"This week Mr. Colin Falconer is gon South, som say in expectation of ane Bishoprick. Lord! disappoint and confound their hops quho wold build their hops and themselves upon the ruins of Thy hous. "24 June. -Being Sabboth, Mr. Fordyce preached, who passed over the fornoon with some good discourse, and cam not to his text till the glass expyred. O Lord! repair the breaches of Thy hous, and purify the trybe of Levi. In the afternoon I stayd at hom. Alas! how does my hert accuse me for the careless and lazie performances I go about. "3 day of August.-Being the Sabboth, my wyff and I went with Collin Hay's wyff and the Laird of Brodie to hear Mr. Tho. Hog. He preached upon the 13 Luk, 6 v. to the 10. (6 August.-My Lord Brodie has been at the Wells (this 12 days) of Eslisk great neid have I to run to that well which refreshes the city of God: it is for all diseases: Lord! I have many diseases, and my great disease is I kno' it not." The following is a letter of the time, from the Laird of Brodie to the Lady Henrietta Stewart, wife of Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder. In the Cawdor Papers the name is given as "D. Brodie," a mistake easily accounted for, as he usually signs his name with a kind of monogram much liker D. B. than A. B. Madam 17 Aug. 1674. Having a great desyr to know of your La. weilfar and the children's, I have sent thes that I may know how you are, and if you have heard from the Laird since he arrived at his journeys end. I am feared you ar oure solitarie, and if your La. would be at the pains to direct your self and com this lenth, my son and my self should gladlie wait upon you. I hope the Lord will soe direct thes effaires which has cald him out, that you shall not haue anie caus to feare. If I may be off anie use to your La. you shall not mor frielie command then I shall obey. If you be in health, and your litle ones, it shalbe great contentment unto Madam, Your La. most humble servant, • Nor were his hopes disappointed: see page 359, note ~ My Daughter-in-law presents her humble service to your La., and if she had strenth would be glad to wait upon you. For the right honorable my Ladie Henriet Stewart Ladie of Calder. The following passage from Brodie's Diary has reference to a Commission Court against Conventicles, appointed to be held at Elgin in December, 1676. In the expectation that he would be called upon to explain his own conduct, Brodie considered it expedient to prepare beforehand, the heads of a proposed vindication of himself; and the substance of what he intended to say, as follows, was reserved for quotation in this place as explanatory of his own views and course of life in matters of a public nature. December 17, 1676.-Die Dom. I considerd if I should beforhand draw a note of the heads which I would speak of, if I shal be cald befor them. Albeit I doe not lippen to my own judgment, wit, memori, or forthinking, but to His Spirit and immediat asistanc, yet I desir to consider if I may not speak to this purpose :— b I have scarcli al my lyf been cald befor the barr of any Judicatur; and now I thank God it is not for ani evel or wickednes, oppression of my neighbour, treason, or rebellion, or insurrection against my Soverain the King: in this I joy: But it is for my humbl desir to keip my conscience undefild, and that I be not involvd with others in taking the ever blest nam of God in vain. I keip noe unlawful meetings; but that I partake with my freind and relation in his famili exercises within the wals of my own hous, and that but veri seldom,—for it I may rather deserv blam then reproof. The worship we perform, as it is with reverenc to God, soe with reverenc to the King's Majesti, for whom we pray, as for our oun souls. I count it not unlawful to hear thes who conform, nor dar I condemn them that hear, especiali when they have no others. It's true I hear seldomer then I would. 1. Becaus ther ministri is not livlie, and others I find mor livli on my hart. 2. I have a dislyk of and am stumbld greatli at their entri and admission and acting, seing ther constitution is not consisting and agreable with the rules and precript of Scriptur, and the Apostls; worldli glori, ambition, pomp, civil dominion, jurisdiction, places, dignities, and offices, and honours, civil and criminal, abov al subjects, even above the princes of the royal blood. Lordli dignities is veri incompatibl with the office of the tru ministers of Christ, who should watch for the souls of peopl. 3. This veri thing, civil places and dignities of Churchmen, which we cal Prelaci, as it The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, (Spalding Club volume), p. 330-1, Edinb. 1859, 4to. Mr. James Urquhart, formerly minister of Kinloss, whose wife Anna Brodie, was a relation of Brodie's. g is a human, sinful devic of man, without warrand in the Word of God, so it has been abjured solemli in thir ages past, by the consent of Kings and their Parliaments, even three Kings successivli; and let no man doe our royal Monarch that wrong as to say, it was by force; for with as much cheerfulnes as could be exprest, noe armi, nor violenc used; and applid expresli in terms, and declard to be meant, Bishops, Deans, Arch., Chapters, The oath being on a matter lawful, and enjoind by the Kings of this Realm, ratified and consented to, and the peopl and I having taken this Engagement, I dar not so farr defie God as to violat his oath, and tak his nam in vain; for it is no light thing; nor can a thousand Parliaments, and Emperors, and Pops, absolv from it, or dispenc with a lawful oath made to God. It's not man we have to doe with, or can requir the breach, but God. &c. 4. I shall wish and pray that the King's Majesty may see his safti and preservation, and the stabilitie of his royal government to be mor surlie bottomd on the true affections of his peopl then on the civil places of Kirkmen, to the wounding of the consciences of his faithful subjects. As for my loyalti, ther's none of my condition within al his Kingdoms that detests and abhors disloyalti mor, and that shall mor willingli pour out his blood and lyf at his fiat, then I shall doe. We have already alluded to the intense pain to which Brodie was sub"a in the jected from what, in 1672, he called "his old disease of the stone bladder. The blotted state of the Diary, and the heavy penmanship during several of the last months of his life, seem to indicate the greatness of his sufferings, and his perseverance to the last in a practice he had observed for so many years, although the making these entries must have been a serious labour. At times, he was subject to "doubts, and fears, and darkness;" and latterly, also, both himself and his friends were afraid that in one of those paroxysms he might pass away without a clear manifestation of his continued faith and trust in his Redeemer, such as was befitting the life of a true, sincere, and devoted Christian. It was otherwise mercifully ordained; and, as the last dying words of God's people are deemed to be precious, so, when his life drew to a close, his suffering abated, and he was enabled to express such sentiments as might have been expected from a man of exemplary piety, proving, that while "the wicked is driven away in his wickedness: the righteous hath hope in his death."b a P. 327. b Prov. xiv. 32. We might also add, in the words of the Psalmist, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: FOR THE END OF THAT MAN IS PEACE." ALEXANDER BRODIE OF BRODIE died on the 17th of April, 1680, in the 63d year of his age. On the previous day he commenced a short entry in his Diary. But while so frequently accusing himself of manifold failings and shortcomings, he had the peculiar satisfaction of witnessing his son and grandchildren, the objects of his dearest sympathy and of many fervent prayers, taking upon themselves the same Covenant engagements to a life of faith and hope, of which he had set such a consistent example. On the same day, his son, JAMES BRODIE, who succeeded to the estate of Brodie, takes up his Father's Diary and continues it. There is a singular degree of touching pathos in the mournful regrets expressed by the younger Brodie on occasion of his father's death, lamenting how little he had profited by his instructions, and recording anew the resolutions he had formed of treading in his footsteps, and striving to imitate his example. On that day when he takes up his father's Diary, and during the time that intervened till the day of the funeral, he dwells on the great and irreparable loss sustained by his removal. This Diary, by James Brodie of Brodie, breaks off with February, 1685, but it was no doubt carried on during the rest of his life, in one or more subsequent volumes, not now preserved. He inherited so much of the character and devotional spirit of his Father, that unless for the dates, and the subject of his Diary, we might have still mistaken it for that of the elder Brodie. The handwriting is more legible, and he makes no use of cyphers, but even in the orthography, in the omission of the final e's, and the phrasology he uses, there is a marked resemblance. He also, constantly "desires to be instructed," or "to lay it seriously to heart," or "to spread it before God." It was deemed, therefore, advisable to subjoin a series of Extracts from this Diary, as it forms a natural sequel to what precedes, and more especially as it was not of sufficient extent or importance for separate publication. It has already been mentioned that Brodie's family consisted of two children, a son and daughter, he having formed no second marriage, although he survived his wife for nearly forty years. GRIZZEL BRODIE, his daughter, was born 28th of October, 1636, and married her cousin, Robert Dunbar, son and heir of Ninian Dunbar of Grangehill, on the 7th of September, 1654. Her husband had the honour of Knighthood conferred upon him, by Charles the Second, in 1660. They had several children. JAMES BRODIE OF BRODIE, was born on the 15th of September, 1637. His marriage with Lady MARY KER, a younger daughter of William, third Earl of Lothian, in 1659, is previously noticed. Like many of the religious ladies of the time, she seems to have been even more determined than her husband against complying with the Conformist ministers. In conversing with the Earl of Tweddale, 10th of September, 1684, his Lordship "spoke anent my wiff's not hearing, and told me the danger of it. I thought myself beholden to him for his freedom and ingenuitie with me; and know not what to do anent her." Yet he himself, in 1680, exclaims, while noticing that the Bishop of Murray was at Forres, inducting a minister to that place, "Oh! for the plague the land lyes under of such teachers,” and again, "Oh Lord! forgive, and reform, and send out a Gospel ministry."° James Brodie, as in such times might have been expected, was subjected to fines and punishment on account of his alleged frequenting Conventicles. In 1685, he disowned frequenting such meetings, unless within his own house, and he asks himself, "Is there any guilt in this before God?" His Diary closes with some account of a Court held at Elgin by the Earl of Errol, the Earl of Kintore, and Sir George Monro, who had been |