Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/208

554 earlier part of his life are said to have been highly prelatical, and, of course, opposite to those which he afterwards adopted, and for which, in the spirit of a martyr, he afterwards died. His conversion from the forms in which he was first bred, is attributed principally to the influence of Mr Samuel Rutherford, minister of Anwoth, himself a zealous and able defender of the Scottish church, with whom he had many opportunities of conversing.

In 1638 Mr Guthrie was appointed minister of Lauder, where he remained for several years, and where he had already become so celebrated as to be appointed one of the several ministers selected by the committee of estates, then sitting in Edinburgh, to wait upon the unfortunate Charles I. at Newcastle, when it was learned that the unhappy monarch had delivered himself up to the Scottish army encamped at Newark.

In 1649, Mr Guthrie was translated from Lauder to Stirling, where he remained until his death. While in this charge he continued to distinguish himself by the zeal and boldness with which he defended the covenant, and opposed the resolutions in favour of the king (Charles II.). He was now considered leader of the protesters, a party opposed to monarchy, and to certain indulgences proposed by the sovereign and sanctioned by the committee of estates, and who were thus contra-distinguished from the resolutioners, which comprehended the greater part of the more moderate of the clergy.

Mr Guthrie had, in the meantime, created himself a powerful enemy in the earl of Middleton, by proposing to the commission of the General Assembly to excommunicate him for his hostility to the church; the proposal was entertained, and Guthrie himself was employed to carry it into execution in a public manner in the church of Stirling. It is related by those who were certainly no friends to Guthrie, regarding this circumstance, that on the morning of the Sabbath on which the sentence of excommunication was to be carried into effect against Middleton, a messenger, a nobleman it is said, arrived at Mr Guthrie's house with a letter from the king, earnestly requesting him to delay the sentence for that Sabbath. The bearer, waiting until he had read the letter, demanded an answer. Guthrie is said to have replied, "you had better come to church and hear sermon, and after that you shall have your answer." The messenger complied; but what was his surprise, when he heard the sentence pronounced in the usual course of things, as if no negotiation regarding it had taken place. On the dismission of the congregation, he is said to have taken horse and departed in the utmost indignation, and without seeking any further interview with Guthrie. It is certain that a letter was delivered to Guthrie, of the tenor and under the circumstances just mentioned, but it was not from the king, but, according to Wodrow, on the authority of his father who had every opportunity of knowing the fact, from a nobleman. Who this nobleman was, however, he does not state, nor does he take it upon him to say, even that it was written by the king's order, or that he was in any way privy to it. However this may be, it is stated further, on the authority just alluded to, that the letter in question was put into Mr Guthrie's hands in the hall of his own house, after he had got his gown on, and was about to proceed to church, the last bell having just ceased ringing; having little time to decide on the contents of the letter, he gave no positive answer to the messenger, nor came under any promise to postpone the sentence of excommunication: with this exception the circumstance took place as already related.

Soon after the Restoration, Mr Guthrie and some others of his brethren, who had assembled at Edinburgh, for the purpose of drawing up what they called a supplication to his majesty, and who had already rendered themselves exceedingly obnoxious to the government, were apprehended and lodged in the castle