Religion & morality > Cloud of witnesses, for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ, or, The last speeches and testimonies of those who suffered for the truth in Scotland, in the years 1681-1688, with an appendix, containing the Queensferry paper, Torwood excommunications, &c

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LAST SPEECH AND TESTIMONY OF
my glorious Lord and me, as good cause I have, who knew
it as I do; yet I hope, I shall get a glorious outgate, when
his time comes, which I have always waited upon, and not
my own, for which I bless him this day.
What further this martyr wrote in prison, cannot be pub¬
lished as it stands, as he was perpetually interrupted by the
keepers, and had irons on his hands, (as himself testifies,)
and so could not get writing 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 cheer¬
fulness 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, although 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 : O but it is 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 wit¬
ness for him, if it should be his will, and not else ; I bless my
Lord for it, I have subscribed a blank, and put itin 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 by his sufferings,
which he protests he would not exchange for the whole
world. 5. He charges them all to beware of wronging them¬
selves, by reproaching him anent the manner of his appre-