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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EPITAPHS.
Upon another stone at Kilmarnock, lying upon the corpse of John Nisbet,
who suffered there the VUh of April, 1683.
Come, reader, see, here pleasant Nisbet lies,
His blood doth pierce the high and lofty skies;
Kilmarnock did his latter hour perceive,
And Christ his soul to heaven did receive.
Yet bloody Torrence did his body raise,
And buried it in another place ;
Saying, Shall rebels lye in graves with me 1
We'll bury him where evil-doers be.
Upon a gravestone at Fenwick, lying on the dust of John Ferqushill and
George Woodburn, who were shot by Nisbet and his party, anno 1685.
When bloody prelates, once this nation’s pest,
Contriv’d that curs’d self-contradicting test;
These men for Christ did suffer martyrdom,
And here their blood lies waiting till he come.
Upon another gravestone there, lying on the corpse o/Peter Gemmel, who
was shot by the same Nisbet and his party, anno 1685.
This man, like holy anchorites of old,
For conscience sake, was thrust from house and hold,
Blood-thirsty red-coats cut his prayers short,
And ev’n his dying groans were made their sport.
Ah Scotland ! breach of solemn vows repent ;
Or bloody crimes will bring thy punishment.
Upon a third stone, lying on the body of James White, shot by Peter Inglis
and his party, 1685.
This martyr was by Peter Inglis shot,
By birth a tyger rather than a Scot;
Who, that his monstrous extract might be seen,
Cut oflf his head, and kick’d it o’er the green.
Thus was that head, which was to wear a crown,
A foot-ball made by a profane dragoon.
Upon a stone in the church-yard of Wigton, on the body o/Margaret Wil¬
son, who was drowned in the water of Blednoch, upon the lllA of May,
1684, by the Laird of Lagg, <fc.
Let earth and stone still witness bear,
There lies a virgin martyr here,
Murder’d for owning Christ supreme,
Head of his church, and no more crime,
But her not owning Prelacy,
And not abjuring Presbytery.
Within the sea, ty’d to a stake,
She suffered for Christ Jesus’ sake.
The actors of this cruel crime,
Was Lagg, Winram, Strachan, and Graham.
Neither young years, nor yet old age,
Could quench the fury of their rage.
Upon a stone in the church-yard of Colmonel, on the body of Matthew
Meiklewrath, who was killed in that parish by Claverhouse.
In this parish of Colmonel,
By bloody Claverhouse I fell,
Who did command that I should die,
For owning covenanted Presbytery.