A remarkable trait in all these proceedings is, that the men now persecuted for alleged disloyalty were the men who, when the throne was prostrate, and when these their persecutors had in general deserted the cause as desperate, rallied round the standard of royalty, refused to bow to the invaders, and had suffered for their attachment to the legitimate prince! and it seemed as if the measure of ingratitude meted out to them, was to be in proportion to the steadfastness with which they had adhered to the fortunes of that family in their lowest depression.
Mr Alexander Moncrief, minister of the gospel at Sconie, in Fife, had particularly distinguished himself by his loyalty during the usurpation and domination of the English—and had subjected himself to imprisonment by boldly praying for the king; and so far had he been from joining with the sectaries, that he presented a petition to Monk against their toleration; but he had approved of the remonstrance, and had assisted in drawing up “The Causes of God’s Wrath;” and he was therefore a proper object for persecution. Highly esteemed in the country where he lived, the greatest interest was made to procure his life; and two ladies of the first rank presented a handsome service of plate to the Lord Advocate’s wife—a practice, it seems, not uncommon in these times!—to procure his interference; but the plate was returned, and they were told that nothing could be done to save him. The Earl of Atholl, likewise, and several members of parliament, were anxious to protect him, but were informed that he could expect no mercy, unless he would consent to change his principles. When this was told to his wife, her reply showed her to have been a woman of a similar spirit. “Ye know that I am happy in a good husband, to whom I have ever borne a great affection, and have had many children; but I know him to be so steadfast to his principles, where conscience is concerned, that nobody need speak to him upon that head; and, for my part, before I would contribute any thing that would break his peace with his master, I would rather choose to receive his head at the cross!” Yet the numerous applications in his favour from persons of influence—without his knowledge—procured a mitigation of his punishment; and, after a tedious confinement, he was only rendered incapable of all civil or ecclesiastical employment, deprived of his living, and forbid to enter his parish.
Mr Robert Macwaird, minister, Glasgow, who had likewise maintained his loyalty to his king in the face of his enemies, was included in the noble band of sufferers; but the accusation against him differed somewhat from the others. When he perceived the general and awful course of defection from the very profession of religion, and the design to overturn the whole covenanted work of reformation, he commenced a series of sermons, in his week-day exercise, from that striking text, Amos iii. 2. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” In these, he first addressed himself to his hearers, and pressed upon their consciences their personal sins—for these worthies, who stood in the front of the battle while contending earnestly for the national religion, never failed to inculcate the inutility and danger of a public profession without personal holiness—from personal, he ascended to general and national sins; and, adverting to the open profligacy and backsliding which pervaded a nation once so high in profession, and so favoured in privilege, he pathetically asked, “Alas! may not God expostulate with us, and say, ye are backslidden with a perpetual backsliding, and what iniquity have you found in him? We are backslidden in zeal and love. The glory of a begun reformation in manners is eclipsed, and an inundation of profanity come in. Many who once loved to walk abroad in the garment of godliness, now persecute it. The faithful servants of Christ are become enemies, because they tell the truth. The upright seekers of God are the marks of the great men’s malice.” And, interjecting this most remarkable prayer—“May it never be said of faithful ministers and Christians in Scotland, ‘We have a law, and by this law they must die’”—he continued, “Backsliding is got up to the very head and corrupts the fountains; and wickedness goeth forth already from some of the prophets through the whole land! Are these the pastors and rulers that bound themselves so solemnly and acknowledged their former breaches? How hath the faithful city turned an harlot?”
These expressions, and many others of a like import, excited the enmity of those whom they convicted, and to whom the exhortations to repent and to return were addressed in vain; and some of the apostate tribe transmitted to the managers information against the preacher, as having been guilty of treason. The following passage was that upon which the charge chiefly rested. After entreating his audience to mourn, consider, repent, and return—to wrestle, pray, and pour out their souls before the Lord, he encouraged them, by remarking, that “God would look upon these duties as their Dissent from what was done prejudicial to his work and interest, and mark them among the mourners in Zion.” Then came the treason! “As for my own part, as a poor member of the church of Scotland, and an unworthy minister in it, I do this day call upon you who are the people of God to witness, that I humbly offer my dissent to all acts which are or shall be passed against the covenants or work of reformation in Scotland. And, secondly, protest, that I am desirous to be free of the guilt thereof, and pray that God may put it upon record in heaven.” For this discourse he was arrested; and, on the Thursday following Mr Guthrie’s execution, was brought before the parliament.
Expecting nothing else than to follow that great man to heaven from the scaffold, he was equally courageous and unhesitating in his behaviour; and, when called upon to reply, June 6th, thus honestly avowed his sentiments:—“My lord, I cannot, I dare not, dissemble, that, having spoken nothing but what I hope will be the truth of God when brought to the touchstone, and such a truth as, without being guilty of lese-majesty against God, I could not conceal while I spoke to the text, I conceive myself obliged to own and adhere to it. So far from committing treason in this, I am persuaded that it was the highest part of loyalty towards my prince, the greatest note of respect I could put upon my superiors, the most real and unquestionable evidence of a true and tender affection to my countrymen and the congregation over whom the Holy Ghost made me, though most unworthy, an overseer, to give seasonable warning of the heavy judgment which the sin of Scotland’s backsliding will bring on, that so we may be instructed at length to search and try our ways and turn to the Lord, lest his soul be separated from us; for wo unto us if our glory depart! No man will or ought to doubt whether it be a minister’s duty to preach this doctrine in season and out of season, which yet is never unseasonable, and to avow that the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways; and if any man draw back, his soul shall have no pleasure in him. And if so, what evil have I done, or whose enemy am I become for telling the truth?
“But in order to remove any thing that may seem to give offence in my practice, I humbly desire it may be considered that a ministerial protestation against, or a dissent from, any act or acts which a minister knows and is convinced to be contrary to the word of God, is not a legal impugnation of that or these acts, much less of the authority enacting them, which it doth rather presuppose than deny; it is just a solemn and serious attested declaration, witness, or testimony, against the evil and iniquity of these things, which, by the word of God, is a warrantable practice, as is clear from Samuel, where the prophet was directed by the Lord himself to obey the voice of the people, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them; also Jeremiah xi. 7. There is no act of parliament declaring that it shall be treason for a minister to protest, in the Scripture sense, against such acts as are contrary to the covenant and the work of reformation; nay more, there were acts by which the covenants and vows made to God for reformation in this church, according to his will revealed in his word, received civil confirmation; and I, as his unworthy servant, was authorized to protest that these rights be not invaded—that these vows be not broken!
“Nor may I conceal, that, when I reflect upon and remember what I have said and sworn to God in the day when, with an uplifted hand to the most high, I bound my soul with the bond of the covenant, and engaged solemnly, as I should answer to the great God, the searcher of hearts, in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, never to break these bonds, nor cast away these cords from me, nor to suffer myself, either directly or indirectly, by terror or persuasion, to be withdrawn from owning them—when I recollect that, had they been even things indifferent, I durst not have shaken them off when I had sworn to God, and consider that, instead of this, they were duties of indispensable obligation antecedently to all oaths, and remain unalterably binding independently of them—and when I considered my duty as a minister, to give warning, to declare, testify, and bear witness against the sin of violating these covenants, in order to avoid the wrath that shall follow, and that under no less a threatening than banishment from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power—I had no choice.
“Now I humbly beseech I may not be looked upon as a disloyal person, either as to my principles or practice; and so clear am I that there was neither iniquity in my heart, nor wickedness in my hands, against his majesty, that I only wish the informer’s conduct, be he who he may, in the place where I live, were compared with mine, and the issue of my trial depended on this—whether he or I had shown most loyalty during the prevalence and usurpation of the enemy; but I suspect he has rather a little more prudence than to agree to such a test. But as for me, my lord, while I wait the coming forth of my sentence from his presence, whose eyes behold the things that are equal, I declare, that however I cannot submit my conscience to men, yet I humbly, as becometh, submit my person.”
This case appears to have been ably managed; and the parliament delayed proceeding to any immediate decision. In the interval, he presented a supplication withdrawing the words “protest and dissent,” as too legal and forensic, substituting the words “declaring and bearing witness.” The reasons which he assigned for so doing are satisfactory, and show that the witnesses of this period did not stand with obstinacy upon any irrational punctilio, or foolishly rush upon suffering for the sake of unmeaning distinctions or of favourite phrases. “I am brought,” are his expressions, “to offer this alteration, not so much, if my heart deceive me not, for the fear of prejudice to my person—though being but a weak man, I am easily reached by such discomposing passions—as from an earnest desire to remove out of the way any, the least, or remotest, occasion of stumbling, that there may be the more ready and easy access, without prejudice of words, to ponder and give judgment of the matter; and that, likewise, if the Lord shall think fit to call me forth to suffer hard things on this account, it may not be said that it was for wilful and peremptory stickling to such expressions; whereas, I might, by using others, without prejudice to the matter, and no less significant, have escaped the danger; and lest I should seem to insinuate that a minister of the gospel could not have sufficiently exonered his conscience without such formal and legal terms.” But it was necessary to get rid of men whose abilities were dreaded by their apostate brethren, and whose consistent piety would have been a standing reproach to the new prelates. He was therefore, before parliament rose, sentenced to banishment, though, by an uncommon stretch of moderation, he was allowed to remain six months in Scotland—one of them in Glasgow to arrange his affairs—and empowered to receive his next year’s stipend.
What rendered these rigorous proceedings towards the ablest, the most pious, and most conscientious loyalists, more flagrantly unjust, was, the lenity shown to others who had been deeply implicated in active compliances with the usurpers, not only after their power became irresistible, but even while Charles was in the country and at the head of an army. The Laird of Swinton had been suspected, in the year 1650, of corresponding with Cromwell, and being summoned to answer before the parliament at Perth, was forfeited for failing to appear, on which he joined the English, and was appointed a judge; but having now turned a quaker, he was pardoned, and went to the north, where he succeeded in making a few proselytes. Sir John Chiesly, also, who had acted cordially with the English, and been forfeited by the same parliament, was passed over; but his safety was attributed to the influence of money; for rapacity and venality characterized almost every member of government, and every court of justice, from the Restoration to the Revolution.