, also, who had acted cordially with the English, and been forfeited by the same parliament, was passed over; but his safety was attributed to the influence of money; for rapacity and venality characterized almost every member of government, and every court of justice, from the Restoration to the Revolution.
The escape of Mr Patrick Gillespie was more surprising, as he was personally disagreeable to the king, who had repeatedly refused to listen to any solicitations on his behalf. Gillespie was a minister in Glasgow, and afterwards principal of the College. He had been the most conspicuous of the remonstrators—had approved of “The Causes of God’s Wrath,” and had been appointed principal by the English commissioners, or sequestrators as they were called[19]—had been a great favourite with Cromwell—hadpreached before him—prayed for him as chief magistrate—and had received from him several valuable gifts—all which were now brought forward as charges against him. But he had many friends in the House, and was induced to profess civil guilt and throw himself upon the king’s mercy. His concessions, it is alleged, were strained beyond what he intended, and represented as of great importance at the time, as he had been eminent among his brethren; and it was supposed his example would have a mighty influence in inducing the more scrupulous to give way. They were, however, grievous to the Presbyterians and not satisfactory to his majesty; but they procured a mitigation of his punishment, which was commuted to deprivation of his office, and confinement to Ormiston and six miles round.
19.At the time when the English ruled, the church of Scotland was divided and subdivided into a variety of sections. The remonstrators themselves divided; some of them, among whom were, Messrs P. Gillespie, Samuel Rutherford, James Durham, William Guthrie of Fenwick, Robert Traill, and other eminently pious men, complied with the ruling powers on the Christian principle of obedience to the powers that be, and the absolute necessity of the case; but they were still more obnoxious to the resolutioners, because they so far agreed with the sectaries, in only considering as members of the church persons who gave proof of practical godliness, and opposed the principle of promiscuous communion and general membership. Against this schism, Principal Baillie was very violent. “This formed schism,” says he, in a letter to Mr W. Spang, “is very bitter to us, but remediless, except on intolerable conditions, which our wise orthodox divines will advise us to accept:—We must embrace, without contradiction, and let grow, the principles of the remonstrants, which all reformed divines, and all states in the world, abhor. We must permit a few heady men to waste our church with our consent or connivance. We must let them frame our people to the sectarian model—a few more forward ones among themselves, by privy meetings, to be the godly party; and the congregation, the rest, to be the rascally malignant multitude; so that the body of our people are to be cast out of all churches; and the few who are countenanced, are fitted, as sundry of them already have done, to embrace the errors of the time for their destruction.”Letters, vol. ii. p. 375. The other section of the remonstrants refused to acknowledge in any manner the power of the usurper, lamented the toleration of sectaries, and maintained, with the resolutioners, the legitimate principles of a national church—that all who attended were to be considered members of that church, unless excommunicated for openly immoral conduct or disobedience to the order and discipline of the church. At the head of this section were, Mr James Guthrie, Warriston, and many others, who bore testimony by their blood to the sincerity of their profession. It is worthy of remark, that the first class were chiefly the older, the second the younger, race of the Presbyterians.
19.At the time when the English ruled, the church of Scotland was divided and subdivided into a variety of sections. The remonstrators themselves divided; some of them, among whom were, Messrs P. Gillespie, Samuel Rutherford, James Durham, William Guthrie of Fenwick, Robert Traill, and other eminently pious men, complied with the ruling powers on the Christian principle of obedience to the powers that be, and the absolute necessity of the case; but they were still more obnoxious to the resolutioners, because they so far agreed with the sectaries, in only considering as members of the church persons who gave proof of practical godliness, and opposed the principle of promiscuous communion and general membership. Against this schism, Principal Baillie was very violent. “This formed schism,” says he, in a letter to Mr W. Spang, “is very bitter to us, but remediless, except on intolerable conditions, which our wise orthodox divines will advise us to accept:—We must embrace, without contradiction, and let grow, the principles of the remonstrants, which all reformed divines, and all states in the world, abhor. We must permit a few heady men to waste our church with our consent or connivance. We must let them frame our people to the sectarian model—a few more forward ones among themselves, by privy meetings, to be the godly party; and the congregation, the rest, to be the rascally malignant multitude; so that the body of our people are to be cast out of all churches; and the few who are countenanced, are fitted, as sundry of them already have done, to embrace the errors of the time for their destruction.”Letters, vol. ii. p. 375. The other section of the remonstrants refused to acknowledge in any manner the power of the usurper, lamented the toleration of sectaries, and maintained, with the resolutioners, the legitimate principles of a national church—that all who attended were to be considered members of that church, unless excommunicated for openly immoral conduct or disobedience to the order and discipline of the church. At the head of this section were, Mr James Guthrie, Warriston, and many others, who bore testimony by their blood to the sincerity of their profession. It is worthy of remark, that the first class were chiefly the older, the second the younger, race of the Presbyterians.
19.At the time when the English ruled, the church of Scotland was divided and subdivided into a variety of sections. The remonstrators themselves divided; some of them, among whom were, Messrs P. Gillespie, Samuel Rutherford, James Durham, William Guthrie of Fenwick, Robert Traill, and other eminently pious men, complied with the ruling powers on the Christian principle of obedience to the powers that be, and the absolute necessity of the case; but they were still more obnoxious to the resolutioners, because they so far agreed with the sectaries, in only considering as members of the church persons who gave proof of practical godliness, and opposed the principle of promiscuous communion and general membership. Against this schism, Principal Baillie was very violent. “This formed schism,” says he, in a letter to Mr W. Spang, “is very bitter to us, but remediless, except on intolerable conditions, which our wise orthodox divines will advise us to accept:—We must embrace, without contradiction, and let grow, the principles of the remonstrants, which all reformed divines, and all states in the world, abhor. We must permit a few heady men to waste our church with our consent or connivance. We must let them frame our people to the sectarian model—a few more forward ones among themselves, by privy meetings, to be the godly party; and the congregation, the rest, to be the rascally malignant multitude; so that the body of our people are to be cast out of all churches; and the few who are countenanced, are fitted, as sundry of them already have done, to embrace the errors of the time for their destruction.”Letters, vol. ii. p. 375. The other section of the remonstrants refused to acknowledge in any manner the power of the usurper, lamented the toleration of sectaries, and maintained, with the resolutioners, the legitimate principles of a national church—that all who attended were to be considered members of that church, unless excommunicated for openly immoral conduct or disobedience to the order and discipline of the church. At the head of this section were, Mr James Guthrie, Warriston, and many others, who bore testimony by their blood to the sincerity of their profession. It is worthy of remark, that the first class were chiefly the older, the second the younger, race of the Presbyterians.
On the 12th of July, the parliament rose; and, on the last day of that month, their public acts were proclaimed, with the usual formalities, from the cross of Edinburgh—a ceremony that employed the heralds and other functionaries from ten o’clock in the forenoon till six at night.
About the same time, Samuel Rutherford was relieved by death.