John Kid and John King, The Story of Two Covenanting Martyrs, by Maurice Grant, published by the Scottish Reformation Society in their Scots Worthies Series, paperback, 80 pages, £5.95, obtainable from the F P Bookroom. The two men described in this short book have been largely lost in the mists of history. But it is good that their story has been recorded in this form and that they have not been totally forgotten. Mr Grant is an able author who has previously written full-length biographies of three of the more prominent Covenanters: Donald Cargill, Richard Cameron and James Renwick.
In that age when the most faithful ministers in Scotland had, in 1662, been put out of their churches, Kid and King were among those who, if they were to preach at all, had to preach in the fields, or on remote moorlands. Neither of these men was involved in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, in 1679, but they had been associated with those who were. Accordingly, because they were ministers, they were targeted by the Government, arrested, tried and put to death in Edinburgh just a few months after the battle.
Some extracts are given in the book from the only two sermons by Kid that were ever published. The first of them includes the following: “What a desirable thing it is to have your hearts in heaven, to be heavenly as God is, to see Him face to face, and to see Him as He is. That soul that abides near God will ever be judging itself; it will ever be laying hold upon God by faith. Each moment he will admit of no beloved but Jesus Christ. . . . Let sin, every lust and abomination that makes you unlike Him be mortified and killed; seek to get them all thrust to the door and to have sin slain, that you may live, die and rise again, as He did. A soul that is so, nothing will satisfy but more of God’s ordinances; prayer and preaching will be empty if Christ be not there.”
In his final words on the scaffold, before he sealed his testimony with his death, King told his weeping friends: “Weep not for me, but for yourselves, for the sad days that are coming if the wicked get their designs. I pray God
you may be kept steadfast. Now I am going to die, and all must die and be judged. You and I must stand before the impartial Judge; great and small will be equal in that day. . . . The Lord’s blessing be with you all.”
For much of their lives, both men had trodden a difficult pathway, but God upheld them, and He did not leave them when they had to face death. This shows, once again, how God’s grace is always sufficient for His children. “Both men,” says the author, “had they wished it, could have chosen a life of comparative ease by conforming to the courses of the times; but they chose rather to remain loyal to their commission, and to the Reformed testimony they held dear.” This nicely-produced book is well worth reading.
Protestant View
Prince Charles and Cardinal Newman
It is sad to note the attendance of Prince Charles at the so-called canonisation of Cardinal Newman in the Vatican in October 2019. The “kindly light” that Cardinal Newman followed when he left Protestantism and joined the Church of Rome was a delusive one, kindled by one who “himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14), and it took Newman to perdition, we fear. The “miracles” attributed to Newman’s intercession were bogus, and the intercession itself non-existent. His canonisation in the Vatican was a medieval charade performed by a man whom many Roman Catholics regard as “the Pope of deceit and lies”. Yet Prince Charles was misguided enough, and forgetful enough of British history, to be there; and to his attendance at the canonisation, he added a naive article on Cardinal Newman which appeared in a number of Roman Catholic publications. Truly Romanism is a “strong delusion” (2 Th 2:11). DWBS
“Like Christ”?
Eamon Murphy, the Archbishop of Armagh, the most senior Romanist clergyman in Ireland, has drawn attention to the persecution of Christians across the world and has spoken of his thankfulness “for the freedom of worship and religion that we enjoy on this island” (referring, of course, to Ireland as a whole). He added that “to be like Christ in an increasingly secularised world means being different, counter-cultural, and not easily swayed by the prevailing attitudes and opinions around us”.
That is certainly true for those who, by grace, are following Christ by a living faith and have the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and lives, but it is simply impossible for those who follow the doctrines and
practices of Roman Catholicism, for the Church of Rome is not the Church of Christ but rather that of Antichrist. As for religious freedom, it is good that more attention is being drawn to the persecution of professing Christians around the world, but the Archbishop belongs to a body which probably has persecuted more of the Lord’s true people than any other organisation or ideology in history. His comments, therefore, will be empty for those who have suffered, or whose families have suffered, as a result of Romanist persecution in its various manifestations.
The role of the Roman Catholic Church in encouraging and shielding terrorists in both parts of the island of Ireland, for example, is yet to be fully revealed. But it will be no little part of the shame and infamy that awaits the woman in whom “was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev 18:24). AWM