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"4. And likewise I leave my testimony against that wicked thing called the Test, invented by Satan.

"5. And also against all Bonds and Declarations sent forth by these who are called the Council of Scotland.

"6. And likewise, I leave my testimony against Cess and Locality paying, which is for no other use, but to bear down the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.

use.

"7. And also against militia money, which is for that same

"8. And also against all intelligencers and apprehenders of the Lord's people. Obadiah 10.

"9. And likewise against all compearing at courts, or coming out of prison on bond or caution, or paying of jailor's fees; for it says, that we have done them wrong, whereas we have done them none, and although they be forced to it, yet that will not excuse them, for there is not a liberty in all the Word of God, to say a confederacy with His open and avowed enemies.

"10. And also I leave my testimony against the hearing of these tested curates, who are these that are mentioned in God's Word, viz., wolves and bears, which would devour the Lord's flock.

"II. And against all the bloodshed, before and since Pentland, in the fields, and on scaffolds, and also in the seas.

"12. And against all the Indulgences, first and last; who lay down the service of the Lord at the command of men, and have engaged themselves in that woe that is pronounced against such as are at ease, when Zion is in trouble; for since I had any knowledge, I never had any clearness for ministers who acknowledged any to be the Head of the Church but Jesus Christ.

"13. And against all sort of compliance, because I see there are few that ever comply with them, who ever get leave to look behind them, till they be the full length. And now, I must tell you, I have not been free of the thoughts of it this many a day, that the Church of Britain and Ireland shall be upon the borders of Babylon, before they get a delivery.

"Now dear friends, study to be diligent in your duty, and also make good use of your Bibles, for I have not gotten the thoughts of it off my spirit this many a day, that ere long it shall come to that, that it shall be death to the person with whom a Bible is found; and also I must tell you, that there was nothing more confirming to me that they were enemies to truth, than to see their carriage when I was

before them. Now I am not taking upon me to prophesy, but they are blind who see not there are sad days abiding these poor lands. Now, I say, oh! study holiness, and labour to follow your duty in sad earnest, for there is a black cloud of judgment ready to break upon these lands. And now I dare not doubt but Christ is upon His way to return again to these lands, and oh! be earnest with Him, that He would spare a remnant, and that He would not pass that sad sentence mentioned in Ezek. ix. 6, where he hath given a commission to slay utterly old and young;' and also, verse 10, where He hath said, 'Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity.' Now, I say likewise, be earnest with Him, that ye may be marked by the man with the writer's inkhorn by his side, that ye may be kept in the hollow of His hand in the day of Scotland's sad calamity.

"Now, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, and employ your strength in the holding up of the fallen-down standard of our Lord, and if ye be found real in this duty, ye shall either be a member of the Church militant, and see that glory of the second temple, which shall be a glorious sight, or else ye shall be transported, and be a member of the Church triumphant; so ye shall be no loser, but a noble gainer either of the ways; for I dare not doubt, but that Christ is upon His way, and that He will keep a remnant even of holy seed, which shall yet be the substance of poor covenanted Scotland. Now, I desire to die a Presbyterian, although one of the meanest and poorest sinful things that ever followed Him and His

way.

"But, oh, praise! praise! and glory to Him, who hath taken this way of dealing with me, as to honour me with suffering for Him and and His controverted truths, and royal prerogatives, kingdom, and sceptre. And now, in a word, I am fully persuaded that it is His truth I am suffering for, and in this case, have both His Word and Spirit on my side, and so I shall not be disappointed of my expectation.

"Now, I desire heartily to forgive all men what they have done to me, as I am of myself; but what they have done against the image of God in me, that is not mine to forgive, but I must leave it before the Great Judge to be decided, in His own time, when He will arise and plead Zion's quarrel. Although men have burned His work, and sworn it shall not rise again, yet the commission shall go forth, 'Arise and sing, ye that dwell in the dust.'

"But I must leave it, because my time is but short; but I have one word more to say to the poor remnant. Fear not to venture upon the cross of Christ, for although ye see but the black side of it at the beginning, yet when ye come to a trial upon His truth's account, then He will appear, and be a present help in time of trouble, according to His Word; and the more sharp your trial be, the more He will be seen perfecting strength in your weakness, according to that in Isa. xl. 29, 31: 'He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.'

"Now, I say, fear not to contend for the truth, but labour to be as free of self in it as ye can, for I can tell you, Christ and your idols will not lodge in one house together, but if ye can say upon good ground, that it is pure love and zeal to His glory upon which ye are suffering, then I say, come away, for ye shall not want expenses to the full. Many Scriptures I might instance for your encouragement in this, but I can say from experience, that He is a Prince of His word. Oh! they are not too mean who are in the furnace, if the Son of God be with them. For I may now say with godly Mr Rutherford, He hath paid me many a hundredfold [it is well told me], and one to the hundred' [Letters, lxxiv., to the Lady Culross.-ED.] Oh! who would not praise Him, who hath carried through a poor dwarf mounted upon the wings of Omnipotency!

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Now, my time is but short, but I give glory to the great name of my God, for my interest is now made sure, and I have had much of His sweet presence, since I was a prisoner for Him and His persecuted truths; and many times before. And now I bless His great name, He hath perfected His work in me, and I shall have the full enjoyment of Him through all eternity, for I have freely given away myself to be at His disposal, and have taken Him to be my King, Priest, and Prophet; and now I think I may say with Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another; though my reins be consumed with me' (Job xix. 25-27).

"Now, my dear friends, I must bid farewell to you, and leave you to Him who hath promised to be a little sanctuary to His own, to be kept by His mighty power unto salvation; and also I bid farewell to sun, moon, and stars And I must bid farewell to all the

sweet Societies of the Lord's people. Farewell reading, and singing, and praying. Farewell holy and sweet Scriptures, with which many a time my soul hath been refreshed. And to conclude, farewell all created comforts in time. And welcome the sweet fellowship of angels, and the spirits of just men now made perfect, and the sweet fellowship of the first-born. Welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into whose hands I commit my spirit, for it is thine.

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Peter

Margaret Lauchlane and Margaret Wilson. ARGARET LAUCHLANE, or LAUGHLISON, or MACLAUCHLAN, and MARGARET WILSON have obtained in our own time a celebrity such as neither they nor their persecutors ever dreamed of. Lord Macaulay, to illustrate the cruel treatment of the Scotch Covenanters under the administration of James II., selected the history of a single fortnight. During this fortnight, John Brown of Priesthill was murdered by Claverhouse. Gillies and John Bryce were tried in Ayrshire by a military tribunal, and in a few hours were convicted, hanged, and flung together into a hole under the gallows. Robert Tom, Thomas Cook, and John Urie were stopped by Major Balfour near Glasgow, and asked if they would pray for King James VII. They gave what seemed to the Major an evasive answer, and he ordered them to be blindfolded; and within an hour after they had been arrested their blood was lapped up by the dogs. In Eskdale a murder of equal atrocity was committed by the laird of Westerhall on a lad, the son of a widowed mother. On the same day Margaret Maclauchlan and Margaret Wilson suffered death for their religion in Wigtownshire. Lord Macaulay describes Claverhouse, in a very different manner from that of the fiction of Sir Walter Scott: "Pre-eminent among the bands which oppressed and wasted these unhappy districts were the dragoons com

manded by John Graham of Claverhouse. The story ran that these wicked men used in their revels to play at the torments of hell, and to call each other by the names of devils and damned souls. The chief of this Tophet, a soldier of distinguished courage and professional skill, but rapacious and profane, of violent temper and of obdurate heart, has left a name which, wherever the Scottish race is settled on the face of the globe, is mentioned with a peculiar energy of hatred."

These brilliant sentences of the historian stirred up Sheriff Mark Napier, a writer of keen Jacobite sympathies, to take up the defence of Claverhouse in his "Memoirs of Dundee," and at the same time to stigmatise the Covenanters in a style of vituperation in which he has no compeer in modern times. The Wigtown martyrs were pronounced to be myths, and the story of their sufferings a fable and a calumny. These assertions were not left unnoticed. His friends and admirers did their best to present them to the world in calmer language. They were speedily examined by a host of writers in quarterly reviews, monthly magazines, and newspapers; and the result has been, after an investigation almost unparallelled for its thoroughness, that the substantial truth of the story, as presented in the pages of Defoe, the Cloud of Witnesses, Wodrow, Patrick Walker, and Lord Macaulay, has been established beyond dispute.

Two gentlemen have contributed largely to this end—a writer in the Scotsman, believed to be the Rev. Thomas Gordon, D.D., of Newbattle, whose papers, it is much to be regretted, have not been issued to the world in a collected form-and the Rev. Archibald Stewart, D.D., of Glasserton, in his "History Vindicated in the Case of the Wigtown Martyrs," second edition, Edinburgh, 1869.

Dr Stewart's book is divided into three chapters. Chapter first treats of previous legislation. He reviews the measures of government by which in a few years the most loyal of subjects were changed into the very opposite. He quotes the instructions which the Council gave to the Commissions sent to traverse the country. If a man owned or did not disown the Apologetic Declaration, he was to be tried and hanged immediately. In the case of women, "those are to be drowned." In chapter second he examines Mr Napier's proof on the negative side, and shows it to be inconclusive, and in chapter third reviews the evidence on the affirmative side of the question. He arranges this under five heads-tradition, early pamphlets, earlier histories, minutes of local church courts, and monumental

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