holy God shall come to take vengeance on all rauks that have so forsaken and betrayed his Christ, and set up a man in his place :-which will be found to be the great idol of jealousy, besides the many other idols that have drawn away the true and kind love and fear that the generation owes to God. And because we desire to love and fear God, and to follow his sweet Christ, we are reproached and staged with tongues of many, as those that are out of the way, and are of jesuitical principles. I declare, I have in some measure been desiring and intending to know, love, and follow the truth, both in obedience to his commands, and for the hope of glory, though, I confess, through much weakness and infirmity.

"I am a presbyterian in my judgment, though I be looked upon as otherwise, because of my declaring my thoughts freely before men: and I own and adhere to the Work of Reformation, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the National and Solemn League and Covenant, the Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to duties, the Causes of God's Wrath. Also, I own all the testimonies of our worthy sufferers, that have gone before us: as also, own the Sanquhar Declaration, and that Excommunication at Torwood. At the writing hereof, I prayed that the Lord would open their eyes, and let them see their sins, and grant them repentance, all of them that are of the election of free grace; and they that are not, I pray that the Lord would ratify in heaven what was done on earth by his faithful servant, as it is according to his will; which has been all our desire.

"Now, I leave my testimony against the cursed prelates, and all their hirelings, who have been the instigators and drivers on of the council and bloody soldiers, to all the tyranny, oppression, and blood, which they have shed. And I leave my testimony against the woful indulgences, and all that have been either embracers of them, or any that have been strengtheners of their hands, or their favourers: they have broken and divided the people of the Lord, more than all the former persecutions could ever do I leave my testimony against all lukewarm and unfaithful ministers and professors, that have turned their back upon Christ and his cause, and have fallen away from their first love, and the doing of their first works; for they are pulling down what they first builded. I leave my testimony against the oppression, tyranny, and robbery done against the people of God, either by one or other, and especially by these wretches, Glencairn and Halyards, whose names shall be recorded for generations to come, as robbers of the widow and fatherless, who have lien in wait against the dwellings of the righteous, and have spoiled his resting place; and have turned many a widow and orphan out of their dwellings.

"I leave my testimony against those tyrants that have forfeited all the rights that they now lay claim to, and usurp over the people of the Lord, and the whole land, and all their unjust laws; but especially that accursed supremacy, by which they set up a miserable, adulterous wretched man in Christ's room, who thinks to wrong our Lord, and carry his crown: but it will be too heavy for him; though all the wicked lords, prelates, malignants, and indulged, be joining

hand in hand to hold it on, down it shall come, and whosoever wears that crown. And it is because of his wearing my lovely Lord and King's crown, and wronging him, that I am contending; and as he and they have proclaimed me a rebel and traitor to man, so I disown him and them, and declare him and them traitors and rebels to God and his Christ, my desirable and holy Lord and King. But let me entreat you, that desire mercy, to forsake your wicked ways, and fall in love with Christ, and seek peace with God through him, who is the only peace-maker; for there are sad judgments coming on the land; and all your peace with these wicked men will not keep you from the dreadful wrath of God coming on the land, because of slighting of the gospel, when it was to be had in God's own way; and the perjury, covenant-breaking, idolatry, and profaneness, treacherous backsliding, apostasy, and other abominations, that all ranks of the land are guilty of; and because of their receiving and entertaining of this bloody popish duke, who must be welcomed with a draught of our blood now, as he was the last time with the blood of our brethren.

"I bless the Lord, I have great satisfaction in my owning this despised way of God, for which I lay down my life; and also, that the Lord has drawn my heart after him, and made me heartily willing to be at his disposal: and I have sweet peace in what I have done, and would entreat all to more tenderness, and to watch over all their ways; for there are many looking on us, and waiting for our halting in the way of God: O that the Lord would help you to wait on him, until the day break, and the shadows,' and all those clouds,' fly away!' for this is a heavy day upon the church of God. O! to be labouring to lie in the dust, and to hide ourselves, and shut our mouths, and be silent; for the Lord hath rubbed shame on all faces, because of many backslidings, and upsetting in duty, and that both public and private ;-which, I think, the Lord is contending for, this day. O dear friends, all ye that desire to keep the way of God, and be carried faithfully through amidst all these tribulations and astonishing dispensations, forsake not your Christian fellowships, wherein so much of the power and presence of God hath been found, among those that meet together out of love and zeal for God, to pour out their hearts before him, and converse one with another. I think, the forsaking and upsetting of Christian meetings, is as sad a token of God's leaving the land, as any that I see; and therefore I not only exhort you to this duty, but, as a dying man, I charge you, as you will answer at the great day, to set about that duty with fear, love, and zeal to God, having his glory before your eyes: and let love to Christ be the principle and motive to draw you to this, and all other duties. Let none be stumbled at the way of Christ, for what we are suffering (if I durst call it suffering); for, all the steps of the way are easy to me, through faith in a slain Mediator: for it is those that keep the word of his patience, that he will keep in the hour of temptation. O! labour to keep up these lovely field meetings, wherewith my soul has been refreshed. And let it be your work to keep patience, whatever sufferings ye meet with from enemies, or reproaches from pretended

friends, who, I fear, will be found secret and heart enemies to God. This I leave to you as my last advice.

"And now I bless God for all that he hath done for my soul, and for this way that he hath taken with me, in carrying me to the land of praise, where I shall sing that sweet song throughout the ages of eternity, which shall never have an end. O! long to be with him ; for if ye knew what I have got of his love and presence, ye would whiles be giving a look to time, and bidding it be gone. Now, even let it be gone, that I may enjoy my best beloved. Now, I take my farewell of all friends and relations, and all earthly comforts, and all created glory; and welcome sweet Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

"Sic Sub.-ARCHIBALD STEWART."*

Upon the scaffold, he sung the second Psalm, and read the third of Malachi; but they would not suffer him to pray publicly, for when he began to speak, saying, “O Lord, what wilt thou do with this generation? what wilt thou do with bloody Charles Stuart ?" incontinent the drums were beaten, and his mouth stopped, that he got no more said.-Cloud of Witnesses.

VI. JOHN POTTER.

[John Potter, the person alluded to in the previous notice, was a farmer in the parish of Uphall, in West Lothian. He had not,

for any thing that appeared, ever been in arms, and his persecutors had nothing to lay to his charge but his hearing Mr. Cargill, and owning the Sanquhar Declaration. Along with Stewart, however, he was accused of approving of the Bothwell and Airsmoss insurrections, the Torwood excommunication, &c. and being in like manner found guilty, was condemned on the 24th November, and suffered on the 1st of December, 1680, The following is his Testimony.]

"ALL you spectators and auditors, I desire your attention to a few words, and I shall be brief. And before I begin, I must tell you, you must not expect such a testimony from me, as ye have had from some of them that went before me, I not being a learned man, as some of them have been; however, I desire to look to God, who not only can give me what to speak, but can also bless what I speak ;- -so as it may be for his glory, and the good of them that love him, and wait for his coming; which is the desire of my soul. Now, being to step out of time into eternity, I hope you will not think that I shall say any thing now, but what my conscience binds me to say.

"In the first place, I must tell you for what I am come here this

* Cloud of Witnesses, pp. 112-117.

day to lay down my life: it is for owning and adhering to my sworn principles. I am a presbyterian; and herein I do rejoice, that I am to suffer for this cause only ;-for adhering to the word of God, and our Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, our Covenants, National and Solemn League, together with our Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins, and Engagement to Duties, wherein all Scotland were once engaged, and thought it their duty and honour to be so and this is the reason for which I am sentenced to death by men; but God, to whom vengeance doth belong, will avenge himself for all the wrongs done to his glory, cause, interest, and people. I was born under the pure light of the gospel, and was taught to own Christ as King in Zion only, and head of his own church: and this I own to be my duty: but I am here charged with rebellion, which I deny, because I was never of that opinion, that it was rebellion to hear the gospel, for the word of God binds us to it, as our duty; otherwise why should God have told us, that we should < go from sea to sea, to seek the word of the Lord, and should not find it?' And, the practice of our Lord and his apostles in preaching of the gospel to the people that heard them, is a sufficient ground to prove it to be duty to hear the gospel whether in fields or houses, when it cannot be had elsewhere: and if it be duty to hear the gospel, as it is, then certainly it is duty to defend the gospel, when preached in purity; according to the word of God, and according to the sixth article of the Solemn League and Covenant, wherein we are bound to assist and defend all that enter into covenant with us, and to the utmost of our power, with our lives in our hands,—much more to defend the gospel, which teaches us the fundamental principles of our holy religion.

"And to take away that vile and malicious aspersion, which they cast upon us, charging us with an intention to have murdered the duke of York, and others with him; I declare, I had never such a principle as to murder any man; neither did I ever hear of it, till the council told me; which I knew to be a vile and hell-hatched aspersion, cast upon the way and people of God: but they judge others by themselves, for that is their principle to murder the gospel of God, as they also do. Next, I was charged, whether or not I adhered to the Sanquhar declaration? I answered, I not only adhere to it, but also will lay down my life cheerfully and willingly, as I do this day, for adhering thereto; yea, if every hair of my head were a life, and every drop of my blood were a man, I would willingly lay them all down for him and his cause. I come here to tell you, 1st, That I adhere to all the written will and word of God, and I adhere to the Confession of Faith, and our Catechisms, Larger and Shorter, and to our Covenants, National and Solemn League, and to the Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to Duties, and to all the covenants made betwixt God and us, wherein I stand engaged. 2dly, I adhere to all the testimonies that have gone before me. 3dly, I adhere to all that has been done for maintaining and defending the gospel, against a tyrannizing and bloody enemy, when the actors thereof had the glory of God before their eyes, as the chief motive

that drove them thereto, whether at Pentland, Drumclog, Glasgow, Bothwell, Airsmoss, or any other place in Scotland, where there has been any rencounter of that kind. 4thly, I adhere to that action of excommunication at the Torwood,-it being according to the word of God, and done by a faithful minister of the gospel, and in as legal a way as the present dispensation and circumstance of time could permit and also, the persons excommunicate being guilty of such crimes, as justly to deserve that act to be passed against them. 5thly, I adhere to the testimonies of all that have borne testimony against silent and unfaithful ministers, by their withdrawing from them, which is a declaring that they do not own them as faithful ambassadors of Jesus Christ, because of their unfaithfulness: and I hope, none will condemn me for saying, that I have not had clearness to join with them, while they remain so unconcerned with the cause of Christ, and the oppression of his people. 6thly, I adhere to the way of salvation agreed upon between the Father and the Son, before the creation of the world, that through the Son we should be made perfect, which I hope to obtain, before this body of mine be cold, and in his perfection I shall be made perfect, and through his suffering I shall be conformed to him, who suffered without the gate, bearing his reproach.' And I am well pleased with my lot this day. O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name, for all that he hath done for my soul,' and for his way of bringing me here this day, to lay down my life for him. I am not afraid of grim death; I know that God has taken away the sting of death through the suffering of his Son.

"In the next place, being here as a dying witness for Christ and his cause, I do therefore leave my testimony against all abominations done in the land against a holy God, and in contempt of his image; particularly, 1. I testify against all that woful and hell-hatched act of supremacy, wherein they acknowledged the king to be head of the church, and thereby have invested a mortal creature with Christ's crown, sword, and sceptre. 2. I bear witness, and testify against the breaking of the National and Solemn League and Covenant, and making them to be burnt by the hand of the hangman at the marketcross of Edinburgh, and elsewhere through Scotland,-so contrary to their solemn engagements. 3. I witness and bear my testimony against the reception of prelacy,—so contrary to the word of God, and our covenants; for then it was that the covenanters in Scotland should have withstood both king and council, and all that joined with them in that head, and should have testified against them with their swords in their hand, until they had resisted unto blood, according to the 6th article of the Solemn League and Covenant. O that all that are alive this day, that were men when the covenant was burnt, were taking with their sin, and were lying in the dust;-every one for his share in that sin, and every one for the land's guiltiness. 4. I leave my testimony against all the horrid bloodshed that has been in the land, whether of noblemen, gentlemen, ministers, or any others, that have suffered in Edinburgh, or any other place, whether on scaffolds, on gibbets, in the open fields, or on the sea; particularly that horrid act of murdering so many men after they had taken them