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He prevailed with thirteen of them; this sowr'd in the stomachs of some of these thirteen, and lay heavy upon them, both in their life and death. These prisoners taken at and about the time of Bothwel, were reckoned about 1500.
The faithful Mr. John Blackader did write to these prisoners disswading them from that foul compliance, and some worthy persons of these prisoners whom he wrote to, said to me with tears, that they slighted his advice and followed the unhappy advices of these ministers, who were making peace with the enemies of God, & followed their foul steps, for which they would go mourning to their graves. I heard the same Mr. Blackader preach his last public sermon, before his falling into the enemies hands, in the night-time, in the fields, in the parish of Livingstone, upon the side of the muir, at the new house, on the 23 of March, after Bothwel, where he lectured upon Micah iv from verse 9. where he asserted, That the nearer the delivery, our pains and showers would come thicker and sorer upon us; and that we had been in the fields, but e'er we were delivered, we would go down to Babylon, that either Popery would overspread this land, or be at the breaking in upon us, like an inundation of water: & preached upon that text, That no man should be moved with these afilictions: for ye yourselves know that ye are appointed thereunto: Where he insisted upon what moving & shaking dispensations the Lord had exercised his people with in former ages, especially that man of God that went to Jeraboam's Bethel, and delivered his commission faithfully, and yet turned out of the way by an old lying prophet, how moving and stumbling the manner of his death was to all Israel; and earnestly requested us to take good heed to what minister we heard, and what advice we followed. When he prayed, he blessed the Lord that he was free of both band and rope, and that he was as clearly willing to hold up the public blest standard of the gospel as ever; and said, The Lord rebuke, give repentance and forgiveness to these ministers that persuaded these prisoners to take that bond: For their perishing by sea, was more moving & shocking to him, than if some thousands of them had been slain in the field.
He was thereafter taken the 6th of April, by major Johnston in Edinburgh, and detained prisoner in the Bass, where he died. As the interest of Christ lay near his heart thro' his life, among his last words he said, The Lord will defend his own cause.
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