On a cold, dreary day in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, a 26-year-old pastor was led by the soldiers to the hangman’s gallows. It was 17 February, 1688, and he would be the last martyr for the Covenanters’ cause. In less than a year, freedom would finally come for them, but for now a gloom settled on the watching crowd. Revd James Renwick’s joy in the face of death lit up many hearts as he sang part of Psalm 103 on the scaffold, then read a portion of Scripture from his Bible. Pouring out his heart to God, he raised his voice: ‘Lord, I die in the faith that Thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that Thou wilt make the blood of Thy witnesses the seed of Thy Church, and return again, and be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready — the bride, the Lamb’s wife, hath made herself ready.’
As the napkin was put around his face, he addressed his friend next to him: ‘Farewell. Be diligent in duty. Make your peace with God, through Christ. There is a great trial coming. As to the remnant I leave, I have committed them to God. Tell them from me not to weary, nor be discouraged in maintaining the testimony. Let them not quit nor forego one of these despised truths. Keep your ground, and the Lord will provide you teachers and ministers, and when He comes, He will make these despised truths glorious upon the earth.’ On the ladder he cried out, ‘Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of truth.’ The trapdoor was released, and finally his kicking body came to rest.
Before his execution the captain of the guard had expressed his surprise at Renwick because of his small stature and youthful look. ‘What?’ he said, ‘Is this the boy Renwick that the nation hath been so much troubled with?’ Renwick: beloved by those who stood faithfully for the Reformation and the Covenants, but hated by the compromisers and sycophants of King James II (VII of England). Having watched the execution of the Revd Donald Cargill at Mercat Cross in Edinburgh, he had decided to throw in his lot with the persecuted minority of Scotland. When in 1684 he had drawn up a document called the Apologetical Declaration and dispersed copies of it throughout parts of Scotland, he was sealing his death. In defiance of the Act of Supremacy of 1669, which stated that ‘his majesty has the supreme authority and supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical within this kingdom’, and the annulling of the Covenants, he had written:
‘We Declare our firm resolution of constant Adherence to our Covenants & engagements… we have disowned the authority of Charles Stewart… And wherein also we have Declared war against him & his accomplices, such as lay out themselves to promote his wicked & hellish designs. Therefore, that therein our mind may be the more clearly understood, & for preventing further mistakes anent our purposes, We do hereby jointly & unanimously Testify & declare; that as we utterly detest and abhor that hellish principle of killing all who differ in judgment or persuasion from us, it having no bottom upon the word of God or right reason; so we look upon it as a duty binding upon us, to publish openly unto the world, That, forasmuch as we are firmly & really purposed not to injure or offend any whomsoever, but to pursue the ends of our Covenants, in standing to the defence of our glorious work of Reformation…’
Regarded by the king’s men as fanatics, and by modern liberals, as being extremists comparable with the Islamic State, Renwick and his supporters have been unfairly dismissed. After all, today in Britain we enjoy the benefits of freedom for our religious and civil rights because the tyranny of the kings was overthrown and the presbyterian democratic polity inspired Parliament.
‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Psalm 116:15, NKJV).
Image: James Renwick on his way to be hanged in the Grassmarket, via West Bow, off the Royal Mile: Thomas Allom, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.