But he was now well nigh the evening of his life, and his labours both. For having been with Mr. Cargil, when he preached his last sermon on Dunsyre common, betwixt Clydesdale and Lothian, he was next morning, by wicked Bonshaw (who had formerly traded in fine horses betwixt the two kingdoms), apprehended at Covington-mill. He was, with the rest of the prisoners, carried from Lanerk to Glasgow, and from thence taken to Edinburgh, where, upon the 15th of July, he was brought before the council, and there examined if he owned the king and his authority as lawful? He answered, "He cannot acknowledge the present authority the king is now invested with, and the exercise thereof, being now clothed with a supremacy over the church." Being interrogate, If the king's falling from the covenant looses him from his obedience, and if the king thereby loses his authority? He answered, "He thinks he is obliged to perform all the duties of the covenant, conform to the word of God, and the king is only to be obeyed in terms of the covenant." Being further interrogate anent the Torwood excommunication, he declared, He thought their reasons were just.
On the 19th he was again brought before them and interrogate, If he owned the Sanquhar declaration? It was then read to him, and he owned the same in all its articles, except that he looked not upon these persons as the formal representatives of the presbyterian church, as they called themselves. And as to that expression, The king should have been denuded many years ago, he did not like the word denuded, but said, What the king has done justifies the peoples revolting against him. As to these words, where the king is called an usurper and a tyrant, he said, Certainly the king is an usurper, and wished he was not a tyrant.
Upon the 20. he was with the rest, brought before the justiciary, where, being indicted in common form, their confessions were produced as evidences against them, and they all brought in guilty of high treason, and condemned to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh upon the 27. and their heads to be severed from their bodies, and those of Messrs. Cargil, Smith and Boig to be placed on the Nether-bow, and the heads of the others on the West-port, all which was done accordingly.
After Mr. Cargil was executed, Mr. Smith was brought upon the scaffold, where he adhered to the very same cause with Mr. Cargil, and declared the same usurpation of Christ's crown and dignity, and died with great assurance of his interest in Christ, declaring his abhorrence of popery, prelacy, erastianism and all other steps of defection. He went up the ladder with all signs of cheerfulness, and when the executioner was to untie his cravat, he would not suffer him, but untied it himself, and calling to his brother, he threw it down, saying, This is the last token you shall get from me. After the napkin was drawn over his face, he uncovered it again, and said, I have one word more to say, and that is, to all who have any love to God and his righteous cause, that they would set time apart, and sing a song of praise to the Lord, for what he has done for my soul, and my soul saith, To him be praise. Then the napkin being let down, he was turned over praying, and died in the Lord, with his face bending upon Mr. Cargil's breast. These two cleaved to one another, in love and unity, in their life; and between them in their death, there was no disparity. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided, &c.
The now glorified Mr. Walter Smith was a man no less learned than pious, faithful and religious. His old master, the professor of divinity at Utrecht in Holland (when he heard of his public violent bloody death of martyrdom), gave him this testimony, weeping, saying, in broken English, "O Smith! the great, brave Smith! who exceeded all that I ever taught. He was capable to teach many, but few to instruct him." Besides some letters, and the forementioned twenty-two rules for fellowship meetings, he wrote also twenty-two steps of national defection; all which are now published; and if these, with his last testimony, be rightly considered, it will appear that his writings were inferior to few of the contendings of that time.
The Life of Mr. Robert Garnock.[194]
Robert Garnock was born in Stirling, anno ——, and baptized by faithful Mr. James Guthrie. In his younger years, his parents took much pains to train him up in the way of duty: but soon after the restoration, the faithful presbyterian ministers being turned out, curates were put in their place, and with them came ignorance, profanity and persecution.—Some time after this, Mr. Law preached at his own house in Monteith, and one Mr. Hutchison sometimes at Kippen. Being one Saturday's evening gone out to his grandmother's house in the country, and having an uncle who frequented these meetings, he went along with him unto a place called Shield-brae.—And next Sabbath he went with him through much difficulty (being then but young) through frost and snow, and heard Mr. Law at Montieth; which sermon through a divine blessing, wrought much upon his mind.—Thus he continued for some considerable time to go out in the end of the week for an opportunity of hearing the gospel, and to return in the beginning of next week to Stirling, but did not let his parents know anything of the matter.
But one time, hearing a proclamation read at the cross exhibiting, that all who did not hear or receive privileges from the curates were to be severely punished; which much troubled his mind, making him hesitate whether to go to a field preaching that he heard was to be next Sabbath, or not. But at last he came to this resolution. Says he, "the Lord inclined my heart to go and put that word to me, go for once, go for all, if they take thee, for that which is to come. So I went there, and the Lord did me good: for I got at that sermon that which, although they had rent me into a thousand pieces, I would not have said what I had said before. So the Lord made me follow the gospel for a long time; and tho' I knew little then what I meant, yet he put it in my heart still to keep by the honest side, and not to comply or join with enemies of one kind or another, yea not to watch, ward or strengthen their hands any manner of way. When I was asked, why I would not keep watch (or stand centry) on the town; it was a commanded duty; I told them, I would not lift arms against the work of God. If ever I carried arms, it should be for the defence of the gospel."