in a short time, and left nothing to bemoan, but that there did not remain time enough to glorify Him on earth, that had done all these things for him. Go on then, and let your intent be seriousness; the greatness of your sorrow, and the height of love, in a manner, make a compensation for the shortness of time, and go on though ye yourselves have gone a short way; for where these things are, one hour will perform more than thousands, where there were not either such enforcements or power; and be persuaded in this, you have Him as much and more hastening than yourselves; for you may know His motion by your own, they being both set forward by Him. And dear friends, be not terrified at the manner of your death, which to me seems the easiest of all, where you come to it without pain, and in perfect judgment, and go through so speedily; before the pain be felt the glory is come: but pray for a greater measure of His presence, which only can make a pass through the hardest things,—cheerful and pleasant. I bid you farewell, expecting, though our parting be sad, our gathering shall be joyful again. Only your great advantage in the case you are in, is to credit Him much, for that is His glory, and engages Him to perform whatever you have credited Him with. No more, but avow boldly to give a full testimony for His truths, as you die to be avowed of Him. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you. "DONALD CARGILL."

4. HIS LETTER TO THE PRISONERS IN THE CORRECTION-HOUSE.

"DEAR Friends,-I think ye cannot but know that I am both concerned and afflicted with your condition; and I would have written sooner, and more, if I had not feared that you might have been jealous (under your distempers,) that I had been seducing you to follow me, and not God and truth. It has been my earnest and frequent prayer to God, (as he himself knows,) to be led into all truths; and I judge I have been, in this, graciously answered; but I desire none, if they themselves judge it not to be truth, to adhere to any thing that I have either preached, written, or done, to any hazard, much more to the loss of life. But I have been afflicted with your condition, and could not but be more, if God's great graciousness in this begun discovery, and your sincerity and singleness,-gave me not hope, that God's purpose is to turn this to the great mercy of his poor church, and yours, if ye mar it not; and yet the great sin and pillar of Satan that is in this snare, makes me tremble. It was God's mercy to you that gave such convictions, that made you, at least some of you, once to part with these men; and it was undoubtedly your sin that you continued not so, but after convictions, did cast your.. selves into new temptations; for convictions ought to be tenderly guided, lest the Spirit be grieved from whom they come; but this second discovery, though it be with a sharper rebuke, as it makes God's mercy wonderful, so it shall render your perseverance in that course, sinful and utterly inexcusable; for God has broken the snare, and it will be your great ́sin, if you go not out with great haste, joy,

• Cloud of Witnesses, pp. 41-45.

and thankfulness, when God's wonderful discovery has made such a way for your delivery; for God having now shown you the ringleaders and authors of these opinions to be persons of such abominations, calls you not only to deny credit to them, but also to make a serious search of their tenets, which will, I know, by his grace, bring you undoubtedly to see that these things are contrary both to God's glory and truth, that they so much pretend to.

"And now, dear friends, as I cannot be tender enough of you, who in your zeal and singleness have been misled; for though this did bewray a great simplicity and unwatchfulness, yet it did also betoken some zeal and tenderness, that being beguiled, it was in things that were veiled and busked with some pretences to God's glory and public reformation. And, on the other hand, I cannot have great enough abborrence of these persons, who, knowing themselves to be of such abominations, did give out themselves to be of such familiarity with God, and of so clear illumination, to make their delusions more passing with devout souls. Let nothing make you think this is malignity, or natural enmity against the power of godliness, or progress in reformation, that is venting itself in me; for, though I cannot win forward as I ought, yet I have rejoiced to see others go forward. And I am sure, there lies in this bed within you, a viper and a child. Satan transforming himself into an angel of light, has put these two together, to make it passing with some, and to be spared of others, who are of tenderness. But my soul's desire is, to kill the serpent and keep the child alive; and God is calling you loudly to sever the good from the bad, that the wit of Satan's subtility has mixed together, and to deliver yourselves speedily, as a roe from the hand of the hunter; and not only return, but bitterly mourn for your high provoking of God, in offering such foul sacrifices to his glory, and sewing your old clouts upon that new garment; in your making the enemy more to despise that cause and company, who are enough despised already, and discouraging those who were following, and going forward with joy in that which was right, so that now, neither have they heart nor hand for the work, nor can they look out, till God recover them again. There is much in the whole of those, that may, and does weight and overwhelm some spirits; but there is nothing in all their cogitations about it, that they found comfortable, unless it be, that he is cleared in afflicting us, and continuing to afflict us, because there were such persons among us. I speak this but of some of you, and beloved by us, though ignorantly; and we wish that this be the last and great stop that was to be removed before his coming to revenge himself and reign. I would not say, but by this also, he shewed his tenderness, of preserving integrity of doctrine, and sound reformation, and his purpose not to suffer errors and heresies to prosper. This I told you, when I met with you, that there were some things ye were owning, which were highly approved of God; such as an inward heart-love and zeal to God's glory, which I perceived to be in some of you, so far as it can be perceived, and setting up of that before you, as your end, in pursuing it always as your work, and a forgetting of all other things in regard to it, excepting only these things, without which we cannot glorify

him, (as a workman that intends his work, must mind his tools), even our own salvation, and the salvation of all others, as if they were not things wherein he is greatly glorified, for his glory is in righteousness and mercy, and in, and by these, is the salvation of man infallibly advanced, and with these it is inseparably connected.

"Next I would advise you, to set apart more, yea, much more of your time, for humiliation, fasting, and prayer, in such an exigence, when the judgments of God appear to be so near, and so great, so that it be done without sin, for God cannot be glorified by sin; For if my lie hath more abounded to his glory, why am I judged as a sinner?' I was against such as deny nature, and others, their right dues; for he that allows dues to others, allows them to be paid also: and we must be like prisoners, who are of great debt, and honest hearts, who know they cannot pay every one their full sums, yet are resolved to give every one some, and to the greatest most, and to the rest accordingly. And as there cannot be a total abstinence from meat, without self-murder, so there cannot be a total denying others their due, such as the benevolence of husband to wife, and a total abstaining from work, without a transgression of God's commandments and laws, which can never be a glorifying of him, which the more impartially they are kept, the more he is glorified. Next, ways are allowed of him, that ye may make yourselves free, so much as in you lies, of all the public defections: whatever may involve you in these, or contribute to their upholding, without either an overpowering force, or an indispensable necessity: for I may buy meat and drink, in necessity, whatever use the seller may make of the money I give for my meat and drink. Next, he allows these particulars of reformation, such as change of the names of days, of weeks, of terms of the year, and such like, warranted by the word, and example of the Christians in scripture, that have been neglected before in our reformation; so that there be not too much religion placed in these things, and other things more weighty, (which, undoubtedly, have more moral rightecusness in them) made little in regard of them but in these good things, Satan will quickly, if it be not already, over-drive you in your progress, and leave you only to hug a spurious birth. But there are other things that ye maintained, when I spoke with you (and the viper has more since appeared) as truths, and part of God's glory, that are utterly contrary to, and inconsistent with the glory of God. As, first,-laying aside of public preaching; some of them saying no less, than they had no missing of it so that ye thought, 'ye had reigned as kings without us, and would to God ye had reigned.' Your flourishing should bave delighted, though we had not been the instruments and means thereof. But alas! this your liberty, that you so much bragged of, would have lasted but a little while, and was among your other beguiles; and was nothing else but Satan stirring you about to giddiness, and raising of fantastic fumes to the tickling of the imagination; but leaving you altogether without renovation of heart, or progress in sanctification: so that I cannot compare this your liberty to any thing else, but to an enchanted fabric, where the poor guests,

only placed in imagination, imagine themselves to be in a pleasant place, and at a royal entertainment; but when God comes, and delusion vanisheth, they will find themselves cast in some remote wilderness, and they left full of astonishment and fears.

"I told you, while I was with you, that the devil was sowing tares among your thin wheat; but I was not long from you, exercised in thoughts about you, but I saw clearly, there was sorcery in the business and now I tell you, I fear sorcerers also. I know I have spoken this against mine own life, if they get the power they desire; but I am in a defiance of them, and I know also in a defence by him who hath preserved, and I know will preserve me, till my work be finished. But if your liberty that you talked of had been true, it would at least have stayed till it had brought you to other thoughts, other works, and other comforts; and it might have been easily discerned not a true liberty, but a temptation that led you from public preaching, the great ordinance of God's glory, and men's good; as the apostle has that word, Forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles.' But especially to leave public ordinances at this time, when they are the only standards standing, which shows Satan's victory against Christ's kingdom in Scotland not to be complete.

"Yet, dear friends, when you hear this, let not Satan cast you so far to the other side, (for it is rare to see the most devout souls altogether out from under his delusions and temptations,) as to make you believe, that it is impossible to attain unto any thing of certitude of truth, liberty, manifestations and communion with God, if that which seemed to be so firm, be delusions; but shall Satan have such power to make men believe lies, and shall not God go infinitely beyond him, in making men to see and believe truth? There were many that thought themselves at the height of assurance, when under the greatest temptations, as Psal. lxxiii. 13. ‹ Verily I have cleansed my hands in vain.' And yet, they have a greater certainty when they come to see, that there is no such unquietness of spirit under this, as they found in the former. And seeing it is so, rest not till ye attain that assurance of your own interest, and of His main truths, which is both above doubt and defect, that ye may be able to say, 'Now we believe, and are sure.'

"But in the next place, you will join with none in public worship, but those who have infallible signs of regeneration. This seems fair, but it is both false and foul; false, because of its false foundation, viz. That the certainty of one's interest in Christ may be known by another; whereas the scripture says, That none knows it, but he that has it' foul also, for this disdain has pride in it, and pride is always foul; and though there be a difference amongst men, and that we should have regard of repentance and brokenness of heart, yet those who have well sought and seen their own filthiness, will judge themselves the persons, of any, that should be thrust out of the assemblies of "'s people; and that not only in regard of what they have been, 50 in regard of what they daily are. Next, ye would have all rayed to eternal wrath, who have departed and made defection

in this time: alas! we need not blow them away, the great part is going fast enough that way; but this, I am sure, is not to give God his glory, but to take from him, and limit him in his freedom and choice, in the greatness of his pardon. It is remarkable, that the angels in their 'glory to God,' joined also with it, good will to men. Next, ye have rejected the Psalms, with many other things, by a paper come from some of you; and I cannot see upon what account, except it be, because it is man's work, in turning the Psalms out of prose into metre. Then, you must reject all the other Scriptures, because the translation of them is man's work; ye have not yet learned the original languages, ye must betake yourselves altogether to the spirit, and what a spirit will that be, that is not to be tried by the Scriptures! I told some of you, when I last saw you, that ye were too little led by the Scriptures, and too much by your own thoughts and suggestions, which indeed opens a wide door to delusion, and alas! lays yourselves open to Satan's temptations.

"As for the rest, of your denying all your former covenants and declarations; this cannot be from God,-they containing nothing but lawful and necessary duties; and suppose they did not contain and include a complete reformation, yet they did not exclude it; so that, still holding them, we might have passed on to more perfection, and they might be inviolable obligations with us. And next, your cutting off all that were not of your mind, and delivering them up to devils, was not justice and religion,-it being done neither in judgment nor righteousness, upon conviction of their crimes, but in unbridled rage and fury. But these things I cannot fully speak to, now yet there is somewhat that I cannot pass; but must tell you, that I fear there shall remain some of the leaven within, that shall not only spoil an orthodox Protestant, but also a true, tender, and humble Christian, and give us nothing instead of it, but a blown bladder: for I am persuaded, if Satan should have the tutory but a while, he should bring it to this; for it has been his way with some, first to make them saint-like, and afterwards to settle them in atheism;—like a cunning fisher, running a fish upon an angle, who at last casts it on dry ground. God is my witness, my soul loves to see holiness, tenderness, and zeal, in such a generation, where there is nothing but untenderness, unconcernedness, and lukewarmness; and by his grace, I shall ever cherish it. I desire you then, in the bowels of Christ, to retain your zeal; but see well to this, that it be for his glory. Indeed, the more that you are zealous, and the further ye go forward, so that the word of God direct your course, -ye are the more pleasing to God, and shall be the dearer to us. And persuade yourselves, that though I cannot equal or go before; yet it is the sincere desire of my heart to follow such. And my soul wishes you well, though it may be I cannot here point, nor lead you the way to well-being; yet this I must say, that if I could lead you the way that he has led me, I should let you see eternal life, without these things that I am desiring you to relinquish. Hold truth, glorify God, be zealous to have him glorified: but think not to