THe Committee appointed for the Pro­cesses against Delinquents having found the Enditements brought in a­gainst Sir Robert Spotswood, pretended Secretary of State, William Murrey, Bro­ther to the Earle of Tillibarne, Gen. Major Nathaniell Gordoun, and Master Andrew Guthery, Sonne to the pretended Bishop of Mur­ray to be relevant, and having repelled all their defen­ces except that of Quarters, which was left to the deter­mination of the Parliament; their Processes were read in open Parliament, and there were many rationall de­bates about the defence of Quarters grounded upon Scripture, Reason, Law of Nations, and Military, and the municipall Law of this Kingdom; the state of the Question was, Whether the granting of quarter in Bat­tell to Delinquents by an Officer or Souldier, did exempt [Page] them from punishment by the State, for their Murder, Rebellion, and Treason; and it was resolved unanimous­ly by the whole Parliament that the defence of Quarters was not relevant, when all the defences were repelled, and the Parliament was ready to pronounce Sentence. Offer was made by Nathaniell Gordoun to procure the exchange of all the Prisoners with James Grahame late Earle of Montrose for himselfe, and to lye in prison un­till they were brought hither, and further to engage himselfe, and finde Surety that he should never lift Arms against the Parliament. This offer he conceived to be the more plausible, that the Lord Chancellors Brother was one of the prisoners with the enemy; but when the Lord Chancellors opinion was asked therein, he decla­red, That though all his Brethren and Children were in the like hazard, he would not be the meanes of hinde­ring the execution of Justice. And such was the earnest desire of the Parliament to execute Justice, that this mo­tion was rejected, and all the foure were forfeited in Life, Lands, and Goods; their Coats of Armes ap­poined to be rent, and deleted out of the Booke of Armes, and themselves to be beheaded upon Tuesday the twentieth of January, there were onely five or sixe contrary voices, and those were for perpetuall im­prisonment. The Earl of Tillibarn presented a very hum­ble supplication for sparing his brothers life, and entrea­ting that any other punishment might be inflicted upon him. This was denyed, but in regard he was very insensi­ble of his present estate, his execution was delayed till Friday the 23. and some Ministers were appointed to waite upon him, and to endeavour to bring him to some sence of his condition. Upon the 17. three of them were [Page] executed, and first Nathaniell Gordoun, who was excee­ding penitent, whereof he gave many evidences to all that heard him, and at his earnest desire (given in writing under his hand, whereof a Copy is herewith sent) he was relaxed frō the sentence of Excommunication. After they were condemned, he & Sir Robert Spotswood were put in one Chamber, whose obstinacy did him some har me; but when he came to the Scaffold, he said, It was not time to dalley longer in a matter of eternall consequence, he acknowledged that mercies led him not to repentance, and therefore God had brought him to that publike death; he confessed he had been an Adulterer, a Drun­kard, and a shedder of innocent blood; he besought all to pray for him, and craved pardon of all that had any interest in the blood shed of late. Casting off his Doublet, he said, That many a time he had cast it off to sinne, but now hee cast it off to embrace his Saviour, and to let his blood be now justly shed, who formerly had shed much innocent blood. As for that ambition that made men provoke to Combates, he said, Of all vanities it was one of the chiefe; He desired the Parliament to keepe unity in the Cause, and to avoid division, as they desired to shun Gods Judgement upon themselves. And amongst his last words, he said, He left as many ill wishes as in the condition he was in he durst, to all such of his friends as should attempt to revenge his death, he desired the Minister not to part with him, till he delive­red him over to his Redeemer. All his discourse was so ingenuous, and his expressions so Pathetick that he had few hearers, from whose eyes he did not bring teares. But Sir Robert Spotswood, and Master Andrew Guthery, dyed as they lived, full of malice against the Cause and [Page] Covenant, justifying themselves in all that they had done against the Cause. Sir Robert Spotswood inveighed much in his discourse against the Parliament of England, stiling them alwaies Rebels, and said, The Judgement of God was upon this Kingdome for assisting those Re­bells against their native King, when he had granted unto us all that we could crave concerning the setling of our owne Peace, and desired no more of this King­dome but that they would be neutrals in the affaires of England; that the excommunicating those holy men of GOD (meaning the Bishops) was lying as a grievous sinne upon this Land. That God had put a lying spirit in the mouthes of our Prophets, whereby the people were deluded. Master Robert Blare who was appointed to attend him, desired the people to take notice that he was the Sonne of a false Prophet, viz. the pretended Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrewes, sometimes Chancellor of Scotland; he would confesse no more sinne, but that he had as other men, Peccate juventutis, & quotidianae incursionis. He said to the Pro­vest of Saint Andrewes, That he was sorry, the place where he was so much honoured should now be the Stage of his Tragedy. William Murray was executed upon Friday the 23. He confessed himselfe guilty of Adultery and Drunkennesse: but denyed that he was a Traitor to his Country. It is worthy of remarke, that Nathaniell Gordoun whose sentence was most que­stioned, because of the offer made by him for ex­change, that it should please God to open his eyes, and move him so ingenuously to acknowledge the Justice of the Sentence pronounced against him. Sir William Rollock, Sir Philip Nisbet, and Inner [Page] Wharrity, who were formerly executed at Glasgow acknowledged the Justice of the Sentence pronoun­ced against them; yea Macklauchlane, and Col. Ocain the two Irish Rebells hanged at Edenburgh did the same: But these three last executed were obstinate to their last breath. The Processe against the Earle of Hartfell is to be brought in to the Parliament this weeke. I acquainted you by my last that the Lord Ogilby was escaped out of Prison in his Sisters cloathes, and that the Rebells did retreat to the Hills upon Colonell Barclayes advance. I have no more to adde at this occasion, but that I am Sir;

I Know you will heare by the publike Let­ters what our worke is here; yet it will be but a small losse of time to you, to take notice of some Observations from him who is your Brother in Christ, and your private friend for the Publikes sake. When I remember the servants of God who have suffered for the Cause of Christ in this Land, of which many were my dearest friends, they bring to my minde Simon a man of Cyrene, who bearing the Cresse of Christ after him, was the character of a Christian: When I looke upon them, who by order of Justice are put to death for their wicked and unnaturall Rebellion, some of them, [...]s Sir William Rollock formerly, and now Nathaniel Gordoun, represent to my thoughts the penitent Malefa­ctor converted to Christ at the time of his death; But o­thers of them, such as Spotswood and Guthery, are like the other thiefe that died rayling on Christ: In the one sort the mercy of God was manifest to repenting sinners; In the other, the justice of God was seene against such as continue in the iniquity of their fathers; for they were [...] the wicked Sons of two excommuni­cated Prelates. This Spotswood, sometimes President of the Colledge of Iustice, Sonne to him who was both preten­ded Primate and Chancellor of Scotland, (monstrum hor­rendum) complayned on the Scaffold, that he was brought [Page] to suffer in the place where sometimes he had been so much honoured, but did not observe the justice of God, by this cir­cumstance of the place doubling his punishment, that some few yeers ago his cursed fathers Coatch (himself then being in England) was brought from his Castle thorow the whole City with the Hangman sitting in it, to the same very place of the Market Crosse, and rent all in pieces? The Lord is known by the judgement that he executes; So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord. His fatall sentence was to die as a Traitor to the Estates, and an Enemy to his native Country; from which while he endeavored to vindicate his innocen­cy, he did involve himselfe in further guiltinesse of both, by charging the Kingdome of England with Rebellion, and this Kingdome with unparalleld disloyalty, in taking part with a Faction in England against our owne native King, who at his last being here, had given contentment to this Kingdome, both in the Affaires of Church and Policy, and by justifying and professing his assisting of the designe of James Grahame, whom he calleth the Lord Marquesse of Montrose, the matchlesse mirrour of all true worth and No­bility: In all which (to say no more) he either lyed most impudently against his owne knowledge and conscience; for he behooved to be convinced by our Declarations, and could not be ignorant that James Grahame was not a Mirrour for Noblemen to dresse by, but to present the mon­strous face of drunkennesse, of Adulteries, and of divellish pride, in such as are of noble extraction; for which (as was often presaged of him, and hath beene paralleld by some few examples,) the Lord hath plagued him to be so horrible an Apostate and unnaturall murtherer, and is re­serving him for a tragicall end, to be a mirror of his ju­stice and wrath to all degenerous and perfidious spirits in this and the after ages. And I am sure that Spotswood did no more allow him in taking and pretending to keepe [Page] our first Nationall Covenant, by vertue whereof our Pre­lates did perish, then he did approve of others in joyning in the mutuall Covenant of both Kingdomes, by which him­selfe and his fellowes, with the Prelates of England, have now fallen. To returne, if Spotswood did not lye against his owne present conscience, he was punished with excae [...] ­tion of minde, such as useth to be the usher of exemplary ruine and destruction in those whom the Lord hateth. One thing I cannot passe by, which maketh me conceive his estate to have been the more desperate, and that God had shut the way against all comfort to him by his Ministers; he spared not openly to spew forth that God had put a lying spirit in the mouthes of the most part of the Prophets in the Land; It was answered in the time, That himselfe was the Sonne of a lying Prophet. And indeed, as one saith of Caesar Borgia, the Sonne of Pope Alexander the sixth, he was like his father, not onely in body, but in the swarthi­nesse of the complexion of his soul, both of them would have given no other verdict of our first Reformers, and of all the faithfull that have either succeeded them in this Church, or have opposed defection, or sought after Refor­mation in the Church of England.

The testimony of such Atheists and worldlings against them is no small commendation unto them, and to the truth which they have constantly preached, and sealed with their sufferings. But finding my selfe drawne beyond the length of a Letter, I will not further insist: I would onely know of you some fewe things; 1. What can be the cause that Church-Government is not yet setled in England? The As­sembly having given their advice for at long agoe? the power of the Parliament being increased to such a fulnesse, is able to doe it; and if they did not intend it in the begin­ning, or if they be growne more remisse then they were at first, I pray you tell me by what means I shall convince Ma­lignants, [Page] and confirme the godly who have suffered so much in this cause. 2. Let me know whether it be true that is talked here by the best affected, upon what grounds I know not, that many of our professed Brethren rejoyce in this, that God hath raised up an Enemy against us in our owne Land, that they may the more easily dispose of our forces there at their pleasure; for I cannot imagine that they have more reason to rejoyce in our calamity, then we had to rejoyce in theirs. 3. Who is that Robert Wright and that unknowne Knight who endeavours to make division be­tween the Kingdomes by their letters and false informati­ons: Have we not expressely covenanted to discover all such as are Incendiaries between the two Kingdomes, and to bring them to publique tryall, that they may receive con­digne punishment, according as their offence shall deserve? And are we not also obliged to endeavour that the two Kingdomes may remaine conjoyned in a firm peace and u­nion to all posterity. 4. I desire to understand, whether be­fore this work be done, they will insist in demanding their Garrisons, in abridging or starving our Forces, and in u­sing all means to drive us home re infectâ. When you have satisfied me in these particulars, I will tell you more of my minde; In the meane time believe me, if matters go there according to the speeches of many here, although none of the wifest, yet non est temere quod vulgus dictitat, I know not what our Commissioners can say for themseives, that they have not given timeous warning of so great a change of disposition in our Brethren; and I know it will pro­duce more wofull effects then I desire to see; but God I hope will bring his worke to a more gracious end; which shall be the earnest prayer and endeavour of