Series 1 > Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston 1632-1639

46
DIARY OF LORD WARISTON
then that in thy chyldisch age thou delyted most in that, and
in the 16 of Luik, and could not weal read them without som
tears of bairnly compassion; hot nou quhen thou came to the
20 v., ‘ And Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst beien
heir, my brother had not died,’ and Mary siklyk fell doune at
his feet repeating the samin, Oh then my saule remembred
with tears hou in my extremite I cryed that, if I had bot
feared it and had humbled myselth unto the Lord whil the
wand was above my head, the Lord would haive spaired ; bot
the Lord not being with me nor I reconciled to him, for I
preferred Mercure francois1 to Leath comunion, and the sight
of the busked boyes2 to the Tuesdays sermon, so, O Lord, if
thou hadst beien heir my wyfe had not died, and this guiltines
of my securite and impenitency, forcing God to lay on the
strok, added ane unspeakable weight to my affliction; yet with
Martha I adde, ‘ Bot I knou, Lord, that, evin nou, quhatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God wil give it the1; and, Lord, al that I
craive of the is that thou wald pi tie me as thou did Mary and
Martha and to groane in sprit for me, and say unto me as
thou didst to hir, 4 Say I not unto the, that, if thou wouldest
beleave thou souldest seie the glory of God ? ’ ‘ O Lord,’ with
Martha 26 v., ‘ I beleave that thou art that Chryst, the Son of
God, which sould and is come in the world for to saive paenitent
sinners quherof I am the greatest; therfor, Lord, let me seie
the turning this unto thy glory, the weal of thy curche, and
1 An influential French periodical of the time. Baillie writes to Strang (i.
117), ‘Ye promised me some of the Mercuries Francoes and Gallo-Belgicus—
let me have them.’ He also asks him oftener than once to send copies to the
University of Glasgow. A volume of it in the Advocates’ Library is entitled
Le Mercure Francois, ou Suitte de I'Histoire de nostre Temps sous le regne due
Trcs-Crestien Roy de France et de Navarre, Louis XIII. 1626. A Paris, chez
Jean et Estienne Richer. A paper subsequently appearing in it on the
Covenanters’ Tables—‘ the Four Chambers ’—Isaac Disraeli suggests may have
been written by Richelieu himself.—Charles /., vol. ii. p. 91.
2 This may refer to one of the allegorical representations exhibited on the
state passage of King Charles through the city on June 15, 1633—three days
before his coronation. Spalding relates that, ‘ At the throne [Tron] Parnassus
Hill was curiouslie erectit, all grein with birkis, where nyne pretty boyes, repre¬
senting the nyne nymphis or muses, was nymphis like cled—where the King
had the best speiche. '—Memorials, vol. i. p. 35.