But they both departed, praying for Scotland, and rejoicing in the faith that there would be a resurrection of the name, word, and cause of Christ in their beloved country; and their last aspirations were, “O! that he would return to this land again! repair our breaches, and heal our backslidings! O! that he were pacified towards us! O! that he would pass by Scotland again, and make our time a time of love!” Their heads and right hands were, agreeably to their sentence, cut off, and had the honour of being placed beside those of the venerated Guthrie on the Netherbow Port, to bear witness to heaven, along with them, against the iniquity of the times.
Five others were next selected for immolation as a propitiatory offering to the shade of the grand apostate. Thomas Brown, shoemaker, Edinburgh; Andrew Sword, weaver, Kirkcudbright; John Clide, Kilbride; John Waddel, New Monkland; and James Wood, Newmills—charged with being accomplices in the murder of Archbishop Sharpe, although none of them were in that part of the country at the time when it happened—were accordingly brought before the justiciary on November 10th. Their indictment, as now became the custom, enumerated as charges against them all the occurrences which had taken place during the rising, aggravated by fictitious circumstances of the most revolting nature, i. e. throwing out of their graves the dead bodies of such children as belonged to the orthodox clergy in Glasgow; commanding, by a most insolent act of their supremacy and mock judicatory, all the said orthodox clergy to remove themselves, their wives and families, from the western shires, under pain of death; and threatening with fire and sword all such of his majesty’s good subjects as would not join them; plundering and ravaging their houses, and carrying off their horses and arms; declining the bond; and finally, and above all, refusing to call the late rebellion a rebellion.
Previously to proceeding with the trial, the bond was offered to them judicially, both the crown lawyers and judges upon this as upon several other occasions appearing to have entertained some sympathy for the sufferers; but they peremptorily refused to take it, as they considered that they would thereby have been condemning the rising at Bothwell, and their own conduct in what they considered a justifiable assertion of the principles to which they had solemnly sworn obedience in the covenants. Four of them resolutely avowed their having appeared in arms at Bothwell, and were of course found guilty by the jury upon their own confession of that fact alone; yet, by a strange vindictive perversity, the court sentenced them “to be carried to the moor of Magus in the sheriffdom of Fife, the place where his Grace the Archbishop of St Andrews was murdered, upon the 18th of November instant, and there to be hanged till they be dead, and their bodies to be hung in chains until they rot, and all their lands, goods, and gear to fall to his majesty’s use.”
James Wood was only proven by the evidence of some soldiers to have been taken at or after Bothwell without arms; and as numbers in that part of the country were known to have gone to the spot as mere spectators, a humane tribunal would have given them the advantage of the supposition that they had been present from a similar motive. But he was included in the same verdict, and doomed to the same punishment, which was accordingly inflicted at the place appointed, though some difference appears in the date of the execution and the date of their dying testimonies, the latter being dated 25th November, a week beyond the term allowed by the former, which might have been given to allow of an application to the king for mercy. If it was, they found none from their earthly sovereign; but they all died in the humble confidence of being reconciled to God by Jesus Christ.
Brown, who went up the ladder first, declared, before being turned off, “if every hair of his head were a man, and every drop of his blood were a life, he would cordially and heartily lay them down for Christ and this cause for which he was now sentenced.”
Sword sang the 34th Psalm, and said to the spectators, “I cannot but commend Christ and his cross to you. I would not exchange my lot for a thousand worlds!” He had lived four or five score of miles distant from that place, and never in his life saw a bishop that he knew to be a bishop.
James Wood also affirmed that he had never been in that part of the country before, nor seen a bishop in his life! and as to appearing at Bothwell Bridge, he added, “for my own part, I am so far from thinking it rebellion, that I bless God I was a man to be there, though a man most unable for war, and unskilful, because of my infirm arm: and I bless God that gave me a life to lay down for his cause; and though in remarkable providence he took not my life in that day, yet for holy and good ends he spared it to lay it down this day; and I am so far from rueing any thing that I had done that day in my appearing for Christ and his cause, that I would heartily wish if I were to live to see as many men every year gathered together for the defence of the gospel. I would count it my honour to be with them.” “And now, my friends, I am not a whit afraid to go up this ladder, and to lay down my life this day, for it is the best day ever yet mine eyes saw.” And being up almost to the top of the ladder, plucking up the napkin, he said, “Now I am going to lay down this life and to step out of time into eternity, and if I had as many lives as there are hairs on my head, or drops of blood in my body, I would willingly lay them down for Christ, and for you all that are here on Christ’s account.”
John Waddel, respecting the bishop’s death, said, “I declare I was never over the water of Forth in this country before this time.” “I am sentenced to die here because I would not call it rebellion being with my friends at Bothwell Bridge, and because I would not take that bond, binding me hereafter never to lift arms against the king nor his authority, which thing in conscience I could not do; for, whatever others think of it, to me it says, that it is a denying of all appearances for Christ and his cause that hath formerly been; and likewise it says to me, that we shall never any more lift arms for the defence of Christ’s gospel against any party whatsoever that seems to oppose it, which is far from the word of God:—‘If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him,’ and the covenants, National and Solemn League, which were publicly burnt in our nation—for which God in his own time will yet arise—which we are bound to maintain.” “And now, sirs, I am not a whit discouraged to see my three brethren hanging before mine eyes, nor before all this multitude to pray.” He then prayed; and being thrown over,
John Clide was brought to the ladder. When he had reached it, he turned round and said, “I think our being fetched here is like that which we have in Scripture about what Herodias said to Herod anent John the Baptist his head, to gratify the unsatiableness of that lewd woman; nothing would satisfy the lust of our persecutors, but our blood, and in this manner and place, to gratify the bishop’s friends. But the ground of my being sentenced is because I was found in arms with that poor handful at Bothwell Bridge and would not call it rebellion; and because I would not take that bond, which thing I had in my offer, and my life upon the taking of it; and was threatened by some to take it, and allured and persuaded by others, which I could not in conscience do, because it binds me hereafter that I should not appear for Christ and his cause. I durst not do it, for I was not sure of my life, no not one moment; and I durst not procure the wrath of God at such a rate; for I judge the loss of my soul to be more dreadful than the loss of the life of my body, and likewise that it is more hazardful the offending of God than gaining the greatest advantage in the world.
“I could not stay at home, but judged it my duty to come forth; for I could not see how I could evite that curse—‘Curse ye, Meroz; curse ye bitterly those that would not come out to the help of the Lord against the mighty.’ And I bless the Lord for keeping me straight. I desire to speak it to the commendation of free grace; and this I am speaking from my own experience, that there are none who will lippen to God and depend upon him for direction, but they shall be keeped straight and right; but to be kept from tribulation, that is not the bargain; for he hath said that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom, for he deals not with us as satan does—for satan lets us see the bonniest side of the tentation, but our Lord Jesus lets us see the roughest side and the blackest. After that, the sweetest thing comes! And he tells us the worst that will happen to us; for he hath not promised to keep us from trouble, but he hath promised to be with us in it, and what needs more?