to escape from. Rothes, Argyll, Moray, Hatton, and Mackenzie had the manliness to protest against York's intrusion.1 Tweeddale imagined that York would checkmate Lauderdale in the north; and York, to serve his own purposes, pleaded for toleration. heritors in the The Lord Advocate now made a dead set against the disaffected Forfeiture of lairds in Dumfries and Galloway, and early in July had thirty-five south-west. of them forfeited and dispossessed. Among these were Patrick M'Dowall of Freuch, whose estate went to Claverhouse; John Bell Of Whiteside, afterwards shot by Lag; John Gibson of Auchenchain; John Gibson, younger of Ingliston, afterwards shot by the dragoons of Douglas and Livingston, his property going to Douglas of Stenhouse; William Fergusson of Caitloch; Alexander Gordon of Earlston; James Gordon of Craichlaw-the lands of the last three were given to Colonel Edmond Maine, Major Theophilus Ogilthorpe, and Captain Henry Cornwall; and Robert MacLellan of Barmagechan, afterwards banished to New Jersey. The absentees from the muster of the militia included many Covenanters who had not appeared in the rising. Lauderdale found the machinery of the Justiciary Court too slow to undertake the multitudinous business of prosecuting these men, and he transferred its functions to the Privy Council, whose procedure was simplicity itself, — namely, summons of accused, his no-compearance, forfeiture, appearance of a donator or sequestrator on the land, and finally the disappearance of the victim. The year clo-sed with the signing of a warrant that certain persons should be 'gratified with shares of the forfeitures,' and among the number was Claverhouse.8 1 Letter, 6th November 1679: Add. MSS., 23245, fol. 21; Letter that York was not to take oath, 30th November 1679: Warrant Book, 328. Act. Parl. Scot., viii. 315, 323; Martyr Graves, 411, 444, 225-7; Warrant Book, 464, 21st April 1680, for Freuch. 3 27 December 1679: Warrant Book, 393. CHAPTER XXVII THE REMNANT cult of the persecuted. MORE than is warranted by evidence, writers prejudiced against the Covenanters have laid too much stress upon the alleged retaliatory actions and methods of parties of men who are supposed to have been illustrators of the Covenanting spirit. Harassed though the Lowland Covenanters were, their faith in most cases transmuted their sufferings into an ineffable delight and glory for Jesus' sake, rather than into yearnings for revenge. That ecstasy incited them to wish, pray for, and expect misery and martyrdom in Christ's interest, and the Suffering, the just judgment of God on evil-doers. Patient suffering, rather than wrestling, was the cult of all save the extremest hillmen, of the type of James Skene, who declared it to be his duty to kill soldiers, 'when they persecuted God's people.'1 On the other hand, the gallant Hackston confessed 'we were forced to fight' at Airsmoss. Rebellion to kings is unbeseeming Christ's ministers,' wrote Rutherford to Lady Kenmure.3 The outlawed MacWard, in his Poor Man's Cup of Cold Water, counselled the persecuted, as 'jewells surrounded by the cutting irons' . . . to 'seal from your own experience the sweetness of suffering for Christ,' since there is an inherent glory in suffering for Christ.' His friend, John Brown, discussed this subject in ten chapters in his work entitled Banders Disbanded, and while stating that there was 'a proper season of suffering,' declared that it required a divine revelation to tell when a tyrant was discharged.' 2 King, in his dying testimony, asserted: 'I have been loyal, and do recommend it to all to be obedient to higher powers in the Lord." 2 Retaliation was no duty, according to Fraser of Brea, who declared: 'We are to be submissive to the commands of superiors, not to imitate their practice.'1 Nisbet of Hardhill confessed: 'I have longed these sixteen years to seal the precious cause and interest of precious Christ with my blood.' This was not the malignant spirit of a bigoted slayer of his fellows who held different views. Something more than irrational obstinacy, something nobler than frantic superstition, underlay the life and morale of martyrs who kissed the rope that hanged them. If we had a hundred lives, we would willingly quit them all for the truth of Christ,' was the gallant farewell of the Enterkin Pass rescuers when upon the scaffold. 3 rood, 1680. While Holyrood House rang with the revelry of the Court of The Duke of the Duke and Duchess of York, as it had never done since the lute York in Holyof Rizzio roused the galliards of Queen Mary, the Lowland moors resounded with the plaintive psalms of the Remnant, who prayed and fasted on account of their latest misfortune, in the arrival of the popish heir to the Crown. Claverhouse accompanied the Duke from England, and had the Prince's ear. Long after the slave-ship had recrossed the seas bringing him back from the plantations, John Mathieson of Closeburn wrote: None knows the marrow and sweetness that is to be had in suffering and contending for Christ, but them that has felt.' In the same strain wrote John Wilson: 'The pleasantest time that ever I had was when I was joined with that suffering remnant, while hunted as partridges upon the mountains in following the persecuted gospel.' These threnodies formed a marked contrast to the jubilations of the hierarchy and the 'orthodox clergy.' 4 Richard Richard Cameron returned from exile in October 1679. In Hol- Return of land he was preceded by the ill-natured gossip that he was a mere Cameron, babbler against the Indulgence; but his intercourse with the ministers October 1679. there proved that he was a man of a savory gospel spirit,' and, as 1 Select Biog., ii. 368. 2 Ibid., 408. 3 Domestic Ann., ii. 403-5; Arch. Scot., i. 499; Burnet, ii. 248, 254; Six Saints, i. 226; Terry, John Graham, 89. 4 Coll. of Dying Testimonies, 187. 5 Ibid., 167. Cameron. MacWard announced, fit to 'go home and lift the fallen standard,' all alone, too, if the home ministry would not help him. Before leaving Holland, Cameron was ordained by Brown, MacWard, Hog, and Koelman, in the Scots Church, Rotterdam.1 Before lifting his hand off Cameron's head, MacWard, as if reading off a mental vision, pathetically exclaimed: Here is the head of a faithful minister and servant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his Master's interest, and shall be set up in the publick view of the world before sun and moon.'2 On his return, Cameron found the whole country seething with repressed discontent, met countless persons to whom Bothwell was a bitter memory, and discovered only a remnant who preferred suffering, to compliance with a hated rule, and death, to encouragement of those evils certain to follow the advent of a popish prince. Cameron, in the romantic enthusiasm of his youth, was mentally pledged to an idealised conception of Protestantism, shorn of every defection and innovation-Indulgence, Cess, Black Bond-a pietistic system The spirit of demanding all for Christ. In this respect he was like Zinzendorf, but without his extravagances and fanatical errors, and like him, too, was almost apotheosised by his ardent followers. He acted as a spell on the wanderers as he vowed he would rather die than 'outlive the glory of God departing entirely from these lands.' A chivalrous nature, a reliant faith, a patriotic fervour, a seer-like instinct, a tender sympathy for the persecuted, a loyalty to righteousness, combined in him to rouse a crusading rather than an apostolic spirit, which, increasing his earnestness to recklessness, prejudiced the judgment of Cameron, so that he could only view the peaceloving and submissive tacticians of the 'Poundtext,' or Moderate, ministry as nullifidians. His pietistic ecstasy prevented him comprehending how conscientious men could accept instalments of liberty and political doles as the foretaste of heavenly treasures. Young and inexperienced, he expected victories won by dash, and never 1 Six Saints, ii. 163, note 18; Steven, Scot. Church in Rotterdam, 73 note. contemplated triumphs to be won by waiting and diplomacy. Men, like Cameron, Cargill, Renwick, Peden, and their lay bodyguard— milites Christi-never rose above the Petrine expectation of divine thunderclaps, irresistible legions, lethal swords of the Spirit, and visible judgments following upon their determinations, when they imagined that they were thinking and acting for Christ. This extreme and indefensible view clearly arose out of their belief in their personal union with Christ, with whom each had made an indiidual covenant. It resulted unfortunately in their proneness to bring the retributive sword to the ears of the servants of the highpriest before the gentle voice of persuasion had accomplished its diviner mission, as inculcated in the discipline of the Church. Douglas, and Cargill and Douglas associated themselves with Cameron. He Cargill, spent some time explaining his views of the crisis, and was dis- other fieldcouraged when ministers such as Hog, Dickson, and Welsh, and preachers. others too timid to climb his heights, did not enter the inflammatory council of the Cameronian field-preachers. A constitutional party also thought that a preacher ordained abroad to a vagabond ministry was not upholding the law and practice of the church of Melville. Amid these disquietudes the homeless leader sought comfort in obedience to the primal law by entering into wedlock. Cameron soon obtained a staunch coadjutor in the fighting Borderer, Hall of Ha_ughhead, who, after his escape from Bothwell Bridge to Holland, found the society of the dogmatical hair-splitters there too quiet for his active spirit, and returned home. the extremists. In April 1680, Cameron and Cargill convened a 'fellowship Movements of meeting of the Lord's people' at Darmead, Cambusnethan, where in fasting and humiliation they mourned over the sin of the land which had joyfully received York, 'a sworn vassal of Antichrist.' In May, on the Moor of Auchingilloch, Lesmahagow, they kept another fast-day for the purpose of stirring up the faithful to prayer and lamentation.2 There was contagiousness in the spirit of Cameron throwing out its fiery floods of indignation along with the 1 Six Saints, i. 333, 334; ii. 225; 163 note 18. 2 Ibid., i. 225; ii. 163. |