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Samuel Rutherford

A Selection from his Letters

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Contents

Foreword

I. To LADY KENMURE, at a time of illness and spiritual depression

II. To LADY KENMURE, on the occasion of the death of her infant daughter

III. To MARION MCNAUGHT, when his wife was ill

IV. To LADY KENMURE

V. To LADY KENMURE

VI. To MARION MCNAUGHT, when persecuted for her principles

VII. To LADY KENMURE

VIII. To JOHN KENNEDY, on his deliverance from shipwreck

IX. To LADY KENMURE, on the perils of rank and prosperity

X. To LADY KENMURE, on the death of her husband

XI. To lady KENMURE, when he expected to be removed from Anwoth

XII. To lady KENMURE, on the eve of his banishment to Aberdeen

XIII. To LADY KENMURE

XIV. To LADY KENMURE

XV To LADY BOYD

XVI. To MR ROBERT BLAIR

XVII. To ROBERT GORDON OF KNOCKBREX

XVIII. To ALEXANDER GORDON OF EARLSTON

XIX. To LADY KENMURE

XX. To lady KENMURE

XXI. To MR WILLIAM DALGLEISH, minister of the Gospel

XXII. To MR HUGH MACKAIL, minister of the Gospel at Irvine

XXIII. To JOHN EWART, Bailie of Kirkcudbright

XXIV. To WILLIAM LIVINGSTONE

XXV. To MR GEORGE GILLESPIE

XXVI. To JOHN GORDON OF RUSSO in the parish of Anwoth

XXVII. To LADY HALHILL

XXVIII. To PATRICK CARSEN

XXIX. To JOHN STUART, Provost of Aye

XXX. To JOIN STUART, Provost of Ayr

XXXI. To NINIAN MURE, a parishioner

XXXII To JOHN GORDON OF CARDONESS, the elder

XXXIII. To JOHN CLARK, a parishioner

XXXIV. To JOHN GORDON OF CARDONESS, the younger

XXXV. To JOHN FULLERTON of Carleton in Galloway

XXXVI. To JOHN GORDON OF CARDONESS, the elder

XXXVII. To EARLSTON, the younger

XXXVIII. To MR WILLIAM DALGLEISH

XXXIX. To MARION MCNAUGHT

XL. To ROBERT STEWART, on his decision for Christ

XLI. To LADY GAITGIRTH

XLII. To THE REV.JOHN FERGUSON OF OCHILTREE

XLIII. To ROBERT BROWN OF CARSLUTH

XLIV. To CASSIN CARRIE

XLV. To JOHN LENNOX, Laird of Catty

XLVI. To JOHN GORDON OF CARDONESS, the younger

XLVII. To WILLIAM GORDON

XLVIII. To LADY KENMURE

XLIX. To MRS STUART, wife of the Provost of Aye

L. To MR JAMES FLEMING

Ll. To MR FULK ELLIS

LII. To MR MATTHEW MOWAT, minister of Kilmarnock

LIII. To JAMES BAUTIE, theological student

LIV. To MR ROBERT BLAIR

LV. To ROBERT LENNOX OF DISDOVE, near Gatehouse

LVI. To EARLSTON, the younger

LVII. To LADY BOYD

LVIII. To LADY ROBERT LAND

LIX. To THE HONORABLE, REVEREND, AND WELL-BELOVED PROFESSORS OF CHRIST AND HIS TRUTH IN SINCERITY, IN IRELAND

LX. To LADY KENMURE, on the death of her son, John, second Viscount Kenmure

LXI. To MR JAMES

LXII. To LADY BOYD .

LXIII. To LADY FINGASK

LXIV. To MR DAVID DICKSON, on the death of his son

LXV. To LADY BOYD, on the loss of several friends

LXVI. To MR. TAYLOR, on her son's death

LXVII. To BARBARA HAMILTON .

LXVIII. To A CHRISTIAN BROTHER, on the death of his daughter

LXIX. To A CHRISTIAN GENTLEWOMAN, on her death-bed

LXX. To LADY KENMURE

LXXI. To LADY ARDROSS

Glossary

Foreword

Samuel Rutherford nearly ended his days on a scaffold. But he was already

on his deathbed when he was summoned to appear at the bar of the Scottish

House to answer a charge of treason. 'Tell them,' he said to the

officers, 'that I have a summons already from a superior Judge and

indicator, and I behave to answer my first summons; and see your day

arrives I shall be where few kings and great folk come.' That higher

summons he answered on March 29, 1661.

Charles II had returned to his throne largely by the assistance of the

Presbyterians of England and Scotland, after the exchange of solemn

assurances of religious and political liberty and tolerance. But once in

the seat of power again Charles and his government showed their true

colours. A carefully packed Scottish Parliament -- 'the Drunken Parliament'

-- assembled on New Year's Day, 1661. One of its actions was to mark for

execution four of the outstanding leaders of the Covenantors, among whom

was Rutherford, then Principal of New College and Rector of the

University of St. Andrew. Not the least of his crimes was the authorship

of a then famous book, Lex Rex, 'the Law, the King', a denunciation of

despotism and a plea for constitutional monarchy. Its standpoint is today

a democratic commonplace, but it was then adjudged as 'full of seditious

and treasonable matter'. The book was publicly burned at the Mercat Cross

in Edinburgh and before New College in St. Andrew. It was then that

Parliament sent for its author.

Born in 1600 at Jedburgh and graduated at Edinburgh in 1621,

Rutherford became two years later the very youthful Professor of

Humanity, or Latin, in the University. In 1627 he settled as parish

minister at Anwoth in Galloway. Coming into conflict with the

authorities he was in 1636 deprived of his ministerial functions and

banished to Aberdeen; where, though he was not imprisoned, he found

the experience irksome in the extreme. In 1638, however, the Kirk

Assembly swept away the bishops and restored Rutherford to his

parish, and in the following year he was appointed Professor of

Divinity at St. Andrew. From 1643 to 1647 he took an important part

in the work of the Westminster Assembly of divines as one of the

Scottish Commissioners.

Most of the letters, 220 out of 365, were written during his exile in

Aberdeen. It is, perhaps, not surprising that they catch him often in

moods of depression, grieving over his absent friends and his 'dumb

Sabbaths'. But there are also times when he has been caught into the

seventh heaven and tries to tell of unutterable things. Yet he is

constantly reminding himself and his correspondents that the reality of

the nearness and love of Christ is not to be measured by our feelings.

For the rest, the letters are here to speak for themselves.

I have not made an anthology of striking passages picked out of the

context, but have preferred a representative selection of the letters

themselves, though few are reproduced quite completely. The omissions

are partly to avoid repetition: writing to several people in much the

same condition at about the same time Rutherford naturally gives much

the same counsel. Partly the omitted sentences are concerned with the

ecclesiastical, theological and political argumentation of his day, and

would either be of little interest or would take too much explanation

before they could be made intelligible to most of us. The guiding aim

has been to select what might be of interest and practically helpful to

present-day readers. In some instances I have given information about

the correspondents, but of many little is known and often that little

would not be very illuminating. So far as the date is ascertainable the

letters are arranged chronologically.

Rutherford's varied and pungent vocabulary is a delight, but it

presents somewhat of a problem. The usage of some words, such as

'professor' and 'painful', has changed since the seventeenth century,

and the unwary may be misled. Many more of his words have gone out of

use altogether and some are not even in an ordinary dictionary. Not a

few are familiar only to the Scot. So I have done what I could by the

provision of a Glossary. It may be noted, however, that Rutherford

follows the characteristic practice of much sixteenth- and

seventeenth-century writing, including the Book of Common Prayer and

Shakespeare, of frequently using synonymous words together: as 'niffer

and exchange', 'I dow not, I cannot', 'wale and choose'. It is thus

often possible to make a good guess at the meaning of an unfamiliar

word.

Selections from the letters have frequently been printed, often in a

very bowdlerized version. An admirable complete edition was issued by

Dr Andrew Boner in 1863, and was several times reprinted. Samuel

Rutherford and Some of his Correspondents, by Dr Alexander White (1894)

is also to be commended to those who can find a copy.

HUGH MARTIN

I. To LADY KENMURE, at a time of illness and spiritual depression

Lady Jane Campbell, Viscountess of Kenmure, was the third daughter of

Archibald Campbell, seventh Earl of Argyle, and sister to the Marquis

of Argyle who was beheaded in 1661. She was remarkable for ability and

Christian devotion, and for her generous help to those who suffered for

conscience' sake. She had many troubles of her own, which are reflected

in these letters. She lost two daughters in infancy and her husband

died in 1634. Her son, who succeeded to the title, also died before

attaining his majority, in 1649. The last of Rutherford's letters to

her is dated in 1661, just after the execution of her brother. She

herself lived to a great age, though suffering all her life from bad

health. Forty-seven letters to her from Rutherford have been preserved,

and sixteen of them are quoted in this selection. See below, numbers

II, IV, V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XIX, XX, XLVIII, LX, LXX.

MADAM, -- All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of

your Ladyship's infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have

learned to say, 'It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in

His eyes.' For there be many Christians most like unto young sailors,

who think the shore and the whole land doth move, when the ship and

they themselves are moved; just so, not a few do imagine that God

moveth and saileth and changeth places, because their giddy souls are

under sail, and subject to alteration, to ebbing and flowing. But 'the

foundation of the Lord abideth sure'. God knoweth that ye are His own.

Wrestle, fight, go forward, watch, fear, believe, pray; and then ye

have the infallible symptoms of one of the elect of Christ within you.

Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a

death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see

through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. Now, I

believe ye have only these two shallow brooks, sickness and death, to

pass through; and ye have also a promise that Christ shall do more than

meet you, even that He shall come Himself, and go with you foot for

foot, yea and bear you in His arms. O then! O then! for the joy that is

set before you; for the love of the Man (who is also 'God over all,

blessed forever') that is standing on the shore to welcome you, run

your race with patience. The Lord go with you. Your Lord will not have

you, nor any of His servants, to exchange for the worse. Death in

itself includeth both the death of the soul and the death of the body;

but to God's children the bounds and the limits of death are abridged

and drawn into a more narrow compass. So that when ye die, a piece of

death shall only seize upon you, or the least part of you shall die,

and that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered

from the second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not

sin (although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but

eat your earthly part. As for your soul, it is above the law of death.

But it is fearful and dangerous to be a debtor and servant to sin; for

the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except

Christ both count and pay for you.

I trust also, Madam, that ye will be careful to present to the Lord

the present estate of this decaying kirk. For what shall be concluded

in Parliament anent her, the Lord knoweth.

Stir up your husband, your brother, and all with whom you are in

favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I have

good hope your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of Zion: the

peace of God be upon him. Thus, not willing to weary your Ladyship

farther, I commend you, now and always, to the grace and mercy of that

God who is able to keep you, that you fall not. The Lord Jesus be with

your spirit.

ANWOTH, July 27, 1628

II. To LADY KENMURE, on the occasion of the death of her infant

daughter

MADAM, -- Saluting your Ladyship with grace and mercy from God our

Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. I was sorry, at my departure,

leaving your Ladyship in grief, and would be still grieved at it if I

were not assured that ye have one with you in the furnace whose visage

is like unto the Son of God. I am glad that ye have been acquainted

from your youth with the wrestlings of God, knowing that if ye were not

dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of Him, He

would not spend so much physic upon you. All the brethren and sisters

of Christ must be conform to His image and copy in suffering (Rom.

8.29). And some do more vividly resemble the copy than others. Think,

Madam, that it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among those whom

one of the elders pointed out to John, 'These are they which came out

of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in

the blood of the Lamb.' Ye have lost a child: nay she is not lost to

you who is found to Christ. She is not sent away, but only sent before,

like unto a star, which going out of our sight doth not die and vanish,

but shineth in another hemisphere. We see her not, yet she doth shine

in another country. If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth

of time that she hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to rejoice that

ye have now some plenishing up in heaven. Build your nest upon no tree

here; for ye see God hath sold the forest to death; and every tree

whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end we may fly

and mount up, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the holes of the

Rock. What ye love besides Jesus, your husband, is an adulterous lover.

Now it is God's special blessing to Judah, that He will not let her

find her paths in following her strange lovers. 'Therefore, behold I

will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not

find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall

not overtake them' (Hos. 2.6-7). O thrice happy Judas, when God

buildeth a double stone wall betwixt her and the fire of hell! The

world, and the things of the world, Madam, is the lover ye naturally

affect beside your own husband Christ. The hedge of thorns and the wall

which God buildeth in your way, to hinder you from this lover, is the

thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children, weakness of body,

iniquity of the time, uncertainty of estate, lack of worldly comfort,

fear of God's anger for old unrepented-of sins. What lose ye, if God

twist and plait the hedge daily thicker? God be blessed, the Lord will

not let you find your paths. Return to your first husband. Do not

weary, neither think that death walketh towards you with a slow pace.

Ye must be riper ere ye be shaken. Your days are no longer than Job's,

that were 'swifter than a post, and passed away as the ships of desire,

and as the eagle that hasteth for the prey' (9, 25, 26, margin). There

is less sand in your glass now than there was yesternight. This

span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended. But the greater is

the mercy of God, the more years ye get to advise, upon what terms, and

upon what conditions, ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of

never-ending eternity. The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing

till He come; 'wait and hasten (saith Peter,) for the coming of the

Lord'; all is night that is here, in respect of ignorance and daily

ensuing troubles, one always making way to another, as the ninth wave

of the sea to the tenth; therefore sigh and long for the dawning of

that morning, and the breaking of that day of the coming of the Son of

man, when the shadows shall flee away. Persuade yourself the King is

coming; read His letter sent before Him, 'Behold, I come quickly.' Wait

with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the eastern sky, and

think that you have not a morrow. I am loath to weary you; show

yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring; -- in patience

possess your soul: they lose nothing who gain Christ. I commend you to

the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus.

ANWOTH, Jan, 15, 1629

III. To MARION MCNAUGHT, when his wife was ill

Marion McNaught, a niece of Viscount Kenmure, married William

Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright. She was a close and lifelong

friend of Rutherford. The manner in which he discusses with her the

most profound questions of Christian doctrine and personal religion, as

well as the tangled affairs of Church and State, are sufficient

evidence of her outstanding gifts and graces. Forty-five letters to her

have survived. Letters VI and XXXIX below are also to her.

LOVING AND DEAR SISTER, -- If ever you would pleasure me, entreat the

Lord for me, now when I am so comfortless, and so full of heaviness,

that I am not able to stand under the burthen any longer. The Almighty

hath doubled His stripes upon me, for my wife is so sore tormented

night and day, that I have wondered why the Lord tarrieth so long. My

life is bitter unto me, and I fear the Lord be my contrair party. It is

(as I now know by experience) hard to keep sight of God in a storm,

especially when He hides Himself, for the trial of His children. If He

would be pleased to remove His hand, I have a purpose to seek Him more

than I have done. Happy are they that can win away with their soul. I

am afraid of His judgments. I bless my God that there is a death, and a

heaven. I would weary to begin again to be a Christian, so bitter is it

to drink of the cup that Christ drank of, if I knew not that there is

no poison in it. Pray that God would not lead my wife into temptation.

Woe is my heart, that I have done so little against the kingdom of

Satan in my calling; for he would fain attempt to make me blaspheme God

in His face. I believe, I believe, in the strength of Him who hath put

me in His work, he shall fail in that which he seeks. I have comfort in

this, that my Captain, Christ, hath said, I must fight and overcome the

world, and with a weak, spoiled, weaponless devil, 'the prince of this

world cometh, and hath nothing in me'. Desire Mr Robert to remember me,

if he love me. Grace, grace be with you, and all yours.

Remember Zion. Hold fast that which you have, that no man take the

crown from you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

ANWOTH, Nov. 17, 1629

IV. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- I have longed exceedingly to hear of your life, and health,

and growth in the grace of God. I entreat you, Madam, let me have two

lines from you, concerning your present condition. I know you are in

grief and heaviness; and if it were not so, you might be afraid,

because then your way would not be so like the way that our Lord saith

leadeth to the New Jerusalem. Sure I am, if you knew what were before

you, or if you saw some glances of it, you would, with gladness, swim

through the present floods of sorrow, spreading forth your arms out of

desire to be at land. If God have given you the earnest of the Spirit,

as part of the payment of the principal sum, ye have to rejoice; for

our Lord will not lose His earnest, neither will He go back, or repent

Him of His bargain. If you find, at some time, a longing to see God,

joy in the assurance of that sight (although the sight be but like the

pass over, that cometh about only once in the year), peace of

conscience, liberty of prayer, the doors of God's treasury opened to

the soul, and a clear sight of Himself, saying, with a smiling

countenance, 'Welcome to me, afflicted soul'; this is the earnest which

He giveth sometimes, and which maketh glad the heart; and is an

evidence that the bargain will hold. But to the end ye may get this

earnest, it were good to come in terms of speech with God, both in

prayer and hearing of the word, for the Christ that saveth you is a

speaking Christ; the church knoweth Him by His voice (Song of Solomon

2.8), and can discern His tongue amongst a thousand. When our Lord

cometh, He speaketh to the heart in the simplicity of the Gospel.

I have neither tongue nor pen to express to you the happiness of such

as are in Christ. When ye have sold all that ye have, and bought the

field wherein this pearl is, ye will think it no bad market; for if ye

be in Him, all His is yours, and ye are in Him; therefore, 'because He

liveth, ye shall live also' (John 14.19). 'Father, I will that those

whom Thou hast given Me be with Me when I am, to behold My glory that

Thou hath given me' (John 17.24). Amen, dear Jesus, let it be according

to that word. I wonder that ever your heart should be cast down, if ye

believe this truth. I and they are not worthy at Jesus Christ, who will

not suffer forty years trouble for Him, since they have such glorious

promises. But we fools believe those promises as the man that read

Plato's writings concerning the immortality of the soul: so long as the

book was in his hand he believed all was true, and that the soul could

not die; but so soon as he laid by the book, he began to imagine that

the soul is but a smoke or airy vapor, that perisheth with the expiring

of the breath. So we at starts do assent to the sweet and precious

promises; but, laying aside God's book, we begin to call all in

question. It is faith indeed to believe without a pledge, and to hold

the heart constant at this work; and when we doubt, to run to the Law

and to the Testimony, and stay there. Madam, hold you here: here is

your Father's testament -- read it; in it He hath left you remission of

sins and life everlasting. If all that you have in this world be

crosses and troubles, down-castings, frequent desertions and departures

of the Lord, still He purposeth to do you good at your latter end, and

to give you rest from the days of adversity. 'It is good to bear the

yoke of God in your youth.' Turn ye to the strong hold, as a prisoner

of hope. 'For the vision is for an appointed time, but at the last it

shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it: because it

surely will come, it will not tarry.' Hear Himself saying, 'Come, my

people (rejoice, He calleth you), enter thou into thy chambers, and

shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment,

till the indignation be past.' Believe, then, believe and be ye saved:

think it not hard, if ye get not your will nor your delights in this

life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but Himself. 'God forbid

that ye should rejoice in any thing but the cross of Christ.' Grace,

grace be with you. The great Messenger of the Covenant preserve you in

body and spirit.

Yours in the Lord

ANWOTH, Feb. 1, 1630

V. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied upon you. I received

your Ladyship's letter, in the which I perceive your case in this world

smelleth of a fellowship and communion with the Son of God in His

sufferings. Ye cannot, ye must not, have a more pleasant or more easy

condition here, than He had, who 'through afflictions was made perfect'

(Heb. 2.10). We may indeed think, Cannot God bring us to heaven with

ease and prosperity? Who doubteth but He can? But His infinite wisdom

thinketh and decreeth the contrary; and we cannot see a reason for it,

yet He hath a most just reason. We never with our eyes saw our own

soul; yet we have a soul. We see many rivers, but we know not their

first spring and original fountain; yet they have a beginning. Madam,

when ye are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your

foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the

waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear

glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, ye shall

then be forced to say, 'If God had done otherwise with me than He hath

done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.' It is

your part now to believe, and suffer, and hope, and wait on; for I

protest, in the presence of that all-discerning eye, who knoweth what I

write and what I think, that I would not want the sweet experience of

the consolations of God for all the bitterness of affliction. Nay,

whether God come to His children with a rod or a crown, if He come

Himself with it, it is well. Welcome, welcome, Jesus, what way soever

Thou come, if we can get a sight of Thee! And sure I am, it is better

to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw by the

curtains, and say, 'Courage, I am thy salvation', than to enjoy

health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God

My wife now, after long disease and torment, for the space of a year

and a month, is departed this life. The Lord hath done it; blessed be

His name. I have been diseased of a fever tertian for the space of

thirteen weeks, and am yet in the sickness, so that I preach but once

on the Sabbath with great difficulty. I am not able either to visit or

examine the congregation. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

ANWOTH, June 26, 1630.

VI. To MARION MCNAUGHT, when persecuted for her principles

WELL-BELOVED SISTER, -- I have been thinking, since my departure from

you, of the pride and malice of your adversaries; and ye may not (since

ye have had the Book of Psalms so often) take hardly with this; for

David's enemies snuffed at him, and through the pride of their heart

said, 'The Lord will not require it' (Ps. 10.13). I beseech you,

therefore, in the bowels of Jesus, set before your eyes the patience of

your forerunner Jesus, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again;

when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him who

judgeth righteously (I Pet. 2.23). And since your Lord and Redeemer

with patience received many a black stroke on His glorious back, and

many a buffet of the unbelieving world, and says of Himself, 'I gave My

back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I

hid not my face from shame and spitting' (Isa. 50.6); follow Him and

think it not hard that you receive a blow with your Lord. Take part

with Jesus of His sufferings, and glory in the marks of Christ. If this

storm were over, you must prepare yourself for a new wound; for, five

thousand years ago, our Lord proclaimed deadly war betwixt the Seed of

the Woman and the seed of the Serpent.

Be you upon Christ's side of it, and care not what flesh can do. Hold

yourself fast by your Savior, howbeit you be buffeted, and those that

follow Him. Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. 'We are

troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not

in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed'

(II Cor. 4.8, 9). If you can possess your soul in patience, their day

is coming. Worthy and dear sister, know to carry yourself in trouble;

and when you are hated and reproached, the Lord shows it to you -- 'All

this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we

dealt falsely in Thy covenant' (Ps. 44.17). 'Unless Thy law had been my

delight, I had perished in mine affliction' (Ps. 119.92). Keep God's

covenant in your trials; hold you by His blessed word, and sin not;

flee anger, wrath, grudging, envyving, fretting; forgive a hundred

pence to your fellow-servant, because your Lord hath forgiven you ten

thousand talents: for, I assure you by the Lord, your adversaries shall

get no advantage against you, except you sin, and offend your Lord, in

your sufferings. But the way to overcome is by patience, forgiving and

praying for your enemies, in doing whereof you heap coals upon their

heads, and your Lord shall open a door to you in your trouble: wait

upon Him, as the night watch waiteth for the morning. He will not

tarry. Go up to your watch-tower, and come not down, but by prayer, and

faith, and hope, wait on. When the sea is full, it will ebb again; and

so soon as the wicked come to the top of their pride, and are waxed

high and mighty, then is their change approaching; they that believe

make not haste.

Now, again, I trust in our Lord, you shall by faith sustain yourself

and comfort yourself in your Lord, and be strong in His power; for you

are in the beaten and common way to heaven, when you are under our

Lord's crosses. You have reason to rejoice in it, more than in a crown

of gold; and rejoice and be glad to bear the reproaches of Christ. I

rest, recommending you and yours forever, to the grace and mercy of

God. Yours in Christ.

ANWOTH, Feb, 11, 1631

VII. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- I would not omit the opportunity of remembering your Ladyship,

still harping upon that string, which in our whole lifetime is never

too often touched upon (nor is our lesson well enough learned), that

there is a necessity of advancing in the way to the kingdom of God, of

the contempt of the world, of denying ourself and bearing of our Lord's

cross, which is no less needful for us than daily food. And among many

marks that we are on this journey, and under sail toward heaven, this

is one, when the love of God so filleth our hearts, that we forget to

love, and care not much for the having, or wanting of, other things.

For this cause God's bairns take well with spoiling of their goods,

knowing in themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring

substance (Heb. 10.34). That day that the earth and the works therein

shall be burned with fire (II Pet. 3.10), your hidden hope and your

life shall appear. And therefore, since ye have not now many years to

your endless eternity, and know not how soon the sky above your head

will rive, and the Son of man will be seen in the clouds of heaven,

what better and wiser course can ye take, than to think that your one

foot is here, and your other foot in the life to come, and to leave off

loving, desiring, or grieving, for the wants that shall be made up when

your Lord and ye shall meet. Then shall ye rejoice 'with joy

unspeakable and full of glory -- and your joy shall no one take from

you.' It is enough that the Lord has promised you great things; only

let the time of bestowing them be His own. It is not for us to set an

hour-glass to the Creator of time. It will be; for God has said it,

bide His harvest. His day is better than your day; He putteth not the

hook in the corn, till it be ripe and full-eared. The great Angel of

the Covenant bear you company, till the trumpet shall sound, and the

voice of the archangel awaken the dead.

Ye shall find it your only happiness, under whatsoever thing

disturbeth and crosseth the peace of your mind in this life, to love

nothing for itself, but only God for Himself. Our love to Him should

not begin on earth as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not,

by a thousand degrees, so much delight in her wedding garments as she

does in her bridegroom; so we, in the life to come, howbeit clothed

with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory

that goeth about us, as with the Bridegroom's joyful face and presence.

Madam, if ye can win to this here, the field is won.

Fearing to be tedious to you, I break off here, commending you (as I

trust to do while I live), your person, ways, burdens, and all that

concerneth you, to that Almighty who is able to bear you and your

burdens. I still remember you to Him who will cause you one day to

laugh.

ANWOTH, Jan. 14, 1632

VIII. To JOHN KENNEDY, on his deliverance from shipwreck

John Stuart, Provost of Aye, another correspondent of Rutherford

(Letter XXIX), was told that a ship of his, bound from Rochelle to Aye,

had been captured by the Turks. The rumour proved incorrect, for at

length it arrived in the roads. Kennedy, an intimate friend of Stuart,

was so overjoyed that he went out to it in a small boat. But a violent

storm suddenly arose and he was driven out to sea and given up for

drowned. But three days later Kennedy, who had managed to land safely

on another part of the coast, returned home. Kennedy was member for Aye

of the Scottish Parliament from 1664 to 1666, and was then Provost of

the town. He was also a member of the General Assembly of the Church

for some years.

MY LOVING AND MOST AFFECTIONATE BROTHER IN CHRIST, -- I salute you with

grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus

Christ.

I promised to write to you, and although late enough, yet I now make

it good. I heard with grief of your great danger of perishing by the

sea, and of your merciful deliverance with joy. Sure I am, brother,

that Satan will leave no stone unrolled, as the proverb is, to roll you

off your Rock, or at least to shake and unsettle you: for at that same

time the mouths of wicked men were opened in hard speeches against you,

by land, and the prince of the power of the air was angry with you by

sea. See then how much ye are obliged to that malicious murderer, who

would beat you with two rods at one time; but, blessed be God, his arm

is short; if the sea and wind would have obeyed him, ye had never come

to land. Thank your God, who saith, 'I have the keys of hell and death

(Rev 1.18); 'I kill, and I make alive' (Deut.. 32.39): 'The Lord

bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up' (I Sam. 2.6). Ye were

knocking at these black gates, and ye found the doors shut; and we do

all welcome you back again.

I trust that ye know that it is not for nothing that ye are sent to

us again. The Lord knew that ye had forgotten something that was

necessary for your journey; that your armour was not as yet thick

enough against the stroke of death. Now, in the strength of Jesus

dispatch your business; that debt is not forgiven, but fristed: death

has not bidden you farewell, but has only left you for a short season.

End your journey ere the night come upon you. Have all in readiness

against the time that ye must sail through that black and impetuous

Jordan; and Jesus, Jesus, who knoweth both those depths and the rocks,

and all the coasts, be your pilot. The last tide will not wait you for

one moment. If ye forget anything, when your sea is full, and your foot

in that ship, there is no returning again to fetch it. What ye do amiss

in your life to-day, ye may amend it to-morrow; for as many suns as God

maketh to arise upon you, ye have as many new lives; but ye can die but

once, and if ye mar or spill that business, ye cannot come back to mend

that piece of work again. No man sinneth twice in dying ill; as we die

but once, so we die but ill or well once. You see how the number of

your months is written in God's book; and as one of the Lord's

hirelings, ye must work till the shadow of the evening come upon you,

and ye shall run out your glass even to the last pickle of sand.

Fulfill your course with joy, for we take nothing to the grave with us,

but a good or evil conscience. And, although the sky clear after this

storm, yet clouds will engender another.

Ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began to follow Him,

that ye would bear His cross. Fulfill your part of the contract with

patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. Be honest, brother, in your

bargaining with Him; for who knoweth better how to bring up children

than our God? For (to lay aside His knowledge, of the which there is no

finding out) He has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five

thousand years; and His bairns are all well brought up, and many of

them are honest men now at home, up in their own house in heaven, and

are entered heirs to their Father's inheritance. Now, the form of His

bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nurturing; and

see if He maketh exception of any of His bairns; no, His eldest Son and

His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3.19; Heb. 12.7-8; 2.10). Suffer

we must; ere we were born God decreed it, and it is easier to complain

of His decree than to change it. Forward then, dear brother, and lose

not your grips.

Now I commend you, your whole soul, and body, and spirit, to Jesus

Christ and His keeping, hoping that ye will live and die, stand and

fall, with the cause of our Master, Jesus. The Lord Jesus Himself be

with your spirit. Your loving brother in our Lord Jesus.

ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632

IX. To LADY KENMURE, on the perils of rank and prosperity

MADAM, -- I determined, and was desirous also, to have seen your

Ladyship, but because of a pain in my arm I could not. I know ye will

not impute it to any unsuitable forgetfulness of your Ladyship, from

whom, at my first entry to my calling in this country (and since also),

I received such comfort in my affliction as I trust in God never to

forget, and shall labour by His grace to recompense in the only way

possible to me; and that is, by presenting your soul, person, house,

and all your necessities, in prayer to Him, whose I hope you are, and

who is able to keep you till that Day of Appearance, and to present you

before His face with joy.

I am confident your Ladyship is going forward in the begun journey to

your Lord and Father's home and kingdom. Howbeit ye want not

temptations within and without. And who among the saints has ever taken

that castle without stroke of sword? The Chief of the house, our Elder

brother, our Lord Jesus, not being excepted, who won His own house and

home, due to Him by birth, with much blood and many blows. Your

Ladyship has the more need to look to yourself, because our Lord has

placed you higher than the rest, and your way to heaven lieth through a

more wild and waste wilderness than the way of many of your

fellow-travellers -- not only through the midst of this wood of thorn,

the cumbersome world, but also through these dangerous paths, the

vain-glory of it; the consideration whereof has often moved me to pity

your soul, and the soul of your worthy and noble husband. And it is

more to you to win heaven, being ships of greater burden, and in the

main sea, than for little vessels, that are not so much in the mercy

and reverence of the storms, because they may come quietly to their

port by launching amongst the coast. For the which cause ye do much, if

in the midst of such a tumult of business, and crowd of temptations, ye

shall give Christ Jesus His own court and His own due place in your

soul. I know and am persuaded, that that lovely One, Jesus, is dearer

to you than many kingdoms; and that ye esteem Him your Well-beloved,

and the Standard-bearer among ten thousand (Song of Sol. 5.1O). And it

becometh Him full well to take the place and the board head in your

soul before all the world. I knew and saw Him with you in the furnace

of affliction; for there He wooed you to Himself, and chose you to be

His; and now He craveth no other hire of you but your love, and that He

get no cause to be jealous of you. And, therefore, dear and worthy

lady, be like to the fresh river, that keepeth its own fresh taste in

the salt sea.

Madam, many eyes are upon you, and many would be glad your Ladyship

should spill a Christian, and mar a good professor. Lord Jesus, mar

their godless desires, and keey the conscience whole without a crack!

If there be a hole in it, so that it take in water at a leak, it will

with difficulty mend again. It is a dainty, delicate creature, and a

rare piece of the workmanship of your Maker; and therefore deal gently

with it, and keep it entire, that amidst this world's glory your

Ladyship may learn to entertain Christ. And whatsoever creature your

Ladyship findeth not to smell of Him, may it have no better relish to

you than the white of an egg.

Madam, it is a part of the truth of your profession to drop words in

the ears of your noble husband continually of eternity, judgment,

death, hell, heaven, the honorable profession, the sins of his father's

house. He must reckon with God for his father's debt; forgetting of

accounts payeth no debt. Nay, the interest of a forgotten bond runneth

up with God to interest upon interest. I know he looketh homeward, and

loveth the truth; but I pity him with my soul, because of his many

temptations. Satan layeth upon men a burden of cares, above a load (and

maketh a pack horse of men's souls), when they are wholly set upon this

world. We owe the devil no such service. It were wisdom to throw off

that load into a mire, and cast all our cares over upon God.

Look for crosses, and while it is fair weather mend the sails of the

ship. Now hoping your Ladyship will pardon my tediousness, I recommend

your soul and person to the grace and mercy of our Lord, in whom I am

your Ladyship's obedient.

ANWOTH, Nov, 15, 1633

X. To LADY KENMURE, on the death of her husband

MY VERY NOBLE AND WORTHY LADY, -- So oft as I call to mind the comforts

that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship

here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the

delight of mine eyes (Ezek. 24.1), as the Word speaketh (which wound is

not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall remember that,

and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest

Lord has made you a widow, albeit I must out of some experience say,

the mourning for the husband of your youth be, by God's own mouth, the

heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel 1.8). And though this be the weightiest

burden that ever lay upon your back; yet ye know (when the fields are

emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if ye shall wait upon

Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God's honor and

truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. Let your

faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved

first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now ware your whole

love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the

affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by

the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ.

And I dare say that God's hammering of you from your youth is only to

make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New

Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world's vain painted glory a

gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because

He is to propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the

inheritance is yours. Ye are a child of the house, and joy is laid up

for you, it is long in coming, but not the worse for that. I am now

expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of

you since I knew you fully; even that ye have laid such strength upon

the Holy One of Israel, that ye defy troubles, and that your soul is a

castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider

how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has

been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after

you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God's sake, let Him not

miss His grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith

(Jude 21).

Now. Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part;

and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not

evidencing what I was obliged to your more-than-undeserved love and

respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble

lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your

redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in

Galloway is now shining in another world. Now I pray that God may

answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the

God of all consolations.

ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1634

XI. To lady KENMURE, when he expected to be removed from Anwoth

MAIDAM, -- My humble obedience in the Lord remembered. Know it has

pleased the Lord to let me see, by all appearance, that my labours in

God's house here are at an end; and I must now learn to suffer, in the

which I am a dull scholar. By a strange providence, some of my papers,

anent the corruptions of this time, are come to the King's hand. I

know, by the wise and well-affected I shall be censured as not wise nor

circumspect enough; but it is ordinary, that that should be a part of

the cross of those who suffer for Him. Yet I love and pardon the

instrument; I would commit my life to him, howbeit by him this has

befallen me. But I look higher than to him. I make no question of your

Ladyship's love and care to do what ye can for my help, and am

persuaded that, in my adversities, your Ladyship will wish me well. I

seek no other thing but that my Lord may be honored by me in giving a

testimony. I was willing to do Him more service; but seeing He will

have no more of my labours, and this land will thrust me out, I pray

for grace to learn to be acquaint with misery, if I may give so rough a

name to such a mark of those who shall be crowned with Christ. And

howbeit I will possibly prove a faint-hearted, unwise man in that, yet

I dare say I intend otherwise; and I desire not to go on the lee-side

or sunny side of religion, or to put truth betwixt me and a storm: my

Savior did not do so for me, who in His suffering took the windy side

of the hill. No farther; but the Son of God be with you.

ANWOTH, Dec. 5, 1634

XII. To lady KENMURE, on the eve of his banishment to Aberdeen

NOBLE AND ELECT LADY, -- That honor that I have prayed for these sixteen

years, with submission to my Lord's will, my kind Lord has now bestowed

upon me, even to suffer for my royal and princely King Jesus, and for

His kingly crown, and the freedom of His kingdom that His Father has

given Him. The forbidden lords have sentenced me with deprivation, and

confinement within the town of Aberdeen. I am charged in the King's

name to enter against the 20th day of August next, and there to remain

during the Kings pleasure, as they have given it out. Howbeit Christ's

green cross, newly laid upon me, be somewhat heavy, while I call to

mind the many fair days sweet and comfortable to my soul and to the

souls of many others, and how young ones in Christ are plucked from the

breast, and the inheritance of God laid waste; yet that cross of Christ

is accompanied with sweet refreshments, with the joy of the Holy Ghost,

with faith that the Lord hears the sighing of a prisoner, with

undoubted hope (as sure as my Lord liveth) after this night to see

daylight, and Christ's sky to clear up again upon me, and His poor

kirk; and that in a strange land, among strange faces, He will give

favor in the eyes of men to His poor oppressed servant, who dow not but

love that lovely One, that princely One, Jesus, the Comforter of his

soul. All would be well, if I were free of old challenges for

guiltiness, and for neglect in my calling, and for speaking too little

for my Well-beloved's crown, honor, and kingdom. This is my only

exercise, that I fear I have done little good in my ministry.

I apprehend no less than a judgment upon Galloway, and that the Lord

shall visit this whole nation for the quarrel of the Covenant. But what

can be laid upon me, or any the like of me, is too light for Christ.

Christ dow bear more, and would bear death and burning quick, in His

quick servants, even for this honorable cause that I now suffer for.

Yet for all my complaints (and He knoweth that I dare not now

dissemble), He was never sweeter and kinder than He is now. My dear

worthy Lady, I give it to your Ladyship, under my own hand, my heart

writing as well as my hand welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet and glorious

cross of Christ; welcome, sweet Jesus, with Thy light cross. Thou hast

now gained and gotten all my love from me; keep what Thou hast gotten!

Only woe, woe is me, for my bereft flock, for the lambs of Jesus, that

I fear shall be fed with dry breasts. But I spare now. Madam, I dare

not promise to see your Ladyship, because of the little time I have

allotted me; and I purpose to obey the King, who has power of my body;

and rebellion to kings is unbeseeming Christ's ministers. Madam, bind

me more (if more can be) to your Ladyship; and write thanks to your

brother, my Lord of Lorn, for what he has done for me, a poor and

unknown stranger to his Lordship. I shall pray for him and his house,

while I live. Now, Madam, commending your Ladyship, and the sweet

child, to the tender mercies of the Lord Jesus, and His good-will who

dwelt in the Bush.

EDINBURGH, July 28, 1636

XIII. To LADY KENMURE

MY VERY HONORABLE AND DEAR LADY, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I

cannot forget your Ladyship, and that sweet child. I desire to hear

what the Lord is doing to you and him. To write to me were charity. I

cannot but write to my friends, that Christ has trysted me in Aberdeen;

and my adversaries have sent me here to be feasted with love banquets

with my royal, high, high, and princely King Jesus. Madam, why should I

smother Christ's honesty? I dare not conceal His goodness to my soul;

He looked fremed and unco-like upon me when I came first here; but I

believe Himself better than His looks. God forgive them that raise an

ill report upon the sweet cross of Christ. It is but our weak and dim

eyes, and our looking only to the black side that makes us mistake.

Those who can take that crabbed tree handsomely upon their back, and

fasten it on cannily, shall find it such a burden as wings unto a bird,

or sails to a ship. Madam, rue not of your having chosen the better

part. Upon my salvation, this is Christ's truth I now suffer for. If I

found but cold comfort in my sufferings, I would not beguile others; I

would have told you plainly. But the truth is, Christ's crown, His

sceptre, and the freedom of His kingdom, is that which is now called in

question; because we will not allow that Christ should pay tribute and

be a vassal to the shields of the earth, therefore the sons of our

mother are angry at us. But it becometh not Christ to hold any man's

stirrup. It is little to see Christ in a book. They talk of Christ by

the book and the tongue, and no more; but to come nigh Christ, and

embrace Him, is another thing. Madam, I write to your honor, for your

encouragement in that honorable profession Christ has honored you with.

Ye have gotten the sunny side of the bras, and the best of Christ's

good things; and howbeit you get strokes and sour looks from your Lord,

yet believe His love more than your own feeling, for this world can

take nothing from you that is truly yours, and death can do you no

wrong. Your rock does not ebb and flow, but your sea. That which Christ

has said, He will bide by it.

Madam, I find folks here kind to me; but in the night, and under

their breath. My Master's cause may not come to the crown of the

causeway. Others are kind according to their fashion. Many think me a

strange man, and my cause not good; but I care not much for man's

thoughts or approbation. I think no shame of the cross. The preachers

of the town pretend great love, but the prelates have added to the rest

this gentle cruelty (for so they think of it), to discharge me of the

pulpits of this town. The people murmur and cry out against it; and to

speak truly (howbeit) Christ is most indulgent to me otherwise), my

silence on the Lord's day keeps me from being exalted above measure,

and from startling in the heat of my Lord's love. Some people affect

me, for the which cause, I hear the preachers here purpose to have my

confinement changed to another place; so cold is northern love; but

Christ and I will bear it. I have wrestled long with this sad silence.

I said, what aileth Christ at my service? And my soul has been at a

pleading with Christ, and at yea and nay. But I will yield to Him,

providing my suffering may preach more than my tongue did; for I give

not Christ an inch but for twice as good again. In a word, I am a fool,

and He is God. I will hold my peace hereafter.

Let me hear from your Ladyship, and your dear child. Pray for the

prisoner of Christ, who is mindful of your ladyship.

ABERDEEN, Nov. 22, 1636

XIV. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- Grace, mercy and peace be to you. I received your Ladyship's

letter. It refreshed me in my heaviness. The blessing and prayer of a

prisoner of Christ come upon you. Nothing grieveth me but that I eat my

feasts my lone, and that I cannot edify His saints. My silence eats me

up, but He has told me He thanketh me no less than if I were preaching

daily.

Your Ladyship wrote to me that ye are yet an ill scholar. Madam, ye

must go in at heaven's gates, and your book in your hand, still

learning. You have had your own large share of troubles, and a double

portion; but it saith your Father counteth you not a bastard;

full-begotten bairns are nurtured (Heb. 12.8). I long to hear of the

child. I write the blessings of Christ's prisoner and the mercies of

God to him.

Madam, it is not long since I did write to your Ladyship that Christ

is keeping mercy for you; and I bide by it still, and now I write it

under my hand. Love Him dearly. Win in to see Him; there is in Him that

which you never saw. He is aye nigh; He is a tree of life, green and

blossoming, both summer and winter. There is a nick in Christianity, to

the which whosoever cometh, they see and feel more than others can do.

Now the blessing of our dearest Lord Jesus, and the blessing of him

that is 'separate from his brethren', come upon you.

Yours, at Aberdeen, the prisoner of Christ.

ABERDEEN

XV To LADY BOYD

Lady Boyd, whose maiden name was Christian Hamilton, was the daughter

of a distinguished lawyer and inherited his abilities and strength of

character. She was a trusted friend of many of the leading ministers of

the Church of Scotland in her day. When she died the whole Scottish

Parliament suspended its sitting to attend her funeral. See also

letters LVII, LXII and LXV.

MADAM, -- Grace, mercy and peace be unto you. The Lord has brought me to

Aberdeen, where I see God in few. This town has been advised upon of

purpose for me; it consisteth either of Papists, or men of Gallio's

naughty faith. It is counted wisdom, in the most, not to countenance a

confined minister; but I find Christ neither strange nor unkind; for I

have found many faces smile upon me since I came hither. I am heavy and

sad, considering what is betwixt the Lord and my soul, which none seeth

but He. I find men have mistaken me; it would be no art (as I now see)

to spin small and make hypocrisy a goodly web, and to go through the

market as a saint among men, and yet steal quietly to hell, without

observation: so easy is it to deceive men. I have disputed whether or

no I ever knew anything of Christianity, save the letters of that name.

Men see but as men, and they call ten twenty and twenty an hundred; but

O! to be approved of God in the heart and in sincerity is not an

ordinary mercy. My neglects while I had a pulpit, and other things

whereof I am ashamed to speak, meet me now, so as God maketh an honest

cross my daily sorrow. Like a fool, I believed, under suffering for

Christ, that I myself should keep the key of Christ's treasures, and

take out comforts when I listed, and eat and be fat: but I see now a

sufferer for Christ will be made to know himself, and will be holden at

the door as well as another poor sinner, and will be fain to eat with

the bairns, and to take the by-board, and glad to do so. My blessing on

the cross of Christ that has made me see this! Oh! if we could take

pains for the kingdom of heaven! But we sit down upon some ordinary

marks of God's children, thinking we have as much as will separate us

from a reprobate; and thereupon we take the play and cry, 'Holiday!'

and thus the devil casteth water on our fire, and blunteth our zeal and

care. But I see heaven is not at the door; and I see, howbeit my

challenges be many, I suffer for Christ, and dare hazard my salvation

upon it; for sometimes my Lord cometh with a fair hour and O! but His

love be sweet, delightful, and comfortable.

Madam, I know your Ladyship knoweth this, and that made me bold to

write of it, that others might reap somewhat by my bonds for the truth;

for I should desire, and I aim at this, to have my Lord well spoken of,

and honored, howbeit He should make nothing of me but a bridge over a

water.

Thus recommending your Ladyship, your son and children, to His grace,

who has honored you with a name and room among the living in Jerusalem,

and wishing grace to be with your Ladyship.

ABERDEEN

XVI. To MR ROBERT BLAIR

Blair became minister of Bangor in Northern Ireland in 1623. But after

nine years there he was deposed for nonconformity with a number of

other ministers. A group of them took ship to emigrate to America in

search of religious liberty but were forced by the weather to return,

which is the occasion of this letter. In 1638 Blair was called to be

minister in Aye and later in St. Andrew, where he became a close friend

of Rutherford. In 1661 he was summoned before the Privy Council for a

sermon on the Covenant and deprived of his church. He died in 1666. See

also Letter LIV.

REVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER, -- Grace, mercy, and peace from God

our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, be unto you.

It is no great wonder, my dear brother, that ye be in heaviness for a

season, and that God's will (in crossing your design and desires to

dwell amongst a people whose God is the Lord) should move you. I deny

not but ye have cause to inquire what His providence speaketh in this

to you; but God's directing and commanding Will can by no good logic be

concluded from events of providence. The Lord sent Paul on many errands

for the spreading of His Gospel, where he found lions in his way. A

promise was made to His people of the Holy Land, and yet many nations

were in the way, fighting against, and ready to kill them that had the

promise, or to keep them from possessing the good land which the Lord

their God had given them. I know that ye have most to do with

submission of spirit; but I persuade myself that ye have learned, in

every condition wherein ye are cast, therein to be content, and to say,

'Good is the will of the Lord, let it be done.' I believe that the Lord

tacketh His ship often to fetch the wind, and that He purposeth to

bring mercy out of your sufferings and silence, which (I know from mine

own experience) is grievous to you. Seeing that He knoweth our willing

mind to serve Him, our wages and stipend is running to the fore with

our God, even as some sick soldiers get pay, when they are bedfast and

not able to go to the field with others.

When they have eaten and swallowed us up, they shall be sick and

vomit us out living men again; the devil's stomach cannot digest the

Church of God. Suffering is the other half of our ministry, howbeit the

hardest; for we would be content that our King Jesus should make an

open proclamation, and cry down crosses, and cry up joy, gladness,

ease, honor, and peace. But it must not be so; through many afflictions

we must enter into the kingdom of God. Not only by them, but through

them, must we go; and wiles will not take us past the cross. It is

folly to think to steal to heaven with a whole skin

For myself, I am here a prisoner confined in Aberdeen, threatened to

be removed to Caithness, because I desire to edify in this town; and am

openly preached against in the pulpits in my hearing.

There are none here to whom I can speak; I dwell in Kedar's tents.

Refresh me with a letter from you.

Dear brother, upon my salvation, this is His truth that we suffer

for. Courage! Courage! Joy, Joy, for evermore! O for help to set my

crowned lying on high! O for love to Him Who is altogether lovely -

that love which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods

drown!

I remember you, and bear your name on my breast to Christ. I beseech

you, forget not His afflicted prisoner.

Your brother and fellow prisoner.

ABERDEEN, Feb. 7, 1637

XVII. To ROBERT GORDON OF KNOCKBREX

Robert Gordon lived in the next parish to Anwoth. He was a prominent

figure in Church life in Scotland.

MY VERY WORTHY AND DEAR FRIEND, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.

Though all Galloway should have forgotten me, I would have expected a

letter from you ere now; but I will not expound it to be forgetfulness

of me.

Now, my dear brother, I cannot show you how matters go betwixt Christ

and me. I find my Lord going and coming seven times a day. His visits

are short; but they are both frequent and sweet. I dare not for my life

think of a challenge of my Lord. I hear ill tales, and hard reports of

Christ, from the Tempter and my flesh; but love believeth no evil. I

may swear that they are liars, and that apprehensions make lies of

Christ's honest and unalterable love to me. I dare not say that I am a

dry tree, or that I have no room at all in the vineyard, but yet I

often think that the sparrows are blessed, who may resort to the house

of God in Anwoth, from which I am banished.

Temptations, that I supposed to be stricken dead and laid upon their

back, rise again and revive upon me; yea, I see that while I live,

temptations will not die. The devil seemeth to brag and boast as much

as if he had more court with Christ than I have; and as if he had

charmed and blasted my ministry, that I shall do no more good in

public. But his wind shaketh no corn. I will not believe that Christ

would have made such a mint to have me to Himself, and have taken so

much pains upon me as He has done, and then slip so easily from

possession, and lose the glory of what He has done. Nay, since I came

to Aberdeen, I have been taken up to see the new land, the fair palace

of the Lamb; and will Christ let me see heaven, to break my heart, and

never give it to me? I shall not think my Lord Jesus giveth a dumb

earnest, or putteth His seals to blank paper, or intendeth to put me

off with fair and false promises. I see that now which I never saw well

before.

(I) I see faith's necessity in a fair day is never known aright; but

now I miss nothing so much as faith. Hunger in me runneth to fair and

sweet promises; but when I come, I am like a hungry man that wanteth

teeth, or a weak stomach having a sharp appetite that is filled with

the very sight of meat, or like one stupefied with cold under water,

that would fain come to land, but cannot grip anything casten to him. I

can let Christ grip me, but I cannot grip Him. I cannot set my feet to

the ground, for afflictions bring the cramp upon my faith. All I dow do

is to hold out a lame faith to Christ, like a beggar holding out a

stump instead of an arm or leg, and cry, 'Lord Jesus, work a miracle!

'Oh what would I give to have hands and arms to grip strongly.

(2) I see that mortification, and to be crucified to the world, is

not so highly accounted of by us as it should be. Oh how heavenly a

thing it is to be dead and dumb and deaf to this world's sweet music!

As I am at this present, I would scorn to buy this world's kindness

with a bow of my knee. I scarce now either see or hear what it is that

this world offereth me; I know that it is little that it can take from

me, and as little that it can give me.

(3) I thought courage, in the time of trouble for Christ's sake, a

thing that I might take up at my foot. I thought that the very

remembrance of the honesty of the cause would be enough. But I was a

fool in so thinking. Christ will be steward and dispenser Himself and

none else but He; therefore, now, I count much of one dram weight of

spiritual joy. Truly I have no cause to say that I am pinched with

penury, or that the consolations of Christ are dried up. Praise, praise

with me.

Remember my love to your brother, to your wife, and G.M. Desire him

to be faithful, and to repent of his hypocrisy; and say that I wrote it

to you. I wish him salvation. Write to me your mind agent C.E. and

C.Y., and their wives, and I.G., or any others in my parish. I fear

that I am forgotten amongst them; but I cannot forget them.

The prisoner's prayers and blessings come upon you. Grace, grace be

with you.

Your brother, in the Lord Jesus.

ABERDEEN, Feb. 9, 1637

XVIII. To ALEXANDER GORDON OF EARLSTON

Alexander Gordon of Earlston, not far from Anwoth, was summoned

before the High Commission by the bishop of Glasgow for preventing the

intrusion of an unpopular nominee of the bishop into a vacant parish.

This charge was not proceeded with, but on a later, similar charge he

was heavily fined. He was a leading Churchman and a member of the

Scottish Parliament.

MUHH HONORED SIR, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I received your

letter, which refreshed me. Except from your son, and my brother, I

have seen few letters from my acquaintance in that country; which

maketh me heavy. But I have the company of a Lord who can teach us all

to be kind, and has the right gate of it. It pleaseth Him to come and

dine with a sad prisoner, and a solitary stranger. But I verily think

now, that Christ has led me up to a nick in Christianity that I was

never at before. I think all before was but childhood and bairn's play.

I look back to what I was before, and I laugh to see the sand-houses I

built when I was a child.

At first the remembrance of many fair feast-days with my Lord Jesus

in public, which are now changed into silent Sabbaths, raised a great

tempest, and (if I may speak so) made the devil ado in my soul. The

devil came in, and would prompt me to lay the blame on Him as a hard

master. But now these mists are blown away, and I am not only silenced

as to all quarreling, but fully satisfied.

Christ beareth me good company. He has eased me, when I saw it not,

lifting the cross off my shoulders, so that I think it to be but a

feather, because underneath are everlasting arms. Nothing breaketh my

heart, but that I cannot get the daughters of Jerusalem to tell them of

my Bridegroom's glory. I charge you in the name of Christ that ye tell

all that ye come to of it, and yet it is above telling and

understanding. Oh, if all the kingdom were as I am, except my bonds! I

write now what I have seen as well as heard. Now and then my silence

burneth up my spirit; but Christ has said, 'Thy stipend is running up

with interest ill in heaven, as if thou wert preaching'; and this from

a King's mouth rejoiceth my heart. At other times I am sad, dwelling in

Kedar's tents.

There are none (that I yet know of) but two persons in this town that

I dare give my word for. And the Lord has removed my brethren and my

acquaintance far from me; and it may be, that I shall be forgotten in

the place where the Lord made me the instrument to do some good. But I

see that this is vanity in me; let Him make of me what He pleaseth.

Sir, write to me, I beseech you. I pray you also be kind to my

afflicted brother. Remember my love to your wife; and the prayer and

blessing of the prisoner of Christ be on you. Frequent your meetings

for prayer and communion with God, they would be sweet meetings to me.

Yours in the Lord Jesus.

ABERDEEN, Feb. 16, 1637

XIX. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- I hope that ye are wrestling and struggling on, in this dead

age, wherein folks have lost tongue, and legs, and arms for Christ. I

urge upon you, Madam, a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing

communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never

saw, and new foldings of love in Him. I despair that ever I shall win

to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it. Therefore,

dig deep; and sweat, and labour, and take pains for Him; and set by as

much time in the day for Him as you can. He will be won with labour.

Now, Madam, I assure you, the greatest part but play with Christianity;

they put it by-hand easily. I thought it had been an easy thing to be a

Christian, and that to seek God had been at the next door; but O, the

windings and turnings that He has led me through! And I see yet much

way to the ford.

I pray God I may not look to the world for my joys, and comforts, and

confidence -- that were to put Christ out of His office. Now, the

presence of the great Angel of the covenant be with you and that sweet

child.

Yours in the Lord Jesus.

ABERDEEN, March 7, 1637

XX. To lady KENMURE

MADAM, -- Upon the offered opportunity of this worthy bearer, I could

not omit to answer the heads of your letter.

Firstly, I think not much to set down on paper some good things agent

Christ, and to feed my soul with raw wishes to be one with Christ; for

a wish is but broken and half love. But verily to obey this, 'Come and

see', is a harder matter! Oh, I have smoke rather than fire, and

guessing rather than real assurances of Him. I cannot believe without a

pledge. I cannot take God's word without a caution. But this is my way;

for His way is, 'After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy

Spirit of promise (Eph. 1: 13).

Secondly, Ye write, 'that I am filled with knowledge, and stand not

in need of these warnings.' But certainly my light is dim when it

cometh to handy-grips. And how many have full coffers and yet empty

bellies! Light, and the saving use of light, are far different. Oh,

what need then have I to have the ashes blown away from my dying-out

fire! I may be a bookman and (yet) be an idiot and stark fool in

Christ's way. Learning will not beguile Christ.

Thirdly, I find you complaining of yourself. And it becometh a sinner

so to do. I am not against you in that; the more sense of sin, the less

sin. I would love my pain, and soreness, and my wounds, howbeit these

should bereave me of my night's sleep, better than my wounds without

pain.

Fourthly, Be not afraid for little grace. Christ soweth His living

seed, and He will not lose His seed. If He have the guiding of my flock

and state, it shall not miscarry. Our spilled works, losses, deadness,

coldness, wretchedness, are the ground upon which the Good Husbandman

laboureth.

Fifthly, Ye write, 'that His compassions fail not, notwithstanding

that your service to Christ miscarrieth.' To which I answer:

God forbid that there were buying and selling, and blocking for as

good again, betwixt Christ and us; for then free grace might go to

play. But we go to heaven with light shoulders; and the vessels, great

and smalls that we have, are fastened upon the sure Nail (Isa.

22.23-24). The only danger is, that we give grace more to do than God

gives it; that is by turning God's grace into wantonness.

Sixthly, Ye write, 'few see your guiltiness; and you cannot be free

with many as with me'. I answer, Blessed be God, Christ and we are not

heard before men's courts: it is at home, betwixt Him and us, that our

pleas are taken away. Grace be with you.

Yours in the Lord Jesus.

ABERDEEN

XXI. To MR WILLIAM DALGLEISH, minister of the Gospel

Dalgleish was minister of a neighbouring parish and was responsible

for the parish of Anwoth also until Rutherford took charge of it. He

later became minister of Cramond, from which he was ejected in 1662.

See also Letter LVI.

MUCH HONORED AND WELL BELOVED IN THE LORD, GraCe, mercy, and peace be

to you. Your letters give a dash to my laziness in writing.

I must first tell you, that there is not such a glassy, icy, and

slippery piece of way betwixt you and heaven, as Youth; and I have

experience to say with me here, and to seal what I assert. The old

ashes of the sins of my youth are new fire of sorrow to me. I have seen

the devil, as it were, dead and buried, and yet rise again, and be a

worse devil than ever he was: therefore, my brother, beware of a green

young devil, that has never been buried. Yet I must tell you, that the

whole saints now triumphant in heaven, and standing before the throne,

are nothing but a pack of redeemed sinners.

I shall be loath to put you off your fears, and your sense of

deadness: I wish it were more. There be some wounds of that nature,

that their bleeding should not be soon stopped. Ye must take a house

beside the Physician. It will be a miracle if ye be the first sick man

whom He put away uncured, and worse than He found you. 'Him that cometh

unto Me I will in no wise cast out' (John 6.37). Take ye that. It

cannot be presumption to take that as your own, when you find that your

wounds stound you. He that can tell his tale and send such a letter to

heaven as he has sent to Aberdeen, it is very like he will come speed

with Christ. It bodeth God's mercy to complain heartily for sin.

Now for myself; alas! I am not the man I go for in this nation: men

have not just weights to weigh me in. Oh, but I am a silly, feckless

body, and overgrown with weeds; corruption is rank and fat in me. Oh,

if I were answerable to this holy cause, and to that honorable Prince's

love for whom I now suffer! If Christ should refer the matter to me (in

His presence I speak it), I might think shame to vote my own salvation.

I think Christ might say, 'Thinkest thou not shame to claim heaven, who

does so little for it?' I am very often so, that I know not whether I

sink or swim in the water.

Grace be with you,

ABERDEEN, June 16, 1637

XXXVIII. To MR WILLIAM DALGLEISH

REVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED BROTHER, Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you.

I have heard somewhat of your trials in Galloway. My witness is above,

my dearest brother, that ye have added much joy to me in my bonds, when

I hear that ye grow in the grace and zeal of God for your Master. Our

ministry, whether by preaching or suffering, will cast a smell through

the world both of heaven and hell (II Cor. 2.15, 16). I persuade you,

my dear brother, that there is nothing out of heaven, next to Christ,

dearer to me than my ministry.

And, let me speak to you now, how kind a fellow prisoner is Christ to

me! Believe me, this kind of cross (that would not go by my door, but

would needs visit me) is still the longer the more welcome to me. It is

true, my silent Sabbaths have been, and still are, as glassy ice,

whereon my faith can scarce hold its feet, and I am often blown on my

back, and off my feet, with a storm of doubting; yet truly, my bonds

all this time cast a mighty and rank smell of high and deep love in

Christ. I cannot, indeed, see through my cross to the far end; yet I

believe I am in Christ's books, and in His decree (not yet unfolded to

me), a man triumphing, dancing, and singing, on the other side of the

Red Sea, and laughing and praising the Lamb, over beyond time, sorrow,

deprivation, prelates' indignation, losses, want of friends, and death.

Woe is me, my dear brother, that I say often, 'I am but dry bones,

which my Lord will not bring out of the grave again'; and that my

faithless fears say, 'Oh, I am a dry tree, that can bear no fruit: I am

a useless body, who can beget no children to the Lord in His house!'

Hopes of deliverance look cold and uncertain and afar off, as if I had

done with it. If my sufferings could do beholders good and edify His

kirk and proclaim the incomparable worth of Christ's love to the world,

then would my soul be overjoyed and my sad heart be cheered and calmed!

Dear brother, I cannot tell what is become of my labours among that

people! If all that my Lord builded by me be casten down, and the

bottom be fallen out of the profession at that parish, and none stand

by Christ, whose love I once preached as clearly and plainly as I could

(though far below its worth and excellence) to that people; if so, how

can I bear it! And if another make a foul harvest, where I have made a

painful and honest sowing, it will not soon digest with me. But I know

that His ways pass finding out. Yet my witness, both within me and

above me, knoweth. And my pained breast upon the Lord's Day at night,

my desire to have had Christ awful, and amiable, and sweet to that

people, is now my joy. It was my desire and aim to make Christ and them

one; and, if I see my hopes die in the bud, see they bloom a little,

and come to no fruit, I die with grief.

But, my dear brother, go on in the strength of His rich grace, whom

ye serve. Stand fast for Christ. Deliver the Gospel off your hand, and

your ministry to your Master with a clean and undefiled conscience. Let

us make our part of it good, that it may be able to abide the fire,

when hay and stubble shall be burned to ashes. Nothing, nothing, I say,

nothing, but sound sanctification can abide the Lord's fan.

Now, remember my love to all my friends, and to my parishioners, as

if I named each one of them particularly. I recommend you, and God's

people, committed by Christ to your trust, to the rich grace of our

all-sufflcient Lord. Remember my bonds. Praise my Lord, who beareth me

up in my sufferings. As you find occasion, according to the wisdom

given you, show our acquaintance what the Lord has done for my soul.

This I seek not, verily, to hunt my own praise, but that my dearest

Master may be magnified.

ABERDEEN, June 17, 1637

XXXIX. To MARION MCNAUGHT

DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be

to you. Few know the heart of a stranger and prisoner. I am in the

hands of mine enemies. I would that honest and lawful means were

essayed for bringing me home to my charge, now when Mr A. R. and Mr H.

R. are restored. It concerneth you of Galloway most, to use

supplications and addresses for this purpose, and try if by fair means

I can be brought back again. As for liberty, without I be restored to

my flock, it is little to me; for my silence is my greatest prison.

However it be, I wait for the Lord; I hope not to rot in my sufferings:

Lord, give me submission to wait on. My heart is sad that my days flee

away, and I do no service to my Lord in His house, now when His harvest

and the souls of perishing people require it. But His ways are not like

my ways, neither can I find Him out. Oh that He would shine upon my

darkness, and bring forth my morning light from under the thick cloud

that men have spread over me!

But that day that my mouth was most unjustly and cruelly closed, the

bloom fell off my branches and my joy did cast the flower. O that I

might preach His beauty and glory as once I did, and my branches be

watered with the dew of God, and my joy in His work grow green again

and bud and send out a flower! O, that I may wait for Him till the

morning of this benighted kirk break out! This poor, afflicted kirk had

a fair morning, but her night came upon her before her noonday, and she

was like a traveler forced to take house in the morning of his journey.

And now her adversaries are the chief men in the land; her ways mourn;

her gates languish; her children sigh for bread. O, that my Lord would

bring me again amongst you with abundance of the Gospel of Christ.

Remember my love in the Lord to your husband; God make him faithful

to Christ! And my blessing to your three children. Faint not in prayer

for this kirk. Desire my people not to receive a stranger and intruder

upon my ministry. Let me stand in that right and station that my Lord

Jesus gave me. Grace, grace, be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XL. To ROBERT STEWART, on his decision for Christ

MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, -- You are heartily welcome to my world of

suffering, and heartily welcome to my father's house; God give you much

joy of your new Master. If I have been in the house before you, I were

not faithful to give the house an ill name, or to speak evil of the

Lord of the family: I rather wish God's Holy Spirit (O Lord, breathe

upon me with that Spirit!) to tell you the fashions of the house (Ezek.

43.11). One thing I can say, by on-waiting, ye will grow a great man

with the Lord of the house. Hang on, till ye get some good from Christ.

Take ease yourself, and let Him bear all; lay all your weights and your

loads, by faith, on Christ; He can, He will bear you. I rejoice that He

has come, and has chosen you in the furnace; it was even there where He

and ye set tryst. He keepeth the good old fashion with you that was in

Hosea's days (Hos. 2.14). 'Therefore, behold I will allure her, and

bring her to the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.' There was

no talking to her heart while she was in the fair flourishing city, and

at ease, but out in the cold, hungry, waste wilderness, He allureth

her; He whispered news into her ear there, and said, 'Thou art Mine'.

What would ye think of such a bode? Ye may soon do worse than say,

'Lord, hold all; Lord Jesus, a bargain be it, it shall not go back on

my side'.

Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way of heaven, that ye have

started to the gate in the morning. Like a fool, as I was, I suffered

my sun to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before I ever took

the gate by the end. I pray you now keep the advantage ye have. My

heart, be not lazy; set quickly up the bras on hands and feet, as if

the last pickle of sand were running out of your glass, and death were

coming to turn the glass. And be very careful to take heed to your

feet, in that slippery and dangerous way of youth that ye are walking

in. Dry timber will soon take fire. Be covetous and greedy of the grace

of God, and beware that it be not a holiness which cometh only from the

cross; for too many are that way disposed. 'When He slew them, then

they sought Him, and they returned and inquired early after God.'

'Nevertheless, they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied

unto Him with their tongues' (Ps. 78.34,36). It is part of our

hypocrisy, to give God fair, white words when He has us in His grips

(if I may speak so), and to flatter Him till He win to the fair fields

again. Try well green godliness, and examine what it is that ye love in

Christ. If ye love but Christ's sunny side, and would have only summer

weather and a land-gate, not a sea-way to heaven, your profession will

play you a slip, and the winter-well will go dry again in summer.

Make no sport nor bairn's play of Christ; but labour for a sound and

lively sight of sin, that ye may judge yourself an undone man, a damned

slave of hell and of sin, one dying in your own blood, except Christ

come and rue upon you, and take you up. And, therefore, make sure and

fast work of conversion. Cast the earth deep; and down, down with the

old work, the building of confusion, that was there before; and let

Christ lay new work, and make a new creation within you. Look if

Christ's rain goes down to the root of your withered plants, and if His

love wound your heart whill it bleed with sorrow for sin, and if ye can

pant and fall aswoon, and be like to die for that lovely one, Jesus. I

know that Christ will not be hid where He is; grace will ever speak for

itself, and be fruitful in well-doing. The sanctified cross is a

fruitful tree, it bringeth forth many apples.

If I should tell you by some weak experience, what I have found in

Christ, ye or others could hardly believe me. I thought not the

hundredth part of Christ long since, that I do now, though, alas! my

thoughts are still infinitely below His worth. And for Christ's cross,

especially the garland and flower of all crosses, to suffer for His

name, I esteem it more than I can write or speak to you. And I write it

under mine own hand to you, that it is one of the steps of the ladder

up to our country; and Christ (whoever be one) is still at the heavy

end of this black tree, and so it is but as a feather to me. I need not

run at leisure, because of a burden on my back; my back never bare the

like of it; the more heavily crossed for Christ, the soul is still the

lighter for the journey.

Now, would to God that all cold-blooded, faint-hearted soldiers of

Christ, would look again to Jesus, and to his love; and when they look,

I would have them to look again and again, and fill themselves with

beholding Christ's beauty: and, I dare say, then He would be highly

esteemed of many. It is my daily growing sorrow, that He does so great

things for my soul, and He never yet got any thing of me worth speaking

of. Sir, I charge you, help me to praise Him. If men could do no more,

I would have them to wonder -- if we cannot be filled with Christ's

love, we may be filled with wondering. To Him and His rich grace I

recommend you. I pray you, pray for me, and forget not to praise.

ABERDEEN, June 17, 1637

XLI. To LADY GAITGIRTH

Her husband, to whom Rutherford expresses his obligations at the close

of the letter, was Sheriff of Ayrshire and represented it in the

Scottish Parliament. He was one of three commissioners sent by

Parliament on behalf of the Covenant to Newcastle in 1641. In 1649 he

commanded a troop of Horse.

MISTRESS, -- I long to know how matters stand betwixt Christ and your

soul. Time cannot change Him in His love. Ye yourself may ebb and flow,

rise and fall, wax and wane; but your Lord is this day as He was

yesterday. And it is your comfort that your salvation is not rolled

upon wheels of your own making, neither have ye to do with a Christ at

your own shaping. God has singled out a Mediator, strong and mighty: if

ye and your burdens were as heavy as ten hills or hells, He is able to

bear you, and to save you to the uttermost. Your often seeking to Him

cannot make you a burden to Him. I know that Christ compassioneth you,

and maketh a moan for you, in all your dumps, and under your down

castings; but it is good for you that He hideth Himself sometimes. It

is not niceness, dryness, nor coldness of love, that causeth Christ to

withdraw, and slip in under a curtain and a vail, that ye cannot see

Him; but He knoweth that ye could not bear with upsails, a fair gale, a

full moon, and a high spring-tide of His felt love, and always a fair

summer-day and a summer-sun of a felt and possessed and embracing Lord

Jesus. His kisses and His visits to His dearest ones are thin-sown. He

could not let out His rivers of love upon His own, but these rivers

would be in hazard of loosening a young plant at the root; and He

knoweth this of you. Ye should, therefore, frist Christ's kindness, as

to its sensible and full manifestations, till ye and He be above sun

and moon. That is the country where ye will be enlarged for that love

which ye dow not now contain.

Cast the burden of your sweet babes upon Christ, and lighten your

heart, by laying your all upon Him: He will be their God. I hope to see

you up the mountain yet, and glad in the salvation of God. Frame

yourself for Christ, and gloom not upon His cross. I find Him so sweet,

that my love, suppose I would charge it to remove from Christ, would

not obey me: His love has stronger fingers than to let go its grips of

us bairns, who cannot go but by such a hold as Christ. It is good that

we want legs of our own, since we may borrow from Christ; and it is our

happiness that Christ is under an act of cautionary for heaven, and

that Christ is booked in heaven as the principal debtor for such poor

bodies as we are.

I request you, give the laird, your husband, thanks for his care of

me, in that he has appeared in public for a prisoner of Christ. I pray

and write mercy, and peace, and blessings to him and his.

Grace, grace be with you for ever.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLII. To THE REV.JOHN FERGUSON OF OCHILTREE

MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, -- I would have looked for larger and more

particular letters from you, for my comfort in this; for your words

before have strengthened me. I pray you to mend this; and be thankful

and painful, while ye have a piece or corner of the Lord's vineyard to

dress. Oh, would to God that I could have leave to follow you, to break

the clods! But I wish I could command my soul to be silent, and to wait

upon the Lord. I am sure that while Christ lives, I am well enough

friend-stead. I hope that He will extend His kindness and power for me;

but God be thanked it is not worse with me than a cross for Christ and

His truth. I know that He might have pitched upon many more choice and

worthy witnesses, if He had pleased; but I seek no more (be what timber

I will, suppose I were made of a piece of hell) than that my Lord, in

His infinite art, hew glory to His name, and enlargement to Christ's

kingdom, out of me. Oh that I could attain to this, to desire that my

part of Christ might be laid in pledge for the heightening of Christ's

throne in Britain! Let my Lord redeem the pledge, or, if He please, let

it sink and drown unredeemed. But what can I add to Him? Or what way

can a smothered and borne-down prisoner set out Christ in open market,

as a lovely and desirable Lord to many souls? I know that He seeth to

His own glory better than my ebb thoughts can dream of; and that the

wheels and paces of this poor distempered kirk are in His hands; and

that things shall roll as Christ will have them: -- only, Lord, tryst

the matter so, as Christ may be made a householder and lord again in

Scotland, and wet faces for His departure may be dried at His sweet and

much-desired welcome-home!

I desire you to contribute your help to see if I cannot be restored

to my wasted and lost flock.

Grace be (as it is) your portion.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLIII. To ROBERT BROWN OF CARSLUTH

Robert Brown of Carsluth owned considerable property in Galloway.

WORTHY SIR, -- I beseech you in the Lord to give your soul no rest till

ye have real assurance, and Christ's rights confirmed and sealed to

your soul. Take pains for your salvation; for in that day when ye shall

see many men's labours and conquests and idol-riches lying in ashes,

when the earth and all the works thereof shall be burnt with fire, oh

how dear a price would your soul give for God's favor in Christ! It

will not be time to cry for a lamp when the Bridegroom is entered into

His chamber and the door shut. Look into those depths (without a

bottom) of loveliness, sweetness, beauty, excellency, glory, goodness,

grace, and mercy, that are in Christ; and ye shall then cry down the

whole world, and all the glory of it, even when it is come to the

summer-bloom; and ye shall cry, 'Up with Christ, up with Christ's

Father, up with eternity of glory!' Sir, there is a great deal less

sand in your glass than when I saw you, and your afternoon is nearer

even-tide now than it was. As a flood carried back to the sea, so does

the Lord's swift post, Time, carry you and your life with wings to the

grave. Ye eat and drink, but time standeth not still; ye laugh, but

your day fleeth away; ye sleep, but your hours are reckoned and put by

hand. Oh how soon will time shut you out of the poor, and cold, and

hungry inn of this life! And then what will yesterday's short-born

pleasures do to you, but be as a snow-ball melted away many years

since? O blessed conquest, to lose all things, and to gain Christ! I

know not what ye have, if ye want Christ! Alas! How poor is your gain,

if the earth were all yours in free heritage, holding it of no man of

clay, if Christ be not yours!

I recommend Christ and His love to your seeking; and yourself to the

tender mercy and rich grace of our Lord. Remember my love in Christ to

your wife. I desire her to learn to make her soul's anchor fast upon

Christ Himself. Few are saved.

Your soul's eternal well-wisher.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLIV. To CASSIN CARRIE

MUCH HONORED SIR, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I have been too

long in writing to you. I am confident that ye have learned to prize

Christ, and His love and favor, more than ordinary professors who

scarce see Christ with half an eye, because their sight is taken up

with eyeing and liking the beauty of this over-gilded world, that

promiseth fair to all its lovers, but in the push of a trial, when need

is, can give nothing but a fair beguile.

I know that ye are not ignorant that men come not to this world, as

some do to a market, to see and to be seen; or as some come to behold a

May-game, and only to behold, and to go home again. Ye come hither to

treat with God, and to tryst with Him in His Christ for salvation to

your soul, and to seek reconciliation with an angry, wrathful God, in a

covenant of peace made to you in Christ; and this is more than ordinary

sport, or the play that the greatest part of the world give their heart

unto. And, therefore, worthy Sir, I pray you, by the salvation of your

soul, and by the mercy of God, and your compearance before Christ, do

this in sad earnest, and let not salvation be your by-work or your

holy-day's talk only, or a work by the way. For men think that this may

be done on three days' space on a feather bed, when death and they are

fallen in hands together, and that with a word or two they shall make

their soul-matters right. Alas! This is to sit loose and unsure in the

matters of our salvation. Know and try in time your holding of Him, and

the rights and charters of heaven, and upon what terms ye have Christ

and the Gospel, and what Christ is worth in your estimation, and how

lightly ye esteem of other things, and how dearly of Christ. I am sure,

if you see Him in his beauty and glory, you will see Him to be that

incomparable jewel which you should seek, howbeit you should sell,

wadset and forfeit your few years' portion of this life's joys. Oh

happy soul for evermore, who can rightly compare this life with that

long-lasting life to come, and can balance the weighty glory of the

one, with the light golden vanity of the other! The day of the Lord is

at hand, and all men shall come out in their blacks and whites as they

are; there shall be no borrowed colors in that day. Men now borrow the

lustre of Christianity, but how many counterfeit masks will be burnt in

the day of God, in the fire that shall consume the earth and the works

that are on it! And howbeit Christ have the hardest part of it now,

yet, in the presence of my Lord, whom I serve in the Spirit, I would

not differ or exchange Christ's prison, bonds, and chains, with the

golden chains and lordly rents of the men of this world. Worthy, worthy

for evermore is Christ, for whom the saints of God suffer the short

pains of this life!

Sir, I wish your soul may be more acquainted with the sweetness of

Christ. Grace, grace be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLV. To JOHN LENNOX, Laird of Catty

MUCH HONORED SIR, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- I long to hear

how your soul prospereth. I have that confidence that your soul mindeth

Christ and salvation. I beseech you, in the Lord, to give more pains

and diligence to fetch heaven than the country-sort of lazy professors,

who think their own faith and their own godliness, because it is their

own, best; and content themselves with a cold rife custom and course,

with a resolution to summer and winter in that sort of profession which

the multitude and the times favor most; and are still shaping and

clipping and carving their faith, according as it may best stand with

their summer sun and a whole skin; and so breathe out hot and cold in

God's matters, according to the course of the times. This is their

compass which they sail towards heaven by, instead of a better. Worthy

and dear Sir, separate yourself from such, and bend yourself to the

utmost of your strength and breath, in running fast for salvation; and,

in taking Christ's kingdom, use violence. It cost Christ and all His

followers sharp showers and hot sweats, see they won to the top of the

mountain; but still our soft nature would have heaven coming to our

bedside when we are sleeping, and lying down with us that we might go

to heaven in warm clothes. But all that came there found wet feet by

the way, and sharp storms that did take the hide off their face, and

found tos and fros and ups and downs, and many enemies by the way.

It is impossible that a man can take his lusts to heaven with him;

such wares as these will not be welcome there. Oh, how loath are we to

forego our packalds and burdens, that hinder us to run our race with

patience! It is no small work to displease and anger nature, that we

may please God. Oh, if it be hard to win one foot, or half an inch, out

of our own will, out of our own wit, out of our own ease and worldly

lusts (and so to deny ourself, and to say, 'It is not I but Christ, not

I but grace, not I but God's glory, not I but God's love constraining

me, not I but the Lord's word, not I but Christ's commanding power as

King in me!'), oh, what pains, and what a death it is to nature, to

turn me, myself, my lust, my ease, my credit, over into, 'My Lord, my

Savior, my King, and my God, my Lord's will, my Lord's grace!' But,

alas! that idol, myself, is the master idol we all bow to. What made

Eve miscarry? And what hurried her headlong upon the forbidden fruit,

but that wretched thing herself? What drew that brother-murderer to

kill Abel? That wild himself. What drove the old world on to corrupt

their ways? Who, but themselves, and their own pleasure? What was the

cause of Solomon's falling into idolatry and multiplying of strange

wives? What, but himself, whom he would rather pleasure than God? What

was the hook that took David and snared him first in adultery, but his

self-lust? and then in murder, but his self-credit and self-honour?

What led Peter on to deny his Lord? Was it not a piece of himself, and

self-love to a whole skin? What made Judas sell his Master for thirty

pieces of money, but a piece of self-love, idolizing of avaricious

self? What made Demas to go off the way of the Gospel, to embrace this

present world? Even self-love and love of gain for himself. Every man

blameth the devil for his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil of

every man, that lieth and eateth in every man's bosom, is that idol

that killeth all, himself. Blessed are they who can deny themselves,

and put Christ in the room of themselves. O sweet word! (Gal. 2.1O) 'I

live no more, but Christ liveth in me!' Worthy Sir, pardon this my

freedom of love. God is my witness, that it is out of an earnest desire

after your soul's eternal welfare, that I use this freedom of speech.

Your sun, I know, is lower, and your sun-setting and evening sky

nearer, than when I saw you last: strive to end your task before night,

and to make Christ yourself, and to acquaint your heart and your love

with the Lord. Sir, I remember you in my prayers to the Lord, according

to my promise: help me with your prayers, that our Lord would be

pleased to bring me amongst you again, with the Gospel of Christ.

Grace, grace, be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLVI. To JOHN GORDON OF CARDONESS, the younger

DEARLY-BELOVED IN THE LORD, -- I long exceedingly to hear of the case of

your soul, which has a large share both of my prayers and careful

thoughts. Sir, remember that a precious treasure and prize is upon this

short play that ye are now upon. Even the eternity of well or wo to

your soul standeth upon the little point of your well or ill-employed

short and swift-posting sand glass. Seek the Lord while He may be

found; the Lord waiteth upon you.

And sinning against light will put out your candle, and stupefy your

conscience, and bring upon it more coverings and skin, and less feeling

and sense of guiltiness; and when that is done, the devil is like a mad

horse that has broken his bridle and runneth away with his rider

whither he listeth. Learn to know that which the apostle knew, the

deceitfulness of sin. Strive to make prayer and reading and holy

company and holy conference your delight; and when delight cometh in,

ye shall by little and little smell the sweetness of Christ, till at

length your soul be over head and ears in Christ's sweetness. Then

shall ye be taken up to the top of the mountain with the Lord, to know

the ravishments of spiritual love, and the glory and excellency of a

seen, revealed, felt, and embraced Christ: and then ye shall not be

able to loose yourself off Christ, and to bind your soul to old lovers.

Then, and never till then, are all the paces, motions, balkings, and

wheels of your soul in a right tune, and in a spiritual temper.

But if this world and its lusts be your delight, I know not what

Christ can make of you; ye cannot be metal to be a vessel of glory and

mercy. As the Lord liveth, thousand thousands are beguiled with

security, because God and wrath and judgment are not terrible to them.

Stand in awe of God and of the warnings of a checking and rebuking

conscience. Make others to see Christ in you, moving, doing, speaking

and thinking. Your actions will smell of Him if He be in you. There is

an instinct in the new-born babes of Christ, like the instinct of

nature that leads birds to build their nests, and bring forth their

young, and love such and such places, as woods, forests, and

wildernesses, better than other places. The instinct of nature maketh a

man love his mother-country above all countries; the instinct of

renewed nature, and supernatural grace, will lead you to such and such

works, as to love your country above, to sigh to be clothed with your

house not made with hands, and to call your borrowed prison here below

a borrowed prison, and to look upon it servant-like and pilgrim-like.

And the pilgrim's eye and look is a disdainfullike, discontented cast

of his eye, his heart crying after his eye, 'Fy, fy, this is not like

my country.'

I recommend to you the mending of a hole, and reforming of a failing,

one or other, every week; and put off a sin, or a piece of it, as

anger, wrath, lust, intemperance, every day, that ye may more easily

master the remnant of your corruption. God has given you a wife; love

her, and let her breasts satisfy you; and, for the Lord's sake, drink

no waters but out of your own cistern. Strange wells are poison. Strive

to learn some new way against your corruption from the man of God, Mr

W. D. [William Dalgleish], or other servants of God. Sleep not sound,

till ye find yourself in that case that ye dare look death in the face,

and durst hazard your soul upon eternity. I am sure that many ells and

inches of the short thread of your life are by-hand since I saw you;

and that thread has an end; and ye have no hands to cast a knot, and

add one day, or a finger-breadth, to the end of it. When hearing, and

seeing, and the outer walls of the clay house shall fall down, and life

shall render the besieged castle of clay to death and judgment, and ye

find your time worn ebb, and run out, what thoughts will you then have

of idol-pleasures, that possibly are now sweet? What bud or hide would

you then give for the Lord's favor? And what a price would you then

give for pardon? It were not amiss to think, 'What if I were to receive

a doom, and to enter into a furnace of fire and brimstone? What if it

come to this, that I shall have no portion but utter darkness? And what

if I be brought to this, to be banished from the presence of God, and

to be given over to God's sergeants, the devil and the power of the

second death?' Put your soul, by supposition, in such a case, and

consider what horror would take hold of you, and what ye would then

esteem of pleasing yourself in the course of sin. Oh, dear Sir, for the

Lord's sake awake to live righteously, and love your poor soul! And

after ye have seen this my letter, say with yourself, 'The Lord will

seek an account of this warning which I have received.'

Lodge Christ in your family. Receive no stranger hireling as your

pastor. I bless your children. Grace be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLVII. To WILLIAM GORDON

DEAR BROTHER, -- Ye complain that ye want a mark of the sound work of

grace and love in your soul. For answer, consider for your satisfaction

(till God send more) I John 3.14. And as for your complaint of

deadnes.~ and doubting. Christ will, I hope, take your deadness and you

together. They are bodies full of holes, running boils, and broken

bones which need mending, that Christ the Physician taketh up: whole

vessels are not for the Mediator Christ's art. Publicans, sinners,

whores, harlots, are ready market-wares for Christ. The only thing that

will bring sinners within a cast of Christ's drawing arm is that which

ye write of, some feeling of death and sin. That bringeth forth

complaints; and, therefore, out of sense complain more, and be more

acquaint with all the cramps, stitches, and soulswoonings that trouble

you. The more pain, and the more night-watching, and the more fevers,

the better. A soul bleeding to death, till Christ were sent for, and

cried for in all haste, to come and stem the blood, and close up the

hole in the wound with His own heart and balm, were a very good

disease, when many are dying of a whole heart. We have all too little

of hell-pain and terrors that way; nay, God send me such a hell as

Christ has promised to make a heaven of. Alas! I am not come that far

on the way, as to say in sad earnest, 'Lord Jesus, great and sovereign

Physician, here is a pained patient for Thee.' But the thing that we

mistake is the want of victory. We hold that to be the mark of one that

has no grace. Nay, say I, the want of fighting were a mark of no grace;

but I shall not say the want of victory is such a mark. If my fire and

the devil's water make crackling like thunder in the air, I am the less

feared; for where there is fire, it is Christ's part, which I lay and

bind upon Him, to keep in the coal, and to pray the Father that my

faith fail not, if I in the meantime be wrestling, and doing, and

fighting, and mourning.

Pray for me, that the Lord would give me house-room again, to hold a

candle to this dark world. -- Grace, grace be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

XLVIII. To LADY KENMURE

MY VERY NOBLE AND DEAR LADY,- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- The

Lord has brought me safely to Aberdeen: I have gotten lodging in the

hearts of all I meet with. No face that has not smiled upon me; only

the indwellers of this town are dry, cold, and general. They consist of

Papists, and men of Gallio's metal, firm in no religion; and it is

counted no wisdom here to countenance a confined and silenced prisoner.

But the shame of Christ's cross shall not be my shame.

Madam, your Ladyship knoweth what Christ has done to have all your

love; and that He alloweth not His level upon your dear child. Keep

good quarters with Christ in your love. I verily think that Christ has

said, 'I must needs-force have Jean Campbell for Myself'; and He has

laid many oars in the water, to fish and hunt home-over your heart to

heaven. Let Him have His prey, He will think you well won, when He has

gotten you. It is good to have recourse often, and to have the door

open, to our stronghold. For the sword of the Lord, the sword of the

Lord is for Scotland! And yet two or three berries shall be left in the

top of the olive-tree.

If a word can do my brother good in his distress, I know your Ladyship

will be willing and ready to speak it, and more also. Now the only wise

God, and your only, only One, He who dwelt in the Bush, be with you. I

write many kisses and many blessings in Christ to your dear child: the

blessings of his father's God, the blessings due to the fatherless and

the widow, be yours and his.

ABERDEEN

XLIX. To MRS STUART, wife of the Provost of Aye

(See Letter XXIX)

MISTRESS, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- I am sorry that ye

take it so hardly that I have not written to you.

I am judged to be that which I am not. I fear that if I were put into

the fire, I should melt away, and fall down in shreds of painted

nature; for truly I have little stuff at home that is worth the eye of

God's servants. If there 'be anything of Christ's in me (as I dare not

deny some of His work), it is but a spunk of borrowed fire, that can

scarce warm myself, and has little heat for standers-by. I would fain

have that which ye and others believe I have; but ye are only witnesses

to my outer side, and to some words on paper. Oh that He would give me

more than paper-grace or tongue-grace! But if I have any love to Him,

Christ has both love to me, and wit to guide His love. And I see that

the best thing I have has as much dross beside it as might curse me and

it both; and, if it were for no more, we have need of a Savior to

pardon the very faults, and diseases, and weakness of the new man, and

to take away (to say so) our godly sins, or the sins of our

sanctification, and the dross and scum of spiritual love.

I would have you and myself helping Christ mystical to weep for His

wife. And oh that we could mourn for Christ buried in Scotland, and for

His two slain witnesses, killed because they prophesied! If we could so

importune and solicit God, our buried Lord and His two buried witnesses

should rise again. Earth and clay and stone will not bear down Christ

and the Gospel in Scotland. I know not if I shall see the second temple

and the glory of it; but the Lord has deceived me if it be not to be

reared up again. I would wish to give Christ His welcome Home again. My

blessing, my joy, my glory and love be on the Home-comer.

I know that your heart and Christ are married together; it were not

good to make a divorce. Rue not of that meeting and marriage with such

a Husband. Pray for me, His prisoner. Grace, grace be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

L. To MR JAMES FLEMING

Fleming was minister of a parish in East Lothian. He was strongly

opposed to the attempts of James and Charles I to impose prelacy and

the Prayer Book on Scotland. His first wife, Martha, was the eldest

daughter of John Knox.

REVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED IN OUR LORD, -- Grace, mercy, and peace to

you. I received your letter which has refreshed me in my bonds. I

cannot but testify unto you, my dear brother, what sweetness I find in

our Master's cross; but alas, what can I either do or suffer for Him? I

am not able, by tongue, pen, or sufferings, to provoke many to fall in

love with Him: but He knoweth, whom I love to serve in the Spirit, what

I would do and suffer by His own strength, so being that I might make

my Lord Jesus lovely and sweet to many thousands in this land. I think

it amongst God's wonders, that He will take any praise or glory, or any

testimony to His honorable cause, from such a forlorn sinner as I am.

But when Christ worketh, He needeth not ask the question, by whom He

will be glorious. I know (seeing His glory at the beginning did shine

out of poor nothing, to set up such a fair house for men and angels,

and so many glorious creatures, to proclaim His goodness, power, and

wisdom) that, if I were burnt to ashes, out of the smoke and powder of

my dissolved body He could raise glory to Himself. But, alas! Few know

the guiltiness that is on my part: it is a wonder, that this good cause

has not been marred and spilled in my foul hands. But I rejoice in

this, that my sweet Lord Jesus has found something ado, even a ready

market for His free grace and incomparable and matchless mercy, in my

wants. Only my loathsome wretchedness and my wants have qualified me

for Christ, and the riches of His glorious grace. Few know the unseen

and private reckonings betwixt Christ and me; yet His love, His

boundless love would not bide away, nor stay at home with Himself.

How joyful is my heart, that ye write that ye are desirous to join

with me in praising; for it is a charity to help a devour to pay his

debts. But when all have helped me, my name shall stand in His

account-book under ten thousand thousands of sums unpaid. But it easeth

my heart that His dear servants will but speak of my debts to such a

sweet Creditor. I desire that He may lay me in His own balance and

weigh me, if I would not fain have a feast of His boundless love made

to my own soul, and to many others. One thing I know, that we shall not

at all be able to come near His Excellency, with eye, heart, or tongue;

for He is above all created thoughts. All nations before Him are as

nothing, and less than nothing: He sitteth in the circuit of heaven,

and the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers before Him. Oh

that men would praise Him!

Ye complain of your private case. Alas! I am not the man to speak to

such an one as ye are. Any sweet presence which I have had in this

town, is, I know, for this cause, that I might express and make it

known to others. But I never find myself nearer Christ, that royal and

princely One, than after a great weight and sense of deadness and

gracelessness. I think that the sense of our wants, when withal we have

a restlessness and a sort of spiritual impatience under them and can

make a din, because we want Him whom our soul loveth, is that which

maketh an open door to Christ. And when we think we are going backward,

because we feel deadness, we are going forward; for the more sense, the

more life; and no sense argueth no life.

And for your complaints of your ministry, I now think all I do too

little. Plainness, freedom, watchfulness, fidelity, shall swell upon

you, in exceeding large comforts, in your sufferings. The feeding of

Christ's lambs in private visits lions and catechizing, in painful

preaching, and fair, honest, and free warning of the flock, is a

sufferer's garland. Oh, ten thousand times blessed are they who are

honored of Christ to be faithful and painful in wooing a bride to

Christ! My dear brother, I know that ye think more on this than I can

write; and I rejoice that your purpose is, in the Lord's strength, to

back your wronged Master; and to come out and call yourself Christ's

man when so many are now denying Him.

Help me with your prayers; and desire, from me, other brethren to

take courage for their Master.

ABERDEEN, Aug. 15, 1637

Ll. To MR FULK ELLIS

Ellis was an Irish Presbyterian serving as a captain in the Scottish

army.

WORTHY AND MUCH HONOURED IN OUR LORD, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to

you.

1. I am glad of our more than paper acquaintance. Seeing we have one

Father, it reckoneth the less, though we never see one another's face.

I profess myself most unworthy to follow the camp of such a worthy and

renowned Captain as Christ.

2. As for our lovely and beloved church in Ireland, my heart bleedeth

for her desolation; but I believe that our Lord is only lopping the

vine-trees, but not intending to cut them down, or root them out. It is

but folly to measure the Gospel by summer or winter weather: the

summer-sun of the saints shineth not on them in this life. How should

we have complained, if the Lord had turned the same providence that we

now stomach at upside down, and had ordered matters thus, that first

the saints should have enjoyed heaven, glory, and ease, and then

Methuselah's days of sorrow and daily miseries? We would think a short

heaven no heaven. Certainly His ways pass finding out.

3. Ye complain of the evil of heart-atheism: but it is to a greater

atheist than any man can be, that ye write of that. Oh, light findeth

not that reverence and fear which a plant of God's setting should find

in our soul! How do we by nature, as others, detain and hold captive

the truth of God in unrighteousness, and so make God's light a bound

prisoner? Certainly there cometh great mist and clouds from the lower

part of our souls, our earthly affections, to the higher part, which is

our conscience, either natural or renewed: as smoke in a lower house

breaketh up, and defileth the house above. If we had more practice of

obedience, we should have more sound light. I think, lay aside all

other guiltiness, that this one, the violence done to God's candle in

our soul, were a sufficient ditty against us. There is no helping of

this but by striving to stand in awe of God's light. I see there is a

necessity that we protest against the doings of the Old Man, and raise

up a party against our worst half, to accuse, condemn, sentence, and

with sorrow bemoan, the dominion of sin's kingdom; and withal make law,

in the New Covenant, against our guiltiness. For Christ once condemned

sin in the flesh, and we are to condemn it over again. And if there had

not been such a thing as the grace of Jesus, I should have long since

given up with heaven, and with the expectation to see God. But grace,

grace, free grace, the merits of Christ for nothing, white and fair,

and large Saviour-mercy, have been, and must be, the rock that we

drowned souls must swim to. New washing, renewed application of

purchased redemption, by that sacred blood that sealeth the free

Covenant, is a thing of daily and hourly use to a poor sinner. And even

when we have won the castle, then must we eternally sing, 'Worthy,

worthy is the Lamb, who has saved us, and washed us in His own blood.'

ABERDEEN, Sept. 7, 1637

LII. To MR MATTHEW MOWAT, minister of Kilmarnock

Mowat was one of seven leading ministers in the west of Scotland whom

Parliament after the Restoration brought before them to demand their

agreement to the establishment of episcopacy, thinking their agreement

would influence others. On their refusal they were imprisoned.

REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- I am refreshed with your letters. I would

take all well at my Lord's hands that He has done, if I knew that I

could do my Lord any service in my suffering; suppose my Lord would

make a stop-hole of me, to fill a hole in the wall of His house, or a

pinning in Zion's new work. For any place of trust in my Lord's house,

as steward, or chamberlain, or the like, surely I think myself (my very

dear brother, I speak not by any proud figure or traps) unworthy of it;

nay, I am not worthy to stand behind the door. When I hear that the men

of God are at work, and speaking in the name of our Lord Jesus, I think

myself but an outcast, or outlaw, chased from the city to lie on the

hills, and live amongst the rocks and out-fields. Oh that I might but

stand in Christ's out-house, or hold a candle in any low vault of His

house! But I know this is but the vapors that arise out of a quarrelous

and unbelieving heart to darken the wisdom of God; and your fault is

just mine, that I cannot believe my Lord's bare and naked word. I must

either have an apple to play me with, and shake hands with Christ, and

have seal, caution, and witness to His word, or else I count myself

loose; howbeit, I have the word and faith of a King! Oh, I am made of

unbelief, and cannot swim but where my feet may touch the ground!

But surely, brother, ye shall have my advice (howbeit, alas! I cannot

follow it myself, not to contend with the honest and faithful Lord of

the house; for, go He or come He, He is aye gracious in His departure.

There are grace, and mercy, and loving-kindness upon Christ's back

parts; and when He goes away, the proportion of His face, the image of

that fair Sun that stayeth in eyes, senses, and heart, after He is

gone, leaveth a mass of love behind it in the heart. The sound of His

knock at the door of His Beloved, after He is gone and passed, leaveth

a share of joy and sorrow both. So we have something to feed upon till

He return: and He is more loved in His departure, and after He is gone,

than before, as the day in the declining of the sun, and towards the

evening, is often most desired.

And as for Christ's cross, I never received evil of it, but what was

of mine own making: when I miscooked Christ's physic, no marvel that it

hurt me. For since it was on Christ's back, it has always a sweet

smell, and these 1600 years it keepeth the smell of Christ.

I believe that our Lord once again will water with His dew the

withered hill of Mount Zion in Scotland. Remember our Covenant.

Your excuse for advice to me is needless. Alas! Many sit beside

light, as sick folk beside meat, and cannot make use of it. Grace be

with you.

Your brother in Christ.

ABERDEEN, Sept. 7, 1637

LIII. To JAMES BAUTIE, theological student

LOVING BROTHER, -- I received your letter and render you thanks for the

same; but I have not time to answer all the heads of it, as the bearer

can inform you.

It is a sweet law of the New Covenant and a privilege of the new

burgh that citizens pay according to their means. For the New Covenant

saith not, 'So much obedience by ounce weights and no less, under the

pain of damnation.' Christ taketh as poor men may give. Where there is

a mean portion He is content with the less, if there be sincerity;

broken sums, and little, feckless obedience will be pardoned, and hold

the foot with Him. Know ye not that our kindly Lord retaineth His good

old heart yet? He breaketh not a bruised reed, nor quencheth the

smoking flax; if the wind but blow, He holdeth His hand about it till

it rise to a flame. The law cometh on with three O-yeses, 'with all the

heart; with all the soul, and with all the strength'; and where would

poor folks, like you and me, furnish all these sums? It feareth me

(nay, it is most certain) that, if the payment were to come out of our

purse, when we should put our hand into our bag, we should bring out

the wind, or worse. But the New Covenant seeketh not heapmete, nor

stented obedience, as the condition of it, because forgiveness has

always place. Hence I draw this conclusion: that to think matters

betwixt Christ and us go back for want of heaped measure, is a piece of

old Adam's pride, who would either be at legal payment, or nothing. We

would still have God in our common, and buy His kindness with our

merits.

No marvel, then, of whisperings, Whether you be in the covenant or

not? For pride maketh loose work of the covenant of grace, and will not

let Christ be full bargain maker. To speak to you particularly and

shortly: All the truly regenerated cannot determinately tell you the

measure of their dejections; because Christ beginneth young with many,

and stealth into their heart, see they wit of themselves, and becometh

homely with them, with little din or noise. I grant that many are

blinded, in rejoicing in a good-cheap conversion, that never cost them

a sick night. But for that; I would say, if other marks be found that

Christ is indeed come in, never make plea with him because he will not

answer, 'Lord Jesus, how camest Thou in? Whether in at door or window?'

Make Him welcome, since He is come. 'The wind bloweth where it

listeth'; all the world's wisdom cannot perfectly render a reason why

the wind should be a month in the east, six weeks possibly in the west,

and the space only of an afternoon in the south or north. You will not

find out all the steps of Christ's way with a soul, do what ye can.

You object, the truly regenerate should love God for Himself; and ye

fear that you love Him more for His benefits (as incitements and

motives to love Him) than for Himself. I answer, To love God for

Himself, as the last end; and also for His benefits, as incitements and

motives to love Him, may very well stand together; as a son loveth his

mother, because she is his mother, howbeit she be poor: and he loveth

her for an apple also. You will not say, I hope, that benefits are the

only reason and ground of your love: it seems there is a better

foundation for it.

Comparing the state of one truly regenerate, whose heart is a temple

of the Holy Ghost, and yours, which is full of uncleanness and

corruption, ye stand dumb and discouraged, and dare not sometimes call

Christ heartsomely your own. I answer: 1. The best regenerate have

their defilements that will clog behind them all their days; and, wash

as they will, there will be filth in their bosom. But let not this put

you from the well. I answer: 2. Albeit there may be some squint look to

an idol, yet love in its own measure may be found. For glory must

purify and perfect our love, it never will till then be absolutely

pure. Yet if the idol reign, and have the whole of the heart, and the

keys of the house, and Christ only be made an underling to run errands,

all is not right; therefore, examine well.

The assurance of Jesus' love, ye say, would be the most comfortable

news that ever ye heard. Oh, that ye knew and felt it, as I have done!

I wish you a share of my feast; sweet, sweet has it been to me. If my

Lord had not given me this love, I should have fallen through the

causeway of Aberdeen ere now! But for you, hang on, your feast is not

far off; ye shall be filled ere ye go. There is as much in our Lord's

pantry as will satisfy all His bairns, and as much wine in His cellar

as will quench all their thirst. Hunger on, for there is meat in hunger

for Christ. Never go from Him, but fash Him (who yet is pleased with

the importunity of hungry souls) with a dish-full of hungry desire till

He fill you.

Ye crave my mind, whether sound comfort may be found in prayer, when

conviction of a known idol is present. I answer: An idol, as an idol,

cannot stand with sound comforts; for that comfort that is gotten at

Dagon's feet is a cheat or blaflume. Yet sound comfort, and conviction

of an eye to an idol, may as well dwell together as tears and joy. But

let this do you no ill; I speak it for your encouragement, that ye may

make the best of our joys as ye can, albeit you find them mixed with

motes.

Brother, excuse my brevity, for time straiteneth me, that I get not

my mind said in these things, but must refer that to a new occasion, if

God offer it. Brother, pray for me. Grace be with you.

ABERDEEN, 1637

LIV. To MR ROBERT BLAIR

REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- The reason ye give for not writing to me

affecteth me much, and giveth me a dash, when such an one as ye

conceive an opinion of me, or of anything in me. The truth is, when I

come home to myself, oh, what penury do I find, and how feckless is my

supposed stock, and how little have I! He to whom I am as crystal, and

who seeth through me, and perceiveth the least mote that is in me,

knoweth that I speak of what I think and am convinced of: but men cast

me through a gross and wide sieve. My very dear brother, the room of

the least of all saints is too great for the like of me. But lest this

should seem art to fetch home reputation, I speak no more of it. It is

my worth to be Christ's ransomed sinner and sick one. His relation to

me is, that I am sick, and He is the Physician of whom I stand in need.

Alas! How often play I fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I loose;

He buildeth, I cast down; He trimmeth up a salvation for me, and I mar

it; I cast out with Christ, and He agreeth with me again, twenty times

a-day; I forfeit my kingdom and heritage, I lose what I had; but Christ

is at my back, and following on, to stoop and take up what falleth from

me. For my faith and reputation with Christ is, that I am a creature

that God will not put any trust into. I was, and am, bewildered with

temptations, and wanted a guide to heaven. Oh what have I to say of

that excellent, surpassing, and supereminent thing, they call, The

Grace of God, the way of free redemption in Christ! And when poor, poor

I, dead in law, was sold, fettered, and imprisoned in justice's closet-

ward, which is hell and damnation; when I, a wretched one, lighted upon

noble Jesus, eternally kind Jesus, tender-hearted Jesus (nay, when He

lighted upon me first, and knew me), I found that He scorned to take a

price, or anything like hire, of angels, or seraphim, or any of his

creatures. And, therefore, I would praise Him for this, that the whole

army of the redeemed ones sit rent-free in heaven. Our holding is

better than blench: we are all freeholders. And seeing that our eternal

feu-duty is but thanks, oh woeful me! That I have but spilled thanks,

lame, and broken, and miscarried praises, to give Him.

My dear brother, I shall think it comfort, if ye speak my name to our

Well-beloved. Wherever ye are, I am mindful of you. Oh that the Lord

would yet make the light of the moon in Scotland as the light of the

sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold brighter. For myself, as yet I

have received no answer whither to go. I wait on. Oh that Jesus had my

love! Let matters frame as they list, I have some more to do with

Christ; yet I would fain we were nearer.

Now the great Shepherd of the sheep, the very God of peace, establish

and confirm you till the day of His coming.

ABERDEEN, Sept. 9, 1637

LV. To ROBERT LENNOX OF DISDOVE, near Gatehouse

WORTHY AND DEAR BROTHER, -- I forget you not in my bonds. I know that

you are looking to Christ; and I beseech you to follow your look. I can

say more of Christ now by experience (though He be infinitely above and

beyond all that can be said of Him), than when I saw you. I am drowned

over head and ears in His love. Sell, sell, sell all things for Christ.

Sir, make sure work of your salvation: build not upon sand; lay the

foundation upon the rock of Zion. Strive to be dead to this world, and

to your will and lusts; let Christ have a commanding power and a king's

throne in you. Walk with Christ, howbeit the world should take the hide

off your face: I promise you that Christ will win the field. Your

pastors cause you to err. Except you see Christ's word, go not one foot

with them. Countenance not the reading of that Romish service-book.

Keep your garments clean, as ye would walk with the Lamb clothed in

white. Learn to discern the Bridegroom's tongue, and to give yourself

to prayer and reading. Ye were often a hearer of me. I would put my

heart's blood on the doctrine which I taught, as the only way to

salvation: go not from it, my dear brother. What I write to you, I

write to your wife also. Mind heaven and Christ, and keep the spunk of

the love of Christ which you have gotten. Christ will blow on it if ye

entertain it; and your end shall be peace. There is a fire in our Zion.

I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of

the world shall not prevail against us. Remember, though a sinful man

write it to you, that those people shall be in Scotland as a green

olive-tree, and a field blessed of the Lord; and that it shall be

proclaimed, 'Up, up with Christ, and down, down with all contrary

powers.'

Sir, pray for me (I name you to the Lord), for further evil is

determined against me.

ABERDEEN, Sept. 13, 1637

LVI. To EARLSTON, the younger

MUCH HONORED 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 fatness 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, 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.

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 show

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.

ABERDEEN, Sept. 22, 1637

LVII. To LADY BOYD

MADAM, -- I would have written to your Ladyship ere now, but people's

believing there is in me that which I know there is not, has put me out

of love with writing to any.

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.

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 has 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 has 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

devours, 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 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.

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 goodwill of Him who dwelt in the

Bush, be with your Ladyship.

ABERDEEN, 1637

LVIII. To LADY ROBERT LAND

Like many other of the great ladies of the Covenant, some of whom we

have already met in these letters, and others of whom are in the full

collection, Lady Robertland was a woman of deep personal faith and of

devoted service to the cause of Christ. She was noted, too, for her

witty and fascinating conversation and her way of illustrating

spiritual truth by most vivid and homely similes and parables.

MISTRESS, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. -- I shall be glad to

hear that your soul prospereth, and that fruit growth upon you, after

the Lord's husbandry and pains, in His rod that has 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 Foundationstone, who is sure and faithful ground and

hard under foot. 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 has

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. 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 markets 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 you not) 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.

ABERDEEN, Jan 4, 1638

LIX. To THE HONORABLE, REVEREND, AND WELL-BELOVED PROFESSORS OF CHRIST

AND HIS TRUTH IN SINCERITY, IN IRELAND

At the time of this letter the Presbyterian Church of Ireland was in

a very depressed condition. In 1632, as we have seen, Robert Blair and

other ministers were deposed for nonconformity. In the autumn of 1636

the same thing happened to five more. All were obliged to leave the

country. In consequence the Church was deprived of many of its best

ministers. Rutherford's letter was intended to confirm them in

adherence to the cause for which they and their ministers were

suffering.

DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD, AND PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING.-

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you, 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 that

persecutions and dockings 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 for 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, 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 honor 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. Therefore, faint not in your

sufferings and hazards for Him. 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. has left you: I will not believe that he dare to

stay away from Christ's side. I desire that ye show 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

neighbor 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.

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 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 has 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 has 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.

Do not now joule, or bow, or yield to your adversaries in a

hair-breadth. Christ and His truth will not divide; and His truth has

not latitude and breadth, that ye may take some of it and leave other

some of it. 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. 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. 11.9) 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

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.

2.6; 21.3) and who dare take it off again?

Two special things ye are to mind: First, try and make sure your

profession; that ye carry not empty lamps. Alas! security, security is

the bane and 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! False under water, not seen, is dangerous, and that is a leak

and rift in the bottom of an enlightened conscience; often failing and

sinning against light. Woe 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.

Know, secondly, 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! 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 has 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! And, howbeit He

has 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.

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

honorable 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.

ABERDEEN, Feb. 4, 1638

LX. To LADY KENMURE, on the death of her son, John, second Viscount

Kenmure

MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace, be to you. I know that you 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,

that 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, this loss of your

dear child came upon you one piece and part of it after another; and

that you were looking for it, and that now the Almighty has brought on

you that which you feared; and that your Lord gave you lawful warning:

and I hope for his sake who brewed and masked this cup in heaven, you

will gladly drink, and salute and welcome the cross. I am sure it is

not your Lord's mind to feed you with judgment and wormwood, and to

give you waters of gall to drink (Jer. 9.15). 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, but to

secure 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 you 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. 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. 3.1O); 'Tho remnant of the afflictions of

Christ' (Col. 1.24); 'The reproach of Christ' (Heb. 11.26). 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 the word

maketh no exception. 'In all their afflictions He was afflicted' (Isa.

63.9). 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? 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. 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.

I would gladly plead for the Comforter's part of it, not against you,

Madam, 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. 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 has 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.

Madam, desire my Lord Argyle to see for provision to a pastor for his

poor people. Grace be with you.

KIRKCUDBRIGHT, Oct, 1, 1639

LXI. To MR JAMES WILSON

DEAR 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 soul. I have little

time; but yet the Lord has made me so to concern myself in your

condition, that I dare not be altogether silent.

First: ye doubt, from II Cor. 13.5, whether ye be in Christ or not?

And so, whether you are a reprobate or not? I answer two things to the

doubt. -- I. 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. The great Advocate pleadeth hard for you; be upon

the Advocate's side, O poor feared client of Christ! 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 deserving, are

Apocrypha and not Scripture, I hope. 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.

Secondly: Ye say, that ye know not what to do. Your Head once said

the same word, or not far from it. 'Now is My soul troubled, and what

shall I say?' (John 12.27). And faith answered Christ's 'What shall I

say?' with these words: 'O tempted Savior, 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? '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. 'But what shall I

do in spiritual exercises?' ye say. Answer -- I. 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.'

2. Say 'I will not pass from my claim: suppose Christ should pass from

His claim to me, I 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.' 3. 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

accidental 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 you conclude thence? 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. 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 does often swallow

up your praises. 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.

But alas! dear brother, it is easy for me to speak words and

syllables of peace. There is but one Creator, ye know. Oh that ye may

get a letter of peace sent to 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.

ST ANDREWS, Jan. 8, 1640

LXII. To LADY BOYD

MADAM, -- 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

an answer it.

I had never more cause to fear than I have now, when my Lord has

restored me to my second created heaven on earth, and has 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.

Your Ladyship is blessed with children who are honored 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 has 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. 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

has made the North render me back again! 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-kindneses! Alas, that

the heart I have is so little and worthless for such a Lord as Christ

is!

I put all the favors 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 builder 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.

ST ANDREWS

LXIII. To LADY FINGASK

MADAM, -- 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.

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 has put

you in the courtesy and reverence of justice, that therefore He is

wrath 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. And it were not like God, if ye should choose Him as your

liking and He not choose you again. Nay, He has prevented you in that,

for ye have not chosen Him, but He has chosen you.

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 has a nearer resemblance to the color and hue

and lustre of heaven than Christ loved. 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 and

cannot put a circle on it.

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.

ST ANDREWS, March 27, 1640

LXIV. To MR DAVID DICKSON, on the death of his son

REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- Ye look like the house whereof ye are a

branch: the cross is a part of the life rent 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 has 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 has set you now shall find it.

Dearest brother, go on and faint not. Something of yours is in

heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Savior; 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 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 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.

ST ANDREW, May 28, 1640

LXV. To LADY BOYD, on the loss of several friends

MADAM, -- 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.' No man can say 'What does 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 growth in it.

His absolute liberty is law-abiding. 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 has 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.

'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?

And who can tell what thoughts of love and peace our Lord has to your

children? I trust He will make them famous in executing the written

judgments upon the enemies of the Lord, and that they shall bear stones

upon their shoulders for building that fair city that is called 'The

Lord is there' (Ezek. 48.35). 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 has 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.

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.

ST ANDREW, Oct. 15, 1640

LXVI. To MR. TAYLOR, on her son's death

MISTRESS, -- 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. 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 has 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 11.35). 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 has 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. 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 has changed

service-houses, but has 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. 22.3). 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 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 has gold for copper and

brass, eternity for time.

I believe that Christ has 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. 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

you consider this, had you been at his bed-side, and should have seen

Christ coming to him, you could not have adjourned Christ's free love,

who would wants him no longer. And dying in another land, where his

mother could not close his eyes, is not much. The whole earth is his

Father's; any corner of his Father's house is good enough to die in.

It may be, 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 shall 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. And think this a

favor, that He has bestowed upon you fine, free grace, that is, mercy

without hire; ye paid nothing for it: and who can put a price upon any

thing of royal and princely Jesus Christ? And God has 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, if

you could prize Christ, nothing could be bitter to you. Grace, grace be

with you.

Your brother and well-wisher.

LONDON, 1645

LXVII. To BARBARA HAMILTON

Barbara Hamilton was the wife of a merchant in Edinburgh. Her spirit

may be judged from the following incident. When the Rev. Robert Blair

and other ministers were deposed by the bishops in Ireland (see Letter

XVI), they came to Scotland in 1637. But the Scottish bishops then

threatened them with even more severe treatment. Barbara Hamilton

suggested that they should present a petition to the Privy Council for

permission to preach and undertook to get it into the hands of the

Treasurer. Mr Blair accordingly drew up the petition. Barbara Hamilton

gathered a number of like-minded Edinburgh matrons and ranged them in a

line from the street to the door of the Council House, putting the

petition into the hands of the oldest of the women. The treasurer,

suspecting that any petition would be troublesome, pushed past her. But

Barbara Hamilton then took the paper and gripped the Treasurer's arm

firmly, saying, 'Stand, my lord, in Christ's name I charge you, until I

speak with you.' The Treasurer halted. 'Here,' she said, 'is a

supplication of Mr Blair asking for liberty to preach the Gospel. I

charge you to befriend the matter, as you would expect God to befriend

you in your distress.' The Treasurer promised to do his best, and as a

result B1air's petition was granted. This letter was written on the

occasion of the death of her son-in-law.

WORTHY FRIEND, -- Grace be to you. I do unwillingly write unto you of

that which God has 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 below 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 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 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 ye shall see it was your good, that

your son has 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. 22.3). 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 laborer 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.

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 has 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.

LONDON, Oct 15, 1645

LXVIII. To A CHRISTIAN BROTHER, on the death of his daughter

REVEREND 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 has 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) (I Cor. 15.42, 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 dishonor, 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 also them which sleep in Jesus, will God

bring with him.' 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 has the

advantage of some months or years of the crown, before you and her

mother. And 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. All the difference is in some poor hungry

accidents of time, less or more, sooner or later. So the godly child,

though young, died a hundred years old; and you could not now have

bestowed her better, though the choice was Christ's, not yours.

The King and Prince of ages can keep them better than you can do.

While she was alive, you could intrust her to Christ, and recommend her

to His keeping: now, by an after-faith, you have resigned her unto Him,

in whose bosom do sleep all that are dead in the Lord: you would have

lent her to glorify the Lord upon earth, and He has borrowed her, with

promise to restore her again, 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.

If the fountain be the love of God, as I hope it is, ye are enriched

with losses. You know all I can say better, before I was in Christ,

than I can express it. Grace be with you.

LONDON, Jan. 6, 1646

LXIX. To A CHRISTIAN GENTLEWOMAN, on her death-bed

MISTRESS, -- 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, 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 has a pawn or

pledge of yours, even the largest share of your love and heart, ye may

look death in the face with joy.

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: 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 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.

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 has no teeth now, no jaws, for they are broken. It

is a free prison; citizens pay nothing for the grave. The jailer 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 in the day that the Son shall render up the

kingdom to His Father.

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 has 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.

Now, if I have found favor 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.

LONDON, Jan 9, 1646

LXX. To LADY KENMURE

MADAM, -- Oh how sweet is it that the company of the firstborn 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 heart some convoy in the way.

Grace be with you.

Your Ladyship's, in Jesus Christ.

LONDON, Jan. 26, 1646

LXXI. To LADY ARDROSS

MADAM, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. It has seemed good (as I

hear) to Him, who has appointed 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. She is now above the winter, with a little change of

place, not of a Savior; only she enjoyeth Him now without messages, and

in His own immediate presence, from whom she heard by letters and

messengers before.

I grant, death to her is 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 spirits 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

traveler, broken and worn out of breath with the sad occurrences of a

long and dirty way.

You 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 that is there;

and with the first draught and taste of the fountain of life, fresh and

new at the well-head.

And now she sitteth for eternity mail-free, in a very considerable

land, which has more than four summers in the year. Oh, what

spring-time is there! Even the smelling of the odors 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, does 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 has

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.

LONDON, Feb. 24, 1646

Glossary

ACCIDENTS: incidental accompaniments, not essentials.

AIRT, or AIRTH: direction, quarter of the heavens.

BACK-BOND: one givers after an earlier bond, making the person who

gave the first bond free.

BACK-ENTRY: back door.

BAILIE: magistrate.

BAIRNS: children.

BANN: curse.

BLAFLUME: a sham or bubble.

BLENCH: white moneys, a pepper-corn or nominal rent.

BLOCK: a bargain.

BODE: to offer with a view to a bargain.

BRAE: slope of a hill.

BROOK: enjoy, possess.

BUD: bribe.

BURROWS: a pledge.

LAW-BURROWS: security given not to injure another or his property.

BY-BOARD: side-table at which the children sat.

BY-HAND: aside.

BY-WORK: a leisure time occupation.

CAUMS: a mould.

CAUSEWAY or CAUSEY: a street. 'To keep the crown of the causey' is a

bold public appearance.

CAUTION: surety.

CHEAP: barter, hence 'good cheap' or 'better-cheap' means a good

bargain,

COAST: to sail close to the land,

COG: to stop the motion of a wheel.

COLD-RIFE or CAULD-RIFE: chilly, heartless.

COMMON: with reference to sharing a common table. 'To be in one's

common' is to be indebted to.

COMPEAR: to appear at a court of law. So COMPEARANCE, appearing in

court in obedience to a summons.

CONTRAIR: contrary to.

COUNTRY: common, in contrast to fine.

DAWTED: petted.

DING: to knock in violently.

DITTY or DITTY: indictment.

DO FOR: to act on behalf of.

DOW: to be able.

DYKE: a wall.

DYVOUR: a debtor, or bankrupt.

EASE-ROOM: a room for leisure and rest.

FASH: to trouble by importunity.

FEARED: alarmed, timid.

FECKLESS: futile, ineffective.

FEU DUTY: yearly ground rent.

FREMD: strange, foreign.

FRIEND-STED: to befriend.

FRYST or FRIST: to postpone possession or action.

GATE: road, way, manner of acting. 'Start to the gate'; get early on

the road.

HAND-FAST: to join hands in a compact or betrothal.

HAND-WRIT: written with one's own hand.

HEAP-METE: full measure.

HEARTSOME: cheerful.

HING: hang.

HOMELY: at home with.

HOME OVER: homewards.

JOUK: to dodge or bend down in order to escape something.

LAIRD: landed proprietor.

LAW-BURROWS: a pledge not to harm.

MAIL: rent or tax.

MARCH: boundary or frontier.

MASK: to infuse.

MINT: to attempt.

MISSIVE: a letter giving authority to act.

NEED-FORCE: by hook or by crook.

NICK: mark, point.

DIFFER: barter or bargain.

OBTEST: to adjure, beseech.

ON-WAITING: patient waiting.

OUTFIELD: waste land,

PACKALDS: bargains.

PAINFUL: painstaking, laborious.

PICKLE: a small grain.

PLEA: a quarrel or dispute.

PROFESSOR: one professing the Christian faith.

PROPANE: to present, to offer a gift.

REVERSION: the right to future possession.

SCAUR: to take fright.

SPEAT or SPAIT: a flood or overflowing stream.

SPEED: 'to come speed' is to succeed.

SPEAR or SPEER: to ask questions.

SPILL: spoil.

SPUNK: spark.

STARTS: 'at starts', fitfully.

ASTOUND: an overpowering stroke.

TARROW: reluctant.

THRING: to push forcefully.

TRANCE: passage.

TRYST: to arrange a meeting at a given time and place.

UNCO: uncommon, strange.

UNDER-TOOLS: lesser tools.

WAD SET: mortgage.

WALE: to choose.

WARE: to use or expend.

WHILE or WHILL: until.

WIN: reach, attain to.