Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) Part 7

_The Life of Mr. JOHN SCRIMZEOR._

He was settled minister at Kinghorn, in the s.h.i.+re of Fyfe, and went as chaplain with King James in the year 1590, to Denmark, when he brought home his queen. He was afterwards concerned in several important affairs of the church, until that fatal year 1618, when the five articles of Perth were agreed on in an a.s.sembly held at that place. He attended at this a.s.sembly, and gave in some proposals[48], upon being (along with others of his faithful brethren) excluded from having a vote by the prevailing party of that a.s.sembly.

In 1620, he was with some others, summoned before the high commission-court, for not preaching upon holy days, and not administring the communion conform to the agreement at Perth, with certification if this was proven, that he should be deprived of exercising the functions of a minister in all time coming. But there being none present on the day appointed, except the bishops of St. Andrews, Glasgow and the isles, and Mr. Walter Whiteford, they were dismissed at that time; but were warned to compear again on the first of March. The bishops caused the clerk to exact their consent to deprivation, in case they did not compear against that day. Nevertheless, they all protested with one voice, That they would never willingly renounce their ministry, and such was the resolution and courage of Mr. Scrimzeor, that notwithstanding all the threatening of the bishops, he celebrated the communion conform to the antient practice of the church, a few days thereafter.

On the day appointed for their next compearance, the bishops of St.

Andrews, Dunkeld, Galloway, the isles, Dumblain, Mr. Hewison commissary of Edinburgh, and Dr. Blair, being a.s.sembled in the bishop of St.

Andrews lodging in Edinburgh, Mr. John Scrimzeor was again called upon to answer, and the bishop of St. Andrews alleged against him, that he had promised either to conform or quit his ministry, as the act at his last compearance on January 26th reported; he replied, "I am fore straitned, I never saw reason to conform; and as for my ministry, it was not mine and so I could not quit it." After long reasoning betwixt him and the bishops, concerning church policy and the keeping of holy days, he was removed for a little. Being called in again, the bishop of St.

Andrews told him, "You are deprived of all function within the kirk, and ordained within six days to enter in ward at Dundee." "It is a very summary and peremptory sentence," said Mr. Scrimzeor, "ye might have been advised better, and first have heard what I would have said." "You shall be heard," said the bishop. This brought on some further reasoning, in the course of which Mr. Scrimzeor gave a faithful testimony against the king's supremacy over the church, and among other things said, "I have had opportunity to reason with the king himself on this subject, and have told him that Christ was the sovereign, and only director of his house; and that his majesty was subject to him. I have had occasion to tell other mens matters to the king, and could have truly claimed this great preferment." "I tell you Mr. John," said the bishop of St. Andrews, "that the king is pope, and shall be so now;" He replied, "That is an evil style you give him:" And then gave in his reasons in write, which they read at leisure. Afterwards the bishop of St. Andrews said to him, "Take up your reasons again, if you will not conform, I cannot help it; the king must be obeyed, the lords have given sentence and will stand to it." "Ye cannot deprive me of my ministry,"

said Mr. Scrimzeor, "I received it not from you; I received it from the whole synod of Fyfe, and, for any thing ye do, I will never think myself deposed." The bishop of St. Andrews replied, "You are deprived only of the present exercise of it."--Then he presented the following protestation, "I protest before the Lord Jesus, that I get manifest wrong; my reasons and allegations are not considered and answered. I attest you to answer at his glorious appearance, for this and such dealings, and protest that my cause should have been heard as I pled, and still plead and challenge. I likewise appeal to the Lord Jesus, his eternal word, to the king my dread sovereign, his law, to the const.i.tution of this kirk and kingdom, to the councils and a.s.semblies of both, and protest that I stand minister of the evangel, and only by violence I am thrust from the same." "You must obey the sentence," said the bishop of St. Andrews; he answered, "That Dundee was far off, and he was not able for far journeys, as physicians can witness." And he added, "Little know ye what is in my purse." "Then where will you choose the place of your confinement," said the bishop: He answered, "At a little room of my own called Bowhill, in the parish of Auchterderran." Then said the bishop, "Write, At Bowhill, during the king's pleasure." Thus this worthy servant of Christ lived the rest of his days in Auchterderran. In his old age he was grievously afflicted with the stone. He said to a G.o.dly minister, who went to see him a little before his death, "I have been a rude stunkard all my life, and now by this pain the Lord is humbling me to make me as a lamb, before he take me to himself."

He was a man somewhat rude-like in his clothing, and in some of his expressions and behaviour; and yet was a very loving tender hearted man; of a deep natural judgment; and very learned, especially in Hebrew. He often wished that most part of books were burnt, except the bible, and some short notes thereon. He had a peculiar talent for comforting the dejected. He used a very familiar but pressing manner of preaching. He was also an eminent wrestler with G.o.d, and had more than ordinary power and familiarity with him, as appears from the following instances.

When he was minister at Kinghorn, there was a certain G.o.dly woman under his charge, who fell sick of a very lingering disease, and was all the while a.s.saulted with strong temptations, leading her to think that she was a cast-away, notwithstanding that her whole conversation had put the reality of grace in her beyond a doubt. He often visited her while in this deep exercise, but her trouble and terrors still remained; as her dissolution drew on, her spiritual trouble increased. He went with two of his elders to her, and began first, in their presence, to comfort her and pray with her, but she still grew worse: He ordered his elders to pray, and afterwards prayed himself, but no relief came. Then sitting pensive for a little s.p.a.ce, he thus broke silence, "What is this! Our laying grounds of comfort before her will not do; prayer will not do: We must try another remedy. Sure I am, this is a daughter of Abraham; sure I am, she hath sent for me, and therefore, in the name of G.o.d, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who sent him to redeem sinners; in the name of Jesus Christ, who obeyed the Father, and came to save us; and in the name of the Holy and blessed Spirit, our Quickner and Sanctifier--I, the elder, command thee, a daughter of Abraham, to be loosed from these bonds." And immediately peace and joy ensued.

Mr. Scrimzeor had several friends and children taken away by death, and his only daughter who, at that time survived (and whom he dearly loved), being seized with the king's evil, by which she was reduced to the very point of death, so that he was called up to see her die; and finding her in this condition, he went out to the fields (as he himself told) in the night-time, in great grief and anxiety, and began to expostulate with the Lord, with such expressions as, for all the world, he durst not again utter. In a fit of displeasure he said, "Thou, O Lord, knowest that I have been serving thee in the uprightness of my heart, according to my power and measure, nor have I stood in awe to declare thy mind even unto the greatest in the time, and thou seest that I take pleasure in this child. O that I could obtain such a thing at thy hand, as to spare her." And being in great agony of spirit, at last it was said to him from the Lord, "I have heard thee at this time, but use not the like boldness in time coming, for such particulars." When he came home the child was recovered, and, sitting up in the bed, took some meat, and when he looked at her arm it was perfectly whole.

_The Life of Mr. JOHN WELCH._

Mr. John Welch was born a gentleman, his father being laird of Colieston (an estate rather competent than large, in the s.h.i.+re of Nithsdale), about the year 1570, the dawning of our reformation being then but dark.

He was a rich example of grace and mercy, but the night went before the day, being a most hopeless extravagant boy: It was not enough to him, frequently when he was a young stripling to run away from the school, and play the truant; but, after he had past his grammar, and was come to be a youth, he left the school, and his father's house, and went and joined himself to the thieves on the English border, who lived by robbing the two nations, and amongst them he stayed till he spent a suit of clothes. Then when he was clothed only with rags, the prodigal's misery brought him to the prodigal's resolution, so he resolved to return to his father's house, but durst not adventure, till he should enterpose a reconciler. In his return homeward, he took Dumfries in his way, where he had an aunt, one Agnes Forsyth, and with her he spent some days, earnestly intreating her to reconcile him to his father. While he lurked in her house, his father came providentially to the house to visit his cousin Mrs. Forsyth; and after they had talked a while, she asked him, Whether ever he had heard any news of his son John; to her he replied with great grief, O cruel woman, how can you name him to me? The first news I expect to hear of him, is, That he is hanged for a thief.

She answered, Many a profligate boy had become a virtuous man, and comforted him. He insisted upon his sad complaint, but asked, Whether she knew his lost son was yet alive. She answered, Yes, he was, and she hoped he should prove a better man than he was a boy, and with that she called upon him to come to his father. He came weeping, and kneeled, beseeching his father, for Christ's sake, to pardon his misbehaviour, and deeply engaged to be a new man. His father reproached him and threatened him. Yet at length, by his tears, and Mrs. Forsyth's importunities, he was persuaded to a reconciliation. The boy entreated his father to send him to the college, and there to try his behaviour, and if ever thereafter he should break, he said, He should be content his father should disclaim him for ever: So his father carried him home, and put him to the college, and there he became a diligent student, of great expectation, and shewed himself a sincere convert; and so he proceeded to the ministry. His first settlement was at Selkirk, while he was yet very young, and the country rude. While he was there, his ministry was rather admired by some, than received by many; for he was always attended by the prophet's shadow, the hatred of the wicked; yea, even the ministers of that country, were more ready to pick a quarrel with his person, than to follow his doctrine, as may appear to this day in their synodal records, where we find he had many to censure him, and only some to defend him; yet it was thought his ministry in that place was not without fruit, though he stayed but short time there. Being a young man unmarried, he boarded himself in the house of one Mitchelhill, and took a young boy of his to be his bedfellow, who to his dying day retained both a respect to Mr. Welch and his ministry, from the impressions Mr. Welch's behaviour made upon his apprehension, though but a child. His custom was when he went to bed at night, to lay a Scots plaid above his bed-clothes, and when he went to his night-prayers, to sit up and cover himself negligently therewith, and so to continue. For from the beginning of his ministry to his death, he reckoned the day ill spent if he stayed not seven or eight hours in prayer; and this the boy did not forget even to old age.

An old man of the name of Ewart in Selkirk, who remembered Mr. Welch's being in that place said, He was a type of Christ; an expression more significant than proper, for his meaning was, That he was an example that imitated Christ, as indeed in many things he did: He also said, That his custom was to preach publicly once every day, and to spend his whole time in spiritual exercises, that some in that place waited well upon his ministry with great tenderness, but that he was constrained to leave that place, because of the malice of the wicked.

The special cause of his departure was, a prophane gentleman in the country (one Scot of Headschaw, whose family is now extinct), because Mr. Welch had either reproved him, or merely from hatred, Mr. Welch was most unworthily abused by the unhappy man, and among the rest of the injuries he did him, this was one:--Mr. Welch kept always two good horses for his own use, and the wicked gentleman, when he could do no more, either with his own hand, or by his servants, cut off the rumps of the two innocent beasts, upon which they both died. Such base usage as this persuaded him to listen to a call to the ministry at Kirkcudbright, which was his next post.

But when he was to leave Selkirk, he could not find a man in all the town to transport his furniture, except only Ewart, who was at that time a poor young man, but master of two horses, with which he transported Mr. Welch's goods, and so left him; but as he took his leave, Mr. Welch gave him his blessing, and a piece of gold for a token, exhorting him to fear G.o.d, and promised he should never want, which promise, providence made good through the whole course of the man's life, as was observed by all his neighbours.

At Kirkcudbright he stayed not long; but there he reaped a harvest of converts, which subsisted long after his departure, and were a part of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's flock, though not his parish, while he was minister at Anwoth. Yet when his call to Ayr came to him, the people of the parish of Kirkcudbright never offered to detain him, so his transportation to Ayr was the more easy.

While he was at Kirkcudbright, he met with a young man in scarlet and silver lace (the gentleman's name was Mr. Robert Glendining) new come home from his travels, he much surprised the young man by telling him, he behoved to change his garb, and way of life, and betake himself to the study of the scriptures, which at that time was not his business, for he should be his successor in the ministry at Kirkcudbright, which accordingly came to pa.s.s sometime thereafter.

Mr. Welch was transported to Ayr in the year 1590, and there he continued till he was banished, there he had a very hard beginning, but a very sweet end; for when he came first to the town, the country was so wicked and the hatred of G.o.dliness so great, that there could not one in all the town be found, who would let him a house to dwell in, so he was constrained to accommodate himself the best he might, in a part of a gentleman's house for a time; the gentleman's name was John Stuart merchant, and sometime provost of Ayr, an eminent Christian, and great a.s.sistant of Mr. Welch.

And when he had first taken up his residence in that town, the place was so divided into factions, and filled with b.l.o.o.d.y conflicts, a man could hardly walk the streets with safety; wherefore Mr. Welch made it his first undertaking to remove the b.l.o.o.d.y quarrelings, but he found it a very difficult work; yet such was his earnestness to pursue his design, that many times he would rush betwixt two parties of men fighting, even in the midst of blood and wounds. He used to cover his head with a head-piece before he went to separate these b.l.o.o.d.y enemies, but would never use a sword, that they might see he came for peace and not for war, and so, by little and little, he made the town a peaceable habitation.

His manner was, after he had ended a skirmish amongst his neighbours, and reconciled these bitter enemies, to cause cover a table upon the street, and there brought the enemies together, and beginning with prayer he persuaded them to profess themselves friends, then to eat and drink together, then last of all he ended the work with singing a psalm: For after the rude people began to observe his example, and listen to his heavenly doctrine, he came quickly to that respect amongst them, that he became not only a necessary counsellor, without whose council they would do nothing, but an example to imitate.

He gave himself wholly to ministerial exercises, he preached once every day, he prayed the third part of his time, was unwearied in his studies, and for a proof of this, it was found among his papers, that he had abridged Suarez's metaphysics when they came first to his hand, even when he was well stricken in years. By all which it appears, that he has not only been a man of great diligence, but also of a strong and robust natural const.i.tution, otherwise he had never endured the fatigue.

Sometimes, before he went to sermon, he would send for his elders and tell them, he was afraid to go to pulpit; because he found himself sore deserted: and thereafter desire one or more of them to pray, and then he would venture to pulpit. But, it was observed, this humbling exercise used ordinarily to be followed with a flame of extraordinary a.s.sistance: So near neighbours are many times contrary dispositions and frames. He would many times retire to the church of Ayr, which was at some distance from the town, and there spend the whole night in prayer; for he used to allow his affections full expression, and prayed not only with audible, but sometimes a loud voice.

There was in Ayr before he came to it, an aged man, a minister of the town, called Porterfield, the man was judged no bad man, for his personal inclinations, but so easy a disposition, that he used many times to go too great a length with his neighbours in many dangerous practices; and amongst the rest, he used to go to the bow-b.u.t.ts and archery, on the sabbath afternoon, to Mr. Welch's great dissatisfaction.

But the way he used to reclaim him was not bitter severity, but this gentle policy; Mr. Welch together with John Stuart, and Hugh Kennedy, his two intimate friends, used to spend the sabbath afternoon in religious conference and prayer, and to this exercise they invited Mr.

Porterfield, which he could not refuse, by which means he was not only diverted from his former sinful practice, but likewise brought to a more watchful and edifying behaviour in his course of life.

While Mr. Welch was at Ayr, the Lord's day was greatly profaned at a gentleman's house about eight miles distance from Ayr, by reason of great confluence of people playing at the foot-ball, and other pastime.

After writing several times to him to suppress the profanation of the Lord's day at his house, (which he slighted, not loving to be called a puritan) Mr. Welch came one day to his gate and calling him out to tell him, that he had a message from G.o.d to shew him, that because he had slighted the advice given him from the Lord, and would not restrain the profanation of the Lord's day committed in his bounds; therefore the Lord would cast him out of his house, and none of his posterity should enjoy it: which accordingly came to pa.s.s; for although he was in a good external situation at this time; yet henceforth all things went against him until he was obliged to sell his estate; and when giving the purchaser possession thereof, he told his wife and children that he had found Mr. Welch a true prophet[49].

He married Elizabeth Knox, daughter to the famous Mr. John Knox minister at Edinburgh, and she lived with him from his youth till his death. By her he had three sons[50].

As the duty wherein Mr. Welch abounded and excelled most in his prayer, so his greatest attainments fell that way. He used to say, He wondered how a Christian could ly in bed all night, and not rise to pray, and many times he rose, and many times he watched. One night he rose from his wife, and went into the next room, where he staid so long at secret prayer, that his wife, fearing he might catch cold, was constrained to rise and follow him, and, as she hearkened, she heard him speak as by interrupted sentences, Lord, wilt thou not grant me Scotland, and after a pause, Enough, Lord, enough; and so she returned to her bed, and he following her, not knowing she had heard him, but when he was by her, she asked him, What he meant by saying, Enough, Lord, enough? he shewed himself dissatisfied with her curiosity, but told her, He had been wrestling with the Lord for Scotland, and found there was a sad time at hand, but that the Lord would be gracious to a remnant. This was about the time when bishops first overspread the land, and corrupted the church. This is more wonderful still, An honest minister, who was a paris.h.i.+oner of Mr. Welch many a day, said, "That one night as he watched in his garden very late, and some friends waiting upon him in his house, and wearying because of his long stay, one of them chanced to open a window toward the place where he walked, and saw clearly a strange light surround him, and heard him speak strange words about his spiritual joy." But though Mr. Welch had upon the account of his holiness, abilities and success, acquired among his subdued people, a very great respect, yet was he never in such admiration, as after the great plague which raged in Scotland in his time.

And one cause was this: The magistrates of Ayr, forasmuch as this town alone was free, and the country about infected, thought fit to guard the ports with centinels and watchmen; and one day two travelling merchants, each with a pack of cloth upon a horse, came to the town desiring entrance that they might sell their goods, producing a pa.s.s from the magistrates of the town from whence they came, which was at that time sound and free; yet notwithstanding all this, the centinels stopt them till the magistrates were called, and when they came they would do nothing without their minister's advice; so Mr. Welch was called, and his opinion asked: He demurred, and putting off his hat, with his eyes towards heaven for a pretty s.p.a.ce, though he uttered no audible words, yet continued in a praying posture; and after a little s.p.a.ce told the magistrates, They would do well to discharge these travellers their town, affirming, with great a.s.severation, the plague was in these packs, so the magistrates commanded them to be gone, and they went to c.u.mnock, a town about twenty miles distant, and there sold their goods, which kindled such an infection in that place, that the living were hardly able to bury their dead. This made the people begin to think of Mr.

Welch as an oracle: Yet, as he walked with G.o.d, and kept close with him, so he forgot not man, for he used frequently to dine abroad with such of his friends as he thought were persons with whom he might maintain the communion of the saints; and once in the year, he used always to invite all his familiar acquaintances in the town, to a treat in his house, where there was a banquet of holiness and sobriety.

He continued the course of his ministry in Ayr, till king James's purpose of destroying the church of Scotland, by establis.h.i.+ng bishops was ripe, and then it became his duty to edify the church by his sufferings, as formerly he had done by his doctrine.

The reason why king James was so violent for bishops, was neither their divine inst.i.tution, which he denied they had, nor yet the profit the church should reap by them, for he knew well both the men and their communications, but merely because he believed they were useful instruments to turn a limited monarchy into absolute dominion, and subjects into slaves; the design in the world he minded most.

Always in the pursuit of his design, he followed this method; in the first place, he resolved to destroy general a.s.semblies, knowing well that so long as a.s.semblies might convene in freedom, bishops could never get their designed authority in Scotland; and the dissolution of a.s.semblies he brought about in this manner.

The general a.s.sembly at Holyrood-house, _anno_ 1602, with the king's consent, indict their next meeting to be kept at Aberdeen, the last tuesday of July _anno_ 1604, and before that day came, the king by his commissioner the laird of Laureston, and Mr. Patrick Galloway moderator of the last general a.s.sembly, in a letter directed to the several presbyteries, prorogued the meeting till the first tuesday of July 1605, at the same place; last of all, in June 1605, the expected meeting to have been kept in July following, is by a new letter from the king's commissioner, and the commissioners of the general a.s.sembly, absolutely discharged and prohibited, but without naming any day or place, for any other a.s.sembly; and so the series of our a.s.semblies expired, never to revive again in due form, till the covenant was renewed _anno_ 1638.

However, many of the G.o.dly ministers of Scotland, knowing well, if once the hedge of the government was broken, the corruption of the doctrine would soon follow, resolved not to quit their a.s.semblies so. And therefore a number of them convened at Aberdeen, upon the first tuesday of July 1605, being the last day that was distinctly appointed by authority; and when they had met, did no more but const.i.tute themselves and dissolve. Amongst those was Mr. Welch, who, though he had not been present upon that precise day, yet because he came to the place, and approved what his brethren had done, he was accused as guilty of the treasonable fact committed by them. So dangerous a point was the name of a general a.s.sembly in king James's jealous judgment.

Within a month after this meeting, many of these G.o.dly men were incarcerate, some in one prison, some in another. Mr. Welch was sent first to Edinburgh tolbooth, and then to Blackness; and so from prison to prison, till he was banished to France, never to see Scotland again.

And now the scene of his life begins to alter; but, before his sufferings, he had this strange warning.

After the meeting at Aberdeen was over, he retired immediately to Ayr; and one night he rose from his wife, and went into his garden, as his custom was, but stayed longer than ordinary, which troubled his wife, who, when he returned, expostulated with him very hard for his staying so long to wrong his health; he bid her be quiet, for it should be well with them. But he knew well, he should never preach more at Ayr; and accordingly, before the next sabbath, he was carried prisoner to Blackness castle. After that, he, with many others, who had met at Aberdeen, were brought before the council of Scotland at Edinburgh, to answer for their rebellion and contempt, in holding a general a.s.sembly, not authorized by the king. And because they declined the secret council, as judges competent in causes purely spiritual, such as the nature and const.i.tution of a general a.s.sembly is, they were first remitted to the prison at Blackness, and other places, and thereafter, six of the most considerable of them, were brought under night from Blackness to Linlithgow before the criminal judges, to answer an accusation of high treason at the instance of Sir Thomas Hamilton the king's advocate, for declining, as he alleged, the king's lawful authority, in refusing to admit the council judges competent in the cause of the nature of church judicatories; and, after their accusation and answer was read, by the verdict of a jury of very considerable gentlemen, they were condemned as guilty of high treason, the punishment deferred till the king's pleasure should be known; and thereafter their punishment was made banishment, that the cruel sentence might somewhat seem to soften their severe punishment, as the king had contrived it.

While he was in Blackness, he wrote his famous letter to Lilias Graham countess of Wigton; in which he utters, in the strongest terms, his consolation in suffering; his desire to be dissolved, that he might be with the Lord; the judgments he foresaw coming upon Scotland, &c. He also seems most positively to shew the true cause of their sufferings, and state of the testimony in these words:

"Who am I, that he should first have called me, and then const.i.tuted me a minister of the glad tidings of the gospel of salvation these years already, and now last of all to be a sufferer for his cause and kingdom.

Now, let it be so, that I have fought my fight, and run my race, and now from henceforth is laid up for me that crown of righteousness, which the Lord that righteous G.o.d will give, and not to me only, but to all that love his appearance, and choose to witness this, that Jesus Christ is the king of saints, and that his church is a most free kingdom, yea as free as any kingdom under heaven, not only to convocate, hold, and keep her meetings, and conventions and a.s.semblies; but also to judge of all her affairs, in all her meetings and conventions amongst her members and subjects. These two points, 1. That Christ is the head of his church. 2.

That she is free in her government, from all other jurisdiction except Christ's: These two points, I say, are the special cause of our imprisonment; being now convict as traitors for the maintaining thereof.

We have been ever waiting with joyfulness to give the last testimony of our blood in confirmation thereof, if it should please our G.o.d to be so favourable as to honour us with that dignity; yea, I do affirm, that these two points above-written, and all other things which belong to Christ's crown, sceptre and kingdom, are not subject, nor cannot be, to any other authority, but to his own altogether. So that I would be most glad to be offered up as a sacrifice for so glorious a truth: It would be to me the most glorious day, and the gladdest hour I ever saw in this life; but I am in his hand to do with me whatsoever shall please his Majesty.

"I am also bound and sworn, by a special covenant, to maintain the doctrine and discipline thereof, according to my vocation and power all the days of my life, under all the pains contained in the book of G.o.d, and danger of body and soul, in the day of G.o.d's fearful judgment; and therefore, though I should perish in the cause, yet will I speak for it, and to my power defend it, according to my vocation."

He wrote about the same time to Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth: There are some prophetical expressions in this letter that merit notice.

"As for that instrument Spotswood, we are sure the the Lord will never bless that man, but a malediction lies upon him, and shall accompany all his doings; and it may be, Sir, your eyes shall see as great confusion covering him, ere he go to his grave, as ever did his predecessors. Now surely, Sir, I am far from bitterness, but here I denounce the wrath of an everlasting G.o.d against him, which a.s.suredly shall fall, except it be prevented. Sir, Dagon shall not stand before the ark of the Lord, and these names of blasphemy that he wears of arch and lord bishop, will have a fearful end. Not one book is to be given to Haman, suppose he were as great a courtier as ever he was; suppose the decree was given out, and sealed with the king's ring, deliverance will come to us elsewhere, and not by him, who has been so sore an instrument, not against our persons, that were nothing, (for I protest to you, Sir, in the sight of G.o.d, I forgive him all the evil he has done, or can do, to me) but unto Christ's poor kirk, in stamping under foot so glorious a kingdom and beauty as was once in this land; he has helped to cut Sampson's hair, and to expose him to mocking, but the Lord will not be mocked: He shall be cast away as a stone out of a sling, his name shall rot, and a malediction shall fall upon his posterity after he is gone.

Let this, Sir, be a monument of it, that it was told before, that when it shall come to pa.s.s, it may be seen there was warning given him: And therefore, Sir, seeing I have not the access myself, if it would please G.o.d to move you, I wish you would deliver this hand-message to him, not as from me, but from the Lord."

The man of whom he complains, and threatens so sore, was bishop Spotswood, at that time designed arch-bishop of Glasgow; and this prophecy was punctually accomplished, though after the s.p.a.ce of forty years: For, first the bishop himself died in a strange land, and, as many say, in misery; next his son Robert Spotswood, sometime president of the session, was beheaded by the parliament of Scotland, at the market-cross of St. Andrews, in the winter after the battle of Philiphaugh, to which many thousands witnessed, and as soon as ever he came upon the scaffold, Mr. Blair, the minister of the town, told him, That now Mr. Welch's prophecy was fulfilled upon him; to which he replied in anger, That Mr. Welch and he were both false prophets.

But before he left Scotland, some remarkable pa.s.sages in his behaviour are to be remembered. And first, when the dispute about church-government began to warm, as he was walking upon the street of Edinburgh, betwixt two honest citizens he told them, They had in their town two great ministers, who were no great friends to Christ's cause presently in controversy, but it should be seen, the world should never hear of their repentance. The two men were Mr. Patrick Galloway and Mr.

John Hall; and accordingly it came to pa.s.s, for Mr. Patrick Galloway died easing himself upon a stool; and Mr. John Hall, being at that time in Leith, and his servant woman having left him alone in his house while she went to the market, he was found dead at her return.

He was sometime prisoner in Edinburgh castle before he went into exile, where one night sitting at supper with the Lord Ochiltry, who was uncle to Mr. Welch's wife, as his manner was, he entertained the company with G.o.dly and edifying discourse, which was well received by all the company, except a debauched popish young gentleman, who sometimes laughed, and sometimes mocked and made wry faces; whereupon Mr. Welch brake out into a sad abrupt charge upon all the company to be silent, and observe the work of the Lord upon that profane mocker, which they should presently behold; upon which the profane wretch sunk down and died beneath the table, to great astonishment of all the company.