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Christ's power. Seeing that power taken from Christ which is His glory,
and made the essential of an earthly crown, seemed to me, as if one were
wearing my husband's garments, after he had killed him. There is no
distinction we can make that can free the conscience of the acknowledger
from being a partaker of this sacrilegious robbery of God. And it is but
to cheat our conscience to acknowledge the civil power alone, that it is
of the essence of the crown; and seeing they are so express, we _ought
to be plain_, for otherwise we deny our testimony, and consent that
Christ be robbed of His glory."

The same testimony against the Indulgence and against unconstitutional
power was firmly maintained by RICHARD CAMERON, during the whole of his
public ministry, and in the noble testimony emitted by him shortly
before his death. Soon after his return from Holland in 1680, in one of
his earliest sermons, he declared, "I know not if this generation will
be honoured to cast off these rulers. But those that the Lord makes
instruments to bring back Christ, and to recover our liberties, civil
and ecclesiastical, shall be such as shall disown this king and the
magistrates under him." He added this warning to the persecuting
authorities, with the heroic resolve--"Let them take heed unto
themselves; for though they should take us to scaffolds, and kill us in
the fields, the Lord will yet raise up a party who will be avenged on
them. We had rather die than live in the same country with them, and
outlive the glory of God departing altogether from these lands."

A short month before his death, the intrepid Cameron, his brother
Michael, and some twenty other covenanters, armed and on horseback,
posted up at the market cross of the burgh of SANQUHAR, the "_Sanquhar
Declaration_" in which are contained these ever memorable words:--

"We do, by these presents, disown Charles Stuart, who has been reigning,
or rather tyrannizing in the throne of Britain, these years bygone, as
having any right, title to, or right in the crown of Scotland, for
government:--as forfeited several years since, by his perjury, and
breach of Covenant both to God and His truth, and by his tyranny and
breach of the very _leges regnandi_--the very essential conditions of
government, in matters civil." This was a noble deed, and ranks Cameron
and his followers with the purest and most disinterested patriots of any
age or country. It has been justly remarked by an eloque