Christian History Institute Presents Pastwords #125: A Cloud of Witnesses for the Prerogatives of Jesus Christ or the Last Speeches and Testimonies of those Who Have Suffered for the Truth in Scotland Since the Year 1680; by an Anonymous Author ©2007

The work was...carefully collected by the United Societies and first published, probably in Edinburgh, in 1714... Their grand object was owning 'Christ alone', as opposed to King Charles II 'as head and lawgiver to the Church', and the book a testimony to their willingness to suffer for the cause. The Cloud was enlarged in successive editions... The book had considerable influence in shaping the popular religious thought of Scotland for nearly two centuries."--D.C. Lachman in Dict. Scottish Church Hist & Theol., p. 190-191.

From the tollbooth of Edinburgh, the Woman-house on the East side of the prison, Jan. 11th, 1681.

MARION HARVIE

This Martyr, tho' both young in years, and of the weaker sex, (which heightens the discovery, how brutally furious and mad these persecutors were) was so singularly assisted of the Lord in his cause, and had such discoveries of his special love to her soul, that she was nothing terrified by her adversaries: When she was brought from the tolbooth to the council-house, to be carried to her execution; as she came out of the tollbooth--door several friends attending her, she was observed to say with a surprising cheerfulness and air of heavenly ravishment, Behold I hear my beloved saying unto me, Arise my love, my fair one, and come away. And being brought to the council, Bishop Paterson being resolved, seeing he could not destroy her soul, yet to grieve and vex it, said, Marion, you said, you would never hear a curate, now ye shall be forced to hear one, upon which he ordered one of his suffragans, whom he had prepared to her fellow-prisoner Isabel Alison, Come Isabel let us sing the xxiii. Psalm, which accordingly they did; Marion repeated the Psalm line by line without book, which drowned the voice of the curate, and extremely confounded the persecutors.

Being come to the scaffold, after singing the lxxxiv. Psalm, and reading the iii. Of Malachy, she said, I am come here to day for avowing Christ to be head of his church, and King in Zion. O seek him, sirs, seek him, and ye shall find him; I sought him and found him, I held him, and would not let him go. Then she briefly narrated the manner how she was taken, and recapitulated in short the heads of her written testimony, saying to this effect; "I going out of Edinburgh to hear the persecuted gospel in the fields, was taken by the way with soldiers, and brought in to the guard, afterwards I was brought to the council, and the questioned me if I knew Mr. Donald Cargil? Or if I heard him preach? I answered, I bless the Lord I heard him, and my soul was refreshed with hearing him, for he is a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. They asked if I adhered to the papers gotten at the Ferry?

I said, I did own them, and all the rest of Christ's truths. If I would have denied any of them, my life was in my offer; but I durst not do it; No, not for my soul. Ere I wanted an hour of his presence, I had rather die ten deaths. I durst not speak against him, lest I should have sinned against God. I adhere to the Bible, and Confession of Faith, Catechisms and Covenants, which are according to this Bible, (whereupon she clapped her hand upon the Bible) I also adhere to the testimonies given by the faithful witnesses of Christ, that have gone before us, on scaffolds, and in the fields. I leave my testimony against all Quakers, Jesuites, Indulgences, and all profane and ungodly persons, and mainly all covenant-breakers, and persecutors, of his way and truths, which I am come here to seal with my blood; against all payers of cess, and bonders, and against all oppression or murdering. They say, I would murder, but I declare, I am free of all matters of fact; I could never take the life of a chicken, but my heart shrinked. But it is only for my judgment of things that I am brought here. I leave my blood on the council, and the Duke of York." At this the soldiers interrupted her, and would not allow her to speak any: But she cried out, "I leave my blood on all ungodly and profane wretches."

The most of her discourse was of God's love to her, and the commendation of free grace; and she declared she had much of the Lord's presence with her in prison, and said, "I bless the Lord, the snare is broken, and we are escaped;" and when she came to the ladder-foot, she prayed. And going up the ladder, she said, "O my fair one, my lovely one, come away;" and sitting down upon the ladder, she said, "I am not come here for murder, for they have no matter of fact to charge me with, but only my judgement. I am about twenty years of age; at fourteen or fifteen I was a hearer of these, I was a blasphemer and sabbath-breaker, and a chapter of the Bible was a burden to me; but since I heard this persecuted gospel, I durst not blaspheme, nor break the sabbath, and the Bible became my delight." With this the major called to the hangman to cast her over, and the murderer presently choaked her.

The Interrogations of ISABEL ALISON before the criminal lords.

Being called before the criminal lords, they asked me, if I would abide by what I said the last day? I answered, I am not about to deny any thing of it. They said, Ye confessed that ye harboured the killers of the bishop, tho' ye would not call it murder. I said, I confessed no such thing. The advocate said, I did.

I answered, I did not; and I told them, I would take with no untruths. He said, Did ye not converse with them? I said, I did converse with David Hackstoun, and I bless the Lord for it. They said, When saw you him last? I answered, Never since you murdered him. They desired me to say over what I said the last day. I said, Would they have me to be my own accuser?

They said, The advocate was my accuser? I said, Let him say so then. Then they went over the things that past between the council and me the other day; and put me to it, yea, or nay.

I said, Ye have troubled me too much with answering questions, seeing ye are a judicature which I have no clearness to answer.

They said, Do ye disown us, and the king's authority in us? I said, I disown you all, because you carry the sword against God, and not for him, and have these nineteen or twenty years made it your work to dethrone him, by swearing year after year against him and his work, and assuming that power to a human creature, which is due to him alone, and have rent the members from their head Christ, and one another. Then they asked, Who taught you these principles?

I said, I was beholden to God that taught me these principles. They said, Are you a Quaker? I said, Did you hear me say, I was led by a spirit within me? I bless the Lord, I profited much by the persecuted gospel; and your acts of indemnity after Bothwel cleared me more than any thing I met with since.

They said, How could that be? I said, By your meddling with Christ's interests, and parting them as ye pleased. They said, They did not usurp Christ's prerogatives. I said, What then mean your indulgences, and your setting up of Prelacy? For there has none preached publicly these twenty years without persecution, but these that have had their orders from you.

Then they caused bring Sanquhar Declaration, and the Paper found on Mr. Richard Cameron, and the Papers taken at the Queensferry, and asked, If I would adhere to them?

I said, I would, as they were according to the Scriptures, and I saw not wherein they did contradict them. They asked, if ever Mr. Welch or Mr. Riddel taught me these principles? I answered, I would be far in the wrong to speak any thing that might wrong them.

Then they bade me take heed what I was saying, for it was upon life and death that I was questioned. I asked them, If they would have me to lie? I would not quit one truth, tho' it would purchase my life a thousand years, which ye cannot purchase, nor promise me an hour. They said, When saw ye the two Hendersons and John Balfour? Seeing ye love ingenuity, will ye be ingenuous, and tell us, if ye saw them since the death of the bishop?

I said, they appeared publicly within the land since. They asked, if I conversed with them within these twelve months? At which I kept silence. They urged me to say either yea, or nay. I answered, Yes.

Then they said, Your blood be upon your own head, we shall be free of it. I answered, so said Pilate; but it was a question if it was so; and ye have nothing to say against me, but for owning of Christ's truths, and his persecuted members. To which they answered nothing. Then they desired me to subscribe what I owned: I refused, and they did it for me.

Account of what ISABEL ALISON said before the Assizers.

Dear Friends,
These are to show you what past between the black crew and me. They read my indictment, and asked, if I had ought to say against it? I said, Nothing. They read the papers as they did formerly, and asked, if I owned them? I said, I did own them. Then they called the assizers and swore them. Then I told them, All authority is of God, Rom. xiii. And when they appeared against him, I was clear to disown them; and if they were not against him, I would not have been there: I take every one of you witness against another, at your appearance before God, that your proceeding against me is only for owning of Christ, his gospel, and members; which I could not disown, lest I should come under the hazard of denying Christ, and so be denied of him. And when the assize came, they asked, if I had ought to say against them? I said, They were all alike, for there would no honest man take the trade in hand. They said to the assize, It was against their will to take our lives: I said, If that had been true, they would not have brought me so far off, pursuing me for my life. This is the substance of what past, as I remember.

MARGARET WILSON AND MARGARET LAUCHLANE

Upon the 11th of May 1684, Margaret Lauchlane in the parish of Kirkkinner, and Margaret Wilson in Glenvernock, in the shire of Galloway, being sentenced to death for their noncompliance with Prelacy, and refusing to swear the oath of abjuration, by the laird of Lagg, Captain Strachan, Colonel David Graham, and Provost Cultron, who commanded them to receive their sentence upon their knees, which they refusing, were pressed down by force, till they received it: And so were by their order tied to a stake within the sea mark, in the water of Blednoch, near Wigton; where, after they had made them wrestle long with the waves; which flowing swelled on them by degrees; and had sometimes thrust them under water, and then pulled them out again, to see if they would recant; they enduring death with undaunted courage, yielded up their spirits to God. The former was a widow woman of about sixty three years, of a most christian and blameless conversation, a pattern of piety and virtue, who having constantly refused to hear the curates, was much pursued and vexed, and at length taken by the soldiers, while she was devoutly worshipping God in her family; and being indicted of being at Bothwel-bridge, Airsmoss, and twenty field conventicles, and as many house conventicles, after fore and long imprisonment, without necessary refreshments of fire, bed or diet, at length suffered this cruel death.

The other (Margaret Wilson) a young woman of scarce twenty-three years of age, after she with her brother, who has about nineteen, and her sister fifteen years old, had been long driven from their father's house, and exposed to lie in dens and caverns of the earth, wandering thro' the mosses and mountains of Carrick, Nithsdale, and Galloway; going to Wigton secretly to visit the foresaid Margaret Lauchlane, was taken by the fraud of one Patrick Stuart, who under colour of friendship, having invited her and her sister to drink with him, offered them the king's health, and upon their refusal of it, as not warranted in God's word, and contrary to christian moderation, went presently out and informed against them; her sister was dismissed, as being but fifteen years of age, upon her father's paying tool. Sterling for her ransom; she being detained and examined, whether she owned the king as head of the church? And would take the abjuration oath? Not answering to their pleasure, but adhering to the truths of Christ, was in like manner condemned; and after great severities of imprisonment, suffered the foresaid death. Being put oft into the water, and when half dead, taken up again, to see if she would take the oath, which she refused to her last breath; while her fellow-sufferer was wrestling with the waves, as being put first in to discourage her; the persecutors asked her, What she though of that fight? She answered, What do I see but Christ (mystical) wrestling there?

One of the times that she was taken out of the water they said, Say, God save the king. She returning with Christian meekness, I wish the salvation of all men, but the damnation of none. Upon which one of her friends, alledging she had said what they demanded, desired them to let her go; but they would not, seeing she refused to take the oath. During her imprisonment, she wrote a large letter to her friends, wherein, besides the lively and feeling expression of her sense of God's love, she doth, with a judgement not usual for her age and education, disclose the unlawful nature of the abjuration oath, hearing of curates, owning the king's supremacy, which was the thing the persecutors meant by his authority; and proves the necessity of her suffering upon these heads.