Christ's Crown and Covenant; The Heroism of the Scottish Covenanters

FOR CHRIST’S CROWN AND COVENANT
The Witness and Sacrifice of the Scottish
Covenanters
1661 - 1688

THE BATTLE TO PRESERVE
OUR PROTESTANT LIBERTIES
1: POPISH TRICKS
2: THE BRITISH REPUBLICANS
3: CHRIST’S CROWN AND COVENANT
4: THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
5: THE SASH MY FATHER WORE

THE BATTLE TO PRESERVE
OUR PROTESTANT LIBERTIES
Queen Elizabeth 1st – King William 3rd
1558 - 1690

The Scottish Covenanters
1: The National Covenant
2: The Coronation of Charles 2nd
3: The Restoration of the Monarchy
4: Ejections, Coventicles, Rebellion
5: The Act of Indulgence
6: Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge
7: The Cameronians and The Killing Times
8: Alexander Peden – The Prophet of the Covenant
9: James Renwick – The Last of the Martyrs

1: The King’s Confession of 1581.
2: Affirming the Acts of Parliament which
repudiated Romanism and confirmed a
Reformed Church.
3: Protest at the alien modes of worship.

SUPPORT FOR THE COVENANT
• 28th February 1638.
• 60,000 gathered in Greyfriars, Edinburgh.
• Some signed in blood.
• Copies taken throughout Scotland.
• A Church and a nation united

ALEXANDER HENDERSON
The Man for the Hour
• Joint author of the
Covenant.
• Moderator of the General
Assembly.
• Prelacy overthrown.
• Commissioner at
Westminster.
• Succeeding in winning 20
years of peace

JANUARY 1ST 1651
The Last Coronation in Scotland
• Scots refused to
accept Cromwell
• Compelled Charles
2nd to sign the
National Covenant.
• Crowned him at
Scone.

DIVISIONS IN THE RANKS
• Resolutioners were more
pragmatic accepting of the
King.
• Protesters insisted on a
stricter interpretation of the
covenant.
• Both preached the same
Gospel but had dramatically
different outlooks.

• Cromwell victorious
• David Leslie’s Scottish forces vanquished
• “The Late Usurper” was largely regarded with suspicion and
godliness
• Under the Protectorate the Scottish Church flourished:
• “… man who, more than any other, helped to secure for the land this
sabbatism of godliness was misunderstood, resisted, denounced. It
is one of those pitiful and poignant contradictions…” (Smellie)

A PORTRAIT OF A KING
• 29th May 1660.
• Lover of the arts.
• Deeply immoral.
• Excessively extravagant.
• Irreligious.
• Determined to avenge the Scots
who made him sign the Covenant.

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT RECALLED
• Handpicked supporters of the crown.
• The Covenant had not many supporters among the aristocracy.
• Division had hindered the Church providing leadership
• The Oath of Allegiance violating conscience
• Presbyterianism overthrown, prelacy introduced.
• Absolute monarchy established

Four Death Warrants
• Samuel Rutherford – for writing
Lex Rex.
• Lord Wariston for framing the
National Covenant
• James Guthrie – the outspoken
preacher.
• Earl of Argyll the Covenanter
Nobleman.

The First Martyrs of the Covenant
Alexander Campbell
1st Marquis of Argyll – 27th May 1661
“It is the duty of every Christian to be
Loyal; yet I think the order of things is
to be observed…Religion must not be in
cockboat but in the ship.”
James Guthrie – 1st June 1661
“The Causes of God’s Wrath Against
Scotland.”
“The Covenants, The Covenants shall
yet be Scotland’s reviving”

They have set his head on the Netherbow
To scorch in the summer air;
And months go by, and the winter’s snow
Falls white on it’s thin green hair.
And still that same look in death he wore
Is sealed on the solemn brow-
A look of one who has travailed sore,
But whose pangs were ended now.”
Harriet Stuart Mentrith

What shall I say in this great day of the Lord,
wherein in the midst of a cloud, I have found fair
sunshine. I can wish no more for you, but that the
Lord may comfort you, and shine upon you as He
does me, and give you that same sense of His love
in staying in the world, as I am going out of it
Archibald Campbell in a letter to his daughter-in-
law on the eve of his execution

The Treachery of Sharp
“James I see you will
engage: I perceive you
are clear; you will be
the Bishop of
St Andrews. Take it
and curse God with it.”
Robert Douglas

The Ejection of 1662
• Ministers had until 1st November to seek
patronage from the local bishop.
• In the cold of winter upwards of 400 left
their parishes.
• The most unsuitable men were found to
replace them.
• July 1663 – the Scots Mile Acts required
the ejected Ministers to reside not less
than 6 miles from their parishes.

James Guthrie of Fenwick
• “The Christian’s Great
Interest”
• Finally ejected in 1664
by the Curate of Calder
and his soldiers
• Preached on “But in me
is mine help”
• Refreshments served to
both persecuted and
persecutors before he
left.

Unjust Punishments by the Privy Council
• Preaching without a license forbidden.
• Sedition to give a morsel of bread to an
unlicensed preacher.
• Women were publicly whipped.
• A young boy had his face branded.
• Some were sent to foreign plantations.

THE BATTLE AND AFTERMATH
• The Covenanters under Colonel Wallace
were routed.
• Some surrendered on the promise of
mercy.
• Sharp ensured there was no mercy.
• Others like Captain Patton escaped ad
fought in the future.

Lauderdale’s Rise to Power
• Member of Westminster Assembly
• Deeply loyal to Charles 1st
• The Scottish Regime was deemed
too harsh after Rullion Green.
• After 1667 became the virtual ruler
of Scotland.
• Earned the Covenanters a brief
reprieve
John Maitland, 1st Duke of
Lauderdale; Lord President of
the Scottish Privy Council

THE INDULGENCES of 1669 & 1672
• Covenanting Ministers were allowed to return
without license of the bishop.
• They were restricted to their own parish.
• A two tier ministrty was created.
• 42 accepted the stipulation.
• This was not the freedom they had fought for.
• A new breech arose among the Covenanters.

ENLARGEMENT OF ROYAL POWER
A Ecclesiastical Supremacy
B Militia of 20,000 Soldiers
“Never was King soe absolute as you
are in poor old Scotland”
Maitland when writing to
Charles 2nd

THE 1670 Act Banning Coventicles
1: Ministers who refused the indulgences were
forbidden to pray and preach except in their own
homes.
2: Offenders to be imprisoned until they agreed to
comply or they would be deported.
3: Those who attended were fined.
4: Those who gave their homes for a private meeting
would be fined doubles
5: Those who preached out doors to be executed
6: £30 fine for arresting a Minister and a promised
pardon for murdering him.
7: Fines imposed on any who did not attend Parish
Services.

SOLDIERS AND PREACHERS
• 1670 – a Dunfermline Conventicle was the first
to engage armed soldiers as guards.
• The preacher was John Blackadder.
• 3,200 received communion.
• Blackadder travelled widely in his preaching.
• Eventually arrested and sent to Bass Rock.

• A North Sea confinement for the Covenanters.
• 1673-1687
• John Blackadder was to die in this lonely spot.
• He spent 4½ years on the rock.
• Other famous prisoners included Alexander Peden,
Alexander Shields and Robert Trail.
“I assure you there is
neither rock nor mountain
between me and Christ”
Thomas Ross who spent
three years on the rock
BASS ROCK

Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge
DESPERATE TIMES; TERRIBLE MEASURES

3rd May 1679 - ASSASSINATION
HOW ARCHBISHOP SHARP MET HIS MAKER

CRIME AND PROVIDENCE
• Preacher, John Welwood, prophesied to the
Archbishop, “…his wicked life is now near an end, and
that his death will be sudden, bloody”
• Sharp was going to secure the King’s signature for a
new law suppressing Coventicles.
• A party of 12 Covenanters stopped the Carriage at
Magus Moor, near St Andrews.
• They assassinated Sharp in front of his daughter.

29th May 1679 - Rutherglen
• 70 Covenanters led by some who had assassinated the
Archbishop.
• On the King’s Restoration Day.
• Burned the Acts of Parliament and the Privy Council
• Denounced the Government.

John Graham of Claverhouse
• A soldier who had
fought in Europe
• Dragoon Captain
• Devoting himself to
eradicating
Covenanters in south-
west Scotland
• He was sent to engage
the Covenanters at
Rutherglen

GROWTH AND DIVISION
• The Covenanting Army grew from 250 to a force
of 6,000 in three weeks.
• Sir Robert Hamilton, the Leader, refused
fellowship with any who a countenanced
fellowship with Indulged Ministers.
• Preachers like John Welsh disagreed.
• Newcomers had to declare themselves.
• The debate soured the atmosphere of the camp.

DRUMCLOG – 1ST June 1670
• Well organised
Royal Army of
15,000
• Covenanters no
match
• Fled in panic
“I do really think there were
few or none that had both
powder and ball to shoot
twice” James Ure

THE GREYFRIARS PRISON
• 1200 detained
for 4 months
without shelter.
• Many were
released upon a
promise never to
return to armed
revolt.
• 257 deported.
• Their ship sank.
• 46 survived

The Silence of the Covenant
• Bothwell Bridge silenced the majority of
Covenanters
• Many chose the path of least resistance.
• These last years of persecution called for the
boldness of the bravest son and daughters of the
Covenant.
• To keep the flame alive.

THE LION OF THE COVENANT
• Richard Cameron
• Preacher
• Revolutionary
• Servant of God
• His followers were
the Cameronians.

The School Teacher’s Conversion
“In the sun-blink day of power when the
net of the Gospel was let down at the
right side of the ship, then a great
draught of perishing souls was
effectually caught”
Patrick Walker describing the Richard
Cameron’s conversion at a Coventicle

Ordained by Rev MacWard in Holland
“Richard, the public standard of the
Gospel is fallen in Scotland; and if I know
anything of the mind of the Lord, ye are
called to undergo your trials before us,
and go home and lift up the fallen
standard and display it before the
world….Here is the head of a faithful
minister of Jesus Christ who shall lose
the same for the Master’s interest.”

Ministry Begins October 1679
“Ye will not come to me that ye might
have life”
“A man shall be as an hiding place from
the wind”

Sanquar – 22nd June 1680
• Anniversary of
Bothwell Bridge.
• 20 armed men led by
Richard and brother
Michael.
• Declared war on
Charles 2nd
• “a tyrant and
usurper…enemies to
our Lord Jesus Chrst
and His cause and
Covenants…”

22rd July 1680
“Weep not for me but for
yourself and yours, and for the
sins of a sinful land; for ye have
many melancholy, sorrowful
weary days before you”

At Ayrsmoss
“Michael, come let us
fight it out to the last!
For this is the day that I
have longed for, and the
death that I have prayed
for, to die fighting
against the Lord’s
enemies: and this is the
day that we will get the
crown.”
Cameron was beheaded, his head
and hands displayed in Edinburgh
32 years of age

Cameron of the Covenant stood
And prayed the battle prayer;
Then with his brother side by side
Too up the Cross of Christ and died
Upon the Moss of Ayr
Henry Inglis

Donald Cargill
• Born, Perthshire, 1619
• Ordained – 1655
• Ejected from his
Glasgow Parish – 1662
• A Covenanting
Preacher for two
decades.
• Drew up the
Queensferry
Declaration
FAITHFUL FIELD
PREACHER

The Passionate Field Preacher
“Ever since I bowed the knee in good
earnest to pray, I never durst preach and
pray with my gifts; and where my heart
is not affected, and comes not up with
my mouth, I always thought it time for
me to quit it. What comes not from my
heart, I have little hope that it will go to
the heart of others.”

The Man of Prayer
“It was observed by some, both in
families and when in secret, always sat
straight upon his knees, without resting
upon anything, with his hands lifted up;
and some took notice he died the same
way, with the bloody rope about his
neck.””

Queensferry Declaration –
The Political Agitator
“We shall no more commit the government
of ourselves, and the making of laws for us,
to any one single person, or lineal successor,
we not being by God, as the Jews were,
bound to one single family; and this kind of
Government by a single person being most
liable to inconveniences, and aptest to
degenerate into tyranny, as long as sad
experience hath taught us”

The Covenanting Revolutionary
After excommunicating Charles 2nd and his
brother James from the Church:
“And as the causes are just, so being done by
a minister of the Gospel…and as there are no
kings or ministers on earth who, without
repentance of the persons, can reverse these
sentences. God, who is their Author, is the
more engaged to ratifying them; and all that
acknowledge the Scriptures ought to
acknowledge them.”

Cargill’s
Last Sermon
“Come my people enter into your chambers”
“He insisted what kinds of chambers these
were…exhorted us all earnestly to dwell in the
clefts of the rock, to hide ourselves in the wounds
of Christ, and to wrap ourselves in
the…promises…until these calamities pass over,
and the Dove come back with the olive branch in
her mouth.”

Hung and Beheaded
27th July
1681
“I am near to the possession of my crown,
which shall be sure; for I bless the Lord that
he hath brought me here, and makes me
triumph over devils and men and sin: they
shall wound me no more. I forgive all men
their wrongs they have done me; and I pray
the Lord to forgive the elect the wrongs
they have done against him.”

The Night Before Cargill’s Execution
the Duke of Rothes lay Dying
“We all thought little of what Cargill did in
excommunicating us; but I find that sentence
binding upon me now, and it will bind to
eternity”

James Duke of York
• July 1681
• Royal Commissioner of
Scotland.
• Religion of the
Monarch
inconsequential
• All holding office in the
state must conform to
the religion of the
Monarch – The Test.
• Imprisonment and
Banishment of the 2nd
Marquis of Argyll.
The King’s Brother
and future King

PLEDGE MADE BY CAMERONIAN
CHILDREN
“This is the Covenant between the
Lord and us to give up ourselves
freely to Him, without reserve, soul
and body, hearts and affections, to be
his children, and Him to be our God
and Father, if it please the holy Lord
to send His Gospel to the land again”

February 1685
• Charles 2nd dies
• James 2nd refused
to take the Scottish
Coronation Oath
• Intent on imposing
Roman
Catholicism.
• The darkest days of
the Covenant were
approaching.James 2nd

THE KILLING TIME
1685 - 1688
The Darkest Hour;
Before The Dawn

CRUEL TACTICS
• The Cameronians were the focus
• Bloodhounds employed, spies engaged
• Soldiers authorised to shoot without trial
• Sir James Johnston shot 17 year old
Andrew Hislop when his troops refused.
• Leut. Douglas murdered 5 Covenanting
Ministers at Ingliston.
• John Graham threatened to kill the
children if they did not betray their
parents and older siblings.

The Death of Old Soldier
“There is no safety but at
Christ's back, and I beseech
you, improve time, ye know
not, when the master
calleth, at midnight or the
cock crowing. Seek pardon
freely, and then He will
come with peace. Seek all
the graces of His Spirit -the
grace of love, the grace of
holy fear and humility"
Capt. John Patton
Martyred – May 1684

John Brown
“Isabel…prize
his company
and keep linen
by you to be
winding
sheet…and it
will be a
bloody one”
Martyred
May 1685
“I ever thought much
good of him…and
more than ever now”
“What
thinkest
thou of
thy
husband
now
woman”?

The child on the moss she laid
And she stretched the cold limbs of the dead
And drew the eyelid’s shade,
And bound the corpse’s shattered head,
And shrouded the martyr in his plaid,
And where the dead and living slept,
Sat in the wilderness and wept
Henry Inglis

The Two Margarets
“My sins and thoughts of
youth
Do thou, O Lord, forget
After thy mercy think on
me
And for thy goodness
great”
Martyred
May 1685

Long had they loved as Christians love –
These two so soon to die,
And each the other greeted first,
While weeping silently.
The matron wept that that young life
So timelessly must cease;
The maiden that that honoured head
Must not go down in peace
But soon, O soon it passed away
The coward thought and base
And each looked humbly, thankfully,
Into the other’s face
‘Mother, He rules the awful sea
With all its waters wild.’
‘The many waters are His Voice
Of love to thee my child’.
Harriet Stuart Mentrith

Puir Auld Sandy
“A glamour hangs about
his person, and we seem
to be walking among
enchantments and
marvels when we are in
company with him.
Weirdness, humour,
genius, mystery…“
Alexander Smellie
Alexander Peden’s
Death Mask

On Being from Ejected from New Luce
1663
“In my Master’s name I
arrest thee, that none
ever enter thee but such
as enter as I have done,
by the door.“

“Cast the lap of thy cloak over
puir auld Sandy”

Imprisonments
4 Years and 3 months on
the Bass Rock
15 months in the
Tolbooth Prison, Edinburgh

Refuge in County Antrim
Found a farmer whom
he heard in prayer:
“naming a great many
people who were in
the furnace”

Peden’s Preaching
“Where is the Church of
God in Scotland at this day?
It is not amongst the great
clergy. I will tell you where
the Church is. It is
wherever a praying young
man or woman is at the
dykeside in Scotland…It is
praying folk alone that will
get through the storm”
For 23 years Peden preached in
the moors and the heather until
his death in 1686.

James Renwick
1662 - 1688
• Born in a Covenanting
Home – 1662
• 1681 – dedicated his life
after watching Donald
Cargill die.
• Sent by the Cameronians
to Holland to train for
ministry.
• Ordained at 21.
“I think that if the Lord
could be tied to any place,
it is to moors and mosses
of Scotland”

Evangelical Fervour
“We must proclaim the word Come to you as
long as you are here, until you be
transplanted out of your spiritual warfare
into ecclesiastical triumph. O sirs, come,
come.”
Reenwick’s First Sermon at Cambusnethan

Four Years of Deprivation
“My business was never so
weighty; and my body was
never so frail. Excessive
travel, night wanderings,
unseasonable sleep and diet,
and frequent preaching in all
seasons and weather have so
debilitated me…but my
desire to the work, and the
necessity and importunity of
people prompts me to do
more than my natural
strength will well allow…”
Covenanters’
Caves

Privy Council
• September 1684
• Special warrant issued for the
apprehension of Renwick.
• He was now the only Open Air
Preacher.
• The special interest is a testimony to
his popularity.
• He survived for a further 3 years.

Second Sanquar DeclarationSecond Sanquhar Declaration
• May 1685
• Terms similar to Cameron’s
• 200 armed men.
• Later issued arguments defending the position of
the United Societies (Cameronians)

1687 – Arrested in Edinburgh
“I have found Christ’s Cross
sweet and lovely, for I have
had many joyful hours and
not a fearful thought since I
came hither.”

Executed on 17th February 1688
“Yonder, is the welcome
warning to my marriage. The
Bridegroom is coming. I am
ready! I am ready! I shall be
above these clouds; then I
shall enjoy Thee and glorify
thee without intermission
forever.”

Within One Year
The Glorious Revolution
The Exile of James 2nd
Freedom for the Scottish
Church

COVENANTERS’ MEMORIAL
GREYFRIARS
"Halt passenger take heed what thou dost see
This tomb doth shew for what some men did die
Here lies interr'd the dust of these who stood
Gainst perjury resisting unto blood
Adhering to the Covenants and Laws
Establishing the same which was the Cause
Then their lives were sacrificed unto the Lust
Or Prelatist's abjur'd though here their dust
Lies mixt with murders and other crew
Whom justice did justly to death pursue
But as for this in them no cause was found
Worthy of death but only they were found
Constant and steadfast zealous witnessing
For the prerogatives of CHRIST their king
Which truths were feared by famous Guthrie's head
And all along to Mr Ranwick's blood
They did endure the wrath of enemies
Reproaches torments deaths and injuries
But yet they're these who from such troubles came
And now triumph in glory with the LAMB"

What were their losses and what were their gains?
Their losses were themselves and all that they had.
Their gains were great, not for themselves but for
their posterity…They made possible the lawfulness
of dissent in times of error…To them we owe our
way of love, our constitution, our
commonwealth…Their faith held no lifeless
opinions. It was spiritual and evangelical as they
they themselves were, alive unto God, taken up
with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ..”
Jock Purves in “Fair Sunshine”

Farewell,beloved sufferers, and followers
of the Lamb…Farewell night wanderings,
cold and weariness for Christ…Farewell
holy Scriptures wherewith my soul has
been many a day refreshed…Farewell
reading, singing and praying…Farewell
sweet believing. Welcome, immediate
presence of God and His Son Jesus Christ,
who only has redeemed me with His blood.

Christ's Crown and Covenant; The Heroism of the Scottish Covenanters

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Christ's Crown and Covenant; The Heroism of the Scottish Covenanters