The escape of Mr Patrick Gillespie was more surprising, as he was personally disagreeable to the king, who had repeatedly refused to listen to any solicitations on his behalf. Gillespie was a minister in Glasgow, and afterwards principal of the College. He had been the most conspicuous of the remonstrators—had approved of “The Causes of God’s Wrath,” and had been appointed principal by the English commissioners, or sequestrators as they were called[[19]]—had been a great favourite with Cromwell—had preached before him—prayed for him as chief magistrate—and had received from him several valuable gifts—all which were now brought forward as charges against him. But he had many friends in the House, and was induced to profess civil guilt and throw himself upon the king’s mercy. His concessions, it is alleged, were strained beyond what he intended, and represented as of great importance at the time, as he had been eminent among his brethren; and it was supposed his example would have a mighty influence in inducing the more scrupulous to give way. They were, however, grievous to the Presbyterians and not satisfactory to his majesty; but they procured a mitigation of his punishment, which was commuted to deprivation of his office, and confinement to Ormiston and six miles round.
[19]. At the time when the English ruled, the church of Scotland was divided and subdivided into a variety of sections. The remonstrators themselves divided; some of them, among whom were, Messrs P. Gillespie, Samuel Rutherford, James Durham, William Guthrie of Fenwick, Robert Traill, and other eminently pious men, complied with the ruling powers on the Christian principle of obedience to the powers that be, and the absolute necessity of the case; but they were still more obnoxious to the resolutioners, because they so far agreed with the sectaries, in only considering as members of the church persons who gave proof of practical godliness, and opposed the principle of promiscuous communion and general membership. Against this schism, Principal Baillie was very violent. “This formed schism,” says he, in a letter to Mr W. Spang, “is very bitter to us, but remediless, except on intolerable conditions, which our wise orthodox divines will advise us to accept:—We must embrace, without contradiction, and let grow, the principles of the remonstrants, which all reformed divines, and all states in the world, abhor. We must permit a few heady men to waste our church with our consent or connivance. We must let them frame our people to the sectarian model—a few more forward ones among themselves, by privy meetings, to be the godly party; and the congregation, the rest, to be the rascally malignant multitude; so that the body of our people are to be cast out of all churches; and the few who are countenanced, are fitted, as sundry of them already have done, to embrace the errors of the time for their destruction.” Letters, vol. ii. p. 375. The other section of the remonstrants refused to acknowledge in any manner the power of the usurper, lamented the toleration of sectaries, and maintained, with the resolutioners, the legitimate principles of a national church—that all who attended were to be considered members of that church, unless excommunicated for openly immoral conduct or disobedience to the order and discipline of the church. At the head of this section were, Mr James Guthrie, Warriston, and many others, who bore testimony by their blood to the sincerity of their profession. It is worthy of remark, that the first class were chiefly the older, the second the younger, race of the Presbyterians.
On the 12th of July, the parliament rose; and, on the last day of that month, their public acts were proclaimed, with the usual formalities, from the cross of Edinburgh—a ceremony that employed the heralds and other functionaries from ten o’clock in the forenoon till six at night.
About the same time, Samuel Rutherford was relieved by death.
BOOK III.
AUGUST, A.D. 1661-1662.
Lord High Commissioner sets out for Court—His reception—Deliberations of the Council—Episcopacy resolved upon as the National Religion of Scotland—Glencairn, Rothes, and Sharpe appointed to carry the tidings to Edinburgh—King’s letter—Privy Council announce the overthrow of Presbytery—Forbid the election of Presbyterian Magistrates in Burghs—Prosecute Tweeddale—Ministers summoned to London to be episcopally ordained—Their characters—Their consecration—Grief of the Presbyterians—Re-introduction of Episcopacy—Restrictions on the press—Witchcraft—Synods discharged and Bishops ordered to be honoured by royal patent—Their consecration—Parliament restores their rank—Asserts the King’s supremacy—The Covenants declared unlawful—Act of fines—Defeated—Lord Lorn—Blair and other ministers deprived—King’s birth-day—Middleton’s visit to the West and South—Case of Mr Wylie—Brown of Wamphrey—Livingston, &c.—Middleton removed and Lauderdale appointed.
Leaving the government in the hands of the privy council,[[20]] Middleton, after parliament adjourned, set out for court, where he was received by the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Ormond, and all the cavalier party, with the greatest congratulations for having quenched the fanatic zeal of Scotland, and carried his majesty’s prerogative beyond what any preceding monarch, when present, had ever claimed.
[20]. The chief members of which were—The Earl of Glencairn, chancellor; Crawford, treasurer; Rothes, president; Lauderdale, secretary. Members—Dukes of Lennox and Hamilton; Marquis of Montrose; Earls of Errol, Marischal, Mar, Atholl, Morton, Cassils, Linlithgow, Perth, Dunfermline, Wigton, Callender, Dundee, &c. &c. Wodrow, p. 87.