terians in order. 120 1661. representing the proceedings of parliament, and of belying the king's good subjects, called in the Scotish law leasing making, which either to the king of the people, or to the people of the king, is capital. The presby- Sharp went up with these lords to press the great dis- speedy setting up of episcopacy, now that the greatest enemies of that government were under a general consternation, and were upon other accounts so obnoxious that they durst not make any opposition to it, since no act of indemnity was yet passed. He had expressed a great concern to his old brethren, when the act rescissory passed, and acted that part very solemnly for some days: yet he seemed to take heart again, and persuaded the ministers of that party, that it would be a service to them, since now the case of ratifying their government was separated from the rebellion of the late times: so that hereafter it was to subsist by a law passed in a parliament that sat and acted in full freedom. So he undertook to go again to court, and to move for an instruction to settle presbytery on a new and undisputed bottom. The poor men were so struck with the ill state of their affairs, that they either trusted him, or at least seemed to do it; for indeed they had neither sense nor courage left them. During the session of parliament, the most aspiring men of the clergy were picked out to preach before the parliament. They did not speak out: but they all insinuated the necessity of a greater authority than was then in the church, for keeping them in order. One or two spoke plainer: upon which the presbytery of Edenburgh went to the earl of Midletoun, and complained of that, as an affront to the law and to the king's letter. He dismissed them with good words, but took no notice of their complaint. The 1661. synods in several places resolved to prepare addresses both to king and parliament, for an act establishing their government. And Sharp dissembled so artificially, that he met with those who were preparing an address to be presented to the synod of Fife, that was to sit within a week after: and heads were agreed on. Honyman, afterwards bishop of Orkney, drew it up with so much vehemence, that Wood, their divinity professor, told me, he and some others sat up almost the whole night before the synod met, to draw it over again in a smoother strain. But Sharp gave the earl of Midletoun notice of this. So the earl of Rothes was sent over to see to their behaviour. As soon as the ministers entered upon that subject, he, in the king's name, dissolved the synod, and commanded the ministers, under pain of treason, to retire to their several habitations. Such care was taken that no public application should be made in favour of presbytery. Any attempt that was made on the other hand met with great encouragement". The synod of Aberdeen was the only body that made an address looking towards episcopacy. In a long preamble they reflected on the confusions and violence of the late times, of which they enumerated many particulars; and they concluded with a prayer, that since the legal authority upon which their courts 121 proceeded was now annulled, that therefore the king and parliament would settle their government, conform to the scriptures and the rules of the primitive church. The presbyterians saw what was y Does the man write like a bishop? S. 1661. driven at, and how their words would be understood: but I heard one of them say, (for I was present at that meeting,) that no man could decently oppose those words, since by that he would insinuate that he thought presbytery was not conform to these. In this session of parliament another act passed, which was a new affliction to all the party: the twenty-ninth of May was appointed to be kept as a holy day; since on that day an end had been put to three and twenty years' course of rebellion, of which the whole progress was reckoned up in the highest strain of Primerose's eloquence. The ministers saw, that by observing this act passed with such a preamble, they condemned all their former proceedings, as rebellious and hypocritical. They saw, that by obeying it they would lose all their credit, and contradict all they had been building up in a course of so many years. Yet such was the heat of that time, that they durst not except to it on that account. So they laid hold on the subtilty of a holy day; and covered themselves under that controversy, denying it was in the power of any human authority to make a day holy. But withal they fell upon a poor shift they enacted in their several presbyteries that they should observe that day as a thanksgiving for the king's restoration: so they took no notice of the act of parliament, but observed it in obedience to their own act. But this, though it covered them from prosecution, since the law was obeyed, yet it laid them open to much contempt. When the earls of Glencairn and Rothes came to court, the king was soon satisfied with the account they gave of the proceedings of parliament: and the earl of Lauderdale would not own that he had ever misre- 1661. presented them. They were ordered to proceed in their charging of him, as the earl of Clarendon should direct them. But he told them the assaulting of a minister, as long as he had an interest in the king, was a practice that never could be approved: it was one of the uneasy things that a house of commons of England sometimes ventured on, which was ungrateful to the court: such an attempt, instead of shaking the earl of Lauderdale, would give him a faster root with the king. They must therefore content themselves with letting the king see how well his service went on in their hands, and how unjustly they had been misrepresented to him: and thus by degrees they would gain their point, and the earl of Lauderdale would become useless to the king. So this design was let 122 fall. But the earl of Rothes assured Lauderdale, he had diverted the storm: though Primerose told me, this was the true ground on which they proceeded. They became all friends, as to outward appearance. Thus I have gone through the actings of the first session of this parliament with relation to public affairs. It was a mad roaring time, full of extravagance. And no wonder it was so, when the men of affairs were almost perpetually drunk. I shall in the next place give an account of the attainders passed in it. tainder. The first and chief of these was of the marquis of Argile's atArgile. He was indicted at the king's suit for a great many facts, that were reduced to three heads. The first was of his public actings during the wars, of which many instances were given; such as his being concerned in the delivering up of the king to 1661. the English at Newcastle, his opposing the engagement in the year 1648, and his heading the rising in the west, in opposition to the committee of estates: in this, and many other steps made during the war, he was esteemed the principal actor, and so ought to be made the greatest example for terrifying others. The second head consisted of many murders, and other barbarities, committed by his officers, during the war, on many of the king's party; chiefly on those who had served under the marquis of Montrose, many of them being murdered in cold blood. The third head consisted of some articles of his concurrence with Cromwell and the usurpers, in opposition to those who appeared for the king in the Highlands; his being one of his parliament, and assisting in proclaiming him protector, with a great many other particulars, into which his compliance was branched out. He had counsel assigned him, who performed their part very well. The substance of his defence was, that during the late wars he was but one among a great many more: he had always acted by authority of parliament, and according to the instructions that were given him, as oft as he was sent on any expedition or negotiation. As to all things done before the year 1641, the late king had buried them in an act of oblivion then passed, as the present king had also done in the year 1651: so he did not think he was bound to answer to any particular before that time. For the second head, he was at London when most of the barbarities set out in it were committed: nor did it appear that he gave any orders about them. It was well known that great outrages had been |