DONALD CARGILL - BIOGRAPHY, Part Two
CHAPTER V. Sharp's assassination and the battles of
Drumclog and Bothwell.
THE year 1679 was made memorable in Scotland by
three events which stand closely related, and which, in future years, were
often used by the persecutors as instruments of detection and torture. Those
were the assassination of Archbishop Sharp, and the battles of Drumclog and
Bothwell Bridge, regarding which events it was customary to put ensnaring
questions to the persecuted, and thereby to secure their condemnation. The
first, which occurred on the 3rd of May, spread terror throughout the land, and
also created dissension among tho Covenanters themselves. James Sharp, Primate
of all Scotland, popularly known by the name of Judas, and universally regarded
as the evil genius of his country, was returning from a meeting of the Council
in Edinburgh, where he had succeeded in carrying through a still more severe
measure of cruelty and repression than any hitherto adopted. In a few days he
expected to leave for London, that he might obtain the royal authority for this
fresh edict, and meanwhile he was travelling to his palace in St. Andrews in
company with his daughter. At a lonely place, not far from his destination,
known as Magus Moor, he was overtaken and slain by some of the wilder and
sterner spirits among the Covenanters, who acted on the impulse of the moment,
and solely on their own responsibility.Far from being daunted by the uproar
which the Archbishop's death occasioned, the Covenanters of the West resolved
to celebrate the 29th of May by a new protest, known as the Rutherglen
Declaration. Having assembled at Rutherglen, a small royal burgh two miles from
Glasgow, they first extinguished the bonfires by which this day was being
celebrated, and, having burned certain obnoxious Acts of Parliament and of
Council, they then affixed their own Declaration or protest to the market
cross. This new act of rebellion was at once resented by the Council, who
commissioned John Graham of Claverhouse, a dashing officer recently returned
from service in France and Holland, to disperse the rebels.
On the
following Sabbath, a large Conventicle was being held at Drumclog, near Loudoun
Hill in Ayrshire, and, as was now the custom at such gatherings, a goodly
number of those present carried arms of one sort or another. Claverhouse, who
was in command of a garrison at Glasgow, on hearing of the intended meeting,
hastened thither at the head of his own troop of horse, assisted by two
companies of dragoons. The sermon was just beginning, when one of the watchmen
on a neighbouring height fired the signal gun, and retreated at full speed
towards the assembled congregation. Ere long the peaceful assemblage of
Christian worshippers was transformed into a body of stern and fearless
warriors, ready to suffer and die for Christ's Crown and Covenant. According to
the old tradition, which still survives, the Covenantors formed in battle
array, and marched in solemn majesty to meet Claverhouso and his dragoons,
singing together the grand old Psalm "In Judah's land, God is well-known,"
Sung to the strains of the half-plaintive, half triumphant "Martyrs," this
inspired song filled the Covenanters with a superhuman courage, while it spread
dismay among their enemies, and soon Claverhouse was glad to flee with the
shattered remains of his troops. Had this victory boon followed by earnest and
united measures on the part of the Covenanters, there is reason to believe that
the history of the next ten years might have been very different from what it
actually became. But, unhappily, the spirit of suspicion and disunion entered
their ranks, and three weeks later, on the 22nd of June, they met with a
crushing defeat at Bothwell Bridge. In this battle, the Government troops,
fifteen thousand strong, were led by the Duke of Monmouth, a natural son of
Charles II., while the Covenanters numbered only about five thousand, and
suffered both from want of proper equipment and from the miserable disputes by
which their camp for several days had been turned into a bear garden, or at
least a debating club.
Besides the ministers who had already accepted the
Indulgence, there were now two distinct parties among the Covenanters, one
consisting of those who, while refusing it themselves, had not cut themselves
off from communion with the Indulged, the other regarding it as the very
invention of Satan. The latter party, to which Cargill belonged, was led by
Robert Hamilton, son of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Preston, described by
Hetherington as "a man of personal piety, but of narrow and contracted views,
ill-directed zeal, and overbearing temper." His recent victory at Drumclog,
where he commanded against Claverhouse, had doubtless increased both his
military reputation and self-confidence, and made him more determined than ever
to adhere to his own narrow policy. Of the eighteen ministers who were present
none of them had takeim the Indulgence, but all with the exception of Cargill
and Douglas were willing to treat it meanwhile as an open question, and to
enrol all Presbyterians under the same banner.
The chief of these was John
Welsh, the ‘outed' minister of Irongray, whose strenuous exertions to
unite his brethren and to prevent impending disaster proved unsuccessful.
Inheriting many of the qualities of his grandfather, the minister of Ayr, and
of his grandmother, a daughter of John Knox, he had for many years been one of
the most intrepid of the field-preachers, and had been hunted by the Government
as a "declared and proclaimed traitor." Having, however, attended a meeting of
ministers at Edinburgh, where an attempt was made to bridge the gulf between
the indulged and the non-indulged, he had incurred the suspicion and opposition
of the more extreme among the Covenanters, and his arrival at Bothwell,
accompanied by a considerable number of what were then called Moderate
Presbyterians, brought the disputes between these two sections to a head. James
Ure, of Shargarton, in his interesting "Narrative" of the battle, throws much
light on the situation. He and his company, most of whom were from the
neighbourhood of Kippen and Gargunnock, were among the 300 who kept the bridge,
which was the key of defence. "The enemy," says Ure, "came hard to the bridge
end and spoke to us, and we to them. They desired us to come over, and they
would not harm us, and called for Mr. Hamilton to speak with him: so Mr. David
Hume (who had been minister of Coldingham, Welsh's right-hand man) went over,
and another gentleman with him, and spoke with the Duke, and desired his Grace
if ho would prevent the elluffusion of blood. He told them their petition
should have been more humbly worded, and said lay down your arms and come in
his mercy and we should be favourably dealt with. So he returned and told us.
When Robert Hamilton heard it, he laughed at it, and said ‘And hang
next'!" Ure, like Welsh himself, was a man of indomitable courage, and for nine
years he and his family underwent inexpressible sufferings, though happily he
survived the Revolution, and died at his own house in peace. But he was unable
to agree with Hamilton and Cargill in their view of the situation. Addressing
the former, he told him that he had a wife and five children and a little bit
of an estate, all which, together with his life, ho was willing to sacrifice to
get the yoke of prelacy and supremacy removed, but that it was evident that
those who followed him intended to tyrannize over their consciences, and lead
them into a worse snare than that in which they had been. This wrangling over
the Indulgence has been described as the tedious warfare of men who had need of
union in face of the serious injury inflicted on their Church, and of the wrong
done to their country's freedom.
It was not the Indulgence, however, which
alone divided the Covenanters, but another question which now became more
prominent and urgent. This was the question of allegiance to Charles Stuart as
their lawful king. The great body of Presbyterians were still loyal, and while
protesting against the character of the king's government, were prepared to
defend his throne with their lives. But Hamilton and those who were most
closely associated with him had begun to realise that their liberties, civil
and religious, would never be safe so long as the Stuart family reigned. This
difference of opinion, which was no new thing in the experience of the
Covenanters, had recently been more strongly accentuated by the necessity of
publishing to the world the grounds on which they took up and continued in
arms. In a draft Declaration, prepared by the moderate party, the king's
authority was expressly acknowledged; while this step was vehemently opposed by
the others, who contended "that as they had not mentioned the king and his
interest, and had waved any positive declaration against him, so they might be
excused and not urged to declare positively for him." The Declaration, as
finally agreed upon at Hamilton, though dissented from by Cargill and many
others, contained the following reasons in explanation of the so-called present
rebellion:
(1) The defending and securing of the true Protestant religion
and Presbyterian Government founded on the Word of God and summarily
comprehended in our Confessions of Faith and Catechism, and established by the
laws of this land, to which king, nobles, and people are solemnly sworn and
engaged in our National and Solemn League and Covenants, and more particularly
the defending and maintaining of the kingly authority of our Lord Jesus Christ
over his Church against all sinful supremacy, derogatory thereto and
encroaching thereupon.
(2) The preserving and defending the king's person
and authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and
liberties of the kingdom, that the world may bear witness with our consciences
of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts nor intentions to diminish his
just power and greatness.
(3) The obtaining of a free and unlimited
Parliament, and of a Free General Assembly, in order to the redressing of the
foresaid grievances, for preventing the danger of Popery, and for the
extirpation of Prelacy. To this Declaration, and especially to the statement
regarding the king's person and authority, exception was taken by many of the
Covenanters, and, in the following address by Cargill on the occasion of the
first public Fast in the fields after Bothwell, it is singled out for special
condemnation. To understand the allusion to "the bonds for ministers," to which
he strongly and consistently objected, it should be stated that, after their
defeat at Bothwell and largely through the influence of the Duke of Monmouth, a
third but short-lived Indulgence was procured for those Presbyterian ministers
for whom a certain bond or security was given. This was fixed at the exorbitant
sum of 6000 merks, and under this penalty the parishes were bound to produce
their ministers for punishment, whenever they should transgress the laws.
Besides ignoring the Church's claim to spiritual independence, and entailing
serious responsibility upon consenting ministers and their sureties, the "bond"
helped to widen tho gulf between different sections in the ministry, and to
introduce still greater confusion into the ecclesiastical affairs of the land.
It is to this new stage in the drama that Cargill now refers, and from the tone
and tenor of his speech we can easily perceive that in his opinion the movement
was a retrograde one, and fraught with serious consequences.
"Now," he
says, "we are here this day met together to humble ourselves before the Lord.
Humbling is a great work. Oh for sincere hearts ready to receive convictions,
and for tenderness of heart to mourn over sin when it is seen. If once we had
gotten off our burden of sin and our bonds of unbelief and hardness of heart,
we would then more easily wrestle through that which is before us. Ye know not
what a sea ye have yet to pass through. Should ye not then make light for your
voyage? Should ye not seek for a horse to carry you through the floods?
Therefore put off your burden of sin and seek to be mounted upon Omnipotence;
otherwise you will sink, and the first sinking will not be the worst of it. I
say again we are met here to humble ourselves before the Lord, and the more so
as hitherto we have not done it rightly, which is evidenced by this that the
Lord has not answered our desires, and His wrath and judgments have increased.
He has smitten us, and after such dealing not to see our sin is blindness, and
to conceal it is a mocking of God. It was a sad word of a minister on a public
fast day when he said that there were some sins we must put our thumb upon. It
may easily peep out to a serious soul what was the fault of our former
fastings. There is our main land-sin which has never been acknowledged, which
is one of the greatest controversies God has against Great Britain and Ireland,
namnoly, the espousing of a ‘malignant' interest. This was the great cause
of our first stroke, and we may justly charge all the blood at Bothwell upon
the authors, imposers, or consentors to that Declaration at Hamilton, which
drew the wrath of God upon the whole army. And so we may impute our losses at
Dunbar and Inverkeithing to the same, because we did palpably mock God by not
purging those armies from the malignant interest. But it may be objected that
we have sworn allegiance, and are bound by our Covenants to our king. I answer,
we are indeed bound and have sworn allegiance to a Covenanted King and rulers,
who are for religion and reformation, and Established Church government. But
where are they? . . . This day our eyes should be on these three things
:
(l) The sins that are past, both our own and the nation's;
(2) the
present captivity and slavery of the Church;
(3) the judgments that are
coming on these lands."
Referring then to the sins of the nation, he
says:-"And yet if any speak against the Indulgence, paying of the Cess or
bonding for ministers, ye rise up in wrath against them. Ye will rather fight
against those who would convince and instruct you, than search out and mourn
for those abominations of the land. But ye will say they are good men, holy
men, great men, who approve of these things. Well, the greater they be, their
sin must be acknowledged if we desire to have success with God. As to our
rulers, some may think we have no reason to mourn for their sin. True, from
them we neither have thanks nor expect thanks; but it being a sin of the
nation, we must mourn for it if we expect to be marked for mourners before God,
and we must refuse all sinful subjection to them if we would not be accounted
undutiful to God and rebels against him."
In some further remarks on the
captivity and slavery of the Church, he observes:-"We ought both to mourn and
petition God because of this. But we are so far from doing this, that in many
of our actions we concur with and confirm it. Amongst others, ye that come
before the Council to ‘bond ‘ for ministers bring as it were a rope
with you to bind the Church, and every new bond is a new rope. For to have
ministers only from the King and Council upon bonds is a strengthening of the
Church's captivity. And who is there that is not by this and other things this
day helping to bind the captive Church, and so consenting that Satan shall have
a triumphant kingdom in the land By this you thrust Christ into a corner, and
give Satan leave to reign at large."
The defeat sustained by the
Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge was a crushing one, and would have been followcd
by still more disastrous consequences but for the clemency of Monmouth. For
this he was taunted when he returned to London by the Duke of York, and also by
the king, the latter remarking in the most heartless manner, "If I had been
there would have been no trouble about prisoners." "If that was your wish,"
replied Monmouth with great dignity, "you should have sent not me, but a
butcher." As it was, about four hundred perished on the field or in the chase,
and twelve hundred were taken prisoners. Those were dragged in triumph to
Edinburgh, where at first they were mostly confined in the Greyfriars
Churchyard without shelter or covering. Many were liberated on sundry
conditions, others escaped at the risk of their lives, while the rest, after
remaining there for five months, wore shipped for the American plantations, but
were wrecked off the coast of Orkney, and with few exceptions miserably
perished. Cargill, who was severely wounded in the battle and taken prisoner,
though, strange to say, left by his captors, as his wounds seemed fatal, found
it advisable to leave Scotland for a theand to retire either to Holland or to
England, whence however he soon returned to take up his abode for a thein the
neighbourhood of Queensferry.
SITUATED on the south shore of the Firth
of Forth, and on the direct road between Dunfermline and Edinburgh, South
Queensferry was from an early period a place of interest and importance. In
1636 it was erected into a royal burgh, but for centuries before it possessed
peculiar privileges, arid as early as the middlo of the 11th century it
receives historical mentions. The Hawes Inn, which is still a.favourite resort
for those who visit the Forth Bridge, is mentioned by Scott in The Antiquary
and by Robert Louis Stevenson in Kidnapped, but in Cargill's thethere was a
humbler place of entertainment about a mile to the west of this, and right in
the middle of the town, which, though now in a very dilapidated state, is still
known as the Covenanters' House. Here at the begining of 1680 a serious
encounter took place with the Governor of Blackness, which resulted in the
death of Henry Hall of Haughhead, and from which Cargill barely escapod with
his life. For some thethese two brave men had been lurking in the
neighbourhood, finding shelter among their friends on both sides of the river,
and taking advantage of opportunities as they occurred to advance the cause
they loved. Recognised one day by the curates of Borrowstounness and Carriden,
information was at once sent to the Governor of Blackness, who ordered some
soldiers to follow him at a distance, while he and his servant rode after the
outlaws till they reached Queensferry. We give the story now as it is told by
Howie in his Life of Henry Hall: "here perceiving the house where they
alighted, he sent his servant off in haste for his men, putting his horse in
another house, and coming to them as a stranger he pretended a great deal of
kindness to them both, desiring that they might have a glass of wine together.
When each of them had taken a glass and were in friendly conference, the
Governor, wearying that his men came not up, threw off the mask and laid hands
on them, saying they were his prisoners, and commanded the people of the house
in the King's name to assist. They all refused except one, Thomas George, a
waiter, by whose assistance he got the gate shut. In the meanthe, Haughhead
being a bold and brisk man struggled hard with the Governor until Cargill got
off; but after the scuffle, as he was going off himself, having got clear of
the Governor, Thomas George struck him on the head with a carbine and wounded
him mortally."
On their way to Edinburgh Henry Hall died in the hands of
his captors, who carried his body to the Tolbooth and after some days buried it
secretly. Though related to the Earl of Roxburgh, arid possessing much
influence among the Covenanters, so much was he an object of hatred to those
who were then in power that his friends could not obtain for him even an
honourable burial. This was partly due to the fact that after his death a paper
was found on him, in which the king's authority was formally disowned, and a
solemn promise given that those now contending for liberty would continue the
struggle until it was successful, or would hand it down to those who followed
them. But for its length and its clumsy involved style, we would have given
this Paper in full, partly because of the cruel and unfair use made of it by
the Government of the day, and partly because it contains, as many think, the
very pith of sound constitutional doctrine regarding both civil and
ecclesiastical rights.
This, which is generally known as the Queensferry
Paper, was commonly ascribed to Cargill, though he himself refused to
acknowledge its authorship. Most probably it was meant to form the basis of a
general Covenant or Declaration such as that which shortly afterwards was fixed
by Cameron and his friends to the cross of Sanquhar. There were some
expressions in it, however, which even Cargill objected to, and inasmuch as it
was without his, or indeed any other signature, it would be manifestly unfair
to claim him as its author. After his marvellous escape from the Governor of
Blackness, Cargill was taken by friendly hands to a house in Carlowrie, whore
his wounds were dressed and his wants attended to. There he lay in a barn all
night, and next Sabbath preached at Cairnhill, near Loudoun, from Heb. xi. 32,
"And what shall I more say, for the thewould fail me to tell of Gideon," etc.
In reply to some person who aftorwards said, "We think, sir, preaching and
praying go best with you when danger and distress are greatest," he admitted
that this was the case, that the more his enemies thrust at him that he might
fall, the more seemingly the Lord helped him. Then, as if to himself, he
repeated tho words of the 118th Psalm, "The Lord is my strength and song and is
become my salvation." This, as later on we shall have occasion to observe, was
the Psalm he sang upon the scaffold.
Soon afterwards, on the 22nd of June,
the first anniversary of Bothwell Bridge, about twenty armed persons rode into
the town of Sanquhar, one of whom, Michael Cameron, after religious exercises,
read what is now generally known as the Sanquhar Declaration, and affixed a
copy of it to the market Cross of that burgh. In this they publicly disowned
the king's authority, threw off all allegiance to the House of Stuart, and
claimed for themselves and for their children the right of a Free Parliament
and a Free Assembly. This has been truly described as the first scene in the
drama of the revolution in which the reign of the Stuarts was brought to an
end. "These men were traitors and rebels," says Professor Herkness: "but to
what cause, and to what person? They were traitors against the organised
tyranny that styled itself the Government of Scotland, rebels against the king
in whose name they had been persecuted for abiding by that freedom which he had
solemnly sworn to preserve."
Four weeks later, an engagement took place
between them and the king's troops, in which Michael Cameron and his more
distinguished brother Richard were both slain, after displaying the most
extraordinary bravery. Of this fatal encounter at Airsmoss, in the parish of
Auchinlock, we have an exquisitely beautiful and appropriate memorial in the
following poem, written by an Ayrshire shopherd lad, James Hyslop, to whose
memory a monument has recently been erected (poem removed by editor - available
on request)
Two who survived the battle and afterwards suffered martyrdom in
the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, on the 13th August, were John Malcolm and
Archibald Alison, to whom Cargill found theto send a long and interesting
letter, from which we make the following extract (see
menu for letter two)
Three days
after the battle, Cargill preached in the parish of Shotts from the text - (2
Sam. iii. 28) "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen
this day in Israel?"
He and Cameron were kindred spirits, soldiers in
the liberation war of humanity, and as watchmen upon the walls of Zion they saw
eye to eye. "As for Richard Cameron," he wrote to the lady of Earlston, "I
never heard anything from him in the Lord's truth, but am both ready and
willing to confirm it." Cameron's death was, therefore, a heavy blow to his
friend, and doubtless helped to intensify his hatred of the existing
oppression. Only a few days before the battle, they had preached together at
the same conventicle in Evandale, Cameron preaching from the words - "Be
still and know that I am God;" and before they parted it was arranged that
they should do so again at Craigmead in Stirlingshire, on the first Sabbath of
August. But meanwhile God's providence had interposed, and one was taken while
the other was left. Doubtless with peculiar feelings, on that Sabbath morning,
would Cargill find himself at the appointed place, and his utterances would
gain immensely, both in his own and his hearers' estimation, by the recent and
lamented death of him who was popularly known as the Lion of the Covonant. Now
that this lion-hearted man was dead and his mighty voice was silent for ever,
his enemies might perhaps think that the cause for which he suffered and died
was irretrievably lost. Not so thought Cargill, when, after drawing a parallel
between Coniah, the King of Judah (Jor. 22, 28), and Charles Stuart, he uttered
these memorable words : -
"If that unhappy man upon the throne of Britain
shall die the ordinary death of men, and get the honour of the burial of kings,
and if he shall have any to succeed him, lawfully begotten, then God never sent
me nor spake by me."
Thus, under the influence of recent events, and
feeling himself divinely summoned to give a last and fatal blow to existing
tyranny and oppression, Cargill took another step towards a full and final
development of the covenanting struggle. This had hitherto been carried on by
those who believed in the divine right of kings, and who not only claimed to
be, but really were, the loyal supporters of the throne. For more than forty
years the Covenanters had refused to throw off, under the greatest provocation,
allegiance to the Stuart dynasty, and, while fighting for their civil and
religious liberties, had continued to hope that these might be secured and
defended without revolutionary measures. But to Cargill and thoso who thought
with him, it had become more and more apparent that a "root and branch policy"
was necessary to remove intolerable grievances, and bring in among them a reign
of righteousness and truth and peace. Hence in September, 1680, at a great
gathering at Torwood, on the road between Larbert and Stirling, he pronounced
sentence of excommunication upon the King, James Duke of York, General Daiziel,
and other prominent persecutors. This step was strongly condemned by many of
the Presbyterians at the the, and has ever since been the subject of much
debate; but that Cargill himself had no doubt regarding his duty in the matter
appears from some words ho uttered on the following Sabbath - " I know I am and
will be condemned by many for what I have done in excommunicating these wicked
men; but condemn me who will, I know I am approven of 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 in that transaction."
Accordingly, he went about the work of the day in
a most solemn and orderly manner. First, he preached from Ezekiel xxi. 25.27 -
"And thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity
shall have an end. Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the
crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low and abase him that is
high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until He
come whose right it is, and I will give it Him." Then, after pronouncing
sentence of excommunication, indicating plainly the grounds of it and
delivering the persons named to all its terrible consequences, he preached from
the words - (Lam. iii. 31, 32) "For the Lord will not cast off for ever. But
though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude
of His mercies."
Preaching the same month, from Rev. xx. 11, 12, on the
great White Throne, he sought also to apply the subject to all sorts and
conditions of men, and to engage his hearers in the useful work of judging not
others but themselves. "Many," he said in conclusion, "are now earnest and
solicitous to know if their names be in these woeful commissions to take and
apprehend you. But 0 that it were in the hearts of men to be in earnest to know
if their names be in the book of life, and that they might see their names
written there. 0, Sirs, take care what you give God now to write. Alas! alas!
you give Him many ill deeds to mark against you. But 0 that He had this to
write, that you had unfeignedly repented of them all."
This reminds us that
Cargill was pre-eminently a spiritual and practical preacher, and meddled with
politics and public men only when in conscience he could not do otherwise. That
his conduct at Torwood, looked at in the light of subsequent events, commended
itseif to thoughtful men, is evident from the following remark of Do Foe : -
"The sentence was expressly founded upon the same grounds as was afterwards the
renouncing of the king by the Revolution, and was abundantly justified by the
practice of the whole nation in the Revolution."
To this period should
probably be assigned two of the sermons in Howie's collection (on Rev. xx.
11-12, and Jer. xiii. 12-17), as also one hitherto unpublished, which we now
submit to our readers. (see sermon four)
ONE effect of the Torwood Excommunication was to incense the Government
still more against Cargill. On the 22nd November, a Royal Proclamation was
issued, stigmatizing him "as one of the most seditious preachers," and "a
villanous and fanatical conspirator," and raising the sum already set upon his
head from three thousand to five thousand merks. This reward was to be given to
any one who should bring him in dead or alive; and no greater proof can be
offered of God's protecting providence, and of the watchful and loving care of
which he was the object, than is afforded by his extraordinary escapes. On one
occasion be was induced by an informer in the service of Middleton, the
governor of Blackness, to
 |
accept an invitation to preach in Fife. On his way from Edinburgh he was accompanied by friends, some of whom, however, had set out 'earlier on foot,' while Cargill and another friend followed on horseback. Meanwhile a detachment of soldiers was lying in wait on the road to Queensferry, by whom those who were in advance were seized and taken prisoners to Edinburgh, where three of them were afterwards put to death. In the confusion, however, one fled and succeeded in warning Cargill of his danger, and thus securing his escape. Two of the three who suffered martyrdom belonged to Borrowstounness,while a third was James Skene, brother of the Laird |
of Skene in Aberdeenshire, to whom, when in prison,
Cargill addressed a touching letter, from which the following extracts are
taken : - "Dearest Friend, - Thore is now nothing upon earth that I am so
concerned in, except the Lord's work, as in you and your fellows; that you may
either be clearly brought off or honourably and rightly carried through. He is
begun in part to answer me, though not in that which I most affected (desired),
yet in that which is best. My soul was refreshed to see any that had so far
overcome the fear and torture of death, and were so far denied, to the
affections of the flesh, as to give full liberty to the exoneration of
conscience in the face of these bloody tyrants and vile apostates. And yet
these by our divines must be acknowledged as magistrates which the very
heathen, endowed with the light of nature, would abominate. But go on, valiant
champion; you die not as a fool, though the apostate unfaithful and lukewarm
ministers and professors of the generation think and say so." "Farewell,
dearest friend, never to see one another any more till at the right hand of
Christ. Fear not, and the God of mercies grant a full gale and a fair entry
into His kingdom, which may carry sweetly and swiftly over the bar, that you
find not the rub of death. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you. - Yours in
Christ."
The next three months were spent by Cargill in England, where, we
are told, "the Lord blessed his labours in the ministry to the conviction and
edifiation of many souls." During this absence from Scotland, ho sent a letter
to his "Paroch of the Barony " Kirk in Glasgow, of date March 27th, 1681,
beginning thus : - I am a debtor to all, but especially to you; but how to
requite my obligations, I know not. To return all is impossible, to return
nothing is great ingratitude." He then continues, "Be humble always, thankful
for what ye have received, and still thirsting after more; for His fulness is
infinite, and your wants are wonderfully great." "0 that God would open men's
eyes that they may see how little good and how much evil it (the Indulgence)
has wrought, how little it has done for the freedom and enlargement of the
kingdom of Christ, and how much for confirming its thraldom and confining its
enlargement." "0 fear, trust, watch, and pray, for yourselves and one another,
knowing that ye have all the same conflict, temptations, and weakness of the
flesh; and have the more fervent love among yourselves seeing ye are now fewer;
and have all your things common, your griefs, your temptations, your mercies,
your joys, your substance, your goods, so far as it shall be needful; for it is
like the time is very near that will make all alike in these things. I fear
many are buying, building, and gathering for our enemies."
In a postscript
he adds - "As for your collections the poor are yours as well as others, and ye
ought to see to them either by yourselves or others; but as for your
contributions to ministers, I see not how ye can do it any more than you can
hear them."
In April, 1681, we find Cargill once more in Scotland, busily
engaged as ever in preaching and discharging other ministerial duties, but also
much distressed by the followers of Gibb, who seem in many respects to have
resembled the Anabaptists of Luther's time. John Gibb was a shipmaster in
Borrowstounness who had adopted strange ideas on the subject of religion, and
whose followers, mostly women, left their homes and wandered about in search of
proselytes. They were known as the ‘Sweet Singers," and their zeal and
apparent spirituality drew many to their standard. Regarding them as earnest
and well-meaning persons, but weak and extravagant, Cargill laboured ernrnestly
to reclaim them from their errors, and later, when some of them were cast into
prison, ho remonstrated with them in writing, though, so far as we can judge,
his efforts were unsuccessful. Among other absurd opinions, they hold that the
metrical version of the Psalms was an unwarrantable meddling with the sacred
text, and should therefore be torn out of their Bibles and burned; that
Catechisms and Confessions of Faith, Acts of Assembly, Covenants and
Declarations, were all inventions of the devil, to be ignored and trampled
under foot; and finally, that all who were in authority, including ministers of
religion as well as ministers of State, should be resisted and disobeyed by
those who were the Lord's freemen. To the last of these tenets Cargill refers
in his letter when he says - "Alas, this your liberty, that you so much bragged
of, would have lasted but a. little while, and was among your other beguiles,
and was nothing else but Satan stirring you about to giddiness. . . . If your
liberty that you talked of had been true, it would at least have stayed till it
had brought you to other thoughts, other works, and other comforts. And it
might have been easily discerned not a true liberty, but a temptation, that led
you from public preaching, the great ordinance of God's glory and men's good,
as the Apostle has that word ‘forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles.' .
. . But in the next place, you will join with none in public worship but those
who have infallible signs of regeneration. This seems fair, but it is both
false and foul; false, because of its false foundation - viz., that the
certainty of one's interest in Christ may be known by another, whereas the
Scripture says that none knows it but he that has it; foul also, for this
disdain has pride in it, and pride is always foul."
In the following sermon
from Isaiah vi. 8-13, which belongs to this period of his ministry, and which
appears now for the first time, he makes obvious references to the opinions and
practices of this fanatical sect. This sermon seems to have been preached at
Holmes Common, near the junction of the Biggar Water with the Tweed, and to
have been followed by another in the afternoon from the words - " Be not
high-minded, but fear" (Rom. xi. 21). In the latter he intimated "that those
who knew themselves best. would fear themselves most; and that as it was hard
to determine what length a child of God might go in defection, having grace but
wanting tho exercises thereof, so a Christian might go through nineteen trials
and carry honestly in them, and fall in the twentieth." isaiah, vi. 8-13.
Sometimes God exercises great mercy towards His people and sometimes He
executes great judgments upon them, and He is wonderful in both. Yea, we may
say more ; where is there any person on whom God is not doing both, and doing
this daily? For when He is exercising great and wonderful mercies, which are
still mis-improved and abused, He is executing at the same time great and
wonderful judgments. Now the way of God's mercies has been wonderful in this
land, and there is no nation where His judgments will be more severely felt. 0
that we were out of the way, for the storms that are coming on Scotland are
like to be very rough and boisterous. The Lord is even saying of this
generation (or else we are far mistaken) that He will not be entreated for it.
There are two or three things God is calling us to.
(1) He is calling us to
pray that the Lord would hasten his judgments, and would make a short work of
them.
(2) He is calling us to pray that a holy seed may be saved to be the
substance of the land. Now, have you had this for your work? Remember you
should pray that He would hasten, shorten, and sanctify His judgments and
prepare a remnant for Himself.
But we must go and speak more particularly
about these verses, although, alas I ye are unfit to hear and I to speak. "Now
I heard," etc. What is this I heard? The voice of the Lord. It's but few that
hear what God is saying, and but few who are familiar with Him and admitted to
know his secrets. He is working on the right hand and on the left, and has laid
on His stroke, and yet few of us regard His speaking or working. Indeed, there
are many who know no more of God than if He had never made them, or had never
called them to know Him. We shall not speak of folk pretending to know Him or
of ministers hearing His voice. We believe there are great mistakes in the
holy, not to speak of the ungodly. Some say of silent ministers that they
pretend to know the mind of God. We will say only this one word that all the
knowledge they have is but like the sight of a blind man. Besides Satan speaks
in some souls sometimes where the Lord has spoken. We are not speaking of those
wretched creatures who are under the power of the devil, but of some holy men
who have once spoken for God, but in whom Satan is now speaking. We shall say
no more of this, but we should draw near to God and hear what He speaks. The
person who draws near to Him he will get God's mind, and inform them when He is
about to execute judgment. But observe now what the voice said, "Whom shall I
send, and who shall go for Me?"
There are here two questions proposed. The
first one tells us how hard it is to find a fit man for such a message. Some
think any one will do for the execution of judgments, but the Lord thinks
otherwise, He sent one of the seraphim with a hot coal in his hand, and no
doubt it put him in a more fit frame for the work. When the Lord has some great
work for His servant He qualifies him for it. Woe to us! Woe to us! but 0,
there is a difficulty to get men meet to be ambassadors of God.
The next
question is, "Who will go for us? " This intimates that there is a scarcity
also of willing men, of men who are ready to go upon His errand. Some offer
themselves for this work who are not qualified. It had been better for them
they had been shepherds and had kept sheep on these hills. May we not say there
are few this day in Scotland who will go with this message to harden hearts and
shut eyes. But he who is preparing himself for this work, theLord will prepare
him and give him strength. Observe now the answer, " here am I, send me." Here
is one, but where is another? The coal that is in the tongs taken from the
altar has been helping here, the hand of God has been at work, otherwise he had
not been so ready or so fit for following of Him. 0 that ye would pray Him to
send fit men out, that ye would pray Him to rouse up many that have their
hearts touched, who are both fit and ready to carry His message. But observe,
tho' He have a. full and sufficient call yet he must have a commission. "Send
me." 0 that we might be ready to lay ourselves before God so that He when He
has any commission to put in our hand, of mercy or judgment, we might be able
to say, "Here am I, send me." Here is one, and the Lord takes him at his word.
"Go." But what shall I do? Go, He said, and tell this people what shall be the
effects of your preaching. We shall say this word before God, we think that the
Lord is bidding us tell you that there is a judgument upon all your ordinances
if God prevent not. He is bidding us preach you blind, deaf, obstinate, and
without heart to understand anything. There are many whose eyes and ears God
has closed, and whose hearts He has made fit for the word that would have
convinced before is now so plagued by God that it will not move you. The Gospel
proves not your mercy but your judgment.
The next thing is (and we shall
say no more but a word on it), "Then said I, Lord, how long?" That is the
question, and theanswer is, "Till the land be utterly desolate," etc. We
confess, if we durst refuse any message of God, a man that's tender would
refuse this one and be ready to say, God forbid; he would choose banishment
rather than this. But this concerns God's glory, and so we must be silent. And
tho' it be bitter it must be done in obedience to God's command, as well as the
message of mercy. The herald must give obedience to the one as well as the
other. We are persuaded that the slighting of the Gospel in Scotland shall be
followed with judgments, and this shall be the preaching that shall shortly be
preached - desolation in Scotland, England, and Ireland.
Now there is one
sweet word ye see, "and there shall be a tenth," etc. Ye use to say it is a
sore war where all fall, but here there is a little remnant. It's oftimes a
third part, but here it's a tenth. The others shall be casten off and
destroyed, but "they shall be like a teil tree," etc. In effect it says, that
as the sap is in the root of the trees in winter when they cast their leaves,
so the tenth part shall be left shall be the substance of the land. You must
not be discouraged at the temporary stroke that a holy God has given you, for
if ever we be brought to suffer we shall be made to give thanks to God for a
good temporal turn : but we will leavo it."
CARGILL'S life was now
rapidly drawing to a close. His last public appearance was on the 10th of July,
at Dunsyre, on the confines of Midlothian, where he lectured on the first two
verses of the 1st chapter of Jeremiah, and preached from the last two verses of
the 26th chapter of Isaiah. According to Howie, the Communion was observed, and
after its observance he preached in the afternoon from Hosea ii. 6, "Therefore
behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not
find her paths." But Patrick Walker, who was present, speaks of the sermon on
Isaiah xxvi. 20, 21 as his last, and there is some reason for thinking that
Howie mistook the word Common for Communion, and also introduced the sermon on
Hosea ii. 6 at the wrong place in his collection. In either case, however, it
was a good day's work for an old man, now more than sixty years of age, whose
life had already been one of so much privation and hardship. Referring to this
solemn and interesting occasion, Walker says: "I had the happiness to hear
blest Mr. Cargill preach his last public sermons (as I had several times
before, for which while I live I desire to thank the Lord), in Dunsyre-Common,
betwixt Clydesdale and Lothian, where he lectured upon the 1st chap. of
Jeremiah, and preached upon that soul-refreshing text, Isaiah xxvi. 20, 21,
‘Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about
thee,' etc. Ho was short, marrowy, and sententious, as his ordinary was in all
his public sermons and prayers, with the greatest evidences of concernedness,
exceeding all that ever I heard open a mouth, or saw open a Bible to preach the
Gospel, with the greatest indignation at the unconcernedness of hearers. He
preached from experience, and went to the experience of all that had any of the
Lord's gracious dealing with their souls. It came from his heart, and went to
the heart; as I have heard some of our common hearers say that he spake as
never man spake, for his words went through them. He insisted what kind of
chambers these were of protection and safety, and exhorted all earnestly to
dwell in the clefts of the rock, to hide ourselves in the wounds of Christ, and
to wrap ourselves in the believing application of the promises flowing
therefrom: and to make our refuge under the shadow of His wings, until these
sad calamities pass over, and the dove come back with the olive leaf in her
mouth. These wore the last words of his last sermon."
Next morning he was
seized, while in bed, at the house of Andrew Fisher of Covington Mill, near
Lanark, his captor, James Irvine of Bomishaw, exclaiming, as he thought of the
5000 merks, ." 0 blessed Bonshaw, and blessed day that over I was born, that
have found such a prize this morning." Two others, Walter Smith and James Boig,
both students of theology, were apprehended at the same the, and executed with
him at Edinburgh. In Walter Smith's Testimony, the following sentence is of
more than ordinary interest, as the lady referred to is much blamed by Patrick
Walker for having persuaded the three martyrs, contrary to Cargill's judgment,
to leave the house where Cargill would have passed the night, and go to
Covington Mill. "As to my apprehending, we were singularly delivered by
Providence into the adversaries' hand, and, for what I could learn, were
betrayed by none, nor were any accessory to our taking, more than we were
ourselves; and particularly let none blame the Lady St. John's Kirk in this."
Smith also refers to the fact that on their way to Edinburgh they were at
first treated with great severity, being made to be all night "bound," and
being refused permission to pray with one another or engage in other religious
exercises. This continued as far as Linlithgow, though later, he affirms, the
Lord's kindness and tenderness were shown in restraining the fury of their
adversaries. At Lanark, where they were set on horseback without saddles,
Bonshaw with his own hands tied Mr. Cargill's feet below the horse's belly very
tightly. Upon this, we are told, the good man looked down at him and said, "Why
do you tie me so hard? Your wickedness is great; you will not long escape the
judgment of God." At Glasgow, where they stopped for a little, many crowded
around to gaze at Cargill, probably with very mingled feelings. One of those
was the Archbishop's factor, a notorious drunkard, John Nesbit by name, who
approached Cargill and mockingly said, "Mr. Donald, will you give us one word
more?" alluding to a frequent expression of his when preaching. After looking
sorrowfully at him for a little, Cargill replied, "Mock not, lest your bands be
made strong: the day is coming when you shall not have one word to say though
you would." Without claiming fom Cargill the gift of prophecy, we cannot
refrain from stating that in the early and miserable death of both persecutors
the martyr's words were almost literally fulfilled.
Another coincidence of
a similar kind occurred at the trial in Edinburgh. The Chancellor, Lord Rothes,
not able to forgive Cargill's excommunication of him at Torwood, was
particularly severe in his examination, threatening him in the most violent way
with torture and death : to whom Cargill calmly replied, "My Lord Rothes,
forbear to threaten me, for be what death I will your eyes shall not see it."
Soon afterwards Rothes was seized with sudden illness, which terminated fatally
on the morning of Cargill's execution. So great was the impression which this
illness made on tho other Judges that it was actually proposed that, "as
Cargill was old and had done all the ill he would do, he be sent to the Bass
and kept there a prisoner during life." By the casting vote of Argyll, however,
who said, "Let him go to the gallows and die like a traitor," it was finally
decided that he be hanged at the Cross, and his head afterwards placed on the
Netherbow Port. One morning, some years later, during his own premature and
ill-fated rising, Argyll was asked by one of his followers why he was looking
so sad. "how can I be otherwise," he answered, "when I see so few coming to our
assistance, and I am persuaded I will be called infatuated Argyll? But all this
does not trouble me so much as that unhappy wicked vote I gave against that
good man and minister, Mr. Cargill. And now I'm persuaded I'll die a violent
death on that same spot whore he died."
This anticipation was fulfilled in
the execution of Argyll at the Cross of Edinburgh, on the 30th June, 1685.
Cargill was condemned on the 26th, and executed on the 27th of July, 1681. When
on the scaffold he sang a part of the 118th Psalm, from the sixteenth verse to
the end, beginning with the words -
"The right hand of the mighty Lord,
Exalted is on high:
The right hand of the mighty Lord
doth ever
valiantly."
and ending with the words -
"Thou art my God, I'll
Thee exalt,
My God I wilt Thee praise;
Give thanks to God for He is
good,
His mercy lasts always."
Several times he tried to address the people who stood
around, but always as he began to speak his voice was drowned by the noise of
the drums; and, after a short prayer, he said as he ascended the ladder, "Tho
Lord knows I go up this ladder with less fear and perturbation of mind than
ever I entered a pulpit to preach." Standing on the highest step he exclaimed,
"Now I am near to the possession of my crown which shall be sure; for I bless
the Lord and desire all of you to bless him, that He hath brought me here and
makes me triumph over devils and men and sin; they shall wound me no more. I
forgive all men the wrongs they have done me, and I pray the Lord to forgive
all the wrongs that any of the elect have done against Him. I pray that
sufferers may be kept from sin and know their duty." Then, raising the napkin
from his face, ho cried, "Farewell, all relations and friends in Christ:
farewell acquaintances and all earthly enjoyments : farewell reading and
preaching, praying and believing, wanderings, reproaches, sufferings. Welcome
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Into
Thy hands I commend my spirit."
After death, the heads of all the five
martyrs were cut off, and his, according to the sentence, was placed upon the
Netherbow Port, where it remained for many a day.
"They have set his head on tho
Netherbow,
To scorch in the summer air:
And months go by and the
winter's snow
Falls white on his thin grey hair.
And still the same
look that in death he wore
Is sealed on the solemn brow;
A look as of
one who has travailed sore,
But whose pangs are ended now."
Standing in the crowd on that July day was a slightly-made,
fair-haired youth, only nineteen years of age, who listened breathlessly to
every word which fell from the martyr's lips, and, when all was over, turned
his back upon the city and sought in the solitude of the mountains to know the
will of God. It was the beginning of days for Renwick, known still and beloved
as the last of our martyrs, who for the next six years and more, carried aloft
the standard which, as it always seemed to himself and others, he then received
from the brave old veteran's hands. Those who are anxious to know what this
young spirit did for his Church and country during the short time that elapsed
before his martyrdom, will find much to interest them in The Life and Letters
of James Renwick, Edinburgh, 1893, as also in his own work, the Informatory
Vindication, which we hope to issue soon. Meanwhile, if we are justified in
comparing him to Elisha, we are equally so in speaking of Cargill as the Elijah
of the Covenant, who often said of himself that "it was well won that was won
off the flesh," and of whom it was also said by others that "preaching and
praying went best with him when his danger and distress were the greatest."
A man of genius has said that one could not open his lips or put pen to
paper if he were bound to say only what nobody else has said. We do not presume
to deny that in the previous pages we have recorded many things with which our
readers were already familiar, and that, indeed, little has been said for which
the claim of novelty or originality can be advanced. But remembering Ruskin's
saying, that the greatest thing a human soul over sees in this world is to see
something and to tell what it saw in a plaim way, we have endeavoured to
present our readers with a plain, unvarnished narrative of a good man's life,
and labours, and sufferings in the cause of civil and religious liberty. The
business of history, it has been truly remarked, is not merely to record, but
to interpret; it involves not only a clear conception and a lively exposition
of events and characters, but a sound, enlightened theory of individual and
national morality. This we now leave to our readers to work out and apply for
themselves, entreating them to remember that the debt we owe to our fathers for
their faithful contendings and sufferings is a great one, which we should be
glad, in our altered circumstances, to honour in ways which God's Providence
and Spirit will make plain to us, and that, while every new age has its
peculiar difficulties and dangers, we need never despair of the triumph of
truth over error, and freedom over tyranny. Truth, like the sun, submits to be
obscured, but only for a time; and
"Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won."
Cargill was a man of his own time, as we all are,
circumscribed in thought and action by the ideas and spirit of his age, and
therefore liable in some respects to be misjudged by us, and to be unjustly
condemned for unreasonable obstinacy and intolerance. But in spite of much
imperfection, which no one would have been more ready to acknowledge than
himself, we hear in his earnest contendings, even unto death, the eternal voice
of humanity ever struggling against tyranny, which is of the devil, and for
liberty, which is of God. And we are not worthy of the noble heritage, which he
and others by their faithfulness have secured and handed down to us, unless,
when the occasion calls for it, we too are willing to suffer the loss of all
things for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord! Those of
our readers who feel disposed to blame us for our sympathy with traitors, ought
in fairness to remember that the rebellion in which Cargill and his friends
took so prominent a part culminated a few years later in the Revolution
Settlement, and that what they did and strove to do was then repeated and
ratified by the nation at large. It is true that Charles II was never the
religious bigot that James became, and that, nominally at least, he remained a
Protestant until the end. But he was none the less a tyrant who had broken his
most sacred promises and trampled on the liberties of his subjects, as well as
a shameless profligate, whose life was a source of weakness and pollution to
the whole nation. "The one thing," says Green in his History of the English
People (Vol. VI., 175), "he seemed in earnest about was sensual pleasure, and
ho took his pleasure with a cynical shamelessness, which roused the disgust
even of his shameless courtiers. Mistress followod mistress, and the guilt of a
troop of profligate women was blazoned to the world by the gift of titles and
estates." Moreover, with few exceptions, the men by whom he was served,
especially in Scotland, were, like their master, preeminent in profligacy and
cruelty. Of Claverhouse and the bloody Mackenzie the next of our series will
afford a better opportunity to speak the truth, but as we read of Middleton and
Lauderdale at the head of the Government, and of Turnor and Dalziel as their
willing tools, we are, easily reminded of the saying of a philosopher, that the
meanest reptiles are found at the summit of the loftiest pillars. Instead,
therefore, of blaming Cargill and those who companied with him for their overt
acts of rebellion, we should rather thank God that in such an age there were
even a few who had the manliness and courage to assert a people's right, the
right supreme, to make, and also unmake, their kings, and who did not shrink,
for their country's and their Church's sake, to lay down their lives on the
altar of sacrifice.
• Among those, however, who, in the light of
subsequent events, are now prepared to justify the Cameronians for their
treasonable conduct, there are doubtless many who still blame them for their
separation from the great body of the Presbyterians, and for the extreme
measures they pursued. For such it would be well to remember, that, in
estimating what may now appear to us as trifles, we should always make
allowance for the angle at which, and for the light in which, these minute
points are seen. Besides in every great cause are there not some who lead that
others may follow, and who have to pay the penalty of their greater zeal and
urgency in misrepresentation and reproach! In that age, therefore, of strife
and confusion, where the law of religious toleration was not yet either
understood or practised by presbyterians any more than by Episcopalians or
Independents, can we wonder that the religion and patriotism of some good mon
possessed a stormy and almost an exclusive spirit, or can we deny that these
were the men who led the nation from darkness into light, and from oppression
into liberty!
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