BOOK VIII. July, A.D. 1670-1674.

Parliament—Act against conventicles—Bond—Leighton’s efforts to reform the Episcopate—Council appoint a committee—Leighton attempts an accommodation—Conference—Rigid treatment of indulged ministers—Conventicles increase—Implacability of the prelates—Lady Dysart—Ascendency of Lauderdale—Parliament—Finings—Indulgence—Dissensions of the ministers—Sufferings of the indulged—Mr Forrester and Mr Burnet abandon Prelacy—their testimony—Proceedings at the meeting of estates—Mr Blackadder’s tour in Fife—Ministers’ widows’ petition—its consequences—Sharpe’s troubles[207]

BOOK IX. A.D. 1674-1676.

Divisions among the ministers respecting the church and self-defence—Armed meetings—Severities increase—Lord Cardross—Religious revivals in the North—Mr M’Gilligan—Civil oppression—Home of Polwart—Finings—Durham of Largo—Magistrates of Edinburgh—Sufferers sent to France as recruits—Proclamation to expel the families of gospel-hearers from the Burghs, and enforce the conventicle act—Instructions for the indulged—Progress of the gospel—Rage of the prelates—Mitchell tortured[238]

BOOK X. A.D. 1676-1677.

Remarkable sacramental solemnities occasion harsher measures—Council new-modelled—Committee for public affairs—Kerr of Kersland—Kirkton—The expatriated pursued to Holland—Colonel Wallace[256]

BOOK XI. A.D. 1677.

Meeting of the ministers in Edinburgh—Prosecutions for not attending the kirk—Lord Cardross—Conventicle at Culross—Bond—Lauderdale comes to Scotland—Pretended moderation—Alarm of the bishops—Carstairs attacks John Balfour’s house—Council’s design of raising a standing force—Resolutions of the West country gentlemen—Conventicles increase—Communion at East Nisbet—Common field-meeting—King authorizes calling in the Highland clans[265]

BOOK XII. A.D. 1678.

Privy Council forbids emigration—Mitchell’s trial and execution—Highland host—Committee of the council arrive at Glasgow—Deputation from Ayr sent to the Commissioner—Bond refused—Committee proceed to Ayr—Earl of Cassilis—Law-burrows—Case of Lord Cochrane—Ravages of “the Highland Host”—their return home—Earl of Cassilis goes to court—Duke of Hamilton follows—Complaints dismissed—State of the country[286]