I lived to die, but now I die to live;
I do enjoy more than I did believe.
The Promise me into Possession sends
Faith in fruition, hope in having ends."
—Livingstone's "Characteristics," and Nicholson's "Galloway," vol. ii.
[497] From the original, among the Wodrow MSS. vol. xxix. 4to, No. 66. This letter is addressed on the back, "For his Reverend and dear Brother, Mr. Thomas Wylie, Minister of the Gospel at Kirkcudbright, and Moderator of the Presbytery there."
[498] From a copy among the Wodrow MSS. vol. lix. folio, No. 5. There is probably an error as to the date of this letter. From an allusion in it to a vacancy in one of the professorships of St. Mary's or the New College of St. Andrews, explained in the following note, it appears to have been written in or subsequent to the year 1657.
[499] Rutherford was now Principal of St. Mary's or the New College of St. Andrews, a situation to which he was elevated about the close of the year 1647; and a vacancy having occurred in the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History, by the translation of Mr. James Wood to be Principal of St. Salvator's or the Old College of St. Andrews, in 1657, Rutherford was very desirous of seeing that situation filled by a suitable person.
[500] Dr. Alexander Colville, who had been Professor of Divinity in the Protestant University of Sedan, was inducted one of the masters in the New College of St. Andrews in 1642. He conformed to Prelacy in 1662; became Principal of that College upon Rutherford's death; and died in 1666.
[501] Afterwards Archbishop of St. Andrews.