against the honour of God; that have seen His goings so stately among the meetings of His people; that will not contend for lovely Christ. Oh! do ye not think that a sad day will come on you for joining with God's enemies, who have broken Covenant with Him, and shed the blood of the saints, and trampled on the honour of God? And ye will not fear to join with them for all the blood they have shed; you will still go on with them; and, though you profess that you have love to the Son of God, and that your zeal for the Lord God of Hosts is not abated, yet you will go on with them, and bond and comply in paying of cess and militia money, to maintain a party against God and His work, which once in a day you were forward to maintain, and would have ventured your life in the maintaining of it against all the Lord's enemies. You may justly take shame to yourselves, for your preferring the things of time to the sweet cross of lovely Christ. Oh sirs! what think ye will your doom be, that have done so much against the honour of a holy God? Indeed you may look out for wrath, and that of the saddest sort.

"Now, as dying men, we tell you that there are sad days abiding you, for what you have done to the honour and glory of God, if ye get not speedy repentance. Therefore, as you would answer in the great day, make conscience of what ye do. Remember that you will count and reckon for all that you have done, and will be reckoned as guilty of the blood of the saints—as the worst enemies amongst them all. Therefore, as dying men, we charge you take with [i.e., acknowledge] guilt, or else it will be worse for you.

"Oh sirs! fear the Lord's wrath, and fall to and mourn for what you have done. Oh! cry mightily for repentance, or else you will get Judas's reward; for you are the persons that have betrayed the Son of God, and expelled Him out of your coasts. You were thinking that He was like to prove a costly Christ, and therefore you of that shire would give consent to banish Him away from among you. You would not hear tell of a field preaching for fear of hazard!

"Oh sirs! take it to consideration, and lay to heart what a hand you have in banishing Christ and the Gospel out of Scotland; and we are sure, it was not your parts to have done so. No, no! it was not your part to have given lovely Christ such an affront; the sweet days that you have had long since, might have made you give Royal Jesus better quarters, though you should go to the gibbet for it, and lose your gear. For, your doing as you have done, is a denying of Him before men.

"Take it as ye will, we must tell you, as in the sight of the living God, before whom we are now to appear, and get our sentence for all that we have done, you are the only shire that has denied lovely Christ quarters; for He sent an offer to you to the Torwood, and ye would not hear it. Well, it is likely there are many of you that will never get another; there are some of you that would not go to hear, but forbade others to go, and thought it was duty not to go; and some of you were at that preaching, and made a bad use of it. Oh remember, sirs! you have rejected Christ. We tell you it as dying men, you will count for it ere it be long; for our Lord did not send the Gospel to the Torwood for naught, but it will accomplish that for which it was sent.

"Oh sirs! be afraid and tremble, for judgment is at the door; and indeed your sentence will be sore to bide [i.e., endure]-it will be more tolerable for open enemies in the day of judgment, than for you. We are afraid when we think what judgments will be on you shortly; for, considering what pains have been taken on you of that shire, and how tender the Lord has been of you, in training you up for suffering; and has given you trials, and you have endured them; and He has taken them off again, and given you sorer trials, and He has delivered you out of these; it had been better for you that you had been at that preaching, though you should have gotten the gallows the very next day, than to have done what ye did ; and that you will find ere it be long.

"Oh! what of His kindness have you met with at such places! You dare not say, that He has been a barren wilderness or a land of drought to you. Testify against Him, if He was not kind to you; so long as ye abode by Him, He abode by you; and He was tender of you, so long as ye kept faithful to Him; but after ye turned into the enemies' camp, then He turned to be your enemy, and fought against you; and in all that you do, God will be seen to be against you. You may thrive in the world, but it will be a dear thriving to you; you will get the wrath of God with it. But ye have done with thriving in the worship of God; indeed, there are many of you that hold your life no more of God. Remember, we tell you of it, who

are within a few hours to eternity.

"Now, it is like, you will not notice what the like of us say, but will allege that we are dying as fools, and have no Presbyterian principles, but notions; but we say the contrary. We say, we are not fools as to that, however the world may think and look on us as

such. We say, we have Presbyterian principles, and are Presbyterians in our judgments, and will make it appear, that we die as Christians, and as those that own the truths of God, and are standing to what ministers once taught us; although this day they are turned to the contrary, and condemning us, and saying, that we have nothing but notions of our own heads, that make us do such things. But they will not find it so in the Day of Accounts.

"1. You may say, that it is not a Presbyterian principle to cast off magistrates.

"We grant with you; but where are the magistrates? Indeed, they were once placed such; but they cast out themselves, when they brake the Covenant, and set up a cursed Supremacy, insulting over the Lord's inheritance; and when they have done that, we think they are no more to be owned as magistrates by Presbyterians; but to be cast off, and witnessed against; and when it comes to that part of the play, do ye not think, that it was our part to contend for truth?

"Oh sirs! do ye not believe Jesus Christ to be the eternal Son of God, and that all things were made for Him, and by Him, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers? What is not His; and that by free gift and donation-by an eternal decree--intimated to us in the second Psalm, where, in more particular manner, He is declared to be King in Zion, and all the heathen promised to the enlargement of His kingdom? Oh sirs do ye not believe, that Scotland became His, with its own consent, as the product of that decree, and the fruit of His intercession and purchase; and that He allows no authority to be owned, and submitted unto in Scotland, but only in so far as they keep the line of subordination to the Son of God? Or do you believe, that Scotland should have no other magistrates but such as should be of God's choosing, men of truth, able men, fearing God, hating covetousness; and that the land was bound by Covenant to have such, under the pains contained in the law, and danger both of soul and body, in the day of the Lord's fearful appearance to judgment? We believe many a man's wit in that day shall be counted foolish

ness.

"Then, if this be a ground, we are sure ye must say, that day that Charles Stuart was crowned, perjury became national; only professors as to this point were free. Do ye think we would, without perjury and treachery to God, own Charles Stuart's authority any longer, when he held not his authority of God? But it being

manifest, that in Middleton's Parliament [held at Edinburgh, January 1661, in the Acts asserting the king's majesty to be supreme in all causes, civil or ecclesiastical, and denying the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant.-ED.] he disclaimed that title to authority, we think we were bound to witness our loyalty to Another, and that we were freely absolved from obedience and fidelity to him then, and could not own his authority without gross perjury; he declaring, 'he would have no homage upon the account of the Covenant.' Would ye not count him a distracted man that would cleave to him on that account, whether he would or not? Yea, and whoever do it, we know they will find themselves fools. Do you believe, that in the day that Covenant was taken, any within the nation was not bound to perform and prosecute it, and that God will [not] punish the destroyers of that Covenant? Do ye think that Act explanatory of the Supremacy is not a plain renunciation of the word of God, the law of nature, the Covenant, and human society, and setting up devilism and confusion, without a full, free, and direct public testimony to the contrary? We are sure, that every public breach of Covenant requires public repentance. We think there can none be absolved without this; for in express terms our Lord says, ' Whosoever denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Now, there should not only be a testimony given, but a walking according to it afterwards.

"Oh sirs! would you have none to witness against the abominations of this day? Indeed you are all mistaken, for our Lord will not want witnesses to witness for Him, however few and feckless [i.e., feeble] they be; yet He will make the things that are not confound the things that are. Oh sirs! think you it not a sin, to join with them who have rejected the living God, and will not have Him to reign over them? Do ye not think it duty to protest against them, that are trampling our Lord's glory under foot? Oh sirs! do ye not think yourselves guilty of breach of Covenant, that have connived at these men, that have their hands reeking in the blood of the saints, when you are strengthening their hands in the doing of it? We think you guiltier nor [i.e., than] these wretches; because you join with them in sin, whereas you should have protested against them in the committing of such acts. We wot [i.e., know] well, if ye read the Bible, ye will count yourselves as guilty as they are, and the guiltiest of the two; for it was your part to have contended for the truth, and stood in defence thereof, unto the losing of

lives and liberties, and all that you had. The Lord has cast them off, and yet you will do what in you lies to hold them up, who shed the blood of those who were once in a day your dear brethren!

"It may be, you will say, that Samuel knew that Saul was rejected of God, and yet he did not cast him off. We answer, he did what lay in his power to get him cast off; for he went and anointed David in his stead, and durst not do it publicly, but secretly, for fear of Saul; neither did Samuel converse much with

Saul after that.

"Next, you say, That David's heart smote him, for taking and cutting off the lap of Saul's garment, and said, that he would not stir [i.e., hurt] the Lord's anointed. Now, we say, he had two reasons, which we have not. First, he had that reason, that he was the Lord's anointed. Secondly, it was his own particular quarrel; because he was to reign in his stead. So we say, that Charles Stuart is not the Lord's anointed, neither is it our particular quarrel, but in defence of the Gospel, and in so far as he is an enemy to God and the way of salvation; which is sufficient ground to cast any person out of the Church, and witness against him, in the defence of the Gospel, unto the losing of life and liberty, and all other things.

"And, believe us as ye will, we do not think them Christians, that will not contend for lovely Christ and His sweet truths, in witnessing against this bloody excommunicate traitor, and not owning them as rulers; seeing they have disowned the just and holy One, and are trampling on His sweet truths, and would never have them to rise again, but would have the stone sealed, that there might be no more mention made of the honour of God.

"And you have a deep hand in this, because ye are not faithful and free in witnessing for His despised glory. And if ye will not do it, delivery to the Church shall come from another airt [i.e., quarter], and you shall all be destroyed; for He will be up again in spite of all your hearts; and He will make your fears and theirs both come on you, for He will make inquisition for all His truths; and when He comes indeed, we would not abide the reproof that you, the professors of Stirlingshire, will get, for all the gold in Europe. There will be no excuse heard then; your wife and children, or lands, will be no excuse; for He hath told us in express terms, that whosoever will not forsake all, and follow Him, cannot be His disciple. Wife and children, houses and lands, must all go for Him. And you must take up His cross daily, and wander through at His back; it