Part 7 (1/2)

_The Life of Mr. JOHN SCRIMZEOR._

He was settled minister at Kinghorn, in the s.h.i.+re of Fyfe, and went as chaplain with King James in the year 1590, to Denmark, when he brought home his queen. He was afterwards concerned in several important affairs of the church, until that fatal year 1618, when the five articles of Perth were agreed on in an a.s.sembly held at that place. He attended at this a.s.sembly, and gave in some proposals[48], upon being (along with others of his faithful brethren) excluded from having a vote by the prevailing party of that a.s.sembly.

In 1620, he was with some others, summoned before the high commission-court, for not preaching upon holy days, and not administring the communion conform to the agreement at Perth, with certification if this was proven, that he should be deprived of exercising the functions of a minister in all time coming. But there being none present on the day appointed, except the bishops of St. Andrews, Glasgow and the isles, and Mr. Walter Whiteford, they were dismissed at that time; but were warned to compear again on the first of March. The bishops caused the clerk to exact their consent to deprivation, in case they did not compear against that day. Nevertheless, they all protested with one voice, That they would never willingly renounce their ministry, and such was the resolution and courage of Mr. Scrimzeor, that notwithstanding all the threatening of the bishops, he celebrated the communion conform to the antient practice of the church, a few days thereafter.

On the day appointed for their next compearance, the bishops of St.

Andrews, Dunkeld, Galloway, the isles, Dumblain, Mr. Hewison commissary of Edinburgh, and Dr. Blair, being a.s.sembled in the bishop of St.

Andrews lodging in Edinburgh, Mr. John Scrimzeor was again called upon to answer, and the bishop of St. Andrews alleged against him, that he had promised either to conform or quit his ministry, as the act at his last compearance on January 26th reported; he replied, ”I am fore straitned, I never saw reason to conform; and as for my ministry, it was not mine and so I could not quit it.” After long reasoning betwixt him and the bishops, concerning church policy and the keeping of holy days, he was removed for a little. Being called in again, the bishop of St.

Andrews told him, ”You are deprived of all function within the kirk, and ordained within six days to enter in ward at Dundee.” ”It is a very summary and peremptory sentence,” said Mr. Scrimzeor, ”ye might have been advised better, and first have heard what I would have said.” ”You shall be heard,” said the bishop. This brought on some further reasoning, in the course of which Mr. Scrimzeor gave a faithful testimony against the king's supremacy over the church, and among other things said, ”I have had opportunity to reason with the king himself on this subject, and have told him that Christ was the sovereign, and only director of his house; and that his majesty was subject to him. I have had occasion to tell other mens matters to the king, and could have truly claimed this great preferment.” ”I tell you Mr. John,” said the bishop of St. Andrews, ”that the king is pope, and shall be so now;” He replied, ”That is an evil style you give him:” And then gave in his reasons in write, which they read at leisure. Afterwards the bishop of St. Andrews said to him, ”Take up your reasons again, if you will not conform, I cannot help it; the king must be obeyed, the lords have given sentence and will stand to it.” ”Ye cannot deprive me of my ministry,”

said Mr. Scrimzeor, ”I received it not from you; I received it from the whole synod of Fyfe, and, for any thing ye do, I will never think myself deposed.” The bishop of St. Andrews replied, ”You are deprived only of the present exercise of it.”--Then he presented the following protestation, ”I protest before the Lord Jesus, that I get manifest wrong; my reasons and allegations are not considered and answered. I attest you to answer at his glorious appearance, for this and such dealings, and protest that my cause should have been heard as I pled, and still plead and challenge. I likewise appeal to the Lord Jesus, his eternal word, to the king my dread sovereign, his law, to the const.i.tution of this kirk and kingdom, to the councils and a.s.semblies of both, and protest that I stand minister of the evangel, and only by violence I am thrust from the same.” ”You must obey the sentence,” said the bishop of St. Andrews; he answered, ”That Dundee was far off, and he was not able for far journeys, as physicians can witness.” And he added, ”Little know ye what is in my purse.” ”Then where will you choose the place of your confinement,” said the bishop: He answered, ”At a little room of my own called Bowhill, in the parish of Auchterderran.” Then said the bishop, ”Write, At Bowhill, during the king's pleasure.” Thus this worthy servant of Christ lived the rest of his days in Auchterderran. In his old age he was grievously afflicted with the stone. He said to a G.o.dly minister, who went to see him a little before his death, ”I have been a rude stunkard all my life, and now by this pain the Lord is humbling me to make me as a lamb, before he take me to himself.”

He was a man somewhat rude-like in his clothing, and in some of his expressions and behaviour; and yet was a very loving tender hearted man; of a deep natural judgment; and very learned, especially in Hebrew. He often wished that most part of books were burnt, except the bible, and some short notes thereon. He had a peculiar talent for comforting the dejected. He used a very familiar but pressing manner of preaching. He was also an eminent wrestler with G.o.d, and had more than ordinary power and familiarity with him, as appears from the following instances.

When he was minister at Kinghorn, there was a certain G.o.dly woman under his charge, who fell sick of a very lingering disease, and was all the while a.s.saulted with strong temptations, leading her to think that she was a cast-away, notwithstanding that her whole conversation had put the reality of grace in her beyond a doubt. He often visited her while in this deep exercise, but her trouble and terrors still remained; as her dissolution drew on, her spiritual trouble increased. He went with two of his elders to her, and began first, in their presence, to comfort her and pray with her, but she still grew worse: He ordered his elders to pray, and afterwards prayed himself, but no relief came. Then sitting pensive for a little s.p.a.ce, he thus broke silence, ”What is this! Our laying grounds of comfort before her will not do; prayer will not do: We must try another remedy. Sure I am, this is a daughter of Abraham; sure I am, she hath sent for me, and therefore, in the name of G.o.d, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who sent him to redeem sinners; in the name of Jesus Christ, who obeyed the Father, and came to save us; and in the name of the Holy and blessed Spirit, our Quickner and Sanctifier--I, the elder, command thee, a daughter of Abraham, to be loosed from these bonds.” And immediately peace and joy ensued.

Mr. Scrimzeor had several friends and children taken away by death, and his only daughter who, at that time survived (and whom he dearly loved), being seized with the king's evil, by which she was reduced to the very point of death, so that he was called up to see her die; and finding her in this condition, he went out to the fields (as he himself told) in the night-time, in great grief and anxiety, and began to expostulate with the Lord, with such expressions as, for all the world, he durst not again utter. In a fit of displeasure he said, ”Thou, O Lord, knowest that I have been serving thee in the uprightness of my heart, according to my power and measure, nor have I stood in awe to declare thy mind even unto the greatest in the time, and thou seest that I take pleasure in this child. O that I could obtain such a thing at thy hand, as to spare her.” And being in great agony of spirit, at last it was said to him from the Lord, ”I have heard thee at this time, but use not the like boldness in time coming, for such particulars.” When he came home the child was recovered, and, sitting up in the bed, took some meat, and when he looked at her arm it was perfectly whole.

_The Life of Mr. JOHN WELCH._

Mr. John Welch was born a gentleman, his father being laird of Colieston (an estate rather competent than large, in the s.h.i.+re of Nithsdale), about the year 1570, the dawning of our reformation being then but dark.

He was a rich example of grace and mercy, but the night went before the day, being a most hopeless extravagant boy: It was not enough to him, frequently when he was a young stripling to run away from the school, and play the truant; but, after he had past his grammar, and was come to be a youth, he left the school, and his father's house, and went and joined himself to the thieves on the English border, who lived by robbing the two nations, and amongst them he stayed till he spent a suit of clothes. Then when he was clothed only with rags, the prodigal's misery brought him to the prodigal's resolution, so he resolved to return to his father's house, but durst not adventure, till he should enterpose a reconciler. In his return homeward, he took Dumfries in his way, where he had an aunt, one Agnes Forsyth, and with her he spent some days, earnestly intreating her to reconcile him to his father. While he lurked in her house, his father came providentially to the house to visit his cousin Mrs. Forsyth; and after they had talked a while, she asked him, Whether ever he had heard any news of his son John; to her he replied with great grief, O cruel woman, how can you name him to me? The first news I expect to hear of him, is, That he is hanged for a thief.

She answered, Many a profligate boy had become a virtuous man, and comforted him. He insisted upon his sad complaint, but asked, Whether she knew his lost son was yet alive. She answered, Yes, he was, and she hoped he should prove a better man than he was a boy, and with that she called upon him to come to his father. He came weeping, and kneeled, beseeching his father, for Christ's sake, to pardon his misbehaviour, and deeply engaged to be a new man. His father reproached him and threatened him. Yet at length, by his tears, and Mrs. Forsyth's importunities, he was persuaded to a reconciliation. The boy entreated his father to send him to the college, and there to try his behaviour, and if ever thereafter he should break, he said, He should be content his father should disclaim him for ever: So his father carried him home, and put him to the college, and there he became a diligent student, of great expectation, and shewed himself a sincere convert; and so he proceeded to the ministry. His first settlement was at Selkirk, while he was yet very young, and the country rude. While he was there, his ministry was rather admired by some, than received by many; for he was always attended by the prophet's shadow, the hatred of the wicked; yea, even the ministers of that country, were more ready to pick a quarrel with his person, than to follow his doctrine, as may appear to this day in their synodal records, where we find he had many to censure him, and only some to defend him; yet it was thought his ministry in that place was not without fruit, though he stayed but short time there. Being a young man unmarried, he boarded himself in the house of one Mitchelhill, and took a young boy of his to be his bedfellow, who to his dying day retained both a respect to Mr. Welch and his ministry, from the impressions Mr. Welch's behaviour made upon his apprehension, though but a child. His custom was when he went to bed at night, to lay a Scots plaid above his bed-clothes, and when he went to his night-prayers, to sit up and cover himself negligently therewith, and so to continue. For from the beginning of his ministry to his death, he reckoned the day ill spent if he stayed not seven or eight hours in prayer; and this the boy did not forget even to old age.

An old man of the name of Ewart in Selkirk, who remembered Mr. Welch's being in that place said, He was a type of Christ; an expression more significant than proper, for his meaning was, That he was an example that imitated Christ, as indeed in many things he did: He also said, That his custom was to preach publicly once every day, and to spend his whole time in spiritual exercises, that some in that place waited well upon his ministry with great tenderness, but that he was constrained to leave that place, because of the malice of the wicked.

The special cause of his departure was, a prophane gentleman in the country (one Scot of Headschaw, whose family is now extinct), because Mr. Welch had either reproved him, or merely from hatred, Mr. Welch was most unworthily abused by the unhappy man, and among the rest of the injuries he did him, this was one:--Mr. Welch kept always two good horses for his own use, and the wicked gentleman, when he could do no more, either with his own hand, or by his servants, cut off the rumps of the two innocent beasts, upon which they both died. Such base usage as this persuaded him to listen to a call to the ministry at Kirkcudbright, which was his next post.

But when he was to leave Selkirk, he could not find a man in all the town to transport his furniture, except only Ewart, who was at that time a poor young man, but master of two horses, with which he transported Mr. Welch's goods, and so left him; but as he took his leave, Mr. Welch gave him his blessing, and a piece of gold for a token, exhorting him to fear G.o.d, and promised he should never want, which promise, providence made good through the whole course of the man's life, as was observed by all his neighbours.

At Kirkcudbright he stayed not long; but there he reaped a harvest of converts, which subsisted long after his departure, and were a part of Mr. Samuel Rutherford's flock, though not his parish, while he was minister at Anwoth. Yet when his call to Ayr came to him, the people of the parish of Kirkcudbright never offered to detain him, so his transportation to Ayr was the more easy.

While he was at Kirkcudbright, he met with a young man in scarlet and silver lace (the gentleman's name was Mr. Robert Glendining) new come home from his travels, he much surprised the young man by telling him, he behoved to change his garb, and way of life, and betake himself to the study of the scriptures, which at that time was not his business, for he should be his successor in the ministry at Kirkcudbright, which accordingly came to pa.s.s sometime thereafter.

Mr. Welch was transported to Ayr in the year 1590, and there he continued till he was banished, there he had a very hard beginning, but a very sweet end; for when he came first to the town, the country was so wicked and the hatred of G.o.dliness so great, that there could not one in all the town be found, who would let him a house to dwell in, so he was constrained to accommodate himself the best he might, in a part of a gentleman's house for a time; the gentleman's name was John Stuart merchant, and sometime provost of Ayr, an eminent Christian, and great a.s.sistant of Mr. Welch.

And when he had first taken up his residence in that town, the place was so divided into factions, and filled with b.l.o.o.d.y conflicts, a man could hardly walk the streets with safety; wherefore Mr. Welch made it his first undertaking to remove the b.l.o.o.d.y quarrelings, but he found it a very difficult work; yet such was his earnestness to pursue his design, that many times he would rush betwixt two parties of men fighting, even in the midst of blood and wounds. He used to cover his head with a head-piece before he went to separate these b.l.o.o.d.y enemies, but would never use a sword, that they might see he came for peace and not for war, and so, by little and little, he made the town a peaceable habitation.

His manner was, after he had ended a skirmish amongst his neighbours, and reconciled these bitter enemies, to cause cover a table upon the street, and there brought the enemies together, and beginning with prayer he persuaded them to profess themselves friends, then to eat and drink together, then last of all he ended the work with singing a psalm: For after the rude people began to observe his example, and listen to his heavenly doctrine, he came quickly to that respect amongst them, that he became not only a necessary counsellor, without whose council they would do nothing, but an example to imitate.

He gave himself wholly to ministerial exercises, he preached once every day, he prayed the third part of his time, was unwearied in his studies, and for a proof of this, it was found among his papers, that he had abridged Suarez's metaphysics when they came first to his hand, even when he was well stricken in years. By all which it appears, that he has not only been a man of great diligence, but also of a strong and robust natural const.i.tution, otherwise he had never endured the fatigue.

Sometimes, before he went to sermon, he would send for his elders and tell them, he was afraid to go to pulpit; because he found himself sore deserted: and thereafter desire one or more of them to pray, and then he would venture to pulpit. But, it was observed, this humbling exercise used ordinarily to be followed with a flame of extraordinary a.s.sistance: So near neighbours are many times contrary dispositions and frames. He would many times retire to the church of Ayr, which was at some distance from the town, and there spend the whole night in prayer; for he used to allow his affections full expression, and prayed not only with audible, but sometimes a loud voice.

There was in Ayr before he came to it, an aged man, a minister of the town, called Porterfield, the man was judged no bad man, for his personal inclinations, but so easy a disposition, that he used many times to go too great a length with his neighbours in many dangerous practices; and amongst the rest, he used to go to the bow-b.u.t.ts and archery, on the sabbath afternoon, to Mr. Welch's great dissatisfaction.

But the way he used to reclaim him was not bitter severity, but this gentle policy; Mr. Welch together with John Stuart, and Hugh Kennedy, his two intimate friends, used to spend the sabbath afternoon in religious conference and prayer, and to this exercise they invited Mr.

Porterfield, which he could not refuse, by which means he was not only diverted from his former sinful practice, but likewise brought to a more watchful and edifying behaviour in his course of life.