pray for it; it is not needful to multiply words. I leave it with you as ye shall answer to Jesus Christ when he shall come in the clouds with power and great glory.* Your affectionate pastor,

Rotterdam, October, 1671."

JOHN LIVINGSTONE."

2. HIS LAST Words.

Upon the 9th of August, 1672, the day on which he died, some of his friends who occasionally came to visit him being present, he was desired by his wife to speak something to them. He said, "There is a vanity in speaking and desiring to hear. But He (Jesus Christ) needs no testimony from man, yet if my poor testimony could signify any thing, it is good my duty to give it him, for he hath made good his word to me in all things. The Lord was pleased to take me when I was young, and to keep me on his side, for when I was at the college of Glasgow, he engaged me to an opposition to kneeling at the communion. The first acquaintances ever I had were Christian acquaintances, as the tutor of Bonnington, and my lady Kenmuir, who is the oldest acquaintance I have alive now in Scotland. And when I was called to Ireland, I was joined to some worthy men there, whose books I was not worthy to bear."

And after a pause, (for he was not able to speak much together) looking towards his friends, he saith with an emphatic sweetness, 66 Carry my commendations to Him, (meaning Jesus Christ) till I come there myself and bring them."

After this Jacob-like pause, he added," I die in the faith that the truths of God, which he hath helped the church of Scotland to own, shall be owned by him as truths so long as sun and moon endure. I hate independency; though there be good men among them, and some well meaning people favour it, yet it will be found more to the prejudice of the work of God than many are aware of, for they evanish into vain opinions. I have had my own faults, as other men, but he made me always to abhor shows. I have, I know, given offence to many through my slackness and negligence, but I forgive, and desire to be forgiven. I cannot say much of great services, yet, if ever my heart was lifted up, it was in preaching of Jesus Christ. There is a cloud : I would not have people forecasting the worst, yet there is a storm oming, but I hope it shall not last long. I have not much to do with creatures, I have ordered my cause, and he knoweth my words which I uttered before him at Mizpeh !"

Speaking of some of his special friends in the south, he mentioned these two ladies, the lady Merton and the lady Riddell, who, he said, "had been very useful to him and his family."

His wife apprehending him not able to speak more at that time, and fearing what shortly followed, desired him to take his leave of his friends: "I dare not," said he, with an affectionate tenderness," and

Gillies' Historical Collections, vol. i.

it is like our parting will be but for a short time!"* And then he slept in the Lord.

XXI. JOHN BURNET.

[Mr. Burnet is characterized by Wodrow, as having been a man "of great solidity and learning." He was, at the restoration, minister of Kilbride, in Lanarkshire; and had laboured for many years in that parish with much assiduity, acceptance, and success. He was, however, along with the great majority of his faithful brethren, outed from his charge, and deprived of his living by the Act of 1662. From this period, we do not observe any mention of him till 1673, when with many others, he was offered the Indulgence. This favour he felt it his duty to decline; and though he did not carry his opposition to the measure so far as others, he yet regarded it as a measure derogatory to the fundamental principles of presbyterian government. Being unable, from sickness, to appear before the council when cited, to give his reasons for refusing it, he forwarded them in writing, with a letter to the Chancellor. The paper containing them, together with that letter, is here introduced, as exhibiting a very clear and decided Testimony, not merely against the evil in question, but also in favour of the presbyterian government of the church of Scotland. And, considering that he died shortly after, on the 22d December, 1673, these may still farther be regarded as constituting his last testimony, to that good cause.]

1. HIS TESTIMONY AGAINST THE INDULGence. "Being called before his majesty's privy council+ to give an account of the reasons, why I have not accepted of this present Indulgence, granted by his most excellent majesty to several presbyterian ministers in Scotland; I desire humbly and in the fear of God (who standeth in the congregation of the mighty, and judgeth among the gods) to give this true, sober, and ingenuous relation of such things, as did and do invincibly bind me, why I cannot accept of this late complex Indulgence, framed in three distinct acts of council, of the date September 3d and 7th, 1672.-To which, I shall premise these things briefly :

"1st. That it is well known to all the protestant reformed churches

• This account of Livingstone's last words has been extracted expressly for this Work, from a MS. in the handwriting of Mr. M'Ward, who was present when he died. The title of the MS is as follows:-" Some expressions of Mr. John Livingstone, when some of his friends were together occasionally to see him, a little before his death August 9th, 1672."—[LX. Jac. V. 1. 10. Art. 58.]

In reference to the particular form in which this paper has come down to us, as a memorial to the privy council, the author has prefixed to it the followIng intimation :-"The draught of this paper was framed purposely to the S. Council, as will appear in the very entry thereof, which mould I could not change, because of the want of health, and other inconveniencies."

abroad, concerning the constitution and government of this ancient church of Scotland for many years, and particularly in the year 1660, that it was framed according to the word of God; confirmed by many laudable and ancient laws of the kingdom; and solemnly sworn to by all ranks within the same.

"2d, It is also found by lamentable experience, that since that time, this ancient and apostolic government is wholly overturned in its very species and kind, and that by the introduction of lordly prelacy, which is tyrannically exercised; whereby the church was suddenly deprived of her lawfully called pastors, and their rooms filled by strangers, violently thrust in upon the people, many of whom have proved scandalous and insufficient.

"3d, The sad effects of these things are conspicuously appar ent upon the face of this church this day,-such as involving the land in great backsliding and defection; the abounding ignorance and athei sm; the overflowing speat of sensuality and profaneness like to Sod om; the increase of popery and error through the land, even to the height of antichristian paganism, and quakerism; the sharp suffering and smartings of many of his majesty's loyal subjects through the land, merely because they cannot conform to the present prelatical frame ; and, finally, the increase of animosities, dissensions, divisions, jealousies, and differences among the subjects.

"4th, Whatever power sound and orthodox divines do acknowledge the magistrate to have, and to have exercised in a troubled and extraordinary state of the church; yet, it is not at all yielded by them, that the magistrate may, in any ways, alter its warrantably established government, and so turn that same troubled and perplexed state and frame of the church, made such by himself, merely to be the subject of his magisterial, authoritative care, and operation.

"5th, That I be not mistaken, as denying to his majesty his just power in ecclesiastic matters, I do humbly and with great alacrity acknowledge, that the civil magistrate hath a power circa sacra, which power is objectively ecclesiastic; so as he, by his royal authority, may enjoin, that whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, may be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven; which power also is by God's appointment only cumulative and auxiliary to the church, not privative, nor destructive, and is to be exercised always in a civil manner.

"As to the reasons of my not-acceptance of the present offer, and not repairing to the place designed by the council, they are;

"1. That our Lord Jesus Christ, Mediator, the King, and Lawgiver of his own church, hath committed all ministerial authority, for government of his house, to his own church officers, as the first proper subject and receptacle thereof, John xx. 21. As my Father sent me, so send I you.' Matth. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. All power is given to me in heaven and earth; go ye and preach the gospel.' 2 Cor. x. 8. Our authority which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for destruction,' &c. But so it is, that the act explanatory of his

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majesty's supremacy in the churcn, (whereupon the Act of Indulgence is grounded) doth not only claim the power to belong of right to his majesty and successors, as an inherent privilege of the crown, but doth actually, also, invest and clothe him with the formal exercise thereof in his own person, and that he may derive the same and convey it to others, as in his royal wisdom he shall think fit: for, his majesty is pleased to design and make application of ministers to congregations, and that, without the previous call of the people, and power of the presbytery (which would suppose the civil magistrate have authority to judge of the suitableness of ministers' parts and gifts to labour amongst such and such a people ;) as also to frame and prescribe ecclesiastic rules, relating to the exercise of the ministerial office, as also appointing a commission to plant and transplant ministers, as they shall think fit; notwithstanding that it hath been unanswerably evinced, that presbyterian government is founded on the word of God, and confirmed otherwise abundantly.

"2. Although I do freely disallow and condemn all tumultuary and seditious meetings (among which, it is sad and grievous, that the peaceable meetings of the Lord's people for worship, and hearing the word soundly preached, should be reckoned,) yet I am so convinced in my heart of the Lord's blessing attending the preaching of the gospel (though not in a public parish church) as that I judge the narrative of the first act to go near to involve my acceptance of this Indulgence, being an interpretative condemning of the said meetings.

"3. There is a standing relation betwixt me and another flock, over which I was set by the appointment of Jesus Christ in his word, which tie can never really be dissolved by any other power than that which at first did make it up, and gave it a being and after that I had ten years (during the English usurpation) wrestled in opposition to quakers and independents, in the place where the first breach had been made upon the church of Scotland, I was without any ecclesiastic sentence thrust from the public exercise of my ministry in that place, where there will be twelve hundred examinable persons, whereof there were never fifty persons, yet to this day, who have subjected themselves to him, who is called the regular incumbent; and that, even when I was living thirty miles distant from the place. Now, what a door is hereby (by my being kept from my charge) opened to error, atheism, and profaneness may be easily conjectured by those who hear of the deplorable case of that people: and what a grief must it be to them, to have their own lawful pastor shut up in a corner, whereby we are both put out of a capacity to receive any more spiritual comfort flowing from that relation, which is yet in force betwixt us? or how is it to be imagined that any new supervenient relation can result betwixt another flock and me, by virtue of an act only of a mere civil judicatory ?* Beside, that the people, in whom I

• Mr. Burnet, as already stated, had been minister of Kilbride, in Lanarkshire, and it was now proposed in the act of indulgence to settle him at Newmills, in Ayrshire. This, however, as is here well argued, was in direct opposition to the presbyterian polity, which requires that a man should be presbyteri ally loosened from one charge, before being admitted to another.

have present interest, are utterly rendered hopeless, by a clause in the end of the first act, viz. That the Indulgence is not hereafter to be extended in favours of any other congregation than these mentioned in the act,' whereof they in that parish are none.

"4. That I will not offer to debate the magistrate's sentence of confinement, let be his power to do the same; yet I shall soberly say, there are so many things attending the present application thereof to my person, that it cannot be expected I should give that obedience hereto, which might infer my own consent or approbation. For, 1st, Though this confinement be called a gentle remedy of the great evils of the church, in the narrative of the first act, yet it is found to be a very sharp punishment, as it is circumstantiate. 2d, All punishments, inflicted by magistrates on subjects, ought to relate to some cause or crime, and cannot be done arbitrarily, without oppression, which truth is engraven on the light of nature; for Festus, a heathen man, Acts xxv. 27. could say, It seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crime laid against him; yet am I sentenced and sent in fetters to a congregation, without so much as being charged with any crime, and all the world are left to collect the reason of this censure! 3d, If my confinement relate not to any crime, it must needs relate to a design, which design is obvious to common sense, viz. that I should preach and exercise the office of my ministry, wholly at the appointment and disposal of the civil magistrate; and a sentence of confinement is less obvious to debate and dispute by the subjects, and will more easily go down with any simple man, than an express command to preach, grounded on his majesty's royal prerogative and supremacy, and cannot readily be refused by any, unless a man make himself to be constructed a squeamish, wild fanatic, and expose himself to great sufferings; so this confinement, which hath both his majesty's prerogative and supremacy in ecclesiastic matters in it, comes to me in room, and that directly, of the people's call, and presbytery's authority, and other ecclesiastic appointment. Now this design, however closely covered, I dare not in conscience, yea, I cannot (with the preservation of my judgment and principles) concur with, or be consentient thereto. 4th, By the confinement I am put to an open shame before the world, and particularly in that place where I am permitted to preach the gospel: for what weight can my preaching or ministerial acts of discipline and government have, while I myself am handled and dealt with as a malefactor and transgressor, a rebel or traitor to my prince and nation? Or how can I preach the word of the Lord freely and boldly against the sins of the times (as against profaneness, error, injustice, and oppression) as ministers ought impartially to do, while I am kept under a perpetual check of the sword of the magistrate at my throat? This to me is not preaching, but an overawed discourse: moreover, I become a prey for any malicious prejudicate hearer, who shall happen to accuse and inform against me. Can I be answerable to God who sent me, to render up myself willingly to be a servant of men? Were not this to cut out my own tongue with my own hands? 5th, This confinement is not simply or mainly of my person, (which sentence, if it were so, I should most