; they were obliged to exert themselves, both
for their vindication from those calumnies and slanders, wherewith they
were loaded by their enemies, to foreign Protestant churches especially,
and for obtaining a supply of gospel ministers. Wherefore, sending some
of their number abroad, to represent the righteousness of their cause to
the churches there, and crave their sympathy, in helping them to a
supply of gospel ministers; the LORD was graciously pleased to
countenance and bless their endeavors so, that they obtained access for
the instruction and ordination of young men for the ministry, at a
university in the _United Provinces_; and, in process of time, gave them
a great reviving in their bondage, by sending forth his faithful
embassador, Mr. _James Renwick_, who, while he stood on Zion's
watch-tower, ceased not night and day to give faithful warning of the
danger approaching the city of GOD, evidently discovering his being
clothed with his Master's commission, in bearing faithful testimony and
witness, both against the avowed enemies of truth and backsliders from
it. And notwithstanding all the malicious rage of deadly foes, ranging
and keenly pursuing him, through open or more secret places, the
reproach of tongues and cruel mockings he endured, by the divine
blessing, on his painful labors, amidst his many hardships, the number
of Zion's friends were greatly increased, by the incoming and joining of
many to the fellowship of their settled societies, who resolutely chose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of GOD than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin, which are but for a season. Upon this further attack
upon Satan's interest, his emissaries issue forth fresh orders, and give
commission to soldiers, foot and dragoons, to hunt, search, and seek
them out of all their most secret dens, caves, and lurking places, where
they might hide themselves, in the most remote and wildest glens and
recesses in the mountains and deserts, allowing them to kill, slay,
destroy, and any way to make an end of them, wherever they might be
found; commanding the whole country, at their peril, to assist them, and
raise the hue and cry after the poor wanderers, and not to reset,
harbor, succor, or correspond with them any manner of way, under the
highest pains, but to do their utmost in informing against them. Thus,
without regard to any of their unlawful forms of legal procedure, they
defiled and besmeared the high places of the field