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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30389	The memoires of the lives and actions of James and William, Dukes of Hamilton and Castleherald, &c. in which an account is given of the rise and progress of the civil wars of Scotland, with other great transactions both in England and Germany, from the year 1625, to the year 1652 : together with many letters, instructions, and other papers, written by King Charles the I : never before published : all drawn out of, or copied from the originals / by Gilbert Burnet ; in seven books.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649. Selections. 1677.	1677 (1677)	Wing B5832; ESTC R15331	511,397	467

in his Breast Nothing did so much support his spirit under the heavy Pressure that lay over it as the desire he had to preserve his Life for His Majesties Service of which he was prodigal when he saw it useless to his Master for his Life had been of a great while burdensome to him and indeed it was no wonder to see Death so welcome to one who had so little reason to desire to live and so much ground to hope in Death for when the Tossings and unjust unmerciful Usage he met with in those years he survived his Brother are well looked into it is a wonder they forced him not unto the horridest Resolutions imaginable I use his own words and to pursue private and publick Injuries with a mortal Resentment yet his zeal for the Kings Service and the Countries Quiet over-ruled all other thoughts From Scotland he went to Holland where he was scarce landed when he heard the sad and dismal news of the Kings Murder nor had he recovered of the extreme Grief that raised in him when he heard likewise how his Brother was murthered which afflicted him beyond expression nor did any thing grieve him more than his laying down Arms at Sterlin for when he saw too late how they had been abused in it he censured it more severely than any of his Enemies could do He was ill used by his Enemies and the Preachers In Scotland the Parliament if that Meeting could ever deserve that name wherein there were scarce any of the Nobility present not only condemned the Engagement for the King but passed an Act against all the Engagers ranking them in several Classes whence it got the name of an Act of Classes whereby they were excluded from all Offices publick Trust and Vote in Parliament nor were they ever to be admitted to Trust till they had satisfied the Church by a publick profession of their Repentance for their accession to the unlawful Engagement as it was then called and were by them recommended to the favour of the State and those that ruled were resolved to readmit none but such as would depend on them and adhere to their Interests They were also particularly severe to the Duke for breaking Confinement and leaving Scotland without their Pass The Duke upon his arrival in Holland offered his Service to his Master our Gracious Soveraign who now Reigns which he received and entertained with so much Royal Goodness as if the Affection and Confidence of their Masters had been the Inheritance of these Brothers and what the late King was to the Elder his Majesty was to the Younger who continues to this day to honour his Memory with the highest Commendations And indeed his Royal Favour was not misplaced on one that was either unsensible or ungrateful for never Subject served Master with more Honesty Zeal and Affection so that no consideration either of Hope or Fear wrought so much on him as the Affection he bore his Master neither expressed he anxiety for any thing at his Death save for His Majesties Person fearing lest he might fall into their cruel hands whom he knew to be thirsting for his Blood He stayed in the Netherlands till His Majesty came to Scotland He adviseth the King to settle with Scotland and though those that governed there were so much his Enemies that they would have the King stand to their Act of Classes and made that one of the Articles of their Treaty at Breda yet the Duke seeing the desperate posture the Kings Affairs were in and that no visible hope remained unless His Majesty settled fully with Scotland was not only satisfied to consent to that severe Demand but did earnestly press His Majesty to agree with that Kingdom whatever might become of him Many were for extremer Methods and pressed the Duke to concur for making a forcible Impression upon Scotland but he well foresaw the mischief of that Course and how little could be promised from it for as no great Concurrence could be expected in the condition things were then driven to so all that could follow even on a little success was to expose the Country to the rage of a prevailing Army from England against which Scotland entirely united would have had work enough though it had not been weakned by a Civil War and therefore he was against all Divisions which might also have tempted the prevailing Party to joyn with the English Army The Treaty with the Scotish Commissioners was held at Breda where things stuck long their Demands being very high and uneasy to the King The chief of the Commissioners was the Earl of Cassilis who did truly love the King and Kingly Government so that when the Usurpation proved sucessful by the Conquest of Scotland afterwards though Usurper studied by the greatest Offers he could make to gain him to his Party considering the high esteem he was in for his Piety and Vertue could never prevail so far as to make him advance one step towards him even in outward Civilities yet he was a most zealous Covenanter but of so severe a Vertue and so exactly strict to every thing in which he judged his Honour or Conscience concerned that he would not abate an ace of his Instructions but stood his ground so that nothing could beat or draw him out of it But he did it with so much Fairness and Candor that the King though troubled enough with the difficulties that bred him yet was much taken with the Openness of his Proceeding with him and conceived so high an Opinion of his Fidelity to him that nothing could ever cha●ge or lessen it so so excellent a thing is Ingenuity that it begets an esteem wherever it is to be found even when we are most displeased with the Instances in which it appears The next in the Commission was the Earl of Lothian who though he was deeply engaged in Friendship and Interests with the Marquis of Argyle yet was of a Noble Temper had great Parts and a high sense of Honour The other Commissioners depended on them and went easily along with them in what they agreed to The Commissioners seeing the good Offices the Duke did were willing he should return with his Majesty to Scotland Anno 1650 and enjoy the common Priviledges of Scotchmen only be secluded from all publick Trust and from his Vote in Parliament But the leading-men in Scotland judged it necessary for the Peace of that Kingdom that the Duke might not return with His Majesty and sent Orders for stopping his Voyage These Orders came not to Holland before most of the Commissioners were aboard only the Earls of Cassilis and Lothian were ashore when they got them they were much troubled to get such severe Commands obliging them to break the Treaty they had so lately signed But since most of their fellow-Commissioners were gone But is put from His Majesty at his return to Scotland and they without them made not a Quorum they could do nothing so

steps their Progenitors went in or had departed from them therefore I told the Duke and Dutchess of Hamilton that now are that if I might have the favour and trust of perusing such Papers as remained in their hands I should do my endeavours to make the best use of them I could upon which they were pleased to send them all to me The Collection was great and in as great disorder yet by a little care I brought them into some Order and found I had very authentical and full Materials for a greater Work than I had at first designed but having read many scandalous Pamphlets that had charged these Dukes in divers particulars with an equal degree of Injustice and Malice I found it necessary to enquire as far as their Papers could carry me into the Truth of these Reports which forced me to be more particular than had been otherwise needful And yet I hope the Reader shall have no great cause to complain of my tediousness but that he shall find an Entertainment through the whole Work that shall not be unpleasant to him I have opened the Intrigues and Counsels of those Times as clearly as I could This some that perused the Work have censured much as a disclosing the Secrets of Government and because in some places errours of Government are neither concealed nor pallia●ed some advised me to pass these over and not insist on them but with this I could-by no means comply for I know no good that History does the World so much as the making Posterity the wiser both by shewing the Faults of Ministers that raised the Discontents and the Follies and Madness of those who put all in confusion to get Grievances redressed For the Iealousies that were conceived either from the ill opinion of Ministers or the consciousness of their own Guilt made the Fomenters of those Troubles think that neither Concessions nor Pardons were a sufficient Security but that assoon as the Country and Government was settled what they had done would be remembred and punished and did drive the Faction much further than it seems they intended at first All this I wrote with the more Assurance after I had presumed to tell His Majesty that since I was writing of the late Times I sound it necessary to set down some Errours that were committed even by some of the Ministers of the King his Blessed Father and I could give no true account of matters if these were not likewise related upon which His Majesty most graciously told me That such things were unavoidable in a History and therefore He allowed me to tell the Truth freely Vp●● so gracious a Permission I was the more emboldened to lay open things clearly and to trace the Troubles of Scotland to their first Beginnings It is true there were some things that had much influence on Peoples Minds of which I have given no Account having found no Papers in this Collection to direct me in them and these were the whole Progress of the Design for th● Resumption of the Tithes into the Crown and the restoring them to the Church with all the steps that were made in it which was so nice a point and had so much of the subtilties of Law in it that I did not think fit to meddle with it especially it not lying before me in these Papers nor having any Relation to the Concerns of these two Brothers The other was the Proceeding in Parliament Anno 1633 when His late Majesty was Crowned with the Petition that was afterwards drawn for which the Lord Balmerino was tried and found Guilty and had Sentence of Death passed on him Then did the Party begin to be more united and secret Engagements were given either to rescue him by Force or to revenge his Death upon which the Earl of Traquair procured a Pardon for him but from that time the date of the Confederacy of that Party is to be reckoned and though it lay quiet for some years yet it was still fermenting which made it burst forth upon the Crisis that afterwards appeared They were also much encouraged to all that followed by the Informations they had of the Malecontents in England for a Gentleman of Quality of the English Nation who was afterwards a great Parliament-man went and lived some time in Scotland before the Troubles broke out and represented to the men that had then greatest Interest there that the business of the Ship-mony and the Habeas Corpus with divers other things of which there was much noise made afterwards had so irritated the greatest part of the English Nation that if they made sure work at home they needed fear nothing from England And of this the Duke of Hamilton who had lived so many years in England could not be ignorant for so great a disease in the Body Politick as a Civil War does not break out on a sudden but there go before it many Symptomes which are well discerned by men of Iudgment and Fore-sight the matter must be brought to the nature of Tinder or Gun-powder before a Spark can set it on Fire And it was the Prospect he had of what was like to follow in England if once a War begun that made him employ all his Endeavours to carry the King to as full Concessions as he could possibly obtain This to such as do not reflect on the State of England at that time may perhaps appear mean or Malice may give it a worse Character But as no sort of provocation will justifie any man though of the clearest Courage that will go and fight with a Sword loose in the hilt but he must be concluded rash and inconsiderate so the Duke knowing the disjoynted condition of England and apprehending that by all appearance the War would be unsuccessful and that the Demands of the Faction would then grow higher did as became a Wise and Faithful Minister in trying all the ways he could think of to settle Matters before there should be any Breach since the keeping the Kingdom in quiet though upon terms which had been hard to the King and derogatory to His Authority was much to be preferred to a War that was like to prove fatal to the King and Kingdoms For all that while the Affection of the English to the Party in Scotland did discover it self in many high Expressions which others could not but see and the King sadly but too late felt afterwards for Princes most commonly see such things last of all their People their pretending Flatterers who are in truth their greatest Enemies keeping up such Advertisements from them as long as can be as if one out of fear to awaken his Master should let him sleep when his House is on fire till it were scarce possible for him either to quench or escape the Flames All these things concurred to set on the hot Zealots to begin the Troubles that ended so tragically in the Murder of the King and Slavery of the Nations And therefore nothing seems more

55. l. 16. after This add I. p. 120. l. 7. after all r. he p. 130. l. 37. require r. required p. 145. l. 7. dele will after it and r. will after Assembly p. 161. l. 18. for Mirtland r. Maitland p. 178. l. ult for Cumbermwald r. Cumbernald p. 219. l. 22. after Hamilton r. William Earl of Morton p. 225. l. 11. refore r. therefore p. 240. l. 6. after by for that r. these p. 242. l. 22. after at r. that p. 279. l. 2. emitted r. remitted p. 283. l. 26. berid r. be rid p. 284. l. 23. for stop r. step p. 334. l. 9. met r. meet p. 342. l. 17. did we r. we did p. 368. l. 5. which upon r. upon which p. 384. l. 23. after guards r. that p. 387. l. 51. apart r. a part p. 388. l. 12. after were r. clear p. 408. l. 30. after despise dele at p. 423. l. 2. after though r. the. ibid. l. 4. after vertue r. he p. 427. l. 8. for greater r. regrate p. 428. l. 26. wrack r. rack ibid. l. 50. after heavy r. on p. 429. l. 44. Death r. die p. 431. l. 26. after about for him r. himself The Contents of the Seven Books Lib. I. Of what happened from his Father's Death till the Year 1638. Lib. II. Of what passed when he was the King's Commissioner in Scotland in the Years 1638 and 1639. Lib. III. Of what passed after he laid down his Commission till July 1642. Lib. IV. Of the Duke's and his Brother the Earl of Lanerick's Negotiation in Scotland till their Imprisonment Lib. V. Of the Duke's and his Brother's Imployments after his Enlargement till the Year 1648. Lib. VI. Of the Duke's Engagement for the King's Preservation and what followed till his Death Lib. VII A Continuation of Affairs till Worcester-Fight MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James Duke of Hamilton c. LIB I. Of what happened from his Fathers Death till the Year 1638. JAMES Marquis of Hamilton died at London in March 1625. An. 1625. and was succeeded in his Honour and Fortune by his Eldest Son and Heir Iames afterwards created Duke of Hamilton The Marquis succeeded his Father whom his Father had brought with him to England some years before and was then in the Eighteenth year of his Age and sent to prosecute his Studies at Oxford from whence he was called to see his Father die and came in time to receive his last advices and blessings Thus died that Great and Illustrious Person in the flower and vigour of his Age being then but 36 years old He was in great Esteem in both Kingdomes His Fathers Character equally dear to the Soveraign and the Subjects and it was certain no person could have disputed with him the Kings Affection and Confidence the Duke of Buckingham onely excepted His serving as Commissioner for the King in the Parliament 1621. had much lessened his Interest in Scotland for these five Articles of Perth where the Assembly of the Church that settled them was held commonly called the Five Articles were generally so odious that his carrying the Settlement of these in Parliament drew much dislike from all that Party which was then called Puritan but his carriage in that Parliament gained him as much trust and favour with the King as ever man had The King created him Earl of Cambridge a Title that was never conferred on any but such as were of the Royal Blood he made him also Knight of the Garter and Lord-Steward of the Houshold King Iames was likewise glad to see his Friendship for my Lord Marquis and his Family like to prove Hereditary by the kindness he saw growing up with the Prince for his Son in whose youth there was an agreeable Sweetness which gained an early room in the Princes Affections and took so deep rooting there that nothing was ever able to deface it and as he had the Honour to be the Princes nearest Kinsman by the Royal Blood of Scotland so he spent several of his younger and more innocent years in his company and when the Prince was in Spain he made one of that honourable Train that went to wait on his Highness But since the following Narration is to be filled with great and considerable Transactions wherein this Marquis was so eminently engaged I shall dismiss such Particulars as were of less concernment and therefore at one step shall leap over the whole tract of his Youth neither shall I interrupt my Narration of Publick Matters with Accounts of his Personal and Domestick Affairs which shall be referred to one place in which as I give his Character such of those as are fit to be made publick shall be mentioned neither will I here offer any further Account of his Father but what shall be the matter of the whole following History which is that he was the Father of two such excellent Sons King Iames as he received the tidings of his Death with much grief King Iames his Death so he Prophetically apprehended that as the Branches were now cut down the Root would quickly follow for the Duke of Richmond died about the same time likewise This Marquis his Death was followed with an universal regrate and I sind divers of the English Nobility in their Letters to his Son expressing their Affection and Esteem for the Father in terms beyond the cajolery of Civility or Complement The loss of so great and such a tenderly affectionate Father meeting the sweet Disposition and dutiful Love of the Son could not but prove very afflicting to him but this private Grief was followed by a publick Calamity brought upon these Kingdoms by the Death of King Iames on whose Character I shall not adventure since it is without the lines of my Work The Marquis sent down his Fathers Corps to Scotland The Marquis leaves the Court. where it was nobly interred in the Burial-Place of that Family but could not follow it himself being obliged to wait and assist at the Coronation of King Charles the first which shortly followed where he carried the Sword of State before the King and he found the Crown had rather heightned than lessened the new Kings Affection for him But within a little he resolved to return to Scotland to look to his own Affairs which were in great disorder by his Fathers magnificent Nobleness who notwithstanding his being Lord Steward and the benefit of other Places he enjoyed had far outrun himself at Court But indeed his Son had too much of his own Temper and was too Generous to be very Frugal During his absence from Court his Majesties Affection for him appeared not only in his ready granting of every thing was moved for his advantage but in the kind Letters which upon different occasions he wrote to him with his own Hand not to mention the many publick ones he got upon all occasions In one of them the King writes James An. 1627. THE reason why your Business

general Stories If all his Friends were not at all times so fixed to their Duty as they ought to have been that left no Blame upon him for no man can be lyable for his Friends nor charged with the faults of other men but when any of them strayed from their Duty his Friendship made him not the less but the more severe to them and many of them being yet alive have witnessed with what honest zeal he always studied to engage them to a Cordial adherence to the Kings Service But to sum up all those who after they see how in his last Speech delivered at his Death he begs Pardon and Mercy from God as he hath been a faithful Servant to his Master and do still retain their Jealousies are beyond the cure of any Perswasion for none but a desperate Atheist could have adventured so far with a defiled Conscience Neither can it be alledged here that all in those times pretended to be for the King for perhaps many thought the methods they took vvere the best for securing and settling his Throne But had the Duke been faulty as the World accused him it must not have been a Mistake in his thoughts but a Crookedness of his Heart a betraying of his Trust and a falsifying of his Engagements and who can suppose that the Parties who were prevalent both in England and Scotland at the time of his Death and pursued him and his Memory with all the excesses of Malice would not have discovered such Treachery to load him with the greater Infamy if there had been any grounds for it since they were the persons who mus● have known it best As for that ridiculous and Devilish Forgery of his pretending to the Crown of Scotland never any were alledged to have heard a hint of it from himself no not in raillery and c●●tainly if so great a Design had ever been discovered to any person it must have been to his Friends and he must have taken pains to have made some Party sure for it but for this nothing was ever whispered but Surmises and those hanging so ill together that they retained not so much as the shadow of Probability For his Country His love to his Country as he had as great Interest in it as any Subject so his Affection yielded to none And it is certain that if his Counsels to the King seem at any time to fall short of the higher ways of Authority nothing but his Affection for his Country gave him the byass for he confessed the thing in the World at which he had the greatest horror was the engaging in a Civil War with his Country-men He was far from any Designs of engrossing either Power or Places of advantage to himself or his Friends nor was he ever the occasion of any Burden to the Country for the Assignments he had on some Taxations were only for payment of the Debts he had contracted by his Majesties Command for his Expedition to Germany And so little fond was he of being the Kings Commissioner in Scotland that in divers of his Letters he proposed others to his Majesty for that Trust protesting it was a Place which of all other he hated most and when he saw Jealousies taken at his being so long in that Trust as if the King had been to govern Scotland by a Commissioner he pressed his Majesty to change him so careful was he to avoid every thing which might be a Grievance to his Country and retard the Kings Service He was the great Patron of all Scotishmen in the Court which drew on several occasions a large share of Malice upon him as appear'd particularly in the Case of one Colonel Lesley whom Colonel Sanderson's Friends were pursuing in the Court alledging that Lesley had killed that Colonel unworthily in Muscovia The Crime was not committed in the Kings Dominions and Lesley was Legally acquitted from it in Russia who upon a National account being a Scotishman laid claim to the Dukes Protection but this irritated Colonel Sanderson's Brother who pretends to have written the History of King Charles the First into so much Rage against him that forgetting the Laws of History he breaks out on all occasions into the most passionate Railings that his spiteful but blunt and impotent Malice could devise And the best of all is he bewrays his Ignorance as well as his Passion in all the Account he gives of the Scotish Affairs so that it is hard to say whether his Folly in attempting to write a History on such slender Informations or his Impudence in forging or venting Lies with such Confidence deserves the severer Censure And since I mention this Lesley I shall only add that though Sanderson tells a formal Story of the signal Judgments of God on him in his Death he was alive many years after that Book was published which can be well proved by many who knew him His Temperance The Duke was very sumptuous and magnificent in his way of Living but abhorred that debauched custom of Entertainments by Drinking and was an example of Temperance which cost him dear in Denmark where he refusing the ordinary Entertainments of that Court in drinking was not only ill used but made pay a great Sum under the pretence of Passage-dues Temperance was particularly recommended to him by his Majesty when he went to Germany and his returning from that Court without once transgressing these Laws was such an evidence of his observing them that afterwards few would tempt him to those Excesses His Ingenuity Of all Vertues he esteemed Ingenuity and Candor most as that which was the Ground of all Confidence and the only Security among men and therefore recommended it chiefly to others and studied to observe it most himself I confess when I consider his whole method of framing and carrying on his Designs how streight and candid they were if I oft admire his Invention I do much more esteem the Ingenuity of his proceedings for I never find him vailing Truth with a Lye nor carrying on business with a Cheat and to speak freely the greatest departing from these Rules appeared in the Declaration emitted in April 1648 where among other things the Parliament declared they would not admit His Majesty to the exercise of His Royal Authority till He by Oath obliged Himself to swear and ratifie the Covenant The Duke stuck long ere he would give way to this at length finding the violent Party that crossed the Engagement implacable and being desirous to withdraw from them all colours or pretences for opposing that Design he yielded to it and at that time said to a Friend of his that the Preservation of the King went so near his Heart that he could refuse nothing which might make way for that But it was far from his thoughts to seclude the King from the exercise of his Royal Power and therefore it was excused at the same time both by the Letters his Brother wrote to the King and in the

of the Nobility and Gentry went to the Cross and himself read the Kings Proclamation and caused the Major of the Town to proclaim it but God having designed to set his Majesty on the Throne of his Ancestors by his own Immediate Hand all hopes of supplies from Wales or other well-affected Places vanished Cromwell also followed the King from Scotland in great Marches having left General Monk since the famous Duke of Albemarle there with an Army to subdue the little strength that remained for maintaining his Majesties Interest in that Kingdom The day after Cromwel came before Worcester the King called a great Council of War to consider what was to be done where the Duke spoke first and after he had in as short terms as was possible opened the state of Affairs he said one of three things must be done Either they were to March out and fight to lie still and provide for a Siege or to March to London the other side of the Severn being then free He proposed the Difficulties of all these yet said one of them was to be done and desired that his Majesty might put it to the debate which of them was fittest None proposed a fourth Expedient But the Duke did afterwards suggest if the Marching into Wales might be adviseable but as they were in the debate before the half of the Council of War had delivered their opinions there came an Alarm to the door that dissolved the Meeting This was four days before the Fight the Enemy grew daily stronger and raised the whole Country to his Assistance and as the Kings small Army was utterly disproportioned to their Strength so the Courage of the Souldiers did daily abate and the Duke as he clearly foresaw the ruine of the Kings Affairs at that time and the Captivity of his Country that would follow so he desired not to out-live it The Duke apprehenns and prepares for Death which he plainly told to some of his more intimate Friends though for incouraging others he put on a great appearance of Cheerfulness on his looks but apprehending that his End drew nigh notwithstanding all the Attendance he was obliged to at Court and with the Army yet he set off large portions of his Time for reviewing his Life and fitting himself for Eternity and when his Imployment all day denied him the conveniency of such long and serious Retirements as that Work required he took it from his sleep in the night being more solicitous for rest to his Mind than to his Body And the night before the often fatal third of September which was the day of Worcester-Fight though he had stayed very late in the Court yet when he came to his Lodgings the apprehensions he had of what was before him kept him awake and serious as will appear from the following Paper which he wrote and was found in his Pockets when they were searched after his Death A Meditation on Death and a Prayer WHEN sadness for any Worldly Cross lies heavy upon thee remember thou art a Christian designed for the Inheritance of Iesus or if thou be an obstinate impenitent Sinner as sure as God is just thou must perish if this be thy Condition I cannot blame thee to be sad sad till thy heart-strings crack But then why art thou troubled for the loss of Friends Fortune or for any Worldly want what should a damned man do with any of these did ever any man upon the wrack afflict himself because his Mistress slighted him or call for the particulars of a Purchase upon the Gallows if thou dost really believe thou shalt be damned I do not say it will cure all other Sadness but certainly it will or ought to swallow it up And if thou believest thou shalt be saved consider how great is that Ioy how infinite is that Change how unspeakable is the Glory how excellent is the Recompence for all thy Sufferings in the World So let thy Condition be what it will compared to thy future possibility thou canst not feel the present smart of a cross Fortune to any great degree either because thou hast a far bigger Sorrow or a far bigger Ioy. Here thou art but a Stranger travelling to a Country where the Glories of a Kingdom are prepared for thee it is therefore a huge folly to be much afflicted because thou hast a less convenient Inn to Lodge in by the way Let us prepare our selves against Changes always expecting them that we be not surprized when they come O death how bitter art thou to a man that is at rest in his Possessions to the rich man who had promised himself ease and fulness for many years it was a sad Arrest that his Soul was surprized the first night But the Apostles who every day knockt at the Gate of Death and lookt upon it continually went to their Martyrdom in peace and evenness Anytus and Miletus may kill me but they cannot hurt me we are troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed and who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good Consider that Afflictions are oft-times the occasions of great Temporal Advantages and we must not look upon them as they sit heavy us but as they serve some of Gods ends and the purposes of Vniversal Providence and when a Prince fights justly and yet unprosperously could he see the reasons for which God orders it he would find it unreasonable nay ill to have it otherwise If a man could have opened one of the Pages of Divine Counsel and seen the event of Joseph 's being sold to the Merchants of Midian he might with much reason have dried up the young mans Tears The case of Themistocles was not much unlike th●t of Joseph for being banished he likewise grew in favour with the Persian King and told his Wife he had perished unless he had perished God esteems it one of his Glories to bring good out of evil and therefore it were but reason we should leave God to govern his own World as he pleases and that we should patiently wait till the Change come and likewise not envy the Prosperity of the wicked Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass for evil doers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the Earth Theramenes one of the Thirty Tyrants of Athens escaped when his house fell upon him but was shortly after put to Death by his Colleagues in the Tyranny The last great Trial is Death for which should we grieve of all griefs it is the most unreasonable for why should we grieve at that which is absolutely unavoidable and it is not so much to be cared for how long we live as how well we live for that Life is not best which is longest

you is that which you must pay your King I know you need no Incitements to this Duty else I would insist longer upon it but I conceive it mine to recommend it to you as the Earthly thing which in the first place you ought to study Next unto that prefer your Duty to the preservation of the House of Hamilton to all things else in this World and make no difference in the testimonies of your kindness to it whether the Lord shall think fit to continue the memory of that House in your own or my dear Brothers Issue And I do conjure you if you have any respect to my desires not to suffer any difference or mistakes to arise betwixt you and them but remember him who prefer'd me to them and what consequently my Duty and yours is to his Next I recommend to you the care of the Education of our Children for the Lords sake study to get them acquainted with God in their young years and to imprint his fear in their tender hearts keep all light and idle company from them and labour to make them rich in Piety and Vertue Loyal to their King and dutiful to the House of Hamilton As I hope all my Friends and Kindred will be dutiful to you so I intreat you for my sake continue your respects and kindness to them Be careful to keep none but pious and discreet Servants in your Family that the Lord being served and worshipped in it according to his Will may delight to dwell in it and to bless every member of it And now Sweet Heart seeing you know that these divers years my Life hath been a burden to me receive my Removal as a Mercy from God with that moderation which he commandeth and the hope of a Ioyful meeting in our Resurrection perswadeth being confident that the Lord hath placed me in Eternal Happiness with himself in Heaven where he hath already laid up some pieces of my self little James and Diana The Lord who hath wounded you bind up your sores and pour the Balm of Gilead in your Heart even the Comforts of the Holy Spirit in the assurance of the Remission of your sins and peace with him in Iesus Christ that his Grace in you may shine to the World in a godly and vertuous Life which having finished in his fear you may hereafter enter with him into that Glory which I trust in the Mercies and Mediation of Iesus Christ my Redeemer I shall be shareing of when you shall be reading these last words and expressions from Dear Heart Your HAMILTON THe Dispositions which you made to me of your Lands in England I do here again return to you to be disposed upon by you as you shall think fit being confident that you will not wrong the House of Hamilton or your Children in the Disposal thereof The Conclusion I shall conclude this Work with these Papers which though some nice Palats may think not so fit for the Publick and better for private Closets than the World yet I could not be of that opinion for in an Age in which the sense of Piety and Religion is so much decayed I thought such testimonies to the Power of it were not to be suppressed by which it will appear that a high-spirited and Great Person who had tasted of all the Follies that bewitch the greatest part of men did in end in the vigour of his Years and Spirits abandon them with all the seriousness of a hearty and lively Repentance and found in God and true Religion such solid satisfaction and joy as did wholly overcome him and engage him into a course of strict Piety and of a holy Life I wish this may work some effect upon a loose and debauched Generation and if the World becomes either better or wiser through my pains I have gained my chief end and design in this Work THE END THE CONTENTS Lib. I. Of what happened from his Fathers Death till the Year 1638. Anno 1625. THe Marquis of Hamilton dies Pag. 1. His Son succeeds him ibid. His Father's Character ibid. King James dies p. 2. An. 1626. The Marquis goes into Scotland ibid. The King writes to him p. 3. and invites him to Court ibid. but he lives retired ibid. The Earl of Denbigh goes for him p. 4. An. 1628. He comes to Court ibid. His Preferments there ibid. The State of Germany ibid. An. 1629. The Q. of Bohemia writes to him p. 5. The K. of Sweden desires a League with the King ibid. Who appoints the Marquis to treat with him p. 6. The Marq. sends Coll. Hamilton ibid. and David Ramsay to the King of Sweden ibid. An. 1630. Articles signed by the K. of Sweden p. 7. The Prince of Wales is born p. 8. The Marq. made Knight of the Garter ib. Articles with the K. of Sweden signed by the Marq. p. 9. Ramsay deals with the Lord Reay p. 10. and Negotiates with the States of Holland ibid. Farensbach's Treachery ibid. The K. of Swed presses the Marq. to come to Germany ibid. And desires a League with the King p. 11. An. 1631. Reay accuses Ramsay ibid. And L. Ochiltree accuses the Marq. ib. The Marq. Innocence appears p. 12. L. Weston is his Enemy ibid. But the K. will receive no ill Impressions of him ibid. And makes him lye in his Bed-chamber that night p. 13. Ochiltreeis tried and punished for his false Accusation ibid. Reay and Ramsay desire to fight p. 14. The Kings Letter about that matter ib. The Marq. sails to Germany p. 15. And goes through the Soundt ibid. The King writes to him ibid. He lands in Germany with 6000 men which did the K. of Sweden great Service p. 16. The Marq. goes to the K. of Sweden ib. The K. of Sw. sends him to guard some Passes on the Oder ibid. The Plague breaks in upon his Army ib. He relieves Crossen p. 17. And takes Guben ibid. He is called to besiege Magdeburg ib. Sir H. Vane Ambassadour to the King of Sweden p. 18. The King's Letters to the Marq. ibid. The Marq. goes to the K. of Swed p. 19. Magdeburg is brought to a Parly ib. but is relieved by Papenheim p. 20. who draws out the Garrison and leaves it ibid. Two Letters of the King 's to the Marq. p. 20 21. An. 1632. The K. of Swed proposes unreasonable terms to the King p. 21. The Marq. Army comes to nothing ibid. The K. of Sw. will not give him a new Commission p. 22. The King writes to him about a new Imployment for him p. 23. The Treaty between the King and the K. of Sweden breaks up ibid. The passion of the K. of Swden p. 24. The Marq. returns to England upon the King's Commands ibid. The K. of Sweden's Death p. 25. An. 1633. The King is Crowned in Scotland ibid. The King assigns a Taxation to the Marq. for repaying the expence of his Army p. 26. Lib. 2. Of what passed when he was the Kings Commissioner in Scotland in