The facts are simply this…The Scotch-Irish are born fighters, warriors, and soldiers. Some of the greatest leaders the world has ever known have been and presently are men and women who come from the bloodlines of those Scotsmen and Irishmen who valiantly have fought and died for their personal freedom. Those ancestors gained their fearsome reputations on the soil of the different countries of the British Isles. They then exported themselves for various reasons to other parts of the world where they again have distinguished themselves as freedom fighters and leaders of men and women. U.S. Army World War II General George S. Patton and U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan are just a quick two names that pop into my memory bank, as hardy examples of Scots-Irish decent. You would truly be amazed at how many men and women of this heritage line have held high and honored positions of leadership.

Captain John Paton, born in the 1620’s in Scotland, is one of many brave warriors and leaders that I want to share with you in this section of my website. He was born in or around the very time that the pilgrims were initially landing their ships on the beaches of North America.

Great men and women, the real leaders of people, often times are best remembered because of the way and manner that they lived or the words they uttered as they drew their last breath. So it was for Captain John Paton. His famous last words while standing atop the gallows just before he was hung, ring down through the annals of time as a beautiful testimony of a strong and faithful believer in his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was indeed victorious at the moment of his physical death.

By the 1600’s, Scotland had fallen under English rule. For Scottish Presbyterians, their loss of religious freedom was even more bitterly irritating and angering than their loss of political freedom. The King of England was the head of the Church of England, yet to Scottish Presbyterians like John Paton, the true head of the church was The lord Jesus Christ. This was not a simple theological distinction. The Anglican Church in that day asserted its authority over individual conscience. In response to this established church position, John Paton and many other Presbyterians in Scotland covenanted together to uphold and defend the principles of the Reformation and became known as the Scottish Covenanters.

Captain John Paton, was born somewhere in and around the 1620’s on a farm in rural Fenwick Parish in Ayer, Scotland. He became a professional soldier and fought under Gustavus Adolphus in Germany and with the Covenanters at the battles Marston Moor (1644), Rullion Green (1667), and Bothwell Bridge (1679).

Since he was a Covenanter, Paton spent most of his retirement in hiding. Finally in August 1683 he was arrested. He was tried by the Royal Court, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for treason against the Crown. But Paton remained fiercely loyal to a “Higher King,” Jesus Christ. On May 9, 1684, from the scaffold of the gallows, he read and proclaimed his last moving testimony:

“Dear Friends and Spectators:”

“You are come here to look upon me a dying man…I am a poor sinner, and could never merit anything but wrath, and have no righteousness of my own; all is Christ’s and His alone; and I have laid claim to His righteousness and His sufferings by faith in Jesus Christ; through imputation they are mine; for I have accepted His offer on His own terms, and sworn away myself to Him, to be at His disposal, both privately and publicly; and now I have put it upon Him to ratify in Heaven all that I have purposed to do on earth, and to do away with all of my imperfections and failings, and to stay my heart on Him…

I now leave my testimony, as a dying man, against the horrid usurpation of our Lord’s prerogative and crown-right…for He is given by the Father to be the head of His Church…

Oh! Be oft at the throne, and give God no rest. Make sure your soul’s interest. Seek His pardon freely, and then He will come with peace. Seek all the graces of His spirit, the grace of love, the graces of holy fear and humility….

Now I desire to salute you, dear friends in the Lord Jesus Christ, both prisoned, banished, widow and fatherless, or wandering and cast out for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s; even the blessings of Christ’s sufferings be with you all, strengthen, establish, support, and settle you….

Now as to my persecutors, I forgive all of them…but I wish they would seek forgiveness of Him who hath it to give….

Now I leave my poor sympathizing wife and six small children upon the Almighty Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who hath promised to be a father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow, the widow and orphans’ stay. Be Thou all in all to them, O Lord….

And now farewell, wife and children. Farewell all friends and relations. Farewell all worldly enjoyments. Farewell sweet Scriptures, preaching, praying, reading, singing, and all duties. And welcome Father , Son, and Holy Spirit. I desire to commit my soul to thee in well-doing. Lord, receive my spirit.”

It is truly amazing the strength of this incredible and faith-filled man. His belief was so strong and deep. He said it all, at least all that was necessary. May all we believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have such a strong and bold trust in the Lord of Heaven, God Almighty.

Things To Think About:

If you were tried and found guilty of believing in a God of The Universe and were sentenced to be executed for your faith, what do you think your lasts words and testimony would be ? Remember God promises to give his children the words to speak when the time comes.

The Book of Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 16-22 NKJV:
Persecutions Are Coming

(16) “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

(17) But be aware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and
scourge you in synagogues.

(18) You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a
testimony to them and to the gentiles.

(19) But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you
should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should
speak;

(20) for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks
in you.

(21) Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child;
and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to
death.

(22) and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who
endures to the end will be saved.”

Isn’ it a beautiful thing to watch the truth of the Holy Scriptures come alive before your eyes whenever a committed Believer boldly lives out his life in total obedience to His Holy Instructions. Stay faithful to them all the way to the end…Endure…..

Learn Well The Lessons Of History…..