Chapter 4

RENWICK'S MARTYRDOM AND TESTIMONY.

This devoted servant of Christ, though worn with incessant labours, was found actively engaged in his darling work when he was called to receive his reward. On the 24th and 27th of January, he preached in Fifeshire, and at Borrowstoness, on the 29th. The last night of the month, he lodged with a friend in Edinburgh. On the morning of the 1st of February, the house was beset with soldiers, in the employment of the persecuting Council. When Renwick attempted to escape, he was arrested near the Cowgate, and was carried by Graham the captain of the guard, before a quorum of the Council, by whom he was committed to close prison, and laid in irons. When he stood in the presence of those who had issued against him fierce proclamations, and had sought his life, they were surprised at his youthful appearance, and his comely countenance, and one exclaimed, "Is this the boy Renwick, that the whole nation was so troubled with," Renwick replied only with a quiet smile.

On the 3d of February, he was brought before the Council, and received his indictment. In it, he was charged with casting off the fear of God--disowning the king's authority--preaching in the fields--and teaching the people to refuse to pay cess, and to carry arms in self-defence. It is related of Renwick, when he became a prisoner, that, though he had grace given willingly to offer his life to confirm his testimony, he yet dreaded torture. Having in prayer freely surrendered his life to God, he obtained in answer the assurance that enemies would not have the power to inflict on him torture. This he afterwards told his mother in prison, shortly before his execution, when she was expressing concern about seeing his head and hands on the ports of the city. He said he was persuaded that the persecutors would "not be permitted to torture his body, nor touch one hair of his head farther."

He was so open and candid hi his answers that the members of the Justiciary were to some extent favourably impressed, and this had doubtless some influence in preventing him from being tortured. He enjoyed so much of Divine presence from his entrance into prison, till his execution, that to his mother he said, "he could hardly pray, being so much taken up with praise, and ravished with the joy of the Lord." When before the Justiciary, on the 14th February, he confessed to all in the indictment, save the first article, charging him with having "cast off all fear of God." He said, "It is because I feared to offend God, and to violate His law, that I am here to-day, standing to be condemned." When asked about disowning the king's authority, he answered like a true Protestant and a heroic patriot--"I own all authority that hath its prescriptives and limitations from the word of God; but I cannot own this usurper as lawful king--seeing both by the word of God, such a one is incapable to bear rule, and likewise by the ancient laws of the kingdom, which admit none to the crown of Scotland until he swear to defend the Protestant religion, which a man of his profession cannot do."

At the close of his examination, when asked if he would subscribe his Testimony, he did so, with protestation that he subscribed it as his testimony, but not as recognizing the authority of his judges. When condemned to be executed in the Grassmarket, on the Friday following, he was asked by the Justice General if he desired a longer time, he declared, "It was all one to him; if the time was protracted, it was welcome; if it was shortened, it was welcome too;--his Master's time was the best." Without his knowledge he was reprieved for ten days, till the 17th of February, as the persecutors were to some degree sated with blood, and perhaps somewhat troubled in conscience by the demeanor of the youthful confessor. After his condemnation was pronounced, many attempts were made to shake his constancy. Several petitions were written for him, but he refused resolutely to sign any of them. It was at one time proposed to him, that his dropping a few drops of ink on paper would be sufficient: this however, he promptly refused, alleging that it would be so far an owning of wicked authority, and a renunciation of his whole testimony.

His friends were denied access to him in prison; paper and ink were removed from him, and also part of his dying testimony which he had written. Others--persons in authority--prelates, curates, and popish priests visited him. His Christian firmness resisted all their attempts to make him swerve from his principles; while several of them were struck and overawed by the power of his singular wisdom, gentleness, and unaffected goodness. Viscount Tarbet, a man of intellect, but noted for his lax accommodating principles, said of Renwick, after several times visiting him, "He was the stiffest maintainer of his principles that ever came before us. Others we used always to cause at one time or other to waver; but him we could never move. We could never make him yield nor vary in the least. He was of old Knox's principles."

The testimony of Renwick contained in the "CLOUD OF WITNESSES," was written the night before he suffered, and in near anticipation of his martyrdom. His mother and sisters were allowed to be with him for a short time, on the morning of the day of his execution: In giving thanks at food in their presence, he said--"Lord! Thou hast brought me within two hours of eternity, and this is no matter of terror to me, more than if I rose to go to lie down on a bed of roses. Nay, through grace, to thy praise, I may say, I had never the fear of death since I came within this prison; but from the place I was taken in, I could have gone very composedly to the scaffold." Again, he said, "Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. Could I ever have thought that the fear of suffering and death could be so taken from me? What shall I say of it? It is the doing of the Lord and marvellous in our eyes." He asked, "I have many times counted the cost of following Christ, but never expected it would have been so easy. Now, who knows the honour and happiness of that--'He that confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father!' Several times, he said, _"Now that I am so near the end of time, I desire to bless the Lord: it is inexpressibly sweet and satisfying peace to me, that He has kept me in the least from complying with enemies."_ On the morning of his execution, he wrote his last letter to his most attached friend, Sir Robert Hamilton, who was then an exile in Holland, for the sacred cause for which Renwick suffered. Every part of this brief epistle is calm and thoughtful, and bespeaks the joyful serenity of the martyr's spirit. "This," he writes, "being my last day on earth, I thought it my duty to send you this, my last salutation. The Lord has been wonderfully gracious to me since I came to prison. He has assured me of His salvation, helped me to give a testimony for Him, and to say before his enemies all that I have taught, and strengthened me to resist and repel many temptations and assaults." He closes, with these simple, solemn, and affecting words--"But I must break off, I go to your God and my God. _Death is to me as a bed to the weary._"

When the drums beat for his execution, he exclaimed, "Yonder is my welcome call to the marriage. The Bridegroom is coming. I am ready." On the scaffold, he sung the first part of the 3d Psalm, read the 19th chapter of Revelations, and prayed. When he was rudely interrupted, he said, "I shall soon be above these clouds. Then shall I enjoy Thee and glorify Thee, O my Father, without intermission and interruption for ever." In the few sentences that he was permitted to speak to the spectators from the scaffold, after commending the Lord's special mercy to him, in washing away his sins, and honouring him to suffer for His name's sake, he declared he laid down his life mainly for three things: 1. For disavowing the usurpation and tyranny of James, Duke of York. 2. Preaching that it is unlawful to pay cess, expressly exacted for bearing down the gospel, and 3. Teaching that it is lawful for people to carry arms for defending themselves in their meetings for persecuted gospel ordinances." At the close, he said, "I leave my testimony against Popery, Prelacy, and Erastianism, and against all profanity, and every thing contrary to sound doctrine, and the power of godliness; particularly against all usurpations and encroachments made upon Christ's rights, who alone must bear the glory of ruling His own kingdom, the Church; and in particular, against this absolute power, usurped by this usurper, that belongs to no mortal; but is the incommunicable property of Jehovah; and against this toleration flowing from this absolute power." Here he was compelled to leave off speaking, and to go up the ladder. He then prayed again, and said, "Lord! I die in the faith that Thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that Thou will make the blood of thy witnesses to be the seed of the Church, and will return again and be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready; the Bride, the Lamb's wife, hath made herself ready." When the napkin was tied about his face, he uttered a few affectionate words to the single friend who was permitted to attend him on the scaffold; his last counsels then spoken to the suffering remnant, show how much his heart was with them, and the cause of truth in their hands. "As to the remnant I leave, I have committed them to God. Tell them from me, not to weary, nor be discouraged in maintaining their testimony. Let them not quit or forego one of these despised truths. Let them keep their ground; and the Lord will provide them churches and ministers. And _when He comes, He will make these despised truths glorious in the earth._"

In the close of his testimony, written in prison, the day before his execution, there are those sublime and affecting expressions, which were designed to be his last words from the scaffold--"Farewell, beloved sufferers, and followers of the Lamb. Farewell, Christian and comfortable mother and sisters. Farewell, sweet societies and desirable general meetings. Farewell! night wanderings in all seasons for Christ, and all sublunary things. Farewell! conflicts with a body of sin and death. Welcome, scaffold, for precious Christ. Welcome, heavenly Jerusalem. Welcome, innumerable company of angels. Welcome, crown of glory. Welcome, above all, O Thou blessed Trinity and one God. O Eternal One, I commit my soul into thy eternal rest."

The relentless persecutors of our Presbyterian forefathers were not content with removing this eminent servant of God, by a violent death; as if to throw upon him the utmost indignity, his body was buried in the common grave of felons, at the lower entrance of the Greyfriars Church-yard, a plain slab of stone erected over the spot, stating that the dust of the Rev. James Renwick lies interred with that of eight other martyrs, and with the remains of a hundred common felons. The emblem and inscription on the stone point, however, to the glory reserved for faithful servants of Christ, when the sufferings of the Church shall have been completed, and antichristian power shall have been overthrown. The emblem is an open Bible, with the words in Revelation vi. 9, 10, 11, inserted underneath.

Though enemies thus did their utmost to pour dishonour on the name and memory of Renwick, and to extinguish the cause for which he suffered, yet the Redeemer whom he intensely loved, and faithfully served, has in his providence, vindicated the one, as He has preserved, and will yet more extensively and gloriously display the other. Not only have eminent historians and other distinguished writers, in recent times, done justice to the character and labours of Renwick, and the contendings of the Society people; but within the last few years, by several public Commemorative services in Scotland, the spirit and testimony of the later Scottish martyrs, have been held forth as worthy of the grateful regard of posterity, and commended to their imitation and adoption. The Bicentenary of the SANQUHAR DECLARATION was commemorated with appropriate services,--upwards of 4000 persons of different religious denominations convening at the ancient burgh of Sanquhar for this purpose. The addresses delivered on the occasion by ministers and others, ably displayed and vindicated the position assumed by Richard Cameron, and his followers, and commended to public approval their testimony. Some three years ago, a like public commemoration of Renwick's birth and martyrdom was celebrated, at the place of his nativity near MONIAIVE, in the south of Scotland,--ministers and people of the Free, United, and Reformed Presbyterian Churches manifesting the deepest interest in the proceedings. Besides the ministers and large concourse of people--many of them gathered from great distances, that met in the open air, near the place of Renwick's birth,--numerous congregations assembled in different houses of worship, observed the solemn occasion with solemn devotional exercises. The addresses delivered were a suitable tribute to the spirit and conduct of the covenanted martyrs; and various articles of their special testimony were clearly displayed and ably vindicated. An admirable sermon was preached at this commemoration by Rev. WILLIAM ANDERSON of Loanhead, which has since been published under the title of "_the Voice of Renwick_," and extensively circulated. It contains a condensed, yet lucid sketch of the life, labours and sufferings of Renwick, a faithful portraiture of his character, and an able exposition and defence of the great principles of the testimony of the Scottish martyrs. There has been published in modern times no juster or more appropriate tribute to the character, principles, and heroic deeds of these faithful confessors, than is contained in this discourse. On this account, as well as for the weighty practical lessons which it enforces, it is of no local or ephemeral interest, but deserves to be transmitted along with the testimonies of the Presbyterian martyrs to future generations. These movements indicate the gracious design of Zion's King to put lasting and increasing honour upon those who cheerfully suffered the loss of all things in maintaining his cause, and of yet reviving the principles for which they nobly contended. Though the day may be distant when these nations shall voluntarily and generally return to allegiance to Prince Messiah, yet, as the dimness of the hour is the sure precursor of the perfect day, and the cloud like a man's hand betokened "abundance of rain," so these grateful reminiscences of the covenanted martyrs and their distinctive testimony, point to a day of deliverance and brightness approaching, when Antichristian error and idolatry shall be overthrown, and the reign of righteousness and truth shall be universally established.

CONCLUSION.

The record of the life, labours, and testimony, of James Renwick is fraught with _practical lessons_ of the highest value to the Church in the present day; and ministers, theological students, and the rising youth of the Church generally have a special interest in pondering them deeply, and in seeking to reduce them to practice.

From Renwick's personal history, we see--1. An instance of the Divine blessing on parental dedication, and early religious instruction, confirming the truth of the Divine promise, and exhibiting the unspeakable benefit of the faithful labours of godly parents, especially of mothers, to the Church. 2. It is impressively shown too, that a person's work and influence for good, is not dependent on birth or station in life, or on outward advantages. Many of the most eminent servants of Christ, like Luther and Renwick, sprung from the humbler ranks of society, and before they came forward to public usefulness, had to contend with great difficulties. Grace ennobled them. God often chooses "the weak things" of the world to "confound the mighty." His servants are raised from the dunghill to sit among princes. In heaven's heraldry, a man's rank is taken, not from hereditary titles, or possessions, but from grace renewing and sanctifying the heart, and a life of true devotedness to Christ and his service. 3. We are taught to lay no stress on present prosperity, but to do God's work, looking for the recompense of reward which He gives. A noble forgetfulness of self, and mortification to the favour of the world, have characterized all Christ's most approved servants. Dr. Payson relates about himself, what has been experienced by many faithful men, "When I thought myself to be _something_, I never knew happiness of mind; since I came to feel myself nothing, and Christ all, I have realized full satisfaction and joy." Renwick reviled, calumniated, and persecuted in his day, while esteeming all but loss for Christ, enjoyed in life and death, peace surpassing understanding--his name will be ever fragrant, and his memorial everlasting.

4. Again, Renwick's life presents a bright and attractive _example of the graces of fervent piety_. There shines forth in his character, in harmonious display and concentrated lustre, an array of lovely and ennobling features. To faith, he added virtue, and knowledge, patience, temperance, godliness, &c. (2 Pet. i. 5-7.) His Christian _wisdom_ is singularly conspicuous. Renwick was blamed in his own day by time-servers and backsliders as imprudent; and those who maintain the same testimony even in our times, are characterized as foolish, imprudent, and infatuated. Certainly, if wisdom consists only in securing present temporal gain--fleeting pleasure and the applause of the world, then Renwick and his followers have no claim to be considered wise. But if the "beginning" and spirit of true wisdom are the "fear of the Lord;" and if it is shown in preferring the advancement of God's glory and the enjoyment of His favour to all else, and in seeking the attainment of those ends by means divinely appointed, and approved, then the persecuted remnant were eminently wise. By opposing Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, and arbitrary power, and pleading resolutely for the covenant liberties of the Church and nation, they proposed to themselves holy ends. Their faithful contendings; their stern denunciations of royal perfidy and tyranny; their organization of societies, and a general correspondence; their proclaiming open opposition to usurped authority; and, above all, their willing sacrifice of life rather than abandon right principles, evince true wisdom. These were the best means that could possibly have been adopted to expose the countless evils of the government of the royal brothers; and to rouse the dormant spirit of the nation, to hurl tyrants and oppressors from the throne, and to establish constitutional liberty. Then, the _fidelity_ of Renwick and the Cameronians were seen in maintaining fully their testimony to the whole covenanted reformation, amidst manifold perils, when the large body of Presbyterians had made defection. The standard which they firmly grasped and refused to surrender had its glorious motto, "FOR CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT." The central doctrine of the Redeemer's Headship over the Church and the nations, occupied a first place in all the testimonies emitted in their general meetings, and uttered on scaffolds and fields of blood. Connected with this, as necessary corollaries, were the supremacy of Holy Scripture--the spiritual independence of the Church, and the subjection of rulers and national legislation to the sceptre of the reigning Mediator. On these grounds, they not only rejected infamous rulers, but condemned and rejected with utter abhorrence the royal supremacy. The sentiment expressed in the words subscribed to the minutes of their general meetings--"LET KING JESUS REIGN,[5] declare the leal allegiance of Renwick and the persecuted Covenanters to Prince Messiah. Earnestly did they seek to have the authority of King Jesus universally acknowledged, honoured, and obeyed. They believed firmly the sure word of prophecy that "all kings shall fall down before Him; and all nations shall serve Him." "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." Psal. lxxii. 11, 8. So should we also aim to be faithful to Christ and His cause; to our own sacred vows; to the souls of men; and to the blood-bought privileges that have been entrusted to us to preserve and transmit. We are responsible, not for success, but for fidelity; and the promised reward will be a glorious recompense for all trial and suffering. "Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

Renwick was, furthermore, distinguished by a _catholic, genial, loving spirit_. This characteristic is not generally thought to have been prominent in the spirit of illustrious reformers and suffering confessors. Luther, Calvin, and Knox, have been represented as unsocial, morose fanatics, and gloomy bigots. Renwick has been branded as rigid and austere, and those who have embraced and faithfully maintained the same testimony have been exhibited as sectaries of the deepest dye. No representation could be more unjust, and none is more opposed to historic truth. Luther was most genial and loving, as his "Table Talk," and the record of his domestic life, abundantly testify. Calvin's "Letters" collected by Bonnet, show how keenly and long he felt the death of his wife and infant child; how deeply his heart was affected with the sufferings of Protestants everywhere, even of those who differed from him in principle; and attest, moreover, the warmth and constancy of his friendship. Knox's declaration before Queen Mary, that he was always affected by the crying of his infant children, shows his gentle and susceptible disposition; while his letters to his wife and mother-in-law bear witness, equally to his piety, and to the depth of tender feeling that filled his large heart. Renwick was, at all times, a loving, thoughtful, and confiding friend, as many passages in his "Letters" declare. The annals of the persecution, and the traditions of suffering times, testify to his genial disposition, even when he was harassed by relentless enemies, and his heart was overwhelmed with incessant cares and anxieties.