Page:Last publick sermon, being a faithful and free one, preached by Mr. Hugh Mackaile ... upon the Sabbath immediately preceeding that 8th of September 1662, the day affixed for the removing of the ministers of Edinburgh from their kirks.pdf/29

( 29 ) had ſaid, and they cauſed write, though at firſt he appear- ed willing, yet, partly being adviſed by the Lord Sinclair to beware that he ſubſcribed nothing whereof the contrary would be found true, left it might therefore fare the worſe with him, and partly ſcrupling at the Terms of Rebels and Rebellion, wherein the Queſtion and his Anſwer were conceived, and partly bethinking, that a ſimple Denial may import more than the Pleading of not guilty, he refuſed to ſubſcribe his Name, which being reported to the Council, gave great Offence, and brought him under the Suſpicion of a deep Diſſembler. On Thurſday, November 29th, being again called be. fore his Examinators, upon the Conſiderations mentioned, and for allaying the Council's Prejudice, and preventing the Inconvenience he might therethrough ſuſtain, he gives in a Declaration, under his own Hand, teſtifying, that he had been with the Weft-land Forces, with whom he occa- ſionally met, and that he had reſolved to have withdrawn from them upon the firſt Opportunity, which he was alſo about to do when he was taken, without cither offering to flee or reſiſt, which he deſired the Council the rather to believe, becauſe he had told ſo much to William Laurie of Blackwood, a Perſon employed from the Lieutenant-Gene- ral Dalziel to the Weſt-land Forces. But notwithſtanding that William Laurie did teſtify this to be a Truth, yet the Council retaining former Impreſſions, and apprehending, that the Preſence and confronting of ſome other Priſoners of the Weft-land Forces, who plainly declared their Acceſſi- on to that Riſing, and their deponing concerning him, did only move Mr. Hew to this Acknowledgment, although it be certainly known, that he had formed and ſubſcribed the ſame the Night before, they fortify and perſiſt in their Jealou- ſy, and ſuſpecting him to have been a Contriver of the In- ſurrection, and privy to all Deſigns and Intelligence relating to it, they dealt with him, with great Importunity; to be ingenu-