Part 48 (1/2)

----_Siculi non invenere Tyranni Tormentum majus._----

Nay, some have had very wicked lives or actions in life, and yet through the Lord's goodness have obtained mercy at last, though none of this stamp to my knowledge, as far as could be discerned, are brought into this category[268]. And

_5thly_, Let none think that I have dragged any in here, because they were king, queen, or bishop; no, there are others here; it was because they were tyrants, apostates, perjured wretches, wicked persecutors and b.l.o.o.d.y deceitful men: a Charles on the throne, a Lauderdale in the state, a M'Kinzie at the bar, a Jefferies on the bench, a Dalziel in the army, and a Judas Sharp in the church, amongst others inrolled in the annals of time, (and we may fear in eternity too) are terrible monuments of this.--It is true, all this black group attained not the same alt.i.tude of wickedness; but they all acted from the same principle, and bended toward the same point, and that was to propagate Satan's kingdom, and persecute the saints of the Most High, as far as their power, station and office would allow; (although some of them were more humane than others) yet they must all be brought to the same standard, seeing divine sovereignty has ordered it so.

_6thly_, It is here hoped, that none of the offspring of those will be offended at what is related of their ancestors, unless they approve of their deeds; seeing no man can help the evil qualities of his forefathers. A good Jehoshaphat begat a wicked Jehoram and a wicked Ahaz, and Amnon begat a good Josiah. And though the Lord has declared that he will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, yet he has also said, The son shall not die for the iniquity of his father; if he turn from it, he shall live.--It is granted, that virtuous and religious lives are necessary to be set before us for our example, and why should not the contrary vices be eschewed by viewing a portrait of the reverse qualities? for he who has said that the memory of the just shall be blessed, has also said, that the memory of the wicked shall rot; that is, they shall either sink into oblivion, or else in consuming away shall become nauseous unto posterity, as says the prophet, _Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten_.

_Lastly_, For the matter and method of the following examples, though there be severals of them touched at in the lives of the Scots worthies as connected with the subject, yet I have brought them unto this composition, that the reader may view them all at once; and for the method I have arranged them in, each example is as near the order of time when they died as could be guessed, and as concise as possible, being restricted to such narrow limits. As for the authority of the authors from whom they are collected, (except a few relations as well vouched as at present could be obtained) they are much the same with those of the lives of the worthies, historical faith being all that can be claimed in human and imperfect composures.

And for a conclusion, let us see all scenes closing, let us, through the foregoing mirror and following prospect, view the Lord's admirable goodness to his own dear children even when walking through the furnace of affliction, with his just and severe indignation and resentment even in this life upon his and their enemies.--Let us behold the one wafted over the dark river in the arms of a Redeemer (though sometimes on a b.l.o.o.d.y bottom) unto the flowery banks of Emmanuel's land;--while the other is with an awful gloom of horror hurled head-long into the pit of destruction. Let us by faith apprehend those thousands of thousands at Christ's right hand, singing, _Allelujah, true and righteous are his judgments; he hath judged the great wh.o.r.e, and avenged the blood of his servants_,--with a numberless throng on his left hand of these miscreants sentenced unto that place of torment and woe, where they shall have an eternity to bewail their infidelity, impiety, avarice, ambition, cruelty, and stupidity in.--And, in fine, if the following hints shall serve for no other purpose, they will stand for an incontestable evidence of the very first principle of religion, that there is a G.o.d to reward the righteous and punish the wicked:--_So that men shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a G.o.d that judgeth in the earth._

_The Judgment and Justice of G.o.d Exemplified, &c._

JOHN CAMERON, sometime bishop of Glasgow was a most wicked wretch: he not only committed many acts of avarice and cruelty upon the poor people of his diocese, but also encouraged those in place and power to do the like: So that he became the author of almost all the mischief in that part of the country.--But in this he did not long escape the just judgment of G.o.d; for in the night before (what they call) Christmas day, 1446, as he lay in his own house in Lockwood about seven miles from Glasgow, he seemed to hear an audible voice summoning him to appear before Christ's tribunal to give an account of his doings.--He got up affrighted, and called for his servant to bring a light and sit by him; he himself took a book and began to read; but the voice was heard a second time louder, which struck all his servants with horror. His servant being gone, the voice called a third time more terrible than before; at which the bishop was heard give a groan, and so was found dead in his bed with his tongue hanging out of his mouth; and so came to an end deserving of such a life.--_Buchanan and Spotiswood's Histories_.

SIR GEORGE STEEL, a parasite and mighty flatterer of James V.; but one of the greatest enemies to G.o.d and his people (that then began to profess the true religion) that was in all the court, being such a bigotted papist, that, one day in a large audience, he renounced his portion of Christ's kingdom, if the prayer of the Virgin Mary did not bring him hither.--But one day, while in presence of the king, he dropped down dead from his horse and never spoke a word.--_Knox's history_.

JAMES HAMILTON, a natural brother to the earl of Arran was by the popish clergy's influence advanced in the reign of said James V. and was so cruel and terrible against all such as were supposed to favour the protestant religion, that even some of his own relations were brought under his power--being by the intercession of these poplings by the king made judge or lord justice for that purpose. But while he was employing himself to crush the gospel in the very bud, his cousin James Hamilton sheriff of Linlithgow, whom he had caused to be banished before on that account, returned home and accused him of treason, and in spite of all the popish clergy could do in his behalf, he was arraigned, condemned, beheaded and quartered at Edinburgh, and his quarters placed upon the public places of the city.--_Buchanan and Fulfilling of the Scriptures_.

THOMAS SCOT, a privy counsellor and justice clerk to the said James V.

was a notable enemy and persecutor of these professing the reformed religion. But falling sick at Edinburgh, he fell into despair: he was most vexed for what he had done against Christ's witnesses, and still cried out, _Justo Dei judicio condemnatus sum_, I am condemned by G.o.d's just judgment, and d.a.m.ned without remedy. And (if he be the same who is called by some, Blair) when the monks began to comfort him, he charged them to be gone with their factions and trumperies, saying, till now, I never believed there was G.o.d or devil, heaven or h.e.l.l. I acted only as a politician to get preferment and money, and for that purpose I joined the bishops side, and prevailed with the king to cast out their adversaries. All your ma.s.ses can do me no good: the devil has me already in his gripes to carry me to h.e.l.l and torment me eternally. In this situation he died the same night, he appeared to the king when lying at Linlithgow with a company of devils, and uttered these words to him, O woe to the day that ever I knew thee or thy service; for the serving of thee against G.o.d, against his servants and against justice, I am adjudged to endless torment.--_Knox's history_, _Appendix to Sp{illegible}'s relation_.

ALEX. CAMPBELL, a dominican friar, a man of wit and learning, who though he agreed almost in every point with Patrick Hamilton, yet being more desirous to save than hazard his life for the truth, was prevailed upon by his friends not only to prefer a public accusation against the said Patrick, but even when bound at the stake in the fire, over the belly of the light of his own conscience, continually cried out, Convert, heretic; call on our lady: say, _salve regina_, &c. to whom the martyr said, depart from me, and trouble me not, thou messenger of Satan. But while this friar still roared out these words with great vehemency, He said again to him, ”O thou vilest of men, thou art convinced that these tenets which thou now condemnest, are certainly true, and didst confess to me that they are so. I cite thee against a certain time before the tribunal seat of Christ Jesus, &c.” In a few days after, Campbel turned quite mad, and died in Glasgow as one in despair.--_Buch. Knox's hist. and others_.

JAMES V. son to James IV. who began to reign 1514, notwithstanding a quick genius and inclination at first to sobriety and justice, yet soon became corrupted with licenciousness and avarice the bane of that age; and, being wholly under the direction of the pope and his poplings in Scotland he turned a most violent persecutor of the professors of the true religion, (which then began to dawn) in so much that Patrick Hamilton, of the royal stock, behoved to suffer the flames; many others were oppressed and banished the nation as hereticks. Nay, such was his furious zeal, that he was heard say, that none of that sort need expect favour at his hand, were it his own sons if guilty: and it appears he would have been as good as his word, (from a paper or list of their names given in by the clergy found in his pocket at his death) had not divine providence interposed: for being pushed on to an unjust war with the English by the advice of Oliver Sinclair and others, his army was shamefully defeated at Solway moss, where this Oliver his general fled and was taken: upon which, James fell into a delirium, still crying out, O fled Oliver: is Oliver taken? After visiting some of his mistresses, he went to Falkland, (after he had had some frightful dreams at Linlithgow) and hearing the queen was delivered of a daughter, he broke forth unto this desperate expression, ”The devil go with it, it came with a woman, and will go with a woman, &c.” But still his continued cry was, Is Oliver taken, &c. till cardinal Beaton came, whose intrigues with the queen were before known, and by whose direction it was supposed the king received a dose, of which he soon expired in that situation, 1542.--_Buch. Knox_, &c.

DAVID PANTHER, bishop of Galloway, was a violent enemy to the gospel.

For advancing the queen regent's interest he got an abbey in France. He would by no means admit of a disputation with any of the reformed; but recommended fire and sword for the only defence of the catholic religion. ”Our victory (said he) stands neither in G.o.d nor his word, but in our own wills, otherwise we will no more be found the men we are called, than the devil will be approved to be G.o.d, &c.” Amongst other extravagances, he became a notable Epicurean, eating and drinking becoming the only pastime of his life, and in that excess, he at last fell down and expired.--_Knox_, &c.

---- DURY, a fowl of the same nest, was, for his filthy course of life, called Abbot Stottikin. But being a furious papist, he obtained the see of Galloway, and became such a persecutor of the reformation, that he roundly vowed, that, in despite of G.o.d, as long as they prelates lived, that word called GOSPEL should never be preached in this realm. But his boasting lasted not long; for being suddenly seized by death, the articles of his belief or dying words were, ”Decarte, you, ha, ha. The four kings and all made, the devil go with: it is but a varlet from France; we thought to have got a ruby, but we got nothing but a cohoobie.” And so this filthy enemy of G.o.d ended his life.--_Knox_, &c.

DAVID BEATON was made arch-bishop of St. Andrews, and by the pope, cardinal of Scotland. But, being a man of a strange nature and cruel disposition, he set himself to crush the professors of the reformed religion with fire and f.a.ggot. Captain Bothwick was by his influence accused, but fled to England: four men by his direction were burnt on the Castle-hill of Edinburgh 1538; as were Russel and Kennedy the year after. Thus he continued at this game, at the same time wallowing like a hog in a stie in all manner of filthiness, till the year 1646, that he got that man of G.o.d George Wishart brought to the flames.--While he was at the stake before the cardinal's castle at St. Andrews, that the cardinal might gratify his eyes with this desirable sight, the cus.h.i.+ons were laid for him and his company to lean upon, while looking forth at the windows.--After the fire was kindled, the martyr said amongst other things, ”This fire torments my body, but no ways abates my spirit, but he who now looks down so proudly from yonder lofty palace, (pointing to the cardinal) and feeds his eyes with my torment, shall ere long be hung out at that window as ignominiously, as he now there leans with pride.”

Accordingly some gentlemen vowed to avenge Mr. Wishart's death. The wicked monster getting previous notice, said, Tush, a fig for the fools, a b.u.t.ton for the bragging of heretics. Is the Lord governor mine?

witness his oldest son with me as a pledge. Have not I the queen at my devotion? Is not France my friend? What danger should I fear?--But in a few days, Norman Lesly, John Lesly, and the laird of Grange entered the castle in the morning, just as one of his harlots Mrs Ogilvie was gone out of bed from him. The noise soon alarmed the cardinal, who was but a little before fallen asleep. He got up and hid a coffer of gold in a corner. Afterward with some difficulty they got in. John Lesly drew his sword, and in sober terms told him their errand, but could bring him to no signs of repentance or preparation for death.--Whereupon they stabbed him; upon which he cried out, I am a priest: fy, all is gone; and so he expired. The provost and his friends came in a fray, and demanded what was become of him, and would not depart; which made them hang his carcase over the window, according to Mr Wishart's words; and then they departed;--after which he lay a considerable time unburied[269].

A FRENCH OFFICER and gentleman volunteer in the queen regent's army, whom she employed to cut off the professors of the reformed religion, after several outrages by him committed in Fife upon them, entered into a poor woman's house, with a small family of children at Whiteside, to plunder it. She offered him such provision as she had; but this would not satisfy him; for notwithstanding all her tears and intreaties, the cruel wretch must have what little meal and beef she had to sustain her and her young infants. She perceiving this, upon his stooping down into a large barrel or pipe to take what was there, first turned up his heels, and then with what help her family could afford, kept him in, till amongst the meal he ended his wicked life.--_Knox._

MARY of Lorrain, sister to the duke of Guise, and second wife to James V. after her husband's death, aspired to the regency; and being sprung from a family who always had shewn themselves inveterate and implacable enemies to the kingdom of Christ, she set herself with might and main, to exterminate the gospel and its professors out of Scotland.--She told them, in plain words, that, in despite of them and their ministers both, they should be banished out of it, albeit they preached as true as ever St. Paul did: and, for that purpose, procured to her faction in Scotland some thousands of French soldiers, which obliged them to lift arms in their own defence. One time, these cruel savages having obtained a small advantage in a skirmish at Kinghorn, and committed many outrages of plunder in Fife, she broke out into the following expression: ”Where is now John Knox's G.o.d? My G.o.d is stronger than his, even in Fife.” At another time when the reformed had pulled down some monuments of idolatry at St. Johnston, this catholic heroine vowed, ”She should destroy both man, woman and child in it, and burn it with fire: and that, if she had a fair pretext for the deed, she would not leave an individual of the heretical tribe, either his fortune or life.” Again 1560, when her Frenchmen had obtained another victory at Leith, and having stripped the slain, and laid their bodies upon the walls before the sun, at the beholding of which from the castle of Edinburgh, it is said she leaped for joy and said, ”Yonder is the fairest tapestry I ever saw! I would the whole field were covered with the same stuff.” But G.o.d soon put a stop to this wicked contumely; for in a few days (some say the same day) her belly and legs began to swell of that loathsome and ugly disease whereof she died in the month of June following. Before her death, she seemed to shew some remorse for her past conduct; but no signs of true repentance, else she would not have received the Popish sacrament of extreme unction. The papists having now lost their head, and the church not suffering her to be buried with the superst.i.tious rites of popery, she was coffined, and kept four months, and then went to France: and so she, who a little made the followers of Christ when killed lie unburied, could not obtain a burial in the kingdom of Scotland[270].

DAVID RIZIO or Riccio, born at Turin in Savoy, came over, and was introduced unto queen Mary's musicians (being of that craft) and complying with her humour in every thing, he was advanced to be one of her secretaries. But being one of the pope's minions and a deadly enemy to the cause of Christ in Scotland, he laid continual schemes to ruin the n.o.ble reformers. He laid a plot to murder the good earl of Murray with his own hand, but it miscarried. He had a princ.i.p.al hand in the queen's match with Darnly; but soon became his rival, and the queen's paramour. He exceeded the king in apparel and furniture, and intended to have cut off the Scots n.o.bility, and brought in a set of foreign ministers. He counterfeited the king's seal, and nothing could be done without him at court. He was apprized of his hazard, but nothing could affright him. Whereupon the king, with James Douglas, Patrick Lindsay, &c. knowing that he was gone in privily to the queen one night, (as his custom was) came in upon them, while he was sitting by the queen at supper. She sought to defend him by the interposition of her body; but bringing him to an outer chamber, at first they intended to have hanged him publicly, which would have been a most grateful spectacle to the people; but being in haste, James Douglas gave him a stroke with his dagger, which was by the company succeeded, to the number of fifty-three strokes, and so he soon expired, March 9, 1566[271].

HENRY STUART, son to the earl of Lenox, returned to Scotland 1565, and was married to the queen; and being a bigotted papist, the reforming lords opposed his marriage, but were obliged to flee to England. While matters went well betwixt him and the queen, he was wholly at her devotion, and at her instigation, cast the Psalms of David into the fire. But after Rizio's death, the earl of Bothwel becoming the queen's beloved paramour, she fell in disgust with the king; and he being misled up in popery, and seeing himself thus forsaken of the queen, and despised by her faction of the n.o.bility, wrote to the king of France, that the country was all out of order, because the ma.s.s and popery were not again fully erected in Scotland. But the queen, to be rid of him, caused to be given him a dose of poison. But being in the prime of youth, he surmounted the disorder. Being a man wholly given to sensual pleasure, he was easily deceived: the queen decoyed him to Edinburgh, where she and Bothwel laid a plan for his life wherein Bothwel was to be the aggressor. In prosecution of which, he with some others entered the king's lodging in the night, and while he was asleep strangled him and one of his servants, and drew him out at a little gate they had made through the wall of the city, and left his naked body lying, and so, like another Johoiakim, who burnt the roll, was _cast without the gates of Jerusalem_.

JOHN HAMILTON was, by his brother the regent, after the cardinal's death made arch-bishop of St. Andrew's. He exactly trod in the footsteps of his predecessors; and that not only in uncleanness, taking men's wives from them for his concubines, (as the popish clergy must not be married) but was also a violent oppressor and persecutor of Christ's gospel in his mystical members. Adam Wallace and Walter Mill were by his direction committed to the flames. Again, when Mr. Knox went with the lords to preach at St. Andrew's, he raised 100 spear-men to oppose him. He had a hand in most of the b.l.o.o.d.y projects, in the queen regent's management.

In her daughter Mary's reign, she followed the same course. He had a hand in Henry Stuart's death, and was afterward one of the conspirators of the the death of the good regent the earl of Murray; but the reformed getting the ascendent, he was obliged to flee to the castle of Dumbarton, and was there taken, when it was taken by the regent earl of Marr, and for his former misdemeanours, was hanged up by the neck like a dog at Stirling, about the year 1572.

WILLIAM MAITLAND, commonly called in history, young Lethington, though a man of no small parts or erudition, yet became sadly corrupted by the court. He was made secretary to queen Mary, and with her became a prime agent against the reformation. He oftentimes disputed with Mr. Knox, and at last gave in a charge of treason against him on account of religion.

And one time, he was so chagrined at the preachers of the gospel, namely Mr. Craig, that he gave himself to the devil, if after that day he should care what became of Christ's ministers, let them blow as hard as they would. He had a prime hand in the queen's marriage with Darnly, and against the lords who professed the reformed religion. After the queen fled to England, he was the princ.i.p.al manager of all the popish plots and tragical disasters that for some time happened in England and Scotland. But the queen's affairs growing desperate, he fled to Edinburgh castle, which was then held for the queen by the laird of Grange. Mr. Knox sent a message to them of their danger, and what would befal them. But Lethington made a mock of Mr. Knox and his advice; but the castle being taken 1573, he was imprisoned in the steeple of Leith, where six escaped further ignominy by public punishment. It was said he poisoned himself, and lay so long unburied that the vermin upon his body were creeping out at the doors of the house, in under the ground of the steeple.--_Calderwood's history._