man can do to me; although I be sad as to matters betwixt God and me, betwixt my glorious Lord and me, as good cause I have, who knew it as I do; but I hope, I shall get a glorious outgate [i.e., deliverance] when His time comes, which I have always waited upon (and not mine) for which I bless Him this day."

What further this martyr wrote in prison, cannot be published as it stands, in regard that, he being perpetually interrupted by the keepers, and having the irons on his hands (as himself testifies) could not get it written with that composure which he would. Wherefore, take some of the more remarkable heads of it, mostly in his own words:

1. He declares his cheerfulness to lay down his life for the cause of Christ, and faith once delivered to the saints; admiring the riches of the free grace of God, in Christ's laying down His life for poor sinners, and blessing them with such a noble, precious and excellent blessing, as to be called the sons of God, which the angels cannot take up, though they have been a long time prying into it; and invites others to the same exercise of admiring and praising God's love, in making, through the blood of Christ, rebels and enemies, friends and

servants.

2. He rejoices in his lot of suffering, thus, "Oh! but it be an excellent thing to be called of the Lord, to lay down my life for Him and His glorious interest! To me it is more than all the world: I cannot prize it. It has been my desire these twenty-four years to die a martyr for my Lord, and to witness for Him, if it be His will, and not else. I bless my Lord for it, I have subscribed a blank, and put it in His hand, to do with me whatsoever is the determinate counsel of His will and decree, and not to call myself.'

3. He blesses God, that though he would have got his life for doing what others, whom he calls better than himself, have done, yet the Lord had made it his glory, honour, and crown, to hold fast till the Lord come, which he hoped would be quickly, to himself, and also to the land.

4. He testifies his assurance of God's love to him, and his children, whom he heartily and cheerfully gives away to God, as he had oft devoted them to Him in covenant; he exhorts them in the words of a dying father, to be for God in their generation, to live in love and unity, leaving them to the protection and provision of His God, charging them not to be moved for his sufferings, which he protests he would not exchange for the whole world.

5. He charges them all to beware of wronging themselves by reproaching him anent the manner of his being apprehended, showing what a hand of divine Providence there was in it, and blessing God for it, and for the sweet peace he had in suffering.

6. He owns himself to have been the greatest sinner upon the earth, and hence takes occasion to magnify the redeeming love of Christ, in calling him effectually, and keeping him in the right way, and from the national sins and corruptions of the age.

7. He refers to a list of papers written by him, declarative of his judgment concerning the duty of the day, as a reason, among others, why he wrote no formal testimony in the prison; save only that he testifies, First, generally against all things contrary to any point of truth in the Old and New Testament, or contradictory to the Covenants and work of Reformation; and more particularly, against the sinful silence of ministers in Britain and Ireland, at the command of a bloody, vile, adulterous, perjured tyrant and his underlings; against the indulgences and indemnities; against componing [i.e., compounding or settling] and conforming either with a perjured tyrannical crew of statesmen, or with base, vile, filthy Prelatists, their blind guides, and Baal's priests; against backslidden ministers and professors, who condemned a poor young generation for adhering to truth, for slaying Christ in His members, for pleasing men, and displeasing a never enough exalted and glorious Lord; and, finally, disowns all that is contrary to a Gospel and apostolic spirit.

8. He proceeds to warn and exhort all sorts of persons, and more especially the young generation, to repentance and amendment of life, enforcing his exhortation with the consideration of judgments and strokes to come upon the land; upon which head he is exceeding large, founding his assertions upon the threatenings pronounced in the Word against these sins, wherein he demonstrates Scotland, England, and Ireland to have been eminently guilty; interposing withal sweet and ravishing considerations of God's love to him, and to his other suffering witnesses, which, after large and pathetic ejaculations of praises to God for His redeeming love, protesting, that he expects salvation not by any merit, but of free grace, saying, "I have been beginning to pray and praise these thirty-six years, weakly as I could, but yet I am just to begin this night, both to praise and pray; for I lay no more stress upon all that I have said and done, believed and suffered, nor [i.e., than] on a straw, God is my witness; so that I must have salvation upon Wednesday at three or four of the clock, as freely

as the thief on the cross." He winds up in imitation of David, with these words, "And what can poor silly [i.e., feeble] James Nicol say more!" resuming again the consideration of God's wrath against the land, to stir up all ranks to repentance.

After he has concluded his speech with the usual formality of bidding farewell to all his suffering brethren, and all sublunary things, embracing and welcoming the heavenly joys, and eternal enjoyment of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into whose hands he commits his spirit; he adds, by way of postscript:

"Now, dear friends, my Testimony being finished, and I being near the borders of eternity, having forgot that which I see a great necessity to leave my testimony against, I think it a most concerning and necessary duty to leave my testimony against J[ames] R[ussel] and Mr J[ohn] F[lint], because J[ames] R[ussel], and these in fellowship with him, have separated themselves from the persecuted suffering remnant of the Church of Scotland, and Mr J[ohn] F[lint] has taken upon him, with their consent, to officiate the work of a minister, contrary to the Word of God; he has run, although not sent of God, nor called, nor ordained of lawful church members. And now he and they have risen up in opposition to God, His cause and persecuted remnant in the Church of Scotland, calling them all perjured that are suffering unto death, imprisonment, and banishment for precious Christ. And therefore, I, as a dying witness for Him, even my Lord Jesus, my only Saviour, who converted me thirty-six years since, and has these twenty-four years helped me to pray to Him, to enable me to witness against all error, and defection, and has kept me right and straight to this day of my longed-for desire, do leave my witness and testimony against Mr J[ohn] F[lint] and J[ames] R[ussel], and all that

adhere to them."

J

John Dick.

JOHN DICK was the son of David Dick, writer in Edinburgh. He took his degree at the University, and was studying Divinity. In his examination, he says he was not at Pentland, but being discovered to have friends who knew James Mitchell, who shot at Archbishop Sharp, July 11, 1668, he found it advisable for a time to leave Scotland. He was not at Drumclog, but was present in arms at Bothwell Bridge.

He was seized at Edinburgh at the information of a poor woman, bribed to tell where he was, and who after his execution lost her reason. He was examined August 29, 1683, and again on the 31st, before the committee of public affairs.

He was tried, September 4, before the Lords of Justiciary, and condemned to be hanged at the Grassmarket on the 26th. On September 16, he, with twenty-four others, made his escape from the Canongate Tolbooth, as is narrated in the following note upon Thomas Harkness. The days that immediately followed he seems to have employed in writing his testimony, for its forty-ninth page is dated October 1, 1683.

He was again apprehended on the beginning of March 1684, and on the fourth day of the month was brought before the Lords of Justiciary, and was handed over to the magistrates to be hanged in the Grassmarket next day, between two and four in the afternoon.

Wodrow gives the following letter, written to his father on the morning that he suffered. It says much for his faith and hope :

"DEAR SIR,—This hath been one of the pleasantest nights I have had in my lifetime. The competition is only betwixt it and that I got eleven years ago at Nesbit in Northumberland, where and when, in a barley ridge upon the Saturday's night and Sabbath morning before the last communion I did partake of in Ford Church, the Lord firmly laid the foundation-stone of grace in my heart, by making me with my whole soul close with Him upon His own terms, that is,

to take Him to be my King, Priest, and Prophet, yea, to be my all in all; to renounce my own righteousness, which at best is but rotten rags, and to rest upon His righteousness alone for salvation; as also, to give myself entirely, without reserve, in soul, body, heart, affections, and the whole faculties of my soul and powers of my body, to be by Him disposed at His pleasure for the advancement of His glory, and the upbuilding of my own soul, and the souls of others; inserting this clause (being conscious to myself of great infirmity) that the fountain of free grace and love should stand open for me so long, and so oft as my case should call for it.

"This my transaction with my whole soul, without the least ground of suspicion of the want of sincerity, which I found had been amissing in endeavours of that nature formerly, now my blessed Lord helped me to, or rather made in me, and solemnised that night and morning ere I came off that ridge.

"I confirmed it no less than ten or twelve times, and the oftener I reiterated, the gale continued so fresh and vigorous, that I was forced to cry, Hold, Lord, for the sherd is like to burst: so that I hope my dearest Lord is now a-coming, and that the hands of Zerubbabel, who hath laid this foundation, is now about to finish it; and, indeed, He is building very fast, for which my soul blesseth Him, desiring you may join with me in so necessary a work.

"I hope, ere long, the copestone shall be put on, the result of all which shall be praises and shouting to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb throughout all the ages of eternity, of long-lasting eternity.

"This, with my earnest prayers while in the body, that the Lord would help you to mind His glory, and your own soul's eternal welfare, is all the legacy you can expect from him who is both, "Your affectionate son and Christ's prisoner,

"JOHN DICK.

"P.S.-I hope, ere I come home, to get another sight of you. Let none see this till I be in my grave. The Lord gave me to you freely, so I entreat you, be frank in giving me to Him again, and the more free this be, the less cause you shall have to repent."

The last words he uttered upon the scaffold, as reported in the close of his Testimony, have the same confidence in the Redeemer :

"And now I know, yea, I am firmly persuaded, that my dear Lord, even my exalted and glorified Lord Jesus Christ, will carry me safely through this dark valley and shadow of death, and will receive