Scots Heroes

Original spelling:

I can resemble our Saviour to nothing better, than to a wise and skilfull Pylot, who seeing his company sicke, and weary with continuall stormes at sea, whenneth hee knoweth hee is neare any land, letteth his sick, and faint-hearted company go on shoare to refresh themselves, to get aire of the land, to take in new victuals and provision, to serve the neccessitie of their succeeding voyage: but if hee finde them to begin to be enamoured with love of the land, and the pleasures thereof, staright wayes he sendeth a boat on shoare, and reclaimes them from the surfet of their pleasures, telling them, if any amongst them would bee at home, at his owne countrie, hee must come aboard againe; for it is not the dallying with the pleasures of a strange country, that will bringe him home to his own soyle.
—William Wishart “An expostion of the Lord’s Prayer”

Modern English:

I can resemble our Saviour to nothing better, than to a wise and skilfull Pilot, who seeing his company sick, and weary with continual storms at sea, whenneth he knoweth he is near any land, letteth his sick, and faint-hearted company go on shore to refresh themselves, to get air of the land, to take in new victuals and provision, to serve the neccessity of their succeeding voyage: but if he find them to begin to be enamoured with love of the land, and the pleasures thereof, staright wayes he sendeth a boat on shore, and reclaims them from the surfet of their pleasures, telling them, if any amongst them would be at home, at his own country, he must come aboard again; for it is not the dallying with the pleasures of a strange country, that will bring him home to his own soil.

Behold you ruined pile, which rears its head
Like some grim spectre of the mighty dead;
While girt by boundless Ocean’s bulwark strong,
With Time’s relentless hand it struggles long;
Wild sea-mews ‘thwart the troubled billows sail,
And through the din resounds their mournful wail;
While stately ships are gulfed in that dark main,
Against whose might the pilots skill is vain,
And created waves besiege yon rocky steep,
Which guards the shell-paved caverns of the deep:
Cast in the sternest mould of Nature’s hand,
Behold a scene magnificently grand!

Those ancient halls, in the days of other years,
Have oft been trod by Scotland’s noblest peers;
And she, the dark eyeed Queen, upon whose brow
The bright gems paled before her beauty’s gow,
Ere yet her fortune’s star was on the wane,
She here hath gazed upon yon surgy main.
The thunders of our mighty Knox have rolled,
Athwart these portals and these chambers old,
Which oft have witnessed midnight deeds of woe,
And seen the brave by murder’s stroke laid ow.
The birth place of a Royal Stuart-child,
‘Twas here his days of spring-time smiled,
Ere yet a monarch’s wreath had crowned his head,
Ere yet dark visions hovered round his bed.

But ’tis not regal pomp of other days
Which now enchains our faith-enraptured gaze,
It is a little spot of hallowed turf,
Oft sprinkled by the wild waves foamy surf;
Now o’er that spot the gay and thoughtless tread,
Unmindful of their country’s sainted dead.
Yet many an eye with sorrow’s tear is filed,
And many a Scottish heart with awe is thrilled;
For here our WISHART stood amidst his foes
Unmoved, ave by his trammelled country’s s woes;

Although  the stake with threatening frown stood by,
To shoot its faming columns to the sky.

Tis done! that deed of bigot rage is o’er
And WISHART’s spirit brave aloft doth soar.
Oh, Solemn hour! When that long fettered soul,
Freed from its chains, doth reach the martyrs goal;
Where, mid the glories of yon Palm-crowned throng,
Praise to their God for ever swells the song!
Clad in its sablest garb, the vault of heaven,
By deafening peals and lightning’s flash is riven,
While stormy winds with trumpet tongues proclaim
The martyr’s courage and tyrants shame!
Lo, where proud BEATON sits, in fiend like rage,
His deadly war with innocence to wage,
And gloats exuting o’er his victim’s fate,
Inflamed with venomed ire–with quenchless hate;
But though the flames obeye his mandate given,
On fiery wings they bear the soul to heaven;
‘tib but the body they to dust recall.
Obedient to the Bigot’s vengeful calll.
But lo! amid the spirit’s parting strife,
The martyr’s  soul is fired with heavenly life;
Hark! from his lips prophetic numbers flow,
In awful cadence, ”gainst his country’s foe.

“Vengeance is mine” the Lord of hosts hath said,
“That vengeance, BEATON, hovers o’er thy head;
“Ere many moons have wanted, a summons dread,
“Shall beckon thee to Death’s dark mouldering bed;
“And when that hour of mortal woe is o’er,
“And thy brief dream hath fled of earthly power,
“Then shall our spirits disembodied meet,
“Amidst the thunders of the judgement-seat.
“I go, I go! my spirits chains are riven,
“I go! m y soul hath from her slumbers risen!”

Ages have passed since WISHART’S fearful doom,
O’ercast broad Scotland with a darkening gloom,
Since Fate’s dread voice proclaimed the BEATON’S knell,
And in the death-grasp of his foes he fell.
Ages have passed–the papal night is o’er,
The Gospel, beams illume our Scotland’s shore;
And now our martyred champion’s far-spread name
Re-echoes o’er our hills with deathless fame,
Linked with the band who, in the bygone days,
Died for their God and the flames fierce blaze.
BRAVE HAMILTON! the young-the earthly doomed,
Sadly amid thy death-pangs ocean boomed;
And aged MILNE, upon whose time-worn form
Was spent the last dread fury of the storm;
With FOREST, CRAW, and RESBY, (England’s son,)
Who midst St. Andrew’s fanes the combat won.

Then pause awhile! for this is holy ground,
Although ye mark nor cross, nor stone around.
Sepulchral trophies crown the monarch’s name,
The stately column warrior deeds proclaim;
The minstrel hath his shrine in lofty song,
And shall thy names be lost, oh fearless throng
Not so my country! from your slumbers wake,
Ye dweller’s by the mountain and the lake;
And now, when  many a peaceful year hath fled,
Oppression rears once more her Gorgon head,
And fetters clank mid Zion’s bulwarks free,
Rousing the brave for Truth and Liberty,–
The hour is come, Oh patriots to arise,–
Recall the days of yore with tear-dimmed eyes,
And let the obelisk its crest upraise
For Scotland’s martyr’s of the olden days!
—Author Unknown

The above book, will give you a quick over-view and potted history of the testimony and martyrdom of George Wishart.

My Very Noble and Worthy Lady,

So often as I call to mind the comforts that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the delight of mine eyes (Ezek. 24:1), as the Word speaketh (which wound is not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall remember that, and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest Lord has made you a widow, albeit I must out of some experience say, the mourning for the husband of your youth be, by God’s own mouth, the heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel 1:8). And though this be the weightiest burden that ever lay upon your back; yet you know (when the fields are emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if you shall wait upon Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God’s honor and truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. Let your faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now spend your whole love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ.

And I dare say that God’s hammering of you from your youth is only to make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world’s vain painted glory a gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because He is to propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the inheritance is yours. You are a child of the house, and joy is laid up for you, it is long in coming, but not the worse for that. I am now expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of you since I knew you fully; even that you have laid such strength upon the Holy One of Israel, that you defy troubles, and that your soul is a castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God’s sake, let Him not miss His grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith (Jude 21).

Now, Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part; and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not evidencing what I was obliged to your more than undeserved love and respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in Galloway is now shining in another world.

Now I pray that God may answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the God of all consolations.

Anwoth, Sept. 14, 1634

John Knox’s time as a galley slave, left him weak constitutionally, and with recurrent attacks of an acute condition they called “The gravel.” He had to labour still while this was upon him, but even Knox expresses how the body in pain, is a cross that can be hard to bear. He was also called to London while in these attacks to answer some trumped up charges against him. In 3 excerpts of letters he wrote to his sister, he speaks of his bodily infirmity

My daily labors must now increase, and therefore spare me as much as you may. My old
malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my health
than writing. Think not that I weary to visit you; but unless my pain shall
cease, I will altogether become unprofitable. Work, O Lord, even as
pleaseth Thy infinite goodness, and relax the troubles, at Thy own
pleasure, of such as seeketh Thy glory to shine. Amen.

The pain of my head and stomach troubles me greatly. Daily I find my body decay; but the providence of
my God shall not be frustrate. I am charged to be at Widrington on
Sunday, where I think I shall also remain Monday. The Spirit of the Lord
Jesus rest with you. Desire such faithful as with whom ye communicate
your mind, to pray that, at the pleasure of our good God, my dolor both
of body and spirit may be relieved somewhat; for presently it is very
bitter. Never found I the Spirit, I praise my God, so abundant where
God’s glory ought to be declared; and therefore I am sure there abides
something that yet we see not.

Your messenger found me in bed, after a sore trouble and most dolorous night; and
so dolor may complain to dolor when we two meet. But the infinite
goodness of God, who never despiseth the petitions of a sore troubled
heart, shall, at His good pleasure, put end to these pains that we presently
suffer, and in place thereof shall crown us with glory and immortality for
ever. But, dear sister, I am even of mind with faithful Job, yet most sore
tormented, that my pain shall have no end in this life. The power of God
may, against the purpose of my heart, alter such things as appear not to be
altered, as He did unto Job; but dolor and pain, with sore anguish, cries the
contrary. And this is more plain than ever I spake, to let you know ye
have a fellow and companion in trouble, and thus rest in Christ, for the
head of the serpent is already broken down, and he is stinging us upon the
heel.

[The martyr to whom reference is here made is James
Guthrie, whose last words were, " The Covenants ! the cov
enants shall yet be Scotland's reviving." In the story of
his life, as told by the Rev. Thomas Thomson, is the fol-
lowing passage which Mrs. Menteath has made the subject
of her touching poem : " James Guthrie had a son named
William, about four or five years old ; so young, indeed,
and therefore so ignorant of the dismal tragedy that was
approaching, that James Cowie (Mr. Guthrie's servant,
precentor, and amanuensis) could scarcely detain him from
playing in the streets on the day of his father's execution.
Guthrie, whose soul yearned over his boy, so soon to be-
come an orphan, took him upon his knee and gave him
such advices as were suited to his capacity. He bade him
to become serious — to become religious — and to be sure to
devote himself to that honest and holy course in which his
father had walked to the death. 'Willie,' he said, 'they
will tell you. and cast up to you, that your father was hang-
ed ; but think not shame of it, for it is upon a good cause.'
After the execution, the head was set up on the Nether
Bow Port as a spectacle for the finger of scorn to point at.
But among those who repaired thither, and looked up at
the long grey hairs rustling in the wind, and the features
embrowning and drying in the sun, one little hoy was oft-
en seen gazing fixedly upon that countenance with looks
of love and terror — and still returning, day after day, and
hour after hour, as if there was for him a language in that
silent head which none else could hear. And who could
that child be but Guthrie's young son — the little ' Willie'
of the Martyr's last affectionate counsels and cares? His
love of playing in the streets was now over ; a new occu-
pation had absorbed him ; and as he returned from these
pilgrimages, we may conceive with what feelings his moth-
er heard him when, on her anxious inquiry as to where he
had been, his usual reply was, ' I have been seeing my
father's head !' The dyiug admonitions of the departed
parent, enforced by such a solemnizing spectacle, seem to
have sunk deep into William's heart ; for it was observed
that after his father's death, he spent much time in solitude,
and was often employed in prayer. Resolving to walk in
his father's steps, he directed his studies to the^jhurch,
and became a scholar of excellent promise ; but he died in
early youth, when he was entering upon trials to be licensed
as a preacher."]

0. the sunrise! the sunrise hath wondrous power
To gladden all living things;
It breaks on the chill night’s milkiest hour.
Like a smile from the King of kings!
“Pis earliest June, and the earth hatli thrilled
With the earnest of summer given :
And the very city’s self is tilled
With the breath and the beam of heaven !

A glory is circling the stern dark brow
Of Dunedin’s fortress old,
And a gleam is waking, more faintly now.
Her Tolbooth prison-hold,
“Where one hath risen, but not from sleep.
To gaze on that dawning sky —
True wife! what aileth thee now to weepy
Heaven brightens ere I die!” continue

Most folks know, one of John Knoxes daugher’s married John welsh. Welsh was driven into exile in 1606, in France, but in 1621 he was told he may return if he would agree to be “dealt with” which undoubtedly meant submit to the bishops. He came to London, and his wife was given an audience with King James I. At which the following conversation took place:

the King asked her if her father had been John Knox.

He said: “Knox and Welch! The devil never made sic a match as that.
Knox’s Daughter, Mrs Welch replied: “It’s right, like, sir, for we never asked his advice.”
The king then asked how many of John Knoxes children were still living, to which she replied three and that they were all lasses.
“God be thanked,” exclaimed the King, “for if they had been three lads, I had never enjoyed my three kingdoms in peace.”
She urged that her husband John Welch maybe allowed to return to Scotland.
“Give him his native air!” James said, “Give him the devil!”
Her wit flashed forth at that and she answered: “Give that to your hungry courtiers.”
The king finally agreed that her husband could return if he would submit to the bishops. At which, she lifted up her apron, held it out, and showed herself to be her father’s daugher with the reply: “Please your majesty, I’d rather keep his head there.”
John Welsh died in London in April 1622, and he died while crying in sweet ecstasty in communion with Christ “Hold, Lord! Enough; I can bear no more.”

On his being ordered to leave Dundee he cried out with tears running down his face:

God is my witness that I never meant your hurt, only your good and your comfort. To refuse to hear God’s word and drive away me, his messenger, whom he has sent to tell you the truth, will not save you trouble. Oh no; it will bring on you the great wrath of God who is higher than all Cardinals or Bishops. I have offered you the truth of God. At the risk of my life I would stay here and preach to you, but now you chase me away and I must leave my case with God. You shall not long proper. God will send sharp trouble here. When he sends it, repent at once, I pray you, and turn to him or he will visit you with fire and sword.

Elizabeth Adamson, then spouse to James Barroun [Dean of Guild],burgess of Edinburgh, who, by reason that she had a troubled conscience,delighted much in the company of the said John Knox, because he,according to the grace given unto him, opened more fully the fountain ofGod’s mercies than did the common sort of teachers that she had heard before; for she had heard none except Friars. She did with such greediness drink thereof, that at her death she did express the fruit of her hearing, to the great comfort of all those that repaired to her. She suffered most grievous torment in her body, yet out of her mouth was heard nothing but praising of God, except that sometimes she would lament the troubles of those that were troubled by her. Being sometimes demanded by her sisters, what she thought of that pain which she then suffered in body, in respect of that wherewith sometimes she was troubled in spirit, she answered: ‘A thousand years of this torment, and ten times more joined unto it, is not to be compared to the quarter of an hour that I suffered in my spirit. I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, that hath delivered me from that most fearful pain; and welcome be this, even so long as it pleaseth His Godly Majesty to exercise me therewith.’
A little before her departure, she desired her sisters, and some others that were beside her, to sing a Psalm, and amongst others, she appointed the Hundred and Third Psalm, beginning ‘My soul, praise thou the Lord always.’ This ended, she said: ‘At the teaching of this Psalm, began my troubled soul first effectually to taste of the mercy of my God, which now to me is more sweet and precious, than if all the kingdoms of the earth were given to me to possess a thousand years.’ The Priests urged her with their ceremonies and superstitions; to whom she answered: ‘Depart from me, ye Sergeants of Satan! I have refused, and in you              r own presence do refuse, all your abominations. That which ye call your Sacrament and Christ’s Body, as ye have deceived us to believe in times past, is nothing but an idol, and hath nothing to do with the right Institution of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in God’s name, I command you not to trouble me.’They departed, alleging, ‘That she raved, and knew not what she said.’ Short thereafter she slept in the Lord Jesus, to no small comfort of those that saw her blessed departing. This we could not omit of this worthy woman, who gave so notable a confession, before the great light of God’s
Word did universally shine through this realm.
–History of the reformation of Religion in scotland, Vol. 1. John Knox

[This distinguished martyr was the son of the Laird of
Guthrie, the representative of an ancient Forfarshire family.
Educated for the ministry, James Guthrie, as soon as he
was ordained, took a very high place among his brethren
as a preacher of the Gospel, and a zealous defender of the
Church of Scotland. He was a man of high talents, and
spotless character, no less eminent for his candour and pru-
dence than for his burning zeal in the service of his Divine
Master. He was appointed minister of Lauder in 1638,
and was translated to Stirling in 1649. He took a leading
part in the councils of the Covenanters. Soon after the
Restoration of CharlesII. , in 1660, he was marked out for
vengeance by the Court party. He was accordingly tried
and condemned for high treason at Edinburgh. He re-
ceived his sentence with perfect equanimity, and was exe-
cuted on the 1st June, 1661. His death, like that of
Argyle. had all the features of a judicial murder. As he
was among the first, so certainly he was one of the noblest
of the Scottish Covenanting martyrs.]

Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold
stands:
Freedom, law, and life are playthings where the Tyrant’s voice
commands:
Found in blood your throne and temple ! fortaste of a glorious
reign ;
Though the heavens were hung in sackcloth, let the Witnesses
be slain!

‘Tis the merriest month of summer, ’tis the sweetest day in
June,
And the sun breathes joy in all things, riding at his highest
noon ;
Yet a silence, deep and boding, broods on all the city round.
And a fear is on the people, as an earthquake rocked the ground .

Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold
stands;
And the Guardsmen prance and circle, marshalled in their
savage bands ;
And the people swell and gather, heaving darkly like the deep,
When, in fitful gusts, the north winds o’er its troubled bosom
sweep.

JS”ow the grim Tolbooth is opened, and the death-procession
forms,
With the tinsel pomps of office, with a vain parade of arms;
Lowly in the midst, and leaning on his staff, in humble guise
Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr! ready for the sacrifice;
Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr! and a stern and stifled groan
Runs through the multitude; but patiently he passeth on;

And the people stand uncovered, and they gaze with stream-
ing eyes,
As when of old the fiery chariot rapt Elijah to the skies.
On his staff in meekness leaning, see him bend infirm and weak ;
Man in youth, and old in manhood, pale and sunken is his
cheek.
And adown his shoulders flowing, locks grown prematurely
gray.
Yet the spirit, strong in weakness, feels no languor nor decay ;
And a loftiness is on him, such as fits a noble mind,
Like the oak in grandeur rising, howsoever blows the wind;
On his lip, though blanched with vigils, sits the will to dare
or die,
And the fires of grace and genius sparkle in his cloudless eye.

“This frail and mortal flesh, I give it
Freely to the Lord of all!
“Were my limbs of brass and iron.
‘T were an offering far too small.
Life is only ours to serve Him :
And our term of service done,
Death for Him and for His Covenant
Is an honour cheaply won.

” 4 Not as felon, nor as traitor,
Whatso evil tongues proclaim.
Am I hither come to suffer
Every brand of outward shame.
Fixed and serious in my purpose
Where the hand of God was seen :

Yet in all things have I laboured
To preserve ray garments clean.
” I was loyal when the kingdom
Bowed to Cromwell’s haughty frown;
Few would own the royal standard
All defaced and trodden down.

Then the flatterers who doom me
To suffer in the street,
Whined and fawned like stricken spaniels
Round the Lord Protector’s feet!

” Constant to my Prince, and constant
To the vows we both had taken,
Faithful to his right I stood, when
By his summer friends forsaken.

Loyal am I, free to render
Unto Caesar Caesar’s due.
Tribute, custom, temporal honour.
And obedience leal and true.

But the King who reigns in Zion,
High o’er every earthly throne.
Shall I flinch from His allegiance?
Or my solemn vows disown?

With uplifted hands I swore it.
When the Nation joined in band.
Monarch, magistrates, and nobles,
And the peasants of the land!

Though I knew by signs and shadows
That my life-blood must be spent
In the work and in the warfare,
Struggling for the Covenant.

•’ Welcome scaffold! ’tis a Bethel,
Angel- wings are hovering here;
Welcome ladder! thou shalt lift me
Far beyond this cloudy sphere.

Ah! thou Daughter of my people!
Sweet and lovely at thy birth.
When the throes of Reformation
Shook the old astonished earth,

What a blight is on thy beauty,
Since thou hast forgot thy truth.
And the joys of thy bright morning.
The sweet espousals of thy youth !

” Thou shalt suffer! God’s true Gospel
Shall be darkened, and a brood
Of locusts overspread thy valleys.
Leaving neither flower nor food ;

And the wild -boar from the forest
Rush on thy defenceless home;
For thy watchmen do not warn thee
Of the woes about to come;
But they slumber, drugged with wine-lees.

Or they quail in carnal fear;
And thy bondage shall continue
Till the Lord Himself appear,
Till He make His right arm naked.

To avenge His people’s wrongs!
And restore the mournful captives.
With everlasting songs.

” Here my pilgrim’s staff is broken,
All my bands are now untied ;
I die to live with Him for ever.
Who for my salvation died.

Faith, which long hath groped and wavered
In this world’s uncertain light,
Leaping from its mortal prison,
Now is passing into sight.

Earthly cares and human contests,
Inward pangs and darkness cease,
Now, O Lord! dismiss Tby servant
Into everlasting peace!

He hath spoken! Seal his sentence; little boots it w r hat ye do :
He hath spoken! and recorded darker, heavier doom on you!
Hurry on the doom assigned him by the minions of your State,
Rend the head from off his body, fix it on your city-gate;

Let the Lyon-Herald taint him, be his arm reversed and torn ;
Be his earthly goods confiscate, let his household wail and
mourn ;
Crush the Spiritual b} r the Carnal, answer Conscience with the
sword;
By the dungeon and the scaffold force submission to your word :

Good and Evil, Force and Freedom, let them close with dead-
ly yell !
‘Tis a warfare old as Satan, deep as the abyss of Hell!
He hath spoken! and bis words are not water on the ground;
Years may vanish, but his warnings shall in all their truth be
found.

He hath spoken ! and the Nation to its inmost soul hath heard
And the withered bones are shaken by the breathings of his
word ;
And, though dead, his guiding spirit in the land for aye shall
dwell,
And Oppression’s boasted strongholds shiver at the mighty
spell.
–From Poets and Poetry of the Covenants

The martyrdom of Walter Mill effectually brought the downfall of popery in Scotland; the Scottish people were so enraged by his death, that the solemnly bound themselves to oaths and covenants and the Truth, declaraing they would rather take up arms than be subjected again to Papal tyranny.

When this noble servant of Christ was led out to execution, he was called upon by catholics to recant his profession, to which he replied:

I marvel at your rage ye hypocrites, who do so cruelly pursue the servants of God; as for me, I am now eighty two years old and cannot live long by course of nature; but an hundred shall rise out of my ashes, who, shall scatter you, ye hypocrites and persecutors of God’s people, and such as you as now think yourselves the best shall not die such an honest death as I now do. I trust in God, I shall be the last who shall suffer death in this fashion, and for this cause, in this land.

Standing upon the sticks before they kindled the flames that would remove him from this world he said:

Many faithful martyrs have offered their lives most gladly, so this day I praise God that He hath called me among the rest of His servants, to seal His truth with my life; which as I have received it of Him, so I willingly offer it up for His glory. Therefore, as ye would escape eternal death, be no longer seduced by the lies of bishops, abbots, friars, monks and the rest of that sect of antichrist, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and His mercy so that ye may be delivered from condemnation.

As the fire lit and was kindled he stood at the stake and cried:

Lord have mercy on me: Pray, pray good people, while there is time.

John Howie’s chapter from the Scots Worthies of Walter Mill can be read here.

From George Wishart’s arrival in Scotland in 1544 and subsequent persecution of:

IN the midst of all the calamities that came upon this Realm after the
defection of the Governor, the Earl of Arran, from Christ Jesus, came to
Scotland that Blessed Martyr of God I, MASTER GEORGE WISHART, in the
year of God 1544. He was a man of such graces as before him were never
heard within this Realm, yea, and are rare to be found yet in any man,
notwithstanding the great light of God that since his days hath shined unto
us. He was singularly learned, as well in all godly knowledge, as in all
honest human science. Also he was so clearly illuminated with the Spirit
of Prophecy, that he saw not only things pertaining to himself, but also
such things as some towns and the whole Realm afterwards felt, which he
forespake, not in secret, but in the audience of many. The beginning of his
doctrine (teaching) was in Montrose. continue

The expectation of gain maketh the labouring man to rise timely in the morning, that he may go about his toilsome work. This thought made me rise out of my bed this morning, desiring to employ my little pains in those things which perish not. And O! what profit and advantage were it, if by anything I insert here, I could do any good to the immortal souls of you, my dear children! You are often in my thoughts, and the matter of my prayers: for the more I am separate from you here, the more pressing and fervent my desires are to have you with me for ever in my Father’s kingdom; into which, when once I am entered, I cannot come back to inform you of these everlasting joys and pleasures: God alloweth of no such mean. Therefore, while yet in this world, desire I to leave this as my last will to you. O flee from the wrath and condemnation of the great and dreadful God, with more speed and diligence than if thousands of most cruel enemies were pursuing you with drawn swords at your heels. There is a possibility of escaping from men and their strokes are but of short endurance; but you may see in the 139th Psalm, that “there is no hiding or escaping from the Almighty,” neither is there any delivery for those who are once shut down into that bottomless pit of utter darkens’s; but these wretches must there endure unspeakable torment in everlasting flames, burning without the least comfort of light. “O! who can dwell with devouring fire,” in that place where all sorrows, sickness, filthiness, and pains, will be confined? Among all these thousands of devils and damned souls, there will not be the least grain weight of pity one toward another. Serious thoughts of hell are certainly a strong motive to move a soul to come into Jesus Christ; but I Verily believe that a view of God’s excellent, wonderful, and free loving-kindness, is a far more prevailing motive. o how strong are these cords of love! None but they that feel them know, and what they know is only this, that they who are once tied in them, and drawn with them, can never break or come out of them. O sweet and pleasant chains! It is only true liberty to be in them; it is true health to be sick of love to this lovely one. What a delightful thing is it to “sit or stand under his banner of love!” It is our heaven here, and it is the heaven of angels and saints above; who have no other, will never desire any other food but this his love, which had no beginning, and never will have any end. The soul which once getteth a true taste of it will ever desire more of it. WE cannot send up so useful a petition as to pray that this love may be shed abroad in our hearts, and it were our wisdom often every hour to repeat this desire in our thoughts, when we may not conveniently utter it with our lips. This jewel, is so to speak, the first mover of all other graces; and it will shine in heaven when they shall cease. This maketh the sourjourning saints endure and cheerfully suffer all things, finding the sharpest afflictions and heaviest crosses easy and light. My children, God, who only knoweth the heart, knoweth how earnestly I am to have you live this excellent life of faith in Jesus Christ, which worketh by love. It is as a fire in my bosom, the desire I have t have you fully persuaded of these truths, which both know and feel. There is none in the world whose happiness I desire more than yours, who are to me as dear as mine own soul. I shall not give over to pray for you so long as I am in this life.
From the Memoirs of Walter Pringle.

Lord, I desire to bless thy name for thy former loving-kindnesses unto me in the day of my strait, in helping and standing by me when overcharged with affliction, and deserted of friends. A Poor insufficient creature, taken up with nothing but vanities of all sorts. O what moved so holy a God to condescend to look upon me, and pass by so many much more worthy than poor, undeserving, me! O praises be unto thee, O Most High! O that my tongue were employed though time in magnifying the holy name of so merciful a God! May, not I say, His mercies are over all his other works to me? may not I sit down and admire free love? First, in inclining my heart to love him and his people, and in casting my lot amongst the godly, and in bestowing a godly and kind husband on me, (when left destitute without father or mother), and that he did so care for me as not to suffer me to enjoy the desires of my heart, but was to pains to hedge in my ways with thorns; and his infinite love suffered me not to sit at my ease, enjoying my pleasures in the day of Zion’s calamity, and prepared the way by smaller trials for greater. Thou didst in thy infinite wisdom, not at first cast me into the hottest flames of the furnace, lest I should not have been able to stand, but in fright, fainted and turned back. But, O praise! praise be to Him who inhabits eternity, that condescended so far to me, a worm, as sweetly to train me up, in alluring me, and speaking comfortably to me, at my first entry into the wilderness. Thou castest thy word to be to my soul as the honey and the honey-comb. Thou madest me sit under thy shadow with great delight, and thy fruits were sweet unto my taste; so that many a time, which to onlookers was sad, was sweet to me. The Lord did so support and feast me in his banqueting-house, that I was made to rejoice in the midst of my tribulations. Likewise, thou didst not suffer me to go on with those that were indifferent in Christ’s matters, but with thy rods thou dist raise such a zeal and love on my spirit, and so filledst my mouth with arguments, that I could not see anything like defection from, or wrong to any of thy truth, without resenting, testifying, and contending against it. Thou so far changedst my heart, which was proud and haughty, much disdaining the converse of the poor; but thou helpedst me to be denied to great folk, and to the reproach I suffered on that head, making the company of the poor, that were godly in the land, dear unto me; and I hope they shall be so while they keep in God’s way, he having continue

At some point shortly I hopt to post this lady’s last words, who was a friend to the Scottish Covenants, and Presbyterians of Scotland.

Her life and departure are described thus:

Never did any end their days with more distinguished marks of a divine work of happy faith and assurance. She had been a sanct indeed all her life long, but she finished her course gloriously. Her last words were taken by the accurate and faithful pen of a reverend minister, and her elogy was composed by that great and good divine Mr. William Violent. 

Her husband’s diaries included this note:

The dying words of my glorified dear are in many good Christian’s hands and her son John’s dying words, and hers, by God’s blessing have been edifying and confirming, and comforting to many, and have had good affect upon the careless and thoughtless in matters of religious concernes.

An Epitaph on the death of the truly excellent, The Lady Coltness.

Here lies an elect lady, saint devote,
Rare, wise, true mother, Margaret Eliot:
She loved her loving God above all things,
Herself and hers she did to him resign,
In clifts of rock this doves groans did rebound,
She prayed not in the street with a trumpet sound,
Her praying voice scarce did her closet find
She prayed with groans, and tears, heart and bended mind!
Great modesty, comely, chast, severe, serene;
Nothing more grave, nothing more sweet again;
A spirit high, but not lift up withal,
A wit most sharp, but not imbrued with gall.
In a vile world, she pure and clean abode,
In a false world, she stood still true for God;
A lovely, lowly, loving wife, her husband’s love,
but more beloved, of her Beloved above.
Coltness she dressed, left it in good array,
But since she’s gone, its lustre is away;
She who, while living, taught by word and deed,
Unwearied still she did so while she died;
Herself and hers unto God bequeath,
Was Margaret Eliot’s work in life and death.

This epitaph was written by her own minister Mr. William Violand, minister at Cambusenthan.

She died aged thirty seven years, five months and eight days.

To this melancholy place I came, and continued there in prison for two years and a half; for I came in January 1677, and came out in July 1679. And here I had likewise experience of the goodness of God towards me; and, 1. In providing for me, without being chargeable to any for such things as I stood in need of. 2. In preserving and supporting me under great pressures of spirit, from sin, sufferings, tentations, grief’s, sorrows, and untenderness of brethren and friends, so as I was not therewith overwhelmed. 3. In preserving me in health all that time. 4. That in this time, partly belling household-plenishing and improving of my estate I paid and cleared one hundred pounds of debt. 5. I had the comfort and edification of fellow-prisoners, both ministers and others, some there before me, and other brought in since my coming, whose company was sweet and edifying many times to me. 6. We had liberty, for the most part, of taking the air up the hill; my solitary walks were sometimes very pleasant to me. 7. I had the comfort of friends that came in to see us from the city and country. 8. I had some special visits from God, ordinarily in private duties, and sometimes in worshipping and conference with others. 9. Some increase, (I think) I found in gifts, knowledge, and grace; some further discoveries of the knowledge of Christ and the gospel I never had before. 10. I was made some way useful by writing letters abroad, praying with, and preaching to, and conference with others. 11. And that I had a cleanly unexpected deliverance from this sad place, 12. Some improvement I made of this price that was put in my hand through grace that helped me: this I think I was bound to take notice of, and be thankful to the Lord.

As for my exercises here, and improvement of my time; I judged, when I first came here, that I was called to some work and improvement of this price put in my hand: and therefore did I, 1. Exercise myself in lamenting my sins, and mis-spent life, and great short-coming. 2. I laboured after, and desired some further knowledge of God and Christ and grace, and to glorify God in my sufferings. Some hours, morning and evening and mid-day, I spent in meditation, in praising, in reading the Scripture, for keeping up and increasing communion with God, and increase of grace constantly; besides several fast-days, which were my sweetest seasons and best times. 4. Every time I read the Scriptures, exhorted and taught there from, did sing Psalms, and prayed with such of our society as our master did allow and permit to worship God together, and this two times a day. 5. I studied Hebrew and Greek, and gained some knowledge in these Oriental languages. 6. I likewise read some divinity, and wrote a Treatise of Faith, with some other miscellanies, and several letters to Christian friends and relations. Thus I spent my time, and not without some fruit.

But prisons must be prisons, and all afflictions, though never so well-sweetened, will be in some measure grievous. Though the Lord was pleased to “stay his rough wind in the day of his east wind,” and to put a very light yoke upon our necks; yet was it still a yoke, and some bitter ingredients were mixed in this cup, something of the gall and vinegar we found, both that the Lord might discover and manifest to the world the cruel and unclean nature of the spirit of prelacy, and that our patience and faith might be the better exercised, and our faithfulness to so Christ, and finally, to wean us from the world, and sweeten to us the love of God in supporting under such troubles and delivering us out of them. For, 1. It could not be but sad to me and my brethren to think that we were cast out of the vineyard, and become useless, our commission taken from us, and could not glorify God as we had done. 2. Abstinence from natural and civil relations and friends was bitter, whose company was sweet, and which now we could not enjoy. Now we might say, “Lover and friend hast thou removed from us,” Psalm lxxxviii. ult. 3. The company of the ungodly, to whose hands we were delivered, and who ruled over us, who knew nothing of God, but were enemies to him, was grievous; that we lived among lions, wolves and serpents, and dwelt in the tents of Kedar. 4. It was then the “days of old, when the candle of God shined upon our tabernacle, when my wife, children, and relations were about me; when I went with the multitude that kept holy days:” then (I say) did these things of old come and assault my remembrance with a sensible and affecting grief. 5. Our own servants were turned out from us and we made to see servants whom we knew not; but this turned to our good and great advantage. 6. The great comfort that we had in worshipping of God together, and in eating together, was taken away from us by the folly and fears of some, and envy and malice of others, who grudged us this comfort, and who ruled us, and made us separate in worship and diet, and would not suffer us to come together, whereby our expenses were much increased, and we deprived of the variety of gifts. 7. Our letters that came to us, or were sent by us, were al looked many times, though they had no orders for it. 8. Our drink was dear and exceeding bad, and we behooved to take it from our governors, and pay exorbitantly for it. 9. Sometimes when they would take it in their heads, they would shut us all close up, and not suffer any of us to speak to another, and this not only without, but contrary to the council’s order, who committed us free prisoners, and to have the liberty of the Rock. This unwarranted restraint did sometimes afflict us, but our patience overcame it. 10. They vexed us by mixing in our company, and there blaspheming sometimes; and other times by seeking to ensnare us by the words of our lips, and tabling discourse in public matters which, seeing their malicious ends, we shunned. 11. They laboured to debauch our servant-maid to wait upon us. 12. They by force and power kept the poor soldiers and others from conversing with or hearing us on the Lord’s Day, although the poor creatures would gladly have heard us. 13. At the same time, likewise, I was very untenderly handled by some false brethren engaged in the same public cause with ourselves. 14. We were sometimes in winter and spring very hardly put to it for want of victuals and drink, insomuch that we had no other than snow water or corrupted water sprinkled over with a little oat-meal to drink and some dry fish. These with other things made our lives sometimes, and at sometimes bitter to us.
From the “Memoirs of Rev. James Fraser” cited from Volume 2 of “Scottish Puritans.”

After this cruelty was used upon the Castle Hill of Edinburgh—to the
effect that the rest of the Bishops might show themselves no less fervent
to suppress the light of God than he of St. Andrews15 was—two were
apprehended in the Diocese of Glasgow. The one was named Jeronimus
Russell, a Cordelier friar (Franciscan), a young man of a meek nature,
quick spirit, and good letters; and one Kennedy, who passed not eighteen
years of age, one of excellent injyne (genius) in Scottish poesy. To assist
the Bishop of Glasgow in that cruel judgment, or at least to cause him dip
his hands in the blood of the Saints of God, were sent Master John
Lauder, Archdeacon of Teviotdale, Master Andrew Oliphant Secretary to
Cardinal Beaton, and Friar Maltman, sergeants of Satan, apt for that
purpose.
The day appointed to their cruelty having approached, the two poor
saints of God were presented before those bloody butchers; and grievous
were the crimes that were laid to their charge. Kennedy at the first was
faint, and gladly would have recanted. But while place of repentance was
denied him, the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of all comfort, began to
work in him, yea, the inward comfort began to burst forth, as well in
visage as in tongue and word. His countenance began to be cheerful, and,
with a joyful voice, upon his knees, he said: ‘O Eternal God! How
wondrous is that Love and Mercy that Thou bearest unto mankind, and
unto me the most caitiff and miserable wretch above all others! Even now,
when I would have denied Thee, and Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my
only Savior, and so have cast myself into everlasting damnation, Thou, by
Thine own hand, hast pulled me from the very bottom of Hell, and made
me to feel that heavenly comfort which takes from me that ungodly fear,
wherewith before I was oppressed. Now I defy death. Do what ye please!
I praise my God I am ready.’
The godly and learned Jeronimus, railed upon by these godless tyrants,
answered: ‘This is your hour and the power of darkness. Now sit ye as
judges; and we stand wrongfully accused, and more wrongfully to be
condemned. But the day shall come when our innocence shall appear, and
ye shall see your own blindness to your everlasting confusion. Go forward
and fulfill the measure of your iniquity! ’ While these servants of God
thus behaved themselves, a variance arose betwixt the Bishop of Glasgow,
Gawin Dunbar, and the Beasts that came from the Cardinal. The Bishop
said, ‘I think it better to spare these men, than to put them to death.’
Whereat the idiot Doctors, offended, said: ‘What will ye do, my Lord?
Will ye condemn all that my Lord Cardinal, and the other Bishops and we
have done? If so ye do, ye show yourself enemy to the Kirk and us; and
so we will repute you, be ye assured.’ At which words, the faithless man,
affrayed, adjudged the innocents to die, according to the desire of the
wicked. The meek and gentle Jerome Russell comforted the other with
many comfortable sentences, oft saying unto him: ‘Brother, fear not!
More potent is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. The pain that
we shall suffer is short, and shall be light; but our joy and consolation shall
never have end. Therefore let us contend to enter in unto our Master and
Savior by the same Strait Way, which He hath trod before us. Death can
not destroy us; for it is destroyed already by Him for whose sake we
suffer.’ With these and the like comfortable sentences, they passed to the
place of execution, and constantly triumphed over Death and Satan, even
in the midst of the flaming fire.
From “The History of the Reformation in Scotland” By John Knox

Grace and mercie be multiplied to you from the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and upon all the fainting, trembling-hearted sons and daughters of Zion, who have resolved to hang their harps upon the willowes, till the Lord bring back your caprtivitie as the streames of the South. Blessed are all those that wait upon him. He is bringing his people into a nonsuch strait, which will only make way for giving proof of his soveraignty over the hearts of his people, in the cureing of their distempers; for as he has evidences that he has seen his people’s way, and is displeased therewith, so also will he heal the same, and restore straight paths for his people to walk in, and will in his mercie and pitie hear  them, and redeem them as in the dayes of old, that so the enemie shall not alwayes have libertie to make their mouth wide in blaspheming. Our storm is like to be sharp, and swell so that it will try the footing of all; yet am I hopeufll in the Lord, that is but about the laying of a fair foundation for more presently making up the new building, and is but laying a fair pavement for the chariot-wheel of his gospel to run more swiftly and gloriously upon, with less difficulty than ever hertobefore; and I think I may apply that word in Numbers 23d, of Balaam’s time–it shall be said concerning the people of God in these lands, O what hath God wrought! It shall bring matter of admiration to all tha thear of the great works of God anent his truths, and the deliveries of his people, and blessed shall they be who shall come cleanly tGrace and mercie be multiplied to you from the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and upon all the fainting, trembling-hearted sons and daughters of Zion, who have resolved to hang their harps upon the willowes, till the Lord bring back your caprtivitie as the streames of the South. Blessed are all those that wait upon him. He is bringing his people into a nonesuch strait, which will only make way for giving proof of his soveraignty over the hearts of his people, in the cureing of their distempers; for as he has evidences that he has seen his people’s way, and is displeased therewith, so also will he heal the same, and restore straight paths for his people to walk in, and will in his mercie and pitie hear them, and redeem them as in the dayes of old, that so the enemie shall not alwayes have libertie to make their mouth wide in blaspheming. Our storm is like to be sharp, and swell so that it will try the footing of all; yet am I hopeful in the Lord, that is but about the laying of a fair foundation for more presently making up the new building, and is but laying a fair pavement for the chariot-wheel of his gospel to run more swiftly and gloriously upon, with less difficulty than ever heretobefore; and I think I may apply that word in Numbers 23d, of Balaam’s time–it shall be said concerning the people of God in these lands, O what hath God wrought! It shall bring matter of admiration to all that that hear of the great works of God anent his truths, and the deliveries of his people, and blessed shall they be who shall come cleanly through the present tryall. Our fathers has not seen such glorious dayes of life from the dead, as some of this generation shall see. OUr fathers digged the well by supplications and wrestling and their children shall drink of the sweet refreshing springs of bright clear running salvation. When I think upon the glorious lightsome dayes of the people of God shall have a little hence, the matter of astonishing admiration to me, I cannot word my thoughts of it. I think I see them altogether as ane amazed people, drunk with astonishment through the goodness of the Lord; I think the matter of joy shall be so ravishinglie astonishing, as many of the choice people of God, who have gotten grace formerly to believe that they have a right to the joyes of heaven, shall question whether they have a right to partake of such unspeakable consolation, wherewith the friends of Zion shall then be filled. So astonishing shall it be, it shall be a thing that hath not been told, and shall hardlie enough to be believed when seen; so that the people of God shall be as in the 126th Psalm—when the Lord turned their captiviitie, they wondered whether it could be true that they found, or if they were but laughing in their sleive.*

I add this, that the people of God shall meet with that, Isa. lxii. Howbeit, darkness shall cover the earth, yet the Lord will arise for his poor contemned covenanted partie in these lands, and their afflicters shall be made to acknowledge them to be the only godlie partie, whom now they call hypocrites and treasonable persons, when his people has bidden the furnace, as in Dan. iii. 28, that the heathen king must cry out, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.” And as Daniel was delivered out of the Lyons [den], his God is magnified. Yea, I will adventure to say this, that the light shall goe out from Covenanted and married Zion, and shall shine on this kingdom now in darkness, as they shall gather themselves together, and come in bands and bragades, so that then the people of God shall [gather] together as I add this more, that our banished shall be brought back, and shall upon the Lord’s hand to say this also, that forraigne nations shall make diligent enquiry for Zion’s banished and scattered friends, to insinuate in Zion’s favour, so great esteem shall be had of Zion’s favour that day. I will further say, that many abroad shall be blyth to come and joyn with us in building of the Lord’s work of reformation. O Zion, wearie not of thy life, but desire to out outlive the storm, that thou mayst see that blessed peace upon Israel and blessed shall they that shall win cleanlie through this storm.
—John Livingstone.

hrough the present tryall. Our fathers has not seen such glorious dayes of life from the dead, as some of this generation shall see. OUr fathers diged the well by supplications and wresteleings and their children shall drink of the sweet refreshing springs of bright clear running salvation. When I think upon the glorious lightsome dayes of the people of God shall have a little hence, the matter  of astonishing admiration to me, I canot word my thoughts of it. I think I see them altogether as ane amazed people, drunk with astonishment through the goodness of the Lord; I think the matter of joy shall be so ravishinglie astonishing, as many of the choice people of God, who have gotten grace formerly to believe that they have a righ tt othe joyes of heaven, shall question whether they have a righ tto partake of such unspeakable consolation, wherewith the friends of Zion shall then be filled. So astonishing shall it be, it shall be a thing that hath not been told, and shall hardlie enough to be believed when seen; so that the people of God shall be as in the 126th Psalm—when the Lord turned their captiviitie, they wondered whether it could be true that they found, or if they wre but laughing in their sleive.*

I add this, that the people of God shall meet with that, Isa. lxii.  Howbeit, darkness shall cover the earth, yet the Lord will arise for his poor contemned covenanted partie in these lands, and their afflicters shall be made to acknowledge them to be th eonly godlie partie, whom now they call hypocrites and treasonable persons, when his people has bidden the furance, as in Dan. iii. 28, that the heathen king must cry out, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach,  Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies,  that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.” And as Daniel was delivered out of the Lyons [den], his God is magnified. Yea, I will adventure to say this, that the light shall goe out from Covenanted and married Zion, and shall shine on this kingdom now in dakrness, as they shall gather themselves together, and come in bands and bragagdes, so that then the people of God shall [gather] together as I add this more, than oru banished shall be brought b ack, and shall upon the Lord’s hand to say this also, that forraigne nations shall make diligent enquiry for Zion’s bansiehd and scattered friends, to insinuate in Zion’s favour, so great esteem shall be had of Zions’s favour tha tday. I will further say, that many abroad shall be blyth to come and joyn with us in building of the Lord’s work of reformation. O Zion, wearie not of thy life, but desire to out outlive the storm, that thou mayst see that blessed peace upn Israel and blessed shall they that shall win cleanlie through the storm.
—John Livingstone.
*The word sleep is written over the word slieve

It is most probable that no gift, no pains a man takes to fit himself for preaching, shall ever doe good to the people or himself, except a man labour to have and keep his heart in a spiritual condition before God, depending on him allwayes for furniture and the blessing. Earnest faith and prayer, a single aime at the glory of God, and good of people, a sanctified heart and carriage, shall availl much for right preaching. There is sometime somewhat in preaching that cannot be ascribed to either the matter of expression, and cannot be described what it is, or from whence it cometh, but with a sweet violence, it pierceth into the heart and into the affections, and comes immediately from the Lord. But if there be any way to attaine to any such thing, it is by a heavenly disposition of the speaker.

A man would [should] especially read the writings, and labour to follow the gifts, of those whom God hath, in the most eminent manner, blessed with the converting and confirming of their hearers, rather than those who seem to have rare gifts for learning and delectaton without such successe.

It is very needful that a man prudently discerne what is the nature and extent of the gift that God hath given him, that in offering to imitat others, he doe not stretch beyond his own line, but onely correct the defects of his owne gift, and what is good therein, labour to improve and exalt that.

It is very fitting, that a man have plentie and choice of words, that as need requires he may vary his expression; and sometime the inforceing of the same thing with diverse words to the same purpose hath its owne use, especially to a dull auditory; and so we finde, that often in the prophets and psalms, and poetick Scriptures, the same thing will be twice expressed onely in different words.. But a custome of multiplying synonimous words and epithets and sentences, to the same purpose, is very unsavourie to ane understanding hearer, that seeks matter and not words, and would feign to proceed from scarcitie of matter, and a desire to fill the hour any way.

The light of nature, which is a spark of the will of God, hath taught many useful rules even to Pagans anent the right way of making solemne speeches before others, the most of which are to be applied to preaching with due discretion; so that what is thought unseemly in the one is to be avoided in the other. But the best rules are taken from the preachings of Christ, of the Apostles and Prophets.
—John Livingstone

In faith is assurance of assent, whereby the man assuredly believes whatever God has said in His Word to be true; and that not upon the testimony of men, or ministers or angels, but upon the testimony and authority of the God of truth, for whom it is impossible to lie, speaking in his own Word, and saying, Thus saith the Lord. But in a particular manner the soul gives its assent unto the truth of the Gospel, and the revelation of the Word, concerning the persons, natures, offices, undertakings and performances of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Surety, and Saviour, of lost sinners. The man’s understanding being enlightened with the knowledge of Christ, and having got a view of him by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, he finds it to be all true that God has said of Christ in the Word; so that he cannot shun, in this case, to join issue with the apostle, “This is indeed a faithful saying, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” –1 Tim i. 15. He sees the truth and veracity of God so much engaged in the covenant and promises thereof, that they are more firm than the everlasting mountains and perpetual hills. –Isa. liv. 10. Now, this certainty of assent is, in Scripture dialect, called a “believing the report of the Gospel,”–Isa. liii. 1; a “receiving the record of God,”–1 John v. 10-11; a “setting to the seal that God is true,” –John iii.33.
—Ebenezer Erskine “The Assurance of Faith Opened and Applied.”
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Zechariah 14:6-7 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

Sometimes the LORDs dispensations with the Kirk is such, that they can neither be said to be dark nor clear, neither like night, nor like day; but somewhat of light, and somewhat of darkness in the dispensation; somewhat of judgemental, and somewhat of mercy may be the case of the Kirk.
A second thing we notice of this, That the time of the Kirks trouble thought sometimes the LORD is pleased to lengthen, and to make it long; yet sometimes also, as it is here, it shall be but a short while, and but for one day.
Thirdly, That the Kirks trouble though it be but for a short time, and but for one day, and nobody kens[knows] when it will end: Yet for the comfort of the Kirk it is a day known unto the LORD, though neither enemies nor friends kens when the Day of delivery will come, yet it is a day known to the LORD: it is a limited time that God hath set the bounds of.
Fourthly, That when the Kirk in all appearance and probability, looks like a thicker and blacker darkness and great desolations, then very shortly the LORD will make light to arise, and the Day Spring from on High to arise upon the Kirk, even at the evening, at even -tide it shall be light.
–John Welsh from a sermon “The Churches Paradox”
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It is beloved, high time now to awake, to look about us, to consider where we are, upon what ground we stand, whether the enemy or we have the advantage, how and in what posture we are to recounter with deceivers that seek to cheat us out of all our souls, and of the Lord our Righteousness, and draw us off the paths of life, that when we come to die (beside the unspeakably great loss we would thereby be at, even here, in missing comfortable accesses to God through Jesus Christ the inflowing’s of grace and strength for spiritual duty through the Lord our strength: the sweet communications of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, the shedding abroad of the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us, and the full assurance of hope through the Lord Jesus our hope) we might be frustrated of all our expectations; and find that all that which men made us grip to, lay hold on, and lean unto, instead of Christ, was but a mere shadow and a lie in our right hand, to the unexpressible grief, vexation, and sorrow of soul.
John Brown of Wamphray “Christ the way the Truth and the Life.”
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But what divine authority have I, for the peculiar sanctification of this day? Reason herself informs me, that men being made for eternity, their time should be spent partly sequestrated to the contemplation of eternal things; that being of a social nature, they ought to associate in their principle business, the worship of their God; and that, to avoid distraction, it is proper that there should be one fixed season of public devotion, common to all–In the well known precept, which, to mark its perpetuity, and moral observation, was written by God himself, on a table of stone; and was inserted in the very centre of that universal, that permanent rule of righteousness, divinely published from Sinai’s top, and into which ceremony never entered–is not the seventh part of our time, peremptorily challenged for the religious service of God? Is not the divine mandate there established, on the moral, the extensive grounds of God’s own example, and his blessing the sabbath Day? [Ex xx:8-11]. Was not this sacred season instituted in paradise, made for man, while no typical ceremony had yet commenced? In six days the heavens, and the earth, and all their hosts, were finished: on the seventh, God rested from all his works; he blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it: How? He set it apart for his special service; and for the bestowing of his peculiar favours on men. When redemption was published was the privilege of the Sabbath revoked? Was the duty of observing it superceded? Surely no: on that day, the patriarchal Sons of God jointly presented themselves before the Most High. Nor had the thunders of Horeb uttered their voice, when the Hebrew lawgiver spoke of the observation of the Sabbath as a well-known custom; and to honour it.
From The Christian Journal; or Common incidents, Spiritual Instructors Being a series of Meditation on a spring, Summer, Harvest, Winter, and Sabbath-Day by John Brown–Late Minister of the Gospel at Haddington
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Christ’s words, Matt. 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil, are comprehensive of the judicial law, it being a part of the law of Moses: Now he could not fulfil the Judicial law, except either by his practice, or by teaching others still to observe it; not by his own practice, for he would not condemn the adultery John 8:11, nor divide the inheritance Luke 12, 13, 14. Therefore it must be by his doctrine of observing it.
If Christ in his sermon Matt 5 would teach that the moral law belongeth to us Christians, in so much as he vindicateth it from the false glosses or the scribes and pharisees; then he meant to hold forth the Judicial law, as well as moral.
—George Gillepsie “Wholesome severity reconciled”
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Although the members of the kirk beholden, every one in their vocation, and according thereto, to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, so far as lieth in their power; yet chiefly Christian princes, and other Magistrates, are holden to do the same.
For they are called in Scripture, Nourishers of the Kirk, for so much as by them it is, or at least ought to be maintained, upholden and defended against all the would procure the hurt thereof.
So it pertains to the office of a Christian magistrate, to assist and fortify the godly proceedings of the Kirk, in all behalf’s, and namely to see that the public estate and ministry thereof be maintained and sustained, as it appertains, according to God’s Word.
To see that the Kirk be not invaded, not hurt by false teachers, and hirelings, and for reasons thereof occupied by dumb dogs or idle bellies.
To assist and maintain the discipline of the Kirk, and punish them civilly, that will not obey the censure of the same, without confounding always to one jurisdiction with the other.
To see that sufficient provision be made for the minister, the schools of the poor: And if they have not sufficient to await upon their charges to supply their indigence, even with their own rents if need require.
To hold hand as well to the saving of their persons from injury and open violence, as to their rents and possessions, that they be not defrauded, robbed, nor spoiled thereof.
Not to suffer the patrimony of the Kirk to be applied to profane and unlawfulness or to be devoured by idle bellies, and such as have no lawful function in the kirk, to the hurt of the ministry, schools, poor, and other godly uses, whereupon the same ought to be bestowed.
To make laws and constructions agreeable to God’s Word, for advancement of the Kirk, and policy thereof, without usurping any thing that pertains not to the civil sword, and belongs to the offices that are merely ecclesiastical, as is the ministry of the Word and sacraments, using ecclesiastical discipline, and the spiritual execution thereof, or any part of the power of the spiritual keys, which our master gave to the Apostles and their true successors.
And although kings and princes that be godly, some times by their own authority, when the kirk is corrupted, and all things out of order, place minster’s and restore the seri vice of the Lord, after the example of some godly kings of Judah, and divers godly emperors’, and kings also, in the light of the New Testament. Yet where the Ministry of the Kirk is once lawfully constituted, and they that are placed do their office faithfully, all godly princes and magistrates, out to hear and obey their voice, and reverence the Majesty of the Son of God speaking in them.
—David Calderwood “The History of the Church of Scotland”
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Our faith in reference to dispensation, is to do two things: 1st, To believe in general, though dispensation be rough, stormy, black, yet Christ is fair, sweet, gracious; and that hell and death are servants to God’s dispensation towards the children of God. Abraham must kill Isaac; yet in Isaac, as in the promised seed, all the nations of the earth are blessed. Israel is foiled, and falleth before the men of Ai; yet Israel shall be saved by the Lord. Judah shall go into captivity, but the dead bones shall live again. .Read the promise in general, engraved upon the dispensation of God. Garments are rolled in blood in England and Scotland. The wheels of Christ’s chariot, in this reformation, go with a slow pace: the prince is averse to peace, many worthies are killed, a foreign nation cometh against us; yet all worketh of the best to those that love God. 2. Hope biddeth us to await the Lord’s event. We see God’s work, it cometh to our senses; but the event that God bringeth out of his work lieth under-ground. Dispensation is as a woman travailing in birth, and crying out for pain ;but she shall be delivered of two men-children,–Mercy to the people of God, Justice to Babylon. Wait on till the woman bring forth, though you see not the children.
—Samuel Rutherford, “The Trial and Triumph of Faith.”
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The “flesh of Christ” both revealed and hid the glory. It veiled and it unveiled Godhead: it proclaimed the nearness of Jehovah to His worshippers, and yet suggested some distance, some interposing medium, which could only be taken out of the way by God Himself. For that which had been placed there by God could not be removed by man. And yet man, in a certain sense, had to do with the removal. In the type, indeed, it was not so; but in the antitype it was. For no hand of man rent the veil; yet it was man’s hand that nailed the Son of God to the cross; it was man that slew Him. And yet again, on the other hand, it was God that smote Him,–just as it was the hand of God that rent the veil from top to bottom. “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him and to put Him to grief” (Isa 53:10). The bruising of His heel was the doing of the serpent and his seed, yet it was also the doing of the Lord.
–Horatius Bonar “The Rent Veil”
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Much of self-denial speaks much of the Spirit: he who will be least his own is most God’s, and partakes most of the divine nature. The Spirit loves the room of self; I live not, but Christ (by his Spirit) lives in me, Gal. 2, and the Spirit so to speak, is the full predominant element in the acting (not that nature itself is wholly dead and passive) and self appears to be sunk into nothing, and is denied; as Matt 10:20. It not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. Though they be living persons in their nature and being, Peter and John Speaks: and yet the Sprit so discourses and lays aside the creature called self, and sets up God, and that as if self were annihilated and not there at all the spirit as the predominate speaks in the man and acts in him, rather than the man. And the Spirit of the Father prayeth, preacheth, reigneth, acteth, disputeth, confesseth in the believer. 1 Cor 15:10. But I laboured more abundantly than they all; then must I in Paul be preferred and exalted above John, the beloved Disciple, and all the eminent apostles? Oh no; I laboured more abundantly, yet not I but the grace of God which was with me. Acts 6. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen spake. He saith not they were not able to resist and dispute against the sinful man Stephen, Acts 4:8.
—Samuel Rutherford, “Influences of the Life of Grace.”
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Hope is like to other graces, not always alike and visible, sometimes so clouded and hid, that it cannot be easily seen or discovered; and in a very little, it may appear again when the cloud and black mist is over, as we see, Lam: 3:18. There the church complains, that her strength and hope was perished from the Lord, yet a little while later, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. And again, V. 26. It is good, that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord. The holy man Job cried out, as one that hath no hope, He hath destroyed me on every side, I am gone, and mine hope hath been removed like a tree: And nevertheless, before all is done, and he end his reckonings, he getteth his head lifted up on high, and hope brings him so above, that he triumphs. Chap 19.
—John Brown of Wamphray “Christ in believers, the hope of Glory.”
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There are many that die not in Christ, it appears from Matthew 7v. 22, and from Luke 13:24. These three will confirm it abundantly. The plain words of Scripture where Christ speakeath of heaven as having, for coming to it, a narrow way, and a straight gate so that few enter into thereat, and of hell and destruction, as having a wide gate and abroad way into which many enter, and when he speaks of the day of judgment, he says many shall come to him in that day and say, Lord, Lord, open to us, to whom he will say depart from me I never knew you, and he will set the goats on this left hand and send them thence into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels; these Scriptures speak not only of such as are without the Church, but also if not mainly of the many visible professors, yea, even of such as preached in his Name, and yet say of them that die not in Chris. 2. If ye will look to the ordinary connection that is betwixt men’s living and dying, ye will find that the way of the most part of men declares plainly that they die not in the Lord: for as we shew, men’s being and living in Christ mst preceded their dying in him, before they can die in him they must needs be in him; we do not say that all must be and live so many years in him before they can die in him, but that they must be sometime in him before they can die in him they must needs be in him, btu that they must be sometime in him before they can die in him, and that they must live and put some forth some acts and breathings of a spiritual life, of the life of Faith in him, if it were but a few words to God’s glory and for others edification, or few sighs, groans, and looks to him, as we may see in the thief on the cross though his time was very short;And if this being and living in Christ mst preceded dying in him, if ye compare it with the most part of your lives,Ah! how sad a prognostic are there of you that you live still in black nature and were never born again? if I could class the lives of the most part I was essay it 1. how many are living like atheists not calling upon God at all, casting off fear the restraining prayer before him? And as these l ive so they die for the most part either secureliy or desperately. 2. How many live in formality and never knew what it was to mortify the flesh,k or sincerely to aim a tthe power of godliness, and yet layeth the Holy Ghost Rom 8:13.If ye live after the flesh e shall die, but if we be through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall livel If grace be not in the heart and kyth not at all in the conversation, ye cannot warrant to be ablie to expect to die in Christ, except a man be born again he cannot enter in the kingdom of Heaven, this is a large and great class and takes in all that live and die as they were born, and seen not after another life, then ethat which they brought with them into the world. 3. how many are there that have some outword fairding and paint and yet have no reality of Religion written within? Whereby they mock God and dissemble with Mean: it is to such that Christ speaks John 8:21 and tells them they they shall die in theri sins and aginst this sort of men he denounce with many woes. 4. And are there not many thaht live without faith in Christ? that live without faith in jesus Christ? Without one they cannot possibly please God either living nor dying and shall be damned if they continue to, for saith the Lord John 3:18. He that believes is not condemned alread: Now ch are these that Classes are laid aside, there will be fuew behind; all which proves abundantly the truth of the thing, and that is but too good ground to think that there are many, very many who die not in the Christ. A third ground of confirmation of this sad truth maybe drawn from the ordinary way most part die in, and pass out of time into eterntity; O! ow many die stupidly and (as we said before) sensible, andareno affeced with the thoughts of theh inner life of then souls that then if they had none at all? How many die presumptiously confident. How many found in their faith of dying well of wrong grounds? how many die doubting, not knowing what will become of them? And how many die desperately? So that (alas) theare are but few among us that close their eyes like dying persons in Christ; and though we will not prempt in passing judgment upon, or in censuring of particular persons as to their final state, yet all this shews that it is not very common nor ordinary thing to die in the Lord
—James Durham from a sermon, “Blessed are Those that die in the Lord.
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Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The next mark of a true disciple is godly sorrow, which maketh a man in all sort of grief to power out himself unto God in Christ, and to seek relief from him. Whosoever do follow after Christ, mourning in the sense of sin, or fear or wrath, however they may seem miserable in their own, or the worlds eyes, yet are they very blessed for of such Christ saith, Blessed are they that mourn. Such mourners may be destitute for a time of comfort, but at no time can they be destitute of blessedness, for even in the time when they are mourning, and do want comfort, it is said of them. They are blessed. Albeit their comfort be delayed for a time, yet it shall not always be withheld, for the word of consolation is here spoken unto them, which they in due time shall find applied, and verified unto them by God’s Spirit; for it is said, They shall be comforted; and this shall be partly by being made to see satisfactory reasons of God’s delaying to comfort them, partly by receiving now and then, real deliverance’s and sensible outgates of their mournful condition; and partly by being supported with strength in the inner man, at all times, that they succumb not, till at last they be fully delivered for ever.. They shall be comforted, saith the Lord.
—David Dickson, “Exposition of the Evangel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew.”
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