Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/38

174 not seeing God will make inquisition for shedding the precious blood of his saints, whatever be the thoughts of men; and also your bodies, seeing ye render yourselves actually and maliciously guilty of our blood, whose innocency the Lord knoweth. However, we are sorry at our very hearts, that any of you should choose such courses, either with bloody Doeg, to shed our blood, or with the flattering Ziphites, to inform persecutors where we are to be found. So we say again, we desire you to take warning of the hazard that ye incur by following such courses; for the sinless necessity of self-preservation, accompanied with holy zeal for Christ's reigning in our land, and suppressing of profanity, will move us not to let you pass unpunished. Call to your remembrance, all that is in peril, is not lost; and all that is delayed, is not forgiven. Therefore, expect to be dealt with, as ye deal with us, so far as our power can reach; not because we are incited by a sinful spirit of revenge for private and personal injuries; but, mainly, because by our fall, reformation suffers damage, yea, the power of godliness, through ensnaring flatteries, and terrible threatening will thereby be brought to a very low ebb, the consciences of many more dreadfully surrendered, and profanity more established and propagated. And as upon the one hand, we have here declared our purposes anent malicious injurers of us; so, upon the other hand, we do hereby beseech and obtest all you who wish well to Zion, to show your good-will towards us, by acting with us, and in your places and stations, according to your abilities, counselling, encouraging, and strengthening our hands, for this great work of holding up the standard of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think not that in anywise you are called to lie by neutral and indifferent, especially in such a day; for we are a people, by holy covenants dedicated unto the Lord, in our persons, lives, liberties, and fortunes, for defending and promoting this glorious work of reformation, notwithstanding all opposition that is or may be made thereunto, yea and sworn against all neutrality and indifferency in the Lord's matters. And, moreover, we are fully persuaded that the Lord, who now hideth his face from the house of Jacob, will suddenly appear, and bring light out of darkness, and perfect strength out of weakness, and cause judgment return again unto righteousness."

When this declaration was first proposed, Mr Renwick was averse to it, fearing that it might be followed by bad effects: nor were his fears disappointed. A reward of five hundred merks was offered for every person who owned the declaration, or rather who would not disown it upon oath. No person was allowed to travel without a pass, who was above the age of sixteen; many were shot instantly in the fields, if they refused to take, even at the hands of a common trooper, the oath of abjuration; others, refusing the oath, were brought in, sentenced, and executed. On all which accounts, Mr Renwick was often heard to say, he wished from his heart that that declaration had never been published. The year 1685 did not at all better his situation; he was still persecuted with the utmost fury, yet he ventured, in the month of May that year, to the market cross of Sanquhar, accompanied by two hundred men, where he published a declaration against the succession of James, duke of York, called from that circumstance, the Sanquhar Declaration. Refusing to concur with Argyle, who this year made an unsuccessful attempt from Holland, a division arose among his followers, several of whom withdrew from the societies, and became, both by word and pen, his bitter traducers; and in addition to all his other afflictions, when he had put his life in his hand, as it were, to dispense the ordinances of the gospel to the bereaved people, he was met even by those who had been his friends, with protestations against him, taken in the name of large districts of the country. Even Mr Peden was, by the multiplied slanders of his enemies, spirited up against him, and was not