ORIGINAL WRITERS AND STATE-PAPERS. WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, A GENERAL INDEX, &C. IN FIVE VOLUMES. PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; T. PAYNE; WILKIE AND AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF CHARLES I. KING OF GREAT BRITAIN. CHARLES STUART, second son of James I. king of Great Britain, by Ann of Denmark, was born at Dumfermling, in Scotland, November the 19th, 1600'. He was baptized on Tuesday December the 23d, in the royal chapel, by David Lindsay, bishop of Ross, with great solemnity, according to Mr. Carte; though other writers give a different account'. a Though other writers give a different account.] Calderwood speaks of the birth of prince Charles, but mentions not a word about his baptism. 'He was born, * Perinchief's Life of Charles I. prefixed to his works, p. 1. fol. Lond. 1687. b Carte's History of England, vol. III. p. 679. fol. Lond. 1752. At three years old he was committed to the care and government of Sir Robert Cary's lady; and in his fourth year he was brought to the English court, where he was made Knight of the Bath, and invested with says he, upon the 19th of November, about eleven hours at night, the same day that Gowrie and his brother's carcasses were dismembered ".' Spotswood observes, that his christening was hastened because of the weakness of the child, and that his death was much feared. Thus also Perinchief, in the very page referred to in the text, tells us, that he was born in so much weakness, that his baptism was hastened, without the usual ceremonies wherewith such royal infants are admitted into the church.' Here are very different accounts, we see, of the baptism of this prince; but which is most worthy of belief must be left to the reader to determine. All I shall say is, that if the young prince had received the benefit of episcopal baptism, (a benefit never sufficiently to be valued, in the opinion of some very grave and learned writers, as it gives special privileges and advantages both here and hereafter) it is amazing that archbishop Spotswood and doctor Perinchief should either have been ignorant of it, or neglected to have mentioned it. But truth is frequently brought to light by time; and Mr. Carte, an hundred and fifty years after the ceremony was performed, tells us the name of the bishop, the solemnity used, and the place where it was used, when all others seem to have Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 446. fol. History of the Church of Scotland, p. 461. fol. Edinb. 1680. Lond. 1668. * See Dodwell's Epistolary Discourse concerning the Mortality of Human Souls. 8vo. Lond. 1705. |