CCXIV.--_To_ MR. JAMES HAMILTON.
[James Hamilton was educated for the ministry in Scotland, but
going over to Ireland, he continued for some time to act as
steward or agent for his uncle, Lord Claneboy. He commenced his
labours as a preacher of the Gospel in 1624, and in the following
year was settled at Ballywater, in the county of Down, in which
charge, says Robert Blair, "he was painful, successful, and
constant, notwithstanding he had many temptations to follow
promotion, which he might easily have obtained" (Blair's "Life").
In August 1636, he and several of his brethren in the ministry
were deposed by Henry Leslie, Bishop of Down, for refusing to
subscribe the canons then imposed on ministers in Ireland. He was
one of those who that year embarked for New England, but who were
forced to return by the adverse state of the weather. After his
coming over to Scotland, he became minister of Dumfries, and
subsequently of Edinburgh, where he continued to labour for
fifteen years. He was a member of the famous Assembly held at
Glasgow in 1638. In March 1644, he and Mr. Weir, minister of
Dalserf, were appointed to administer the Solemn League and
Covenant in Ireland. On their return to Scotland, falling in with
the noted Alaster Macdonnell, the two ministers, with several
others (including Hamilton's father-in-law, Mr. Watson, a
minister in Ireland), were taken prisoners, and carried to Castle
Meagrie, or Mingarry, on the coast of Ardnamurchan, where they
suffered incredible hardships, which brought Mr. Weir and Mr.
Watson to their graves. Hamilton was liberated in May 1645, after
an imprisonment of ten months. In August 1651, when the Committee
of Estates and of the General Assembly, of which he was a member,
were sitting at Alyth, they were apprehended by a party of horse
sent out by Monk, and were shipped for the Tower of London, where
Hamilton was kept two years. Continuing faithful to the
principles, he was ejected from his charge in 1662, upon which he
retired to Inveresk, and died on the 10th of March 1666. "He was
naturally of an excellent temperament both of body and mind;
always industrious and facetious in all the several provinces and
scenes of his life; he was delightful to his friends and
acquaintances, yea beloved of his enemies; he was bold for truth,
and tenacious in everything of moment, though naturally, and in
his own things, among the mildest of men; rich in learning,
intelligent, judicious, he was great in esteem with the greatest
and wisest" (Reid's "History of the Presbyterian Church in
Ireland"). Blair, in his "Life" (p. 136, Wodrow Edit.), mentions
another James Hamilton, minister, first at Killileagh, in
Ireland, and then at Ballantrae, in Scotland. Blair's first wife
was sister to the wife of this James Hamilton of Killileagh, and
her name was Catherine Montgomery of Busby.]
(_SUFFERING FOR CHRIST'S HEADSHIP--HOW CHRIST VISITED HIM IN
PREACHING_.)
REVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD,--Grace, mercy, and peace be
to you.--Our acquaintance is neither in bodily presence, nor on paper;
but as sons of the same Father, and sufferers for the same truth.
Let no man doubt that the _state of our question_,[328] we are now
forced to stand to by suffering exile and imprisonment, is, If Jesus
should reign over His kirk, or not? Oh, if my sinful arm could hold
the crown on His head, howbeit it should be stricken off from the
shoulder-blade! For your ensuing and feared trial, my very dearest in
our Lord Jesus, alas! what am I, to speak comfort to a soldier of
Christ, who hath done a hundred times more for that worthy and
honourable cause than I can do? But I know, those of whom the world
was not worthy wandered up and down in deserts, and in mountains, and
in dens and caves of the earth; and while there is one member of
mystical Christ out of heaven, that member must suffer strokes, till
our Lord Jesus draw in that member within the gates of the New
Jerusalem, which He will not fail to do at last; for not one toe or
finger of that body, but it shall be taken in within the city. What
can be our part, in this pitched battle betwixt the Lamb and the
Dragon, but to receive the darts in patience, that rebound off us upon
our sweet Master; or rather light first upon Him, and then rebound off
Him upon His servants? I think it a sweet north wind, that bloweth
first upon the fair face of the Chief among ten thousand, and then
lighteth upon our sinful and black faces. When once the wind bloweth
off Him upon me, I think it hath a sweet smell of Christ; and so must
be some more than a single cross. I know that ye have a guard about
you, and your attendance and train for your safety is far beyond your
pursuer's force or fraud. It is good, under feud, to be near our
ward-house,[329] and stronghold. We can do little to resist them who
persecute us and oppose Him, but keep our blood and our wounds to the
next court-day, when our complaints shall be read. If this day be not
Christ's, I am sure the morrow shall be His.
[328] "_Status quæstionis_"--a theological phrase for the way of
stating a matter under discussion.
[329] _Ward-house_ seems the true reading, though "warhouse" is in the
old editions.
As for anything I do in my bonds, when now and then a word falleth
from me, alas! it is very little. I am exceedingly grieved that any
should conceive anything to be in such a broken and empty reed. Let no
man impute it to me, that the free and unbought wind (for I gave
nothing for it) bloweth upon an empty reed. I am His over-burdened
debtor. I cry, "Down with me, down, down with all the excellency of
the world; and up, up with Christ!" Long, long may that fair One, that
holy One, be on high! My curse be upon them that love Him not. Oh,
how glad would I be, if His glory would grow out and spring up out of
my bonds and sufferings! Certainly, since I became His prisoner, He
hath won the yolk and heart of my soul. Christ is even become a new
Christ to me, and His love greener than it was. And now I strive no
more with Him: His love shall carry it away. I lay down myself under
His love. I desire to sing, and to cry, and to proclaim myself, even
under the water, in His common, and eternally indebted to His
kindness. I will not offer to quit commons with Him (as we used to
say), for that will not be. All, all for evermore to be Christ's! What
further trials are before me, I know not; but I know that Christ will
have a saved soul of me, over on the other side of the water, on the
yonder-side of crosses, and beyond men's wrongs.
I had but one eye, and that they have put out. My one joy, next to the
flower of my joys, Christ, was to preach my sweetest, sweetest Master,
and the glory of His kingdom; and it seemed no cruelty to them to put
out the poor man's one eye. And now I am seeking about to see if
_suffering_ will speak my fair One's praises; and I am trying if a
dumb man's tongue can raise one note, or one of Zion's springs, to
advance my Well-beloved's glory. Oh, if He would make some glory to
Himself out of a dumb prisoner! I go with child of His word: I cannot
be delivered. None here will have my Master: alas! what aileth them at
Him?
I bless you for your prayers. Add to them praises: as I am able, I pay
you home. I commend your diving in Christ's Testament; I would I could
set out the dead man's good-will to His friends, in His sweet
Testament. Speak a prisoner's hearty commendations to Christ. Fear
not, your ten days (Rev. ii. 10) will over. Those that are gathered
against Mount Zion, their eyes shall melt away in their eye-holes, and
their tongues consume away in their mouths, and Christ's withered
garden shall grow green again in Scotland. My Lord Jesus hath a word
hid in heaven for Scotland, not yet brought out.
Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,