scripture, and the government of the church, and so have broken and divided the people. "And our noblemen and gentlemen, from whom other things were looked for, have deserted the cause to the stain of their memory to after generations. The ministers ought to have given the people warning, and not have been so tender of men when truth was so wronged for the people (many of them) were like to have taken warning; but we see that juggling with the Lord first and last hath been our ruin and wreck, and now we are brought to nothing, and our worldly wisdom is seen to be foolishness with the Lord. But I perceive, within these two or three years, the Lord is beginning to let us see our former ground again; and I desire you his poor people to labour to win at it, and to hold in it, and to be as tender of one another as ye can, without sinning against the Lord; for we will be all found guilty of the defection in less or more: therefore, I desire you to humble yourselves before the Lord, and to make conscience of mourning and heart-brokenness and weeping; for if ye had the sense of it deeply impressed upon your hearts, as I have had since I was a prisoner, and the heart-breaks that I have had both from one and another, but especially from mistaken friends,-ye could not but have wept with all your heart. But, dear friends, be not discouraged, but hold on; for this way that I am now to suffer and lay down my life, is, and will be found at length to be the way of God. There is much need of tenderness of, and zeal for God's glory, and of watchfulness; for I find there are snares on all hands, and fear some of the Lord's choice people will be permitted to fall. And, likewise, I desire, dear friends, that ye would keep a spirit of sympathy with one another; I fear your straits be but coming and I desire, when ye fall upon debates upon the matters of the Lord, that ye would follow the methods of the Scriptures, and his Spirit there, and cease from your bitterness, one of you against another, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of the Lord;' but be humbled under the sense of the public sins that have caused us to be smitten with such sharp dispensations from the Lord. But I think Scotland's case is like the case of Jonah, who fled from the presence of the Lord, till he could get no further, and the Lord pursued him into the whale's belly, till he was forced to cry unto the Lord. O that ye would cry, and cry aright with broken hearts, and confess to the Lord, and forsake ! Lay it home to each one of yourselves in particular, as David did, when he transgressed against the Lord, and numbered the people. O that ye would plead with the Lord, and come in his mercy, and plead for the young generation, that have not sinned away the gospel, as we have done, and say to the Lord, What have these silly sheep done? O plead hard with the Lord, for I am persuaded he hath a kindness for Scotland; he is dealing with the hearts of some of the young generation, and as yet he has heaped up a party contending for his work, and will keep up some witnessing still; yea, I think he will still keep a contending party for his work and truths, until he return again: and I think the hopes of this should encourage your hearts. : "Now, the main article of my indictment, upon which I have received my sentence of death from men, was, that I would not say 'God save the king,' which (as they have now stated him an idol in the Mediator's room) I could not do, without being guilty of saying Amen, to all that he hath done against the church and people of God, and true subjects of the kingdom, and the ancient and fundamental laws thereof; and doing contrary to that in the second epistle of John, ver. 10. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed: for he that biddeth him God-speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.'* And also, ye know, that taking of the name of God in our mouths, is a part of worship, and so a worshipping of their idol; for before our faces they said, That he was king over all persons, and over all causes; which is putting him in God's room. But they sentenced me, because they said that I disowned authority, which was a diving into the thoughts of my heart. Now, in obedience to what my Lord hath commanded, I can freely forgive, as I desire to be forgiven, any thing that is done to me, as I am in myself; but what hath been done against me upon the account of truth, and so striking against God, I am not to set myself above him, but I leave that to Himself. Now, I have great satisfaction in my lot, and I rejoice that he hath called me to it, and I bless him that I have been all along helped to join with his despised work and people. And now many are pleased to say, That I had not The reasons here given by the present witness for refusing to say God save the king may lead us to observe, once for all, that the sufferers for the cause of religion and of liberty in the period in question, were not actuated by such narrow views and unfounded prejudices as the defenders of prelacy and the apologists of persecution would have us to believe. It appears that the same test was put not only to Cochran, but also to his two companions and fellow-sufferers ; and besides these to many more, to whose cases it is needless at present to refer. Now it cannot but strike every impartial reader, that if on the one hand it was superstitious and absurd in the sufferers to refuse pronouncing the words in ques tion, it was no less absurd and superstitious in their persecutors to insist upon them doing so. And yet the condescension of the government in this matter is greatly lauded, and the obstinacy of the sufferers condemned by the writers we have alluded to; "and," observes Wodrow, in reference to the present witness, it is said with a great deal of triumph that these persons might have had their lives upon the easy and fair conditions of praying for the king, and this is mightily magnified as an instance of the lenity of the period. This plain honest man gives a very distinct answer to this." And after quoting the words as above, he continues, "these were the sentiments of the poor serious country people who suffered, and when they had this view that praying for the king was really an approbation of all now done, it will not appear so narrow a point on which they stated their sufferings, as at the first it may seem, and the prelatists represent it, especially considering the poor country-people's ignorance and education. And these bloodthirsty men were so far from endeavouring to instruct and convince the pannels, that they even essayed to ensnare them, and proposed their queries so, as the poor men could scarcely miss concluding that their saying God save the king was an approbation of what was done in his name. They required this as a testimony of their loyalty, as we saw in James Robertson's case. So that this piece of reproach may very justly be turned over upon the managers, who had no matter of fact, no act of treason or rebellion, to charge many of them with, but endeavoured to ensnare them with captious and doublefaced questions, and then took away their lives, upon the poor people's being unwilling to approve the wickedness of the time."-Wod. vol. ii. been apprehended as a prisoner, if there had not been some of the suffering people of God frequently about my mother's house; which is a commanded duty, much commended by Christ; If any man give a cup of cold water to a disciple, in the name of a disciple, he shall not want a disciple's reward.' Therefore seeing it is such, let none offend at such a work, who look upon themselves as members of that body; what may follow, leave in the Lord's hand, who doth all things well; and nothing can harm his people, being found rightly in the way of their duty. Now, as to those who count the pure way of truth a wild principle, I count it a greater mercy to be wild from the way of sinning, than to be tame thereunto; as, alas! most of the generation are. "Now, farewell all true friends in Christ; farewell holy and sweet scriptures; farewell sinning and suffering. Welcome heaven and the full enjoyment of God through all eternity. Sic Sub. WILLIAM COCHRAN." * XXIII.—ALEXANDER HUME OF HUME. The execution of this excellent and worthy gentleman is strongly reprobated by Wodrow as constituting "a flaming instance of the rigour of the period." He had been apprehended on an accusation of having held converse with the party, who took the castle of Hawick, in 1678, and was brought to trial on the 15th of November. It being on all hands acknowledged, however, that even this trivial misdemeanour was not proved, he was acquitted by the criminal court. But as an excuse for detaining him in prison, he was required to take the Test, which he refused.† And shortly • Cloud of Witnesses, pp. 258, 262. + The oath here alluded to was that imposed by the parliament, in 1681.— Though made professedly with the view of supporting the protestant asceudency, by excluding all enemies to it from places of power and trust, it soon came to be employed as a general test of loyalty, and all who refused to take it became suspected by the government. It was little wonder that it should have been refused by all true Presbyterians; for whilst it implied the renouncement of all Popish errors, it acknowledged the king's authority in all matters, whether civil or ecclesiastical, asserted the unlawfulness of all resistance to his power, upon any pretence whatever, and denied the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant. Now, passing over the flagrant inconsistency of its several parts, it is obvious that no rational and conscientious Presbyterian could have hesitated a moment to refuse it, nor was there any other course left for Mr. Hume to pursue. Though acknowledging the king's authority in temporal matters, he could not but feel himself bound to disavow it in things spiritual; and though perfectly willing, as may be supposed, to swear adherence to the protes tant interests, it was not to be expected that he should with the same breath deny the obligation of the National Covenant,-the great bulwark reared by his forefathers, not only against Popery, but also in support of Presbytery. He therefore preferred death to perjury, and though confessing the temporal authority of the king, was as thoroughly opposed to his tyranny against the church, as any of the other sufferers in the period in question.-For some farther particulars relative to his trial and death, the reader is referred to The Scots Worthics, New Edition, pp. 559, 560. after, some further pretexts being found against him, a new process was begun, and he was again indicted, and brought to trial on the 21st of December following; and though the proofs brought against him were most inadequate, and none of the witnesses identihed his person, he was brought in guilty, and sentenced to be hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh, upon the 29th of that month. Here follow his last words :] "MEN AND BRETHREN,-There is a great confluence of people here at this time, and I fain hope there are some amongst you that desire to be edified by the last words of a dying man ;—which shall be but few, because I do not think or judge myself qualified, to enlarge upon any thing I have to say, as need requires and some might expect; and moreover, the time allowed is but short. And now I am come here to lay down my life, and I bless the Lord that I am not to lay it down as an evil-doer; and albeit I be a sinful man, as others are, by nature, yet through his grace, I hope I am planted in Jesus Christ,-in whom I have redemption and remission of sins through his blood, and am separated from the generation of unbelievers. Free love only hath made the difference, and happily bath ordered it so, that I have been born within the church, where the blessed device of the gospel hath been discovered, and the means of salvation made effectual for converting and building me up in grace, and begetting in me the hope of that glory and redemption which I am now going to possess. "The ground of my sentence is the alleged converse I had with the party that took the castle of Hawick, in the year 1679;-the probation whereof was not clear, and from which the verdict of the assize did materially differ, as is evident from the witnesses' subscribed depositions, and the recorded verdict of the said assize;-the equity and justice whereof I leave to God, and all unbiassed persons to judge. "I need not be ashamed to live, (as through his grace I am not ashamed to die,) and here I dare say, it has been my study to keep a conscience void of offence towards God, and also towards man. The world represents me as seditious and disloyal, but God is my witness, and my own conscience, of my innocence in this matter; I am loyal and did ever judge obedience unto lawful authority my duty, and the duty of all Christians; I was never against the king's just power and greatness, and this I commend to all that hear me this day; but all a Christian doth must be of faith, for what clasheth with the command of God cannot be our duty, and I wish the Lord may help the king to do his duty to the people, and the people to do their duty to the king. "It doth minister no small peace and joy to me this day, that the Lord hath set his love upon me, one of Adam's unworthy posterity, and has given me the best experience of his grace working in my heart, whereby he hath inclined me to look towards himself, and make choice of him for my soul's everlasting portion. It is the Lord Jesus, and he alone, who is my rock, and the strength and stay of my soul. All my own righteousness I do utterly renounce, as a garment too short for me, yea, as filthy rags. I die a protestant and presbyterian this day, adhering to the holy Scriptures, and work of reformati›a from popery and prelacy, according to the engagements personal or national lying on me; and I do leave my testimony against all the steps of defection therefrom, either in doctrine, worship, or government, and all the encroachments made upon the kingdom and privileges of Jesus Christ, and whatever is against the life and power of godliness. "It was the glory and happiness of our land, that the Lord Jesus Christ made choice of us, to dwell in the midst of us by his gospel, and the ordinances thereof, the precious symbols of his presence, by which we had the advantage of many, if not of all the churches about us. But oh and alas! how far are we degenerated, and what contempt of this precious gospel are we become guilty of? We have not received the love of God in our hearts, nor improved him for growth and progress in holiness; in place whereof all manner of impiety and naughtiness does abound, which I fear will provoke the holy and jealous God to send many heavy judgments on the whole land, whereby it may be laid utterly desolate without an inhabitant. 'Tis to be feared that these things may turn this church into a den of idolatry, and provoke the Beloved to put a bill of final divorce into our harlot mother's hand. O! what cause is there to fear, that this people, partly through their own ignorance, and partly through the unfaithfulness and delusion of their pretended teachers, shall return again in multitudes into the darkness and superstition of popery, from which the Lord in his mercy delivered our fathers. O! that the Lord would give repentance to this generation, that the evil day might be prevented. Be exhorted to turn from sin, and make your acquaintance and peace with God in time, which is not so easy a work as many apprehend; and who wants his own challenge for negligence in this matter? People love to defer this great concernment until it be too late, unhappily preferring the pleasures of sin to the favour of God, and all the expectations of the saints within or beyond time. Was there ever a generation wherein so many sad prognostics of divine wrath, upon its near approach, did so much abound amongst men of all ranks and capacities of whom far other things were expected, and I am sure, solemnly thereunto obliged, no less than those who have suffered at their hands upon that account?-which cannot but highly aggravate sin, heighten and basten judgment beyond ordinary,—which I pray the Lord may prevent. He knows I desire not the evil day; I would exhort the Lord's people to study much nearness to God, and oneness among themselves that being of one mind and one spirit, they may stand fast for the faith of the gospel, which is in such palpable hazard this day, as all who have but half an eye may see. I cannot but be sensible of the sharpness and severity of my sentence, which, after strict inquiry, will be found to be as hard measure as any have met with before me: which seems to flow from some other thing than what law and justice could allow. I wish, I may be the last that may be thus dealt with. I question not but if competent time had been given, that application might have been made unto his majesty, his clemency would not have been wanting in this case. Nevertheless, I bless the Lord, I find it in my heart |