1690.
This year deceased Alexander Parker, sometimes mentioned in this history, being a man not only of a godly life and conversation, but also of a godly mien and grave deportment. In the following year, viz. that of 1690, Robert Barclay also departed this life, a man of eminent gifts and great endowments, expert not only in the languages of the learned, but also well versed in the writings of the ancient fathers, and other ecclesiastical writers, and furnished with a great understanding, being not only of a sound judgment, but also strong in arguments, and cheerful in sufferings. Besides, he was of a friendly and pleasant, yet grave conversation, and eminently fitted for composing of differences; and he really lived up to what he professed, being of an unblameable deportment, truly pious, and well beloved of those he conversed with. And in this happy state it pleased God to take him away out of this vale of tears, into a glorious immortality, in the prime of his age, having not lived much above half the life of a man, as it is commonly accounted, viz. in his 42d year, on the third of October, at his house at Ury, in Scotland, where he died of a sickness, which did not last long, yet he signified with a good understanding, that it was well with him as to his soul.
This year Stephen Crisp wrote an epistle of tender love and brotherly advice to all the churches of Christ throughout the world, in which he exhorted them more particularly to charity; and since therein several remarkable duties are held forth and recommended, I cannot well omit to insert a copy of it here, which is as followeth:
‘Dearly beloved friends and brethren, gathered out of the world by the eternal arm and power of the mighty God, to bear his holy name in your generation; my love and life in the fellowship of the universal spirit salutes you all, and my prayer to God is, you may be kept steadfast and immoveable in the grace of God, and in the communion of his holy Spirit, that ye may bring forth fruit in abundance, according to the abundant mercy and grace bestowed upon you, to the glory of God, and to your mutual joy, comfort, and edification.
‘And that you may so do, let your eye be kept daily to the Lord, and behold and take notice of the wondrous works that he hath wrought in you, and for you, since the day ye were first quickened by his immortal word, and stirred up to seek after him, and to wait upon him: how good and gracious he hath been to you, in bringing you from the barren mountains, where your souls languished for the heavenly nourishment; where you knew not the Lord, nor one another, but were without a comforter, or any to sympathise with you in your mournings; Oh, how hath he pitied your groanings, and had compassion on your sighings, and brought you into acquaintance with those that were in the like exercises; and then he taught you to believe on him that was able to help you: and those that were thus taught of the Father, and felt his drawing cords of love prevailing upon them; these came to Christ their Saviour, and in him began to feel an unity one with another, in the faith you had received in him; whereby you believed he would give you of his spirit to teach and guide you in the way of truth, righteousness, and peace; and thus was the foundation of your holy communion laid, and a lively hope raised in each particular soul, that he that had begun this blessed work would carry it on; and this hope made you that were not ashamed to make a public profession of his name before the world; but cheerfully to take up his cross, and deny yourselves of your former pleasures, friendships, and delights of this world: this hope hath been your support in many sharp trials, and bitter combats you have had with the enemy of your souls’ peace within, and with the enemies of God’s holy way and truth without; and in all your conflicts you have found him nigh at hand, to put forth his power on your behalf, as you have depended upon him for assistance; and by these experiences of his goodness, your faith hath been strengthened; and by the same word of life that quickened you, many more have been reached unto, so that you have seen a daily addition of strength in the particular, and also an addition to your number, to your great comfort and encouragement; and many have come to wait upon the Lord among you; and many are daily inquiring the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward. These things are worth your remembrance and serious considerations, that you may look upon these great mercies as obligations upon your souls, to walk humbly before the Lord, and to be devout and fervent in your testimony, for that God that hath done thus great things for you.
‘And, friends, consider of the great works that this mighty arm of the Lord hath brought to pass in the general, as well as in the particular; how many contrivances have been framed, and laws and decrees made to lay you waste, and to make you cease to be a people, and how have the wicked rejoiced thereat, for a season, crying, ‘Ah, ah! thus would we have it; they are all now given up to banishments, to imprisonments, to spoils and ruins; now let us see if that invisible arm they trust in can deliver them.’ Oh friends! how hath your God been your support in the midst of all these exercises! and when he hath pleased, how he hath quieted the sharpest storms, and turned back the greatest floods and torrents of persecution that ever you met! and how hath he confounded his and your enemies, and brought confusion upon the heads of them that sought your hurt! Were not these things wrought by the power of God? Did your number, your policy, your interest, or any thing that might be called your own, contribute any thing to these your great preservations and deliverances? If not, then let God have the glory, and acknowledge, to his praise, these have been the Lord’s doings, and are marvellous in our eyes.
‘Again, dear friends, consider how the wicked one hath wrought in a mystery among yourselves, to scatter you, and to lay you waste from being a people as at this day; how many several ways hath he tried, raising up men of perverse minds, to subvert and to turn you from the faith, and from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus our Lord; and to separate you from that invisible power that hath been your strength, and to separate you one from another, and by subtle wiles to lead you into a false liberty above the cross of Christ; and sometimes by sowing seeds of heresy and seditions, endeavouring to corrupt the minds of whom they could with pernicious principles; but oh, how have their designs been frustrated, and the authors thereof confounded and brought to nought: and how have you been preserved as a flock under the hand of a careful shepherd, even unto this day, which ministers great cause of thanksgiving unto all the faithful, who have witnessed the working of this preserving power in their own particulars.
‘Also, my friends, it is worth your considerations, to behold how that by this invisible power so many faithful watchmen are raised up upon the walls of your Zion; that in most of your meetings there be men and women, upon whom God hath laid a concern to be taking care for the good of the whole; and to take the oversight upon them, to see all things kept in good and decent order, and to make due provision for the comforting and relieving the necessities of the needy and distressed; that nothing be lacking to make your way comfortable; and these have not been, nor are brought under this charge by any act of yours, but God hath raised up pastors and teachers, elders and deacons of his own election and choice, and bowed their spirits to take upon them the work and service to which they are appointed, for the Lord’s sake, and for the body’s sake, which is the church; to whom it may truly be said, as in Acts xx. 28. “Take ye heed to the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,” &c. And such ought to be hearkened to in the discharge of their trust, as those that must give an account to him that called them, and gifted them for their several works and services in the church.