ars under persecution. Her children had
been imprisoned, transported, branded, shot, hanged, drowned, tortured.
And yet he who called himself her deliverer had not suffered her to
see her desire upon her enemies, [783] The bloody Claverhouse had been
graciously received at Saint James's. The bloody Mackenzie had found a
secure and luxurious retreat among the malignants of Oxford. The younger
Dalrymple who had prosecuted the Saints, the elder Dalrymple who had
sate in judgment on the Saints, were great and powerful. It was said
by careless Gallios, that there was no choice but between William and
James, and that it was wisdom to choose the less of two evils. Such was
indeed the wisdom of this world. But the wisdom which was from above
taught us that of two things, both of which were evil in the sight of
God, we should choose neither. As soon as James was restored, it would
be a duty to disown and withstand him. The present duty was to disown
and withstand his son in law. Nothing must be said, nothing must be done
that could be construed into a recognition of the authority of the man
from Holland. The godly must pay no duties to him, must hold no offices
under him, must receive no wages from him, must sign no instruments
in which he was styled King. Anne succeeded William; and Anne was
designated, by those who called themselves the remnant of the true
Church, as the pretended Queen, the wicked woman, the Jezebel. George
the First succeeded Anne; and George the First was the pretended King,
the German Beast, [784] George the Second succeeded George the First;
George the Second too was a pretended King, and was accused of having
outdone the wickedness of his wicked predecessors by passing a law
in defiance of that divine law which ordains that no witch shall be
suffered to live, [785] George the Third succeeded George the Second;
and still these men continued, with unabated stedfastness, though in
language less ferocious than before, to disclaim all allegiance to an
uncovenanted Sovereign, [786] So late as the year 1806, they were still
bearing their public testimony against the sin of owning his government
by paying taxes, by taking out excise licenses, by joining the
volunteers, or by labouring on public works, [787] The number of these
zealots went on diminishing till at length they were so thinly scattered
over Scotland that they were nowhere numerous enough to have a meeting
house, and were known by the name of the Nonhe