Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) Part 16

After having taken his leave of such in the room, who were not to go with him to the scaffold, when going towards the door he said, "I could die like a Roman, but choose rather to die like a Christian. Come away, gentlemen, he that goes first goes cleanliest." When going down stairs, he called the reverend Mr. James Guthrie to him, and embracing him in a most endearing way, took his farewel of him; Mr. Guthrie at parting addressed the marquis thus, "My lord, G.o.d hath been with you, he is with you, and will be with you. And such is my respect for your lordship, that if I were not under sentence of death myself, I would cheerfully die for your lordship." So they parted, to meet again in a better place on the Friday following.

Then the marquis accompanied with several n.o.blemen and gentlemen mounted in black, with his cloke and hat on, went down the street, and mounted on the scaffold with great serenity and gravity, like one going to his Father's house, and saluted all on it. Then Mr. Hutcheson prayed, after which his lordship delivered his speech, in which among other things he said, "I come not here to justify myself, but the Lord, who is holy in all his ways, righteous in all his works, holy and blessed is his name.

Neither come I to condemn others. I bless the Lord, I pardon all men, and desire to be pardoned of the Lord myself. Let the will of the Lord be done, that is all I desire.----I was real and cordial in my desires to bring the king home, and in my endeavours for him when he was home, and had no correspondence with the adversaries army, nor any of them when his majesty was in Scotland, nor had I any hand in his late majesty's murder. I shall not speak much to these things for which I am condemned, lest I seem to condemn others.--It is well known it is only for compliance, which was the epidemical fault of the nation; I wish the Lord to pardon them. I say no more----but G.o.d hath laid engagements on Scotland. We are tied by covenants to religion and reformation, those who were then unborn are yet engaged, and it pa.s.seth the power of all the magistrates under heaven to absolve from the oath of G.o.d. These times are like to be either very sinning or suffering times, and let Christians make their choice, there is a sad dilemma in the business, sin or suffer, and surely he that will choose the better part will choose to suffer, others that will choose to sin will not escape suffering. They shall suffer, but perhaps not as I do (pointing to the maiden) but worse. Mine is but temporal, theirs shall be eternal. When I shall be singing, they shall be howling. Beware therefore of sin, whatever you are aware of, especially in such times.--And hence my condition is such now, as, when I am gone, will be seen not to be as many imagined. I wish, as the Lord hath pardoned me, so may he pardon them, for this and other things, and what they have done to me may never meet them in their accounts.----I have no more to say, but to beg the Lord that when I go away, he would bless every one that stayeth behind."

When he had delivered this his seasonable and pathetic speech, which with his last words is recorded at length in Naphtali[101]. Mr. Hamilton prayed, after which he prayed most sweetly himself, then he took his leave of all his friends on the scaffold. He first gave to the executioner a napkin with some money in it; to his sons in law Caithness and Ker his watch and some other things out of his pocket, he gave to Loudon his silver penner, to Lothian a double ducat, and then threw off his coat. When going to the maiden, Mr. Hutcheson said, My lord, now hold your grip sickker.----He answered, "You know Mr.

Hutcheson, what I said to you in the chamber. I am not afraid to be surprised with fear." The laird of Shelmerlie took him by the hand, when near the maiden, and found him most composed. He kneeled down most cheerfully, and after he had prayed a little, he gave the signal (which was by lifting up his hand), and the instrument called the maiden struck off his head from his body, which was fixed on the west end of the tolbooth, as a monument of the parliaments injustice and the land's misery. His body was by his friends put in a coffin and conveyed with a good many attendants through Linlithgow and Falkirk to Glasgow, and from thence to Kilpatrick, where it was put in a boat, carried to Denune, and buried in Kilmunn church.

Thus died the n.o.ble marquis of Argyle, the proto-martyr to religion since the reformation from popery, the true portrait of whose character cannot be (a historian[102] says I dare not) drawn. His enemies themselves will allow him to have been a person of extraordinary piety, remarkable wisdom and prudence, great gravity and authority, and singular usefulness. He was the head of the covenanters in Scotland, and had been singularly active in the work of reformation there, and of any almost that had engaged in that work he stuck closest by it, when most of the nation quitted it very much, so that this attack upon him was a stroke at the root of all that had been done in Scotland from 1638, to the usurpation. But the tree of prelacy and arbitrary measures behoved to be soaked when planting, with the blood of this excellent patriot, staunch presbyterian, and vigorous a.s.sertor of Scotland's liberty, and as he was the great promoter thereof during his life, and stedfast in witnessing to it at his death, so it was to a great degree buried with him in Scotland, for many years. In a word, he had piety for a christian, sense for a counsellor, carriage for a martyr, and soul for a king. If ever any was, he might be said to be a born Scotsman.

_The Life of Mr. JAMES GUTHRIE._

Mr. James Guthrie son to the laird of Guthrie (a very honourable and ancient family) having gone through his course of cla.s.sical learning at the grammar school and college, taught philosophy in the university of St. Andrews, where for several years he gave abundant proof that he was an able scholar. His temper was very steady and composed; he could reason upon the most subtle points with great solidity, and when every one else was warm his temper was never ruffled. At any time when indecent heats or wranglings happened to fall in when reasoning, it was his ordinary custom to say, "Enough of this, let us go to some other subject; we are warm, and can dispute no longer with advantage." Perhaps he had the greatest mixture of fervent zeal and sweet calmness in his temper, of any man in his time. But being educated in opposition to presbyterian principles he was highly prelatical in his judgment when he came first to St. Andrews, but by conversing with worthy Mr. Rutherford and others, and especially through his joining the weekly society's meetings there, for prayer and conference, he was effectually brought off from that way, and perhaps it was this that made the writer of the diurnal (who was no friend of his) say, "That if Mr. Guthrie had continued fixt to his first principles, he had been a star of the first magnitude in Scotland." Whenas he came to judge for himself, he happily departed from his first principles, and upon examination of that way wherein he was educated, he left it, and thereby became a star of the first magnitude indeed. It is said, that while he was regent in the college of St. Andrews, Mr. Sharp being then a promising young man there, he several times wrote this verse upon him,

If thou, Sharp, die the common death of men, I'll burn my bill, and throw away my pen.

Having pa.s.sed his trials, _anno_ 1638, he was settled minister at Lauder, where he remained for several years. _Anno_ 1646, he was appointed one of those ministers who were to attend the king, while at Newcastle, and likewise he was one of those nominated in the commission for the public affairs of the church, during the intervals betwixt the general a.s.semblies. And in about three years after this, he was translated to Stirling, where he continued until the restoration, a most faithful watchman upon Zion's walls, who ceased not day and night to declare the whole counsel of G.o.d to his people, _shewing Israel their iniquities, and the house of Jacob their sins_.

After he came to Stirling, he again not only evidenced a singular care over that people he had the charge of, but also was a great a.s.sistant in the affairs of the church, being a most zealous enemy to all error and profanity. And when that unhappy difference fell out with the public resolutioners, he was a most staunch protestor, opposing these resolutions unto the utmost of his power, insomuch as after the presbytery of Stirling had wrote a letter to the commission of the general a.s.sembly, shewing their dislike and dissatisfaction with the resolutioners, after they had been concluded upon at Perth Dec. 14.

1650. Mr. Guthrie and his colleague Mr. Bennet went somewhat further, and openly preached against them, as a thing involving the land in conjunction with the malignant party, for which by a letter from the chancellor they were ordered to repair to Perth on Feb. 19th, 1651, to answer before the king[103] and the committee of estates for that letter and their doctrine: but upon the indisposition of one of them, they excused themselves by a letter, for their non-appearance that day, but promised to attend upon the end of the week. Accordingly on the 22d they appeared at Perth, where they gave in a protestation; signifying, that although they owned his majesty's civil authority, yet was Mr.

Guthrie challenged by the king and his council for a doctrinal thesis which he had maintained and spoken to in a sermon,----whereof they were incompetent judges in matters purely ecclesiastical, such as is the examination and censuring of doctrines,--he did decline them on that account[104].

The matter being deferred for some days, till the king returned from Aberdeen, in the mean time the two ministers were confined to Perth and Dundee, whereupon they (Feb. 28.) presented another paper or protestation[105], which was much the same, though in stronger terms, and supported by many excellent arguments. After this the king and committee thought proper to dismiss them, and to proceed no farther in the affair at present, and yet Mr. Guthrie's declining the king's authority in matters ecclesiastical here, was made the princ.i.p.al article in his indictment some ten years after, to give way to a personal pique Middleton had against this good man, the occasion of which is as follows:

By improving an affront the king met with _anno_ 1659, some malignants about him so prevailed to heighten his fears of the evil designs of those about him, that by a correspondence with the papists, malignants, and such as were disaffected to the covenants in the north, matters came in a little to such a pa.s.s, that a considerable number of n.o.blemen, gentlemen, and others were to rise and form themselves into an army under Middleton's command, and the king was to cast himself into their arms, &c. Accordingly the king with a few in his retinue, as if he were going a-hunting, left his best friends, crossed the Tay, and came to Angus, where he was to have met with those people, but soon finding himself disappointed, he came back to the committee of estates, where indeed his greatest strength lay. In the meanwhile several who had been in the plot fearing punishment, got together under Middleton's command.

General Leslie marched towards them, and the king wrote to them to lay down their arms. The committee sent an indemnity to such as should submit, and while the dates were thus dealing with them, the commission of the a.s.sembly were not wanting to shew their zeal against such as ventured to disturb the public peace, and it is said that Mr. Guthrie here proposed summary excommunication, as a censure Middleton deserved, and as what he thought to be a suitable testimony from the church at this juncture. This highest sentence was carried in the commission by a plurality of votes, and Mr. Guthrie was appointed the next sabbath to p.r.o.nounce the sentence. In the mean time the committee of estates (not without some debates) had agreed upon an indemnity to Middleton.--There was an express sent to Stirling with an account how things stood, and a letter desiring Mr. Guthrie to forbear the intimation of the commission's sentence. But this letter coming to him just as he was going to the pulpit, he did not open it till the work was over, and though he had, it is a question if he would have delayed the commission's sentence upon a private missive to himself. However the sentence was inflicted, and although the commission of the church Jan.

3, 1651. (being their next meeting) did relax Middleton from that censure, (and laid it on a better man, col. Strachan[106]) yet it is believed Middleton never forgave or forgot what Mr. Guthrie did upon that day, as will afterward be made more fully to appear.

Mr. Guthrie about this time wrote several of the papers upon the protestors side, for which, and his faithfulness, he was one of those three who were deposed by the pretended a.s.sembly at St. Andrews 1657.

Yea, such was the malice of these woeful resolutioners, that upon his refusal of one of that party, and accession to the call of Mr. Rule, to be his colleague at Stirling (upon the death of Mr. Bennet _anno_ 1656) they proceeded to stone this seer in Israel with stones, his testimony while alive so tormented the men who dwell upon the earth.

And as Mr. Guthrie did faithfully testify against the resolutioners and the malignant party, so he did equally oppose himself to the sectaries and to Cromwell's usurpation; and although he went up to London _anno_ 1657, when the marquis of Argyle procured an equal hearing betwixt the protestors and the resolutioners, yet he so boldly defended the king's right in public debate with Hugh Peters, Oliver's chaplain, and from the pulpit a.s.serted the king's t.i.tle in the face of the English officers, as was surprizing to all gainsayers. Yet for this and other hardships that he endured on this account, at this time, he was but sorrily rewarded, as by and by will come to be observed.

Very soon after the restoration, while Mr. Guthrie and some other of his faithful brethren (who a.s.sembled at Edinburgh) were drawing up a paper, _Aug._ 23d, in way of supplication to his majesty, they were all apprehended (except one who happily escaped) and imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, and from thence Mr. Guthrie was taken to Stirling castle (the author of the apologetical relation says to Dundee), where he continued till a little before his trial, which was upon the 20th of February, 1661. When he came to his trial, the chancellor told him, He was called before them to answer to the charge of high treason, (a copy of which charge he had received some weeks before) and the lord advocate proposed, his indictment should be read; which the house went into: The heads of which were:

(1.) His contriving, consenting to, and exhibiting before the committee of estates, the paper called, The western remonstrance.

(2.) His contriving, writing and publishing that abominable pamphlet, called, the causes of the Lord's wrath.

(3.) His contriving, writing and subscribing the paper called the humble pet.i.tion[107] of the twenty-third of _August_ last.

(4.) His convocating of the king's lieges, &c.

(5.) His declaring his majesty, by his appeals and protestations presented by him at Perth, incapable to be judge over him. And,

(6.) Some treasonable expressions he was alledged to have uttered in a meeting in 1650 or 1651.

His indictment being read, he made an excellent speech before the parliament (wherein he both defended himself, and that n.o.ble cause for which he suffered), which being too nervous to abridge, and too prolix to insert in this place: The reader will find it elsewhere[108].

After he had delivered this speech, he was ordered to remove. He humbly craved, that some time might be given him to consult with his lawyers.

This was granted; and he was allowed till the 29th to give in his defence.--It is affirmed, upon very good authority, that when he met with his lawyers to form his defence, he very much surprized them by his exactness in our Scots laws, and suggested several things to be added that had escaped his advocate, which made Sir John Nisbet express himself to this purpose, "If it had been in the reasoning part, or in consequences from scripture and divinity, I would have wondered the less if he had given us some help, but even in the matter of our own profession, our statutes and acts of parliament, he pointed out several things that had escaped us." And likewise the day before his first appearance in parliament, it is said he sent a copy of the forementioned speech to Sir John and the rest of his lawyers of the reasoning and law part, and they could mend nothing therein.

The advocate's considering his defence, and the giving of it in, took up some weeks, until April the 11th, when the process against him was read in the house, upon which he made a speech affecting and close to the purpose; in which he concludes thus:

"My Lord, in the last place, I humbly beg, that having brought so pregnant and clear evidence from the word of G.o.d, so much divine reason and human laws, and so much of the common practice of kirk and kingdom in my defence; and being already cast out of my ministry, out of my dwelling and maintenance; myself and my family put to live on the charity of others; having now suffered eight months imprisonment, your Lordships, would put no other burden upon me. I shall conclude with the words of the prophet Jeremiah, _Behold, I am in your hands_, saith he, _do to me what seemeth good to you: I know, for certain, that the Lord hath commanded me to speak all these things, and that if you put me to death, you shall bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon the inhabitants of this city_."

"My Lords, my conscience I cannot submit; but this old crazy body and mortal flesh I do submit, to do with it whatever ye will, whether by death, or banishment, or imprisonment, or any thing else; only I beseech you to ponder well what profit there is in my blood: it is not the extinguishing of me or many others, that will extinguish the covenant and work of reformation since the year 1638. My blood, bondage, or banishment will contribute more for the propagation of these things, than my life or liberty could do, though I should live many years, &c."

And though this speech had not that influence that might have been expected, yet it made such impression upon some of the members that they withdrew, declaring to one another, that they would have nothing to do with the blood of this righteous man. But his judges were determined to proceed, and accordingly his indictment was found relevant. Bp.

Burnet[109] says, "The earl of Tweeddale was the only man that moved against putting him to death; he said, Banishment had hitherto been the severest censure laid upon preachers for their opinions,--yet he was condemned to die." The day of his execution was not named till the 28th of May, when the parliament ordered him and William Govan to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh, on the first of June, and Mr. Guthrie's head to be fixed on the Nether-bow, his estate to be confiscated, and his arms torn; and the head of the other upon the west-port of Edinburgh.

And thus a sentence of death was pa.s.sed upon Mr. Guthrie, for his accession to the causes of G.o.d's wrath, his writing the pet.i.tion last year, and the protestation above-mentioned; matters done a good many years ago, and every way agreeable and conform to the word of G.o.d, the principles and practice of this and other churches and the laws of the kingdom. After he received his sentence, he accosted the parliament thus, "My lords, let never this sentence affect you more than it does me, and let never my blood be required of the king's family."

Thus it was resolved that this excellent man should fall a sacrifice to private and personal pique, as the marquis's was said to be to a more exalted revenge; and it is said, that the managers had no small debate what his sentence should be, for he was dealt with by some of them to retract what he had done and written, and join with the present measures, and he was even offered a bishopric. The other side were in no hazard in making the experiment, for they might be a.s.sured of his firmness in his principles. A bishopric was a very small temptation to him, and the commissioner improved his inflexibility to have his life taken away, to be a terror to others, that they might have the less opposition in establishing prelacy.

Betwixt Mr. Guthrie's sentence and his execution, he was in perfect composure and serenity of spirit, and wrote a great many excellent letters to his friends and acquaintances. In this interval, he uttered several prophetical expressions, which, together with the foresaid religious letters, could they now be recovered, might be of no small use in this apostate and backslidden age. June 1st, the day on which he was executed, upon some reports that he was to buy his life at the expence of retracting some of the things he had formerly said and done, he wrote and subscribed the following declaration.

"There are to declare that I do own the causes of G.o.d's wrath, the supplication at Edinburgh August last, and the accession I had to the remonstrances. And if any do think, or have reported that I was willing to recede from these, they have wronged me, as never having any ground from me to think, or to report so. This I attest under my hand at Edinburgh, about eleven o'clock forenoon, before these witnesses."

Mr. Arthur Forbes, Mr. John Guthrie, Mr. Hugh Walker, Mr. James Cowie.

That same day he dined with his friends with great cheerfulness. After dinner he called for a little cheese, which he had been dissuaded from taking for some time, as not good for the gravel, which he was troubled with, and said, I am now beyond the hazard of the gravel.----When he had been secret for sometime, he came forth with the utmost fort.i.tude and composure, and was carried down under a guard from the tolbooth to the scaffold, which was erected at the cross. Here he was so far from shewing any fear, that he rather expressed a contempt at death, and spake an hour upon the ladder with the composure of one delivering a sermon. His last speech is in Naphtali, where among other things becoming a martyr, he saith, "One thing I warn you all of, That G.o.d is very wroth with Scotland, and threatens to depart, and remove his candlestick. The causes of his wrath are many, and would to G.o.d it were not one great cause, that causes of wrath are despised. Consider the case that is recorded, Jer. x.x.xvi. and the consequences of it, and tremble and fear. I cannot but also say that there is a great addition of wrath by that deluge of profanity that overfloweth all the land, in so far that many have not only lost all use and exercise of religion, but even of morality. 2. By that horrible treachery and perjury that is in the matters of the covenant and cause of G.o.d. Be ye astonished, O ye heavens, at this! &c. 3. Horrible ingrat.i.tude. The Lord, after ten years oppression, hath broken the yoke of strangers, from oft our necks, but the fruits of our delivery, is to work wickedness and to strengthen our hands to do evil, by a most dreadful sacrificing to the creature. We have changed the glory of the incorruptible G.o.d into the image of a corruptible man, in whom many have placed almost all their salvation.

G.o.d is also wroth with a generation of carnal corrupt time-serving ministers. I know and do bear testimony, that in the church of Scotland there is a true and faithful ministry, and I pray you to honour these; for their works sake. I do bear my witness to the national covenant of Scotland, and solemn league and covenant betwixt the three kingdoms.

These sacred solemn public oaths of G.o.d, I believe can be loosed or dispensed with by no person or party or power upon earth, but are still binding upon these kingdoms, and will be so for ever hereafter, and are ratified and sealed by the conversion of many thousand souls, since our entering thereinto. I bear my testimony to the protestation against the controverted a.s.semblies, and the public resolutions. I take G.o.d to record upon my soul, I would not exchange this scaffold with the palace or mitre of the greatest prelate in Britain. Blessed be G.o.d, who hath shewed mercy to me such a wretch, and has revealed his Son in me, and made me a minister of the everlasting gospel, and that he hath deigned, in the midst of much contradictions from Satan and the world, to seal my ministry upon the hearts of not a few of his people, and especially in the station wherein I was last, I mean the congregation and presbytery of Stirling. Jesus Christ is my light and my life, my righteousness, my strength and my salvation, and all my desire. Him! O him! I do with all the strength of my soul commend to you. Bless him, O my soul, from henceforth, even for ever!" He concluded with the words of old Simeon, _Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation._ He gave a copy of this his last speech and testimony, subscribed and sealed, to a friend to keep, which he was to deliver to his son, then a child, when he came to age. When on the scaffold he lifted the napkin off his face just before he was turned over and cried, The covenants, the covenants shall yet be Scotland's reviving.

A few weeks after he was executed, and his head placed on the Neitherbow-port, Middleton's coach coming down that way, several drops of blood fell from the head upon the coach, which all their art and diligence could not wipe off, and when physicians were called, and desired to inquire, If any natural cause could be given for this, but they could give none. This odd incident being noised abroad, and all means tried, at length the leather was removed, and a new cover put on: But this was much sooner done, than the wiping off the guilt of this great and good man's blood upon the shedders of it, and this poor nation[110].

Thus fell the faithful Mr. James Guthrie, who was properly the first who suffered unto death in that period, for a.s.serting the kingly prerogative of Jesus Christ in opposition to Erastian supremacy. He was a man honoured of G.o.d to be zealous and singularly faithful in carrying on the work of reformation, and had carried himself straight under all changes and revolutions, and because he had been such, he must live no longer.

He did much for the interest of the king in Scotland, which the king no doubt was sensible of: When he got notice of his death, he said with some warmth, "And what have you done with Mr. Patrick Gillespie." He was answered, that having so many friends in the house, his life could not be taken. Well, said the king, "If I had known you would have spared Mr.

Gillespie, I would have spared Mr. Guthrie." And indeed he was not far out with it; for Mr. Guthrie was capable to have done him as much service. For he was one accomplished with almost every qualification natural or acquired, necessary to complete both a man and a Christian.

But it is a loss we are favoured with so few of the writings of this worthy. For beside those papers already mentioned, he wrote several others upon the protestors side, among which was also a paper wrote against the usurper Oliver Cromwel, for which he suffered some hardships during the time of that usurpation. His last sermon at Stirling preached from Matth xiv. 22. was published in 1738, int.i.tled a cry from the dead, &c.; with his ten considerations anent the decay of religion, first published by himself in 1660; and an authentic paper wrote and subscribed by himself upon the occasion of his being stoned by the resolution party about 1656, for his accession to the call of Mr. Robert Rule to be his colleague, after the death of Mr. Bennet. He also wrote a treatise on ruling elders and deacons, about the time he entered into the ministry, which is now affixed to the last edition of his cousin Mr.

William Guthrie's treatise of the trial of a saving interest in Christ.

_The Life of JOHN CAMPBEL Earl of Loudon._

He was heir to Sir James Campbel of Lawer, and husband of Margaret Baroness of Loudon.

The first of his state-preferments was _anno_ 1633. when king Charles I.

came to Scotland, in order to have his coronation performed there[111].

At which time he dignified several of the Scots n.o.bility with higher t.i.tles of honour; and among the rest this n.o.bleman, who was created earl of Loudon May 12th, 1633.