ABERDEEN, _March 11, 1637_.
CXXVIII.--_To the_ EARL OF CASSILLIS.
[JOHN KENNEDY, sixth EARL OF CASSILLIS, was the son of Gilbert
Kennedy, master of Cassillis, which is six miles from Ayr. He was
served heir to his uncle, John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, in 1616.
His Lordship was a person of considerable talents, of great
virtue, and a zealous Covenanter. Having studied under Dr.
Cameron, Principal of the College of Glasgow, a great defender of
absolute government, he could not yield to some clauses in the
first draught of the Covenant, which seemed to vindicate the use
of defensive arms against the King; but he agreed to the Covenant
as it now stands. He sat in the Glasgow Assembly, 1638, as elder
from the Presbytery of Ayr; and was one of the three ruling
elders sent to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in 1643. He
was one of the commissioners who, in March 1650, went from
Scotland to Breda, to treat with Charles II. He attended at the
crowning of Charles at Scone, January 1, 1651. So strongly
attached was he to the royal family, that when on one occasion
Cromwell summoned him to a meeting, instead of attending it, he,
along with some ministers and his chaplain, kept a day of fasting
and prayer in his family. On the other hand, such was his
hostility to the measures of the court, in establishing Prelacy
and in ejecting the Presbyterian ministers from their charges,
that he seldom paid stipend to any of the curates intruded into
their places till compelled by a charge of horning. Wodrow
designates him "the great and worthy Earl of Cassillis." "I have
this account," says he, "of the Earl of Cassillis, that he was
singularly pious, and a man of a very high spirit, who carried
with a great state and majesty. His carriage in his family was
most exemplary and religious. He was very much in secret duty,
and had his hours wherein none had access to him. Upon the
Sabbath his carriage was singular. He usually wrote the sermon,
and at night caused his chaplain to examine all his servants and
his children, even after they were pretty big, upon the sermon;
and every one behoved to give their notes; and after all, many
times he took out his own papers and read to them. When at
Edinburgh, Lauderdale sent a servant to him upon a Sabbath night,
telling him he was coming to wait on him. Presently he called Mr.
Violant, his chaplain, and ordered him to go out and meet
Lauderdale, and tell him that if he designed a Sabbath day's
visit he was very welcome, but he would discourse upon no other
thing with him but what was suitable to the day. Lauderdale came
up, and discoursed with him,--as he could very well do,--only
upon points of divinity" (Wodrow's "Analecta"). His Lordship died
at his own house in the West in 1668.
The mansion is near Dalrymple. It is on the banks of the Doon,
and embosomed in wood, with the hill called _The Dounans_ facing
the house. It is a confused pile of building. A long avenue of
fine old trees leads up to it.]
(_HONOUR OF TESTIFYING FOR CHRIST_.)
MY VERY NOBLE AND HONOURABLE LORD,--I make bold (out of the honourable
and Christian report I hear of your Lordship, having no other thing to
say but that which concerneth the honourable cause which the Lord hath
enabled your Lordship to profess) to write this, that it is your
Lordship's crown, your glory, and your honour, to set your shoulder
under the Lord's glory, now falling to the ground, and to back Christ
now, when so many think it wisdom to let Him fend for Himself. The
shields of the earth ever did, and do still believe that Christ is a
cumbersome neighbour, and that it is a pain to hold up His yeas and
nays. They fear that He take their chariots, and their crowns, and
their honour from them; but my Lord standeth in need of none of them
all. But it is your glory to own Christ and His buried truth; for, let
men say what they please, the plea with Zion's enemies in this day of
Jacob's trouble is, if Christ should be King, and no mouth speak laws
but His? It concerneth the apple of Christ's eye, and His royal
privileges, what is now debated; and Christ's kingly honour is come to
yea and nay. But let me be pardoned, my dear and noble Lord, when I
beseech you by the mercies of God, by the comfort of the Spirit, by
the wounds of our dear Saviour, by your compearance before the Judge
of quick and dead, to stand for Christ, and to back Him. Oh, if the
nobles had done their part, and been zealous for the Lord! it had not
been as it is now. But men think it wisdom to stand beside Christ till
His head be broken, and sing dumb. There is a time coming when Christ
will have a thick court, and He will be the glory of Scotland; and He
will make a diadem, a garland, a seal upon His heart, and a ring upon
His finger, of those who have avouched Him before this faithless
generation. Howbeit, ere that come, wrath from the Lord is ordained
for this land.
My Lord, I have cause to write this to your Lordship; for I dare not
conceal His kindness to the soul of an afflicted, exiled prisoner. Who
hath more cause to boast in the Lord than such a sinner as I, who am
feasted with the consolations of Christ, and have no pain in my
sufferings, but the pain of soul-sickness of love for Christ, and
sorrow that I cannot help to sound aloud the praises of Him who hath
heard the sighing of the prisoner, and is content to lay the head of
His oppressed servant in His bosom, under His chin, and let Him feel
the smell of His garments? It behoved me to write this, that your
Lordship might know that Christ is as good as He is called; and to
testify to your Lordship, that the cause, which your Lordship now
professeth before the faithless world, is Christ's, and that your
Lordship shall have no shame of it.
Grace be with you.
Your Lordship's obliged servant,