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"O look where ye are and what will be the end, if mercy prevent it not; when once ye are fanged [i.e., caught] in their snares, ye stand stoutly to the defence of it, and of these that join with them in these ensnaring courses. I desire ye would look through the causes why the Lord contends with this poor land, and leaves them thus to consume away unto dross; for the whole land is involved in perjury, for they are all joining together to destroy that which we were bound and sworn to maintain both in Kirk and State.

"Ye know that the land was given away to the Lord by Covenant, and we, with all our substance, lives, and fortunes, sworn to defend it, to the utmost of our power. Oh! therefore consider where ye are now. Ye may date your perjury from the changing of the government, and the couping up [i.e., overturning] of the work of Reforma tion, and your being witnesses to it, and to the taking and beheading of Argyle and Mr Guthrie, without either resisting or resenting of it, which is astonishing to me to think upon, for ye were bound to defend the lives of these two men, though all your lives should have gone for it. I am put to wonder at Scotland's blindness.

"Ye may see that your crowning, and entering into covenant with Charles Stuart, hath been a thing contrary to the will of the Lord, for he and all his predecessors have still been known to be in opposition to the ways of the Lord. It seems that the Lord is still contending with the land, and will contend until He consume him and the land, because the king's sins become the people's sins, when not witnessed against and withstood. Now ye know how he hath ensnared the whole land by his acts, but especially his Supremacy over the church, and intrusion on Christ's prerogatives; and so many ministers being in the land, and yet have not witnessed against it, but have either kept silence, and thereby declared their unfaithfulness to the Lord, and the souls of them they were set over. For ministers ought to preach in season and out of season, and set the trumpet to their mouths, and give the people warning of every sin, or else the Lord will require their blood at the ministers' hands. I fear the ministers of Scotland will be found very guilty of this. They have not given the people faithful warning against the hearing of the curates and Indulged, for the people's testimony lay partly in forbearing to hear; for they were thrust in by the king's Supremacy, and entered not in at the door. And the Indulged have done more hurt to the Church, than all the curates have done; for they were looked upon to be godly men, and poor things not considering, but following

them blindly, not looking to the 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 wrack [i.e., 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 that the Lord is beginning to let us see our former ground again. And I desire you, His poor people, to labour to win [i.e., get], 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 heartbreaks 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 in, is, and will be found at length to be, the way of God. There is much need of tenderness of, and zeal to God's glory, and of watchfulness; for I find there are snares on all hands, and I 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 also I desire, when ye fall upon debates about the matters of the Lord, that ye would follow the method 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 win [i.e., get] no further, and the Lord pursued him unto the whale's belly, till he was forced to cry out unto the Lord. Oh! 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. Oh! 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? Oh! plead hard with Him, 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 kept 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 [i.e., established] 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 [so would] have done contrary to that in the second Epistle of John, 10th and 11th verses: '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 the 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) anything 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 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, for 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

What may follow,

look upon themselves as members of that body. leave that 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 these, who account the pure way of truth a wild principle, I account it a greater mercy to be wild from the way of sinning, than to be tamed 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 subscribitur,

"WILLIAM COCHRAN."

Andrew Guilline.

NDREW GUILLINE, or GUILLAN, was a weaver near Magus Muir, two miles from St Andrews, the scene of the death of Archbishop Sharp, May 3, 1679. He was called out of his house to hold the horses of the carriage, while Balfour and his associates were engaged in bringing the prelate's career to an unexpected end. In his testimony, Guilline justifies what was done to Sharp, yet he seems to have had no share in the deed further than that of a deeply-interested spectator. Wodrow says he endeavoured to secure the archbishop's daughter from hurt and danger when she would interpose betwixt the actors and him. He had told Wodrow's informer that, when the commander ordered them to draw their swords, Sharp's courage failed him at the sight of the cold iron, and he made as hideous and terrible shrieks as ever were heard.

After the archbishop's death, Andrew Guilline found it prudent to leave Magus Muir, and seek employment elsewhere. In the "Passages in the Lives of Helen Alexander and James Currie of Pentland," Helen Alexander says: "And about the year 1682, Andrew Gulon, who was execute, did sometimes come to my house; for I always thought it my duty to harbour any of the godly; and if I

thought they were godly, though they differed in judgment, yet I willingly entertained them, but especially those who were straightest in their judgment, and those who were most persecute for righteousness' sake. . . . . And so he being taken, it was thought that Mr M'Naught, the curate, had informed against me to the Council, and the Council put it to the laird to apprehend me. . . . When I had been some days in prison, I was brought down from the prison to the Abbey by a guard of soldiers to the Chancellor and Bishop Paterson. . . . And when I was brought before the Chancellor (who was president) and Bishop Paterson, I was interrogated by Sir William Paterson if I went to the kirk. I said I would not go to the kirk though they should take my life from me. They questioned me if Andrew Gulon came to my house, and I said, He did. He asked me why I gave him cloth to work; I answered, He was honest. He asked if any vagabonds came to my house, and I said, No (for so they termed these sufferers)."

On the 11th of June 1683, four years after the death of Sharp, he was at work in Cockpen, a parish a few miles to the south-east of Edinburgh, when the curate came by, and asked him where he was last Lord's day, and if he attended the parish church? Andrew declined to own him as his minister, or to answer his questions. The curate now called for some of his adherents in the parish, who seized Guilline and carried him to the village of Cockpen. Here he was pressed to drink the king's health, which he refused to do, on the plea that he drank no healths. His refusal awakened further suspicion, and he was taken to Dalkeith prison, and from thence to Edinburgh, where, after examination, he was put into the iron house, a room on the second floor of the Tolbooth, specially appropriated for felons. The iron bar or goad, to which they were chained, a bar of wrought iron, twelve feet long by two and a half inches in diameter, is still preserved in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh.

As yet nothing was known of his presence at the death of the Archbishop. By and by a rumour came to Edinburgh that he had been present, but there was no evidence to make the rumour a fact. Andrew Guilline himself was made to give the evidence desired. He was again examined, and the Advocate, while examining him, spoke of the death as a horrid murder, and affirmed, that when the Archbishop was upon his knees in prayer, they should have killed him. This misrepresentation was too much for Andrew,

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