The next Lord's day he preached at Fallow-hill in the parish of Livingston. In the preface he said, "I know I am and will be condemned by many, for excommunicating those wicked men; but condemn me who will, I know I am approven of by God, and am persuaded that what I have done on earth is ratified in heaven; for, if ever I knew the mind of God, and was clear in my call to any piece of my generation-work, it was that. And I shall give you two signs, that ye may know I am in no delusion: (1) If some of these men do not find that sentence binding upon them, ere they go off the stage, and be obliged to confess it, &c. (2.) If these men die the ordinary death of men, then God hath not spoken by me[185]."
About the 22d of October following, a long and severe proclamation was issued out against him and his followers, wherein a reward of 5000 merks was offered for apprehending him, &c.—Next month governor Middleton, having been frustrated in his design upon Mr. Cargil at Queensferry, laid another plot for him, by consulting one James Henderson in Ferry, who, by forging and signing letters, in name of bailie Adam in Culross, and some other serious Christians in Fife, for Mr. Cargil to come over, and preach to them at the hill of Baith. Accordingly Henderson went to Edinburgh with the letters, and, after a most diligent search, found him in the west bow. Mr. Cargil being willing to answer the call, Henderson proposed to go before, and have a boat ready at the Ferry against they came; and, that he might know them, he desired to see Mr. Cargil's cloath, (Mr. Skeen and Mr. Boig being in the same room). In the mean time he had Middleton's soldiers lying at the Mutton-hole, about three miles from Edinburgh, &c. Mr. Skeen, Archibald Stuart, Mrs. Muir and Marion Hervey took the way before on foot, Mr. Cargil and Mr. Boig being to follow on horseback. Whenever they came to the place, the soldiers spied them; but Mrs. Muir escaped, and went and stopped Mr. Cargil and Mr. Boig, who fled back to Edinburgh.
After this remarkable escape, Mr. Cargil, seeing nothing but the violent flames of treachery and tyranny against him above all others, retired for about three months to England, where the Lord blessed his labours, to the conviction and edification of many. In the time of his absence that delusion of the Gibbites arose, from one John Gib sailor in Borrowstoness, who, with other three men and twenty-six women, vented and maintained the most strange delusions. Some time after, Mr. Cargil returned from England, and was at no small pains to reclaim them, but with little success. After his last conference with them[186] (at Darngavel in Cambusnethen parish) he come next sabbath, and preached at the Underbank wood, below Lanerk, and from thence to Loudon-hill, where he preached upon a fast day, being the 5th of May. Here he intended only to have preached once, and to have baptized some children. His text was, No man that hath followed me in the regeneration, &c. When sermon was over, and the children baptized, more children came up; whereupon friends pressed him to preach in the afternoon; which he did from these words, Weep not for me, &c. In the mean while, the enemy at Glasgow, getting notice of this meeting, seized all the horses in and about the town, that they could come by, and mounted in quest of him; yea, such was their haste and fury, that one of the soldiers, who happened to be behind the rest, riding furiously down the street, called the Stockwell, at mid-day, rode over a child, and killed her on the spot. Just as Mr. Cargil was praying at the close, a lad alarmed them of the enemy's approach. They (having no centinels that day, which was not their ordinary) were surprized, that some of them, who had been at Pentland, Bothwel, Airs-moss, and other dangers, were never so seized with fear, some of the women throwing their children from them. In this confusion Mr. Cargil was running straight on the enemy, but Gavin Wotherspoon and others baled him to the moss, unto which the people fled. The dragoons fired hard upon them, but there were none either killed or taken that day.
About this time, some spoke to Mr. Cargil of his preaching and praying short. They said, "O Sir, it is long betwixt meals, and we are in a starving condition; all is good, sweet and wholesome that you deliver; but why do you so straiten us?" He said, "Ever since I bowed a knee in good earnest to pray, I never durst preach and pray with my gifts; and when my heart is not affected, and comes not up with my mouth, I always thought it time to quit it. What comes not from the heart, I have little hope it will go to the hearts of others." Then he repeated these words in the 51st psalm, Then will I teach transgressors thy way, &c.
From Loudon hill he took a tour through Ayr-shire to Carrick and Galloway, preaching, baptizing, and marrying some people; but stayed not long until he returned to Clydesdale. He designed, after his return, to have preached one day at Tinto-hill, but the lady of St. John's kirk gave it out to be at Home-common. He, being in the house of John Liddel near Tinto, went out to spend the Sabbath morning by himself, and seeing the people all passing by, he inquired the reason, which being told, he rose and followed them five miles. The morning being warm (about the first of June) and the heights steep, he was very much fatigued before he got to the place, where a man gave him a drink of water out of his bonnet, and another between sermons; this being the best entertainment he got that day, for he had tasted nothing in the morning. Here he lectured on the 6th of Isaiah, and preached on these words, Be not high-minded, but fear, &c. From thence he went to Fife, and baptized many children, and preached one day at Daven-common, and then returned to the Benry-ridge in Cambusnethen, where he received a call from the hands of two men, to come back to Galloway, but got it not answered[187].
Mr. Cargil, in that short time, had ran very fast towards his end[188], which now hastens apace. Having left the Benry-ridge, he preached one day at Auchingilloch[189], and then came to preach his last sermon on Dunsyre-common, (betwixt Clydesdale and Lothian) upon that text, Isa. xxvi. 20. Come, my people, and enter into your chambers, &c.
Some time that night, through the persuasion of Mr. Smith and Mr. Boig, he went with the lady of St. John's kirk, as far as Covington mill, to the house of one Andrew Fisher. In the mean time, James Irvin of Bonshaw, having got a general commission, marched with a party of dragoons from Kilbride, and next morning, by sun-rising, came to St. John's kirk, and having searched it, he searched also the house of one Thomson, and then came to Covington mill, and there apprehended him, Mr. Smith and Mr. Boig. Bonshaw, when he found them, cried out, O blessed Bonshaw! and blessed day that ever I was born! that has found such a prize! a prize of 5000 marks for apprehending of him this morning! They marched hard to Lanerk, and put them in jail, until they got some refreshment, and then brought them out in haste, got horses and set the prisoners on their bare backs. Bonshaw tied Mr. Cargil's feet below the horse's belly (with his own hand) very hard, at which this good man looked down to him, and said, "Why do you tie me so hard? your wickedness is great. You will not long escape the just judgment of God, and, if I be not mistaken, it will seize you in this place." Which accordingly next year came to pass; for having got this price of blood, one of his comrades, in a rage, ran him through with a sword at Lanerk; and his last words were, "G—d d——n my soul eternally, for I am gone." Mischief shall hunt the violent man.
They came to Glasgow in haste, fearing a rescue of the prisoners, and while waiting at the tolbooth till the magistrates came to receive them, one John Nisbet, the arch-bishop's rector, said to Mr. Cargil in ridicule, three times over, Will you give us one word more, (alluding to an expression he used sometime when preaching) to whom Mr. Cargil said with regret, "Mock not, lest your hands be made strong. The day is coming, when you will not have one word to say though you would." This also came quickly to pass, for, not many days after, he fell suddenly ill, and for three days his tongue swelled, and though he was most earnest to speak, yet he could not command one word, and died in great torment and seeming terror.
From Glasgow they were taken to Edinburgh; and July 15th, were brought before the council. Chancellor Rothes (being one of those whom he excommunicated at Torwood) raged against him, threatening him with torture and a violent death. To whom he said. "My lord Rothes forbear to threaten me, for die what death I will, your eyes shall not see it."—Which accordingly came to pass, for he died the morning of that day, in the afternoon of which Mr. Cargil was executed.
When before the council, he was asked, If he owned the king's authority, &c.? He answered, As the magistrates authority is now established by the act of parliament and explanatory act, that he denied the same. Being also examined anent the excommunication at Torwood, he declined to answer, as being an ecclesiastical matter, and they a civil judicatory. He owned the lawfulness of defensive arms in cases of necessity, and denied that those who rose at Bothwel, &c. were rebels; and being interrogate anent the Sanquhar declaration, he declined to give his judgment until he had more time to peruse the contents thereof. He further declared, he could not give his sense of the killing of the bishop; but that the scriptures say, Upon the Lord's giving a call to a private man to kill, he might do it lawfully; and gave the instances of Jael and Phinehas. These were the most material points on which he was examined[190].