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 the king’s bishops.
In politics the movement saw important developments resulting in the
emergence of liberty in the modern world.
The National Covenant of 1638 was based on earlier documents of the same
kind and is chiefly concerned with preserving the Reformation free from crown
innovations such as the divine right of kings. Its sister document, the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, is also concerned with freedom of religion, but its
chief importance is as a treaty of alliance between the Covenanters in Scotland
and the Puritan Parliament of England, anxious for help in the increasingly bitter civil war with Charles I.
The Covenanters opposed
the king in his attempt to impose Anglican bishops on the Presbyterian Church
of 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 Scottish 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 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 a short time in exile in the Netherlands where he was
ordained and sent back to Scotland with the prophecy by Rev. Robert 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, in
the view of the world.” And so it was
that his hands and head were put on display at the gate of 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 party in this
land joining them…” 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.
Then he
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 want men enough to work for him.”[3] This prophecy
was fulfilled in America, which became the Greater Scotland. After the genocide
there was a great migration to America. Seventy four percent of the officers in
the American army of the War of Independence were Scots.
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]
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).
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 satisfaction in final victory. 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.” This prophecy was fulfilled when
the Ulster Scots came down out of the hills of the Carolinas and ran the
British all the way to York Town and won the war. No wonder the British called
the American War of Independence “The Scotts Irish Presbyterian Revolt.”
America had become the Greater Scotland. Today there are five times more Scots
in America than there are in Scotland.
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.
“Your
people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours” (Psalm 110:3
ESV).
Churchofthekingmcallen.com
http://ronsmithmission.blogspot.com/2013/10/thanksgiving-and-rest-of-story.html
