there or elsewhere And to these also they give Injunctions and Restrictions to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry And to the end that all the outed Ministers might be brought under restraint and the Word of God be kept under Bonds by another Act of Council they Command that all other Ministers not disposed of as is said were either to repair to the Parish-Church where they were or to some other Parishes where they may be ordinary hearers and to declare and condescend upon the Parishes where they intend to have their Residence After this they assumed a Power to dispose of these their Curates as they pleased and transport them from place to place whereof the only ground was a simple Act of Council the Instructions always going along with them as the constant companion of the Indulgence By all which it is apparent whatever these Ministers Alledge viz. That it was but the removal of the Civil Restraint and that they entred into their places by the Call of the People a meer mock-pretence for a prelimited Imposition whereby that Ordinance of Christ was basely prostituted and abused and that their Testimony and Protestation was a Salvo for their Consciences a meer Utopian fancy that the Indulgers with whom they bargained never heard of otherwise as they did with some who were faithful in notifying against their Encroachments they would soon have given them a Bill of ease It cannot be denied that that doleful Indulgence both in its Rise Contrivance Conveyance Grant and Acceptance End and Effects was a grievous Encroachment upon the Princely Prerâ—gative of Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church whereby the Usurpers Supremacy was Homologated bowed to complyed with strengthened the Cause and Kingdom of Christ betrayed his Churches Privileges Surrendred his Enemies hardened his Friends stumbled and the Remnant rent and ruined And yet a great part of the Ministers took that Indulgence and another part did instead of Remonstrating the Wickedness of that deed Palliate and Plaister and Patronize it in keeping up the Credit of the King and Councils Curâ—tes Yet the Lord had some Witnesses who pretty early did give significations of their Resentment of this dishonour done to Christ as Mr. William Wâ—er who having got the Legal Call of the People and discharging his Duty honestly was turned out And Mr. Iohn Burnet who wrote a Testimony directed to the Council shewing why he could not submit to that Indulgence inserted at large in the History of Indulgence where also we have the Testimony of other Ten Ministers who drew up their Reasons of Non-complyance with such a Snare And Mr. Alex Blaire who upon occasion of Citation before the Council for not observing the 29 th of May told the Council That he could receive no Instructions from them in the Exercise of his Ministry otherwise he should not be Christ's Ambassador but theirs But afterwards the Lord raised up some more explicit Witnesses against that defection While the King thought he had by that Device utterly suppressed the Gospel in House and Field-Meetings he was so far disappointed that these very Means and Machins by which he thought to bury it did chiefly contribute to its revival For 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 Christ and Conscience both they were forced to wander and disperse through the Country by whose Endeavours the Word of God grew exceedingly and went at least through the Southern Borders of the Kingdom like Lightning O! who can remember the Glory of that day without a melting Heart A day of such Power that it made the People willing to come out and venture upon the greatest of hardships and the greatest of hazards in pursuing after the Gospel even when they could not have a probable expectation of escaping the Sword of the Wilderness and the barbarous fury of bloody Burrio's raging for their Prey sent out with Orders to take and kill them it being now made Criminal by Law especially to the Preachers and Convocaters of these Meetings I will make bold to say I doubt if ever there were greater days of the Son of Man upon the Earth since the Apostolick times than we enjoyed for the space of Seven Years at that time Now when Christ is gaining ground by the Preached Gospel in Plenty Purity and Power the Usurpers Supremacy was like to stagger and Prelacy came under contempt Hence to secure what he had possessed himself of by Law and to prevent a dangerous Paroxism which he thought would ensue upon these Commotions the King returned to exert his innate Tyranny and to emit terrible Orders and more terrible Executioners and bloody Emissaries against all Field-Meetings which after long Patience the People at length could not endure but being first chased to the Fields where they would have been content to have the Gospel with all the Inconveniencies of it and also expelled from the Fields being resolute to maintain the Gospel they resolved to defend it and themselves by Arms To which unavoidable necessity in unsupportable extremity did constrain them as the only remaining Remedy It is known for several Years they met without any Arms where frequently they were disturbed and dispersed with Souldiers some killed others wounded which they patiently endured withou Resistance At length the Ministers that were most in hazard having a Price set upon their Heads to be brought in dead or alive with some attending them in their wandrings understanding they were thus appointed for death judged it their duty to provide for the necessary defence of their Lives from the Violence of their armed Assaulters And as Meetings encreased divers others came under the same hazard which enforced them to endeavour the same Remedy without the least intention of of prejudice to any Thus the number of Sufferers increasing as they joyned in the Ordinances at these persecuted Meetings found themselves in some probable capacity to defend themselves and these much endeared Gospel-Priviledges and to preserve the Memory of the Lord 's great Work in the Land which to transmit to Posterity was their great design Wherefore in these Circumstances being redacted to that strait either to be deprived of the Gospel or to defend themselves in their Meetings for it and thinking their turning their Backs upon it for hazard was a cowardly deserting duty and palpable breach of Covenant-Engagements abandoning their greatest Interest they thought it expedient yea necessary to carry defensive Arms with them it being an indissoluble obligation in their Covenants to maintain and defend the true Religion and one another in promoting the same And hereunto they were encouraged by the constant experience of the Lord 's countenancing their Endeavours in that posture which always
Opinion of things or because they would not Condemn these necessitated risings in Arms to be Rebellion and a Sin against God which they were forced to declare by terrible menacings of Death making their Arbitrary Laws to reach the Heart Thoughts and inward Sentiments of the Mind as well as outward Actions Whereupon this became a Criminal Question robbing many of their Lives Was the rising at Bothwell-bridge Rebellion and a Sin against God And this Was the killing of the Bishop of St Andrews horrid Murther Which if any answered negatively or did not answer affirmatively they were cruelly Condemned to Death The Ministry then also were generally insnared with that Bonded Indulgence the pretended benefit of that forementioned Indemnity For when a Proclamation was emitted inveighing bitterly against Field-Meetings and absolutely introducing all such for the future under highest pain but granting Liberty to Preach in Houses upon the Terms of a Cautionany Bond given for their living peaceably Yet excluding all these Ministers who were suspected to have been at the late Rebellion and all those who shall afterwards be admitted by Non-Conform Ministers And certifying that if ever they shall be at any Field-Conventicle the said Indemnity shall not be useful to such Transgressours any manner of way And requiring security that none under the colour of this favour continue to Preach Rebellion Though there seems to be enough in the Proclamation it self to have scared them from this scandalous snare Yet a Meeting of Ministers at Edinburgh made up of Indulged avowed Applauders of the Indulgence or underhand Approvers and favourers of the same and some of them old Publick Resolutioners assuming to themselves the name of a General Assembly voted for the acceptance of it And so formerly transacted and bargained upon base dishonest and dishonourable Terms with the Usurper by consenting and compacting with the People to give that Bond wherein the People upon an humble Petition to the Counsel obtaining their Indulged Minister do bind and oblige that he shall live peaceably And in order thereto to present him before his Majesty's Privy Council when they shall be called so to do And in case of failure in not presenting him to be liable to the Sum of 6000 Merks Whereby they Condemned themselves of former unpeaceableness Many embraced this new Bastard Indulgence that had not the benefit of the former Brat of the same Mother the Supremacy and far more consented to it without a Witness and most of all did some way homolegate it in Preaching under the Sconce of it Declining the many reiterated and urgent Calls of the zealous Lovers of Christ to come out and maintain the Testimony of the Gospel in the open Fields for the honour of their Master and the freedom of their Ministry Whereupon as many poor People were tumbled and jumbled into many confusions so that they were so bewildered and bemisted in doubts and debates that they knew not what to do and were tempted to question the Cause formerly so fervently contended for against all opposition than so simply abandoned by those that seemed sometimes valiant for it when they saw them consulting more their onw ease than the Concerns of their Masters Glory or the necessity of the poor People Hungering for the Gospel so the more zealous and faithful after several Addresses Calls and Invitations to Ministers finding themselves deserted by them judged themselves under a necessity to discountenance many of them whom formerly they followed with pleasure and to resolve upon a persuit and prosecution of Duty of the Day without them and to provide themselves with faithful Ministers who would not shun for all hazards to declare the whole Counsel of God And accordingly the Lord sent them first Mr. Richard Cameron with whom after serious solicitation his Brethren denied their Concurrence and then Mr. Donald Cargill who with a zeal and boldness becoming Christs Ambassadours maintained and prosecuted the Testimony against all the Indignities done to their Master and wrongs to the Cause both by the encroachments of Adversaries and Defections of their declining Brethren And now the Lords Inheritance was again revived But as Christ was then displaying his Beauty to his poor despised and persecuted People the Duke of York came to Scotland who did receive him in great Pomp and Pride Against which the forementioned faithful Witnesses of Christ did find themselves obliged to testifie their just resentment and to protest against his succeeding to the Crown in their Declaration published at Sanquhair Iune 22. 1680. Wherein also they disown Charles Stuart as having any Right Title or Interest in the Crown of Scotland or Government thereof because of his breath of Covenant and Vsurpation on Christs Prerogatives c. And declare a War with him and all the Men of these Practices homologating the Testimony at Rutherglen and disclaiming that Declaration at Hamiltown This Action was generally Condemned by the Body of lurking Ministers both for the matter of it and the unseasonableness of it and its apparent unfeasiblness being done by a handful so inconsiderable for number strength or significancy But tho' it is not the prudence of the management but the justness of the Action that I would have vindicated from Obloquies yet it wanted nothing but success to justifie both in the Conviction of many that made much outcry against it In these dangerous Circumstances their difficulties and discouragements dayly encreased by their Enemies vigilancy their enviers Treachery and their own inadvertency some of their number falling into the hands of them that sought their lives For two of the most eminent and faithful Witnesses of Christ Mr. Donald Cargill and Henry Hall were surprized at Queens Ferrie Mr. Cargill escaped at that time but the other endeavouring to resist the Enemies was Murdered by them And with him they got a draught of a Covenant declaring their present purposes and future Resolutions The Tenor whereof was an Engagement To free the Church of God of the Corruption of Prelacy on the one hand and the Thraldom of Erastianism on the other To persevere in the Doctrin of the Reformed Churches especially that of Scotland and in the Presbyterian Government exercised in Sessions Presbyteries Synods and General Assemblies as a distinct Government from the Civil and distinctly to be exercised not after a Carnal manner by plurality of Votes or Authority of a single Person but according to the word of God making and carrying the sentence To execute Righteous Iudgement impartially according to the Word and degree of Offence upon the Committers of these things especially to wit Blasphemy c. Oppression and Malignancy c. To reject the present Rulers as the only speedy way of relaxation from the Wrath of God lying on the Land Therefore easily solving the Objectious 1. of our Ancestors obliging the Nation to this Race and Line that they did not buy their Liberty with our Thraldom nor could they bind their Children to any thing so much to their
prejudice They could only bind to that Government which they esteemed the best for common good which reason ceasing we are free to chuse another if we find it more conducible for that end 2 Of the Covenant binding to defend the King That that Obligation is only in his maintenance of the true Covenanted Religion which Homage they cannot now require upon the account of the Covenant which they have renounced and disclaimed and upon no other ground we are bound to them the Crown not being an Inheritance that passeth from Father to Son without the consent of Tenants 3 Of the hope of returning from these Courses That suppose they should dissemble a repentance yet the Land cannot be cleansed from their Guiltness but by executing Gods Righteous Iudgments upon them Vpon these accounts they reject that King and those associate with him in the Government and declare them henceforth no lawful Rulers as they had declared them to be no lawful Subjects they having destroyed the established Religion taken away Christs Church Government c. And declare they shall God giving power set up Government and Governours according to the word of God and the qualifications required Exod. 18. v. 20. And shall not commit the Government to any single Person or lineal succession And moreover that these Men set over them shall be engaged to govern Principally by that Civil and judicial Law not that which is any way typical given by God to his People of Israel especially in matters of Life and Death and other things so far as they reach and are consistent with Christian Liberty exempting Divorce and Poligamy And seeing that the greatest part of Ministers not only were defective in Preaching against the Acts of the Rulers for overthrowing Religion c. they declare they neither can nor will hear them They are for a standing Gospel-Ministry rightly chosen and rightly ordained and that noâ— shall take upon them the Preaching of the Word c. unless called and ordained thereunto And whereas separation might be imputed to them they refell both the Malice and the Ignorance of the Calumny For if there be a Separation it must be where the change is and that was not to be found in them who were not separating from the Communion of the true Church not setting up a new Ministry but cleaving to the same Ministers and Ordinances that formerly they followed when others have fled to new ways and a new Authority which is like the new piece in the Old Garment And that they shall defend themselves in their Civil Natural and Divine Rights and Liberties And if any assault them they shall took on it as a declaring a War and take all advantages that one Enemy does of another but trouble and injure none but those that injure them This is the Compend of that Paper which the Enemies seized and published while it was only in a rude Draught and not polished digested nor consulted by the rest of the Community That poor Party continued together in a posture of defence without the Concurrence or countenance of their Covenanted Brethren until the 22 th of Iuly 1680. Upon the which day they were attacqued at Airsemoss by a strong party of about 120 Horse well armed while they were but 23 Horse and 40 foot at most And so fighting valiantly were at length routed Several of Sions precious Mourners and faithful Witnesses of Christ were killed and among the rest that faithful Minister of Christ Mr. Richard Cameron sealed and fulfilled his Testimony with his Blood And with others the valiant and much Honoured Gentleman David Hackston of Rathillet was after many received Wounds apprehended brought in to Edinburgh and there resolutely adhering to the Testimony and disowning the Authority of King and Council and all their Tyrannical Judicatories head and tail and for being accessory to executing judgment upon the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews was tortured alive with the cutting off of his hands and then Hanged and before he was Dead Ripped up his Heart taken our carried about upon the point of a Knife and thrown into a Fâ—re and afterwards his Body Quartered Then not only such as were with that little handful at Airsemoss were Cruelly Murdered but others against whom they could charge no matter of Fact were questioned if they owned the Kings Authority which if any did not answer affirmatively and positively he was to look for nothing but exquisite Torments and Death And if any declared their judgment that they could not in Conscience own such Authority as was then exercised or if they declined to give their thoughts of it as judging thoughts to be under no humane Jurisdiction or if they answered with such innocent Specifications as these that they owned all Authority in the Lord or for the Lord or according to the word of God or all just and lawful Authority these underwent and suffered the Capital Punishment of Treason And yet both declining and declaring their extorted Answers about this they were Condemned as unsufferable Maintainers of Principles inconsistent with Government But chiefly they laboured to Murder the Soul defile the Conscience and only consult to cast a Man down from his excellency which is his integrity either by Hectoring or Flattering from the Testimony which they endeavoured by proposing many offers with many threatnings in subtile Terms And pretending a great deal of tenderness protesting they would be as tender of their Blood as of their own Soul and purging themselves as Pilate did and charging it upon their own Head They would be very easie in their Accomodations where they found the poor Man beginning to faint and hearken to their overtures wherein they would grant him his life yeilding to him as cunning Anglers do with Fishes And to perswade him to some length in complying they would offer Conference sometimes or reasoning upon the Point to satisfie and inform his Conscience as they pretended but really to catch him with their busked Hook If they had any hope of prevailing they would change a Mans Prison and take him out from among the more strict and fervent in the Cause that might sharpen and strengthen his Zeal and put him among the more cool and remiss Sometimes they would stage several together whereof they knew some would Comply to tantalize the rest with the sight of the others Liberty and make them bite the more eagerly at their Bait to catch the Conscience But when they had done all they could Christ had many Witnesses who did retain the Crown of their Testimony in the smallest points till they obtained the Crown of Martyrdom But here as in Egypt the more they were afflicted the more they grew So that many were reclaimed from their Courses of Complyance and others were daily more and more confirmed in the ways of the Lord and so strengthned that they chose rather to endure all Torture and embrace Death in its most terrible aspect than to give the Tyrant and his Complices any acknowledgment
Yea not so much as to say God save the King which was offered at the price of their Life but they would not accept Deliverance on these Terms Now remained Mr. Donald Cargil deprived of his faithful Collegue destitute of his Brethrens Concurrence who prosecuted the Testimony against the Universal Apostasie of the Church and Nation Tyranny of Enemies Backsliding of Friends and all the wrongs done to his Master on all hands And considering in the Zeal of God and Sense of his holy Jealousie provoked and threatning Wrath against the Land for the Sins especially of Rulers that notwithstanding of all their Testimonies given against them by publick Preachings Protestations and Declarations remonstrating their Tyranny and disowning their Authority yet not only did they persist in their Sins and Scandals but were owned also by Professours not only as Magistrates but as Members of the Christian and Protestant Church and that however both the Defensive Arms of Men had been used against them and the Christian Arms of Prayers and the Ministerial Weapon of Preaching yet that of Ecclesiastical Censure had not been Authoritatively exerted against them Therefore that no Weapon which Christ allows his Servants under his Standard to manage against his Enemies might be wanting tho' he could not obtain the Concurrence of his Brethren to strengthen the Solemnity and Formality of the Action yet he did not judge that Defect in this broken Case of the Church could disable his Authority nor demur the Duty but that he might and ought to proceed to Excommunication And accordingly in Sept. 1680. at the Torwood he Excommunicated some of the most scandalous and principal Promoters and Abettors of this Conspiracy against Christ as formally as the present Case could admit After Sermon upon Ezek 21. 25 26 27. And thou profane wicked Prince of Israel whose Day is come c. The Persons Excommunicated and the Sentence against them was given forth as follows I being a Minister of Iesus Christ and having Authority and Power from him do in his Name and by his Spirit Excommunicate cast out of the Church and deliver up to Satan Charles the Second King c. The Sentence was founded on these Grounds For 〈◊〉 great Perjury in breaking and burning the Covenant for his rescinding all Laws for establishing the Reformation end enacting Laws contrary thereunto For commanding of Arms to destroy the Lords People For his granting Remissions and Pardons for Murderers which is in the power of no King to do c. Next by the same Authority and in the same Name he Excommunicated James Duke of York for his Idolatry and setting up in Scotland to defile the Land and enticing and encouraging others to do 〈◊〉 With several other rotten Malignant Enemies But about this time when some in zeal for the Cause were endeavouring to keep up the Testimony of the day in an abstraction from Complying Ministers others were left to fall into fearful extravagancies and delirious and damnable Delusions being overdriven with ignorant and blind Zeal into untroden Paths which led them into a Labyrinth of Darkness When as they were stumbled at many Ministers their unfaithfulness so they came to be offended at Mr Cargill his Faithfulness who spared neither left-hand Declensions nor-right hand Extreams and left him and all the Ministers not only disowning all Communion with those that were not of their way but Execrating and Cursing them and kept themselves in desart places from all Company where they persisted prodigiously in Fastings and singing Psalms pretending to wonderful Raptures and Enthusiasms And in fine Iohn Gib with 4 more of them came to that height of Blasphemy that they burnt the Bible and Confession of Faith These were the Sweet Singers as they were called led away into these Delusions by that Impostor and Sorcerer Iohn Gib of which destructive way the approached Remnant adhering to the foresaid Testimony had always an Abhorrence of Wherefore that ignorant and impudent Calumny of their Consortship with Gibs Followers is only the vent of viperous Envy For they were the first that discovered them and reclaimed them and were always so far from partaking with them that to this day these that have come off from that way and have offered the Confession of their Scandal do still complain of their over-rigid Severity in not admitting them to their select Fellowships Shortly after this Mr. Donald Cargill finished his Testimony being apprehended with other two faithful and zealous Witnesses of Christ Mr. William Smith and Mr. Iames Beeg who with two more were altogether at Edinburgh 27 Iuly 1681. Crowned with the Glory of Martyrdom Then came the Day of the Remnants vexation the Persecution vaxing on the one hand and a violent Spirit of defection carrying down the most part of Ministers and Professours before it driving them to Courses of sinful and scandalous Conformings with the Times Corruptions Compearings before their Courts Complyings with their Commands paying of their Cesses and other Exactions taking of their Oaths and Bonds and countenancing their Prelatical Church-Services which they were ashamed to do before And thereupon on the other hand the Divisions and Confusions were augmented and poor People that desired to cleave to the Testimony were more and more offended and troubled at the Ministers who either left the Land or lurked in their own retirements But the remaining Contenders fell upon the expedient of corresponding in General Meetings to consult inform and confirm one another about common Duties in common Dangers Laying down this General Conclusion for a foundation of Order to be observed among them in incident doubtful Cases and emergent Controversies that nothing relative to the publick and which concerns the whole of their Community be done by any of them without harmonious consent sought after and rationally waited for and sufficient deliberation about the best means and manner In the mean time the Duke of York as Commissioner from his Brother held a Parliament in which he is declared legal and lineal Successour and a Test is framed for a Pest to Consciences which turned out of all Places of Trust any that had any remaining measure of common Honesty And to all the Cruel Acts then and before made against the People of God there was one superadded regulating the Execution of all the rest whereby at one dash all Civil and Criminal Justice was overthrown That the Right of Iurisdiction both in Civil and Criminal Matters is so inherent in the Crown that his Majesty may judge all Causes by himself or any other he thinks fit to Commissionate Here was a Law for Commissionating Souldiers to take away the Lives of Innocents as was frequently exemplified afterwards Against which encroachments on Religion and Liberty the faithful thought themselves obliged to emit a Testimony And therefore published a Declaration at Lanerk Ian. 12. 1682. Confirming the proceeding at Sanquhair and adding reasons of their Revolt from the Government of Charles the Second For his arrogantly arrogated