The Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. In religion the movement is most associated with the promotion and development of Presbyterianism (representative government) as a form of church government favored by the people, as opposed to Episcopacy, favored by the crown. In politics the movement saw important developments…
The name derives from biblical bonds or covenants. The National Covenant of 1638 takes as its point of departure earlier documents of the same kind and is chiefly concerned with preserving the Reformation settlement free from crown innovations. Its sister document, the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, is also concerned with religion, but its chief importance is as a treaty of alliance between the Covenanters in Scotland and the Parliament of England, anxious for help in the increasingly bitter civil war with Charles I.
James VI of Scotland (James I of England) was opposed by the Covenanters in his attempt to bring the Anglican Church into Scotland. He ousted the Covenanters from their pulpits and homes saying that he was the head of the church. The Covenanters said, “No. Christ is the head. We will preach in the fields.” Later King Charles II and his brother King James II indulged certain ministers and allowed them to pastor churches where Anglican pastors could not be found. But to do this, they had to compromise with the king’s state church. Covenanters like Richard Cameron railed against these compromisers as being dead and without God’s power.
The Lion Of The Covenant
Richard Cameron (1648? - 1680) was a leader of the Presbyterians who resisted the Stuart monarchs. The life & ministry of Richard Cameron was among the first of a series of events that led to the Glorious Revolution (1888) and the end of the reign of the House of Stuart. His followers took his name, the Cameronians, which ultimately formed the nucleus of the Scottish regiment of the same name.
He was initially a parish schoolteacher and then a highly successful field preacher of the strict Presbyterian school, a Covenanter. He spent some years in exile in the Netherlands when the authorities demanded that all preachers submit to the Crown's religion. He was ordained there and sent back to Scotland with the prophecy by Rev. M’Ward that he would be martyred for the cause of Christ.
He returned to Scotland in 1680 and issued with others such as Donald Cargill the Sanquhar Declaration, calling for war against the king, Charles II and the exclusion of his brother (James II) from the succession. He was killed in a skirmish with government troops, at Airds Moss near Cumnock, later the same year, in a government attempt to suppress the Covenanters. This period was later given the title of "the Killing Time" because hundreds, if not thousands of Presbyterians were persecuted and martyred for holding Cameronian views. However, after the accession of William III (in the Glorious Revolution) his followers were pardoned and incorporated into the British Army as the Cameronian Regiment.
When hands were laid on Richard Cameron at his ordination in Holland, the one hand of Mr. M’Ward remained and M’Ward cried out, “Behold, all ye beholders, here is the head of a faithful minister and servant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his Master’s interest, and it shall be set up before sun and moon, n the view of the world.” And so it was that his hands and head were put on display at the gate of the Edinburgh for all to see. One of his enemies said, “There’s the head and hands of a man who lived praying and preaching, and died praying and fighting.”[1]
Before this was done, his hands and head were delivered to his father in prison to add grief to his former sorrow. Taking his son’s head and hands, which were very fair, he kissed them, and said, “I know – I know them; they are my son’s – my own dear son’s. It is the Lord – good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.”[2]
Eighteen days before Cameron was killed, he prophesied from the pulpit that there would not be a crowned King of the name of Stuart in Scotland. This was fulfilled eight years later in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He also prophesied “A man shall ride a day’s journey in the shires of Galloway, Ayr and Clydesdale, and not see a reeking house nor hear a cock crow, ere ye get a right Reformation; and several other shires shall be little better.” He also prophesied in the same sermon, “The rod that the Lord will make instrumental in this, will be the French and other foreigners, together with a partying this land joining them; but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not want men enough to work for him.”[3] This prophecy of slaughter was fulfilled 66 years later in 1746 at Culloden.
In 1746 the Stuart Prince Charles, with the help of the French, Spain, and others, invaded Scotland where many Highlanders joined him and marched toward London. At Culloden the English and other Scots slaughtered them. The slaughter did not end there. Genocide by the English in the highlands followed.
Description Of The Ethnic Cleansing
A little after 12:30 that afternoon the Prince’s side fired what canon they had and waited for the return volley - which came swiftly. His troops were cut down in the dozen by the onslaught of Cumberlands artillery. Disemboweled by the flying balls of 4lb steel, arms legs and heads were scattered amongst the bunched up and freezing Jacobites. It all lasted for minutes and when the smoke cleared all that was left to do was to run or charge - the Jacobites outnumbered by at least 2 to 1 charged on the right flank of Cumberland’s lines. For a brief spell the Duke's troops on the right were scattered, but soon closed ranks on the charging Highlanders and began the massacre, in turn scattering the Highlanders across 'Cumberland’s Bloody Killing Field'.
By 1:00, only 30 minutes later, it was all over and those Highlanders, who could, ran for cover and back to their homes. By Cumberland’s own estimate, some 2,000 Highlanders lay dead on Culloden Moor. These figures have never been seriously challenged and neither has the figure of 300 dead and injured from his side. A more exact figure has been put forward of 1,500 Highlanders but still only 300 of the Dukes men.
The memories of Culloden still run deep in the blood of Highlanders the world over because this battle was not the end - it was just the beginning!
Cumberland gave orders for "No Quarter Given": in other words 'none shall live'. His army marched on and killed every wounded Highlander left on the field - and then made his way to Inverness to carry on the fight. Raiding homes looking for Jacobites, all were labeled as one and swiftly put either to the end of a musket - bayonet – hangman’s rope or burnt alive in their homes. Women, children, old and young, his orders were "No Quarter Given" - and none was.
The slaughter did not end there on that day, and this is the significance of the Jacobite's in Scottish history: particularly Highland history. For months his army moved around the Highlands clearing out any threat once and for all that Highlander should ever pick up a Broadsword against England. It can be quoted from English parliament in reply to Cumberland’s reports that they sent message saying "It will be no great mischief if all should fall." the support for Cumberland’s ethnic cleansing was total.
5 months passed and it was decided that the hunt for the Jacobites, (which by this time there were more than likely none left as well as every other Highlander who wasn't even there), should be calmed down and this is when the Prince made his escape back to France.
In London they celebrated the defeat of the Highland people once and for all, and the German composer Handel wrote one of his most famous works 'See the conquering hero come' - referring to The Duke of Cumberland.
The Highland people were wiped out. Over the coming years they were cleared out of their homes to make way for their lands to be used for profitable sheep farming. For 4 generations the Highlanders were scattered to the corners of the world - Europe, India, and the New World 'America'. Sold as slaves they worked on the lands in the southern parts of America, and one account even tells us that in Barbados a ship load of Highlanders were traded for 10 tones of Sugar.
Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written.
These times are known to us who are still here as the 'Highland Clearances'. English schools were put in place and the process of conversion began. Finally the English dream of a conquered Scotland was theirs.[4]
Many of those Scots who were exiled came to America where the encouragement of Richard Cameron’s prophecy was fulfilled when they fought along with George Washington and received encouragement in final victory. A high percent of Washington’s officers were Scots. Cameron had prophesied, “…but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not [lack] men enough to work for him.”
And you, the Christian right of America, be not discouraged at the fewness of your numbers; for when Christ comes to raise up his own work in America, He will not lack men enough to work for him.
What does all this have to do with us? This struggle in Scotland and England led first to the Glorious Revolution in England and later to what the English called the “Presbyterian Scots-Irish Revolt” in America (The American Revolution).
Eighteen days before Cameron was killed, he prophesied from the pulpit that there would not be a crowned King of the name of Stuart in Scotland. This was fulfilled eight years later in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He also prophesied “A man shall ride a day’s journey in the shires of Galloway, Ayr and Clydesdale, and not see a reeking house nor hear a cock crow, ere ye get a right Reformation; and several other shires shall be little better.” He also prophesied in the same sermon, “The rod that the Lord will make instrumental in this, will be the French and other foreigners, together with a partying this land joining them; but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not want men enough to work for him.”[5] This prophecy of slaughter was fulfilled 66 years later in 1746 at Culloden.
In 1746 the Stuart Prince Charles, with the help of the French, Spain, and others, invaded Scotland where many Highlanders joined him and marched toward London. At Culloden the English and other Scots slaughtered them. The slaughter did not end there. Genocide by the English in the highlands followed.
Description Of The Ethnic Cleansing
A little after 12:30 that afternoon the Prince’s side fired what canon they had and waited for the return volley - which came swiftly. His troops were cut down in the dozen by the onslaught of Cumberlands artillery. Disemboweled by the flying balls of 4lb steel, arms legs and heads were scattered amongst the bunched up and freezing Jacobites. It all lasted for minutes and when the smoke cleared all that was left to do was to run or charge - the Jacobites outnumbered by at least 2 to 1 charged on the right flank of Cumberland’s lines. For a brief spell the Duke's troops on the right were scattered, but soon closed ranks on the charging Highlanders and began the massacre, in turn scattering the Highlanders across 'Cumberland’s Bloody Killing Field'.
By 1:00, only 30 minutes later, it was all over and those Highlanders, who could, ran for cover and back to their homes. By Cumberland’s own estimate, some 2,000 Highlanders lay dead on Culloden Moor. These figures have never been seriously challenged and neither has the figure of 300 dead and injured from his side. A more exact figure has been put forward of 1,500 Highlanders but still only 300 of the Dukes men.
The memories of Culloden still run deep in the blood of Highlanders the world over because this battle was not the end - it was just the beginning!
Cumberland gave orders for "No Quarter Given": in other words 'none shall live'. His army marched on and killed every wounded Highlander left on the field - and then made his way to Inverness to carry on the fight. Raiding homes looking for Jacobites, all were labeled as one and swiftly put either to the end of a musket - bayonet – hangman’s rope or burnt alive in their homes. Women, children, old and young, his orders were "No Quarter Given" - and none was.
The slaughter did not end there on that day, and this is the significance of the Jacobite's in Scottish history: particularly Highland history. For months his army moved around the Highlands clearing out any threat once and for all that Highlander should ever pick up a Broadsword against England. It can be quoted from English parliament in reply to Cumberland’s reports that they sent message saying "It will be no great mischief if all should fall." the support for Cumberland’s ethnic cleansing was total.
Five months passed and it was decided that the hunt for the Jacobites, (which by this time there were more than likely none left as well as every other Highlander who wasn't even there), should be calmed down and this is when the Prince made his escape back to France.
In London they celebrated the defeat of the Highland people once and for all, and the German composer Handel wrote one of his most famous works 'See the conquering hero come' - referring to The Duke of Cumberland.
The Highland people were wiped out. Over the coming years they were cleared out of their homes to make way for their lands to be used for profitable sheep farming. For 4 generations the Highlanders were scattered to the corners of the world - Europe, India, and the New World 'America'. Sold as slaves they worked on the lands in the southern parts of America, and one account even tells us that in Barbados a ship load of Highlanders were traded for 10 tones of Sugar.
Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written.
These times are known to us who are still here as the 'Highland Clearances'. English schools were put in place and the process of conversion began. Finally the English dream of a conquered Scotland was theirs.[6]
Many of those Scots who were exiled came to America where the encouragement of Richard Cameron’s prophecy was fulfilled when they fought along with George Washington and received encouragement in final victory. A large percent of Washington’s officers were Scots. Cameron had prophesied, “…but ye, that stand to the testimony in that day, be not discouraged at the fewness of your number; for when Christ comes to raise up His own work in Scotland, He will not [lack] men enough to work for him.” The “work in Scotland” was fulfilled in America, the new Scotland, where there are five times as many Scots as there are in Scotland. America became Scottish in culture.
And you, the Christian right of America, be not discouraged at the fewness of your numbers; for when Christ comes to raise up his own work in America (the New Scotland of the “Scots-Irish Presbyterian Revolt”), He will not lack men enough to work for him.
For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea
(Hab 2:14).
Churchofthekingmcallen.com
http://ronsmithmission.blogspot.com/
[1] Howie, John. The Scots Worthies, Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1995
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Rise & Fall of the Jacobite Rebellion By Mark Monaghan.at http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/jacobite.htm
[5] Ibid.
[6] The Rise & Fall of the Jacobite Rebellion By Mark Monaghan.at http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/culloden/jacobite.htm
