himself but made use of men who drew more hatred upon their own heads than moneys into their Princes Coffers Though he delighted more in War than the Arts he was a great admirer and advancer of learned men William Elphinstoun Bishop of Aberdeen builded by his Liberality the College of Aberdeen and named it The King's College by reason of those Privileges and Rents the King bestowed upon it His Generosity did shew it self in not delivering of Perkin Warbeck he trusted much and had great confidence in his Nobility and governed by love not by fear his People It is no wonder amidst so much worth that some humane frailty and some according Discord be found There is no day so bright and fair which one moment or other looketh not pale and remaineth not with some dampish shadow of discoloured Clouds He was somewhat wedded to his own humours opinionative and rash Actions of rashness and temerity even although they may have an happy event being never praise worthy in a Prince He was so infected with that Illustrious crime which the Ambitious take for vertue desire of Fame that he preferred it to his own life and the peace of his Subjects He so affected Popularity and endeavoured to purchase the love of his People by Largesses Banquetting and other Magnificence diving in debt that by those Subsidies and excessive Exactions which of necessity he should have been constrained to have levied and squeezed from the People longer life had made him lose all that favour and love he had so painfully purchased that death seemed to have come to him wishedly and in good time The wedding of others quarrels especially of the French seemeth in him inexcusable a wise Prince should be slow and loath to engage himself in a War although he hath suffered some wrong He should consider that of all humane actions and hazards there is not one of which the precipitation is so dangerous as that of beginning and undertaking a War Neither in Human Affairs should there more depths be sounded nor hidden passages searched and pryed into than in this He should remember that besides the sad necessity which is inseparable from the most innocent War the wasting and destroying of the Goods and Lives of much people there is nothing of which the Revolutions and Changes are more inconstant and the conclusions and ends more uncertain The Sea is not more treacherous false and deceiving nor changeth not more swiftly her calms into storms than Wars and the fortune of Arms do the event and success belying the beginning It is not enough that a Prince know a War which he undertaketh to be just but he should consider also if it be necessary and if it be profitable and conduce to the State which he governeth As Men of strong and healthful bodies follow ordinary delight in their youth he was amorously carried away He confined the Earl of Anguss in the Isle of Arran for taking Jane Kennedy a Daughter of the Earl of Cassilles out of Galloway a fair and noble Lady of whom he became enamoured as he went in his Pilgrimage to St. Ninians In his last Expedition the Lady Foord was thought to have hindred the progress of his Arms and hasten'd the success of the Battle Though vertue be sometimes unfortunate yet is it ever in an high esteem in the memories of Men such a desire remained of him in the hearts of his People after his loss that the like was not of any King before him Princes who are out of this Life being only the delights and darlings of a People Ann the French Queen not many days out-lived the rumour of his death He serves for an example of the frailty of great men on the Theatre of this world and of the inconstancy of all Sublunary things He had children James and Arthur who dyed Infants James who succeeded him Alexander born after his death who dyed young Alexander a Natural Son Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews so much admired and courted by Erasmus Margarite a Daughter of the Lord Drummonds married to the Earl of Huntley whose Mother had been contracted to the King and taken away to his great regret by those who govern'd the State that he should not follow the example of King Robert his Predecessour who marryed a Lady of that Family James Earl of Murray Iams V King of Scotes Ano 1514 THE HISTORY Of the LIFE and Reign of James the Fifth KING of SCOTLAND THe fatal accident and overthrow of the King and Flower of the Nobility of Scotland at Flowden filled the remnant of the State with great sorrow but with great amazement and perplexity for by this great change they expected no less than the progress and advancement of the Victors Arms and Fortune and feared the Conquest Servitude and Desolation of the whole Kingdom The rigorous season of the year being spent in mourning and performing of last duties to the dead for their lost kinsmen and friends and the gathering together the floating Ribs and dispersed Planks of this Ship-wrack the Pears assembled at Sterlin where being applying themselves to set their confusions in order and determine on the Remedies of their present evils the lively pourtraict of their Calamities did represent it self to the full view The Head and fairest parts which Majesty Authority Direction Wisdom had made eminent were cut away some turbulent Church-men Orphant-Noblemen and timorous Citizens fill their vacant places and many who needed directions themselves were placed to direct and guide the Helm of State such miseries being always incident to a People where the Father of the Country is taken away and the Successour is of under age In this Maze of perplexity to disoblige themselves of their greatest duty and give satisfaction to the most and best the Lawful Successour and Heir JAMES the Prince is set on the Throne and Crowned being at that time One year five months and ten days of Age and the hundred and fifth King of Scotland The last Will and Testament which the late King had left before his expedition being publickly seen and approved the Queen challenges the Protection of the Realm and Tutelage of her Son as disposed unto her so long as she continued a Widdow and followed the Counsel and advice of the Chancellour of the Realm and some other grave Counsellours and she obtained it as well out of a Religion they had to fulfil the Will of their deceased Sovereign as to shun and be freed of the imminent Arms and imminent danger of her Brother the King of England Being established in the Government and having from all that respect reverence and observance which belong to such a Princess she sent Letters to the King of England that having compassion upon the tears and prayers of a Widdow of his Sister of an Orphan of his Nephew he would not only cease from following the War upon Scotland then at War with it self and many ways divided but ennobled by courage and goodness be a defence unto
That they would accordingly resent and Revenge it Rage prevailing against Reason and fears the Lords made that same answer to these Embassadours which they had sent to the King himself before As for the Popes Embassie which was sent by Adrian de Castello an Italian Legate was coming and the Lords fearing the danger of it for in those times it might have drawn the most part of all the Towns and the Commons for fear of Ecclesiastical Censures to have adhered to the King or stood in an indifferency made all possible haste before it should have been delivered to make Head against their Soveraign and decide their Quarrel in a Battle Urban the Fourth Armed Henry the Third King of England against all those that would not return to their due and old obedience to him and all his disloyal Subjects The King was in a strong Fort and if he had remained still there matters in a little time had faln forth more to his wishes and his Enemies might have been brought to a submission for his good Subjects of the North as the Forbesses Oguilbuyes the Graunts Frazeres Meldrums many of the Gordounes Keethes and others who adhered to him out of affection and duty were advancing towards him But whether misinformed or betrayed by some of his own who made him believe that unless he could command the Country about Edenburgh the Castle was of no such importance as was the Castle of Sterlin for him in consideration of the passage over the River of Forth at a Bridge for those were coming to his Aid The Lords of the Association counterfeiting a Retreat and dispersing themselves in the Country that they might draw him from that Hold he rashly and unadvisedly issued out of the Castle and left his beloved Town of Edenburgh The Earls of Montross Glencarn Lords Maxwel and Ruthen accompanied him to the Blackness his Forces here encreasing he marched towards Sterlin the Rendevous and destinated Place of meeting for all his Loyal Subjects there he displayed his Royal Standard Here the perfidious Constable an unparralleld example of ingratitude who had betrayed the Son in an Hostile manner kept the Father out of his own Castle Cannons mounted Pistols cockt and level'd at him and exposed him a prey to his Rebels In the amazement and deliberation what to go about being thus shut out of his Castle Tidings came to him That the Confederates were come near to Falkirk a little Town six miles Eastward from Sterlin that his Army should not be discouraged by this unexpected accident trusting to his right and present Power being more stout than prudent he resolveth to set all upon the hazard of a Battle The Confederates had passed the Carron a River under the Falkirk and were encamped above the Bridge near the Torwood The King set forwards with his Army upon the otherside of the Torwood near a small brook named Sawchy-Burn This field is a Plain not far distant from that Bannoch-burn where King Robert the Bruce overthrew the great Army of Edward Carnarvan Here both Armies advance forward in Battel array The Lords rang'd their Host in three Squadrons the Vanguard was led by the Lords Hume and Hailles and their friends consisting of East Lothian and March-men The middle ward was composed of the Liddesdale Annandale Ewesdale Tiviotdale Tweddale Galloway-men the main Battle was of West Lothian-men where most of the Lords were and amongst whom the Prince was kept In the Kings Army the Earl of Monteeth Lords Aresken Graham Ruthen Maxwel commanded the Vanguard The left wing which consisted of Westland and Highland men was committed to the Earl of Glencarn The Lords Boyd Lyndesay the Earl of Crawford commanded in the Rear or great Battel amongst whom was the King armed from head to foot upon a great Coursier easie to be known and discern'd from the rest The first Charge is valiantly given and Launce meeting with Launce the Vanguard of the Lords began to yield ground and was strongly repulsed But the next Charge being given by Annandale Men and the ranck Riders of the Borders The middle ward of the Kings Army is beaten back to the main Battle Notwithstanding of which it is Fought a while with marvellous obstination and great hardiness and assurance until the Standard Royal was beaten down and those who defended it were slain the violence of the bickering being mostly where it was planted The Kings Army now beginning to bow not being sufficient to resist the numbers of fresh Assailers the Horse-men obeying no direction turned their backs In this rowt and confusion of Horse and Foot-men the King seeking to retire towards the River of Forth where not far off some Boats and the Ships of Sir Andrew Wood attended the fortune of Battel by the fall of his Horse in leaping a Ditch being sore bruised was carried by such who knew him not to a Mill at Bannoch-Burn The day was now the Confederates and wrong had prevailed against Right when the Prince of Rothsay amazed at the noise and clamours of the flying and following Souldiers and in suspition of the worst gave out express and strait Commandment with threatnings to the Disobeyers that none should presume to pursue his Father nor others in the Chase Notwithstanding which he was followed and killed in a Mill in cold Blood These who followed him were the Lord Gray Robert Sterling of Keer Sir Andrew Borthick a Priest whom Fame reporteth after shiriving to have stobb'd him with a Dagger The Ensigns taken the Army dissipated and put to flight the Baggage rifled the Death of the King being rumoured through the Armies the Victors turned slow in the chase and gave field-room to all that would fly no severity being used against any found unarm'd for the Lords of the Association pursu'd the King not the People The discomfited fled towards Sterlin the victorious retir'd to their Camp and the next morning to Linlithgow On the Kings side Alexander Cunningham Earl of Glencarn was slain and as some have Recorded the Lords Areskin Simple Ruthven John Ramsey of Balmayn created Earl of Bothwell and his chief favourite with their friends and Vassals the Laird of Inneys Alexander Scot Director of the Chancery with some Noblemens Friends and Vassals many were hurt who recovered of their wounds and this Battle seem'd rather a brave encounter and meeting of Launces in some Lists than a Field of great deeds of Arms and the Victory was obtained rather by disorder and the rashness of the Vanquished than by the Valour of the Victorious This Battle was Fought the year One thousand four hundred eighty eight the Eleventh day of June which is the Festival of St. Barnabas the Twenty ninth year of the Reign and thirty five of the Age of this King He had issue James the Fourth who succeeded Alexander Arch-bishop of St. Andrews and John Earl of Marr The Conspirators with all funeral Rites and Royal Pomp as in expiation of the wrongs they had done him living near his
for the faults of those who brought him to the Field against him he girded himself with a chain of Iron to which every third year of his Life thereafter he added some rings and weight Though this might have proved terrible to the Complices of the Crime yet either out of Conscience of his gentle disposition and mild nature and confidence in his generosity or of the trust they had in their own Power and Faction they bewrayed no signs of fear nor attempted ought against the common peace and tranquillity some Records bear that they forewarned him by the example of his Father not to take any violent course against them or which might irritate the people against him and every thing to embrace their counsels and that finding him repining and stubborn beyond mediocrity giving himself over to Sorrow and pensiveness they threatned him with a Coronation of one of his Brothers telling him it was in their power to make any of the Race of his Predecessors their King if he were head-strong and refractory to oppose to their wholsom directions and grave Counsels Amidst this grief of the King and overweaning of his supercilious Governours Andrew Forman Secretary to Alexander the Sixth Bishop of Rome arrived in Scotland with instructions for the Clergy and Letters from his Master to the King and the Nobles The King 's were full of ordinary consolations to asswage his Passions and reduce his mind to a more calm temper for the accident of his Fathers Death The most glorious victory a Prince could acquire was sometimes to overcome himself and triumph over his disordered passions In all perturbations to which we are subject we should endeavour to practise that precept No thing too much but chiefly in our passions of sorrow and wrath which not being restrained over-whelm the greatest and most generous Minds that by passion the fewest actions and by reason the most do prosper Though a King he must not imagine himself exempt from things casual to all mankind especially in Seditions and civil tumults from which no kingdom nor State hath been free There being no City which hath not sometimes wicked Citizens and always and ever an headstrong and mad multitude he should take what had befaln him from the hand of his Maker who chastiseth those he loveth What comes from heaven he should bear necessarily what proceedeth from Men couragiously there was no man so safe excellent and transcendent who by an insolent Nobility and ravaging Populacy might not be compell'd to perpetrate many things against his heart and intentions The will being both the beginning and subject of all sin and the consenting to and allowing the action being the only and main point to be considered and lookt into of which he was free the sin committed was not his nor could the punishment which by the Divine Justice might follow belong unto him Sith he had done nothing of himself but as a bound man had been carryed away by mutinous Subjects these that lead transgress not always they that follow To these men remorse and torture of conscience belong'd it was they should lament and mourn who under false pretences had abused the people maskt their ambition and Malice with a Reformation of errours in the State whose Rage could not be quench't but by the Bloud of their Soveraign It was these should bewail their injustice and cruelty the sin shame and judgment for so hainous a Fact followed these men He should not impute the wrongs and wickedness of others by which he had been a sufferer with his disastered Father to himself Revenge belonged to the Almighty to whose Tribunal he should submit his quarrel He should not decree the worst against his mutinous Subjects nor turn them desperate as if there were no place to Repent Great offences ordinarily were seldom punisht in a State that it was profitable for a Prince sometimes to put up voluntarily an injury the way to be invincible was never to contend and to stand out of danger was the benefit of Peace that he should apply soft Medicine where it was dangerous to use violent That following his Maker he should endeavour to draw good out of evil As he was for that disaster of his Father pittied by Men upon Earth so assuredly he would be pardon'd in Heaven If his Subjects returned to their crooked Byas and did revolt again he would make the danger his own use his Ecclesiastical Censures and Spiritual Power against them till they became obedient and submitted themselves to the sway of his Scepter In the Letters to the Nobles he exhorteth them to obedience Ambition was the cause of Sedition which had no limits and which was the bane and wrack of State and Kingdoms of which they should beware of Kingdoms subsisting upon the reputation of a Prince and that respect his Subjects carryed towards him He was the Eye and Sun of Justice the Prince weakned or taken away or his Authority contemned the Commonwealth would not only fall into a Decadence but suffer an Earthquake and perish Either after by Forrainers be invaded or by intestine dissentions rent asunder Confusions followed where obedience ceased and left Contempt deposed Kings as well as death and Kings are no longer Kings when their Subjects refuse to obey them That good people made good Kings which he requested them to endeavour to be as they would answer to God whose Lieutenants Princes were and by whose power they ruled After this time the Lord Evaindale being dead the Earl of Anguss was made Chancellour and the Lord Hume obtained the place of great Chamberlain of Scotland the Country enjoyed a great calm of Peace the grounds of Dissention seeming to be taken away The King in the strength and vigour of his Youth remembring that to live in Idleness was to live to be contemned by the World by change of Objects to expel his present sadness and to enable himself for Wars when they should burst forth gave himself to recreations by Games and with a decent Pomp entertained all Knightly exercises keeping an open and Magnificent Court When time and Exercise had enabled him and he thought he had attained to some perfection in Martial sports Tilting and Barriers proclaimed Rewards propounded and promised to the Victors Challenges are sent abroad unto Strangers either to be Umpires or Actors of Feats of Arms. Charles the Eight the French King having an Ambition to reannex the Dutchy of French Bretaign to the Crown of France either by Arms or the Marriage of Ann the apparent heir under the pretext and shadow of those painted Justings sendeth to Scotland some of the bravest Gentlemen of his Court desiring privily the assistance of King James against the English if it should fall forth that the King of England troubled his Designs Not long after well and honourably accompanied arriveth in Scotland a young man naming himself Richard Duke of York Son to Edward the Fourth true Inheritor of the Crown of England divers Neighbour
nothing from the common shape and proportion of the bodies of other men the members both for use and comliness being two their faces looking one way sitting they seemed two men to such who saw not the parts beneath and standing it could not be discerned to which of the two Bulks above the thighs and legs did appertain They had differing Passions and divers wills often chiding others for disorder in their behaviour and actions after much deliberation embracing that unto which they both consented By the Kings Direction they were carefully brought up and instructed in Musick and Forreign Languages This monster lived Twenty eight years and dyed when John Duke of Albany Govern'd Claud Gruget maketh mention of the like Monster born in Paris before the Marriage of Henry the Fourth the French King with Margarite of Valois but the birth and death of it were near together The King by his great Liberality unto Strangers abroad and his lavish spending at home for religious Places were founded Castles repaired Ships builded three of an extraordinary greatness finding himself needy of Treasure to support the daily expences at Court engaged to many and sunk deep in debt and that Subsidies he could not Levy except by the Suffrages of his Parliament by whose Power they were imposed and rated setteth the most learned Counsellors at Law and men experienced in Foreign Policy to find out new means and ways to acquire and gather him moneys by Laws already made and Ordained which was in effect to Pole the People by executing the rigour of Justice the Fortunes of wise men arising often on the expences of Fools after the example of King Henry the seventh of England his Father-in-law who taking the advantage of the breach of his penal Statutes gave power to Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley by Informers and Promoters to oppress and ruine the Estates of many of his best Subjects whom King Henry the Eight to satisfy his wronged people after his decease caused Execute Old Customs are by these men pryed into and forgotten absolet Statutes quickned Amongst the Titles of possessing of Lands in Scotland there is one which in process of time of an ungodly custom grew strong and is kept for a Law being fetched by imitation from the Laws of the neighbouring States That if the possessour of Lands die and leave a Minor to succeed to him his Tutelage belongeth to the King and the profit of the Lands until the Minor be of the age of One and twenty years This is of those Lands which are termed Wards The King causeth bring up his Wards but bestoweth no more of their Rents upon them than is useful to such of that age By another Law they have not any thing better than this which they call Recognition that if the evidences of any Possessour of Ward-lands be not in all points formal and above exceptions of Law the Lands the possessours put from them shall return to the Lords Superiour and like to this That if a Possessour of Ward-Lands without the consent of the Superiour sell and put away the half or above the half of his Land and Farm the whole Land and Farm returneth to the Superiour or Lord Paramount They have Lands held with Clauses which they call Irritant that if two terms of a few-duty run unpaid into the Third the Land falleth unto the Superiour When those Laws and other like them by reason of the Neighbour Incursions and troubles with England and the civil broyls at home had been long out of use amongst the Subjects and the execution of them as it were in a manner forgot these Projectors and new Tol-masters the King giving way to enrich his Exchequer awakned them Many of the Subjects by these enquiries were obnoxious to the King and smarted but most the most honest who were constrained either to buy their own Lands and Inheritance from the Exchequer or quit and freely give some portion of them to those Caterpillars of the State The King was so dearly beloved of his People that in the height of those Grievances which reached near the exorbitant Avarice of his Father none refused or made difficulty to give all that the Laws ordained The King seeing their willingness to perform and knowing their great disability thereunto out of his singular Grace and Goodness remitteth not only the rigour but even the equity almost of his Laws insomuch that thereafter none of his Subjects were damnified in their Persons or Estates by his proceedings which gain'd him the hearts of all And to put away all suspicions and jealousies from their minds an ordinary Practice amongst Princes acts that fill Princes Coffers ever being the ruine of their first Projectors of any wrong intended He suffered the Promoters and Projectors of this Poling with others of the most active to be thrown into Prisons where some miserably ended their days The year One thousand five hundred and seven James Prince of Scotland and Isles was born at Holy-rood-House the Twenty first of January the Queen in her throws of birth being brought near the last Agony of Death the King overcome with affection and religious vows taketh a Pilgrimage for her recovery on foot to Saint Ninians in Galloway a place in those credulous times famous for the burial of St. Ninian the Apostle of the Britains and notorious by the many Processions and visits of the Neighbour Countries of Ireland and England at his return he findeth his Queen recovered the Child after dyed at Sterlin with the Bishop of Galloway who was appointed to attend him The year following the Queen brought forth another Son named Arthur at Holy-rood-House but he dyed also in the Castle of Edenburgh and Henry the Seventh his Grandfather accompanied him to the other World King James to the Coronation of the young King his Brother-in-law sendeth Embassadours After the death of his two Sons and his Father-in-Law as if he had been warned from above to think upon his own mortality whether he had a resolute intention so to do or that for reasons known to himself he would have it so appear he giveth out That out of remorse for bearing Arms in the Field where his Father was slain he had a resolution to leave his Kingdom and visit the holy Sepulchre Then to prepare his way Robert Blacka-Towre Abbot of Dumfermling is directed but the Abbot in his journey is Arrested by Death and the King findeth other hinderances to keep him at Home Amidst these deliberations his Queen is delivered in the Pallace of Linlithgow of her third Son in the Month of April One thousand five hundred and Twelve who succeeded to the Crown and was named James About this same time Bernard Stuart that famous Warriour under Charles the eighth of France who commanded the French in Bosworth Field came to Scotland followed by Andrew Foreman then Arch-Bishop of Burges and Bishop of Murray with Alexander Stuart the Kings Natural Son after promoted to be Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews
what Heretick could pass unpunisht Besides the investing himself in the Sheriffs Office and Lands which he never minded to restore he had a Pick against him for that whilst he sat Judge in Lithgow he pronounced a Sentence by which he was interested in some petty gain The Sheriff falling so far short of his expectation that he findeth himself the first subject of his Cousens Justice and highly resenting his Kinsmans cruelty whom he knew under pretext of Piety ready to execute his own Revenges resolveth to prevent his mischief He had sometime been familiar with Sir James had known his by-paths his secret Plots and airy brags had not escaped his observation some alike in Kindred to them both were emissaries suborned to mark not only his actions but words and behaviour by which one way or other he might be intrapt He knew Sir James stood in some umbrage with the King and that some suspitions by no Innocency could be taken away When at last he had found his hot-spur Cousen who threatned him with Death and Fire within the circle of his conjurations he directeth his Son to the King who at that time was ready to pass the Forth in his Barge this bashful Messenger giveth advertisement from his Father that the King should make his Person sure from his foes at home for Sir James Hamiltoun had secret Intelligence and Plots with the Earl of Anguss and Dowglasses and that he attended only the occasion when he might surprize him either alone or with a mean Retinue and then or openly he would invade him or breaking up his Chamber-doors assassinate him The King giving attentive ear to a business which concerned him no less than the safety of his Person the accusation being given by a Cousen of the suspect against a Family which a little disorder in the State might turn Successors to the Crown directeth the young man to Edenburgh and beyond his private instructions giveth him a Ring well known by the chief Officers to be a token of power and secrecy to assemble so many of the Counsel as were resident Sir Thomas Areskin Secretary Sir James Lermound Master of the Houshold William Kircaldie Treasurer and others meet fear consult upon the Treason labour how to prevent it come to Sir James his Lodging make sure his Person in the Castle of Edenburgh and at that same time proceed according to the Kings direction to instruct his Process Sir James passionately resenting his imprisonment by his Friends imploreth the aid of the Church-men upon his innocency They apprehending his accusation to be a Stratagem of State forg'd by these of the Reformed Religion for the stopping any further progress of the Inquisition already so furiously begun interpose their credit with the King for his Liberty to the discharging of his Commission against Hereticks If the King should hearken to every Informer against a man in State and Office he should never have an end for thus no man is so innocent who may not be detracted and calumniated Sir James was known to be a man rash and insolent in words his Brains having been a little giddy like one looking from a great height by his advancement in honours and place in Court but sincere in the service of his Prince and loyal If he was arrogant in boldness of terms that was to acquire some more credit with the Commons that he might do better service to his Prince They who committed Sir James Hamiltoun knowing the King facile and easie to be wrought upon by the Clergy some of them too professing or giving way to the Reform'd Religion resolve if he should escape free of this accusation that an imminent ruine hung over their Persons and Estates Necessity and fear combining the distracted powers of their minds they come prostrate before the King beseech him not so much to look to the quality and circumstances of the Crime as to the evil inclination of the man who powerful factious and naturally vindicative would never forgive nor forget the danger he was driven unto that his Majesty would consider his pass'd life terrible and cruel against all whom he could over-reach That to give him liberty and relieve him of his imprisonment before the Crimes of which he was accus'd were clearly proved or not would be their and the accusers overthrow whom they esteemed loyal Subjects and except upon evident probabilities had never given informations against him That he was a man perfectly hated of the People and a more acceptable sacrifice could not be offer'd unto their fury it he prov'd guilty At their Supplications the King gave the Judges full power to proceed against him and administer Justice according to their Consciences and the Laws of the Kingdom The pannal being found guilty of such points of the Indictment as was laid against him was condemned to die and thereafter accordingly beheaded his Quarters being set aloft on the Town gates his Lands annexed to the Crown The Crimes of which he was found guilty as from those who lived near that time have by tradition been received were he had intelligence with the Earl of Anguss and Dowglasses whom he laboured to have restored though with the Kings death he had a plot to have broken up the Kings Chamber-doors and killed him devolving the title of the Crown or at least Government of the Kingdom to his kindred Being directed to have repaired a Castle in Bute and to this effect receiving three thousand Crowns in April he went not thither attending some change in the State which was to be accomplished by treason against the Kings person He kept still with him men of desperate minds and fortunes who at his direction durst enterprize any mischief Where he had repaired some of the Kings houses he had placed a Statue resembling himself or which to some he had named his Statue what Mole hills are turned into Mountains when a Prince will pry into the actions of a disgraced Subject above the Kings arms He had detracted from his Master naming him the King of Clowns and Priests and Scourge of the antient Nobility He had laboured to hinder the Kings marriage at his being in France To these points the people who rejoiced in his ruin added he had slain cruelly the Earl of Lennox at the battel of Lithgow after he was Prisoner to Purdowye he had way-laid Gilbert Earl of Cassiles who was killed by his direction and Councel This back-blow of Fortune proveth that it is dangerous once highly to offend a Prince and after remain in his service for Princes put old offences up as neglected and when the occasion serveth them surprize long after the Delinquents for some faults for which they are scarce guilty Sundry of the Nobility appall'd at this sudden fall of Sir James Hamiltoun for though they loved not the Man they hated the examples of such strict Justice left the Court retiring to their own dwelling Houses which made the King suspitious of them and believe they favoured
Aytoun Langtoun Ormestoun Waughtoun many of the Kings Domestick Servants were taken Prisoners brought to London and remained there till after the Kings death The certainty of this voluntary defeat coming to the King at Loch-Maban or Carlawfroke as others so astonished all the powers of his mind that he neither had counsel nor resolution what to follow neither remembring his own valour nor the number of his Subjects yet flourishing he remained as one distracted and abandoned of all hopes The Plot of the Nobles at Falla-Moor against his Servants the refusing to give battel on English ground made him apprehend that the whole body of his Nobility had conspired his overthrow The Cardinal and Earl of Arran coming to Edenburgh he also returned all so cast down that they were ashamed to come within sight of each other some daies After which in a retired manner he passed to Fyffe and from Hall-yards to Faulkland where he gave himself over to Sorrow No man had access unto him no not his own Domesticks Now are his thoughts busied with revenge now with rage against his scornful Nobility long watchings continuall cares and passions abstinence from food and recreation had so extenuated his body that pierced with grief anguish impatience despair he remained fixt to his bed In these Trances Letters come from Lithgow to him That the Queen was delivered of a Daughter the eight of December When he heard it was a Daughter was born he is said to have turned his face from them that read the Letters and sighing a farewell to the World it will end as it began says he the Crown came by a Woman and it will with one go many miseries approach this poor Kingdom King Henry will either make it his by Arms or Marriage The Cardinal put in his hands some blank Papers of which they composed a Letter Will which whether he subscribed or not is uncertain After which he said not many words which could be understood but mused on the discomfiture of his Servants at the Solloway-Moss In which fits he left this World the thirteenth of December 1542. the three and thirtieth year of his Age and two and thirty of his Reign Some record he was troubled by an unkindly Medicine and that the Cardinal was conscious to it but upon far conjectures for the event proved that his death was not only the ruine of the Cardinal but of the whole Church-men of the Kingdom and frame of the Roman Religion His Body was conveyed from Faulkland to Edenburgh the Cardinal Earls of Arran Arguyl Rothess Marshal accompanying it and in January buried in the Abby Church of Holy-rood-House near the Body of Magdalen his first Queen He left behind him many natural Children of his Marriages only one Daughter five days old at his death the Heir of his Kingdom and misfortunes This King was of a well made body and excellent mind if it had been carefully polisht he was of a middle stature Nature had given him strength and ability equal to any but by exercise he had so confirmed it that he was able to endure any travel and practise all feats af Arms as his attending on Malefactors proved for he was ordinary thought the first of his Troops who pursued them and the last that left the chase being daring and forward In his private affairs he was attentive and liberal yet spared his Treasure that he should not want and when occasion required caring for no charges Never man did entertain Soveraignty more familiarly being of easie access to the meaner sort as to the great He was studious of all good Arts naturally given to Poesie as many of his Verses yet extant testifie He was of as great sobriety as of little continency he was a great favourer of learned men The poor men loved him the great feared him he made the rushy bushes keep the herds of Cattel he was thankful towards his Friends dangerous towards his Enemies He infinitely obliged his People by establishing a Justice Court among them and bringing all sorts of Manufactours from Neighbour Nations home By the Germans he found the Gold Mines of Crawfoord Moor being unknown to this part of the World before him out of which he extracted Treasure He left his Arsenals furnisht with all sorts of Arms and furniture for War Now as in Pictures not only the light but the shadow is observable let us look upon him in all his umbrages This Prince in his long pursuit of the Dowglasses seems to 〈◊〉 had a strange humor that he could never forgive And most of his miseries may be traced to this Source these he would have extirpate and the King of England could not forsake a man who was his Brother-in-Law and had been ever obsequious to him Seeking only that he might be restored to his own out of which he was cast not by any Treason or aspiring to the Crown but of an ambition he had to be near the King and equal to any Subject his own worth Kindred and Followers animated him thereunto having Married the Kings Mother and one of the greatest Kings Sister of those times The burning alive of the Lady Glames beheading of the Master of Forbess and after him Sir James Hamiltoun turned many of his Nobles from him and made the Commons detract him For though they delight sometimes to have great men made equal to them when they find not evident proofs and sound grounds of their sufferings and executions they abhor the Actors Princes should remember that as the People are their Subjects so are they the Subjects of Time and Providence This humor of revenge made many believe if he had not been prevented by death many Scaffolds had been embrued for Falla-Moor Plot and Sollowny-Moss The Lord Maxwel who had studied the Character of the King at that Road vowed when he might have escaped among his known Borderers he would rather be the KING of Englands Prisoner and see him at London than return home and be shamefully hanged at the Cross of Edenburgh He studied very much the overthrow of his ancient Nobility not considering that the Titles of Crown in Hereditary Kingdoms belong only to Kings for that they are the most Ancient Noblemen and also first of the Primitive Blood In his last years he was altogether governed by Romish Prelates dangerous Pilots in the Ocean of a troubled State that Body in which one humour signorizeth cannot last long and a Prince perisheth when he is governed by only one sort of men Neither was he ruled so much by them out of great zeal to Religion being a Prince altogether given to his own pleasures as that he found them counterpoise the Nobility whilst he swayed the ballance His death proveth his mind to have been raised to the highest strain and above mediocrity for he could dye but could not disgest a disaster He seemeth to have too much confidence in himself and that he forgot the conditions of Mortality Whilst he suffered himself to be carried
frequent in that place He is a Prince we find little said of as to his person and possibly best to be considered in the Negative We find many things done by his Captains not by him which notwithstanding we may rather attribute to the stirring and violent humour of that age than either his age want of Genius or love of quiet yet herein appears somewhat of his Character that meeting with turbulent times and a martial people he met not with any Insurrections and was a gainer and though he did it by other hands we must suppose that their Motions were directed by his Brain that communicated Motion and Spirits unto them since the Minds of Kings like the first Mover turn all about yet are not perceived to move and it was no humane wit said their hearts were unscrutable The same year his Eldest Son John was caled to succeed who thinking that name ominous to Kings there wanted not examples as of him of England and him of France and fancying somewhat of the felicity of those two former Roberts was crowned King by the name of ROBERT the III. This man being unactive the weight of the Government rested upon his Brother Robert The first seven years of his Reign past in a calm with England by reason of two Truces but not without some fierce fewds among his Subjects one whereof was very memorable between Thomas Dunbar Earl of Murray and and James Lindsay Earl of Crawford and was most high insomuch that seeing the difficulty of reducing them he resolved to make this proposition to them That 300. of each side should try it by dint of Sword before the King the Conquered to be pardoned and the Conquerour advanced This being agreed on a place was appointed on the Northside of St. Johnstons but when they came to joyn battel there was one of one side missing whom when his party could not supply and none would relinquish the other a Tradesman stept out and for half a French Crown and promise of maintenance for his life filled up the company The fight was furious but none behaved himself more furiously than the Mercenary Champion who they say was the greatest cause of the Victory for of his side there remained ten grievously wounded the other party had but one left who not being wounded yet being unable to sustain the shock of the other threw himself into the Tey and escaped By this means the fiercest of two Clanns being cut off the remainder being headless were quiet Two years after the King in Parliament made his two Sons Dukes 1398 a title then first brought into Scotland Next year Richard the second of England being forced to resign Henry the fourth succeeded in the beginning of whose reign though the Truce was not ended the seeds of War began to bloom out and upon this occasion George Earl of March had betrothed Elizabeth his Daughter to David the Kings eldest Son Archibald Earl of Dowglass not brooking this gets a vote of Parliament for revocation of this marriage and by the power of Robert the Kings Brother made a marriage between Mary his Daughter and David and giving a greater sum got it confirmed in Parliament The Earl of March nettled at this demands redress but being not heard leaves the Court and with his Family and Friends goes into England to the Lord Percy an utter Enemy of the Dowglasses wast 's March and especially depredating the lands of the Dowglasses The Scots declare the Earl of March an Enemy and send to demand him up of the English who deny to surrender him This made Hot-spur Percy and March make several incursions into Scotland till at last they were repulsed at Linton-Bridge by the Dowglasses 1400. This was about the year four hundred at which time War was denounced and the English entred with a great Army took Haddington and Lieth and laid siege to Edinburgh Castle David the Kings Son being within it which the new Governour ambitiously delaying to relieve the English satisfied with the terrour they brought retired again After which March did not cease his little incursions which to be revenged of Dowglass divided his Forces into two Squadrons the first to Halyburton who returned from Barmborough with some prey the second and greater to Patrick Hepburn who unwarily roving with his prey was set on by the English and with all the youth of Lothian put to the Sword To revenge this Dowglass gets together 10000. men and passing beyond Newcastle met with young Percy c. who at Homildon a little village in Northumberland in the year 1401. gave gave him and his Party such a considerable defeat as Scotland had not receiv'd the like for a long time This put Percy in hope to reduce all beyond the Fryth but the troubles at home withdrew him from that design By this Annibal the Queen dying David her Son who by her means had been restrained broke out into his natural disorders and committed all kind of Rapine and Luxury Complaint being brought to his Father he commits him to his Brother the Governour whose secret design being to root out the off-spring the business was so ordered as that the young man was shut up in Falkland Castle to be starved which yet was for a while delayed one woman thrusting in some thin Oaten Cakes at a chink and another giving him milk out of her paps through a Trunck But both these being discovered the youth being forced to tear his own members died of a multiplied death which murder being whispered to the King and the King inquiring after it was so abused by the false representations of his Brother that grief and imprecations was all the relief he had left him as being now retired sickly to Bote-Castle and unable to punish him The King being solicitous of James his younger Son is resolved by the example of the good usage of David to send him to Charles the Sixth of France and having taken Shipping at the Basse as he past by the Promontory of Flamborough whether forc'd by tempest or that he was Sea-sick he was forc'd to land taken by the English and detained notwithstanding the allegation of a Truce of eight years and his Fathers Letters And though it came to the Privy Council to be debated yet his detention was carried in the Affirmative This advantage he had by his Captivity that he was well and carefully educated but the News so struck his Father that he had almost presently died but being carried into his Chamber with voluntary abstinence and sorrow he shortned his life three days longer viz. to the first of April 1406. He was a man of a goodly and a comely personage one rather fit for the tranquillity of a private life than the agitations of Royalty and indeed such an one whose Reigns do little else but fill up Chronologies with the number of their years Upon this the Parliament confirm Robert for Governour a man of parts able enough for that employment but
first Wife Bishop of Murray and Abbot of Skroon Into which places he was intruded to make the Government of his other Brother more peaceable Margarite the Queen about these times a good and vertuous Lady died One thousand four hundred eighty six and was buried at Cambuskennel the Twenty ninth of February The overthrow and death of Richard being known abroad King James taking the advantage of the time besieged the Castle of Dumbar The Garrison'd Souldiers finding no relief nor assistance from their Country and ascertained of the change of their Master rendered up the Fort to the hands of the Scots it was of no great importance to the English and only served to be a fair bridge of Treason for Scottish Rebels and a Cittadel of Conspiracies Henry King of England after his Victory and Coronation sent Richard Fox Bishop of Exeter and Sir Richard Edgecomb Embassadours to King James for renewing the Truce and if it were possible to agree upon a Stable and lasting Peace between the Realms King James taking a promise of the secrecy of the Embassadours that what he imparted to them should not be laid open to his Nobility told He earnestly affected a Peace with all his Neighbours but above all others with their King as much for this own valour as for the honour and interests of the two Kingdoms But he knew his People so stubborn and opposite to all his designs that if they understood his mind and resolutions they would endeavour to cross his intentions wherefore publickly he could only condescend to seven years Truce a long Peace being hardly obtained from men brought up in the free licence of War who disdained to be restrained within the Narrow limits of Laws Notwithstanding they should undertake for him to King Henry in the Word of a Prince that this Truce before the exspiring of it should be renewed and with all solemnities again confirmed The Embassadours respecting his good will towards their King accepted the conditions Thus was there a Truce or Peace covenanted and confirmed for seven years to come between the two Realms After so many back-blows of Fortune and such canvassing the King enjoying a Peace with all his Neighbours abroad became exceeding religious the miseries of Life drawing the mind to the contemplations of what shall be after it During his residence at Edenburgh he was wont to come in Procession from the Abby of Holy-rood house to the Churches in the High-Town every Wednesday and Friday By which Devotion he became beloved of his People Nothing more winning their hearts than the opinion they have of the Sanctity of a person And that he did not this for the Fashion nor Hypocrisie the application of his wit and power to the Administration of strict justice did prove for he began to suppress the insolencies of strong Oppressors defend and maintain the Rights of the Poor against Tyrants and abusers of their Neighbours He sitteth himself in Council daily and disposeth affairs of most weight in his own person In the Month of October following the Peace with England One thousand four hundred eighty seven a Parliament was called in which many Acts were made against Oppressours Justices were appointed to pass through the whole Kingdom and see malefactors deservedly punished Acts were made that no convention of friends should be suffered for the accompanying and defence of criminal Persons But that every one Attainted should appear at the most with six Proctors that if found guilty they should not be reft from Justice by strong hand Such of the Nobility who feared and consequently hated him finding how he had acquired the love of his People by his Piety in the observance of Religion and his severity in executing Justice were driven unto new Meditations They began to suspect he would one day free himself from these turbulent Spirits who could not suffer him to enjoy a Peace nor Reign He had advanced at this time to Offices of State and Places men whose Fortunes did wholly depend upon his safety and well-fare at which some Noblemen whose Ambition was to be in publick charge and of the Counsel pretending to that out of right which was only due unto them by favour did highly storm and look upon those others with envious eyes The King thus falling again into his old sickness they bethought them how to renew their old remedy They were also jealous of the remembrance of the dis-service they had done him and that he would never forget old quarrels They were prepared and ready to make a Revolution of the State but had not yet found their Center to begin motion nor a ground for Rebellion All this while there was not matter enough for an Insurrection nor to dispose the Peoples Hearts to a Mutiny The King delighted with his Buildings of the Castle of Sterlin and the amenity of the Place for he had raised there a fair and spacious Hall and founded a Colledge for Divine Service which he named the Chappel Royal and beginning to be possest and taken up with the Religion of these times endeavoured to endow this Foundation with constant Rents and ample Revenues and make this Rock the choyce Sanctuary of his Devotions The Priory of Coldingham then vacant and fallen in his hands he annexed the same to his Chappel Royal and procured an Act of Parliament That none of the Lieges should attempt to do contrary to this Union and Annexation or to make any Impetration thereof at the Court of Rome under the pain of Treason The Priors of this Convent having been many years of the Name of Hume it was by the Gentlemen of that Name surmis'd that they should be interested and wronged in their Estates by reason of the Tithes and other Casualties appertaining to this Benefice if a Prior of any other Sirname were promoted to this Place The King being often Petitioned and implored that he should not alter the accustomed form of the Election of that Prior nor remove it from their Name nor suffer the Revenues to be otherways bestowed than they were wont to be of old and he continuing in his resolution of annexing them to his Chappel after long pawsing and deliberation amongst themselves as men stirred up by the Male-contents and a proud Faction fit for any the most dangerous enterprise they proceed upon stronger Grounds to over-turn his intentions and divert his purpose The Lord Hailles and others of the Sirname of Hepburn had been their constant Friends Allies and Neighbours with them they enter in a combination that they should mutually stand to the defence of others and not suffer any Prior to be received for Coldingham if he were not of one of their two Sirnames This Covenant is first privately by some mean Gentlemen sworn who after draw on their Chiefs to be of the Party Of how small beginnings doth a great mischief arise the Male-contented Lords knowing those two Sirnames to be numerous active and powerful in those parts of the Country where they
many years the Crafts-man had set down They were thus standing in the Roman Capitol The Cyprian Goddess was in divers shapes represented The first was naked as she appeared on the Hills of Ida or when she arose from her foamy Mother but that she should not blush the Painter had limmed her entring a Green Arbour and looking over her shoulder so that there were only seen her back and face Another had drawn her naked her face brests belly to the view exposed her blind child by her but to cover that which delighted Mars so much he made her arm descend to take hold on Cupid who did imbrace her The third had drawn her lying on a Bed with stretched out arms in her hand she presented to a young man who was adoring her and at whom little Love was directing a Dart a fair face which with much ceremony he was receiving but on the other side which should have been the hinder part of that head was the Image of death by which mortality he surpassed the others more than they did him by Art It were to be wished this picture were still before the eyes of dolting lovers On a Table there was a horse tumbling on his back with his four feet towards the Heaven which was thought to be Sejanus so fatal to his Masters being so proportionable and to the life painted a German offered Gold for him but he accused the Painter that he had not painted him running which the Painter easily amended by turning up of the other side of the Table so small a distance is between the extremities of mortal things So with little pains a countenance laughing is made to weep and one weeping to laugh Whose thoughts are so sad and fixed to the cares of this World which could not have been sequestred for atime from them and delighted with the aspect of the countenances of the Ladies of the differing Climates of the Globe of this Earth represented unto us as the blazing asterisms of Heaven The Spanish seeming proud and disdainful but that her eye spoke somewhat else and her pale colour approaching to ashes did show she harboured languishing perturbations The French looking Courteous and toward but such courtesie and towardness seemed not to entertain base imaginations The English mild and humble with such eyes as Venus used to smile with in the daies of Homer The Venetian Lady appeared the Noblest Lover for she neither thundered despair nor promised hope yet did she lend her ear to the soul-charming sounds of a Lute The Roman was almost naked from the wast upwards discovering the Sistering Apples of her Brest and what might be without a blush seen which should have rowsed old Nestor The Grecian resembled Our English but her face was more Round She wore on her head a Garland which made her look more Grave than the Others The Turkish differed little from the Roman only She somewhat appeared more Thais like The Moorish had her eyes black rolling and wanton and her face was as black as her eyes Where who would think it save he who did see it by the comely proportion of her face Her shining hair enriched with Jewels and her ears beautified with Gemms she was near as pleasant beauty mustering it self in blackness and a comely behaviour as those others of Europe I had almost forgotten the Belgick and these neighbour Countries in whom the pure natural colours of beauty appeared The first to show the lightness of her sex was all in Feathers the others differed not much from her but was further off from Art and looked more Countrey-like Not far from those was Cassandra her hairs so covering her face that Lycophron might well know her The Sybels by her sighed out their Prophecies To these was joined the Picture of a young Lady whose hair drew near the colour of Amber but with such a bright lustre that it was above Gold or Amber her eyes were somewhat green her face round where the Roses strove to surpass the Lillies of her Cheecks and such an one she was limmed as Apelles would have made choice of for the beauty of Greece She was said to be the Astrea of the Marquesse D' Urfee Many famous battels of the ancients were represented some of the later times above all others the Crafts-men had striven to shew to the life the Battel of Le Panto the flying Turks and following Christians Some Galliasses made a sport to the winds others all in flames in the midst of the Seas the divers postures of fighting and perishing Souldiers with the scattered Oars Planks and Ensigns might have made some dream they were amidst these though in quietness and on the Seas whilst they were safe on ground Many Towns were here to be travelled thorough at an easie rate Rome Naples Florence Constantinople Vienne and without passing the Seas London and Venice Here were many double Pictures the first view shew old men and young Misers gathering carefully the second view shew young men and prodigals spending riotously with stultitiam patiuntur opes Church-men and grave-Senators consulting and seriously deliberating the one face of the Picture represented the other Fools dancing Soldiers dicing and fighting A Lady weeping over her dead Husband accompanied with many Mourners the first view the second represented her second Nuptials Nymphs and Gallants revelling naked and going to Bed Now when I had considered all for these Galleries were a little All if ye please casting mine eyes aside I beheld on a fair Table the Pourtraicts of two which drew my thoughts to more seriousness than all the other The first clad in a Sky-coloured Mantle bordered with some red was laughing and held out his Finger by way of demonstration in scorn to another in a sable Mantle who held his arms a cross declined his head pittifully and seemed to shed tears The one shewed that he was Democritus the other that he was Heraclitus And truely considering all our actions except those which the Service and Adoration of God Almighty they are either to be lamented or laughed at and man is always a Fool except in Misery which is a Whit-Stone of Judgment PARIS Febr. 12. To S. W. A. SIR THe promise given by me to a dying friend shall at this time I hope excuse mine importunity He requested me to remember his love to you and that desire he ever had to do you service And though dying so lively expressed this affection that who would set in Paper had need of his own Eloquence This remembrance he left made me to be in this his Executor in delivering this Legacy Some Papers he left also concerning some of your affairs which because death prevented his delivering of them to me I think are losed in the Stuff of his Cabinet Your absence increased greatly that Melancholy which bereft us of him If any thing more precious had been left to my Trust ye might have been assured it had been delivered to you by your W. DRUMMOND To the
with so short a course of time How like is that to Castles or imaginary Cities raised in the Sky by Chance-meeting Clouds Or to Gyants modelled for a sport of Snow which at the hoter looks of the Sun melt away and ly drowned in their own moisture Such an impetuous vicissitude towseth the estates of this World Is it knowledge But we have not yet attained to a perfect understanding of the smallest Flower and why the Grass should rather be green than red The Element of Fire is quite put out the Air is but water rarified the Earth moveth and is no more the Center of the Universe is turned into a Magnes Stars are not fixed but swim in the Ethereal spaces Comets are mounted above the Planets some affirm there is another World of Men and Creatures with Cities and Towers in the Moon the Sun is lost for it is but a cleft in the lower Heavens through which the light of the highest shines Thus Sciences by the diverse motions of this Globe of the brain of man are become Opinions What is all we know compared with what we know not We have not yet agreed about the chief good and felicity It is perhaps Artificial Cunning how many curiosities be framed by the least Creatures of Nature unto which the industry of the most curious Artizans doth not attain Is it Riches What are they but the casting out of Friends the Snares of Liberty Bands to such as have them possessing rather than possest metals which nature hath hid fore-seeing the great harm they should occasion and the only opinion of man hath brought in estimation Like Thorns which laid on an open hand may be blown away and on a closing and hard gripping wound it Prodigals mispend them wretches miskeep them when we have gathered the greatest abundance we our selves can enjoy no more thereof than so much as belongs to one man what great and rich men do by others the meaner sort do themselves Will some talk of our pleasures It is not though in the fables told out of purpose that pleasure in hast being called up to Heaven did here forget her apparel which Sorrow thereafter finding to deceive the World attired her self with And if we should say the truth of most of our Joys we must confess they are but disguised sorrows the drams of their Honey are sowred in pounds of Gall remorse ever ensueth them nay in some they have no effect at all if some weakning grief hath not preceded and forewent them Will some Ladies vaunt of their beauty That is but skin-deep of two senses only known short even of Marble Statues and Pictures not the same to all eyes dangerous to the Beholder and hurtful to the Possessor an enemy to Chastity a thing made to delight others more than those which have it a superficial lustre hiding bones and the brains things fearful to be looked upon growth in years doth blast it or sickness or sorrow preventing them Our strength matched with that of the unreasonable Creatures is but weakness all we can set our eyes on in these intricate mazes of life is but vain perspective and deceiving shadows appearing far otherwise afar off than when enjoyed and gazed upon in a near distance If death be good why should it be feared And if it be the work of nature how should it not be good For nature is an Ordinance and Rule which God hath established in the creating this Universe as is the Law of a King which cannot err Sith in him there is no impotency and weakness by the which he might bring forth what is unperfect no perverseness of will of which might proceed any vicious action no ignorance by the which he might go wrong in working being most powerful most good most wise nay all-wise all-good all-powerful He is the first Orderer and marshalleth every other Order the highest Essence giving essence to all other things of all causes the cause he worketh powerfully bounteously wisely and maketh his Artificial Organ nature do the same How is not death of Nature Sith what is naturally generate is subject to corruption and such an harmony which is life rising from the mixture of the four Elements which are the Ingredients of our Body cannot ever endure the contrariety of their qualities as a consuming Rust in the baser Metals being an inward cause of a necessary dissolution Again how is not death good Sith it is the thaw of all those vanities which the frost of Life bindeth together If there be a satiety in Life then must there be a sweetness in Death The Earth were not ample enough to contain her off-spring if none died in two or three Ages without death what an unpleasant and lamentable Spectacle were the most flourishing Cities For what should there be to be seen in them save bodies languishing and courbing again into the Earth pale disfigured faces Skeletons instead of men And what to be heard but the exclamations of the young complaints of the old with the pittiful cries of sick and pining Persons There is almost no infirmity worse than age If there be any evil in death it would appear to be that pain and torment which we apprehend to arise from the breaking of those strait bands which keep the Soul and Body together which sith not without great stuggling and motion seems to prove it self vehement and most extream The senses are the only cause of pain but before the last Trances of Death they are so brought under that they have no or very little strength and their strength lessening the strength of pain too must be lessened How should we doubt but the weakness of sense lesseneth pain sith we know that weakned and maimed parts that receive not nourishment are a great deal less sensible than the other parts of the body And see that old decrepit persons leave this World almost without pain as in a sleep If bodies of the most sound and wholsom constitution be these which most vehemently feel pain It must then follow that they of a distemperate and crasie constitution have least feeling of pain and by this reason all weak and sick bodies should not much feel pain for if they were not distempered and evil complexioned they would not be sick That the Sight Hearing Taste Smelling leave us without pain and unawares we are undoubtedly assured and why should we not think the same of the Feeling That which is capable of feeling are the vital Spirits which in a man in a perfect health are spread and extended through the whole body and hence is it that the whole Body is capable of pain but in dying bodies we see that by pauses and degrees the parts which are furthest removed from the heart become cold and being deprived of natural heat all the pain which they feel is that they do feel no pain Now even as before the sick are aware the vital spirits have withdrawn themselves from the whole extention of the body to
dim duskish light of another life all appealing to one general Judgment Throne To what else could serve so many expiations sacrifices prayers solemnities and mystical Ceremonies To what such sumptuous Temples and care of the Death To what all Religion If not to shew that they expected a more excellent manner of being after the navigation of this life did take an end And who doth deny it must deny that there is a Providence a God confess that his Worship and all study and reason of virtue are vain and not believe that there is a World are Creatures and that He himself is not what He is As those Images were Pourtraicted in my mind the morning Star now almost arising in the East I found my thoughts mild and quiet calm and not long after my senses one by one forgetting their uses began to give themselves over to rest leaving me in a still and peaceable sleep if sleep it may be called where the mind awaking is carried with free wings from out fleshly bondage For heavy lids had not long covered their lights when I thought nay sure I was where I might discern all in this great All the large compass of the rolling Circles the brightness and continual motion of those Rubies of the Night which by their distance here below cannot be perceived the silver countenance of the wandring Moon shining by anothers light the hanging of the Earth as environed with a girdle of Chrystal the Sun enthronized in the midst of the Planets eye of the Heavens Gem of this precious Ring the World But whilst with wonder and amazement I gazed on those Celestial splendors and the beaming Lamps of that glorious Temple there was presented to my sight a Man as in the Spring of his years with that self-same grace comely feature Majestick look which the late _____ was wont to have on whom I had no sooner set mine eyes when like one Planet-stroken I became amazed But he with a mild demeanour and voice surpassing all human sweetness appeared me thought to say What is it doth thus anguish and trouble thee Is it the remembrance of Death the last Period of Wretchedness and entry to these happy places the Lantern which lightneth men to see the mystery of the blessedness of Spirits and that glory which transcendeth the Courtain of things visible Is thy Fortune below on that dark Globe which scarce by the smalness of it appeareth here so great that thou art heart-broken and dejected to leave it What if thou wert to leave behind thee a _____ so glorious in the eye of the World yet but a Mote of Dust encircled with a Pond as that of mine so loving _____ such great hopes these had been apparent occasions of lamenting and but apparent Dost thou think thou leavest Life too soon Death is best young things fair and excellent are not of long endurance upon Earth Who liveth well liveth long Souls most beloved of their Maker are soonest relieved from the bleeding cares of Life and and most swiftly wasted through the Surges of Human miseries Opinion that Great Enchantress and poiser of things not as they are but as they seem hath not in any thing more than in the conceit of Death abused man Who must not measure himself and esteem his estate after his earthly being which is but as a dream For though he be born on the Earth he is not born for the Earth more than the Embryon for the Mothers Womb. It plaineth to be delivered of its bands and to come to the light of this World and Man waileth to be loosed from the Chains with which he is fettered in that vale of vanities It nothing knoweth whither it is to go nor ought of the beauty of the visible works of God neither doth man of the magnificence of the Intellectual World above unto which as by a Mid-wife he is directed by Death Fools which think that this fair and admirable Frame so variously disposed so rightly marshalled so strongly maintained enriched with so many excellencies not only for necessity but for ornament and delight was by that Supream wisdom brought forth that all things in a circulary course should be and not be arise and dissolve and thus continue as if they were so many Shadows cast out and caused by the encountring of these Superior Celestial bodies changing only their fashion and shape or Fantastical Imageries or prints of faces into Chrystal No no the Eternal Wisdom hath made man an excellent creature though he fain would unmake himself and return to nothing And though he seek his felicity among the reasonless Wights he hath fixed it above Look how some Prince or great King on the Earth when he hath raised any Stately City the work being atchieved is wont to set his Image in the midst of it to be admired and gazed upon No otherwise did the Soveraign of this All the Fabrick of it perfected place man a great Miracle formed to his own pattern in the midst of this spacious and admirable City God containeth all in him as the beginning of all man containeth all in him as the midst of all inferior things be in man more noble than they exist superior things more meanly Celestial things favour him earthly things are vassalled unto him he is the band of both neither is it possible but that both of them have peace with him who made the Covenant between them and him He was made that he might in the Glass of the World behold the infinite Goodness Power and glory of his Maker and beholding know and knowing Love and loving enjoy and to hold the Earth of him as of his Lord Parmount never ceasing to remember and praise Him It exceedeth the compass of conceit to think that that wisdom which made every thing so orderly in the parts should make a confusion in the whole and the chief Master-piece how bringing forth so many excellencies for man it should bring forth man for baseness and misery And no less strange were it that so long life should be given to Trees Beasts and the Birds of the Air Creatures inferior to Man which have less use of it and which cannot judge of this goodly Fabrick and that it should not be denied to Man unless there were another manner of living prepared for him in a place more noble and excellent But alas said I had it not been better that for the good of his native Countrey a _____ endued with so many peerless gifts had yet lived How long will ye replyed he like the Ants think there are no fairer Palaces than their Hills or like to purblind Moles no greater light than that little which they shun As if the Master of a Camp knew when to remove a Sentinel and he who placeth Man on the Earth knew not how long he had need of him Every one cometh there to act his part of this Tragi-Comedy called life which done the Courtain is drawn and he removing is said to dye
That Providence which prescribeth Causes to every event hath not only determined a definite and certain number of days but of actions to all men which they cannot go beyond Most _____ then answered I Death is not such an evil and pain as it is of the Vulgar esteemed Death said he nor painful is nor evil except in contemplation of the cause being of it self as indifferent as birth yet can it not be denied and amidst those dreams of earthly pleasures the uncouthness of it with the wrong apprehension of what is unknown in it are noysom But the Soul sustained by its Maker resolved and calmly retired in it self doth find that death sith it is in a moment of Time is but a short nay sweet sigh and is not worthy the remembrance compared with the smallest dram of the infinite Felicity of this Place Here is the Palace Royal of the Almighty King in which the uncomprehensible comprehensibly manifesteth Himself in place highest in substance not subject to any corruption or change for it is above all motion and solid turneth not in quantity greatest for if one Star one Sphere be so vast how large how huge in exceeding demensions must those bounds be which do them all contain In quality most pure and orient Heaven here is all but a Sun or the Sun all but a Heaven If to Earthlings the Foot-stool of God and that Stage which he raised for a small course of Time seemeth so glorious and magnificent What estimation would they make if they could see of his eternal Habitation and Throne And if these be so wonderful what is the sight of him for whom and by whom all was created of whose Glory to behold the thousand thousand part the most pure Intelligences are fully satiate and with wonder and delight rest amazed for the beauty of his light and the light of his beauty are uncomprehensible Here doth that earnest appetite of the understanding content it self not seeking to know any more For it seeth before it in the vision of the Divine essence a Mirrour in the which not Images or Shadows but the true and perfect essence of every thing created is more cleaâ— and conspicuous than in it self all that may be known or understood Here doth the Will pause it self as in the center of its eternal rest glowing with with a fiery affection of that infinite and al-sufficient good which being fully known cannot for the infinite motives and causes of love which are in him but be fully and perfectly loved As he is only the true and essential Bounty so is he the only essential and true beauty deserving alone all Love and Admiration by which the Creatures are only in so much fair and excellent as they participate of his Beauty and excelling Excellencies Here is a blessed Company every one joying as much in anothers Felicity as in that which is proper because each seeth another equally loved of God thus their distinct joyes are no fewer than the copartners of the Joy And as the Assembly is in number answerable to the large capacity of the place so are the joyes answerable to the numberless number of the Assembly No poor and pittiful mortal confined on the Globe of Earth who have never seen but sorrow or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures can rightly think on or be sufficient to conceive the termless delights of this place So many Feathers move not on Birds so many Birds dint not the Air so many leaves tremble not on Trees so many Trees grow not in the solitary Forests so many waves turn not in the Ocean and so many grains of Sand limit not those Waves as this triumphant Court hath variety of delights and Joyes exempted from all comparison Happiness at once here is fully known and fully enjoyed and as infinite in continuance as extent Here is flourishing and never fading youth without Age Strength without Weakness Beauty never blasting Knowledge â—â—thout Learning Abundance without Loathing Peace without Disturbance Participation without Envy Rest without Labour Light without rising or seeting Sun Perpetuity without moments for Time which is the measure of Endurance did never enter in this shining Eternity Ambition Disdain Malice Difference of Opinions cannot approach this place and resembling those foggy Mists which cover those Lists of Sublunary things All pleasure paragon'd with what is here is pain all Mirth mourning all Beauty deformity Here one daies abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the Earth many years and sufficient to countervail the extreamest torments of Life But although this Bliss of Souls be great and their joyes many yet shal they admit Addition and be more full and perfect at that long wished and general meeting with their bodies Amongst all the wonders of the great Creator not one appeareth to be more wounderful replied I than that our Bodies should arise having suffered so many changes and nature denying a return from privation to a Habit. Such power said he being above all that the Understanding of Man can conceive may well work such wonders For if Mans Understanding could comprehend all the secrets and councels of than Eternal Majesty it must of necessity be equal unto it The Author of Nature is not thralled to the Laws of Nature but worketh with them or contrary to them as it pleaseth him What he hath a will to do he hath a power to perform To that power which brought all this All from nought to bring again in one instant any substance which ever was into it unto what it was once should not be thought impossible for who can do more can do less and his power is no less after that which was by him brought forth is decayed and vanished than it was before it was produced being neither restrained to certain limits or instruments or to any determinate and definite manner of working where the power is without restraint the work admitteth no other limits than the Workers will This world is as a Cabinet to God in which the small things however to us hid and secret are nothing less kept than the great For as he was wise and powerful to create so doth his knowledge comprehend his own Creation yea every change and variety in it of which it is the very Source Not any Atom of the scatter'd Dust of mankind though daily flowing under new forms is to him unknown and his knowledge doth distinguish and discern what once his power shall waken and rise up Why may not the Arts-Master of the world like a Molder what he hath framed in divers shapes confound in one mass and then severally fashion them out of the same Can the Spargirick by his Art restore for a space to the dry and withered Rose the natural purple and blush and cannot the Almighty raise and refine the body of man after never so many alterations on the Earth Reason her self finds it more possible for infinit power to cast out ftom it self a finit world and restore any thing in it though decaied and dissolved to what it was first than for man a finit piece of reasonable misery to change the form of matter made to his hand the power of God never brought forth all that it can for then were it bounded and no more infinite That time doth approach O hast ye times away in which the dead shall live and the living be changed and of all actions the Guerdon is at hand then shall there be an end without an end time shall finish and place shall be altered motion yielding unto rest â—nd another world of an age eternal and unchangeable shall arise which when he had said me thought he vanished and I all astonished did awake To the Memory of the most Excellent Lady JANE Countess of Perth THis Beauty which Pale death in dust did turn And clos'd so soon within a Coffin sad Did pass like lightning like to thunder burn So little Life so much of Worth it had Heavens but to shew their Might here made it shine And when admir'd then in the Worlds disdain O Tears O Grief did call it back again Lest Earth should vaunt she kept what was Divine What can we hope for more What more enjoy Sith fairest Things thus soonest have their End And as on Bodies Shadows do attend Sith all our bliss is follow'd with Annoy Yet She 's not dead She lives where She did love Her Memory on Earth Her soul above To S. W. A. THough I have twice been at the doors of Death And twice found shut those gates which ever mourn This but a lightning is Truce tane to Breath For late-born Sorrows augurre fleet return Amidst thy sacred Cares and Courtly Toils Alexis when thou shalt hear wandring Fame Tell Death hath triumph'd o're my mortal spoils And that on Earth I am but a sad Name If thou e're held me dear by all our Love By all that Bliss those Joys Heaven here us gave I conjure thee and by the Maids of Jove To grave this short Remembrance on my Grave Here Damon lies whose Songs did sometime grace The murmuring Esk may Roses shade the place On the Report of the Death of the Author IF that were true which whispered is by Fame That Damons light no more on Earth doth burn His Patron Phoebus Physick would disclaim And cloth'd in clouds as erst for Phaeton mourn Yea Fame by this had got so deep a wound That scarce She could have Power to tell his death Her Wings cut short who could her Trumpet sound Whose blaze of late was nurs'd but by his Breath That Spirit of his which most with mine was free By mutual traffick enterchanging store If chac'd from him it would have come to me Where it so oft familiar was before Some secret Grief distempring first my Mind Had though not knowing made me feel this loss A Sympathy had so our Souls combind That such a parting both at once would toss Though such Reports to others terrour give Thy Heavenly Virtues who did never spy I know thou that canst make the dead to live Immortal art and needs not fear to dye Sir WILL. ALEXANDER FINIS