Series 1 > Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston 1632-1639

INTRODUCTION
xliii
from the 2 Book of Discipline and Act of Pari., 1592, quhilk
did mutch good and settle us al in unitie.’1 But according to
Baillie, before the ministers gave way strong measures had to
be threatened, and the unity was by no means cordial. The
other Tables had to state plainly that if ruling elders were
not allowed as members of presbyteries they would have
nothing more to do with the movement. ‘ So we all
yielded, though some sore against their stomack : bot of all
evills, division to us now is incomparable the worst. Sundry
of the brether are very jealous of the gentries’ usurpation over
them.’2 The Large Declaration3 contains a statement to
a similar effect:—‘Some of the Ministers, though Covenanters^
seeing the libertie of the Church by this meanes utterly lost
and betfaied, did repair to the two Covenanting ministers of
Edinburgh ’ (no doubt Ramsay and Rollock) ‘to whom they
bemoaned themselves, wondring that they would give way to
the utter defacing of the Church by these Laick intrusions; to
whom they gave this answer, That they grieved for it as
much as themselves, but that the necessitie of the times was
such that they must wink at it, else the Nobilitie, Gentrie,
and Burrowes did threaten them with a desertion, upon which
a division must follow, which by their Oath and Covenant they
were bound by all meanes to prevent.’
On Saturday, 25th August, Hamilton set out for London to
take further instructions as arranged. No time was lost by the
Covenanters. On the following Monday ‘ Mr. David [Dickson]
and I,’ writes Wariston, ‘mettin privat with Mr. Air. [Hen¬
derson] and Mr. D. Calderwood, dreu up our directions, publik
for presbyteries conteaning the draught of the Commission,
and privat for trustie persons.4 Afternoone, we dreu up the
1 P- 374- 2 Baillie, Letters, vol. i. p. 99. * Pp. 191, 192.
4 These private directions were afterwards produced with some dramatic effect
by Hamilton in the Assembly of 1638; and he challenged the leaders to say
whether these directions had not been given in order that the Assembly might
be packed with thorough-going supporters of the Covenanters. See note,
P- 377-