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being condemned as evil-doers by the world. God is my record, that in theſe things for which ſentence of death hath paſſed againſt me, I have a good conſcience. I bleſs God, they are not matters of compliance with ſectaries, or deſigns, or practices, againſt his majeſty's perſon or government, or the perſon and government of his royal father: my heart, I bleſs God, is conſcious to no diſloyalty, nay, loyal I have been, and I commend it to you to be loyal, and obedient in the Lord. True piety is the foundation of true loyalty: a wicked man may be a flatterer, and a time-ſerver, but he will never be a loyal ſubject. But to return to my purpoſe; the matters for which I am condemned, are matters belonging to my calling and function, as a miniſter of the goſpel, ſuch as the diſcovery and reproving of ſin, the preſſing and the holding faſt of the path of God in the covenant, and preſerving and carrying the work of religion and reformation according thereto, and denying to acknowledge the civil magiſtrate, as the proper competent and immediate judge, in cauſes eccleſiaſtical: that in all theſe things, which God ſo ordering by his gracious providence, are the grounds of my indictment and death, I have a good conſcience, as having walked therein according to the light and rule of God's word, and as did become a miniſter of the goſpel.
I do alſo bleſs the Lord, that I do not die as one not deſired. I know that by not a few, I neither have been, nor am deſired. It hath been my lot to have been a man of contention and ſorrow; but it is my comfort, that for my own things I have not contended, but for 'the things of Jeſus Chriſt:' for what relateth to his intereſt and work, and the well-being of his people. In order to the preſerving and promoting of theſe I did proteſt againſt, and ſtood in oppoſition to theſe late aſſemblies at St. Andrews, Dundee, and Edinburgh, and the public reſolution for bringing the malignant party into the judicatories, and armies of this kingdom
