because of despised light and the despised Gospel, there is assuredly great wrath coming upon them."

And then he prayed, and after prayer went up the ladder, and looking about to the multitude said: "Sirs, you are feeding your eyes upon me; but what see you upon me? Surely you see not the wrath of God upon me. But if you would look up to the heavens ye might see the wrath of an angry God against yourselves." And he said, "I am brought out of another nation to own that Covenant which ye have broken, and to seal it, and the glorious work of Reformation, with my blood; which Covenant ye have not only broken, but ye have given it under your hands, that ye shall never own God any more, nor have any more of Him.”

And he blessed the Lord, saying: "Glory, glory, glory be to His name, that ever He gave me a life to lay down for Him, in witnessing against His enemies and the wrongs done to my Lord and Master Jesus Christ." And said, "The Lord be Judge between me and you, who have taken away my life, which of us have been in the wrong to other; and assure yourselves there is wrath, sad wrath hanging over this city for the innocent blood shed therein. But as for you, who are the remnant of the Lord's people, I would say this to you, keep your ground, and beware of turning aside to one hand or another, and I will asure you, the Lord will prepare a Zoar for you; cleave to truth, and cleave one to another; and, as sure as God lives, ye shall see yet glorious days in Scotland; for I die in the faith of it, that He is on His way returning to the land. But woe, woe, woe will be to those who are enemies and strangers to Him."

Then praying a little within himself, when some bade put him over, and others cried out, spare him a little; he cried, "I am ready, I am ready." Whereupon the executioner threw him over.

66

James Robertson.

JAMES ROBERTSON belonged to Stonehouse, a parish in
Lanarkshire. He was noted as a serious and a religious

person. He was what in that age was styled a merchant, and went up and down the country with a pack of goods. In October 1682 he was in Kilmarnock in the exercise of his calling, and visited John Finlay, then a prisoner in jail. While talking with his friend, without giving the least offence or provocation, he was seized and carried to the guard-house. His pack was taken from him and never returned, and he was kept in close confinement for ten or twelve days. During this time," Wodrow relates, "he was brought before Major White, who would have him give his oath super inquirendis, which the prisoner absolutely refused to do, whereupon he was very barbarously used. My accounts bear that the Major himself pulled him by the nose and wrung it about, till it gushed out in blood. After this treatment he was sent back to prison, and when there, whilst he and his fellow-prisoners offered to worship God together, the captain of the guard getting notice, came in with great rage, and, pulling the Bible out of James Robertson's hand, swore bloodily he would burn it if he offered to go about this work again. In a few weeks he was carried into Edinburgh under a guard. At Linlithgow he was pressed to drink the king's health, which he refusing, the soldiers treated him very rudely, and tied his head and feet together with cords, and left him in that posture upon the cold earth all night. To-morrow [i.e., next day], when on horseback, they tied his feet together, very hard, under the horse's belly, and in that posture carried him into Edinburgh."

He was several times examined by the Committee for public affairs. The substance of his answers, as forming part of his indictment, is in Wodrow. In their fullest form, so far as Robertson himself remembered them, they are given here as the introduction to his testimony. No other evidence was brought against him except his

answers to their questions. They were determined, however, to take his life, for they supposed that he was the person who affixed a protestation containing several pointed reasons against the Test upon the church-door of Stonehouse.

The jury found him guilty of treason, and the court sentenced him to be hanged at the Grassmarket, on Friday, December 15, 1682. As Wodrow says:-"This harsh and iniquitous sentence was accordingly executed. When James Robertson offered to speak upon the scaffold, he was interrupted by the ruffling of the drums, and when complaining of this, Johnston, the town-major, beat him with his cane, at the foot of the ladder, in a most barbarous manner. This abominable rudeness to a dying man, and the patience and cheerfulness of this good man in suffering all this, I know, was the occasion of a deep conviction to some who were present, of the evil of persecution and prelacy. And there are severals yet alive, who can date their first serious impressions of religion from their seeing some of the persecuted party suffer, as they themselves have informed me."

James Robertson's testimony is the longest in the volume. He had more time for writing than many of his fellow-sufferers. He was tried on Monday, December 11, and was executed the following Friday, whereas not a few were tried the one day and hanged the other, and sometimes even on the very day they received sentence.

James Robertson mentions Auchengilloch as a place where a fast was held, at which both Donald Cargill and Richard Cameron preached. Auchengilloch is situated in the parish of Lesmahagow, in the centre of a wild moorland district. It is a glen at the source of the Kype water, and is formed by a depression in the moor of about forty feet in depth, and is of size that will give sitting room on its sides for at least five hundred people. Although so large, it is not seen when walking over the moor until the traveller comes immediately upon it. At its south end the hill rises about 200 feet above the moor, and commands a view of the country for many miles round. On this hill watchmen were posted when a meeting was held in the glen beneath. Its central position, six to nine miles from Muirkirk on the south, Strathaven and Stonehouse on the north, Lesmahagow on the east, and Newmilns on the west, and the three or four miles of rough moor that must be gone over ere it be reached rendering it inaccessible to cavalry, combined to make it a favourite spot, where the general meetings of the United Societies were most often held during the persecution. Michael Shields' "Faithful Contendings

Displayed," contains the substance of the Minutes of Proceedings of five meetings that were held in the solitude of the glen in January 8, and February 12, 1685; May 5, and June 24, 1686; and October 5, 1687.-ED.]

HE LAST TESTIMONY of JAMES ROBERTSON, who lived in the parish of Stonehouse, and suffered in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, December 15, 1682.

His Interrogations before the Council.

Quest. 1. "Is the king your lawful prince, yea, or not?
Ans. "Since ye have made your questions matters

of life and death, ye ought to give time to deliberate upon them ; but seeing I am put to it, I answer, As he is a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well, he is; or he is not.

Q. 2. "Were Pentland and Bothwell acts of traitory?

A. "They being in their own defence, and the defence of the Gospel, they are not acts of traitory or rebellion, self-defence being always lawful; which I prove by the Confession of Faith, in that article whereon you ground yourselves, which is, that subjects may resist unjust violence and tyranny.

Q. 3. "But wherein lies his tyranny?

A. "If robbing the privileges of the Church be not an act of tyranny, I refer it to be judged.

Q. 4. "Is the king a tyrant?

A. "I refer it to his obligation in the Coronation Oath, and his present actings and practices in robbing the privileges of the Gospel, with the usurpation of the Church's liberties, and the prerogatives royal of Jesus Christ, the anointed of the Father, in making himself supreme; and I refer it to persons at home, and nations abroad. Q. 5. "Were you at Bothwell Bridge?

A. "Ye count it an act of traitory, and also rebellion, which is criminal. Bear witness of it, and so make it evident.

Q. 6. "They said, Purge yourself by oath, and so we offer to set you at liberty.

A. "I will say no more of it, for when I told the truth to some of you, it was not believed.

"One of them said, Now I will try if ye be a man of parts:

Q. 7. "There was an Act of Parliament when the Confession of Faith was made, declaring, that the king was supreme, and it was owned by the Presbyterians of that time?

A. "How could that be owned, seeing the Confession was owned? And I called for the Act, but it was not brought.

Q. 8. "Was the Bishop's death murder?

A. "When I am a judge, set upon the bench, I shall pass sentence thereupon." Being questioned further anent it, I said, 'I have answered that already, I will say no more to it.'

Q. 9. "Own you Lanark and Sanquhar Declarations?

A. I cannot own anything, till I see and consider it.

Q. 10. "Keep you your parish kirk?

A. "If the minister have aught to challenge me with, he may do it. Q. II. "Now, as a test of your loyalty, will you say, God save the king?

A. "Prayer ought to be gone about with composure and deliberation, and I am not in a composure for it.

Q. 12. "Would you not seek a blessing, if at meat?

A. "If ye were present ye would see.

"One of them said, these principles will condemn you. I answered, If I be absolved of God, it is the less matter though men condemn me."

HE LAST TESTIMONY of JAMES ROBERTSON.

"DEAR FRIENDS, TRUE LOVERS OF ZION'S RIGHTEOUS CAUSE, If I could speak or write anything to the commendation of the covenanted God of the Church and kingdom of Scotland, I have surely many things to do it for.

"1. That He trysted [i.e., appointed] my lot to be in a nation where He hath set up His pure worship, whereas He might have letten my lot be among the pagan and heathen nations, that know nothing of the true God.

"Or 2. He might have ordered it to be among these that