ABERDEEN, _Jan. 6, 1637_.
LXXXVI.--_To my_ LORD CRAIGHALL.
[SIR JOHN HOPE, LORD CRAIGHALL, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas
Hope (Lord Advocate of Scotland in the time of James VI. and
Charles I.) His property, Craighall, is in the parish of
Inveresk, near Edinburgh. Sir Thomas was the most eminent lawyer
of his day, and was first brought into notice by the ability with
which he defended the cause of John Forbes, John Welsh, and the
other ministers who were tried for high treason at Linlithgow, on
account of their holding a General Assembly at Aberdeen in 1605.
Craighall is in the parish of Ceres, in Fife,[176] a fine old
castellated ruin. John, second baronet, was admitted a Lord of
Session 27th July 1632, and became President of the Court, and in
1645 was appointed one of the Privy Council. His name appears on
the roll of members of the General Assemblies 1645-1649, and of
the commissions which these Assemblies appointed. In Lamont's
"Diary" we read (1659), "The Laird of Craighall, in Fyfe,
depairted out of this lyfe on Sabbath at nyght, and was interred
at Ceres."]
[176] There is a village of _Craighall_ near Inveresk, in the
barony of Pinkie, which got its name from this family, just as
there is an _Earlston_ in Borgue parish, called from the old
Earlston.
(_EPISCOPALIAN CEREMONIES--HOW TO ABIDE IN THE TRUTH--DESIRE FOR
LIBERTY TO PREACH CHRIST._)
MY LORD,--I received Mr. L.'s[177] letter with your Lordship's and his
learned thoughts in the matter of ceremonies. I owe respect to the
man's learning, for that I hear him to be opposed to Arminian
heresies. But, with reverence of that worthy man, I wonder to hear
such popish-like expressions as he hath in his letter, as, "Your
Lordship may spare doubtings, when the King and Church have agreed in
the settling of such orders; and the Church's direction in things
indifferent and circumstantial (as if indifferent and circumstantial
were all one!) should be the rule of every private Christian." I only
viewed the papers two hours' space, the bearer hastening me to write.
I find the worthy man not so seen in this controversy as some
turbulent men of our country, whom he calleth "refusers of
conformity;" and let me say it, I am more confirmed in nonconformity,
when I see such a great wit play the agent so slenderly. But I will
lay the blame on the weakness of the cause, not on the meanness of Mr.
L.'s learning. I have been, and still am confident, that Britain[178]
cannot answer one argument, _a scandalo_: and I longed much to hear
Mr. L. speak to the cause; and I would say, if some ordinary divine
had answered as Mr. L. doth, that he understood not the nature of a
scandal; but I dare not vilify that worthy man so. I am now upon the
heat of some other employment. I shall (but God willing) answer this,
to the satisfying of any not prejudiced.
[177] Who is here meant cannot now be well ascertained. It may have
been Mr. Loudian, of whom Baillie says, "He was an excellent
philosophe, sound and orthodox, opposite to Canterbury's way, albeit
too conform. I counselled oft Glasgow to have him for their Divinity
Lecturer" ("Letters and Journals," i. 77).
[178] All the divines in Britain.
I will not say that every one is acquainted with the reason in my
letter, from God's presence and bright shining face in suffering for
this cause. Aristotle never knew the medium of the conclusion: and
Christ saith few know it (Rev. ii. 17). I am sure that conscience
standing in awe of the Almighty, and fearing to make a little hole in
the bottom for fear of under-water, is a strong medium to hold off an
erroneous conclusion in the least wing, or lith, of sweet, sweet
truth, that concerneth the royal prerogative of our kingly and highest
Lord Jesus. And my witness is in heaven, that I saw neither pleasure,
nor profit, nor honour, to hook me, or catch me, in entering into
prison for Christ, but the wind on my face for the present. And if I
had loved to sleep in a whole skin, with the ease and present delight
that I saw on this side of sun and moon, I should have lived at ease,
and in good hopes to fare as well as others. The Lord knoweth that I
preferred preaching of Christ, and still do, to anything, next to
Christ Himself. And their new canons took my one, my only joy, from
me, which was to me as the poor man's one ewe, that had no more! And,
alas! there is little lodging in their hearts for pity or mercy, to
pluck out a poor man's one eye for a thing indifferent; _i.e._ for
knots of straw, and things (as they mean) off the way to heaven. I
desire not that my name take journey, and go a pilgrim to Cambridge,
for fear I come into the ears of authority. I am sufficiently burnt
already.
In the mean time, be pleased to try if the Bishop of St. Andrews,[179]
and Glasgow (Galloway's ordinary),[180] will be pleased to abate from
the heat of their wrath, and let me go to my charge. Few know the
heart of a prisoner; yet I hope that the Lord will hew His own glory
out of as knotty timber as I am. Keep Christ, my dear and worthy Lord.
Pretended paper-arguments from[181] angering the mother-Church (that
can reel, and nod, and stagger), are not of such weight as peace with
the Father, and Husband. Let the wife gloom, I care not, if the
Husband laugh.
Remember my service to my Lord your father, and mother, and lady.
Grace be with you.
Yours at all obedience in Christ,