that it is the truth of God for which I now suffer. So much, thou didst confess to me in private; and thereupon I appeal thee to answer before the judgment-seat of Christ."* In a little after, the fire was kindled, and the noble martyr died, exclaiming, "How long, O Lord, shall darkness overwhelm this realm? How long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of men ?" And ended by praying, with Stephen, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"† II. RUSSEL AND KENNEDY. [These two persons were companions in suffering. The former was of the order of grayfriars, the latter a young gentleman of liberal education and promising talents, not more than eighteen years of age. Being tried and condemned by the archbishop of Glasgow, they, in that city, underwent the dreadful sentence which was then awarded to the crime of heresy, in the year 1539. The following are some of their sayings upon trial, and at death :] When sisted before the archbishop, Kennedy at first discovered some weakness; but being encouraged by Russel, and having his fortitude, as if on a sudden, revived by the effusion of the Holy Spirit from on high, he fell down upon his knees and uttered these remarkable words: "O, Eternal God! how wonderful is that love and mercy thou bearest to mankind, and unto me the most caitiff and miserable wretch above all others! For even now when I would have denied Thee and thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Saviour, and so have cast myself into everlasting damnation, thou by thine own hand hast pulled me from the very bottom of hell, and hast made me to feel that heavenly comfort which hath taken from me the ungodly fear by which I was oppressed. Now I defy death." And then to his persecutors: "Do what you please-I praise God, I am ready." Russel, who seems to have arrived at a more mature age, and who was characterized during the trial by the greatest firmness and composure of mind, at first reasoned with his accusers, and ingeniously * The person here alluded to was one Campbell, a blackfriar, who was instrumental in drawing from Hamilton that acknowledgment of his principles on which he was condemned, and who shortly after died distracted, and under the most awful apprehensions of coming wrath.-See Scots Worthies, + See Knox's Hist. B. I. Stevenson's Hist, vol. i. p. 33. This was an instance of spiritual support which some may be tempted to look upon as singular, if not incredible, but which we are disposed to regard as probable, from the experience of ordinary Christians under the every-day trials of life; and which, though it may appear to be connected with enthusiasm, in the circumstances under which it was exhibited, is, we conceive, completely borne out by the state of feeling which frequently obtains in the pious mind. Under circumstances, which in prospect involve great sacrifices or trials, it is natural for even the Christian sometimes to feel depressed; but it is also matter of fact, and of consciousness, that at other times, with an equally vivid conception of these sacrifices or trials, he is enabled to feel above them, and to welcome them with perfect composure and unshrinking stedfastness. rebutted the charges which were brought against him. At length roused to a higher state of feeling by the railing and calumnies which they poured forth against him, he exclaimed: "This is your hour and power of darkness. Now sit ye as judges, and we stand wrongfully accused, and more wrongfully to be condemned; but the day will come when our innocence shall appear, and when ye shall see your own blindness to your everlasting confusion. Go forward and fulfil the measure of your iniquity." On being condemned and hurried to the place of execution, he comforted his fellow-martyr with these affecting words: "Brother! fear not-more mighty is He that is in us than he that is in the world; the pain that we shall suffer is short and shall be light, but our joy and consolation shall never have an end and therefore let us strive to enter in, unto our Master and Saviour, by the same strait way which he hath taken before us. Death cannot destroy us, for it is destroyed already by him for whose sake we suffer.' : III. GEORGE WISHART. [This distinguished martyr was of the family of Pittarrow, in the county of Mearns. He was educated chiefly at the university of Cambridge, but returned to his native country in 1544; and from an ardent desire to promote the truth, became a zealous preacher of the Gospel. In this good work he was allowed to continue till the end of February 1546, when being apprehended, he was tried and condemned for heresy, and suffered in the flames at St. Andrews, the punishment awarded to that crime. The following may be regarded as a full and correct account of his last words :] When about to receive the sentence on which, notwithstanding his cogent and intrepid answers, his judges had decided, he poured forth the following pathetic prayer: “O, Immortal God! how long wilt thou suffer the rage and great cruelty of the ungodly to exercise their fury upon thy servants which do further thy word in this world, seeing they desire to do the contrary to choke and destroy thy true doctrine and verity, by which thou hast showed thyself unto the world, which was all drowned in blindness and misknowledge of thy name! O Lord, we know surely that thy true servants must needs suffer for thy name's sake, persecution, affliction, and trouble in the present life; which, is but a shadow, as thou hast showed to us by thy prophets and apostles. But yet we desire, merciful Father, that thou wouldst conserve, defend, and help thy congregation+ which thou hast chosen before the beginning of the world; and give them grace to hear thy * Knox's Hist. B. I. The term Congregation, from its use in this passage, seems to have been very early applied to the protestant church of Scotland. In the time of Knox, about twenty years after the death of Wishart, its use in this sense had become quite specific. But word, and to be thy true servants in this present life." On the following day when led to the fire, he thrice uttered these words: "O thou Saviour of the world, have mercy on me: Father of heaven, I commend my spirit into thy holy hands." He then turned to the people, and spoke as follows: "I beseech you, brethren and sisters, that ye be not offended at the word of God, for the affliction and torments which ye see already prepared for me. But I exhort you that you love the word of God for your salvation, and suffer patiently and with a comfortable heart for the word's sake-which is your undoubted salvation and everlasting comfort. Moreover, I pray you, show my brethren and sisters which have heard me often before, that they cease not, nor leave off to learn the word of God which I taught them, after the grace given to me, for any persecutions or troubles in this world, which last not. Show them that my doctrine was not old wives' fables, after the constitutions made by men. If I had taught men's doctrine I had gotten greater thanks of men. for the word's sake and true gospel which was given to me by the grace of God, I suffer this day by man, not sorrowfully, but with a glad heart and mind. For this cause I was sent—that I should suffer this fire for Christ's sake. Consider and behold my visage: ye shall not see me change my colour. This grim fire I fear not and so I pray you so do, if any persecution come to you for the word's sake, and not to fear them that slay the body, and have no power afterwards to slay the soul. Some have said of me, I taught that the soul of man should sleep until the last day. But I know surely, and my faith is, that my soul shall sup with my Saviour this night, (ere six hours,) for whom I suffer this. I beseech the Father of heaven to forgive them, that have of any ignorance or else of evil mind, forged lies upon me. I forgive them with all my heart. I beseech Christ to forgive them that have condemned me to death this day, ignorantly.—I beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort your prelates to the learning of the word of God, that they may be ashamed to do evil and learn to do good. And, if they will not convert* themselves from their wicked error, there shall hastily come upon them the wrath of God, which they shall not eschew." Being tied to the stake and the fire kindled, he exclaimed, "This fire torments my body, but nowise abates my spirit." And then looking towards the cardinal, who witnessed his execution from the palace, he said: "He who in such state from that high place feedeth his eyes with my torments, within few days shall be hanged out at the same window, to be seen with as much ignominy as he now leaneth there with pride." Upon this the executioner, drawing the cord, stopt his breath, and he was forthwith consumed to powder.† It cannot be supposed from this expression, that Mr. Wishart supposed the important spiritual change which is called conversion, to be purely the result of a man's own agency. The word convert is here employed equivalently with the expression turn, and is meant to express only that act of a man's own will, by which, in accordance with the influence of God's Spirit and word exerted upon "he ceases to do evil and learns to do well." + Knox's Hist. B. I. Stevenson's Hist. vol. i. p. 62. IV. WALTER MILL. [The death of this martyr is said to have contributed most effectually to the downfall of popery, in Scotland. He was born about the year 1476, and, having taken orders in the church, became priest of Lunan, in Angus-shire. But having imbibed the reformed opinions, and left off the saying of mass, he was so early as the year 1538, arrested and condemned. He escaped, however, for his life into Germany, where he remained about twenty years. He then returned home, and having attempted to render himself useful, by instructing his neighbours in the protestant faith, he was again taken and condemned as a heretic. His conduct whilst on trial, powerfully evinced the sincerity of his faith, and made a deep impression on all who witnessed it. The following is a short account of what took place at his death:] All things being prepared, he was led forth with a guard of armed men to execution. Being come to the place, some cried out to him to recant, to whom he answered, "I marvel at your rage, ye hypocrites, who do so cruelly pursue the servants of God; as for me, I am now eighty-two years old, and cannot live long by course of nature; but an hundred shall rise out of my ashes, who shall scatter you, ye hypocrites, and persecutors of God's people; and such of you as now think yourselves the best, shall not die such an honest death as I now do. I trust in God, I shall be the last who shall suffer death, in this fashion, for this cause, in this land."* Thus his constancy in * This sentiment, but for the cautious and modest language in which it is expressed, might well have been deemed prophetical, for reasons quite as satisfactory as those on which it has been alleged that statements ascribed to others of the Worthies were of this character. We know not whether, in point of fact, it has ever been regarded in this light, but it must be evident to every one who reflects on the subject, that, but for the preliminary clause, "I trust in God," by which its meaning and reference is so very properly limited, the expression of the dying martyr would have been a prediction, whose fulfilment was proved, by the record of after history. It is generally understood to have been the case, that Mill was the last person who suffered in the cause of reformation from popery. But the trust which he expressed, that this would be the case, was only what a due consideration of the signs of the times and the ways of Providence would have justified in any one. And yet we doubt not, that an omission of such a qualifying expression as is here employed, has led other simiiar statements of the Worthies to be viewed in the light of absolute predictions, whilst, in reality as delivered, they only expressed and were meant to express the trust or opinion of their authors. That this was not the case in every instance is readily admitted; nor is it denied, that even in the formation of such a trust, opinion, or presentiment (if you will), with regard to future events, there might not be the experience, or at least the enjoyment, of heavenly influence. Nay, with the learned and accurate biographer of Knox, we " think it not inconsistent with the principles of either natural or revealed religion, that God on particular occasions should forewarn persons of some things as about to happen," and we are even inclined with him "to believe that the reformers were occasionally favoured with extraordinary premonitions," nor has any thing to the contrary of this, as some have imagined, been argued or af Armed in the Notes to the late edition of the Scots Worthies, to which the pre creased, as his end drew near. Being ordered by Oliphant, one of the persecutors, to go up to the stake, he refused, and said, "No, I will not go, except thou put me up with thy hand, for by the law of God, I am forbidden to put hands to myself; but if thou wilt put to thy hand, and take part of my death, thou shalt see me go up gladly." Then Oliphant putting him forward, he went up with a cheerful countenance, saying, Introibo ad altare Dei.* Having then requested permission to speak to the people: he was answered by Oliphant, "That he had spoken too much already, and that the bishops were exceedingly displeased with what he had said." But some youths having taken his part, and called to him to say on what he pleased, he first went to his knees and prayed, then arose; and standing upon the coals, addressed the people to this effect: "Dear friends, the cause why I suffer this day, is not for any crime laid to my charge, though I acknowledge myself a miserable sinner before God; but only for the defence of the truths of Jesus Christ, set forth in the Old and New Testaments, for which, as many faithful martyrs have offered their lives most gladly, so this day I praise God that he hath called me, among the rest of his servants, to seal his truth with my life; which as I have received it of him, so I willingly offer it up for his glory. Therefore, as ye would escape eternal death, be no longer seduced by the lies of bishops, abbots, friars, monks, and the rest of that sect of antichrist, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and his mercy, that so ye may be delivered from condemnation.”—During this speech, loud murmurs and lamentations were heard among the multitude, some admiring the patience, boldness, and constancy of the martyr, others complaining of the hard measures and cruelty of his persecutors. Having spoken as above, he again prayed a little while, and was then drawn up, and bound to the stake. The fire being kindled, he cried, "Lord, have mercy on me: Pray, pray, good people, while there is time;" and thus cheerfully yielded up his soul into the hands of God.t sent volume is meant as an accompaniment. It has been questioned, indeed, in particular instances, whether the premonitions emitted, amounted to predictions, in the proper sense of the word, and whether they were extraordinary and preternatural, or the mere result of natural sagacity and ordinary means of knowledge. But this is quite in accordance with the admission we have made, because, allowing that the great and good men alluded to were occasionally so favoured, it may still be questioned on what particular occasions they were so; and were it even allowed that this was the case on all the occasions alleged, it would still remain to be observed, that to call them prophets, to speak of them as having the gift and spirit of prophecy, and as having foretold and predicted future events, is, according to the proper and common sense in which such expressions are employed with a reference to religion, a gross misapplication of terms-an employment of language inconsistent with right views of scripture truth, and calculated to lead the simple and unwary into false and erroneous impressions of their true character. "I will go unto the altar of God." Psalms. |