highly favoured by God, in the method, by which he was brought back to him after so long and so great an estrangement, and in the progress of so many years, during which, in the expressive phrase of the most ancient of writers, he had walked with him ;—to fall, as God threatened the people of his wrath that they should do, with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; Amos ii. 2. Several other very worthy, and some of them very eminent persons, shared the same fate; either now, in the battle of Preston-Pans, or quickly after, in that of Falkirk:* Providence, no doubt, permitting it, to establish our faith in the rewards of an invisible world; as well as to teach us, to cease from man, and fix our dependance on an Almighty arm. $157. The remains of this Christian hero as I believe every reader is now convinced, he may justly be called, were interred the Tuesday following, Sept. 24. at the parish church at Tranent; where he had usually attended divine service with great solemnity. His obsequies were honoured with the presence of some persons of distinction, who were not afraid of paying that last piece of respect to his memory, though the country was then in the hands of the enemy. But indeed there was no great hazard in this; for his character was so well known, that even they themselves spoke honourably of him, and seemed to join with his friends in lamenting the fall of so brave and so worthy a man. § 158. The remotest posterity will remember, for whom the honour of subduing this unnatural and pernicious rebellion was reserved; and it will endear the person of the illustrious Duke of Cumberland, to all but the open, or secret abettors of it in the present age, and consecrate his name to immortal honours among all the friends of religion and liberty, who shall arise after us. And I dare say, it will not be imagined, that I at all derogate from his glory, in suggesting, that the memory of that valiant and excellent person, whose memoirs I am now concluding, may in some measure have contributed to that * Of these none were more memorable than those illustrious brothers, Sir Robert Munro, and Doctor Munro; whose tragical but glorious fate was also shared quickly after by a third hero of the family, Captain Munro, of Culcairn, brother to Sir Robert and the Doctor. I thought of adding some account of these Martyrs in the cause of liberty and religion, in this place; but having had the pleasure of receiving from some very credible and worthy persons, to whom they were well known, a larger account of them and their family, than can conveniently be comprehended in a note, I chuse to make it a distinct article in the appendix, numb. III, by which I question not but I shall oblige every intelligent and generous reader, and I think myself very happy to have it in my power to do it. signal and complete victory, with which God was pleased to crown the arms of his royal highness: For the force of such an example is very animating, and a painful consciousness of having deserted such a commander in such extremity must at least awaken, where there was any spark of generosity, an earnest desire to avenge his death on those, who had sacrificed his blood, and that of so many other excellent persons, to the views of their ambition, rapine, or bigotry. § 159. The reflections, I have made in my funeral sermon on my honoured friend, and in the dedication of it to his worthy and most afflicted Lady, supersede many things, which might otherwise have properly been added here. I conclude therefore, with humbly acknowledging the wisdom and goodness of that awful providence, which drew so thick a gloom around him in the last hours of his life, that the lustre of his virtues might dart through it with a more vivid and observable ray. It is abundant matter of thankfulness, that so signal a monument of grace, and ornament of the christian profession, was raised in our age and country, and spared for so many honourabic and useful years. Nor can all the tenderness of the most affectionate friendship, while its sorrows bleed afresh in the view of so tragical a scene, prevent my adoring the gracious appointment of the great Lord of all events, that when the day, in which he must have expired without an enemy, appeared so very near, the last ebb of his generous blood should be poured out, as a kind of sacred libation to the liberties of his country, and the honour of his God; that all the other virtues of his character, embalmed as it were by that precious stream, might diffuse around a more extensive fragrancy, and be transmitted to the most remote posterity with that peculiar charm, which they cannot but derive from their connection with so gallant a fall: An event, as that blessed apostle, of whose spirit he so deeply drank, has expressed it, according to his earnest expectation, and his hope, that in him Christ might be glorified in all things, whether by his life, or by his death. APPENDIX. No. I. RELATING TO THE COLONEL'S PERSON. IN the midst of so many more important articles, I had really forgot to say any thing of the person of Colonel Gardiner, of which nevertheless it may be proper here to add a word or two. It was, as I am informed, in younger life, remarkably graceful and amiable: And I can easily believe it, from what I knew him to be, when our acquaintance began; though he was then turned of fifty, and had gone through so many fatigues as well as dangers, which could not but leave some traces on his countenance. He was tall, I suppose something more than six foot, well proportioned, and strongly built: His eyes of a dark grey, and not very large; his forehead pretty high; his nose of a length and height no way remarkable, but very well suited to his other features; his cheeks not very prominent, his mouth moderately large, and his chin rather a little inclining when I knew him to be peaked. He had a strong voice, and lively accent; with an Air very intrepid, yet attempered with much gentleness: And there was something in his manner of address most perfectly easy and obliging, which was in a great measure the result of the great candor and benevolence of his natural temper; and which, no doubt, was much improved by the deep humility, which divine grace had wrought into his heart; as well as his having been accustomed, from his early youth, to the company of persons of distinguished rank and polite behaviour. No. II. POETICAL PIECES ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL GARDINER. So animating a subject as the death of such a man, in such circumstances, has occasioned a great deal of poetry. Some of this has already been published; especially, one large composition, said to be done by a worthy clergyman in Lincolnshire, in which there are many excellent lines and noble sentiments: But I rather chuse to refer to the piece itself, than to insert any extracts from it here. It may be more expedient to oblige my reader with the following copy of verses, and an elegiac poem, composed by two of my valuable friends, whose names are annexed. I could not presume to attempt any thing of this kind myself; because I knew, that nothing, I was capable of writing, could properly express my sense of his worth, or describe the tenderness of my friendship; the sentiments of which, will, as I assuredly believe, mingle themselves with the last ideas, which pass through my mind in this world, and, per haps, with some of the first, which may open upon it in that, which is to come, VERSES ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL GARDINER. BY THE REV. MR. BENJ. SOWDEN. Quis desiderio sit pudor, aut modus, Tam chari capitis? COULD piety perpetuate human breath, Or shield one mortal from the shafts of death, HOR. Thou ne'er, illustrious man! thou ne'er hadst been Or could her hand, though impotent to save But vain the wish.-The savage hand of war- Struck with the sound, unconscious of redress, At length kind fame suspends our heaving sighs, When thy great soul suppress'd each timid moan, Thy fall, which rais'd, now calms each wild complaint, As o'er the expiring lamp the quivering flame Thy virtues, glimmering on the verge of night, Hence every unavailing grief! No more Thy gushing veins, in every drop they bleed, Soon shall the ripen'd harvest rise in arms To crush rebellion's insolent alarms. While prosperous moments sooth'd through life his way, Conceal'd from public view the hero lay : But when affliction clouded his decline, It not eclips'd, but made his honours shine; So stars are lost, amidst the blaze of day; |
