So early as 1686, the Societies entertained the design of collecting and publishing the testimonies of the martyrs. The Preface makes it unnecessary that the aim of the “Cloud of Witnesses” should be here stated.
PREFACE
Granting, for argument’s sake, that they had expressed themselves with some more fervency on that head, than others formerly have done, and that
A restless Popish and Jacobite party, projecting a new revolution of affairs; as sanguinary and cruel yet as ever, and retaining as much of the old malignity and enmity against the Covenanted work of Reformation as ever, only waiting an opportunity to exert it; [the Jacobite insurrection in favor of the Pretender took place in 1715 — the year after these words were written. ED.]; and many things in the present aspect of affairs portending, that they may be our scourge in the hand of our displeased Lord, for our misimproving mercies and deliverances, satisfying ourselves with our own things, not minding the things of Christ; chiefly for our undervaluing the offers of the blessed Son of God in the Gospel, and.
It is not pretended that here are all the Speeches and Testimonies of those that suffered in Scotland since the year 1680. For many of them,
As for the Testimonies of the Banished, they being much the same as to all material points with these of the dying witnesses, they are omitted, and
It is not pretended that here are all the Speeches and Testimonies ofthose that suffered in Scotland since the year 1680. May He unite us in the way of truth and duty, to strive together for the valuable interests of our religion and liberty.
AN ENCOMIUM
ON THE FOLLOWING MARTYRS
As if their bodies dead felt sense of pains, Cut all in parts, they hung them up in chains;. Is this the utmost that their rage could do, Only to send Chrises loving subjects home, To their dear country where they long to come.
DONALD CARGILL
He was tried on the 26th, along with Walter Smith, James Boig, William Thomson, and William Cuthill, martyrs whose testimonies are also in this volume. One morning, after his landing, he was walking at the waterside very sad, when he was accosted by a Thomas Urquhart.
THE LAST SPEECH AND TESTIMONY
Thence he was brought to the east side of the scaffold, and there he said, “I entreat you prepare you presently for a stroke, for God will not sit with [i.e., disregard] all the wrongs done to Him, but will suddenly come and make inquisition for the blood that has been shed in Scotland.”. I forgive all men the wrongs they have done to me, and pray the Lord may forgive all the wrongs that any of the elect have done against Him.
A LETTER FROM MR. DONALD CARGILL
He edited several of the posthumous works of his former colleague, James Durham, and the one-volumed edition of Calderwood’s History. 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.
A LETTER TO SOME FRIENDS
A LETTER TO JOHN MALCOLM
But seek till ye find, and, whatever ye find for the presen,t, let your last act be to lay and leave yourselves on the righteousness of His Son, expecting life through His name, according to the promise of the Father. It also shows the greatness of the sin of these enemies, who not only take away unjustly your bodily life, but also shorten your time of preparation, and so do their utmost to deprive you of eternal life.
A LETTER TO THE PRISONERS
It had been my earnest and frequent prayer to God, as He Himself knows, to be led in all truth, and I judge I have been in this. Next, ye would have all to be prayed to eternal wrath, who have departed and made defection in this time.
WALTER SMITH
Shepard’s “Sound Believer.”
Thomas Shepard was a native of Northampton; but went out in 1635 to New England, and was speedily settled at Cambridge, where he was the chief means of erecting and endowing the well-known Harvard College, an institution that in this century has renounced the opinions of its founders, and become the chief seat of unitarian error. He is best known on this side the Atlantic, by his “Parable of the Ten Virgins;” and his “Sound Believer,” a treatise on evangelical conversion; both of which have been frequently reprinted in this country.
THE DYING TESTIMONY AND LAST WORDS
This was the authority wherewith he was clothed; and the exercise of it was to be for God, religion, and the good of the subjects. I have had some clouds even since I came to prison; but blessed be God, these are all removed; for my God hath said to my soul, ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.’ And the faith of this makes me not to fear grim death, though it be called the king of terrors, yet it is not so to me, for this that you think a cruel and sudden death, is but an inlet to life, which shall be eternal.
JAMES BOIG
THE LAST TESTIMONY
As to the second, it being but one particular fact, deduced from that principle of the lawfulness of self-defense, and this principle being as positively asserted by all of us, I look upon the principle to be as expressly sealed with our blood, as that particular fact of rising in arms at Bothwell Bridge is. As to other particular actions, we declined to answer positively to them, as that of the Archbishop [Sharp’s] death.
DAVID HACKSTON
THE TESTIMONY
Whether or not had you any hand in the murdering of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews?
What he would declare as to the King’s authority?
If he owned the New Covenant, taken at the Queensferry, from Mr
Then, being interrogated by the Bishop of Edinburgh, what he would answer to that article of the Confession of Faith, that difference of religion doth not make void the Magistrate’s right and authority. These interrogations were all read to him in the face of the council, and he owned all.
EXTRACT
Upon which he was incontinent [i.e., instantly] carried away to the scaffold at the Market Cross of Edinburgh, where he died with great torture inflicted upon his body, not being permitted to leave any.
COPY OF A LETTER
We were horsed, civilly used by them on the way, and brought to Edinburgh, about four in the afternoon, and carried about the north side of the town to the foot of the. I was carried up to the Council, and first put up into a room alone, where the Chancellor [the Duke of Rothes] came, and asked if I knew him.
COPY OF ANOTHER LETTER
Besides, in contempt of the presence of God, seen at the meetings of His people convened in His name, they have declared them rendezvouses of rebellion [Act against Conventicles. I could instance many horrid things, acted and done by them, in their prosecuting their design of having that idol of theirs fixed in the usurpation of the prerogatives of Jesus Christ.
COPY OF A THIRD LETTER
I doubt not but God will save a remnant; but it will be of such in whom His free grace will be glorified, and not of the great ones that have not rendered to the Lord according to the talents He bestowed on them. I recommend you, and all the faithful, to the protection of Him, who is the Almighty God, and Everlasting Father.
LETTER
ARCHIBALD ALISON
The spot where so many of the martyrs suffered in the Grass-market is at a central part in the east end. At the present day the spot is marked out by an arrangement of the paving-stones in the form of a St.
THE DYING TESTIMONY
What think ye of heaven and glory, that is at the back of the cross. Seek ye the Lord, ye meek of the earth; ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.
JOHN MALCOLM
I die in the faith of the true Protestant religion, in doctrine, discipline, and worship, as it was received in the year 1638 and in the year 1649. Justiciary Courts, to ensnare and pannel the poor people of God in the west of Scotland.
JAMES SKENE
The defense of the Protestant religion, as established by law and sworn to by all ranks in the Covenants, and more particularly the
The preserving and defending the king’s majesty’s person and authority in the preservation and defense of the true religion and
They asked, Why I called the Chancellor ‘Sir.’ I said, ‘Sir’ was a title for a king, and it might serve him. Mackenzie said, ‘If the king were riding by in coach, would ye think it no sin to kill him?’ I said, by the Sanquhar Declaration,.
A LETTER
I many times wished from my heart the Lord would not order a settlement to me among you. 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.
ANOTHER LETTER
Brother to the Laird of Skene; which he intended to have delivered on the scaffold, December 1st, 1680. I leave my testimony to the National Covenant, and the Solemn League and Covenant, which are founded on the Scriptures, the Word of God, which are written by the prophets and apostles in the Old and New Testaments, which has Jesus Christ, the blessed object of our faith, for the chief corner stone of the building.
ARCHIBALD STEWART
For it was, by the hearing of the Gospel by His suffering servants, both here and in Holland, that I was brought to the love of God, and His only son Jesus Christ; since which time He has engaged my heart to seek Him in the same way. Now, I leave my testimony against the cursed prelates, and all their hirelings, who have been the instigators and drivers on of the Council and bloody soldiers to all the tyranny, oppression, and blood, which they have shed.
JOHN POTTER
I testify and bear witness against all the imprisonments, finings, and confinings, of the people of God, for adhering to His word and our Covenants. And lastly, I bear witness against all the oppression, spoiling, robbing, and hunting of the people of God, and that against all manner of law or reason.
ISABEL ALISON
They asked, What think you of that in the Confession of Faith, that magistrates should be owned, though they were heathens. Andrew Henderson and Alexander Henderson, in Kilbrachmont, are among the twelve mentioned by Russel as concerned in the deed.
THE INTERROGATIONS
Then they said, they pitied me; for, said they, We find reason and a quick wit in you; and they desired me to take it to advisement. Then they said, Your blood be upon your own head, we shall be free of it.
ACCOUNT
Meldrum, alluded to by the goodman of the Tolbooth, was George Meldrum, minister at Aberdeen. And there was a chirurgeon among them, and the goodman of the Tolbooth said, He might draw blood of us, for we were mad.
MARION HARVIE
After reading what was said by her and her fellow-sufferer Isabel Alison, Peden’s short but characteristic eulogium on them will be felt to be well merited: “They were two honest, worthy lasses.” No execution of those cruel times seems to have excited more sympathy or a deeper interest throughout the country. They said, Yea; but the Covenant does not bind you to deny the king’s authority.
MARION HARVIE’S DISCOURSE
I leave my testimony against all the bloodshed and massacres of the Lord’s people, either on scaffolds or in the fields. I leave my testimony against the paying of the cess, employed for the bearing down the preaching of the Gospel, and the taking and killing the poor followers of Jesus Christ.
