n at Perth Dec. 14.
1650. Mr. Guthrie and his colleague Mr. Bennet went somewhat further,
and openly preached against them, as a thing involving the land in
conjunction with the malignant party, for which by a letter from the
chancellor they were ordered to repair to Perth on Feb. 19th, 1651, to
answer before the king[103] and the committee of estates for that
letter and their doctrine: but upon the indisposition of one of them,
they excused themselves by a letter, for their non-appearance that day,
but promised to attend upon the end of the week. Accordingly on the 22d
they appeared at Perth, where they gave in a protestation; signifying,
that although they owned his majesty's civil authority, yet was Mr.
Guthrie challenged by the king and his council for a doctrinal thesis
which he had maintained and spoken to in a sermon,----whereof they were
incompetent judges in matters purely ecclesiastical, such as is the
examination and censuring of doctrines,--he did decline them on that
account[104].

The matter being deferred for some days, till the king returned from
Aberdeen, in the mean time the two ministers were confined to Perth and
Dundee, whereupon they (Feb. 28.) presented another paper or
protestation[105], which was much the same, though in stronger terms,
and supported by many excellent arguments. After this the king and
committee thought proper to dismiss them, and to proceed no farther in
the affair at present, and yet Mr. Guthrie's declining the king's
authority in matters ecclesiastical here, was made the principal article
in his indictment some ten years after, to give way to a personal pique
Middleton had against this good man, the occasion of which is as
follows:

By improving an affront the king met with _anno_ 1659, some malignants
about him so prevailed to heighten his fears of the evil designs of
those about him, that by a correspondence with the papists, malignants,
and such as were disaffected to the covenants in the north, matters came
in a little to such a pass, that a considerable number of noblemen,
gentlemen, and others were to rise and form themselves into an army
under Middleton's command, and the king was to cast himself into their
arms, &c. Accordingly the king with a few in his retinue, as if he
were going a-hunting, left his best friends, crossed the Tay, and came
to Angus, where he was to have met with those people, but soon finding
himself disappointed, he came back to the committee of