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all one to him. If it were protracted it was welcome; if it were shortened it was welcome; His Master's time was the best.' Without his knowledge, however, and after he had refused to ask it, a reprieve was granted him till the 17th. The object of this reprieve was evidently to give time to the supporters of the Government to visit him, and try to draw from him some approval of the toleration. But they failed. Renwick remained firm.

On the 14th he was again brought before the Council. He was examined about the Informatory Vindication. He was told how kindly the Council had dealt with him in granting him a reprieve, and it was somewhat plainly hinted that if he would petition for it, a further lengthening out of his term would be given him. But Renwick would do nothing that would seem to own the right of Government to grant toleration irrespective of Parliament. In prison none of his friends, except his mother and sisters, was allowed to visit him. His Testimony that he had begun to write, and even paper and ink, were taken from him. Yet, says his biographer, 'by secret conveyance he got a short word sent out the night before his suffering.'

This short word' is his 'Last Speech and Testimony,' given in the 'Cloud of Witnesses.' It very happily presents the three points for which he suffered, and it gives full evidence of his faith and hope. The original autograph is in the Free College Library, Edinburgh. The handwriting shows marks of haste, or of being under some restraint, but it has much of the legibility and even beauty of his earlier letters. The document, as a whole, is in every way honourable to Renwick, and nobly closes up the roll of the testimonies of 'The Cloud of Witnesses' in Scotland for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ. Its last sentences

are:

I may say to His praise that I have found His cross sweet and lovely unto me; for I have had many joyful hours, and not a fearful thought since I came to prison. He hath strengthened me to outbrave man and outface death; and I am now longing for the joyful hour of my dissolution; and there is nothing in [the] world that I am sorry to leave but you; but I go unto better company, and so I must take my leave of you all. Farewell, beloved sufferers, and followers of the Lamb! Farewell, Christian intimates! Farewell, Christian and comfortable mother and sisters! Farewell, sweet societies! Farewell, desirable general meetings! Farewell, night wanderings, cold, and weariness for Christ! Farewell, sweet Bible and preaching of the gospel! Farewell, sun, moon, and stars, and all sublunary things! And farewell, conflicts with a body of death! Welcome, scaffold for precious Christ! Welcome, heavenly Jerusalem! Welcome, innumerable company of angels! Welcome, general assembly and Church of the firstborn! Welcome, crown of glory and white robes, and song of Moses and the Lamb!

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Friday, February 17, was the day of his execution. In the morning the jailor visited him, and desired him when upon the scaffold to say nothing of the cause of his death; but Renwick answered, What God would give him to speak that he would speak, and nothing else, and nothing less. The jailor next told him that he might have his life if he would sign the petition he presented him. But Renwick declined, as such a signing would be a giving up of his testimony for Christ. Renwick now asked that his mother and sisters be permitted to stay with him for a short time. This request was at first refused, on the ground that he might give them papers to carry out, but on Renwick's saying he might search and see, it was granted.

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Renwick now spent an hour with his weeping mother and sisters. He talked and prayed without fear. In prayer, he run much out in praises, and pleaded much in behalf of the suffering remnant.' When the drum beat for the guard to take him out, he cried as if in transport, Yonder, the welcome warning to my marriage. The Bridegroom is coming, I am ready, I am ready.' He took his leave of his mother and sisters, and entreated them not to be cast down, for ere all were done they should see matter of praise in that day's mercy.

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He was first taken to the Town Council Chamber, where his sentence was read to him, and he was told that what he had to say must be said there, but he firmly declined. was next told that the drums would be beat all the time at the scaffold, and therefore he must now pray, but he refused. He was then desired to forbear reflections. He replied, I have not premeditated anything, but what the Lord gives me that I will speak.

He was now led along the High Street and down the West Bow to the Grassmarket, to the spot, still marked by a cross in the pavement, where so many had already suffered, and where, he had told his mother that morning, he had seen Robert Gray, a worthy Englishman, suffer for the same cause six years before-May 19, 1682. He went to the scaffold 'very cheerfully, as one in a transport of triumphant joy, and had the greatest crowd of spectators that readily was seen at an execution.' As the Town Council told him, the drums beat all the time he was on the scaffold, so that little could be heard of what he said. But the Council, at Renwick's request, permitted a friend, whose name Shields does not give, to be with him, and to him we are indebted for a report of what he said.

When he mounted the scaffold, he was again told that he need not say anything, for the people could not hear. But he proceeded to

sing the 103d Psalm, to read Revelation, chapter xix., and then to pray. He commended his soul to God through the Redeemer, and His cause to be vindicated in His own time. He blessed the Lord that He had honoured him with the crown of martyrdom. He complained that he was hindered in worshipping, but by-and-by,' he said, 'I shall be above the clouds, then I shall enjoy Thee, and glorify Thee without interruption or intermission forever.'

After prayer, he addressed the people much in the words of what he had written in his Testimony, but he was not allowed to finish all he intended to say, and he was ordered to go up the ladder, where in prayer he said, Lord, I die in the faith that Thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that Thou wilt make the blood of Thy witnesses the seed of Thy Church, and return again, and be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready, the bride, the Lamb's wife, hath made herself ready.' The napkin was then tied about his face, when he spoke a few words of counsel and encouragement to the friend who had attended him. He was now turned off the ladder, and died with the language of Psalm xxx. 5 on his lips: Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.'

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Thus died Mr James Renwick,' says his friend and biographer, Alexander Shields, on the third day over the twenty-sixth year of age, a young man and a young minister, but a ripe Christian and renowned martyr of Christ, for whose sake he loved not his life dear unto the death, by whose blood and the word of His testimony he overcame.' The entry in the Edinburgh Tolbooth records is very curt:

'Edr 17 feb. 1688 Mr James Renwick execut then att the Grass mercate betwixt two and four in the afternoone conforme to his sentence'

'In the Passages in the Lives of Helen Alexander and James Currie,' printed for family use, in 1869, by one of their descendants, Sir Charles U. Aitchison, K.C.S.I., her Majesty's Chief Commissioner in British Burmah, Helen Alexander records that she was 'married in the year 1687, November 30, by the worthy Mr James Renwick. And when Mr Renwick was execute, I went and saw him in prison; and I said to him, "Ye will get the white robes;" and he said, "And palms in my hands." And when he was execute, I went in to the Greyfreer's Yard, and I took him in my arms till his cloathes were taken off, and I helped to wind him before he was put in the coffin.'

He was buried in the north-east corner of the churchyard, in the spot where the mortal remains of so many other witnesses lie. This spot was, in the intention of the Government, that where criminals were buried, but the tradition is that the gravedigger, secretly inclined to the cause of freedom, took care that the

martyrs were all buried in a corner that had never been disturbed by the bodies of those who had been put to death because of their crimes.

In 1748 William Wilson published two 18mo volumes, with the title: 'A Choice Collection of very valuable Prefaces, Lectures, and Sermons, preached upon the mountains and muirs of Scotland in the hottest time of the late persecution, by that faithful minister and martyr of Jesus Christ, the Reverend Mr James Renwick.' The collection contains fifty-five different pieces. It has been several times reprinted in an octavo volume. None of its contents was revised by Renwick himself. It is entirely from notes taken by his hearers. It is, nevertheless, a very creditable collection, and says much for the earnestness and evangelic savour that must have characterised Renwick's ministrations. So far as we have compared the contents of Wilson's volumes with such of the sermons as we have seen in a manuscript form in old note-books, they have been printed very much as he found them. In giving a specimen of Renwick's preaching, we have not gone to the printed collection, as it is an easily-met with book; and notwithstanding its excellence as a faithful transcript of notes taken by hearers, it is yet something Renwick never saw. We have preferred to take a hitherto unpublished letter, which we have transcribed from Renwick's own autograph. The letter is one of much beauty, and explains why the memory of James Renwick should still be cherished by pious people in Scotland. It will be found upon page 205.

In 1724 John M'Main, M.A., schoolmaster at Liberton's Wynd, Edinburgh, published in an 18mo volume of 248 pages, Alexander Shields' Life of Renwick.' Shields finished it in September 1688, but it had lain in manuscript until it came into M'Main's possession. M'Main has added to it a preface of forty pages, in which he takes exception to Wodrow's History for doing scant justice to the sufferers whose testimonies are given in the 'Cloud of Witnesses.' Shields' Life, as written before the Revolution, contains a good deal of stronglyworded declamation against the tyranny and cruelty of the Government. In our peaceful times we naturally wish he had given more of a narrative of what Renwick did and suffered, and less declamation. But the declamation was, no doubt, what was most needed when the book was written.

TAKE HEED HOW YE HEAR. - Attentive hearing is as important as faithful preaching, 'The poorest gospel preaching, well listened to, is better than eloquence merely enjoyed as a pleasant song. Men should take heed what they hear-not pleasant things but useful ones; not error but truth. Time is short. The hearer is to be a preacher as well as hearer. Truth is measured to him that he may mete it to others. By this means the kingdom is to be advanced and souls saved.

APRIL 17.

A Daily Portion.

'FOR WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: NOT FOR THAT

WE WOULD BE UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED
UPON, THAT MORTALITY MIGHT BE SWAL-
LOWED UP OF LIFE,'-2 Cor. v. 4.

We groan, being burdened; wherefore-.., because thus burdened-we do not wish to die; death is not that for which we long, but that which comes after death. It is not mere exemption from the burden of life, from its duties, its labours, or its sufferings, which is the object of desire, but to be in heaven. That mortality (that which is mortal) may be swallowed up of life-i.e., absorbed by it so that the one ceases to appear, and the other becomes dominant. This is the elevated ob

ject of the Apostle's longing desire. It was not death, not annihilation, nor mere exemption from suffering; but to be raised to that higher state of existence in which all that was mortal, earthly, and corrupt about him should be absorbed in the life of God, that divine and eternal life arising from the beatific vision of God, and consisting in perfect knowledge, holiness, and blessedness.-C. Hodge.

APRIL 18.

'NOW HE THAT HATH WROUGHT US FOR THE SELFSAME THING IS GOD, WHO ALSO HATH

GIVEN UNTO US THE EARNEST OF THE
SPIRIT.'-2 Cor. v. 5.

God had not only prepared him for future glory, but had given him the assurance of a blessed immortality, of which the indwelling of the Holy Ghost was the earnest-i.e., a foretaste and pledge. The object of the Apostle's desire was not the resurrection, nor the change which the living believer is to experience at Christ's coming, but the state of glory immediately subsequent to death. It is therefore of that the Holy Spirit is here declared to be the earnest. Elsewhere, as in Romans viii. 11, the indwelling of the Spirit is represented as the pledge of the future life of the body, because He is the source of that life which the believer derives from Christ, and which pertains to the body as well as to the soul. All therefore in whom the Spirit dwells-i.e., manifests His permanent presence by producing within them the Christian graces have the pledge of immediate admission into heaven when they die, and of a glorious resurrection when the Lord comes.-C. Hodge.

APRIL 19.

'FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.'— 2 Cor. v. 7.

This is a passing, parenthetical remark, intended as a confirmation of the preceding declaration. 'We are absent from the Lord, for we now, in this life, walk by faith.' The passage is parallel to Romans viii. 24, 'We

are saved by hope' (or in hope-i.e., in prospect). Salvation is not a present, but a future good. So here, presence with the Lord is now a matter of faith, not of fruition. The condition of our present state of being is that of believing. The faith which is the evidence of things not seen and the substance (or assurance) of things hoped for, is the element in which we live, so long as we are not present with those things. Being the objects of faith, they are of course absent.-C. Hodge.

APRIL 20.

'WE ARE CONFIDENT, I SAY, AND WILLING RATHER TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY, AND TO BE PRESENT WITH the Lord.'-2 Cor. v. 8.

It is absence from the body and presence with the Lord, not the being changed from corruptible to incorruptible without dying, that he earnestly longed for. The Lord is of course Christ, the supreme Lord, who in virtue of the fulness of the Godhead is the rightful sovereign and possessor of the universe, and in virtue of His dying for the redemption of His people, in a peculiar sense the sovereign and possessor of believers. The Christian's heaven is to be with Christ, for we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is Into His presence the believer passes as soon as he is absent from the body, and into His likeness the soul is at death immediately the body is made like unto His glorious body, transformed; and when at the resurrection, Awaiting this consummation, it is an inestimthe work of redemption is consummated. able blessing to be assured that believers, as soon as they are absent from the body, are present with the Lord.-C. Hodge.

APRIL 21.

FOR WE MUST ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.'-2 Cor. v. 10. As Christ is to be the Judge, as all men the heart are to be the grounds of judgment, are to appear before Him, as the secrets of it is obvious that the sacred writers believed Christ to be a divine person, for nothing less than omniscience could qualify any one for the office here ascribed to our Lord. The punishment which men are to receive will be what they have earned, and therefore what is in justice due to them. The reward of the righteous, although a matter of grace and not of justice, yet being, agreeably to the tenor of the covenant of grace, according to their works, it is of the nature of a reward. The pay of a faithful soldier is a matter of debt, titles and estates are matters of favour. There is no inconsistency, therefore, in the Scriptures denying all merit to believers, and yet teaching that they shall be rewarded according to their works.-C. Hodge.

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BY JAMES RENWICK, THE LAST WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM IN SCOTLAND.

From a hitherto unpublished Letter to Sir Robert Hamilton.

July ii, 1684.

RIGHT HONOURAable and DearRLY

BELOVED IN OUR Lord,—

The report of the continuance of your sympathy with us, and of the increase of your zeal for the Lord of hosts, is greatly encouraging and refreshing to me; and which thing, together with the great uniteness of my heart unto you, impels me to presume upon the writing of a line unto you, though I be unapt to write unto such, and know not how to explicate myself. Now, that which I mainly desire is to commend unto the world the loveliness of Christ, the preciousness of His cause, the easiness of His yoke, and the sweetness of His cross, whereof I am sure you are not ignorant. But O, this is a work above the reach of poor sinning finite creatures!

Who can think, who can speak, or who can write of this? The immeasurableness and freedom of the grace of Christ, the boundlessness of His power and infiniteness of His love, are such a bottomless deep of joyful wonder, wherein those who are made perfect are everlastingly drowned. What can we in this falling tabernacle say or think, who but see in part and know in part? But O, let us take our eyes from beholding vanity, and feed them allenarlie [i.e., only] upon the fulness and all-sufficiency of precious and glorious Christ. What doubts and fears can we have, but enough is there to solve and answer them unto us. And I think if we poor creatures, whenever a fear or doubt did arise, presently turned our eyes to contemplate Christ's free all-sufficiency, we would find it immediately to vanish as dispelled smoke, indiscernible. But ah! our tempers are sinfully ready rather to pore upon our fears than to employ Christ for our help; and thereby the life which we might have of joyful praise is turned into a life of despondent anxiety. O they that see Christ to be theirs can find no want.

And what mad fools, idle persons, and foolish choosers are they who make it not

their work to have Christ! But I confess Christ unto many (even that profess much) is as the ample world is to them; they have a passing view thereof, with little or nothing of possession. So many get a dissolving, transient view of Christ with the literal, illuminate eye of the mind, but have never a renewed heart to affect Him only for Hmself as the all-satisfying and enriching pearl of price. O these think they have a love to Him, but their desires are after that which is His and not after Himself. They desire liberation from the guilt and punishment of sin, and a possession in a heaven which they build up to themselves in their brain, but they care not though there were not such a thing as Jesus Christ. O what spurious love is this!

Can any in reason think but a suitor whom a maid condescended to match with only upon the accompt of his estate and means without regard of his person, had good ground to refuse such base and spurious love? And how shall Christ regard the adulterate love of such self-seekers? And another sort of folk covers over their pride with a vizor of humility, and cries forth, Christ is a King, and they are sitting upon a dunghill. How can they consent to so great and high a match! If they were queens they would do it. But O that such would consider that, while they seek anything in themselves to commend them to Christ, they will still stagger and stay away. But let them lay aside their coyness and once come to Him and match with Him, and He will make them queens and matches meet for Himself. Christ comes to woo His bride in the garments of condescendency. He took upon Him our nature, that He might say to the worms of the earth, 'Ye are My brethren and My sisters.' And O how glorious is He in those garments, being also clothed with the robes of ravishing majesty! How complete and how free a Saviour is He! Yea, how communicative a good; so that each of His own have Him-so as if not any other beside them had Him. Each of us hath

as much of the sun as we would have though there were no others on earth to partake with us. So is the enjoyment of that blessed Sun of Righteousness to all His chosen. Each one of them hath Him all.

O what a blessed enjoyment is this which each of His saints does enjoy without envying or wronging one another! What a blessed choice is Christ! What a lovely choice is He! O He is lovely- He is lovely! And all that choose Him will say that He is lovely, and that they have made a brave bargain. It was said of a heathen, Socrates, all that knew him loved him, and they that did not love him it was because they did not know him. Indeed, they that love not Christ it is because they know Him not. If He were known, what a great, gracious, powerful, loving, bountiful, and excellent One He is, the heart would be filled with love unto Him. If He were known -if He were known, the soul's outcry would be, 'He is altogether matchless; who is like unto Him?' Love thinketh the beloved hath no parallel, and love loveth all that is the beloved's. Hence, as Christ is lovely to His own, so His cause is precious. It is precious -it is precious. It is His declarative glory. It is that whereby He maketh His name known.

How honourable is it to be an owner of the same! What badges of honour are reproaches and revilings upon that account! As love unto Him makes His cause precious, so where that is nothing will be thought too costly to bestow upon the cause's accompt. What will love not undergo! What will love not forego for the beloved's honour! We need no more to commend this common cause unto us than this: It is Christ's cause. And, seeing His glory is concerned in it, it is our honour to be concerned with it. So also love to that lovely One, or an uptaking of His loveliness which cannot but beget love unto Him, maketh His yoke easy. Love is an oil to our wheels, to make them run swiftly and lightly the way of His commandments. O love makes obedience easy and pleasant work, for the command binds the conscience, and love gains the affections. So, when conscience and inclination go together, it must needs be an easy work. Christ's yoke was easy and pleasant unto David when he said (Ps. cxix. 127), 'I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.' And that which is greatly to be marked there is, as the world was casting off Christ's yoke, so David was taking it on more heartsomely. They have made void

Thy law, therefore I love Thy commandments, &c., saith he. A mark of true love indeed. The more that Christ is rejected and despised by others, the more to be beloved by His own.

O what shall be said of love to Christ! Love is a resolute soldier for Him; love is a valiant champion in His lists. Love despises, yea, I may say, wishes for difficulties to get itself shown. Love sees not a spot upon all the cross. Love gets never a bitter cup put into its hand but the beloved frowns. It thinks not His cross bitter, but reads delightsomeness engraven upon it. Love will rejoice to cross the natural part of the will to please Christ. Love will not stand to venture upon the swellings of Jordan with Him and for Him. The heaps of great waters are nothing in love's eye. The deeper that love wades it thinks it the sweeter. Losses, wanderings, tossings, deaths, and dangers are nothing to love. Cant. viii. 6, 7: Love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.' O what shall I say? Let us love Christ. Let us love Him and exalt His grace. And they that do not, let them be Anathema Maranatha.

Now, right honourable and dearly beloved in our lovely Lord, ye have expressed greatly your love to wronged Christ and His precious cause by your standing still to condole and commisserate the case of His mournful and distressed people in this land. Ye have evidenced heart sympathy with us. Your hands have not been bound up from helping, strengthening, and encouraging us Ye have been instruments to minister a refreshful cup of consolation unto us. Ye have stood with us when others have left us. O stand by truth and duty; keep thereby, though all men should deny the one and forsake the other. Let this be your study, and our study. And so let us stand on with and for another. Let nothing damp you or mar your confidence. The cause is the Lord's. He shall prevail. He will overturn thrones and kingdoms, and get Himself a name. And amongst the rest the tribe of Levi must get a dash; but go ye on. Let it be your only work to follow the Lord fully and seriously, and your latter end shall be peace. Thus committing you all unto the Lord for directing and upholding grace, for His making you in your places and stations, as hitherto He hath done in a great measure, brazen walls and iron pillars against

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