written,) that ye must not only lose your church and ministry, but your baptism and the Bible also. The witness of God in your consciences cannot but tell you, how much ye did once detest and abhor to say or think so; until of late, your skirts are discovered and your heels made bare, through the growing light of this day, in these and many other points of the like nature, and your way is so hedged up of the Lord, that ye cannot escape, either to own Rome as your mother church, and so return to her again, or fully to part with and come out of her for ever;--and thence not to bring with you a stone of hers, either for a foundation to Zion, or for a corner. Nay, Babylon must not be; ye have been for a long time endeavouring otherwise; but she must be destroyed for ever; agreeably to that of Jeremiah, li. 9, We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.' And the time of her judgment draws near; and yet, neither the church, nor ministers of Christ, nor the true baptism, nor the Holy Scriptures of truth, nor any other of his true ordinances, shall thereby suffer loss; but great and glorious advantage will be to those who wait for it.

"And because there are some, with whom I have had sweet fellowship in the Lord, who, it is very likely, would have expected some other thing from me, than such sharp and peremptory expressions and conclusions, both against them and the way of the Kirk of Scotland, as they term it, in which I was bred with them, and had my beginning in the way of godliness; now, to speak shortly a word to this.-I am not without hope, that a day is coming, (and frequently have I sought it of the Lord on your behalf,) when ye shall come to see the truth of what I say, and the necessity which was on me for it on your account; even so as that ye shall willingly acknowledge, it was the greatest evidence of my dear and tender love in the

Lord towards you, which, next to his glory, led me to it; and that, otherwise, I should be wanting in the expression of that true and sincere love, which I still have towards you.

"As to the advantages I have found in owning these despised people, called Quakers, I need say but little, if what is contained in this and the following pages be considered. I know, indeed, it is my place to lie low in the fear of the Lord, and to speak but little as to advantages, or any progress that I have made; and I acknowledge, no man hath more matter so to do; yet, in this case, I may not be silent, but must, in the fear of the Lord, thus give my testimony to this precious people, and the truths of God asserted by them, that they do truly and really both profess and practise the new and living way, in which holiness is attained, by mortification and subduing a body of sin and death; having indeed come to the discovery of these things, even in the life and power, which throughout the dark night of apostacy hath lain much hid, and hath been but very little felt or known. Such is the goodness of God to that precious people; (count of them and call them what ye will,) the power of life and holiness is more truly known among them, and eminently held forth by them, than by any people else that have come forth since the apostles' days;--and a greater measure do they yet wait for, and as they are faithful, it will be multiplied on them; for the presence of the Lord is with them, and all their opposers must fall [yield or give way] before them.

"Dear Friends, consider then, how far ye have been mistaken concerning them, being carried on with groundless jealousies and prejudice against them, as though they were grossly erroneous, blasphemous, and the like. Nay, nay, Friends, it is not so; and upon search, ye shall find it far otherwise; let your informers (many of whom sinfully take things on report without trial, and others, for the maintenance of your own interests, have made lies their refuge)—let such

say what they may,-this people is, and will be found to be, a blessed people; who, as instruments in the Lord's hands, may be called the repairers of the breach, and the restorers of the paths to dwell in. [See Appendix, I.] They dearly own and rejoice in the use of the Holy Scriptures, and desire to live up to the practice of all the truths of God declared in them. Beware, then, what ye say or think of them, and that ye approve not in the least their persecutors. And if, as yet, ye cannot receive what they offer, yet beware to reject or to judge of it, because ye cannot as yet close with it; the time may come, when ye shall both see and receive it. If the work they are about, be of God, (as undoubtedly it is,) then it must prosper; beware therefore to be found any more opposing it, lest ye be found also fighters against God.

"As for me, I am but a child, and as one of yesterday;-yet, through grace, I am what I am: and although I own that state wherein I was, when I walked with you; (for, truly, I can say, there was a measure of singleness and sincerity within me in it, and therefore I may not disown it,-nor any, while they so continue there, if they be not wilfully opposing further discovery ;)-yet, this I verily know, and can truly say, I then was, and now am, called of the Lord to go further, forgetting the things that are behind, to press forward for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This is what I aim at: and what, through the help of my God, as I keep faithful to what I know of it, I have hope more than ever to attain,even in that way so much slighted and despised by

you.

66

Now, that I may come to a close; I have but a few more words to say, to such of those to whom these papers are directed, who are gone beyond the sea, if at any time this shall come to their hands:--it is, to desire them in the fear of the Lord to consider seriously what is herein in particular said unto them; and if, without prejudice and in soberness, they wait for it,

I am hopeful it shall be said unto them, 'How came ye here, and what do you here, seeking to uphold that which I am pulling down, and to bear down that which I am setting up? this is not your proper work: return from whence ye came, and it shall be shown unto you.' [See Appendix, J.]

"Dear Friends! (for so ye are to me,) whether ye will hear or forbear, yet know of a truth, I speak not without a warrant.

unto you

"Written in the 11th month, 1664."

"ALEXANDER JAFFRAY."

CHAPTER III.

1665: George Keith's ill-usage, and the imprisonment of Alexander Forbes and others-David and Robert Barclay join the SocietySome account of them, especially of David Barclay previous to this circumstance.

GEORGE Keith, in the year 1665, under a sense of religious duty towards his Maker, and with a desire for the good of souls, publicly confessed and upheld "the way of the Lord," in an address to the congregation who assembled at "the great place of worship," in Aberdeen. In attempting that service, he was violently assaulted, beaten, and knocked down by one James Horne, their bell-ringer. It was observed, that, a short time after this, the same individual, going up the steeple to ring the bell, suddenly fell down through a hole, above four stories high, was instantly killed by the fall, and on the very same place of the pavement, where he had beaten the Friend above mentioned.— The reader is of course left to make his own reflection on this latter circumstance; whilst the conduct of

such as George Keith, may be further explained in the Notes. See Appendix, K.

The following year, Alexander Forbes of Achinhamper, who had then lately shown a decided preference for the Friends, having withdrawn from the teachings of James Gordon, minister at Alford, in whose parish he dwelt, the latter individual thought proper to excite the bishop of Aberdeen to prosecute him; upon which, at length, both he and Alexander Gellie were apprehended and carried away to Edinburgh, being imprisoned in the Cannon-gate Tolbooth there, whither they were committed for six months. Their deliverance was, however, happily effected before that time had expired, and without a violation of conscience on their parts, or submission in any wise to the will of their adversaries.-Towards the close of the same year, John Glennie, James Urquhart, John Brown, and William Gellie were also taken, while at their own place of worship, and imprisoned for two months in a place called the Iron-house at Aberdeen, where the worst of felons and murderers were usually confined.

But by such rigorous proceedings, those termed the clergy did not attain their object; on the contrary, others from time to time fell off from their congregations, and joined the despised people called Quakers. This year, in particular, 1666, David Barclay of Ury, descended from "an ancient and honourable family among men," and, about the close of the same year, his son Robert, openly and thoroughly attached themselves to this Society. Of these distinguished characters, a small memoir was long since published; and of Robert Barclay, in particular, a more recent account, well known to many readers of the present volume. The transactions of their lives are, however, so closely mixed up with this period of our church history in the north of Scotland, that it becomes needful to revive them in the present shape; interspersing also some additional particulars, from sources not hitherto availed of. With regard to "Colonel David Barclay," as he did