(HIS EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST'S LOVE—STATE OF THE LAND AND CHURCH—CHRIST NOT DULY ESTEEMED—DESIRES AFTER HIM, AND FOR A REVIVAL.)
M ISTRESS,—Although not acquaint, yet because we are Father's children, I thought good to write unto you. Howbeit my first discourse and communing with you of Christ be in paper, yet I have cause, since I came hither, to have no paper thoughts of Him. For, in my sad days, He is become the flower of my joys; and I but lie here living upon His love, but cannot get so much of it as fain I would have; not because Christ's love is lordly, and looketh too high, but because I have a narrow vessel to receive His love, and I look too low. But I give, under my own hand-write, to you a testimonial of Christ and His cross, that they are a sweet couple, and that Christ hath never yet been set in His own due chair of honour amongst us all. Oh, I know not where to set Him! Oh, for a high seat to that royal princely One! Oh that my poor withered soul had once a running-over flood of that love to put sap into my dry root, and that that flood would spring out to the tongue and pen, to utter great things, to thehigh and due commendation of such a fair One! O holy, holy, holy One! Alas, there are too many dumb tongues in the world, and dry hearts, seeing there is employment in Christ for them all, and ten thousand worlds of men and angels more, to set on high and exalt the greatest Prince of the kings of the earth! Woe is me that bits of living clay dare come out to rush hard-heads with Him;[382] and that my unkind mother, this harlot-kirk, hath given her sweet half-marrow such a meeting. For this land hath given up with Christ, and the Lord is cutting Scotland in two halves, and sending the worst half, the harlot-sister, over to Rome's brothel-house, to get her fill of Egypt's love. I would my sufferings (nay, suppose I were burnt quick to ashes) might buy an agreement betwixt His fairest and sweetest love, and His gaddy (Jer. ii. 36) lewd wife. Fain would I give Christ His welcome-home to Scotland again, if He would return. This is a black day, a day of clouds and darkness; for the roof-tree of the fair temple of my Lord Jesus is fallen, and Christ's back is towards Scotland. Oh, thrice blessed are they who would hold Christ with their tears and prayers! I know ye will help to deal with Him; for He shall return again to this land. The next day shall be Christ's, and there shall be a fair green young garden for Christ in this land, and God's summer-dew shall lie on it all the night, and we shall sing again our new marriage-song to our Bridegroom, concerning His vineyard. But who knoweth whether we shall live and see it?
I hear the Lord hath taken pains to afflict and dress you, as a fruitful vine for Himself. Grow and be green, and cast out your branches, and bring forth fruit. Fat and green and fruitful may ye be, in the true and sappy root. Grace, grace, free grace be your portion. Remember my bonds with prayers and praises.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXI.—To Earlston, Younger.]
(PROSPERITY UNDER THE CROSS—NEED OF SINCERITY, AND BEING FOUNDED ON CHRIST.)
M UCH HONOURED SIR,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I am well. Christ triumpheth in me, blessed be His name. I have all things. I burden no man. I see that this earth and the fulness thereof is my Father's. Sweet, sweet is the cross of my Lord. The blessing of God upon the cross of my Lord Jesus! My enemies have contributed (beside their design) to make me blessed. This is my palace, not my prison; especially, when my Lord shineth and smileth upon His poor afflicted and sold Joseph, who is separated from his brethren. But often He hideth Himself; and there is a day of law, and a court of challenges within me; I know not if fenced in God's name. But, oh, my neglects! oh, my unseen guiltiness! I imagined that a sufferer for Christ kept the keys of Christ's treasure, and might take out his heart-full of comforts when he pleased; but I see, a sufferer and a witness shall be holden at the door, as well as another poor sinner, and be glad to eat with the bairns, and to take the by-board.
This cross hath let me see that heaven is not at the next door, and that it is a castle not soon taken. I see, also, that it is neither pain nor art to play the hypocrite. We have all learned to sell ourselves for double price; and to make the people (who call ten twenty, and twenty an hundred) esteem us half gods, or men fallen out of the clouds. But, oh, sincerity, sincerity, if I knew what sincerity meaneth!
Sir, lay the foundation thus, and ye shall not soon shrink, nor be shaken. Make tight work at the bottom, and your ship shall ride against all storms, if withal your anchor be fastened on good ground; I mean within the vail. And verily I think this is all, to gain Christ. All other things are shadows, dreams, fancies, and nothing.
Sir, remember my love to your mother. I pray for mercy and grace to her; I wish her on-going toward heaven. As I promised to write, so shew her that I want nothing in my Lord's service. Christ will not be in such a poor man's common as mine. Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Sept. 22, 1637.
[CCLXXII.—To John Gordon. [Letter CXLVII.]
(CHRIST ALL WORTHY—THIS WORLD A CLAY PRISON—DESIRE FOR A REVIVAL OF CHRIST'S CAUSE.)
W ORTHY AND DEAR BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I have been too long in writing to you, but multitude of letters taketh much time from me.
I bless His great name whom I serve in the spirit, that if it come to voting, amongst angels and men, how excellent and sweet Christ is, even in His reproaches and in His cross, I cannot but vote with the first that all that is in Him, both cross and crown, kisses and glooms, embracements, and frownings, and strokes, is sweet and glorious. God send me no more happiness in heaven, or out of heaven, than Christ! for I find this world, when I have looked upon it on both sides, within and without, and when I have seen even the laughing and lovely side of it, to be but a fool's idol, a clay prison. Lord, let it not be the nest that my hope buildeth in. I have now cause to judge my part of this earth not worth a blast of smoke, or a mouthful of brown bread. I wish that my hope may take a running-leap, and skip over time's pleasure, sin's plastering and gold-foil, this vain earth, and rest upon my Lord. Oh, how great is our night-darkness in this wilderness! To have any conceit at all of this world is, as if a man should close his handful of water, and, holding his hand in the river, to say that all the water of the flood is his; as if it were, indeed, all within the compass of his hand. Who would not laugh at the thoughts of such a crack-brain? Verily, they have but an handful of water, and are but like a child clasping his two hands about a night-shadow, who idolize any created hope, but God. I now lightly, and put the price of a dream, or fable, or black nothing, upon all things but God, and that desirable and love-worthy One, my Lord Jesus. Let all the world be nothing (for nothing was their seed and mother), and let God be all things.
My very dear brother, know that ye are as near heaven as ye are far from yourself, and far from the love of a bewitching and whorish world. For this world, in its gain and glory, is but the great and notable common whore, that all the sons of men have been in fancy and lust withal these 5000 years. The children that they have begotten with this uncouth and lustful lover are but vanity, dreams, gold imaginations, and night-thoughts. There is no good ground here, under the covering of heaven, for men and poor wearied souls to set down their foot upon. Oh, He who is called God, that One whom they term Jesus Christ, is worth the having indeed, even if I had given away all without, my eye-holes, my soul, and myself, for sweet Jesus my Lord! Oh, let the claim be cancelled that the creatures have to me,—except that claim my Lord Jesus hath to me! Oh that He would claim poor me, my silly, light, and worthless soul! Oh that He would pursue His claim to the utmost point, and not want me! for it is my pain and remediless sorrow to want Him. I see nothing in this life but sinks, and mires, and dreams, and beguiling ditches, and ill ground for us to build upon.
I am fully persuaded of Christ's victory in Scotland; but I fear that this land be not yet ripe and white (John iv. 35) for mercy. Yet I dare be halver (upon my salvation) with the losses of the Church of Scotland, that her foes, after noon, shall sing dool and sorrow for evermore, and that her joy shall once again be cried up, and her sky shall clear. But vengeance and burning shall be to her adversaries, and the sinners of this land. Oh that we could be awakened to prayers and humiliation! Then should our sun shine like seven suns in the heaven! then should the temple of Christ be builded upon the mountain-tops, and the land, from coast to coast, should be filled with the glory of the Lord.
Brother, your day-task is wearing short; your hour-glass of this span-length and hand-breadth of life will quickly pass; and, therefore, take order and course with matters betwixt you and Christ, before it come to open pleading. There are no quarters to be had of Christ, in open judgment. I know, that ye see your thread wearing short, and that there are not many inches to the thread's end; and, therefore, lose not time.
Remember me, His prisoner, that it would please the Lord to bring me again amongst you with abundance of the Gospel.
Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXIII.—To William Rigge of Athernie.]
(COMFORT IN TRIALS FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST'S POWER AND WORK—THAT WILL SOON BE OVER—CORRUPTION—FREE GRACE.)
W ORTHY AND MUCH HONOURED SIR,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—How sad a prisoner should I be, if I knew not that my Lord Jesus had the keys of the prison Himself, and that His death and blood have bought a blessing to our crosses, as well as to ourselves! I am sure that troubles have no prevailing right over us, if they be but our Lord's serjeants to keep us in His ward, while we are on this side of heaven. I am persuaded, also, that they shall not go over the bound-road, nor enter into heaven with us. For they find no welcome there, where "there is no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither any more pain;" and, therefore, we shall leave them behind us. Oh, if I could get as good a gate of sin,[383] even this woful and wretched body of sin, as I get of Christ's cross! Nay, indeed, I think the cross beareth both me and itself, rather than I it, in comparison of the tyranny of the lawless flesh, and wicked neighbour, that dwelleth beside Christ's new creature. But, oh! this is that which presseth me down, and paineth me. Jesus Christ in His saints sitteth neighbour with an ill second, corruption, deadness, coldness, pride, lust, worldliness, self-love, security, falsehood, and a world of more the like, which I find in me, that are daily doing violence to the new man. Oh, but we have cause to carry low sails, and to cleave fast to free grace, free, free grace! Blessed be our Lord that ever that way was found out. If my one foot were in heaven and my soul half in, if free-will and corruption were absolute lords of me, I should never win wholly in. Oh, but the sweet, new, and living way, that Christ hath struck up to our home, is a safe way! I find now, presence and access a greater dainty than before; but yet the Bridegroom looketh through the lattice, and through the hole of the door. Oh, if He and I were on fair dry land together, on the other side of the water!
Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Sept. 30, 1637.
[CCLXXIV.—To James Murray.]
[This may be James Murray of whom Livingstone, in his "Characteristics," writes, "An Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile." He was a writer in Edinburgh; hence, perhaps, the expectation of news as to what Government was doing, in the close of the letter.]
(THE CHRISTIAN LIFE A MYSTERY TO THE WORLD—CHRIST'S KINDNESS.)
D EAR BROTHER,—I received your letter. I am in good health of body, but far better in my soul. I find my Lord no worse than His word. "I will be with him in trouble," is made good to me now. He heareth the sighing of the prisoner. Brother, I am comforted in my royal Prince and King. The world knoweth not our life; it is a mystery to them. We have the sunny side of the world, and our paradise is far above theirs; yea, our weeping is above their laughing, which is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot. And, therefore, we have good cause to fight it out, for the day of our laureation is approaching. I find my prison the sweetest place that ever I was in. My Lord Jesus is kind to me, and hath taken the mask off His face, and is content to quit me all bygones. I dare not complain of Him. And for my silence, I lay it before Christ: I hope it will be a speaking silence. He who knoweth what I would, knoweth that my soul desireth no more than that King Jesus may be great in the north of Scotland, in the south, and in the east and west, through my sufferings for the freedom of my Lord's house and kingdom. If I could keep good quarters, in time to come, with Christ, I would fear nothing. But, oh, oh, I complain of my woful outbreakings! I tremble at the remembrance of a new outcast betwixt Him and me; and I have cause, when I consider what sickness and sad days I have had for His absence who is now come! I find that Christ dow not be long unkind: our Joseph's bowels yearn within Him; He cannot smother love long; it must break out at length. Praise, praise with me, brother, and desire my acquaintance to help me. I dare not conceal His love to my soul. I wish you all a part of my feast, that my Lord Jesus may be honoured. I allow you not to hide Christ's bounty to me, when ye meet with such as know Christ.
Ye write nothing to me. What are the cruel mercies of the prelates towards me? The ministers of this town, as I hear, intend that I shall be more strictly confined, or else transported, because they find some people affect me. Grace be with you.
Yours, in the sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Nov. 21, 1637.
[CCLXXV.—To Mr. John Fergushill. [Letter CXII.]
(SPIRITUAL LONGINGS UNDER CHRIST'S CROSS—HOW TO BEAR IT—CHRIST PRECIOUS, AND TO BE HAD WITHOUT MONEY—THE CHURCH.)
R EVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED IN OUR LORD JESUS,—I must still provoke you to write by my lines. Whereat ye need not wonder, for the cross is full of talk, and speak it must, either good or bad: neither can grief be silent.
I have no dittay nor indictment to bring against Christ's cross, seeing He hath made a friendly agreement betwixt me and it, and we are in terms of love together. If my former miscarriages, and my now silent Sabbaths, seem to me to speak wrath from the Lord, I dare say it is but Satan borrowing the use and loan of my cowardly and feeble apprehensions, which start at straws. I know that faith is not so faint and foolish as to tremble at every false alarm. Yet I gather this out of it: Blessed are they who are graced of God to guide a cross well, and, that there is some art required therein. I pray God that I may not be so ill friendstead, as that Christ my Lord should leave me to be my own tutor, and my own physician. Shall I not think that my Lord Jesus, who deserveth His own place very well, will take His own place upon Him as it becometh Him, and that He will fill His own chair? For in this is His office, to comfort us, and those that are casten down, in all their tribulations (2 Cor. i. 4). Alas! I know that I am a fool to seek a hole or defect in Christ's way with my soul. If I have not a stock to present to Christ at His appearance, yet I pray God that I may be able, with joy and faith and constancy, to shew the Captain of my salvation, in that day, a bloody head[384] which I received in His service. Howbeit my faith hang by a small tack and thread, I hope that the tack shall not break; and, howbeit my Lord got no service of me but broken wishes, yet I trust that those will be accepted upon Christ's account. I have nothing to comfort me, but that I say, "Oh! will the Lord disappoint an hungry on-waiter?" The smell of Christ's wine and apples (which surpass the uptaking of dull sense) bloweth upon my soul, and I get no more for the meantime. I am sure, that to let a famishing body see meat and give him none of it, is a double pain. Our Lord's love is not so cruel as to let a poor man see Christ and heaven, and never give him more, for want of money to buy: nay, I rather think Christ to be such fair market wares, as buyers may have without money and without price. And thus I know that it shall not stand upon my want of money; for Christ upon His own charges must buy my wedding-garment, and redeem the inheritance which I have forfeited, and give His word for one the like of me, who am not law-biding of myself. Poor folks must either borrow or beg from the rich; and the only thing that commendeth sinners to Christ is extreme necessity and want. Christ's love is ready to make and provide a ransom, and money for a poor body who hath lost his purse. "Ho, ye that have no money, come and buy" (Isa. lv. 1), that is the poor man's market.
Now, brother, I see that old crosses would have done nothing to me; and, therefore, Christ hath taken a new, fresh rod to me, that seemeth to talk with my soul[385] and make me tremble. I have often more ado now with faith, when I lose my compass and am blown on a rock, than those who are my beholders, standing upon the shore, are aware of. A counsel to a sick man is sooner given than taken. Lord, send the wearied man a borrowed bed from Christ! I think often that it is after supper with me, and I am heavy. Oh, but I would sleep soundly with Christ's left hand under my head, and His right hand embracing me. The devil could not spill that bed. When I consider how tenderly Christ hath cared for me in this prison, I think that He hath handled me as the bairn that is pitied and bemoaned. I desire no more till I be in heaven, but such a feast and fill of Christ's love as I would have; this love would be fair and adorning passments which would beautify and set forth my black, unpleasant cross. I cannot tell, my dear brother, what a great load I would bear, if I had a hearty fill of the love of that lovely One, Christ Jesus. Oh, if ye would seek and pray for that to me! I would give Christ all His love-styles and titles of honour, if He would give me but this; nay, I would sell myself, if I could, for that love.
I have been waiting to see what friends of place and power would do for us. But when the Lord looseneth the pins of His own tabernacle, He will have Himself to be acknowledged as the only builder-up thereof; and, therefore, I would take back again my hope that I lent and laid in pawn in men's hands, and give it wholly to Christ. It is no time for me now to set up idols of my own. It were a pity to give an ounce-weight of hope to any besides Christ. I think Him well worthy of all my hope, though it were as weighty as both heaven and earth. Happy were I if I had anything that Christ would seek or accept of; but now, alas! I see not what service I can do to Him, except it be to talk a little, and babble upon a piece of paper, concerning the love of Christ. I am often as if my faith were wadset, so that I cannot command it; and then, when He hideth Himself, I run to the other extreme, in making each wing and toe of my case as big as a mountain of iron; and then misbelief can spin out an hell of heavy and desponding thoughts. Then Christ seeketh law-borrows of my unbelieving apprehensions, and chargeth me to believe His daylight at midnight. But I make pleas with Christ, though it be ill my common[386] so to do. It were my happiness, when I am in this house-of-wine and when I find a feast-day, if I could "hearken, and hear for the time to come" (Isa. xlii. 23). But I see that we must be off our feet in wading a deep water; and then Christ's love findeth timeous employment, at such a dead-lift as that; and, besides, after broken brows, bairns learn to walk more circumspectly. If I come to heaven any way, howbeit like a tired traveller upon my Guide's shoulder, it is good enough for those who have no legs of their own for such a journey. I never thought there had been need of so much wrestling to win to the top of that steep mountain, as now I find.
Wo is me for this broken and backsliding church! It is like an old bowing wall, leaning to the one side, and there are none of all her sons who will set a prop under her. I know that I need not bemoan Christ; for He careth for His own honour more than I can do; but who can blame me to be wo (if I had grace so to be) to see my Well-beloved's fair face spitted upon, and His own crown plucked off His head, and the ark of God taken and carried in the Philistines' cart, and the kine put to carry it, which will let it fall to the ground? The Lord put to His own helping hand! I would desire you to prepare yourself for a fight with beasts (1 Cor. xv. 32): ye will not get leave to steal quietly to heaven, in Christ's company, without a conflict and a cross.
Remember my bonds; and praise my Second, and Fellow-prisoner, Christ. Grace be with you.
Yours, in Christ Jesus his Lord,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXVI.—To William Glendinning. [Letter CXXXVII.]
(SWEETNESS OF TRIAL—SWIFTNESS OF TIME—PREVALENCE OF SIN.)
D EAR BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Your case is unknown to me, whether ye be yet our Lord's prisoner at Wigtown, or not. However it be, I know that our Lord Jesus hath been inquiring for you; and that He hath honoured you to bear His chains, which is the golden end of His cross; and so hath waled out a chosen and honourable cross for you. I wish you much joy and comfort of it; for I have nothing to say of Christ's cross but much good. I hope that my ill word shall never meet either Christ or His sweet and easy cross. I know that He seeketh of us an outcast with this house of clay, this mother prison, this earth, that we love full well. And verily, when Christ snuffeth my candle, and causeth my light to shine upward, it is one of my greatest wonders, that dirt and clay hath so much court with a soul not made of clay; and that our soul goeth out of kind so far as to make an idol of this earth, such a deformed harlot, as that it should wrong Christ of our love. How fast, how fast doth our ship sail! and how fair a wind hath time, to blow us off these coasts and this land of dying and perishing things! Alas! our ship saileth one way, and fleeth many miles in one hour, to hasten us upon eternity, and our love and hearts are sailing close backover and swimming towards ease, lawless pleasure, vain honour, perishing riches; and to build a fool's nest I know not where, and to lay our eggs within the sea-mark, and fasten our bits of broken anchors upon the worst ground in the world, this fleeting and perishing life! And in the meanwhile, time and tide carry us upon another life, and there is daily less and less oil in our lamps, and less and less sand in our watch-glass. Oh what a wise course were it for us to look away from the false beauty of our borrowed prison, and to mind, and eye, and lust for our country! Lord, Lord, take us home!
And for myself: I think, if a poor, weak, dying sheep seek for an old dyke, and the lee-side of an hill, in a storm, I have cause to long for a covert from this storm, in heaven. I know none will take my room over my head there. But, certainly sleepy bodies would be at rest and a well-made bed, and an old crazed bark at a shore, and a wearied traveller at home, and a breathless horse at the rink's end. I see nothing in this life but sin, and the sour fruits of sin: and, oh, what a burden is sin! And what a slavery and miserable bondage is it, to be at the nod, and yeas and nays, of such a lord-master as a body of sin! Truly, when I think of it, it is a wonder that Christ maketh not fire and ashes of such a dry branch as I am. I would often lie down under Christ's feet, and bid Him trample upon me, when I consider my guiltiness. But seeing He hath sworn that sin shall not loose His unchangeable covenant, I keep house-room amongst the rest of the ill-learned bairns, and must cumber the Lord of the house with the rest, till my Lord take the fetters off legs and arms, and destroy this body of sin, and make a hole or breach in this cage of earth, that the bird may fly out, and the imprisoned soul be at liberty. In the meantime, the least intimation of Christ's love is sweet, and the hope of marriage with the Bridegroom holdeth me in some joyful on-waiting, that, when Christ's summer-birds shall sing upon the branches of the Tree of Life, I shall be tuned by God Himself to help them to sing the home-coming of our Well-beloved and His bride to their house together. When I think of this, I think winters and summers, and years and days, and time, do me a pleasure that they shorten this untwisted and weak thread of my life, and that they put sin and miseries by-hand, and that they shall carry me to my Bridegroom in a clap.
Dear brother, pray for me, that it would please the Lord of the vineyard to give me room to preach His righteousness again to the great congregation.
Grace, grace be with you. Remember me to your wife.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXVII.—To my Lady Boyd.]
(SENSE OF UNWORTHINESS—OBLIGATION TO GRACE—CHRIST'S ABSENCE—STATE OF THE LAND.)
M ADAM,—I would have written to your Ladyship ere now, but people's believing there is in me that which I know there is not, hath put me out of love with writing to any. For it is easy to put religion to a market and public fair; but, alas! it is not so soon made eye-sweet for Christ.
My Lord seeth me a tired man, far behind. I have gotten much love from Christ, but I give Him little or none again. My white side cometh out on paper to men; but at home and within I find much black work, and great cause of a low sail, and of little boasting. And yet, howbeit I see challenges to be true, the manner of the tempter's pressing of them is unhonest, and, in my thoughts, knavish-like. My peace is, that Christ may find outing and sale of His wares, in the like of me; I mean for saving grace.
I wish all professors to fall in love with grace. All our songs should be of His free grace. We are but too lazy and careless in seeking of it; it is all our riches we have here, and glory in the bud. I wish that I could set out free grace. I was the law's man, and under the law, and under a curse; but grace brought me from under that hard lord, and I rejoice that I am grace's freeholder. I pay tribute to none for heaven, seeing my land and heritage holdeth of Christ, my new King. Infinite wisdom hath devised this excellent way of free-holding for sinners. It is a better way to heaven than the old way that was in Adam's days. It hath this fair advantage, that no man's emptiness and want layeth an inhibition upon Christ, or hindereth His salvation; and that is far best for me. But our new Landlord putteth the names of dyvours, and Adam's forlorn heirs, and beggars, and the crooked and blind, in the free charters. Heaven and angels may wonder that we have got such a gate of sin and hell. Such a back-entry out of hell as Christ made, and brought out the captives by, is more than my poor shallow thoughts can comprehend. I would think sufferings glory (and I am sometimes not far from it), if my Lord would give me a new alms of free grace.
I hear that the prelates are intending banishment for me; but, for more grace, and no other hire, I would make it welcome. The bits of this clay house, the earth, and the other side of the sea, are my Father's. If my sweet Lord Jesus would bud my sufferings with a new measure of grace, I were a rich man. But I have not now, of a long time, found such high spring-tides as formerly. The sea is out, the wind of His Spirit calm; and I cannot buy a wind, or, by requesting the sea, cause it to flow again; only I wait on upon the banks and shore-side, till the Lord send a full sea, that with upsails I may lift up Christ. Yet sorrow for His absence is sweet; and sighs, with "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" have their own delights. Oh that I may gather hunger against His long-looked-for return! Well were my soul, if Christ were the element (mine own element), and that I loved and breathed in Him, and if I could not live without Him. I allow not laughter upon myself when He is away; yet He never leaveth the house, but He leaveth drink-money behind Him, and a pawn that He will return. Wo, wo to me, if He should go away and take all His flitting with Him! Even to dream of Him is sweet. To build a house of pining wishes for His return, to spin out a web of sorrow, and care, and languishing, and sighs, either dry or wet, as they may be (because He hath no leisure, if I may speak so, to make a visit, or to see a poor friend), sweeteneth and refresheth the thoughts of the heart. A misty dew will stand for rain, and do some good, and keep some greenness in the herbs, till our Lord's clouds rue upon the earth, and send down a watering of rain. Truly I think Christ's misty dew a welcome message from heaven till my Lord's rain fall.
Wo, wo is me for the Lord's vineyard in Scotland! Howbeit the Father of the house embrace a child, and feed him, and kiss him; yet it is sorrow and sadness to the children that our poor mother hath gotten her leave, and that our Father hath given up house. It is an unheartsome thing to see our Father and mother agree so ill; yet the bastards, if they be fed, care not, O Lord, cast not water on Scotland's smoking coal. It is a strange gate the saints go to heaven. Our enemies often eat and drink us, and we go to heaven through their bellies and stomachs, and they vomit the church of God undigested among their hands. And even while we are shut up in prisons by them, we advance in our journey.
Remember my service to my lord your son, who was kind to me in my bonds, and was not ashamed to own me. I would be glad that Christ got the morning service of his life, now in his young years. It would suit him well to give Christ his young and green love. Christ's stamp and seal would go far down in a young soul, if he would receive the thrust of Christ's stamp. I would desire him to make search for Christ; for nobles are now but dry friends to Christ.
The grace of God our Father, and the good-will of Him who dwelt in the bush, be with your Ladyship.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXVIII.—To the Earl of Cassillis.]
(AMBITION—CHRIST'S ROYAL PREROGATIVE—PRELACY.)
R IGHT HONOURABLE AND VERY GOOD LORD,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to your Lordship.—I hope that your Lordship will be pleased to pardon my boldness, if, upon report of your zealous and forward mind, which I hear our Lord hath given you in this His honourable cause, when Christ and His Gospel are so foully wronged, I speak to your Lordship on paper, entreating your Lordship to go on in the strength of the Lord, toward, and against a storm of antichristian wind, that bloweth upon the face of this your poor mother-church, Christ's lily among the thorns. It is your Lordship's glory and happiness, when ye see such a blow coming upon Christ, to cast up your arm to prevent it. Neither is it a cause that needeth to blush before the sun, or to flee the sentence or censure of impartial beholders, seeing the question, indeed (if it were rightly stated), is about the prerogative-royal of our princely and royal Lawgiver, our Lord Jesus, whose ancient march-stones and land-bounds, our bastard lords and earthly generation of tyrannizing prelates have boldly and shamefully removed. And they who have but half an eye may see, that it is the greedy desires of time-idolizing Demases, and the itching scab of ambitious and climbing Diotrepheses (who love the goat's life, to climb till they cannot find a way to set their soles on ground again), that hath made such a wide breach in our Zion's beautiful walls. And these are the men who seek no hire for the crucifying of Christ, but His coat.
Oh, how forlorn and desolate is the bride of Christ made to all passers-by! Who seeth not Christ buried in this land, His prophets hidden in caves, silenced, banished and imprisoned? truth weeping in sackcloth before the judges, Parliament, and the rulers of the land? But her bill is cast by them, and holiness hideth itself, fearing in the streets for the reproaches and persecution of men. Justice is fallen aswoon in the gate; and the long shadows of the evening are stretched out upon us. Wo, wo to us, for our day flieth away! What remaineth, but that Antichrist set down his tent in the midst of us, except that your Lordship, and others with you, read Christ's supplication, and give Him that which the most lewd and scandalous wretches in this land may have before a judge, even the poor man's due, law and justice for God's sake? Oh, therefore, my noble and dear Lord, as ye have begun, go on, in the mighty power and strength of the Lord, to cause our Lord, in His Gospel, and afflicted members, to laugh, and to cause the Christian churches (whose eyes are all now upon you) to sing for joy when Scotland's moon shall shine like the light of the sun, and the sun like the light of seven days in one. Ye can do no less than run and bear up the head of your swooning and dying mother-church, and plead for the production of her ancient charters. They hold out and put out, they hold in and bring in, at their pleasure, men in God's house. They stole the keys from Christ and His church, and came in like the thief and the robber, not by the door, Christ; and now their song is, "Authority, authority! obedience to church-governors!" When such a bastard and lawless pretended step-dame, as our Prelacy, is gone mad, it is your place, who are the nobles, to rise and bind them. At least, law should fetter such wild bulls as they are, who push all who oppose themselves to their domination. Alas! what have we lost, since prelates were made master-coiners, to change our gold into brass, and to mix the Lord's wine with water! Blessed for ever shall ye be of the Lord, if ye help Christ against the mighty, and shall deliver the flock of God, scattered upon the mountains in the dark and cloudy day, out of the hands of these idol-shepherds. Fear not men who shall be moth-eaten clay, that shall be rolled up in a chest, and casten under the earth: let the Holy One of Israel be your fear, and be courageous for the Lord and His truth.
Remember, that your accounts are coming upon you, with wings, as fast as time posteth. Remember, what "peace with God" in Christ, and the presence of the Son of God (the revealed and felt sweetness of His love), will be to you, when eternity shall put time to the door, and ye shall take good-night of time, and this little shepherd's tent of clay, this inn of a borrowed earth. I hope that your Lordship is now and then sending out thoughts to view this world's naughtiness,[387] and vanity, and the hoped-for glory of the life to come; and that ye resolve that Christ shall have yourself, and all yours, at command for Him, His honour and Gospel.
Thus trusting that your Lordship will pardon my boldness, I pray that the only wise God, the very God of peace, may preserve, strengthen, and establish you to the end.
Your Lordship's, at all command and obedience in Christ,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXIX.—For Marion M'Naught.]
(A SPRING-TIDE OF CHRIST'S LOVE.)
M Y DEAR AND WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I am well; honour to God. I have been before a court set up within me of terrors and challenges; but my sweet Lord Jesus hath taken the mask off His face, and said, "Kiss thy fill!" and I will not smother nor conceal the kindness of my King Jesus. He hath broken in upon the poor prisoner's soul, like the swelling of Jordan. I am bank and brim full; a great, high spring-tide of the consolations of Christ have overflowed me. I would not give my weeping for the fourteen prelates' laughter. They have sent me here to feast with my King. His spikenard casteth a sweet smell. The Bridegroom's love hath run away with my heart. O love, love, love! Oh, sweet are my royal King's chains! I care not for fire nor torture. How sweet were it to me to swim the salt sea for my new Lover, my second Husband, my first Lord! I charge you in the name of God, not to fear the wild beasts that entered into the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts. The false prophet is the tail. God shall cut the tail from Scotland. Take your comfort and droop not, despond not.
Pray for my poor flock: I would take a penance on my soul for their salvation. I fear that the entering of a hireling upon my labours there will cut off my life with sorrow. There I wrestled with the Angel and prevailed. Wood,[388] trees, meadows, and hills are my witnesses, that I drew on a fair meeting betwixt Christ and Anwoth.
My love to your husband, to dear Carleton, to my beloved brother Knockbrex.[389] Forget not Christ's prisoner. I long for a letter under your own hand.
Your friend and Christ's prisoner,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Nov. 22, 1637.
[CCLXXX.—To John Gordon, at Rusco.][390] [Letter CCLXXII.]
(HEAVEN HARD TO BE WON—MANY COME SHORT IN ATTAINING—IDOL SINS TO BE RENOUNCED—LIKENESS TO CHRIST.)
D EAR BROTHER,—I earnestly desire to know the case of your soul, and to understand that ye have made sure work of heaven and salvation.
1. Remember, salvation is one of Christ's dainties He giveth but to a few.
2. That it is violent sweating and striving that taketh heaven.
3. That it cost Christ's blood to purchase that house to sinners, and to set mankind down as the King's free tenants and freeholders.
4. That many make a start toward heaven who fall on their back, and win not up to the top of the mount. It plucketh heart and legs from them, and they sit down and give it over, because the devil setteth a sweet-smelled flower to their nose (this fair busked world), wherewith they are bewitched, and so forget or refuse to go forward.
5. Remember, many go far on and reform many things, and can find tears, as Esau did; and suffer hunger for truth, as Judas did; and wish and desire the end of the righteous, as Balaam did; and profess fair, and fight for the Lord, as Saul did; and desire the saints of God to pray for them, as Pharaoh and Simon Magus did; and prophesy and speak of Christ, as Caiaphas did; and walk softly and mourn for fear of judgments, as Ahab did; and put away gross sins and idolatry, as Jehu did; and hear the word of God gladly, and reform their life in many things according to the word, as Herod did; and say to Christ, "Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest," as the man who offered to be Christ's servant (Matt. viii. 19); and may taste of the virtues of the life to come, and be partaker of the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit, and taste of the good word of God, as the apostates who sin against the Holy Ghost (Heb. vi.). And yet all these are but like gold in clink and colour, and watered brass, and base metal. These are written that we should try ourselves, and not rest till we be a step nearer Christ than sun-burnt and withering professors can come.
6. Consider, it is impossible that your idol-sins and ye can go to heaven together; and that they who will not part with these can, indeed, love Christ at the bottom but only in word and show, which will not do the business.
7. Remember, how swiftly God's post time flieth away; and that your forenoon is already spent, your afternoon will come, and then your evening, and at last night, when ye cannot see to work. Let your heart be set upon finishing of your journey, and summing and laying your accounts with your Lord. Oh how blessed shall ye be to have a joyful welcome of your Lord at night! How blessed are they who, in time, take sure course with their souls! Bless His great name for what you possess in goods and children, ease and worldly contentment, that He hath given you; and seek to be like Christ in humility and lowliness of mind. And be not great and entire[391] with the world. Make it not your god, nor your lover that ye trust unto, for it will deceive you.
I recommend Christ and His love to you, in all things; let Him have the flower of your heart and your love. Set a low price upon all things but Christ, and cry down in your thoughts clay and dirt, that will not comfort you when ye get summons to remove, and compear before your Judge to answer for all the deeds done in the body. The Lord give you wisdom in all things. I beseech you sanctify God in your speaking, for holy and reverend is His name; and be temperate and sober. Companionry with the bad is a sin, that holdeth many out of heaven.
I will not believe that you will receive the ministry of a stranger, who will preach a new and uncouth doctrine to you. Let my salvation stand for it, if I delivered not the plain and whole counsel of God to you in His word. Read this letter to your wife, and remember my love to her, and request her to take heed to do what I write to you. I pray for you and yours. Remember me in your prayers to our Lord, that He would be pleased to send me amongst you again. Grace be with you.
Your lawful and loving pastor,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
[CCLXXXI.—To my Lord Loudoun.]
(TRUE HONOUR IN MAINTAINING CHRIST'S CAUSE—PRELACY—LIGHT OF ETERNITY.)
R IGHT HONOURABLE AND VERY WORTHY LORD,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Hearing of your Lordship's zeal and courage for Christ our Lord in His honourable cause, I am bold (and plead pardon for it) to speak in paper by a line or two to your Lordship, since I have not access any other way, beseeching your Lordship, by the mercies of God, and by the everlasting peace of your soul, and by the tears and prayers of our mother-church, to go on, as ye have worthily begun, in purging of the Lord's house in this land, and plucking down the sticks of Antichrist's filthy nest, this wretched Prelacy, and that black kingdom whose wicked aims have ever been, and still are, to make this fat world the only compass they would have Christ and religion to sail by, and to mount up the Man of Sin, their godfather the Pope of Rome, upon the highest stair of Christ's throne, and to make a velvet church (in regard of Parliament grandeur and worldly pomp, whereof always their stinking breath smelleth), and to put Christ and truth in sackcloth and prison, and to eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction. Half an eye of any, not misted with the darkness of antichristian smoke, may see it thus in this land. And now our Lord hath begun to awaken the nobles and others to plead for borne-down Christ and His weeping Gospel.
My dear and noble Lord, the eye of Christ is upon you; the eyes of many noble, many holy, many learned and worthy ones, in our neighbouring churches about, are upon you.[392] This poor church, your mother and Christ's spouse, is holding up her hands and heart to God for you, and doth beseech you with tears to plead for her Husband, His kingly sceptre, and for the liberties that her Lord and King hath given to her, as to a free kingdom that oweth spiritual tribute to none on earth, as being the freeborn princess and daughter to the King of kings. This is a cause that, before God, His angels, the world, before sun and moon, needeth not to blush. Oh, what glory and true honour is it to lend Christ your hand and service, and to be amongst the repairers of the breaches of Zion's walls, and to help to build the old waste places, and stretch forth the curtains, and strengthen the stakes of Christ's tent in this land! Oh, blessed are they who, when Christ is driven away, will bring Him back again, and lend Him lodging! And blessed are ye of the Lord! Your name and honour shall never rot nor wither (in heaven at least), if ye deliver the Lord's sheep, that have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day, out of the hands of strange lords and hirelings, who with rigour and cruelty have caused them to eat the pastures trodden upon with their foul feet, and to drink muddy water; and who have spun out such a world of yards of indifferences in God's worship, to make and weave a web for the Antichrist (which shall not keep any from the cold); as they mind nothing else, but that, by the bringing in of the Pope's foul tail first upon us (their wretched and beggarly ceremonies), they may thrust in after them the Antichrist's legs and thighs, and his belly, head, and shoulders; and then cry down Christ and the Gospel, and up the merchandise and wares of the great whore. Fear not, my worthy Lord, to give yourself, and all ye have, out for Christ and His Gospel. No man dare say (who did ever thus hazard for Christ), that Christ paid him not his hundred-fold in this life duly, and, in the life to come, life everlasting. This is His own truth that ye now plead for; for God and man cannot but commend you to beg justice from a just prince for oppressed Christ, and to plead that Christ, who is the King's Lord, may be heard in a free court to speak for Himself, when the standing and established laws of our nation can strongly plead for Christ's crown in the pulpits, and His chair as Lawgiver in the free government of His own house. But Christ will never be content and pleased with this land, neither shall His hot, fiery indignation be turned away, so long as the prelate (the man that lay in Antichrist's foul womb, and the Antichrist's lord-bailiff) shall sit lord-carver in the courts of the Lord Jesus. The prelate is both the egg and the nest to cleck and bring forth Popery. Plead, therefore, in Christ's behalf, for the plucking down of the nest, and the crushing of the egg; and let Christ's kingly office suffer no more unworthy indignities. Be valiant for your royal King, Jesus; contend for Him: your adversaries shall be moth-eaten worms, and die as men. Christ and His honour now lie on your shoulders, let Him not fall to the ground. Cast your eye upon Him who is quickly coming to decide all the controversies in Zion. And remember that the sand in your night-glass will run out; time with wings will flee away. Eternity is hard upon you; and what will Christ's love-smiles, and the light of His lovely and soul-delighting countenance, be to you in that day, when God shall take up in His right hand this little lodge of heaven (like as a shepherd lifteth up his little tent), and fold together the two leaves of His tent, and put the earth and all the plenishing of it into a fire, and turn this clay-idol, the god of Adam's sons, into smoke and white ashes! Oh, what hire and how many worlds would many then give to have a favourable decreet of the Judge! Oh, what moneys would they not give, to buy a mountain to be a grave above both soul and body, to hide them from the awesome looks of an angry Lord and Judge! I hope that your Lordship thinketh upon this, and that ye mind loyalty to Christ, and to the King both.
Now the very God of peace, the only wise God, establish and strengthen you upon the rock laid in Zion.
Your Lordship's at all obedience in Christ,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Jan. 4, 1638.
[CCLXXXII.—To the Lady Robertland.]
[This is probably the Lady Robertland (her own name was Fleming) mentioned in Livingstone's "Characteristics" as "one deeply exercised in mind, who often got as rare outgates." She was a great help to the poor people of Stewarton, during the time of the awakening there. One of her sayings was, "With God, the most of mosts is lighter than nothing; and without God, the least of leasts is heavier than any burden.">[
(AFFLICTIONS PURIFY—THE WORLD'S VANITY—CHRIST'S WISE LOVE.)
M ISTRESS,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I shall be glad to hear that your soul prospereth, and that fruit groweth upon you, after the Lord's husbandry and pains, in His rod that hath not been a stranger to you from your youth. It is the Lord's kindness that He will take the scum off us in the fire. Who knoweth how needful winnowing is to us, and what dross we must want ere we enter into the kingdom of God? So narrow is the entry to heaven, that our knots, our bunches and lumps of pride, and self-love, and idol-love, and world-love, must be hammered off us, that we may thring in, stooping low, and creeping through that narrow and thorny entry.
And now for myself, I find it the most sweet and heavenly life to take up house and dwelling at Christ's fireside, and set down my tent upon Christ, that Foundation-stone, who is sure and faithful ground and hard under foot. Oh if I could win to it, and proclaim myself not the world's debtor, nor a lover obliged to it, and that I mind not to hire or bud this world's love any longer; but defy both the kindness and feud of God's whole creation whatsomever! especially the lower vault and clay part of God's creatures, this vain earth! For what hold I of His world? A borrowed lodging and some years' house-room, and bread and water, and fire, and bed and candle, are all a part of the pension of my King and Lord; to whom I owe thanks, and not to a creature. I thank God that God is God, and Christ is Christ, and the earth the earth, and the devil the devil, and the world the world, and that sin is sin, and that everything is what it is; because He hath taught me in my wilderness not to shuffle my Lord Jesus, nor to intermix Him with creature-vanities, nor to spin or twine Christ or His sweet love in one web, or in one thread, with the world and the things thereof. Oh, if I could hold and keep Christ all alone, and mix Him with nothing! Oh, if I could cry down the price and weight of my cursed self, and cry up the price of Christ, and double, and triple, and augment, and heighten to millions the price and worth of Christ! I am (if I durst speak so, and might lawfully complain) so hungredly tutored by Christ Jesus my liberal Lord, that His nice love, which my soul would be in hands with, flieth me; and yet I am trained on to love Him, and lust, and long, and die for His love whom I cannot see. It is a wonder to pine away with love for a covered and hid lover, and to be hungered with His love, so as a poor soul cannot get his fill of hunger for Christ. It is hard to be hungered of hunger,[393] whereof such abundance for other things is in the world. But sure, if we were tutors, and stewards, and masters, and lord-carvers of Christ's love, we should be more lean and worse fed than we are. Our meat doeth us the more good, that Christ keepeth the keys, and that the wind and the air of Christ's sweet breathing, and of the influence of His Spirit, is locked up in the hands of the good pleasure of Him who "bloweth where He listeth."
I see there is a sort of impatient patience required in the want of Christ as to His manifestations, and waiting on. They thrive who wait on His love, and the blowing of it, and the turning of His gracious wind; and they thrive who, in that on-waiting, make haste and din and much ado for their lost and hidden Lord Jesus. However it be, God feed me with Him any way. If He would come in, I shall not dispute the matter, where He get a hole, or how He opened the lock. I should be content that Christ and I met, suppose He should stand on the other side of hell's lake and cry to me, "Either put in your foot and come through, or else ye shall not have Me at all." But what fools are we in the taking up of Him and of His dealing! He hath a gate of His own beyond the thoughts of men, that no foot hath skill to follow Him. But we are still ill scholars, and will go in at heaven's gates wanting the half of our lesson; and shall still be bairns, so long as we are under time's hands, and till eternity cause a sun to arise in our souls that shall give us wit. We may see how we spill and mar our own fair heaven and our salvation, and how Christ is every day putting in one bone or other, in these fallen souls of ours, in the right place again; and that on this side of the New Jerusalem, we shall still have need of forgiving and healing grace. I find crosses Christ's carved work that He marketh out for us, and that with crosses He figureth and portrayeth us to His own image, cutting away pieces of our ill and corruption. Lord cut, Lord carve, Lord wound, Lord do anything that may perfect Thy Father's image in us, and make us meet for glory.
Pray for me (I forget not you) that our Lord would be pleased to lend me house-room to preach His righteousness, and tell what I have heard and seen of Him. Forget not Zion that is now in Christ's caums, and in His forge. God bring her out new work. Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Jan. 4, 1638.
[CCLXXXIII.—To his Reverent and Respected Friend, Thomas Macculloch of Nether Ardwell. [See "Ardwell" in notice at Letter CI.]
[This letter is given from the "Christian Instructor" for January 1839, furnished by one who had the MS. Why Rutherford calls his correspondent "reverent," we do not know. It seems to mean "REVERED," as in the address of Letter CCLXXXIV.][394]
(EARNEST CALL TO DILIGENCE—CIRCUMSPECT WALKING.)
R EVERENT AND MUCH RESPECTED,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I long to hear how your soul prospereth, and I expected you would have written to me. My earnest desire to you is, that you would seek the Lord and His face. I know that you are not ignorant that your daylight is going fast away, and your sun declining. I beseech you by the mercies of God, and by the wounds of your redeeming Lord, and your dreadful compearance before the awesome Judge of quick and dead, make your account clear and plain with your Judge and Lord, while ye have fair daylight, for your night is coming on. Therefore, I pray you, judge more of the worth of your soul, and know that if you are in Christ, and secure your own soul, you are blessed for ever. Few, few, yea very few, are saved. Grace is not casten down at every man's door; therefore speed yourself and others upon seeking Christ and salvation; and learn to overcome, in the bitterness of your soul, your sins in time. It is not easy to take heaven, as the word saith, "by violence." Keep your tongue from cursing and swearing; refrain from wrath and malice; forgive all men for Christ's sake, as you would have your Lord forgive you. I pray you, seeing your time is short, make speed in your journey to heaven, that you may secure a lodging to your soul against night.
Remember my love to your wife, William your son, and the rest of your children.
Grace be with you.
Yours, at all hours, in Christ,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Jan. 5, 1638.
[CCLXXXIV.—To the Honourable, Reverend, and Well-beloved Professors of Christ and His truth in sincerity, in Ireland.]
[At the date of this letter the Presbyterian Church of Ireland was in a very depressed condition. In 1634 Robert Blair, with some other ministers, were deposed for nonconformity; in the autumn of 1636 five more were dealt with in the same manner, for the same cause; and all of them were ultimately forced to leave the country. The Presbyterians in Ireland were thus left to a great extent destitute of the ministry of the Word, which had been so eminently blessed of God. This letter was intended to confirm them in their adherence to the cause for which their ministers and themselves were suffering.]
(THE WAY TO HEAVEN OFTTIMES THROUGH PERSECUTION—CHRIST'S WORTH—MAKING SURE OUR PROFESSION—SELF-DENIAL—NO COMPROMISE—TESTS OF SINCERITY—HIS OWN DESIRE FOR CHRIST'S GLORY.)
D EARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD, AND PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you, and from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
I always, but most of all now in my bonds (most sweet bonds for Christ my Lord), rejoice to hear of your faith and love, and to hear that our King, our Well-beloved, our Bridegroom, without tiring, stayeth still to woo you as His wife; and that persecutions, and mockings of sinners, have not chased away the Wooer from the house. I persuade you in the Lord, that the men of God, now scattered and driven from you, put you upon the right scent and pursuit of Christ: and, my salvation on it (if ten heavens were mine), if this way, this way that I now suffer for, this way that the world nicknameth and reproacheth, and no other way, be not the King's gate to heaven! And I shall never see God's face (and, alas, I were a beguiled wretch if it were so!) if this be not the only saving way to heaven. Oh that you would take a prisoner of Christ's word for it (nay, I know you have the greatest King's word for it), that it shall not be your wisdom to speer out another Christ, or another way of worshipping Him, than is now savingly revealed to you. Therefore, though I never saw your faces, let me be pardoned to write to you (ye honourable persons, ye faithful pastors, yet amongst the flocks, and ye sincere professors of Christ's truth, or any weak, tired strayers, who cast but half an eye after the Bridegroom), if possibly I could, by any weak experience, confirm and strengthen you in this good way, everywhere spoken against.
I can with the greatest assurance (to the honour of our highest, and greatest, and dearest Lord, let it be spoken!) assert (though I be but a child in Christ, and scarce able to walk but by a hold, and the meanest, and less than the least of saints), that we do not come nigh, by twenty degrees, to the due love and estimation of that fairest among the sons of men. For if it were possible that heaven, yea, ten heavens, were laid in the balance with Christ, I would think the smell of His breath above them all. Sure I am that He is the far best half of heaven, yea, He is all heaven, and more than all heaven; and my testimony of Him is, that ten lives of black sorrow, ten deaths, ten hells of pain, ten furnaces of brimstone, and all exquisite torments, were all too little for Christ, if our suffering could be a hire to buy Him. Therefore, faint not in your sufferings and hazards for Him. I proclaim and cry, hell, sorrow, and shame upon all lusts, upon all by-lovers, that would take Christ's room over His head, in this little inch of love of these narrow souls of ours, that is due to sweetest Jesus. O highest, O fairest, O dearest Lord Jesus, take Thine own from all bastard lovers. Oh that we could wadset and sell all our part of time's glory, and time's good things, for a lease and tack of Christ for all eternity! Oh how are we misted and mired with the love of things that are on this side of time, and on this side of death's water! Where can we find a match to Christ, or an equal, or a better than He, among created things? Oh this world is out of all conceit, and all love, with our Well-beloved. Oh that I could sell my laughter, joy, ease, and all for Him; and be content with a straw bed, and bread by weight, and water by measure, in the camp of our weeping Christ! I know that His sackcloth and ashes are better than the fool's laughter, which is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. But, alas! we do not harden our faces against the cold north storms which blow upon Christ's fair face. We love well summer-religion, and to be that which sin has made us, even as thin-skinned as if we were made of white paper; and would fain be carried to heaven in a close-covered chariot, wishing from our hearts that Christ would give us surety, and His handwrite, and His seal, or nothing but a fair summer until we be landed in at heaven's gates!
How many of us have been here deceived, and have fainted in the day of trial! Amongst you there are some of this stamp. I shall be sorry if my acquaintance A. T. hath left you: I will not believe that he dare to stay away from Christ's side. I desire that ye shew him this from me; for I loved him once in Christ, neither can I change my mind suddenly of him. But the truth is, that many of you, and too many also of your neighbour Church of Scotland, have been like a tenant that sitteth mail-free and knoweth not his holding whill his rights be questioned. And now I am persuaded, that it will be asked at every one of us, on what terms we brook Christ; for we have sitten long mail-free. We found Christ without a wet foot; and He and His Gospel came upon small charges to our doors: but now we must wet our feet to seek Him. Our evil manners, and the bad fashions of a people at ease from our youth, and like Moab not casten from vessel to vessel (Jer. xlviii. 11), have made us (like the standing waters), to gather a foul scum, and, when we are jumbled, our dregs come up, and are seen. Many take but half a grip of Christ, and the wind bloweth them and Christ asunder. Indeed, when the mast is broken and blown into the sea, it is an art[395] then to swim upon Christ to dry land. It is even possible that the children of God, in a hard trial, lay themselves down as hidden in the lee-side of a bush whill Christ their Master be taken, as Peter did; and lurk there, whill the storm be over-past. All of us know the way to a whole skin; and the singlest heart that is hath a by-purse that will contain the denial of Christ, and a fearful backsliding. Oh, how rare a thing it is to be loyal and honest to Christ, when He hath a controversy with the shields of the earth! I wish all of you would consider, that this trial is from Christ; it is come upon you unbought. (Indeed, when we buy a temptation with our own money, no marvel that we be not easily free of it, and that God be not at our elbow to take it off our hand.) This is Christ's ordinary house-fire, that He maketh use of to try all the vessels of His house withal. And Christ is now about to bring His treasure out before sun and moon, and to tell His money, and, in the telling, to try what weight of gold, and what weight of watered copper, is in His house. Do not now jouk, or bow, or yield to your adversaries in a hair-breadth. Christ and His truth will not divide; and His truth hath not latitude and breadth, that ye may take some of it and leave other some of it. Nay, the Gospel is like a small hair, that hath no breadth, and will not cleave in two. It is not possible to twist and compound a matter betwixt Christ and Antichrist; and, therefore, ye must either be for Christ, or ye must be against Him. It was but man's wit, and the wit of prelates and their godfather the Pope (that man without law[396]), to put Christ and His prerogatives royal, and His truth, or the smallest nail-breadth of His latter will, in the new calender of indifferences, and to make a blank of uninked paper in Christ's testament that men may fill up; and to shuffle the truth, and matters which they call indifferent, through other, and spin both together, that Antichrist's wares may sell the better. This is but the device and forged dream of men whose consciences are made of stoutness, and who have a throat that a graven image, greater than the bounds of the kirk-door, would get free passage into. I am sure that when Christ shall bring us all out in our blacks and whites, at that day when He shall cry down time and the world, and when the glory of it shall lie in white ashes, like a May-flower cut down and which hath lost the blossom, there shall be few, yea none, that dare make any point, which toucheth the worship and honour of our King and Lawgiver, to be indifferent. Oh that this misled and blindfolded world would see that Christ doth not rise and fall, stand or lie, by men's apprehensions! What is Christ the lighter, that men do with Him, by open proclamation, as men do with clipped and light money? They are now crying down Christ some grain-weights, and some pounds or shillings; and they will have Him lie[397] for a penny or a pound, for one or for a hundred, according as the wind bloweth from the east or from the west. But the Lord hath weighed Him, and balanced Him already: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him!" His worth and His weight stand still. It is our part to cry, "Up, up with Christ, and down, down with all created glory before Him." Oh that I could heighten Him, and heighten His name, and heighten His throne! I know, and am persuaded, that Christ shall again be high and great in this poor, withered, and sun-burnt Kirk of Scotland; and that the sparks of our fire shall fly over the sea, and round about, to warm you and other sister churches; and that this tabernacle of David's house, that is fallen, even the Son of David's waste places, shall be built again. And I know the prison, crosses, persecutions, and trials of the two slain witnesses, that are now dead and buried (Rev. xi. 9), and of the faithful professors, have a back-door and back-entry of escape; and that death and hell, and the world, and the tortures, shall all cleave and split in twain, and give us free passage and liberty to go through toll-free: and we shall bring all God's good metal out of the furnace again, and leave behind us but our dross and our scum. We may then beforehand proclaim Christ to be victorious. He is crowned King of Mount Zion: God did put the crown upon His head (Ps. ii. 6, and xxi. 3), and who dare take it off again? Out of question, He hath sore and grievous quarrels against His church: and therefore He is called, "He whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem" (Isa. xxxi. 9). But when He hath performed His work on Mount Zion, all Zion's haters shall be as the hungry and thirsty man, that dreameth he is eating and drinking, and behold, when he awakeneth, he is faint, and his soul empty. And this advantage we have also, that He will not bring before sun and moon all the infirmities of His wife. It is the modesty of marriage-anger or husband-wrath, that our sweet Lord Jesus will not come with chiding to the streets, to let all the world hear what is betwixt Him and us. His sweet glooms stay under roof, and that because He is God.
Two special things ye are to mind: 1. Try and make sure your profession; that ye carry not empty lamps. Alas! security, security is the bane and the wrack of the most part of the world. Oh, how many professors go with a golden lustre, and are gold-like before men (who are but witnesses to our white skin), and yet are but bastard and base metal! Consider how fair before the wind some do ply with up-sails and white, even to the nick of "illumination," and "tasting of the heavenly gift;" and "a share and part of the Holy Ghost;" and "the tasting of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come" (Heb. vi. 4, 5). And yet this is but a false nick of renovation, and, in a short time, such are quickly broken upon the rocks, and never fetch the harbour, but are sanded in the bottom of hell. Oh, make your haven sure, and try how ye come by conversion; that it be not stolen goods, in a white and well-lustred profession! A white skin over old wounds maketh an under-coating conscience. False under water, not seen, is dangerous, and that is a leak and rift in the bottom of an enlightened conscience; often falling and sinning against light. Wo, wo is me that the holy profession of Christ is made a stage garment by many, to bring home a vain fame, and Christ is made to serve men's ends! This is, as it were, to stop an oven with a king's robes.
Know, 2. Except men martyr and slay the body of sin in sanctified self-denial, they shall never be Christ's martyrs and faithful witnesses. Oh, if I could be master of that house-idol, myself, my own mind, my own will, wit, credit, and ease, how blessed were I! Oh, but we have need to be redeemed from ourselves, rather than from the devil and the world! Learn to put out yourselves, and to put in Christ for yourselves. It would make a sweet bartering and niffering, and give old for new, if I could shuffle out self, and substitute Christ my Lord, in place of myself; to say, "Not I, but Christ; not my will, but Christ's; not my ease, not my lust, not my feckless credit, but Christ, Christ." But, alas! in leaving ourselves, in setting Christ before our idol, self, we have yet a glaiked back-look to our old idol. O wretched idol, myself! when shall I see thee wholly decourted, and Christ wholly put in thy room? Oh, if Christ, Christ had the full place and room of myself, that all my aims, purposes, thoughts, and desires would coast and land upon Christ, and not upon myself! And, howbeit we cannot attain to this denial of me and mine, that we can say, "I am not myself, myself is not myself, mine own is no longer mine own," yet our aiming at this in all we do shall be accepted: for alas! I think I shall die but minting and aiming to be a Christian. Is it not our comfort, that Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant, is come betwixt us and God in the business, so that green and young heirs, the like of sinners, have now a Tutor that is God! And now, God be thanked, our salvation is bottomed on Christ. Sure I am, the bottom shall never fall out of heaven and happiness to us. I would give over the bargain a thousand times, were it not that Christ's free grace hath taken our salvation in hand.
Pray, pray and contend with the Lord, for your sister-church; for it would appear that the Lord is about to speer for His scattered sheep, in the dark and cloudy day. Oh that it would please our Lord to set up again David's old wasted and fallen tabernacle in Scotland, that we might see the glory of the second temple in this land! Oh that my little heaven were wadset, to redeem the honour of my Lord Jesus among the Jews and Gentiles! Let never dew lie upon my branches, and let my poor flower wither at the root, so that Christ were enthroned, and His glory advanced in all the world, and especially in these three kingdoms. But I know that He hath no need of me; what can I add to Him? But oh that He would cause His high and pure glory to run through such a foul channel as I am! And, howbeit He hath caused the blossom to fall off my one poor joy, that was on this side of heaven, even my liberty to preach Christ to His people, yet I am dead to that now, so that He would hew and carve glory, glory for evermore, to my royal King out of my silence and sufferings. Oh that I had my fill of His love! But I know ill-manners make an unco and strange bridegroom.
I entreat you earnestly for the aid of your prayers, for I forget not you; and I salute, with my soul in Christ, the faithful pastors, and honourable and worthy professors in that land. Now the God of peace, that brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight. Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweetest Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, Feb. 4, 1638.
[CCLXXXV.—To Robert Gordon of Knockbrex.]
(NOT OUR CROSS, BUT CHRIST, THE OBJECT OF ATTRACTION—TOO LITTLE EXPECTED FROM HIM—SPIRITUAL DEADNESS.)
M Y VERY DEAR BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you.—I thought to have answered your two letters on this occasion, though I cannot say all that I would. Your timeous word, "not to delight in the cross, but in Him who sweeteneth it," came to me in due time. I find the consolation and off-fallings that follow the cross of Christ so sweet, that I almost forget myself. My desire and purpose is, when Christ's honeycombs drop, neither to refuse to receive and feed upon His comforts, nor yet to make joy my bastard-god, or my new-found heaven. But what shall I say? Christ very often in His sweet comforts cometh unsent for, and it were a sin to close the door upon Him. It is not unlawful to love and delight in Christ's apples, when I am not dotingly wooing, nor eagerly begging kisses; but when they come clean from the timber[398] (like kindness itself, that cometh of its own accord), then I cannot but laugh upon Him who laugheth upon me. If joy and comforts come single and alone, without Christ Himself, I think I would send them back again the gate they came, and not make them welcome; but, when the King's train cometh, and the King in the midst of the company, oh how I am overjoyed with floods of love! I fear not that too great spaits of love wash away the growing corn, and loose my plants at the roots. Christ doeth no skaith, where He cometh; but certainly, I would wish such spiritual wisdom, as to love the Bridegroom better than His gifts, His propines, or drink-money. I would be further in upon Christ than at His joys. They but stand in the outer side of Christ; I would wish to be in, as a seal upon His heart, in where His love and mercy lodgeth, beside His heart. My Well-beloved hath ravished me; but it is done with consent of both parties, and it is allowable enough. But, my dear brother, ere I part with this subject, I must tell you (that ye may lift up my King in praises with me), Christ hath been keeping something these fourteen years for me, that I have now gotten in my heavy days that I am in for His name's sake, even an opened coffer of perfumed comforts, and fresh joys, coming new, and green, and powerful, from the fairest face of Christ my Lord. Let the sour law, let crosses, let hell be cried down; love, love hath shamed me from my old ways. Whether I have a race to run, or some work to do, I see not; but I think Christ seemeth to leave heaven (to say so), and His court, and come down to laugh, and play, and sport with a daft bairn.
I am not thus plain with many I write to. It is possible I be misconstructed, and deemed to seek a name. But my witness above knoweth that I seek to have a good name raised upon Christ. I observe it to be our folly, to seek little from Christ, because our four-hours may not be our supper, nor our propines sent by the Bridegroom our tocher-good, nor our earnest our principal sum. But I trow that few of us know how much may be had of Christ for a four-hours, and a propine, and an earnest. We are like the young heir, who knoweth not the whole bounds of his own lordship. Certainly it is more than my part to say, "O sweetest Lord Jesus, what howbeit I were split and broken into five thousand shreds or bits of clay, so being that every shred had a heart to love Thee, and every one as many tongues as there are in heaven to sing praises to Thee, before men and angels for evermore!" Therefore, if my sufferings cry goodness, and praise, and honour upon Christ, my stipend is well paid. Each one knoweth not what a life Christ's love is. Scaur not at suffering for Christ; for Christ hath a chair, and a cushion, and sweet peace for a sufferer. Christ's trencher from the first mess of the high table is for a sinful witness. Oh, then, brother, who but Christ! who but Christ! Hold your tongue off lovers, where He cometh out. O all flesh, O dust and ashes, O angels, O glorified spirits, O all the shields of the world, be silent before Him! Come hither, and behold our Bridegroom; stand still and wonder for evermore at Him! Why cease we to love and wonder, to kiss and adore Him? It is a hard matter, that days lie betwixt Him and me, and hold us asunder. Oh, how long, how long! Oh, how many miles are there to my Bridegroom's dwelling-house! It is a pain to frist Christ's love any longer. But, it may be that a drunken man lose his feet, and miss a step. Ye write to me "Hall-binks are slippery." I do not think my dawting world will still[399] last, and that feasts will be my ordinary food. I would have humility, patience, and faith to set down both my feet, when I come to the north side of the cold and thorny hill. It is ill my common to be sweer to go an errand for Christ, and to take the wind upon my face for Him. Lord, let me never be a false witness, to deny that I saw Christ take the pen in His hand, and subscribe my writs.
My dear brother, ye complain to me that ye cannot hold sight of me. But were I a footman, I would go at leisure; but sometimes the King taketh me into His coach, and draweth me, and then I outrun myself. But, alas! I am still a forlorn transgressor. Oh how unthankful! I will not put you off your sense of darkness; but let me say this, "Who gave you proctor-fee, to speak for the law, which can speak for itself better than ye can do?" I would not have you to bring your dittay in your own bosom with you to Christ. Let the "old man" and the "new man" be summoned before Christ's white throne, and let them be confronted before Christ, and let each of them speak for themselves. I hope, howbeit the new man complain of his lying among pots, which maketh the believer look black, yet he can also say, "I am comely as the tents of Kedar." Ye shall not have my advice not to bemoan your deadness; but I find by some experience (which ye knew before I knew Christ), that it suiteth not a ransomed man, of Christ's buying, to go and plea for the sour law, our old forcasten husband; for we are not now under the law (as a covenant), but under grace. Ye are in no man's common, but Christ's. I know that He bemoaneth you more than you do yourself. I say this, because I am wearied of complaining. I thought it had been humility to imagine that Christ was angry with me, both because of my dumb Sabbaths, and my hard heart; but I feel now nothing but aching wounds. My grief, whether I will or not, swelleth upon me. But let us die in grace's hall-floor, pleading before Christ. I deny nothing that the Mediator will challenge me of; but I turn it all back upon Himself. Let Him look His own old accounts, if He be angry; for He will get no more of me. When Christ saith, "I want repentance," I meet Him with this: "True, Lord, but Thou art made a King and a Prince to give me repentance" (Acts v. 34). When Christ bindeth a challenge upon us, we must bind a promise back upon Him. Be wo, and lay yourself in the dust before God (which is suitable), but withal let Christ take the payment in His own hand, and pay Himself off the first end of His own merits; else He will come behind for anything that we can do. I am every way in your case, as hard-hearted and dead as any man; but yet I speak to Christ through my sleep. Let us then proclaim a free market for Christ, and swear ourselves bare, and cry on Him to come without money and buy us, and take us home to our Ransom-payer's fireside, and let us be Christ's free-boarders. Because we dow not pay the old, we may not refuse to take on Christ's new debt of mercy; let us do our best, Christ will still be behind with us,[400] and many terms will run together. For my part, let me stand for evermore in His book, as a forlorn dyvour. I must desire to be thus far in His common of new, as to kiss His feet. I know not how to win to a heartsome fill and feast of Christ's love; for I dow neither buy, nor beg, nor borrow, and yet I cannot want it. I dow not want it! Oh, if I could praise Him! yea I would rest content with a heart submissive and dying of love for Him. And, howbeit I never win personally in at heaven's gates, oh, would to God I could send in my praises to my incomparable Well-beloved, or cast my love-songs of that matchless Lord Jesus over the walls, that they might light in His lap, before men and angels!
Now, grace, grace be with you. Remember my love to your wife and daughter, and brother John.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Aberdeen, June 11, 1638.
[CCLXXXVI.—To the Parishioners of Kilmalcolm.][401]
(SPIRITUAL SLOTH—ADVICE TO BEGINNERS—A DEAD MINISTRY—LANGUOR—OBEDIENCE—WANT OF CHRIST'S FELT PRESENCE—ASSURANCE IMPORTANT—PRAYER-MEETINGS.)
W ORTHY, AND WELL-BELOVED IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Your letters could not come to my hand in a greater throng of business that I am now pressed with at this time, when our kirk requireth the public help of us all. Yet I cannot but answer the heads of both your letters, with provision that ye choose, after this, a fitter time for writing. 1. I would not have you to pitch upon me, as the man able by letters to answer doubts of this kind, while there are in your bounds men of such great parts, most able for this work. I know that the best are unable; yet it pleaseth that Spirit of Jesus to blow His sweet wind through a piece of dry stick, that the empty reed may keep no glory to itself. But a minister can make no such wind as this to blow; he is scarce able to lend it a passage to blow through Him. 2. Know that the wind of this Spirit hath a time when it bloweth sharp, and pierceth so strongly, that it would blow through an iron door; and this is commonly rather under suffering for Christ than at any other time. Sick children get of Christ's pleasant things, to play them withal, because Jesus is most tender of the sufferer, for He was a sufferer Himself. Oh, if I had but the leavings and the drawing of the bye-board of a sufferer's table! But I leave this to answer yours.
I. Ye write, that God's vows are lying on you; and security, strong and sib to nature, stealing on you who are weak. I answer: 1. Till we be in heaven, the best have heavy heads, as is evident. Cant. v. 1; Ps. xxx. 6; Job xxix. 18; Matt. xxvi. 33. Nature is a sluggard, and loveth not the labour of religion; therefore, rest should not be taken, till we know that the disease is over, and in the way of turning, and that it is like a fever past the cool. And the quietness and the calms of the faith of victory over corruption should be entertained, in place of security; so that if I sleep, I should desire to sleep faith's sleep in Christ's bosom. 2. Know, also, that none who sleep sound can seriously complain of sleepiness. Sorrow for a slumbering soul is a token of some watchfulness of spirit. But this is soon turned into wantonness, as grace in us too often is abused; therefore, our waking must be watched over, else sleep will even grow out of watching, and there is as much need to watch over grace as to watch over sin. Full men will soon sleep, and sooner than hungry men. 3. For your weakness to keep off security, that like a thief stealeth upon you, I would say two things:—(1.) To "want complaints of weakness" is for heaven, and angels that never sinned, not for Christians in Christ's camp on earth. I think that our weakness maketh us the church of the redeemed ones, and Christ's field that the Mediator should labour in. If there were no diseases on earth, there need be no physicians on earth. If Christ had cried down weakness, He might have cried down His own calling; but weakness is our Mediator's world; sin is Christ's only, only fair and market. No man should rejoice at weakness and diseases; but I think that we may have a sort of gladness at boils and sores, because, without them, Christ's fingers (as a slain Lord) would never have touched our skin. I dare not thank myself, but I dare thank God's depth of wise providence, that I have an errand in me while I live, for Christ to come and visit me, and bring with Him His drugs and His balm. Oh, how sweet is it for a sinner to put his weakness into Christ's strengthening hand, and to father a sick soul upon such a Physician, and to lay weakness before Him to weep upon Him, and to plead and pray! Weakness can speak and cry, when we have not a tongue. "And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live" (Ezek. xvi. 6). The kirk could not speak one word to Christ then: but blood and guiltiness out of measure spake, and drew out of Christ pity, and a word of life and love. (2.) As for weakness, we have it that we may employ Christ's strength because of our weakness. Weakness is to make us the strongest things; that is, when, having no strength of our own, we are carried upon Christ's shoulders, and walk as it were upon His legs. If our sinful weakness swell up to the clouds, Christ's strength will swell up to the sun, and far above the heaven of heavens.
II. Ye tell me, that there is need of counsel for strengthening of new beginners. I can say little to that, who am not well begun myself: but I know that honest beginnings are nourished by Him, even by lovely Jesus, who never yet put out a poor man's dim candle that is wrestling betwixt light and darkness. I am sure, that if new beginners would urge themselves upon Christ, and press their souls upon Him, and importune Him for a draught of His sweet love, they could not come wrong to Christ. Come once in upon the right nick and step of His lovely love, and I defy you to get free of Him again. If any beginners fall off Christ again, and miss Him, they never lighted upon Christ as Christ: it was but an idol, like Jesus, which they took for Him.
III. Whereas ye complain of a dead ministry in your bounds; ye are to remember that the Bible among you is the contract of marriage; and the manner of Christ's conveying His love to your heart is not so absolutely dependent upon even lively preaching, as that there is no conversion at all, no life of God, but that which is tied to a man's lips. The daughters of Jerusalem have done often that which the watchman could not do. Make Christ your minister. He can woo a soul at a dykeside in the field. He needeth not us, howbeit the flock be obliged to seek Him in the shepherds' tents. Hunger, of Christ's making, may thrive even under stewards who mind not the feeding of the flock. O blessed soul, that can leap over a man, and look above a pulpit up to Christ, who can preach home to the heart, howbeit we were all dead and rotten.
IV. So to complain of yourselves, as to justify God, is right; providing ye justify His Spirit in yourselves. For men seldom advocate against Satan's work and sin in themselves, but against God's work in themselves. Some of the people of God slander God's grace in their souls; as some wretches used to do, who complain and murmur of want ("I have nothing," say they; "all is gone, the ground yieldeth but weeds and windlestraws"), whenas their fat harvest, and their money in bank, maketh them liars. But for myself, alas! I think it is not my sin; I have scarce wit to sin this sin. But I advise you to speak good of Christ, for His beauty and sweetness, and speak good of Him for His grace to yourselves.
V. Light remaineth, ye say, but ye cannot attain to painfulness. See if this complaint be not booked in the New Testament; and the place is like this, "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I know not" (Rom. vii. 18). But every one hath not Paul's spirit in complaining: for often, in us, complaining is but an humble backbiting and traducing of Christ's new work in the soul. But for the matter of the complaint; I would say, that the light of glory is perfectly obeyed in loving, and praising, and rejoicing, and resting in a seen and known Lord; but that light is not hereaway in any clay body. For while we are here, light is (in the most) broader and longer than our narrow and feckless obedience. But if there be light, with a fair train and a great back (I mean, armies) of challenging thoughts, and sorrow for coming short of performance in what we know and see ought to be performed, then that sorrow for not doing is accepted of our Lord for doing. Our honest sorrow and sincere aims, together with Christ's intercession, pleading that God would welcome that which we have, and forgive what we have not, must be our life, till we be over the bound-road, and in the other country, where the law will get a perfect soul.
VI. In Christ's absence, there is, as ye write, a willingness to use means, but heaviness after the use of them, because of formal and slight performance. In Christ's absence, I confess, the work lieth behind. But if ye mean absence of comfort, and absence of sense of His sweet presence, I think that absence is Christ's trying of us, not simply our sin against Him. Therefore, howbeit our obedience be not sugared and sweetened with joy (which is the sweetmeat bairns would still be at), yet the less sense, and the more willingness in obeying, the less formality in our obedience. Howbeit, we think not so; for I believe that many think obedience formal and lifeless, except the wind be fair in the west, and sails filled with joy and sense, till souls, like a ship fair before the wind, can spread no more sail. But I am not of their mind, who think so. But if ye mean, by absence of Christ, the withdrawing of His working grace, I see not how willingness to use means can be at all, under such an absence. Therefore, be humbled for heaviness in that obedience, and thankful for willingness; for the Bridegroom is busking His spouse oftentimes, while she is half sleeping; and your Lord is working and helping more than ye see. Also, I recommend to you heaviness for formality, and for lifeless deadness in obedience. Be casten down, as much as ye will or can, for deadness; and challenge that dull and slow carcase of sin, that will neither lead nor drive, in your spiritual obedience. Oh, how sweet to lovely Jesus are bills and grievances, given in against corruption and the body of sin! I would have Christ, in such a case, fashed (if I may speak so), and deaved with our cries, as ye see the Apostle doeth, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24). Protestations against the law of sin in you are law-grounds why sin can have no law against you. Seek to have your protestation discussed and judged, and then shall ye find Christ on your side of it.
VII. Ye hold, that Christ must either have hearty service, or no service at all. If ye mean that He will not have half a heart, or have feigned service, such as the hypocrites give Him, I grant you that; Christ must have honesty or nothing. But if ye mean, He will have no service at all where the heart draweth back in any measure, I would not that were true for my part of heaven, and all that I am worth in the world. If ye mind to walk to heaven without a cramp or a crook,[402] I fear that ye must go your lone. He knoweth our dross and defects; and sweet Jesus pitieth us, when weakness and deadness in our obedience is our cross, and not our darling.
VIII. The Liar (John viii. 44), as ye write, challengeth the work as formal; yet ye bless your Cautioner for the ground-work He hath laid, and dare not say but ye have assurance in some measure. To this I say: 1. It shall be no fault to save Satan's labour, and challenge it yourselves,[403] or at least examine and censure; but beware of Satan's ends in challenging, for he mindeth to put Christ and you at odds. 2. Welcome home faith in Jesus, who washeth still, when we have defiled our souls and made ourselves loathsome; and seek still the blood of atonement for faults little or meikle. Know the gate to the well, and lie about it. 3. Make meikle of assurance, for it keepeth your anchor fixed.
IX. Outbreakings, ye say, discourage you, so that ye know not if ever ye shall win again to such overjoying consolations of the Spirit in this life, as formerly ye had; and, therefore, a question may be, If, after assurance and mortification, the children of God be ordinarily fed with sense and joy? I answer: I see no inconvenience to think it is enough, in a race, to see the goal at the starting-place, howbeit the runners never get a view of it till they come to the rink's end; and that our wise Lord thinketh it fittest that we should not always be fingering and playing with Christ's apples. Our Well-beloved, I know, will sport and play with His bride, as much as He thinketh will allure her to the rink's end. Yet I judge it not unlawful to seek renewed consolations, providing, 1. The heart be submissive, and content to leave the measure and timing of them to Him. 2. Providing they be sought to excite us to praise, and strengthen our assurance, and sharpen our desires after Himself. 3. Let them be sought, not for our humours or swellings of nature, but as the earnest of heaven. And I think many do attain to greater consolations after mortification, than ever they had formerly. But I know that our Lord walketh here still by a sovereign latitude, and keepeth not the same way, as to one hair-breadth, without a miss, toward all His children. As for the Lord's people with you, I am not the man fit to speak to them. I rejoice exceedingly that Christ is engaging souls amongst you; but I know that, in conversion, all the winning is in the first buying, as we used to say. For many lay false and bastard foundations, and take up conversion at their foot, and get Christ for as good as half-nothing, and had never a sick night for sin; and this maketh loose work. I pray you to dig deep. Christ's palace-work, and His new dwelling, laid upon hell felt and feared, is most firm: and heaven, grounded and laid upon such a hell, is surest work, and will not wash away with winter storms. It were good that professors were not like young heirs, that come to their rich estate long ere they come to their wit; and so is seen on it. The tavern, and the cards, and the harlots steal their riches[404] from them, ere ever they be aware what they are doing. I know that a Christ bought with strokes is sweetest. 4. I recommend to you conference and prayer at private meetings; for warrant whereof, see Isa. ii. 3; Jer. l. 4, 5; Hos. ii. 1, 2; Zech. viii. 20-23; Mal. iii. 16; Luke xxiv. 13-17; John xx. 19; Acts xii. 12; Col. iii. 16, and iv. 6; Ephes. iv. 29; 1 Pet. iv. 10; 1 Thess. v. 14; Heb. iii. 13, and x. 25. Many coals make a good fire, and that is a part of the communion of saints.
I must entreat you, and your Christian acquaintance in the parish, to remember me to God in your prayers, and my flock and ministry, and my transportation[405] and removal from this place, which I fear at this Assembly,[406] and be earnest with God for our mother-kirk. For want of time, I have put you all in one letter. The rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Anwoth, Aug. 5, 1639.
[CCLXXXVII.—To the Viscountess of Kenmure.]
(ON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD—CHRIST SHARES IN HIS PEOPLE'S SORROWS.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I know that ye are near many comforters, and that the promised Comforter is near at hand also. Yet, because I found your Ladyship comfortable to myself in my sad days, which are not yet over my head, it is my part and more, in many respects (howbeit I can do little, God knoweth, in that kind), to speak to you in your wilderness lot.
I know, dear and noble Lady, that this loss of your dear child[407] came upon you, one piece and part of it after another; and that ye were looking for it, and that now the Almighty hath brought on you that which ye feared; and that your Lord gave you lawful warning. And I hope that for His sake who brewed and masked this cup in heaven, ye will gladly drink, and salute and welcome the cross. I am sure, that it is not your Lord's mind to feed you with judgment and wormwood, and to give you waters of gall to drink (Ezek. xxxiv. 16; Jer. ix. 15). I know that your cup is sugared with mercy; and that the withering of the bloom, the flower, even the white and red of worldly joys, is for no other end than to buy out at the ground the reversion of your heart and love.
Madam, subscribe to the Almighty's will; put your hand to the pen, and let the cross of your Lord Jesus have your submissive and resolute Amen. If ye ask and try whose this cross is, I dare say that it is not all your own, the best half of it is Christ's. Then your cross is no born-bastard, but lawfully begotten; it sprang not out of the dust (Job v. 6). If Christ and ye be halvers of this suffering, and He say, "Half mine," what should ail you? And I am sure that I am here right upon the style of the word of God: "The fellowship of Christ's sufferings" (Phil. iii. 10); "The remnant of the afflictions of Christ" (Col. i. 24); "The reproach of Christ" (Heb. ii. 6). It were but to shift the comforts of God, to say, "Christ had never such a cross as mine: He had never a dead child, and so this is not His cross; neither can He, in that meaning, be the owner of this cross." But I hope that Christ, when he married you, married you and all the crosses and wo hearts that follow you. And the word maketh no exception. "In all their afflictions He was afflicted" (Isa. lxiii. 9). Then Christ bore the first stroke of this cross; it rebounded off Him upon you, and ye get it at the second hand, and ye and He are halvers in it. And I shall believe, for my part, that He mindeth to distil heaven out of this loss, and all others the like; for wisdom devised it, and love laid it on, and Christ owneth it as His own, and putteth your shoulder beneath only a piece of it. Take it with joy, as no bastard cross, but as a visitation of God, well-born; and spend the rest of your appointed time, till your change come, in the work of believing. And let faith, that never yet made a lie to you, speak for God's part of it, "He will not, He doth not, make you a sea or a whale-fish, that He keepeth you in ward" (Job vii. 12). It may be, that ye think not many of the children of God in such a hard case as yourself; but what would ye think of some, who would exchange afflictions? and give you to the boot? But I know that yours must be your own alone, and Christ's together.
I confess it seemed strange to me, that your Lord should have done that which seemed to ding out the bottom of your worldly comforts; but we see not the ground of the Almighty's sovereignty. "He goeth by on our right hand, and on our left hand, and we see Him not." We see but pieces of the broken links of the chains of His providence; and He coggeth the wheels of His own providence, that we see not. Oh, let the Former work His own clay into what frame He pleaseth! "Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge?" If He pursue the dry stubble, who dare say, "What doest Thou?" Do not wonder to see the Judge of the world weave, into one web, your mercies and the judgments of the house of Kenmure. He can make one web of contraries.
But my weak advice (with reverence and correction), were, for you, dear and worthy Lady, to see how far mortification goeth on, and what scum the Lord's fire casteth out of you. I know that ye see your knottiness, since our Lord whiteth, and heweth, and plaineth you. And the glancing of the furnace[408] is to let you see what scum or refuse ye must want, and what froth is in nature, that must be boiled out and taken off in the fire of your trials. I do not say that heavier afflictions prophesy heavier guiltiness; a cross is often but a false prophet in this kind. But I am sure that our Lord would have the tin and the bastard metal in you removed, lest the Lord say, "The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain" (Jer. vi. 29). And I shall hope that grief will not so far smother your light, as not to practise this so necessary a duty, to concur with Him in this blessed design.
I would gladly plead for the Comforter's part of it, not against you, Madam (for I am sure ye are not his party[409]), but against your grief, which will have its own violent incursions in your soul: and I think it be not in your power to help it. But I must say, there are comforts allowed upon you; and, therefore, want them not. When ye have gotten a running-over soul with joy now, that joy will never be missed out of the infinite ocean of delight, which is not diminished by drinking at it, or drawing out of it. It is a Christian art to comfort yourself in the Lord; to say, "I was obliged to render back again this child to the Giver: and if I have had four years' loan of him, and Christ eternity's possession of him, the Lord hath kept condition with me. If my Lord would not have him and me to tryst both in one hour at death's door-threshold together, it is His wisdom so to do; I am satisfied. My tryst is suspended, not broken off, nor given up." Madam, I would that I could divide sorrow with you, for your ease. But I am but a beholder: it is easy to me to speak; the God of comfort speak to you, and allure you with His feasts of love.
My removal from my flock is so heavy to me, that it maketh my life a burden to me; I had never such a longing for death. The Lord help and hold up sad clay. I fear that ye sin in drawing Mr. William Dalgleish from this country, where the labourers are few, and the harvest great.
Madam, desire my Lord Argyle to see for provision to a pastor for his poor people. Grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's at all obedience in Christ,
S. R.
Kirkcudbright, Oct. 1, 1639.
[CCLXXXVIII.—To the persecuted Church in Ireland.][410]
(CHRIST'S LEGACY OF TROUBLE—GOD'S DEALINGS WITH SCOTLAND IN GIVING PROSPERITY—CHRIST TAKES HALF OF ALL SUFFERINGS—STEDFASTNESS FOR HIS CROWN—HIS LOVE SHOULD LEAD TO HOLINESS.)
M UCH HONOURED, REVEREND, AND DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you all.—I know that there are many in this nation more able than I to speak to the sufferers for, and witnesses of, Jesus Christ; yet pardon me to speak a little to you, who are called in question for the Gospel once committed to you.
I hope that ye are not ignorant that, as peace was left to you in Christ's testament, so the other half of the testament was a legacy of Christ's sufferings. "These things have I spoken, that in Me ye might have peace; in the world ye shall have trouble" (John xvi. 33). Because, then, ye are made assignees and heirs to a liferent of Christ's cross, think that fiery trial no strange thing; for the Lord Jesus shall be no loser by purging the dross and tin out of His church in Ireland. His wine-press is but squeezing out the dregs, the scum, the froth, and refuse of that church. I had once the proof of the sweet smell, and the honest and honourable peace, of that slandered thing, the cross of our Lord Jesus. But though, alas! these golden days that then I had be now in a great part gone, yet I dare say, that the issue and outgate of your sufferings shall be the advantage, the golden reign and dominion of the Gospel, and the high glory of the never-enough-praised Prince of the kings of the earth; and the changing of the brass of the Lord's temple among you into gold, and the iron into silver, and the wood into brass. Your officers shall yet be peace, and your exactors righteousness (Isa. lx. 17, 18). Your old, fallen walls shall get a new name, and the gates of your Jerusalem shall get a new style. They shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. I know that Deputy,[411] prelates, Papists, temporizing lords, and proud mockers of our Lord, crucifiers of Christ for His coat, and all your enemies, have neither fingers nor instruments of war to pick out one stone out of your wall; for each stone of your wall is "Salvation." I dare give you my royal and princely Master's word for it, that Ireland shall be a fair bride to Jesus, and Christ will build on her a palace of silver (Cant. viii. 9). Therefore, weep not as if there were no hope; fear not, put on strength, put on your beautiful garments (Isa. lii. 1). Your foundation shall be sapphires, your windows and gates precious stones (Isa. liv. 11, 12). Look over the water, and behold and see who is on the dry land waiting for your landing. Your deliverance is concluded, subscribed, and sealed in heaven. Your goods, that are taken from you for Christ and His truth's sake, are but arrested and laid in pawn, and not taken away. There is much laid up for you in His storehouse, whose the earth and the fulness thereof is. Your garments are spun, and your flocks are feeding in the fields, your bread is laid up for you, your drink is brewn, your gold and silver is at the bank, and the interest goeth on and groweth: and yet I hear that your taskmasters do rob and spoil you, and fine you. Your prisons, my brethren, have two keys. The Deputy, prelates, and officers keep but the iron keys of the prison wherein they put you; but He that hath created the smith, hath other keys in heaven; therefore ye shall not die in the prison. Other men's ploughs are labouring for your bread; your enemies are gathering in your rents. He that is kissing His bride on this side of the sea, in Scotland, is beating her beyond the sea in Ireland, and feeding her with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction; and yet He is the same Lord to both.
Alas! I fear that Scotland be undone and slain with this great mercy of reformation, because there is not here that life of religion, answerable to the huge greatness of the work that dazzleth our eyes. For the Lord is rejoicing over us in this land, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride: and the Lord hath changed the name of Scotland. They call us now no more "Forsaken," nor "Desolate;" but our land is called "Hephzibah" and "Beulah" (Isa. lxii. 4). For the Lord delighteth in us, and this land is married to Himself. There is now an highway made through our Zion, and it is called the "Way of holiness;" the unclean shall not pass over it; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in it. The wilderness doth rejoice and blossom as the rose; "The ransomed of the Lord are returned back unto Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads" (Isa. xxxv. 10); the Canaanite is put out of our Lord's house: there is not a beast left to do hurt (at least, professedly) in all the holy mountain of the Lord. Our Lord is fallen to wrestle with His enemies, and hath brought us out of Egypt; we have "the strength of an unicorn" (Num. xxiii. 22). The Lord hath eaten up the sons of Babel; He hath broken their bones, and hath pierced them through with His arrows. We take them captives whose captives we were, and we rule over our oppressors (Isa. xiv. 2). It is not brick, nor clay, nor Babel's cursed timber and stones, that is in our second temple; but our princely King Jesus is building His house all palace-work and carved stones. It is the habitation of the Lord.
We do welcome Ireland and England to our Well-beloved. We invite you, O daughters of Jerusalem, to come down to our Lord's garden, and seek our Well-beloved with us; for His love will suffice both you and us. We do send you love-letters over the sea, to request you to come and to marry our King, and to take part of our bed. And we trust our Lord is fetching a blow upon the Beast, and the scarlet-coloured Whore, to the end that He may bring in His ancient widow-wife, our dear sister, the church of the Jews. Oh, what a heavenly heaven were it to see them come in by this mean, and suck the breasts of their little sister, and renew their old love with their first Husband, Christ our Lord! They are booked in God's word, as a bride contracted unto Jesus! Oh for a sight, in this flesh of mine, of the prophesied marriage between Christ and them! The kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, must bring presents to our Lord Jesus (Ps. lxxii. 10). And Britain is one of the chiefest isles; why then but we may believe that our kings of this island shall come in, and bring their glory to the New Jerusalem, wherein Christ shall dwell in the latter days? It is our part to pray, "That the kingdoms of the earth may become Christ's."
Now I exhort you, in the Lord Jesus, not to be dismayed nor afraid for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, the fierce anger of the Deputy with civil power, and of the bastard prelates with the power of the Beast; for they shall be cut off. They may well eat you and drink you, but they shall be forced to vomit you out again alive. If two things were firmly believed, sufferings would have no weight. If the fellowship of Christ's sufferings were well known, who would not gladly take part with Jesus? For Christ and we are halvers and joint-owners of one and the same cross: and, therefore, he that knew well what sufferings were, as he esteemed all things but loss for Christ, and did judge them but dung, so did he also judge of them, "that he might know the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. iii. 10). Oh, how sweet a sight is it, to see a cross betwixt Christ and us, to hear our Redeemer say, at every sigh, and every blow, and every loss of a believer, "Half mine!" So they are called "The sufferings of Christ," and "the reproach of Christ" (Col. i. 24; Heb. xi. 26). As, when two are partners and owners of a ship, the half of the gain and half of the loss belong to each of the two; so Christ in our sufferings is half-gainer and half-loser with us. Yea, the heaviest end of the black tree of the cross lieth on your Lord: it falleth first upon Him, and it but reboundeth off Him upon you: "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon Me" (Ps. lxix. 9). Your sufferings are your treasure, and are greater riches than the treasures of Egypt (Heb. xi. 26). And if your cross come through Christ's fingers ere it come to you, it receiveth a fair lustre from Him; it getteth a taste and relish of the King's spikenard, and of heaven's perfume. And the half of the gain, when Christ's shipful of gold cometh home, shall be yours. It is an augmenting of your treasure to be rich in suffering, "to be in labours abundant, in stripes above measure" (2 Cor. xi. 23); and to have the sufferings of Christ abounding in you (2 Cor. i. 5) is a part of heaven's stock. Your goods are not lost which they have plucked from you, for your Lord hath them in keeping; they are but arrested and seized upon. He shall loose the arrest. Ye shall be fed with the heritage of Jacob, your father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isa. lviii. 14).
Till I shall be on the hall-floor of the highest palace, and get a draught of glory out of Christ's hand, above and beyond time and beyond death, I shall never (it is like) see fairer days than I saw under that blessed tree of my Lord's cross. His kisses then were king's kisses. Those kisses were sweet and soul-reviving; one of them, at that time, was worth two and a half (if I may speak so) of Christ's week-day kisses. Oh, sweet, sweet for evermore, to see a rose of heaven growing in as ill ground as hell! and to see Christ's love, His embracements, His dinners and suppers of joy, peace, faith, goodness, long-suffering, and patience, growing and springing like the flowers of God's garden, out of such stony and cursed ground as the hatred of the prelates, and the malice of their High Commission, and the Antichrist's bloody hand and heart! Is not here art and wisdom? Is not here heaven indented in hell (if I may say so), like a jewel set with skill in a ring with the enamel of Christ's cross? The ruby and riches of glory, that grow up out of the cross, are beyond telling. Now, the blackest and hottest wrath, and most fiery and all-devouring indignation of the Judge of men and angels, shall come upon them who deny our sweet Lord Jesus, and put their hand to that oath of wickedness now pressed. The Lord's coal at their heart shall burn them up both root and branch. The estates of great men that have done so, if they do not repent, shall consume away, and the ravens shall dwell in their houses, and their glory shall be shame. Oh, for the Lord's sake! keep fast by Christ, and fear not man that shall die and wither as the grass. The Deputy's bloom shall fall, and the prelates shall cast their flower, and the east wind of the Lord, of "the Lord strong and mighty," shall blast and break them; therefore, fear them not. They are but idols, that can neither do evil nor good. Walk not in the way of those people that slander the footsteps of our royal and princely anointed King Jesus, now riding upon His white horse in Scotland. Let Jehovah be your fear. That decree of Zion's deliverance, passed and sealed up before the throne, is now ripe and shall bring forth a child, even the ruin and fall of the prelates' black kingdom, and the Antichrist's throne, in these kingdoms. The Lord hath begun, and He shall make an end. Who did ever hear the like of this? Before Scotland travailed, she brought forth; and before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child (Isa. lxvi. 7, 8).
And when all is done, suppose there were no sweetness in our Lord's cross, yet it is sweet for His sake, for that lovely One, Jesus Christ, whose crown and royal supremacy is the question this day in Great Britain, betwixt us and our adversaries. And who would not think Him worthy of the suffering for? What is burning quick, what is drinking of our own heart's blood, and what is a draught of melted lead, for His glory? Less than a draught of cold water to a thirsty man, if the right price and due value were put on that worthy, worthy Prince, Jesus! Oh, who can weigh Him! Ten thousand thousand heavens would not be one scale, or the half of the scale, of the balance to lay Him in. O black angels, in comparison of Him! O dim, and dark, and lightless sun, in regard of that fair Sun of righteousness! O feckless and worthless heaven of heavens, when they stand beside my worthy, and lofty, and high, and excellent Well-beloved! O weak and infirm clay-kings! O soft and feeble mountains of brass, and weak created strength, in regard of our mighty and strong Lord of armies! O foolish wisdom of men and angels, when it is laid in the balance beside that spotless, substantial Wisdom of the Father! If heaven and earth, and ten thousand heavens even (round about these heavens that now are), were all in one garden of paradise, decked with all the fairest roses, flowers, and trees that can come forth from the art of the Almighty Himself; yet set but our one Flower that groweth out of the root of Jesse beside that orchard of pleasure, one look of Him, one view, one taste, one smell of His sweet Godhead would infinitely exceed and go beyond the smell, colour, beauty, and loveliness of that paradise. Oh to be with child of His love! and to be suffocated (if that could be) with the smell of His sweetness were a sweet fill and a lovely pain. O worthy, worthy, worthy loveliness! Oh, less of the creatures, and more of Thee! Oh, open the passage of the well of love and glory on us, dry pits and withered trees! Oh, that Jewel and Flower of heaven! If our Beloved were not mistaken by us, and unknown to us, He would have no scarcity of wooers and suitors. He would make heaven and earth both see that they cannot quench His love, for His love is a sea. Oh to be a thousand fathoms deep in this sea of love! He, He Himself is more excellent than heaven; for heaven, as it cometh into the souls and spirits of the glorified, is but a creature; and He is something (and a great something) more than a creature. Oh, what a life were it to sit beside this Well of love, and drink and sing, and sing and drink! and then to have desires and soul-faculties stretched and extended out, many thousand fathoms in length and breadth, to take in seas and rivers of love!
I earnestly desire to recommend this love to you, that this love may cause you to keep His commandments, and to keep clean fingers, and make clean feet, that ye may walk as the redeemed of the Lord. Wo, wo be to them who put on His name, and shame this love of Christ, with a loose and profane life! Their feet, tongue, and hands, and eyes, give a shameless lie to the holy Gospel, which they profess. I beseech you in the Lord, to keep Christ and walk with Him: let not His fairness be spotted and stained by godless living. Oh, who can find in their heart to sin against love? and such a love as the glorified in heaven shall delight to dive into, and drink of for ever? For they are evermore drinking in love, and the cup is still at their head; and yet without loathing, for they still drink, and still desire to drink for ever and ever. Is not this a long-lasting supper?
Now, if any of our country people, professing Christ Jesus, have brought themselves under the stroke and wrath of the Almighty, by yielding to Antichrist in an hair-breadth, but especially by swearing and subscribing that blasphemous oath (which is the Church of Ireland's black hour of temptation), I would entreat them, by the mercies of God at their last summons, to repent, and openly confess before the world to the glory of the Lord their denial of Christ. Or otherwise, if either man or woman will stand and abide by that oath, then, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus, I let them see that they forfeit their part of heaven! And let them look for no less than a back-burden of the pure, unmixed wrath of God, and the plague of apostates and deniers of our Lord Jesus.
Let not me, a stranger to you, who never saw your face in the flesh, be thought bold in writing to you: for the hope I have of a glorious church in that land, and the love of Christ, constraineth me. I know that the worthy servants of Christ, who once laboured among you, cease not to write to you also; and I shall desire to be excused that I do join with them.
Pray for your sister-church in Scotland; and let me entreat you for the aid of your prayers for myself, and flock, and ministry, and my fear of a transportation from this place of the Lord's vineyard.[412] Now the very God of peace sanctify you throughout. Grace be with you all.
Your brother and companion, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,
S. R.
Anwoth, 1639.
[CCLXXXIX.—To his Reverend and much honoured Brother, Dr. Alexander Leighton, Christ's Prisoner in bonds at London.]
[Dr. Alexander Leighton was descended of an ancient family in Forfarshire, whose chief seat was Ulys-haven, or Usen, near Montrose. Besides studying for the Christian ministry, he qualified himself as a physician, and, during the reign of James I., and the commencement of that of Charles I., practised medicine in London, as well as exercised his ministry there; but whether he had any fixed charge we are not informed. In his zeal for Presbyterian principles, and against the innovations of Laud, he published a work entitled "An Appeal to the Parliament; or, Zion's Plea against the Prelacy." For this work he was arrested in 1629, and thrown into an abominable cell in Newgate. After lying there sixteen weeks in great misery, he was served with an information of the crimes of which he was accused, and charged to appear before the Star Chamber. He was then unable to attend, being under severe distress that had brought skin and hair almost wholly off his body; but the Star Chamber condemned the afflicted and aged divine to be degraded as a minister, to have one of his ears cut off, and one side of his nose slit, to be branded on the face with a red-hot iron, to stand in the pillory, to be whipped at a post, to pay a fine of £1000, and to suffer imprisonment till the fine was paid. When this inhuman sentence was pronounced, Laud took off his hat, and holding up his hands, gave thanks to God, who had given the church victory over her enemies! The sentence was executed without mercy; and Leighton lay in prison until the meeting of the Long Parliament, that is, upwards of ten years. When liberated, he could hardly walk, see, or hear. He died in 1649. He was the father of the celebrated Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow. When this letter was written to him by Rutherford, he had languished many years in prison.]
(PUBLIC BLESSINGS ALLEVIATE PRIVATE SUFFERINGS—TRIALS LIGHT WHEN VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN—CHRIST WORTHY OF SUFFERING FOR.)
R EVEREND AND MUCH HONOURED PRISONER OF HOPE,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.— It was not my part (whom our Lord hath enlarged) to forget you His prisoner.
When I consider how long your night hath been, I think Christ hath a mind to put you in free grace's debt so much the deeper, as your sufferings have been of so long continuance. But what if Christ mind you no joy but public joy, with enlarged and triumphing Zion. I think, Sir, that ye would love best to share and divide your song of joy with Zion, and to have mystical Christ in Britain halfer and copartner with your enlargement. I am sure that your joy, bordering and neighbouring with the joy of Christ's bride, would be so much the sweeter that it were public. I thought if Christ had halved my mercies, and delivered His bride and not me, that His praises should have been double to what they are; but now two rich mercies conjoined in one have stolen from our Lord more than half-praises. Oh that mercy should so beguile us, and steal away our counts and acknowledgment!
Worthy Sir, I hope that I need not exhort you to go on in hoping for the salvation of God. There hath not been so much taken from your time of ease and created joys, as eternity shall add to your heaven. Ye know when one day in heaven hath paid you (yea, and overpaid your blood, bonds, sorrow, and sufferings), that it would trouble angels' understanding to lay the count of that surplus of glory which eternity can and will give you. Oh but your sand-glass of sufferings and losses cometh to little, when it shall be counted and compared with the glory that abideth you on the other side of the water! Ye have no leisure to rejoice and sing here, while time goeth about you, and where your psalms will be short; therefore, ye will think eternity, and the long day of heaven that shall be measured with no other sun, nor horologe, than the long life of the Ancient of Days, to measure your praises, little enough for you. If your span-length of time be cloudy, ye cannot but think that your Lord can no more take your blood and your bands without the income and recompense of free grace, than He would take the sufferings of Paul and His other dear servants, that were well paid home beyond all counting (Rom. viii. 18). If the wisdom of Christ hath made you Antichrist's eyesore and his envy, ye are to thank God that such a piece of clay, as ye are, is made the field of glory to work upon. It was the Potter's aim that the clay should praise Him, and I hope it satisfieth you that your clay is for His glory. Oh, who can suffer enough for such a Lord! and who can lay out in bank, enough of pain, shame, losses, and tortures to receive in again the free interest of eternal glory! (2 Cor. iv. 17). Oh, how advantageous a bargaining is it with such a rich Lord! If your hand and pen had been at leisure to gain glory on paper, it had been but paper glory: but the bearing of a public cross so long, for the now controverted privileges of the crown and sceptre of free King Jesus, the Prince of the kings of the earth, is glory booked in heaven. Worthy and dear brother, if ye go to weigh Jesus, His sweetness, excellency, glory, and beauty, and lay foregainst Him your ounces or drachms of suffering for Him, ye shall be straitened two ways. 1. It will be a pain to make the comparison, the disproportion being by no understanding imaginable: nay, if heaven's arithmetic and angels' were set to work, they should never number the degrees of difference. 2. It would straiten you to find a scale for the balance to lay that high and lofty One (that over-transcending Prince of excellency) in. If your mind could fancy as many created heavens as time hath had minutes, trees have had leaves, and clouds have had raindrops, since the first stone of the creation was laid, they should not make half a scale in which to bear and weigh boundless excellency. And, therefore, the King whose marks ye are bearing, and whose dying ye carry about with you in your body, is, out of all cry and consideration, beyond and above all our thoughts.
For myself, I am content to feed upon wondering, sometimes, at the beholding but of the borders and skirts of the incomparable glory which is in that exalted Prince. And I think ye could wish for more ears to give than ye have, since ye hope these ears ye now have given Him shall be passages to take in the music of His glorious voice. I would fain both believe and pray for a new bride of Jews and Gentiles to our Lord Jesus, after the land of graven images shall be laid waste; and that our Lord Jesus is on horseback, hunting and pursuing the Beast; and that England and Ireland shall be well-sweeped chambers for Christ and His righteousness to dwell in; for He hath opened our graves in Scotland, and the two dead and buried witnesses are risen again, and are prophesying. Oh that princes would glory and boast themselves in carrying the train of Christ's robe royal in their arms! Let me die within half an hour after I have seen the temple of the Son of God enlarged, and the cords of Jerusalem's tent lengthened, to take in a more numerous company for a bride to the Son of God! Oh, if the corner or foundation-stone of that house, that new house, were laid above my grave!
Oh! who can add to Him who is that great All! If He would create suns and moons, new heavens, thousand and thousand degrees more perfect than these that now are; and again, make a new creation ten thousand thousand degrees in perfection beyond that new creation; and again, still for eternity multiply new heavens, they should never be a perfect resemblance of that infinite excellency, order, weight, measure, beauty, and sweetness that is in Him. Oh, how little of Him do we see! Oh, how shallow are our thoughts of Him! Oh, if I had pain for Him, and shame and losses for Him, and more clay and spirits for Him! and that I could go upon earth without love, desire, hope, because Christ hath taken away my love, desire, and hope to heaven with Him!
I know, worthy Sir, your sufferings for Him are your glory; and, therefore, weary not. His salvation is near at hand, and shall not tarry.
Pray for me. His grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Nov. 22, 1639.
[CCXC.—To a Person unknown, anent Private Worship in time and place of public.][413]
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I do not know a private worship, set and intended, compatible with a public worship set and intended. Ejaculations are fruits of public worship and breathings of the spirit in public speaking, but they are aliquid cultus publici, non cultus publicus (something akin to public worship, but not public worship). 2. I know not a member in the kirk who should have a worship in specie (in kind) different from the worship of the whole kirk; and so I do not see (saving better judgment) a lawfulness of private set praying, when there is another set worship of praising, reading, etc. 3. I doubt if there should be any set worship in the kirk to which all the hearers should not say Amen, even the rude and unbelievers (1 Cor. xiv. 23-25). But to a private prayer, when the worship is public, who can say Amen? 4. I think the people may all fall to their private prayers and private reading, in time the minister preacheth, if he fall to praying when they are praising or hearing the word read. 5. I dare not say they have a Pharisee's mind who pray in public after a private manner, and join not with the public service of the kirk. But in natura operis (in regard to the nature of the work), I think them more pharisaical than the other case is Brownish.[414] 6. Brownism's life is in separation; but the private supplicator, when the kirk is praising and hearing the word read, in my weak judgment, is in the act of separation; that I should not say,[415] they are ignorant of Brownism, who object this to such as will not kneel in pulpit. 7. Neither Scripture nor Act of our Assemblies doth allow this human custom. I think they dare not be answerable to a General Assembly who dare call on them to censure for a human and unorderly custom against the word of God so directly. 8. If such as go not to private pulpit prayer neglect private prayer before they come in public, they deserve censure. Whatever hath been my practice before I examined this custom, I purpose now no more to confound worships. And thus recommending you to the grace of God, I rest,
S. R.
January 16, 1640.
[CCXCI.—To Mr. Henry Stuart, his Wife, and two Daughters, all Prisoners of Christ at Dublin.]
[Henry Stuart was a gentleman of considerable property in Ireland. He himself, his wife, and family, consisting of two daughters and a domestic servant named James Gray, having refused to swear the "Black Oath," were carried to Dublin by a serjeant-at-arms, and placed in close and rigorous confinement. On the 10th of August 1639, all of them were brought to trial in the Star Chamber. Stuart, being permitted to speak in his own defence, declared before the court, that he had no objection whatever to take the former part of the oath, "promising civil allegiance, but that he could not take the latter part, which he conceived bound the swearer to yield unlimited ecclesiastical obedience to the King." Wentworth, who presided at the trial, in reply, admitted that this interpretation of the oath was quite correct, and concluded by pronouncing the sentence of the court. Stuart was fined £5000, and his wife a similar sum; his daughters, £2000 each; and Gray although only a servant, £2000; a sum of £16,000 in all; and they were to be detained at Dublin in prison till these exorbitant fines were paid. They were at length liberated by the Irish Parliament, which set itself in 1641 to remedy the evils of Strafford's Government, after they had suffered an imprisonment of a year and three months. But Stuart's property having been confiscated by Strafford, the family were reduced to great poverty. He retired to Scotland, of which he was a native, and applied, in the month of September 1641, to the Parliament sitting at Edinburgh, to recommend to the English Parliament to take measures for enabling him to recover his property. The Scottish Parliament did so, but the result of their application is unknown (Reid's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland," vol. i.).]
(FAITH'S PREPARATION FOR TRIAL—THE WORLD'S RAGE AGAINST CHRIST—THE IMMENSITY OF HIS GLORIOUS BEAUTY—FOLLY OF PERSECUTION—VICTORY SURE.)
"Fear none of these things, which ye shall suffer," etc.—Rev. ii. 10.
T RULY HONOURED, AND DEARLY BELOVED,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus.
Think it not strange, beloved in our Lord Jesus, that Satan can command keys of prisons, and bolts, and chains. This is a piece of the devil's princedom that he hath over the world. Interpret and understand our Lord well in this. Be not jealous of His love, though He make devils and men His under-servants to scour the rust off your faith, and purge you from your dross. And let me charge you, O prisoners of hope, to open your window, and to look out by faith, and behold heaven's post (that speedy and swift salvation of God), that is coming to you. It is a broad river that faith will not look over: it is a mighty and a broad sea, that they of a lively hope cannot behold the furthest bank and other shore thereof. Look over the water; your anchor is fixed within the vail; the one end of the cable is about the prisoner of Christ, and the other is entered within the vail, whither the Forerunner is entered for you (Heb. vi. 19, 20). It can go straight through the flames of the fire of the wrath of men, devils, losses, tortures, death, and not a thread of it be singed or burnt: Men and devils have no teeth to bite it in two. Hold fast till He come. Your cross is of the colour of heaven and Christ, and passmented over with the faith and comforts of the Lord's faithful covenant with Scotland: and that dye and colour will abide foul weather, and neither be stained nor cast the colour. Yet, it reflects a scad like the cross of Christ, whose holy hands, many a day lifted up to God, praying for sinners, were fettered and bound, as if those blessed hands had stolen, and shed innocent blood. When your lovely, lovely Jesus had no better than the thief's doom, it is no wonder that your process be lawless and turned upside down; for He was taken, fettered, buffeted, whipped, spitted upon, before He was convicted of any fault, or sentenced. Oh, such a pair of sufferers and witnesses, as high and royal Jesus and a poor piece of guilty clay marrowed together under one yoke! Oh, how lovely is the cross with such a second!
I believe that your prison is enacted in God's court not to keep you till your hope breathe out its life and last. Your cross is under law to restore you again safe to your brethren and sisters in Christ. Take heaven's and Christ's back-bond for a fair back-door out of your suffering. The Saviour is on His journey with salvation and deliverance for Mount Zion; and the sword of the Lord is drunk with blood, and made fat with fatness. His sword is bathed in heaven against Babylon, for it is "the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion:" and persuade yourselves the streams of the river of Babylon shall be pitch, and the dust of the land brimstone and burning pitch (Isa. xxxiv. 8, 9). And if your deliverance be joined with the deliverance of Zion, it shall be two salvations to you.
It were good to be armed beforehand for death or bodily tortures for Christ; and to think what a crown of honour it is, that God hath given you pieces of living clay to be tortured witnesses for saving truth; and that ye are so happy, as to have some pints of blood to give out for the crown of that royal Lord, who hath caused you to avouch Himself before men. If ye can lend fines of three thousand pounds sterling for Christ, let heaven's register and Christ's count-book keep in reckoning your depursements for Him. It shall be engraven and printed in great letters upon heaven's throne, what you are willing to give for Him. Christ's papers of that kind cannot be lost, or fall by.
Do not wonder to see clay boist the great Potter, and to see blinded men threaten the Gospel with death and burial, and to raze out truth's name. But where will they make a grave for the Gospel, and the Lord's bride? Earth and hell shall be but little bounds for their burial. Lay all the clay and rubbish of this inch of the whole earth above our Lord's Spouse, yet it will not cover her nor hold her down; she shall live and not die; she shall behold the salvation of God. Let your faith frist God a little, and not be afraid for a smoking firebrand. There is more smoke in Babylon's furnace than there is fire. Till doomsday shall come, they shall never see the kirk of Scotland and our Covenant burnt to ashes; or, if it should be thrown into the fire, yet it cannot be so burnt or buried as not to have a resurrection. Angry clay's wind shall shake none of Christ's corn: He will gather in all His wheat into His barn. Only let your fellowship with Christ be renewed.
Ye are sibber to Christ now, when you are imprisoned for Him, than before; for now the strokes laid on you do come in remembrance before our Lord, and He can own His own wounds. A drink of Christ's love, which is better than wine, is the drink-silver which suffering for His majesty leaveth behind it. It is not your sins which they persecute in you, but God's grace, and loyalty to King Jesus. They see no treason in you to your prince the King of Britain, albeit they say so; but it is heaven in you that earth is fighting against. And Christ is owning His own cause. Grace is a party that fire will not burn, nor water drown. When they have eaten and drunken you, their stomach shall be sick, and they shall spue you out alive. Oh, what glory is it to be suffering abjects (Ps. xxxv. 15) for the Lord's glory and royalty! Nay, though His servants had a body to burn for ever for this Gospel, so being that the high glory of triumphing and exalted Jesus did rise out of these flames, and out of that burning body, oh what a sweet fire! oh what soul-refreshing torment would that be! What if the pickles of dust and ashes of the burnt and dissolved body were musicians to sing His praises, and the highness of that never-enough-exalted Prince of ages? Oh, what love is it in Him that He will have such musicians as we are, to tune that psalm of His everlasting praises in heaven! Oh, what shining and burning flames of love are these, that Christ will divide His share of life, of heaven and glory, with you! (Luke xxii. 29; John xvii. 24; Rev. iii. 21). A part of His throne, one draught of His wine (His wine of glory and life that cometh from under the throne of God and of the Lamb), and one apple of the tree of life, will do more than make up all the expenses and charges of clay, lent out for heaven. Oh! oh! but we have short, and narrow, and creeping thoughts of Jesus, and do but shape Christ in our conceptions according to some created portraiture! O angels, lend in your help to make love-books and songs of our fair, and white, and ruddy Standard-bearer amongst ten thousand! O heavens! O heaven of heavens! O glorified tenants, and triumphing house-holders with the Lamb, put in new psalms and love-sonnets of the excellency of our Bridegroom, and help us to set Him on high! O indwellers of earth and heaven, sea and air, and O all ye created beings within the bosom of the utmost circle of this great world, oh come help to set on high the praises of our Lord! O fairness of creatures, blush before His uncreated beauty! O created strength, be amazed to stand before your strong Lord of hosts! O created love, think shame of thyself before this unparalleled love of heaven! O angel-wisdom, hide thyself before our Lord, whose understanding passeth finding out! O sun in thy shining beauty, for shame put on a web of darkness, and cover thyself before thy brightest Master and Maker! Oh, who can add glory, by doing or suffering, to the never-enough admired and praised Lover! Oh we can but bring our drop to this sea, and our candle, dim and dark as it is, to this clear and lightsome Sun of heaven and earth! Oh but we have cause to drink ten deaths in one cup dry, to swim through ten seas, to be at that land of praises, where we shall see that wonder of wonders, and enjoy this Jewel of heaven's jewels! O death, do thy utmost against us! O torments, O malice of men and devils, waste your strength on the witnesses of our Lord's Testament! O devils, bring hell to help you in tormenting the followers of the Lamb! We will defy you to make us too soon happy, and to waft us too soon over the water to the land where the noble Plant, the Plant of Renown, groweth. O cruel time, that tormenteth us, and suspendeth our dearest enjoyments that we wait for, when we shall be bathed and steeped, soul and body, down in the depths of this Love of Loves! O time, I say, run fast! O motions, mend your pace? O well-beloved, be like a young roe on the mountains of separation! Post, post, and hasten our desired and hungered-for meeting. Love is sick to hear tell of to-morrow.
And what, then, can come wrong to you, O honourable witnesses of His kingly truth? Men have no more of you to work upon than some inches and span-lengths of sick, coughing, and phlegmatic clay. Your spirits are above their Benches, Courts, or High Commissions. Your souls, your love to Christ, your faith, cannot be summoned nor sentenced, nor accused nor condemned, by pope, deputy, prelate, ruler, or tyrant. Your faith is a free lord, and cannot be a captive. All the malice of hell and earth can but hurt the scabbard of a believer; and death, at the worst, can get but a clay pawn[416] in keeping till your Lord make[417] the King's keys, and open your graves. Therefore, upon luck's head (as we use to say) take your fill of His love, and let a post-way or causeway be laid betwixt your prison and heaven, and go up and visit your treasure. Enjoy your Beloved, and dwell upon His love, till eternity come in time's room, and possess you of your eternal happiness. Keep your love to Christ, lay up your faith in heaven's keeping, and follow the Chief of the house of the martyrs that witnessed a fair confession before Pontius Pilate. Your cause and His is all one. The opposers of His cause are like drunken judges and transported, who, in their cups, would make acts and laws in their drunken courts that the sun should not rise and shine on the earth, and send their officers and pursuivants to charge the sun and moon to give no more light to the world; and would enact in their court-books, that the sea, after once ebbing, should never flow again. But would not the sun, moon, and sea break these acts, and keep their Creator's directions? The devil (the great fool, and father of these under-fools) is older and more malicious than wise, that setteth the spirits in earth on work to contend and clash with heaven's wisdom, and to give mandates and law-summons to our Sun, to our great Star of heaven, Jesus, not to shine in the beauty of His Gospel to the chosen and bought ones. O thou fair and fairest Sun of righteousness, arise and shine in Thy strength, whether earth or hell will or not. O victorious, O royal, O stout, princely Soul-conqueror, ride prosperously upon truth; stretch out Thy sceptre as far as the sun shineth, and the moon waxeth and waneth. Put on Thy glittering crown, O Thou Maker of kings, and make but one stride, or one step of the whole earth, and travel in the greatness of Thy strength (Isa. lxii. 1, 2). And let Thy apparel be red, and all dyed with the blood of Thy enemies. Thou art fallen righteous Heir by line to the kingdoms of the world.
Laugh ye at the giddy-headed clay pots, and stout, brain-sick worms, that dare say in good earnest, "This man shall not reign over us!" as though they were casting the dice for Christ's crown, which of them should have it. I know that ye believe the coming of Christ's kingdom; and that there is a hole out of your prison, through which ye see daylight. Let not faith be dazzled with temptations from a dying Deputy,[418] and from a sick Prelate. Believe under a cloud, and wait for Him when there is no moonlight nor starlight. Let faith live and breathe, and lay hold on the sure salvation of God, when clouds and darkness are about you, and appearance of rotting in the prison before you. Take heed of unbelieving hearts, which can father lies upon Christ. Beware of "Doth His promise fail for evermore?" (Ps. lxxvii. 8). For it was a man, and not God, that said it, who dreamed that a promise of God could fail, fall aswoon, or die. We can make God sick, or His promises weak, when we are pleased to seek a plea with Christ. O sweet, O stout word of faith, "Though He may slay me, yet will I trust in Him!" (Job xiii. 15). O sweet epitaph, written upon the grave-stone of a dying believer, namely, "I died hoping, and my dust and ashes believe in life!" Faith's eyes, that can see through a mill-stone, can see through a gloom of God, and under it read God's thoughts of love and peace. Hold fast Christ in the dark; surely ye shall see the salvation of God. Your adversaries are ripe and dry for the fire. Yet a little while, and they shall go up in a flame; the breath of the Lord, like a river of brimstone, shall kindle about them (Isa. xxx. 33).
What I write to one, I write to you all that are sound-hearted in that kingdom, whom, in the bowels of Christ, I would exhort not to touch that oath. Albeit the adversaries put a fair meaning on it, yet the swearer must swear according to the professed intent and godless practice of the oath-makers, which is known to the world. Otherwise I might swear that the Creed is false, according to this private meaning and sense put upon it. Oh, let them not be beguiled to wash perjury and the denial of Christ and the Gospel with ink water, some foul and rotten distinctions. Wash, and wash again and again, the devil and the lie, it will be long ere their skin be white.
I profess it should beseem men of great parts rather than me to write to you. But I love your cause, and desire to be excused; and must entreat for the help of your prayers, in this my weighty charge here for the university and pulpit, and that ye would intreat your acquaintance also to help me. Grace be with you all. Amen.
Your brother and companion, in the patience and kingdom of Jesus Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1640.
[CCXCII.—To Mrs. Pont, Prisoner at Dublin.]
[Mrs. Pont, whose maiden name was Isabel Stewart, was the wife of Mr. Pont, minister of a parish in the diocese of Raphoe. Pont declined to use the prescribed ceremonies of the church, and condemned the increasing severities towards nonconformists, together with the unscriptural jurisdiction of the prelates. It appears that he had also held meetings for worship and public preaching, contrary to the canons; and that his wife had in some way signalized herself by her opposition to Prelacy, and her frequenting these more private assemblies. John Leslie, Bishop of Raphoe, reporting the matter to Wentworth, was recommended to deprive Pont of his benefice, and "to proceed against his wife in such way as her fault deserves, and the laws will bear." Pont himself escaped to Scotland, but his wife was imprisoned in the castle of Dublin. She lay in prison nearly three years, not being liberated till 1641 by the Irish Parliament. In May 1641 she presented a petition to the Irish House of Commons against the Bishop of Raphoe, for committing her to prison, and charging her with high treason, solely on his own authority. The House resolved that the Bishop, by his illegal conduct, had involved himself in the penalties of the statute of præmunire; but no further proceedings appear to have been taken against him. "In these proceedings," says Dr. Reid, "Mrs. Pont is styled, 'Mrs. Isabel Pont alias Stewart, widow;' whence it appears that her husband must have died soon after he had fled to Scotland" (Reid's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland," vol. i.). This lady afterwards came over to Scotland, and died on the 9th of November 1704. Wodrow visited her repeatedly under her last illness. He calls her "this extraordinary person." On visiting her the night preceding her death, she said to him, "I never had so few temptations as now. I am only waiting God's time of departure." Again calling upon her next morning, he says, "I think her last breath went out just when I resigned her to God, as far as I could notice, about seven in the morning" ("Analecta," vol. i. p. 55).]
(SUPPORT UNDER TRIALS—THE MASTER'S REWARD.)
W ORTHY AND DEAR MISTRESS,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—The cause which ye suffer for, and your willingness to suffer, is ground enough of acquaintance for me to write to you; although I do confess myself unable to speak for the encouragement of a prisoner of Christ.
I know that ye have advantage beyond us who are not under sufferings; for your sighing (Ps. cii. 20) is a written bill for the ears of your Head, the Lord Jesus; and your breathing (Lam. iii. 56), and your looking up (Ps. v. 3, and lxix. 3). And, therefore, your meaning, half-spoken, half-unspoken, will seek no jailor's leave, but will go to heaven without leave of prelate or deputy, and be heartily welcome; so that ye may sigh and groan out your mind to Him who hath all the keys of the king's three kingdoms and dominions. I dare believe that your hope shall not die. Your trouble is a part of Zion's burning; and ye know who guideth Zion's furnace, and who loveth the ashes of His burnt bride, because His servants love them (Ps. cii. 14). I believe that your ashes, if ye were burnt for this cause, shall praise Him: for the wrath of men and their malice shall make a psalm to praise the Lord (Ps. lxxvi. 10). And, therefore, stand still, and behold and see what the Lord is to do for this island. His work is perfect (Deut. xxxii. 4). The nations have not seen the last end of His work; His end is more fair and more glorious than the beginning.
Ye have more honour than ye can be able to guide well, in that your bonds are made heavy for such an honourable cause. The seals of a controlled[419] Gospel, and the seals by bonds, and blood, and sufferings, are not committed to every ordinary professor. Some that would back Christ honestly in summer-time, would but spill the beauty of the Gospel if they were put to suffering. And, therefore, let us believe that Wisdom dispenseth to every one here, as He thinketh good, who beareth them up that bear the cross. And since our Lord hath put you to that part which was the flower of His own sufferings, we all expect that, as ye have in the strength of our Captain begun, so ye will go on without fainting. Providence maketh use of men and devils for the refining of all the vessels of God's house, small and great, and for doing of two great works at once in you, both for smoothing a stone to make it take band with Christ in Jerusalem's wall, and for witnessing to the glory of this reproached and borne-down Gospel, which cannot die though hell were made a grave about it. It shall be timeous joy for you, to divide joy betwixt you and Christ's laughing bride in these three kingdoms. And what if your mourning continue till mystical Christ (in Ireland and in Great Britain) and ye laugh both together? Your laughing and joy were the more blessed, that one sun should shine upon Christ, the Gospel, and you, laughing altogether in these three kingdoms. Your time is measured, and your days and hours of suffering from eternity were, by infinite Wisdom, considered. If heaven recompense not to your own mind inches of sorrow, then I must say that infinite Mercy cannot get you pleased; but if the first kiss of the white and ruddy cheek of the Standard-bearer and Chief among ten thousand thousand (Cant. v. 10), shall overpay your prison at Dublin, in Ireland, then ye shall have no counts unanswered to give in to Christ. If your faith cannot see a nearer term-day, yet let me charge your hope to give Christ a new day, till eternity and time meet in one point. A paid sum, if ever paid, is paid if no day be broken to the hungry creditor. Take heaven's bond and subscribed obligation for the sum (John xiv. 3). If hope can trust Christ, I know that He can, and will pay. But when all is done and suffered by you, ten hundred deaths for lovely, lovely Jesus is but eternity's halfpenny; figures and cyphers cannot lay the proportion. Oh, but the surplus of Christ's glory is broad and large! Christ's items of eternal glory are hard and cumbersome to tell; and if ye borrow, by faith and hope, ten days or ten hundred years from that eternity of glory that abideth you, ye are paid and more, in your own hand. Therefore, O prisoner of hope, wait on; posting, hasting salvation sleepeth not. Antichrist is bleeding, and in the way to death; and he biteth the sorest, when he bleedeth the fastest. Keep your intelligence betwixt you and heaven, and your court with Christ. He hath in heaven the keys of your prison, and can set you at liberty when He pleaseth. His rich grace support you. I pray you to help me with your prayers. Grace be with you.
Your brother, in the patience and kingdom of Jesus Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1640.
[CCXCIII.—To Mr. James Wilson.]
[There was a cotemporary of that name, the minister of Inch, in the Presbytery of Stranraer. There was also a James Wilson who was a friend of Blair, and minister of Dysart in 1653. (See Row's "Life of Blair.") This letter indicates that the correspondent was a man of thought and education.]
(ADVICES TO A DOUBTING SOUL—MISTAKES ABOUT HIS INTEREST IN GOD'S LOVE—TEMPTATION—PERPLEXITY ABOUT PRAYER—WANT OF FEELING.)
D EAR BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you.—I bless our rich and only wise Lord, who careth so for His new creation that He is going over it again, and trying every piece in you, and blowing away the motes of His new work in you. Alas! I am not so fit a physician as your disease requireth. Sweet, sweet, lovely Jesus be your physician, where His under-chirurgeons cannot do anything for putting in order the wheels, paces, and goings of a marred[420] soul. I have little time; but yet the Lord hath made me so to concern myself in your condition, that I dow not, I dare not, be altogether silent.
First: ye doubt, from 2 Cor. xiii. 5, whether ye be in Christ or not? and so, whether you are a reprobate or not? I answer three things to the doubt.—1. Ye owe charity to all men, but most of all to lovely and loving Jesus, and some also to your self; especially to your renewed self, because your new self is not yours, but another Lord's, even the work of His own Spirit. Therefore, to slander His work is to wrong Himself. Love thinketh no evil: if ye love grace, think not ill of grace in yourself. And ye think ill of grace in yourself when ye make it but a bastard and a work of nature; for a holy fear that ye be not Christ's, and withal a care and a desire to be His, and not your own, is not, nay cannot be, bastard nature. The great Advocate pleadeth hard for you; be upon the Advocate's side, O poor feared client of Christ! Stay, and side with such a Lover, who pleadeth for no other man's goods than His own; for He (if I may say so) scorneth to be enriched with unjust conquest. And yet He pleadeth for you, whereof your letter (though too, too full of jealousy) is a proof. For, if ye were not His, your thoughts (which, I hope, are but the suggestions of His Spirit, that only bringeth the matter into debate to make it sure to you) would not be such, nor so serious as these, "Am I His?" or "Whose am I?" 2. Dare ye forswear your Owner, and say in cold blood, "I am not His"? What nature or corruption saith at starts in you, I regard not. Your thoughts of yourself, when sin and guiltiness round you in the ear, and when you have a sight of your deservings, are Apocrypha, and not Scripture, I hope. Hear what the Lord saith of you: "He will speak peace." If your Master say, "I quit you," I shall then bid you eat ashes for bread, and drink waters of gall and wormwood. But, however Christ out of His own mouth should seem to say, "I come not for thee," as He did, Matt. xv. 24; yet let me say that the words of the tempting Jesus[421] are not to be stretched as Scripture, beyond His intention, seeing His intention in speaking them is to strengthen, not to deceive. And, therefore, here faith may contradict what Christ seemeth at first to say, and so may ye. I charge you by the mercies of God, be not that cruel to grace and the new birth as to cast water on your own coal by misbelief. If ye must die (as I know ye shall not), it were a folly to slay yourself. 3. I hope that ye love the new birth and a claim to Christ, howbeit ye do not make it good; and if ye were in hell, and saw the heavenly face of lovely, ten thousand times lovely Jesus, that hath God's hue, and God's fair, fair and comely red and white, wherewith it is beautified beyond comparison and imagination, ye could not forbear to say, "Oh, if I could but blow a kiss from my sinful mouth from hell up to heaven, upon His cheeks that are a bed of spices as sweet flowers!" (Cant. v. 13). I hope ye dare say, "O fairest sight of heaven! O boundless mass of crucified and slain love for me, give me leave to wish to love Thee! O Flower and Bloom of heaven and earth's love! O angels' Wonder! O Thou, the Father's eternal, sealed Love! and O Thou, God's old Delight! give me leave to stand beside Thy love, and look in and wonder; and give me leave to wish to love Thee, if I can do no more." 4. We being born in atheism, and bairns of the house that we are come of, it is no new thing, my dear brother, for us to be under jealousies and mistakes about the love of God. What think ye of this, that the man, Christ, was tempted to believe there were but two persons in the blessed Godhead, and that the Son of God, the substantial and coeternal Son, was not the lawful Son of God? Did not Satan say, "If Thou be the Son of God?"
Secondly: Ye say, that ye know not what to do. Your Head said once the same word, or not far from it. "Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say?" (John xii. 27). And faith answered Christ's "What shall I say?" with these words: "O tempted Saviour, askest Thou, 'What shall I say?' Say, 'Pray, Father, save Me from this hour.'" What course can ye take but pray and frist Christ His own comforts? He is no dyvour; take His word. "Oh," say ye, "I cannot pray?" Answer—Honest sighing is faith breathing and whispering Him in the ear. The life is not out of faith where there is sighing, looking up with the eyes, and breathing toward God. Hide not Thine ear at my breathing (Lam. iii. 56). "But what shall I do in spiritual exercises?" ye say. Answer—1. If ye knew particularly what to do, it were not a spiritual exercise. 2. In my weak judgment, ye should first say, "I would glorify God in believing David's salvation, and the Bride's marriage with the Lamb, and love the church's slain Husband, although I cannot for the present believe mine own salvation." 3. Say, "I will not pass from my claim: suppose Christ should pass from His claim to me, it shall not go back upon my side. Howbeit my love to Him be not worth a drink of water, yet Christ shall have it, such as it is." 4. Say, "I shall rather spill twenty prayers, than not pray at all. Let my broken words go up to heaven: when they come up into the Great Angel's golden censer, that compassionate Advocate will put together my broken prayers, and perfume them." Words are but the accidents[422] of prayer.
"Oh," say ye, "I am slain with hardness of heart, and troubled with confused and melancholious thoughts." Answer—My dear brother, what would ye conclude thence? That ye know not well who aughteth you? I grant: "Oh, my heart is hard! oh, my thoughts of faithless sorrow! Ergo, I know not who aughteth me," were good logic in heaven amongst angels and the glorified; but down in Christ's hospital, where sick and distempered souls are under cure, it is not worth a straw. Give Christ time to end His work in your heart. Hold on, in feeling and bewailing your hardness; for that is softness to feel hardness. 2. I charge you to make psalms of Christ's praises for His begun work of grace. Make Christ your music and your song; for complaining and feeling of want doth often swallow up your praises. What think ye of those who go to hell never troubled with such thoughts? If your exercises be the way to hell, God help me! I have a cold coal to blow at, and a blank paper for heaven. I give you Christ caution, and my heaven surety, for your salvation. Lend Christ your melancholy, for Satan hath no right to make a chamber in your melancholy. Borrow joy and comfort from the Comforter. Bid the Spirit do His office in you; and remember that faith is one thing, and the feeling and notice of faith another. God forbid that feeling were proprium quarto modo[423] to all the saints; and that this were good reasoning, "No feeling, no grace." I am sure ye were not always, these twenty years by-past, actually knowing that ye live! yet all this time ye are living. So it is with the life of faith.
But, alas! dear brother, it is easy for me to speak words and syllables of peace; but Isaiah telleth you, "I create peace" (Isa. lvii. 19). There is but one Creator, ye know. Oh that ye may get a letter of peace sent you from heaven!
Pray for me, and for grace to be faithful, and for gifts to be able, with tongue and pen, to glorify God. I forget you not.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Jan. 8, 1640.
[CCXCIV.—To my Lady Boyd.]
(SINS OF THE LAND—DWELLING IN CHRIST—FAITH AWAKE SEES ALL WELL.)
M ADAM,—I received your Ladyship's letter; but because I was still going through the country for the affairs of the church, I had no time to answer it.
I had never more cause to fear than I have now, when my Lord hath restored me to my second created heaven on earth, and hath turned my apprehended fears into joys, and great deliverance to His church, whereof I have my share and part. Alas! that weeping prayers, answered and sent back from heaven with joy, should not have laughing praises! Oh that this land would repent, and lay burdens of praises upon the top of the fair Mount Zion! Madam, except this land be humbled, a Reformation is rather my wonder than belief, at this time. But surely it must be a wonder, and what is done already is a wonder. Our Lord must restore beauty to His churches without hire; for we are sold without money, and now our buyers repent them of the bargain, and would gladly give again better-cheap than they bought us. They devoured Jacob, and eat up His people as bread; now Jacob is growing a living child in their womb, and they would fain be delivered of the child, and render the birth. Our Lord shall be midwife. Oh that this land be not like Ephraim, "An unwise son, that stayeth too long in the place of the breaking forth of children!" Your Ladyship is blessed with children who are honoured to build up Christ's waste places again. I believe that your Ladyship will think them well bestowed on that work, and that Zion's beauty is your joy. This is a mark and evidence from heaven, which helpeth weak ones to hold their grip, when other marks fail them.
I hope that your Ladyship is at a good understanding with Christ, and that, as becometh a Christian, ye take Him up aright; for many mistake and misshape Christ in His comings and goings. Your wants and falls proclaim that ye have nothing of your own but what ye borrow; nay, yourself is not your own, but Christ hath given Himself to you. Put Christ to the bank, and heaven shall be your interest and income. Love Him, for ye cannot over-love Him. Take up your house in Christ. Let Him dwell in you, and abide in Him; and then ye may look out of Christ, and laugh at the clay-heavens that the sons of men are seeking after on this side of the water. Christ mindeth to make your losses grace's great advantage. Christ will lose nothing of you; nay, not even your sins, for He hath a use for them, as well as for your service; howbeit ye are to loathe yourself for these. I hope that ye fetch all the heaven ye have here in this life from that which is up above, and that your anchor is casten as high and deep as Christ. (Oh, but it is far and many a mile to the bottom!) If I had known long since, as I do now (though still, alas! I am ignorant), what was in Christ, I would not have been so late in starting to the gate to seek Him. Oh what can I do or say to Him who hath made the North render me back again! A grave is no sure prison to Him for the keeping of dry bones. Wo is me, that my foolish sorrow and unbelief, being on horseback, did ride so proudly and witlessly over my Lord's providence! But when my faith was asleep, Christ was awake; and now, when I am awake, I say He did all things well. O infinite wisdom! O incomparable loving-kindness! Alas, that the heart I have is so little and worthless for such a Lord as Christ is! Oh what odds find the saints in hard trials, when they feel sap at their roots, betwixt them and sun-burned, withered professors! Crosses and storms cause them to cast their blooms and leaves. Poor worldlings, what will ye do when the span-length of your forenoon's laughter is ended, and when the weeping side of providence is turned to you?
I put all the favours which ye have bestowed on my brother upon Christ's score; in whose books are many such counts, and who will requite them. I wish you to be builded more and more upon the stone laid in Zion, and then ye shall be the more fit to have a hand in rebuilding our Lord's fallen tabernacle in this land; in which ye shall find great peace when ye come to grips with death, the king of terrors.
The God of peace be with your Ladyship, and keep you blameless till the day of our Lord Jesus.
Your Ladyship's, at all obedience in his sweet Lord and Master,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCXCV.—To his very dear Friend, John Fenwick.]
[Mr. John Fenwick was an Englishman, who suffered considerably for nonconformity. He is mentioned in Row's "Life of R. Blair," where it is said that "John Fenwick was one of the best of the Commissioners sent by Cromwell to visit the Universities." He was a Puritan and Nonconformist.]
(CHRIST THE FOUNTAIN—FREENESS OF GOD'S LOVE—FAITH TO BE EXERCISED UNDER FROWNS—GRACE FOR TRIALS—CHRIST YET TO BE EXALTED ON THE EARTH.)
M UCH HONOURED AND DEAR FRIEND,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—The necessary impediments of my calling have hitherto kept me from making a return to your letter, the heads whereof I shall now briefly answer.
I approve of your going to the Fountain, when your own cistern is dry. A difference there must be betwixt Christ's well and your borrowed water; and why but ye have need of emptiness and drying up, as well as ye have need of the well? Want and a hole there must be in our vessel, to leave room to Christ's art. His well hath its own need of thirsty drinkers, to commend infinite love which, from eternity, did brew such a cellar of living waters for us.
Ye commend His free love; and it is well done. Oh, if I could help you! and if I could be master-convener to gather an earth-full and an heaven-full of tongues, dipped and steeped in my Lord's well of love, or His wine of love, even tongues drunken with His love, to raise a song of praises to Him, betwixt the east and west end, and furthest points of the broad heavens! If I were in your case (as, alas! my dry and dead heart is not now in that garden), I would borrow leave to come and stand upon the banks and coasts of that sea of love, and be a feasted soul to see love's fair tide, free love's high and lofty waves, each of them higher than ten earths, flowing in upon pieces of lost clay. Oh, welcome, welcome, great sea! Oh, if I had as much love, for wideness and breadth, as twenty outmost shells and spheres of the heaven of heavens, that I might receive in a little flood of His free love! Come, come, dear friend, and be pained that the King's wine-cellar of free love, and His banqueting-house (oh so wide, so stately! oh so God-like, so glory-like!) should be so abundant, so overflowing, and your shallow vessel so little to take in some part of that love. But since it cannot come into you for want of room, enter yourself into this sea of love, and breathe under these waters, and die of love; and live as one dead and drowned of this love.
But why do ye complain of waters going over your soul, and that the smoke of the terrors of a wrathful Lord do almost suffocate you, and bring you to death's brink? I know that the fault is in your eyes, not in Him. It is not the rock that fleeth and moveth, but the green sailor. If your sense and apprehension be made judge of His love, there is a graven image made presently, even a changed god, and a foe-god, who was once ("When ye washed your steps with butter, and the rock poured you out rivers of oil," Job xxix. 6) a Friend-God. Either now or never, let God work. Ye had never, since ye were a man, such a fair field for faith; for a painted hell, and an apprehension of wrath in your Father, is faith's opportunity to try what strength is in it. Now, give God as large a measure of charity as ye have of sorrow. Now, see faith to be faith indeed, if ye can make your grave betwixt Christ's feet, and say, "Though He should slay me, I will trust in Him. His believed love shall be my winding-sheet, and all my grave-clothes; I shall roll and sew in my soul, my slain soul, in that web, His sweet and free love; and let Him write upon my grave, 'Here lieth a believing dead man, breathing out and making a hole in death's broadside, and the breath of faith cometh forth through the hole.'" See now if ye can overcome and prevail with God, and wrestle God's tempting to death, quite out of breath, as that renowned wrestler did: "And by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed" (Hosea xii. 3, 4). He is a strong man indeed who overmatcheth heaven's Strength, and the Holy One of Israel, the strong Lord: which is done by a secret supply of divine strength within, wherewith the weakest, being strengthened, overcome and conquer. It shall be great victory, to blow out the flame of that furnace ye are now in, with the breath of faith. And when hell, men, malice, cruelty, falsehood, devils, the seeming glooms of a sweet Lord, meet you in the teeth, if ye then, as a captive of hope, as one fettered in hope's prison, run to your stronghold, even from God glooming to God glooming, and believe the salvation of the Lord in the dark, which is your only victory, your enemies (that are but pieces of malicious clay) shall die as men, and be confounded. But, that your troubles are many at once, and arrows come in from all airths, from country, friends, wife, children, foes, estate, and right down from God who is the hope and stay of your soul, I confess is more, and very heavy to be borne. Yet all these are not more than grace; all these bits of coals casten into your sea of mercy cannot dry it up. Your troubles are many and great; yet not an ounce-weight beyond the measure of infinite wisdom, I hope, nor beyond the measure of grace that He is to bestow. For our Lord never yet brake the back of His child, nor spilled His own work. Nature's plastering and counterfeit work He doth often break in shreds, and putteth out a candle not lighted at the Sun of righteousness; but He must cherish His own reeds (Isa. xlii. 3), and handle them softly (never a reed getteth a thrust with the Mediator's hand!), to lay together the two ends of the reed. Oh, what bands and ligaments hath our Chirurgeon of broken spirits, to bind up all His lame and bruised ones with! Cast your disjointed spirit into His lap; and lay your burden upon One who is so willing to take your cares and your fears off you, and to exchange and niffer your crosses, and to give you new for old, and gold for iron; even to give you garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
It is true, in great part, what ye write of this kirk, that the letter of religion only is reformed, and scarce that. I do not believe our Lord will build His Zion in this land upon this skin of reformation. So long as our scum remaineth, and our heart-idols are kept, this work must be at a stand; and, therefore, our Lord must yet sift this land, and search us with candles. And I know that He will give and not sell us His kingdom. His grace and our remaining guiltiness must be compared; and the one must be seen in the glory of it, and the other in the sinfulness of it. But I desire to believe, and would gladly hope to see, that the glancing and shining lustre of glory coming from the diamonds and stones set in the crown of our Lord Jesus shall cast rays and beams many thousand miles about. I hope that Christ is upon a great marriage; and that His wooing and suiting of His excellent Bride doth take its beginning from us, the ends of the earth. Oh, what joy and what glory would I judge it, if my heaven should be suspended till I might have leave to run on foot to be a witness of that marriage-glory, and see Christ put on the glory of His last-married bride, and His last marriage-love on earth; when He shall enlarge His love-bed, and set it upon the top of the mountains, and take in the Elder Sister, the Jews, and the fulness of the Gentiles! It were heaven's honour and glory upon earth to be His lackey, to run at His horse's foot, and hold up the train of His marriage-robe royal, in the day of our high and royal Solomon's espousals. But oh, what glory to have a seat, or bed, in the chariot of King Jesus, that is bottomed with gold, and paved, and lined over, and floored within with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem (Cant. iii. 10). To lie upon such a King's love, were a bed next to the flower of heaven's glory.
I am sorry to hear you speak in your letter of a "God angry at you," and of "the sense of His indignation;" which only ariseth from suffering for Jesus all that is now come upon you. Indeed, "apprehended wrath" flameth out of such ashes as "apprehended sin," but not from "suffering for Christ." But, suppose ye were in hell for bygones and for old debt, I hope ye owe Christ a great sum of charity, to believe the sweetness of His love. I know what it is to sin in that kind. It is to sin (if it were possible) the unchangeableness of a Godhead out of Christ, and to sin away a lovely and unchangeable God. Put more honest apprehensions upon Christ. Put on His own mask upon His face, and not your vail made of unbelief, which speaketh as if He borrowed love to you, from you and your demerits and sinful deservings. Oh, no! Christ is man, but He is not like man. He hath man's love in heaven, but it is lustred with God's love, and it is very God's love ye have to do with. When your wheels go about, He standeth still. Let God be God. And be ye a man, and have ye the deserving of man, and the sin of one who hath suffered your Well-beloved to slip away, nay, hath refused Him entrance when He was knocking, till His head and locks were frozen: yet what is that to Him? His book keepeth your name, and is not printed and reprinted, and changed, and corrected. And why but He should go to His place, and hide Himself? Howbeit His departure be His own good work, yet the belief of it, in that manner, is your sin. But wait on till He return with salvation, and cause you to rejoice in the latter end. It is not much to complain; but rather believe than complain, and sit in the dust, and close your mouth, till He make your sown light[424] grow again. For your afflictions are not eternal; time will end them, and so shall ye at length see the Lord's salvation. His love sleepeth not, but is still working for you. His salvation will not tarry nor linger; and suffering for Him is the noblest cross that is out of heaven. Your Lord had the wale and choice of ten thousand other crosses beside this, to exercise you withal; but His wisdom and His love waled and choosed out this for you, beside them all. And take it as a choice one, and make use of it so as ye look to this world as your stepmother, in your borrowed prison. For it is a love-look to heaven and the other side of the water that God seeketh; and this is the fruit, the flower and bloom growing out of your cross, that ye be a dead man to time, to clay, to gold, to country, to friends, wife, children, and all pieces of created nothings; for in them there is not a seat nor bottom for soul's love. Oh, what room is for your love (if it were as broad as the sea) up in heaven, and in God! And what would not Christ give for your love? God gave so much for your soul; and blessed are ye if ye have a love for Him, and can call in your soul's love from all idols, and can make a God of God, a God of Christ, and draw a line betwixt your heart and Him. If your deliverance came not, Christ's presence and His believed love must stand as caution and surety for your deliverance, till your Lord send it in His blessed time. For Christ hath many salvations, if we could see them; and I would think it better-born comfort and joy that cometh from the faith of deliverance, and the faith of His love, than that which cometh from deliverance itself. It is not much matter, if ye find ease to your afflicted soul, what be the means, either of your own wishing or of God's choosing. The latter, I am sure, is best, and the comforts strongest and sweetest. Let the Lord absolutely have the ordering of your evils and troubles; and put them off you by recommending your cross and your furnace to Him who hath skill to melt His own metal, and knoweth well what to do with His furnace. Let your heart be willing that God's fire have your tin, and brass, and dross. To consent to want corruption is a greater mercy than many professors do well know; and to refer the manner of God's physic to His own wisdom, whether it be by drawing blood, or giving sugared drinks. That He cureth sick folks without pain, is a great point of faith; and to believe Christ's cross to be a friend, as He Himself is a Friend, is also a special act of faith. But when ye are over the water, this case shall be a yesterday past a hundred years ere ye were born; and the cup of glory shall wash the memory of all this away, and make it as nothing. Only now take Christ in with you under your yoke, and let patience have her perfect work; for this haste is your infirmity. The Lord is rising up to do you good in the latter end; put on the faith of His salvation, and see Him posting and hasting towards you.
Sir, my employments (being so great) hinder me to write at more length. Excuse me; I hope to be mindful of you. I shall be obliged to you, if ye help me with your prayers for this people, this college, and my own poor soul.
Grace be with you. Remember my love to your wife.
Yours, in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Feb. 13, 1640.
[CCXCVI.—To the much honoured Peter Stirling.]
[He may have been related to James Stirling, minister of Paisley, who, along with Sir J. Stuart of Goodtrees, wrote "Naphtali;" or to John Stirling, minister of Edinburgh, one who suffered much, and is referred to in the notice to Letter XCI.]
(BELIEVERS' GRACES ALL FROM CHRIST—ASPIRATION AFTER MORE LOVE TO HIM—HIS REIGN DESIRED.)
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—I received yours, and cannot but be ashamed that mistaken love hath brought me into court[425] and account in the heart of God's children, especially of another nation. I should not make a lie of the grace of God, if I should think I have little share of it myself. Oh, how much better were it for me to stand in the counting-table of many for a halfpenny, and to be esteemed a liker, rather than a lover of Christ! If I were weighed, vanity would bear down the scale, as having weight in the balance above me, except my lovely Saviour should cast in beside me some of His borrowed worth. And oh if I were writing now sincerely in this extenuation, which may be (and I fear is) subtle and cozening pride! I would I could love something of heaven's worth, in you and all of your metal. Oh how happy were I, if I could regain and conquer back from the creature my sold and lost love, that I might lay it upon heaven's Jewel, that ever, ever blooming Flower of the highest garden, even my soul-redeeming and never-enough prized Lord Jesus! Oh that He would wash my love, and put it on the Mediator's wheel, and refine it from its dross and tin, that I might propine and gift that Lord, so love-worthy, with all my love! Oh, if I could set a lease of thousands of years, and a suspension of my part of heaven's glory, and frist, till a long day, my desired salvation, so being that I could, in this lower kitchen and undervault of His creation, be feasted with His love, and that I might be a footstool to His glory before men and angels! Oh, if He would let out heaven's fountain upon withered me, dry and sapless me! If I were but sick of love for His love. And oh, how would that sickness delight me! How sweet should that easing and refreshing pain be to my soul!
I shall be glad to be a witness, to behold the kingdoms of the world become Christ's. I could stay out of heaven many years to see that victorious triumphing Lord act that prophesied part of His soul-conquering love, in taking into His kingdom the greater sister, that kirk of the Jews, who sometime courted our Well-beloved for her little sister (Cant. viii. 8); to behold Him set up as an ensign and banner of love, to the ends of the world. And truly we are to believe that His wrath is ripe for the land of graven images, and for the falling of that millstone into the midst of the sea. Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, March 6. 1640.
[CCXCVII.—To the Lady Fingask.]
[This lady has been supposed to be Lady Anne Moncrieff, wife of Sir John Dundas of Fingask in Perthshire. She was daughter of William Moncrieff of that ilk, and her mother was one of the Murrays of Abercarnie. See notice prefixed to the letter to "The Laird of Moncrieff." At the same time, it is not impossible that Rutherford, who was then at St. Andrews, may be writing to a lady in the neighbourhood; for we find ("Inquisit. Retornat. Abbreviat.") that the ancestors of the martyr Thomas Forret possessed the estate of "Fyngask, in regalitate Sanctæ Andreæ.">[
(FAITH'S MISGIVINGS—SPIRITUAL DARKNESS NOT GRACE—CHRIST'S LOVE INIMITABLE.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Though not acquainted, yet, at the desire of a Christian, I make bold to write a line or two unto you, by way of counsel, howbeit I be most unfit for that.
I hear, and I bless the Father of lights for it, that ye have a spirit set to seek God, and that the posture of your heart is to look heavenward, which is a work and cast of the Mediator Christ's right hand, who putteth on the heart a new frame. For the which I would have your Ladyship to see a tie and bond of obedience laid upon you, that all may be done, not so much from obligation of law, as from the tie of free love; that the law of ransom-paying by Christ may be the chief ground of all our obedience, seeing that ye are not under the law, but under grace. Withal, know that unbelief is a spiritual sin, and so not seen by nature's light; and that all which conscience saith is not Scripture. Suppose that your heart bear witness against you for sins done long ago: yet, because many have pardon with God that have not peace with themselves, ye are to stand and fall by Christ's esteem and verdict of you, and not by that which your heart saith. Suppose it may, by accident, be a good sign to be jealous of your heavenly Husband's love, yet it is a sinful sign; as there be some happy sins (if I may speak so), not of themselves, but because they are neighboured with faith and love. And so, worthy Lady, I would have you to hold by this, that the ancient love of an old husband standeth firm and sure. And let faith hing by this small thread, that He loved you before He laid the corner-stone of the world, and therefore He cannot change His mind; because He is God, and resteth in His love. Neither is sin in you a good reason wherefore ye should doubt of Him, or think, because sin hath put you in the courtesy and reverence of justice, that therefore He is wroth with you: neither is it presumption in you to lay the burden of your salvation on One mighty to save, so being that ye lay aside all confidence in yourself, your worth and righteousness. True faith is humble, and seeth no way to escape but only in Christ. And I believe that ye have put an esteem and high price upon Christ: and they cannot but believe, and so be saved, who love Christ, and to whom He is precious; for the love of Christ has chosen Christ as a lover. And it were not like God, if ye should choose Him as your liking, and He not choose you again. Nay, He hath prevented you in that, for ye have not chosen Him, but He hath chosen you.
O consider His loveliness and beauty, and that there is nothing which can commend and make fair heaven, or earth, or the creature, that is not in Him in infinite perfection; for fair sun and fair moon are black, and think shame to shine before His fairness (Isa. xxiv. 23; Job xxv. 5). Base heavens, and excellent Jesus! weak angels, and strong and mighty Jesus! foolish angel-wisdom, and only wise Jesus! short-living creature, and long-living and ever-living Ancient of days! Miserable, and sickly, and wretched are those things that are within time's circle, and only, only blessed Jesus! If ye can wind-in into His love (and He giveth you leave to love Him, and allurements also), what a second heaven's paradise, a young heaven's glory, is it to be hot and burned with fevers of love-sickness for Him! And the more your Ladyship drink of this love, there is the more room, and the greater delight and desire for this love. Be homely, and hunger for a feast and fill of His love; for that is the borders and march of heaven. Nothing hath a nearer resemblance to the colour, and hue, and lustre of heaven than Christ loved, and to breathe out love-words and love-sighs for Him. Remember what He is. When twenty thousand millions of heaven's lovers have worn their hearts threadbare of love, all is nothing, yea, less than nothing, to His matchless worth and excellency. Oh so broad and so deep as the sea of His desirable loveliness is! Glorified spirits, triumphing angels, the crowned and exalted lovers of heaven, stand without His loveliness (Ps. xvi. 2), and cannot put a circle on it. Oh if sin and time were from betwixt us and that royal King's love! that high Majesty (eternity's Bloom and Flower of high lustred beauty) might shine upon pieces of created spirits, and might bedew and overflow us, who are portions of endless misery and lumps of redeemed sin.
Alas! what do I? I but spill and lose words in speaking highly of Him who will bide and be above the music and songs of heaven, and never be enough praised by us all; to whose boundless and bottomless love I recommend your Ladyship, and am,
Your Ladyship's, in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, March 27, 1640.
[CCXCVIII.—To his Reverend and dear Brother, Mr. David Dickson, on the Death of his Son.]
["When told that Mr. Dickson had some children removed by death, Mr. S. Rutherford presently called for a pen, and wrote a profitable letter to Mr. Dickson; 'for' (said he) 'when one arm is broken off and bleeds, it makes the other bleed with it'" (Wodrow's "Analecta").]
(GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY, AND DISCIPLINE BY AFFLICTION.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—Ye look like the house whereof ye are a branch: the cross is a part of the liferent that lieth to all the sons of the house. I desire to suffer with you, if I could take a lift of your house-trial off you; but ye have preached it ere I knew anything of God. Your Lord may gather His roses, and shake His apples, at what season of the year He pleaseth. Each husbandman cannot make harvest when he pleaseth, as He can do. Ye are taught to know and adore His sovereignty, which He exerciseth over you, which yet is lustred with mercy. The child hath but changed a bed in the garden, and is planted up higher, nearer the sun, where he shall thrive better than in this outfield muir-ground. Ye must think your Lord would not want him one hour longer; and since the date of your loan of him was expired (as it is, if ye read the lease), let Him have His own with gain, as good reason were. I read on it an exaltation and a richer measure of grace, as the sweet fruit of your cross; and I am bold to say, that that college where your Master hath set you now shall find it.
I am content that Christ is so homely with my dear brother David Dickson, as to borrow and lend, and take and give with him. And ye know what are called the visitations of such a friend: it is, Come to the house, and be homely with what is yours. I persuade myself, upon His credit, that He hath left drink-money, and that He hath made the house the better of Him. I envy[426] not His waking love, who saw that this water was to be passed through, and that now the number of crosses lying in your way to glory are fewer by one than when I saw you. They must decrease. It is better than any ancient or modern commentary on your text, that ye preach upon in Glasgow. Read and spell right, for He knoweth what He doeth. He is only lopping and snedding a fruitful tree, that it may be more fruitful. I congratulate heartily with you His new welcome to your new charge.
Dearest brother, go on, and faint not. Something of yours is in heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Saviour; and ye go on after your own. Time's thread is shorter by one inch than it was. An oath is sworn and past the seals, whether afflictions will or not, ye must grow, and swell out of your shell, and live, and triumph, and reign, and be more than a conqueror. For your Captain, who leadeth you on, is more than conqueror, and He maketh you partaker of His conquest and victory. Did not love to you compel me, I would not fetch water to the well, and speak to one who knoweth better than I can do what God is doing with him.
Remember my love to your wife, to Mr. John,[427] and all friends there. Let us be helped by your prayers, for I cease not to make mention of you to the Lord, as I can.
Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, May 28, 1640.
[CCXCIX.—To my Lady Boyd, on the loss of several Friends.]
(TRUST EVEN THOUGH SLAIN—SECOND CAUSES NOT TO BE REGARDED—GOD'S THOUGHTS OF PEACE THEREIN—ALL IN MERCY.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Impute it not to a disrespective forgetfulness of your Ladyship, who ministered to me in my bonds, that I write not to you.
I wish that I could speak or write what might do good to your Ladyship; especially now when I think we cannot but have deep thoughts of the deep and bottomless ways of our Lord, in taking away, with a sudden and wonderful stroke, your brethren and friends. Ye may know, that all who die for sin die not in sin; and that "none can teach the Almighty knowledge." He answereth none of our courts,[428] and no man can say, "What doest Thou?" It is true that your brethren saw not many summers; but adore and fear the sovereignty of the great Potter, who maketh and marreth His clay-vessels when and how it pleaseth Him.
The under-garden is absolutely His own, and all that groweth in it. His absolute liberty is law-biding. The flowers are His own. If some be but summer apples, He may pluck them down before others. Oh what wisdom is it to believe, and not to dispute; to subject the thoughts to His court, and not to repine at any act of His justice? He hath done it: all flesh be silent! It is impossible to be submissive and religiously patient, if ye stay your thoughts down among the confused rollings and wheels of second causes; as, "Oh the place!" "Oh the time!" "Oh if this had been, this had not followed!" Oh the linking of this accident with this time and place! Look up to the master-motion and the first wheel. See and read the decree of Heaven and the Creator of man, who breweth death to His children, and the manner of it. And they see far into a millstone, and have eyes that make a hole to see through the one side of a mountain to the other, who can take up His ways. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" His providence halteth not, but goeth with even and equal legs. Yet are they not the greatest sinners upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. Was not time's lease expired? and the sand of heaven's sand-glass, set by our Lord, run out? Is not he an unjust debtor who payeth due debt with chiding?
I believe, Christian lady, your faith leaveth that much charity to our Lord's judgments as to believe (howbeit ye be in blood sib to that cross) that yet ye are exempted and freed from the gall and wrath that is in it. I dare not deny but "the king of terrors dwelleth in the wicked man's tabernacle: brimstone shall be scattered on his habitation" (Job xviii. 15); yet, Madam, it is safe for you to live upon the faith of His love whose arrows are over-watered and pointed with love and mercy to His own, and who knoweth how to take you and yours out of the roll and book of the dead. Our Lord hath not the eyes of flesh in distributing wrath to the thousandth generation without exception. Seeing ye are not under the law, but under grace, and married to another Husband, wrath is not the court that you are liable to.
As I would not wish, neither do I believe, that your Ladyship doth "despise," so neither "faint" (Prov. iii. 11). Read and spell aright all the words and syllables in the visitation, and miscall neither letter nor syllable in it. Come along with the Lord, and see; and lay no more weight upon the law than your Christ hath laid upon it. If the law's bill get an answer from Christ, the curses of it can do more. And I hope you have resolved that, if He should grind you to powder, your dust and powder will believe His salvation.
And who can tell what thoughts of love and peace our Lord hath to your children? I trust He will make them famous in executing the written judgments upon the enemies of the Lord ("this honour hath all the saints," Ps. cxlix. 9), and that they shall bear stones on their shoulders for building that fair city that is called "The Lord is there" (Ezek. xlviii. 35). And happy shall they be who have a hand in the sacking of Babel, and come out in the year of vengeance for the controversy of Zion, against the land of graven images. Therefore, Madam, let the Lord make out of your father's house any work, even of judgment, that He pleaseth. What is wrath to others is mercy to you and your house. It is faith's work to claim and challenge loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God. Do that for the Lord which ye will do for time: time will calm your heart at that which God hath done, and let our Lord have it now. What love ye did bear to friends now dead, seeing they stand now in no need of it, let it fall as just legacy to Christ. Oh how sweet to put out many strange lovers, and to put in Christ! It is much for our half-slain affections to part with that which we believe we have right unto; but the servant's will should be our will, and he is the best servant who retaineth least of his own will and most of his Master's. That much wisdom must be ascribed to our Lord, that He knoweth how to lead His own, in-through and out-through the little time-hells and the pieces of time-during wraths in this life; and yet keep safe His love, without any blur upon the old and great seal of free election. And, seeing His mountains of brass,[429] the mighty and strong decrees of free grace in Christ, stand sure, and the covenant standeth fast for ever as the days of heaven, let Him strike and nurture. His striking must be a very act of saving, seeing strokes upon His secret ones come from the soft and heavenly hand of the Mediator, and His rods are steeped and watered in that flood and river of love that cometh from the God-man's heart of our soul-loving and soul-redeeming Jesus.
I hope that ye are content to frist the Cautioner of mankind His own conquest, heaven, till He pay to you, and bring you to a state of glory, where He will never crook a finger upon, nor lift a hand to you again. And be content, and withal greedily covetous of grace, the interest and pledge of glory. If I did not believe your crop to be on the ground, and (your part of that heaven of the saints-heaven) white and ruddy, fair, fair, and beautiful Jesus were come to the bloom and the flower, and near your hook, I would not write this. But, seeing time's thread is short, and ye are upon the entry of heaven's harvest, and Christ, the field of heaven's glory, is white and ripe-like, the losses that I wrote of to your Ladyship are but summer-showers that will only wet your garments for an hour or two, and the sun of the New Jerusalem shall quickly dry the wet coat; especially seeing rains of affliction cannot stain the image of God, or cause grace to cast colour. And, since ye will not alter upon Him who will not change upon you, I durst, in my weakness, think myself no spiritual seer if I should not prophesy that daylight is near, when such a morning-darkness is upon you; and that this trial of your Christian mind towards Him (whom you dare not leave, howbeit He should slay you) shall close with a doubled mercy. It is time for faith to hold fast as much of Christ as ever ye had, and to make the grip stronger, and to cleave closer to Him, seeing Christ loveth to be believed in and trusted to. The glory of laying strength upon one that is mighty to save is more than we can think. That piece of service, believing in a smiting Redeemer, is a precious part of obedience. Oh what glory to Him to lay over the burden of our heaven upon Him that purchased for us an eternal kingdom! O blessed soul, who can adore and kiss His lovely free grace!
The rich grace of Christ be with your spirit.
Yours, at all obedience in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Oct. 15, 1640.
[CCC.—ToAgnes Macmath on the Death of a Child.]
[Agnes Macmath was the daughter of Mr. Macmath, a merchant in Edinburgh, and the sister of Rutherford's second wife.]
(REASON FOR RESIGNATION.)
D EAR SISTER,—If our Lord hath taken away your child, your lease of him is expired; and seeing that Christ would want him no longer, it is your part to hold your peace, and worship and adore the sovereignty and liberty that the Potter hath over the clay, and pieces of clay-nothings, that He gave life unto. And what is man to call and summon the Almighty to His lower court down here? "for He giveth account of none of His doings." And if ye will take the loan of a child, and give him back again to our Lord laughing (as His borrowed goods should return to Him), believe that he is not gone away, but sent before; and that the change of the country should make you think, that he is not lost to you who is found to Christ, and that he is now before you; and that the dead in Christ shall be raised again. A going-down star is not annihilated, but shall appear again. If he hath casten his bloom and flower, the bloom is fallen in heaven, into Christ's lap. And as he was lent a while to time, so is he given now to eternity, which will take yourself. The difference of your shipping and his to heaven and Christ's shore, the land of life, is only in some few years, which weareth every day shorter; and some short and soon-reckoned summers will give you a meeting with him. But what! With him? Nay, but with a better company; with the Chief and Leader of the heavenly troops, that are riding on white horses, that are triumphing in glory.
If death were a sleep that had no wakening, we might sorrow: but our Husband shall quickly be at the bedsides of all that lie sleeping in the grave, and shall raise their mortal bodies. Christ was death's Cautioner, who gave His word to come and loose all the clay-pawns, and set them at His own right hand; and our Cautioner, Christ, hath an act of law-surety upon death, to render back his captives. And that Lord Jesus, who knoweth the turnings and windings that are in that black trance of death, hath numbered all the steps of the stair up to heaven. He knoweth how long the turnpike is, or how many pair of stairs high it is; for He ascended that way Himself: "I was dead and am alive" (Rev. i. 18). And now He liveth at the right hand of God, and His garments have not so much as a smell of death.
Your afflictions smell of the children's case; the bairns of the house are so nurtured (Heb. xii. 6, 7, 8). And suffering is no new life, it is but the rent of the sons; bastards have not so much of the rent. Take kindly and heartsomely with His cross, who never yet slew a child with the cross. He breweth your cup: therefore, drink it patiently and with the better will. Stay and wait on, till Christ loose the knot that fasteneth His cross on your back; for He is coming to deliver. And I pray you, sister, learn to be worthy of His pains who correcteth. And let Him wring, and be ye washen; for He hath a Father's heart, and a Father's hand, who is training you up, and making you meet for the high hall. This school of suffering is a preparation for the King's higher house; and let all your visitations speak all the letters of your Lord's summons. They cry—1. "O vain world!" 2. "O bitter sin!" 3. "O short and uncertain time!" 4. "O fair eternity that is above sickness and death!" 5. "O kingly and princely Bridegroom, hasten glory's marriage, shorten time's short-spun and soon-broken thread, and conquer sin!" 6. "O happy and blessed death, that golden bridge laid over by Christ my Lord, between time's clay-banks and heaven's shore!" And the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!" and answer ye with them, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus! come quickly!"
Grace be with you.
Your Brother, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Oct. 15, 1640.
[CCCI.—To Mr. Matthew Mowat.]
(WORTHINESS OF GOD'S LOVE AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST—HEAVEN WITH CHRIST.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—What am I to answer you? Alas! my books are all bare, and show me little of God. I would fain go beyond books into His house-of-love to Himself. Dear brother, neither you nor I are parties worthy of His love or knowledge. Ah! how hath sin bemisted and blinded us, that we cannot see Him. But for my poor self; I am pained and like to burst, because He will not take down the wall, and fetch His uncreated beauty, and bring His matchless, white, and ruddy face out of heaven once-errand, that I may have heaven meeting me, ere I go to it, in such a wonderful sight. Ye know that majesty and love do humble; because homely love to sinners dwelleth in Him with majesty. Ye should give Him all His own court-styles, His high and heaven-names. What am I, to shape conceptions of my highest Lord? How broad, and how high, and how deep He is above and beyond what these conceptions are, I cannot tell: but for my own weak practice (which alas! can be no rule to one so deep in love-sickness with Christ as ye are), I would fain add to my thoughts and esteem of Him, and make Him more high, and would wish a heart and love ten thousand times wider than the utmost circle and curtain that goeth about the heaven of heavens, to entertain Him in that heart, and with that love. But that which is your pain, my dear brother, is mine also. I am confounded with the thoughts of Him. I know that God is casten (if I may speak so) in a sweet mould, and lovely image, in the person of that Heaven's Jewel, the Man Christ; and that the steps of that steep ascent and stairs to the Godhead is the flesh of Christ, the New and Living Way; and there is footing for faith in that curious Ark of the humanity, wherein dwelleth the Godhead, married upon our humanity. I would be in heaven, suppose I had not another errand than to see that dainty golden Ark, and God personally looking out at ears and eyes and a body such as we sinners have, that I might wear my sinful mouth in kisses on Him for evermore. And I know all the Three blessed Persons would be well pleased that my piece of faint and created love should first coast upon the Man Christ. I should see them all through Him.
I am called from writing by my great employments in this town, and have said nothing. But what can I say of Him? Let us go and see.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1640.
[CCCII.—To my Lady Kenmure, on her Husband's Death.]
(GOD'S METHOD IN AFFLICTION—FUTURE GLORY.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to your Ladyship.—I am heartily sorry that your Ladyship is deprived of such a husband, and the Lord's kirk of so active and faithful a friend.[430] I know your Ladyship long ago made acquaintance with that wherein Christ will have you to be joined in a fellowship with Himself (even with His own cross), and hath taught you to stay your soul upon the Lord's good-will, who giveth not account of His matters to any of us. When He hath led you through this water that was in your way to glory, there are fewer behind: and His order in dismissing us, and sending us out of the market, one before another, is to be reverenced. One year's time of heaven shall swallow up all sorrows, even beyond all comparison. What, then, will not a duration of blessedness so long as God shall live, fully and abundantly recompense! It is good that our Lord hath given a debtor, obliged by gracious promises, far more in eternity than time can take from you. And I believe that your Ladyship hath been, now many years, advising and thinking what that glory will be, which is abiding the pilgrims and strangers on the earth when they come home, and which we may think of, love, and thirst for. But we cannot comprehend it nor conceive of it as it is; far less we can over-think or over-love it. Oh, so long a Chapter, or rather so large a Volume, as Christ is, in that Divinity of Glory! There is no more of Him let down now to be seen and enjoyed by His children, than as much as may feed hunger in this life, but not satisfy it. Your Ladyship is a debtor to the Son of God's cross, that is wearing out love and affiance in the creature out of your heart by degrees. Or rather the obligation standeth to His free grace who careth for your Ladyship in this gracious dispensation; and who is preparing and making ready the garments of salvation for you; and who calleth you with a new name, that the mouth of the Lord hath named; and purposeth to make you a crown of glory, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God (Isa. lxii. 2, 3). Ye are obliged to frist Him more than one heaven; and yet He craveth not a long day; it is fast coming, and is sure payment. Though ye give no hire for Him, yet hath He given a great price and ransom for you; and if the bargain were to make again, Christ would give no less for you than what He hath already given. He is far from ruing. I shall wish you no more (till time be gone out of the way), than the earnest of that which He hath purchased and prepared for you, which can never be fully preached, written, or thought of, since it hath not entered into the heart to consider it.
So, recommending your Ladyship to the rich grace of our Lord Jesus, I am, and rest, your Ladyship's at all respectful observance in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCIII.—For the Right Honourable, my Lady Boyd.]
(SIN OF THE LAND—READ PRAYERS—BROWNISM.)
M ADAM,—I doubt not but the debt of many more than ordinary favours to this land layeth guiltiness upon this nation. The Lord hath put us in His books as a favoured people in the sight of the nations, but we pay not to Him the rent of the vineyard. And we might have had a gospel at an easier rate than this Gospel; but it would have had but as much life as ink and paper have. We stand obliged to Him who hath in a manner forced His love on us, and would but love us against our will.
Anent read prayers. Madam, I could never see precept, promise, or practice for them, in God's word. Our church never allowed them, but men took them up at their own choice. The word of God maketh reading (1 Tim. iv. 3) and praying (1 Thess. v. 17) two different worships. In reading, God speaketh to us (2 Kings xxii. 10, 11); in praying, we speak to God (Ps. xxii. 2, xxviii. 1). I had never faith to think well of them. In my weak judgment, it were good if they were out of the service of God. I cannot think them a fruit or effect of the Spirit of adoption, seeing the user cannot say of such prayers, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer," which the servants of God ought to say of their prayers (Ps. xix. 14). For such prayers are meditations set down in paper and ink, and cannot be his heart-meditations who useth them. The saints never used them, and God never commanded them; and a promise to hear any prayers, except the pouring out of the soul to God, we can never read.
As for separation from worship for some errors of a church, the independency of single congregations, a church of visible saints, and other tenets of Brownists,[431] they are contrary to God's word. I have a treatise at the press at London against these conceits, as things which want God's word to warrant them.[432] The Lord lay it not to their charge, who depart from the covenant of God with this land to follow such lying vanities.
I did see lately your daughter, the Lady Ardross.[433] The Lord hath given her a child and deliverance.
Now, recommending your Ladyship to the rich grace of Christ, I rest yours at all respectful observance in Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCIV.—To James Murray's Wife. [See Letter CCLXXIV.]
(HEAVEN A REALITY—STEDFASTNESS TO BE GROUNDED ON CHRIST.)
M Y VERY DEAR AND WORTHY SISTER,—You are truly blessed in the Lord, however a sour world gloom and frown on you, if ye continue in the faith settled and grounded, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel. It is good that there is a heaven, and it is not a night-dream and a fancy. It is a wonder that men deny not that there is a heaven, as they deny there is any way to it but of men's making. You have learned of Christ that there is a heaven; contend for it and for Christ. Bear well and submissively the hard thrust of this stepmother world, which God will not have to be yours. I confess it is hard, and, would to God, I were able to lighten you of your burden; but believe me, this world, which the Lord will not have to be yours, is but the dross, refuse, and scum of God's creation, the portion of the Lord's poor hired servants, the moveables, not the heritage, a hard bone cast to the dogs holden out of the New Jerusalem, whereupon they rather break their teeth than satisfy their appetite. It is your father's blessing and Christ's birthright that our Lord is keeping for you; and persuade yourself also that (if it be good for them and you) your seed also shall inherit the earth; for that is promised to them, and God's bond is as good as if He would give every one of them a bond for thousand thousands.
Ere ye were born, crosses in number, measure and weight, were written for you; and your Lord will lead you through them. Make Christ sure, and the world and the blessings of the earth shall be at Christ's back and beck. I see many professors for the fashion, professors of glass; I would make a little knock of persecution ding them in twenty pieces, and the world would laugh at the shreds. Therefore, make fast work; see that Christ be the ground-stone of your profession. The sore wind and rain will not wash away His building; His work hath no less date than to stand for evermore. I should twenty times have perished in my affliction, if I had not laid my weak back and pressing burden, both, upon the Stone, the Corner-stone laid in Zion. I am not twice fain (as the proverb is), but once and for ever, of this Stone. Now the God of peace establish you to the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ. Yours,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCV.—For the Right Honourable Lady, my Lady Kenmure.]
(SINS OF THE TIMES—PRACTICAL ATHEISM.)
M ADAM,—I am a little moved at your infirmity of body and health; I hope it is to you a real warning. "And if in this life only we had hope, we should be of all men the most miserable." Sure the huge[434] generations of the seekers of the face of Jacob's God must be in a life above the things that are now much taking with us; such as, to see the sun, to enjoy this life in health, and some good worldly accommodations too. And if we be making that[435] sure, it is our wisdom. The times would make any that love the Lord sick and faint, to consider how iniquity aboundeth, and how dull we are in observing sins in ourselves, and how quick-sighted to find them out in others, and what bondage we are in. And yet very often, when we complain of times, we are secretly slandering the Lord's work and wise government of the world, and raising a hard report of Him. "He is good, and doeth good," and all His ways are equal.
Madam, I have been holding out to some others (oh, if I could to myself!) some more of this, to read and study God well, and make the serious thoughts of a Godhead, and a Godhead in Christ, the work, and the only work, all the day. Oh, we are little with God! and do all without God! We sleep and wake without Him; we eat, we speak, we journey, we go about worldly business and our calling without God! and, considering what deadness is upon the hearts of many, it were good that some did not pray without God, and preach and praise, and read and confer of God without God! It is universally complained of, that there is a strange deadness upon the land, and on the hearts of His people. Oh, if we could help it! But He that watereth every moment His garden of red wine must help it. I believe that He will burn the briers and the thorns that come against Him.
I desire to remember your Ladyship to God; but little can I do that way. His everlasting goodness will be with you.
Yours, in the Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, July 24.
[CCCVI.—To Mr. Thomas Wylie, Minister of Borgue.]
[Mr. Thomas Wylie was minister of Borgue, a parish in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in which are to be seen, close to the sea-shore, the remains of what is supposed to have been one of the old Culdee churches, Kirk Andrews. He was afterwards translated to Mauchline, a parish in Ayrshire; but he remained there only a short time, having soon after his translation to it accepted a call to Kirkcudbright. But he was not allowed long to prosecute his useful labours in that place. Shortly after the restoration of Charles II., his fidelity to his Presbyterian principles rendering him obnoxious to the Government, he was, by a particular act of Privy Council, ejected from his charge, and banished to the north of Tay, with his family. In 1670 he went over to Ireland (where some of his relatives appear to have resided), and officiated in a congregation at Coleraine for nearly three years, when he returned to Scotland, and was settled minister of Fenwick, in the Presbytery of Irvine, under the second Indulgence. He died on July 20, 1676.]
(SUFFICIENCY OF DIVINE GRACE—CALL TO ENGLAND TO ASSIST AT WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY—FELT UNWORTHINESS.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I neither can nor dow write to you anent the business, in respect it is my case more as yours, and ye write to me that which I should write to you. If grace pay not our debts and bond-surety for us, I see not how I shall make a reckoning for one soul, far less for multitudes; only it is God's will that we put grace to the utmost, and engage Christ for His own work. If He refuse charges to His own factors, the lost bankruptcy will redound to Him. But He must not be a loser, nor can His glory suffer. But I must entreat you for the help of your prayers, as you will do for me anything out of heaven, and possible to you. I am now called for to England; the government of the Lord's house in England and Ireland is to be handled.[436] My heart beareth me witness, and the Lord who is greater knoweth, my faith was never prouder than to be a common rough country barrowman in Anwoth; and that I could not look at the honour of being a mason to lay the foundation for many generations, and to build the waste places of Zion in another kingdom, or to have a hand or finger in that carved work in the cedar and almug trees in that new temple. I desire but to lend a shut,[437] and cry, "Grace, grace upon the building." I hope ye will help my weakness in this; and seek help to me from others as if I had named them, and intercede for the favour of my Father's seas, winds, and tides, and for the victory of strong and prevailing truth.
Grace be with you.
Yours in Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 20th Oct. 1643.
[CCCVII.—To a Young Man in Anwoth.]
[This letter is from the "Christian Instructor" of January 1839, furnished by one who was in possession of the MS. It was written at St. Andrews, but both date and address are lost. It is supposed to have been addressed to one of his former parishioners, a young man in Anwoth, of some influence.]
(NECESSITY OF GODLINESS IN ITS POWER.)
W ORTHY SIR,—I am heartily glad that you have any mind of me, or my ministry while I was with you. I wish you the fruit of it. I trust that you strive for the power of godliness, that has been so preached in the land; for salvation cometh not to every man's door, and the way to heaven is a straiter and narrower passage than each man thinketh. And you are now in the most glassy part of your life, when it is easy to follow, and when the lusts of youth are rank and strong. And happy are you that can pass through these dangers with a good conscience. So my real advice is, that you acquaint yourself with prayer, and with searching the Scriptures of God, that He may show you that good way that bringeth rest to the soul. The ordinary faith and the country godliness will not save you. There must be more nor the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ere ever a man enter the kingdom of God. And I shall desire that you will take to heart the worth and price of an immortal soul, and the necessity of dying, and the fearful account of judgment at the back of death, that you may be saved.
As for my ministry among you again, I can easier desire it than see through it. The Lord of the harvest take care for you, and send you a pastor according to God's heart; and that's as rare as ever, for all our reformation.
Remember my heart's love and respect to your mother and sister. Grace be with you.
Your sometime pastor and still friend in God,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCVIII.—For the Right Honourable, my Lady Viscountess of Kenmure.]
(WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY—RELIGIOUS SECTS.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I am glad to hear that your Ladyship is in any tolerable health; and shall pray that the Lord may be your Strength and Rock. Sure I am, that He took you out of the womb; and you have been casten on Him from the breasts. I am confident that He will not leave you till He crown the work begun in you.
There is nothing here but divisions in the Church and Assembly;[438] for beside Brownists and Independents[439] (who, of all that differ from us, come nearest to walkers with God), there are many other sects here, of Anabaptists,[440] Libertines who are for all opinions in religion, fleshly and abominable Antinomians,[441] and Seekers,[442] who are for no church-ordinances, but expect apostles to come and reform churches; and a world of others, all against the government of presbyteries.[443] Luther observed, when he studied to reform, that two-and-thirty sundry sects arose; of all which I have named a part, except those called Seekers, who were not then arisen. He said, God should crush them, and that they should rise again: both which we see accomplished. In the Assembly, we have well near ended the government, and are upon the power of Synods, and I hope near at an end with them; and so I trust to be delivered from this prison shortly. The King hath dissolved the treaty of peace at Uxbridge, and adhereth to his sweet prelates, and would abate nothing but a little of the rigour of their courts, and a suspending of laws against the ceremonies, not a taking away of them.[444] The not prospering of our armies there in Scotland is ascribed here to the sins of the land, and particularly to the divisions and back-slidings of many from the cause, and the not executing of justice against bloody malignants.
My wife here, under the physicians, remembereth her service to your Ladyship. So recommending you to the rich grace of Christ, I rest, your Ladyship's, at all obedience in Christ,
S. R.
London, March 4, 1644.
[CCCIX.—For the Right Honourable, my Lady Boyd.]
(PROCEEDINGS OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I received your letter on May 19th.
We are here debating, with much contention of disputes, for the just measures of the Lord's temple. It pleaseth God, that sometimes enemies hinder the building of the Lord's house; but now friends, even gracious men (so I conceive of them), do not a little hinder the work. Thomas Goodwin,[445] Jeremiah Burroughs,[446] and some others, four or five, who are for the Independent way, stand in our way, and are mighty opposites to presbyterial government. We have carried through some propositions for the Scripture right of presbytery, especially in the church of Jerusalem (Acts ii. iv. v. vi. and xv.), and the church of Ephesus, and are going on upon other grounds of truth; and by the way have proven, that ordination of pastors belongeth not to a single congregation, but to a college of presbyters, whose it is to lay hands upon Timothy and others (1 Tim. iv. 14, v. 17; Acts xiii. 1, 2, 3, vi. 5, 6). We are to prove that one single congregation hath not power to excommunicate, which is opposed not only by Independent men, but by many others. The truth is, we have at times grieved spirits with the work; and for my part, I often despair of the reformation of this land, which saw never anything but the high places of their fathers, and the remnants of Babylon's pollutions; and except that, "not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord," I should think God hath not yet thought it time for England's deliverance. For the truth is, the best of them almost have said, "A half reformation is very fair at the first;" which is no other thing than, "It is not time yet to build the house of the Lord." And for that cause, many houses, great and fair in the land, are laid desolate.
Multitudes of Anabaptists, Antinomians, Familists,[447] Separatists,[448] are here. The best of the people are of the Independent way. As for myself, I know no more if there be a sound Christian (setting aside some, yea, not a few learned, some zealous and faithful ministers whom I have met with) at London (though I doubt not but there are many), than if I were in Spain; which maketh me bless God that the communion of saints, how desirable soever, yet is not the thing, even that great thing, Christ and the remission of sins. If Jesus were unco,[449] as His members are here, I should be in a sad and heavy condition.
The House of Peers are rotten men, and hate our Commissioners and our cause both. The life that is is in the House of Commons, and many of them also have their religion to choose. The sorrows of a travailing woman are come on the land. Our army is lying about York, and have blocked up them of Newcastle,[450] and six thousand Papists and Malignants, with Mr. Thomas Sydserf, and some Scottish prelates; and if God deliver them into their hands (considering how strong the Parliament's armies are, how many victories God hath given them since they entered into covenant with Him, and how weak the King is), it may be thought the land is near a deliverance. But I rather desire it than believe it.
We offered this day to the Assembly a part of a directory for worship, to shoulder out the service-book. It is taken into consideration by the Assembly.
Your son Lindsay[451] is well: I receive letters from him almost every week.
Yours at all obedience in God,
S. R.
London, May 25, 1644.
[CCCX.—To Mistress Taylor, on her son's death. [Her son was a parishioner of Mr. Blair.]
(SUGGESTIONS FOR COMFORT UNDER SORROW.)
M ISTRESS,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Though I have no relation worldly or acquaintance with you, yet (upon the testimony and importunity of your elder son now at London, where I am, but chiefly because I esteem Jesus Christ in you to be in place of all relations) I make bold, in Christ, to speak my poor thoughts to you concerning your son lately fallen asleep in the Lord, who was sometime under the ministry of the worthy servant of Christ, my fellow-labourer, Mr. Blair, by whose ministry I hope he reaped no small advantage. I know that grace rooteth not out the affections of a mother, but putteth them on His wheel who maketh all things new, that they may be refined: therefore, sorrow for a dead child is allowed to you, though by measure and ounce-weights. The redeemed of the Lord have not a dominion, or lordship, over their sorrow and other affections, to lavish out Christ's goods at their pleasure. "For ye are not your own, but bought with a price;" and your sorrow is not your own. Nor hath He redeemed you by halves; and therefore, ye are not to make Christ's cross no cross. He commandeth you to weep: and that princely One, who took up to heaven with Him a man's heart to be a compassionate High Priest, became your fellow and companion on earth by weeping for the dead (John xi. 35). And, therefore, ye are to love that cross, because it was once at Christ's shoulders before you: so that by His own practice He hath over-gilded and covered your cross with the Mediator's lustre. The cup ye drink was at the lip of sweet Jesus, and He drank of it; and so it hath a smell of His breath, and I conceive that ye love it not the worse that it is thus sugared. Therefore, drink, and believe the resurrection of your son's body. If one coal of hell could fall off the exalted head, Jesus (Jesus the Prince of the kings of the earth!), and burn me to ashes, knowing I were a partner with Christ, and a fellow-sharer with Him (though the unworthiest of men), I think that I should die a lovely death in that fire with Him. The worst things of Christ, even His cross, have much of heaven from Himself; and so hath your Christian sorrow, being of kin to Christ in that kind. If your sorrow were a bastard (and not of Christ's house because of the relation ye have to Him, in conformity to His death and sufferings), I should the more compassionate your condition; but the kind and compassionate Jesus, at every sigh you give for the loss of your now glorified child (so I believe, as is meet), with a man's heart crieth, "Half mine."
I was not a witness to his death, being called out of the kingdom; but, if you will credit those whom I do credit (and I dare not lie), he died comfortably. It is true, he died before he did so much service to Christ on earth, as I hope and heartily desire that your son Mr. Hugh (very dear to me in Jesus Christ) will do. But that were a real matter of sorrow if this were not to counterbalance it, that he hath changed service-houses, but hath not changed services or Master. "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him" (Rev. xxii. 3). What he could have done in this lower house, he is now upon that same service in the higher house; and it is all one: it is the same service and the same Master, only there is a change of conditions. And ye are not to think it a bad bargain for your beloved son, where he hath gold for copper and brass, eternity for time.
I believe that Christ hath taught you (for I give credit to such a witness of you as your son Mr. Hugh) not to sorrow because he died. All the knot must be, "He died too soon, he died too young, he died in the morning of his life." This is all; but sovereignty must silence your thoughts. I was in your condition; I had but two children, and both are dead since I came hither.[452] The supreme and absolute Former of all things giveth not an account of any of His matters. The good Husbandman may pluck His roses, and gather in His lilies at mid-summer, and, for aught I dare say, in the beginning of the first summer month; and He may transplant young trees out of the lower ground to the higher, where they may have more of the sun, and a more free air, at any season of the year. What is that to you or me? The goods are His own. The Creator of time and winds did a merciful injury (if I dare borrow the word) to nature, in landing the passenger so early. They love the sea too well who complain of a fair wind, and a desirable tide, and a speedy coming ashore, especially a coming ashore in that land where all the inhabitants have everlasting joy upon their heads. He cannot be too early in heaven. His twelve hours were not short hours. And withal if ye consider this; had ye been at his bed-side, and should have seen Christ coming to him, ye would not, ye could not, have adjourned Christ's free love, who would want him no longer.
And dying in another land, where his mother could not close his eyes, is not much. Who closed Moses' eyes? And who put on his winding-sheet? For aught I know, neither father, nor mother, nor friend, but God only. And there is as expeditious, fair, and easy a way betwixt Scotland and heaven, as if he had died in the very bed he was born in. The whole earth is his Father's; any corner of his Father's house is good enough to die in.
It may be that the living child (I speak not of Mr. Hugh) is more grief to you than the dead. Ye are to wait on, if at any time God will give him repentance. Christ waited as long possibly on you and me, certainly longer on me; and if He should deny repentance to him, I could say something to that. But I hope better things of him.
It seemeth that Christ will have this world your stepdame. I love not your condition the worse. It may be a proof that ye are not a child of this lower house, but a stranger. Christ seeth it not good only, but your only good, to be led thus to heaven. And think this a favour, that He hath bestowed on you free, free grace, that is, mercy without hire: ye paid nothing for it. And who can put a price upon anything of royal and princely Jesus Christ? And God hath given to you to suffer for Him the spoiling of your goods. Esteem it as an act of free grace also. Ye are no loser, having Himself; and I persuade myself, that if ye could prize Christ, nothing could be bitter to you.
Grace, grace be with you.
Your brother and well-wisher,
S. R.
London, 1645.
[CCCXI.—To Barbara Hamilton.]
[Barbara Hamilton was the wife of Mr. John Mein, merchant, Edinburgh, noticed before (see Letter CLI.), and sister to the first wife of the famous Mr. Robert Blair. She was a woman of eminent piety, and also distinguished for her public spirit. When Mr. Blair, and other Presbyterian ministers, who had been deposed by the bishops in Ireland for nonconformity, had come over to Scotland in 1637, she, finding that they were threatened with still harsher treatment from the Scottish prelates, suggested a petition to the Privy Council, for liberty to these ministers to preach the Gospel publicly, engaging that she and some other like-minded women would put it into the hands of the Treasurer as he went into the Council. Blair drew it up; upon which she convened a considerable number of the religious matrons of Edinburgh, and ranged them in a line from the Council-house door to the street. The oldest matron was appointed to present the petition to the Treasurer. The Treasurer, suspecting that it was something which would be disagreeable to the Council, put the aged petitioner aside, and went quickly from her towards the Council-house door. Observing this, Barbara Hamilton immediately stepped forward, and, taking the paper out of the old feeble woman's hand, came up to the Treasurer, and "did with her strong arm and big hand fast grip his gardie" (i.e. arm), saying, "Stand, my Lord! in Christ's name, I charge you, till I speak to you." His Lordship, looking back, replies, "Good woman, what would you say to me?" "There is," said she, "a humble supplication of Mr. Blair's. All that he petitions for, is that he may have liberty to preach the Gospel. I charge you to befriend the matter, as you would expect God to befriend you in your distress, and at your death!" He replied, "I shall do my endeavour, and what I can in it." The result was, that Blair's supplication was granted by the Council. The following letter, which Rutherford addresses to this lady, was written on the occasion of the death of her son-in-law, probably Mr. William Hume, minister, who was married to her daughter Barbara Mein. (See Letter CCCXII.)]
(ON DEATH OF HER SON-IN-LAW—GOD'S PURPOSES.)
W ORTHY FRIEND,—Grace be to you. I do unwillingly write unto you of that which God hath done concerning your son-in-law; only, I believe ye look not below Christ, and the highest and most supreme act of Providence, which moveth all wheels. And certainly, what came down enacted and concluded in the great book before the throne, and signed and subscribed with the hand which never did wrong, should be kissed and adored by us.
We see God's decrees when they bring forth their fruits, all actions, good and ill, sweet and sour, in their time; but we see not presently the after-birth of God's decree, namely, His blessed end, and the good that He bringeth out of the womb of His holy and spotless counsel. We see His working, and we sorrow; the end of His counsel and working lieth hidden, and underneath the ground, and therefore we cannot believe. Even amongst men, we see hewn stones, timber, and an hundred scattered parcels and pieces of an house, all under-tools, hammers, and axes, and saws; yet the house, the beauty and use[453] of so many lodgings and ease-rooms, we neither see nor understand for the present; these are but in the mind and head of the builder, as yet. We see red earth, unbroken clods, furrows, and stones; but we see not summer, lilies, roses, the beauty of a garden.
If ye give the Lord time to work (as often[454] he that believeth maketh haste, but not speed), His end is under ground, and ye shall see it was your good, that your son hath changed dwelling-places, but not his Master. Christ thought good to have no more of his service here; yet, "His servants shall serve Him" (Rev. xxii. 3). He needeth not us nor our service, either on earth or in heaven. But ye are to look to Him who giveth the hireling both his leave and his wages, for his naked aim and purpose to serve Christ, as well as for his labours. It is put up in Christ's account, that such a labourer did sweat forty years in Christ's vineyard; howbeit he got not leave to labour so long, because He who accepteth of the will for the deed counteth so. None can teach the Lord to lay an account.
He numbereth the drops of rain, and knoweth the stars by their names; it would take us much studying to give a name to every star in the firmament, great or small.
See Lev. x. 3, "And Aaron held his peace." Ye know his two sons were slain, whilst they offered strange fire to the Lord. Command your thoughts to be silent. If the soldiers of Newcastle had done this, ye might have stomached; but the weapon was in another hand. Hear the rod what it preacheth, and see the name of God (Micah vi. 9), and know that there is somewhat of God and heaven in the rod. The majesty of the unsearchable and bottomless ways and judgments of God is not seen in the rod; and the seeing of them requireth the eyes of the man of wisdom. If the sufferings of some other with you in that loss could ease you, ye want them not. But He can do no wrong. He cannot halt; His goings are equal who hath done it. I know our Lord aimeth at more mortification; let Him not come in vain to your house, and lose the pains of a merciful visit. God, the Founder, never melteth in vain; howbeit to us He seemeth often to lose both fire and metal. But I know ye are more in this work than I can be. There is no cause to faint or be weary.
Grace be with you; and the rich consolations of Jesus Christ sweeten your cross, and support you under it. I rest,
Yours, in his Lord and Master,
S. R.
London, Oct. 15, 1645.
[CCCXII.—To Mistress Hume, on her Husband's Death.]
[This lady, it is highly probable, was Barbara Mein, the daughter of Barbara Hamilton, noticed above, and the wife of Mr. William Hume, minister, who had gone to England with the Covenanters' army, and who died at Newcastle, probably from wounds inflicted by the army. In the Index of the unprinted Acts of the General Assembly of 1645, there is an Act entitled, "Recommendation of Barbara Mein's Petition to the Parliament;" and in the Index of the unprinted Acts of the General Assembly of 1646, there is an Act entitled, "Act in favours of Barbara Mein, relict of umwhile Mr. William Hume, minister." The object of this letter is to comfort Mrs. Hume under that painful bereavement.]
(GOD'S VOICE IN THE ROD.)
L OVING SISTER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—If ye have anything better than the husband of your youth, ye are Jesus Christ's debtor for it. Pay not then your debts with grudging. Sorrow may diminish from the sweet fruit of righteousness; but quietness, silence, submission, and faith, put a crown upon your sad losses. Ye know whose voice the voice of a crying rod is (Micah vi. 9). The name and majesty of the Lord is written on the rod; read and be instructed. Let Christ have the room of the husband. He hath now no need of you, or of your love; for he enjoyeth as much of the love of Christ as his heart can be capable of. I confess that it is a dear-bought experience, to teach you to undervalue the creature; yet it is not too dear if Christ think it so. I know that the disputing of your thoughts against his going thither, the way and manner of his death, the instruments, the place, the time, will not ease your spirits; except ye rise higher than second causes, and be silent because the Lord hath done it. If we measure the goings of the Almighty, and His ways (the bottom whereof we see not), we quite mistake God. Oh, how little a portion of God do we see! He is far above our ebb and narrow thoughts. He ruled the world in wisdom, ere we, creatures of yesterday, were born; and will rule it when we shall be lodging beside the worm and corruption. Only learn heavenly wisdom, self-denial, and mortification, by this sad loss. I know that it is not for nothing (except ye deny God to be wise in all He doeth) that ye have lost one on earth. There hath been too little of your love and heart in heaven, and therefore the jealousy of Christ hath done this. It is a mercy that He contendeth with you and all your lovers. I should desire no greater favour for myself than that Christ laid a necessity, and took on such bonds upon Himself: "Such a one I must have, and such a soul I cannot live in heaven without" (John x. 16). And, believe it; it is incomprehensible love that Christ saith, "If I enjoy the glory of My Father and the crown of heaven, far above men and angels, I must use all means, though ever so violent, to have the company of such a one for ever and ever." If, with the eyes of wisdom, as a child of wisdom, ye justify your mother, the Wisdom of God (whose child ye are), ye will kiss and embrace this loss, and see much of Christ in it. Believe and submit; and refer the income of the consolations of Jesus, and the event of the trial, to your heavenly Father, who numbereth all your hairs. And put Christ into His own room in your love; it may be He hath either been out of His own place, or in a place of love inferior to His worth. Repair Christ in all His wrongs done to Him, and love Him for a Husband; and He that is a Husband to the widow will be that to you which He hath taken from you.
Grace be with you.
Your sympathizing brother,
S. R.
London, Oct. 15, 1645.
[CCCXIII.—To the Viscountess Kenmure.]
(CHRIST'S DESIGNS IN SICKNESS AND SORROW.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to your Ladyship.—Though Christ lose no time, yet, when sinful men drive His chariot, the wheels of His chariot move slowly. The woman, Zion, as soon as she travailed, brought forth her children; yea, "before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child" (Isa. lxvi. 7): yet the deliverance of the people was with the woman's going with child seventy years. That is more than nine months. There be many oppositions in carrying on the work; but I hope that the Lord will build His own Zion, and evidence to us that it is done, "not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord."
Madam, I have heard of your infirmities of body, and sickness. I know the issue shall be mercy to you, and that God's purpose, which lieth hidden under ground to you, is to commend the sweetness of His love and care to you from your youth. And if all the sad losses, trials, sicknesses, infirmities, griefs, heaviness, and inconstancy of the creature, be expounded (as sure I am they are) the rods of the jealousy of an Husband in heaven, contending with all your lovers on earth, though there were millions of them, for your love, to fetch more of your love home to heaven, to make it single, unmixed, and chaste, to the Fairest in heaven and earth, to Jesus the Prince of ages, ye will forgive (to borrow that word) every rod of God, and "not let the sun go down on your wrath" against any messenger of your afflicting and correcting Father. Since your Ladyship cannot but see that the mark at which Christ hath aimed these twenty-four years and above, is, to have the company and fellowship of such a sinful creature in heaven with Him for all eternity; and, because He will not (such is the power of His love) enjoy His Father's glory, and that crown due to Him by eternal generation, without you, by name (John xvii. 24, x. 16, xiv. 3), therefore, Madam, believe no evil of Christ: listen to no hard reports that His rods make of Him to you. He hath loved you, and washed you from your sins; and what would ye have more? Is that too little, except He adjourn all crosses, till ye be where ye shall be out of all capacity to sigh or be crossed? I hope that ye can desire no more, no greater, nor more excellent suit, than Christ and the fellowship of the Lamb for evermore. And if that desire be answered in heaven (as I am sure it is, and ye cannot deny but it is made sure to you), the want of these poor accidents, of a living husband, of many children, of an healthful body, of a life of ease in the world, without one knot in the rush, are nobly made up, and may be comfortably borne.
Grace, grace be with your Ladyship.
Your Ladyship's, at all obedience in Christ,
S. R.
London, Oct. 16, 1645.
[CCCXIV.—To Barbara Hamilton, on her Son-in-law slain in battle. [Letter CCCXII.]
(GOD DOES ALL THINGS WELL, AND WITH DESIGN.)
L OVING SISTER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I have heard with grief that Newcastle hath taken one more in a bloody account than before, even your son-in-law and my friend. But I hope you have learned that much of Christ as not to look to wheels rolled round about on earth. Earthen vessels are not to dispute with their Former. Pieces of shining clay may, by reasoning and contending with the potter, mar the work of Him "who hath His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem;" as bullocks sweating and wrestling in the furrow make their yoke more heavy. In quietness and rest ye shall be saved. If men do anything contrary to your heart, we may ask both, "Who did it?" and "What is done?" and "Why?" When God hath done any such thing, we are to inquire, "Who hath done it?" and to know that this cometh from the Lord, who is "wonderful in counsel;" but we are not to ask, "What?" or "Why?" If it be from the Lord as certainly there is no evil in the city without Him (Amos iii. 6), it is enough; the fairest face of His spotless way is but coming, and ye are to believe His works as well as His word. Violent death is a sharer with Christ in His death, which was violent. It maketh not much what way we go to heaven: the happy home is all, where the roughness of the way shall be forgotten. He is gone home to a Friend's house, and made welcome, and the race is ended: time is recompensed with eternity, and copper with gold. God's order is in wisdom; the husband goeth home before the wife. And the throng of the market shall be over ere it be long, and another generation be where we now are, and at length an empty house, and not one of mankind shall be upon the earth, within the sixth part of an hour after the earth and works that are therein shall be burnt up with fire. I fear more that Christ is about to remove, when He carrieth home so much of His plenishing beforehand.
We cannot teach the Almighty knowledge. When He was directing the bullet against His servant to fetch out the soul, no wise man could cry to God, "Wrong, wrong, Lord, for he is Thine own!" There is no mist over His eyes who is "wonderful in counsel." If Zion be builded with your son-in-law's blood, the Lord (deep in counsel) can glue together the stones of Zion with blood, and with that blood which is precious in His eyes. Christ hath fewer labourers in His vineyard than He had, but more witnesses for His cause and the Lord's covenant with the three nations. What is Christ's gain is not your loss. Let not that, which is His holy and wise will, be your unbelieving sorrow.
Though I really judge that I had interest in His dead servant, yet, because he now liveth to Christ, I quit the hopes which I had of his successful labouring in the ministry. I know he now praiseth the grace that he was to preach; and if there were a better thing on his head now in heaven than a crown, or anything more excellent than heaven, he would cast it down before His feet who sitteth on the throne. Give glory, therefore, to Christ, as he now doeth, and say, "Thy will be done."
The grace and consolation of Christ be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
London, Nov. 15, 1645.
[CCCXV.—To a Christian Friend, upon the death of his Wife.]
(GOD THE FIRST CAUSE—THE END OF AFFLICTION.)
W ORTHY FRIEND,—I desire to suffer with you, in the loss of a loving and good wife, now gone before (according to the method and order of Him of whose understanding there is no searching out) whither ye are to follow. He that made yesterday to go before this day, and the former generation, in birth and life, to have been before this present generation, and hath made some flowers to grow and die and wither in the month of May, and others in June, cannot be challenged in the order He hath made of things without souls; and some order He must keep also here, that one might bury another. Therefore I hope ye shall be dumb and silent, because the Lord hath done it.
What creatures or under-causes do, in sinful mistakes, is ordered in wisdom by your Father, at whose feet your own soul and your heaven lieth; and so the days of your wife. If the place she hath left were any other than a prison of sin, and the home she is gone to any other than where her Head and Saviour is King of the land, your grief had been more rational. But I trust your faith of the resurrection of the dead in Christ to glory and immortality, will lead you to suspend your longing for her, till the morning and dawning of that day when the archangel shall descend with a shout, to gather all the prisoners out of the grave, up to Himself. To believe this is best for you; and to be silent, because He hath done it, is your wisdom.
It is much to come out of the Lord's school of trial wiser, and more experienced in the ways of God; and it is our happiness, when Christ openeth a vein, that He taketh nothing but ill blood from His sick ones. Christ hath skill to do; and (if our corruption mar not) the art of mercy in correcting. We cannot of ourselves take away the tin, the lead, and the scum that remaineth in us; and if Christ be not Master-of-work, and if the furnace go its lone (He not standing nigh the melting of His own vessel), the labour were lost, and the Founder should melt in vain. God knoweth some of us have lost much fire, sweating, and pains, to our Lord Jesus; and the vessel is almost marred, the furnace and rod of God spilled, "the daylight[455] burnt, and the reprobate metal not taken away," so as some are to answer to the Majesty of God for the abuse of many good crosses, and rich afflictions lost without the quiet fruit of righteousness. It is a sad thing when the rod is cursed, that never fruit shall grow on it. And except Christ's dew fall down, and His summer-sun shine, and His grace follow afflictions to cause them to bring forth fruit to God, they are so fruitless to us, that our evil ground (rank and fat enough for briers) casteth up a crop of noisome weeds. "The rod" (as the prophet saith) "blossometh, pride buddeth forth, violence riseth up into a rod of wickedness" (Ezek. vii. 10, 11). And all this hath been my case under many rods since I saw you.
Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
London, 1645.
[CCCXVI.—To a Christian Brother, on the death of his Daughter.]
(CONSOLATION IN HER HAVING GONE BEFORE—CHRIST THE BEST HUSBAND.)
R EVEREND AND BELOVED IN THE LORD,—It may be that I have been too long silent, but I hope that ye will not impute it to forgetfulness of you.
As I have heard of the death of your daughter with heaviness of mind on your behalf, so am I much comforted that she hath evidenced to yourself and other witnesses the hope of the resurrection of the dead. As sown corn is not lost (for there is more hope of that which is sown than of that which is eaten) (1 Cor. xv. 42, 43), so also is it in the resurrection of the dead: the body "is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." I hope that ye wait for the crop and harvest; "for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thess. iv. 14). Then they are not lost who are gathered into that congregation of the first-born, and the general assembly of the saints. Though we cannot outrun nor overtake them that are gone before, yet we shall quickly follow them; and the difference is, that she hath the advantage of some months or years of the crown before you and her mother. As we do not take it ill if our children outrun us in the life of grace, why then are we sad if they outstrip us in the attainment of the life of glory? It would seem that there is more reason to grieve that children live behind us, than that they are glorified and die before us. All the difference is in some poor hungry accidents of time, less or more, sooner or later. So the godly child, though young, died an hundred years old; and ye could not now have bestowed her better, though the choice was Christ's, not yours.
And I am sure, Sir, ye cannot now say that she is married against the will of her parents. She might more readily, if alive, fall into the hands of a worse husband; but can ye think that she could have fallen into the hands of a better? And if Christ marry with your house, it is your honour, not any cause of grief, that Jesus should portion any of yours, ere she enjoy your portion. Is it not great love? The patrimony is more than any other could give; as good a husband is impossible; to say a better is blasphemy. The King and Prince of ages can keep them better than ye can do. While she was alive, ye could entrust her to Christ, and recommend her to His keeping; now, by an after-faith, ye have resigned her unto Him in whose bosom do sleep all that are dead in the Lord. Ye would have lent her to glorify the Lord upon earth, and He hath borrowed her (with promise to restore her again) (1 Cor. xv. 53; 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16) to be an organ of the immediate glorifying of Himself in heaven. Sinless glorifying of God is better than sinful glorifying of Him. And sure your prayers concerning her are fulfilled. I shall desire, if the Lord shall be pleased the same way to dispose of her mother, that ye have the same mind. Christ cannot multiply injuries upon you. If the fountain be the love of God (as I hope it is), ye are enriched with losses.
Ye knew all I can say better, before I was in Christ, than I can express it. Grace be with you.
Yours, in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
London, Jan. 6, 1646.
[CCCXVII.—To a Christian Gentlewoman.]
(VIEWS OF DEATH AND HEAVEN—ASPIRATIONS.)
M ISTRESS,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—If death, which is before you and us all, were any other thing than a friendly dissolution, and a change, not a destruction of life, it would seem a hard voyage to go through such a sad and dark trance,[456] so thorny a valley, as is the wages of sin. But I am confident the way ye know, though your foot never trod in that black shadow. The loss of life is gain to you. If Christ Jesus be the period, the end, and lodging-home, at the end of your journey, there is no fear; ye go to a friend. And since ye have had communion with Him in this life, and He hath a pawn or pledge of yours, even the largest share of your love and heart, ye may look death in the face with joy.
If the heart be in heaven, the remnant of you cannot be kept the prisoner of the second death. But though He be the same Christ in the other life that ye found Him to be here, yet He is so far in His excellency, beauty, sweetness, irradiations, and beams of majesty, above what He appeared here, when He is seen as He is, that ye shall misken Him, and He shall appear a new Christ. And His kisses, breathings, embracements, the perfume, the ointment of His name poured out on you, shall appear to have more of God, and a stronger smell of heaven, of eternity, of a Godhead, of majesty and glory, there than here; as water at the fountain, apples in the orchard and beside the tree, have more of their native sweetness, taste, and beauty, than when transported to us some hundred miles.
I mean not that Christ can lose any of His sweetness in the carrying, or that He, in His Godhead and loveliness of presence, can be changed to the worse, betwixt the little spot of the earth that ye are in, and the right hand of the Father far above all heavens. But the change will be in you, when ye shall have new senses, and the soul shall be a more deep and more capacious vessel, to take in more of Christ; and when means (the chariot, the Gospel, that He is now carried in, and ordinances that convey Him) shall be removed. Sure ye cannot now be said to see Him face to face; or to drink of the wine of the highest fountain, or to take in seas and tides of fresh love immediately, without vessels, midses, or messengers, at the Fountain itself, as ye will do a few days hence, when ye shall be so near as to be with Christ (Luke xxiii. 43; John xvii. 24; Phil. i. 23; 1 Thess. iv. 17).
Ye would, no doubt, bestow a day's journey, yea, many days' journey on earth, to go up to heaven, and fetch down anything of Christ; how much more may ye be willing to make a journey to go in person to heaven (it is not lost time, but gained eternity) to enjoy the full Godhead! And then, in such a manner as He is there! not in His week-day's apparel, as He is here with us, in a drop or the tenth part of a night's dewing of grace and sweetness; but He is there in His marriage-robe of glory, richer, more costly, more precious, in one hem or button of that garment of Fountain majesty than a million of worlds. Oh, the well is deep! Ye shall then think that preachers, and sinful ambassadors on earth, did but spill and mar His praises, when they spoke of Him and preached His beauty.
Alas! we but make Christ black and less lovely, in making such insignificant, and dry, and cold, and low expressions of His highest and transcendent super-excellency to the daughters of Jerusalem. Sure I have often, for my own part, sinned in this thing. No doubt angels do not fulfil their task, according to their obligation, in that Christ keeps their feet from falling with the lost devils; though I know they are not behind in going to the utmost of created power. But there is sin in our praising, and sin in the quantity, besides other sins. But I must leave this; it is too deep for me. Go and see, and we desire to go with you; but we are not masters of our own diet.[457] If, in that last journey, ye tread on a serpent in the way, and thereby wound your heel, as Jesus Christ did before you, the print of the wound shall not be known at the resurrection of the just. Death is but an awesome step, over time and sin, to sweet Jesus Christ, who knew and felt the worst of death, for death's teeth hurt Him. We know death hath no teeth now, no jaws, for they are broken. It is a free prison; citizens pay nothing for the grave. The jailor who had the power of death is destroyed: praise and glory be to the First-begotten of the dead.
The worst possible that may be is, that ye leave behind you children, husband, and the church of God in miseries. But ye cannot get them to heaven with you for the present. Ye shall not miss them, and Christ cannot miscount one of the poorest of His lambs. No lad, no girl, no poor one shall be a-missing, ere[458] ye see them again, in the day that the Son shall render up the kingdom to His Father.
The evening and the shadow of every poor hireling is coming. The sun of Christ's church in this life is declining low. Not a soul of the militant company will be here within a few generations; our Husband will send for them all. It is a rich mercy that we are not married to time longer than the course be finished.
Ye may rejoice that ye go not to heaven till ye know that Jesus is there before you; that when ye come thither, at your first entry ye may feel the smell of His ointments, His myrrh, aloes, and cassia. And this first salutation of His will make you find it is no uncomfortable thing to die. Go and enjoy your gain; live on Christ's love while ye are here, and all the way.
As for the church which ye leave behind you, the government is upon Christ's shoulders, and He will plead for the blood of His saints. The Bush hath been burning above five thousand years, and we never yet saw the ashes of this fire. Yet a little while, and the vision shall not tarry: it will speak, and not lie. I am more afraid of my duty, than of the Head Christ's government. He cannot fail to bring judgment to victory. Oh that we could wait for our hidden life! Oh that Christ would remove the covering, draw aside the curtain of time, and rend the heavens, and come down! Oh that shadows and night were gone, that the day would break, and that He who feedeth among the lilies would cry to His heavenly trumpeters, "Make ready, let us go down and fold together the four corners of the world, and marry the bride!" His grace be with you.
Now, if I have found favour with you, and if ye judge me faithful, my last suit to you is that ye would leave me a legacy; and that is, that my name may be, at the very last, in your prayers: as I desire also, it may be in the prayers of those of your Christian acquaintance with whom ye have been intimate.
Your brother, in his own Lord Jesus,
S. R.
London, Jan. 9, 1646.
[CCCXVIII.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(CHRIST NEVER IN OUR DEBT—RICHES OF CHRIST—EXCELLENCE OF THE HEAVENLY STATE.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—It is the least of the princely and royal bounty of Jesus Christ to pay a king's debts, and not to have His servants at a loss. His gold is better than yours, and His hundred-fold is the income and rent of heaven, and far above your revenues. Ye are not the first who have casten up your accounts that way. Better have Christ your factor than any other; for He tradeth to the advantage of His poor servants. But if the hundred-fold in this life be so well told (as Christ cannot pay you with miscounting or deferred hope), oh, what must the rent of that land be which rendereth (every day and hour of the years of long eternity) the whole rent of a year, yea, of more than thousand thousands of ages, even the weighty income of a rich kingdom, not every summer once, but every moment!
That sum of glory will take you and all the angels telling.[459] To be a tenant to such a Landlord, where every berry and grape of the large field beareth no worse fruit than glory, fulness of joy, and pleasures that endure for evermore! I leave it to yourself to think what a summer, what a soil, what a garden must be there; and what must be the commodities of that highest land, where the sun and the moon are under the feet of the inhabitants! Surely the land cannot be bought with gold, blood, banishment, loss of father and mother, husband, wife, children. We but dwell here because we can do no better. It is need, not virtue, to be sojourners in a prison; to weep and sigh, and, alas! to sin sixty or seventy years in a land of tears. The fruits that grow here are all seasoned and salted with sin.
Oh how sweet is it that the company of the first-born should be divided into two great bodies of an army, and some in their country, and some in the way to their country! If it were no more than once to see the face of the Prince of this good land, and to be feasted for eternity with the fatness, sweetness, dainties of the rays and beams of matchless glory, and incomparable fountain-love, it were a well-spent journey to creep hands and feet through seven deaths and seven hells, to enjoy Him up at the well-head. Only let us not weary: the miles to that land are fewer and shorter than when we first believed. Strangers are not wise to quarrel with their host, and complain of their lodging. It is a foul way, but a fair home. Oh that I had but such grapes and clusters out of the land as I have sometimes seen and tasted in the place whereof your Ladyship maketh mention! But the hope of it in the end is a heartsome convoy in the way. If I see little more of the gold[460] till the race be ended, I dare not quarrel. It is the Lord! I hope His chariot will go through these three kingdoms, after our sufferings shall be accomplished.
Grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's, in Jesus Christ,
S. R.
London, Jan. 26, 1646.
[CCCXIX.—To Mr. J. G.][461]
(PROSPECTS FOR SCOTLAND—HIS OWN DARKNESS—ABILITY OF CHRIST.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I shall with my soul desire the peace of these kingdoms, and I do believe it will at last come, as a river and as the mighty waves of the sea; but oh that we were ripe and in readiness to receive it! The preserving of two or three, or four or five berries, in the utmost boughs of the olive-tree, after the vintage, is like to be a great matter ere all be done; yet I know that a cluster in both kingdoms shall be saved, for a blessing is in it. But it is not, I fear, so near to the dawning of the day of salvation but the clouds must send down more showers of blood to water the vineyard of the Lord, and to cause it to blossom. Scotland's scum is not yet removed; nor is England's dross and tin taken away; nor the filth of our blood "purged by the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning." But I am too much on this sad subject.
As for myself, I do esteem nothing out of heaven, and next to a communion with Jesus Christ, more than to be in the hearts and prayers of the saints. I know that He feedeth there among the lilies, till the day break; but I am at low ebb, as to any sensible communion with Christ; yea, as low as any soul can be, and do scarce know where I am; and do now make it a question, if any can go to Him, who dwelleth in light inaccessible, through nothing but darkness. Sure, all that come to heaven have a stock in Christ; but I know not where mine is. It cannot be enough for me to believe the salvation of others, and to know Christ to be the Honeycomb, the Rose of Sharon, the Paradise and Eden of the saints, and First-born written in heaven, and not to see afar the borders of that good land.
But what shall I say? Either this is the Lord, making grace a new creation, where there is pure nothing and sinful nothing to work upon, or I am gone. I should count my soul engaged to yourself, and others there with you, if ye would but carry to Christ for me a letter of cyphers and nonsense (for I know not how to make language of my condition), only showing that I have need of His love; for I know many fair and washen ones stand now in white before the throne, who were once as black as I am. If Christ pass His word to wash a sinner, it is less to Him than a word to make fair angels of black devils! Only let the art of free grace be engaged. I have not a cautioner to give surety, nor doth a Mediator, such as He is in all perfection, need a mediator. But what I need, He knoweth; only, it is His depth of wisdom to let some pass millions of miles over score in debt, that they may stand between the winning and the losing, in need of more than ordinary free grace.
Christ hath been multiplying grace by mercy above these five thousand years; and the later born heirs have so much greater guiltiness, that Christ hath passed more experiments and multiplied essays of heart-love on others, by misbelieving (after it is past all question, many hundreds of ages), that Christ is the undeniable and now uncontroverted treasurer of multiplied redemptions. So now He is saying, "The more of the disease there is, the more of the physician's art of grace and tenderness there must be." Only, I know that no sinner can put infinite grace to it,[462] so as the Mediator shall have difficulty, or much ado, to save this or that man. Millions of hells of sinners cannot come near to exhaust infinite grace.
I pray you (remembering my love to your wife, and friends there), let me find that I have solicitors there amongst your acquaintance; and forget not Scotland.
Your brother in Jesus Christ,
S. R.
London, Jan. 30, 1646.
[CCCXX.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(TRIALS CANNOT INJURE SAINTS—BLESSEDNESS IN SEEING CHRIST.)
M ADAM,—It is too like that the Lord's controversy with these two nations is but yet beginning, and that we are ripened and white for the Lord's sickle.
For the particular condition your Ladyship is in, another might speak (if they would say all) of more sad things. If there was not a fountain of free grace to water dry ground, and an uncreated wind to breathe on withered and dry bones, we were gone. The wheels of Christ's chariot (to pluck us out of the womb of many deaths) are winged like eagles. All I have is, to desire to believe that Christ will show all good-will to save; and as for your Ladyship, I know that our Lord Jesus carrieth on no design against you, but seeketh to save and redeem you. He lieth not in wait for your falls, except it be to take you up. His way of redeeming is ravishing and taking. There are more miracles of glorified sinners in heaven than can be on earth. Nothing of you, Madam, nay, not even your leaf, can wither.
Verily, it is a king's life to follow the Lamb. But when ye see Him in His own country at home, ye will think ye never saw Him before: "He shall be admired of all them that believe" (2 Thess. i. 10). Ye may judge how far all your now sad days, and tossings, changes, losses, wants, conflicts, shall then be below you. Ye look to the cross: now it is above your head, and seemeth to threaten death, as having a dominion; but it shall then be so far below your thoughts, or your thoughts so far above it, that ye shall have no leisure to lend one thought to old-dated crosses, in youth, in age, in this country or in that, from this instrument or from another, except it be to the heightening of your consolation, being now got above and beyond all these.
Old age, and "waxing old as a garment," is written on the fairest face of the creation (Ps. cii. 26). Death, from Adam to the Second Adam's appearance, playeth the king and reigneth over all. The prime Heir died; His children, whom the Lord hath given, follow Him. And we may speak freely of the life which is here; were it heaven, there were not much gain in godliness. But there is a rest for the people of God. Christ-man possesseth it now one thousand six hundred years before many of His members; but it weareth not out.
Grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's, in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
London, Feb. 16, 1646.
[CCCXXI.—To the Lady Ardross, in Fife. [There is an Ardross near Ferintosh in Ross-shire.]
[Lady Ardross, whose maiden name was Helen Lindsay, was the daughter of Lady Christian Hamilton, eldest daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Haddington, by her first husband Robert, ninth Lord Lindsay of Byres. She was married to Sir William Scott of Ardross, son of Sir W. Scott of Elie. Her daughter, Euphemia, Countess of Dundonald, some thirty years after this, attended the field conventicles, and entertained the field preachers at her house. (Douglas' "Peerage," vol. i. p. 386.) This letter was written to her on the occasion of the death of her mother, who was then Lady Boyd, having married for her second husband, Robert, sixth Lord Boyd. (See notice of Lady Boyd, Letter LXXVII.)]
(ON HER MOTHER'S DEATH—HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN, AND BLESSEDNESS OF DYING IN THE LORD.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—It hath seemed good, as I hear, to Him that hath appointed the bounds for the number of our months, to gather in a sheaf of ripe corn, in the death of your Christian mother, into His garner. It is the more evident that winter is near, when apples, without the violence of wind, fall of their own accord off the tree. She is now above the winter, with a little change of place, not of a Saviour; only she enjoyeth Him now without messages, and in His own immediate presence, from whom she heard by letters and messengers before.
I grant that death is to her a very new thing; but heaven was prepared of old. And Christ (as enjoyed in His highest throne, and as loaded with glory, and incomparably exalted above men and angels, having such a heavenly circle of glorified harpers and musicians above, compassing the throne with a song) is to her a new thing, but so new as the first summer-rose, or the first fruits of that heavenly field; or as a new paradise to a traveller, broken and worn out of breath with the sad occurrences of a long and dirty way.
Ye may easily judge, Madam, what a large recompense is made to all her service, her walking with God, and her sorrows, with the first cast of the soul's eye upon the shining and admirably beautiful face of the Lamb, that is in the midst of that fair and white army which is there, and with the first draught and taste of the fountain of life, fresh and new at the well-head; to say nothing of the enjoying of that face without date, for more than this term of life which we now enjoy. And it cost her no more to go thither, than to suffer death to do her this piece of service: for by Him who was dead, and is alive, she was delivered from the second death. What, then, is the first death to the second? Not a scratch of the skin of a finger to the endless second death. And now she sitteth for eternity mail-free, in a very considerable land, which hath more than four summers in the year. Oh, what spring-time is there! Even the smelling of the odours of that great and eternally blooming Rose of Sharon for ever and ever! What a singing life is there! There is not a dumb bird in all that large field; but all sing and breathe out heaven, joy, glory, dominion to the high Prince of that new-found land. And, verily, the land is the sweeter that Jesus Christ paid so dear a rent for it. And He is the glory of the land: all which, I hope, doth not so much mitigate and allay your grief for her part (though truly this should seem sufficient), as the unerring expectation of the dawning of that day upon yourself, and the hope you have of the fruition of that same King and kingdom to your own soul. Certainly the hope of it, when things look so dark-like on both kingdoms, must be an exceedingly great quickening to languishing spirits, who are far from home while we are here. What misery, to have both a bad way all the day, and no hope of lodging at night! But He hath taken up your lodging for you.
I can say no more now; but I pray that the very God of peace may establish your heart to the end. I rest, Madam,
Your Ladyship's, at all respective obedience in the Lord,
S. R.
London, Feb. 24, 1646.
[CCCXXII.—To M. O.]
[Perhaps, as Letter CXLIX., some one of Provost Osburn's family in Ireland.]
(GLOOMY PROSPECTS FOR THE BACKSLIDING CHURCH—THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF BELIEVERS CAUSE OF GREAT GRIEF—THE DAY OF CHRIST.)
S IR,—I can write nothing for the present concerning these times (whatever others may think), but that which speaketh wrath and judgment to these kingdoms. If ever ye, or any of that land, received the Gospel in truth (as I am confident ye and they did), there is here a great departure from that faith, and our sufferings are not yet at an end. However, I dare testify and die for it, that once Christ was revealed in the power of His excellency and glory to the saints there, and in Scotland, of which I was a witness. I pray God that none deceive you, or take the crown from you. Hell, or the gates of hell, cannot ravel, mar, nor undo what Christ hath once done amongst you. It may be that I am incapable of new light, and cannot receive that spirit whereof some vainly boast; but that "which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled" (1 John i. 1), even "the word of life," hath been declared to you. Thousands of thousands, walking in that light and that good old way, have gone to heaven, and are now before the throne. Truth is but one, and hath no numbers. Christ and Antichrist are both now in the camp, and are come to open blows. Christ's poor ship saileth in the sea of blood; the passengers are so sea-sick of a high fever, that they miscall one another. Christ, I hope, will bring the broken bark to land. I had rather swim for life and death on an old plank, or a broken board, to land with Christ, than enjoy the rotten peace we have hitherto had. It is like that the Lord will take a severe course with us, to cause the children of the family to agree together. I conceive that Christ hath a great design of free grace to these lands; but His wheels must move over mountains and rocks. He never yet wooed a bride on earth, but in blood, in fire, and in the wilderness. A cross of our own choosing, honeyed and sugared with consolations, we cannot have. I think not much of a cross when all the children of the house weep with me and for me; and to suffer when we enjoy the communion of the saints is not much; but it is hard when saints rejoice in the suffering of saints, and redeemed ones hurt (yea, even go nigh to hate) redeemed ones.
I confess I imagined there had no more been such an affliction on earth, or in the world, as that one elect angel should fight against another; but, for contempt of the communion of saints, we have need of new-born crosses, scarce ever heard of before. The saints are not Christ: there is no misjudging in Him; there is much in us; and a doubt it is, if we shall have fully one heart till we shall enjoy one heaven. Our star-light hideth us from ourselves, and hideth us from one another, and Christ from us all. But He will not be hidden from us. I shall wish that all the sons of our Father in that land were of one mind, and that they be not shaken nor moved from the truth once received. Christ was in that Gospel, and Christ is the same now that He was in The Prelates' time. That Gospel cannot sink; it will make you free, and bear you out. Christ, the subject of it, is the chosen of God; and cometh from Bozrah, with garments dyed in blood. Ireland and Scotland both must be His field, in which He shall feed and gather lilies. Suppose (which yet is impossible) that some had an eternity of Christ in Ireland, and a sweet summer of the Gospel, and a feast of fat things for evermore in Ireland, and that one should never come to heaven, it should be a desirable life! The King's spikenard, Christ's perfume, His apples of love, His ointments, even down in this lower house of clay, are a choice heaven. Oh! what then is the King in His own land, where there is such a throne, so many King's palaces, ten thousand thousands of crowns of glory that want heads yet to fill them? Oh, so much leisure as shall be there to sing! Oh, such a tree as groweth there in the midst of that Paradise, where the inhabitants sing eternally under its branches! To look in at a window, and see the branches burdened with the apples of life, to be the last man that shall come in thither, were too much for me.
I pray you to remember me to the Christians there; and remember our private covenant. Grace be with you.
Your friend in the Lord Jesus,
S. R.
London, April 17, 1646.
[CCCXXIII.—To Earlston, Elder.]
(CHRIST'S WAY OF AFFLICTING THE BEST—OBLIGATION TO FREE GRACE—ENDURING THE CROSS.)
S IR,—I know that ye have learned long ago, ere I knew anything of Christ, that if we had the cross at our own election, we would either have law-surety for freedom from it, or then we would have it honeyed and sugared with comforts, so as the sweet should overmaster the gall and wormwood. Christ knoweth how to breed the sons of His house, and ye will give Him leave to take His own way of dispensation with you; and, though it be rough, forgive Him. He defieth you to have as much patience to Him as He hath borne to you. I am sure that there cannot be a dram-weight of gall less in your cup; and ye would not desire He should both afflict you and hurt your soul. When His people cannot have a providence of silk and roses, they must be content with such an one as He carveth for them. Ye would not go to heaven but with company; and ye may perceive that the way of those who went before you was through blood, sufferings, and many afflictions. Nay, Christ, the Captain, went in over the door-threshold of Paradise bleeding to death. I do not think but ye have learned to stoop (though ye, as others, be naturally stiff), and that ye have found that the apples and sweet fruits, which grow on that crabbed tree of the cross, are as sweet as it is sour to bear it; especially considering that Christ hath borne the whole complete cross, and that His saints bear but bits and chips; as the Apostle saith, "the remnants," or "leavings," of the cross (Col. i. 24).
I judge you ten thousand times happy, that ever ye were grace's debtor; for certainly Christ hath engaged you over head and ears to free grace. And take the debt with you to eternity, Immanuel's highest land, where ye find before you a houseful of Christ's everlasting debtors; the less shame to you. Yea, and this lower kingdom of grace is but Christ's hospital, and guest-house of sick folks, whom the brave and noble Physician, Christ, hath cured, upon a venture of life and death. And, if ye be near the water-side (as I know ye are), all that I can say is this, Sir, that I feel by the smell of that land which is before you, that it is a goodly country, and it is well paid for to your hand. And He is before you who will heartily welcome you. Oh, to suck those breasts of full consolation above, and to drink Christ's new wine up in His Father's house, is some greater matter than is believed; since it was brewed from eternity for the Head of the house, and so many thousand crowned kings. Rubs in the way, where the lodging is so good, are not much.
He that brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, establish you to the end.
Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus,
S. R.
London, May 15, 1646.
[CCCXXIV.—To his Reverend and worthy Brother, Mr. George Gillespie.][463]
(PROSPECT OF DEATH—CHRIST THE TRUE SUPPORT IN DEATH.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I cannot speak to you. The way ye know; the passage is free and not stopped; the print of the footsteps of the Forerunner is clear and manifest; many have gone before you. Ye will not sleep long in the dust, before The Daybreak. It is a far shorter piece of the hinder-end of the night to you than to Abraham and Moses. Beside all the time of their bodies resting under corruption, it is as long yet to their day as to your morning-light of awaking to glory, though their spirits, having the advantage of yours, have had now the fore-start of the shore before you.
I dare say nothing against His dispensation. I hope to follow quickly. The heirs that are not there before you are posting with haste after you, and none shall take your lodging over your head. Be not heavy. The life of faith is now called for; doing was never reckoned in your accounts, though Christ in and by you hath done more than by twenty, yea, an hundred grey-haired and godly pastors. Believing now is your last.[464] Look to that word, "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). Ye know the I that liveth, and the I that liveth not; it is not single Ye that live. Christ by law liveth in the broken debtor; it is not a life by doing or holy walking, but the living of Christ in you. If ye look to yourself as divided from Christ, ye must be more than heavy. All your wants, dear brother, be upon Him: ye are His debtors; grace must sum and subscribe your accounts as paid. Stand not upon items, and small or little sanctification. Ye know that inherent holiness must stand by, when imputed is all. I fear the clay house is a-taking down and undermining: but it is nigh the dawning. Look to the east, the dawning of the glory is near. Your Guide is good company, and knoweth all the miles, and the ups and downs in the way. The nearer the morning, the darker. Some travellers see the city twenty miles off, and at a distance; and yet within the eighth part of a mile they cannot see it. It is all keeping that ye would now have, till ye need it; and if sense and fruition come both at once, it is not your loss. Let Christ tutor you as He thinketh good; ye cannot be marred, nor miscarry, in His hand. Want is an excellent qualification; and "no money, no price," to you (who, I know, dare not glory in your own righteousness) is fitness warrantable enough to cast yourself upon Him who justifieth the ungodly. Some see the gold[465] once, and never again till the race's end. It is coming all in a sum together, when ye are in a more gracious capacity to tell it than now. "Ye are not come to the mount that burneth with fire, or unto blackness, darkness, and tempest; but ye are come to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling," etc.
Ye must leave the wife to a more choice Husband, and the children to a better Father.
If ye leave any testimony to the Lord's work and Covenant, against both Malignants and Sectaries (which I suppose may be needful), let it be under your hand, and subscribed before faithful witnesses.[466]
Your loving and afflicted brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Sept. 27, 1648.
[CCCXXV.—To Sir James Stewart, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.][467]
[Sir James Stewart of Kirkfield and Cultness, to whom this letter is addressed, was a man of high Christian excellence. "Sir James Stewart," said the celebrated George Gillespie, "has more sterling religion in ready cash than any man ever I knew; he is always agreeably composed and recollected, in a permanent devout frame of spirit, and such as I should wish to have in my last moments" ("Coltness Collections," p. 15). He was a zealous Covenanter, and suffered considerably for his principles during the persecution of Charles II. He died March 31, 1681, at his own house at Edinburgh, in the seventy-third year of his age, in the full assurance of faith. Rutherford wrote this letter on occasion of his own election to be Professor of Divinity in the College of Edinburgh.]
Richt honorablee
T HE mater of my transportation is so poor a contraversie, I truely not beeing desyrous to be the subject of any dine[468] in the Generall Assemblie of the Kirk of Scotland whoe have greater bussines to doe, and haveing suffered once the paine of transportation, moist humbly intreat your w. [worships] that favour as to cast yor thoughts vpon some fitter man; for as it is vnbeseemeing me to lie or dissemblee, so I must friely show you it will but mak me the subject of suffereing and passive obedience, and I trust your w. [worships] intend not that hurt to me, and I am persuaded it is not yor mind, it shall be my prayer to God, to send that worthie societie an hable[469] and pious man. Grace be with you.
Yours at all humblee
observance in the Lord
Samuel Rutherfurd
for the richt honorable my varie good lord,
Sr James Steuart proveist of Edinbrugh and
remanent magistrats Counsellers of the Citie.
S Andrews the
Last of Junii
1649
[CCCXXVI.—To Mistress Gillespie, Widow of George Gillespie.]
(ON THE DEATH OF A CHILD—GOD AFFLICTS IN ORDER TO SAVE US FROM THE WORLD.)
D EAR SISTER,—I have heard how the Lord hath visited you, in removing the child Archibald. I hope ye see that the setting down of the weight of your confidence and affection upon any created thing, whether husband or child, is a deceiving thing; and that the creature is not able to bear the weight, but sinketh down to very nothing under your confidence. And, therefore, ye are Christ's debtor for all providences of this kind, even in that He buildeth an hedge of thorns in your way: for so ye see that His gracious intention is, to save you (if I may say so) whether ye will or not.
It is a rich mercy that the Lord Christ will be Master of your will and of your delights, and that His way is so fair, for landing of husband and children before-hand in the country whitherto ye are journeying. No matter how little ye be engaged to the world, since ye have such experience of cross-dealing in it. Had ye been a child of the house, the world would have dealt more warmly with its own. There is less of you out of heaven, in that the child is there and the husband is there; but much more that your Head, Kinsman, and Redeemer doth fetch home such as are in danger to be lost. And from this time forward, fetch not your comforts from such broken cisterns and dry wells. If the Lord pull at the rest, ye must not be the creature that will hold when He draweth.
Truly, to me your case is more comfortable than if the fireside were well plenished with ten children. The Lord saw that ye were able, by His grace, to bear the loss of husband and child; and that ye are that weak and tender as not to be able to stand under the mercy of a gracious husband, living and flourishing in esteem with authority, and in reputation for godliness and learning. For He knoweth the weight of these mercies would crush you and break you. And as there is no searching out of His understanding, so He hath skill to know what providence will make Christ dearest to you; and let not your heart say, "It is an ill-waled dispensation." Sure Christ, who hath seven eyes, had before Him the good of a living husband and children for Margaret Murray, and the good of a removed husband and children translated to glory. Now that He hath opened His decree to you, say, "Christ hath made for me a wise and gracious choice, and I have not one word to say to the contrary." Let not your heart charge anything, nor unbelief libel injuries upon Christ because He will not let you alone, nor give you leave to play the adulteress with such as have not that right to your love that Christ hath. I should wish that, at the reading of this, ye may fall down and make a surrender of those that are gone, and of those that are yet alive, to Him. And for you, let Him have all; and wait for Himself, for He will come, and will not tarry. Live by faith, and the peace of God guard your heart. He cannot die whose ye are.
My wife suffereth with you,[470] and remembereth her love to you.
Your brother in Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Aug. 14, 1649.
[CCCXXVII.—To the Earl of Balcarras.]
[Alexander Lindsay, second Lord Balcarras, and first Earl of Balcarras, to whom this letter is addressed, was a man of superior talents, and espoused the cause of the Covenant. He commanded a troop of horse in the Covenanters' army at the battle of Alford, 2nd July 1645, when General Baillie was defeated by Montrose. He was one of the Commissioners despatched by the Parliament of Scotland, 19th December 1646, to King Charles I., with their last proposals, which his Majesty rejected; upon which the Scottish army surrendered him to the English Parliament, and retired from England. When, in 1648, troops were raised with the design of rescuing the King from the English Parliament, and restoring him to liberty and power, without requiring from him any concessions to his subjects, which was called "The Engagement," Balcarras took an active part in this enterprise, for which Rutherford, by the way, tenders to him a reproof. On the arrival of Charles II. in Scotland, 1650, he repaired to his Majesty, by whom he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Balcarras. He was High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which met at St. Andrews, 16th July 1651. In 1652 he settled with his family at St. Andrews, keeping up a correspondence with his exiled sovereign; and in 1653 again took arms, and joined in an ineffectual attempt to uphold the Royal cause against Cromwell. His estate, after this, being sequestrated, he withdrew to the Continent. His Lordship did not live to see the Restoration of Charles, having died of consumption in the prime of life, at Breda, on the 30th of August 1659. His mortal remains were brought over to Scotland, and interred at Balcarras. (Douglas' "Peerage of Scotland.") This letter is given from the original, among the Balcarras Papers, vol. ix., No. 135, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Balcarras House is three miles from Largo. A tower on the crag above it marks it out from a distance. The old mansion has been nearly superseded, but you see carved on the walls the old motto, "Astra, castra, lumen, Numen." In old books it is written "Balcarrs.">[
(REGARDING SOME MISUNDERSTANDING.)
M Y VERY HONOURABLE LORD,—I am sorry that your Lordship should be offended at any sinistrous misinformation concerning your supposed discountenancing of ministers. For the general I can say nothing, being utterly ignorant thereof. I hope your Lordship will make the best use of it may be. For myself, I owe no thanks to any that have named me as the object of any discountenancing; for, truly, I value not any of these when, as the conscience of my innocence showeth me (and, for aught known to me, truly) that I offended no nobleman in the kingdom, far less my Lord Balcarras, whose public deservings have been such as I esteem him to have been most instrumental in this work of God. I hope, my Lord, you will pardon me to make a little exception in the matter of the late sinful engagement. And therefore, my Lord, I entreat you to forget that business; for since your Lordship said of me, in your letter to Mr. David Forret,[471] more than I deserve, I shall be satisfied with it as an expiation, more than any discountenancing of me can amount unto by millions of degrees. And therefore entreat your Lordship to accept of this for anything that any could say to your Lordship of that business. If I had thought so much of myself as the discountenancing of me had been a sinful neglect (whereas I know there is little ground for the contrary), I should have spoken to your Lordship myself. So trusting your Lordship will rest satisfied, I am, your Lordship's, at power in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Dec. 24, 1649.
[CCCXXVIII.—To the worthy and much honoured Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
[Colonel Gilbert Ker was a leading man among the Covenanters. He was one of the officers of the west country army, and adhered with great zeal to the Western Remonstrance, sent by that army to the Committee of Estates, which, among other things, condemned the treaty with the King, accused many of the Committee of Estates of covetousness and oppression, and opposed the invasion of England, or forcing a king upon that kingdom. In the year 1655 he was named Justice of Peace for Roxburghshire, but declined to accept; stating as his reasons, that he considered the employment sinful, not allowed by the word of God, contrary to the Solemn League and Covenant, and an encroachment on the liberty of Christ's church.
At the restoration of Charles II., when those concerned in the Western Remonstrance were particularly marked out for the vengenance of the Government, he left the country, but was allowed by the Privy Council to return in the beginning of the year 1671. He must have died previous to October 5, 1677; for at that date Mr. James Row, merchant in Edinburgh, his son-in-law, presents a petition to the Privy Council, praying that he might obtain the remission of a fine of five hundred merks, imposed on the deceased Colonel Gilbert Ker upon account of a conventicle, and for the payment of which the petitioner had become cautioner. This fine was remitted. ("Register of Acts of Privy Council.")]
(SINGLENESS OF AIM—JUDGMENT IN REGARD TO ADVERSARIES.)
M UCH HONOURED AND TRULY WORTHY,—I hope I shall not need to show you that ye are in greater hazard from yourself, and your own spirit (which should be watched over, that your actings for God may be clean, spiritual, purely for God, for the Prince of the kings of the earth), than ye can be in danger from your enemies. Oh how hard is it to get the intentions so cut off from and raised above the creature, as to be without mixture of creature and carnal interest, and to have the soul, in heavenly actings, only, only eyeing Himself, and acting from love to God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ! Ye will find yourself, your delights, your solid glory (far above the air and breathings of mouths, and the thin, short, poor applauses of men), before you in God. All the creatures, all the swords, all the hosts in Britain, and in this poor globe of the habitable world, are but under Him single cyphers making no number; the product being nothing but painted men, and painted swords in a brod, without influence from Him. And oh what of God is in Gideon's sword, when it is "The sword of the Lord!"
I wish a sword from heaven to you, and orders from heaven to you to go out; and as much peremptoriness of a heavenly will as to say, and abide by it, "I will not, I shall not go out, unless Thou goest with me." I desire not to be rash in judging; but I am a stranger to the mind of Christ, if our adversaries, who have unjustly invaded us, be not now in the camp of those that make war with the Lamb. But the Lamb shall overcome them at length; for He is the Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And though ye and I see but the dark side of God's dispensations this day towards Britain, yet the fair, beautiful, and desirable close of it must be the confederacy of the nations of the world with Britain's Lord of armies. And let me die in the comforts of the faith of this, that a throne shall be set up for Christ in this island of Britain (which is, and shall be, a garden more fruitful of trees of righteousness, and which payeth and shall pay more thousands to the Lord of the vineyard than is paid in thrice the bounds of Great Britain upon earth), and there can be neither Papist, Prelate, Malignant, nor Sectary, who dare draw a sword against Him that sitteth upon the throne.
Sir, I shall wish a clean[472] army, so far as may be, that the shout of a King who hath many crowns may be among you; and that ye may fight in faith, and prevail with God first. Think it your glory to have a sword to act, and suffer, and die (if it please Him), so being ye may add anything to the declarative glory of Christ, the Plant of Renown, Immanuel, God with us. Happy and thrice blessed are they by whose actings, or blood, or pain, or loss, the diadems and rubies of His highest and most glorious crown (whose ye are) shall glister and shine in this quarter of the habitable world. Though He need not Gilbert Ker, nor his sword, yet this honour have ye with His redeemed soldiers, to call Christ High Lord-General, of whom ye hope for pay and all arrears well told. Go on, worthy Sir, in the courage of faith, following the Lamb. Make not haste unbelievingly; but in hope and silence keep the watch-tower, and look out. He will come in His own time; His salvation shall not tarry. He will place salvation in Britain's Zion for Israel's glory.
His good-will who dwelt in The Bush and it burned not, be yours, and with you.
I am yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Aug. 10, 1650.
[CCCXXIX.—To the worthy and much honoured Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
(COURAGE IN DAYS OF REBUKE—GOD'S ARRANGEMENTS ALL WISE.)
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—What I wrote to you before, I spake not upon any private warrant. I am where I was. Cromwell and his army (I shall not say but there may be, and are, several sober and godly among them, who have either joined through misinformation, or have gone alongst with the rest in the simplicity of their hearts, not knowing anything) fight in an unjust cause, against the Lord's secret ones. And now to the trampling of the worship of God, and persecuting the people of God in England and Ireland, he hath brought upon his score the blood of the people of God in Scotland. I entreat you, dear Sir, as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ, whose free grace prevented you when ye were His enemy, go on without fainting, equally eschewing all mixtures with Sectaries[473] and Malignants.[474] Neither of the two shall ever be instrumental to save the Lord's people, or build His house. And without prophesying, or speaking further than He, whose I am and whom I desire to serve, in the Gospel of His Son, shall warrant, I desire to hope and to believe there is a glory and a majesty of the Prince of the kings of the earth, that shall shine and appear in Great Britain, which shall darken all the glory of men, confound Sectaries and Malignants, and rejoice the spirits of the followers of the Lamb, and dazzle the eyes of the beholders.
Sir, I suppose that God is to gather Malignants and Sectaries, ere all be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; and to bid the daughters of Zion arise, and thresh. I hope that ye will mix with none of them. I am abundantly satisfied, that our army, through the sinful miscarriage of men, hath fallen; and dare say it is a better and a more comfortable dispensation, than if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God; because He hath done it. For, 1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be upon the accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade. 2. Victory is such a burdening and weighty mercy, that we have not strength to bear it as yet. 3. That was not the army, nor Gideon's three hundred, by whom He is to save us; we must have one of our Lord's carving. 4. Our enemies on both sides are not enough hardened, nor we enough mortified to multitude, valour, and creatures.
Grace, grace be with you.
Your friend and servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Sept. 5, 1650.
[CCCXXX.—To Mr. William Guthrie, when the army was at Stirling, after the defeat at Dunbar,][475] and the godly in the West were falsely branded with intended compliance with the usurpers, about the time when those debates and that difference concerning the Public Resolutions arose.[476]
[William Guthrie was born at Pitforthy, in the shire of Angus, in the year 1620. He was the eldest son of the Laird of Pitforthy, a cadet of the old family of Guthrie, and by his mother's side was descended from the ancient house of Easter-Ogle. He attended the literary and philosophical classes at the University of St. Andrews, and studied theology under Rutherford. On the 7th of November 1644, he was ordained minister of Fenwick. There he continued successfully to discharge his ministry till the 24th of July 1664, when, for nonconformity, he was suspended from and discharged to exercise his ministry, and his church declared vacant, by order of Bishop Burnet. He died at Brechin on the 10th of October 1665.
It may be mentioned here that William Guthrie of Fenwick was cousin to the famous James Guthrie, and was brought to Christ by Samuel Rutherford's ministry at St. Andrews, being one of his first fruits there. ("Life" by Wodrow.) It was he who wrote "The Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ," so well known.]
(DEPRESSION UNDER DARK TRIALS—DANGER OF COMPLIANCE.)
R EVEREND BROTHER,—I did not dream of such shortness of breath, and fainting in the way toward our country. I thought that I had no more to do than die in my nest, and bow down my sinful head, and let Him put on the crown, and so end. I have suffered much; but this is the thickest darkness, and the straitest step of the way I have yet trodden. I see more suffering yet behind, and, I fear, from the keepers of the vine. Let me obtain of you, that you would press upon the Lord's people that they would stand far off from these merchants of souls who have come in amongst you. If the way revealed in the word be that way, we then know that these soul-cowpers and traffickers show not the way of salvation. Alas, alas! poor I am utterly lost, my share of heaven is gone, and my hope is poor; I am perished, and I am cut off from the Lord, if hitherto out of the way! But I dare not judge kind Christ; for, if it may be but permitted (with reverence to His greatness and highness be it spoken), I will, before witnesses, produce His own hand that He said, "This is the way, walk thou in it." And He cannot except against His own seal. I profess that I am almost broken and a little sleepy, and would fain put off this body. But this is my infirmity, who would be under the shadow and covert of that Good Land, once[477] to be without the reach and blast of that terrible One. But I am a fool: there is none that can overbid, or take my lodging over my head, since Christ hath taken it for me.
Dear brother, help me, and get me the help of their prayers who are with you in whom is my delight. You are much suspected of intended compliance; I mean, not of you only, but of all the people of God with you. It is but a poor thing the fulfilling of my joy; but let me obtest all the serious seekers of His face, His secret sealed ones, by the strongest consolations of the Spirit, by the gentleness of Jesus Christ, that Plant of Renown, by your last accounts and appearing before God, when the White Throne shall be set up, be not deceived with their fair words. Though my spirit be astonished at the cunning distinctions which are found out in the matters of the Covenant, that help may be had against these men; yet my heart trembleth to entertain the least thought of joining with those deceivers.
Grace, grace be with you. Amen.
Your own brother, in our common Lord and Saviour,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCXXXI.—To the worthy and much honoured Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
(COURAGE IN THE LORD'S CAUSE—DUTY IN REGARD TO PROVIDENCE TO BE OBSERVED—SAFETY IN THIS.)
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—It is considerable that the Lord may, and often doth call to a work and yet hide Himself, and try the faith of His own. If I conceive aright, the Lord hath called you to act against that enemy; and the withdrawers of their sword (in my weak apprehension) add their zeal unto, and take upon them the guilt of that unjust invasion of this land made by Cromwell's army, and of the blood of the Lord's people in this kingdom; since the sword, put into the hand of His children, is to execute wrath and vengeance upon evil-doers. The Lord's time of appearing for His broken land is reserved to the breathings of the Spirit of the Lord, such as came upon Gideon and Samson; and that is an act of princely and royal sovereignty in God. Ye are, Sir, to lay hold on opportunities of Providence, and to wait for Him.
As for your particular treating by yourselves with the invaders of our land, I have no mind to it, and do look upon their way as a carrying on of the mystery of iniquity; for Babylon is a seat of many names. Sir, let[478] this controversy stand undecided till the Second Appearance of Jesus Christ, and our appeal lie before the throne undiscussed till that day, I hope to lie down in the grave in the faith of the justness of our cause. I speak nothing of the maintaining the greatness of men, not subordinate to the Prince of the kings of the earth. I judge that the blood of the witnesses of Jesus is found upon the skirts of this society, as well as in Babylon's skirts. I believe that the way of the Lord is Colonel Gilbert Ker's strength and glory; and I should be content to want my part of him (which is, I confess, precious and dear in Christ), so that he be spent in the service of Him who will anon make inquisition for the blood of the truly godly; which these men have shed, after fair warning that they were the godly of Scotland.
Worthy Sir, believe; faint not. Set your shoulder under the glory of Jesus that is misprised in Scotland, and give a testimony for Him. He hath many names in Scotland, who shall walk with Him in white. This despised Covenant shall ruin Malignants, Sectaries, and Atheists. Yet a little while, and behold He cometh, and walketh[479] in the greatness of His strength, and His garments dyed with blood. Oh, for the sad and terrible day of the Lord upon England, their ships of Tarshish, their fenced cities, etc., because of a broken covenant!
A conference with the enemy, not to hinder acting (Oh that the Lord would thereby, or by some other way, remove the cloud that is over you!), if authority should concur, were to be desired; but it can hardly be expected. However, in the way of duty, and in the silence of faith, go on. If ye perish, ye are the first of the creation with whom the Lord hath taken that dispensation. I should humbly desire you, Sir, to look to that: "Dying, and, behold, we live; killed all the day long, and yet more than conquerors." There shall be the heat and warmness of life in your graves and buried bones. But look not for the Lord's coming the higher way only, for He may come the lower way. Oh, how little of God do we see, and how mysterious is He! Christ known is amongst the greatest secrets of God. Keep yourself in the love of God; and, in order to that, as far in obedience and subjection to the King (whose salvation and true happiness my soul desireth), and to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, and to the fundamental laws of this kingdom, as your Lord requireth. Sir, ye are in the hearts and prayers of the Lord's people in this kingdom, and in the other two.[480] The Lord hath said, "There is blessing in the cluster of grapes; destroy it not."
Grace, grace be upon the head of him that is separated from his brethren; and the good-will of Him that dwelt in The Bush be with you.
Your servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Perth, Nov. 23, 1650.
[CCCXXXII.—To the much honoured and truly worthy Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
(CHRISTS CAUSE DESERVES SERVICE AND SUFFERING FROM US.)
"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not
lie: though it tarry, wait for it."—Hab. ii. 3, 4.
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—Your chains now shine as much for Christ (the cause being His) as your sword was made famous in acting for that cause; and blessed are such as can willingly tender to Christ both action and blood, doing and suffering. Resisting unto blood is little for that precious and never-enough exalted Redeemer, who, when ye were a-buying, gave blood somewhat dearer than ye gave for Him, even the blood of God (Acts xx. 28). I know a man, who, upon the receipt of a letter that ye were killed and the people of God destroyed, wished that he might be quickly under the wall of the higher palace from under the dint[481] of the storm, and who longed to have the weather-beaten and crazy bark safely landed in that harbour of eternal quietness.
What further service Christ hath for you, I know not; it is enough that in your captivity[482] ye offer your service to Christ. But if I see anything, it looketh like a merciful defeat. I see the nobles and the state falling off from Christ, and the night coming upon the prophets; which we should pray to prevent, because it is a rare thing to see a fallen star ever win up again to the firmament to shine. And what if this be the thick darkness going before the break of day? Sure, Sir, the sun shall rise upon Scotland; but if I shall see it, or how near is it to that day, I leave that to Him, even unto Jehovah, who "createth upon every dwelling-place in Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." But, Sir, "the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as a rose:" and happy he who hath a bone, or an arm, to put the crown upon the head of our highest King, whose chariot is paved with love. Were there ten thousand millions of heavens created above these highest heavens, and again as many above them, and as many above them till angels were wearied with counting, it were but too low a seat to fix the princely throne of that Lord Jesus (whose ye are) above them all. Created heavens are too low a seat of majesty for Him. Since, then, there is none equal to your Master and Prince who hath chosen out for you (amongst many sufferings for sin) that only cross which cometh nearest in likeness to His own cross, watered with consolation, take courage, and comfort yourself in Him who hath chosen you to glory hereafter and to conformity with Him here. We fools would have a cross of our own choosing, and would have our gall and wormwood sugared, our fire cold, and our death and grave warmed with heat of life; but He who hath brought many children to glory, and lost none, is our best Tutor. I wish that, when I am sick, He may be keeper and comforter. I judge it a blessed Fall that we are forfeited heirs, broken and out of credit, and that Christ is become a Tutor in the place of free-will, and that we are no more our own. I am broken and wasted with the wrath that is on the land, and have been much tempted with a design to have a pass from Christ; which, if I had, I would not stay to be a witness of our defection for any man's intreaty. But I know it is my softness and weakness, who would ever be ashore when a fit of sea-sickness cometh on; though I know I shall come soon enough to that desirable country, and shall not be displaced: none shall take my lodging.
Sir, many eyes are upon you, and the godly are exceedingly refreshed that ye listen not to the ways of many about you, who with fair words make merchandise of souls. Sir, if the way you are in be not the way of Christ, then wo to me, for I am eternally lost. But truly, the Lord Christ's dealings with Colonel Gilbert Ker hath proven to me, that the New Testament and the covenant of grace is a piece that a solemn meeting and assembly of all created angels (join all their wits together) could not have devised. Since, Sir, ye paid nothing for the change that Christ made, and ye will take that debt of free grace to heaven with you (for what was Christ Jesus indebted to you, more than to all your kindred and name!), therefore, since ye are made His own, follow no other way. What is my salvation, though I should lay it in pawn (it is but a poor pledge), that this, this only is the way! But Christ is surety Himself that it is the way. The Forerunner went before you, and He is safely landed: and there is a fair company before you of such as "have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their garments, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," to whom these promises are now performed: "He that overcometh shall eat of the tree of life, that is in the midst of the paradise of God;" and, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain"—"He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."
I may, Sir, possibly keep you from better work. The God of peace, that brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect.
Yours, in Jesus Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Jan. 7, 1651.
[CCCXXXIII.—To the much honoured and truly worthy Colonel Gilbert Ker, when taken prisoner.]
(COMFORTING THOUGHTS TO THE AFFLICTED—DARKNESS OF THE TIMES—FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS—SATISFACTION WITH HIS PROVIDENCES.)
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—I have heard of your continued captivity in England, as well as in this afflicted land. But, go where ye will, ye cannot go from under your Shadow, which is broader than many kingdoms. Ye change lodging and countries; but the same Lord is before you, if ye were carried away captive to the other side of the sun, or as far as the rising of the morning star. It is spoken to your mother (who hath yet received no bill of divorce), which was written to Judah, "Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies" (Micah iv. 10). England shall be accountable for you, to render you back: "I will say to the north, 'Give up;' and to the south, 'Keep not back'" (Isa. xliii. 6). It is a sermon that flesh and blood laugheth at: "Prophesy upon these dry bones, and say unto them, 'O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'" It is a preaching to the cold grave: "Thus saith the Lord unto the bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live'" (Ezek. xxxvii. 4, 5, 6). "And the sea gave up the dead that were in it" (Rev. xx. 13). Berwick must render back the Scottish captives, and Colonel Gilbert Ker with them. "For thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships" (Isa. xliii. 14). "If any of thine be driven out to the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee" (Deut. xxx. 4). "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness" (Zech. viii. 7, 8). Sir, ye are both booked by the Lord who writeth up the people (Ps. lxxxvii. 5, 6), and counted to the Lord as one of the house and stock (Ps. xxii. 30). Fear not, faint not; all your hairs are numbered.
It is the desire of the people of God, that, as your bonds hitherto have been exemplary to the strengthening of the feeble and to the stopping of the mouth of the adversary, without any declining to the right or left hand; so your sufferings in the place ye now go to, may be (as we are confident in the Lord of you, and in humility boast of His grace in you) savoury, convincing, and like unto this honourable cause, that will prevail in Britain, contrary to all the machinations and counsels of devils and men. And though there were no other ink in the pen I now write with but some dewing of my last cooling blood, this I purpose (His grace, whose I am, enabling me) to stand to. Sir, we desire to adore no instruments; yet we conceive the shining and rays of grace from the Fountain, Jesus Christ, the fulness of the Godhead, bestowed on sinful men, hold forth the good thoughts of Christ to this poor land, whose multiplied graves, and whose souls under the altar, slain by Sectaries and Malignants, cry aloud to heaven.
I see nothing, Sir, if the Lord be not near (though I dare not say how soon) to awake for the year of Zion's controversy. "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven" (Isa. xxxiv. 5). Behold, it shall come down upon England, and on the residue of His enemies in Scotland. Wo is me for England! That land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness; that pleasant land shall be a wilderness, and the dust of their land pitch; a judgment upon their walled towns, their pleasant fields, their strong ships, etc., if they do not repent.
Ye have not, I conceive, seen such searching and trying times as now these are. And yet the question will be drawn to a more narrow state, and multitudes will yet leave the cause; for we took all into the covenant that offered to build with us. But Christ must have but a small remnant (few nobles, if any; few ministers; few professors), though our way standeth unchanged. "By honour and dishonour, by good report and evil report: as deceivers and yet true; as unknown, yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed" (2 Cor. vi. 8, 9). Neither is this your condition alone, but the experienced lot of all the saints that have gone before you. It is one and the same cross of Christ; but there be sundry faces and diverse circumstances in the same remnant (Col. i. 24), the sufferings of Christ and yours. Sir, to be delivered to soldiers, and in captivity, looketh like His suffering of whom Isaiah saith, "He was taken from prison, and from judgment" (Isa. liii. 8): yea, and taken bound (John xviii. 12). When the cause is the truth of God, the lustre and face of suffering is so much the more lovely that it hath the hue and colour of Christ's sufferings, who endured contradiction of sinners and despised the shame. Oh it is a great word, "Christ shamed, and Christ abased!" But thus was the Head, and so are the members, dealt with in the world; and truly anything of Christ, even the worst of Him (to speak so), His reproach and shame, are lovely. Though superstitious love to the material cross He suffered upon be foolery, and doting upon the holy grave[483] be cursed idolatry; yet is there a communion with Him in His sufferings most desirable. "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Pet. iv. 13): in which sense, the cup that His lip touched hath the sweeter taste, even though death were in it; the grave, because He did lie in it, is so much the softer and the more refreshful a bed of rest; and that part of the sky and clouds that the Beloved shall break through, and come to judgment, is as lovely a piece of the created heaven as any is, if we may love the ground He goeth on the better. But all this is to be understood in a spiritual manner. The Lord calleth you, Sir, upon whom the Spirit of God and His glory resteth, to put your soul's Amen to this dispensation; and requireth of us, that our desires follow the now-declared decree of God concerning the desolation of our sinful land, so many ways guilty of a despised Gospel, and a broken Covenant; and that with all submission. Certainly, no man hath failed more in this thing, than he who writeth to you. For I have brought my health into great hazard, and tormented my spirit with excessive grief, for our present provocations, and the rendings of our kirk; and I see it is a challenging of, and a bold pleading against, Him upon whose shoulder the government is (Isa. xxii. 22). The Father hath put a glorious trust upon Christ: "And I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place, and He shall be for a glorious throne to His Father's house; and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons" (Isa. xxii. 23, 24). Our unbelieving apprehensions do so quarrel at the prosperity of enemies in an evil cause, that we wrestle with defeats, spoiling, captivity of the godly, killing of His people, the wasting of our land, starving and famishing of the kingdom, which is worse than the sword. But this is a sinful contradicting of the Lord's revealed decree. His wisdom saith, "Spoiling and desolation is best for Scotland;" and we say, "Not," and so accuse Christ of misgovernment, and of not being true to the trust put upon Him. But since He doth not drag the government at His heels, but hath it upon His shoulder, and since the Nail fastened in a sure place cannot be broken,[484] nor can the smallest vessel fail to find sweet security in dependence upon Him, since all the weight of heaven and earth, of redeemed saints and confirmed angels, is upon His shoulder, I am a fool, and brutish to imagine that I can add anything to Christ's special care of and tenderness to His people. He who keepeth the basins and knives of His house, and bringeth the vessels again to the second temple (Ezra i. 8-10), must have a more tender care of His redeemed ones than of a spoon, or of Peter's old shoes (Acts xii. 8), which yet must not be lost in His captivity. Oh for grace to suffer Christ to tutor His own minors and young heirs! But we cannot endure to be under the actings of His government; we love too much to be our own. Oh, how sweet to be wholly Christ's, and wholly in Christ! to be out of the creature's owning, and made complete in Christ! to live by faith in Christ, and to be, once for all, clothed with the uncreated majesty and glory of the Son of God, wherein He maketh all His friends and followers sharers! to dwell in Immanuel's high and blessed land, and live in that sweetest air where no wind bloweth but the breathings of the Holy Ghost, no seas nor floods flow but the pure water of life, that proceedeth from under the throne and from the Lamb! no planting but the Tree of Life that yieldeth twelve manner of fruits every month! What do we here but sin and suffer? Oh, when shall the night be gone, the shadows flee away, and the morning of that long, long day, without cloud or night, dawn? The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Oh, when shall the Lamb's wife be ready, and the Bridegroom say, "Come!"
Worthy Sir, I mind you to the Hearer of prayer. Oh help me in that kind.
The Spirit of Jesus be with your spirit.
Yours, in his only Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, May 14, 1651.
[CCCXXXIV.—To the worthy and much honoured Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
(COMFORT UNDER THE CLOUD HANGING OVER SCOTLAND—DISSUASION FROM LEAVING SCOTLAND.)
M UCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,—I know not why the people of God should not take notice of the bonds of any who have blood in readiness to be let out for His cause; and I judge it was not of you that ye died not in the undecided controversy which the Lord of the whole earth hath with the men whom He hath sent against us.
Dear and much honoured in the Lord, let me entreat you to be far from the thoughts of leaving this land. I see it, and find it, that the Lord hath covered the whole land with a cloud in His anger. But though I have been tempted to the like, I had rather be in Scotland beside angry Jesus Christ, knowing that He mindeth no evil to us, than in Eden or any garden in the earth; if we can remain united with the Lord's remnant in the land.[485] He layeth up wrath for all sorts of adversaries in Britain. Though I should never see the glory of His glittering sword in Britain, I would be solaced in the innocent thought (far from revenge) that the saints shall dip their feet in the blood of the slain of the Lord. And truly, Sir, I suppose that ye cannot but come to these thoughts and weak desires before the Hearer of prayer, for as little as ye think of and value yourself. For me, if I could mind you in your bonds, I purpose not to stand to the account you give, or thoughts ye have of yourself; though I know ye are not a whit, more or less, before Him who weigheth His own according to the weight of imputed righteousness, for my apprehensions. Christ cannot mistake you, men may; and the calculation and esteem of free grace maketh you to be what you are. I hope to see you an everlastingly obliged debtor to Him whom ye shall praise but never pay. And truly ye have no riches but that debt: and I know that ye love to be engaged to Jesus Christ, the most excellent of creditors. Much joy and sweetness may ye have, in standing written in His book. I desire to do it myself, and I would have you also highly to esteem the design of Christ, who hath raised the riches of the glory of so much grace above the circle of the heaven of heavens, out of very nothings; and contrived His thoughts of love, so that lumps of glorified clay should stand before Him, for all ages, the burdened and loaden debtors of free, eternally free grace. Sir, ye cannot cast the count of the rents of your so great inheritance of glory.
Grace be with you.
Your servant, in his own Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Edinburgh, May 18, 1651.
[CCCXXXV.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IS MAN'S AND CHRIST'S, AND BETWEEN CHRIST HIMSELF AND HIS BLESSINGS.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—We are fallen in winnowing and trying times. I am glad that your breath serveth you to run to the end, in the same condition and way wherein ye have walked these twenty years past. It is either the way of peace, or we are yet in our sins, and have missed the way. The Lord, it is true, hath stained the pride of all our glory; and now, last of all, the sun hath gone down upon many of the prophets. But stumble not; men are but men, and God appeareth more and more to be God, and Christ is still Christ.
Madam, a stronger than I am had almost stumbled me and cast me down. But oh what mercy is it to discern between what is Christ's and what is man's, and what way the hue, colour, and lustre of gifts of grace dazzle and deceive our weak eyes! Oh to be dead to all things that are below Christ, were it even a created heaven and created grace! Holiness is not Christ; nor are the blossoms and flowers of the Tree of Life the tree itself. Men and creatures may wind themselves between us and Christ; and, therefore, the Lord hath done much to take out of the way all betwixt Him and us. There are not in our way now, kings, nor armies, nor nobles, nor judicatories, nor strongholds, nor watchmen, nor godly professors. The fairest things, and most eminent in Britain, are stained, and have lost their lustre; only, only Christ keepeth His greenness and beauty, and remaineth what He was. Oh, if He were more and more excellent to our apprehensions than ever He was (whose excellency is above all apprehensions), and still more and more sweet to our taste! I care for nothing, if so be that I were nearer to Him. And yet He fleeth not from me: I flee from Him, but He pursueth.
I hear that your Ladyship hath the same esteem of the despised cause and covenant of our Lord that ye had before. Madam, hold you there. I dare and would gladly breathe out my spirit in that way, with a nearer communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son, and would seek no more but that I might die believing. And also I would hope, that the earth should not cover the blood of the godly, slain in Scotland, but that the Lord will make inquisition for their blood when the sufferings of the saints in these lands shall be fulfilled.
The good-will of Him that dwelt in The Bush be with you.
Your Ladyship's, at all observance, in the Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Glasgow, Sept. 28, 1651.
[CCCXXXVI.—To Lady Ralston.][486]
[Lady Ralston, whose maiden name was Ursula Mure, was daughter to William Mure of Glanderston, a respectable family in the county of Renfrew, and wife of William Ralston of that ilk. Mr. Alexander Dunlop, minister of Paisley, was married to one of her sisters, and Mr. John Carstairs to another. Lady Ralston was a woman of distinguished piety. Mr. Dunlop, who "was most impartial in his judgment of persons of worth," spoke in the highest terms of her Christian character. One day, commending her to Mrs. Hastie, wife of Mr. Alexander Hastie, minister of Glasgow, he spoke so much to her commendation that Mr. Hastie said to him, "I wonder to hear you speak so much to the praise of that lady; I think you speak more of her than of your own wife." He answered, "Sanders, I love truly to be just to everybody. I think my wife is truly a good woman, and all the rest of the sisters are good women; but I must say, Lady Ralston is a person more than ordinary. I know very few come her length; yea, Sanders, I truly think shame to even myself to be a Christian beside her, when I look to her carriage. She is a very odd [singular] woman" (Wodrow's "Analecta"). Mr. John Carstairs also bears testimony to her Christian excellence, and to the kindness she had shown to him and his family, particularly after his ejection from his church in Glasgow, in 1662, for conscience' sake.]
(DUTY OF PREFERRING TO LIVE RATHER THAN DIE—WANT OF UNION IN THE JUDGMENTS OF THE GODLY.)
R IGHT WORTHY ESTEEMED IN YOUR EXCELLENT LORD JESUS,—With much desire I have longed to hear how you were, since I heard of your being so near the harbour, as seemed; and now, to my great satisfaction, I am informed of your recovery. As for yourself, I grant, to have entered in at the ports of the mansions of glory had been best by far; but, yet to stay a little longer here is much more comfortable to yours. Therefore, Mistress, dearly respected in the Lord, you are even heartily welcome, though to share yet further with Zion in her manifold tribulations. Yea, I believe yourself thinks it no disadvantage, but rather one great addition of honour, to come back and bear His reproach yet more, in a world of opposition to Him. For (to speak so) it is an advantage that is not to be had in heaven itself; for, although the inhabitants of that land agree in one to sing the song of the Lamb's praise and commendation, so it is here-away, and here only, where we have occasion to endure shame and contradiction for His worthy sake. Considering, therefore, the honour of the cross with the glory of the life to come, the saints are hereby rendered completely happy and honourable. It's much selfishness (as I judge it when I get seen best into the mystery of our Lord's cross) to make post haste to be in the land of rest, when a storm of persecution is rising for Christ; for the sluggard and peevish spirit loves rest upon any terms, though never so dishonourable. It is in effect, then, far more honourable to seek conformity to Christ in His cross, than to[487] precipitate in desiring to be like Him in glory, and despise and fly away from His sufferings. We use to say they are very evil-worthy of the sweet who will not endure the sour. I think Christ's pilgrim weeds (He being a Man of sorrows and griefs) are more honourable than ever it became the like of us to wear; especially considering our poor base descent, whom He will have honoured with conformity to Himself. Woe's me that I, and many the like of me within the land, look so frowardly on Christ's cross, as though it were not His love-allowance to all His followers! It's plainly our gross ignorance that is the cause thereof. Faith, I grant, would suffer affliction for Him with good-will, rather than the least iniquity should be committed; but sense loves no bands. For faith, keeping the sway, puts oft-times the carnal man in bondage, and that occasions strife betwixt the flesh and the spirit. The spirit smells no freedom or deliverance but that which comes from above; the flesh would aye have deliverance, without examination of the terms, or wherefrom it comes. As it is the mark of Christ's sheep, that they will hear His voice, and will not acknowledge a stranger, so it is the mark of faith, that it will only receive orders from heaven. When He declares His mind for bands, it submits to bands, not replying objections to the contrary; and again, when He says, "Show yourselves, ye prisoners of hope," it discovers time and way, and obeys to come forth, but not till then. But the flesh maketh ever haste, and the first and nearest ease is aye its best choice. The Lord keep His dear people from wanting of any exercise that is measured out by Him to them, now when He hides His face, lest we be turned aside to strange gods! And when He shows Himself again (as He will assuredly do), we ken our change.[488] It is far safer to dwell a little in faith's prison than in sense's fairest liberty. I see nothing so comfortable an evidence of God's staying into, and healing of, this broken and poor land, than that faithful testimony of His precious servants (and strengthened only by Him) against the late and sore defection.[489] Yet, if the Lord had not left us a remnant, we had been as Sodom and like to Gomorrah. And exalted be our God, only wise and free in His love, that ever any testimony was given! for the hour of temptation was very dark to all once. But to some He showed much light, and helped them with a little help. Others, also, able and dear to Him, He hath letten, as yet, remain under the cloud. But the mystery of His wisdom is so high in this, that I profess it may render all flesh humble in the dust, and to glory henceforth in nothing but in His upholding strength and free love. Always,[490] when His due time comes, He will make His servants see that which they do not now see. But, alas! in the meantime, there is no harder matter of our trouble to be looked to than the grievous differences of judgments and affections among the Lord's servants; which I know is much pondered by you. And I trust that all our worthy dear friends will labour to the utmost, according to Christ's command, to have the breach made up again, that Satan get not advantage therethrough; for I think nothing makes more for his ends than the defacing of union amongst the Lord's dear ones. I think it should be amongst our many requests to Him "in whom all the building useth to be fitly framed together in love;" yea, the obtaining of this request were a great advantage to the poor kirk. And if the Lord take pleasure in us, there is yet hope in Israel concerning this thing; but if not, it is like to prove a probable token, amongst some others, of Christ's taking down His tabernacle in this land: which, if He do, we will have sad days. But the consideration of His pitiful compassion holds forth ground to believe otherwise; upon which ground it is like that He will give us a door of hope, though He do not give full deliverance yet. For our hope is not perished yet from the Lord, because men and carnal reason say so; for none of these are bands or rules to the Almighty! Yea, Zion's lowest ebb shall be the first step to her rise. I have no other reason to give but "the zeal of the Lord of hosts [will] perform it" (Isa. ix. 7); and in confidence of it, I remain,
Yours in all trouble,
S. R.
October 1651.
Tender my respects to your dear husband, who is indeed precious in the account of the honest here, for his faithfulness in the hour of temptation.
[CCCXXXVII.—To a Minister of Glasgow.][491]
[Wodrow annexes to this letter the following note:—"To one of the ministers of Glasgow, who probably was deposed by the Resolutionists, or at least a sufferer for the protestation,—Mr. M'Ward perhaps, or Mr. Patrick Gillespie." The letter bears internal evidence of having been written to a minister of Glasgow who had been censured by the General Assembly which met at Dundee in 1651, for his opposition to the public resolutions. By that Assembly three ministers, Mr. James Guthrie of Stirling, Mr. Patrick Gillespie of Glasgow, and Mr. James Simpson of Airth, were deposed, and one, Mr. James Nasmith of Hamilton, suspended, on the ground of their having protested against the lawfulness of that Assembly. ("Life of Robert Blair," p. 278.) There seems, then, little doubt that Mr. Patrick Gillespie is the person to whom this letter was addressed. It could not have been Mr. Robert M'Ward, for he was licensed only in 1655, and did not become a minister of Glasgow till 1656, when he succeeded Mr. Andrew Gray in the Outer High Kirk; nor, though he enlisted himself on the side of the Protesters, does he appear to have suffered on that account. Mr. Patrick Gillespie was the son of Mr. John Gillespie (second minister of the collegiate charge of Kirkcaldy), and brother of the celebrated George Gillespie. He was born at Kirkcaldy in 1617, and was for some time minister of that parish, previous to his translation to Glasgow. After the death of Charles I. he favoured the Commonwealth, and was appointed by Cromwell Principal of the University of Glasgow, into which office he was installed after encountering much opposition. At the Restoration he was ejected from the Principalship, in which he was succeeded by the celebrated Robert Baillie. He was also imprisoned successively in the Castles of Edinburgh and Stirling; and upon the sitting of the Parliament in 1661, was impeached of high treason, on the alleged ground of his having compiled "The Western Remonstrance," approved the pamphlet entitled "The Causes of God's Wrath," and kept correspondence with Cromwell. But, having made concessions, he was shortly after liberated, and confined to Ormiston and six miles around it. "His works speak for him," says Wodrow, "and evidence him a person of great learning, solidity, and piety, particularly his excellent treatises upon 'The Covenants of Grace and Redemption.'">[
(ENCOURAGING WORDS TO A SUFFERING BROTHER—WHY MEN SHRINK FROM CHRIST'S TESTIMONY.)
S IR,—I long to see you, since you gave a public testimony for your Master, and are become a sufferer for Him. Until I shall be able to see you, I thought it duty to write to you that I remember you as I am able. Your zeal and faithfulness for our Master and your mother church have made your name honourable and precious among many here; yea, have exceedingly refreshed the bowels of the saints. Upon my word, Sir, I say the truth, you have their hearts and their approbation to what you have done; and that you are approven of God, I doubt not: the seal whereof, I hope, shall be in your heart, to feast your conscience with peace, and to cause your face shine in innocency. What you have done with your fellow-witnesses, companions in tribulation, shall turn to you for a testimony. Sir, when this General Assembly are gathered together to their fathers, and you wearing your crown up at the throne, and following the Lamb, your name shall be precious and have a savour of life amongst the saints. You shall have your mother's blessing, I mean the Church of Scotland, when you are dead and rotten. Though now you seem to be a man of strife and contention, yet you are no otherways for strife and contention than your Master before you, who came not to send peace, but rather division and contention (Luke xii. 51) with the malignant party. Union in judgment, with men not tender of our Lord's interest, is a conjunction and union I hope you shall never think desirable. Sectarian separation, I am confident, you never loved; though men, who are become transgressors in destroying what they have formerly been building, give it forth so. Woe's me, Sir, that amongst so many hundred ministers in the Church of Scotland, so few are like to be found willing to give or approve of your and others' faithful testimony. I think that, besides the evil of blindness that is in the mind of some, and the idolizing of man's interest by others, an uncrucified world and over-loved stipends shall hinder many from coming your length. We are debtors to you, and to our Lord Jesus Christ, that hath given to you to care for "Zion, whom no man seeks after" (Jer. xxx. 17); not caring for your own things, but the things of God. Fair fall you that have quit all things to follow Him. To you, and to others that will continue with Christ, in this hour of tribulation, is appointed a kingdom. Sir, you had more credit and worldly greatness to lose than many honest ministers; and thanks be to God that you have so learned Christ [as] to be made a man for Christ of no reputation, for Him. Your despised Master, who made Himself while He was amongst us a man of no reputation, is now exalted in glory. There is none now to gibe Him by bowing the knee, none now to spit in His face, none now to bring Him under mocking of the purple robe, none to put on His head a crown of thorns. And as you now partake of His sufferings, so shall you hereafter of His glory. You shall sit honourably on thrones; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you shall receive the crown. I am convinced that it is for conscience toward God that you suffer. The bottom of your testimony and suffering is not so narrow as some think, who study more to decline the cross than to be tender for every truth. School-heads talk of fundamentals and non-fundamentals; and, say they, "The present controversy is not about fundamentals: ministers may keep their places, peace, and stipends, and make less din." But are non-fundamentals nothing? I would choose rather not be brought up at school, than to grow so subtile and wily by school distinctions, [as] to decline the cross. Sir, you divide not from others for nothing; you contend not for nothing; you suffer not for nothing. They that will be unfaithful in little will be unfaithful in much. Mistake me not, as if I thought the ground of your testimony a little thing and a trifle. I think you, and all that be faithful to God, are bound to follow it to bonds and to blood. That Christ ought to be a King in Scotland, and the people ought to employ[492] the liberty that Christ hath bought to them with His blood, is among fundamentals with me; and whether the way man gives and allows to men that have fought against the truth be not naturally, and by interpretation, against this, judge. Sir, your Master did put you in His vineyard. You have a testimony from many of a faithful and diligent labourer. I hear that you are now violently thrust out. I think the Spirit of Christ would teach men sobriety and forbearance. I wish (and know you will join with me) that men's violent dealing with you provoke not the Lord, to make this the last General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Always, I acknowledge you one of the stars which the Lord hath in His hand, one of the angels of the Church of Scotland, a faithful minister of the Gospel at Glasgow. You have given a testimony for your Master; you shall get a meeting when He comes in the clouds. And though there should not be a General Assembly henceforth in the Church of Scotland, judicially to acknowledge you His minister, yet, in the General Assembly of angels and men, that your Master in the latter day shall call in the clouds, you shall get a testimony of a minister of the Gospel; and from the Shepherd and the Lord, the righteous Judge, you shall receive the crown. I think there is a necessity laid on you to preach the Gospel, and to call people to the covenant of grace, wherever you can safely do it. I know there are many that will yet receive you as an angel of God, and yet will be followers of you and of Christ, "receiving the word in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost." The Lord give you in all things to "approve yourself as the minister of God, in much patience and affliction, in necessities, distresses, in stripes, in imprisonment, in labour, and watching, and fasting,—by honour and dishonour, in good report and ill report" (2 Cor. vi. 4-6). For, now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. And the God of all peace, who hath called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you. Remember me to those that are your companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, and to your wife, that will be a faithful helper to you in this time of your affliction.
Because I am not able to see you yet, and fearing that when I come to Glasgow I shall not find you there, I thought good to write.
[CCCXXXVIII.—For the Right Honourable and Christian Lady, the Lady Kenmure.]
(A WORD TO CHEER IN TIMES OF DARKNESS.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—The Lord is gracious who keepeth your Ladyship in the furnace, when many put out their hand to iniquity one way or other. We are now shouldering and casting down one another in the dark, and the godly are hidden from the godly. We make our own chains heavier by joining with the Lord's enemies; hence new sufferings to all that dare not say "a confederacy to those to whom this people say a confederacy, nor fear their fear." (Isa. 8, 12.) As that is my exercise now, who am not very far from being my lone (though I know in whom I have believed, at least I should know) in this place; so I am afraid that the godly there comply with those declared enemies of God. It will be our strength to walk between enemies and malignants on either side. This is the day of Jacob's trouble; yet these dry bones can, and must live. I know not if I shall see it, but I hope to take this quietness and silence of faith, in the midst of the noises of the alarm for war, to the grave with me, that the Lord will build upon the church of Britain and Ireland a palace of silver, inclosed with boards of cedar.
Dear Madam, faint not; the night is almost gone; "for the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, and not tarry." Madam, weary not; none can outbid your lodging in heaven; there is more given for it, by Him who hath bespoken it for Jean Campbell, and taken it for her, than any can offer. The ransom of blood standeth.
My wife remembereth her respects to your Ladyship. The child is well. Mrs. Gillespie is well, we hear, but is not here.
Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his own Lord Jesus Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Jan. 28, 1653.
[CCCXXXIX.—For Grizzel Fullerton. [Letter V.]
(EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW CHRIST FULLY WHEN OTHERS ARE COLD.)
M ISTRESS,—Remembering well what relation I had to your dear mother (now blessed and perfected with glory),[493] and being confident that yourself looketh that way (which, except I be eternally lost, is the way of peace and of life), I should be ungrateful to forget those, whom, by the covenant of the Lord, I cannot but remember to God.
I shall speak nothing to you of the present sad differences;[494] but if I have, or ever had, any nearness to God, that other way (which I trust I shall never follow) is the way of man. And for the present powers,[495] I suffer from them, and look for more. God hath a controversy with them; and, my soul, enter not into their secrets! Only, I would beseech, request, and obtest you in the Lord, and by your appearance before Christ, to follow the way of the Lord and the steps trod by the gracious in that place, which the Lord followed with life and power. My heart is filled with sorrow, considering what communion with God some of that country had, and how much they were in edifying and helping one another, in His way; and how little of that there is now in that country. Your mother kept in life, in that place, and quickened many about her to the seeking of God. My desire to you is, that you should succeed her in that way, and be letting a word fall to your brethren and others, that may encourage them to look toward the way of God. You will have need of it ere it be long. See how you may have a gracious minister, and no neutral there, to succeed and follow the servant of God now asleep in the Lord.[496] There is a great and wide difference between a name of godliness and the power of godliness. That is hottest when there are fewest witnesses. The deadness upon many, and the defection of the land, is great. Blessed are they who seek the Lord and His face.
I shall entreat you to remember me to your husband, and all friends. I desire to forget none who are in Christ.
Your brother in the Lord,
S. R.
Edinburgh, March 14, 1653.
[CCCXL.—To Mr. Thomas Wylie.][497]
(REGARDING A LETTER OF EXPLANATION.)
R IGHT REVEREND,—I look on it as a significant expression of your respect to me, and above all deserving in me, that you take notice of any appearance of clouds, or alienation of mind among brethren; and am glad of your testimony of my brother. I had no interest but brotherly advice, and hearty desire of the real prospering of the work of the Gospel. Nor was it either necessary or expedient, that your w[isdoms] should be troubled and put to any presbyterial testimony, upon the ground of a private missive letter, written by misinformation. I give credit to your testimony, and judge much ought to be laid upon it, and shall think myself obliged to your w[isdoms], and look on it as a testimony of your affectionate zeal to the work of God. The Lord of the harvest thrust out labourers to His vineyard, and bless His work in your hands! Excuse me, dear and reverend, for my troubling you with any private misunderstanding. I am not a little refreshed to hear of your care and zeal for the house of God.
The Lord be with your spirit.
Your unworthy brother and fellow-labourer in the Gospel,
S. R.
St. Andrews, March 23, 1653.
[CCCXLI.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(PRESENT NEED HELPED BY PAST EXPERIENCE.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—I know that ye think of an outgoing, and that your quartering in time, and your abode in this life, is short; "for we flee away as a shadow." The declining of the sun, and the lengthening of the shadow, say that our journey is short and near the end. I speak it, because I have warnings of my removal. Madam, I know not any against whom the Lord is not: for He is against "the proud and lofty; the day of the Lord is upon all the cedars, upon all the high mountains, upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures" (Isa. ii. 12-16). I know not anything comparable to a nearness and spiritual communion with the Father and the Son Christ. There is much deadness and witheredness upon many spirits sometime near to God; and I wish the Lord have not more to say and to do against the land.
Ye have, Madam, in your accounts, mercies, deliverances, rods, warnings, plenty of means, consolations (when "refuge failed, when ye looked on the right hand, and behold no man would know you, nor care for your soul," when young and weak), manifestations of God, the outgoings of the Lord for you, experiences, answers from the Lord; by all which, ye may be comforted now, and confirmed in the certain hope, that grace, free grace, in a fixed and established Surety, shall perfect that good work in you. Happy they who see not and yet believe.
Grace, grace, eternally in our Lord Jesus be with you.
Yours, in the Lord Jesus,
S. R.
Edinburgh, May 27, 1653.
[CCCXLII.—For the Right Honourable and truly worthy Colonel Gilbert Ker.]
(DEADNESS—HOPES OF REFRESHMENT—DISTANCE FROM GOD—NEARNESS DELIGHTED IN.)
M UCH HONOURED IN THE LORD,—How it is with you may appear by your letters to some with us; but it is the complaint of not a few of such as were in Christ before me, that most of us inhabit and dwell in a parched land. The people of the Lord are like a land not rained upon. Though some dare not deny that this is the garden of the Beloved, and the vineyard that the Lord doth keep and water every moment, yet, oh! where are the sometime quickening breathings and influences from heaven that have refreshed His hidden ones?
The causes of His withdrawings are unknown to us. One thing cannot be denied, but that ways of high sovereignty and dominion of grace are far out of the sight of angels and men; yea, and so above the fixed way of free promises (such as, "This do, and He shall breathe and blow upon His garden"), as He hath put forth a declaration to His hidden ones in Scotland, that smarting, wrestlings, prayings, complaining, gracious missing, cannot earn the visits from on high, nor fetch down showers upon the desert. It may be, when we are saying in our graves, "Our bones are dry, and our hope gone," that temporal and spiritual deliverance may come both together; and that He will cause us feel, both the one way and the other, the good of His reign who shortly cometh to the throne. "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth." "In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." "He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight" (Ps. lxxii. 6-16). And though we cannot pray home a sweet season that way, yet Christ must bring summer with Him when He cometh. "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon."
I know not if I apply prophecies as I would, rather than as they are. When the one Shepherd is set over them, even He who shall stand (oh how much do we lie!) and feed in the strength of the Lord, the isles (and this the greatest of them), which wait for His law, are to look for that; "And I will make them, and the places round about My hill, a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season: there shall be showers of blessing" (Ezek. xxxiv. 26). How desirable must every drop of such a shower be! And, "I will be as the dew to Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon" (Hosea xiv. 5, 6). And, "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" (Isa. lv. 13). "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the oil-tree" (Isa. xli. 19). "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." And it shall be no lost labour or fruitless husbandry; "They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses" (Isa. xliv. 3, 4). But when this shall be in Scotland (and it must be) is better to believe than prophesy; and quietly to hope and sit still (for that is yet our strength), than to quarrel with Him, that the wheels of this chariot move leisurely.
Yet this can hardly say anything to us who do so much please ourselves in our deadness, and are almost gone from godly thirst and missing too, being half-satisfied with our witheredness. No doubt we have marred His influences, and have not seconded nor smiled upon His actings upon us. Nor have we been much of his strain who doth eight times breathe out that suit, "Quicken me, quicken me" (Ps. cxix.). So much are we desirous to be acted upon by the Lord as blocks and stones; and so prodigal are we of His motions, as if they were no better to be husbanded. But it is good that it is not in our power to blast and undo His breathings; His wind bloweth where He listeth. Could we but lean, and cast a quiet spirit under the dewings and showerings of Him that every moment watereth His vineyard, how happy and blessed were we! We neither open nor discern His knocking, nor do we feel His hand put in through the keyhole, nor can we give any spiritual account of the walkings and motions of Christ, when He standeth behind the wall, when He cometh skipping over the mountains, when He cometh to His garden and feasteth, when He feedeth among the lilies, when His spikenard casteth a smell, when He knocketh and withdraweth, and is nowhere to be found. Oh, how little a portion of God we see! How little study we God! How rarely read we God, or are versed in the lively apprehensions of that great unknown All in All, the glorious Godhead, and the Godhead revealed in Christ! We dwell far from the well, and complain but dryly of our dryness and dulness. We are rather dry than thirsty.
Sir, there may be artificial pride in this humility; but for me, I neither know what He is, nor His Son's name, nor where He dwelleth. I hear a report of Christ great enough, and that is all. Oh! what is nearness to Him? What is that, to be "in God," to "dwell in God"? What a house must that be! (1 John iv. 13). How far are some from their house and home? how ill acquaint with the rooms, mansions, safety, and sweetness of holy security to be found in God! Oh, what estrangement! what wandering! what frequent conversing with self and the creature! Is not here "the bed shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it? and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it?" (Isa. xxviii. 20). When shall we attain to a living in only, only God! and be estranged from all the poor created nothings, the painted shadow-beings of yesterday, which, an hour and less before creation, were dark waste negatives and empty nothings, and should so have been for eternity, had the Lord suffered them to lie there for ever!
It is He, the great "He, who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as vanity" (Isa. xl. 22, 23). And He, the only He, and there is no He beside Him (Isa. xliii. 10, 11, 13-25). Men or angels, they are not any of them a he to Him! But a living, breathing, dying nothing is man at his best, a sick clay-vanity; and the angel, to Him, but a more excellent, living and understanding nothing. Yet we live at a distance from Him; and we die and wither when we are out of God. Oh, if we knew how nothing we are without Him!
Sir, we desire to mind your bonds; and are cheered and refreshed that we hear of any of His manifestations, and His outgoings, which are prepared as the morning to you. We hope that we need not desire you not to faint, and are confident that the anointing that abideth in you teacheth you so much. Wait upon the speaking vision: "Behold, He cometh! behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him!" (Isa. xl. 10).
The only wise God strengthen you with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.
Yours, at all observance, in the Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St Andrews, July 1653.
[CCCXLIII.—For the truly honourable Colonel Gilbert Ker.][498]
(THE STATE OF THE LAND.)
M UCH HONOURED,—I bless the Lord for His good hand, who declares that His sovereign presence is alike in England and all places, and sways hearts as pleases Him. The book of holy providence is good marginal notes on His revealed will, in His word, and speaks much to us, could we read and understand what He writes, both in the one and the other. You see He is not wanting to you; houses and lands are His. The Lord led Abraham from his own country to a land he knew not. It would appear He hath not opened His mind to you for leaving of this land, though I be much afraid of a sick state, a sleeping ministry, a covenant-breaking land, a number of dead professors; all these are grey hairs here and there on Ephraim. Sure our ruin is sure if God let us alone; we shall rot in our lies. But what am I to determine of conclusions of mercy revealed to none, and thoughts of peace in the heart of the Lord towards an undeserving land? I should be glad to see you, and shall desire He may lead you in the matter of your residence whom ye desire to be your Guide and Counsellor. For me, I am, as to my body, most weak and under daily summons; but I sit still and read not the summons: as to my spirit, much out of court, because out of communion with the Lord, and far from what sometime hath been; deadness, security, unbelief, and distance from God in the use of means, prevail more than ever.[499] I shall desire your help for getting a third Professor. I am in this college between wind and weather. Dr. Colville[500] is for Mr. James Sharp;[501] I am for Mr. William Rait, but know not the event.[502] My wife remembers her respects to you. Grace be with you.
Yours, at all obedience, in God,
S. R.
St. Andrews, April 2, 1654.
Remember my love in Christ to Mr. Livingstone.
[CCCXLIV.—For Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam..]
[Mr. John Scot, minister of Oxnam, zealously adhered to the Protesters; and Rutherford's letters to him have chiefly a reference to the proceedings of that party. After the restoration of Charles II., Scot was imprisoned for some time, but suffered less than others of his brethren. On being set at liberty, he was allowed to return to his parish, and to resume the exercise of his ministry. We find him continuing there down to 1664, when he was brought before the short-lived High Commission Court, erected in the beginning of that year, for having assisted at Communions which were reckoned contrary to law. How he was dealt with by that Court is not now known. In 1669 he became indulged minister of Oxnam. He must have died previous to 1684, as in that year the name of "Elizabeth Rae, relict of Mr. John Scot, late minister of Oxnam," occurs among a list of names in the parish of Kelso, delated by the curate of that parish to the Committee of Privy Council which met at Jedburgh, with the view of proceeding against those guilty of "church disorders," that is, against those who deserted their own parish church, and attended conventicles. ("Warrants of Privy Council.")]
(EXCUSE FOR ABSENCE FROM DUTY.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—No man oweth more to the church of God with you, than poor and wretched I. But when weakness of body, and the Lord by it, did forbid me to undertake a lesser journey to Edinburgh, I am forbidden far more to journey thither. And believe it, nothing besides this doth hinder. I am unable to overtake what the Lord hath laid upon me here; and, therefore, I desire to submit to sovereignty, and must be silent. If my prayers and best desires to the Lord could contribute anything for promoting of His work, my soul's desire is that the wilderness, and that place to which I owe my first breathing,[503] in which I fear Christ was scarce named, as touching any reality or power of godliness, may blossom as a rose.
So desiring, and praying that His name may be great among you, and entreating that you may believe that the names of the Lord's adversaries shall be written in the earth, and that "whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem, to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain," and that the Lord "will create glory upon every assembly in Mount Zion," I rest, your own brother in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, June 15, 1655.
[CCCXLV.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(THOUGHTS FOR A TIME OF SICKNESS, ABOUT THE LIFE TO COME.)
M ADAM,—I have been so long silent, that I am almost ashamed now to speak. I hear of your weakly condition of body, which speaketh some warning to you to look for a longer life, where ye shall have more leisure to praise than time can give you here. It shall be loss to many; but sure yourself, Madam, shall be only[504] free of any loss. And truly, considering what days we are now falling into, if sailing were not serving of the Lord (which I can hardly attain to), a calm harbour were very good when storms are so high. The Forerunner, who hath landed first, must help to bring the sea-beaten vessel safe to the port, and the sick passengers who are following the Forerunner safe ashore. Much deadness prevaileth over some; but there is much life in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life to quicken. Oh, what of our hid life is without us, and how little and poor a stock is in the hand of some! The only wise God supply what is wanting. The more ye want, and the more your joy hath run on, the more is owing to you by the promise of grace. Bygones of waterings from heaven, which your Ladyship wanted in Kenmure, Rusco, the West, Glasgow, Edinburgh, England, etc., shall all come in a great sum together. The marriage supper of the Lamb must not be marred with too large four-hours' refreshment. Know, Madam, that He, who hath tutored you from the breasts, knoweth how to time His own day-shinings and love-visits.
Grace, that runneth on, be with you.
Yours, in the Lord, at all observance,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCXLVI.—To Simeon Ashe.]
[Mr. Ashe was a Puritan minister in London during the time of the civil wars. He died in 1662.]
(VIEWS OF THE PRESBYTERIANS AS TO ALLEGIANCE TO THE PROTECTOR.)
R EVEREND WORTHY SIR,—I would recommend to you the bearer, Mr. James Simpson,[505] a faithful preacher of the Gospel. Be pleased to hear him. I trust he shall give you a true and faithful relation of our affairs. You may be pleased to believe me, that men who have borrowed your ear to blacken the godly in the land, and who have now both deserted us and the Covenant, and joined feet with the Malignant party, and now have owned the present powers, and brought the intrants to the ministry to give under their hand a subscription, an engagement (the writ calls it, a resolution to live peaceably and unoffensively under the present Government), so that no holy man can get any maintenance in the land but such as will sinfully comply (and such as cannot, what an entry they have to that holy calling to embrace it!), these men seek more their own things, than the things of Jesus Christ. And being backed by the whole multitude of the promiscuous generality, throughout the land, who are for their way, as of old the prelatic conformists did, they do persecute the godly, and in pulpits and presbyteries declaim against us as implacable and separatists. You may, Sir, by this, and what the bearer will make known to you, perceive what wrong the compliance of these men hath done to the cause of God. But I spare, and do beg the favour of your other care. The grace of God be with you.
I am your loving brother in Christ,
S. R.
1656.
[CCCXLVII.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(UNKINDNESS OF THE CREATURE—GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY IN PERMITTING HIS CHILDREN TO BE INJURED BY MEN.)
M ADAM,—I confess that I have cause to be grieved at my long silence or laziness in writing. I am also afflicted to hear, that such who were debtors to your Ladyship for better dealing have served you with such prevarication. Ye know that crookedness is neither strong, nor long enduring; and ye know likewise, that these things spring not out of the dust. It is sweet to look upon the lawless and sinful stirrings of the creature as ordered by a most holy hand in heaven. Oh, if some could make peace with God! It would be our wisdom, and afford us much sweet peace, if oppressors were looked on as passive instruments, like the saw or axe in the carpenter's hand. They are bidden (if such a distinction may be admitted), but not commanded, of God (as Shimei was, 2 Sam. xvi. 10), to do what they do.
Madam, these many years the Lord hath been teaching you to read and study well the book of holy, holy, and spotless sovereignty, in suffering from some nigh-hand, and some far off. Whoever be the instruments, the replying of clay to the Potter, the Former of all, is unbeseeming the nothing-creature. I hope that He will clear you: but, when Zion's public evils lie not nigh some of us, and leave no impression upon our hearts, it is no wonder that we be exercised with domestic troubles. But I know that ye are taught of God to prefer Jerusalem to your chiefest joy. Madam, there is no cause of fainting: wait upon the not-tarrying vision, for it will speak.
The only wise God be with you, and God, even your own God, bless you.
Yours, at all observance, in God,
S. R.
St. Andrews, June 1657.
[CCCXLVIII.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(GOD'S DEALINGS WITH THE LAND.)
M ADAM,—I should not forget you; but my deadness under a threatening stroke, both of a falling church (a broken covenant, a despised remnant) and a craziness of body, that I cannot get a piece sickly clay carried about from one house or town to another, lieth most heavy on me. The Lord hath removed Scotland's crown, for we owned not His crown. We fretted at His catholic government of the world, and fretted that He would not be ruled and led by us, in breaking our adversaries: and He maketh us to suffer and pine away in our iniquities, under the broken government of His house. It is like, that it would be our snare to be tried with the honour of a peaceable Reformation: we might mar the carved work of His house, worse than those against whom we cry out. It is like, that He hath bidden us lie on our left side three hundred and ninety days; and yet so astonishing is our stupidity, that we moan not our sore side. Our gold is become dim, the visage of our Nazarites is become black, the sun is gone down on our seers; the crown is fallen from our heads; we roar like bears. Lord save us from that, "He that made them will not have mercy on them" (Isa. xxvii. 11). The heart of the scribe meditateth terror. Oh, Madam, if the Lord would help us to more self-judging, and to make sure an interest in Christ! Ah, we forget eternity, and it approaches quickly. Grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's, at all obedience, in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Nov. 20, 1657.
[CCCXLIX.—For Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.]
[John Livingstone, in his letter to his parishioners at Ancrum, says: "Oxnam is not far off from you, and I hope Mr. Scot doth and will declare for the sworn Reformation, and testify against present defection.">[
(PROTESTERS' TOLERATION.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I saw from C. K. a testimony of your Presbytery against toleration, in which ye have been instrumental. The Lord give strength to do more. I think it both rare and necessary, and would account it a great mercy, if there were an addition of a postscript from divers ministers and elders, out of all the shires of Scotland. It is really the mind of all the godly and tender in this land. It is believed by some, that the Protesting party hath quite given over the cause. I hope it is not so; but the Lord shall be yet victorious in His most despised ones. Our darkness is great and thick, and there is much deadness; yet the Lord will be our light.
Thus recommending you to His grace whose ye are, I am, your own brother, in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, April 2, 1658.
[CCCL.—For Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.]
(GLOOMY TIMES—MEANS OF PROMOTING GODLINESS.)
D EAR BROTHER,—Faint not; but be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. I look on it as a rich mercy that the Lord is with you, strengthening you to quicken fainters, to warm and warn any that are cold or dead, or who deaden others. Believe that it will be your peace in the end. The times are sad; yet I persuade myself that the vision will not tarry, but will speak. The Lord will loose our captive bonds. Oh, blessed he, though alone, who is found fast and constant for the desirable interest of Christ.
My humble advice would be, that you see to the placing[506] of the deacon and the ruling elder, or to anything that may weaken the Discipline. Our Second Book of Discipline should be heeded: Sessions purged. Oh! catechising and personal visiting, and speaking to them sigillatim (one by one) concerning their interest in Christ and a state of conversion, is little in practice. The practice of family fasts is scarce known to be an ordinance of God. It were good that ye should confer with godly brethren in private, concerning the promoting of godliness, concerning Christian conference, and praying together, worshipping of God in families, and solitary fasts.
To His grace who can direct, quicken, and strengthen you, I commend you, and am your loving brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCLI.—To Mr. James Durham, Minister of the Gospel at Glasgow, some few days before his Death.]
[Mr. James Durham was ordained minister of Blackfriars Church, Glasgow, in November 1647. In September 1651 he was translated to the Inner High Church, Glasgow. He was a man at once distinguished for ardent piety and great talents. Robert Baillie counted him "one of the most gracious, wise, and able preachers in this isle." "He is the minister of my family," the same writer says, "and almost the only minister in this place [Glasgow] of whom my soul gets good, and whom I respect in some things above all men I know." Durham was cut off in the prime of life. He died at Glasgow on the 25th of June 1658,—ten days after this letter was written to him,—in the thirty-sixth year of his age, much regretted by all. (See Letter XCI.) He wrote on the "Book of Revelation," "Christ Crucified," and some other excellent pieces.]
(MAN'S WAYS NOT GOD'S WAYS.)
S IR,—I would ere now have written to you, had I not known that your health, weaker and weaker, could scarce permit you to hear or read. I need not speak much. The Way ye know, and have preached to others the skill of the Guide, and the glory of the home beyond death. And when He saith, "Come and see," it will be your gain to obey, and go out and meet the Bridegroom. What accession is made to the higher house of His kingdom should not be our loss, though it be real loss to the church of God. But we count one way, and the Lord counteth another way. He is infallible, and the only wise God, and needeth none of us. Had He needed the staying in the body of Moses and the prophets, He could have taken another way. Who dare bid you cast your thoughts back on wife or children, when He hath said, "Leave them to Me, and come up hither"? Or who can persuade you to die or live, as if that were arbitrary to us, and not His alone who hath determined the number of your months? If so it seem good to Him, follow your Forerunner and Guide. It is an unknown land to you, who were never there before; but the land is good, and the company before the throne desirable, and He who sitteth on the throne is His lone a sufficient heaven.
Grace, grace be with you.
Yours in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, June 15, 1658.
[CCCLII.—For Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.]
(ADHERENCE TO THE TESTIMONY AGAINST TOLERATION.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—Your letter that came unto me, of August 2nd, to be at Edinburgh upon August 2nd, was unknown to me by the subscription. But since it was written for so honourable and warrantable a truth of Christ, as a testimony against Toleration, if my health would have permitted, and my daily menacing gravel, I should have come to Edinburgh. What either counsel, countenance, or clearing, ye could have had from the like of me, I cannot say; nor dare I speak much, but with a reserve of the help of His grace. I desire to desire,[507] and purpose by strength from above, to own that cause, and to join with you and some in this church, besides your Presbytery, who will own that cause. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. This cloud will over,[508] could we live by faith, and wait on a speaking, and a seemingly delaying vision. (Heb. ii. 3.) The Lord will not tarry.
Grace be with you. Many are with you, but there is One who is above millions.
Your own brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews, August 8, 1658.
[CCCLIII.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(TRIALS—DEADNESS OF SPIRIT—DANGER OF FALSE SECURITY.)
M ADAM,—I am ashamed of my long silence to your Ladyship. Your tossings and wanderings are known to Him upon whom ye have been cast from the breasts, and who hath been your God of old. The temporal loss of creatures, dear to you there, may be the more easily endured, that the gain of One "who only hath immortality" groweth.
There is an universal complaint of deadness of spirit on all that know God. He that writeth to you, Madam, is as deep in this as any, and is afraid of a strong and hot battle, before time be at a close. But no matter, if the Lord crown all with the victorious triumphing of faith. God teacheth us by terrible things in righteousness. We see many things, but we observe nothing. Our drink is sour. Grey hairs are here and there on us. We change many lords and rulers; but the same bondage of soul and body remaineth. We live little by faith, but much by sense, according to the times, and by human policy. The watchmen sleep, and the people perish for lack of knowledge. How can we be enlightened when we turn our back on the sun? and must we not be withered when we leave the fountain? It should be my only desire to be a minister, gifted with the white stone, and the new name written on it. I judge it were fit (now when tall professors and when many stars fall from heaven, and God poureth the isle of Great Britain from vessel to vessel, and yet we sit, and are settled on our lees) to consider (as sometimes I do, but ah! rarely), how irrecoverable a wo it is to be under a beguile in the matter of eternity. And what if I, who can have a subscribed testimonial of many who shall stand at the right hand of the Judge, shall miss Christ's approving testimony, and be set upon the left hand among the goats? (Matt. vii. 22, xxv. 8-12 and 33; Luke xiii. 25-27). There is such a beguile; and it befalleth many; and what if it befall me, who have but too much art to cozen my own soul and others, with the flourish of ministerial, or country, holiness!
Dear lady, I am afraid of prevailing security. We watch little (I have relation mainly to myself), we wrestle little. I am like one travelling in the night, who seeth a spirit, and sweateth for fear, and careth not to tell it to his fellow, for fear of increasing his own fear. However, I am sure, when the Master is nigh His coming, it were safe to write over a double, and a new copy, of our accounts of the sins of nature, childhood, youth, riper years, and old age. What if Christ have another written representation of me than I have of myself? Sure He is right; and if it contradict my mistaken and sinfully erroneous account of I myself, ah! where am I then? But, Madam, I discourage none. I know that Christ hath made a new marriage-contract of love, and sealed it with His blood, and the trembling believer shall not be confounded.
Grace be with you.
Yours, at all obedience, in Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, May 26, 1658.
[CCCLIV.—To my Lady Kenmure.]
(PREVAILING DECLENSION, DECAY, AND INDIFFERENCE TO GOD'S DEALINGS—THINGS FUTURE.)
M ADAM,—I should be glad that the Lord would be pleased to lengthen out more time to you, that ye might, before your eyes be shut, see more of the work of the right hand of the Lord, in reviving a now swooning and crushed land and church. Though I was lately knocking at death's gate, yet could I not get in, but was sent back for a time.[509] It is well if I could yet do any service to Him; but, ah! what deadness lieth upon the spirit! And deadness breedeth distance from God. Madam, these many years the Lord hath let you see a clear difference betwixt those who serve God and love His name, and those who serve Him not. And I judge that ye look upon the way of Christ as the only best way, and that ye would not exchange Christ for the world's god, or their mammon, and that ye can give Christ a testimony of "Chief among ten thousand." True it is that many of us have fallen from our first love; but Christ hath renewed His first love of our espousals to Himself, and multiplied the seekers of God all the country over, even where Christ was scarce named, east and west, south and north, above the number that our fathers ever knew.[510] But, ah! Madam, what shall be done or said of many fallen stars, and many near to God complying wofully, and sailing to the nearest shore? Yea, and we are consumed in the furnace, but not melted; burned, but not purged. Our dross is not removed, but our scum remaineth in us; and in the furnace we fret, we faint, and (which is more strange) we slumber. The fire burneth round about us, and we lay it not to heart. Grey hairs are upon us, and we know it not.
It were now a desirable life to send away our love to heaven. And well it becometh us to wait for our appointed change, yet so as we should be meditating thus: "Is there a new world above the sun and moon? And is there such a blessed company harping and singing hallelujahs to the Lamb up above? Why, then, are we taken with a vain life of sighing and sinning? Oh, where is our wisdom, that we sit still, laughing, eating, sleeping prisoners, and do not pack up all our best things for the journey, desiring always to be clothed with our house from above, not made with hands!" Ah! we savour not the things that are above, nor do we smell of glory ere we come thither; but we transact and agree with time, for a new lease of clay mansions. Behold, He cometh! We sleep, and turn all the work of duties into dispute of events for deliverance. But the greatest haste, to be humbled for a broken and buried covenant, is first and last forgotten; and all our grief is, the Lord lingereth, enemies triumph, godly ones suffer, atheists blaspheme. Ah! we pray not; but wonder that Christ cometh not the higher way, by might, by power, by garments rolled in blood. What if He come the lower way? Sure we sin, in putting the book in His hand, as if we could teach the Almighty knowledge. We make haste; we believe not. Let the only wise God alone; He steereth well. He draweth straight lines, though we think and say they are crooked. It is right that some should die and their breasts full of milk; and yet we are angry that God dealeth so with them. Oh, if I could adore Him in His hidden ways, when there is darkness under His feet and darkness in His pavilion, and clouds are about His throne! Madam, hoping, believing, patient praying, is our life. He loseth no time.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Yours, at all obliged observance in Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Sept. 12, 1659.
[CCCLV.—To the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, anent Union, with a desire to have Mr. William Rait Professor at St. Andrews.][511]
(UNION—HUMILIATION—CHOICE OF A PROFESSOR.)
R EVEREND,—The desire of your W[isdoms] for union to me, who am below such a public mercy, and of so high concernment to the Church of Scotland, ought to be most acceptable. The name of peace is savoury, both good and pleasant. I so close with your godly and religious aim therein, as judging the Lord hath from heaven suggested to you, and inspired your spirits with, a fervent thirst and intention to promote the Gospel, that though I should judge myself (as in truth I am) lower than to suit[512] from either Presbytery or Synod any favour, yet I shall, in all humility, beseech your W[isdoms] to prosecute with the power which Christ hath given you the work of union; and so much the more that I must shortly put off this my tabernacle. I offer to your W[isdoms'] serious consideration, the evident necessity of union with God, and of a serious and sound humiliation, and lying in the dust before the Lord for a broken covenant, declining from our former love, owning of such as we sometime judged to be malignant enemies and opposers of the work of reformation and of the sworn covenant of God, despising of the offered salvation of the Gospel, and coldness and indifferency in purging the house of God, and other causes of the sad judgments which we now are under. And my last and humble suit to your W[isdoms] is, that ye would be pleased to take in with this union the planting of the New College[513] with a third master. It is a matter that concerns the whole Church of Scotland and seminary of the ministry thereof, and cannot be done but by a General Assembly. If, therefore, you have, dear brethren, judged me faithful of the Lord, and regard the work of the Lord, and the promoting of the kingdom of Christ (as I nothing doubt but it is the desire of your souls), give commission to the brethren sent to treat for union, at the meeting in Edinburgh or elsewhere, to join their authority and power, such as now may be had, to call, invite, and obtest some godly and able man, to embrace the charge of Professor in the College of Divinity in St. Andrews. And because Mr. William Rait, minister at Brechin, is a man for learning, godliness, prudence, and eminent authority in the Church of Scotland, sought for to the ministry by the town of Edinburgh, and also by Aberdeen, to preach the Gospel and to profess in the College, and hath the approbation of the present masters of the New College, the godly ministers of the Synod of Fife, of the Presbytery of St. Andrews, ministers of the city of St. Andrews, it is my soul's desire, and the heart-cry of students in the College, and of the godly in the city, that Mr. William Rait may be the man; and that your commissioners may be moved to deal with the commissioners of the Synod of Fife and Angus for that effect; so shall you be instrumental to repair our breaches, and build His house. So praying that your labours may not be in vain in the Lord, I rest (the Lord Jesus be with your spirit!) your unworthy brother and fellow-labourer in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, the 23rd October 1659.
[CCCLVI.—To Mr. John Murray, Minister at Methven.][514]
[Mr. John Murray was one of the Protesters (see Baillie's "Letters"); and was committed prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh for meeting with a few of his brethren to draw up a congratulatory address to Charles II. upon his restoration, expressing their loyalty, and reminding him of the obligation of the Covenant. He was summoned to appear before the Parliament on the charge of high treason, but at length was liberated. About 1672 he was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh for alleged house-conventicles. When set at liberty, he was confined to the parish of Queensferry, and ordained to wait upon ordinances and abstain from keeping conventicles, and to attend the parish church. (Wodrow's "History," vol. ii.)]
(A SYNOD PROPOSAL FOR UNION—BRETHREN UNDER CENSURE.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—I would gladly know the issue of your Synod. We did profess we could not be concluded[515] by the Synod of Fife's [overtures] of union, but upon condition of the taking off the censures of our brethren, which we think injuriously are inflicted. Much is promised to us for the remedying of these censures. I shall believe when I see their performances. I hope you will see that the brethren get no wrong, or the house of God in their persons; and send me a line of the conclusion of the Synod in that business. The paper of union is very general, and comes to no particulars: it only tells the good of union, and contains some obtestations to us that insinuate the unsavouriness of irregular courses; yet we thought it not safe to yield to any union of that kind, so long as our brethren are under the censures.[516] I much doubt of their honest meaning, and that barriers in the way of entrant ministers and elders be revived. And I see no engagement, so much as verbal, for purging; but the contrary practice is here. Mr. Robert Anderson[517] is as much opposed as if he were the most corrupt sectary or Jesuit.
My wife remembers her to you. Remember me to your own bed-fellow. Grace be with you.
Your own brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Jan. 25, 1660.
EDINBURGH CASTLE.
[CCCLVII.—To his Reverend and dear Brethren, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Traill, and the rest of their brethren imprisoned in the Castle of Edinburgh.]
[The circumstances of the case to which this letter refers are these:—On the 23rd of August 1660, the following ministers, Mr. James Guthrie of Stirling, Mr. John Stirling and Mr. Robert Traill of Edinburgh, Mr. Alexander Moncrieff of Scoonie, Mr. John Semple of Carsfairn, Mr. Thomas Ramsay of Mordington, Mr. John Scot of Oxnam, Mr. Gilbert Hall of Kirkliston, Mr. John Murray of Methven, Mr. George Nairn of Burntisland, with two gentlemen, ruling elders, met in a private house in Edinburgh, to draw up an humble address to Charles II., congratulating his return, and expressing their entire and unfeigned loyalty, but at the same time reminding him of the obligation of the Covenant which he and the nation had sworn. Whilst thus employed, their papers were secured, by the order of the Committee of Estates; and they themselves were arrested, and committed close prisoners to the Castle of Edinburgh.]
(ON SUFFERING FOR CHRIST—GOD'S PRESENCE EVER WITH HIS PEOPLE—FIRMNESS AND CONSTANCY.)
R EVEREND, NOW VERY DEAR, AND MUCH HONOURED PRISONERS FOR CHRIST,—I am, as to the point of light, at the utmost of persuasion in that kind that it is the cause of Christ which ye now suffer for, and not men's interest. If it be for men, let us leave it; but if we plead for God, our own personal safety and man's deliverance will not be peace.
There is a salvation called "the salvation of God," which is cleanly, pure, spiritual, unmixed, near to the holy word of God. It is that which we would seek, even the favour of God that He beareth to His people; not simple gladness, but the gladness and goodness of the Lord's chosen. And sure, though I be the weakest of His witnesses, and unworthy to be among the meanest of them, and am afraid that the Cause be hurt (but it cannot be lost) by my unbelieving faintness, I would not desire a deliverance separated from the deliverance of the Lord's cause and people. It is enough to me to sing when Zion singeth, and to triumph when Christ triumpheth. I should judge it an unhappy joy to rejoice when Zion sigheth. "Not one hoof" will be your peace. (Exod. x. 26.)
If Christ doth own me, let me be in the grave in a bloody winding-sheet, and go from the scaffold in four quarters, to grave or no grave. I am His debtor, to seal with sufferings this precious truth; but, oh! when it cometh to the push, I dare say nothing, considering my weakness, wickedness, and faintness. But fear not ye. Ye are not, ye shall not be, alone: the Father is with you. It was not an unseasonable, but a seasonable and a necessary duty ye were about. Fear Him who is Sovereign. Christ is captain of the castle and Lord of the keys. The cooling well-spring, and refreshment from the promises, are more than the frownings of the furnace. I see snares and temptations in capitulating, composing, ceding, minching with distinctions of circumstances, formalities, compliments, and extenuations, in the cause of Christ. "A long spoon: the broth is hell-hot."[518] Hold a distance from carnal compositions, and much nearness to the fountain, to the favour and refreshing light from the Father of lights speaking in His oracles. This is sound health and salvation. Angels, men, Zion's elders, eye us; but what of all these? Christ is by us, and looketh on us, and writeth up all. Let us pray more, and look less to men.
Remember me to Mr. Scott, and to all the rest. Blessings be upon the head of such as are separated from their brethren. Joseph is a fruitful bough by a well.
Grace be with you.
Your loving brother and companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1660.
[CCCLVIII.—To Several Brethren. Reasons for petitioning his Majesty after his return, and for owning such as were censured][519] while about so necessary a duty.
R EVEREND AND DEAR BRETHREN,—It is a matter of difficulty to me to write at this distance, not having heard your debates. It seemeth that the Lord calleth us to give information to the King's Majesty of affairs. The Lord's admirable providence, in bringing him to his throne, and laying aside others who were sworn enemies to the cause and covenant of God, so that now the Government is in a right line, is to be adored. And I judge (without prescribing) that some should be sent to his Majesty to congratulate that providence; and that reason of our being so slow in rendering should be rendered.
1. We should write, not in the name of the Kirk of Scotland, but in the name of a most considerable number of godly ministers, elders, and professors, who both pray for the King, are obedient to his laws, and are under the oath of God for the sworn Reformation.
2. It is better now, than after sentences and trouble, to have recourse to him who is by place parens patriæ.
3. We should supplicate in all humility for protection and countenance; far more for lawful liberty to fear the bond of the oath of the dreadful and most high Lord; avouching to his Majesty, that the Lord, His holy name being interposed, will own that Covenant, and bless his Majesty with a happy and successful reign, in the owning thereof, and kissing of the Son of God. And when the Lord shall be pleased to grant that to us which concerneth religion, the beauty of His house, the propagating of the Gospel, the government of the Lord's kingdom, without Popery, Prelacy, unwritten traditions and ceremonies, let his Majesty try our loyalty with what commands he will be pleased to lay on us, and see if we be found rebellious.
4. We should disclaim such as have sinfully complied with the late usurpers; produce our written testimonies against them; our not accepting of offices and places of trust from them; our testimonies against their usurpation, covenant-breaking, toleration of all religions, corrupt sectarian ways, for which the Lord hath broken them.
5. We are represented to his Majesty as such as would not consent that the Remonstrance of the western forces[520] should be condemned by the Commission of the General Assembly; whereas, 1. We did humbly desire that the judicature should not condemn nor censure that Remonstrance, till the gentlemen were heard, and their reasons discussed. 2. Whatever demur was as to the banding or combining part of it, we were and are obliged to believe that they had no sectarian design therein, nor levelling intention. 3. They are gentlemen most loyal, and never were enemies to his Majesty's royal power; but only desired that security might be had for religion and the people of God, and persons disaffected to religion and the sworn Covenant abandoned; otherwise they were, and still are, willing to hazard lives and estates for the just greatness and safety of his Majesty in the maintenance of the true religion, Covenant, and cause of God. The only difficulty will be, where to have fit men to send. But as it will be both sin and shame for us to desert our undeservedly now censured brethren, so it will be our sin and reproach sinfully to comply with such things and courses as we testified against, and confessed to God.
I can say no more at present but that I am your loving brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1660.
[CCCLIX.—To a Brother Minister.]
Judgment of a draught or minute of a Petition, to have been presented to the Committee of Estates, by those Ministers who were then prisoners in the Castle of Edinburgh for that other well-known Petition to his Majesty, about which they were when seized upon and made prisoners.[521]
["But that no man may mistake or judge amiss of persons so fixed in the cause and faithful in their generations, know that this draught was not sent to Mr. Rutherford as a paper concluded and condescended upon among these brethren, whose love to truth made them in all things so tender that they were ever fond to abstain from all appearance of evil. It was more like the suggestion of some other men (wherein was laid before them what kind of address would most probably please, waiving the just measures of what was simply duty in their circumstances), than anything flowing from themselves, as the product of a mature deliberation. And, secondly, know (which confirmeth what was said), that whatever it was, or whoever gave the rise to it, yet it was never made use of, nor presented to the Committee of Estates, by any of these faithful men, whose praise, for their fidelity, fixedness, real and untainted integrity, is in the churches of Christ" (Note by Mr. Robert M'Ward, the original editor of Rutherford's "Letters").]
D EAR BROTHER,—I am, as ye know, straitened as another suffering man, but dare not petition this Committee:—
1. Because it draweth us to capitulate with such as have the advantage of the mount, the Lord so disposing for the present: and, to bring the matters of Christ to yea and no (ye being prisoners and they the powers) is a hazard.
2. A speaking to them in write, and passing in silence the sworn Covenant and the cause of God (which is the very present controversy), is contrary to the practice of Christ and the Apostles, who, being accused or not accused, avouched Christ to be the Son of God and the Messias, and that the dead must rise again, even when the adversary misstated the question. Yea, silence on the cause of God, which adversaries persecute, seemeth a tacit deserting of the cause, when the state of the question is known to beholders: and I know that the brethren intend not to leave the cause.
3. I know of no offence that you have given (I will not say what offence may be taken), either as to the matter or manner of your petition. For, if what you have done be a necessary duty laid aside by others, a duty can never give an offence to Christ, and so none to men; but Christians will look upon a pious, harmless, and innocent petition to the Prince, in the matters of the Lord's honour and the good of His church (though proffered by one or two, when they are silent whose it is to speak and act), as a seasonable duty.
4. The draught of that petition, which you sent me, speaketh not one word of the Covenant of God for the adhering to which you now suffer, and which is the object of men's hatred, and the destruction whereof is the great work of the times. Your silence in this nick of time appeareth to be a non-confession of Christ before men; and you want nothing to beget an uncleanly deliverance but the profession of silence.
5. There is a promise and real purpose, as the petition saith, to live peaceably under the King's authority. But, 1. Ye do not answer candidly and ingenuously the mind of the rulers, who, to your knowledge, mean a far other thing by authority than ye do. For ye mean, his just authority, his authority in the Lord, and his just greatness, in the maintenance of true religion, as in the Covenant, Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, is expressed from the Word of God: they mean his supreme authority, and absolute prerogative above laws, as their acts make clear, and as their practice is. For they refused, to such as were unwilling to subscribe their bond, to add "authority in the Lord," or, "just and lawful authority," or "authority as it is expressed in the Covenant." But this draught of a petition, under your own hand, yieldeth the sense and meaning to them which they crave. 2. That authority for which they contend is exclusive of the sworn Covenant; so that, except ye had said, "We shall be subject to the King's authority in the Lord, or according to the sworn Covenant," ye say nothing to the point in hand; and that, sure, is not your meaning. 3. Whoever promised so much peaceable living under his Majesty's authority, leaving out the exposition of the fifth commandment, as your petition doth, may upon the very same ground subscribe the bond refused by the godly; and so you pass from the Covenant, and make all those by-past actings of this Kirk and State, these years by-past, to be horrid rebellion! And how deep that guiltiness draweth, consider.
6. A condemning of the Remonstrance, simply and without any limitation and distinction, is a condemning of many precious ones in the land, and a passing from the causes of God's wrath, which is the chief matter of the Remonstrance.
7. That nothing is before your eyes but the exoneration of your conscience, is indeed believed by the godly who know you; but a passing in silence of the honest materials in your former petition to his Majesty seemeth to be a deserting thereof, since, in all your petition, ye do not once say ye cannot but adhere to that pious petition, as your necessary duty. And, that ye intend in the petition the happiness of his Majesty, is also believed.
Dear brother, show to our brethren, that the Lord Christ, in your persons, hath a stated question betwixt Him and the powers on earth. The only wise God lead you now, when He hath brought you forth in public, so to act as if ye did see Jesus Christ by you, and beholding you. It is easy for such as are on the shore to throw a counsel to those that are tossed in the sea; but, only by living by faith, and by fetching strength and comfort from Christ, can you be victorious, and have right to the precious promises "of the tree of life," "of the hidden manna," of the gifted "morning star," and the like, made to those who overcome: to whose strength and grace, brethren who desire with me to remember you do recommend you. I am, dear brother,
Yours, in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, 1660.
[CCCLX.—For the Right Honourable my Lady Viscountess of Kenmure.]
[On the imprisonment of the Marquis of Argyle.]
(GOD'S JUDGMENTS CALLING TO FLEE TO HIM—THE RESULT OF TIMID COMPLIANCE.)
M ADAM,—It is not my part to be unmindful of you. Be not afflicted for your brother, the Marquis of Argyle.[522] As to the main, in my weak apprehension, the seed of God being in him, and love to the people of God and His cause, it will be well. The making of particular reckoning with the Lord, and of peace with God, and owning of His cause when too many disown it, will make his peace with the King the surer.[523] The Lord is beginning to reckon with such as did forsake His cause and covenant; and until we return to Him, our peace shall not be like a river and as the waves of the sea. However, the opening of the bosom to take in all the Malignants can produce no better fruits. The Lord calleth us to flee into our chambers, and shut the doors, till the indignation be over. (Isa. xxvi. 20.) The lily among the thorns is so served. He hideth Himself, and our mountain is removed, and we are troubled. But the Lord reigneth; let the earth tremble, and let the earth rejoice. The Lord, without blood, broke the yoke of usurping oppressors, and laid them aside: the same Lord can settle throne and kingdom on the pillars of heaven. But, oh, the controversy the Lord hath with Edom, and those who covenanted with us, and then sold us; and with those of whom the Holy Ghost speaketh, "Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; they have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens, and causes of banishment" (Lam. ii. 14). The time of Jacob's suffering is but short, and the vision will speak. Could we be from under deadness, and watch unto wrestling and prayer with the Lord, and live more by faith, we should be more than conquerors. Wait upon the Lord; faint not.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Yours, at all respective observance in the Lord
S. R.
St. Andrews, July 24, 1660.
[CCCLXI.—For Mistress Craig, upon the Death of her hopeful Son, who was drowned while washing himself in a river in France.]
(NINE REASONS FOR RESIGNATION.)
M ISTRESS,—You have so learned Christ as now (in the furnace) what dross, what shining of faith may appear, must come forth. I heard of the removal of your son, Mr. Thomas. Though I be dull enough in discerning, yet I was witness to some spiritual savouriness of the new birth and hope of the resurrection, which I saw in the hopeful youth, when he was, as was feared, a-dying in this city. And, since it was written and advisedly appointed, in the spotless and holy decree of the Lord, where, and before what witnesses, and in what manner, whether by a fever, the mother being at the bed, or by some other way in a far country (dear patriarchs died in Egypt, precious to the Lord, and have wanted burials) (Ps. lxxix. 3), your safest way will be, to be silent, and command the heart to utter no repining and fretting thoughts of the holy dispensation of God.
1. The man is beyond the hazard of dispute; the precious youth is perfected and glorified.
2. Had the youth lain, year and day, pained beside a witnessing mother, it had been pain and grief lengthened out to you in many portions, and every parcel would have been a little death. Now His holy Majesty hath, in one lump and mass, brought to your ears the news, and hath not divided the grief into many portions.
3. It was not yesterday's thought, nor the other year's statute, but a counsel of the Lord of old; and "who can teach the Almighty knowledge?"
4. There is no way of quieting the mind, and of silencing the heart of a mother, but godly submission. The readiest way for peace and consolation to clay vessels is, that it is a stroke of the Potter and Former of all things. And since the holy Lord hath loosed the grip, when it was fastened sure on your part, I know that your light, and I hope that your heart, also, will yield. It is not safe to be at pulling and drawing with the omnipotent Lord. Let the pull go with Him, for He is strong; and say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
5. His holy method and order is to be adored. Sometimes the husband before the wife, and sometimes the son before the mother. So hath the only wise God ordered; and when he is sent before, and not lost, in all things give thanks.
6. Meditate not too much on the sad circumstances, "the mother was not witness to the last sigh; possibly, cannot get leave to wind the son, nor to weep over his grave;" and, "he was in a strange land!" There is a like nearness to heaven out of all the countries of the earth.
7. This did not spring out of the dust. Feed and grow fat by this medicine and fare of the only wise Lord. It is the art and the skill of faith to read what the Lord writeth upon the cross, and to spell and construct right His sense. Often we miscall words and sentences of the cross, and either put nonsense on His rods, or burden His Majesty with slanders and mistakes, when He mindeth for us thoughts of peace and love, even to do us good in the latter end.
8. It is but a private stroke on a family, and little to the public arrows shot against grieved Joseph, and the afflicted, but ah! dead, senseless, and guilty people of God. This is the day of Jacob's trouble!
9. There is a bad way of wilful swallowing of a temptation, and not digesting it, or laying it out of memory without any victoriousness of faith. The Lord, who forbiddeth fainting, forbiddeth also despising.[524] But it is easier to counsel than to suffer: the only wise Lord furnish patience.
It were not amiss to call home the other youth. I am not a little afflicted for my Lady Kenmure's condition. I desire you, when ye see her, to remember my humble respects to her. My wife heartily remembereth her to you; and is wounded much in mind with your present condition, and suffereth with you.
Grace be with you.
Yours in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Aug. 4, 1660.
[CCCLXII.—For my Reverend and dear Brother, Christ's Soldier in bonds, Mr. James Guthrie, Minister of the Gospel at Stirling.]
(STEDFAST THOUGH PERSECUTED—BLESSEDNESS OF MARTYRDOM.)
D EAR BROTHER,—We are very often comforted with the word of promise; though we stumble not a little at the work of holy providence, some earthly men flourishing as a green herb, and the people of God counted as sheep for the slaughter, and killed all the day long. And yet both word of promise, and work of providence, are from Him whose ways are equal, straight, holy, and spotless.
As for me, when I think of God's dispensations, He might justly have brought to the market-cross, and to the light, my unseen and secret abominations; which would have been no small reproach to the holy name and precious truths of Christ. But in mercy He hath covered these, and shapen and carved out more honourable causes of suffering, of which we are unworthy.
And now, dear brother, much dependeth upon the way and manner of suffering, especially that His precious truths be owned with all heavenly boldness, and a reason of our hope given in meekness and fear; and the royal crown, and absolute supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of the kings of the earth, avouched as becometh. For certain it is that Christ will reign, the Father's King in Mount Zion, and His sworn covenant will not be buried. It is not denied that our practical breach of covenant first, and then, our legal breach thereof by enacting the same mischief and framing it into a law, may heavily provoke our sweetest Lord. Yet there are a few names in the land that have not defiled their garments, and a holy seed on whom the Lord will have mercy, like the four or five olive-berries on the top of the shaken olive-tree (Isa. xvii. 6): and their eye shall be toward the Lord their Maker. Think it not strange that men devise against you; whether it be to exile, the earth is the Lord's; or perpetual imprisonment, the Lord is your light and liberty; or a violent and public death,[525] for the kingdom of heaven consisteth in a fair company of glorified martyrs and witnesses; of whom Jesus Christ is the chief witness, who for that cause was born, and came into the world. Happy are ye if you give testimony to the world of your preferring Jesus Christ to all powers. And the Lord will make the innocency and Christian loyalty of His defamed and despised witnesses in this land to shine to after-generations, and will take The Man-Child up to God and to His throne, and prepare a hiding-place in the wilderness for the mother, and cause the earth to help the Woman. Be not terrified; fret not. Forgive your enemies; bless, and curse not; for, though both you and I should be silent, sad and heavy is the judgment and indignation of the Lord, that is abiding the unfaithful watchmen of the Church of Scotland. The souls under the altar are crying for justice, and there is an answer returned already. The Lord's salvation will not tarry.
Cast the burden of wife and children on the Lord Christ; He careth for you and them. Your blood is precious in His sight. The everlasting consolations of the Lord bear you up and give you hope; for your salvation (if not deliverance) is concluded.
Your own brother,
S. R.
St. Andrews, Feb. 15, 1661.
[CCCLXIII.—To Mr. Robert Campbell.]
[Mr. Robert Campbell was minister of a parish in the Presbytery of Dunkeld. He was a Protester, and after the restoration of Charles II. was ejected for nonconformity to Prelacy.]
(STEDFASTNESS TO PROTEST AGAINST PRELACY AND POPERY.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—Ye know that this is a time in which all men almost seek their own things, and not the things of Jesus Christ. Ye are your lone, as a beacon on the top of a mountain; but faint not: Christ is a numerous multitude Himself, yea, millions. Though all the nations were convened against Him round about, yet doubt not but He will, at last, arise for the cry of the poor and needy.
For me, I am now near to eternity;[526] and, for ten thousand worlds I dare not venture to pass from the protestation against the corruptions of the time, nor go alongst with the shameless apostasy of the many silent and dumb watchmen of Scotland. But I think it my last duty to enter a protestation in heaven, before the righteous Judge, against the practical and legal breach of Covenant, and all oaths imposed on the consciences of the Lord's people, and all popish, superstitious, and idolatrous mandates of men. Know that the overthrow of the sworn Reformation, the introducing of Popery and the mystery of iniquity, is now set on foot in the three kingdoms; and whosoever would keep their garments clean are under that command, "Touch not, taste not, handle not."
The Lord calleth you, dear brother, to be still "stedfast, unmoveable, and abounding in the work of the Lord." Our royal kingly Master is upon His journey, and will come, and will not tarry; and blessed is the servant who shall be found watching when He cometh. Fear not men, for the Lord is your light and salvation. It is true, it is somewhat sad and comfortless that ye are your lone; but so it was with our precious Master: nor are ye your lone, for the Father is with you. It is possible that I shall not be an eyewitness to it in the flesh, but I believe He cometh quickly who will remove our darkness, and shine gloriously in the Isle of Britain, as a crowned King, either in a formally sworn covenant, or in His own glorious way; which I leave to the determination of His infinite wisdom and goodness. And this is the hope and confidence of a dying man, who is longing and fainting for the salvation of God.
Beware of the ensnaring bonds and obligations, by any hand-writ or otherwise, to give unlimited obedience to any authority, but only in the Lord. For all innocent self-defence (which is according to the Covenant, the Word of God, and the laudable example of the reformed churches) is now intended to be utterly subverted and condemned: and what is taken from Christ, as the flower of His prerogative-royal, is now put upon the head of a mortal power; which must be that great idol of indignation that provoketh the eyes of His glory. Dear brother, let us mind the rich promises that are made to those that overcome, knowing that those that endure to the end shall be saved.
Thus recommending you to the rich grace of God, I remain,
Your affectionate brother in Christ,
S. R.
[CCCLXIV.—To [Brethren in] Aberdeen.]
(SINFUL CONFORMITY AND SCHISMATIC DESIGNS REPROVED.)
R EVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,—Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There were some who rendered thanks, with knees bowed to Him "of whom is named the whole family in heaven and earth," when they heard of "your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus;" and rejoiced not a little, that where Christ was scarce named, in savouriness and power of the Gospel, even in Aberdeen, there Christ hath a few names precious to Him, who shall walk with Him in white. We looked on it (He knoweth whom we desire to serve in our spirit in the Gospel of His Son) as a part of the fulfilling of that, "The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isa. xxxv. 1). But now it is more grievous to us than a thousand deaths, when we hear that you are shaken, and so soon removed from that which you once acknowledged to be the way of God. Dearly beloved, the sheep follow Christ, who calleth them by name: a stranger they will not follow, but they flee from him, for they know not the voice of a stranger. Ye know the way, by which ye were sealed to the day of redemption; and ye received the Spirit, by the hearing of faith. Part not with that way, except ye see there be no rest for your souls therein. Neither listen to them that say, "Many were converted under episcopal as well as under presbyterial government, and yet the godly gave testimony against bishops;" for the instruments of conversion loathed Episcopacy, with the ceremonies thereof, and never sealed it with their sufferings. We shall desire instances of any engaged by oaths, and sufferings of the faithful messengers of God, and the manifestations of the Lord's presence, in the way ye now forsake, who yet turned from it, and went one step toward sinful separation (and did it in that way ye now aim at), and did yet flourish and grow in grace. But we can bring proofs of many who left it, and went further on to abominable ways of error. And you have it not in your power where you shall lodge at night, having once left the way of God. And many, we know, lost peace and communion with God, and fell into a condition of withering, and not being able to find their lovers, were forced to return to their first Husband. We shall entreat you, consider what a stumbling it is to malignant opposers of the way and cause of God (who with their ears heard you, and with their eyes saw you, so strenuously take part with the godly in their sufferings, and profess yourselves for religion truth, doctrine, government of the house of God, His Covenant and cause), if now you build again what you once destroyed, and destroy what you builded. And shall you not make yourselves, by so doing, transgressors? How shall it wound the hearts of the godly, stain the profession, darken the glory of the Gospel, shake the faith of many, weaken the hands of all, if you (and you first of all in this kingdom) shall stretch out the hand to raze the walls of our Jerusalem, by reason of which the Lord made her "terrible as an army with banners!" For when kings came, and saw the palaces and bulwarks thereof, they marvelled and were troubled, and hasted away; fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail. And we shall be grieved, if you should be heirs to the guiltiness of breaking down the same hedge of the vineyard, for the which the sad indignation of God pursueth this day the Royal Family, many Nobles, houses great and fair, and all the Prelatical party in these three kingdoms. And when your dear brethren are weak and fainting, shall we believe that you will leave us, and be divided from this so blessed a conjunction? The Lord Jesus Christ, we trust, shall walk in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and be with us, if you will be gone from us. Beloved in the Lord, we cannot but be persuaded better things of you; and we shall not conceal from you that we are ignorant what to answer when we are reproved, on your behalf, in regard that your change to another gospel-way (which the Lord avert!) is so much the more scandalous, that the sudden alteration (unknown to us before) now overtaketh you when men come amongst you against whom the furrows of the fields of Scotland do complain. Forget not, dear brethren, that Christ hath now the fan in His hand, and this is also the day of the Lord, that shall burn as an oven; and that Christ now sitteth as a refiner of silver, purifying the sons of Levi, and purging them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness; and those that keep the word of His (not their own) patience shall be delivered from the hour of temptation, that shall come on all the earth to try them.
If ye exclude all non-converts from the visible city of God (in which, daily, multitudes in Scotland, in all the four quarters of the land, above whatever our fathers saw, throng into Christ), shall they not be left to the lions and wild beasts of the forest, even to Jesuits, seminary-priests, and other seducers? For the magistrate hath no power to compel them to hear the Gospel, nor have ye any church-power over them, as ye teach; and they bring not love to the Gospel and to Christ out of the womb with them; and so they must be left to embrace what religion is most suitable to corrupt nature. Nor can it be a way approven by the Lord in Scripture, to excommunicate from the visible church (which is the office-house of the free grace of Christ, and His draw-net) all the multitudes of non-converts, baptized, and visibly within the covenant of grace, which are in Great Britain, and all the reformed churches; and so to shut the gates of the Lord's gracious calling upon all these (because they are not, in your judgment, chosen to salvation), when once you are within yourselves.[527] For how can the Lord call Egypt His people, and Assyria the work of His hands, and all the Gentiles (who for numbers are as the flocks of Kedar, and the abundance of the sea) the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, if you number infants (as many do), and all such as your charity cannot judge converts (as others do) among heathens and pagans, who have not a visible claim and interest in Christ? The candlestick is not yours, nor the house; but Christ fixeth and removeth the one, and buildeth or casteth down the other, according to His sovereignty. We in humility judge ourselves, though the chief of sinners, the sons of Zion and of the seed of Christ; if ye remove from us, and carry from hence the candlestick, let our Father be judge, and show us why the Lord hath bidden you come out from among us. We look upon this visible church, though black and spotted, as the hospital and guest-house of sick, halt, maimed, and withered, over which Christ is Lord, Physician, and Master: and we would wait upon those that are not yet in Christ, as our Lord waited upon us and you both. We, therefore, your brethren, children of one Father, cannot but with tears and exceeding sorrow of heart earnestly entreat, beseech, and obtest you, by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His sufferings and precious ransom which He paid for us both, by the consolations of His Spirit, by your appearance before the dreadful tribunal of our Lord Jesus, yea, and charge you before God and the same Lord Jesus, "who shall judge the quick and the dead, at His appearing, and His kingdom;" break not the spirits and hearts of those to whom ye are dear as their own soul. Forsake not the assemblies of the people of God; let us not divide.
Not a few of the people of God in this shire of Fife (in whose name I now write) dare say, if ye depart, that ye will leave Christ behind you with us, and the golden candlesticks; and shut yourselves, we much fear, out of the hearts and prayers of thousands dear to Jesus Christ in Scotland. Therefore, before ye fix judgment and practice on any untrodden path, let a day of humiliation be agreed upon by us all, and our Father's mind and will inquired, through our one common Saviour. And let us see one another's faces at best conveniency, and plead the interest of Christ, and be comforted; and not be stumbled at your ways.
So expecting your answer, we shall pray that the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may make you perfect in every work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. And I shall remain,
Your affectionate brother in the Lord,
S. R.
St. Andrews.
[CCCLXV.—To Mr. John Murray, Minister at Methven.][528] [See Letter CCCLVI.]
(PROPOSAL OF A SEASON OF PRAYER.)
R EVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,—If I rightly apprehend our condition, we are in a way of declining. We were, within these few years, more in the conscionable use of means, and the Lord did shine upon us in some measure; and now we are fallen from that which we were. It is judged fit by some (and many of our solidest professors) that if we cannot have them in congregations, yet families and private persons may have days of humiliation, at least the last Wednesday of every month or thereabout, according to the best conveniency of Providence. And if this were gone about in your country, and in Stirlingshire, Fife, in Merse, Teviotdale, the West, in Nithsdale and Galloway, and other places, it would prove our strength and help; for we are few and very low. Our adversaries are not idle; and there is a faintness and heartless discouragement on the spirits of many. These are to entreat that you would combine with Mr. Robert Campbell,[529] Mr. John Cruickshanks,[530] and other of our brethren in your bounds, to stir up one another that we may wrestle with the Lord for the remnant. I am confident the Lord will yet be inquired of us for this. Though the same particular day be not observed, yet, where many are on work, some salvation from the Lord's arm is to be expected. I am decaying most sensibly, and I should look on it as a mercy if the Lord would send a wakening among His own. And blessed shall he be who shall blow the trumpet to cause other sleeping ones awake, and shall help to build the wastes, and the fallen tabernacle of David. I shall earnestly desire you do bestir yourself herein.[531] I shall write to J——, and to others here, and do the best I can to give you a convenient account; for nothing is left to us but that.
So remembering me to your wife, and expecting your help, I rest,
Your own brother,
S. R.
[St. Andrews.]
Mr. Robert Anderson is most eagerly desired for by the parishioners of Leuchars, and as strenuously opposed by our brethren here.
[INDEX]
OF
THE CHIEF PLACES AND INDIVIDUALS REFERRED TO IN THE LETTERS.
(The Figures refer to the Letters.)
Aberdeen, Letter to People of, 364;
referred to, 77, 243, 364.
Abraham referred to, 324.
Abraham, Mr., 24.
Aird, Bethia, 153.
Airds, 59, 217.
Alexander, Sir William, 15.
America, 75.
Anabaptists, 308.
Anderson, Mr. R., 356, 365.
Anwoth, 92, 96, 157, 162, 163, 167, 177, 180, 184, 198, 206, 225, 230, 267, 269, 279, 306, 307.
—— Topography of, 198, and Life.
Antinomians, 308.
Ardross, Lady (H. Lindsay), 321.
Ardwell, 101, 283.
Argyle, Death of, 360.
Ashe, Mr. Simeon, 345.
Assembly, Westminster, 307, 310.
Athernie (in Largo).—See Rigg, 114.
Ayr.—See Kennedy, John.
M. A., 212, 243.
Baillie, Robert, 163, 307.
Balcarras, Earl of, 327.
Ballantyne, Margaret, 79.
Balmerinoch, Lord, 139.
Barcapple, 34.
Barholm, 117 (notice).
Barron, Dr. Robert, 89, 117, 144.
Bautie, James, 249.
Bell, John, 218.
Berwick, 333.
Blackness Castle, 12.
Blair, Isabel.—See Lady Gaitgirth.
—— Mr. Robert, 89, 254.
Bohemia, 62.
Bothwell Bridge, 206.
Boyd, Lady, 77, 107, 167, 210, 245, 277, 294, 299, 303, 309, 321.
—— Lord, 78, 232.
Boyne, 307.
Brethren, to several, 358.
Brisbane, Sarah.—See Rowallan.
Brother, to a Christian, 317.
—— to a minister, 358.
Brown, Fergus, 18.
—— Jean, 18, 32, 84, 111, 131.
—— Patrick, 111.
—— of Wamphray, 131, 243.
Brownists, 303.
Bruce, Mr. James, 146.
Bryce, 231.
Burroughs, Jeremiah, 309.
Burton, D., 17.
—— Henry, 17.
Busbie, the Lady, 133, 120, 270.
Byres, 231.
A. B., 227.
B., 53. R. B., 246.
Caithness, 89.
Cally, Laird of (John Lennox), 198, 202.
Cambridge, 174.
Campbell, John.—See Earl of Loudon.
—— Lady Jane.—See Kenmure.
—— Mr. Robert, 363, 365.
Canons, Book of, 161.
Cant, Mr. Andrew, 179, 206.
Cardoness, the elder (see John Gordon), 82, 166, 180.
—— the Lady (Gordon), 100, 103, 192 199.
—— the younger, 123, 173.
Carleton, Fullerton of, letters to, 157, 169, 176 (referred to, 1, 15, 40, 243, 279).
—— Lady, 254.
Carsen, John, 127, 243.
—— Marion, 32.
—— Patrick, 156.
Carsluth, notice of, 190.
Carsphairn, 28, 102, 357.
Carstairs, John, 336.
Caskeberrie.—See Kaskiberry.
Cassillis, Earl of (John Kennedy), 128, 268, 278.
Cassincarrie (Mure), 191.
Cathcart.—See Carleton.
Christian Brother, 316.
—— Friend, 291, 315.
—— Gentlewoman, 211, 317.
Clark, John, 172.
Colville, Mr. Alexander, 11, 98, 208, 343.
Colwart, Mr. Henry, 90.
Commentaries, proposed, 53, 110.
Corbet, Thomas, 264.
Covenant, 358, 359.
Craig, Mrs., 361.
Craighall, Lord, 86, 99, 174, 220, 227, 236, 257.
Cramond, 43, and 117 (notice).
Crawford, Earl of (see Lindsay), 309.
Cromwell, 329, 331, 339, 346.
Cruickshanks, Mr. John, 365.
Culross, Lady, 62, 74, 178, 222.
Cunningham, Mr. R., 63, 110.
A. C., 189, 209.
Y. C., 76.
C., 44.
Dalgleish, William, 117, 184, 197, 287.
Dalry.—See Earlston.
Dematius, note, 334.
Dickson, Mr. David, 110, 119, 168, 259, 298;
his son, John, 298.
Disdow, 213, 262.
Douglas, Robert, 113.
Dunbar, Battle of, 329.
Dunbar, Mr. George, 265.
Dundrennan, 117 (note).
Dungueich, the Lady, 251.
Durham, Mr. James, 91, 352.
Dury, Mr. John, 91 (notice).
Earlston, elder, 59, 64, 73, 97, 160, 201, 260, 323.
—— the Lady (Eliz. Gordon), 109.
—— younger, 99, 181, 196, 271.
Edinburgh Town Council, 325, 344, 345.
Ellis, Fulk, 234.
Episcopacy, 364, etc.
Erskine, Margaret.—See Lady Marischall.
Ewart, John, 36, 134.
Expecters, 308.
C. E., 92.
Familists, 310.
Fenwick, John, 295.
Fergushill, Mr. John, 112, 187, 188, 275.
Fife, 364.
Fingask, Lady (Moncrieff), 297.
Fleming, Mr. James, 228.
—— John, 68, 159, 241, 266.
Forret, Mr. David, 327.
—— Lady, 125.
Forth, the, 257.
France, 32, 254.
Friend, a Christian, 291, 316.
Fullarton, Margaret, 204.
Fullerton, Grizzel, 5, 155, 339.
—— Mr. W., Provost of Kirkcudbright, 1, 52, 67, 135, 221.
Fullwood, the younger, 224.
F., 17, 254.
R. F., 98.
G. J., 17, 92, 320. (John Gordon?)
Gaitgirth, Lady (Isabel Blair), 187, 239.
—— Laird of, 237.
Galloway, 37.
Galloway, Bishop of (see Sydserff), 161.
Garloch, 65 (notice), 217.
Garven, Mr. Thomas, 152, 165, 246.
Gentlewoman, to a Christian, 2, 211, 318.
—— on husband's death, 105, 122.
—— Letter to one at Kirkcudbright, 25.
George, David, of Delft, 309.
Gillespie, Mr. George, 144, 253, 324.
—— Mrs., 326.
—— Patrick, 337.
Girthon, 198 (notice), 43.
Glasgow, Bishop of, 86, 110.
—— to a minister of, 337.
Glendinning, Mr. Robert, 36, 136.
—— William, 137, 267, 276.
Glendoning, Robert, 36.
—— W., 36.
Goodwin, Thomas, 309.
Gordon, Alex., of Earlston, 59, 73.
—— of Garlock, 65 (notice).
—— Jean, 145.
—— John, at Rusco, 272, 280.
—— John, elder, of Cardoness.—See C.
—— John, younger, of Cardoness.—See Cardoness.
—— of Knockgray, 102.—See K.
—— Mary, of Largmore, 72.
—— Robert, Bailie of Ayr, 129, 200.
—— Robert, of Knockbreck.—See Knockbreck.
—— William, at Kenmure, 203.
—— William, of Roberton, 72.
—— William, younger, of Earlston.—See Earlston.
—— William, of Whitepark, 143.
Greenham, Richard, 159.
Gustavus Adolphus, 16, 48.
Guthrie, Rev. Mr. James, of Stirling, 319, 357, 362.
—— Mr. William of Fenwick, 330.
J. G., 92, 319. (James Guthrie?)
W. G., 222.
Hall, Mr. Gilbert, 357.
Hallhill, the Lady (Learmonth), 148.
Halliday, William, 121.
Hamilton, Barbara, 311, 315.
—— Euphan, 6.
—— Mr. James, 89, 137, 214.
—— John, 8.[532]
Henderson, Mr. Alexander, 115.
—— Mr. Hugh, 138, 194.
—— Mr. John, in Rusco, 150, 207.
Henton, 218.
High Commission, 68, note.
Hog, Mr. Thomas, 245.
Hope, Sir John.—See Craighall.
Hume, Mrs., 314.
—— Mr. William, 312.
Hutchison, George, 344.
Independents, 308, 329.
Ireland, 25, 119, 168, 233, 284, 288.
Jackson, Dr. Thomas, 188.
Jedburgh, 345.
Job, Commentary upon, 58.
Johnston, Sir Archibald, of Warriston, 307.
Kaskeberry, the Lady (Schoneir), 108.
Kells.—See Garlock, and 72.
Kenmure, Viscountess, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 19, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 56, 58, 61, 69, 70, 93, 94, 95, 96, 104, 106, 205, 206, 230, 286, 287, 302, 305, 318, 320, 335, 338, 341, 360.
Kennedy, Elizabeth, 77.
—— Janet, 88, 247.
—— John.—See Earl of Cassillis.
—— John, Bailie of Ayr, 22, 75, 130.
Ker, Col. Gilbert, 328, 329, 331, 332, 333, 334, 342, 343.
—— John, 47.
Kerr, Robert, 71.
Kilconquhar, Lady, 226, 261.
Kilmalcolm, Parishioners, 286.
Kirkcudbright, 6, 8, 25, 34, 36, 42, 43, 46, 49, 52, 67, 80, 134, 135, 136, 137, 177, 267, 339, 340, 355.
Kirkdale, 117.
Kirkmabreck, 109, 117.
Knockbreck, Gordon of, 65, 66, 76, 92, 170, 285;
referred to, 279.
Knockgray, Gordon of, 102, 154, 182, 223;
referred to, 243.
Knox, John, 12.
C. K., 349.
Largirie, Lady, 195, 250.
Largmore, 72.
Laurie, John, 175.
Law, James, 86, 110.
Leighton, Dr. Alexander, 289.
—— Mr. Robert, 86.
Lennox, John.—See Cally.
—— Robert, 213, 262.
Leys, Lady, 207.
Lindsay, James, 234.
—— Lord, 231.
Livingston, Mr. John, 90, 343.
—— Mr. William, 142.
Lochinvar, 47, 109.
Lorn, Lord, 59, 60, 61, 204;
referred to, 222.
Lothian, Earl of, 83.
Loudian, Mr., 86, 174.
Loudon, Lord (John Campbell), 116, 258, 281.
Maitland, Lord John, 307.
Malignants, 329, 330, 331, 333, 346, 356, 362.
Mar, Lady, 61, 69, 140.
Marischall, Lady (Margaret Erskine), 207.
Martin, Mr. James, 206.
Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, 6.
M'Adam, James, 141.
—— Sibylla (his sister), 193, 141.
M'Cleland, Mr., 63, 339.
M'Culloch, Jonet, 101, 252.
—— Thomas, 283.
M'Kail, Mr. Hugh, of Irvine, 71, 118, 216, 229.
M'Math, Agnes, 300.
—— Jean, 326.
M'Millan, Jean, 132.
M'Naught, Grizzel, 1, 32, 88.
—— Jane, 49.
—— Marion, 1, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, 26, 29, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 41 (postscript), 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 (with postscript), 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 60, 80, 126, 177, 185, 221, 243, 244, 263, 279.
M'Ward, Mr., 179, 337.
Mein, Barbara, 314.
—— Mr. John, senior, 151.
—— Mr. John, junior, 81, 240.
—— Mrs., 312.
Melville, Eliz.—See Lady Culross.
—— of Hallhill, 224.
Melvin, Mr. Ephraim, 91.
Minister in Glasgow, 337.
—— to a Brother, 359.
M. O., 324.
Moncrieff, Mr. Alex., of Scoonie, 357.
—— Lady Ann, of Fingask, 295.
—— Laird of, 171.
Montgomery, Sir Henry, 303.
More, Dr., 311.
Mowat, Mr. Matthew, 120, 167, 239, 301.
Muirfad, 59, 109 (notice).
Mure.—See Lady Ralston.
——.—See Rowallan, 242.
—— Ninian, 164.
Murray, Christian, 262.
—— James, 274.
—— James, wife of, 304.
Murray, John, 356, 365.
—— Margaret, 326.
—— Margaret (Mrs. Gillespie), 326.
G. M., 92.
M. M., 167.
Nairn, Mr. George, 357.
Nevay, Mr. John, 179, 209.
Newcastle, 311.
New England, 12, 75, 151, 153, 161.
Newmills, 179.
Nicholas, Henry, 310.
Nisbet, 344; and, Life, p. 2.
Ochiltree, 112 (notice).
Ormiston, 337.
Osburne, Provost of Ayr, 149.
Oxford, 174.
Oxnam.—See Scott.
N. O., 322.
Parishioners of Anwoth, 225.
Perkins, Dr. William, 159.
Person unknown, anent public worship, 290.
Persons unknown, 308.
Perth Assembly, 244.
Pitsligo, Lady (Marischall), 206, 243, 259.
Pont, Mrs., 292.
Porterfield of Duchal, 286.
Prelacy, 363, 364, etc.
Protesters, 334, 339, 344, 349, 356.
Psalms, King James', 15.
Puritans, 11, 59, 202, 262.
J. P., 49.
Q., 64, 65, 116.
Queensberry, 205.
Rait, Mr., 343, 355.
Ralston, Lady (Mure), 336.
Ramsay, Mr. Thomas, 357.
Reid, Margaret, 248.
Remonstrance, Western, 328, 351, 356, 359.
Resolutioners, 330, 331, 336, 339.
Ridge, Mr. John, 90.
Rigg, William, of Athernie, 114, 256, 273;
and notice, 226.
Robertland, Lady, 282.
Roberton, Gordon of, 72.
Robinson, Mr. John, 309.
Rodger, Mr. William, 88.
Rogers, Dr. Daniel, 159.
Ross, Bishop of, 6.
Row, Rev. John, of Perth, 183.
—— John, of Carnock, 219.
R. J. Rowallan, the Lady, 242.
Rusco, 5 (note), 147, 207, 345.
A. R., 185, 15.
H. R., 185, 15.
Rutherford's Brother George, 34, 73, 75,67, 98, 105, 107, 110, 112, 116, 136, 137, 151, 157, 158, 159, 205, 245, 267, 294, 340.
—— Brother James, 334 (note).
—— Children, 310.
—— Mother, 49.
—— Wife, 8, 11.
Schoneir, James (see Lady Kaskeberry), 108.
Scott, Rev. John, of Oxnam, 349, 350, 352, 357.
Sectaries, 329, 331, 333.
Seekers, 308.
Semple, Mr. John, of Carsphairn, 357.
Senwick, 127.
Separatists, 309.
Service Book, 151, 161, 224, 262.
Sharp, Mr. James, 48, 343.
Sibbald, Dr. James. Life, xviii.
Simpson, Mr. James, 346.
Spain, 309.
Spottiswoode, Archbishop, 11, 86.
St. Andrews, 343, etc.
—— Bishop of, 48, 86.
Stewart, Mr. Henry (Dublin), 291.
—— Sir James, Provost of Edinburgh, 325.
Stirling, Mr. John, 91, 92, 357.
—— Peter, 296.
Strafford, Earl of (Wentworth), 288.
Stuart, John, of Ayr, 161, 162, 163, 189.
—— Mrs., 215.
—— Robert, 186.
Sydserff, 52, 67, 86, 160.
Taylor, Mrs., 310.
Trail, R., 179, 357.
A. T., 102, 284.
Utrecht, 334 (note).
Uxbridge Treaty, 308.
Vivet, Christopher, 309.
Watson, Mr., 214.
Weir, Mr., 214.
Welsh, John, 12.
Westminster Assembly, 306, 308, 309.
Whitepark, Gordon of, 143.
Whiteside, Bell of, 218.
Wigtown, 65, 67, 117, 191, 276.
Wilson, Mr. James, 293.
Wylie, Mr. Thomas, 306, 340, 355.
C. Y., 92.
[INDEX OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS.]
(The Reference is to the Number of the Letter.)
Adversity, lessons of, 167.
Affliction, 28, 29, 35, 37, 42, 76, 92, 94, 102, 112, 122, 167, 171, 186, 211, 223, 248, 265, 273, 282, 289, 298, 302, 312, 313, 315, 317, 323.
Assurance, 106, 134, 190, 196, 286.
—— exhortation as to, 78, 91, 130.
Atheism in the heart, 233, 234, 305.
Backsliding, 225, 227, 234, 286.
Believers, 56, 85, 201, 229, 291.
Bereavements, 35, 37, 105.—See Afflictions.
Bible, 10.
Blessings and Christ, difference between, 335.
Cares, 252.—See Trials.
Catechism, 166, 260.
Catechising, 228.
Children of the godly, 1, 24, 34, 46, 82, 109, 111, 287.
Children of the godly, loss of, 28, 59, 238, 287, 300, 326.
Christ, in Himself, 7, 13, 19, 20, 69, 72, 82, 88, 94, 101, 105, 111, 112, 127, 140, 168, 169, 175, 186, 192, 202, 203, 209, 210, 211, 216, 226, 231, 285, 288, 291, 335.
—— Coming again, 16, 21, 26, 48, 50, 95, 130, 138, 170, 224, 231, 269, 291, 322.
—— interceding, 48.
—— in His liberality, 73, 74.
—— in His love, 20, 68, 70, 87, 112, 113, 120, 130, 143, 166, 170, 171, 187, 195, 212, 233, 254, 256, 257, 269, 270, 285, 295, 297.
—— in His sympathy, 2, 153, 177, 287, 288.
—— in His sufferings, 13, 176.
—— in our sufferings for Him, 59, 67, 95, 113, 116, 117, 148, 218, 290, 333.
—— in His ways, 71, 73, 74, 89, 99, 125, 131, 146, 189, 194, 222, 256, 326, 333, 351.
—— our conformity to Him, 11.
Christ's cause, 78, 115, 245, 332.
Christian walk, direction for, 159, 264, 269.
Church, 26, 38, 41, 45, 50, 97, 276.
—— visible, members of, 364.
Communion with Christ, 7, etc.
—— seasons, 14, 18, 20, 26, 33, 44, 45, 91, 313.
Complaints, 305.
Conflict, 6, 46, 280.
Conscience, 30, 39, 62, 66, 166.
Consolations, 54, 63, 66, 80, 266, 310, 334.
Conversion, 218.
Convictions, 218, 225.
Counsels.—See Christian Walk.
Courage, 329, 331.
Crosses, 61, 62, 95, 116, 118, 119, 134, 143, 146, 148, 219, 240, 242, 246, 248, 257.
Darkness, days of, 338, 342.
Deadness, 319, 342, 344, 345, 353, 354.
Death, 3, 39, 150, 195, 238, 311, 324, 357.
Death of a Husband, 105, 222, 302, 312;
Son-in-Law, 314;
Wife, 315;
Daughter, 2, 316;
Mother, 321;
Child, 4, 28, 35, 310;
Son, 298, 310, 360;
Friend, 299, 300.
Dejections, 249.
Desertions, 6, 100, 228, 234.
Devil, 3, 32, 70, 90, 114, 115, 138, 243.
Difficulties, 205, 248, 250.
Diligence, 77, 121, 123, 141, 147, 173, 186, 198, 261, 280, 283, 289.
Doubtings, 106, 181, 203, 293.
Duty, 126.
Earnest of the Spirit, 7.
Earnestness about the soul, 123, 124, 132, 191, 200, 201, 261.
Evidences.—See Marks.
Experience, 341, etc.
Faith, 7, 19, 95, 178, 182, 229, 291, 294.
Fear of man, 235, etc.
Feeling, 293, 295.
Formality, 87, 198, 218.
Free-will, 69, 120, 254, 273, etc.
Friends, 5, 30, 104.
Glory, 19, 20.
God, 342.—See Christ.
Grace, 85, 106, 192, 217, 219, 233, 254, 273, 277, 323, 324.
Headship of Christ, 115, 215, 245, 278, 281, 337, 359, 363.
Heaven (see Christ), 24, 246, 247, 304.
Holiness, 104, 215.
Humility, 82, 230, 285, 342.
Idolatry (in kneeling at communion), 91, 174, 179.
Idols, 102, 133, 191, 280.
Jews, restoration of, 14, 28, 50, 194, 235, 289, 295, 296.
Justification, 170.
Law, 230.
Life rather than dying, 336.
Long-suffering, 12, etc.
Lord's Supper, 269.
Marks of salvation, 172, 203, 235, 284, 293.
Martyrdom, prospect of, 362.
Ministry, his own, and others, 61, 180, 184, 188, 214, 225, 228, 286.
Non-fundamental truths, 337.
Offences, 229.
Old man, 256.
Ordinances, 11, 24.
Patience, 13, 21, 138, 196, 336.
Persecution, 291, etc.
Praise, 102, 304.
Prayer, 17, 29, 249, 263, 269, 293, 319.
—— meeting, 263, 269, 286.
—— union for, 31, 171, 365.
Prosperity, 30.
Proverbs iii., 11.
Providence, 11, 12, 89, 110, 194, 197, 234, 256, 260, 329, 331, 333.
Reproach, 26, 238.
Reprobates, 234.
Resignation, 2, 3, 90;
nine reasons for, 361.
Revival, 354.
Saints, 52.
Salvation, 79, 82, 121, 135.—See Diligence.
—— nature of, 133.
Sanctification, 81, 170, 213, 215.
Satan, 32.—See Devil.
Self, 12, 188, 189, 198, 284, 324.
Self-deception, 353.
Self-denial, 21, 284.
Sickness, 3, 6, 26, 125, 313, 337, 345.
Silence, 162, 163, 185, 197, 208, 294.
Sin, 84, 276.
—— against the Holy Ghost, 227.
—— uses of, 197, 294.
Sinners, awful words to, 225, 328, etc.
Sloth, 198, 200, 260, 286.
Soul's value, 79, 82.
Sovereignty of God, 35, 298, 342, 347.
Sparrows at Anwoth, 167, 168, 206.
Submission, 10, 27, 47, 157, 183, 186, 255, 298, 300, 301.
Suffering, design of, and blessings under, 113, 160, 161, 206, 265.—See Trials, Afflictions.
—— words to a brother under, 329, 337, etc.
Temptation, 41, 92, 157, 196, 293.
—— public, 51.
Toleration, 349, 352.
Trials, 3, 4, 12, 22, 23, 52, 61, 63, 71, 72, 74, 75, 80, 84, 131, 133, 138, 143, 160, 161, 166, 182, 206, 211, 230, 246, 257, 265, 266, 273, 276, 289, 291, 292, 320.
Unbelief, 85, 153, 222, 239.
Union among believers, 322, 336, 337, 355.
Visible Church, 364.
Warnings, 72, 173, 225, 227.
Watchfulness, 30, 263, 353.
World, 5, 42, 99, 100, 122, 139, 190, 192, 200, 223, 224, 229, 251, 255, 268, 272, 282.
Youth, 16, 24, 41, 111, 142, 156, 164, 166, 173, 181, 186, 199, 202, 203, 232, 240, 287, 307.
Zeal, 10, 233.
[GLOSSARY.]
[THE REFERENCES TO SPECIAL WORDS MAY SERVE THE PURPOSE OF A VERBAL INDEX.]
(The Figures refer to the Letters.)
Abjects; persons in the lowest grade of society. 291.
Accidents; incidental accompaniments, not essential. 293.
Account-book; journal of translations. 122, 124.
Acquaint; personally known.
Ado; Adjective, in the sense of a-stir. 97, 99, 181.
Noun; occupation,[533] trouble, concerns. 97, 99, 181, 184, 226, 250.
Affect; to love, have affection to. 4, 67, 174, 274, etc.—So in Gal. iv. 17, etc.
After-supper; latest part of the day, between supper and bed-time. 82.
Agent; advocate. 86.
Airt, or airth; quarter of the heavens, direction. 41, 167, 229, etc.
All; "to all power," to the utmost of my power.
Allow; to give an allowance. 105, 242, 287.
Alone; for only. 231, etc.
Alongst; along, side by side with. 363.
Always; although, notwithstanding.
(Fr., toute-fois.) 249, 336, 337.
Anchor-tow; the cable. 107.
And, or an; the conjunction "if." (Gr., ἐαν.)
Anent; concerning, over-against. 110, 234, etc.
Annual; yearly rent, quit-rent. 119.
Annuity; quit-rent. 70.
As; than. 306.
—It is the German "als," and is still a common word in the south of Scotland.
A-swoon; in a swoon, or faint. 110, 186, 249.
Athort; athwart, across. 243.
Aught; to own. The Noun; possession, property. 247, 293.
So used by Gavin Douglas.
Awsome; fitted to overawe. 190, 219, 281, 317.
Back. The Verb intr. means: "to be unfortunate." 62.
The Verb trans.: "to help on." 128, 149, 200, 229, etc.
In a sermon on Zech. xi. 9, "The Godhead backed him, and convoyed him to the bar of God's justice."
Back-bond; a bond given after a former bond, declaring the person who gave the first bond free. 118, 265, 291.
Back-burden; laid on a person's back. 288.
Back-entry; back-door. 277.
Back-friend; friend to back you or help. 199. So in a sermon on Rev. xix.
Back-over; backward, quite in the other direction. 276.
Back-set; a thrust back. 167.
Bailie; magistrate. 138, etc.
Bairns; children. 18, 20, 106, 293, etc.
Bairnteme; family of children by one mother. 105, 106.
Peden speaks of the Church "with her bonny bairn-teme." In Norse, "toma" signifies to bring forth.
Balk; beam for suspending scales. 225, 261.
Band; a bond, engagement. 18.—"To take band with" is to unite, q.d., bind together. 46, 189, 292, 358.
"Keep band," the same. 42.
Bankful; full like a river up to the top of its bank. 169, 257.
Bann; to curse in the form of a minced oath. 147.
Beguile, Noun; deception, trick, disappointment. 176, 205, 353.
Behind with one; coming short of his due. 152, 157.
Being-place; may be a misprint for "bigging," i.e. building. 192.
Bemist; involved in mist, like benight. 118, 169, 176.
—See also "misted." 59, 223.
Ben; (q.d. being in), in the inner chamber, within. 20.
Beside; apart from, contrary to. 266, 271.
Better cheap.—See Cheap.
Bidding; command. "To sit a b.," to fail in prompt obedience. 43.
Bide; stand, wait for, endure. 23, etc.
—"Law-biding," ready to meet the law, instead of fleeing. 106, 107, 222, 302.
Knox's Work, vi. 593, etc.
Bide out; hold out. 85.
Big, Verb; to build.
Binding. The phrase, "to take binding," is the same as to "take band." 20, 43.
Binks; benches. 285.
Bird-mouthed; mealy-mouthed. 181.
In this phrase bird is the young, or chicken; hence, the sense of softness.
Bite upon; leave the mark of their teeth. 84.
Black-shame; utter shame; so very dark. 130.
So in 272 he writes, "black nothing."
Blae; pale, unsatisfactory hue. 262. As in the phrase, "to look blue."
Blaflume, or blayflume, or bleflume; a mere sham, air-bubble; from blaw, or blow. 225, 249.
Same as "blellum," one good for nothing.
Bleeze; a sudden flaming up. 82.
Blench; a piece of white money; a mere peppercorn or nominal rent. 254. (Fr., "blanc.")
Blenk, or blink; a gleam, slight glance. 50, 57, etc.
Blind; a cheat, disappointment. 212.
Block; a bargain. The Verb; to bargain, plan, scheme. 20, 100, 106, 163, 200.
Bloom; blossom. 90, 93, 184, 185, 193.
Bludder, or bluther; to bleer, disfigure the face with weeping, or the like. 105, 138.
Board; table. "Boardhead," head of the dinner-table. 30, 104, 107, 177, 249.
Over the board, 190.
The seller, when he handed the goods to the buyer, "over the board," drank good luck to him. And so this came to be a phrase for formally giving up or renouncing.
Bode; to offer with view to a bargain. 177, 186.
It is allied in sense to "bait." Sibbs uses "bawd" (on 2 Cor. i. 3).
Boist, or bost, and sometimes written boasts; to threaten with a blow. 101, 211, 226, 291.
It is connected with "boisterous."
Borne in; forcibly brought into the mind. 249.
Borrow and lend; to have dealings with. 98, 109.
Borrows; security in law, an Anglo-Saxon word.
"To die in borrows," to fail in security.—See Burrows.
Botch-house; house spoilt and disfigured. 237.
Bouk; from "bulk;" the corpse of man or beast. 141.
Bound-road; boundary-line. 273, 286.
Brae; declivity, slope of a hill. 69 141, etc.
Above ordinary bounds.—"From bank to brae." 147, etc.
Braird; the sprouting up blade of young wheat, or the like. 259.
Brangle; to shake into disorder, shake to and fro. 41, 196.
Brash; a passing fit of sickness. 186.
Broadside; openly, frankly. 81.
—Lay on the broadside; lay flat. 24.
Brod; same as board. 328, etc.
Brook, or bruke; enjoy, possess. 140, 115, 249.
Browden; eagerly desirous of, foolishly attached to. 77.
Browst; a brewing, or what one brews for himself. 188. An ill-managed matter is "an ill-browst."
Bud; to bribe, try to win over by a gift. 63, 88, 277.
Bulks.—See Bouk.
Burrows, or borrows; (Anglo-Saxon) a pledge or security.
Law-burrows; security given not to injure the person or property of one. 61, 163, 184, 222.
Bushy-biel (see Life). In Scotch, bield is a shelter.
The name of Rutherford's house is said by some to have been "Bush o' Biel'," the bush of shelter.
In old Scott. Prov., we find, "Every man bows to the bush he gets bield frae."
Yet it is more probable that the name is corrupted from Bosco Beoll, or Boscobel, "the fair wood," like the celebrated spot in Shropshire where Charles I. hid in the oak.
Busk; adorn, deck. 22, 42, 133, 143.
But; only, only this and no more. 102, 188.
Buy a plea; get up a charge, when properly there is no room for it. 74, 75, 161, 171, 284.
"Buy up;" to bribe; or so to buy up as to set another aside. 261, 265.
By, or bye; aside from, past, as in Acts xx. 16, "sail by." 23, 105, 148, 160, 175.
Also: Without, 96; beside, 359.—"Lock-by," mislock, 218.
By-board; side-table where the children sat. 77, 111, 197.
By-errand; message done at leisure time, as being of little importance. 191, 199.
By-going; passing by. 122.
By-gone; passed away. 71, etc.
By-gones; things forgotten. 62, 72.
By-good, or bye-good; an object in addition to some other good. 195.
By-hand; aside. 72, 276.
By-look, side-look. 249.
By-past; time that has elapsed, or recently, as a thing done. 190.
By-purse; a side purse, away from the other. 284.
By-work; work done at leisure time only. 191.
Canny; prudent, cautious and skilful. Adv., cannily. 69.
Card; chart or map. 69, 232.
Cast; participle, casten: throw or fling. 324.
—Cast the balance; turn the scale. 153.
—"To cast at;" be sulky, quarrel with. 4, 23.
—"To cast up;" to upbraid.
—"To cast out with;" quarrel. 224, 254.
—"Cast a knot;" tie so as not to slip. 122.
Cast, a Noun; lot, fate. "Common cast;" a providence occurs often in Brown of Wamphray. 185, 265.
Casualty; emoluments beyond the stated yearly dues paid to the superior. 240, 253.
Cauldrife; susceptible of cold; lukewarm. 198.
Caums; a mould. 282.
—Moulds being often made of pipe-clay, it became customary to call pipe-clay "caum-stone."
Baillie in his "Letters" spells it "caulms."
In Gaelic, cuma means a pattern, or shape.
Causey (Fr., chausée); the public street. "To keep the crown of the causey" is to make bold appearance in the public street in open day. 52, 59, 69, 181.
The streets in those days were raised in the middle, and had gullies on either side. The French had the phrase, "Tenir le haut du pavé." See "Notes and Queries," March 29, 1873.
Caution; security, surety. 2, 19, etc.
—Adj., Cautionary. 187. And as Noun, suretyship. 114.
Challenge; charge, upbraiding, accusation. 2, 10, etc.
Cheap is connected with "chapman;" from the old English "chap," a bargain. The phrase "Better cheap." 216, 293.
—And so "Good cheap," properly "a good bargain."
Chirurgeon; surgeon. 293, 295. Greek and Latin word.
Clap; something done unexpectedly. "In a clap;" like thunder suddenly heard. 264.
Clay; earth, earthenware. 291, etc.
—"Clay-banks," 300. So "Clay-heavens," 294;
"clay-pawns," 300, bodies of dust.
Cleck; to hatch a brood, swarm. 281.
Clipped; coin not of full weight. 81.
Clog; to adhere; form an encumbrance. 249.
—Used in old English.
Close, a Noun; the lane or porch leading into the house. 157.
Close, Adv.; "close off," completely. 50, 82 (like the phrase close-shaven), 88.
Closet-ward; guard-room. 254.
Coast; to sail near land, sail from one port to another. 301.
Coastful; full to the utmost shore. 201.
Cog; to fix the teeth of a wheel, and so stop its motion; put on a drag. 51, 194, 229.
Coldlike; like a fire going out; hope abating. 179.
Coldrife, 198.
—See Cauldrife. "How coldrife and indifferent are ye!" (Sermon on Isa. xlix. 1-4). Chilly, heartless.
Common; alluding to persons sharing at a common table in College. As this was a privilege enjoyed by special favour, "To be in one's common" is to be indebted to, under obligation to. 42, 52, 157, 252, etc.
—"To quit commons" (214); to be freed from obligation by requiting the person.
In 275 and 285, "It is ill my common" seems to mean, It ill becomes me, having no right.
Communion; the dispensing of the Lord's Supper. 14, 20, 25, etc.
Companionry; companionship. 147, 280.
—The termination "ry" marks plurality in old English.
Compear; appear judicially, at the bar. 3, etc.
Compearance; the act of appearing in court in obedience to a citation.
Compose; compromise. 357.
—Composition, in same sense.
Comprize; to arrest by a writ; attach by a legal process. 130, 160, 171.
Seize for debt. 184, 206, etc.
Concional. 179.—See note.
Concredit; entrust. 260. Used often by Dickson on Job.
Conquest; written also conquess; acquisition, made not by inheritance but by purchase and exertion. 2, 54, 79, 182, 190, 191.
—"The young heir knows not how hard the conquest was to his poor father" (Sermon at Anwoth on Zech. xi. 9).
Conscionable; according to conscience, reasonable, just. 365.
Considerable; worthy of consideration or regard. 321, 331.
Construct; for construe. 361, etc.
Contestation; strife. 189.
Contrair; adversary, contrary to. 6.
Convoy; to accompany a friend on the way. 210, 230, 231.
Couchers; cowards; or rather lazy fellows. Fr., coucher, to lie down. 251.
Count; to lay the count. 289. To settle, balance.
Country, in opposition to city; common, in contrast to fine. 153, 353.
Coup; to upset, overturn. 120.
Court. "No great court;" no influence. 78, 141, 148, 151, 158, 183, etc.
—"To be in court," in favour. See "Sermons."
Cow; to cut out, eat up, carve (Fr., couper). 170, 178.
Cripple; halting. 258.
Crook; to walk crookedly, lamely; halt. 233, 299.
Cry down; depreciate, cause to lose good name. 280.
—As a Noun. 289.
—"Cry," proclamation, 289.
Cuff; a blow with the hand. 130.
Cumber; trouble. 196.—Adj., "cumbersome." 292.
Daft; foolish, crazy. 93, 285.—"A daft young heir" (Sermon on Zech. xi. 9).
Dainty; that has in it something fine, 301.
Dawted; made a favourite, petted. 89, 98, 166.
—"Dawted Davie;" a petted child. 110.
—"Better be God's sons than the world's dawties" (Sermon on Isa. xlix. 1).
Daylight; note in 315.
Dead; in the expression, "Dead-sweer," thoroughly lazy; as incapable of moving as one dead. 105.
Deaf nuts; no kernel in them. 138.
Dear; where provision is sold at a high price. 84.
Deave, from deaf; to make deaf; distract. 286.
Decore; to adorn. 42.—(Lat., decorus.)
Decourt; to discard, send out of court. 188, 197, 284.
Decreet; a judicial sentence. 3, 12, 132, etc.
Depone; state as a witness. 180.
Depursement; same as disbursement. 59.
—Q.d., taking out of the purse, or bourse (291).
Dew; a Verb; to moisten. 333.
Din; noise. 38, 59, 100, 155, 249, 282, 325.
Ding; knock in with violence. 248.
Dint; the stroke, or force. 332.
—Zachary Boyd speaks of "The dint of God's judgments."
Dispone; make over. 19, 261.
Disrespective; disrespectful. 300.
—See Respective.
Ditty, or Dittay; indictment, ground of accusation. 12, 44, 180, 233.
Do. "To do for;" to act for; make effort for; accomplish a thing. 93, 116, 135, 162, 206, 228, 244.—See Ps. cix. 21.
Dool-like; in mourning guise. 268.
—Dool; grief; "Dolor." 272.
Doomster; pronouncer of sentence. 229.
Dorts; the sulks, offence taken. 23, 70, 89.
Double; a duplicate. 353.
Dow; to be able; can. 23, 260, etc.
—Dought is the past tense. Hogg's "Queen's Wake" uses the perf.: "She turned away and dought luck nae mair." So Letter 74, "dought."
Draff-poke; the beggar's bag, for carrying anything put in. 249.
—Draff; a useless thing; "draught," Matt. xv. 17. "Corruption like a draff-poke at my heels" (Eliz. West).
Draught; plans drawn out and sketched. 14.
Draw; in the sense of "remove;" table drawn. 146.
In Lady Montague's Letters, "drawing-room, or withdrawing room, as they now say."
Draw by; draw aside. 11.
Draw-knot; a slip-knot, easily loosened. 51.
Dreary; sad. 87.
Drink over the board; renounce.
Drink-silver; gift, or token of regard for kindness shown or service done,
—a gift to servants. 119.
—Drink-money, 277; the same.
Drouthy; from "drought;" very dry. 256.
Drumbled; made muddy; troubled water. 153.
Dry; reserved, backward. 181, 182, 187, 206, etc.
Dumps; bad humour. 187.
Dwine; to pine away. 85, 169, etc.
Dyke; a wall. 194, 276, etc.
Dyvour; a debtor; sometimes a bankrupt
—Fr., "Devoir."
Earnest; the foretaste. 179.
Ease-room; a room for pleasure or repose. 5, 247, 311.
Ebb, Adj.; shallow, like tide going back. 94, 120, etc.
—Ebbness. 175.
Edge by; push aside. 225.
Empawn; lay down as pledge. 229, 268.
Enact; to decree. 291.
"End;" thrice on end. 324.
—Thrice in succession.
Engyne, or ingyne; Latin, Ingenium, disposition, ability, policy. 84, 94.
—Power of mind. 64.
Entire; no division or half-heartedness. 119, 280.
Errand; business. 210, 250.—"Ride his errands," 249, go on with his work.
Evangel; good news generally. 224.
Even; to put down one as capable of a thing; propose as fit for a person, 70.
—The phrase, "Be even with;" have accounts settled, be quits. 113, 114.
Evil-worthy; unworthy, ill-worth. 336.
Expone; explain the sense. 165.
Eye, Verb; to look for. 276.
Eye-sweet; pleasant to the eye. 213, 277.
Fail, or feal; turf. 194.
Fain; glad. "Faintes," most gladly.
"Fain not twice" is glad to remain settled; not caring to rise after sitting down.
"Fain have taken effect," 16; desire to have carried through.
Fair; a market. 172.
Fair; Adj. in the phrase, "fair fire," is commonly in Scotland "a fair lowe," i.e. all a flame together. 204.
—"Fair fall you," good betide. 337.
Faird, or fard; to paint (q.d. make fair), embellish, disguise. 82, 83, 88, 191.
Fair-outsided. 88.
—Applied to the world that is fair only on the outside.
Fall about; search about. 21.
—"Fall by;" be lost. 252, 291.
—"Fall to;" engage in. 72, 288.
—"Fall off;" forsake. 246.
Far "The far end," the final issue. 184.
Fard; paint, fine colouring. 82, 83.
Farm-room; a rented room, like a tenant's firm.
Fash and fashery; trouble by importunity and about little things. 145, 196, 249, etc.
Fast; firm. 74, 250.
Feared; alarmed, timid. 293.
Feckless; worthless, useless, pithless. 23, 24, etc.
—Baxter in his "Saints' Rest" uses it.
Fenced; guarded; also constituted; a law term, used of opening a Court and proclaiming the authority by which the Court was held and the object of it. 77, 82, 112, 146, 161.
Fend; provide for, take care of. 87, 114, 129, etc. So Maxton on Ps. cxix. cxlv.
Fetch; to make for a place. 83, 106, 184, 240, 241, 284.
Feu-duty; yearly rent for ground on which a house is built. 254.
Find; to feel, or find out. 155, 169, 192, 334.
Fire-flaught; a flake of fire, a flash of lightning. 104.
—In Row's "Hist. of Scot.," "extraordinary thunder and fire-flaught," p. 333.
Flitting; removing furniture and goods to another place. 250, 277. (It is A.S.)
Flourish; to blossom. 50.
Flyte; to scold or chide. 189.
—"Flyting free;" they have nothing to say against him. 181.
Foot. The phrase, "hold the foot to it," go on in the march. 249.
Foot-mantle; a riding habit reaching to the feet. 268.
—In a sermon on Zech. xi. 9, "Gold, silks, velvets, and foot-mantles, and high horses."
For; notwithstanding. 307.
Forcasten; cast away, neglected. 167, 177, 285.
Fore; surplus; the perquisite given over and above; something still remaining. 70, 80, 158.
Foregainst; opposite. 289.
Forfeit; declare to be forfeited. 206.
Forlorn; prodigal. 167, 228, 285.
—"The lost forlorn son" is the prodigal. (So in German.)
Forthcoming; ready to come forward and speak. 250.
Four-hours; the afternoon meal, taken four hours after the forenoon's. 94, 110, 118, 285.
Fourteen Prelates; the number of Bishops in Scotland under Charles II.
Frame; to fit or set (Judg. xii. 6; Hos. v. 4), set in a proper position; turn out, or succeed. 32, 41, 187, 232, 254, 287.
Fraught; the same as freight. 84, 153, 195, 217.
—"Fraught-free;" no fare to pay. 265.
Freeholding; lands held for life. 203.
Free-ward; liberty. 269.
Free-warders; prisoners who have right to go free. 265.
Frem, A. S., "fremd;" hence written "fremd" or "fremmyt;" strange, foreign, distant. 69, 165.
Friend-sted; to befriend. 188, 275.
Frith; strait; sea. 84.
Fryst, or frist; to postpone possession or action,—the opposite of tryst. 176, 205, etc.
Give credit to. 105.
Put off a demand. 20.
Fyle; to defile, find guilt. 212.
Gaddy; fond of gadding about. 270.
Gardies, or gardess; arms. 18.—It is
the Gaelic word "gairdean," an arm. In Row's "Life of Blair" (p. 154), "Mrs. Hamilton came up to Traquair, and fest-grip his gardie."
Gate; road, way, manner of doing. 29, 38, etc.
—The phrase, "start to the gate," begin early, soon on the road. 136, 148, 186, 294.
Gawd; trick, bad custom. 240.
—Used by Gawin Douglas and by Chaucer for a freak, and said to be from Fr., "gaudir," to be merry.
Gear; goods, substance, money. 120.
General; not at all familiar. 205.
"In fair generals." 93.
Not coming to close quarters.
Gifted; bestowed as a favour. 353, 359.
—Often so used in his "Covenant of Life Opened." Make a present of.
Glaiked, or glaiket; giddy, light. 284.
Glance; bright as glowing metal. So in his sermon on Zech. xiii. 7. 287, 295.
Glister; glitter, shine bright. 51.
—See Luke ix. 21.
Gloom; frown, sullen look. Verb and Noun. 187, 266, etc.
—"The sad and glooming cross" ("Christ Dying").
Goodman, or gudeman; one who holds his house or lands from a superior; unlike laird, who owns no superior but the king. 16, 18, etc.
—Goodwife. 34.—See Luke xii. 39.
Good cheap; very cheap, gratuitous.
But probably cheap is here a Noun, "chap," equivalent to "bargain." 104, 105, 121, 186, 215, 245, 249.
—"Better cheap." 216.
—See Cheap.
Gone; ruined, hopeless. 183.
Gowk; a simpleton.
—"Gowket," acting like a simpleton, or put in a foolish position. 151, 232, 256.
Grace; to give favour and honour to a person, to adorn; sometimes to get mercy. 12, 29, 133, 237, 275.
Grammercy; thanks. 249.
—French, "grand-merci."
Green; to long after. 85, 160, 213, 226, etc.
Grip; a grasp, firm hold, clasp. 22, 24, etc.
—"Grips," close quarters, fight. 294.
Ground; bottom. 85, 99, 203, 287.
Out at the ground. 287.
—"Ground-stone;" foundation-stone; from the very foundation. 74, 82, 248.
—"Grounds;" dregs of a cup. 251.
Guide; to manage or to make use of. 256, 275.
Guise; manner, way (French). 101, 164, 172.
—Bunyan, in his History of Badman: "One guise for abroad, another for home."
Gutters; pools of dirty water, marks made by the tears that soil the face. 138, 194.
Hable; able. Fr., habile. 325.
—Rollock (Lect. li.), "hability and strength." Trappe on Rom. vi. 22, "Our hability for obedience."
Halfer; an equal sharer. 200, 245, 249.
—Written "halver" also.
Half-hungered; left in a hungry state. 26.
Half-marrow; a married partner. 183, 270.
Half-tiner; half-loser. 182.
Hall; the "hall-house," or ha-house, the mansion-house. So in sermon on John xx. 13, 285.
—Hall-binks; seats of honour.
Handfast; to join hands in betrothing, to affiance. 143, 173, 225.
Handgrips; grasping close. 87, 106.
Handsel; to use for the first time. 239.
Handwrite; written with one's own hand. 270.
Hard.
—See Heads.
Hardly; with difficulty. 232.
Haunt up; be up frequently in his company. 84.
—Fullerton of Earlton, in his "Turtle Dove," speaks of Christ and His saints; "with whom espoused now He haunts in heavens of bliss."
Hause; to clasp or close with. 69.
—Gawin Douglas uses it for "embrace;" from "hals," the neck or throat.
Have; to "have over," to let alone, be done with. 87, 106.
Head of Wit; a wiseacre, one who affects to have much wisdom. 230, 234.
—"Hard-heads;" the name of a small coin. 270.
—Knox's "History," etc. See note in Letter 270.
Heap-mete; heaped up measure, full measure. 249.
Hear; to attend, to treat, serve. 195.
Heartsome; happy, cheerful. 32, 51, 167.
—"Clear, bright, and heartsome morning" (Sermon on Zech. xi. 9). So heartful. 99.
Heaven-name; name he bears in heaven. 301.
Hell-hot; hot as hell. 357.
Hereaway; in this quarter. 50, 286, 336, etc. In this present life, in this world.
Herry; cruelly spoil, or rob. 52.
Hesp; hank or hasp of yarn. 196.
Hide; the skin. 198.
—In "Christ Dying," he speaks of the skin or hide of the visible hearers.
Hing; for hang. 104, 249.
Ho; cessation, to cause to stop. 167.
Hold-draw; struggle with. 137.
Holding; tenure. 284. So in sermon on Rev. xix.
Hole (sometimes spelt "holl"); to make a hole, to pierce, dig out. 103, 177, 196.
—"Holey," or "holie;" full of holes. 83, 196, 258.
Homely; familiar, at home with one. 59, 105, 130, etc.
Home over; homewards. 28, 205, 211, etc.
Homeward; in its own favour. 163.
Honesty; kindly dealing. 69-76.
Hook; sickle, reaping-hook. 16, 21, 224, etc.
"Mowers with the scythe and hook." Sermon at Kirkmabreck, 1630.
Hope; consider. 204, 295.
Horning; a legal demand for payment of a debt under threat of imprisonment and being proclaimed rebels. It used to be proclaimed by sound of horn in the market-place. 130.
Horologue; a watch. From the Greek.
—An old tower at Montrose bore the name of "The Horologue Tower." 238, 289.
Rutherford in a sermon before the House of Lords speaks of "Time's horologue, set agoing by God at the Creation."
House; "take up his house." 250.
Enter on housekeeping.
Howbeit; although.
—See our Version of the Bible.
Huge; vast, very great. 189, 288, etc.
—"I am hugely pleased with your letter," says Waterland, in a letter to T. Boston (App. to Life). In Forbes, on Rev. xix., "huge matter of God's praise." In Rutherford's Treatise on Prayer, "heaven is a huge thing," p. 97. 305.
Hungredly; on spare diet. 282.
Hungry of heart; heart-hungered. 203.
If; but that. 342.—O if. 206.
Ill; in the phrase, "Ill to please," difficult to please. 131.
Ill-flitten; misplaced. 106. Q.d. removed to a wrong place.
Ill-friended; without friends. 96.
—Zachary Boyd uses this word in "Last Battle," p. 410.
Ill-learned; taught evil. 276.
Ill-ravelled; sadly entangled. 196.
Ill-waled; ill-selected. 326.
Ill-washen; dirty. 227, etc.
Improbation; action to prove forgery, or that the person had no right to what he claimed. 178.
Incontinently; immediately, as if unable to restrain himself. 241.
Indent Its common English sense occurs in Letter 288, to set in corresponding notches.
But also to sign a paper containing agreement to certain articles. 173.
—Zachary Boyd's "Samson" has, "As I indented, so I'll undertake."
Ingyne. 64.
—See Engyne.
Inhibit; forbid.
Instant; earnest. 16.
Instruct of; instruct concerning. 225.
Instruments, to take; to take documents from the hand of the proper party by way of attestation. 107, 110, 144, etc.
Interdict; forbid by positive injunction to do or use a thing for a time, to enter on possession.
Into; for in. 336.
—Rollock (Lect. xlvii.): "When the Spirit is wrestling into us."
Intromit; intermeddle, a law phrase; handle. 82, 105.
In-under; close under. 260.
Irresponsal; not able to pay, insolvent. 104, 204.
Jealousy; suspicion. So the Adjective. 74, 144, 148, 152, etc.
Jouk; to bend down, in order to escape a storm or a stroke; to dissemble, compromise. 16, 181, 284.
Kep; intercept, catch when falling. 165.
Kind; nature. 276.
—"Man doth his kind in committing evil," says Trappe on Gen. vii. 21; that is, does what his nature leads to.
Kindly; what our kindred give us right to. 261. Also according to nature; natural. 66, 98, 102, 254.
—In "Christ Dying" (p. 30) we find, "The life of Christ had infirmities kindly to it."
Kingly. 55, 61, 281, 363; and used by him on his deathbed.
Kinless; who have no kindred. 250.
Knot; difficulty to be solved. 312.
—Rollock (Lect. li.) speaks of "getting office with a knot"
—a difficulty accompanying it.
Knottiness; full of knots. 287.
Lair; a bog. 110. "To lair" is to stick in the mire.
Laird.—See Goodman.
Lap; the loose part or fold of a garment. 78.
Laureation; obtaining or conferring academic honours. 274.
Law-biding. 106, 231, 299.—See Bide.
Law-burrows; giving a pledge not to injure.
—See Burrows. 61, 66, 163, 184, 275, etc.
Lea; an unploughed part of a field, where the grass grows. 75, 234.
Lead. In the phrase, "Lead stones to a wall;" convey them, q.d. by leading the horse and cart. 24.
Leal; honest, genuine, loyal. 182, 225.
Learn; in the sense of "to teach." 175, 199, 222.—(German, "lehren.")
Leave; dismissal from a situation. 277, 311.
Leavings; the overplus of the feast.
Leck; a leak. 130.
—In Row's "History" (398) we find, "The ship being leck."
Leel-come; what has been got in an honest way. 182.
Lee-side; sheltered side. 115.
Leme; earthen; our "loam." Lat., "limus." 182.
—In Row's "Hist." (260), "A leme pig" is an earthen jug. Rutherford in a sermon on Dan. vi. 26 speaks of the potter making a "leme vessel."
Let; to hinder.
—"To let in," to admit. To let on. 182. To seem to notice.
Lift; part of a load. 298.
Lightly, a Verb; to trifle with. 201, 260, 272. Knox and Rollock use this word.
Like; same as likely; probable. 21, 267, 384.
—"The like of;" such as. 92, 158, 275, 284, 336.
Lippen; to trust, entrust. 69, 182, 260.
Lith; a joint.
—"The shoulder-blade out of lith." Sermon, 1634. The A.S. word for the joints of the body. 86, 167.
Lone; one's self, alone. 49, 162, 192, etc.
Long. "Think long;" to weary for. 14, 93, etc.
Loof; the palm of the hand.
—Gaelic, "lambh." 77, 122.
Look by; neglect, look aside. 23.
Loun; a rogue, worthless fellow; q.d. low one. 116, 160, 232, 241.
Love-blinks; love-glances.
Low; of low stature. 236.
Lucks-head; chance of winning, prospect of success. 178, 182. Brown of Wamphray, p. 150, "Swan-Song."
Lust; to desire a thing. 226, 276.
Lustred; made to shine, 89, 117, 191.
—Noun, 75, 260, 289, 295, 297, 298. A fair, shining look.
Mail; rent, tax.
—"Mail free;" rent free. 29, 50, 284, 321.
Mailing; sometimes written "mealing;" a farm, for which rent is paid. 29, 50.
Make; to mould, turn to use. 145.
Make on; to make up by putting the fuel in order. 32.
Make up with. 247. Become friends with.
Man, a Verb; "to man the house," act as the goodman of the house, attending to visitors, etc. 142.
March-boundary; limit. 82, etc.
—"March-stones;" 278.
In his Treatise on Prayer, he calls Christ, as God-man, "the common march-stone."
Market-sweet (like "eye-sweet"); pleasing to the frequenters of the market; suitable for sale, and so set up in open market. 213, 216, 237.
Marrow; a match, companion. 26, 133, 148, etc.
—"Marrowless" occurs, 180.
Unequalled; peerless.
Mask; to infuse. 287.
Masterless; owned of no one. 120.
Mealing.
—See Mailing. 50.
Mean; to consider, reckon. 86, 250.
Noun; resource, 257.
Meikle; much. "Meikle world's good," as much as having a world's good things. 165, 180, 225.
Melancholious; melancholy. 293.
Mends; reparation of a wrong. 14.
—"To the mends;" to boot, besides, add to that.
Midses; means, instrumentality. 190, 317.
Mid-way; courses. 190.—Half and half, undecided.
Minch; cut into small pieces. 127.
Mind; remember, take care to speak of. 333, 334, 342.
Mint; to attempt, intend at doing, essay. 29, 92, 188, etc.
Mired; plunged into mire, soiled. 174.
Misbelief; wrong belief. 112, 143.
Miscall; give wrong names to. 322, etc.
Misconstruct; misconstrue. 285.
Miscount; erroneous calculation. 133.
Misken; to misunderstand, overlook, to treat as if unknown. 89, 99, 102, 148, 181, etc.
Misleard; indiscreet, rude; q.d. mislearned. 112, 181.
Mismannered; unmannerly. 106.
Misnurtured; ill-disciplined, ill-trained. 181, 234.
Missive; a letter empowering the person to act. 142.
Misted.
—See Bemisted. 118, 146.
Like one in a mist.
Moderate, a Verb; to rule over a meeting. 203.
—An ecclesiastical phrase from the Latin.
Moneys; price. 281.
Moyen; means; interest; influence. 59, 116, 119, etc.
Muir-ground; waste land covered with heath. 157, 298.
Naughty; vile, worthless. 77, 81, etc.
—Bunyan calls Badman, "a man left to himself, a naughty man."
Nay-say; denial. 80, 231.
—In a sermon on Zech. xiii. 7: "Christ gave the devil three nay-says."
Near-hand; near at hand. 29, 79, 191, etc.
Need-force; by sheer necessity; or, by hook or crook. 71, 179, 205, etc.
Under plea of necessity.
Nether; the lower; not high enough. 245.
Newings; novelties; q.d. new things. 29.
Nice; chary, capricious, ill to please. 81, 226.
Nick; mark, notch, point. 70, 249, etc.
Niffer; exchange, barter. 140, etc.
Nigh-hand; near. 183, 347.
Night-glass; hour-glass. 281.
Non-entry; money, or rents, due to the superior by an heir on coming to his property; or the state of one who is heir, but has not yet got the legal investiture. 222, 256.
Nor; than. 144, 307.
Noughty; useless, worthless, nothing in it. 175, 200, 225.
—Sibbs, "Others that are nought" (on 2 Cor. i. 4).
Nurture; discipline. 70, 98, 206.
—The Verb, to use discipline. 299.
Odds; difference. 294.
—Also odd; any leisure time.
Of. The use of the preposition "of" is common and peculiar to the time in such phrases as "Dear of a drink of water;" at the price of. 148.
—"Content of." 45.
—"Understood of." 51.
—Is it from the French
"de?" Old Chaucer sings: "And all the orient laugheth of delight" (Knight's Tale).
Off-fallings; droppings, remnants, 70, 169, 285. John Livingstone writes:
"Compared with Christ Himself, what is all this but the off-fallings."
Oh if. 180, 204, etc.
—"Oh if," 152.
What would you say if.
Oh that! in the sense of Alas! 189.
So "Oh for." 97.
Old-dated; antiquated, 320.
Once; one time or other, sooner or later. 62, 112, 143, 152, 170, 217, 255, 270, 330.
Knox uses it often thus. Also, once for all; altogether.
Once-errand; on the sole business. 210, 301.
Opposites; opponents. 231.
Or.
—See Then.
Order; take order is an old English phrase for "take measures." 18.
Ordinarily; usually. 144.
Other; ought else. 68, 77.
—Others; each other. 82.
Out, a Noun; laying out, exhibiting for sale. 277.
Outcast; a contention, quarrel. 239, 274, 275.
—In a sermon on Zech. xiii. 7 he says: "After a sore outcast, there is greater love betwixt Christ and His people than before."
Outfield; waste land, covered with heath. 256, 261.
Outgate; way of escape, outlet. "Make home over us, go homeward."
Over; in the phrase "over-little," too little. 257.
Overmist; rise over like a mist. 189.
Over-watered; plated over. 299.
Oyess; the French Oyez; the crier's "Hearken." The Verb, to denounce one by public proclamation. 249.
Paces (from French "peser," to weigh, and old English "to paise"); the weights of a clock. He uses the same figure in a sermon on Song v. 1. 189, 197, 199, 292.
Packald; burdens, things packed up. 198.
Packs, or paiks; a severe blow. "Paiks the man," the man soundly beaten. 138.
Pact. 230.
Paiks.
—See Packs.
Painful; taking pains, laborious. 188.
—See Baxter, etc.
Paintry; painting. 83.
Panged; quite full, crammed; "Pang-full." 225.
Pantry, a Verb; to lock up in the cupboard. 110.
Pasch; Passover, or Easter. 51. (Acts xii. 4; πασχα.)
Pass from; used of a summons; not enforce it.
Passments; strips of lace sewed on dress by way of ornament. 42, 75, 275.
Pawn; pledge. "Pawn-clay;" a thing of dust, and that is only partly ours. 77, 130, 139.
Perqueer; the French par cœur; by heart, perfectly. 204.
Pertinacy; same as pertinacity.
Pickle; small grain. 22, 186, 197.
Piece-withered; withered patches. 254.
Pinning; a small stone to fill up a crevice. 211, 239. In a sermon on Zech. xi. 19 he says: "Would they give Christ no room? Might they not have made Him a pinning?" R. Blair's "Life" (p. 115). "Weak pinnings are very useful in building a wall; and so are graces, though they are not the foundation."
Playmaker; director of the play. 70.
Plea; a quarrel between parties. 240, etc.
Plenishing; furniture, possessions. 4, 133, 258. The Verb, fill. 247, 250, 326.
Ply; a fold or turn. Verb; to ply, applied to a ship. 95, 105, 152.
Poind; to distrain, make seizure of goods. 160. "Drive the poind" is to drive away the cattle thus seized.
Point; to fill up crevices in a wall with lime and little stones. 299.
Port; gate. 241, 336, 339.
—"He went out at the ports, bearing His cross." Sermon on Heb. xii.
Pose; a hoard, store. 206.
—In a sermon by Rutherford, we find
the "miser's hoard" called "the wretch's pose."
Prevent; anticipate. 297. Be first in acting.
Prig; to chaffer or higgle about a thing. 21, 81.
Proctor-fee. 285. A fee to the procurator, one who manages a cause, paid when the suit is ended.
Professor; in the sense of confessing or professing the faith. 105, 284, 292, 304.
Propine; Noun and Verb; hold out a gift, to present. 37, 88, 130, 165. Used as a Noun, 29.
Put; to "put" as a ram, push, help.
—"Put by;" to put away from, cause to pass by. 111.
—"Put it down;" make it more easily swallowed. 62.
—"Put off;" spend time. 162. Also, put aside as finished. 190.
—"Put to;" apply; also to shut. 97, 275.
—"Put upon;" urge, to set on one in the way of importunity. 7, 12.
—To cause difficulty. 319.
—"Put up;" push up. 29.
Quarrelous; fault-finding, provoking to quarrels. 184, 189, 239.
—He writes it "querulous" in his "Christ Dying," p. 179: "Querulous love-motions against the reality of Christ's love."
Quick; alive. 61, 265.
Quit; to set one free from. 224, 268.
Ragged; torn and incomplete. 151.
Ravel; disorderly twisting of threads. 196.
Reckon; consider of importance. 230, 233.
Red, Adj., in the phrase, "red hunger," intensive. 213.
—"Red war," and "red wet," means soaked in wet.
Redd up; to clear up, settle. 34, 38, 48, 136, etc.
Refreshful; full of refreshment. 333.
Registrate; to register, to protest. 85, 249.
—See note.
Repair; make amends to. 312.
Resemble; to represent. 3.
Respective; to each individual. 136.
—Is this Sibbs' meaning, "Every saint has something lovely and respective in him" (on 2 Cor. i. 1)? But, also, Sibbs uses it for respectful: "Dependency is always very respective." And so Ferguson on Col. iii. 22: "Servants respective to their masters."
—See Disrespective. Letters 321, 360.
Responsal; solvent, able to pay. 231.
Rest; in the Latin sense, "remains." 244.
Reverence; q.d. rendering homage, power. 30, 43, 233, 298.
—"I will not be in your reverence" was a phrase for, "I will not submit to your dictation."
Reversion; the right held by some one to the future possession of an estate. 148.
Rid (see Redd); annihilate. Participle, put away. 133.
Ridable; can be crossed on horseback. 160.
Rifle; same as ruffle. 158.
Rift; a rent, crack. 241, 284.
—Verb, to vomit, or come back with violent retching. 72.
—Rifty; broken, full of rents. 120.
Right, Verb; to put right. 196.
Rights; title-deeds. 77.
Rink; the ring, or race-course. 122, 276, 286.
Ripe; to examine and search carefully. Connected with "rip up." 203.
Rive; rend, tear; break up. 16, 50, 72, etc.
Rooftree; the beam that runs across the roof, and supports the rafters. 270.
Room; place. 22, etc.
Round; whisper or sing in the ear. (German, raunen.) 293.
Roup; set up to sale by action. 37, 131, 199, etc.
Rovers; "at rovers," at random. 182.
Roving; wandering through excitement of mind, raving. 161.
Rub; trouble. 323.
Rue; to repent, be sorry, 115.
—"Rue upon;" take pity. 21, 69, 186, etc.
Run by; run past. 226.
Rush; to push forward with violence. 270.
—See note.
Sad; settled, solid, real. 62, 75, 99, 163, 191, 203.
—It is from old English "set," settled down. Wickliffe's Bible, Rom. xv. 1: "We that are sadder men" (stronger). Pilkington on Neh. iv.: "A good builder digs down to the sad earth."
Salt; bitter, unpleasant, sarcastic. 115.
—In his "Christ Dying," p. 690, he says: "A violent death hath a salter bite."
Sanded; driven on the sands. 217.
Scad; the red tinge of a burn. "Scadded and burnt in the furnace" (Rutherford's "Cov. of Life," p. 69). The tinge given by reflected light. 291. It is connected with "scald."
Scaur, or scar; to boggle, take fright. 70, 119, 183, etc.
School-heads; worldly wise. 337.
Second, Noun and Verb; one who helps.
—Often used by Lord Kenmure in "Last Speeches." 2, 91, 247.
Seen-in; experienced in a matter. 86.
Set; it becomes, 260; disposed, 120.
—"Set to;" engage, set about. 110, 145, 179, 235.
Set-rent; full rent.
Shake; to push aside, push out.
Shell of a balance; the scale. 268.
Short; in temper hasty, rash. 153.
—"Shortly;" forthwith. 249.
—"Short-dated;" lasting only a short time. 196.
Shute; sometimes written shoot; to push in, shove back. 20, 29, 158, 163.
—"Satan shutes in his teeth," occurs in Rutherford's "Christ Dying."
Sib; nearly related to. 106, 212, 245, etc.
—"We behoved to be as sib as brethren." Sermon.
Sicht, or sight, a Verb; to examine narrowly, q.d. by close sight. 12. It occurs in Row's "History" often.
Sicker; strong. 107.
Silly; poor, frail, pitiful. 27, 184.
Silver, or siller; money. 254.
Sing; in the phrase, "Sing dumb," be reduced to silence. 128.
Singly; with a single mind. 83.
Sink; a common sewer. 272, 276.
Sit with; to endure in patient silence. 52, 63. Submit to. 43. Treat with carelessness.
Skaill; disperse, scatter. 160, 190, 241, etc.
Skaith; harm. 285.
Skaur.
—See Scaur.
Skink; formally renounce, or bid farewell to. 85, 88.
—In A.S., the Verb is "to give drink;" in German, "schenken," to give. It is q.d. take leave by giving a present, or by drinking a farewell.
Slot; a moveable bolt; bar. 29, 47, 48.
Sned; to prune, lop off, make tidy. 298.
Solacious; full of cheer, or comfort. 105.
Soldiers-stately; in Letter 63. It might have been noticed that old editions make this one word equivalent to "a spirit becoming a soldier;" like Milton's "timely-happy spirits." Joseph Alleine's "Life" has, "holy-taking rhetoric." Others point thus, "Your soldier's stately spirit." So, "heavenly-wise." 191.
Some. 64, 214. For somewhat.
Sometimes; properly "some-time;" on former days, once on a time. 28, etc.
—In our Version of the Bible, Eph. ii. 3; 1 Pet. iii. 20.
Soon-saddled; hasty in temper. 189.
—Little time taken to get on the saddle.
Soul-couper; a jobber in souls. 330.
—See Coup.
Souple; same as supple. 132.
Spaits.
—See Speat.
Sparing; niggardly. 222.
Spark; to squirt out. 163.
Sparkle; to spark out, scatter sparks. 263.
—Chaucer speaks of the shepherd seeking his "sparkeland sheep," i.e. scattered.
Speat, or spait; a flood, overflowing stream. 37, 248, 285. (Gaelic, "speid"), a river-flood.
Speed; to "come speed" is to succeed.
Speir, or speer; ask questions at.
—"Speer out," search out by questions. 180.
Spelk; to truss, support by splinters. 107, 128. (Saxon word.)
Spill; spoil, mar, or injure. 22, 310, etc.
—So Ps. lxiii. 9, in Rous' version; a child spoiled by indulgence.
Spring; a tune, sprightly air. 181, 182, 214.
Spunk; a spark. 215.
Stalks. In Letter 17, "to keep the stalks," is the reading of some old editions; but in another Letter, 194, "keep the stakes." If the former, the sense is, "to get only the withered stalks to keep," Song ii. 14 specially; if the latter, "get what they deposited."
Stand upon; require the help of. 81.
Standing drink. 177.—Like the stirrup-cup handed to a friend as he stood at the door.
Startle; ran up and down in excitement, as cattle do in hot weather; act extravagantly. 69, 75, 182, 258.
Starts. "At starts;" fitfully. 7, 293.
—"Start to the gate."
—See Gate.
State; the mode of putting or stating a question. 214, 245, 278, 333, 359.
—"Stated;" set down. 359.
Sted; a place, a foundation for a house, a site. 18. So used by Gawin Douglas.
—"Stedable," q.d. able to furnish a foundation; available, serviceable. 170, 252.
Stent; to fix at a certain rate, and no more. 249. In Fullerton's "Turtle Dove:" "He stented twice on the horologue."
Still; always, ever. 87, 108, 133, 285. In our metre version of the Psalms it occurs, e.g. Ps. ciii. 9, "Keep His anger still."
Stob; a stake sharpened at the end. 240.
Stock of cards; a pack of. 194.
Stoop; to make a stoop is to bow low. 287.
Stop-hole; anything to fill up a hole. 239.
Stot; a rebound. 249.
—"To keep stots;" keep pace with, to rebound regularly. 236.
Stound; a stroke that suddenly over-powers and produces faintness. 167.
Stoup; a stake, post, prop. 84, 196.
Suit; urge a suit, woo, solicit. 19, 26, 37, 355, etc.
Sundry; separate. 247.
—"Sunder," part from, the Verb. 264.
Sure; surely. 359, etc.
Suspension; an act in law, suspending final execution of a sentence. 230.
Swatter; to move, or toss about, as a duck in the water. 178.
—R. Blair (see "Life" by Row) uses it in a poem,—
"Out of the dreary vale of tears
My soul hath swattered out."
Rollock (Lect. xxxviii.): "He swatters and swims."
Swear one's self bare; swear that you have given up everything. 285.
Sweer; lazy, reluctant. 178, 230, 285.
Tack; stitch, hold, tie. 275.
Also, possession by lease. 284.
Tailzie; a Scotch law term for entail or charter of entail. 32.
Take up house; enter on housekeeping. 250.
—I take myself. 98.
—I retract my word.
Taken up with; occupied with. 185.
Taking; that is, attractive. 305. South's sermons has it.
Tarrow; to be pettish at, reluctant. 23, 118.
Tell; count up. 85, 167, 241, 249, 265.
—"Telling;" something to mark down. 209.
Testificate; certificate, testimony to character. 149.
That; often for "so;" e.g. that much. 41, 59, 85, 293.
Then; in that case. 24, 39, 220, 238, 241.
—"Or then;" if that be not so, otherwise. 43, 46, 72, 323.
Thereanent; regarding this. 110.
Thereaway; to or in that quarter. 133.
Therefor; on account of this. 34.
—See note.
Thick; a crowd or throng. 209, 225, 251.
—Adjective; very familiar with one. 94, 128.
Thieves'-hole; a prison. 178.
Thin. 223.
—Thin-skinned; soft. 256.
Think long. 16, 207, 133, 151, etc.
—See Long.
—It is still common to write, "I think long after you."
Threap; to assert vehemently, over and over. 85.
Thring; to push in by force. 147, 226, 282.
Throng; the multitude and the busy part. 206.
—Thronging; crowding in. 180, 206.
Through other; one thing blended with the other, promiscuously. 226, etc.
Tig; dally, toy with. 48.
—Also a civil sort of begging, when a new-married person brought his cart to the house of friends, that they might put in something to his store.
Timeous; early, seasonable, opportune. 180, 212, 275.
—So Knox uses it; and our metre version of Psalms, cxix. 148.
Tine; to lose. 182, 226, etc.
To; used for "in comparison of," in the phrase, "little to." 361.
Tocher; a marriage dowry. "Tocher-good." 265, 285.
Toom; quite empty; nothing in it. 138, 178, 188, etc.
Topic-maxim; a maxim for general use. 259, 260.
Tops; to be "on one's tops," to assault or oppose. 231.
—"To tope" is to oppose. "He has continued all his days on tops with God, and will not make peace with Him." Durham Sermon 54, Isa. liii.
Totch; a push. 183.
—See note.
Touches; to "keep touches," 121, an English phrase for the exact performance of an engagement.
Towe; rope made of tow, a hauser. 196.
Train; to draw, entice. 30.
—It is French, trâiner.
Trance; passage. Latin, transitus. 26.
Tree; for the wood of a tree. 225.
—As in sermon on Rev. xix.
Trindle; same as trundle. 107.
Truant; pretended, like boys' pretences for play. 181.
Tryst; to appoint a meeting at a certain place and time. Noun and Verb. 176, etc.
Turnpike; stair that winds. 300.
Tutor; to discipline. 282.
Twin; to separate. 82.
—It is q.d. to make into two.
Unco; uncommon, strange. Same originally as uncouth, and so written very often.
—Noun; Unconess; 179.
Undercote, or undercoat; fester under the skin (coat is "cutis," skin). 66, 82, 151, 284.
—Calderwood in his "History" uses this word, v. 658.
Under-tools; lesser tools. 311.
Under-water; bilge-water. 82, 86, 203, 284.
Unfriend; less than friendly. 178.
Unheartsome; sad. 277.
Unlaw; transgress the law; also, to fine for transgressing the law. 201.
Unrid, or unred. 133.
—It is q.d. unred-up; the boundaries not fixed.
—In A.S., unrid is "disorderly."
Upsun; the sun above the horizon.
Uptaking; as a Noun, apprehension, 56, 275;
as an Adjective, exhilarating, or exalting, 210.
Vaccane, or vacanse; vacation, holidays. 84.
Vively; in a lively manner, to the life. 4.
Voyage; journey. 226.
—The French "voyage," from via.
Wad-fee; the sum paid in hiring, as a pledge of the person being engaged.
—Wad is a pledge.
—See Wed.
Wadset; to pledge in mortgage, alienate by reversion. 79, 191, 201, 206, etc.
—Noun, the money paid in hiring as a pledge of engagement. 182.
Wager; something hazarded. 220.
A pledge. 170.
Wair'd, or wared.
—See Ware.
Wale; to choose (Noun and Verb), select out of other articles. 39, 192, etc.
Walkings; weights of a clock. 199.
—Possibly the waggings of the pendulum, though some say it is the striking of the hour that "waukens up." It is connected with motions. 292, 342.
Wandhand; the hand that holds the rod, or whip, as the hand that guided the horse was the working hand. 186.
Want; to be destitute of. 95.
Ward; guard. 254.
Ware; to expend, use. 37, 104, 201, 228, etc.
Warmly; heart-warming. 227.
Washen; washed or whitened, with fair appearance. 167.
Waster, Adj.; prodigal, wasteful. 226.
Watch-glass; hour-glass. 276.
Watered; plated over. 206, 280.
—"The watering will go off and leave nothing but dross" is a sentence in a sermon on Zech. xiii. 7.
Wed; a pledge or fee. Written also wad.
—Our "wedding" is a derivative, signifying the security or pledge given by the parties.
Weight, or wecht; to put on a weight or burden, depress. 115, 159.
In one of his sermons he says, "Death did not weight the martyrs.
"—"To bear weight," 249, is to stand the weighing.
Well; a Noun for weal, welfare. 72, 202.
—"Well is me;" it is good for me. 120, 222, 250, 257, etc.
—"Wellcome;" come in an honest way. 162, 182.
Well-wared; well laid out. 104.
—Well deserved. 203.
Wersh; saltless, insipid. 182.
While, or whill; till. 12, 24, 44, etc.
Whiles; at times. 102, 182.
White; the white is the mark aimed at, the bull's eye. 194.
Whiten. 287. Like a stick from which the bark is stript.
Whitsunday; term day. 21.
"Who but he?" a non-such. 23.
—See note.
Why but? why object although? 295.
Win; reach, attain to. 21, 30.
—"Win away;" to escape from. 6.
Wind in; get your way into. 297.
Windlestrae or windlestraw; from Windel, to hoist about. Used in plaiting. A withered stalk of dog's-tail grass; metaphorically, a mere trifle. 63, 190, 192, 212.
—In the "Life" of Pringle of Greenknow, a place is mentioned called "The Windlestraw Law." So Durham on Job, p. 285.
Wit; to know. Noun; wisdom, intelligence. 184, 282.
—"Wit's head;" a wiseacre. 232, 235, 239, 249, 258.
Wo, an Adjective; sorrowful. 116, 178, 196.
—Generally written "wae" by Scotch writers.
Wombful; bellyful. 225.
Won goods; goods already got and secured. 128.
Work on; it causes care. 230.
Wrack; ruin, wreck. 284.
Wring; squeeze out water; as Judges vi. 30. 300.
Writ; a writing in law. 59, 285, 359.
—"In write;" by written paper. 359.
Yoke; yoke for work; set to, press in. 94, 119, 181, 202.
—Noun, yoking, a setting to, contest, onset. 117. "He yoked to the Jews early" (sermon on Heb. xii. 1). So Durham on Isa. liii. 8.
Yonder; far off in the distance. 245.
—"The yonder end."
NOTE.
There are some words, such as "Ease-rooms" and "Heaven-name," that seem to be Rutherford's own coining. But these are very few. On the other hand, there is in these Letters what was a characteristic of the style of the times, viz. the use of synonymous words, side by side. Thus we have "niffer and exchange;" "feast and banquet;" "unco and strange;" "I dow not, I cannot;" "pledge and pawn;" "wale and choose;" and many more. So Knox speaks of "let and hindrance;" "gauge and pledge." Zachary Boyd speaks of "reekie smoke;" "kindly and natural;" "bag and baggage." In a Number of the "Athenæum," March 1873, no less than twenty instances of this sort, in "Hamlet" alone, are given from Shakespeare.