BECAUSE this dying testimony and last speech are but short, which was occasioned through want of time and the persecutors’ severity, who took his larger testimony from him the day before he died, paper and ink being conveyed to him secretly by a cord through the window the night before his death, it is thought proper to subjoin these following letters of his, they being all of public concern, to give a more full discovery of the testimony which he held; and particularly of his witnessing against the errors about that time broached by the infamous John Gib, ms the letter written to the prisoners in the Correction House manifests.
have not done that, they shall not now meet with the like honor, if ever they meet with it, till vengeance be poured out upon them; and they and their king shall either be keeped together in wrath or divided in wrath, that they may be one another’s destruction.
“But go on, valiant champion; you die not as a fool, though the apostate, unfaithful, and lukewarm ministers and professors of this generation think and say so. They shall live traitors, and most part of them die fools. I say, traitors; as some men live upon the reward of treachery, for their quiet and liberty; if it may be called a liberty, as it is redeemed with the betraying of the interest of Christ, and the blood of His people. But He Himself hath sealed your sufferings, and their thus saying condemns God, and His sealing condemns them. But neither regard their voices, nor fear; for God will neither seal to folly nor iniquity. He then not only having sealed your sufferings, but your remission, go on to finish and perfect your testimony, not only against them, but against all that subject [i.e., yield] to them, side with them, or are silent at them.
“And as for these men that will be our rulers, though they have nothing of worth or virtue in them; I am persuaded of this, that none can appear before them and acknowledge them as they have now invested themselves; standing on a foundation of perjury, which is an act recissory of their admission to the government, with Christ’s crown on their head, and a scepter of iniquity and a sword of persecution in their hand; but must deny Christ. And in effect, the whole land generally hath denied Christ and desired a murderer; and as for that unsavory salt that lately appeared, acknowledged them, and was ashamed of this testimony, and in so doing gave the first vote to your condemnation, and proclaimed a lawfulness to the rest of assizers and murderers to follow in their condemnations, God shall require this, with his other doings, at his hands; and I am somewhat afraid, if he be not suddenly made the subject of serious repentance, that he shall be made the subject of great vengeance.” [The reference here is to the Rev. John Carstairs, minister of the Inner High Church, Glasgow, from 1650 to 1662. In 1662 he declined to take the oath of allegiance without giving an explanation of the sense in which he thought it might be taken, and
was imprisoned for several weeks until his health gave way. After the battle of Pentland, he went over to Holland, and preached in Rotterdam with great acceptance. In 1672 he returned to Scotland, when he was almost immediately summoned before the Council, but was set free on finding security for 2000 merks, i.e., 120 pounds. When Skene was apprehended, some papers were found on him that brought Carstairs into trouble. He was summoned before the Council, says Wodrow, where “he owned the king’s authority and that of his courts. With a great deal of seriousness he disclaimed the follies and principles Mr. Skene and some others now advanced, and said he could not express his abominating their extremities with vehemency enough.” Carstairs seemed to have lived in retirement. He edited several of the posthumous works of his former colleague, James Durham, and the one-volumed edition of Calderwood’s History. His son was the well-known counselor of William III, Principal Carstairs. — ED.]
“But forgive and forget all these private injuries, and labor to go to eternity and death with a heart destitute of private revenges, and filled with zeal to God’s glory; and assign to Him the quarrel against His enemies, to be followed out by Himself in His own way against the indignities done to Him, and against the mocking perfidiousness, impieties, and lukewarmness of this generation.
“And for yourself, whatever there has been either of sin or duty, remember the one and forget the other, and betake yourself wholly to the mercy of God and the merit of Christ. Ye know in whom ye have believed, and the acceptableness of your believing, and the more fully you henceforth believe, the greater shall be His glory, and the greater your peace and safety.
“Farewell, dearest friend, never to see one another any more till at the right hand of Christ. Fear not; and the God of mercies grant a full gale and a fair entry into His kingdom, which may carry sweetly and swiftly over the bar, that you find not the rub of death. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you.
“Yours in Christ,
“D. C.”