dial invitation from the people, with the assistance and help authoritatively of lawful church judicatories, until such time as God shall grant a patent way to return to our own charges. And 2d, that presbyterian ministers may have access to his majesty for representing just grievances, which press heavily our consciences, and the consciences of the people, his majesty's loyal and faithful subjects in the land :-In granting of which necessary and just desire, I, your grace's servant, shall be a humble supplicant at the throne of grace, for the preservation of his majesty's person, the establishing of his throne in righteousand that the Lord would pour forth the spirit of righteous judgment on your grace, that the Lord may be blessed, and your grace may find mercy in the day of visitation.

ness;

J. BURNET."*

XXII. JOHN BROWN.

[Perhaps there are few of his cotemporaries who, for talents, learning, and piety, can be put into comparison with John Brown. For many years previous to the restoration, he was minister of Wamphray, in Annandale; and not only in that parish, but also in the whole district of country where it is situated, had his labours been abundant and successful. Upon some trivial offence given to the prelatic party, who then governed the church, he was, in 1662, summoned before the Council, and forthwith sent to prison. Here he remained five weeks, when the failure of his health, by reason of the confinement, caused him to supplicate for liberty. This, however, was acceded to only upon his obliging himself, to remove from the king's dominions. He accordingly, shortly after, went over to Holland, at that time the asylum of the persecuted covenanters. But even there, he was not free from annoyance. In 1676, an application was made to the States-general to banish him, along with other two, from that country. The application was ultimately successful; and by an act of that body, he was doomed to leave Rotterdam in March, 1677. It seems, however, that on the attestation of a physician that his health would be injured by the removal, he was allowed to remain in the country, and, it would appear, took advantage of this opportunity to prepare the following very valuable Testimony, which is dated in that year.] "Reader,-Because some, not knowing what was the true cause of my silence and speaking nothing in public, as my worthy and dear. brother, Mr. M'Ward did, while we were both of us to depart out of Rotterdam, in order to our going out of the United Provinces, (in obedience to the resolution of the States-general, taken in compliance with the importunate urging of the king of Britain, contrary to their own inclinations, being sufficiently convinced of the injustice of the thing,

• Faithful Witness-bearing Exemplified, pp. 188-196.

and of the injury done to us,) might wonder how it came that I gave no testimony unto that cause, for which I was as hardly pursued and persecuted in strange cities as the rest, and might hence suppose that my zeal for that glorious cause, of owning and witnessing for Christ's truth, ordinances, and interest, was cooled, and that sinful fainting and base timorousness had seized upon me, to the scandal and offence of the worthy and valiant sufferers for that cause--to the grief and trouble of the godly, who yet adhere unto that persecuted causeand to the rejoicing of the hearts of apostates from, and enemies to the same:-I thought I was called of the Lord, and under an obligation to lay hold on this unexpected occasion and opportunity, to the end I might remove, so far as I could, all occasion of mistake or stumbling in this matter. As to that which was the real cause of my not appearing in public at that time, I shall not need to say much, seeing it is abundantly well known to all the Scottish congregation in Rotterdam, and to many others in that city, that by reason of much sickness and infirmity of body, under which I had been for half a year before, occasioned by the recurring of that chronic distemper which bath afflicted me these eleven years by-past,-I was not in case to visit friends and acquaintances in that city, and salute them at my departure; nor in case to preach, as I had purposed, for some diets before that day. This, and nothing else, was the true cause of my not appearing in public, whether to preach a farewell sermon unto that people unto whom I had for a long time had liberty and opportunity of preaching the gospel, or to give any public testimony unto that noble cause, for which I had been exiled fourteen years before, and forced to live all that time in a strange country.

"I cannot but acknowledge it to have been a rare and singular dispensation of love and grace in God towards such an unworthy sinner as I am, that he should have at first honoured me with banishment into a strange land, for his cause and truth, with six others of his faithful and worthy servants, with whom I was never worthy to be named in one day; and that now, after he had so wonderfully delivered me from so many deaths in which I have been these eleven years past, I should have a second crown put upon my head, and be honoured with a second exilement, together with my dearly beloved brother, after all the rest of our number who were exiled from our native country, for the testimony of Jesus, were fallen asleep in the Lord, and enjoying their rest above, after all their labours and toil here below for their Lord and Master:-Mr. Livingstone, (1 mean) that great seer and famous divine; zealous Mr. Trail; constant and faithful Mr. Nevay; stedfast and public spirited Mr. Simson; and pious Mr. Gardner: herein I ought to rejoice, and, through his grace, shall rejoice, that the free grace of God will yet once more, before I go hence and be no more in this valley of tears,-put me to undergo a little more for my Lord and King; and, at least, have me called and accounted a sufferer for his name and truth, with my brother, zealous, faithful, and magnanimous Mr. M'Ward, and that valiant and faithful old soldier of Jesus Christ, colonel James Wallace.

"Let no

man think that all this unrighteous usage, and these injuries I am put to suffer upon the account of the truth and interest of Jesus Christ, have in the least darkened the glory, beauty, and goodness of that cause in my esteem, or abated my affection thereunto, and zeal therefore. I thank the Lord, all these things do contribute more and more to the confirming of my soul, in the certain persuasion and full conviction that this course of defection and apostasy from the truth and interest of Christ, is hateful and abominable in the eyes of the Lord, and an iniquity that the righteous Lord will not suffer to go unpunished, even in the sight of the nations, that all flesh may tremble before him, and see how jealous he is for his name and glory. And I account it my mercy, that I have this occasion and call, before I receive my last summons to depart hence, and, before my decaying tabernacle fall into pieces, to bear witness to the truth, which is now blasphemed and buried under heaps of obloquy and reproach, and to give testimony against this unparalleled catastrophe begun in the year 1660, and carried on since, in Britain and Ireland, by a profane, predominating, popish, prelatical, malignant, and erastian faction, (the old and constant enemy of the church of Scotland from the very beginning; the Amalekites that first made war against our Israel, after our forefathers were delivered from the bondage of Egyptian Romish taskmasters; and the Canaanites that have ever since been pricks in our eyes and thorns in our sides,) conspiring against the Lord and against his anointed; who are not satisfied with their own treacherous and perfidious apostatizing from the truth, which they once outwardly owned, defended, and appeared for, in their several capacities,-in pulpits, assemblies, councils, parliaments, and in arms against king and court, and all that were engaged against the same; but with rage, cruelty, inhumanity, and barbarous persecution, do also compel, and with a God-daring audacity and hellish fury, force all, so far as they can, to blaspheme, and join with them in the same excess of wickedness and rebellion against the Most High.

"Though it be but little that I can say in my present circumstances, wherein, upon several accounts, I am much out of case to speak to this great and weighty matter as I ought, (the full delineation whereof in its rise and progress, in its causes and consequences, in its parts and concomitants, would call for a more able head and fitter hand than I have, and require a large volume rather than a sheet,) yet, not knowing how soon it may please the Lord, after many granted issues from death, and unexpected deliveries from the very mouth of the king of terrors, to put an end to my tossings in this valley of sin, trouble, and distance fron him, I durst not at this present be wholly silent; but finding myself called of the Lord to witness a good confession for him, and for his oppressed truth and interest, now trode under foot, and trampled upon with the highest insolency, contempt, and audacity, I resolved to speak a few words (how weakly and insufficiently soever it might be) to a few heads of things, unto which other particulars may be reduced.

I. "And first,-to begin with that which was the first foundation stone of this Babel and rebellion against the Lord, and which, as corrupt

S

blood, runneth through all the veins of this defection to this day, I mean that horrid sin of covenant-breaking, whereof the land and the inhabitants thereof stand in a high measure guilty before the Lord. It pleased the Lord to choose that land, and to set his love upon it, because he loved it; and we became a special people to himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth, so that, though all the earth be the Lord's, yet we became a peculiar treasure unto him, above all people, when he took us into covenant with himself, when all our tribes, officers, and rulers, our wives, and little ones stood before the Lord, that they should enter into covenant with the Lord their God, and into the oath of the Lord to be his; and avouched the Lord in that day to be our God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken to his voice; and the Lord did avouch us in that day to be his pecu liar people, to make us high above all nations which he had made, in praise, in name, and in honour; and that we ought to be a holy people unto the Lord. Thus the Lord, after he had redeemed us for a people to himself, to make himself a name, and had done great things and terrible--when he redeemed us from Egyptian darkness, -did confirm us unto himself, to be a people unto him for ever, and the Lord Jehovah became our God. This, even this, was our glory above all nations: for, what great nation was there, that had the Lord so near unto them as the Lord our God was unto us, in all things, that we called upon him for? When we were as no people, and no eye pitied us, being cast out in the open field, and lying polluted in our blood, it pleased the Lord to say to us even then, live; for it was a time of love, and he spread his skirt over us; yea, he sware unto us, and entered into a covenant with us, and we became his he washed us, and anointed us with oil-he clothed us, and decked us with ornaments, and made our renown go forth for our beauty, for it was perfect through the comeliness which he had put upon us. What a wonderful mercy was this, that the Lord should have made choice of Scotland, above all other lands, to be his peculiar covenanted people; and that he should have avouched us for his people, and caused us to avouch him to be our God, by a solemn covenant, and that so frequently; for at five several times did the Lord bring that land into covenant with him, and moved them to devote themselves to the Lord to be his, to own and stand for the crown, privileges, and prerogatives of Jesus Christ, to receive and submit to his doctrine, discipline, and government, and to have all things done in the house of the God of heaven, according to the mind and command of the God of heaven. This, sure, was a crown, whereof we might have gloried in the Lord above all people or nations, that are, or have been upon the face of the earth since the rejection of Israel. And what a singular dispensation of love and favour was it, that the Lord should have carried on this work so far, as at length to have brought the neighbour kingdoms of England and Ireland into the same bond of the covenant, whereby these islands became the Lord's in another manner, and more nighly related to him, than was the whole continent beside. Thus, were the uttermost parts of the earth given for a possession to Jesus Christ, in a singular

manner, as his peculiar subjects, openly and formally owning and ac knowledging Christ as King in Zion, and as only head of the church,— embracing his laws, ordinances, and institutions; and rejecting all men's inventions, all superstition, and dregs of popery, and every thing that materially or virtually did impugn, or was inconsistent with Christ's sole right and authority, as King and Lawgiver in his house and kingdom. And what a wonderful dispensation of providence was it, that the king himself should have become a covenanter with God, and that in these lands in their most public capacities, in their parliaments and high councils, should have owned this glorious and honourable relation and subjection to the Lord God! Was not this the peculiar glory of these lands, to have the God of the whole earth so nearly related unto, and engaged for them; and they to become his espoused land, his peculiar inheritance, and covenanted kingdoms! But now, behold, not only hath there been in the year 1660, and since,—a manifest, shameful, wicked, and impudent departing from our oaths, vows, covenants, promises, engagements, resolutions, declarations, attestations, proclamations, acts, and actings; and a doing contrary to what we had sworn, and that solemnly, with hands lifted up to the most High God, with direful imprecations if we should not stand to the covenant, and promised under the pain of all the curses contained in the book of God, and as we should answer to him in the great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, attesting the Searcher of hearts of the reality and sincerity of our intentions herein: but also, there hath been an open, deliberate, plain, and avowed renouncing of that covenant; a parliamentary annulling and rescinding of it, beside other affronts done unto it, as if we could not have been satisfied with a simple cancelling of our contract and obligation, and with an open declaring before all the world, angels, and men, that we would no more own the Lord Jehovah for our God, nor any longer abide his people, devoted unto him: but such was our wickedness, spite, and rage, that we would have the same covenant that was so solemnly sworn, and ordered to be printed and translated into Latin, that the nations about might see and understand in what relation we stood unto the great God, and what we had vowed and sworn to do and to be for him; yea, and affixed publicly, in an open place, in the parliament house of England, and in every church and chapel throughout the same, that parliaments, when assembled, might be kept mindful of their obligation, and steer their course in all their parliamentary consultations, deliberations, votes, and resolutions, according to the solemn league and covenant; and that people, when assembling to worship the Lord, might see and read their obligation, and remember their engagements to the Most High, before whom they were appearing,-such, I say was our rage, that we would have this covenant taken and burned publicly by the hand of a public hangman, (thus was it dealt with in England) in testimony of our souls' perfect and pure abhorrence of the same; for, a greater declaration of detestation and abhorrence could not be devised to be done to the most blasphemous, hellish, and devilish pamphlet that ever was or could be penned. O! will not the Lord God be witness against us, even the Lord from