1661. suffer that book to be in his family. government, grievous crimes, and iniquity He lived till harvest, 1688, and so to be indeed punished by the judges, if it may be said indeed to "have kept possession could be proven against me, and would conof his Master's house till he came back;" as tradict the doctrine which I have at that he frequently used to express his own hopes time preached before many witnesses, yea, under this dark period of sufferings. He was in the face of unjust usurpers, for which I mighty in prayer, and a singular prevailer; was challenged, when I was preaching to my and I have some remarkable and strange own people, in hearing of some of their com returns of his prayers well vouched before manders upon my ordinary text, which thereme, not so needful to be insert here. I wish fore I would not balk, [alter] John xvi. 2. his worthy son, at present a reverend and The time shall come, when they who kill useful minister in this church, could be pre- you, shall think that they do God service: vailed with to give us the life of this holy but I bless the Lord, I came fair off in that debate, without any advantage to them, or shame to myself, or the word I preached. person. I find Mr. Robert Trail, Mr. John Stirling, and some other of the ministers who were seized, August last, toward the beginning of March this year before the lords of the articles; where it is observed by one who appears no great friend of theirs, that they had very handsome speeches in their own None of them I have heard of were brought before the parliament, save Mr. Trail, a copy of whose speech to the parliament deserves a room here, being all I have to give the reader of this worthy person, and from it he may easily gather both his indictment and defences; and it follows. vindication. “ My Lord, "I do rejoice to see my lord commissioner his grace, your lordships, and this honourable company upon this bench, and shall, in the beginning, humbly beg, that I may be allowed to answer my libel as becomes a minister of the gospel, and as one who desires to remember that I have an higher Judge to answer, even one who is higher than the kings of the earth, before whose tribunal all of us must ere long be sisted, there to be judged, and receive according to what we have done in the body, whether good or evil. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, and the certain and speedy coming of that day, I dare not use flatteries to men, nor dissimulation, but speak the truth in sincerity and singleness of heart, as before him who tries and searches the "I did often, both in private and public, witness and declare against that base and treasonable tender, when it was pressed upon the land. I have always laboured, and do still, to keep in mind that divine precept given by a great king, even Solomon; Fear God and the king, and follow not them that are given to changes:' and of a greater than Solomon, 'Give unto Cæsar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' I willingly subscribe to that which is in the imperial law, where it is said to be a great sacrilege, cripere Cæsari quod ejus est; how much more must it be the greater sacrilege, eripere Christo quod ejus est? "In answering the particulars of my libel, I cannot altogether keep silence as to the many bitter and injurious words wherewith it is stuffed, as that I have laid aside all loyalty to my prince, all natural affection to my country and countrymen, and all respect to law: those of your lordships who know me, will allow me more charity than to think me such an one; and such as know me not, I hope, will suspend their judgment till they know me: yea, I durst appeal to my lord advocate's own conscience, if he thinks me to be such a man. But I have not so learned Christ, yea, I have learned of him not to render evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing; and therefore I do from my heart pray for the honoured drawer up of the libel, as I would do for myself, that the Lord would bless him with his best blessings, and would give him to find merev in the day of the Lord Jesus. "The particulars of my libel are four, and I shall answer to them shortly and ingenuously as they lie there. "The first is, that Remonstrance which was presented to the committee of estates the end of the year 1650. Whatever be said against that paper in my libel, or whatever be said for it by the presenters and compilers of it, I shall need say nothing of it at present, but that I was neither at the contriving or presenting of it. It is well known that I was then in the castle of Edinburgh, besieged there by the unjust invaders of this land; and what my carriage was there in exhorting and encouraging that garrison to be faithful to the great trust committed to them, having the chief strength of the land in their custody, and the registers embarked with them; what, I say, my carriage was there, my brethren who were there with me, Messrs. Hamilton, Smith, and Garvan can testify. I did resolve to lay down my life in the defence of that place for his majesty and my country's service, if the Lord should please to call me to it; yea, I did run a very great hazard by a dangerous wound which I received; and shall I be no otherwise rewarded than by having such a libel drawn up against me! which, I may say, hath been more sad to read and think upon, than all the pain and danger I was at that time under; yet I hope your lordships, especially my lord commissioner, know better how to reward soldiers who have hazarded life in their service. 1661. the land does mourn; for these, I "But I know it is not those things I am challenged for, neither is it the two articles cited in the libel, but the 5th and 6th step of defection, under the 9th article, to which I shall answer. "The first of them, 'The closing a treaty with the king, after he had given such evidences of his disaffection and eninity to the work of God,' as it is in the book. To this I say two things, 1st, That I never did deny his majesty's just right and title to the gov "The second point of my libel is, the ernment of these kingdoms, and did always book of The Causes of God's Wrath,' acknowledge him the only righteous heir of which, I grant, is more ticklish to answer, those crowns; and I do now from my heart and therefore I shall speak the more warily bless the Lord, who hath in so wonderfu! to it. I do not deny that I was present at and peaceable a way brought him to the full that meeting, when those things were spoken possession of them, purposing to live in all of and confessed, when some brethren did true and due loyalty under his government, meet to mourn before the Lord, who hid his and praying, that he who is set over men, face from us, and whose hand had gone may be just, ruling in the fear of God, that forth against us with much wrath and sore his reign may be long and prosperous, and a judgments, and had brought kirk and state blessing to these lands, that when he shall under the feet of proud usurpers: I believe have fulfilled his days, and laid by his earthly your lordships will judge it no treason at crown, he may receive a greater and betsuch times, for ministers of the gospel, who, ter, which fadeth not away, but is eternal in by virtue of their office, are called to be the heavens. But in the 2d place, I cannot among the wise men, to whom the mouth of deny, unless I should lie against my own the Lord hath spoken, to declare wherefore I conscience, that I was at that time con 1661. tition is misrepresented in the libel, as if I had therein been injurious to his majesty; whereas, I can say, I had not in that the least thought of disloyalty against his majesty, but on the contrary, I did most willingly and cheerfully subscribe that supplication, as a testi:nony of my loyalty to my king, and of my ardent desire to have wrath holden off his throne and dominions, by a humble minding him of the sacred ties of the covenant which he had taken on, and by earnestly supplicating him, that he would vinced, there was not care enough to get him brought off from his prejudices against the work of reformation, and from some contrary principles which he had drunk in from his tender years, that so when he came to be invested with the royal power, he might improve the same the more for the Lord, and for his work in his dominions, according to the oath to be taken by the king who shall reign in Scotland; the which oath his majesty did take at the coronation at Scone. Neither is my meaning in that article, as if his majesty, not giving full sat-walk according to those, both in his court isfaction to the just desires of church and state, should never have been invested into his power, but that more care should have been taken, previously thereunto, to have brought him to a cordial owning of the work of God in these lande, which, as I believe, would have been acceptable service to God, and much conducing to the peace and happiness of his majesty in his dominions. In a word, my meaning in that article is, that security for religion, and the work of reformation, should be endeavoured in the first place, that so we, according to our Lord's direction, seeking first the kingdom of heaven, and the righteousness thereof, other things may succeed the better with us. "The next article is, concerning taking of malignants into the army and judicatories,' as it is set down in The Causes of God's Wrath.' To this I say, there is nothing asserted there, but what is clearly consonant to the word of God, and to the received doctrine of this church according to the word, as may be seen in the many declarations, remonstrances, warnings, and causes of fasts,' emitted and printed by the supreme judicatories of this church: for if it be a commanded duty to put into places of trust and power, men fearing God, men of truth, and hating covetousness; then must the neglect of that be a sin, and so a cause of wrath. "The third point of my libel is, that supplication which was drawn up and subscribed by some few ministers here at Edinburgh, in August last, for which we were imprisoned by the honourable committee of estates, and upon which I am cited this day to answer before your lordships. That pe and family, and in the government of his kingdoms; and I do desire, in the Lord's strength, and through his grace, to adhere to that supplication as long as I live, as a real evidence of my loyalty, and as a testimony to those blessed covenants, which are now so much spoken against. "The last point of my libel is, "The imperfect scroll of a letter and instructions,' which were found with us at our meeting. Though I might say I need not own these, they never being fully written out, or once read among us, yet I will ingenuously acknowledge, they were intended to have been sent to some of our brethren in another part of the country, for procuring their subscription to our petition, and for advising anent a way for charges to be furnished for sending of it up to his majesty, by one of our number. But the honourable committee did soon free us of that trouble, and of those charges, by sending it up their own way, and by putting us to another sort of trouble, and other charges, by seven months' imprisonment. I may confidently say, there was not the least thought of stirring up any to rise in arms, yea we would have accounted such a thought not only disloyalty, but dementation and madness. "Now, my lord, having shortly and ingenuously answered my long libel, I must in all humility beg leave to entreat your lordships, that you would seriously consider what ye do with poor ministers, who have been so long kept, not only from their liberty of preaching the gospel, but of hearing it, that so many congregations are laid desolate for so long a time, and many poor souls have put up their regrets on their deathbed 1661. whose cause and interest we suffer; for their being deprived of a word of comfort from their ministers in the hour of their greatest need." The Lord give you wisdom in all things, and pour out upon you the spirit of your high and weighty employment, of understanding, and of the fear of the Lord; that your government may be blessed for this land and kirk; that you may live long and happily; that your memory may be sweet and fragrant when you are gone; that you may leave your name for a blessing to the Lord's people; that your houses and families may stand long, and flourish to the years of many generations; that you have solid peace and heart-joy in the hour of the breaking of your heart-strings, when pale death will sit on your eyelids, and when man must go to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; for what man is he that liveth and shall not see death? or can he deliver himself from the power of the grave? No assuredly, for even those to whom he saith, ye are gods, must die as men, seeing it is appointed for all men once to die, and after death is the judgment, and after judgment endless eternity. Let me therefore exhort your lordships in the words of a great king, a great warrior also, and a holy prophet," the Remonstrance," or "Causes of God's 'Be wise, and be ye instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling: kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way; when his wrath is kindled but for a little, then blessed will all those, and those only be, who put their trust in him.' Now the Lord give you in this your day to consider the things that belong to your eternal peace, and to remember your latter end, that it may be well with you, world without end." From the seven months' imprisonment Mr. Trail speaks of, we may guess this speech was delivered towards the end of March. I find this good man with the rest, continuing in prison, June 13th, when in an original letter of his to Mr. Thomas Wylie, minister at Kirkcudbright, I find him giving this account. "I need not write to you how matters go here, this I must say, your imprisoned and confined brethren are kindly dealt with by our kind Lord, for I have before me the original summons of high treason, against Mr. John Murray, minister at Methven, who was at the meeting in Edinburgh August last, with his answers to the charge contained in the summons. By the first I find, that a general form has been used in the citations given to all these ministers, and, mutatis mulandis, it falls in with Mr. Guthrie's indictment; therefore I do not swell this work with it, nor with Mr. Murray's answers, which agree with Mr. Guthrie's and Mr. Trail's, save that Mr. Murray was neither at the framing Wrath." What issue the parliament came to as to Mr. Murray, I know not; it would seem he was turned over with others to the council. We shall find, that the parliament some way remitted those imprisoned and confined ministers to the council; and from their registers this year, I shall be in case to give some further hints about them. The two ministers of Edinburgh were soon turned out, and all the rest of their brethren there save one, who was termed the nest egg. This is all come to my hand, as to th sufferings of those worthy and excellent persons, who were in the meeting August last; unless it be those of Mr. James Kirko of Sunday-well, which I shall likewise give a hint of in this place. This religious and zealous gentleman was detained prisoner near four months after he was seized: thereafter he was not forgot in the act of fines, and paid 600 merks of fines, and 300 by way of cess to the soldiers who uplifted it. In a little time after one Paterson, by an 1661. order from the council, got his | him, and the compliances made by him. bond for a considerable sum, which The king had a particular design against afterward he compounded for 200 merks. him for his open dealings with the usurpers, In the year 1666, for mere not hearing, he and we have heard, it was with some diffiwas fined by Sir James Turner in 500 culty the managers were excused for sparing merks, and paid 300 to him, after eight him. We left him last year imprisoned in soldiers had continued in his house a long Stirling castle, and he was brought in to time. Before the rising at Pentland, be- Edinburgh, and March 6th, staged before cause of his nonconformity, he was so op- the parliament, where his indictment was pressed with parties of horse and foot sol-read: I have not seen a full copy of it, but diers every day, that he was obliged to find the following abstract in the papers of dismiss his family in the month of October, this time. and leave his house and all he had in it, to be disposed of as they saw good. And after Pentland, upon allegance that he had been there, though it could never be proven, he was obliged to leave the kingdom for three years. And when he returned, he was put to a prodigious charge by a process of forfeiture, raised against him by the lord Lyon, which continued till his death. He was succeeded in his estate by James M'Cleland, whom we shall afterwards meet with under very grievous sufferings. The next minister I name is Mr. Patrick Gillespie, first minister in the town, and then principal of the college of Glasgow. His works speak for him, and evidence him a person of great learning, solidity, and piety, particularly what remains we have of his excellent treatises upon "the Covenants of Grace and Redemption;" and it is pity we want the three other parts upon those subjects, which he wrote and finished for the press. By some he was said to be a person of a considerable height of spirit, and was blamed by many for his compliances with the usurper, and there is no doubt he was the minister in Scotland who had the greatest sway with the English when they rued here, yea, almost the only presbyterian minister that was in with them. This laid him open to many heavy reflections, and we need not wonder he was attacked by the managers at this time, when so many who had stood firm to the king's interest, were so ungenerously treated: besides, he was on the protesting side, and had no small share in the "Western Remonstrance," and probably it fared the worst with all the ministers of that judgment, because of the reproaches cast on "That he contrived, compiled, consented to, and subscribed the paper called the Western Remonstrance,' which he also produced in several judicatories, when it was declared treasonable, and condemned by the parliament or committee of estates. That he consented to, or approved that abominable pamphlet, called the Causes of God's Wrath,' containing many treasonable wicked lies and expressions against the king and his royal father, and which by the late committee of estates was appointed to be burnt by the hand of the hangman. That he kept constant correspondence with Cromwell the usurper That at Westminster, and in and about London, he preached in his presence seditious sermons; that he prayed for him as supreme magistrate; that for his so doing he received from him several gifts, and great sums of money." After his indictment was read, he had a long and pertinent speech, which I have not seen, but am told that therein he gave his sense of " the Western Remonstrance," and of" the Causes of God's Wrath :" and as to his receiving money from Cromwell, he confessed it; but said, he never put a farthing in his own pocket; that he sought it and got it for the university, and if that was blameworthy, he acknowledged his crime: but it was his opinion, if he could have drained the usurper's coffers for so good an end as the service of the college, it could have been no disservice to the king. He ended with a desire that he might be allowed to give in a paper containing his sense of the "Remonstrance," and other things in the late times. The parliament ordained him to give in his defences in writ, to the lords of articles, the 13th instant; and if he should |