“A violent persecution had broken out; and then there began to be fining, imprisoning, taking, and summoning of persons, disturbing of conventicles with soldiers. But yet the gospel prevailed more and more, and we were like the Israelites in Egypt, the more we were afflicted, the more we grew and multiplied. Some hot heads were for taking the sword and redeeming of themselves from the hands of the oppressors; at least I had ground to fear it. But I opposed rising in arms all I could, and preached against it, and exhorted them to patience, and courageous using of the sword of the Spirit; and I did not see they had any call to the sword, and their strength was to sit still; and if they did stir and take the sword, they would therewith perish; but if they patiently suffered and endured, God would himself either incline to pity or some other way support and deliver them. I had influence with the people, being popular, and whilst I was at liberty I did what I could to keep the people peaceable. The truth is, there were great provocations given, so that we concluded it was the design of some rulers to stir us up that we might fall. Ministers still preached and laboured among the people; conventicles increased; many were brought in; the work of God, in the midst of persecution, did always prosper, until we destroyed ourselves, first by needless divisions and difference of opinion, happening by reason of the indulgence; and thereafter by rash and unwarrantable taking up of arms.”
Gentlemen in Scotland at this time, it requires to be remembered, always wore arms as a part of dress; and the substantial heritors and yeomen were in general accustomed to be accoutred when they went from home, so that part of the meetings at field-preachings had always consisted of armed men, who, before this, had offered upon several occasions to defend their ministers at the risk of their lives, but had been refused, and who now thought that in protecting their assemblies from robbery and dispersion, and themselves from imprisonment, fining, or slavery—the inevitable consequences of being seized upon these occasions—that they were doing no more than was required by the law of God, and authorized by the law of their country, of which the prelatic party, and not they, were the invaders and violaters.
Many contests had already ensued. The Episcopalian myrmidons in Linlithgowshire, and even in Fife, had repeatedly drawn blood, while the patient hearers of the gospel had only fled before them. The rough borderers were not equally submissive.[[79]] At Lilliesleaf, and throughout some of these districts, they had stood upon the defensive and beaten off their assailants; and affairs were in this situation during the greater part of this year. Upon the complaints of the prelates, troops were ordered to scour the country in different directions. Edinburgh and Glasgow were again fined each in the sum of one hundred pounds sterling; and in addition, a detachment both of horse and foot were quartered in the latter city. Mr John Greg, for preaching at Leith mills, was sent to the Bass; and a Mr John Sandilands, for hearing a sermon near Bathgate, was fined three hundred merks. Nor were the nobility themselves spared. One of the most cruelly oppressive cases was that of Lord Cardross.
[79]. Let it be always borne in mind, that the whole crowd who attended field-preaching, were not influenced by gospel principles, nor could be considered godly men, any more than that able disputers and fierce contenders for the pure faith, are always themselves believers. It is an awful consideration, that the most strenuous fighters for the purity of God’s word—the Jews—were infidels, and thus addressed by our Saviour—“Ye have one that condemns you, even Moses, in whom ye trust;” and the best written “Plea for the Divinity of Christ,” was written by a man who turned a Socinian. Beware of zealots!
His lordship being confined in Edinburgh in the month of May, his lady, who was far advanced in pregnancy, remained at home, with only a few attendants. Sir Mungo Murray, taking advantage of this circumstance, under cloud of night, accompanied by a posse of retainers, went to his residence, and outrageously demanded that the gates should be opened to him, else he would force his way and set fire to the house. Situated near the borders of the Highlands, the inmates naturally supposing them banditti, refused admission and demanded who they were? To this no answer could be obtained, but “Scottishmen,” which increased their alarm; yet fearing the worst, as there were no means of defence, and no defenders, the gates were opened, when the ruffians rushed in; and, after searching the whole apartments in the most tumultuous and indelicate manner—forcing Lady Cardross to rise from her bed that they might search her chamber—and ransacking his lordship’s private closet, they seized Mr John King, his chaplain, and Mr Robert Langlands, governor to his brother, afterwards Colonel John Erskine, and carried them off. Langlands was dismissed after being marched ten miles; Mr John King was rescued by some countrymen who had profited by his ministry. For this proceeding they had no warrant; and Lord Cardross, immediately upon being informed of the outrage, presented a complaint and petition to the privy council; but, instead of receiving any satisfaction for the gross violation, not only of his privileges as a nobleman, but his rights as a subject, he was charged with having been guilty, art and part, in the rescue of Mr John King, although he was sixty miles distant. For harbouring him in his house, and for his lady’s having been present at many conventicles, and for these complicated crimes, he was sentenced to be imprisoned during his majesty’s pleasure in Edinburgh Castle, to pay a fine of one thousand pounds sterling, besides various sums for the delinquencies of his tenants.
Fining, imprisonment, and exile being found inadequate to the suppression of conventicles, other and more rigorous methods were resorted to. The houses of some of the principal gentlemen in the most infected counties were seized, and garrisoned by parties of horse and foot, that the least appearance of any gathering for hearing sermon might at once be put down, with as much care and celerity as the gathering of a civil, or the landing of a foreign, enemy; and a number of the most faithful, diligent, and able ministers this country was ever favoured with, were “intercommuned,” their presence declared infectious as the plague, and every loyal person prohibited from conversing with or doing them any office, not of kindness, but of common humanity, under the pain of being placed themselves without the pale of society.[[80]]
[80]. The names of these were—“David Williamson, Alexander Moncrief, William Wiseheart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, George Johnstone, Robert Gillespie, John M’Gilligan, John Ross, Thomas Hogg, Stirlingshire, William Erskine, James Donaldson, Andrew Anderson, Andrew Morton, Donald Cargill, Robert Maxwell, elder and younger, James Fraser of Brea, John King; and with these a good many ladies and gentlemen were joined, besides many of lower rank, altogether upwards of one hundred persons.” Wodrow, vol. i. p. 394. This revival of a dormant and iniquitous law was peculiarly oppressive, as all who conversed with the intercommuned being liable to the same punishment, thousands might he unwittingly implicated, and laid at the mercy of their rapacious rulers.
But one of the persecuted themselves remarks—“Although this seemed to be the first storm of persecution that yet had fallen upon us, and that now the adversaries had boasted of an effectual mean for suppressing conventicles, and establishing prelacy and uniformity, and the good people feared it; yet the Lord did wonderfully disappoint them, and made and turned their witty councils into folly—for this great noise harmed not at all, it was powder without ball. For, as for myself, never one that cared for me shunned my company; yea, a great many mere carnal relations and acquaintances did entertain me as freely as ever they did; yea, so far did the goodness of the Lord turn this to my good, that I observed it was at that time I got most of my civil business expede. And as the Lord preserved myself in this storm, so I did not hear of any intercommuned, or conversers with intercommuned persons, that were in the least prejudiced thereby; nay, this matter of the intercommuning of so many good and peaceable men did but exasperate the people against the bishops the more, and procured to them, as the authors of such rigid courses, a greater and more universal hatred; so that the whole land groaned to be delivered from them.”
Danger, indeed, seemed to endear the ministers to the people; and the risks they ran, and the many providential occurrences which attended their meetings, produced a high degree of excitement, that tended in no small measure to secure large and attentive audiences, and prepared their minds for a solemn reception of the doctrines they heard, at the peril of their lives.
North of the Tay there were but few Presbyterian ministers, and they had not hitherto been very closely pursued; but among them were some of the most excellent, and these of course were included in the act of intercommuning—for their labours had been equally abundant with the rest. Mr John M’Gilligan of Alness, was one of not the least conspicuous, either for success or for suffering. On September, the very month following his being denounced, he dispensed the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper at Obsdale, in the house of Lady Dowager Fowlis, assisted by Mr Hugh Anderson, minister of Cromarty, and Mr Alexander Fraser, minister of Teviot. According to the account preserved of it, it seems to have been one of those heart-enlivening seasons which the Lord sometimes vouchsafes to his church in the day of her visitation. “There were,” says the narrator, “so sensible and glorious discoveries made of the Son of Man, and such evident presence of the Master of assemblies, that the people seemed to breathe the very atmosphere of heaven; and some were so transportingly elevated, that they could almost use the language of the apostle—‘whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.’ The eldest Christians there, declared they had not been witnesses to the like. They also remarked that the Lord wonderfully preserved them in peace.”