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Guthrie, a very honourhis course of classical augh philosophy in the ears he gave abundant er was very steady and tle points with great somper was never ruffled. happened to fall in when

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it is only for compliance, which was the epidemical fault of the nation: I wish the Lord to pardon them. I say no more-but God hath laid engagements on Scotland. We are tied by covenants to religion and reformation; those who were then unborn, are yet engaged; and it passeth the power of all the magistrates under heaven to absolve from the oath of God. These times are like to be either very sinning or suffering times; and let Christians make their choice: there is a sad dilemma in the business, sin or suffer; and surely he that will choose the better part, will choose to suffer; others that choose to sin, will not escape suffering. They shall suffer; but perhaps not as I do, (pointing to the maiden,) but worse. Mine is but temporal, theirs shall be eternal. When I shall be sinning, they shall be howling. Beware therefore of sin, whatever you are aware of, especially in such times. And hence my condition is such now, as, when I am gone, will be seen not to be as many imagined. I wish, as the Lord hath pardoned me, so may he pardon them, for this and other things, and what they have done to me may never meet them in their accounts. I have no more to say, but to beg the Lord, that when I go away, he would bless every one that stayeth behind."

When he delivered this his seasonable and pathetic speech, which, with his last words, is recorded at length in Naphtali, or the Wrestling of the Church of Scotland. Mr. Hamilton prayed; after which he prayed most sweetly himself: then he took his leave of all his friends on the scaffold. He first gave the executioner a napkin with some money in it; to his sons-in-law, Caithness and Ker, his watch and some other things out of his pocket: he gave to Loudon his silver penner; to Lothian a double ducat; and then threw off his coat. When going to the maiden, Mr. Hutcheson said, My Lord, now hold your grip sicker. He answer ed, "You know, Mr. Hutcheson, what I said to you in the chamber. I am not afraid to be surprised with fear." The Laird of Skelmorlie took him by the hand, when near the maiden, and found him most composed. He kneeled down most cheerfully, and after he had prayed a little, he gave the signal, (which was by lifting up his hand,) and the instrument called the maiden struck of his head from his body, which was fixed on the west end of the tolbooth, as a monument of the parliament's injustice, and the land's misery. His body was by his friends put in a coffin, and conveyed, with a good many attendants, through Linlithgow and Fal kirk to Glasgow, and from thence to Kilpatrick, where it was put in a boat, carried to Denune, and buried in Kilmunn church.

Thus died the Noble Marquis of Argyle, the proto-martyr to religion since the reformation from Popery, the true portrait of whose character cannot be (says Wodrow, in his History, vol. i. p. 56.) drawn. His enemies themselves will allow him to have been a person of extraordinary piety, remarkable wisdom and prudence, great gravity and authority, and singular usefulness. He was the head of the covenanters in Scotland, and had been singularly active in the work of reformation there, and of any almost that had engaged in that work he stuck closest by it, when most of the nation quitted it very much; so that this attack upon him was a stroke at the root of all that had been done in Scotland, from 1638 to the usurpation. But the tree of Prelacy and arbitrary measures behov. ed to be soaked, when planting, with the blood of this excellent patriot, stanch Presbyterian, and vigorous assertor of Scotland's liberty; and as he was the great promoter thereof during his life, and stedfast in witnessing to it at his death, so it was to a great degree buried with him it

Scotland for many years. In a word, he had piety for a Christian, sense for a counsellor, carriage for a martyr, and soul for a king. If ever any was, he might be said to be a true Scotsman.

MR. JAMES GUTHRIE.

MR. JAMES GUTHRIE, son to the Laird of Guthrie, a very honourAble and ancient family, having gone through his course of classical learning, at the grammar-school and college, taught philosophy in the university of St. Andrews, where for several years he gave abundant proof that he was an able scholar. His temper was very steady and composed: he could reason upon the most subtle points with great solidity, and when every one else was warm, his temper was never ruffled. At any time, when indecent heats or wranglings happened to fall in when reasoning, it was his ordinary custom to say, "Enough of this, let us go to some other subject; we are warm, and can dispute no longer with advantage." Perhaps he had the greatest mixture of fervent zeal and sweet calmness in his temper, of any man in his time. But being educated in opposition to Presbyterian principles, he was highly Prelatical in his judgment when he came first to St. Andrews; but by conversing with the worthy Mr. Rutherford and others, and especially through his joining the weekly society's meetings there, for prayer and conference, he was effectually brought off from that way; and perhaps it was this that made the writer of the diurnal, who was no friend of his, say, “That if Mr. Guthrie had continued fixed to his first principles, he had been a star of the first magnitude in Scotland." Whenas he came to judge for himself, he happily departed from his first principles; and upon examination of that way wherein he was educated, he left it, and thereby became a star of the first magnitude indeed. It is said, that while he was regent in the college of St. Andrews, Mr. Sharp being then a promising young man there, he several times wrote this verse upon him,

If thou, Sharp, die the common death of men,

I'll burn my bill, and throw away my pen.

Having passed his trials in 1638, he was settled minister at Lauder, where he remained for several years. In 1646, he was appointed one of those ministers who were to attend the King while at Newcastle; and likewise he was one of those nominated in the commission for the public affairs of the church, during the intervals betwixt the General Assemblies. And in about three years after this, he was translated to Stirling, where he continued until the Restoration, a most faithful watchman upon Zion's walls, who ceased not day and night to declare the whole counsel of God to his people, shewing Israel their iniquities, and the house of Jacob their sins. After he came to Stirling, he again not only evidenced a singular care over that people he had the charge of, but also was a great assistant in the affairs of the church, being a most zealous enemy to all error and profanity. And when that unhappy difference fell out with the public resolutioners, he was a most stanch protester, opposing these resolutions unto the utmost of his power; insomuch, as after the presbytery of Stirling had wrote a letter to the Commission of the General Assembly,

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shewing their dislike and dissatisfaction with the resolutioners, after they had been concluded upon at Perth, Dec. 14, 1650, Mr. Guthrie, and his colleague Mr. Bennet, went somewhat farther, and openly preached against them, as a thing involving the land in conjunction with the malignant party; for which, by a letter from the Chancellor, they were ordered to repair to Perth, on February 10, 1651, to answer before the King * and the Committee of Estates for that letter, and their doctrine; but upon the indisposition of one of them, they excused themselves by a letter for their non-appearance that day, but promised to attend upon the end of the week. Accordingly, on the 22d, they appeared at Perth, where they gave in a protestation, signifying, that although they owned his Majesty's civil authority, yet was Mr. Guthrie challenged by the King and his Council for a doctrinal thesis, which he had maintained and spoken to in a sermon,-whereof they were incompetent judges in matters purely ecclesiastical, such as the examination and censuring of doctrines,—he did decline them on that account.†

The matter being deferred for some days, till the King returned from Aberdeen, in the meantime the two ministers were confined to Perth and Dundee; whereupon they (Feb. 28,) presented another paper or protestation, which was much the same, though in stronger terms, and sup ported by many excellent arguments. After this the King and Commitee thought proper to dismiss them, and to proceed no farther in the affair at present; and yet Mr. Guthrie's declining the King's authority, in matters ecclesiastical here, was made the principal article in his indict ment some years after, to give way to a personal pique Middleton had against this good man, the occasion of which is as follows.

By improving an affront the King met with in 1659, some malignants about him so prevailed to heighten his fears of the evil designs of those about him, that, by a correspondence with the Papists, malignants, and such as were disaffected to the covenants in the north, matters came in a little to such a pass, that a considerable number of noblemen, gentlemen, and others, were to rise and form themselves into an army, under Middleton's command, and the King was to cast himself into their arms, &c.

It surely was a piece of ill-advised conduct, as many of themselves afterwards ac knowledged, that ever they elected or admitted any of that family of Ahab, after the Almighty had so remarkably driven them forth of these kingdoms, unto the regal dignity, upon any terms whatsoever; particularly Charles II. after he had given such recett proofs of his dissimulation and disaffection unto the cause and people of God in these na tions. After which they never had a day to prosper; for, by contending against magnants, and yet at the same time vowing and praying for the head of malignants, they not only had malignants and sectaries to fight with, but also made a desuetude unto the former attainments, and so came to contend with one another, until Prelacy proved their utter ruin at last. It is objected, that King Charles was a good-natured man, and that the extermination of our excellent constitution was from evil counsellors. It is but too true, that evil counsellors have many times proved the ruin of kingdoms and common wealths, else the wise man would not have said, "Take away the wicked from before the King, and his throne shall be established,” Prov. xxv. 5. But take the matter as it is, he was still the head of that constitution, and (not to speak of his other immoralities) a most perfidious, treacherous, and wicked man; and could engage to-day and break tomorrow, and all to obtain an earthly crown. For a further illustration of this, see a letter, shewing the defection of both addressers and protesters, &c. Dr. Owen's sermon be fore the Protector of Scotland; the History of the Stuarts; and Bennet's Memorial of 'Britain's deliverances, &c.

† Apologetical Relation, § 5. p. 83.

See these protestations in Wodrow's Church-History, vol. i. p. 58 and 59.

Accordingly, the King, with a few in his retinue, as if he were going a-hunting, left his best friends, crossed the Tay, and came to Angus, where he was to have met with those people; but soon finding himself disappointed, he came back to the Committee of Estates, where indeed his greatest strength lay. In the meantime several who had been in the plot fearing punishment, got together under Middleton's command. General Leslie marched towards them, and the King wrote to them to lay down their arms. The Committee sent an indemnity to such as: should submit; and while the States were thus dealing with them, the Commission of the Assembly were not wanting to shew sheir zeal against uch as ventured to disturb the public peace; and it is said, that Mr. Guthrie here proposed summary excommunication, as a censure Middle.. on deserved, and as what he thought to be a suitable testimony from the hurch at this juncture. This highest sentence was carried in the Comnission by a plurality of votes, and Mr. Guthrie was appointed to proounce the sentence next Sabbath. In the meantime the Committee of Estates, not without some debates, had agreed upon an indemnity to diddleton. There was an express sent to Stirling, with an account how hings stood, and a letter, desiring Mr. Guthrie to forbear the intimation f the Commission's sentence. But this letter coming to him just as he vas going to the pulpit, he did not open it till the work was over; and hough he had, it is a question if he would have delayed the Commission's entence upon a private missive to himself. However, the sentence was nflicted, and although the Commission of the church, Jan. 3, 1651, beng their next meeting, did relax Middleton from that censure, and laid on a better man, Col. Strachan, yet it is believed Middleton never orgave nor forgot what Mr. Guthrie did upon that day, as will afterwards e made more fully to appear.

Mr. Guthrie, about this time, wrote several of the papers upon the protesters side; for which, and his faithfulness, he was one of those three vho were deposed by the pretended Assembly, at St. Andrews 1657. lea, such was the malice of these woful resolutioners, that upon his reusal of one of that party, and accession to the call of Mr. Rule to be his olleague at Stirling, upon the death of Mr. Bennet in 1656, they proeeded to stone this seer in Israel with stones, because his testimony while alive so tormented the men who dwelt upon the earth.

And as Mr. Guthrie did faithfully testify against the resolutioners and he malignant party, so he did equally oppose himself to the sectaries and o Cromwell's usurpation: and although he went up to London in 1657, when the Marquis of Argyle procured an equal hearing betwixt the proesters and the resolutioners, yet he so boldly defended the King's right n public debate with Hugh Peters, Oliver's chaplain, and from the pulpit asserted the King's title in the face of the English officers, as was surprising to all gainsayers.-Yet, for this and other hardships that he endured on this account, at this time, he was but poorly rewarded, as by and by will come to be observed.

Very soon after the Restoration, while Mr. Guthrie and some others of his faithful brethren, who assembled at Edinburgh, were drawing up a paper (August 23,) in way of supplication to his Majesty, they were all apprehended, (except one who happily escaped,) and imprisoned in the

*This unjust sentence was pronounced in the high church of Glasgow, by Mr. John Carstairs, who prefaced Mr. Durham's posthumous works, some of which are supposed to be vitiated by him, especially his Treatise on Scandal.

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