THE

HISTORY

OF THE

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

CHAP I.

Of the apprehending of the Marquis of Argyle; the proceedings of the Committee of Estates; the supplication of the ministers, and their imprisonment, and the sufferings of others, to the end of the year 1660.

WHEN king Charles II. was restored on the 29th of May 1660, never any prince came to the possession of such large dominions with greater advantages to have done good to himself, to his subjects at home, and to his allies abroad: but he was no sooner placed on the throne, than, through the influence of evil counsel, and his own effeminate and vicious disposition, he abandoned himself to all manner of voluptuous pleasures, and in a little time became a persecutor of those very persons to whom he was obliged for being placed on the throne.

of his ancestors.

The English presbyterians were not long before they felt the dismal effects of their appearance for a monarch who had no sense of gratitude for their kind services, nor any regard to his most solemn oaths and engagements. And the church of Scotland, to whom he was so much indebted, and for the support and establishment whereof he had entered into covenant, was, in a little time, made to feel the direful consequences of royal dissimulation and perjury, though she had an undoubted claim to all manner of favour and protection.

On the 19th of June a thanksgiving was observed at Edinburgh, for the king's restoration, which began with seeming devotion, and ended in open impiety. When the sermons were over, the city magistrates and council, preceded by his ma

jesty's heralds and trumpeters, and different kinds of music, and attended with the officers of state, a multitude of nobility and gentry, judges and others, went in procession to the cross, where, a large theatre being erected for that purpose, and a table covered, they drank to the health of the day with the utmost pomp and levity possible, the trumpets sounded, the bells rung, the guards fired, the very cross run with wine, and all manner of demonstrations of joy were shewed; from thence they repaired to the town hall and chief inns in the city, where the evening was spent as if it had a great sacrifice to Bacchus; a direful presage of the woeful days a-coming, and a literal verification of that saying of the wisest of mere men, Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

Soon after the king's return, the noble Marquis of Argyle was very much solicited to repair to court; and no doubt he was himself inclined to wait on a prince on whose head he had placed the crown. But several of his best friends, and particularly Mr Robert Douglas used many arguments to divert him from his purpose, till matters were come to some settlement, especially as his enemies at London had been at pains to raise calumnies on his Lordship's person and conduct. However, Argyle being persuaded that he was able to vindicate himself from all aspersions, was he only admitted to his majesty's presence, set out for London, where he arrived on the 8th of July, and went directly to Whitehall.

When the king heard of his being come thither, he, notwithstanding his former promises, ordered Sir William Fleming to apprehend and carry him directly to the Tower, where he continued under close confinement till he was sent to Scotland. This noble peer was one of the chief of the covenanters, and had been singularly active in the reformation of his country from the insupportable yoke of Prelacy.

From the Tower he was conveyed in a man of war to Scot land, to be tried by the parliament. They landed at Leith on the 20th of December, and he was committed to Edinburgh castle the same day.

Sir John Swinton, one of the judges under Cromwell, who, from being a zealous professor of the Reformation, turned Quaker, and had been apprehended in a Quaker's house in London, was sent down to Scotland with the Marquis.

While these things were a-doing, on the 14th of July orders came down to Major-general Morgan to secure Sir James Stewart, provost of Edinburgh, Sir Archibald Johnstoun of Waristoun, and Sir John Chiefly of Carswell, who protested against the death of King Charles I. and was knighted in the Isle of Wight. The first and last were seized, but Waristoun escaped for some time. And therefore he was summoned by

sound of trumpet to surrender himself, and the general issued a proclamation for apprehending him, promising 100 pounds Scots to any who should do it, and discharging all from concealing or harbouring him under the pain of treason. This was the first arbitrary step; for here is not only a reward offered. by a general for apprehending a worthy gentleman, but declaring it treason for any to harbour him, and that without any cause assigned.

On the 26th of July, one William Giffen, or Govan, was apprehended and committed to the castle of Edinburgh, upon a false information, that he had been on the scaffold when KingCharles I. was beheaded.

About this time his Majesty settled the ministry in Scotland. The Earl of Middleton was declared his commissioner for holding the parliament, and general of the forces that were to be raised. The Earl of Glencairn was made chancellor, the Earl of Lauderdale secretary of state, the Earl of Rothes president of the council; the Earl of Crawford was continued in the' treasury, and Primrose was clerk register. The rest depended on these but Middleton and Lauderdale were two heads of the parties. Dr Burnet farther says, that Middleton had a private instructions, to try the inclinations of the nation for episcopacy, and to consider of the best method for setting it up. If this be true, we may see what regard this prince had for the solemn engagements he had entered into.

How soon as the king had leasure to consider the state of Scotland, he issued a proclamation, dated at Whitehall the 2d of August, for the committee of estates, nominated by him and, the parliament 1651, to meet at Edinburgh the 23d of that month, for managing the affairs of the kingdom till the parliament should meet.

All the members of this committee had appeared hearty professors of the true religion, and concurred with the king in taking the National Covenant and Solemn league and Covenant, and some of them had advised him to make that remarkable de.. claration at Dunfermline in August 1650. So that every one might have expected some good from their administration; but their little finger became heavier than the loins of all the former oppressors, of which they gave a specimen on the very first day of their meeting.

Thus, upon the 23d of August, Messrs James Guthrie at Stirling, John Stirling and Robert Trail at Edinburgh, Alexander Moncrief at Scoon, John Semple at Carsphairn, Thomas Ramsay at Mordingtoun, John Scot at Oxnam, Gilbert Hall at Kirkliston, John Murray at Methven, and George Nairn at Bruntisland, ministers, together with Mr Andrew Hay of Craignathan, and James Kirko of Sundiwell, elders, assembled at a

private house in Edinburgh, to draw up an humble address and supplication to the king.

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The occasion of their meeting was this: The opposers of the public resolutions, justly suspecting the designs now hatching against the church, and the conduct of Mr Sharp at London, applied to the public resolutioners either to concur with them in a dutiful address to his majesty, at such a conjuncture as this, or address him themselves: But they, confiding too much in Mr Sharp, would not comply with either of these; and therefore these faithful men found themselves obliged to do something in such a crisis. Accordingly they met, and drew up a humble supplication and address, wherein they declared, how hateful the actings of the late usurping powers were to them, in offering violence to the parliament of England, in murdering the late king, in secluding his majesty from his government, &c. and above all, in their impious encroachments upon the kingdom and liberties of Jesus Christ-how thankfully they acknowledged the Lord's signal preserving his majesty's person, and in bringing him back after a long exile.-How it was there sincere purpose and resolution, as it was their present practice, to pour forth their fervent desires and suppli'cations for his majesty, hoping, that he would allow them that protection, countenance and encouragement, which they had reason to expect from a gracious king. What dangers threatened religion, and the work of reformation in these king'doms, from the designs and endeavours of the remnant of the popish, prelatical, and malignant party therein,-to re-introduce prelacy, the ceremonies and the service-book, which were formerly cast out as inconsistent with that pure and ⚫ spotless rule of church-government, discipline and worship in the word of God, and from the endeavours of the spirit of ་ error, that possesseth the sectaries in these nations,-and "therefore, with bowed knees and bended affections, they humbly supplicate his majesty, to employ his royal power, for the preservation of the reformed religion, in the church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, and for the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland-and that all places of trust under his majesty might be filled with such as have taken the Covenant, and are of approven integrity and known affection to the cause of • God,—and that his majesty would be pleased, for removing the beginnings of stumbling that had already been given, to remove the ceremonies and service-book from his own chapel • and family, and other places of his dominions, and give public signification of his approbation of the Covenant, and of his purpose to adhere unto the same, which they put him in mind he had formerly done in a most solemn manner,—for it was

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the desire of their soul, that his majesty may be like unto David, a man according to God's own heart; to Solonton, of an ⚫ understanding heart to judge the Lord's people,' &c.

This is that which Bishop Burnet calls a warm paper, in which, after some cold compliments to the king upon his restoration, they put him in mind of the Covenant, &c. But the reader may judge whether they could well use sincere expressions of loyalty. Did they put him in mind of any thing but what all honest and faithful subjects ought to have done. Had not his Majesty sworn to every thing, which, in the most respectful manner, they desired? Was there any thing treasonable like a seditious reflecting on his majesty, or on the government of the kingdom of England, or the constitution of the present committee of estates?

The Earl of Glencairn the chancellor, and others, being informed of that meeting, sent some persons to apprehend those who were met together. They who were sent came upon them when the scrolls and other papers were before them. These papers were no other than the first draughts of letters to some brethren, desiring another meeting at Glasgow, in September, about the supplication, with instructions to some of their number, when they went west with a copy of the supplication, that it might be considered by the synod of Glasgow, in order to their joining with them in it, if they judged it needful.

When the unfinished scrolls and supplication were read before the committee, they were directly sent to court, and all who had been present at the meeting, except Mr Hay of Craignethan, who happily escaped, were committed to the castle of Edinburgh, without ever calling the ministers before them, or hearing what they had to say in their own defence. So great injustice exercised towards those who were manifesting their love and respect to their prince, by putting him in mind of his most sacred engagements, and of the duty he owed both to God and his subjects, justly alarmed all the faithful in the land, especially the congregations who are now rendered desolate.

Next day the committee of estates published a proclamation against all unlawful and unwarrantable meetings and conventicles, without his majesty's special authority, and against all seditious petitions and remonstrances, under what pretext soever. But can the reader imagine that it was unlawful for a small number of ministers to meet in a private room, when their only design was to congratulate his majesty upon his being restored to the throne of his ancestors, and put him in mind of his duty? Or that it was a seditious petition and remonstrance, to intreat the king to observe his coronation-oath, when many used all their interest to get him to act a part inconsistent with what he had sworn in the presence of God.