Some time after the battle at Bothwell, he was pursued from his own chamber out of town, and forced to go through several thorn hedges. But he was no sooner out, than he saw a troop of dragoons just opposite to him; back he could not go, soldiers being posted every where to catch him; upon which he went forward, near by the troop, who looked to him, and he to them, until he got past. But coming to the place of the water at which he intended to go over, he saw another troop standing on the other side, who called to him but he made them no answer. And going about a mile up the water, he escaped, and preached at Langside next Sabbath, without interruption. At another time, being in a house beset with soldiers, he went through the midst of them, they thinking it was the goodman of the house and escaped.
After Bothwell, he fell into a deep exercise anent his call to the ministry; but, by the grace and goodness of God, he soon emerged out of that, and also got much light anent the duty of the day, being a faithful contender against the enemy’s usurped power, and against the sinful compliance of ministers, in accepting the indulgence, with indemnities, oaths, bonds, and all other corruptions.
There was a certain woman in Rutherglen, about two miles from Glasgow, who, by the instigation of some, both ministers and professors, was persuaded to advice her husband to go but once to hear the curate, to prevent the family being reduced; which she prevailed with him to do. But going the next day after to milk her cows, two or three of them dropt down dead at her feet, and Satan, as she conceived, appeared unto her; which cast her under sad and sore exercises and desertion; so that she was brought to question her interest in Christ, and all that had formerly passed betwixt God and her soul, and was often tempted to destroy herself, and sundry times attempted it: Being before known to be an eminent Christian, she was visited by many Christians; but without success: still crying out she was undone; she had denied Christ, and he had denied her. After continuing a long time in this exercise, she cried for Mr Cargill, who came to her, but found her distemper so strong, that for several visits he was obliged to leave her as he found her to his no small grief. However, after setting some days apart on her behalf, he at last came again to her; but finding her no better, still rejecting all comfort, still crying out, that she had no interest in the mercy of God, or merits of Christ, but had sinned the unpardonable sin; he, looking in her face for a considerable time, took out his Bible, and naming her, said, “I have this day a commission from my Lord and Master, to renew the marriage contract betwixt you and him; and if ye will not consent, I am to require your subscription on this Bible, that you are willing to quit all right, interest in, or pretence unto him:” and then he offered her pen and ink for that purpose. She was silent for some time; but at last cried out, “O! salvation is come unto this house. I take him; I take him on his own terms, as he is offered unto me by his faithful ambassador.” From that time her bands were loosed.
One time Mr Cargill, Mr Walter Smith, and some other Christian friends, being met in a friend’s house in Edinburgh, one of the company told him of the general bonding of the Western gentlemen for suppressing field meetings, and putting all out of their grounds who frequented them. After sitting silent for some time, he answered, with several heavy sighs and groans, “The enemy have been long filling up the cup; and ministers and professors must have time to fill up their’s also; and it shall not be full till enemies and they be clasped in one another’s arms; and then, as the Lord lives, he will bring the wheel of his wrath and justice over them altogether.”
Some time after the beginning of the year 1680, he retired toward the Frith of Forth, where he continued until that scuffle at Queensferry, where worthy Haugh-head was killed, and he sorely wounded. But escaping, a certain woman found him in a private place, to the south of the town, and tying up his wounds with her head-cloths, conducted him to the house of one Robert Runtens, in Carlowrie, where a surgeon dressed his wounds and Mrs Puntens gave him some warm milk, and he lay in their barn all night. From thence he went to the south, and next Sabbath preached at Cairnhill, somewhere adjacent to Loudon, in his blood and wounds; for no danger could stop him from going about doing good. His text was in Heb. xi. 32. And what shall I more say, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, &c. At night, some persons said to him, We think, Sir, preaching and praying go best with you when your danger and distress are greatest. He said, it had been so, and he hoped it would be so, the more that enemies and others did thurst at him that he might fall, the more sensibly the Lord had helped him; and then (as it had been to himself) he repeated these words, The Lord is my strength and song, and has become my salvation, in the 118th Psalm, which was the psalm he sung upon the scaffold.
After this, he and Mr Richard Cameron met and preached together in Dermeid-muir, and other places, until that Mr Cameron was slain at Airs-moss, and then he went north, where, in the month of September following, he had a most numerous meeting at the Torwood, near Stirling, where he pronounced the sentence of excommunication, against some of the most violent persecutors of that day, as formally as the present state of things could then permit. Some time before this, it is said, he was very remote, and spoke very little in company; only to some he said, he had atout to give with the trumpet that the Lord had put in his hand, that would sound in the ears of many in Britain, and other places in Europe also. It is said, that no body knew what he was to do that morning, except Mr Walter Smith, to whom he imparted the thoughts of his heart. When he began, some friends feared he would be shot. His landlord, in whose house he had been that night, cast his coat and ran for it. In the forenoon, he lectured on Ezek. xxi. 25. &c. and preached on 1 Cor. v. 13. and then discoursed some time on the nature of excommunication, and then proceeded to the sentence: after which, in the afternoon, he preached from Lam. iii. 31, 32. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.
The next Lord’s day, he preached at Fallowhill, in the parish of Livingstone. In the preface, he said, “I know I am and will be condemned by many, for excommunicating those wicked men, but condemn me who will, I know I am approven of by God, and am persuaded, that what I have done on earth, is ratified in heaven; for, if ever I knew the mind of God, and was clear in my call to any piece of my generation-work, it was that. And I shall give you two signs, that ye may know I am in no delusion; (1.) If some of these men do not find that sentence binding upon them, ere they go off the stage, and be obliged to confess it, &c. (2.) If these men die the ordinary death of men, then God hath not spoken by me.”
About the 22d of October following, a long and severe proclamation was issued out against him and his followers, wherein a reward of 5000 merks was offered for apprehending him, &c.—Next month, Governor Middleton, having been frustrated in his design upon Mr Cargill at Queensferry, laid another plot for him, by consulting one James Henderson in Ferry, who, by forging and signing letters, in the name of Bailie Adam in Culross, and some other serious Christians in Fife, for Mr Cargill to come over, and preach to them at the hill of Beith. Accordingly, Henderson went to Edinburgh with the letters, and, after a most diligent search, found him in the West Bow. Mr Cargill being willing to answer the call, Henderson proposed to go before, and have a boat, ready at the Ferry when they came; and that he might know them, he desired to see Mr Cargill’s cloth, Mr Skeen and Mr Boig being in the same room. In the mean time, he had Middleton’s soldiers lying at the Mutton-hole, about three miles from Edinburgh. Mr Skeen, Archibald Stuart, Mrs Muir, and Marion Hervey, took the way before, on foot: Mr Cargill and Mr Boig being to follow on horseback. Whenever they came to the place, the soldiers spied them; but Mrs Muir escaped and went and stopped Mr Cargill and Mr Boig, who fled back to Edinburgh.
After this remarkable escape, Mr Cargill, seeing nothing but the violent flames of treachery and tyranny against him, above all others, retired for about three months to England, where the Lord blessed his labours to the conviction and edification of many. In the time of his absence that delusion of the Gibbites arose, from one John Gib sailor In Borrow-stounness, who, with other three men, and twenty six women, vented and maintained the most strange delusions. Some time after, Mr Cargill returned from England, and was at no small pains to reclaim them, but with little success. After his last conference with them, at Darngavel, in Cambusnethen parish, he came next Sabbath, and preached at the Underbank wood, below Lanark, and from thence to Loudon-hill, where he preached upon a fast day, being the 5th of May. Here he intended only to have preached once, and to have baptized some children. His text was, ‘No man that hath followed me in the regeneration, &c.’ When sermon was over, and the children baptized, more children came up; whereupon friends pressed him to preach in the afternoon; which he did, from these words, ‘Weep not for me,’ &c. In the mean while the enemy at Glasgow getting notice of this meeting, seized all the horses in and about the town, that they could come by, and mounted in quest of him; yea, such was their haste and fury, that one of the soldiers, who happened to be behind the rest, riding furiously down the street called the Stockwell, at mid-day, rode over a child, and killed her on the spot. Just as Mr Cargill was praying at the close, a lad alarmed them of the enemy’s approach. They having no sentinels that day which was not their ordinary, were surprised, so that some of them who had been at Pentland, Bothwell, Airs-moss, and other dangers, were never so seized with fear, some of the women, throwing their children from them. In this confusion Mr Cargill was running straight on the enemy; but Gavin Wotherspoon and others haled him to the moss, unto which the people fled. The dragoons fired hard upon them, but there were none either killed or taken that day.
About this time, some spoke to Mr Cargill of his preaching and praying short. They said, “O Sir, it is long betwixt meals, and we are in a starving condition; all is good, sweet, and wholesome, that you deliver, but why do you so straiten us?” He said, “Ever since I bowed a knee in good earnest to pray, I never durst preach, and pray with my gift; and when my heart is not affected, and comes not up with my mouth, I always think it time to quit it. What comes not from the heart, I have little hope it will go to the hearts of others:” Then he repeated these words in the 51st psalm, “Then will I teach transgressors thy way, &c.”