Annals of the persecution in Scotland

by James Aikman

The conduct of the government, amid all their professions of toleration, fully warranted the worst suspicions of the persecuted. On the 25th July, John Anderson, younger of Wastertown, was indicted before the court of justiciary, for having in a tavern, over a glass of wine, argued in favour of using defensive arms against tyrants, and, by an execrable majority of that degraded tribunal, condemned to die. He was not executed, but the stain of the sentence remains upon the memories of the servile senators who pronounced it. And this was followed on the 5th October by a proclamation, not only forbidding all field-conventicles, under the usual penalty, but even indulged ministers, from preaching in houses, unless they observed the prescribed directions; that is, unless they abstained from exposing or in any way reflecting upon the king’s religion, i. e. the errors of popery; and on the 18th, by another, all officers, civil and military, were ordered to apprehend James Renwick, and assured of the sum of £100 sterling for taking him dead or alive—a high price! but so cautious had he been, that he had eluded fifteen desperate searches made after him within five months since the first toleration, which exasperated the rulers beyond measure.

The year One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-Eight—a year greatly to be remembered as the last in the annals of the persecution in Scotland—was ushered in by a circumstance which threatened to rivet their chains upon the Presbyterians, but which in the good providence of God was the means of accelerating their deliverance. On the 2d of January, the Queen’s pregnancy was announced; and the 29th was ordered to be observed as a day of thanksgiving in the diocese of Edinburgh, where the clergy were commanded to pray, after this form, for “Our gracious Queen Mary:—Good Lord, strengthen her, we beseech thee, and perfect what thou hast begun. Command thy holy angels to watch over her continually, and defend her from all dangers and evil accidents, that what she has conceived may be happily brought forth to the joy of our sovereign lord the king, the further establishment of his crown, the happiness and welfare of the whole kingdom, and the glory of thy great name!” The papists, who pronounced the conception miraculous in answer to a vow the Queen had made to the lady of Loretto, prophecied that the promised birth would be a son. The Protestants sighed in secret, and began to whisper their suspicions of a fraud.

On the 17th, Mr Renwick published a testimony against the toleration and in vindication of field-meetings, the convening of which he contended was a testimony for the headship, honour, and princely prerogative of Jesus—“Since in these meetings there is a particular declaration of our holding our ministry and the exercise thereof from Christ alone, without any dependence on, subordination to, or license from, his usurping enemies;” and this testimony he was shortly after called upon to seal with his blood. From Edinburgh he went to Fife and preached several Sabbaths, then re-crossed the Firth, and upon the 29th of January, preached his last sermon at Borrowstounness; thence he returned to the capital, where he arrived on the 31st, under cloud of night. Having gone to a friend’s house on the Castle-hill, who dealt in English wares, a custom-house officer, Thomas Justice, was informed by one of his spies that a stranger had arrived; and early next morning he came with some others on pretence of searching for prohibited goods. Mr Renwick hearing the noise, came out of his room, when the officer standing at the door exclaimed—“My life for it, this is Mr Renwick!” on which Mr Renwick went to another door, and finding it also beset, fired a pistol to terrify his pursuers, and was attempting his escape, when he received a severe blow on the breast, that stunned him; and he fell several times as he was running, and was taken. He was carried directly to the guard-house, and from thence to a committee of the privy council, who ordered him immediately to be laid in irons.

Previously to his being indicted, he was examined in Viscount Tarbet’s chamber, when he undauntedly maintained his principles, disclaiming the idea that lineal descent alone gave a right to the crown, and disowning especially the authority of James as a papist, who had never taken the Scottish coronation oath, and therefore could not legally reign; justifying the non-payment of cess, as it was an impost levied for suppressing the gospel; and asserting the right of carrying arms at field-meetings as necessary self-defence. On every point about which he was questioned, he answered with an openness which greatly softened his inquisitors, and saved him the torture. He received his indictment on the 3d of February, charging him with having cast off the fear of God and all regard to his majesty’s laws; of having entered into the society of rebels of most damnable and pernicious principles, and become so desperate a villain, as openly to preach in the fields these his treasonable doctrines. On the 8th he was brought to the bar of the justiciary.[^[170]] When asked whether he pled guilty or not guilty to his libel, he answered that he acknowledged all “except where it is said, I have cast off all fear of God; that I deny: for it is because I fear to offend God, and violate his law, that I am here standing ready to be condemned.” Being asked if he had any objections to the jury, he made none, but protested “that none might sit on his assize that professed Protestant or Presbyterian principles, or an adherence to the covenanted work of reformation.” He was found guilty on his own confession, and sentenced to be executed on the 10th. Lord Linlithgow, justice-general, asked if he desired longer time. He answered, it was all one to him; if it was protracted, it was welcome; if it was shortened, it was welcome: his master’s time was the best.

[170]. The following note is appended to his life in the last edition of the Scots Worthies, Glas. 1827. p. 541:—“It is to be remarked, that many of the jury were professors and eminent in the tolerated meetings; while others, even of the malignants, chose rather to run the hazard of the penalty;—as the Laird of Torrance, who compeared not, and Sommerville, chamberlain of Douglas, who, though he appeared, yet when he saw Mr Renwick turn about and direct his speech to them, ran away, saying—‘He trembled to think to take away the life of such a pious-like man, though they should take his whole estate.’”

Many efforts were made to induce the youthful suffer to comply. He was reprieved to the 17th. Paterson, bishop of Edinburgh, appears to have interested himself much on his behalf. He often visited him, and applied for another reprieve, which would have been readily granted, provided Mr Renwick would only have petitioned. “Will you kill yourself with your own hands?” asked the bishop, “when you may have your life upon so easy terms.” He replied, he acted not rashly but deliberately, and was fully convinced that the truths for which he suffered were sufficient points to suffer for. The bishop took his leave, expressing his sorrow for his being so tenacious, and afterwards offered to serve him to the utmost of his power. Mr Renwick thanked him for his civility, but knew nothing he could do, or that he could desire. Mr Macnaught, a curate, visited him, robed in his canonicals—an insult which Mr Renwick appeared to feel, but took it calmly. When asked his opinion respecting the toleration and those that accepted it, he declared he was against it; but as for those that embraced it, he judged them godly men. He was also visited by some popish priests who essayed his conversion, but he peremptorily ordered them to be gone.

On the morning of his execution, the goodman of the tolbooth, i. e. head jailer, begged that on the scaffold he would not mention the cause of his death, and forbear all reflections. Mr Renwick told him that what God gave him to speak, that he would speak, and nothing else, and nothing less. The jailer said he might still have his life, if he would but sign that petition which he offered him. Mr Renwick replied, that he had never read in Scripture or history of martyrs petitioning for their lives when called to suffer for the truth; and in present circumstances, he judged it would be found a receding from the truth and declining a testimony for Christ. His mother and sisters, who had been kept away, at length obtained liberty to see him. He exhorted them much to prepare for death, expressing his own joyful assurance of endless glory. Observing his mother weep, he exhorted her to remember that they who loved any thing better than Christ were not worthy of him. If ye love me, rejoice that I am going to my Father, to obtain the enjoyment of what eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the mind of man to conceive. When the signal drum beat, he joyfully exclaimed—“Yonder the welcome warning to my marriage; the Bridegroom is coming—I am ready—I am ready.”

Then, after taking an affectionate leave of his mother and sisters, he was carried to the low council-house. Here he was offered any minister he chose to be with him, but he preferred being attended by a friend then in company, and proceeded cheerfully to the Grassmarket, surrounded by an immense multitude, which was the greater, that executions had not been so frequent of late. On the scaffold, he sang the 103d Psalm and read Revelations, chap. xix. Then he prayed, commending his soul to the Lord through the Redeemer, and his cause to be vindicated in his own good time. He blessed the Lord for the honour of the crown of martyrdom—an honour the angels are not capable of! Being disturbed in his devotions, he regretted the circumstance, but continued with ennobling anticipation. “By and by I shall be above these clouds, and enjoy, and worship, and glorify thee without interruption or intermission for ever.” After he had finished, he addressed the people, and stated the heads of his testimony, in terms similar to what he had used before the council, adding—“Ye that are the people of God, do not weary in maintaining the testimony of the day in your stations and places; and whatever you do, make sure an interest in Christ, for there is a storm coming which will try your foundations. And you that are strangers to God, break off your sins by repentance, else I will be a sad witness against you in the day of the Lord.” Here he was ordered to stop and go up the ladder. There he prayed again, and was heard to say—“Lord, I die in the faith that thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that thou wilt make the blood of thy witnesses to be the seed of thy church, and return again and be glorious in this land.” When the napkin was tying over his head, he said to his friend—“Farewell, be diligent in duty, make your peace with God through Christ. There is a great trial coming to the remnant I leave. I have committed them to God. Tell them from me not to weary nor be discouraged in maintaining the testimony. Let them not quit nor forego one of these despised truths. Keep your ground, and the Lord will provide you teachers and ministers; and when he comes he will make all these despised truths glorious upon the earth.” He was turned over the ladder with these words upon his lips—“Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth!”

Thus fell a standard-bearer in the Scottish Zion, at the early age of twenty-six—the last legal murder during this black period. Cut off in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness, the death of this faithful witness appeared a dark dispensation; but as he himself had anticipated, it did more service to the good cause than his preaching might have done, even had his life been prolonged many years; because, being perpetrated by a government which made strong professions of liberality, the question naturally arose, How far can we trust specious profession in political men, without not only legal but bona fide security for our rights? The principles for which he died were the principles which the Revolution sanctioned and settled; and wo to the country should they ever be despised or forgotten; and those principles which by the “conform ministers” were deemed “heights,” have since been declared the only bases upon which the best and the most thoroughly tried practical system of national and personal freedom can stand:—the obligation of the original compact [i. e. the coronation vow] between a king and a people, and the accountability of both the contracting parties. The less, however, such subjects are theoretically agitated the better—nor will they ever be violently urged, except when they are practically forgotten—but it was to the unshaken assertion of these principles, invigorated and chastened by principles of religion, that we owe the liberty we now enjoy—a liberty far beyond what any of the famed republics of old ever possessed, and which will only perish when these foundations are destroyed.

After the death of Mr Renwick, Mr Alexander Shiels, author of “The Hind let Loose,” continued to preach in the fields to the indomitable wanderers, who, immoveably attached to the covenanted work of reformation, refused to be ensnared by any precarious liberty which they rightly judged was only intended to pave the way for the introduction of popery; or receive any favour from a papistical usurper, who, by the fundamental laws of the country, was constitutionally excluded from the throne; and their conduct was more than justified by the treatment their compliant brethren received. There now, however, began to appear some streaks in the sky—some dawnings of the coming day.