wholly submit my self falling down before the Throne of his Mercy who is both the just Inflicter of Death upon us and the merciful Saviour of us in it and from it who is the fountain of Eternal Life and in whom there is no shadow of Death Thou O my Saviour who knows what it is to die with me as a man make me to know what it is to pass through Death to Life with thee my God make me content to leave the World 's Nothing that I may come really to enjoy All in Thee who hast made Christ to me in Life gain and trusting only in his Merits and Mediation will in Death be advantage Charge me not O Lord with the Sins of my Parents nor with the multitude and hainousness of my Transgressions which I acknowledge before thee Remember thy Compassions of old and thy Loving kindness which have been for many Generations Be merciful unto me O Lord for my Soul trusteth in thee though thou shouldest kill me yet will I trust in thy Mercy and my Saviour's Merits for I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the valley and shadow of Death yet shall I fear none Evil falling into the Arms of thy tender and Eternal Mercies O withdraw not thy Favour from me which is better than Life be not far from me for I know not how near Death is to me Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation My Body I bequeath to the Grave and desire to have it buried in the ordinary Burial-place of my Ancestors at Hamilton and that no Ceremony nor Pomp at all be used at the interring of my sinful Carcase which hath so much offended and dishonoured God yet through Faith I hope it shall be sprinkled with the precious Bloud of Iesus Christ and being re-united with my Soul shall together rise in Glory reconciled with the Father to enjoy Eternal Happiness with him in Heaven After this follow the Particulars of the Will which he concludes in the following Words And now O Lord pity me in my low Condition and bring me out of my Troubles though the number of my Enemies be great yet thou canst disappoint their Counsels keep them Lord from prevailing and turn them back that persecute my Soul If it be thy Will O Lord restore me to my Country that there in peace I may finish the course of my Pilgrimage in thy fear and live loyal and obedient to my Gracious King Charles the Second and faithful and dutiful to my Country and as I trust that through the Merits and Mediation of Iesus Christ An. 1652. thou hast forgiven all the errors of my Life so I beg and hope thou wilt save me from the terrors of Death Let not O Lord at that last hour my Soul be desolate and forsaken let not those saving Truths I have formerly learned then fail my Memory nor the sweet effusions of thy Spirit which I have sometimes felt then be wanting to my Heart be with me at that time O Lord in a special manner and send the blessed Comforter to assure me of Salvation that I may die with Ioy and leave this World with Contentment since I shall be confident of the Remission of my sins through Christ Iesus and of my going to that place of eternal Happiness which thou hast prepared for all them that fear thee in Christ to which place bring me for his sake to whom with thee and the blessed Spirit of Grace be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen Written by my self at the Hague in Holland the 21th of March 1650. HAMILTON To which shall be added a Letter that was Sealed up with his Will to his Lady Dear Heart ALthough a very short stay in this place may possibly endanger my Life yet seeing these may chance to be the last words you are ever to receive from me no hazard shall keep me from letting you know how sensible I am of the great Love and Kindness you have always had for me for which the Lord reward you unto whose Protection I leave you and as I do recommend you to God who will be near unto all that call upon him and fulfil the desires of them that fear him and preserve all them that love him so I do recommend you unto your self that you would labour to serve fear and love the Lord God and set him before your eyes in all your ways Continue as I have often been a witness to your daily practice in reading the Word of God which will be a Lamp unto your feet and Light unto your paths Look not with prejudice upon any of the Messengers of his Word but reverence them for their Message sake be not too confident of your own Opinions but examine them by the Touchstone of Gods Word and refuse not to hear the admonition of his Servants Repine not at Gods ways or dispensations to you but be patient in Affliction that you may say with David I held my tongue I opened not my mouth because thou didst it For you may have this Comfort that whom God loves he Chastens and really if God had not said it man would hardly believe that Affliction cometh from his Love But if we admit his Truth and consider Experience we shall find that he often afflicteth them most whom he loveth most and who most love him As for those whose eyes stand out with fatness and have more than their hearts can wish he setteth them on slippery places and feeds them as Oxen to the Slaughter He is nearer to us in Affliction than in Prosperity and weare nearer unto him it is his menage to bring us home from our Wandrings at least I have lookt upon it so as to my self which makes me thus desire you may so receive his Visitations Be frequent in Prayer limit not the Spirit in you to the conceptions of other men shun all vain and idle Company and Conversation and pray to the Lord to set a watch before your mouth and to keep the door of your lips Forget and hate the empty pleasures of a licentious Court or of London and with David pray Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity An. 1651. and quicken thou me in thy way Be not hasty nor passionate keep not anger in your heart against any have Charity for all men even for them whom you may look upon as your Enemies and study still rather to put the best than worst construction upon the Actions of any Examine your self every night what good you have done the preceding day and remember still that you are one day nearer that in which you must give an account to God of all your Actions on whose Mercy to you let your earliest and latest thoughts be always fixt Sweet Heart much more I would say but you know I am pressed by time but seek to God and in him you will find all things The next Duty I shall recommend to
returned into Scotland the Duke of Castle-herald had again great advantages if any such desire of Power had governed him for the Reformation had then prevailed in Scotland and he and all his Family except his youngest Son Lord Claud from whom descended the Earls of Abercorn were Protestants so that to have put himself at the head of that was the likeliest way to have advanced his own Designs but it appeared that he and his Sons embraced the Religion not for Faction but out of Conscience for he continued true and faithful to the Queen to the last of which She was so sensible that beside many Publick Testimonies of Her confidence in them such as the naming the Duke of Castle-herald her Adopted Father and calling him still by that Name and the referring Her whole Concerns when She was a Prisoner in England to his Care when that severe and unparalelled sentence of Death was to be executed on Her She took a Ring off Her finger and gave it to one of Her Servants and ordered him to carry it to Her Cousin Lord John Hamilton who then represented his Father that was dead his elder Brother being sick of a Frenzy and tell him that that was all She then had to witness her great sense of his and his Families constant Fidelity to Her and of their suffering for Her Interests and desired that it might be still kept in the Family as a lasting Evidence of Her kindness to it which is preserved to this day Nor was tâ—eir Duty to the Crown at that time easie or cheap to them for the contrary Faction designed to root them out of Scotland and therefore in one of their Mock-Parliaments their Blood was attainted and their Estates and Honours were afterwards given to other Persons and they were forced to seek shelter in England and France till King James came to Govern by his own Counsâ—ls then being also pressed to it by the Intercession of Queen Elizabeth He restored them to their Honours and Estates and created Lord John Hamilton Marquis of Hamilton who was Grand-Father to tâ—e two Dukes whose MEMOIRES I now publish King James did also treat him with the same respect that the Queen his Mother had done the Duke of Castle-herald and called him always Father and wrote to him often with the greatest Freedom and Familiarity that was possible and when that King went to Denmark to bring home His Queen He named him Lord Lieutenant of the South of Scotland and left for him a Letter yet extant full of great Esteem and Kindness to which He added this Postscript with his own Hand MY LORD if my constant Trust had not been in you of your great Love towards me I had not thus employed you upon such an occasion therefore I assure my self you will not frustrate my Expectation He also called him to Christen one of his Children and continued to the last to put great Confidence in him That Lord did indeed deserve to be so used by him for as he had with an invincible Patience and Loyalty submitted to the hard Vsage â—e met with during that King's Childhood and for some years after so he made no Stirs nor Disturbance but that little that was at Sterlin An. 1585. so that when he was admitted to the King's presence the King said to him My Lord I did never see you before and must confess that of all this Company you have been most wronged you were a faithful Servant to the Queen my Mother in my Minority and wâ—en I understood not as I do the estate of things hardly used And though he was frequently invited by the Violent Church-party to head them in their Mutinous Courses yet he would never engage in it And when that old Lord was dying as he was giving his Blessing to his Son and reckoning up the most signal Favours of God to him he named three more particularly The first was That during all his Troubles and notwithstanding the great Offers were made him in France by the House of Guise if he would change his Religion yet God had never left him to do so base a thing though he lost his Interest in that Court by refusing it The other was that he had never oppressed any of his Vassals and Tenants And the third was that he had never entertained one thought contrary to the Duty he owed the Crown and that no hard Vsage â—e met with had ever prevailed on him to any such Design and therefore charged his Son on his Blessing to continue in the same Courses All this I thought needful to be said for the Honour of that Family because Buchanan studied with much Art and Industry to cast an eternal Disgrace upon it For as he from being a great Flatterer of Mary Queen of Scotland which may be seen in his Dedication of his Incomparable Paraphrase of the Psalmes to Her became Her mortal Enemy and partly by Lies partly by his cruel aggravating of some unjustifiable things has written the History of Her Reign with so much Malice that his Work stands condemned as a base Libel by an Act of Parliament in Scotland so being provoked by an Injury which a Servant of the Duke of Castle-herald's youngest Son did him of which he thought he got not sufficient Reparation and carrying a spite to them because they adhered to the Queen's Interests he wrote of that Family with the most impudent and virulent Malice that was possible And his admirable stile of Latine in which he is inferiour to none that wrote since the days of Augustus has made all Forreigners take their Informations wholly from him and the Collectors of the General History of that Age do for the most part draw all the Account they give of Scotish Affairs out of him by which that Family hath suffered much in the opinions of Forreign Nations so dangerous it is to provoke one that has much Malice and can write â— History so that it shall take with the World But that Writer contradicts himself so often in what he says of that Family that small regard is to be had to it And Lesly Bishop of Ross Privy-Counsellour to Mary Queen of Scotland who wrote the History of that time and bore no great good will to the Duke of Castle-herald and his Children for being such Promoters of the Reformation speaks always of them with a great deal of Honour and Iustice. For the Father of those Dukes he was as Archbishop Spotswood truly calls him a Nobleman of rare gifts and fitted for the greatest Affairs and was most Vniversally beloved by all his Countrymen he was a very Graceful and Gallant Person and of a most agreeable Conversation and â—ery obliging and so did recommend himself to all sorts of Persons King James finding him excellently qualified brougâ—t him to Court where he made a great Figure the rest of his Life All these things concurred to make me very desirous to see whether the late Dukes had continued in those
his Holy Water Baptizing of Bells conjuring of Spirits crossing saning anointing conjuring hallowing of Gods good Creatures with the superstitious opinion joyned therewith his worldly Monarchy and wicked Hierarchy his three solemn Vowes with all the shavellings of sundry sorts his erroneous and bloody Decrees made at Trent with all the Subscribers and Approvers of that cruel and bloody Bond conjured against the Kirk of God and finally we detest all his vain Allegories Rites Signs and Traditions brought into the Kirk without or against the Word of God and Doctrine of his true Reformed Kirk to the which we joyn our selves willingly in Doctrine Faith Religion Discipline and use of the Holy Sacraments as lively Members of the same in Christ our Head promising and swearing by the great Name of the Lord our God that we shall continue in obedience of the Doctrine and Discipline of this Kirk and shall defend the same according to our vocation and power all the dayes of our lives under the paines contained in the Law and danger both of body and soul in the day of Gods fearful Iudgement and seeing that many are stirred up by Satan and that Roman Antichrist to promise swear subscribe and for a time use the Holy Sacrament in the Kirk deceitfully against their own Consciences minding hereby first under the external Cloak of Religion to corrupt and subverâ— secretly Gods true Religion within the Kirk and afterward where time may serve to become open enemies and persecuters of the same under vain hope of the Popes Dispensation devised against the Word of God to his greater confusion and their double Condemnation in the day of the Lord Jesus We therefore willing to take away all suspicion of hâ—pocrisie and such double-dealing with God and his Kirk protest and call the Searcher of all hearts to witness that our minds and hearts do fully agree with this our Confession Promise Oath and Subscription so that we are not moved for any worldly respect but are persuaded onely in our Consciences through the knowledge and love of Gods true Religion printed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we shall answer to him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed And because we perceive that the quietness and stability of our Religion and Kirk doth depend upon the safety and good behaviour of the Kings Majesty as upon a comfortable Instrument of Gods Mercy granted to this Country for the maintenance of his Kirk and ministration of Iustice among us we protest and promise with our hearts under the same Oath hand-writ and pains that we shall defend his Person and Authority with our Bodies and Lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of our Country ministration of Iustice and punishment of Iniquity against all Enemies within this Realm or without as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful Defender to us in the day of our Death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory eternally Amen WE underscribing and considering the strait link and conjunction betwixt the true and Christian Religion presently profest within this Realm The Bond joyned to it and our Soveraign Lords Estate and Standing having both the self-same Friends and common Enemies and subject to the like event of standing and decay weighing therewithall the imminent danger threatned to the said Religion the Preservation whereof being dearer to us than whatsoever we have dearest to us in this Life and finding in His Majesty a most Honourable and Christian Resolution to manifest Himself to the World that zealous and religious Prince which he hath hitherto professed and to imploy the means and power that God hath put into his hands as well to the withstanding of whatsoever foreign Force shall mean within this Land for alteration of the said Religion or endangering of the present State as to the repressing of the inward Enemies thereto amongst our selves linked with them in the said Antichristian League and Confederacy have therefore in the presence of Almighty God and with His Majesties Authorizing and Allowance faithfully promised and solemnly sworn likeas we hereby faithfully and solemnly swear and promise to take a true effauld and plain part with His Majesty amongst our selves for diverting of the appearing danger threatned â—o the said Religion and His Majesties State and Standing depending thereupon by whatsoever foreign or intestine Plots or Preparations and to that effect faithfully and that upon our Truth and Honours bind and oblige us to others to convene and assemble our selves publickly with our Friends in Arms or in quiet manner at such Times and Places as we shall be required by His Majesties Proclamation or by Writ or Message directed to us from His Majesty or any having Power from him and being convened and assembled to joyn and concur with the whole Forces of our Friends and Followers against whatsoever foreign or intestine Powers or Papists and their Partakers shall arrive or rise within this Island or any part thereof ready to defend or pursue as we shall be authorised or conducted by His Majesty or any others having his Power and Commission to joyn and hold hand to the exeâ—ution of whatsoever Mean or Order shall be thought meet by His Majesty and His Council for suppressing of the Papists promotion of the true Religion and settling of Hâ—s Highness Estate and Obedience in all the Countries and Corners of this Realm to expose the hazard of our Lives Lands and Goods and whatsoever means God hath lent us in the defence of the said true and Christian Religion and his Majesties Person and Estate against whatsoever Iesuits and Seminary or Mass Priests condemned Enemies to God and His Majesty to their utter wreck and exterminion according to the Power granted to us by His Majesties Proclamation and Acts of Parliament to try search and seek out all Excommunicates Practisers and other Papists whatever within our bounds and Shire where we keep residence and delate them to His Highness and His Privy Council and conform us to such Directions as from time to time we shall receive from His Majesty and His Council in their behalfs and so specially so many of us as presently are or hereafter shall be appointed Commissioners in every Shire shall follow pursue and travel by all means possible to take and apprehend all such Papists Apostates and Excommunicates as we shall receive in Writ from His Majesty And we the remanent within that Shire shall concur and assist with the said Commissioners with our whole Friends and Forces to that effect without respect of any person whatsoever and generally to assist in the mean time and defend every one of us another in all and whatsoever Quarrels Actions Debates moved or to be moved against us or any of us upon Action of the present Bond or other Causes depending thereupon and effauldly joyn in defence and pursuit against whatsoever shall
Peers advised a Settlement with Scotland and a Parliament in England Strafford's Advice was more severe and the Marquis pressed a Pacification But though their Opinions varied yet their Friendship continued since both had the same designs for the Kings Honour and Service A recruit of Money which was beginning to run low was not to be hoped without a Parliament and their late experience told on how uneasie terms that was to be had Earl Lowdon also assured the Marquis by his Letters that the Covenanters were well armed well commanded and very resolute nor did they doubt of a strong Party in England and therefore shewed how dangerous it would prove to His Majesties Affairs if a Treaty should not presently follow The Marquis little regarding how ill these Counsels would be represented by others used all his Industry to prevail with the King for a Pacification on any terms since none could be so bad as the hazard the King was like to run if matters continued so broken for it was now apparent how faintly His Majesties Forces did serve him and with how much resolution the Scotish Armies proceeded neither were they without fears in their own Army and that many of the Peers and People of England would have assisted the Scots if matters had run to extremities A Breach betwixt the Marquis and the Earl of Montrose But at that time a passage fell out which drew after it a tract of great Troubles on the Marquis The Earl of Montrose had in Iuly that year procured a Meeting of some Noblemen at Cumbermwald the Earl of Wigtons house where there was a Bond signed by them of adherence to one another in pursuance of the Covenant and from New-Castle he continued to keep Correspondence with His Majesty notwithstanding an Act that had passed in the Committee that none should under pain of Death write any Letters to the Court but such as were seen and allowed of by at least three of the Committee But this Correspondence of my Lord Montrose came to the knowledge of the Covenanters and there were ill Instruments who suggested that this Advertisement must have been given by the Marquis which being too easily believed occasioned a Breach betwixt them that could never be made up And Sanderson hath had the Impudence not only to fasten this on him but as if there had not been Imputation enough in it he adds that the Marquis had in the night picked His Majesties Pockets for his Letters Indeed he needed not take such Courses had he been capable of that Treachery for the Kings Confidence in him was such that he delivered all the Letters he had from Scotland to his keeping and if he had designed such a thing upon Montrose it was in his Power to have done it long before for in October and December of the former year Montrose had writ much in the same strain to the King which Letters the King gave him and are yet extant but were never heard off till now that the Writer gives this account of them But the way how that Letter was discovered was this the Covenanters sent Sir Iames Mercer to York with their Letters to my Lord Lanerick of September the 14 th with whom my Lord Montrose sent his Servant with Letters to some of his Friends at Court and these Letters had been shown to the Committee but as he sealed them up he put within one to Sir Richard Grahame a Letter to the King which had not been seen and Sir Richard opening his Letter carelesly the inclosed to the King dropt out whereupon Sir Iames Mercer being near him stooped down in civility to take up the Letter and read the Direction of it and he returning next day to the Scotish Camp told what he had seen to the General who in a Committee that sate that afternoon wherein it was my Lord Montrose's turn to preside said that the Gentleman they had sent must be examined concerning any Letters he carried to the Court and so he was called in and examined But Montrose understanding that his Correspondence with the King was discovered said that seeing others kept a Correspondence with the Court he knew not why he might not do it as well as they it was answered if others were guilty that did not excuse his fault but when that could be made out against any they were liable to the same Censure he had now incurred whereupon he was commanded to keep his Chamber and he called a great many of his Friends to him to try who would adhere to him whereupon the General bade the Earl of Calender who was then Lieutenant-General tell him that if he came not and submitted himself he would hold a Council of War upon him and proceed against him Capitally Upon this my Lord Montrose came and produced a Copy of the Letter he said he had written and craved pardon and so this Matter was passed over â—ut it was suspected that his Letter had been sent to the Covenanters by the Marquis whereas indeed they knew no more of his Letter but what they had from Sir Iames Mercer who read the Address of it and so they knew not what was in it but by the Copy he produced Yet this went current for the Marquis his Treachery though Sir Iames Mercer did often vouch the truth of this before many Witnesses and particularly particularly to Sanderson himself before Noble Witnesses who acknowledged his Mis-information and promised to expunge that in the next Edition of his Book though there are no grounds to fear the Woâ—ld will ever be troubled with another Edition of so ill a Book The Treaty at Rippon In the end of September a Treaty was agreed upon and His Majesty named the Marquis and my Lords of Traquair and Lanerick to be amongst the Commissioners who should Treat in His name But the Covenanters excepted against the Marquis and Traquair whom they intended to pursue as Incendiaries and therefore they could not Treat with them as for Lanerick they had nothing to fasten on him Upon this the King resolved to send none but English Lords conceiving it not fitting to send any Scotchman if the persons he had imployed as Commissioners were not of the number Rippon a little Town fifteen miles from York was appointed to be the place of Treaty instead of Northallertown and the King sent the English Lords thither appointing Traquair and Lanerick to wait upon them for giving them Information of Scotish Affairs but he kept the Marquis to wait upon Himself The Treaty begun at Rippon and after a few days by reason of the new Parliament the King had summoned against the beginning of November was removed to London The Covenanters Demands were the same with those contained in their Letter of the 8th of September about which they continued Treating till the Iune of the next year and so this year ended But here I shall insert a Paper all written with His Majesties hand which though it do not relate
be said of the Duke Anno 1649. ON the 4th of December Orders were sent to bring him to Windsor and he came thither the 11th of that Month. He was lodged in the House of one of the poor Knights of Windsor and kept under strict Guards yet on the 21th of that Month as the King was carried through Windsor he prevailed so far with his Keepers as to permit him to see his Majesty and as he passed he kneeled down and with a transport of humble Sorrow kissed his hand and had only time to say My dear Master the King embraced him very kindly and said I have been so indeed to you but they were parted and suffered to have no discourse It may easily be imagined with what sorrow he followed the King with his eyes as far as he could see him knowing he was to do so no more nor did he much regrate his present Trouble or imminent Danger all his thoughts being swallowed up in sorrow at the Consideration of his Master's Ruin which was then no more to be doubted the Army and House as it was then modelled or rather forced having avowed their Design against his Person and thrown off the Disguise with which they had long mask'd themselves The Parliament of England had upon the matter condemned the Duke to perpetual Imprisonment Much pains is taken to draw discoveries from him but in vain by setting an hundred thousand pound sterling for his Ransome which sum could not be raised by him at a time when by the Debts he had contracted in the Kings Service his Fortune was fallen so low Cromwel came several times to him to draw from him some Discoveries of his Correspondents in England and gave him great assurances of Life Rewards and Secrecy but he rejected the Proposition with horrour and disdain though often repeated and apprehending they might get his Brother into their hands sent him at that time the following Note which I set down though unfinisht and written with the Juyce of a Lemmon I Vnder the power of the Sword and merciless men no favour to be expected oft examined but nothing discovered being ignorant perhaps you will abide the same Trial beware if you do The thirtieth of Ianuary was that fatal and never-to-be-forgotten Day wherein His Sacred Majesty after the Pageantry of a Trial to add the appearance of Justice to so base and barbarous a Murder was beheaded to the Amazement of all Europe by an unexampled practice in any Monarchy But the particulars of his Royal Constancy and Christian Patience being so punctually related by others I shall not stand to repeat what is already known but having proposed to my self nothing more in this whole Work than to let the World see the great Piety and strictness of Conscience that Blessed Prince carried along with him in all his Affairs and to publish such Remains of his Pen as had not been formerly seen or known I shall therefore insert a Copy of Verses written by his Majesty in his Captivity which a very worthy Gentleman who had the honour of waiting on him then and was much trusted by him Copied out from the Original who avoucheth it to be a true Copy but I shall first present that Royal Martyr to the Readers view in the Posture which was most familiar to Him and then set down those Verses in which the mighty sense and the great Piety will be found to be beyond all the finest sublimities of Poetry which yet are not wanting here An. 1648. Rom. VIII more than Conquerour Bona agere mala pati Regium est Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor. Lib. 2 c.47 p417 MAJESTY in MISERY OR An Imploration to the KING of Kings Written by His late Majesty King CHARLES the First during His Captivity at Carisbrook Castle Anno Dom. 1648. GREAT Monarch of the World from whose Power Springs The Potency and Power of Kings Record the Royal Woe my Suffering sings And teach my tongue that ever did confine Its faculties in Truths Seraphick Line To track the Treasons of thy foes and mine Nature and Law by thy Divine Decree The only Root of Righteous Royaltie With this dim Diadem invested me With it the sacred Scepter Purple Robe The Holy Vnction and the Royal Globe Yet am I levell'd with the life of Job The fiercest Furies that do daily tread Vpon my Grief my Gray Dis-crowned Head Are those that owe my Bounty for their Bread They raise a War and Christen it The Cause Whil'st sacrilegious hands have best applause Plunder and Murder are the Kingdoms Laws Tyranny bears the Title of Taxation Revenge and Robbery are Reformation Oppression gains the name of Sequestration An. 1649. My Loyal Subjects who in this bad season Attend me by the Law of God and Reason They dare impeach and punish for High Treason Next at the Clergy do their Furies frown Pious Episcopacy must go down They will destroy the Crosier and the Crown Church-men are chain'd and Schismaticks are free'd Mechanicks preach and Holy Fathers bleed The Crown is crucified with the Creed The Church of England doth all Faction foster The Pulpit is usurpt by each Impostor Ex tempore excludes the Pater noster The Presbyter and Independent Seed Springs with broad blades to make Religion bleed Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed The Corner-stone's misplac'd by every Pavier With such a bloody method and behaviour Their Ancestors did crucifie our Saviour My Royal Consort from whose fruitful Womb So many Princes legally have come Is forc'd in Pilgrimage to seek a Tomb. Great Britain's Heir is forced into France Whilst on his Father's head his foes advance Poor Child He weeps out his Inheritance With my own Power my Majesty they wound In the King's Name the King himself 's uncrown'd So doth the Dust destroy the Diamond With Propositions daily they enchant My Peoples ears such as do Reason daunt And the Almighty will not let me grant They promise to erect my Royal Stem To make Me great t' advance my Diadem If I will first fall down and worship them But for refusal they devour my Thrones Distress my Children and destroy my bones I fear they 'l force me to make bread of stones My Life they prize at such a slender rate That in my absence they draw Bills of hate To prove the King a Traytor to the State Felons obtain more priviledge than I They are allow'd to answer e're they die 'T is death for me to ask the reason Why. But Sacred Saviour with thy words I woo Thee to forgive and not be bitter to Such as thou know'st do not know what they do For since they from their Lord are so disjointed As to contemn those Edicts he appointed How can they prize the Power of his Anointed Augment my Patience nullifie my Hate Preserve my Issue and inspire my Mate Yet though We perish bless this Church and State Vota dabunt quae bella
being a necessity of searching divers Records for Precedents which required a competent time as had been allowed in former cases but the Court refused to promise it only they said they would take it into their consideration The Counsel insisted and said plainly they declined the Imployment on those terms and would be forced to declare it Monday the 26th the other two Officers that had signed the Capitulation for the Duke and his Troops The ninth Appearance who had been sent for a great way off were examined who agreed with the former Witnesses in matters of Fact and also with Lilburn that by signing the Articles they only meant the Duke should be preserved from the Violence of the Souldiers and not from the Justice of the Parliament Then the Counsel began to Plead and all four spoke on the several Heads of the Plea Mr. Heron spoke cursorily and elegantly but not very materially Mr. Parsons a young man spoke boldly and to good purpose Mr. Chute the Civilian spoke learnedly and home and Mr. Hales since the much-renowned Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench elaborately and at length The Heads of their Arguments follow The Duke's Counsel at Law plead for him The Duke being as was granted a born Scotch-man his Tie of obligation and subjection to that Kingdom was indispensable and indissoluble so that his late Imployment could not be refused when laid on him by the Authority of that Kingdom no more than a Native of England living in it can disobey the Commands of this Parliament whereas any Subjection the Duke owed the Parliament of England was only acquired and dispensable That since no man can be a Subject of two Kingdoms whatever Tye lay on him to the Kingdom of England it was not to be put in Competition with what he owed Scotland it being a Maxim in Law that Major relatio trahit ad se minorem and that Ius Originis nemo mutare potest That there was an Allegeance due to the King and another to the Kingdom and no Treason could be without a Breach of Faith and Allegeance due to them against whom it was committed for these Kingdoms were two distinct Kingdoms and though the Allegeance due to the King was the same in both Kingdoms yet that due to the Kingdoms was distinct nor was the Actual administration of the Kingdoms in the Kings Person when the Duke got his Imployment therefore as his Allegeance to the Kingdom of Scotland was ancienter and stronger than any Tie that lay on him in England so what he did by their Order might well make him an Enemy to this Kingdom but could not infer Treason Yet all this of the Allegeance due to the Kingdom was founded on no Common or Statute Law as Mr. Hales himself confessed afterwards but he urged this well against those who asserted it it being the universally received Maxim at that time That whether he was a Post-natus or Ante-natus did not appear but though he were it did not vary the Case nor his obligation to the place of his Nativity and so though he were Post-natus or accounted a Denizen by his Fathers Naturalization his Offence could not be Treason but Hostility at most and by that supposed Hostility he could only lose his Priviledge of a Denizen but could not be made a Traitor there being no Precedent where ever any man was attainted of Treason for a hostile Invasion and it was questionable if this Offence could amount to that nor could any case be alledged where one born in another Independent Kingdome acting by a Commission from that Kingdom and residing there when he received his Commission and raising the Body of his Army in that Kingdom and coming into this in an Open Hostile manner was ever judged guilty of Treason Naturalization was intended to be a Benefit and not a Snare so that one might well lose it but was not to be punished for it And so when France and England were under one Soveraign divers of both Nations were naturalized in the other yet when Hostility broke out betwixt them many so naturalized fought on the side of their Native Kingdom for which none were put to death though divers were taken Prisoners And in Edward the third's time though he claimed France as his by Right yet when the Constable of France invaded England and was taken Prisoner he was not tried nor put to death but sent back to France as being a Native of that Kingdom And when David Bruce King of Scotland invaded this Kingdom and was taken Prisoner great endeavours were used to find a Legal ground for his Trial he being Earl of Huntington in England but this Plea was waved for it was found that it could not be done justly that being but a less degree of Honour though King Edward claimed a kind of Homage from the Crown of Scotland That if the Duke were on that account put to death it might prove of sad consequence in case there was War any more betwixt the Kingdoms since most of the present Generation were Post-nati and all would be so quickly and yet if the Lord Fairfax who was both a Post-natus and had his Honour in Scotland were commanded to lead an Army thither and being taken were put to death it would be thought hard measure For the Duke's Father's Naturalization it was true by the Statute of the 25 Ed. 3. provision was made that Children born without the Kingdom whose Parents were then in the King's Allegeance should be Denizens but the Duke was born before his Father's Naturalization which can never reach him none but the Issue after his Father's Naturalization being included within it and the word Haeres in the Act is only a word of Limitation and not of Creation nor did his making use of the assistance of some English Forces make him a Traytor It is true if an Englishman conduct a Foreign Army or if a Foreigner come of his own head or in a Rebellious way to assist an English Rebellion it will amount to Treason for the Act of such an Alien is denominated from the crime of those he assist here where he owed a local Obedience which was the Case of Shirley the Frenchman and of Lopez but if an Alien come with a Foreign Force though he make use of English Auxiliaries that only infers a Hostility but no Treason and was the case of the Lord Harris a Scotchman 15 Eliz. and of Perkin Warbeck both having English help and though Warbeck was put to death it was by no Civil Judicatory but only by the Will of Henry the 7th who erected a Court-Marshall for that purpose The present case was yet clearer where the Alien had Authority from his Native Kingdom and was commanded by them to make use of English help so that though Langdale's assisting the Duke did make himself a Traytor yet the Duke's accepting of it only infers an Act of Hostility And whereas it was objected that the Parliament had already by
The shortning of our days is an Evil wholly depending on Opinion for if men did now naturally live but Twenty years then we should be satisfied if they died about 16 or 18. We call not that Death immature in any who live to Seventy and yet this Age is as far short of the old Period before and since the Flood as he who now dies of eighteen is of Seventy Let us still be ready for it and it cannot come too soon for let us die young or old still we have an Immortal Soul and do lay down our Bodies for a time as that which was the Instrument of our Sorrow and Trouble and the Scene of Sickness and Diseases let us not then fear that which rids us of all these for by fearing it we shall never the more avoid it but make it the more miserable to us Fanius who killed himself for fear of Death died as certainly as Porcia who eat burning Coals or Cato who tore out his own Bowels To die is necessary and natural and may be honourable but to die poorly basely and sinfully that alone is that which can make a man miserable for no man can be a Slave but he that fears pain or fears to die to such a man nothing but peaceable times can secure his Quiet for he depends upon things without him for his Felicity and so is well but during the Pleasure of his Enemy a Thief or a Tyrant but blessed is he who willingly resigns his Soul and Body into Gods hands as unto the hands of a blessed Creator and Redeemer O Blessed Iesus thou didst die for me grant that I may with Ioy submit unto thy Summons when thou shalt call me to Death for thou art my Advocate as well as my Iudge and camest into the World to save sinners whereof O Lord I acknowledg I am the greatest but thy Mercies are infinite O God of Mercy and God of all Comfort with much mercy look upon the sadness and sorrow of thy Servant my Sins lie heavy upon me and press me sore by reason of thy hot displeasure my Miseries are without comfort because they are the punishments of my Sins my Sin hath caused my sorrow and my sorrow doth not cure my Sin and unless thou for thy own sake and meerly because thou art good pity me I am as much without Remedy as without Comfort Lord pity me let thy Grace refresh my spirit let thy Comfort support me thy Mercies pardon me and let not my portion be among helpless and accursed Spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy Mercy suffer me never to let my hold go anddo then with me what seems good in thy own eyes I cannot suffer more than I have deserved and yet I can need no Relief so great as thy Mercy is for thou art infinitely more merciful than I can be miserable Lord make me the object of thy Mercy both in my Life and in my Death if even this day thou shalt think fit to remove me from this valley of miseries either by the violent hand of this merciless Enemy or any other way which in thy Providence thou hast ordained when my Soul shall go out from the Prison of this Body may it be received by Angels and preserved from the horrour and amazements and the surprize of Evil Spirits and be laid up in the Bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second Coming it shall be reunited to the Body which is now to be laid in the dust yet I hope shall be raised up in Ioy to live for ever and behold the Face of God in the Glories of our Lord Iesus who is our Hope our Resurrection and our Life our Blessed and ever-Glorious Redeemer to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen In these Exercises he continued till it was almost morning and then he threw himself down on the Bed where he did not lie above two hours when he was called on to make ready and assoon as he was Dressed and Armed he waited on the King into the Field The Dukes Regiment charges gallantly at Worcester-Fight The Account of that Engagement is not here to be offered since nothing belongs to this Work but that wherein the Duke was concerned His Regiment was commanded to charge a Body of Horse and Foot that stood near two peece of Cannon not far from the Severn but there were two great Bodies of Foot standing on each side of the Lane through which they were to go and these firing on them as they pasâ—ed they received great Loss but having got through the Lane there was no coming to the Enemy who stood in a close Ground but through aGap in the Hedge through which theLieutenant Collonel with a very inconsiderable Number Charged and the Enemy gave ground and left the Cannon in their hands the Horse retiring to Hacker's Regiment who came up and Charged and was gallantly received by the Lieutenant Collonel and the Dukes Regiment but some Foot brought to line the Hedges on their Flanks Fired so on them that they were forced to retire The Duke being near the Kings Person and observing all that passed inquired who they were and being told it was his own Regiment His great Valour he thought it unworthy of him to be too far from Danger when they were so put to it and galloped all alone from the King to the place where they were where he found them retiring and did all he could either by words or threatnings to make them keep their Ground But the Enemy did still bring up more Foot and Fired uncessantly on them and most of the Officers were either wounded or had their Horses killed under them particularly the Lieutenant Collonel who had all the while Charged very gallantly had his Horse shot under him and so they were beaten back The Duke himself keeped in the Reer with such as were in a Condition to wait on him to the great hazard of his Person and gave signal demonstrations of a high Courage but the Enemy following him close in great Bodies he commanded some Foot to make good the Hedge against them and rode up and down among them and encouraged them to stand and die for the Service of their King and the Honour of their Country An. 1652. and did several times Charge down to the Hedges so that all were astonished at such daring and unusual Valour But the Enemy pressing on he rode again with his Pistol in his hand to the Hedge where he received the fatal Shot that quite disabled him He is wounded His Majesty hearing of the extreme Danger he exposed himself to in these Charges and knowing well how great a loss he would suffer if so brave a Commander and such a wise and faithful Counsellor were killed sent once again to call him away from that Hazard he was in but he choosed to prefer
his Majesties Service to these most obliging Commands yet being disabled by the Wound he got he was forced to retire to the Town And taken The total routing of the Army quickly followed and by the taking of Worcester that night he fell into the Enemies hands When he came to his Lodgings his Wound was searched by the Kings Surgeon Mr. Kincaid who found that by a slug-shot the Bone of his Leg a little below the Joynt was crushed and so broken that many Splinters with the Bullet were taken out at first dressing and many more fragments were at several other dressings separated from the Bone and the Surgeon told him the only way to save his Life was to lose his Leg. But Trappam Cromwel's Surgeon being sent by him to wait on the Duke assured him there was no hazard Two days after the Duke was wounded the Kings Physitian Sir Robert Cunningham being found out among the Prisoners was brought to him who found he had lost much blood by his Wound and therefore opened a vein in his Arm which diverted the Course of the Blood Then the Duke asked his opinion about him who told him plainly there was no hope of saving his Life but by cutting off his Leg and if that were done some hopes remained but Trappam having assured him there was no hazard he was not willing to submit to so severe a Sentence till he were further satisfied of its being absolutely necessary therefore he sent to London for Mr. Dickson who was an expert Surgeon in whom he had great Confidence and he came to him with all possible haste but it was too late for the Dukes Strength and Spirits were so wasted that they durst not adventure on the Operation During these few days of the Dukes Life he expressed great Composure of mind and a chearful willingness to welcome his approaching End which drew on a-pace nor shewed he anxiety or concern in any thing but his Majesties Preservation for which as he prayed constantly so he still enquired News concerning him and blessed God that he heard none judging from that that he was safe and had escaped On the 8th of September finding his Strength failing him and looking on himself as a dead man he sent his last thoughts to his Lady and Neeces in the following Letter written with his own Hand Dear Heart YOV know I have been long labouring though in great weakness to be prepared against this expected Change He writes to his Lady and I thank my God I find Comfort in it in this my day of Tryal for my Body is not more weakned by my Wounds then I find my Spirit Comforted and Supported by the infinite Mercies and great Love of my Blessed Redeemer who will be with me to the end and in the end I am not able to say much more to you the Lord preserve you under your Tryals and sanctifie the use of them to the Comfort of your Soul I will not so much as in a Letter divide my dear Neeces and you the Lord grant you may be constant Comforts to one another in this Life and send you all Eternal Happiness with your Saviour in the Life to come to both of your Cares I recommend my poor Children let your great Work be to make them early accquainted with God and their Duties to him and though they may suffer many wants here before their Removal from hence yet they will find an inexhaustible Treasure in the Love of Christ. May the Comforts of the Blessed Spirit be ever near you in all your Straits and Difficulties and suffer not the least repining to enter into any of your Hearts for his Dispensations towards me for his Mercies have been infinitely above his Iustice in the whole Pilgrimage of Dear Heart Your Own HAMILTON Worcester Sept. 8. 1651. His Death ON the 11th of September the Dukes Pulse failed quite which he discerned first himself and called for his Physician to whom he said he felt no pain nor sickness but could not discern his Pulse to move and no more did his Physician but imputing it to malignant vapors rising from his Wound he gave him some Cordials which made no Change upon him and then his Spirits quitting all their Natural operations retired to his Brain and his Intellectual Faculties his Memory Reason and Expression continued in their vigor for the space of twelve hours after that his Voice was likewise entire and strong The total cessation of the Arterial Motion together with a Marmoreous coldness that was creeping up by degrees from all his extremities made his Physician warn him that Death was approaching the Duke answered that from the beginning he apprehended his Wound would prove Mortal but he could not think Death was so near him since he found neither sickness pain fainting nor oppression trouble him He had been during his Sickness oft waited on both by the Ministers of Worcester and the Ministers who waited on the Kings Army whom he called for and as they Prayed and ministred Divine Consolations to him so they were much comforted and edified with the Christian Courage and Joy he exprest in these his last and closest Conflicts From six in the morning on the 12th of September he lay quiet speaking little but was observed all the while by these who looked often to see what he was doing that he was well imployed in mental Prayer and devout Ejaculations About nine a Clock being asked by his Physician how he was he answered his Heart was free of Sickness but added That he should tell his Relations in Scotland that he died believing that through the Merits of the Mediator the Lord Iesus Câ—rist the Lord his Righteousness and through the infinite Mercies of his God it should fare with him as with the idle Labourers in the Parable of the Vineyard who went in at the 11th hour and yet received the peny so he believed that though in the last hour of the day he had entred into his Masters Service yet he should receive his peny From that time he lay quiet and about twelve a Clock after three groans without any other struggling or passion of Death he breathed out his Soul and his Body was interred in the Cathedral Church of Worcester An. 1651. for though according to his Orders for burying him with his Ancestors at Hamilton his Servants did move earnestly that they might have leave to carry his Body to Scotland yet it was flatly denied When the news of his Death was carried to Scotland his Will was opened which follows In the Name of God Amen I William Duke of Hamilton c. being I thank God in perfect Health yet considering the uncertainty thereof and the many Dangers that all men are subject to and few more than my self am desirous to leave my Worldly Affairs at the time of my Death in the best order I can as it shall please the Lord to direct me to whose Providence and Dispensation I humbly and
giving a just and true Relation of the Reign of the late King I was my self pretty early acquainted with a great deal more of the Truth of these Affairs than is generally known having had the blessing of my Father's Conversation for many years who had been a very exact Observer of all that passed He was also much importuned by men of all sides to write the History of those distempered Times being esteemed a Person of great Moderation and Candour who as he had his breeding in the Law so lived in great Friendship with the most eminent Persons of both Perswasions for before the Troubles began he was accounted a Male-content but he did afterwards give such signal demonstrations of his Loyalty that he was put from his Employment and made to take a voluntary Exile on him which was granted him as a great Favour by the Covenanters who generally had much kindness for him for all his being so contrary to their way And Warriston his Brother-in-Law in whose hands were all the Original Papers of the Covenanters side offered them to him for his Assistance if he would undertake it but he was over-grown with Age and Infirmities and so could not set about so difficult a Work But I received from him such Informations as made me look on most of the Writers of those Times with Indignation who were either utterly ignorant or so basely partial that Matters of Fact are falsly represented and the whole Counsels and Secret Contrivances either quite passed over or so palliated that there is very little truth in the Relations they have made And particularly I wondred to find James Duke of Hamilton represented to the World with such foul and base Characters as if he had been a Monster both for Ingratitude and Treachery though he had laid down his Life for the King and involved his Estate in vast Debts for His Service It seemed to me the greatest Injustice in the World that one who served his Prince and his Country so long and so faithfully and sealed all with his Blood should not only be deprived of the Honour due to his Memory but that a company of ignorant and impudent Slanderers should do what they could to attaint his Blood and Family by the black Imputations they have cast on him and that this should pass current without any Vindication This made me resolve if ever I could meet with such Instructions as might direct me well to write an account of the late Troubles and in particular to give a true and clear Relation of that Duke's Concerns to set about it I knew well the Temper of those who were most severe in their Censures on him to be a violent and hot-headed sort of People who were for nothing but Fire and Sword and yet knew not how to do much more than to drink and swagger and therefore as I was naturally inclined to disregard their Blusterings so I was apt to think his Counsels must have been moderate for tempering the eagerness of other mens Passions which did enrage them so much against him so that they having dispersed many false Stories of him these were easily received by our Scribling Historians and have been made use of to poyson the Truth of the History It is such a natural and constant effect of Passion to carry men to Extreams that it is no wonder if those who had more temper and fore-sight and studied to heal the Breaches and followed more moderate Counsels were hated on both sides for in all times the Moderate Party is the weakest and has most obloquie cast on it from all hands I also thought that I could not do a greater Service to my Country than to enquire into the whole Course of the late Civil Wars And I knew there were none so eminently Employed as the two Dukes of Hamilton the one having been the Kings High-Commissioner in the beginning of them and the other the Secretary of State in the sequel of them therefore it was certain that if their Papers had not been destroyed in the common fate of Scotland I could not find a clearer thread to direct me than from them I shall not deny that I had many pre-engagements on me to have a high value of that Family both from the Great Worth of those who now represent it and from the Vnblemished Fidelity their Ancestours have always payed the Crown and their constant Affection to their Country so that since the first Greatness of it in King James the third his days who gave his Sister in Marriage to the Lord Hamilton they were never in any Rebellion against their King nor did they ever abuse their Prince's Favour to be a Grievance to their Country And though they stood next the Crown for fifty years together from the year 1543 that King James the fifth died till the year 1593 that Prince Henry was born during all which time there was none but Queen Mary and King James of the Royal Blood yet all that while their Deportment shewed that they had no other design but to serve those Princes with all possible Fidelity and Zeal And though Scotland was then much distracted with Intestine Broyls and Disorders yet they never set themselves at the head of any Faction nor departed from the Interests of the Crown When King James the fifth died he left his only Daughter Queen Mary but a few days old and the Government of Scotland fell by Right to the Earl of Arran being her nearest Kinsman and if such an Ambition as the Enemies of that Family have pretended was hereditary to it had been lodged in him he would never have let such an Opportunity of raising himself slip out of his hands But he was a Person of great Iustice and Candour and set nothing before his eyes but the Publick Good so that Archbishop Spotswood tells of him in his History that in his Court there was nothing seen that the severest eye could censure or reprove In the Publick Government such a Moderation was kept as no man was heard to complain the Governour was reverently obeyed and held in as great respect as any King 's of preceding Times It is true he was of too easie a nature and his base Brother who was afterwards Archbishop of St. Andrews had great power over him which did much prejudice his Reputation In the disposing of the Queen in Marriage he had much to have said for himself if he had married Her to his own Son who was but a few years older than the Queen but he shewed he designed Her Greatness more than his own and perhaps more than the true Interest of his Country for I am far from thinking that he carried himself wisely in that when he consented to send Her to the Dolphin of France afterwards Francis the second in acknowledgment of which he was made Duke of Castle-herald or as it is pronounced by the French Chastle-herault by the French King After the Death of Francis the second when Queen Mary