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

JOHN NISBET.
345
What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou
shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth ? Seeing thou
hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.
When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him
and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy
mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest
and speakest against thy brother, thou slanderest thy own
mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept
silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one
as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order
before thine eyes.” Psalm 1. 16—21. The prophecy of
Obadiah throughout, the first and last chapters of Isaiah to
the end, with many more.
Now, it is my last request and soul’s desire that all who
have made Moses’s choice, “ to suffer affliction with the
people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
seasonand are true lovers of Zion’s righteous cause ; that
you set much time apart, and mourn and afflict your souls,
for your original sin, heart-plagues, sins of persons and fam¬
ilies, sins of kings and kingdoms ; and for all the dreadful
apostacies, hateful compliances, and sinful sidings of minis¬
ters and people with the enemies of God and godliness, and
mourn that there is not more faithfulness and zeal for the
cause of God amongst his people. Read Psalm 1. Ezra ix.
Neh. ix. Jer. ix. Lam. iii. and Ezek. ix., to the end.
My dear friends, forbear your contentions and censuring
one of another ; sympathize with and love one another, for
this is his commandment; keep up your sweet fellowship-
meetings, and desirable general meetings, with which my
soul has been often refreshed; and let -what is agitated in
them, for carrying on a testimony for truth, and against
defections, be managed with Scripture light, with zeal
tempered with knowledge, and with the spirit of meekness,
accompanied with patience and humility. Be always ready
to give a reason of your faith, and be much denied to the
world, to yourselves, and to your natural life; and when
God in his providence calls you to lay it down for him, do
it cheerfully, and embrace the cross of your sweet Lord
Jesus with open arms ; for he will not send any a warfare
on their own charges.
Take for your rule and encouragement these Scriptures,
with others, that I leave to your own search :—“ Now the