[427] Dickson's eldest son, who became Clerk to the Exchequer of Scotland.
[428] When we summon Him into our court to explain.
[429] Zech. vi. 1.
[430] Hon. Sir Henry Montgomery of Giffen, her Ladyship's second husband, died about this time. See Letter III.
[431] The Brownists were a sect which owed their origin to Robert Brown, who studied at Cambridge. He maintained that every single congregation ought to have the complete power of jurisdiction within itself. In the year 1581 he organized a sect according to those principles. Yet afterwards he returned to the Church of England, and was presented to a living in Northamptonshire, of which he received the emoluments without discharging the duties. The sect he formed remained; but in process of time the name of Brownists was merged in that of Congregationalists or Independents.
[432] The treatise to which Rutherford here refers is, no doubt, his work entitled, "A Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presbytery in Scotland, or a Modest Dispute of the Government of the Church of Scotland, wherein our Discipline is demonstrated to be the true Apostolic way of Divine Truth, and the arguments on the contrary are friendly dissolved, the grounds of separation, and the independency of particular congregations, in defence of Ecclesiastical Presbyteries, Synods, and Assemblies, are examined and tried." It was printed at London in 1642. "This," says Murray, "is one of the most temperate, judicious, and best written works he ever gave to the world. It corresponds in every respect with the promise which its title holds out; with this exception, that it is much more learned, dispassionate, and conclusive than the promise implies. It must have had a very considerable effect on public sentiment, and have served to pave the way for that introduction of the Presbyterian system into England which soon took place."
[433] See notice on this lady prefixed to a subsequent Letter.
[434] Must even here be in possession of a life far superior to the things that at present attract us. "Huge" may mean "vast as to number" (Isa. xlviii. 19), and also, great in other respects.
[435] If we are making this living above the world sure.
[436] On the 18th of August 1643, the General Assembly appointed a committee to proceed to London, to consult, treat, and conclude with the Assembly of Divines then sitting at Westminster, in all matters which might further the union of the churches of Scotland and England in one form of Church Government, one Confession of Faith, one Catechism, and one Directory for the worship of God. Of this committee Rutherford was one. The others were—Mr. Alexander Henderson, Mr. Robert Douglas, Mr. Robert Baillie, and Mr. George Gillespie, ministers; John Earl of Cassillis, John Lord Maitland, and Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston, elders.