tokens of his kindness. Now, my loving friends, I am going to my Father's house, to reap the fruit of all these waking nights that you and I had together, when none knew of it but ourselves and our heavenly Father; and I die in the hope, that, we shall come to your Father and my Father, to your God and my God,' John xx. 17. to your Redeemer and my Redeemer, to reap the fruit of all these meetings we had together. O! but that will be a joyful harvest-time; I am now going to reap the fruit of all my reading, praying, singing, conversing, and meditating, and the fruits of all my trouble, toil, and labour. Instead of bitterness, I will enjoy sweetness, instead of trouble, rest, instead of sorrow and grief, joy and gladness; For sighing and sorrow shall fly away.' I am going to reap the fruit of my wounds, and all the reproaches that they have cast upon me; I am going to reap the fruit of all my sighs and groans, especially these since I came to prison; where I have had very many of them. I am going to reap the fruit of my fetters, irons, and imprisonment, for my lovely Lord and Master Jesus Christ; and I am going to reap the fruit of my unjust indictment and unjust sentence. O but the fruits of these forementioned things will be a weighty crown of glory within a little time upon my head, up at my Father's throne, when I shall go no more out, and come no more in, having the name of my God written upon my forehead, and the song of Moses and the Lamb put in my mouth' to sing through all the ages of eternity!

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Now, dear friends, I cannot get him praised, for the riches of his free grace, freely bestowed on me. O! I cannot get him praised for bringing my soul out of the pit of destruction, and for reclaiming my soul from the gates of hell. O my soul and heart, all that is within me, praise the Lord for his wonderful love to me! and also, my soul invites all the works of creation to praise him for what he hath done to my soul; for now I can say with David, from my own experience, 'Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.' And, likewise, I can say with David, Psalm xvi. 6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.' And more than all, he hath said to my soul, that he will quarrel no more with me for sin, for my God hath said to me, Isa. xliii. 1, 2. But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.' And Matth. ix. 2. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.' Now, all is sure and well with me, I am brought near unto God, through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ; and I have no more to do, but to lay down this life of mine that he hath given me, and take up house and habitation with my lovely Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who purchased life and salvation to me by the price of his own blood and sufferings: O! but I have got an easy cast of it; O! but I am come well and easy to my purpose, of redemption, peace, and happiness. But, O! I cannot get him glorified; and I will never get him

enough glorified, as long as my soul liveth, and I shall live as long as he liveth, and that is life without end.

"Now my dear and loving friends, it is but little advice that I can leave to you, how to order your life and conversation; yet I shall leave you my last advice, as the Lord shall help me. As God hath once made you to accept of him, upon his own terms and way, hold fast by him, and claim a right to him, from his own promises and former loving-kindness, wherein he hath manifested himself to you. And although you be made many times to think, that he hath left you, when you are cast down, and under desertion, yet claim a right to him; though you have destroyed yourself, threap kindness upon him; and resolve with Job, that though he should slay you, yet will ye trust in him:' for you must not want your down-castings and desertions; for all these things are given you for the trial of your faith. And you may know something of this from experience, that we cannot guide our Lord's presence, when we get it ;—we are so lifted up, that he must cast us down again; for our old bottles cannot bear with the new wine of heaven, none of us can be free of desertion; for as long as we live in this earth, we are often under an Egyptian cloud of darkness. Spend much of your time in prayer and meditation, for I think, that in these is the life of religion; and spend time in Christian converse with any of your own judgment; and private prayer, as you and I did when we were together: and if you can get none, do your own part, and the Lord will make up all your loss, for he hath engaged to make up all your wants. Now, double your diligence, and make ready for the trial, for you will not get it shifted, if ye continue faithful to the end. I am not saying that the trial will take away your but I am persuaded, you will come through difficulties, if the Lord see fit to spare you, to see the glorious days that shall be seen in Scotland again, and to reap of the fruit of it. This will be a high honour, for they will be a happy people, that will be the remnant of the church.

life :

"Now, dear friends, hold fast, and let no man take your crown; for it is ready at the end of your race; run and never halt nor look back, till you obtain the prize. I have gotten the first start of you a little; but, I hope, you will follow me, before it be long, and we shall meet again, and O! what a joyful meeting shall it be? Study deniedness to your life, and die daily, that death may not surprise you.

"But I must forbear, my time is so short, that I cannot get all said here, that I have to say; but what is wanting, himself make it up to you. Now I take my leave of you for a little time, hoping to meet again up above in our Father's house. I pray, that God's eternal blessing may rest upon you; and wish you even as my own soul. Farewell in the Lord. Your dear and loving Christian friend, brother, and soul's wellwisher,

ARCHIBALD STEWART."*

Glasgow Tolbooth, March 15th, 1684.

* Cloud of Witnesses.

XL. JOHN PATON.

[The name of Captain Paton of Meadowhead, in Ayrshire, is familiar to every one who is at all interested in the history of his times. He was a small proprietor in the parish of Fenwick, and having spent his youth in the profession of arms, was naturally regarded as a fit person to hold a command both at Pentland and Bothwell. Many anecdotes are told of his prowess, both on these occasions and elsewhere. He was for long regarded by government as a notorious rebel; and being at length taken in April 1684, a reward of Twenty Pounds Sterling was ordered by the council to the officer who apprehended him. He was forthwith indicted for treason, found guilty on his own confession, and sentenced to be executed on the 23d of April, 1684. He was afterwards reprieved till the 9th of May, "when he died most cheerfully, forgiving all his persecutors, whatever they had done to him." His testimony is as follows.]

"DEAR friends and spectators,-You are come here to look upon me a dying man, and you need not expect that I shall say much, for I was never a great orator or eloquent of tongue, though I may say as much to the commendation of God in Christ Jesus, as ever any poor sinner had to say. I have been as great a sinner as ever lived; strong corruptions, strong lusts, strong passions, a strong body of death, have prevailed against me; yea, I have been chief of sinners. I may say, on every back-look of my way, (though the world cannot charge me with any gross transgression this day, for which I bless the Lord,) O! what omissions and commissions, what formality and hypocrisy, that even my duties have been my grief and fear, lest thou, a holy God, had made them my ditties, and mayest do: my misimproved time may be heavy upon my head, and a cause of desertion; and especially my supplicating the council, who have, I think, laid their snares the closer to take away my life, though contrary to their own professed law. I desire to mourn for my giving ear to the counsels of flesh and blood, when I should have been consulting heaven, and to reflect upon myself, though it lays my blood the closer to their door, and I think, the blood of my wife and bairns. I think, their supreme magistrate is not ignorant of many of their actings, but these prelates will not be found free when our God makes an inquisition for blood. And now

I am come here, desired of some indeed who thirst for my life, though by others not desired. I bless the Lord, I am not come here as a thief or a murderer, and I am free of the blood of all men, but hate bloodshed directly, or indirectly. And now I am a poor sinner, and could never merit any thing but wrath, and have no righteousness of my own; all is Jesus Christ's, and his alone, and I have laid claim to his righteousness and his sufferings by faith in Jesus Christ. Through imputation they are mine, for I have accepted of his offer on his own terms, and sworn away myself to him to be at his disposal, both privately and vublicly, many times; and now I have put it upon him

to ratify in heaven all that I have essayed to do on earth, and to do away all my imperfections and failings, and to stay my heart on him. I seek mercy for all my sins, and believe to get all my challenges and sins sunk in the blood and sufferings of Jesus and his righteousness, and that he shall see of the travail of his soul on me, and the Father's pleasure shall prosper in his hand. I bless the Lord, that ever he led me out to behold any part of his power in the gospel, in kirks, or fields, or any of his actings for his people in their straits. 'The Lord is with his people while they be with him' we may set to our seal to this, and while they be united; and O for a day of his power in cementing this distempered age! It is sad to see his people falling out by the way, and of such a fiery spirit,—that look to be at one lodging at night, especially those who profess to keep by our glorious work of reformation and solemn engagements to God, and to hold off the sins of these times. O hold off extremities on both hands, and follow the example of our blessed Lord and the Cloud of Witnesses in the 11th of the Hebrews. And let your way be the good old path, the word of God and best times of the church, for if it be not according to his word, it is because there is no truth in it.

"Now, as to my interrogations, I was not clear to deny Pentland or Bothwell. They asked me, How long I was at them? I said, Eight days and the assize had no more to sentence upon, for the advocate said, he would not pursue for Pentland, by reason of an indemnity, before the privy council. The council asked me, If I acknowledged authority? I said, All authority according to the word of God. They charged me with many things, as if I had been a rebel since the year 1640, and at Montrose's taking at Mauchline Muir. Lord forgive them, they know not what they do.

"I adhere to the sweet Scriptures of truth of the Old and New Testament, and preached gospel by a faithful sent ministry,-whereby He many times communicated himself to the souls of his people, and to me in particular, both in the kirks, and since on the fields, and in the private meetings of his people for prayer and supplication to him. I adhere to our solemn Covenants National and Solemn League, Acknowledgment of Sins, and Engagement to Duties, which became National. I adhere to our Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, Causes of Wrath, and to all the Testimonies given by his people formerly, and of late, either on fields or scaffolds, these years bygone, in so far as they are agreeable to his word, and the practice of our worthy reformers, and holy true zeal, according to his rule. I adhere to all our glorious work of reformation. Now, I leave my testimony', as a dying man, against the horrid usurpation of our Lord's prerogative and crown-right,-I mean that supremacy, established by law in these lands, which is a manifest usurpation of his crown, for he is given by the Father to be head of the Church, Col. i. 18, 19. And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father, that in him all fulness should dwell.' And against ali popery, prelacy, and Erastianism, and all that depends upon that hierarchy, which is a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to

;—

bear, which the poor remnant is groaning under this day, by that horrid cruelty rending their consciences by tests and bonds, taking away their substance and livelihoods by fines and illegal exactions, plunderings, and quarterings, and compelling them to sin, by hearing, joining, and complying, with these malicious curates. Matth. xxiii. 13. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye shut up

the

kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.' I leave my testimony against the Indulgence, first and last, for I ever looked on it as a snare, and so I never looked upon them as a part of the hopeful remnant of the church; and now it is sad to see how some of them have joined by their deeds in the persecution of the poor remnant, and almost all, in tongue persecution.

"Now, I would speak a short word or two, to three sorts of folk, but I think, if one would rise from the dead, he would not be heard by this generation, who are mad upon idols and this world. First, Those who have joined deliberately with the persecutors, in all their robberies and haling innocent souls to prison, death, and banishment. The Lord will not hold them guiltless; they may read what the Spirit of God hath recorded of them in Jude, 11th verse, and downward, and Obadiah's prophecy. A second sort is, those who seem to be more sober and knowing, yet through a timorousness and fear, have joined with them in all their corrupt courses for ease and their own things; do not think that these fig-leaves will cover you in the cool of the day; it is a hazard to be mingled with the heathen, lest we learn of them their way. O, sirs, be zealous and repent; seek repentance from Christ, he purchased it with his blood; and do your first works, if ever there was any saving work on your souls; for he will come quickly, ' and who may abide the day of his coming.' O, sirs, the noble grace of repentance grows not in every field; many could not get it, though they sought it carefully with tears. O work while it is to-day, the night draweth on, and it may be very dark. The third sort is, those who have been most tender; and, O, who of us can say, that we have out of love to his glory singly followed him : upon examination we fear we find it not so, but that we have come far short. We fear we find not him such as we would, nor he us such as he would. O we may say, 'From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no place clean.' None can cast a stone at another; we are all wounds, bruises, and defilements. We must put this work upon him who is the fountain to wash foul souls, who breaks not the bruised reed, nor quenches the smoking flax.' Give him much ado, for we have much ado for him. O that there was no rest in our bones because of our sin. It is the Father's pleasure that he should see his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand. O that he would make every one of us understand our errors, and seek after the good old path, followed in the most pure times of our church, and get in to our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith in his righteousness, by imputation and virtue of his sufferings for sinners, and keep by him. There is no safety but at his back; and I beseech you, improve time, it is precious when rightly improved. For ye know not when the Master