“P.S. — I told the Chancellor the cause was just, whereby the king and others were excommunicate [at the Torwood]; though I was not there, yet I adhered to it.
“You know how much I have contended with you for paying of that cursed cess, ordered by the Convention of Estates for bearing down the Gospel; as I was honored to witness against it at a committee on Saturday last, at night. You are not aware how you bring the blood of saints on your heads by this obedience to the stated enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your opposing of that which was and is the judgment of the most tender professors (in withdrawing from indulged ministers, and from these ministers that favored them, and so did not, nor would not declare against the Indulgence as a sin that most heinously and rebelliously dishonors our blessed Lord as head of the Church, and sets up a tyrannous usurper in His place), was a particular I much contended [i.e., insisted on] with many of you, on my hearing you pleading for a sinful union with those who have conspired to dethrone our blessed Lord. Some of you opposed that which was an honorable testimony for our Lord at Rutherglen, and that declaration at Sanquhar, and the testimony or covenant that was taken at the Queensferry; calling these rash and inconsiderate I whom the Lord called out to be valiant contenders for His truth and interest (which is now contemned by a wicked apostate generation), and to seal all of them with blood.
“By all these the Lord has been calling His people to come out from among Babel’s brood; its cursed brood, who by many subtile satanical ways, what by Prelacy, Quakerism, Arminianism,
Latitudinarians, and Indulged ministers, and ministers and
professors that love so their quiet that they will not declare against and decline that usurping traitor on the throne, Charles Stuart, and all the cursed crew of pretended magistrates in Scotland, having forfeited their right of government, as appears by their wicked and unparalleled apostacy from that Solemn League and Covenant;
upon that foul pretext, that we are not in a probable capacity to extirpate them, or put them out of office. When, in our place and station, we give our witness against these usurpations, we so far contend for God, and witness for His trodden down and despised interest, and testify our unwillingness that our Lord should totally give up with this poor land.
“Oh! this hath been many times a sad heart to me; that ye have looked more to the credit of men than the glory of our great Lord God. I fear this testimony be unacceptable and hazardous to you to main-rain because of that they call treason in it; but, all! there is so much done to advance a mortal creature, a stated enemy to Christ, a furious, hasty, cruel murderer of God’s saints, that there is fear of disowning God, and a palpable denying of Him before men, when you own these tyrannous oppressors. Your estates you cannot part with; your credit and pleasures, and your quiet in the world, you will not part with. You will rather imagine arguments to cheat yourselves in defending your practices, that are clear breaches of covenant, if your too great carnal love to the world did not blind you, and your unwillingness to quit your life for Christ; which soon will come to an end, however, with less comfort than you would certainly have, when you adventure all for our blessed Lord.
“As for you, Mr. Alexander; I may say I have found you willing, on good information, to be for tender cleaving to your dear Master;
and bad information making it a question if it was duty to dethrone the pretended king, which, Mr. T. H. and Mr. R. M. opposing, biased you from that principal duty, by which we are singularly known to be true Covenanters. And leave these that are blind, and follow your dear Master, in the duties He calls His people to; and He will own them (and I am persuaded He has owned them)who have owned Him in this duty. You did quarrel at field-meetings, enemies ordering against them, and consenting that house-meetings be enjoyed; but here is your testimony; when you keep the fidds, you declare that our Lord’s Church has liberty to keep her
meetings and ordinances where she pleases, and ought not to be at the arbitrament of men.
“To Mr. Mitchell I say; I have had a great esteem of you for a true lover of piety, and I doubt not, the Lord has sealed your ministry sometimes, and some witnesses of it I have known. But, O! sir, what a fearful snare are you in, by complying with curates in hearing them, and taking both sacraments off their hands! Oh! if ye quit not all carnal love to the world, to credit, and [to] friends that will oppose your coming off, the hazard is great; the Lord may
rank you with them that have opposed the rising of His kingdom.
However, I am sure, He will make you mourn for it, and I doubt [not], if ye shortly come not off from that accursed crew, that the Lord will send you a sorer trial than sufferers for Him meet with.
“To Mr. Watson I write this as my last testimony. Oh! how unfaithful is his ministry; he dare not, for fear of losing his
ministry, declare against the heinous breach of Covenant by all the pretended magistrates in the land. I grant, your dearness as to other things was much one with my own. O! Sir, quit men as they quit Christ’s way and interest; else you will never be clear in truths; as the Lord lets out light and increaseth it. And this is most dreadful, to be so ensnared to walk in darkness, and so be in opposition to our blessed Lord! Oh! let love to the Lord Jesus Christ assuredly overcome you; and then admiring of men, and cleaving to them who are out of Christ’s way, will be no small matter, but a heinous sin.
Oh! will you adventure your salvation on it, to cleave to them who are reproaching our Lord, His people, and interest, by mixing in with the cursed curates? That person ye cleave to draws on Him the guilt of all the saints’ blood that is shed in maintaining His interest and covenant, whose judgment ye cannot decline, He being judge of all the world.
“Ye may say much, every one of you that know me. I was many times negligent of a tender walking, by seeking of settlement; and if that had been my lot, ye had not heard of this testimony. You know, every one of you, this testimony I gave you formerly; even when with you. I many times wished from my heart the Lord would not order a settlement to me among you. My heart was broken with your lukewarmness and indifferency. And this I testified to several of you, and I rather choosed, I said often, to be a sheep-keeper in the South, where I might be encouraged in
godliness, than to live in pomp and ease at home with an ill conscience. And when I came away last, I was sorry at my purpose of leaving Scotland, when I heard all were agreeing to apostacy, in my judgment then, from our blessed covenanted God;
and I was determined for Ireland then, being ill informed of every one of the kingdoms, there not being a people tenderly owning the
Covenant in Ireland, but all some way owning the usurper Charles Stuart.
“But in poor Scotland, here in the South, I found a poor handful, and but one faithful minister, whom the Lord called out, viz., Mr.
Donald Cargill, to be His messenger to His people, and to give witness against the apostacy of ministers and professors; even those who were great lights in the land are now in obscurity, and avowedly reproaching our Lord’s interest and people; whom yet the Lord will clothe with shame, and make their peace they boast of, and quiet sleep, to their great confounding.
“As for the call I have to suffer, I found it my only peace to quit thoughts of Ireland, that I might not be involved in their guilt of denying to have our Lord Jesus Christ to be King over them. Oh!
that poor party I find only for maintaining His prerogative royal, to which I am joined, Mr. Donald Cargill being the only faithful ambassador our Lord has in Scotland! I, following the ordinances on Friday last; being as well armed for defending the Gospel, and myself, as I could; beyond expectation, a party of Linlithgow’s soldiers is sent out to my lodging, and not dreading danger in the day-time I thought our persecutors had never heard of my name. I was apprehended, and now at last brought hither to close prison;
the Lord having honored me to give an ample testimony before the Council and Lords of Justiciary, for my wronged Lord Jesus.
“And supposing I must seal it with my blood, I leave this
testimony to you, my friends and acquaintances in Aberdeenshire, and subscribe it, November 17, 1680,
“JAMES SKENE.”
“From my delectable prison; in which my Lord has allowed me His peace and presence, and comforted me with that I shall reign with Him eternally; for I am His, and bought with His precious blood.”
A LETTER
FROM MR. JAMES SKENE To his Friend and Fellow-prisoner N.
“MY MUCH HONORED FRIEND IN CHRIST, — I give it under my hand, I have no cause to rue my sweet bargain. His cross is easy and light yet; and that which is most terrifying, I hope He will make comfortable. O lovely Lord! what could make Him to choose me for suffer for Him? What is all the world to me, if His honor be at the stake? If His honor be advanced by my death, O happy me!
“I have oftentimes wished a suffering lot; I heard and saw so much of God’s goodness, that I thought the cross and comforts in Christ could not be separated. And I have no reason to complain; the Lord is so oft the joy of my heart, that I am forced to wonder at it.
“Leaving further troubling you, hoping you will be as good as your word; be much in prayer for these two or three days. It is likely on Thursday next I will need no help of prayers, being come to the immediate vision of my Lord, to see Him as He is; I will be stupefied, as it were, and amazed at it. If His merits were not of infinite value, I might question, What would I do? But He has promised that I shall reign with Him.
“JAMES SKENE.”