Letters of Samuel Rutherford

With a Sketch of His Life

by Samuel Rutherford

Table of Contents

Preface
Sketch of Samuel Rutherford
1. To Marion M'Naught.—Children to be Dedicated to God
2. To a Christian Gentlewoman, on the death of a Daughter.—Christ's
Sympathy with, and Property in us—Reasons for Resignation
3. To Lady Kenmure, on occasion of illness and spiritual depression.—
Acquiescence in God's Purpose—Faith in exercise—Encouragement in
view of Sickness and Death—Public Affairs
4. To Lady Kenmure, on death of her infant Daughter.—Tribulation the
Portion of God's People, and intended to wean them from the World
5. To Lady Kenmure, when removing from Anwoth.—Changes—Loss of
Friends—This World no abiding Place
6. To Marion M'Naught, telling of his Wife's illness.—Inward Conflict,
arising from Outward Trial
7. To Lady Kenmure.—The Earnest of the Spirit—Communion with Christ
—Faith in the Promises
8. To Marion M'Naught.—His Wife's Illness—Wrestlings with God
9. To Marion M'Naught.—Recommending a Friend to her Care—Prayers
asked
10. To Marion M'Naught.—Submission, Perseverance, and Zeal
recommended
11. To Lady Kenmure.—God's Inexplicable Dealings with His People well
ordered—Want of Ordinances—Conformity to Christ—Troubles of the
Church—Mr. Rutherford's Wife's Death
12. To Marion M'Naught.—God Mixeth the Cup—The Reward of the
Wicked—Faithfulness—Forbearance—Trials
13. To Marion M'Naught, when exposed to reproach for her principles.—
Jesus a Pattern of Patience under Suffering
14. To Marion M'Naught, in prospect of the Lord's Supper.—Abundance
in Jesus—The Restoration of the Jews—Enemies of God
15. To Marion M'Naught.—The threatened Introduction of the Service
Book—Troubles of the Church—Private Wrongs
16. To Marion M'Naught.—Proposal to Remove him from Anwoth—
Babylon's Destruction, and Christ's Coming—The Young invited
17. To Marion M'Naught.—The Prospects of the Church—Arminianism—
Call to Prayer—No Help but in Christ
18. To Marion M'Naught, in prospect of the Lord's Supper.—Prayer
Solicited—The Church's Prospects
19. To Lady Kenmure.—Encouragement to Abound in Faith from the
Prospect of Glory—Christ's Unchangeableness
20. To Lady Kenmure.—Assurance of Christ's Love under Trials—Fulness
of Christ—Hope of Glory
21. To Lady Kenmure.—Self-denial—Hope of Christ's Coming—Loving
God for Himself
22. To John Kennedy.—Deliverance from Shipwreck—Recovery from
threatened Death—Use of Trials—Remembrance of Friends
23. To Lady Kenmure.—Exhorting to remember her Espousal to Christ—
Tribulation a Preparation for the Kingdom—Glory in the End
24. To Marion M'Naught.—Christ and His Garden—Provision of
Ordinances in the Church—Our Children
25. To a Gentleman at Kirkcudbright, excusing himself from visiting
26. To Marion M'Naught, after her dangerous illness.—Use of Sickness—
Reproaches—Christ our Eternal Feast—Fasting
27. To Lady Kenmure.—Love to Christ and Submission to His Cross—
Believers kept—The Heavenly Paradise
28. To Lady Kenmure, after the death of a child.—The State of the
Church, Cause for God's Displeasure—His Care of His Church—The Jews
—Afflicted Saints
29. To Marion M'Naught.—Christ with His People in the Furnace of
Affliction—Prayer
30. To Lady Kenmure.—Rank and Prosperity hinder Progress—
Watchfulness—Case of Relatives
31. To Lady Kenmure.—A Union for Prayer Recommended
32. To Marion M'Naught.—State and Prospects of the Church—Satan
33. To Marion M'Naught.—In Prospect of Going to the Lord's Table
34. To Marion M'Naught.—Prospects of the Church—Christ's Care for the
Children of Believers
35. To Lady Kenmure, on the death of a child.—God Measures our Days—
Bereavements Ripen us for the Harvest
36. To Marion M'Naught.—Choice of a Commissioner for Parliament
37. To Lady Kenmure.—On the Death of Lord Kenmure—Design of, and
duties under, Affliction
38. To Marion M'Naught.—Christ's Care of His Church, and His
Judgments on her Enemies
39. To Lady Kenmure.—Preparation for Death and Eternity
40. To Lady Kenmure.—When Mr. Rutherford had the Prospect of being
Removed from Anwoth
41. To Marion M'Naught.—The Church's Trials—Comfort under
Temptations—Deliverance—A Message to the Young
42. To Lady Kenmure.—The World passeth away—Special Portions of the
Word for the Afflicted—Call to Kirkcudbright
43. To Marion M'Naught.—When Mr. Rutherford was in difficulty as to
accepting a Call to Kirkcudbright, and Cramond
44. To Marion M'Naught.—Troubles threatening the Church
45. To Marion M'Naught.—In the Prospect of the Lord's Supper, and of
Trials to the Church
46. To Marion M'Naught.—Tossings of Spirit—Her Children and
Husband
47. To Marion M'Naught.—Submission to God's Arrangements
48. To Marion M'Naught.—Troubles from False Brethren—Occurrences—
Christ's Coming—Intercession
49. To Marion M'Naught.—Spoiling of Goods—Call to Kirkcudbright—
The Lord Reigneth
50. To Marion M'Naught.—Christ coming as Captain of Salvation—His
Church's Conflict and Covenant—The Jews—Last Days' Apostasy
51. To Marion M'Naught.—Public Temptations—The Security of every
Saint—Occurrences in the Country-side
52. To Marion M'Naught.—In the Prospect of her Husband being
compelled to receive the Commands of the Prelates—Saints are yet to
Judge
53. To Marion M'Naught.—Encouragement under Trial by prospect of
Brighter Days
54. To Marion M'Naught.—Public Wrongs—Words of Comfort
55. To Marion M'Naught.—When he had been threatened with
Persecution for Preaching the Gospel
56. To Lady Kenmure.—Reasons for Resignation—Security of Saints—The
End of Time
57. To Marion M'Naught.—In the Prospect of Removal to Aberdeen
58. To Lady Kenmure.—On occasion of Efforts to introduce Episcopacy
59. To Earlston, Elder.—No Suffering for Christ unrewarded—Loss of
Children—Christ in Providence
60. To Marion M'Naught.—When he was under Trial by the High
Commission
61. To Lady Kenmure, on the evening of his banishment to Aberdeen.—
His only Regrets—The Cross unspeakably Sweet—Retrospect of his
Ministry
62. To Lady Culross, on the occasion of his banishment to Aberdeen.—
Challenges of Conscience—The Cross no Burden
63. To Mr. Robert Cunningham, at Holywood, in Ireland.—Consolation to
a Brother in Tribulation—His own Deprivation of Ministry—Christ worth
Suffering for
64. To Alexander Gordon of Earlston.—His Feelings upon Leaving
Anwoth
65. To Robert Gordon of Knockbreck, on his way to Aberdeen.—How
Upheld on the Way
66. To Robert Gordon of Knockbreck, after arriving at Aberdeen.—
Challenges of Conscience—Ease in Zion
67. To William Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright.—Encouragement to
Suffer for Christ
68. To John Fleming, Bailie of Leith.—The Sweetness and Faithfulness of
Christ's Love
69. To Lady Kenmure.—His Enjoyment of Christ in Aberdeen—A Sight of
Christ exceeds all Reports—Some ashamed of Him and His
70. To Lady Kenmure.—Exercise under Restraint from Preaching—The
Devil—Christ's Loving-kindness—Progress
71. To Mr. Hugh M'Kail, Minister of Irvine.—Christ to be Trusted amid
Trial
72. To William Gordon of Roberton.—How Trials are Misimproved—The
Infinite Value of Christ—Despised Warnings
73. To Earlston, the Elder.—Satisfaction with Christ's Ways—Private and
Public Causes of Sorrow
74. To Lady Culross.—Suspicions of God's Ways—God's Ways always
Right—Grace Grows under Trial
75. To John Kennedy, Bailie of Ayr.—Longing after Discoveries of Christ
—His Long-suffering—Trying Circumstances
76. To Robert Gordon of Knockbreck.—Benefit of Affliction
77. To Lady Boyd.—Aberdeen—Experience of himself Sad—Taking Pains
to win Grace
78. To Lord Boyd.—Encouragement to Exertion for Christ's Cause
79. To Margaret Ballantine.—Value of the Soul, and Urgency of Salvation
80. To Marion M'Naught.—His Comfort under Tribulations, and the
Prison a Palace
81. To Mr. John Meine (jun.).—Experience—Patient Waiting—
Sanctification
82. To John Gordon of Cardoness, Elder.—Win Christ at all Hazards—
Christ's Beauty—A Word to Children
83. To the Earl of Lothian.—Advice as to Public Conduct—Everything to
be endured for Christ
84. To Jean Brown.—The Joys of this Life embittered by Sin—Heaven an
Object of Desire—Trial a Blessed Thing
85. To John Kennedy, Bailie of Ayr.—The Reasonableness of Believing
under all Affliction—Obligations to Free Grace
86. To Lord Craighall.—Episcopalian Ceremonies—How to Abide in the
Truth—Desire for Liberty to preach Christ
87. To Elizabeth Kennedy.—Danger of Formality—Christ wholly to be
Loved—Other Objects of Love
88. To Janet Kennedy.—Christ to be kept at every sacrifice—His
incomparable Loveliness
89. To the Rev. Robert Blair.—God's Arrangements sometimes
Mysterious
90. To the Rev. John Livingstone.—Resignation—Enjoyment—State of
the Church
91. To Mr. Ephraim Melvin.—Kneeling at the Lord's Supper a species of
Idolatry
92. To Mr. Robert Gordon of Knockbreck.—Visits of Christ—The Things
which Affliction Teaches
93. To Lady Kenmure.—God's Dealings with Scotland—The Eye to be
directed Heavenward
94. To Lady Kenmure.—The Times—Christ's Sweetness in Trouble—
Longing after Him
95. To Lady Kenmure.—Christ's Cross Sweet—His Coming to be Desired
—Jealous of any Rival
96. To Lady Kenmure.—Christ all Worthy—Anwoth
97. To Alexander Gordon of Earlston.—Christ Endeared by Bitter
Experiences—Searchings of Heart—Fears for the Church
98. To Mr. Alexander Colville of Blair.—Increasing Experience of Christ's
Love—God with His Saints
99. To Earlston, Younger.—Christ's Ways Misunderstood—His increasing
Kindness—Spiritual Delicacy—Hard to be Dead to the World
100. To Lady Cardoness.—The One Thing Needful—Conscientious Acting
in the World—Advice under Dejecting Trials
101. To Jonet Macculloch.—Christ's Sufficiency—Stedfastness in the
Truth
102. To Alexander Gordon of Knockgray.—Grounds of Praise—Affliction
tends to misrepresent Christ—Idols
103. To Lady Cardoness, Elder.—Christ and His Cause Recommended—
Heavenly-mindedness—Caution against Compliances—Anxiety about his
Parish
104. To Lady Kenmure.—Painstaking in the Knowledge of Christ—
Unusual enjoyment of His Love—Not Easy to be a Christian—Friends
must not mislead
105. To a Gentlewoman, upon the death of her Husband.—Resignation
under Bereavement—His own Enjoyment of Christ's Love
106. To Lady Kenmure.—Weak Assurance—Grace different from
Learning—Self-accusations
107. To Lady Boyd.—Consciousness of Defects no argument of Christ
being unknown—His Experience in Exile
108. To Lady Kaskiberry.—Gratitude for Kindness—Christ's Presence felt
109. To Lady Earlston.—Following Christ not Easy—Children not to be
over-loved—Joy in the Lord
110. To Mr. David Dickson.—God's Dealings—The Bitter Sweetened—
Notes on Scripture
111. To Jean Brown.—Christ's Untold Preciousness—A Word to her Boy
112. To Mr. John Fergushill.—The Rod upon God's Children—Pain from a
sense of Christ's Love—His Presence a Support under Trials—
Contentedness with Him alone
113. To Mr. Robert Douglas.—Greatness of Christ's Love revealed to those
who suffer for Him
114. To William Rigg of Athernie.—Sustaining Power of Christ's Love—
Satan's Opposition—Yearnings for Christ Himself—Fears for the Church
115. To Mr. Alexander Henderson.—Sadness because of Christ's Headship
not set forth—His Cause attended with Crosses—The Believer seen of all
116. To Lord Loudon.—Blessedness of Acting for Christ—His Love to His
Prisoner
117. To Mr. William Dalgleish, Minister of Kirkdale and Kirkmabreck.—
Christ's Kindness—Dependence on Providence—Controversies
118. To Mr. Hugh M'Kail, Minister at Irvine.—Christ's Bountiful Dealings
—Joy in Christ through the Cross
119. To Mr. David Dickson.—Joyful Experience—Cup Overflowing in
Exile
120. To Mr. Matthew Mowat, Minister at Kilmarnock.—Plenitude of
Christ's Love—Need to use Grace aright—Christ the Ransomer—Desire to
proclaim His Gospel—Shortcomings and Sufferings
121. To William Halliday.—Diligence in securing Salvation
122. To a Gentlewoman after the death of her Husband.—Vanity of
Earthly Possessions—Christ a sufficient Portion—Design of Affliction
123. To John Gordon of Cardoness, Younger.—Reasons for being earnest
about the Soul, and for Resignation
124. To John Gordon of Cardoness, Elder.—Call to Earnestness about
Salvation—Intrusion of Ministers
125. To Lady Forret.—Sickness a Kindness—Christ's Glooms better than
the World's Joys
126. To Marion M'Naught.—Adherence to Duty amidst Opposition—
Power of Christ's Love
127. To John Carsen.—Nothing worth the Finding but Christ
128. To the Earl of Cassillis.—Honour of testifying for Christ
129. To Mr. Robert Gordon, Bailie of Ayr.—Christ above All
130. To John Kennedy, Bailie of Ayr.—Christ's Love—The Three Wonders
—Desires for His Second Coming
131. To Jean Brown.—His Wisdom in our Trials—Rejoicing in Tribulation
132. To Jean Macmillan.—Strive to enter In
133. To Lady Busbie.—Complete Surrender to Christ—No Idols—Trials
discover Sins—A Free Salvation—The Marriage Supper
134. To John Ewart, Bailie of Kirkcudbright.—The Cross no Burden—
Need of Sure Foundation
135. To William Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright.—Fear not them who
kill the Body—Unexpected Favour
136. To Robert Glendinning, Minister of Kirkcudbright.—Prepare to meet
thy God—Christ his Joy
137. To William Glendinning.—Perseverance against Opposition
138. To Mr. Hugh Henderson, Minister of the Gospel.—Trials selected by
God—Patience—Looking for the Judge
139. To Lord Balmerinoch.—His happy Obligations to Christ—Emptiness
of the World
140. To Lady Mar, Younger.—No Exchange for Christ
141. To James Macadam.—The Kingdom taken by Force
142. To William Livingstone.—Counsel to a Youth
143. To William Gordon of Whitepark.—Nothing lost by Trials—Longing
for Christ Himself, because of His Love
144. To Mr. George Gillespie, Minister of Kirkcaldy.—Suspicions of
Christ's Love Removed—Three Desires
145. To Jean Gordon.—God the Satisfying Portion—Adherence to Christ
146. To Mr. James Bruce, Minister of the Gospel.—Misjudging of Christ's
Ways
147. To John Gordon, at Rusco.—Pressing into Heaven—To be a Christian
no Easy Attainment—Sins to be Avoided
148. To Lady Hallhill.—Christ's Crosses better than Egypt's Treasures
149. To John Osburn, Provost of Ayr.—Adherence to Christ—His
Approbation worth all Worlds
150. To John Henderson, in Rusco.—Continuing in Christ—Preparedness
for Death
151. To John Meine, Senior.—Enjoyment of God's Love—Need of Help—
Burdens
152. To Mr. Thomas Garven.—A Prisoner's Joys—Love of Christ—The
Good Part—Heaven in Sight
153. To Bethaia Aird.—Unbelief under Trials—Christ's Sympathy
154. To Alexander Gordon of Knockgray.—Prospective Trials
155. To Grizzel Fullerton, daughter of Marion M'Naught,—The One Thing
Needful—Christ's Love
156. To Patrick Carsen.—Early Devotedness to Christ
157. To the Laird of Carleton.—Increasing Sense of Christ's Love—
Resignation—Deadness to Earth—Temptations—Infirmities
158. To Lady Busbie.—Christ all Worthy—Best at our Lowest—Sinfulness
of the Land—Prayers
159. To John Fleming, Bailie of Leith.—Directions for Christian Conduct
160. To Alexander Gordon of Earlston.—Hungering after Christ Himself
rather than His Love
161. To John Stuart, Provost of Ayr.—Commercial Misfortunes—Service-
Book—Blessedness of Trials
162. To John Stuart, Provost of Ayr.—The Burden of a Silenced Minister—
Spiritual Shortcomings
163. To John Stuart, Provost of Ayr.—View of Trials past—Hard Thoughts
of Christ—Crosses—Hope
164. To Ninian Mure, one of the family of Cassincarrie.—A Youth
Admonished
165. To Mr. Thomas Garven.—Personal Insufficiency—Grace from Christ
alone—Longings after Him
166. To Cardoness, the Elder.—A Good Conscience—Christ kind to
Sufferers—Responsibility—Youth
167. To Lady Boyd.—Lessons learned in the School of Adversity
168. To Mr. David Dickson.—Christ's Infinite Fulness
169. To the Laird of Carleton.—God's Working Incomprehensible—
Longing after any Drop of Christ's Fulness
170. To Robert Gordon of Knockbreck.—Longing for Christ's Glory—Felt
guiltiness—Longing for Christ's Love—Sanctification
171. To the Laird of Moncrieff.—Concert in Prayer—Stedfastness to Christ
—Grief misrepresents Christ's Glory
172. To John Clark.—Marks of Difference betwixt Christians and
Reprobates
173. To Cardoness, the Younger.—Warning and Advice as to Things of
Salvation
174. To Lord Craighall.—Idolatry Condemned
175. To John Laurie.—Christ's Love—A Right Estimate of Him—His Grace
176. To the Laird of Carleton.—A Christian's Confession of Unworthiness
—Desire for Christ's Honour—Present Circumstances
177. To Marion M'Naught.—Christ Suffering in His Church—His Coming
—Outpourings of Love from Him
178. To Lady Culross.—Christ's Management of Trials—What Faith can
do—Christ not Experience—Prayers
179. To Mr. John Nevay.—Christ's Love Sharpened in Suffering—
Kneeling at the Communion—Posture at Ordinances
180. To John Gordon of Cardoness, the Elder.—Longings for those under
his former Ministry—Delight in Christ and His Appearing—Pleading with
his Flock
181. To Earlston, the Younger.—Dangers of Youth—Christ the best
Physician—Four Remedies against Doubting—Breathing after Christ's
Honour
182. To Alexander Gordon of Knockgray.—Joy in God—Trials work out
Glory to Christ
183. To Mr. J—— R——.—Christ the Purifier of His Church—Submission
to His Ways
184. To Mr. William Dalgleish, Minister of the Gospel.—The Fragrance of
the Ministry—A Review of his Past and Present Situation, and of his
Prospects
185. To Marion M'Naught.—Longing to be Restored to his Charge
186. To Robert Stuart.—Christ chooses His own in the Furnace—Need of
a Deep Work—The God-Man, a World's Wonder
187. To Lady Gaitgirth.—Christ Unchangeable, though not always
Enjoyed—His Love never yet fully poured out—Himself His People's
Cautioner
188. To Mr. John Fergushill of Ochiltree.—Desponding Views of his own
State—Ministerial Diligence—Christ's Worth—Self-seeking
189. To John Stuart, Provost of Ayr.—Hope for Scotland—Self-
submission—Christ Himself sought for by Faith—Stability of Salvation—
His Ways
190. To the Laird of Carsluth.—Necessity of making sure of Salvation—
Vanity of the World—Nothing worth having but Christ—Flight of Time
191. To the Laird of Cassincarrie.—Earnestness about Salvation—Christ
Himself sought
192. To Lady Cardoness.—Grace—The Name of Christ to be Exalted—
Everything but God fails us
193. To Sibylla Macadam.—Christ's Beauty and Excellence
194. To Mr. Hugh Henderson, Minister of Dalry.—The Ways of
Providence—Believing Patience
195. To Lady Largirie.—Christ the Exclusive Object of Love—Preparation
for Death
196. To Earlston, the Younger.—Sufferings—Hope of Final Deliverance—
The Believer in Safe Keeping—The Recompense Marred by Temptations
197. To Mr. William Dalgleish, Minister of the Gospel.—Thoughts as to
God's Arrangements—Winning Souls to be Supremely Desired—Longings
for Christ
198. To the Laird of Cally.—Spiritual Sloth—Danger of Compromise—Self,
the Root of all Sin—Self-renunciation
199. To John Gordon of Cardoness, the Younger.—Dangers of Youth—
Early Decision
200. To Robert Gordon, Bailie of Ayr.—The Misery of mere Worldly Hope
—Earnestness about Salvation
201. To Alexander Gordon of Earlston.—Christ's Kingdom to be Exalted
over all; and more Pains to be taken to Win farther into Him
202. To the Laird of Cally.—Youth a Precious Season—Christ's Beauty
203. To William Gordon, at Kenmure.—Testimony to Christ's Worth—
Marks of Grace in Conviction of Sin and Spiritual Conflict
204. To Margaret Fullerton.—Christ, not Creatures, worthy of all Love—
Love not to be measured by Feeling
205. To Lady Kenmure.—Difficulties in the way to the Kingdom—Christ's
Love
206. To Lady Kenmure.—The Use of Sufferings—Fears under them—
Desire that Christ be Glorified
207. To John Henderson of Rusco.—Practical Hints
208. To Alexander Colville of Blair.—Regrets for not being able to Preach
—Longings for Christ
209. To Mr. John Nevay.—Christ's Surpassing Excellency—His Cause in
Scotland
210. To Lady Boyd.—His Soul Fainting for Christ's Matchless Beauty—
Prayer for a Revival
211. To a Christian Gentlewoman.—God's Skill to bless by Affliction—
Unkindness of Men—Near the Day of Meeting the Lord
212. To William Glendinning.—Search into Christ's Loveliness—What he
would Suffer to see it—His Coming to Deliver
213. To Robert Lennox of Disdove.—Men's Folly in Undervaluing Christ—
It is He that satisfieth—Admiration of Him
214. To Mr. James Hamilton, Minister of the Gospel.—Suffering for
Christ's Headship—How Christ visited him in Preaching
215. To Mistress Stuart.—Personal Unworthiness—Longing after Holiness
—Winnowing Time
216. To Mr. Hugh M'Kail, Minister of Irvine.—Advantages of our Wants
and Distempers—Christ Unspeakable
217. To Alexander Gordon of Garloch.—Free Grace finding its Materials
in us
218. To John Bell, Elder.—Danger of Trusting to a Name to Live—
Conversion no Superficial Work—Exhortation to Make Sure
219. To Mr. John Row, Minister of the Gospel.—Christ's Crosses better
than the World's Joys—Christ Extolled
220. To Lord Craighall.—Duty of being disentangled from Christ-
dishonouring Compliances
221. To Marion M'Naught.—Her Prayers for Scotland not Forgotten
222. To Lady Culross.—Christ's Way of Showing Himself the Best—What
Fits for Him—Yearning after Him insatiably—Domestic Matters
223. To Alexander Gordon of Knockgray.—State of the Church—Believers
purified by Affliction—Folly of seeking Joy in a Doomed World
224. To Fulwood, the Younger.—Vanity of the World in the light of Death
and Christ—The Present Truth—Christ's Coming
225. To his Parishioners.—Protestation of Care for their Souls, and for the
Glory of God—Delight in his Ministry, and in his Lord—Efforts for their
Souls—Warnings against Errors of the Day—Awful Words to the
Backslider—Intense Admiration of Christ—A Loud Call to All
226. To Lady Kilconquhar.—The Interests of the Soul and Urgent—Folly
of the World—Christ altogether Lovely—His Pen fails to set forth Christ's
Unspeakable Beauty
227. To Lord Craighall.—Standing for Christ—Danger from Fear, or
Promises of Men—Christ's Requitals—Sin against the Holy Ghost
228. To Mr. James Fleming, Minister of the Gospel.—Glory Gained to
Christ—Spiritual Deadness—Help to Praise Him—The Ministry
229. To Mr. Hugh M'Kail, Minister of Irvine.—The Law—This World
under Christ's Control for the Believer
230. To Lady Kenmure.—Believer Safe though Tried—Delight in Christ's
Truth
231. To Lord Lindsay of Byres.—The Church's Desolations—The End of
the World, and Christ's Coming—His Attractiveness
232. To Lord Boyd.—Seeking Christ in Youth—Its Temptations—Christ's
Excellence—The Church's Cause concerns the Nobles
233. To Fulk Ellis.—Friends in Ireland—Difficulties in Providence—
Unfaithfulness to Light—Constant Need of Christ
234. To James Lindsay.—Desertions, their Use—Prayers of Reprobates,
and how the Gospel affects their Responsibility
235. To Lord Craighall.—Fear God, not Man—Sign of Backsliding
236. To Mr. James Hamilton, Minister of the Gospel.—Christ's Glory not
affected by His People's Weakness
237. To the Laird of Gaitgirth.—Truth worth Suffering for—Light Sown,
but Evil in this World till Christ come
238. To Lady Gaitgirth.—Christ an Example in Bearing Crosses—The
extent to which Children should be Loved—Why Saints Die
239. To Mr. Matthew Mowat, Minister of Kilmarnock.—What am I?—
Longing to Act for Christ—Unbelief—Love in the Hiding of Christ's Face—
Christ's Reproach
240. To Mr. John Meine, Jun.—Christ the Same—Youthful Sins—No
Dispensing with Crosses
241. To John Fleming, Bailie of Leith.—Riches of Christ Fail Not—
Salvation—Vanity of Created Comforts—Longing for more of Christ
242. To Lady Rowallan.—Jesus the Best Choice, and to be made sure of—
The Cross and Jesus inseparable—Sorrows only Temporary
243. To Marion M'Naught.—His own Prospects—Hopes—Salutations
244. To Marian M'Naught.—Proceedings of Parliament—Private Matters
—Her Daughter's Marriage
245. To Lady Boyd.—Imperfections—Yearnings after Christ—Christ's
Supremacy not inconsistent with Civil Authority
246. To Mr. Thomas Garven.—Heaven's Happiness—Joy in the Cross
247. To Janet Kennedy.—The Heavenly Mansions—Earth a Shadow
248. To Margaret Reid.—Benefits of the Cross, if we are Christ's
249. To James Bautie.—Spiritual Difficulties Solved
250. To Lady Largirie.—Part with all for Christ—No Unmixed Joy here
251. To Lady Dungueich.—Jesus or the World—Scotland's Trials and
Hopes
252. To Jonet Macculloch.—Cares to be cast on Christ—Christ a Steady
Friend
253. To Mr. George Gillespie.—Christ the True Gain
254. To Mr. Robert Blair.—Personal Unworthiness—God's Grace—Prayer
for Others
255. To Lady Carleton.—Submission to God's Will—Wonders in the Love
of Christ—No debt to the World
256. To William Rigge of Athernie.—The Law—Grace—Chalking out
Providences for ourselves—Prescribing to His Love
257. To Lady Craighall.—The Comforts of Christ's Cross—Desires for
Christ
258. To Lord Loudon.—The Wisdom of adhering to Christ's Cause
259. To Mr. David Dickson.—Danger of Worldly Ease—Personal
Occurrences
260. To Alexander Gordon of Earlston.—All Crosses Well Ordered—
Providences
261. To Lady Kilconquhair.—The Kingdom to be taken by Violence
262. To Robert Lennox of Disdove.—Increasing Experience of Christ's
Love—Salvation to be made sure
263. To Marion M'Naught.—Hope in Trial—Prayer and Watchfulness
264. To Thomas Corbet.—Godly Counsels—Following Christ
265. To Mr. George Dunbar, Minister of the Gospel.—Christ's Love in
Affliction—The Saint's Support and Final Victory
266. To John Fleming, Bailie of Leith.—Comfort Abounding under Trials
267. To William Glendinning, Bailie of Kirkcudbright.—The Past and the
Future—Present Happiness
268. To the Earl of Cassillis.—Anxiety for the Prosperity of Zion—
Encouragement for the Nobles to Support it—The Vanity of this World,
and the Folly and Misery of forsaking Christ—The One Way to Heaven
269. To his Parishioners at Anwoth.—Exhortation to abide in the Truth,
in prospect of Christ's Coming—Scriptural Mode of Observing
Ordinances such as the Sabbath, Family Prayer, and the Lord's Supper—
Judgments Anticipated
270. To Lady Busbie.—His Experience of Christ's Love—State of the Land
and Church—Christ not duly Esteemed—Desire after Him, and for a
Revival
271. To Earlston, Younger.—Prosperity under the Cross—Need of
Sincerity, and being founded on Christ
272. To John Gordon.—Christ all Worthy—This World a Clay Prison—
Desire for a Revival of Christ's Cause
273. To William Rigge of Athernie.—Comfort in Trials from the
Knowledge of Christ's Power and Work—Corruption—Free Grace
274. To James Murray.—The Christian Life a Mystery to the World—
Christ's Kindness
275. To Mr. John Fergushill.—Spiritual Longings under Christ's Cross—
How to bear it—Christ Precious, and to be had without Money—The
Church
276. To William Glendinning.—Sweetness of Trial—Swiftness of Time—
Prevalence of Sin
277. To Lady Boyd.—Sense of Unworthiness—Obligation to Grace—
Christ's Absence—State of the Land
278 To the Earl of Cassillis.—Ambition—Christ's Royal Prerogative—
Prelacy
279. To Marion M'Naught.—A Spring-tide of Christ's Love
280. To John Gordon of Rusco.—Heaven hard to be won—Many come
short in Attaining—Idol Sins to be renounced—Likeness to Christ
281. To Lord Loudoun.—True Honour in maintaining Christ's Cause—
Prelacy—Light of Eternity
282. To Lady Robertland.—Afflictions purify—The World's Vanity—
Christ's wise love
283. To Thomas Macculloch of Nether Ardwell.—Earnest Call to
Diligence—Circumspect Walking
284. To the Professors of Christ and His Truth in Ireland.—The Way to
Heaven ofttimes through Persecution—Christ's Worth—Making sure our
Profession—Self-denial—No Compromise—Tests of Sincerity—His own
Desire for Christ's Glory
285. To Robert Gordon of Knockbreck.—Not the Cross, but Christ the
Object of Attraction—Too little expected from Him—Spiritual Deadness
286. To the Parishioners of Kilmalcolm.—Spiritual Sloth—Advice to
Beginners—A Dead Ministry—Languor—Obedience—Want of Christ's
Felt Presence—Assurance Important—Prayer-Meetings
287. To Lady Kenmure.—On the Death of her Child—Christ Shares His
People's Sorrows
288. To the Persecuted Church in Ireland.—Christ's Legacy of Trouble—
God's Dealings with Scotland in giving Prosperity—Christ takes Half of all
Sufferings—Stedfastness for His Crown—His Love should lead to
Holiness
289. To Dr. Alexander Leighton.—Public Blessings alleviate Private
Sufferings—Trials Light when viewed in the Light of Heaven—Christ
worthy of Suffering for
290. To a Person unknown.—Anent Private Worship
291. To Henry Stuart, and Family, Prisoners of Christ at Dublin.—Faith's
preparation for Trial—The World's Rage against Christ—The Immensity
of His Glorious Beauty—Folly of Persecution—Victory Sure
292. To Mrs. Pont, Prisoner at Dublin.—Support under Trials—The
Master's Reward
293. To Mr. James Wilson.—Advices to a Doubting Soul—Mistakes about
his Interest in God's Love—Temptation—Perplexity about Prayer—Want
of Feeling
294. To Lady Boyd.—Sins of the Land—Dwelling in Christ—Faith awake
sees all well
295. To John Fenwick.—Christ the Fountain—Freeness of God's Love—
Faith to be exercised under Frowns—Grace for Trials—Hope of Christ yet
to be exalted on the Earth
296. To Peter Stirling.—Believers' Graces all from Christ—Aspiration
after more Love to Him—His Reign Desired
297. To Lady Fingask.—Faith's Misgivings—Spiritual Darkness not Grace
—Christ's Love Inimitable
298. To Mr. David Dickson, on the Death of his Son.—God's Sovereignty,
and Discipline by Affliction
299. To Lady Boyd, on the Loss of several Friends.—Trust even though
slain—Second Causes not to be regarded—God's thoughts of Peace
therein—All in Mercy
300. To Agnes Macmath, on the Death of a Child.—Reason for
Resignation
301. To Mr. Matthew Mowat, Minister of Kilmarnock.—Worthiness of
God's Love as manifested in Christ—Heaven with Christ
302. To Lady Kenmure, on her Husband's Death.—God's Method in
Affliction—Future Glory
303. To Lady Boyd.—Sin of the Land—Read Prayers—Brownism
304. To James Murray's Wife.—Heaven a Reality—Stedfastness to be
grounded on Christ
305. To Lady Kenmure—Sins of the Times—Practical Atheism
306. To Mr. Thomas Wylie, Minister of Borgue.—Sufficiency of Divine
Grace—Call to England to assist at Westminster Assembly—Felt
Unworthiness
307. To a Young Man in Anwoth.—Necessity of Godliness in its Power
308. To Lady Kenmure.—Westminster Assembly—Religious Sects
309. To Lady Boyd.—Proceedings of Westminster Assembly
310. To Mistress Taylor, on her Son's Death.—Suggestions for Comfort
under Sorrow
311. To Barbara Hamilton.—On Death of her Son-in-Law—God's
Purposes
312. To Mistress Hume, on her Husband's Death.—God's Voice in the
Rod
313. To Lady Kenmure.—Christ's Designs in Sickness and Sorrow
314. To Barbara Hamilton, on her Son-in-Law slain in Battle.—God does
all Things Well, and with Design
315. To a Christian Friend, on the Death of his Wife.—God the First Cause
—The End of Affliction
316. To a Christian Brother, on the Death of his Daughter.—Consolation
in her having gone before—Christ the Best Husband
317. To a Christian Gentlewoman.—Views of Death and Heaven—
Aspirations
318. To Lady Kenmure.—Christ never in our Debt—Riches of Christ—
Excellence of the Heavenly State
319. To Mr. James Guthrie.—Prospects for Scotland—His own Darkness
—Christ's Ability
320. To Lady Kenmure.—Trials cannot Injure Saints—Blessedness in
Seeing Christ
321. To Lady Ardross, in Fife, on her Mother's Death.—Happiness of
Heaven, and Blessedness of Dying in the Lord
322. To M. O.—Gloomy Prospects for the Backsliding Church—The
Misunderstandings of Believers cause of great grief—The Day of Christ
323. To Earlston the Elder.—Christ's Way of Afflicting the Best—
Obligation to Free Grace—Enduring the Cross
324. To Mr. George Gillespie.—Prospect of Death—Christ the true
support in Death
325. To Sir James Stewart, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.—Declining Chair
in Edinburgh
326. To Mistress Gillespie, Widow of George Gillespie.—On the Death of
a Child—God Afflicts in order to save us from the World
327. To the Earl of Balcarras.—Regarding some Misunderstanding
328. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Singleness of Aim—Judgment in regard to
Adversaries
329. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Courage in Days of Rebuke—God's
Arrangements all Wise
330. To William Guthrie.—Depression under Dark Trials—Dangers of
Compliance
331. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Courage in the Lord's Cause—Duty in
regard to Providence to be observed—Safety in this
332. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Christ's Cause deserves Service and
Suffering from us
333. To Colonel Gilbert Ker, when taken Prisoner.—Comforting Thoughts
to the Afflicted—Darkness of the Times—Fellowship in Christ's Sufferings
—Satisfaction with His Providences
334. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Comfort under the Cloud hanging over
Scotland—Dissuasion from Leaving Scotland
335. To Lady Kenmure.—Difference between what is Man's and Christ's,
and between Christ Himself and His Blessings
336. To Lady Ralston, Ursula Mure.—Duty of Preferring to Live rather
than Die—Want of Union in the judgments of the Godly
337. To a Minister of Glasgow.—Encouraging Words to a Suffering
Brother—Why men shrink from Christ's Testimony
338. To Lady Kenmure.—A Word to Cheer in Times of Darkness
339. To Grizzel Fullerton.—Exhortation to Follow Christ fully when
others are cold
340. To Mr. Thomas Wylie.—Regarding a Letter of Explanation
341. To Lady Kenmure.—Present Need helped by past Experience
342. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—Deadness—Hopes of Refreshment—
Distance from God—Nearness Delighted in
343. To Colonel Gilbert Ker.—The State of the Land
344. To Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.—Excuse for Absence from Duty
345. To Lady Kenmure.—Thoughts for a Time of Sickness about the Life
to Come
346. To Simeon Ashe.—Views of the Presbyterians as to Allegiance to the
Protector
347. To Lady Kenmure.—Unkindness of the Creature—God's Sovereignty
in permitting His Children to be Injured by Men
348. To Lady Kenmure.—God's Dealings with the Land
349. To Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.—Protesters' Toleration
350. To Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.—Gloomy Times—Means of promoting
Godliness
351. To Mr. James Durham, Minister of Glasgow, some few days before
his Death.—Man's Ways not God's Ways
352. To Mr. John Scot, at Oxnam.—Adherence to the Testimony against
Toleration
353. To Lady Kenmure.—Trials—Deadness of the Spirit—Danger of False
Security
354. To Lady Kenmure.—Prevailing Declension, Decay, and Indifference
to God's Dealings—Things Future
355. To the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright.—Union—Humiliation—Choice
of a Professor
356. To Mr. John Murray, Minister at Methven.—A Synod Proposal for
Union—Brethren under Censure
357. To Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Trail, and the rest of their Brethren imprisoned
in the Castle of Edinburgh.—On Suffering for Christ—God's Presence ever
with His People—Firmness and Constancy
358. To Several Brethren.—Reasons for Petitioning his Majesty after his
return, and for owning such as were censured while about so necessary a
Duty
359. To a Brother Minister.—Judgment of a Draught of a Petition, to have
been presented to the Committee of Estates
360. To Lady Kenmure, on the Imprisonment of her Brother, the Marquis
of Argyle.—God's Judgments—Calls to Flee to Him—The Results of timid
Compliance
361. To Mistress Craig, upon the Death of her hopeful Son.—Nine
Reasons for Resignation
362. To Mr. James Guthrie, Minister of the Gospel at Stirling.—Stedfast
though Persecuted—Blessedness of Martyrdom
363. To Mr. Robert Campbell.—Stedfastness to Protest against Prelacy
and Popery
364. To Believers at Aberdeen.—Sinful Conformity and Schismatic
Designs reproved
365. To Mr. John Murray, Minister at Methven.—Proposal of a Season of
Prayer

PREFACE
MOST justly does the old Preface to the earlier Editions begin by telling
the Reader that "These Letters have no need of any man's epistle
commendatory, the great Master having given them one, written by His
own hand on the hearts of all who favour the things of God." Every one
who knows these "Letters" at all, is aware of their most peculiar
characteristic, namely, the discovery they present of the marvellous
intercourse carried on between the writer's soul and his God.

This Edition will be found to be the most complete that has hitherto
appeared. It is the same as that of 1863, in two vols., with two slight
alterations, viz. the footnotes are for the most part removed to the
Glossary, and a few of the notices are condensed, but nothing omitted of
any importance. On the other hand, one or two slight additions have been
made. Attending carefully to the chronological arrangement, the Editor
has sought, by biographical, topographical, and historical notices, to put
the Reader in possession of all that was needed to enable him to enter
into the circumstances in which each Letter was written, so far as that
could be done. The appended Glossary of Scottish words and expressions
(many of them in reality old English), the Index of Places and Persons,
the Index of Special Subjects, and the prefixed Contents of Each Letter,
will, it is confidently believed, be found both interesting and useful. The
Sketch of Rutherford's Life may be thought too brief; but the limits within
which such a Sketch must necessarily be confined, when occupying the
place of a mere Introduction, rendered brevity inevitable.

Every Letter hitherto published is to be found in this Edition. The ten

additional Letters of the Edition 1848, along with two more, added since
that time, are all inserted in their chronological place. The publishers
have taken great pains with the typography.

SKETCH OF SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

"WHEREVER the palm-tree is, there is water," says the Eastern proverb;
and so, wherever the godly flourish, there, we are sure, must the Word of
God be found. In the history of the Reformation we read of Brother
Martin, a poor monk at Basle, whose hope of salvation rested solely on
the Lord Jesus, long before Luther sounded the silver trumpet that
summoned sin-convinced souls to the One Sacrifice. Having written out
his confession of faith, his statement of reliance on the righteousness of
Christ alone, the monk placed the parchment in a wooden box, and shut
up the wooden box in a hole of the wall of his cell. It was not till last
century that this box, with its interesting contents, was discovered: it was
brought to light only when the old wall of the monastery was taken down.
The palm-tree speaks of the existence of water at its root; the pure Word
of God taught this man his simple faith. And herein we learn how it was
that Basle so early became a peculiar centre of light in that region; the
prayer and the faith of that hidden one, and others like-minded, and the
Word on which they fed, may explain it all.

There is a fact not unlike the above in the history of the district where
Samuel Rutherford laboured so lovingly. The people of that shire tell that
there was found, some generations ago, in the wall of the old castle of
Earlston, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, a copy of "Wickliffe's Bible."
It was deposited in that receptacle in order to be hid from the view of
enemies; but from time to time it was the lamp of light to a few souls,
who, perhaps in the silence of night, found opportunity to draw it out of
its ark, and peruse its pages. It seems that the Lollards of Kyle (the
adjoining district) had brought it to Earlston. We know that there were
friends and members of the family of Earlston who embraced the Gospel
even in those days. In the sixteenth century, some of the ancestors of
Viscount Kenmure are found holding the doctrines of Wickliffe, which
had been handed down to them. May we not believe that the Gordons of
Earlston, in after days, were not a little indebted to the faith and prayers
of these ancient witnesses who hid the sacred treasure in the castle wall?
As in the case of the monk of Basle, their faith and patience were
acknowledged in after days by the blessing sent down on that quarter,
when the Lord, in remembrance of His hidden ones, both raised up the
Gordons of Earlston, with many others of a like spirit, and also sent
thither His servant Samuel Rutherford, to sound forth the Word of Life,
and make the lamp of truth blaze, like a torch, over all that region.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD was born about the year 1600. His father is
understood to have been a respectable farmer. He had two brothers,
James and George. But the place of his birth was not near the scene of his
after labours. It is almost certain that Nisbet, a village of Roxburghshire
close to the Teviot, in the parish of Crailing, was his birthplace; the name
Rutherford frequently occurs in the churchyard. Not long ago, there were
some old people in that parish who remembered the gable-end of the
house in which it was said that he was born, and which, from respect to
his memory, was permitted to stand as long as it could keep together.
And there was there a village well where, when very young, Samuel nearly
lost his life. He had been amusing himself with some companions, when
he fell in, and was left there till they ran and procured assistance; but on
returning to the spot they found him seated on a knoll, cold and dripping,
yet uninjured. He told them that "A bonnie white man came and drew
him out of the well!" Whether or not he really fancied that an angel had
delivered him, we cannot tell; but it is plain that, at all events, his boyish
thoughts were already wandering in the region of the sky.

He owed little to his native place. There was not so much of Christ known
in that parish then as there is now; for in after days he writes, "My soul's
desire is, that the place to which I owe my first birth—in which, I fear,
Christ was scarcely named, as touching any reality of the power of
godliness—may blossom as the rose" (Letter cccxxxiv.). We have no
account of his revisiting these scenes of his early life, though he thus
wrote to his friend, Mr Scott, minister of the adjoining parish of Oxnam.
Like Donald Cargill, born in Perthshire yet never known to preach there
even once, Rutherford had his labours in other parts of the land, distant
from his native place. In this arrangement we see the Master's
sovereignty. The sphere is evidently one of God's choosing for the man,
instead of being the result of the man's gratifying his natural
predilections. It accords, too, with the example of the Master, who never
returned to Bethlehem, where He was born, to do any of His works.

Jedburgh is a town three or four miles distant from Nisbet, and thither
Samuel went for his education; either walking to it, and returning home
at evening,—as a school-boy would scarcely grudge to do,—or residing in
the town for a season. The school at that time met in a part of the ancient
Abbey, called, from this circumstance, the Latiners' Alley. In the year 1617
we find him farther from home,—removed to Edinburgh, which, forty
years before, had become the seat of a College, though not as yet a
University. There he obtained, in 1621, the degree of Master of Arts. A
single specimen (not elegant, however) of his Latin verse remains in the
lines he prefixed to an edition of Row's "Hebrew Grammar," published at
Glasgow, 1644—

Verba Sionææ gentis, submersa tenebris

Cimmeriis, mendax Kimchius ore crepat.

Quæ vos Rabbini sinuosa ænigmata vultis,

 Nunc facilem linguam dicite quæso sacram.

Falleris, Hippocrates; male parcæ stamina vitæ

Curta vocas, artem vociferare μακραν;

Sit cita mors, rapido sit et hora fugacior Euro,

Bellerophontœis vita volato rotis:

Rouæi Hebracis sit mors male grata Camoenis.

Haec relege, ast artem dixeris esse brevem.

Soon after, he was appointed Regent, or Professor, of Humanity, though

there were three other competitors; for his talents had attracted the
notice of many. But, on occasion of a rumour that charged him with some
irregularity—whether with or without foundation, it is now difficult to
ascertain—he demitted his office in 1625, and led a private life, attending
prelections on theology, and devoting himself to that study.

That there could not have been anything very serious in the rumour, may
be inferred from the fact that no church court took any notice of the
matter, though these were days when the reins of discipline were not held
with a slack hand. But it is not unlikely that this may have been the time
of which he says in a letter, "I knew a man who wondered to see any in
this life laugh or sport." It may have been then that he was led by the
Spirit to know the things that are freely given us of God.2 We have no
proof that he was converted at an earlier period, but rather the opposite.
He writes, "Like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun to be high in the
heaven, and near afternoon, before ever I took the gate by the end." And
again, "I had stood sure, if in my youth I had borrowed Christ for my
bottom."4 The clouds returned after the rain; family trials, and other
similar dealings of Providence, combined to form his character as a man
of God and as a pastor.

In 1627 he was settled at Anwoth, a parish situated in the Stewartry of

Kirkcudbright, on the River Fleet, near the Solway. The church stood in a
wide hollow, or valley, at the foot of the Boreland Hill. Embosomed in
wood, with neither the smoke nor the noise of a village near, it must
always have been a romantic spot—the very ideal of a country church, set
down to cherish rural godliness. Though at this period Episcopacy had
been obtruded upon Scotland, and many faithful ministers were suffering
on account of their resistance to its ceremonies and services, yet he
appears to have been allowed to enter on his charge without any
compliance being demanded, and "without giving any engagement to the
bishop." He began his ministry with the text, John 9:39. The same Lord
that would not let Paul and Timothy preach in Asia, nor in Bithynia, and
yet sent to the one region the beloved John,7 and to the other the scarcely
less beloved Peter, in this instance prevented John Livingstone going to
Anwoth, which the patron had designed, and sent Rutherford instead.
This was the more remarkable, because Livingstone was sent to Ancrum,
the parish that borders on Nisbet, while he who was by birth related to
that place was despatched to another spot. This is the Lord's doing.
Ministers must not choose according to the flesh.

During the first years of his labours here, the sore illness of his wife was a
bitter grief to him. Her distress was very severe. He writes of it: "She is
sore tormented night and day.—My life is bitter unto me.—She sleeps
none, and cries as a woman travailing in birth; my life was never so
wearisome." She continued in this state for no less than a year and a
month, ere she died. Besides all this, his two children had been taken
from him. Such was the discipline by which he was trained for the duties
of a pastor, and by which a shepherd's heart of true sympathy was
imparted to him.

The parish of Anwoth had no large village near the church. The people
were scattered over a hilly district, and were quite a rural flock. But their
shepherd knew that the Chief Shepherd counted them worth caring for;
he was not one who thought that his learning and talents would be ill
spent if laid out in seeking to save souls, obscure and unknown. See him
setting out to visit! He has just laid aside one of his learned folios, to go
forth among his flock. See him passing along yonder field, and climbing
that hill on his way to some cottage, his "quick eyes" occasionally glancing
on the objects around, but his "face upward" for the most part, as if he
were gazing into heaven. He has time to visit, for he rises at three in the
morning, and at that early hour meets his God in prayer and meditation,
and has space for study besides. He takes occasional days for catechising.
He never fails to be found at the sick-beds of his people. Men said of him,
"He is always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always
catechising, always writing and studying." He was known to fall asleep at
night talking of Christ, and even to speak of Him during his sleep. Indeed,
himself speaks of his dreams being of Christ.

His preaching could not but arrest attention. Though his elocution was
not good, and his voice rather shrill, he was, nevertheless, "one of the
most moving and affectionate preachers in his time, or perhaps in any
age of the church." "In the pulpit (says one of his friends), he had a
strange utterance—a kind of skreigh, that I never heard the like. Many
times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to
speak of Jesus Christ." An English merchant said of him, even in days
when controversy had sorely vexed him and distracted his spirit, "I came
to Irvine, and heard a well-favoured, proper old man (David Dickson),
with a long beard, and that man showed me all my heart. Then I went to
St. Andrews, where I heard a sweet, majestic-looking man (R. Blair), and
he showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a little, fair man
(Rutherford), and he showed me the loveliness of Christ."

Anwoth was dear to him rather as the sphere appointed him by his
Master, than because of the fruit he saw of his labours. Two years after
being settled there, he writes, "I see exceedingly small fruit of my
ministry. I would be glad of one soul, to be a crown of joy and rejoicing in
the day of Christ." His people were "like hot iron, which cooleth when out
of the fire." In a sermon on Song 2:8, he complains of it being spiritually
winter in Anwoth. "The very repairing of God's house, in our own parish
church, is a proof. Ye need not go any farther. The timber of the house of
God rots, and we cannot move a whole parish to spend twenty or thirty
pounds Scots upon the house of God, to keep it dry." Still he laboured in
hope, and laboured often almost beyond his strength. Once he says, "I
have a grieved heart daily in my calling." He speaks of his pained breast,
at another time, on the evening of the Lord's day, when his work was
done. But he had seasons of refreshing to his own soul at least; especially
when the Lord's Supper was dispensed. Of these seasons he frequently
speaks. He asks his friend, Marion M'Naught, to help with her prayers on
such an occasion, "that being one of the days wherein Christ was wont to
make merry with His friends."3 It was then that with special earnestness
he besought the Father to distribute "the great Loaf, Christ, to the
children of His family."

Another church was filled, but not altogether by parishioners. Many came
from great distances; among others, several that were converted,
seventeen years before, under John Welsh, at Ayr. These all helped him
by their prayers, as did also a goodly number of godly people in the parish
itself, who were the fruit of the ministry of his predecessor. Yet over the
unsaved he yearned most tenderly. At one time we hear him say, "I would
lay my dearest joys in the gap between you and eternal destruction." At
another, "My witness is in heaven, your heaven, would be two heavens to
me, and your salvation two salvations." He could appeal to his people,
"My day-thoughts and my night-thoughts are of you;" and he could
appeal to God, "O my Lord, judge if my ministry be not dear to me; but
not so dear by many degrees as Christ my Lord."2

All classes of people of Anwoth were objects of his care. He maintained a

friendly intercourse with people of high rank, and very many of his
Letters are addressed to such persons. He seems to have been remarkably
blessed to the gentry in the neighbourhood—more far than to the
common people. There was at that time some friend of Christ to be found
in almost every gentleman's seat many miles around Anwoth.

OLD CHURCH OF ANWOTH.

But the herd boys were not beneath his special attention. He writes of
them when at Aberdeen, and exclaims, "O if I might but speak to thee, or
your herd boys, of my worthy Master." He had a heart for the young of all
classes, so that he would say of two children of one of his friends, "I pray
for them by name;" and could thus take time to notice one, "Your
daughter desires a Bible and a gown. I hope she shall use the Bible well,
which, if she do, the gown is the better bestowed." He lamented over the
few that cry "Hosanna" in their youth. "Christ is an unknown Christ to
young ones; and therefore they seek Him not, because they know Him
not."

He dealt with individual parishioners so closely and so personally as to be

able to appeal to them regarding his faithfulness in this matter. He
addresses one of them, Jean M'Millan: "I did what I could to put you
within grips of Christ; I told you Christ's testament and latter-will
plainly." He so carried them on his heart (like the priest with the twelve
tribes on his breastplate), that he could declare to Gordon of Cardoness,
"Thoughts of your soul depart not from me in my sleep."2 "My soul was
taken up when others were sleeping, how to have Christ betrothed with a
bride in that part of the land," viz. Anwoth. He so prayed over them and
for them, that he fears not to say, "There I wrestled with the angel and
prevailed. Woods, trees, meadows, and hills, are my witnesses that I drew
on a fair match betwixt Christ and Anwoth." It is related that, on first
coming to the parish, there was a piece of ground on Mossrobin farm, in
the hollow of a hill, where on Sabbath afternoon the people used to play
at foot-ball. On one occasion he repaired to that spot, and pointed out
their sin, solemnly calling on the objects round to be witnesses against
them, especially three large stones5 close at hand on the slope of the hill,
two of which still remain, and are called "Rutherford's Witnesses." The
third was wantonly dislodged some years ago; and it is said that the other
two were removed to the other side of the stone dyke, where they are
now, for the sake of security. This is the spot which is especially taken
notice of by Dr. Chalmers, in recording a visit to Anwoth and its
neighbourhood (Life, vol. iii. 130):—

"Wednesday, August 23, 1826.—Started at five o'clock; ordered the gig

forward on the public road to meet us after a scramble of about two miles
among the hills, in the line of 'Rutherford's Memorials.' Went first to his
church; the identical fabric he preached in, and which is still preached in.
The floor is a causeway. There are dates of 1628 and 1633 on some old
carved seats. The pulpit is the same, and I sat in it. It is smaller than
Kilmany, and very rude and simple. The church bell is said to have been
given him by Lady Kenmure, one of his correspondents in his Letters. It
is singularly small for a church, having been the Kenmure house bell. We
then passed to the new church that is building; but I am happy to say the
old fabric and Rutherford's pulpit are to be spared. It is a cruel
circumstance that they pulled down (and that only three weeks ago) his
dwelling-house, his old manse; which has not been used as a manse for a
long time, but was recently occupied. It should have been spared. Some of
the masons who were ordered to pull it down refused it, as they would an
act of sacrilege, and have been dismissed from their employment. We
went and mourned over the rubbish of the foundation. Then ascended a
bank, still known by the name of Rutherford's Walk. Then went further
among the hills, to Rutherford's Witnesses,—so many stones which he
called to witness against some of his parishioners who were amusing
themselves at the place with some game on the Sunday, and whom he
meant to reprove. The whole scene of our morning's walk was wild, and
primitive, and interesting."

Once, while in Anwoth, his labours were interrupted (Letter xii.) by a

tertian fever which laid him aside for thirteen weeks. Even when well
recovered he could for a long time only preach on the Sabbath: visiting
and catechising were at a stand. This was just before his wife's death in
1630, and he writes in the midst of it, "Welcome, welcome, cross of
Christ, if Christ be with it." "An afflicted life looks very like the way that
leads to the kingdom." And some years thereafter, when his mother (who
came from Nisbet and resided with him six years after his first wife's
death) was in a dangerous illness, he touchingly informs one of his
correspondents, to whom he writes from Anwoth, "My mother is weak,
and I think shall leave me alone; but I am not alone, because Christ's
Father is with me."

And what was his recreation? The manse of Anwoth had many visits of
kind friends, who, in Rutherford's fellowship, felt that saying verified,
"They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the
corn." The righteous compassed him about, because the Lord had dealt
bountifully with him. His Letters would be enough of themselves to show
that his friendship and counsel were sought by the godly on all sides. One
of his visitors was his own brother, George, at Kirkcudbright. This good
man was a teacher in that town, who often repaired to Anwoth to take
sweet counsel with Samuel; and then, together, they talked of and prayed
for their only other brother James, an officer in the Dutch service, who
had sympathy with their views, and, in after days, conveyed to Samuel the
invitation to become Professor at Utrecht. Visits of those friends who
resided near were not unfrequent—such as the Gordons, Viscount
Kenmure and his lady, and Marion M'Naught. But at times Anwoth
manse was lighted up by the glad visit of unexpected guests. There is a
tradition that Archbishop Usher, passing through Galloway, turned aside
on a Saturday to enjoy the congenial society of Rutherford. He came,
however, in disguise; and being welcomed as a guest, took his place with
the rest of the family when they were catechised, as was usual, that
evening. The stranger was asked, "How many commandments are there?"
His reply was "Eleven." The pastor corrected him; but the stranger
maintained his position, quoting our Lord's words, "A NEW
COMMANDMENT I give unto you, that ye love one another." They
retired to rest, all interested in the stranger. Sabbath morning dawned.
Rutherford arose and repaired, as was his custom, for meditation to a
walk that bordered on a thicket, but was startled by hearing the voice of
prayer—prayer too from the heart, and in behalf of the souls of the people
that day to assemble. It was no other than the holy Archbishop Usher;
and soon they came to an explanation, for Rutherford had begun to
suspect he had "entertained angels unawares." With great mutual love
they conversed together; and at the request of Rutherford, the
Archbishop went up to the pulpit, conducted the usual service of the
Presbyterian pastor, and preached on "the New Commandment."

BUSH O' BEILD—RUTHERFORD'S HOUSE.

Scarcely less interesting is the record of another unlooked-for meeting.

Rutherford had one day left home to go to the neighbouring town of
Kirkcudbright, the next day being a day of humiliation in that place.
Having no doubt spent some time with his like-minded brother, he
turned his steps to the house of another friend, Provost Fullerton, whose
wife was Marion M'Naught. While sitting with them in friendly converse
a knock at the door was heard, and then a step on the threshold. It was
worthy Mr. Blair, who, on his way from London to Portpatrick, had
sought out some of his godly friends, that with them he might be
refreshed ere he returned to Ireland. He told them, when seated, that "he
had a desire to visit both Mr. Rutherford at Anwoth, and Marion
M'Naught at Kircudbright; but not knowing how to accomplish both, had
prayed for direction at the parting of the road, and laid the bridle on the
horse's neck. The horse took the way to Kirkcudbright, and there he
found both the friends he so longed to see." It was a joyful and refreshing
meeting on all sides. Wodrow tells another incident that, in part, bears
some resemblance to this. Rutherford had been reasoning at Stirling with
the Marquis of Argyle, and had set out homeward. But his horse was very
troublesome, and he was feeling in his mind that he should have been
more urgent and plain! He returned, and dealt freely this time. And now
his horse went on pleasantly all the way.

In 1634 he attended the remarkable deathbed of Lord Kenmure, a

narrative of which he published fifteen years after, in "The Last and
Heavenly Speeches and Glorious Departure of John Viscount Kenmure."
The inroads of Episcopacy were at this time threatening to disquiet
Anwoth. His own domestic afflictions were still affecting him; for he
writes that same year, in referring to his wife's death many years before,
"which wound is not yet fully healed and cured." About that time, too,
there was a proposal (never carried into effect) to call him to Cramond
near Edinburgh, and another to get him settled at Kirkcudbright.

Meanwhile he persevered in study as well as in labours, and with no

common success. He had a metaphysical turn, as well as great readiness
in using the accumulated learning of other days. It might be instructive to
inquire why it is that wherever godliness is healthy and progressive, we
almost invariably find learning in the Church of Christ attendant on it:
while on the other hand, neglect of study is attended sooner or later by
decay of vital godliness. Not that all are learned in such times; but there is
always an element of the kind in the circle of those whom the Lord is
using. The energy called forth by the knowledge of God in the soul leads
on to the study of whatever is likely to be useful in the defence or
propagation of the truth; whereas, on the other hand, when decay is at
work and lifelessness prevailing, sloth and ease creep in, and theological
learning is slighted as uninteresting and dry. With Samuel Rutherford
and his contemporaries we find learning side by side with vital, and
singularly deep, godliness. Gillespie, Henderson, Blair, Dickson, and
others, are well-known examples. Nor less distinguished was Rutherford,
who was led by circumstances in 1636 to publish his elaborate defence of
grace against the Arminians, in Latin. Its title is, "Exercitationes de
Gratia." So highly was it esteemed at Amsterdam, where it was published,
that a second edition was printed that very year; and repeated invitations
were addressed soon after to the author to come to Holland, and occupy
one or other of their Divinity chairs. Soon after, the contest for Christ's
kingly office became increasingly earnest and keen. To Rutherford it
appeared no small matter. "I could wish many pounds added to my cross
to know that by my suffering Christ was set forward in His kingly office in
this land." July 27, 1636, was a day that put his principles to the test. He
was called before the High Commission Court, because of nonconformity
to the acts of Episcopacy, and because of His work against the Arminians.
The Court was presided over by Sydserff, Bishop of Galloway, and was
held at Wigton, about ten miles from Anwoth, accross the Bay. He
appeared in person there, and defended himself. The issue could not be
doubtful, though Lord Lorn made every exertion in his behalf. He was
deprived of his ministerial office, which he had exercised at Anwoth for a
period of nine years, and banished to Aberdeen. The next day (writing at
evening on the subject), he tells of his sentence, and calls it, "The honour
that I have prayed for these sixteen years." He made up his mind to leave
Anwoth at once, observing, with a submissiveness which we might
wonder at in the author of "Lex Rex," "I propose to obey the king, who
has power over my body." His only alarm was lest this separation from
his flock might be a chastisement on him from the Lord, "because I have
not been so faithful in the end as I was in the two first years of my
ministry, when sleep departed from mine eyes through care for Christ's
lambs."

On leaving Anwoth he directed his steps by Irvine, spending a night there

with his beloved friend David Dickson. What a night that must have been!
To hear these two in solemn converse! The one could not perhaps handle
the harp so well as the other; for David Dickson could express his soul's
weary longings and its consoling hopes in such strains as that which has
made his name familiar in Scotland, "O mother dear Jerusalem;" but
Rutherford, nevertheless, had so much of poetry and sublime enthusiasm
in his soul, that any poet could sympathise with him to the full. Many of
his letters "from Christ's palace in Aberdeen" are really strains of true
poetry. What else is such an effusion as this, when, rising on eagles'
wings, he exclaims, "A land that has more than four summers in the year!
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 newfound land. And verily the land is sweeter that He
is the glory of that land." "O how sweet to be wholly Christ's, and wholly
in Christ; to dwell in Immanuel's high and blessed land, and live in that
sweetest air, where no wind bloweth but the breathings of the Holy
Ghost, no sea nor floods flow but the pure water of life that floweth from
under the throne and from the Lamb, no planting, but the tree of life that
yieldeth twelve manner of fruits every month! What do we here but sin
and suffer? O when shall the night be gone, the shadows flee away, and
the morning of the long, long day, without cloud or night, dawn? The
Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' O when shall the Lamb's wife be ready,
and the Bridegroom say, 'Come?' "3 Whoever compares such breathings
with David Dickson's hymn will see how congenial were their feelings and
their hopes, and even their mode of expressing what they felt and hoped,
though the one used prose and the other tried more memorable verse.

We follow Rutherford to Aberdeen, the capital of the North, whither he

was accompanied by a deputation of his affectionate parishioners from
Anwoth, in whose company he would forget the length and tediousness of
the way. He arrived here in September 1636. This town was at that time
the stronghold of Episcopacy and Arminianism, and in it the state of
religion was very low. "It consisted of Papists, and men of Gallio's
naughty faith." The clergy and doctors took the opportunity of
Rutherford's arrival to commence a series of attacks on the special
doctrines of grace which he held. But in disputation he foiled them; and
when many began to feel drawn to him in consequence of his earnest
dealings and private exhortations, there was a proposal made to remove
him from the town. "So cold," writes he, "is northern love! But (added he)
"Christ and I will bear it;" deeply feeling his union to Him who said to
Saul, "Why persecutest thou Me?" Often, on the streets, he was pointed as
"the banished minister;" and hearing of this, he remarked, "I am not
ashamed of my garland." He had visitors from Orkney, and from
Caithness, to the great annoyance of his persecutors. Some blamed him
for not being "prudent enough," as we have seen men ready to do in
similar cases in our own day; but he replies, "It is ordinary that that
should be part of the cross of those who suffer for Him." Still he enjoyed,
in his solitude, occasional intercourse with some of the godly ones,
among whom were Lady Pitsligo, Lady Burnet of Largs, Andrew Cant,
and James Martin. His deepest affliction was separation from his flock at
Anwoth. Nothing can exceed his tender sorrow over this flock.

MARKET CROSS, ABERDEEN.

It was a saying of his own, "Gold may be gold, and bear the King's stamp
upon it, when it is trampled upon by men." And this was true of himself.
But he came out of his trial not only unscorched, but, as his many letters
from Aberdeen show, greatly advanced in every grace. The Latin lines
prefixed to the early editions of these Letters scarcely exaggerate when
they sing—

"Quod Chebar et Patmos divinis vatibus olim;

Huic fuerant sancto claustra Abredæa viro."

But we err if we suppose that it was only while there that he experienced
that almost ecstatic enjoyment of his Lord. He carried it away with him;
for is not this the same strain as pervades his Letters, when, preaching in
1644, before the House of Commons in London, he exclaims, "O for
eternity's leisure, to look on Him, to feast upon a sight of His face! O for
the long summer day of endless ages to stand beside Him and enjoy Him!
O time, O sin, be removed out of the way! O day! O fairest of days, dawn!"

He was, during part of two years, closely confined to that town, though
not in prison; but in 1638 public events had taken another turn. The Lord
had stirred up the spirit of the people of Scotland, and the covenant was
again triumphant in the land. Rutherford hastened back to Anwoth.
During his absence, "For six quarters of a year," say his parishioners, "no
sound of the Word of God was heard in our kirk." The swallows had made
their nests there undisturbed for two summers.
His Letters do not refer to the proceedings of the Glasgow Assembly of
1638. It is well known, however, that he was no mere indifferent spectator
to what then took place, but was present, and was member of several
committees which at that time sat on the affairs of the church. Presbytery
being fully restored by that Assembly, it was thought right that one so
gifted should be removed to a more important sphere. He was sent by the
church to several districts to promote the cause of Reformation and the
Covenant; and at length, in spite of his reluctance, arising chiefly from
love to his flock—his rural flock at Anwoth—he was constrained to yield
to the united opinion of his brethren, and be removed to the Professor's
Chair in St. Andrews in 1639, and become Principal of the New College.
He bargained to be allowed to preach regularly every Sabbath in his new
sphere; for he could not endure silence when he might speak a word for
his Lord. He seems to have preached also, as occasion offered, in the
parishes around, especially at Scoonie, in which the village of Leven
stands.

His hands were necessarily filled with work in his new sphere; yet still he
relaxed nothing of his diligence in study. Nor did he lack anything of
former blessing. It was here the English merchant heard him preach so
affectingly on the loveliness of Christ; while such was his success as a
Professor that "the University became a Lebanon out of which were taken
cedars for building the house of God throughout the land."

In the year 1640, he married his second wife, Jean M'Math, "a woman,"
says one, "of such worth, that I never knew any among men exceed him,
nor any among women exceed her. He who heard either of them pray or
speak, might have learnt to bemoan his own ignorance. Oh how many
times I have been convinced, by observing them, of the evil of
unseriousness unto God, and unsavouriness in discourse." They had
seven children; but only one survived the father, a little daughter, Agnes,
who does not seem to have been a comfort to her godly mother.

In July 1643, the Westminster Assembly began their sittings; and to it he

was sent up as one of the Commissioners from the Church of Scotland. A
sketch of a "Shorter Catechism" exists in MS., in the library of the
Edinburgh University, in Rutherford's handwriting, very much
resembling the Catechism as it now stands, from which it has been
inferred that he had the principal hand in drawing it up for the Assembly.
He continued four years attending the sittings of this famous synod, and
was of much use in their deliberations. So prominent a part did he take,
that the great Milton has singled him out for attack in his lines, "On the
new forcers of conscience, under the Long Parliament." Milton knew him
only as an opponent of his sectarian and independent principles, and so
could scorn measures proposed by "Mere A. S. and Rutherford." But had
he known the soul of the man, would not even Milton have found a
sublimity of thought and feeling in his adversary, that at times
approached his own lofty poesy? How interesting, in any point of view, to
find the devoted pastor of Anwoth, on the streets of London, crossing the
path of England's greatest poet.

During his residence in London he was tried with many afflictions.

Several of his family died; and his own health began to give way, so that
he and his brother minister, Mr. G. Gillespie, visited Epsom to drink the
waters. Yet such was the amazing spirit of the man, under a sense of duty,
that amid the trials and bustle of that time he wrote, "The Due Right of
Presbyteries," "Lex Rex," i.e. "The Law, The King," and "Trial and
Triumph of Faith." Nor was he soured by controversy. In the preface to
one of his controversial works, he discovers his large-hearted charity and
manly impartiality in regard to what he saw in these parts. He writes: "I
judge that in England the Lord hath many names, and a fair company,
that shall stand at the side of Christ when He shall render up the kingdom
to the Father; and that in that renowned nation there be men of all ranks,
wise, valorous, generous, noble, heroic, faithful, religious, gracious
learned."

Returning home to St. Andrews, he resumed his labours both in the

college and in the pulpit with all his former zeal. In 1644, it appears from
the old minutes of Lanark Presbytery, a vacancy having occurred,
Rutherford was unanimously called to Lanark. He was inclined to go, but
the Presbytery of St. Andrews refused to loose him. He had often
preached at Lanark. He declined two invitations to the professorship in
Holland; one from Harderwyck in 1648, the other from Utrecht in 1651;
though the former offered the chair both of Divinity and of Hebrew. He
joined the Protestors in determinedly opposing the proceedings of the
Commission of Assembly, who had censured such as protested against
the admission to power of persons in the class of malignants. His friend
David Dickson keenly opposed him, and Mr. Blair also, though less
violently. It was this controversy that made John Livingstone say, in a
letter to Blair, "Your and Mr. D. Dickson's accession to these resolutions
is the saddest thing I have seen in my time. My wife and I have had more
bitterness in this respect, these several months, than ever we had since
we knew what bitterness meant." Rutherford wrote too violently on this
matter.2 Some say he was naturally hot and fiery; but at this time all
parties were greatly excited. Still he did not lose his brotherly love—the
same brotherly love that led him so fervently to embrace Archbishop
Usher as a fellow-believer. We may get a lesson for our times from his
remarks on occasion of these bitter controversies. "It is hard when saints
rejoice in the sufferings of saints, and redeemed ones hurt, and go nigh to
hate, redeemed ones. For contempt of the communion of saints, we have
need of new-born crosses, scarce ever heard of before.—Our star-light
hideth us from ourselves, and hideth us from one another, and Christ
from us all." And then he subjoins (and is he not borne out by the words
of the Lord in John 17:22?): "A doubt it is if we shall have fully one heart
till we shall enjoy one heaven." The state of things lay heavy on his mind:
"I am broken and wasted by the wrath that is upon this land."

It was in 1651 that he published his work "De Divinâ Providentiâ," a work
in which he assailed Jesuits, Socinians, and Arminians. Richard Baxter
(tinged as he was with the Arminian theology), in referring to this
treatise, remarked (says Wodrow), that "His Letters were the best piece,
and this work the worst, he had ever read." Of course, this was the
language of controversy, for the book is one of great ability. It was this
work, indeed, that drew forth several invitations from foreign
Universities. The ten years that followed were times of much distraction,
being the times of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, as well as of the
Protesters and Resolutioners. In 1651 the Scottish nation resolved to
crown Charles II., as lawful king, at Scone; and when the young king was
at St. Andrews, in prospect of that event, he visited the colleges. It fell to
Rutherford to deliver, on that occasion, an oration in Latin before His
Majesty, on a subject which he could handle well, both as a patriot and a
Christian, "The Duty of Kings."
Milton sings—

"God doth not need

Either man's work, or His own gifts; His state

Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait."

It is mentioned in "Lamont's Diary," 27th Sept. 1653, that at the

Provincial Synod of Fyfe, which met at St. Andrews, Mr. Samuel
Rutherford presented a paper to the Moderator, relating to the sins of the
ministry, which was not accepted. Upon the refusal of it, some words
passed between Rutherford and Mr. Robert Blair, the Moderator, anent
the public business. At the close of that meeting, two English officers
entered; upon which they were asked, "If they had come to sit and voice
with them?" They said, "No; only to see that they ruled nothing in
prejudice to the Commonwealth." The days were evil, and Rutherford was
longing now for such quiet service. He sometimes refers to this desire; he
wishes for a harbour in his latter days; only (adds he), "failing is
serving"—and he did delight in serving his Lord to the last. His friend
M'Ward, in an advertisement prefixed to the earlier editions of the
Letters, bitterly laments the loss of a Commentary on Isaiah, on which
"this true Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God,"2
employed his leisure time during the closing years of his life. "His heart
travailed more," says he, "in birth of this piece than ever I knew him of
any; neither was there ever anything he put his hand to that would have
so powerfully persuaded this panter after the enjoyment of his Master's
company, to have had his heaven and the immediate fruition of God
suspended for a season, as the eager desire he had to finish this work
before he finished his course." But all these papers were carried off, and
never recovered. So true is it, that of the seed we sow, we "know not
whether shall prosper, either this or that" (Eccles. 11:6).

When Charles II. was fully restored, and had begun to adopt arbitrary
measures, Rutherford's work, "Lex Rex," was taken notice of by the
Government; for, reasonable as are its principles in defence of the liberty
of subjects, its spirit of freedom was intolerable to rulers, who were, step
by step, advancing to acts of cruelty and death. Indeed, it was so hateful
to them, that they burnt it, in 1661, first at Edinburgh, by the hands of the
hangman; and then, some days after, by the hands of the infamous
Sharpe, under the windows of its author's College in St. Andrews. He was
next deposed from all his offices; and, last of all, was summoned to
answer at next Parliament a charge of high treason. But the citation came
too late. He was already on his deathbed, and on hearing of it, calmly
remarked, that he had got another summons before a superior Judge and
judicatory, and sent the message, "I behove to answer my first summons;
and, ere your day arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come."

We have no account of the nature of his last sickness, except that it was a
lingering disease. He had a daughter who died a few weeks before
himself. All that is told us of his deathbed is characteristic of the man. At
one time he spoke much of "the white stone" and "the new name." When
he was on the threshold of glory, ready to receive the immortal crown, he
said, "Now my tabernacle is weak, and I would think it a more glorious
way of going home to lay down my life for the cause, at the Cross of
Edinburgh or St. Andrews; but I submit to my Master's will." Some days
before his death, after a fainting fit, he said, "Now I feel, I believe, I enjoy,
I rejoice." And turning to Mr. Blair, "I feed on manna: I have angels' food.
My eyes shall see my Redeemer. I know that He shall stand on earth at
the latter day, and I shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the
air." When asked, "What think ye now of Christ?" he replied, "I shall live
and adore Him. Glory, glory to my Creator and Redeemer for ever. Glory
shineth in Immanuel's land." The same afternoon he said, "I shall sleep in
Christ; and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with His likeness. O for
arms to embrace Him!" Then he cried aloud, "O for a well-tuned harp!"
This last expression he used more than once, as if already stretching out
his hand to get his golden harp, and join the redeemed in their new song.
He also said on another occasion, "I hear Him saying to me, 'Come up
hither.' " His little daughter Agnes (the only survivor of six children),
eleven years of age, stood by his bedside; he looked on her, and said, "I
have left her upon the Lord." Well might the man say so, who could so
fully testify of his portion in the Lord, as a goodly heritage. To four of his
brethren, who came to see him, he said, "My Lord and Master is chief of
ten thousands of thousands. None is comparable to Him, in heaven or in
earth. Dear brethren, do all for Him. Pray for Christ. Preach for Christ.
Do all for Christ; beware of men-pleasing. The Chief Shepherd will
shortly appear." He often called Christ "His Kingly King." While he spoke
even rapturously, "I shall shine! I shall see Him as He is! I shall see Him
reign, and all His fair company with Him, and I shall have my large
share"—he at the same time would protest, "I renounce all that ever He
made me will or do as defiled or imperfect as coming from myself. I
betake myself to Christ for sanctification as well as justification."
Repeating 1 Cor. 1:30, he said, "I close with it! Let Him be so. He is my all
and all." "If He should slay me ten thousand times I will trust." He spoke
as if he knew the hour of his departure; not perhaps as Paul (2 Tim. 4:6)
or Peter (2 Peter 1:14), yet still in a manner that seems to indicate that the
Lord draws very near His servants in that hour, and gives glimpses of
what He is doing. On the last day of his life, in the afternoon, he said,
"This night will close the door, and fasten my anchor within the veil, and I
shall go away in a sleep by five o'clock in the morning." And so it was. He
entered Immanuel's land at that very hour, and is now (as himself would
have said) "sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty," till the Lord come.

We may add his latest words. "There is nothing now between me and the
Resurrection but 'This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.' " He
interrupted one speaking in praise of his painfulness in the ministry, "I
disclaim all. The port I would be in at is redemption and forgiveness of
sin through His blood." Two of his biographers record that his last words
were, "Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land!" as if he had caught a
glimpse of its mountain-tops.

It was at St. Andrews he died, on 30th March 1661, and there he was
buried. "Lamont's Diary," p. 133, says: "He was interred on the 30th of
March, in the ordinary burial place." Had he lived a few weeks his might
have been the cruel death endured by his friend James Guthrie, whom he
had encouraged, by his letters, in stedfastness to the end. The sentence
which the Parliament passed, when told that he was dying, did him no
dishonour. When they had voted that he should not die in the College,
Lord Burleigh rose and said, "Ye cannot vote him out of heaven."

His death was lamented throughout the land; and to this day few names
are so well known and honoured. So great was the reverence which some
of the godly had for this man of God, that they requested to be buried
where his body was laid. This was Thomas Halyburton's dying request.
An old man in the parish of Crailing (in which Nisbet, his birthplace, is
situated) remembers the veneration entertained for him by the great-
grandfather of the present Marquis of Lothian. This good Marquis used to
lift his hat, as often as he passed the spot where stood the cottage in
which Samuel Rutherford was born. He was twice married. His widow
survived him fourteen years.

RUINS OF ST. ANDREWS CATHEDRAL.

If ever there was any portrait of him, it is not now known. The portraits
sometimes given of him are all imaginary. We are most familiar with the
likeness of his soul. There is one expressive line in the epitaph on his
tombstone, in the churchyard at the boundary wall opposite the door of
St Regulus' Tower—

"What tongue, what pen, or skill of men,

Can famous Rutherford commend!

His learning justly raised his fame,

True godliness adorn'd his name.

He did converse with things above,

Acquainted with Immanuel's love."

A monument to his memory was erected in 1842, by subscription, on the

Boreland Hill, in the parish of Anwoth. It is sixty feet in height, and thus,
seen all around, it seems to remind the inhabitants of that region how
God once visited His people there.
RUTHERFORD'S MONUMENT ON BORELAND HILL.

His LETTERS have long been famous among the godly. The present
edition of them has several things to recommend it. 1. The Letters are
chronologically arranged. 2. They have biographical notices prefixed to a
large number of them. Most of these are from the pen of the Rev. James
Anderson. The present editor has added, here and there, topographical
notes that seemed to have some interest, most of them gleaned on the
spot. The explanatory notes in the edition by the Rev. C. Thomson, 1836,
have often been consulted with much advantage. 3. There are contents
prefixed to each Letter, describing generally what are the main subjects of
each. 4. There are some new letters inserted in this collection; and there
is a facsimile of an unpublished letter directed to the Provost of
Edinburgh, at the time when there was an attempt made to call
Rutherford to that city. The letter, which is preserved in the Records of
the Edinburgh Town Council, entreats them to drop the matter. It is
written in a very small hand, as was usual with him; and the seal on it has
the armorial bearing of the Rutherford family.

If it be asked how it came about that these letters should have been at
first printed in an order entirely unchronological, the explanation is
simple: The first edition appeared in 1664, and in it there were only two
hundred and eighty-four of his letters gathered and published; but many
being edified thereby, an edition soon appeared with sixty-eight more
letters appended. All these seem to have been printed very much in the
order in which they came to hand, and the additional sixty-eight, more
especially, disturbed all arrangement. The collector was Mr. M'Ward,
who, as a student, being much beloved by Rutherford, went to the
Westminster Assembly with him as his amanuensis or secretary. He was
afterwards successor to Andrew Gray in Glasgow, and finally minister in
Rotterdam. He gave them to the public with an enthusiastic
recommendation, under the title, "Joshua Redivivus; published for the
use of all the people of God, but more particularly for those who are now,
or afterwards may be, put to suffering for Christ and His cause; by a well-
wisher to the work and people of God. John 16:2; 2 Thessal. 1:6." The
edition was in duodecimo, and was printed at Rotterdam. Not only were
the Letters first published in Holland, but also, in 1674, there appeared a
Dutch translation of them at Flushing.

It will be noticed, in reading the Letters as they stand chronologically,

that at times the pen of the ready writer ran on with amazing rapidity. He
has written many in one day when his heart was overflowing. It was easy
to write when the Lord was pouring on him the unction that teacheth all
things. He would have written still more, but he had heard that people
looked up to him and overpraised his Letters. During his confinement at
Aberdeen, he wrote about two hundred and twenty of these letters.

There are a few distasteful expressions in these epistolary effusions, the

sparks of a fancy that sought to appropriate everything to spiritual
purposes; but as to extravagance in the thoughts conveyed, there is none.
An old Memoir of Richard Cameron, the martyr, mentions at the close
that it had become a fashion among "profane preachers and expectants"
to say of these Letters, "They are fit only for old wives." Dr. Love, on the
other hand, protests, "The haughty contempt of that book which is in the
heart of many will be ground for condemnation when the Lord cometh to
make inquisition after such things" (Letter xiv.). The extravagance in
sentiment alleged against them by some is just that of Paul, when he
spoke of knowing "the height and depth, length and breadth," of the love
of Christ; or that of Solomon, when the Holy Ghost inspired him to write
"The Song of Songs." Rather would we say of these Letters, what
Livingstone in a letter says of John Welsh's dying words, "O for a sweet
fill of this fanatic humour!" In modern days, Richard Cecil has said of
Rutherford, "He is one of my classics; he is a real original;" and, in older
times, Richard Baxter, some of whose theological leanings might have
prejudiced him, if anything could, said of his Letters, "Hold off the Bible,
such a book the world never saw." They were long ago translated into
Dutch, and of late years they have been translated into German. Both in
these, and in his other writings, we see sufficient proof that had he
cultivated literature as a pursuit, he might have stood high in the
admiration of men.

His correspondents were chiefly persons residing either in Galloway,

where Anwoth was, or in Ayrshire; for these two counties at that time
were rich in godly men of some standing.
His pen suggests often, by a few strokes, very much that is profound and
impressive. There is something not easily forgotten in the words used to
express the Church's indestructibleness when he says, "The bush has
been burning these five thousand years, and no man yet saw the ashes of
that fire" (Letter cccxvii.). How much truth is conveyed in that saying,
"Losses for Christ are but goods given out in bank in Christ's hand."
There is an ingenious use of Scripture that often delights the reader; as
when he speaks of "The corn on the house-tops that never got the
husbandman's prayer," or of "Him that counteth the basons and knives of
His house (Ezra 1:9, 10), and bringeth them back safe to His second
temple" (Letter cccxxiii.).

It is a curious fact that only in Letter cccxxv., does he speak of the Holy
Spirit, though elsewhere (see "Life of Grace") very full are his statements
of the Spirit's work. The truth is, a man full of the Holy Ghost is full of
Christ and testifies to Him.

These letters will ever be precious to—

1. All who are sensible of their own, and the Church's decay and
corruptions.—The wound and the cure are therein so fully opened out:
self is exposed, specially spiritual self. He will tell you, "There is as much
need to watch over grace, as to watch over sin." He will show you God in
Christ, to fill up the place usurped by self. The subtleties of sin, idols,
snares, temptations, self-deceptions, are dragged into view from time to
time. And what is better still, the cords of Christ are twined round the
roots of these bitter plants, that they may be plucked up.

Nor is it otherwise in regard to corruption in public, and in the Church.

We do not mean merely the open corruption of error, but also the secret
"grey hairs" of decay. Hear him cry, "There is universal deadness on all
that fear God. O where are the sometime quickening breathings and
influences from heaven that have refreshed His hidden ones!" And then
he laments, in the name of the saints, "We are half satisfied with our
witheredness; nor have we as much of his strain who doth eight times
breathe out that suit (Psalm 119), Quicken me!" "We live far from the
well, and complain but dryly of our dryness."
2. All who delight in the Surety's imputed righteousness.—If thoroughly
aware of the body of sin in ourselves we cannot but feel that we need a
person in our stead—the person of the God-man in the room of our guilty
person. "To us a Son is given;" not salvation only, but a Saviour. "He gave
Himself for us."

These letters are ever leading us to the Surety and His righteousness. The
eye never gets time to rest long on anything apart from Him and His
righteousness. We are shown the deluge-waters undried up, in order to
lead us into the ark again: "I had fainted, had not want and penury
chased me to the storehouse of all."

3. All who rejoice in the Gospel of free grace.—Lord Kenmure having said
to him, "Sin causeth me to be jealous of His love to such a man as I have
been," he replied, "Be jealous of yourself, my Lord, but not of Jesus
Christ." In his "Trial and Triumph of Faith" he remarks, "As holy walking
is a duty coming from us, it is no ground of true peace. Believers often
seek in themselves what they should seek in Christ." It is to the like effect
he says in one of his letters, "Your heart is not the compass that Christ
saileth by,"—turning away his friend from looking inward, to look upon
the heart of Jesus. And this is his meaning, when he thus lays the whole
burden of salvation on the Lord, and leaves nothing for us but
acceptance, "Take ease to thyself, and let Him bear all." Then, pointing us
to the risen Saviour as our pledge of complete redemption, "Faith may
dance, because Christ singeth;"2 "Faith apprehendeth pardon, but never
payeth a penny for it." On his death-bed he said to his friends, "I disclaim
all that ever God made me will or do, and I look upon it as defiled and
imperfect." And so in his Letters he will admit of no addition, or
intermixture of other things, "The Gospel is like a small hair that hath no
breadth, and will not cleave in two."4 He exhorts to Assurance as being
the way to be humbled very low before God: "Complaining is but a
humble backbiting and traducing of Christ's new work in the soul." "Make
meikle of assurance, for it keepeth your anchor fixed." He warns us, in his
"Trial and Triumph of Faith," "not to be too desirous of keen awakenings
to chase us to Christ. Let Christ tutor me as he thinketh good. He has
seven eyes: I have but one, and that too dim." In a similar strain he
writes:—"The law shall never be my doomster, by Christ's grace; I shall
find a sure enough doom in the Gospel to humble and cast me down.
There cannot be a more humble soul than a believer. It is no pride in a
drowning man to catch hold of a rock." How much truth there is here!
Naaman never was humble in any degree, until he felt himself completely
healed of his scaly leprosy; but truly he was humbled and humble then.
And what one word is there that suggests so many humbling thoughts as
that word "grace"?

4. All who seek to grow in holiness.—The Holy Ghost delights to show us

the glorious Godhead, in the face of Jesus. And this is a very frequent
theme in these Letters. "Take Christ for sanctification, as well as
justification," is often his theme. And in him we see a man who seems to
have fought for holiness as unceasingly and as eagerly as other men seek
for pardon and peace. In him "Holiness to the Lord" seems written on
every affection of the heart, and on every fresh-springing thought.

Fellowship with the living God is a distinguishing feature in the holiness

given by the Holy Ghost; we get "access by one Spirit to the Father
through Him." Rutherford could sometimes say, "I have been so near
Him that I have said, 'I take instruments that this is the Lord.' " And he
could from experience declare, "I dare avouch, the saints know not the
length and largeness of the sweet Earnest, and of the sweet green sheaves
before the harvest, that might be had on this side of the water, if we
should take more pains." "I am every way in your case, as hard-hearted
and dead as any man, but yet I speak to Christ through my sleep."3 All
this is from the pen of a man who was a metaphysician, a controversialist,
a leader in the church, and learned in ancient and scholastic lore. Why
are there not such gracious, as well as great men now?

5. All afflicted persons.—Here he had the very "tongue of the learned, to

speak a word in season to him that was weary." And with what tender
sympathy does he speak, leading the mourner so gently to the heart of
Jesus! He knew the heart of a stranger, for he had been a stranger. "Let
no man after me slander Christ for His cross." Yes, says he, His most
loved are often His most tried: "The lintel-stone and pillars of His New
Jerusalem suffer more knocks of God's hammer and tools than the
common side-wall stones."5 Even as to reproach and calumny, he
declares, "I love Christ's worst reproaches."
It was to Hugh M'Kail, uncle of the youthful martyr, that he penned the
words, "Some have written me that I am possibly too joyful of the cross;
but my joy overleapeth the cross—it is bounded and terminated on
Christ." And there it was he found a well of comfort never dry.

6. All who love the Person of Christ.—We have too often been satisfied
with speculative truth and abstract doctrine. On the one hand, the
orthodox have too often rested in the statements of our Catechisms and
Confessions; and, on the other, the "Election-doubters" (as Bunyan would
have called them) have pressed their favourite dogma, that Christ died for
all men, as if mere assent to a proposition could save the soul. Rutherford
places the truth before us in a more accurate, and also more savoury way,
full of life and warmth. The Person of Him who gave Himself for His
church is held up in all its attractiveness. With him, it is ever the Person
as much as the work done; or rather, never the one apart from the other.
Like Paul, he would fain know Him, as well as the power of His
resurrection.

Once, when Lord Kenmure asked him, "What will Christ be like when He
cometh?" his reply was, "All lovely." And this is everywhere the favourite
theme with him. At times he tells of His love. "His love surroundeth and
surchargeth me." "If His love was not in heaven, I should be unwilling to
go thither."2 Often he checks his pen to tell of Christ Himself, "Welcome,
welcome, sweet, sweet cross of Christ;"—then correcting his language,
"Welcome, fair, lovely, royal King, with Thine own cross." "O if I could
doat as much upon Himself as I do upon His love." "I fear I make more of
His love than of Himself." How startling yet how true, is this remark, "I
see that in communion with Christ we may make more gods than one,"6
—meaning that we may be tempted to make the enjoyment itself our god.
It was his habitual aim to pass through privileges, joys, even fellowship,
to God Himself: "I have casten this work upon Christ, to get me Himself."
"I would be farther in upon Christ than at His joys; in, where love and
mercy lodgeth, beside His heart."8 "He who sitteth on the throne is His
lone a sufficient heaven." "Sure I am He is the far best half of heaven."10

In a word, such was his soul's view of the living Person, that he writes,
"Holiness is not Christ, nor the blossoms and flowers of the tree of life,
nor the tree itself." He had found out the true fountain-head, and would
direct all Zion's travellers thither. And let a man try this; let the Holy
Spirit lead a man to this Person;—and surely his experience will be,
"None ever came up dry from David's well."

7. All who love that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God our Saviour.—The more we love the Person of Christ, the more ought
we to love His appearing; and the more we cherish both feelings, the
holier shall we become. Rutherford abounds in aspirations for that day;
he is one who "looks for and hastens unto the coming of the day of God!"
While in exile at Aberdeen in 1637, he writes, "O when will we meet! O
how long is it to the dawning of the marriage day! O sweet Jesus, take
wide steps! O my Lord, come over mountains at one stride! O my
Beloved, flee as a roe or young hart upon the mountains of separation."
Now and then he utters the expression of an intense desire for the
restoration of Israel to their Lord, and the fulness of the Gentiles; but far
oftener his desires go forth to his Lord Himself. "O fairest among the sons
of men, why stayest Thou so long away? O heavens, move fast! O time,
run, run, and hasten the marriage day!" To Lady Kenmure his words are,
"The Lord hath told you what you should be doing till He come. 'Wait and
hasten,' saith Peter, 'for the coming of the Lord.' 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. Wait with the wearied
night-watch for the breaking of the eastern sky." Those saints who feel
most keenly the world's enmity, and the Church's imperfection, are those
who will most fervently love their Lord's appearing. It was thus with
Daniel on the banks of Ulai, and with John in Patmos; and Samuel
Rutherford's most intense aspirations for that day are breathed out in
Aberdeen.

His description of himself on one occasion is, "A man often borne down
and hungry, and waiting for the marriage supper of the Lamb." He is now
gone to the "mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense;" and there
he no doubt still wonders at the unopened, unsearchable treasures of
Christ. But O for his insatiable desires Christward! O for ten such men in
Scotland to stand in the gap!—men who all day long find nothing but
Christ to rest in, whose very sleep is a pursuing after Christ in dreams,
and who intensely desire to "awake with His likeness."

LIST OF HIS WORKS

1. Exercitationes Apologeticœ pro Divina Gratia. Amstelodami, 12mo,

1636. Franekeræ, 1651.
2. A Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presbytery in Scotland.
London, 4to, 1642.
3. A Sermon before the House of Commons, on Daniel vi. 26. London,
4to, 1644.
4. A Sermon before the House of Lords, on Luke vii. 22; Mark iv. 38;
Matt. viii. 26. London, 4to, 1645.
5. "Lex Rex:" The Law and the Prince. London, 4to, 1644. In Fullarton's
Scottish Nation, 1862, mention is made of another work which is in
reality the same as this; on Civil Polity. London, 4to, 1657. It is not,
however, a separate work, but merely one of the editions of the well-
known Lex Rex—the edition of 1657, which has the following title:—Lex
Rex; a Treatise of Civil Polity; being a Resolution of Forty-three
Questions concerning Prerogative, Right, and Privilege, in reference to
the Supreme Prince and People. The change in the title was a device of
the printer, in order to elude the Government, who sought to suppress
the book.
6. The Due Right of Presbyteries. London, 4to, 1644.
7. The Trial and Triumph of Faith. London, 4to, 1645.
8. The Divine Right of Church Government and Excommunication.
London, 4to, 1646. Appended to this is A Dispute touching Scandal and
Christian Liberty.
9. Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself. London, 4to, 1647.
10. A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist. London, 1648. To which is
appended, A Modest Survey of the Secrets of Antinomianism.
11. A Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience. London,
4to, 1649.
12. The Last and Heavenly Speeches of John Gordon, Viscount Kenmure.
Edinburgh, 4to, 1649.
13. Disputatio Scholastica de Divina Providentia. Edinburgh, 4to, 1651.
14. The Covenant of Life Opened. Edinburgh, 4to, 1655.
15. A Survey of Mr. Hooker's Church Discipline; or, A Survey of the
Survey of that Summe of Discipline penned by Mr. Thomas Hooker.
London, 4to, 1658.
16. Influences of the Life of Grace. The last work published in his lifetime.
London, 4to, 1659. The original title page adds:—"A Practical Treatise
concerning the way, manner, and means of having and improving
spiritual dispositions and quickening influences from Christ, the
Resurrection and the Life."
17. Joshua Redivivus; or, Mr. Rutherford's Letters. First Edition, 12mo,
1664. No printer's name and no place mentioned.
18. Examen Arminianismi. Ultrajecti (Utrecht), 12mo, 1668.
19. A Testimony left by Mr. S. Rutherford to the Work of Reformation in
Great Britain and Ireland before his death. Date uncertain.
20. Twelve Communion Sermons. Glasgow, 1876. This collection includes
Christ's Napkin; and Song ii. 14–17, Christ and the Dove's Heavenly
Salutation. These have internal evidence in their favour, viz. the language
and general strain of thought. Add to these The Lamb's Marriage, Rev.
xix. 7; and another on Song ii. 1–8 appended to a second edition, 1877,
with the title, "Fourteen Communion Sermons," 1877.
21. The Cruel Watchmen. The Door of Salvation Opened. Edinburgh,
1735. Song v. 7, 8, 9, 10. These two are doubtful; at all events, very
imperfect, as usually printed. The old edition of The Cruel Watchmen is
good.
22. There is a Treatise on Prayer; The Power and Prevalency of Truth and
Prayer evidenced, in a Practical Discourse upon Matt. ix. 27–31. Printed
in the year 1713. It is a small duodecimo of 111 pp., and has this note
appended: "The rest of this Discourse cannot be found, it being above
fifty years since the author died."
An old Catalogue of the most Vendible Books, in 1658, gives as one of his
works, A Rationale on the Book of Common Prayer, 8vo. But this is a
mistake; Antony Sparrow wrote the book entitled, The Rationale, or
Practical Exposition of the Book of Common Prayer.
The Diaries of Brodie of Brodie (Spalding Club—Preface p. xix.), refer to
"Shorthand Notes of two Sermons by S. Rutherford." Brodie used to
correspond with him, for we find, August 6, 1655: "Mr. Rutherford
exhorted me in his letter that my right hand might not know what my left
hand did; and he says that he knows not but that the Lord may divorce
the mother, but be a sanctuary to the little ones." We find further that S.
R. wrote urging Brodie "to present Mr. Thomas Ross to Ila."
23. Quaint Sermons (eighteen in number), by S. R., never before
published, with a prefatory note by Rev. And. A. Bonar. Hodder and
Stoughton, London, 1885.

I.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, on the return

home of her daughter
[In the early editions the date stands "1624," by a mistake for "1627;" for
Rutherford was not settled in Anwoth in 1624.

For a full notice of Marion M'Naught, see what is prefixed to Letter VI.]

(CHILDREN TO BE DEDICATED TO GOD.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,—My love in Christ remembered.

I have sent to you your daughter Grizel with Robert Gordon, who came to
fetch her. I am in good hopes that the seed of God is in her, as in one born
of God; and God's seed will come to God's harvest. I have her promise she
shall be Christ's. For I have told her she may promise much in His worthy
name; for He becomes caution to His Father for all such as resolve and
promise to serve Him. I will remember her to God. I trust you will
acquaint her with good company, and be diligent to know with whom she
loveth to haunt. Remember Zion, and our necessities. I bless your
daughter from our Lord, and pray the Lord to give you joy and comfort of
her. Remember my love to your husband, to William and Samuel your
sons. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Yours at all power in the Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, June 6, 1627.

 II.—To a Christian Gentlewoman on the
death of her daughter
(CHRIST'S SYMPATHY WITH, AND PROPERTY IN US—REASONS
FOR RESIGNATION.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered to you. I was indeed

sorrowful at my departure from you, especially since ye were in such
heaviness after your daughter's death. Yet I do persuade myself, ye know
that the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you lieth
upon your strong Saviour; for Isaiah saith, "In all your afflictions He is
afflicted" (Isa. 63:9). O blessed Second who suffereth with you! and glad
may your soul be even to walk in the fiery furnace with one like unto the
Son of Man, who is also the Son of God. Courage! up your heart! When ye
do tire, He will bear both you and your burden (Ps. 55:22). Yet a little
while and ye shall see the salvation of God. Remember of what age your
daughter was, and that just so long was your lease of her. If she was
eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old, I know not; but sure I am, seeing
her term was come, and your lease run out, ye can no more justly quarrel
your great Superior for taking His own at His just term day, than a poor
farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion of his own land to
himself when his lease is expired. Good mistress, if ye would not be
content that Christ would hold from you the heavenly inheritance which
is made yours by His death, shall not that same Christ think hardly of you
if ye refuse to give Him your daughter willingly, who is a part of His
inheritance and conquest? I pray the Lord to give you all your own, and to
grace you with patience to give God His also. He is an ill debtor who
payeth that which he hath borrowed with a grudge. Indeed, that long loan
of such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member of Christ (as I
believe), deserveth more thanks at your Creditor's hands, than that ye
should gloom and murmur when He craveth but His own. I believe you
would judge them to be but thankless neighbours who would pay you a
sum of money after this manner. But what? Do you think her lost, when
she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty? Think her not absent
who is in such a friend's house. Is she lost to you who is found to Christ?
If she were with a dear friend, although you should never see her again,
your care for her would be but small. Oh, now, is she not with a dear
Friend? and gone higher, upon a certain hope that ye shall, in the
Resurrection, see her again, when (be ye sure) she shall neither be hectic
nor consumed in body? You would be sorry either to be, or to be
esteemed, an atheist; and yet, not I, but the Apostle, thinketh those to be
hopeless atheists who mourn excessively for the dead (Thess. 4:13). But
this is not a challenge on my part. I do speak this only fearing your
weakness; for your daughter was a part of yourself; and, therefore, nature
in you, being as it were cut and halved, will indeed be grieved. But ye have
to rejoice, that when a part of you is on earth, a great part of you is
glorified in heaven. Follow her, but envy her not; for indeed it is self-love
in us that maketh us mourn for them that die in the Lord. Why? Because
for them we cannot mourn, since they are never happy till they be dead;
therefore we mourn for our own private respect. Take heed, then, that in
showing your affection in mourning for your daughter, ye be not, out of
self-affection, mourning for yourself. Consider what the Lord is doing in
it. Your daughter is plucked out of the fire, and she resteth from her
labours; and your Lord, in that, is trying you, and casting you in the fire.
Go through all fires to your rest; and now remember that the eye of God
is upon the bush burning and not consumed; and He is gladly content
that such a weak woman as you should send Satan away, frustrate of his
design. Now honour God, and shame the strong roaring lion, when ye
seem weakest. Should such an one as ye faint in the day of adversity? Call
to mind the days of old. The Lord yet liveth. Trust in Him, although He
should slay you. Faith is exceeding charitable, and believeth no evil of
God. Now is the Lord laying, in the one scale of the balance, your making
conscience of submission to His gracious will, and in the other, your
affection and love to your daughter. Which of the two will ye then choose
to satisfy? Be wise, then; and as I trust ye love Christ better than a sinful
woman, pass by your daughter, and kiss the Lord's rod. Men do lop the
branches off their trees round about, to the end they may grow up high
and tall. The Lord hath this way lopped your branch in taking from you
many children, to the end you should grow upward, like one of the Lord's
cedars, setting your heart above, where Christ is, at the right hand of the
Father. What is next, but that your Lord cut down the stock after He hath
cut the branches? Prepare yourself; you are nearer your daughter this day
than you were yesterday. While ye prodigally spend time in mourning for
her, ye are speedily posting after her. Run your race with patience. Let
God have His own; and ask of Him, instead of your daughter which He
hath taken from you, the daughter of faith, which is patience; and in
patience possess your soul. Lift up your head: ye do not know how near
your redemption doth draw, Thus recommending you to the Lord, who is
able to establish you, I rest, your loving and affectionate friend in the
Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, April 23, 1628.

KENMURE HOUSE.

III.—To the VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE,

on occasion of illness and spiritual
depression
[LADY JANE CAMPBELI, 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 a woman
distinguished, in her day, for the depth of her piety, and her warm
attachment to the Presbyterian interest in Scotland. Nor was she less
distinguished for generosity and munificence, than for piety. Her bounty
was in a particular manner extended to those whom suffering for
conscience, sake had reduced to poverty or exile. In the year 1628 she was
married to Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, afterwards Viscount Kenmure
and Lord Gordon of Lochinvar, which is not far from Carsphairn. This
union did not last many years. In 1634 she became a widow, his Lordship
having died at Kenmure Castle, on the 12th of September that year, in the
35th year of his age. But her sorrow on this occasion was alleviated by the
Christian resignation and faith which he was enabled to exercise under
his last illness. To this noble man she had two daughters, who died in
infancy, one about the beginning of the year 1629, and the other in 1634,
as may be gathered from allusions to these bereavements, contained in
two consolatory letters written to her by Rutherford in these years. She
had also, by the same marriage, a son, John, second Viscount of
Kenmure, who, however, died under age and unmarried, in August 1649.
This event forms the subject of a letter written to her by Rutherford the
1st of October that year. She married a second husband, on the 21st of
September 1640, the Hon. Sir Henry Montgomery of Giffen, second son
of Alexander, fifth Earl of Eglinton; but this marriage was without issue.
Sir Henry's religious views were congenial to her own; and he is described
as an "active and faithful friend of the Lord's kirk." She was soon left a
widow a second time, in which state she lived till a very venerable age,
having survived the Restoration a number of years, as appears from the
fact that Livingstone, at the time of his death (which took place at
Rotterdam in 1672), speaks of her as the oldest acquaintance he then had
alive in Scotland. She was a regular correspondent of Rutherford, the last
of whose letters to her is dated July the 24th, 1661, after the execution of
her brother above mentioned. Nor after Mr. Rutherford's death was she
unmindful of his widow. "Madam," says Mr. M'Ward, in a letter to her,
"Mrs. Rutherford gives me often an account of the singular testimony
which she met with of your Ladyship's affection to her and her daughter."

Kenmure Castle is well seen from the road that leads along the banks of
the Ken. The loch, the river, the old baronial house, combine to attract
notice. It is built on an insulated knoll, well wooded all around. It is four
miles from Dalry, and the approach is through an avenue of lime-trees.
The old garden has a hedge of very lofty beech trees, and a curious dial
with a Latin inscription, dated "1623. Joannes Bonar fecit"—the name of
the person who (it is said) brought it from the Continent.

(ACQUIESCENCE IN GOD'S PURPOSE—FAITH IN EXERCISE—

ENCOURAGEMENT IN VIEW OF SICKNESS AND DEATH—PUBLIC
AFFAIRS.)

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." It is now many years since the apostate angels made a question,
whether their will or the will of their Creator should be done; and since
that time, froward mankind hath always in that same suit of law
compeared to plead with them against God, in daily repining against His
will. But the Lord being both party and judge, hath obtained a decreet,
and saith, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure (Isa.
46:10). It is then best for us, in the obedience of faith, and in an holy
submission, to give that to God which the law of His almighty and just
power will have of us. Therefore, Madam, your Lord willeth you, in all
states of life, to say, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:" and
herein shall ye have comfort, that He, who seeth perfectly through all
your evils, and knoweth the frame and constitution of your nature, and
what is most healthful for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to
your head, with His own gracious hand. Never believe that your tender-
hearted Saviour, who knoweth the strength of your stomach, will mix that
cup with one drachm-weight of poison. Drink then with the patience of
the saints, and the God of patience bless your physic.

I have heard your Ladyship complain of deadness, and want of the

bestirring power of the life of God. But courage! He who walked in the
garden, and made a noise that made Adam hear His voice, will also at
some times walk in your soul, and make you hear a more sweet word. Yet,
ye will not always hear the noise and the din of His feet, when He
walketh. Ye are, at such a time, like Jacob mourning at the supposed
death of Joseph, when Joseph was living. The new creature, the image of
the second Adam, is living in you; and yet ye are mourning at the
supposed death of the life of Christ in you. Ephraim is bemoaning and
mourning (Jer. 31:18), when he thinketh God is far off and heareth not;
and yet God is like the bridegroom (Song 2:9), standing only behind a
thin wall and laying to His ear; for He saith Himself, "I have surely heard
Ephraim bemoaning himself." I have good confidence, Madam, that
Christ Jesus, whom your soul through forests and mountains is seeking,
is within you. And yet I speak not this to lay a pillow under your head, or
to dissuade you from a holy fear of the loss of your Christ, or of provoking
and "stirring up the Beloved before He please," by sin. I know, in spiritual
confidence, the devil will come in, as in all other good works, and cry
"Half mine;" and so endeavour to bring you under a fearful sleep, till He
whom your soul loveth be departed from the door, and have left off
knocking. And, therefore, here the Spirit of God must hold your soul's
feet in the golden mid-line, betwixt confident resting in the arms of
Christ, and presumptuous and drowsy sleeping in the bed of fleshly
security. Therefore, worthy lady, so count little of yourself, because of
your own wretchedness and sinful drowsiness, that ye count not also little
of God, in the course of His unchangeable mercy. 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 all 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. I doubt not but
that, if hell were betwixt you and Christ, as a river which ye behoved to
cross ere you could come at Him, but ye would willingly put in your foot,
and make through to be at Him, upon hope that He would come in
Himself, in the deepest of the river, and lend you His hand. Now, I
believe your hell is dried up, and 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 for ever"), that is standing upon 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. Sure I am, the decree of a most
fearful parliament in heaven is at the very point of coming forth, because
of the sins of the land. For "we have cast away the law of the Lord, and
despised the words of the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 5:24). "Judgment is
turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; truth is fallen in the
streets, and equity cannot enter" (Isa. 59:14). Lo! the prophet, as if he had
seen us and our kirk, resembleth Justice to be handled as an enemy
holden out at the ports of our city [so is she banished!], and Truth to a
person sickly and diseased, fallen down in a deadly swooning fit in the
streets, before he can come to an house. "The priests have caused many to
stumble at the law, and have corrupted the covenant of Levi" (Mal. 2:3).
"But what will they do in the end?" Therefore give the Lord no rest for
Zion. Stir up your husband, your brother, and all with whom ye are in
favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I have good
hope that your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of Zion. The
peace of God be upon him, for his intended courses anent the
establishment of a powerful ministry in this land. Thus, not willing to
weary your Ladyship further, I commend you now, and always, to the
grace and mercy of that God who is able to keep you, that ye fall not. The
Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Your Ladyship's servant at all dutiful obedience in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, July 27, 1628.

IV.—To the Elect and Noble Lady, my LADY

 KENMURE, on occasion of the death of her
infant daughter
(TRIBULATION THE PORTION OF GOD'S PEOPLE, AND INTENDED
TO WEAN THEM FROM THE WORLD.)

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 still be 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, and that ye get scarce liberty to swallow
down your spittle, being casten from furnace to furnace, knowing 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 vively 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." Behold your Forerunner going out of the
world all in a lake of blood, and it is not ill to die as He did. Fulfil with joy
the remnant of the grounds and "remainders of the afflictions of Christ"
in your body (Col. 1:24). 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 evanish, but
shineth in another hemisphere. Ye 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 her 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 Judah, 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 our 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"
(Rev. 3:11). Wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the
eastern sky, and think that ye have not a morrow. As the wise father said,
who, being invited against to-morrow to dine with his friend, answered,
"Those many days I have had no morrow at all." I am loth to weary you.
Show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring, for which sin
fourteen thousand and seven hundred were slain (Numb. 16:49). In
patience possess your soul. They lose nothing who gain Christ. Thus
remembering my brother's and my wife's humble service to your
Ladyship, I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus,
assuring you that your day is coming, and that God's mercy is abiding
you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Yours in the Lord Jesus at all dutiful obedience,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Jan. 15, 1629.

V.—To my LADY KENMURE, upon her

removal with her husband from the parish of
Anwoth
(CHANGES AND LOSS OF FRIENDS—THIS WORLD NO ABIDING
PLACE.)

MADAM,—Saluting you in Jesus Christ,—to my grief I must bid you (it

may be, for ever) farewell, in paper, having small assurance ever to see
your face again till the last general assembly, where the whole church
universal shall meet; yet promising, by His grace, to present your
Ladyship and your burdens to Him who is able to save you, and give you
an inheritance with the saints, after a more special manner than ever I
have done before.

Ye are going to a country where the Sun of righteousness, in the Gospel,

shineth not so clearly as in this kingdom; but if ye would know where He
whom your soul loveth doth rest, and where He feedeth at the noontide of
the day, wherever ye be, get you forth by the footsteps of the flock, and
feed yourself beside the shepherds' tents (Song 1:7, 8), that is, ask for
some of the watchmen of the Lord's city, who will tell you truly, and will
not lie, where ye shall find Him whom your soul loveth. I trust ye are so
betrothed in marriage to the true Christ, that ye will not give your love to
any false Christ. Ye know not how soon your marriage-day will come; nay,
is not eternity hard upon you? It were time, then, that ye had your
wedding garment in readiness. Be not sleeping at your Lord's Coming. I
pray God you may be upon your feet standing when He knocketh. Be not
discouraged to go from this country to another part of the Lord's earth:
"The earth is His, and the fulness thereof." This is the Lord's lower house;
while we are lodged here, we have no assurance to lie ever in one
chamber, but must be content to remove from one corner of our Lord's
nether house to another, resting in hope that, when we come up to the
Lord's upper city, "Jerusalem that is above," we shall remove no more,
because then we shall be at home. And go wheresoever ye will, if your
Lord go with you, ye are at home; and your lodging is ever taken before
night, so long as He who is Israel's dwelling-house is your home (Psa.
90:1). Believe me, Madam, my mind is that ye are well lodged, and that in
your house there are fair ease-rooms and pleasant lights, if ye can in faith
lean down your head upon the breast of Jesus Christ: and till this be, ye
shall never get a sound sleep. Jesus, Jesus, be your shadow and your
covering. It is a sweet soul-sleep to lie in the arms of Christ; for His
breath is very sweet.

Pray for poor friendless Zion. Alas! no man will speak for her now,
although at home in her own country she hath good friends, her husband
Christ, and His Father her Father-in-law. Beseech your husband to be a
friend to Zion, and pray for her.

I have received many and divers dashes and heavy strokes since the Lord
called me to the ministry; but indeed I esteem your departure from us
amongst the weightiest. But I perceive God will have us to be deprived of
whatsoever we idolize, that He may have His own room. I see exceeding
small fruit of my ministry, and would be glad to know of one soul to be
my crown and rejoicing in the day of Christ. Though I spend my strength
in vain, yet my labour is with my God (Isa. 49:4). I wish and pray that the
Lord would harden my face against all, and make me to learn to go with
my face against a storm. Again I commend you, body and spirit, to Him
who hath loved us, and washed us from our sin in His own blood. Grace,
grace, grace for ever be with you. Pray, pray continually.

Your Ladyship's at all dutiful obedience in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1629.

 VI.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, on occasion
of the illness of his wife
[MARION M'NAUGHT was daughter to the Laird of Kilquhanatie, in
Kirkpatrick Durham (see Letter XXV.), the representative of an ancient
family, now extinct, and connected also with the house of Kenmure,
through her mother, Margaret Gordon, sister to Lord Kenmure. She
became the wife of William Fullerton, Provost of Kirkcudbright, and was
a woman extensively known and held in honour by the most eminent
Christians and ministers of her day, on account of her rare godliness and
public spirit. We find in "The Last and Heavenly Speeches of Viscount
Kenmure," that by the special desire of that nobleman (who was her
relative), she was in continual attendance on him as he lay on his
deathbed. Her name is sometimes spelt "M'Knaight," or "M'Knaichte,"
the modern "Macknight." She had three children—one daughter, Grizzel,
and two sons, Samuel and William,—who are often affectionately
remembered in Rutherford's letters to her. The following epitaph was
inscribed on her tomb, in the churchyard of Kirkcudbright:—

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

"Marion M'Naught, sister to John M'Naught of Kilquhanatie, an ancient

and honourable baron, and spouse to William Fullerton, Provost of
Kirkcudbright, died April 1643, age 58.

Sexum animis, pietate genus, genorosa, locumque

Virtute exsuperans, conditur hoc tumulo."

The tombstone was lost sight of, but in 1863 was discovered again in
removing the earth for a grave close by. It was only in 1860 that her house
(in which the meeting between Blair and Rutherford took place) was
pulled down. It stood at the foot of the High Street, which was then the
principal street of the town.

A relative of this lady's husband, Fullerton of Carlton (see Letter CLVII.),

wrote on her the following acrostic:—

M More happy than imaginèd can be,

A And blessed, are such as with heart sincere

R Resolve to cleave to Christ, to live and die

I In Him, with Him, and for Him to appear.

O O what transcendent glory grows from grace!

N None but—no, not—the soul refinèd shall

M' Make to appear; that life, that light, that peace,

K Known only to the pure possessors all.

N Now, THOU, by grace, art into glory gone,

A And gained the garland of eternal bliss,

I In seeing Him who, on that glorious throne,

C Created, uncreated, glory is.

H Heaven's quire did sing at thy conversion sweet,

T Time posts thy final comforts to complete.

(Append, to "Minute-Book of Committee of Covenanters.")

(INWARD CONFLICT ARISING FROM OUTWARD TRIAL.)

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. God
give us not of it till we vomit again, for we have sick souls when God's
physic works not. 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" (John 16:33, and 14:30). Desire Mr. Robert to
remember me, if he love me. Grace, grace be with you, and all yours.

Remember Zion. There is a letter procured from the King by Mr. John
Maxwell to urge conformity, to give the communion at Christmas in
Edinburgh. Hold fast that which you have, that no man take the crown
from you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Nov. 17, 1629.

VII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT—COMMUNION WITH CHRIST—
FAITH IN THE PROMISES.)

MADAM,—I have longed exceedingly to hear of your life and health, and
growth in the grace of God. I lacked the opportunity of a bearer, in
respect I did not understand of the hasty departure of the last, by whom I
might have saluted your Ladyship, and therefore I could not write before
this time. I entreat you, Madam, let me have two lines from you
concerning your present condition. I know ye are in grief and heaviness;
and if it were not so, ye might be afraid, because then your way should
not be so like the way that (our Lord saith) leadeth to the New Jerusalem.
Sure I am, if ye knew what were before you, or if ye saw but some glances
of it, ye 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 payment of God's principal sum,
ye have to rejoice; for our Lord will not lose His earnest, neither will He
go back or repent Him of the bargain. If ye find at some time a longing to
see God, joy in the assurance of that sight, howbeit that feast be but like
the Passover, that cometh about only once a year. Peace of conscience,
liberty of prayer, the doors of God's treasure cast up to the soul, and a
clear sight of Himself looking out, and saying, with a smiling
countenance, "Welcome to Me, afflicted soul;" this is the earnest that 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 oft into terms of speech with God, both in prayer and
hearing of the word. For this is the house of wine, where ye meet with
your Well-Beloved. Here it is where He kisseth you with the kisses of His
mouth, and where ye feel the smell of His garments; and they have
indeed a most fragrant and glorious smell. Ye must, I say, wait upon Him,
and be often communing with Him, whose lips are as lilies, dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh, and by the moving thereof He will assuage your
grief; for the Christ that saveth you is a speaking Christ; the church
knoweth Him by His voice (Song 2:8), and can discern His tongue
amongst a thousand. I say this to the end ye should not love those dumb
masks of antichristian ceremonies, that the church where ye are for a
time hath cast over the Christ whom your soul loveth. This is to set before
you a dumb Christ. But 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). And what is that else, but as if the Son had said, "I will
not have heaven except My redeemed ones be with Me: they and I cannot
live asunder. Abide in Me, and I in you." O sweet communion, when
Christ and we are through-other, and are no longer two! "Father, I will
that those whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, to behold
My glory that Thou hast 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 of 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 vapour, 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 to you remission of sins and life everlasting. If all that ye
have here be crosses and troubles, down-castings, frequent desertions,
and departure of the Lord, who is suiting you in marriage, courage! He
who is wooer and suitor should not be an household man with you till ye
and He come up to His Father's house together. He purposeth to do you
good at your latter end (Deut. 8:16), and to give you rest from the days of
adversity (Ps. 94:13). "It is good to bear the yoke of God in your youth"
(Lam. 3:27). "Turn in to your stronghold as a prisoner of hope" (Zech.
9:12). "For the vision is for an appointed time; but at the end it shall
speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come,
it will not tarry" (Hab. 2:3). Hear Himself saying, "Come, My people"
(rejoice, He calleth on 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" (Isa. 26:20). Believe, then, believe and be saved;
think 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 anything but in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14).

Our church, Madam, is decaying,—she is like Ephraim's cake (Hos. 7:9);

"and grey hairs are here and there upon her, and she knoweth it not." She
is old and grey-haired, near the grave, and no man taketh it to heart. Her
wine is sour and is corrupted. Now if Phinehas's wife did live she might
travail in birth and die, to see the ark of God taken, and the glory depart
from our Israel. The power and life of religion is away. "Woe be to us! for
the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out"
(Jer. 6:4). Madam, Zion is the ship wherein ye are carried to Canaan; if
she suffer shipwreck, ye will be cast overboard upon death and life, to
swim to land upon broken boards. It were time for us, by prayer, to put
upon our master-pilot, Jesus, and to cry, "Master, save us; we perish."
Grace, grace be with you. We would think it a blessing to our kirk to see
you here; but our sins withhold good things from us. The great Messenger
of the Covenant preserve you in body and spirit.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Feb. 1, 1630.

VIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, on occasion

of his wife's illness
(WRESTLINGS WITH GOD.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Jesus Christ remembered. I am in good health;

honour to my Lord; but my wife's disease increaseth daily, to her great
torment and pain night and day. She has not been in God's house since
our communion, neither out of her bed. I have hired a man to Edinburgh
to Doctor Jeally and to John Hamilton. I can hardly believe her disease is
ordinary, for her life is bitter to her; she sleeps none, but cries as a
woman travailing in birth. What will be the event, He that hath the keys
of the grave knoweth. I have been many times, since I saw you, that I
have besought the Lord to loose her out of body, and to take her to her
rest. I believe the Lord's tide of afflictions will ebb again; but at present I
am exercised with the wrestlings of God, being afraid of nothing more
than this, that God has let loose the tempter upon my house. God rebuke
him and his instruments. Because Satan is not cast out but by fasting and
prayer, I entreat you remember our estate to our Lord, and entreat all
good Christians whom ye know, but especially your pastor,2 to do the
same. It becomes us still to knock, and to lie at the Lord's door, until we
die knocking. If He will not open, it is more than He has said in His word.
But He is faithful. I look not to win away to my home without wounds and
blood. Welcome, welcome cross of Christ, if Christ be with it. I have not a
calm spirit in the work of my calling here, being daily chastised; yet God
hath not put out my candle, as He does to the wicked. Grace, grace be
with you and all yours.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

IX.—For MARION M'NAUGHT,

recommending a friend to her love
(PRAYERS ASKED.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. At the desire of this bearer,

whom I love, I thought to request you if ye can help his wife with your
advice, for she is in a most dangerous and deadly-like condition. For I
have thought she was changed in her carriage and life, this sometime
bypast, and had hope that God would have brought her home; and now,
by appearance, she will depart this life, and leave a number of children
behind her. If ye can be entreated to help her, it is a work of mercy. My
own wife is still in exceeding great torment night and day. Pray for us, for
my life was never so wearisome to me. God hath filled me with gall and
wormwood; but I believe (which holds up my head above the water), "It is
good for a man," saith the Spirit of God, "that he bear the yoke in his
youth" (Lam. 3:27).

I do remember you. I pray you be humble and believe; and I entreat you
in Jesus Christ, pray for John Stuart and his wife, and desire your
husband to do the same. Remember me heartily to Jean Brown. Desire
her to pray for me and my wife: I do remember her. Forget not Zion.
Grace, grace upon them, and peace, that pray for Zion. She is the ship we
sail in to Canaan. If she be broken on a rock, we will be cast overboard, to
swim to land betwixt death and life. The grace of Jesus be with your
husband and children.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

X.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(SUBMISSION, PERSEVERANCE, AND ZEAL RECOMMENDED.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER IN CHRIST,—I could not get an

answer written to your letter till now, in respect of my wife's disease; and
she is yet mightily pained. I hope that all shall end in God's mercy. I know
that an afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom; for
the Apostle hath drawn the line and the King's market-way, "through
much tribulation, to the kingdom" (Acts 14:22; 1 Thess. 3:4). The Lord
grant us the whole armour of God.

Ye write to me concerning your people's disposition, how that their hearts

are inclined toward the man ye know, and whom ye desire most earnestly
yourself. He would most gladly have the Lord's call for transplantation;
for he knows that all God's plants, set by His own hand, thrive well; and if
the work be of God, He can make a stepping-stone of the devil himself for
setting forward the work. For yourself, I would advise you to ask of God a
submissive heart. Your reward shall be with the Lord, although the
people be not gathered (as the prophet speaks); and suppose the word do
not prosper, God shall account you "a repairer of the breaches." And take
Christ caution, ye shall not lose your reward. Hold your grip fast. If ye
knew the mind of the glorified in heaven, they think heaven come to their
hand at an easy market, when they have got it for threescore or fourscore
years wrestling with God. When ye are come thither, ye shall think, "All I
did, in respect of my rich reward, now enjoyed of free grace, was too
little." Now then, for the love of the Prince of your salvation, who is
standing at the end of your way, holding up in His hand the prize and the
garland to the race-runners, Forward, forward; faint not. Take as many to
heaven with you as ye are able to draw. The more ye draw with you, ye
shall be the welcomer yourself. Be no niggard or sparing churl of the
grace of God; and employ all your endeavours for establishing an honest
ministry in your town, now when ye have so few to speak a good word for
you. I have many a grieved heart daily in my calling. I would be undone, if
I had not access to the King's chamber of presence, to show Him all the
business. The devil rages, and is mad to see the water drawn from his
own mill; but would to God we could be the Lord's instruments to build
the Son of God's house.

Pray for me. If the Lord furnish not new timber from Lebanon to build
the house, the work will cease. I look to Him, who hath begun well with
me. I have His handwrite, He will not change. Your daughter is well, and
longs for a Bible. The Lord establish you in peace. The Lord Jesus be with
your spirit.

Yours at all power in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.
 XI.—To my LADY KENMURE
(GOD'S INEXPLICABLE DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE WELL
ORDERED—WANT OF ORDINANCES—CONFORMITY TO CHRIST—
TROUBLES OF THE CHURCH—DEATH OF MR. RUTHERFORD'S
WIFE.)

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 of 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.

Worthy and dear lady, in the strength of Christ, fight and overcome. Ye
are now yourself alone, but ye may have, for the seeking, three always in
your company, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I trust they are near you.
Ye are now deprived of the comfort of a lively ministry; so was Israel in
their captivity; yet hear God's promise to them: "Therefore say, Thus
saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen,
and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to
them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come" (Ezek.
11:16). Behold a sanctuary! for a sanctuary, God Himself in the place and
room of the temple of Jerusalem! I trust in God, that carrying this temple
about with you, ye shall see Jehovah's beauty in His house.

We are in great fears of a great and fearful trial to come upon the kirk of
God; for these, who would build their houses and nests upon the ashes of
mourning Jerusalem, have drawn our King upon hard and dangerous
conclusions against such as are termed Puritans, for the rooting of them
out. Our prelates (the Lord take the keys of His house from these bastard
porters!) assure us that, for such as will not conform, there is nothing but
imprisonment and deprivation. The spouse of Jesus will ever be in the
fire; but I trust in my God she shall not consume, because of the good-will
of Him who dwelleth in the Bush; for He dwelleth in it with good-will. All
sorts of crying sins without controlment abound in our land. The glory of
the Lord is departing from Israel, and the Lord is looking back over His
shoulder, to see if any one will say, "Lord, tarry," and no man requesteth
Him to stay. Corrupt and false doctrine is openly preached by the idol-
shepherds of the land. For myself, I have daily griefs, through the
disobedience unto, and contempt of, the word of God. I was summoned
before the High Commission by a profligate person in this parish,
convicted of incest. In the business, Mr. Alexander Colvill2 (for respect to
your Ladyship) was my great friend, and wrote a most kind letter to me.
The Lord give him mercy in that day. Upon the day of my compearance,
the sea and winds refused to give passage to the Bishop of St. Andrews. I
entreat your Ladyship, thank Mr. Alexander Colvill with two lines of a
letter.

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.

Your Ladyship's at all obedience,

S. R.

ANWOTH, June 26, 1630.

XII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(GOD MIXETH THE CUP—THE WICKED HAVE THEIR REWARD—
FAITHFULNESS—FORBEARANCE—TRIALS.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,—My love in the Lord Jesus

remembered. I understand that you are still under the Lord's visitation,
in your former business with your enemies, which is God's dealing. For,
till He take His children out of the furnace that knoweth how long they
should be tried, there is no deliverance; but after God's highest and fullest
tide, that the sea of trouble is gone over the souls of His children, then
comes the gracious long-hoped-for ebbing and drying up of the waters.
Dear sister, do not faint; the wicked may hold the bitter cup to your head,
but God mixeth it, and there is no poison in it. They strike, but God
moves the rod; Shimei curseth, but it is because the Lord bids Him. I tell
you, and I have it from Him before whom I stand for God's people, that
there is a decreet given out, in the great court of the highest heavens, that
your present troubles shall be dispersed as the morning cloud, and God
shall bring forth your righteousness, as the light of the noontide of the
day. Let me intreat you, in Christ's name, to keep a good conscience in
your proceedings in that matter, and beware of yourself: yourself is a
more dangerous enemy than I, or any without you. Innocence and an
upright cause is a good advocate before God, and shall plead for you, and
win your cause. And count much of your Master's approbation and His
smiling. He is now as the king that is gone to a far country. God seems to
be from home (if I may say so), yet He sees the ill servants, who say, "Our
Master deferreth His coming," and so strike their fellow-servants. But
patience, my beloved; Christ the King is coming home; the evening is at
hand, and He will ask an account of His servants. Make a fair, clear count
to Him. So carry yourself as at night you may say, Master, I have wronged
none; behold, you have your own with advantage. O! your soul then will
esteem much of one of God's kisses and embracements, in the testimony
of a good conscience. The wicked, howbeit they be casting many evil
thoughts, bitter words, and sinful deeds behind their back, yet they are, in
so doing, clerks to their own process, and doing nothing all their life but
gathering dittayes against themselves; for God is angry at the wicked
every day. And I hope your present process shall be sighted one day by
Him, who knoweth your just cause; and the bloody tongues, crafty foxes,
double-ingrained hypocrites, shall appear as they are before His majesty,
when He shall take the mask off their faces. And O, thrice happy shall
your soul be then, when God finds you covered with nothing but the
white robe of the saint's innocence, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

You have been of late in the King's wine-cellar, where you were welcomed
by the Lord of the inn, upon condition that you walk in love. Put on love,
and brotherly kindness, and long-suffering; wait as long upon the favour
and turned hearts of your enemies as your Christ waited upon you, and as
dear Jesus stood at your soul's door, with dewy and rainy locks, the long
cold night. Be angry, but sin not. I persuade myself, that holy unction
within you, which teacheth you all things, is also saying, "Overcome evil
with good." If that had not spoken in your soul, at the tears of your aged
pastor, you would not have agreed, and forgiven his foolish son, who
wronged you; but my Master bade me tell you, God's blessing shall be
upon you for it; and from Him I say, Grace, grace, grace, and everlasting
peace be upon you. It is my prayer for you, that your carriage may grace
and adorn the Gospel of that Lord who hath graced you. I heard your
husband also was sick; but I beseech you in the bowels of Jesus, welcome
every rod of God, for I find not in the whole book of God a greater note of
the child of God, than to fall down and kiss the feet of an angry God. And
when He seems to put you away from Him, and loose your hands that
grip Him, to look up in faith, and say, "I shall not, I will not, be put away
from Thee. Howbeit Thy Majesty draw to free Thyself of me, yet, Lord,
give me leave to hold, and cleave unto Thyself." I will pray, that your
husband may return in peace. Your decreet comes from heaven; look up
thither, for many (says Solomon) seek the face of the ruler, but every
man's judgment cometh from the Lord. And be glad that it is so, for
Christ is the clerk of your process, and will see that all go right; and I
persuade myself He is saying, "Yonder servants of mine are wronged; for
My blood, Father, give them justice." Think you not, dear sister, but our
High Priest, our Jesus, the Master of requests, presents our bills of
complaint to the great Lord Justice? Yea I believe it, since He is our
Advocate, and Daniel calls Him the Spokesman, whose hand presents all
to the Father.

For other business, I say nothing, till the Lord give me to see your face. I
am credibly informed, that multitudes of England, and especially worthy
preachers, and silenced preachers of London, are gone to New England;
and I know one learned holy preacher, who hath written against the
Arminians, who is gone thither. Our Blessed Lord Jesus, who cannot get
leave to sleep with His spouse in this land, is going to seek an inn where
He will be better entertained. And what marvel? Wearied Jesus, after He
had travelled from Geneva, by the ministry of worthy Mr. Knox, and was
laid in His bed, and reformation begun, and the curtains drawn, had not
gotten His dear eyes well together, when irreverent bishops came in, and
with the din and noise of ceremonies, holy days, and other Romish
corruptions, they awake our Beloved. Others came to His bedside, and
drew the curtains, and put hands on His servants, banished, deprived,
and confined them; and for the pulpit they got a stool and a cold fire in
the Blackness;2 and the nobility drew the covering off Him, and have
made Him a poor naked Christ, spoiling His servants of the tithes and
kirk rents. And now there is such a noise of crying sins in the land, as the
want of the knowledge of God, of mercy, and truth; such swearing,
whoring, lying, and blood touching blood; that Christ is putting on His
clothes, and making Him, like an ill-handled stranger, to go to other
lands. Pray Him, sister, to lie down again with His beloved.
Remember my dearest love to John Gordon, to whom I will write when I
am strong, and to John Brown, Grissel, Samuel, and William; grace be
upon them. As you love Christ, keep Christ's favour, and put not upon
Him when He sleeps, to awake Him before He please. The Lord Jesus be
with your spirit.

Your brother in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, July 21, 1630.

XIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, when

exposed to reproach for her principles
(JESUS A PATTERN OF PATIENCE UNDER SUFFERING.)

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
(1 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. 4:6); 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. And marvel not that one town cannot keep the children of
God and the children of the devil, for one belly could not keep Jacob and
Esau (Gen. 25:22); one house could not keep peaceably together Isaac,
the son of the promise, and Ishmael, the son of the handmaid (Gen.
21:10). Be you upon Christ's side of it, and care not what flesh can do.
Hold yourself fast by your Saviour, 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" (2
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, envying, fretting. Forgive an 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 troubles. 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 are come to the top of
their pride, and are waxed high and mighty, then is their change
approaching. They that believe make not haste.

Remember Zion, forget her not, for her enemies are many; for the nations
are gathered together against her. "But they know not the thoughts of the
Lord, neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as
the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion" (Micah
4:12, 13). Behold, God hath gathered His enemies together, as sheaves to
the threshing. Let us stay and rest upon these promises. 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
for ever to the grace and mercy of God.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Feb. 11, 1631.

XIV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, in the

prospect of a Communion season
(ABUNDANCE IN JESUS—THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS—
ENEMIES OF GOD.)

WELL-BELOVED IN THE LORD,—You are not unacquainted with the

day of our Communion. I entreat, therefore, the aid of your prayers for
that great work, which is one of our feast days, wherein our Well-beloved
Jesus rejoiceth, and is merry with His friends.

Good cause have we to wonder at His love, since the day of His death was
such a sorrowful day to Him, even the day when His mother, the kirk,
crowned Him with thorns, and He had many against Him, and
compeared His lone in the fields against them all; yet He delights with us
to remember that day. Let us love Him, and be glad and rejoice in His
salvation. I am confident that you shall see the Son of God that day, and I
dare in His name invite you to His banquet. Many a time you have been
well entertained in His house; and He changes not upon His friends, nor
chides them for too great kindness. Yet I speak not this to make you leave
off to pray for me, who have nothing of myself, but in so far as daily I
receive from Him, who is made of His Father a running-over fountain, at
which I and others may come with thirsty souls, and fill our vessels. Long
hath this well been standing open to us. Lord Jesus, lock it not up again
upon us. I am sorry for our desolate kirk; yet I dare not but trust, so long
as there be any of God's lost money here He shall not blow out the candle.
The Lord make fair candlesticks in His house, and remove the blind
lights.

I have been this time bypast thinking much of the incoming of the kirk of
the Jews. Pray for them. When they were in their Lord's house, at their
Father's elbow, they were longing for the incoming of their little sister,
the kirk of the Gentiles. They said to their Lord, "We have a little sister,
and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when
she shall be spoken for?" (Cant. 8:8). Let us give them a meeting. What
shall we do for our elder sister, the Jews? Lord Jesus, give them breasts.
That were a glad day to see us and them both sit down to one table, and
Christ at the head of the table. Then would our Lord come shortly with
his fair guard to hold His great court.

Dear sister, be patient, for the Lord's sake, under the wrongs that you
suffer of the wicked. Your Lord shall make you see your desire on your
enemies. Some of them shall be cut off; "they shall shake off their unripe
grapes as the vine, and cast off their flower as the olive" (Job. 15:33): God
shall make them like unripe sour grapes, shaken off the tree with the blast
of God's wrath; and therefore pity them, and pray for them. Others of
them must remain to exercise you. God hath said of them, Let the tares
grow up until harvest (Matt. 13:30). It proves you to be your Lord's
wheat. Be patient; Christ went to heaven with many a wrong. His visage
and countenance was all marred more than the sons of men. You may not
be above your Master; many a black stroke received innocent Jesus, and
He received no mends, but referred them all to the great court-day, when
all things shall be righted. I desire to hear from you within a day or two, if
Mr. Robert remain in his purpose to come and help us. God shall give you
joy of your children. I pray for them by their names. I bless you from our
Lord, your husband and children. Grace, grace, and mercy be multiplied
upon you.

Yours in the Lord for ever,

S. R.

ANWOTH, May 7, 1631.

XV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT on occasion

of the threatened introduction of the
Episcopalian Service-Book
(TROUBLES OF THE CHURCH—PRIVATE WRONGS.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—My love in Christ remembered. I have

received a letter from Edinburgh, certainly informing me that the English
service, and the organs, and King James' Psalms, are to be imposed upon
our kirk; and that the bishops are dealing for a General Assembly. A. R.
hath confirmed the news also, and says he spoke with Sir William
Alexander, who is to come down with his prince's warrant for that effect. I
am desired in the received letter to acquaint the best-affected about me
with that storm: therefore I entreat you, and charge you in the Lord's
name, pray; but do not communicate this to any till I see you. My heart is
broken at the remembrance of it, and it was my fear, and answereth to my
last letter except one, that I wrote unto you. Dearly beloved, be not casten
down, but let us, as our Lord's doves, take us to our wings (for other
armour we have none), and flee into the hole of the rock. It is true A. R.
says, the worthiest men in England are banished, and silenced, about the
number of sixteen or seventeen choice Gospel preachers, and the
persecution is already begun. Howbeit I do not write this unto you with a
dry face, yet I am confident in the Lord's strength, Christ and His side
shall overcome; and you shall be assured; the kirk were not a kirk, if it
were not so. As our dear Husband, in wooing His kirk, received many a
black stroke, so His bride, in wooing Him, gets many blows, and in this
wooing there are strokes upon both sides. Let it be so. The devil will not
make the marriage go back, neither can he tear the contract; the end shall
be mercy. Yet notwithstanding of all this, we have no warrant of God to
leave off all lawful means. I have been writing unto you the counsels and
draughts of men against the kirk; but they know not, as Micah says, the
counsel of Jehovah. The great men of the world may make ready the fiery
furnace for Zion; but trow ye that they can cause the fire to burn? No. He
that made the fire, I trust, shall not say amen to their decreets. I trust in
my Lord, that God hath not subscribed their bill, and their conclusions
have not yet passed our great King's seal. Therefore, if ye think good,
address yourself first to the Lord, and then to A. R., anent the business
that you know.

I am most unkindly handled by the presbytery; and (as if I had been a

stranger, and not a member of that seat, to sit in judgment with them) I
was summoned by their order as a witness against B. A. But they have got
no advantage in that matter. Other particulars you shall hear, God
willing, at meeting.

Anent the matter betwixt you and I. E., I remember it to God. I entreat
you in the Lord, be submissive to His will; for the higher that their pride
mounts up, they are the nearer to a fall. The Lord will more and more
discover that man. Let your husband, in all matters of judgment, take
Christ's part, for the defence of the poor and needy, and the oppressed,
for the maintenance of equity and justice in the town. And take you no
fear. He shall take your part, and then you are strong enough. What?
Howbeit you receive indignities for your Lord's sake, let it be so. When
He shall put His holy hand up to your face in heaven, and dry your face,
and wipe the tears from your eyes, judge if ye will not have cause then to
rejoice. Anent other particulars, if you would speak with me, appoint any
of the first three days of the next week in Carletoun, when Carletoun is at
home, and acquaint me with your desires. And remember me to God, and
my dearest affection to your husband; and for Zion's sake hold not your
peace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and your husband
and children.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH, June 2, 1631.

XVI.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, on occasion

of a proposal to remove him from Anwoth
(BABYLON'S DESTRUCTION AND CHRIST'S COMING—THE YOUNG
INVITED.)

WORTHY AND DEAR MISTRESS,—My dearest love in Christ

remembered. As to the business which I know you would so fain have
taken effect, my earnest desire is, that you stand still. Haste not, and you
shall see the salvation of God. The great Master Gardener, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with His own hand (I
dare, if it were for edification, swear it), planted me here, where, by His
grace, in this part of His vineyard, I grow.—I dare not say but Satan and
the world (one of his pages whom he sends on his errands) have said
otherwise. And here I will abide till the great Master of the Vineyard think
fit to transplant me. But when He sees meet to loose me at the root, and
to plant me where I may be more useful, both as to fruit and shadow, and
when He who planted pulleth up that He may transplant, who dare put to
their hand and hinder? If they do, God shall break their arm at the
shoulder blade, and do His turn. When our Lord is going west, the devil
and world go east; and do you not know that it hath been ever this way
betwixt God and the world—God drawing, and they holding, God "yea,"
and the world "nay"? But they fall on their back and are frustrate, and our
Lord holdeth His grip.
Wherefore doth the word say, that our Christ, the Goodman of this house,
His dear kirk, hath feet like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace (Rev.
1:15)? For no other cause but because where our Lord setteth down His
brazen feet, He will forward; and whithersoever He looketh, He will
follow His look; and His feet burn all under them, like as fire doth stubble
and thorns. I think He hath now given the world a proof of His exceeding
great power, when He is doing such great things, wherein Zion is
concerned, by the sword of the Swedish king, as of a Gideon. As you love
the glory of God, pray instantly (yea engage all your praying
acquaintance, and take their faithful promise to do the like) for this king,
and every one that Zion's King armeth, to execute the written vengeance
on Babylon. Our Lord hath begun to loose some of Babylon's corner
stones. Pray to Him to hold on, for that city must fall, and the birds of the
air and the beasts of the earth must make a banquet of Babylon; for He
hath invited them to eat the flesh of that whore, and to drink her blood.
And the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto her, and
shameful spewing shall be upon her glory. He whose word must stand
hath said, "Take this cup at the hand of the Lord, and drink and be
drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more" (Jer. 25:27). Our Jesus is
setting up Himself, as His Father's ensign (Isa. 11:10), as God's fair white
colours, that His soldiers may all flock about Him. Long, long may these
colours stand. It is long since He displayed a banner against Babylon in
the fight of men and angels. Let us rejoice and triumph in our God. The
victory is certain; for when Christ and Babel wrestle, then angels and
saints may prepare themselves to sing, "Babylon the great is fallen, is
fallen." Howbeit that Prince of renown, precious Jesus, be now weeping
and bleeding in His members, yet Christ will laugh again; and it is time
enough for us to laugh, when our Lord Christ laugheth,—and that will be
shortly. For when we hear of wars and rumours of wars, the Judge's feet
are then before the door, and He must be in heaven giving order to the
angels to make themselves ready, and prepare their hooks and sickles for
that great harvest. Christ will be upon us in haste; watch but a little, and
ere long the skies will rive, and that fair lovely person, Jesus, shall come
in the clouds, freighted and loaded with glory. And then all these knaves
and foxes that destroyed the vines shall call to the hills, and cry to the
mountains to cover them, and hide them from the face of Him who sitteth
upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Remember me to your husband, and desire him from me to help Christ,
and to take His part, and in judgment sit ever beside Him, and receive a
blow patiently for His sake; for He is worthy to be suffered for, not only to
blows, but also to blood. He shall find that innocency and uprightness in
judgment shall hold its feet and make him happy, when jouking will not
do it. I speak this because a person said to me, "I pray God the country be
not in worse case now when the provost and bailies are agreed, than
formerly,"—to whom I replied, "I trust the provost is agreed with the
man's person, but not with his faults." I pray for you, with my whole soul
and desire, that your children may walk in the truth, and that the Lord
may shine upon them, and make their faces to shine, when the faces of
others shall blush. I dare promise them, in His name, whose truth I
preach, if they will but try God's service, that they shall find Him the
sweetest Master that ever they served. And desire them from me but to
try for a while the service of this blessed Master, and then, if His service
be not sweet, if it afford not what is pleasant to the soul's taste, change
Him upon trial, and seek a better. Christ is an unknown Christ to the
young ones; and therefore they seek Him not, because they know Him
not. Bid them come and see, and seek a kiss of His mouth; and then they
will find His mouth is so sweet, that they will be everlastingly chained
unto Him by their own consent. If I have any credit with your children, I
entreat them in Christ's name to try what truth and reality is in what I
say, and leave not His service till they have found me a liar. I give you,
your husband, and them, to His keeping to whom I have, and dare
venture myself and soul, even to our dear Friend Jesus Christ, in whom I
am,

Yours,

S. R.

ANWOTH.
 XVII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, when in
distress as to prospects of the Church
(ARMINIANISM—CALL TO PRAYER—NO HELP BUT IN CHRIST.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—My dearest love in Christ remembered to

you. Know that I am in great heaviness for the pitiful case of our Lord's
kirk. I hear the cause why Dr. Burton is committed to prison is his writing
and preaching against the Arminians. I therefore entreat the aid of your
prayers for myself, and the Lord's captives of hope, and for Zion. The
Lord hath let and daily lets me see clearly, how deep furrows
Arminianism and the followers of it draw upon the back of God's Israel
(but our Lord cut the cords of the wicked!). "Zion said, The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (Isa. 49:14). "Zion weepeth
sore in the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks; amongst all her
lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt
treacherously with her; they are become her enemies" (Lam. 1:2). "Our
silver is become dross, our wine mixed with water" (Isa. 1:22). "How is
the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the
sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of
Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers,
the work of the hands of the potter!" (Lam. 4:1, 2). It is time now for the
Lord's secret ones, who favour the dust of Zion, to cry, "How long, Lord?"
and to go up to their watch-tower, and to stay there, and not to come
down until the vision speak; for it shall speak (Hab. 2:3). In the mean
time, the just shall live by faith. Let us wait on and not weary. I have not a
thread to hang upon and rest, but this one, "Can a woman forget her
sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of My hands; Thy walls are continually before
Me (Isa. 49:15, 16). For all outward helps do fail; it is time therefore for us
to hang ourselves, as our Lord's vessels, upon the nail that is fastened in a
sure place. We would make stakes of our own fastening, but they will
break. Our Lord will have Zion on His own nail. Edom is busy within us,
and Babel without us, against the handful of Jacob's seed. It were best
that we were upon Christ's side of it, for His enemies will get the stalks to
keep, as the proverb is. Our greatest difficulty will be to win upon the rock
now, when the wind and waves of persecution are so lofty and proud. Let
sweet Jesus take us by the hand. Neither must we think that it will be
otherwise; for it is told to the souls under the altar, "That their fellow-
servants must be killed as they were" (Rev. 6:11). Surely, it cannot be long
to the day. Nay, hear Him say, "Behold, I come, My dear bride; think not
long. I shall be at you at once. I hear you, and am coming." Amen; even so
come, Lord Jesus, come quickly; for the prisoners of hope are looking out
at the prison windows, to see if they can behold the King's ambassador
coming with the King's warrant and the keys. I write not to you by guess
now, because I have a warrant to say unto you, the garments of Christ's
spouse must be once again dyed in blood, as long ago her husband's were.
But our Father sees His bleeding Son. What I write unto you, show it to I.
G. Grace, grace, grace and mercy be with you, your husband, and
children.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XVIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, in the

prospect of a Communion season
(PRAYER SOLICITED—THE CHURCH'S PROSPECTS.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ as remembered. Our Communion is on

Sabbath come eight days. I will entreat you to recommend it to God, and
to pray for me in that work. I have more sins upon me now than the last
time. Therefore I will beseech you in Christ, seek this petition to me from
God, that the Lord would give me grace to vow and perform new
obedience. I have cause to suit this of you; and show it to Thomas Carson,
Fergus and Jean Brown, for I have been and am exceedingly cast down,
and am fighting against a malicious devil, of whom I can win little
ground. I would think a spoil plucked from him, and his trusty servant
sin, a lawful and just conquest. And it were no sin to take from him, in the
name of the Goodman of our house, our King Jesus. I invite you to the
banquet. He saith, ye shall be dearly welcome to Him. And I desire to
believe (howbeit not without great fear) He shall be as hearty in His own
house as He has been before. For me, it is but small reckoning; but I
would fain have our Father and Lord to break the great fair loaf, Christ,
and to distribute His slain Son amongst the bairns of His house, and that
if any were a step-bairn, in respect of comfort and sense, it were rather
myself than His poor bairns. Therefore bid our Well-beloved come to His
garden and feed among the lilies.

And as concerning Zion, I hope our Lord, who sent His angel (Zech. 2:1,
2) with a measuring line in his hand to measure the length and breadth of
Jerusalem, in token He would not want a foot length or inch of His own
free heritage, shall take order with those who have taken away many
acres of His own land from Him. And God will build Jerusalem in the old
sted and place where it was before. In this hope rejoice and be glad.
Christ's garment was not dipped in blood for nothing, but for His Bride,
whom He bought with strokes. I will desire you to remember my old suits
to God, God's glory and the increase of light, that I dry not up. For your
town, hope and believe that the Lord will gather in His loose sheaves
among you to His barn, and send one with a well-toothed, sharp hook,
and strong gardies, to reap His harvest. And the Lord Jesus be
Husbandman, and oversee the growing. Remember my love to your
husband and to Samuel. Grace upon you and your children. Lord, make
them corner-stones in Jerusalem, and give them grace in their youth to
take band with the fair Chief Corner-stone, who was hewed out of the
mountain without hands, and got many a knock with His Father's
forehammer, and endured them all, and the stone did neither cleave nor
break. Upon that stone make your soul to lie. King Jesus be with your
spirit.

Your friend in his well-beloved Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XIX.—To my LADY KENMURE

(ENCOURAGEMENT TO ABOUND IN FAITH FROM THE PROSPECT
OF GLORY—CHRIST'S UNCHANGEABLENESS.)

MADAM,—Having saluted you in the Lord Jesus, I thought it my duty,

having the occasion of this bearer, to write again unto your ladyship,
though I have no new purpose but what I wrote of before. Yet ye cannot
be too often awakened to go forward towards your city, since your way is
long, and (for anything ye know) your day is short. And your Lord
requireth of you, as ye advance in years and steal forward insensibly
towards eternity, that your faith may grow and ripen for the Lord's
harvest. For the great Husbandman giveth a season to His fruits that they
may come to maturity, and having gotten their fill of the tree, they may
then be shaken and gathered in for use; whereas the wicked rot upon the
tree, and their branch shall not be green. "He shall shake off his unripe
grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive" (Job 15:33). It
is God's mercy to you, Madam, that He giveth you your fill, even to
loathing, of this bitter world, that ye may willingly leave it, and, like a full
and satisfied banqueter, long for the drawing of the table. And at last,
having trampled under your feet all the rotten pleasures that are under
sun and moon, and having rejoiced as though ye rejoiced not, and having
bought as though ye possessed not (1 Cor. 7:30), ye may, like an old crazy
ship, arrive at our Lord's harbour, and be made welcome, as one of those
who have ever had one foot loose from the earth, longing for that place
where your soul shall feast and banquet for ever and ever upon a glorious
sight of the incomprehensible Trinity, and where ye shall see the fair face
of the man Christ, even the beautiful face that was once for your cause
more marred than any of the visages of the sons of men (Isa. 52:14), and
was all covered with spitting and blood. Be content to wade through the
waters betwixt you and glory with Him, holding His hand fast, for He
knoweth all the fords. Howbeit ye may be ducked, but ye cannot drown,
being in His company; and ye may all the way to glory see the way
bedewed with His blood who is the Forerunner. Be not afraid, therefore,
when ye come even to the black and swelling river of death, to put in your
foot and wade after Him. The current, how strong soever, cannot carry
you down the water to hell: the Son of God, His death and resurrection,
are stepping-stones and a stay to you; set down your feet by faith upon
these stones, and go through as on dry land. If ye knew what He is
preparing for you, ye would be too glad. He will not (it may be) give you a
full draught till you come up to the well-head and drink, yea, drink
abundantly, of the pure river of the water of life, that proceedeth out from
the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). Madam, tire not, weary
not; I dare find you the Son of God caution, when ye are got up thither,
and have cast your eyes to view the golden city, and the fair and never-
withering Tree of Life, that beareth twelve manner of fruits every month,
ye shall then say, "Four-and-twenty hours' abode in this place is worth
threescore and ten years' sorrow upon earth." If ye can but say, that ye
long earnestly to be carried up thither (and I hope you cannot for shame
deny Him the honour of having wrought that desire in your soul), then
hath your Lord given you an earnest. And, Madam, do ye believe that our
Lord will lose His earnest, and rue of the bargain, and change His mind,
as if He were a man that can lie, or the son of man that can repent? Nay,
He is unchangeable, and the same this year that He was the former year.
And His Son Jesus, who upon earth ate and drank with publicans and
sinners, and spake and conferred with whores and harlots, and put up
His holy hand and touched the leper's filthy skin, and came evermore
nigh sinners, even now in glory, is yet that same Lord. His honour, and
His great court in heaven, hath not made Him forget His poor friends on
earth. In Him honours change not manners, and He doth yet desire your
company. Take Him for the old Christ, and claim still kindness to Him,
and say, "O it is so; He is not changed, but I am changed." Nay, it is a part
of His unchangeable love, and an article of the new covenant, to keep you
that ye cannot dispone Him, nor sell Him. He hath not played fast and
loose with us in the covenant of grace, so that we may run from Him at
our pleasure. His love hath made the bargain surer than so; for Jesus, as
the cautioner, is bound for us (Heb. 7:22). And it cannot stand with His
honour to die in the borrows (as we use to say), and lose thee, whom He
must render again to the Father when He shall give up the kingdom to
Him. Consent and say "Amen" to the promises, and ye have sealed that
God is true, and Christ is yours. This is an easy market. Ye but look on
with faith; for Christ suffered all, and paid all.

Madam, fearing I be tedious to your Ladyship, I must stop here, desiring

always to hear that your Ladyship is well, and that ye have still your face
up the mountain. Pray for us, Madam, and for Zion, whereof ye are a
part. We expect a trial. God's wheat in this land must go through Satan's
sieve, but their faith shall not fail. I am still wrestling in our Lord's work,
and have been tried and tempted with brethren who look awry to the
Gospel. Now He that is able to keep you unto that day preserve your soul,
body, and spirit, and present you before His face with His own Bride,
spotless and blameless.

Your Ladyship's, to be commanded always in the Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Nov. 26, 1631.

XX.—To my LADY KENMURE

(ASSURANCE OF CHRIST'S LOVE UNDER TRIALS—FULNESS OF
CHRIST—HOPE OF GLORY.)

MADAM,—I am grieved exceedingly that your Ladyship should think, or

have cause to think, that such as love you in God, in this country, are
forgetful of you. For myself, Madam, I owe to your Ladyship all evidences
of my high respect (in the sight of my Lord, whose truth I preach, I am
bold to say it) for His rich grace in you.

My Communion, put off till the end of a longsome and rainy harvest, and
the presbyterial exercise (as the bearer can inform your Ladyship),
hindered me to see you. And for my people's sake (finding them like hot
iron, that cooleth being out of the fire, and that is pliable to no work), I do
not stir abroad; neither have I left them at all, since your Ladyship was in
this country, save at one time only, about two years ago. Yet I dare not say
but it is a fault, howbeit no defect in my affection; and I trust to make it
up again, so soon as possibly I am able to wait upon you.

Madam, I have no new purpose to write unto you, but of that which I
think (nay, which our Lord thinketh) needful, that one thing, Mary's good
part, which ye have chosen (Luke 10:42). Madam, all that God hath, both.
Himself and the creatures, He is dealing and parting amongst the sons of
Adam. There are none so poor as that they can say in His face, "He hath
given them nothing." But there is no small odds betwixt the gifts given to
lawful bairns and to bastards; and the more greedy ye are in suiting, the
more willing He is to give, delighting to be called open-handed. I hope
your Ladyship laboureth to get assurance of the surest patrimony, even
God Himself. Ye will find in Christianity, that God aimeth, in all His
dealings with His children, to bring them to a high contempt of, and
deadly feud with the world, and to set an high price upon Christ, and to
think Him One who cannot be bought for gold, and well worthy the
fighting for. And for no other cause, Madam, doth the Lord withdraw
from you the childish toys and the earthly delights that He giveth unto
others, but that He may have you wholly to Himself. Think therefore of
the Lord, as of one who cometh to woo you in marriage, when ye are in
the furnace. He seeketh His answer of you in affliction, to see if ye will
say, Even so I take Him. Madam, give Him this answer pleasantly, and in
your mind do not secretly grudge nor murmur. When He is striking you
in love, beware to strike again: that is dangerous; for those who strike
again shall get the last blow.

If I hit not upon the right string, it is because I am not acquainted with
your Ladyship's present condition; but I believe your Ladyship goeth on
foot, laughing, and putting on a good countenance before the world, and
yet ye carry heaviness about with you. Ye do well, Madam, not to make
them witnesses of your grief, who cannot be curers of it. But be
exceedingly charitable of your dear Lord. As there be some friends
worldly of whom ye will not entertain an ill thought, far more ought ye to
believe good evermore of your dear friend, that lovely fair person, Jesus
Christ. The thorn is one of the most cursed, and angry, and crabbed
weeds that the earth yieldeth, and yet out of it springeth the rose, one of
the sweetest-smelled flowers, and most delightful to the eye, that the
earth hath. Your Lord shall make joy and gladness out of your afflictions;
for all His roses have a fragrant smell Wait for the time when His own
holy hand shall hold them to your nose; and if ye would have present
comfort under the cross, be much in prayer, for at that time your faith
kisseth Christ and He kisseth the soul. And oh! if the breath of His holy
mouth be sweet, I dare be caution, out of some small experience, that ye
shall not be beguiled; for the world (yea, not a few number of God's
children) know not well what that is which they call a Godhead. But,
Madam, come near to the Godhead, and look down to the bottom of the
well; there is much in Him, and sweet were that death to drown in such a
well. Your grief taketh liberty to work upon your mind, when ye are not
busied in the meditation of the ever-delighting and all-blessed Godhead.
If ye would lay the price ye give out (which is but some few years' pain
and trouble) beside the commodities ye are to receive, ye would see they
are not worthy to be laid in the balance together: but it is nature that
maketh you look what ye give out, and weakness of faith that hindereth
you to see what ye shall take in. Amend your hope, and frist your faithful
Lord awhile. He maketh Himself your debtor in the new covenant. He is
honest; take His word: "Affliction shall not spring up the second time"
(Nahum 1:9). "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (Rev. 21:7). Of
all things, then, which ye want in this life, Madam, I am able to say
nothing, if that be not believed which ye have in Rev. 3:5, 21: "The
overcomer shall be clothed in white raiment. To the overcomer I will give
to sit with Me in My throne, as I overcame, and am set down with My
Father in His throne." Consider, Madam, if ye are not high up now, and
far ben in the palace of our Lord, when ye are upon a throne in white
raiment, at lovely Christ's elbow. O thrice fools are we, who, like new-
born princes weeping in the cradle, know not that there is a kingdom
before them! Then let our Lord's sweet hand square us and hammer us,
and strike off the knots of pride, self-love, and world-worship, and
infidelity, that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father's house
(Rev. 3:12). Madam, what think ye to take binding with the fair corner-
stone Jesus? The Lord give you wisdom to believe and hope your day is
coming. I hope to be witness of your joy, as I have been a hearer and
beholder of your grief. Think ye much to follow the heir of the crown, who
had experience of sorrows, and was acquainted with grief? (Isa. 53:3). It
were pride to aim to be above the King's Son: it is more than we deserve,
that we are equals in glory, in a manner. Now commending you to the
dearest grace and mercy of God, I rest

Your Ladyship's, at all obedience in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Jan. 4, 1632.

XXI.—To my LADY KENMURE

(SELF-DENIAL—HOPE OF CHRIST'S COMING—LOVING GOD FOR
HIMSELF.)

MADAM,—Understanding (a little after the writing of my last letter) of

the going of this bearer, 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; as one extreme heat burneth out another. By this, Madam, ye
know, ye have betrothed your soul in marriage to Christ, when ye do
make but small reckoning of all other suitors or wooers; and when ye can
(having little in hand, but much in hope) live as a young heir, during the
time of his non-age and minority, being content to be as hardly handled
and under as precise a reckoning as servants, because his hope is upon
the inheritance. 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 (2 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, and when ye shall give in your bill, that day, of all your
wants here? If your losses be not made up, ye have place to challenge the
Almighty; but it shall not be so. Ye shall then rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, and your joy shall none take from you (1 Pet. 1:8; John
16:22). It is enough, that the Lord hath promised you great things, only
let the time of bestowing them be in His own carving. It is not for us to set
an hour-glass to the Creator of time. Since He and we differ only in the
term of payment; since He hath promised payment, and we believe it, it is
no great matter. We will put that in His own will, as the frank buyer, who
cometh near to what the seller seeketh, useth at last to refer the
difference to his own will, and so cutteth off the course of mutual
prigging. Madam, do not prigg with your frank-hearted and gracious Lord
about the time of the fulfilling of your joys. It will be; God hath said it;
bide His harvest, wait upon His whitsunday. 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 whatever thing disturbeth and crosseth the
peace of your mind, in this life, to love nothing for itself, but only God for
Himself. It is the crooked love of some harlots, that they love bracelets,
ear-rings, and rings better than the lover that sendeth them. God will not
so be loved; for that were to behave as harlots, and not as the chaste
spouse, to abate from our love when these things are pulled away. Our
love to Him should begin on earth, as it shall be in heaven; for the bride
taketh not, by a thousand degrees, so much delight in her wedding
garment as she doth 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; and
your mind, for anything ye want, or for anything your Lord can take from
you, shall soon be calmed and quieted. Get Himself as a pawn, and keep
Him, till your dear Lord come, and loose the pawn, and rue upon you,
and give you all again that He took from you, even a thousand talents for
one penny. It is not ill to lend God willingly, who otherwise both will and
may take from you against your will. It is good to play the usurer with
Him, and take in, instead of ten of the hundred, an hundred of ten, often
an hundred of one.

Madam, 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. I expect that, whatever ye can do, by word or deed, for the Lord's
friendless Zion, ye will do it. She is your mother; forget her not; for the
Lord intendeth to melt and try this land, and it is high time we were all
upon our feet, and falling about to try what claim we have to Christ. It is
like the bridegroom will be taken from us, and then we shall mourn. Dear
Jesus, remove not, else take us with Thee. Grace, grace be with you for
ever.

Your Ladyship's, at all dutiful obedience,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Jan. 14, 1632.

XXII.—To JOHN KENNEDY (Letter LXXV.)

(DELIVERANCE FROM SHIPWRECK—RECOVERY FROM
THREATENED DEATH—USE OF TRIALS—REMEMBRANCE OF
FRIENDS.)

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 of death" (Rev. 1:18); "I kill,
and I make alive" (Deut. 32:39); "The Lord bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up" (1 Sam. 2:6). If Satan were jailor, and had the keys of
death and of the grave, they should be stored with more prisoners. 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 despatch your business;
that debt is not forgiven, but fristed: death hath not bidden you farewell,
but hath 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. Fulfil 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. Fulfil 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 hath
been practised 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, and 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. It is true, terrors of conscience cast us down; and yet without
terrors of conscience we cannot be raised up again: fears and doubtings
shake us; and yet without fears and doubtings we would soon sleep, and
lose our grips of Christ. Tribulation and temptations will almost loosen us
to the root; and yet, without tribulations and temptations, we can now no
more grow than herbs or corn without rain. Sin, and Satan, and the world
will say, and cry in our ear, that we have a hard reckoning to make in
judgment; and yet none of these three, except they lie, dare say in our
face that our sin can change the tenor of the new covenant. Forward,
then, dear brother, and lose not your grips. Hold fast the truth: for the
world, sell not one dram-weight of God's truth, especially now, when
most men measure truth by time, like young seamen setting their
compass by a cloud; for now time is father and mother to truth, in the
thoughts and practices of our evil time. The God of truth establish us; for,
alas! now there are none to comfort the prisoners of hope, and the
mourners in Zion. We can do little, except pray and mourn for Joseph in
the stocks. And let their tongue cleave to the roof of their mouth who
forget Jerusalem now in her day; and the Lord remember Edom, and
render to him as he hath done to us.

Now, brother, I shall not weary you; but I entreat you to remember my
dearest love to Mr. David Dickson, with whom I have small acquaintance;
yet I bless the Lord, I know that he both prayeth and doeth for our dying
kirk. Remember my dearest love to John Stuart, whom I love in Christ;
and show him from me that I do always remember him, and hope for a
meeting. The Lord Jesus establish him more and more, though he be
already a strong man in Christ. Remember my heartiest affection in
Christ to William Rodger, whom I also remember to God. I wish that the
first news I hear of him and you, and all that love our common Saviour in
those bounds, may be, that they are so knit and linked, and kindly
fastened in love with the Son of God, that ye may say, "Now if ye would
ever so fain escape out of Christ's hands, yet love hath so bound us, that
we cannot get our hands free again; He hath so ravished our hearts, that
there is no loosening of His grips; the chains of His soul-ravishing love
are so strong, that neither the grave nor death will break them." I hope,
brother, yea I doubt not of it, that ye lay me, and my first entry to the
Lord's vineyard, and my flock, before Him who hath put me into His
work. As the Lord knoweth, since first I saw you, I have been mindful of
you. Marion M'Naught doth remember most heartily her love to you, and
to John Stuart. Blessed be the Lord! that in God's mercy I found in this
country such a woman, to whom Jesus is dearer than her own heart,
when there be so many that cast Christ over their shoulder. Good brother,
call to mind the memory of your worthy father, now asleep in Christ; and,
as his custom was, pray continually, and wrestle, for the life of a dying,
breathless kirk. And desire John Stuart not to forget poor Zion; she hath
few friends, and few to speak one good word for her.

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,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632.

XXIII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(EXHORTING TO REMEMBER HER ESPOUSAL TO CHRIST—
TRIBULATION A PREPARATION FOR THE KINGDOM—GLORY IN
THE END.)

MADAM,—Your Ladyship will not (I know) weary nor offend, though I

trouble you with many letters. The memory of what obligations I am
under to your Ladyship, is the cause of it.

I am possibly impertinent in what I write, because of my ignorance of

your present estate; but for all that is said, I have learned of Mr. W. D.,
that ye have not changed upon, nor wearied of your sweet Master, Christ,
and His service; neither were it your part to change upon Him who
"resteth in His love." Ye are among honourable company, and such as
affect grandeur and court. But, Madam, thinking upon your estate, I
think I see an improvident wooer coming too late to seek a bride, because
she is contracted already, and promised away to another; and so the
wooer's busking and bravery (who cometh to you as "who but he?") are in
vain. The outward pomp of this busy wooer, a beguiling world, is now
coming in to suit2 your soul too late, when ye have promised away your
soul to Christ many years ago. And I know, Madam, what answer ye may
now justly make to the late suitor; even this: "Ye are too long of coming;
my soul, the bride, is away already, and the contract with Christ
subscribed, and I cannot choose, but I must be honest and faithful to
Him." Honourable lady, keep your first love, and hold the first match
with that soul-delighting, lovely Bridegroom, our sweet, sweet Jesus,
fairer than all the children of men, "the Rose of Sharon," and the fairest
and sweetest smelled rose in all His Father's garden. There is none like
Him; I would not exchange one smile of His lovely face with kingdoms.
Madam, let others take their silly, feckless heaven in this life. Envy them
not; but let your soul, like a tarrowing and mislearned child, take the
dorts (as we use to speak), or cast at all things and disdain them, except
one only: either Christ or nothing. Your well-beloved, Jesus, will be
content that ye be here devoutly proud, and ill to please, as one that
contemneth all husbands but Himself. Either the King's Son, or no
husband at all; this is humble, and worthy ambition. What have ye to do
to dally with a whorish and foolish world? Your jealous Husband will not
be content that ye look by Him to another: He will be jealous indeed, and
offended, if ye kiss another but Himself. What weights do burden you,
Madam, I know not; but think it great mercy that your Lord from your
youth hath been hedging in your outstraying affections, that they may not
go a-whoring from Himself. If ye were His bastard, He would not nurture
you so. If ye were for the slaughter, ye would be fattened. But be content;
ye are His wheat, growing in our Lord's field (Matt. 13:25, 38); and if
wheat, ye must go under our Lord's threshing-instrument, in His barn-
floor, and through His sieve (Amos 9:9), and through His mill to be
bruised (as the Prince of your salvation, Jesus, was) (Isa. 53:10), that ye
may be found good bread in your Lord's house. Lord Jesus, bless the
spiritual husbandry, and separate you from the chaff, that dow not bide
the wind. I am persuaded your glass is spending itself by little and little;
and if ye knew who is before you, ye would rejoice in your tribulations.
Think ye it a small honour to stand before the throne of God and the
Lamb? and to be clothed in white, and to be called to the marriage supper
of the Lamb? and to be led to the fountain of living waters, and to come to
the Well-head, even God Himself, and get your fill of the clear, cold,
sweet, refreshing water of life, the King's own well? and to put up your
own sinful hand to the tree of life and take down and eat the sweetest
apple in all God's heavenly paradise, Jesus Christ, your life and your
Lord? Up your heart! shout for joy! Your King is coming to fetch you to
His Father's house.

Madam, I am in exceeding great heaviness, God thinking it best for my

own soul thus to exercise me, thereby, it may be, to fit me to be His
mouth to others. I see and hear, at home and abroad, nothing but matter
of grief and discouragement, which indeed maketh my life bitter. And I
hope in God never to get my will in this world. And I expect ere long a
fiery trial upon the Church; for as many men almost in England and
Scotland, as many false friends to Christ, and as many pulling and
drawing to pull the crown off His holy head! and for fear that our Beloved
stay amongst us (as if His room were more desirable than Himself), men
are bidding Him go seek His lodging. Madam, if ye have a part in silly,
friendless Zion (as I know ye have), speak a word on her behalf to God
and man. If ye can do nothing else, speak for Jesus, and ye shall thereby
be a witness against this declining age. Now, from my very soul, laying
and leaving you on the Lord, and desiring a part in your prayers (as, my
Lord knoweth, I remember you), I deliver over your body, spirit, and all
your necessities, to the hands of our Lord, and remain for ever

Your Ladyship's, in your sweet Lord Jesus and mine,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Feb. 13, 1632.

XXIV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(CHRIST AND HIS GARDEN—PROVISION OF ORDINANCES IN THE
CHURCH—OUR CHILDREN.)

BELOVED MISTRESS,—My dearest love in Christ remembered to you.

Know that Mr. Abraham showed me there is to be a meeting of the
bishops at Edinburgh shortly. The causes are known to themselves. It is
our part to hold up our hands for Zion. Howbeit, it is reported, they came
sad from court. It is our Lord's wisdom, that His kirk should ever hang by
a thread; and yet the thread breaketh not, being hanged upon Him who is
the sure Nail in David's house (Isa. 22:23), upon whom all the vessels,
great and small, do hang; and the Nail (God be thanked) neither crooketh
nor can be broken. Jesus, that Flower of Jesse set without hands, getteth
many a blast, and yet withers not, because He is His Father's noble Rose,
casting a sweet smell through heaven and earth, and must grow; and in
the same garden grow the saints, God's fair and beautiful lilies, under
wind and rain, and all sun-burned, and yet life remaineth at the root.
Keep within His garden, and you shall grow with them, till the Great
Husbandman, our dear Master Gardener, come and transplant you from
the lower part of His vineyard up to the higher, to the very heart of His
garden, above the wrongs of the rain, sun, or wind. And then, wait upon
the times of the blowing of the sweet south and north wind of His
gracious Spirit, that may make you cast a sweet smell in your Beloved's
nostrils; and bid your Beloved come down to His garden, and eat of His
pleasant fruits (Cant. 4:16). And He will come. You will get no more but
this until you come up to the Well-head, where you shall put up your
hand and take down the apples of the tree of life, and eat under the
shadow of that tree. These apples are sweeter up beside the tree than they
are down here in this piece of a clay prison-house. I have no joy but in the
thoughts of these times. Doubt not of your Lord's part and the spouse's
part; she shall be in good case. That word shall stand, "I shall be as the
dew to Israel: he shall grow up as the lily, and cast out his roots as
Lebanon. His branches shall spread, his beauty shall be as the olive tree,
and his smell as Lebanon" (Hosea 14:5, 6). Christ shall set up His colours,
and His ensign for the nations, and shall gather together the outcasts of
Israel (Isa. 11:12). "Then the Lord said to me, Son of man, these dead
bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are
dried, our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy
unto them, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will
open your graves, and cause you come up out of your graves, and bring
you into the land of Israel" (Ezek. 37:11, 12). These promises are not
wind, but the breast of our beloved Christ, which we must suck and draw
comfort out of. Ye have cause to pity those poor creatures that stand out
against Christ, and the building of His house. Silly men! they have but a
feckless and silly heaven, nothing but meat and cloth, and laugh a day or
two in the world, and then in a moment go down to the grave; and they
shall not be able to hinder Christ's building. He that is Master of work
will lead stones to the wall over their belly.
And for that present tumult that the children of this world raise anent the
planting of your town with a pastor, believe and stay upon God, as you
still shame us all in believing. Go forward in the strength of the Lord; and
I say from my Lord, before whom I stand, have your eyes upon none but
the Lord of armies, and the Lord shall either let you see what you long to
see, or then else fulfil your joy more abundantly another way. You and
yours, and the children of God whom you care for in this town, shall have
as much of the Son of God's supper cut and laid upon your trenchers, be
who he will that carveth, as shall feed you to eternal life. And be not cast
down for all that is done: your reward is laid up with God. I hope to see
you laugh and leap for joy. Will the temple be built without din and
tumult? No; God's stones in His house in Germany are laid with blood;
and the Son of God no sooner begins to chop and hew stones with His
hammer, but as soon the sword is drawn. If the work were of men, the
world would set their shoulders to yours; but, in Christ's work, two or
three must fight against a Presbytery (though His own court) and a city.
This proveth that it is Christ's errand, and therefore that it shall thrive.
Let them lay iron chains cross over the door,—stay, and believe, and wait,
whill the Lion of the tribe of Judah come. And He that comes from
heaven clothed with the rainbow, and hath the little book in His hand,
when He taketh a grip of their chains, He will lay the door on the
broadside, and come in, and go up to the pulpit, and take the man with
Him whom He hath chosen for His work. Therefore, let me hear from
you, whether you be in heaviness, or rejoicing under hope, that I may
take part of your grief, and bear it with you, and get part of your joy,
which is to me also as my own joy.

And as to what are your fears anent the health or life of your dear
children, lay it upon Christ's shoulders: let Him bear all. Loose your grips
of them all; and when your dear Lord pulleth, let them go with faith and
joy. It is a tried faith to kiss a Lord that is taking from you. Let them be
careful, during the short time that they are here, to run and get a grip of
the prize. Christ is standing in the end of their way, holding up the
garland of endless glory to their eyes, and is crying, "Run fast, and come
and receive." Happy are they (if their breath serve them) to run and not
to weary, whill their Lord, with His own dear hand, puts the crown upon
their head. It is not long days, but good days, that make life glorious and
happy; and our dear Lord is gracious to us, who shorteneth and hath
made the way to glory shorter than it was; so that the crown that Noah
did fight for five hundred years, children may now obtain it in fifteen
years. And heaven is in some sort better for us now than it was to Noah,
for the man Christ is there now, who was not come in the flesh in Noah's
days. You shall show this to your children, whom my soul in Christ
blesseth, and entreat them by the mercies of God, and the bowels of Jesus
Christ, to covenant with Jesus Christ to be His, and to make up the bond
of friendship betwixt their souls and their Christ, that they may have
acquaintance in heaven, and a friend at God's right hand. Such a friend at
court is much worth.

Now I take my leave of you, praying my Christ and your Christ to fulfil
your joy; and more graces and blessings from our sweet Lord Jesus to
your soul, your husband's and children, than ever I wrote of the letters of
A, B, C, to you. Grace, grace be with you.

Yours in my sweet Master, Jesus Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, March 9, 1632.

XXV.—To a Gentlewoman at Kirkcudbright,

excusing himself from visiting
MISTRESS,—I beseech you to have me excused if the daily employments
of my calling shall hinder me to see you according as I would wish; for I
dare not go abroad, since many of my people are sick, and the time of our
Communion draweth near. But frequent the company of your worthy and
honest-hearted pastor, Mr. Robert (Glendinning), to whom the Lord hath
given the tongue of the learned, to minister a word in season to the weary.
Remember me to him and to your husband. The Lord Jesus be with your
spirit. Your affectionate friend,

S. R.

XXVI.—For MARION M'NAUGHT, after her

dangerous illness
(USE OF SICKNESS—REPROACHES—CHRIST OUR ETERNAL FEAST
—FASTING.)

DEARLY BELOVED MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. You

are not ignorant what our Lord in His love-visitation hath been doing
with your soul, even letting you see a little sight of that dark trance you
must go through ere you come to glory. Your life hath been near the
grave, and you were at the door, and you found the door shut and fast:
your dear Christ thinking it not time to open these gates to you till you
have fought some longer in His camp. And therefore He willeth you to
put on your armour again, and to take no truce with the devil or this
present world. You are little obliged to any of the two; but I rejoice in this,
that when any of the two comes to suit your soul in marriage, you have an
answer in readiness to tell them,—"You are too long a-coming; I have
many a year since promised my soul to another, even to my dearest Lord
Jesus, to whom I must be true." And therefore you are come back to us
again to help us to pray for Christ's fair bride, a marrow dear to Him.

Be not cast down in heart to hear that the world barketh at Christ's
strangers, both in Ireland and in this land; they do it because their Lord
hath chosen them out of this world. And this is one of our Lord's
reproaches, to be hated and ill-entreated by men. The silly stranger, in an
uncouth country, must take with a smoky inn and coarse cheer, a hard
bed, and a barking, ill-tongued host. It is not long to the day, and he will
to his journey upon the morrow, and leave them all. Indeed, our fair
morning is at hand, the day-star is near the rising, and we are not many
miles from home. What matters ill entertainment in the smoky inns of
this miserable life? We are not to stay here, and we will be dearly
welcome to Him whom we go to. And I hope, when I shall see you clothed
in white raiment, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and shall see you even
at the elbow of your dearest Lord and Redeemer, and a crown upon your
head, and following our Lamb and lovely Lord whithersoever He goeth,—
you will think nothing of all these days; and you shall then rejoice, and no
man shall take your joy from you. It is certain there is not much sand to
run in your Lord's sand-glass, and that day is at hand; and till then your
Lord in this life is giving you some little feasts.

It is true, you see Him not now as you shall see Him then. Your well-
beloved standeth now behind the wall looking out at the window (Cant.
2:9), and you see but a little of His face. Then, you shall see all His face
and all the Saviour,—a long, and high, and broad Lord Jesus, the loveliest
person among the children of men. O joy of joys, that our souls know
there is such a great supper preparing for us even! Howbeit we be but
half-hungered of Christ here, and many a time dine behind noon, yet the
supper of the Lamb will come in time, and will be set before us before we
famish and lose our stomachs. You have cause to hold up your heart in
remembrance and hope of that fair, long summer day; for in this night of
your life, wherein you are in the body absent from the Lord, Christ's fair
moonlight in His word and sacraments, in prayer, feeling, and holy
conference, hath shined upon you, to let you see the way to the city. I
confess our diet here is but sparing; we get but tastings of our Lord's
comforts; but the cause of that is not because our Steward, Jesus, is a
niggard, and narrow-hearted, but because our stomachs are weak, and we
are narrow-hearted. But the great feast is coming, and the chambers of
them made fair and wide to take in the great Lord Jesus. Come in, then,
Lord Jesus, to hungry souls gaping for thee! In this journey take the
Bridegroom as you may have Him, and be greedy of His smallest crumbs;
but, dear Mistress, buy none of Christ's delicates-spiritual with sin, or
fasting against your weak body. Remember you are in the body, and it is
the lodging-house; and you may not, without offending the Lord, suffer
the old walls of that house to fall down through want of necessary food.
Your body is the dwelling-house of the Spirit; and therefore, for the love
you carry to the sweet Guest, give a due regard to His house of clay. When
He looseth the wall, why not? Welcome Lord Jesus! But it is a fearful sin
in us, by hurting the body by fasting, to loose one stone or the least piece
of timber in it, for the house is not our own. The Bridegroom is with you
yet; so fast as that also you may feast and rejoice in Him. I think upon
your magistrates; but He that is clothed in linen, and hath the writer's
inkhorn by His side, hath written up their names in heaven already. Pray
and be content with His will; God hath a council-house in heaven, and the
end will be mercy unto you. For the planting of your town with a godly
minister, have your eye upon the Lord of the harvest. I dare promise you,
God in this life shall fill your soul with the fatness of His house, for your
care to see Christ's bairns fed. And your posterity shall know it, to whom I
pray for mercy, and that they may get a name amongst the living in
Jerusalem; and if God portion them with His bairns, their rent is fair, and
I hope it shall be so. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours ever in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Sept. 19, 1632.

XXVII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(LOVE TO CHRIST AND SUBMISSION TO HIS CROSS—BELIEVERS
KEPT—THE HEAVENLY PARADISE.)

MADAM,—Having saluted you with grace and mercy from God our
Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, I long both to see your Ladyship,
and to hear how it goeth with you.

I do remember you, and present you and your necessities to Him who is
able to keep you, and present you blameless before His face with joy; and
my prayer to our Lord is, that ye may be sick of love for Him, who died of
love for you,—I mean your Saviour Jesus. And O sweet were that sickness
to be soul-sick for Him! And a living death it were, to die in the fire of the
love of that soul-lover, Jesus! And, Madam, if ye love Him, ye will keep
His commandments; and this is not one of the least, to lay your neck
cheerfully and willingly under the yoke of Jesus Christ. For I trust your
Ladyship did first contract and bargain with the Son of God to follow Him
upon these terms, that by His grace ye should endure hardship, and
suffer affliction, as the soldier of Christ. They are not worthy of Jesus who
will not take a blow for their Master's sake. As for our glorious Peace-
maker, when He came to make up the friendship betwixt God and us,
God bruised Him, and struck Him; the sinful world also did beat Him,
and crucify Him, yet He took buffets of both parties, and (honour to our
Lord Jesus!) He would not leave the field for all that, till He had made
peace betwixt the parties. I persuade myself your sufferings are but like
your Saviour's (yea, incomparably less and lighter), which are called but a
"bruising of His heel" (Gen. 3:15); a wound far from the heart. Your life is
hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), and therefore ye cannot be robbed of it.
Our Lord handleth us, as fathers do their young children; they lay up
jewels in a place, above the reach of the short arm of bairns, else bairns
would put up their hands and take them down, and lose them soon. So
hath our Lord done with our spiritual life. Jesus Christ is the high coffer
in the which our Lord hath hid our life; we children are not able to reach
up our arm so high as to take down that life and lose it; it is in our Christ's
hand. O long, long may Jesus be Lord Keeper of our life! and happy are
they that can, with the Apostle (2 Tim. 1:12), lay their soul in pawn in the
hand of Jesus, for He is able to keep that which is committed in pawn to
Him against that day. Then, Madam, so long as this life is not hurt, all
other troubles are but touches in the heel. I trust ye will soon be cured. Ye
know, Madam, kings have some servants in their court that receive not
present wages in their hand, but live upon their hopes: the King of kings
also hath servants in His court that for the present get little or nothing
but the heavy cross of Christ, troubles without and terrors within; but
they live upon hope; and when it cometh to the parting of the inheritance,
they remain in the house as heirs. It is better to be so than to get present
payment, and a portion in this life, an inheritance in this world (God
forgive me, that I should honour it with the name of an inheritance, it is
rather a farm-room!), and then in the end to be casten out of God's house,
with this word, "Ye have received your consolation, ye will get no more."
Alas! what get they? The rich glutton's heaven (Luke 16:25). O but our
Lord maketh it a silly heaven! "He fared well," saith our Lord, "and
delicately every day." O no more? a silly heaven! Truly no more, except
that he was clothed in purple, and that is all. I persuade myself, Madam,
ye have joy when ye think that your Lord hath dealt more graciously with
your soul. Ye have gotten little in this life, it is true indeed: ye have then
the more to crave, yea, ye have all to crave; for, except some tastings of
the first fruits, and some kisses of His mouth whom your soul loveth, ye
get no more. But I cannot tell you what is to come. Yet I may speak as our
Lord doth of it. The foundation of the city is pure gold, clear as crystal;
the twelve ports are set with precious stones; if orchards and rivers
commend a soil upon earth, there is a paradise there, wherein groweth
the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every month, which is
seven score and four harvests in the year; and there is there a pure river
of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; and
the city hath no need of the light of the sun or moon, or of a candle, for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is the light thereof. Madam, believe
and hope for this, till ye see and enjoy. Jesus is saying in the Gospel,
Come and see; and He is come down in the chariot of truth, wherein He
rideth through the world, to conquer's men's souls (Ps. 45:4), and is now
in the world saying, "Who will go with Me? will ye go? My Father will
make you welcome, and give you house-room; for in My Father's house
are many dwelling-places." Madam, consent to go with Him. Thus I rest,
commending you to God's dearest mercy.

Yours in the Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XXVIII.—To my LADY KENMURE, after the

death of a child
(THE STATE OF THE CHURCH, CAUSE FOR GOD'S DISPLEASURE—
HIS CARE OF HIS CHURCH—THE JEWS—AFFLICTED SAINTS.)

MADAM,—I am afraid now (as many others are) that, at the sitting down
of our Parliament, our Lord Jesus and His spouse shall be roughly
handled. And it must be so, since false and declining Scotland, whom our
Lord took off the dunghill and out of hell, and made a fair bride to
Himself, hath broken her faith to her sweet Husband, and hath put on the
forehead of a whore. And therefore He saith He will remove. Would God
we could stir up ourselves to lay hold upon Him, who, being highly
provoked with the handling He hath met with, is ready to depart! Alas!
we do not importune Him by prayer and supplication to abide amongst
us! If we could but weep upon Him, and in the holy pertinacity of faith
wrestle with Him, and say, "We will not let Thee go," it may be that then,
He, who is easy to be intreated, would yet, notwithstanding of our high
provocations, condescend to stay and feed among the lilies, till that fair
and desirable day break, and the shadows flee away. Ah! what cause of
mourning is there, when our gold is become dim, and the visage of our
Nazarites, sometime whiter than snow, is now become blacker than a
coal, and Levi's house, once comparable to fine gold, is now changed, and
become like vessels in whom He hath no pleasure! Madam, think upon
this, that when our Lord, who hath His handkerchief to wipe the face of
the mourners in Zion, shall come to wipe away all tears from their eyes,
He may wipe yours also, in the passing, amongst others. I am confident,
Madam, that our Lord will yet build a new house to Himself, of our
rejected and scattered stones, for our Bridegroom cannot want a wife.
Can He live a widower? Nay, He will embrace both us, the little young
sister, and the elder sister, the Church of the Jews; and there will yet be a
day of it. And therefore we have cause to rejoice, yea, to sing and shout
for joy. The Church hath been, since the world began, ever hanging by a
small thread, and all the hands of hell and of the wicked have been
drawing at the thread. But, God be thanked, they only break their arms by
pulling, but the thread is not broken; for the sweet fingers of Christ our
Lord have spun and twisted it. Lord, hold the thread whole!

Madam, stir up your husband to lay hold upon the covenant, and to do
good. What hath he to do with the world? It is not his inheritance. Desire
him to make home-over, and put to his hand to lay one stone or two upon
the wall of God's house before he go hence. I have heard also, Madam,
that your child is removed; but to have or want is best, as He pleaseth.
Whether she be with you, or in God's keeping, think it all one; nay, think
it the better of the two by far that she is with Him. I trust in our Lord that
there is something laid up and kept for you; for our kind Lord, who hath
wounded you, will not be so cruel as not to allay the pain of your green
wound; and, therefore, claim Christ still as your own, and own Him as
your One thing. So resting, I recommend your Ladyship, your soul and
spirit, in pawn to Him who keepeth His Father's pawns, and will make an
account of them faithfully, even to that fairest amongst the sons of men,
our sweet Lord Jesus, the fairest, the sweetest, the most delicious Rose of
all His Father's great field. The smell of that Rose perfume your soul!

Your Ladyship's, in his sweetest Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, April 1, 1633.

XXIX.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(CHRIST WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION—
PRAYER.)

DEAR SISTER,—I longed much to have conferred with you at this time. I
am grieved at anything in your house that grieveth you; and shall, by my
Lord's grace, suit my Lord to help you to bear your burden, and to come
in behind you, and give you and your burdens a put up the mountain.
Know you not that Christ wooeth His wife in the furnace? "Behold, I have
refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction" (Isa. 48:10). He casteth His love on you when you are in the
furnace of affliction. You might indeed be casten down if He brought you
in and left you there; but when He leadeth you through the waters, think
ye not that He has a sweet, soft hand? You know His love-grip already;
you shall be delivered, wait on. Jesus will make a road, and come and
fetch home the captive. You shall not die in prison; but your strokes are
such as were your Husband's, who was wounded in the house of His
friends. Strokes are not newings to Him, and neither are they to you. But
your winter night is near spent; it is near-hand the dawning. I will see you
leap for joy. The kirk shall be delivered. This wilderness shall bud and
grow up like a rose. Christ got a charter of Scotland from His Father; and
who will bereave Him of His heritage, or put our Redeemer out of His
mailing, until His tack be run out? I must have you praying for me: I am
black shamed for evermore now with Christ's goodness; and in private,
on the 17th and 18th of August, I got a full answer of my Lord to be a
graced minister, and a chosen arrow hidden in His own quiver. But know
this, assurance is not keeped but by watching and prayer; and, therefore,
dear mistress, help me. I have gotten now (honour to my Lord!) the gate
to open the slote, and shut the bar of His door; and I think it easy to get
anything from the King by prayer, and to use holy violence with Him.
Christ was in Carsphairne kirk, and opened the people's hearts
wonderfully. Jesus is looking up that water; and minting to dwell
amongst them. I would we could give Him His welcome home to the
moors. Now peace and grace be upon you and all yours.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Aug. 20, 1633.

XXX.—To my LADY KENMURE

(RANK AND PROSPERITY HINDER PROGRESS—WATCHFULNESS—
CASE OF RELATIVES.)

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, my 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 hath 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 hath the more need to look to yourself, because our Lord
hath 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 thorns, the
cumbersome world, but also through these dangerous paths, the vain-
glory of it; the consideration whereof hath 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
alongst 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 (Cant. 5:10). 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. This world is not worthy of
your soul. Give it not a good-day when Christ cometh in competition with
it. Be like one of another country. Home! and stay not; for the sun is
fallen low, and nigh the tops of the mountains, and the shadows are
stretched out in great length. Linger not by the way. The world and sin
would train you on, and make you turn aside. Leave not the way for them;
and the Lord Jesus be at the voyage!

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 keep 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 honourable 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 knoweth 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.

Madam, think ye have no child. Subscribe a bond to your Lord that she
shall be His if He take her; and thanks, and praise, and glory to His holy
name shall be the interest for a year's loan of her. 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 sweet Lord Jesus, in
whom I am,
Your Ladyship's, at all dutiful obedience in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Nov. 15, 1633.

XXXI.—To my LADY KENMURE

(A UNION FOR PRAYER RECOMMENDED)

MADAM,—Having received a letter from some of the worthiest of the

ministry in this kingdom, the contents whereof I am desired to
communicate to such professors in these parts as I know love the beauty
of Zion, and are afflicted to see the Lord's vineyard trodden under foot by
the wild boars out of the wood, who lay it waste, I could not but also
desire your Ladyship's help to join with the rest, desiring you to impart it
to my Lord your husband, and if ye think it needful, I shall write to his
Lordship, as Mr. G. G. shall advertise me.

Know, therefore, that the best affected of the ministry have thought it
convenient and necessary, at such a time as this, that all who love the
truth should join their prayers together, and cry to God with humiliation
and fasting. The times, which are agreed upon, are the two first Sabbaths
of February next, and the six days intervening betwixt these Sabbaths, as
they may conveniently be had, and the first Sabbath of every quarter. And
the causes, as they are written to me, are these:

1. Besides the distresses of the Reformed churches abroad, the many

reigning sins of uncleanness, ungodliness, and unrighteousness in this
land, the present judgments on the land, and many more hanging over
us, whereof few are sensible, or yet know the right and true cause of
them.

2. The lamentable and pitiful estate of a glorious church (in so short a

time, against so many bonds), in doctrine, sacrament, and discipline, so
sore persecuted, in the persons of faithful pastors and professors, and the
door of God's house kept so straight by bastard porters, insomuch that
worthy instruments, able for the work, are held at the door, the rulers
having turned over religion into policy, and the multitude ready to receive
any religion that shall be enjoined by authority.

3. In our humiliation, besides that we are under a necessity of

deprecating God's wrath, and vowing to God sincerely new obedience, the
weakness, coldness, silence, and lukewarmness of some of the best of the
ministry, and the deadness of professors, who have suffered the truth
both secretly to be stolen away, and openly to be plucked from us, would
be confessed.

4. Atheism, idolatry, profanity, and vanity, should be confessed; our

king's heart recommended to God; and God intreated, that He would stir
up the nobles and the people to turn from their evil ways.

Thus, Madam, hoping that your Ladyship will join with others, that such
a work be not slighted, at such a necessary time, when our kirk is at the
overturning, I will promise to myself your help, as the Lord in secrecy and
prudence shall enable you, that your Ladyship may rejoice with the Lord's
people, when deliverance shall come; for true and sincere humiliation
come always speed with God. And when authority, king, court, and
churchmen oppose the truth, what other armour have we but prayer and
faith? whereby, if we wrestle with Him, there is ground to hope that those
who would remove the burdensome stone (Zech. 12:3) out of its place,
shall but hurt their back, and the stone shall not be moved, at least not
removed.

Grace, grace be with you, from Him who hath called you to the
inheritance of the saints in light.

Your Ladyship's at all submissive obedience in his sweet Lord Jesus.

S. R.

ANWOTH, Jan. 23, 1634.

 XXXII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT
(STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH—SATAN.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. I am in care and fear for

this work of our Lord's, now near approaching, because of the danger of
the time; and I dare not for my soul be silent, to see my Lord's house
burning, and not cry "Fire, fire!" Therefore, seek from our Lord wisdom
spiritual, and not black policy, to speak with liberty our Lord's truth.—I
am cast down, and would fain have access and presence to The King that
day, even howbeit I should break up iron doors. I believe you will not
forget me; and you will desire Jean Brown, Thomas Carson, and Marion
Carson, to help me. Pray for well-cooked meat and a heartsome Saviour,
with joy crying, "Welcome in My Father's name."

I am confident Zion shall be well; the Bush shall burn and not consume,
for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush. But the Lord is making on
a fire in Jerusalem, and purposeth to blow the bellows, and to melt the tin
and brass, and bring out a fair beautiful bride out of the furnace, that will
be married over again upon the new Husband, and sing as in the days of
her youth, when the contract of marriage is written over again. But I fear
the bride be hidden for a time from the dragon that pursueth the woman
with child. But what, howbeit we go and lurk in the wilderness for a time?
for the Lord will take His kirk to the wilderness and speak to her heart.

Nothing casteth me down, but only I fear the Lord will cast down the
shepherd's tents, and feed his own in a secret place. But let us, however
matters frame, cast over the affairs of the bride upon the Bridegroom; the
government is upon His shoulders, and He dow bear us all well enough.
That fallen star, the prince of the bottomless pit, knoweth it is near the
time when he shall be tormented; and now in his evening he has gathered
his armies, to win one battle or two, in the edge of the evening, at the sun
going down. And when our Lord has been watering His vineyards in
France, and Germany, and Bohemia, how can we think ourselves Christ's
sister, if we be not like Him, and our other great sisters? I cannot but
think, seeing the ends of the earth are given to Christ (Psa. 2:8), and
Scotland is the end of the earth, and so we are in Christ's charter-tailzie,
but our Lord will keep His possession. We fall by promise and law to
Christ. He won us with the sweat of His brow, if I may say so; His Father
promised Him His liferent of Scotland. Glory, glory to our King! long may
He wear His crown. O Lord, let us never see another King! O let Him
come down like rain upon the new-mown grass!

I had you in remembrance on Saturday in the morning last, in a great

measure, and was brought, thrice on end, in remembrance of you in my
prayer to God. Grace, grace be your portion.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, March 2, 1634.

XXXIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(IN PROSPECT OF A COMMUNION SEASON.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. Please you understand, to

my grief, our Communion is delayed till Sabbath come eight days; the
laird and lady hath earnestly desired me to delay it, because the laird is
sick, and he fears he be not able to travel, because he has lately taken
physic. The Lord bless that work. Commend it to God as you love me, for
I love not Satan's thorns cast in the Lord's way. The Lord rebuke him. I
trust in God's mercy, Satan has gotten but a delay, but no free discharge
that his kingdom shall not be hurt. Commend the laird to your God. I
pray you advertise your people, that they be not disappointed in coming
here. Show such of them as you love in Christ, from me, that Jesus Christ
will be welcome, when He comes, in that He has sharpened their desires
for eight days space. Your daughter is well, I hope, every way. Forget not
God's kirk; they are but bastards, and not sons and daughters, that
mourn not for Zion. Lord hear us! No further. Jesus Christ be with your
spirit. I shall remember you and your new house. Lord Jesus go from the
one house to the other.

Yours at all power in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XXXIV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH—CHRIST'S CARE FOR THE
CHILDREN OF BELIEVERS.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—My old and dearest love in Christ

remembered. Know that I have been visiting my Lady Kenmure. Her
child is with the Lord. I entreat you, visit her, and desire the good-wife of
Barcapple to visit her, and Knockbrecks (Mr. Gordon), if you see him in
the town. My Lord her husband is absent, and I think she will be heavy.
You know what Mr. W. Dalgleish and I desired you to deal for, at my Lord
Kirkcud-bright's hand. Send me word if you obtained anything at my
Lord's hands, anent the giving up of our names to the High Commission;
for I hear it is not for nothing that the Bishop hath taken that course. Our
Lord knows best what is good for an old kirk that has fallen from her first
love, and hath forgotten her Husband days without number. A trial is like
to come on; but I am sure our Husbandman Christ shall lose chaff, but no
corn at all. Yet there is a dry wind coming, but neither to fan nor to purge.
Happy are they who are not blown away with the chaff, for we will but
suffer temptation for ten days; but those who are faithful to the death
shall receive the crown of life. I hear daily what hath been spoken of
myself, most unjustly and falsely; and no marvel, the dragon, with the
swing of his tail, hath made the third part of the stars to fall from heaven,
and the fallen stars would have many to fall with them. If ever Satan was
busy, now, when he knoweth his time is short, he is busy. "Yet a little
while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." I know, ere it
be long, the Lord shall come and redd all pleas betwixt us and our
enemies. Now welcome, Lord Jesus, go fast.

Send me word about Grizel, your daughter, whom I remember in Christ;

and desire her to cast herself in His arms who was born of a woman, and,
being the Ancient of days, was made a young weeping child. It was not for
nothing that our brother Jesus was an infant. It was that He might pity
infants of believers, who were to come out of the womb into the world. I
believe our Lord Jesus shall be waiting on, with mercy, mercy, mercy, to
the end of that battle, and bring her through with life and peace, and a
sign of God's favour. I will expect advertisement from you, and especially
if you fear her. Mistress, you remember that I said to you anent your love
to me and my brother, begun in Christ; you know we are here but
strangers, and you have not yet found us a dry well, as others have been.
Be not overcome of any suspicion. I trust in God that the Lord, who knit
us together, shall keep us together. It is time now that the lambs of Jesus
should all run together, when the wolf is barking at them; yet I know, ere
God's bairns want a cross, their love among themselves shall be a cross;
but our Lord giveth love for another end. I know you will, with love, cover
infirmities; and our Lord give you wisdom in all things. I think love hath
broad shoulders, and will bear many things, and yet neither faint nor
sweat, nor fall under the burden.

Commend me to your husband and dear Grizel. I think on her. Lord

Jesus be in the furnace with her, and then she will but smoke and not
burn. Desire Mr. Robert to excuse my not seeing of him at his house. I
have my own reasons therefor.2 Grace, mercy, and peace be with you.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, April 25, 1634.

 XXXV.—To my LADY KENMURE, on the
death of a child
(GOD MEASURES OUR DAYS—BEREAVEMENTS RIPEN US FOR THE
HARVEST.)

MADAM,—All submissive and dutiful obedience in our Lord Jesus

remembered. I trust I need not much entreat your Ladyship to look to
Him who hath stricken you at this time; but my duty, in the memory of
that comfort I found in your Ladyship's kindness, when I was no less
heavy (in a case not unlike that), speaketh to me to say something now.
And I wish I could ease your Ladyship, at least with words. I am
persuaded your Physician will not slay you, but purge you, seeing He
calleth Himself the Chirurgeon, who maketh the wound and bindeth it up
again; for to lance a wound is not to kill, but to cure the patient (Deut.
32:39). I believe faith will teach you to kiss a striking Lord; and so
acknowledge the sovereignty of God (in the death of a child) to be above
the power of us mortal men, who may pluck up a flower in the bud and
not be blamed for it. If our dear Lord pluck up one of His roses, and pull
down sour and green fruit before harvest, who can challenge Him? For
He sendeth us to His world, as men to a market, wherein some stay many
hours, and eat and drink, and buy and sell, and pass through the fair, till
they be weary; and such are those who live long, and get a heavy fill of
this life. And others again come slipping in to the morning market, and
do neither sit nor stand, nor buy nor sell, but look about them a little, and
pass presently home again; and these are infants and young ones, who
end their short market in the morning, and get but a short view of the
Fair. Our Lord, who hath numbered man's months, and set him bounds
that he cannot pass (Job 14:5), hath written the length of our market, and
it is easier to complain of the decree than to change it.

I verily believe, when I write this, your Lord hath taught your Ladyship to
lay your hand on your mouth. But I shall be far from desiring your
Ladyship, or any others, to cast by a cross, like an old useless bill that is
only for the fire; but rather would wish each cross were looked in the face
seven times, and were read over and over again. It is the messenger of the
Lord, and speaks something; and the man of understanding will hear the
rod, and Him that hath appointed it. Try what is the taste of the Lord's
cup, and drink with God's blessing, that ye may grow thereby. I trust in
God, whatever speech it utter to your soul, this is one word in it,
—"Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth" (Job 5:17); and that
it saith to you, "Ye are from home while here; ye are not of this world, as
your Redeemer, Christ, was not of this world." There is something
keeping for you, which is worth the having. All that is here is condemned
to die, to pass away like a snowball before a summer sun; and since death
took first possession of something of yours, it hath been and daily is
creeping nearer and nearer to yourself, howbeit with no noise of feet.
Your Husbandman and Lord hath lopped off some branches already; the
tree itself is to be transplanted to the high garden. In a good time be it.
Our Lord ripen your Ladyship. All these crosses (and indeed, when I
remember them, they are heavy and many,—peace, peace be the end of
them!) are to make you white and ripe for the Lord's harvest-hook. I have
seen the Lord weaning you from the breasts of this world. It was never
His mind it should be your patrimony; and God be thanked for that. Ye
look the liker one of the heirs. Let the movables go; why not? They are not
yours. Fasten your grips upon the heritage; and our Lord Jesus make the
charters sure, and give your Ladyship to grow as a palm-tree on God's
mount Zion; howbeit shaken with winds, yet the root is fast. This is all I
can do, to recommend your case to your Lord, who hath you written upon
the palms of His hand. If I were able to do more, your Ladyship may
believe me that gladly I would. I trust shortly to see your Ladyship. Now
He who hath called you confirm and stablish your heart in grace, unto the
Day of the Liberty of the Sons of God.

Your Ladyship's at all submissive obedience in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, April 29, 1634.

 XXXVI.—For MARION M'NAUGHT
(CHOICE OF COMMISSIONER FOR PARLIAMENT.)

WELL-BELOVED MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. I hear

this day your town is to choose a commissioner for the Parliament; and I
was written to from Edinburgh, to see that good men should be chosen in
your bounds. And I have heard this day that Robert Glendoning or John
Ewart look to be chosen. I beseech you see this be not. The Lord's cause
craveth other witnesses to speak for Him than such men; and, therefore,
let it not be said that Kirkcudbright, which is spoken of in this kingdom
for their religion, hath sent a man to be their mouth that will speak
against Christ. Such a time as this will not fall out once in half an age. I
would intreat your husband to take it upon him. It is an honourable and
necessary service for Christ; and shew him that I wrote unto you for that
effect. I fear William Glendoning hath not skill and authority. I am in
great heaviness. Pray for me, for we must take our life in our hand in this
ill time. Let us stir up ourselves, to lay our Lord's bride and her wrongs
before our Husband and Lord. Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, May 20.

XXXVII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(ON THE DEATH OF LORD KENMURE—DESIGNS OF AND DUTIES
OF AFFLICTION.)

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. 24:16), 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 hath made you a widow, that ye may be a free woman
for Christ, who is now suiting for marriage-love of you. And therefore,
since you lie alone in your bed, let Christ be as a bundle of myrrh, to sleep
and lie all the night betwixt your breasts (Cant. 1:13), and then your bed is
better filled than before. And seeing, amongst all crosses spoken of in our
Lord's Word, this giveth you a particular right to make God your
Husband (which was not so yours while your husband was alive), read
God's mercy out of this visitation; 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 honour and
truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. See and consider
then what ye have lost, and how little it is. Therefore, Madam, let me
intreat you, in the bowels of Christ Jesus, and by the comforts of His
Spirit, and your appearance before Him, let God, and men, and angels
now see what is in you. The Lord hath pierced the vessel; it will be known
whether there be in it wine or water. Let your faith and patience be seen,
that it may be known your only beloved first and last hath 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 hath
dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let
now that speat run upon Christ. Your Lord and lover hath graciously
taken out your husband's name and your name out of the summonses
that are raised at the instance of the terrible sin-revenging Judge of the
world against the house of the Kenmures. 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 propine you with a better
portion. Let the movables 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. What have
ye to do here? This world never looked like a friend upon you. Ye owe it
little love. It looked ever sour-like upon you. Howbeit ye should woo it, it
will not match with you; and therefore never seek warm fire under cold
ice. This is not a field where your happiness groweth; it is up above,
where there are a great multitude, which no man can number, of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands (Rev. 7:9). What ye could never get here ye shall find there. And
withal consider how in all these trials (and truly they have been many)
your Lord hath 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. Thus I
remain,

Your Ladyship's at all dutiful obedience in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1634.

XXXVIII.—To MARION M'NAUGHT

(CHRIST'S CARE OF HIS CHURCH, AND HIS JUDGMENTS ON HER
ENEMIES.)

MISTRESS,—My dearest love in Christ remembered. I entreat you charge

your soul to return to rest, and to glorify your dearest Lord in believing;
and know that for the good-will of Him that dwelleth in the bush, the
burning kirk shall not be consumed to ashes; but "Blessing shall come on
the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren" (Deut. 33:16). And are not the saints separate from
their brethren, and sold and hated? "For the archers have sorely grieved
Joseph, and shot at him and hated him; but his bow abode in strength,
and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty
God of Jacob" (Gen. 49:23, 24). From Him is the Shepherd and the Stone
of Israel. The Stone of Israel shall not be broken in pieces; it is hammered
upon by the children of this world, and we shall live and not die. Our
Lord hath done all this, to see if we will believe, and not give over; and I
am persuaded you must of necessity stick by your work. The eye of Christ
hath been upon all this business; and He taketh good heed to who is for
Him, and who is against Him. Let us do our part, as we would be
approved of Christ. The Son of God is near to His enemies. If they were
not deaf, they may hear the dinn of His feet; and He will come with a start
upon His weeping bairns, and take them on His knee, and lay their head
in His bosom, and dry their watery eyes. And this day is fast coming. "Yet
a little time, and the vision will speak, it will not tarry" (Hab. 2:3). These
questions betwixt us and our adversaries will all be decided in yonder
day, when the Son of God shall come, and redd all pleas; and it will be
seen whether we or they have been for Christ, and who have been
pleading for Baal. It is not known what we are now; but when our life
shall appear in glory, then we shall see who laughs fastest that day.
Therefore, we must possess our souls in patience, and go into our
chamber and rest, whill the indignation be past. We shall not weep long
when our Lord shall take us up, in the day that He gathereth His jewels.
"They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord
hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before
Him, for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon His name" (Mal.
3:16). I shall never be of another faith, but that our Lord is heating a
furnace for the enemies of His kirk in Scotland. It is true the spouse of
Christ hath played the harlot, and hath left her first Husband, and the
enemies think they offend not, for we have sinned against the Lord; but
they shall get the devil to their thanks. The rod shall be cast into the fire,
that we may sing as in the days of our youth. My dear friend, therefore,
lay down your head upon Christ's breast. Weep not; the Lion of the tribe
of Judah will arise. The sun is gone down upon the prophets, and our
gold is become dim, and the Lord feedeth His people with waters of gall
and wormwood; yet Christ standeth but behind the wall, His bowels are
moved for Scotland. He waiteth, as Isaiah saith, that He may show mercy.
If we could go home, and take our brethren with us, weeping with our
face towards Zion, asking the way thitherward, He would bring back our
captivity. We may not think that God has no care of His honour, while
men tread it under their feet; He will clothe Himself with vengeance, as
with a cloak, and appear against our enemies for our deliverance. Ye were
never yet beguiled, and God will not now begin with you. Wrestle still
with the angel of the covenant, and you shall get the blessing. Fight! He
delighteth to be overcome by wrestling.

Commend me to Grizel. Desire her to learn to know the adversaries of the

Lord, and to take them as her adversaries, and to learn to know the right
gate into the Son of God. O but acquaintance with the Son of God, to say,
"My Well-beloved is mine, and I am His," is a sweet and glorious course
of life, that none know but those who are sealed and marked in the
forehead with Christ's mark, and the new name, that Christ writeth upon
His own. Grace, grace, and mercy be with you.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Sept. 25, 1634.

XXXIX.—To my LADY KENMURE

(PREPARATION FOR DEATH AND ETERNITY.)
MADAM,—All dutiful obedience in our Lord remembered. I know ye are
now near one of those straits in which ye have been before. But because
your outward comforts are fewer, I pray Him whose ye are to supply what
ye want another way. For howbeit we cannot win to the bottom of His
wise providence, who ruleth all; yet it is certain this is not only good
which the Almighty hath done, but it is best. He hath reckoned all your
steps to heaven; and if your Ladyship were through this water, there are
the fewer behind; and if this were the last, I hope your Ladyship hath
learned by on-waiting to make your acquaintance with death, which
being to the Lord, the woman's seed, Jesus, only a bloody heel and not a
broken head (Gen. 3:15), cannot be ill to His friends, who get far less of
death than Himself. Therefore, Madam, seeing ye know not but the
journey is ended, and ye are come to the water-side, in God's wisdom
look all your papers and your counts, and whether ye be ready to receive
the kingdom of heaven as a little child, in whom there is little haughtiness
and much humility. I would be far from discouraging your Ladyship; but
there is an absolute necessity that, near eternity, we look ere we leap,
seeing no man winneth back again to mend his leap. I am confident your
Ladyship thinketh often upon it, and that your old Guide shall go before
you and take your hand. His love to you will not grow sour, nor wear out
of date, as the love of men, which groweth old and grey-haired often
before themselves. Ye have so much the more reason to love a better life
than this, because this world hath been to you a cold fire, with little heat
to the body, and as little light, and much smoke to hurt the eyes. But,
Madam, your Lord would have you thinking it but dry breasts, full of
wind and empty of food. In this late visitation that hath befallen your
Ladyship, ye have seen God's love and care, in such a measure that I
thought our Lord brake the sharp point off the cross, and made us and
your Ladyship see Christ take possession and infeftment upon earth, of
him who is now reigning and triumphing with the hundred forty and four
thousand who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion. I know the sweetest
of it is bitter to you; but your Lord will not give you painted crosses. He
pareth not all the bitterness from the cross, neither taketh He the sharp
edge quite from it; then it should be of your waling and not of His, which
should have as little reason in it as it should have profit for us. Only,
Madam, God commandeth you now to believe and cast anchor in the dark
night, and climb up the mountain. He who hath called you, establish you
and confirm you to the end.

I had a purpose to have visited your Ladyship; but when I thought better
upon it, the truth is, I cannot see what my company would profit you; and
this hath broken off my purpose, and no other thing. I know many
honourable friends and worthy professors will see your Ladyship, and
that the Son of God is with you, to whose love and mercy, from my soul, I
recommend your Ladyship, and remain,

Your Ladyship's at all dutiful obedience, in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Nov. 29, 1634.

 XL.—To my LADY KENMURE
(WHEN MR. RUTHERFORD HAD THE PROSPECT OF BEING
REMOVED FROM ANWOTH.)

MADAM,—My humble obedience in the Lord remembered. Know it hath

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 hath 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 honoured 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 Saviour did not so for me, who in His
suffering took the windy side of the hill. No farther; but the Son of God be
with you.

Your Ladyship's in the Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Dec. 5, 1634.

 XLI.—For MARION M'NAUGHT
(THE CHURCH'S TRIALS—COMFORT UNDER TEMPTATIONS—
DELIVERANCE—A MESSAGE TO THE YOUNG.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—My love in Christ remembered. I hear of

good news anent our kirk; but I fear that our King will not be resisted,
and therefore let us not be secure and careless. I do wonder if this kirk
come not through our Lord's fan, since there is so much chaff in it;
howbeit I persuade myself, the Son of God's wheat will not be blown
away. Let us be putting on God's armour, and be strong in the Lord. If the
devil and Zion's enemies strike a hole in that armour, let our Lord see to
that;—let us put it on, and stand. We have Jesus on our side; and they are
not worthy such a Captain, who would not take a blow at His back. We
are in sight of His colours; His banner over us is love; look up to that
white banner, and stand, I persuade you, in the Lord of victory.

My brother writeth to me of your heaviness, and of temptations that press

you sore. I am content it be so: you bear about with you the mark of the
Lord Jesus. So it was with the Lord's apostle, when he was to come with
the Gospel to Macedonia (2 Cor. 7:5): his flesh had no rest; he was
troubled on every side, and knew not what side to turn him unto; without
were fightings, and within were fears. In the great work of our
redemption, your lovely, beautiful, and glorious Friend and Well-beloved
Jesus, was brought to tears and strong cries; so as His face was wet with
tears and blood, arising from a holy fear and the weight of the curse. Take
a drink of the Son of God's cup, and love it the better that He drank of it
before you. There is no poison in it. I wonder many times that ever a child
of God should have a sad heart, considering what their Lord is preparing
for them.

Is your mind troubled anent that business that we have now in hand in
Edinburgh. I trust in my Lord, the Lord shall in the end give to you your
heart's desire; even howbeit the business frame not, the Lord shall feed
your soul, and all the hungry souls in that town. Therefore I request you
in the Lord, pray for a submissive will, and pray as your Lord Jesus bids
you, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." And let it be that your
faith be brangled with temptations, believe ye that there is a tree in our
Lord's garden that is not often shaken with wind from all the four airts?
Surely there is none. Rebuke your soul, as the Lord's prophet doth: "Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted within me?"
(Psalm 42:11). That was the word of a man who was at the very over-
going of the brae and mountain; but God held a grip of him. Swim
through your temptations and troubles to be at that lovely, amiable
person, Jesus, to whom your soul is dear. In your temptations run to the
promises: they be our Lord's branches hanging over the water, that our
Lord's silly, half-drowned children may take a grip of them; if you let that
grip go, you will fall to the ground. Are you troubled with the case of
God's kirk? Our Lord will evermore have her betwixt the sinking and the
swimming. He will have her going through a thousand deaths, and
through hell, as a cripple woman, halting, and wanting the power of her
one side (Micah 4:6, 7), that God may be her staff. That broken ship will
come to land, because Jesus is the pilot. Faint not; you shall see the
salvation of God,—else say, that God never spake His word by my mouth;
and I had rather never have been born, ere it were so with me. But my
Lord hath sealed me. I dare not deny I have also been in heaviness since I
came from you, fearing for my unthankfulness that I be deserted. But the
Lord will be kind to me, whether I will or not. I repose that much in His
rich grace, that He will be loath to change upon me. As you love me, pray
for me in this particular.

After advising with Carletoun, I have written to Mr. David Dickson anent
Mr. Hugh M'Kail, and desired him to write his mind to Carletoun, and
Carletoun to Edinburgh, that they may particularly remember Mr. Hugh
to the Lord; and I happened upon a convenient trusty bearer by God's
wonderful providence.

No further. I recommend you to the Lord's grace, and your husband and
children. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in the Lord,

S. R.
EDINBURGH, 1634.

P.S.—MISTRESS,—I had not time to give my advice to your daughter

Grizel; you shall carry my words therefore to her. Show her now, that in
respect of her tender age, she is in a manner as clean paper, ready to
receive either good or ill; and that it were a sweet and glorious thing for
her to give herself up to Christ, that He may write upon her His Father's
name, and His own new name. And desire her to acquaint herself with
the Book of God; the promises that our Lord writes upon His own, and
performeth in them and for them, are contained there. I persuade you,
when I think that she is in the company of such parents, and hath
occasion to learn Christ, I think Christ is wooing her soul; and I pray God
she may not refuse such a husband. And therefore I charge her, and
beseech her by the mercies of God, by the wounds and blood of Him who
died for her, by the word of truth, which she heareth, and can read, by the
coming of the Son of God to judge the world, that she would fulfil your
joy, and learn Christ, and walk in Christ. She shall think this the truth of
God many years after this; and I will promise to myself, in respect of the
beginnings that I have seen, that she shall give herself to Him that gave
Himself for her. Let her begin at prayer; for if she remember her Creator
in the days of her youth, He will claim kindness to her in her old age. It
shall be a part of my prayers, that this may be effectual in her, by Him
who is able to do exceeding abundantly, to whose grace again I
recommend you, and her, and all yours.

XLII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY—SPECIAL PORTIONS OF THE WORD
FOR THE AFFLICTED—CALL TO KIRKCUDBRIGHT.)

MADAM,—The cause of my not writing to your Ladyship was not my

forgetfulness of you, but the want of the opportunity of a convenient
bearer; for I am under more than a simple obligation to be kind (on
paper, at least) to your Ladyship. I bless our Lord, through Christ, who
hath brought you home again to your own country from that place, where
ye have seen with your eyes that which our Lord's truth taught you
before, to wit, that worldly glory is nothing but a vapour, a shadow, the
foam of the water, or something less and lighter, even nothing; and that
our Lord hath not without cause said in His Word, "The countenance," or
fashion, "of this world passeth away" (1 Cor. 7:31)—in which place our
Lord compareth it to an image in a looking-glass, for it is the looking-
glass of Adam's sons. Some come to the glass, and see in it the picture of
honour,—and but a picture indeed, for true honour is to be great in the
sight of God; and others see in it the shadow of riches,—and but a shadow
indeed, for durable riches stand as one of the maids of Wisdom upon her
left hand (Prov. 3:16); and a third sort see in it the face of painted
pleasures, and the beholders will not believe but the image they see in
this glass is a living man, till the Lord come and break the glass in pieces
and remove the face, and then, like Pharaoh awakened, they say, "And
behold it was a dream." I know your Ladyship thinketh yourself little in
the common of this world, for the favourable aspect of any of these three
painted faces; and blessed be our Lord that it is so. The better for you,
Madam; they are not worthy to be wooers, to suit in marriage your soul,
that look to no higher match than to be married upon painted clay. Know,
therefore, Madam, the place whither our Lord Jesus cometh to woo a
bride, it is even in the furnace: for if ye be one of Zion's daughters (which
I ever put beyond all question, since I first had occasion to see in your
Ladyship such pregnant evidences of the grace of God), the Lord, who
hath His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem (Isa. 31:9), is
purifying you in the furnace. And therefore be content to live in it, and
every day to be adding and sewing-to a pasment to your wedding
garment, that ye may be at last decored and trimmed as a bride for Christ,
a bride of His own busking, beautified in the hidden man of the heart.
"Forgetting your father's house, so shall the King greatly desire your
beauty" (Psalm 45:11). If your Ladyship be not changed (as I hope ye are
not), I believe ye esteem yourself to be of those whom God hath tried
these many years, and refined as silver. But, Madam, I will show your
Ladyship a privilege that others want, and ye have, in this case. Such as
are in prosperity, and are fatted with earthly joys, and increased with
children and friends, though the Word of God is indeed written to such
for their instruction, yet to you, who are in trouble (spare me, Madam, to
say this), from whom the Lord hath taken many children, and whom He
hath exercised otherwise, there are some chapters, some particular
promises in the Word of God, made in a most special manner, which
should never have been yours, so as they now are, if you had your portion
in this life, as others. And, therefore, all the comforts, promises, and
mercies God offereth to the afflicted, they are as so many love-letters
written to you. Take them to you, Madam, and claim your right, and be
not robbed. It is no small comfort, that God hath written some scriptures
to you, which He hath not written to others. Ye seem rather in this to be
envied than pitied; and ye are indeed in this, like people of another world,
and those that are above the ordinary rank of mankind, whom our King
and Lord, our Bridegroom Jesus, in His love-letter to His well-beloved
spouse, hath named beside all the rest. He hath written comforts and His
hearty commendations in the 54th of Isaiah, 4, 5; Psalm 147:2, 3, to you.
Read these and the like, and think your God is like a friend that sendeth a
letter to a whole house and family, but speaketh in His letter to some by
name, that are dearest to Him in the house. Ye are, then, Madam, of the
dearest friends of the Bridegroom. If it were lawful, I would envy you,
that God honoured you so above many of His dear children. Therefore,
Madam, your part is, in this case (seeing God taketh nothing from you
but that which He is to supply with His own presence), to desire your
Lord to know His own room, and take it even upon Him to come in, in the
room of dead children. "Jehovah, know Thy own place, and take it to
Thee," is all ye have to say.

Madam, I persuade myself that this world is to you an uncoinn; and that
ye are like a traveller, who hath his bundle upon his back, and his staff in
his hand, and his feet upon the door-threshold. Go forward, honourable
and elect lady, in the strength of your Lord (let the world bide at home
and keep the house), with your face toward Him, who longeth more for a
sight of you than ye can do for Him. Ere it be long, He will see us. I hope
to see you laugh as cheerfully after noon, as ye have mourned before
noon. The hand of the Lord, the hand of the Lord be with you in your
journey. What have ye to do here? This is not your mountain of rest.
Arise, then, and set your foot up the mountain; go up out of the
wilderness, leaning upon the shoulder of your Beloved (Song 8:5). If ye
knew the welcome that abideth you when ye come home, ye would hasten
your pace; for ye shall see your Lord put up His own holy hand to your
face, and wipe all tears from your eyes; and I trow, then ye shall have
some joy of heart.

Madam, paper willeth me to end before affection. Remember the estate of

Zion; pray that Jerusalem may be as Zechariah prophesied, "a
burdensome stone for all" (Zech. 12:3), that whosoever boweth down to
roll the stone out of the way, may hurt and break the joints of their back,
and strain their arms, and disjoint their shoulder-blades. And pray
Jehovah that the stone may lie still in its own place, and keep band with
the cornerstone. I hope it shall be so; He is a skilled Master-builder who
laid it.

I would, Madam, under great heaviness be refreshed with two lines from
your Ladyship, which I refer to your own wisdom. Madam, I would seem
undutiful not to show you, that great solicitation is made by the town of
Kirkcudbright for to have the use of my poor labours amongst them. If
the Lord shall call, and His people cry, who am I to resist? But without
His seen calling, and till the flock whom I now oversee be planted with
one to whom I dare intrust Christ's spouse, gold nor silver nor favour of
men, I hope, shall not loose me. I leave your Ladyship, praying more
earnestly for grace and mercy to be with you, and multiplied upon you,
here and hereafter, than my pen can express. The Lord Jesus be with your
spirit.

Your Ladyship's at all obedience in the Lord.

KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

XLIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(WHEN MR. RUTHERFORD WAS IN DIFFICULTY AS TO ACCEPTING
A CALL TO KIRKCUDBRIGHT, AND CRAMOND.)
MUCH HONOURED AND DEAR MISTRESS,—My love in Christ
remembered. I am grieved at the heart to write anything to you to breed
heaviness to you; and what I have written, I wrote with much heaviness.
But I entreat you in Christ's name, when my soul is under wrestlings, and
seeking direction from our Lord (to whom His vineyard belongeth)
whither I shall go, give me liberty to advise, and try all airts and paths, to
see whether He goeth before me and leadeth me. For if I were assured of
God's call to your town, let my arm fall from my shoulder-blade and lose
power, and my right eye be dried up (which is the judgment of the idol
shepherd) (Zech. 11:17), if I would not swim through the water without a
boat ere I sat His bidding. But if ye knew my doubtings and fears in that,
ye would suffer with me. Whether they be temptations or impediments
cast in by my God, I know not. But you have now cause to thank God; for
seeing the Bishop hath given you such a promise, he will give you an
honest man more willingly than he will permit me to come to you. And, as
I ever entreated you, put the business out of your hand in the Lord's
reverence; and try of Him, if ye have warrant of Him to seek no man in
the world but one only, when there are choice of good men to be had.
Howbeit they be too scarce, yet they are. And what God saith to me in the
business, I resolve by His grace to do; for I know not what He will do with
me. But God shall fill you with joy ere this business be ended; for I
persuade myself our Lord Jesus hath stirred you up already to do good in
the business, and ye shall not lose your reward.

I have heard your husband and Samuel have been sick. The man who is
called the Branch and God's fellow, who standeth before His Father, will
be your stay and help (Zech. 13:7). I would I were able to comfort your
soul. But have patience, and stand still; he that believeth maketh not
haste. This matter of Cramond, cast in at this time, is either a temptation,
having fallen out at this time; or then it will clear all my doubts, and let
you see the Lord's will. But I never knew my own part in the business till
now. I thought I was more willing to have embraced the charge in your
town, than I am, or am able to win to. I know ye pray that God would
resolve me what to do; and will interpret me, as love biddeth you, which
"thinketh not ill, and believeth all things, and hopeth all things." Would
ye have more than the Son of God? and ye have Him already. And ye shall
be fed by the carver of the meat, be he who he will; and those who are
hungry look more to the meat than to the carver.

I cannot see you the next week. If my lady come home, I must visit her.
The week thereafter will be a Presbytery at Girthon. God will dispose of
the meeting. Grace upon you, and your seed, and husband. The Lord
Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XLIV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(TROUBLES THREATENING THE CHURCH.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—My love in Jesus Christ remembered. Your

daughter is well, thanks be to God. I trust in Him ye shall have joy of her;
the Lord bless her. I am now presently going about catechising. The
bearer is in haste. Forget not poor Zion; and the Lord remember you, for
we shall be shortly winnowed. Jesus, pray for us, that our faith fail not! I
would wish to see you a Sabbath with us, and we shall stir up one
another, God willing, to seek the Lord; for it may be He hide Himself
from us ere it be long. Keep that which you have: ye will get more in
heaven. The Lord send us to the shore out of all the storms, with our silly
souls sound and whole with us; for if liberty of conscience come, as is
rumoured, the best of us will be put to our wits to seek how to be freed.
But we shall be like those who have their chamber to go in unto, spoken
of in Isaiah (Isa. 26:20). Read the place yourself, and keep you within
your house while the storm be passed. If you can learn a ditty against C.,
try, and cause try, that ye may see the Lord's righteous judgment upon
the devil's instruments. We are not much obliged to his kindness. I wish
all such wicked doers were cut off.
These in haste. I bless you in God's name, and all yours. Your daughter
desires a Bible and a gown. I hope she shall use the Bible well, which if
she do, the gown is the better bestowed. The Lord Jesus be with your
spirit.

Yours for ever in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XLV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(IN THE PROSPECT OF THE COMMUNION, AND OF TRIALS TO THE
CHURCH.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER IN CHRIST,—You shall understand I have

received a letter from Edinburgh, that it is suspected that there will be a
General Assembly, or then some meeting of the bishops; and that at this
synod there will be some commissioners chosen by the Bishop; which
news have so taken up my mind that I am not so settled for studies as I
have been before, and therefore was never in such fear for the work. But
because it is written to me as a secret, I dare not reveal it to any but to
yourself, whom I know. And therefore, I entreat you not for any comfort
of mine, who am but one man, but for the glory and honour of Jesus
Christ, the Master of the banquet, be more earnest with God; and, in
general, show others of your Christian acquaintance my fears for myself. I
can be content of shame in that work, if my Lord and Master be
honoured; and therefore petition our Lord especially to see to His own
glory, and to give bread to His hungry bairns, howbeit I go hungry away
from the feast. Request Mr. Robert from me, if he come not, to remember
us to our Lord.
I have neither time, nor a free disposed mind, to write to you anent your
own case. Send me word if all your children and your husband be well.
Seeing they are not yours, but your dear Lord's, esteem them but as
borrowed, and lay them down at God's feet. Your Christ to you is better
than they all. You will pardon my unaccustomed short letter; and
remember me and that honourable feast to our Lord Jesus. He was with
us before. I hope He will not change upon us; but I fear I have changed
upon Him. But, Lord, let old kindness stand. Jesus Christ be with your
spirit.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XLVI.—To MARION M'NAUGHT

(TOSSINGS OF SPIRIT—HER CHILDREN AND HUSBAND.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,—My tender affection in Christ

remembered. I left you in as great heaviness as I was in since I came to
this country; but I know you doubt not but that (as the truth is in Christ)
my soul is knit to your soul, and to the soul of all yours; and I would, if I
could, send you the largest part of my heart inclosed in this letter. But by
fervent calling upon my Lord, I have attained some victory over my heart,
which runneth often not knowing whither, and over my beguiling hopes,
which I know now better than I did. I trust in my Lord to hold aloof from
the enticings of a seducing heart, by which I am daily cosened; and I
mind not (by His grace who hath called me according to His eternal
purpose) to come so far within the grips of my foolish mind, gripping
about any folly coming its way as the woodbine or ivy goeth about the
tree.

I adore and kiss the providence of my Lord, who knoweth well what is
most expedient for me, and for you and your children; and I think of you
as of myself, that the Lord, who in His deep wisdom turneth about all the
wheels and turning of such changes, shall also dispose of that for the best
to you and yours. In the presence of my Lord, I am not able, howbeit I
would, to conceive amiss of you in that matter. Grace, grace for ever be
upon you and your seed, and it shall be your portion, in despite of all the
powers of darkness. Do not make more question of this. But the Lord saw
a nail in my heart loose, and He hath now fastened it. Honour be to His
Majesty.

I hear your son is entered to the school. If I had known of the day, I would
have begged from our Lord that He would have put the book in his hand
with His own hand. I trust in my Lord it is so; and I conceive a hope to
see him a star, to give light in some room of our Lord's house; and
purpose, by the Lord's grace, as I am able (if our Lord call you to rest
before me), when you are at your home, to do to the uttermost of my
power to help him every way in grace and learning, and his brothers, and
all your children. And I hope you would expect that of me.

Further, you shall know that Mr. W. D. is come home, who saith it is a
miracle that your husband, in this process before the Council, escaped
both discredit and damage. Let it not be forgotten he was, in our
apprehension, to our grief, cast down and humbled in the Lord's work, in
that matter betwixt him and the bailie: now the Lord hath honoured him,
and made him famous for virtue, honesty, and integrity, two several
times, before the nobles of this kingdom. Your Lord liveth. We will go to
His throne of grace again; His arm is not shortened.

The King is certainly expected. Ill is feared; we have cause for our sins to
fear that the Bridegroom shall be taken from us. By our sins we have rent
His fair garments, and we have stirred up and awakened our Beloved.
Pray Him to tarry, or then to take us with Him. It were good that we
should knock and rap at our Lord's door. We may not tire to knock
oftener than twice or thrice. He knoweth the knock of His friends.

I am still what I was ever to your dear children, tendering their soul's
happiness, and praying that grace, grace, grace, mercy, and peace from
God, even God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus, may be their
portion; and that now, while they are green and young, their hearts may
take band with Jesus, the Cornerstone: and win once in, in our Lord and
Saviour's house, and then they will not get leave to flit. Pray for me, and
especially for humility and thankfulness. I have always remembrance of
you, and your husband, and dear children. The Lord Jesus be with your
spirit.

Yours evermore in my dear Lord Jesus and yours,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XLVII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(SUBMISSION TO GOD'S ARRANGEMENTS.)

WORTHY AND BELOVED MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered.

I have sent you a letter from Mr. David Dick concerning the placing of
Mr. Hugh M'Kail with themselves; therefore I write to you now only to
entreat you in Christ not to be discouraged thereat. Be submissive to the
will of your dear Lord, who knoweth best what is good for your soul and
your town both; for God can come over greater mountains than these, we
believe; for He worketh His greatest works contrary to carnal reason and
means. "My ways are not," saith our Lord, "as your ways; neither are my
thoughts as your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8). I am no whit put from my belief
for all that. Believe, pray, and use means. We shall cause Mr. John Kerr,
who conveyed myself to Lochinvar, to use means to seek a man, if Mr.
Hugh fail us. Our Lord has a little bride among you, and I trust He will
send one to woo her to our sweet Lord Jesus. He will not want His wife
for the suiting, and He has means in abundance in His hand to open all
the slots and bars that Satan draws over the door. He cometh to His bride
leaping over the mountains, and skipping over the hills. His way to His
spouse is full of stones, mountains, and waters, yet He putteth in His foot
and wadeth through. He will not want her; and therefore refresh me with
two words concerning your confidence and courage in our Lord, both
about that, and about His own Zion; for He wooeth His wife in the
Burning Bush; and for "the good-will of Him that dwelleth in the Bush,"
the bush is not consumed. It is better to weep with Jerusalem in the
forenoon, than to weep with Babel after noon, in the end of the day. Our
day of laughter and rejoicing is coming. Yet a little while, and ye shall see
the salvation of God. I long to see you, and to hear how your children are,
especially Samuel. Grace be their heritage and portion from the Lord, and
the Lord be their lot, and then their inheritance shall please them well.
Remember my love to your husband. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in his sweetest Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

XLVIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(TROUBLES FROM FALSE BRETHREN—OCCURRENCES—CHRIST'S
COMING—INTERCESSION.)

WELL-BELOVED SISTER,—I know you have heard of the success of our

business in Edinburgh. I do every Presbytery day see the faces of my
brethren smiling upon me, but their tongues convey reproaches and lies
of me a hundred miles off, and have made me odious to the Bishop of St.
Andrews, who said to Mr. W. Dalgleish that ministers in Galloway were
his informers. Whereupon no letter of favour could be procured from him
for effectuating of our business; only I am brought in the mouths of men,
who otherwise knew me not, and have power (if God shall permit) to
harm me. Yet I entreat you, in the bowels of Christ Jesus, be not cast
down. I fear your sorrow exceed because of this; and I am not so careful
for myself in the matter as for you. Take courage;—your dearest Lord will
light your candle, which the wicked would fain blow out; and, as sure as
our Lord liveth, your soul shall find joy and comfort in this business.
Howbeit you see all the hounds in hell let loose to mar it, their iron chains
to our dear and mighty Lord are but straws, which He can easily break.
Let not this temptation stick in your throat; swallow it, and let it go down;
our Lord give you a drink of the consolations of His Spirit, that it may
digest. You never knew one in God's book who put to their hand to the
Lord's work for His kirk, but the world and Satan did bark against them,
and bite also where they had power. You will not lay one stone on Zion's
walls but they will labour to cast it down again.

For myself, the Lord letteth me see now greater evidence of a calling to
Kirkcudbright than ever He did before; and therefore pray, and possess
your soul in patience. Those that were doers in the business have good
hopes that it will yet go forward and prosper. As for the death of the King
of Sweden (which is thought to be too true), we can do nothing else but
reverence our Lord, who doth not ordinarily hold Zion on her rock by the
sword, and arm of flesh and blood, but by His own mighty and
outstretched arm. Her King that reigneth in Zion yet liveth, and they are
plucking Him round about to pull Him off His throne; but His Father
hath crowned him, and who dare say, "It is ill done"? The Lord's bride
will be up and down, above the water swimming and under the water
sinking, until her lovely and mighty Redeemer and Husband set His head
through the skies, and come with His fair court to red all their pleas, and
give them the hoped-for inheritance: and then we shall lay down our
swords and triumph, and fight no more. But do not think, for all this, that
our Lord and Chief Shepherd will want one weak sheep, or the silliest
dying lamb, that He hath redeemed. He will tell His flock, and gather
them all together, and make a faithful account of them to the Father who
gave them to Him. Let us learn to turn our eyes off men, that our whorish
hearts doat not on them, and woo our old Husband, and make Him our
darling. For, "thus saith the Lord to the enemies of Zion, Drink ye, and be
drunk, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword that I
send amongst you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine
hand to drink, then shalt thou say to them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
Ye shall certainly drink" (Jer. 25:27, 28). You see our Lord brewing a cup
of poison for His enemies, which they must drink, and because of this
have sore bowels and sick stomachs, yea, burst. But when Zion's captivity
is at an end, "the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of
Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their
God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying,
Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant
that shall not be forgotten" (Jer. 50:4, 5). This is spoken to us, and for us,
who with woe hearts ask, "What is the way to Zion?" It is our part who
know how to go to our Lord's door, and to knock by prayer, and how to
lift Christ's slot, and shut the bar of His chamber door, to complain and
tell Him how the Lord handleth us, and how our King's business goeth,
that He may get up and lend them a blow, who are tigging and playing
with Christ and His spouse. You have also, dear Mistress, house troubles,
in sickness of your husband and bairns, and in spoiling of your house by
thieves; take these rods in patience from your Lord. He must still move
you from vessel to vessel, and grind you as our Lord's wheat, to be bread
in His house. But when all these strokes are over your head, what will ye
say to see your well-beloved Christ's white and ruddy face, even His face
who is worthy to bear the colours among ten thousand? (Cant. 5:10).
Hope and believe to the end. Grace for ever be multiplied upon you, your
husband, and children.

Your own in his dearest Lord Jesus,

S. R.

EDINBURGH, Dec. 1634.

XLIX.—To MARION M'NAUGHT

(SPOILING OF GOODS—CALL TO KIRKCUDBRIGHT—THE LORD
REIGNETH.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,—My love in Christ remembered.

God hath brought me home from a place where I have been exercised
with great heaviness, and I have found at home new matter of great
heaviness, yet dare not but in all things give thanks.

In my business in Edinburgh, I have not sinned nor wronged my party,—

by his own confession, and by the confession of his friends, I have given
of my goods for peace and the saving of my Lord's truth from reproaches,
which is dearer to me than all I have. My mother is weak, and I think
shall leave me alone; but I am not alone, because Christ's Father is with
me.

For your business anent your town I see great evidence; but Satan and his
instruments are against it, and few set their shoulders to Christ's
shoulder to help Him. But He will do all His lone; and I dare not but
exhort you to believe, and persuade you, that the hungry in your city shall
be fed; and as for the rest that want a stomach, the parings of God's loaf
will suffice them; and, therefore, believe it shall be well. I may not leave
my mother to come and confer with you of all particulars. I have given
such directions to our dear friend as I can; but the event is in our dear
Lord's hands.

God's Zion abroad flourisheth, and His arm is not shortened with us, if
we could believe. There is scarcity and a famine of the word of God in
Edinburgh. Your sister Jane laboureth mightily in our business; but hath
not as yet gotten an answer from I. P. Mr. A. C. will work what he can. My
Lady saith she can do little, and that it suiteth not her nor her husband
well to speak in such an affair. I told her my mind plainly.

I long to know of your estate. Remember me heartily to your dear

husband. Grace be the portion of your bairns. I know you are mindful of
the green wound of our sister kirk in Ireland. Bid our Lord lay a plaister
to it (He hath good skill to do so), and set others to work. Grace, grace
upon your soul, and body, and all yours.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.
[The following brief note, addressed to Marion M'Naught, may be read as
a sort of postscript to the foregoing, though generally printed as a
separate Letter.]

DEAR MISTRESS,—I have not time this day to write to you; but God,
knowing my present state and necessities of my calling, will, I hope, spare
my mother's life for a time, for the which I have cause to thank the Lord. I
entreat you, be not cast down for that which I wrote before to you anent
the planting of a minister in your town. Believe, and you shall see the
salvation of God. I write this, because when you suffer, my heart suffereth
with you. I do believe your soul shall have joy in your labours and holy
desires for that work. Grace upon you, and your husband, and children.

Yours ever in Christ,

ANWOTH.

L.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(CHRIST COMING AS CAPTAIN OF SALVATION—HIS CHURCH'S
CONFLICT AND COVENANT—THE JEWS—LAST DAYS APOSTASY.)

WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,—I know your heart is cast down

for the desolation like to come upon this kirk and the appearance that an
hireling shall be thrust in upon Christ's flock in that town; but send a
heavy heart up to Christ, it shall be welcome. Those who are with the
beast and the dragon, must make war with the Lamb; "but the Lamb shall
overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they who
are with Him are called and chosen, and faithful" (Rev. 17:14). Our ten
days shall have an end; all the former things shall be forgotten when we
shall be up before the throne. Christ hath been ever thus in the world; He
hath always the defender's part, and hath been still in the camp, fighting
the Church's battles. The enemies of the Son of God will be fed with their
own flesh, and shall drink their own blood; and therefore, their part of it
shall at last be found hard enough: so that we may look forward and pity
them. Until the number of the elect be fulfilled, Christ's garments must be
rolled in blood. He cometh from Edom, from the slaughter of His
enemies, "clothed with dyed garments, glorious in His apparel, travelling
in the greatness of His strength." Who is this (saith he) that appears in
this glorious posture? Our great He! that He who is mighty to save, whose
glory shineth while He sprinkleth the blood of His adversaries, and
staineth all His raiment. The glory of His righteous revenges shineth forth
in these stains (Isa. 63:1). But seeing our world is not here-away, we poor
children, far from home, must steal through many waters, weeping as we
go, and withal believing that we do the Lord's faithfulness no wrong,
seeing He hath said, "I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou,
that shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man that
shall be made as grass?" (Isa. 51:12). "When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burnt; neither
shall the flames kindle upon thee" (Isa. 43:2).

There is a cloud gathering and a storm coming. This land shall be turned
upside down; and if ever the Lord spake to me (think on it), Christ's bride
will be glad of a hole to hide her head in, and the dragon may so prevail as
to chase the woman and her man-child over sea. But there shall be a
gleaning, two or three berries left in the top of the olive-tree, of whom
God shall say, "Destroy them not, for there is a blessing in them."
Thereafter there shall be a fair sun-blink on Christ's old spouse, and a
clear sky, and she shall sing as in the days of her youth. The Antichrist
and the great red dragon will lop Christ's branches, and bring His vine to
a low stump, under the feet of those who carry the mark of the beast; but
the Plant of Renown, the Man whose name is the Branch, will bud forth
again and blossom as the rose, and there shall be fair white flourishes
again, with most pleasant fruits, upon that tree of life. A fair season may
He have! Grace, grace be upon that blessed and beautiful tree! under
whose shadow we shall sit, and His fruit shall be sweet to our taste. But
Christ shall woo His handful in the fire, and choose His own in the
furnace of affliction. But be it so; He dow not, He will not slay His
children. Love will not let Him make a full end. The covenant will cause
Him hold His hand. Fear not, then, saith the First and the Last, He who
was dead and is alive. We see not Christ sharpening and furbishing His
sword for His enemies; and therefore our faithless hearts say, as Zion did,
"The Lord hath forsaken me." But God reproveth her, and saith, "Well,
well, Zion, is that well said? Think again on it, you are in the wrong to Me.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the fruit of her womb? Yea, she may; yet will I not forget
thee. Behold, I have engraven thee upon the palms of My hands" (Isa.
49:15, 16). You break your heart and grow heavy, and forget that Christ
hath your name engraven on the palms of His hand in great letters. In the
name of the Son of God, believe that buried Scotland, dead and buried
with her dear Bridegroom, shall rise the third day again, and there shall
be a new growth after the old timber is cut down.

I recommend you, and your burdens and heavy heart, to the supporting
of His grace and good-will who dwelt in the Bush, to Him who was
separated from His brethren. Try your husband afar off, to see if he can
be induced to think upon going to America.

O to see the sight, next to Christ's Coming in the clouds, the most joyful!
our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another's necks and
kiss each other! They have been long asunder; they will be kind to one
another when they meet. O day! O longed-for and lovely day-dawn! O
sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead, Thee
and Thy ancient people in mutual embraces.

Desire your daughter to close with Christ upon terms of suffering for
Him; for the cross is an old mealing and plot of ground that lyeth to
Christ's house. Our dear Chief had aye that rent lying to His inheritance.
But tell her the day is near the dawning, the sky is riving; our Beloved will
be on us, ere ever we be aware. The Antichrist, and death and hell, and
Christ's enemies and ours, will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, April 22, 1635.

 LI.—To MARION M'NAUGHT
(PUBLIC TEMPTATIONS—THE SECURITY OF EVERY SAINT—
OCCURRENCES IN THE COUNTRY-SIDE.)

LOVING AND DEAR SISTER,—For Zion's sake hold not your peace,
neither be discouraged, for the on-going of this persecution. Jehovah is in
this burning Bush. The floods may swell and roar, but our ark shall swim
above the waters; it cannot sink, because a Saviour is in it. Because our
Beloved was not let in by His spouse when He stood at the door, with His
wet and frozen head, therefore He will have us to seek Him awhile; and
while we are seeking, the watchmen who go about the walls have stricken
the poor woman, and have taken away her veil from her. But yet a little
while and our Lord will come again. Scotland's sky will clear again; her
moment must go over. I dare in faith say and write (I am not dreaming),
Christ is but seeking (what He will have and make) a clean glistering
bride out of the fire. God send Him His errand, but He cannot want what
He seeks. In the meantime, one way or other, He shall find, or make a
nest for His mourning dove. What is this we are doing, breaking the neck
of our faith? We are not come as yet to the month of the Red Sea; and
howbeit we were, for His honour's sake, He must dry it up. It is our part
to die gripping and holding fast His faithful promise. If the Beast should
get leave to ride through the land, to seal such as are his, he will not get
one lamb with him, for these are secured and sealed as the servants of
God. In God's name, let Christ take His barn-floor, and all that is in it, to
a hill, and winnow it. Let Him sift His corn, and sweep His house, and
seek His lost gold. The Lord shall cog the rumbling wheels, or turn them;
for the remainder of wrath doth He restrain. He can loose the belt of
kings; to God, their belt, wherewith they are girt, is knit with a single
draw-knot.

As for a pastor to your town, your conscience can bear you witness you
have done your part. Let the Master of the vineyard now see to His
garden, seeing you have gone on, till He hath said, "Stand still." The will
of the Lord be done. But a trial is not, to give up with God and believe no
more. I thank my God in Christ, I find the force of my temptation abated,
and its edge blunted, since I spoke to you last. I know not if the tempter
be hovering, until he find the dam gather again, and me more secure; but
it hath been my burden, and I am yet more confident the Lord will
succour and deliver.

I intend, God willing, that our Communion shall be celebrated the first
Sabbath after Pasch. Our Lord, that great Master of the feast, send us one
hearty and heartsome supper, for I look it shall be the last. But we expect,
when the shadows shall flee away, and our Lord shall come to His garden,
that He shall feed us in green pastures without fear. The dogs shall not
then be hounded out amongst the sheep. I earnestly desire your prayers
for assistance at our work, and put others with you to do the same.
Remember me to your husband, and desire your daughter to be kind to
Christ, and seek to win near Him; He will give her a welcome unto His
house of wine, and bring her into the King's chamber. O how will the
sight of His face, and the smell of His garments, allure and ravish the
heart! Now, the love of the lovely Son of God be with you.

Yours in his sweet Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, 1635.

LII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(IN THE PROSPECT OF HER HUSBAND BEING COMPELLED TO
RECEIVE THE COMMAND OF THE PRELATES—SAINTS ARE YET TO
JUDGE.)

WELL-BELOVED MISTRESS,—I charge you in the name of the Son of

God, to rest upon your Rock, that is higher than yourself. Be not afraid of
a man, who is a worm, nor of the son of man, who shall die. God be your
fear. Encourage your husband. I would counsel you to write to Edinburgh
to some advised lawyers, to understand what your husband, as the head
magistrate, may do in opposing any intruded minister, and in his carriage
toward the new prelate, if he command him to imprison or lay hands
upon any, and, in a word, how far he may in his office disobey a prelate,
without danger of law. For if the Bishop come to your town, and find not
obedience to his heart, it is like he will command the Provost to assist
him against God and the truth. Ye will have more courage under the
persecution. Fear not; take Christ caution,2 who said, "There shall not
one hair of your head perish" (Luke 21:18). Christ will not be in your
common to have you giving out anything for Him, and not give you all
incomes with advantage. It is His honour His servants should not be
herried and undone in His service. You were never honoured till now.
And if your husband be the first magistrate who shall suffer for Christ's
name in this persecution, he may rejoice that Christ hath put the first
garland on his head and upon yours. Truth will yet keep the crown of the
causey in Scotland. Christ and truth are strong enough. They judge us
now; we shall one day judge them, and sit on twelve thrones and judge
the twelve tribes. Believe, believe; for they dare not pray; they dare not
look Christ in the face. They have been false to Christ, and He will not sit
with the wrong. Ye know it is not our cause; for if we would quit our Lord,
we might sleep for the present in a sound skin, and keep our place,
means, and honour, and be dear to them also; but let us once put all we
have over in Christ's hand. Fear not for my papers; I shall despatch them,
but ye will be examined for them. The Spirit of Jesus give you inward
peace. Desire your husband from me to prove honest to Christ; he shall
not be a loser at Christ's hand.

Yours ever in his sweet Lord Jesus,

ANWOTH, July 8, 1635.

S. R.
 LIII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT
(ENCOURAGEMENT UNDER TRIAL BY PROSPECT OF BRIGHTER
DAYS.)

MISTRESS,—My love in Christ remembered. Having appointed a

meeting with Mr. David Dickson, and knowing that B. will not keep the
Presbytery, I cannot see you now. Commend my journey to God. My soul
blesseth you for your last letter. Be not discouraged; Christ will not want
the Isles-men. "The Isles shall wait for His law." We are His inheritance,
and He will sell no part of His inheritance. For the sins of this land, and
our breach of the covenant, contempt of the Gospel, and our defection
from the truth, He hath set up a burning furnace in our Mount Zion; but I
say it, and will bide by it, the grass shall yet grow green on our Mount
Zion. There shall be dew all the night upon the lilies, amongst which
Christ feedeth, until the day break, and the shadows flee away. And the
moth shall eat up the enemies of Christ. Let them make a fire of their
own, and walk in the light thereof, it shall not let them see to go to their
bed; but they shall lie down in sorrow (Isa. 50:11). Therefore, rejoice and
believe. This in haste. Grace, grace be with you and yours.

Yours in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

LIV.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(PUBLIC WRONGS—WORDS OF COMFORT.)

LOVING AND DEAR SISTER,—I fear that you be moved and cast down,
because of the late wrong that your husband received in your Town
Council. But I pray you comfort yourself in the Lord; for a just cause
bides under the water only as long as wicked men hold their hand above
it; their arm will weary, and then the just cause shall swim above, and the
light that is sown for the righteous shall spring and grow up. If ye were
not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you. You may
see all windings and turnings that are in your way to heaven out of God's
Word; for He will not lead you to the kingdom at the nearest, but you
must go through "honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report;
as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying,
and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, and yet
always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:8, 10). The world is one of the enemies that we
have to fight with, but a vanquished and overcome enemy, and like a
beaten and forlorn soldier; for our Jesus hath taken the armour from it.
Let me then speak to you in His words: "Be of good courage," saith the
Captain of our salvation, "for I have overcome the world." You shall
neither be free of the scourge of the tongue, nor of disgraces (even if it
were buffetings and spittings upon the face, as was our Saviour's case), if
you follow Jesus Christ. I beseech you in the bowels of our Lord Jesus,
keep a good conscience, as I trust you do. You live not upon men's
opinion; gold may be gold, and have the king's stamp upon it, when it is
trampled upon by men. Happy are you, if, when the world trampleth
upon you in your credit and good name, yet you are the Lord's gold,
stamped with the King of heaven's image, and sealed by the Spirit unto
the day of your redemption. Pray for the spirit of love; for "love beareth
all things; it believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all
things" (1 Cor. 13:7).

And I pray you and your husband, yea, I charge you before God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, pray for these your adversaries,
and read this to your husband from me, and let both of you put on, as the
elect of God, bowels of mercies. And, sister, remember how many
thousands of talents of sins your Master hath forgiven you. Forgive ye
therefore your fellow-servants one talent. Follow God's command in this,
and "seek not after your own heart, and after your own eyes," in this
matter, as the Spirit speaks (Numb. 15:39). Ask never the counsel of your
own heart here; the world will blow up your heart now, and cause it swell,
except the grace of God cause it fall. Jesus, even Jesus, the Eternal
Wisdom of the Father, give you wisdom. I trust God shall be glorified in
you. And a door shall be opened unto you, as to the Lord's "prisoners of
hope," as Zechariah speaks. It is a benefit to you, that the wicked are
God's fan to purge you. And I hope they shall blow away no corn, or
spiritual graces, but only your chaff. I pray you, in your pursuit, have so
recourse to the law of men, that you wander not from the law of God. Be
not cast down: if you saw Him who is standing on the shore, holding out
His arms to welcome you on land, you would not only wade through a sea
of wrongs, but through hell itself to be at Him. And I trust in God you see
Him sometimes. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit, and all yours.

Your brother in the Lord,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

LV.—To MARION M'NAUGHT

(WHEN HE HAD BEEN THREATENED WITH PERSECUTION FOR
PREACHING THE GOSPEL—THE SAINTS SHALL YET WIN THE DAY.)

WORTHY AND WELL-BELOVED MISTRESS,—My love in Christ

remembered. I know ye have heard of the purpose of my adversaries, to
try what they can do against me at this Synod for the work of God in your
town when I was at your Communion. They intend to call me in question
at the Synod for treasonable doctrine. Therefore help me with your
prayers, and desire your acquaintance to help me also. Your ears heard
how Christ was there. If He suffer His servant to get a broken head in His
own kingly service, and not either help or revenge the wrong, I never saw
the like of it. There is not a night drunkard, time-serving, idle, idol
shepherd to be spoken against: I am the only man; and because it is so,
and I know God will not help them lest they be proud, I am confident
their process shall fall asunder. Only be ye earnest with God for hearing,
for an open ear, and reading of the bill, that He may in heaven hear both
parties, and judge accordingly. And doubt not, fear not; they shall not,
who now ride highest, put Christ out of His kingly possession in Scotland.
The pride of man and his rage shall turn to the praise of our Lord. It is an
old feud, that the rulers of the earth, the dragon and his angels, have
carried to the Lamb and His followers; but the followers of the Lamb shall
overcome by the Word of God. And believe this, and wait on a little, till
they have got their womb full of clay and gravel, and they shall know
(howbeit stolen waters be sweet) Esau's portion is not worth his hunting.
Commend me to your husband, and send me word how Grizel is. The Son
of God lead her through the water. The Lord Jesus bewith your spirit.

Yours in his only, only Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH.

LVI.—To my LADY KENMURE

(REASONS FOR RESIGNATION—SECURITY OF SAINTS—THE END
OF TIME.)

MADAM,—I received your Ladyship's letter from J. G. I thank our Lord

ye are as well at least as one may be who is not come home. It is a mercy
in this stormy sea to get a second wind; for none of the saints get a first,
but they must take the winds as the Lord of the seas causeth them to
blow, and the inn as the Lord and Master of the inns hath ordered it. If
contentment were here, heaven were not heaven. Whoever seek the world
to be their bed, shall at best find it short and ill-made, and a stone under
their side to hold them waking, rather than a soft pillow to sleep upon. Ye
ought to bless your Lord that it is not worse. We live in a sea where many
have suffered shipwreck, and have need that Christ sit at the helm of the
ship. It is a mercy to win to heaven, though with much hard toil and
heavy labour, and to take it by violence ill and well as it may be. Better go
swimming and wet through our waters than drown by the way; especially
now when truth suffereth, and great men bid Christ sit lower and contract
Himself in less bounds, as if He took too much room.

I expect our new prelate shall try my sitting. I hang by a thread, but it is
(if I may speak so) of Christ's spinning. There is no quarrel more honest
or honourable than to suffer for truth. But the worst is, that this kirk is
like to sink, and all her lovers and friends stand afar off; none mourn with
her, and none mourn for her. But the Lord Jesus will not be put out of His
conquest so soon in Scotland. It will be seen that the kirk and truth will
rise again within three days, and Christ again shall ride upon His white
horse; howbeit His horse seem now to stumble, yet he cannot fall. The
fulness of Christ's harvest in the end of the earth is not yet come in. I
speak not this because I would have it so, but upon better grounds than
my naked liking. But enough of this sad subject.

I long to be fully assured of your Ladyship's welfare, and that your soul
prospereth, especially now in your solitary life, when your comforts
outward are few, and when Christ hath you for the very uptaking. I know
His love to you is still running over, and His love hath not so bad a
memory as to forget you and your dear child, who hath two fathers in
heaven, the one the Ancient of Days. I trust in His mercy He hath
something laid up for him above, however it may go with him here. I
know it is long since your Ladyship saw that this world had turned your
stepmother and did forsake you. Madam, you have reason to take in good
part a lean dinner and spare diet in this life, seeing your large supper of
the Lamb's preparing will recompense all. Let it go, which was never
yours but only in sight, not in property. The time of your loan will wear
shorter and shorter, and time is measured to you by ounce weights; and
then I know your hope shall be a full ear of corn and not blasted with
wind. It may be your joy that your anchor is up within the veil, and that
the ground it is cast upon is not false but firm. God hath done His part: I
hope ye will not deny to fish and fetch home all your love to Himself; and
it is but too narrow and short for Him if it were more. If ye were before
pouring all your love (if it had been many gallons more) in upon your
Lord, if drops fell by in the in-pouring, He forgiveth you. He hath done
now all that can be done to win beyond it all, and hath left little to woo
your love from Himself, except one only child. What is His purpose
herein He knoweth best, who hath taken your soul in tutoring. Your faith
may be boldly charitable of Christ, that however matters go, the worst
shall be a tired traveller, and a joyful and sweet welcome home. The back
of your winter night is broken. Look to the east, the day sky is breaking.
Think not that Christ loseth time, or lingereth unsuitably. O fair, fair, and
sweet morning! We are but as sea passengers. If we look right, we are
upon our country coast: our Redeemer is fast coming, to take this old
worm-eaten world, like an old moth-eaten garment, in His two hands,
and to roll it up and lay it by Him. These are the last days, and an oath is
given, by God Himself, that time shall be no more (Rev. 10:6); and when
time itself is old and grey-haired, it were good we were away. Thus,
Madam, ye see I am, as my custom is, tedious in my lines. Your Ladyship
will pardon it. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Your Ladyship's at all obedience in Christ,

S. R.

ANWOTH, Jan. 18, 1636.

LVII.—For MARION M'NAUGHT

(IN THE PROSPECT OF REMOVAL TO ABERDEEN.)

HONOURED AND DEAREST IN THE LORD,—Grace, mercy, and peace

be to you. I am well, and my soul prospereth. I find Christ with me. I
burden no man; I want nothing; no face looketh on me but it laugheth on
me. Sweet, sweet is the Lord's cross. I overcome my heaviness. My
Bridegroom's love-blinks fatten my weary soul. I soon go to my King's
palace at Aberdeen. Tongue, and pen, and wit, cannot express my joy.
Remember my love to Jean Gordon, to my sister, Jean Brown, to Grizel,
to your husband. Thus in haste. Grace be with you.

Yours in his only, only Lord Jesus,

S. R.

EDINBURGH, April 5, 1636.

P.S.—My charge is to you to believe, rejoice, sing, and triumph. Christ has
said to me, Mercy, mercy, grace and peace for Marion M'Naught.

LVIII.—To my LADY KENMURE

(ON OCCASION OF EFFORTS TO INTRODUCE EPISCOPACY.)

RIGHT HONOURABLE,—I cannot find a time for writing some things I

intended on Job, I have been so taken up with the broils that we are
encumbered with in our calling. For our prelate will have us either to
swallow our light over, and digest it contrary to our stomachs (howbeit
we should vomit our conscience and all, in this troublesome conformity),
or then he will try if deprivation can convert us to the ceremonial faith.

I write to your Ladyship, Madam, not as distrusting your affection or

willingness to help me, as your Ladyship is able by yourself or others, but
to advertise you that I hang by a small thread. For our learned prelate,
because we cannot see with his eyes so far in a mill-stone as his light
doeth, will not follow his Master, meek Jesus, who waited upon the
wearied and short-breathed in the way to heaven. Where all see not alike,
and some are weaker, He carrieth the lambs in His bosom, and leadeth
gently those that are with young. But we must either see all the evil of
ceremonies to be but as indifferent straws, or suffer no less than to be
casten out of the Lord's inheritance! Madam, if I had time I would write
more at length, but your Ladyship will pardon me till a fitter occasion.
Grace be with you and your child, and bear you company to your best
home.

Your Ladyship's in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, June 8, 1636.

LIX.—To EARLSTON, Elder

[ALEXANDER GORDON of Earlston was descended from the house of
Gordon of Lochinvar, and the residence of his family at first was Gordon
of Airds (about a mile from the New Galloway Railway Station, on a
wooded height, in the parish of Kells). His great-grandfather, Alexander
Gordon of Airds, having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John
Sinclair of Earlston, the issue of that union came to possess the lands of
Earlston. (Nisbet's "Heraldry.") It is a tradition that old Gordon of Airds
imbibed Wickliffite views, when he was on a sort of embassy to the
English Borderers, and that he propagated the truth by bringing home an
English Wickliffite to be tutor to his eldest son. Having obtained a New
Testament in the vulgar tongue, he read it at meetings which were held in
the woods of Airds, in a secluded spot, at the junction of the Ken and the
Dee, where the loch begins. The truth circulated rapidly through the
whole province of Galloway.

There are some interesting traditions about old Gordon of Airds. He was
compelled, when a youth, to sign the sentence that doomed Patrick
Hamilton to death, 1528; and this very circumstance led him to inquire
more fully into the truth. He lived to the age of one hundred and one,
dying in 1586. A traveller, coming to crave the hospitality of Airds one
evening, was courteously received by a youth, who, however, referred him
to his father. His father in turn referred him to an older man, the
grandfather of the boy; and then this grey-haired grand-sire said, "Sir,
you must ask my father,"—the patriarch who sat in the arm-chair and
conducted worship that evening. (Agnew's "Sheriffs of Galloway.")

Earlston, or Erliston, or Earleston, is not far from Carsphairn. As you

come from Dalry, in Glenkens, you see the roof of the ancient residence
appearing from among the trees that grow up the sloping ridge at the foot
of which it stands. In front of the grim old tower there is a fine lawn, a
remnant of better days, and a linn not far off. There is another Earlston,
in the parish of Borgue, a quite modern mansion, built by a descendant of
this ancient family, and called after the name of the original property.

The grace of God, which had early chosen this family, continued to favour
it for many generations. Alexander Gordon, Rutherford's friend, was
worthy of his ancestors. Livingstone, in his "Characteristics," speaks of
him as "a man of great spirit, but much subdued by inward exercise. For
wisdom, courage, and righteousness, he might have been a magistrate in
any part of the earth." He warmly espoused the side of the Presbyterians.
In the end of July 1635, he was summoned by the Bishop of Glasgow to
appear before the High Commission, for preventing the intrusion of an
unpopular nominee of the bishop into a vacant parish. But Lord Lorn,
afterwards the martyred Marquis of Argyle, having appeared with him
before that court, and affirmed that Earlston had done this by his
direction as patron of the parish, the matter was deferred to a future day.
This letter of Rutherford probably refers to the vexatious proceedings
instituted against him in regard to this matter. He was afterwards
summoned by Sydserff, Bishop of Galloway, fined five hundred merks,
and banished to Montrose. The Privy Council, however, afterwards
dispensed with his banishment upon the payment of his fine. Earlston
was a member of the Assembly which met at Glasgow, in 1638, as
commissioner from the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright. His name appears
among the members of Parliament in 1641, as member for the shire of
Galloway. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of John Gordon of
Muirfad, by whom he had several children. His eldest son, William, who
succeeded him, is retoured heir of his father on the 23rd of January 1655.
In the avenue leading to Earlston, there is a very large old oak, still shown
as that in the thick foliage of which this William Gordon hid, and so
escaped his pursuers, in the days of the persecution. But in 1679, on his
way to join the rising at Bothwell, he was shot by a troop of dragoons, and
lies buried in Glassford Churchyard, where is a monument to his
memory.]

(NO SUFFERING FOR CHRIST UNREWARDED—LOSS OF CHILDREN

—CHRIST IN PROVIDENCE.)

MUCH HONOURED SIR,—I have heard of the mind and malice of your
adversaries against you. It is like they will extend the law they have, in
length and breadth, answerable to their heat of mind. But it is a great part
of your glory that the cause is not yours, but your Lord's whom you serve.
And I doubt not but Christ will count it His honour to back His weak
servant; and it were a shame for Him (with reverence to His holy name)
that He should suffer Himself to be in the common of such a poor man as
ye are, and that ye should give out for Him and not get in again. Write up
your depursments for your Master Christ, and keep the account of what
ye give out, whether name, credit, goods, or life, and suspend your
reckoning till nigh the evening; and remember that a poor weak servant
of Christ wrote it to you, that ye shall have Christ, a King, caution for your
incomes and all your losses. Reckon not from the forenoon. Take the
Word of God for your warrant; and for Christ's act of cautionary, howbeit
body, life, and goods go for Christ your Lord, and though ye should lose
the head for Him, yet "there shall not one hair of your head perish; in
patience, therefore, possess your soul." And because ye are the first man
in Galloway called out and questioned for the name of Jesus, His eye hath
been upon you, as upon one whom He designed to be among His
witnesses. Christ hath said, "Alexander Gordon shall lead the ring in
witnessing a good confession," and therefore He hath put the garland of
suffering for Himself first upon your head. Think yourself so much the
more obliged to Him, and fear not; for He layeth His right hand on your
head. He who was dead and is alive will plead your cause, and will look
attentively upon the process from the beginning to the end, and the Spirit
of glory shall rest upon you. "Fear none of these things which thou shalt
suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be
tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev. 2:10). This lovely One, Jesus,
who also became the Son of man, that He might take strokes for you,
write the cross-sweetening and soul-supporting sense of these words in
your heart!

These rumbling wheels of Scotland's ten days' tribulation are under His
look who hath seven eyes. Take a house on your head, and slip yourself by
faith in under Christ's wings till the storm be over. And remember, when
they have drunken us down, Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling and of
poison. They shall be fain to vomit out the saints; for Judah "shall be a
hearth of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about,
on the right hand and on the left." Woe to Zion's enemies! they have the
worst of it; for we have writ for the victory. Sir, ye were never honourable
till now. This is your glory, that Christ hath put you in the roll with
Himself and with the rest of the witnesses who are come out of great
tribulation, and have washen their garments and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb. Be not cast down for what the servants of Antichrist
cast in your teeth, that ye are a head to and favourer of the Puritans, and
leader to that sect. If your conscience say, "Alas! here is much din and
little done" (as the proverb is), because ye have not done so much service
to Christ that way as ye might and should, take courage from that same
temptation. For your Lord Christ looketh upon that very challenge as an
hungering desire in you to have done more than ye did; and that filleth up
the blank, and He will accept of what ye have done in that kind. If great
men be kind to you, I pray you overlook them; if they smile on you, Christ
but borroweth their face to smile through them upon His afflicted
servant. Know the well-head; and for all that, learn the way to the well
itself. Thank God that Christ came to your house in your absence and
took with Him some of your children. He presumed that much on your
love, that ye would not offend; and howbeit He should take the rest, He
cannot come upon your wrong side. I question not, if they were children
of gold, but ye think them well bestowed upon Him.

Expound well these two rods on you, one in your house at home, another
on your own person abroad. Love thinketh no evil. If ye were not Christ's
wheat, appointed to be bread in His house, He would not grind you. But
keep the middle line, neither despise nor faint (Heb. 12:5). Ye see your
Father is homely with you. Strokes of a father evidence kindness and
care; take them so. I hope your Lord hath manifested Himself to you, and
suggested these, or more choice thoughts about His dealing with you. We
are using our weak moyen and credit for you up at our own court, as we
dow. We pray the King to hear us, and the Son of Man to go side for side
with you, and hand in hand in the fiery oven, and to quicken and
encourage your unbelieving heart when ye droop and despond. Sir, to the
honour of Christ be it said, my faith goeth with my pen now. I am
presently believing Christ shall bring you out. Truth in Scotland shall
keep the crown of the causeway yet. The saints shall see religion go naked
at noon-day, free from shame and fear of men. We shall divide Shechem,
and ride upon the high places of Jacob. Remember my obliged respects
and love to Lady Kenmure and her sweet child.

Yours ever in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ANWOTH, July 6, 1636.

LX.—To MARION M'NAUGHT

(WHEN HE WAS UNDER TRIAL BY THE HIGH COMMISSION.)

MY DEAR AND WELL-BELOVED IN CHRIST,—I am yet under trial, and

have appeared before Christ's forbidden lords, for a testimony against
them. The Chancellor and the rest tempted me with questions, nothing
belonging to my summons, which I wholly declined, notwithstanding of
his threats. My newly printed book against Arminians3 was one
challenge; not lording the prelates was another. The most part of the
bishops, when I came in, looked more astonished than I, and heard me
with silence. Some spoke for me; but my Lord ruled it so as I am filled
with joy in my sufferings, and I find Christ's cross sweet. What they
intend against the next day I know not. Be not secure, but pray. Our
Bishop of Galloway said, If the Commission should not give him his will
of me (with an oath he said), he would write to the King. The Chancellor
summoned me in judgment to appear that day eight days. My Lord has
brought me a friend from the Highlands of Argyle, my Lord of Lorn, who
hath done as much as was within the compass of his power. God gave me
favour in his eyes. Mr. Robert Glendinning is silenced, till he accepts a
colleague. We hope to deal yet for him. Christ is worthy to be entrusted.
Your husband will get an easy and good way of his business. Ye and I both
shall see the salvation of God upon Joseph separate from his brethren.
Grace be with you.

S. R.

EDINBURGH, 1636.

LXI.—To the truly Noble and Elect Lady, my

LADY VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE, on the
evening of his banishment to Aberdeen
(HIS ONLY REGRETS—THE CROSS UNSPEAKABLY SWEET—
RETROSPECT OF HIS MINISTRY.)

NOBLE AND ELECT LADY,—That honour that I have prayed for these
sixteen years, with submission to my Lord's will, my kind Lord hath 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 hath 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 King's 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 sweet smelled and
perfumed cross of Christ is accompanied with sweet refreshments, with
the kisses of a King, 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 favour 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, honour, and kingdom. O
for a day in the assembly of the saints to advocate for King Jesus! If my
Lord also go on now to quarrels I die, I cannot endure it. But I look for
peace from Him, because He knoweth I dow bear men's feud, but I dow
not bear His feud. This is my only exercise, that I fear I have done little
good in my ministry; but I dare not but say, I loved the bairns of the
wedding-chamber, and prayed for and desired the thriving of the
marriage, and coming of His kingdom.

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 honourable 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. One kiss now is sweeter than
ten long since; sweet, sweet is His cross; light, light and easy is His yoke.
O what a sweet step were it up to my Father's house through ten deaths,
for the truth and cause of that unknown, and so not half well loved, Plant
of Renown, the Man called the Branch, the Chief among ten thousands,
the fairest among the sons of men! O what unseen joys, how many hidden
heart-burnings of love, are in the "remnants of the sufferings of Christ!"
(Col. 1:24.) 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 hath power
of my body; and rebellion to kings is unbeseeming Christ's ministers. Be
pleased to acquaint my Lady Mar with my case. I will look that your
Ladyship and that good lady will be mindful to God of the Lord's
prisoner, not for my cause, but for the Gospel's sake. Madam, bind me
more, if more can be, to your Ladyship, and write thanks to your brother,
my Lord of Lorn, for what he hath done for me, a poor unknown stranger
to his Lordship. I shall pray for him and his house, while I live. It is his
honour to open his mouth in the streets, for his wronged and oppressed
Master Christ Jesus. Now, Madam, commending your Ladyship and the
sweet child to the tender mercies of mine own Lord Jesus, and His good-
will who dwelt in the Bush,

I am yours in his own sweetest Lord Jesus,

S. R.

EDINBURGH, July 28, 1636.

LXII.—To the LADY CULROSS, on occasion

of his banishment to Aberdeen
[ELIZABETH MELVILLE, wife of James Colvill, the eldest son of
Alexander, Commendator of Culross, was the daughter of Sir James
Melville of Halhill, in Fife. Her father was ambassador from Queen Mary
to Queen Elizabeth, and a privy councillor to King James VI. He was also
a man of piety, who (says Livingstone), "professed he had got assurance
from the Lord, that himself, wife, and all his children, should meet in
heaven." Lady Culross held a high place among the eminent Christians of
her day. Livingstone says: "She was famous for her piety, and for her
dream concerning her spiritual condition, which she put in verse, which
was published by others. Of all that ever I saw, she was most unwearied
in religious exercises; and the more she enjoyed access to God therein she
hungered the more." She was present at the famous Communion at
Shotts in June 1636, when the sermon preached by Livingstone, on the
Monday after, was the means, it is believed, of the conversion of not less
than five hundred individuals. The night before had been spent in prayer
by a great number of Christians in a large room of the inn where she
slept; and the minister who should have preached on Monday having
fallen sick, it was at her suggestion that the other ministers assisting on
that occasion, to whom Livingstone was a stranger, laid upon him the
work of addressing the people. There is a poem written by her, entitled
"Ane Godlie Dream;" and there is still preserved a sonnet of her
composition, which she sent to Mr. John Welsh when he was imprisoned
in Blackness, 1605:—

"My dear brother, with courage bear the cross,

Joy shall be joined with all thy sorrow here.

High is thy hope, disdain this earthly dross,

Once shall you see the wished day appear.

"Now it is dark, thy sky cannot be clear;

After the clouds it shall be calm anon;

Wait on His will whose blood hath bought thee dear:

Extol His name, though outward joys be gone.

"Look to the Lord, thou art not left alone,

Since He is thine, what pleasure canst thou take!

He is at hand, and hears thy every groan:

End out thy fight, and suffer for His sake.

"A sight most bright thy soul shall shortly see,

When store of glore thy rich reward shall be."

—Wodrow MSS. Adv. Lib. Edin. vol. xxix.]

(CHALLENGES OF CONSCIENCE—THE CROSS NO BURDEN.)

MADAM,—Your letter came in due time to me, now a prisoner of Christ,

and in bonds for the Gospel. I am sentenced with deprivation and
confinement within the town of Aberdeen. But O my guiltiness, the follies
of my youth, the neglects in my calling, and especially in not speaking
more for the kingdom, crown, and sceptre of my royal and princely King
Jesus, do so stare me in the face, that I apprehend anger in that which is a
crown of rejoicing to the dear saints of God. This, before my
compearance, which was three several days, did trouble me, and
burdeneth me more now; howbeit Christ, and in Him God reconciled,
met me with open arms, and trysted me precisely at the entry of the door
of the Chancellor's hall, and assisted me so to answer, as that the
advantage is not theirs but Christ's. Alas! that is no cause of wondering
that I am thus borne down with challenges; for the world hath mistaken
me, and no man knoweth what guiltiness is in me so well as these two,
who keep my eyes now waking and my heart heavy, I mean (1) my heart
and conscience, and (2) my Lord, who is greater than my heart.

Shew your brother that I desire him, while he is on the watch-tower, to

plead with his mother, and to plead with this land, and spare not to cry
for my sweet Lord Jesus His fair crown, that the interdicted and
forbidden lords are plucking off His royal head. If I were free of
challenges, and a High Commission within my soul, I would not give a
straw to go to my Father's house through ten deaths, for the truth and
cause of my lovely, lovely One, Jesus. But I walk in heaviness now. If ye
love me, and Christ in me, my dear Lady, pray, pray for this only, that
bygones betwixt my Lord and me may be bygones, and that He would
pass from the summons of His High Commission, and seek nothing from
me, but what He will do for me and work in me. If your ladyship knew me
as I do myself, ye would say, "Poor soul, no marvel." It is not my
apprehension that createth this cross to me; it is too real, and hath sad
and certain grounds. But I will not believe that God will take this
advantage of me, when my back is at the wall. He who forbiddeth to add
affliction to affliction, will He do it Himself? Why should He pursue a dry
leaf and stubble? Desire Him to spare me now. Also the memory of the
fair feast-days, that Christ and I had in His banqueting-house of wine,
and of the scattered flock once committed to me, and now taken off my
hand by Himself, because I was not so faithful in the end as I was in the
two first years of my entry, when sleep departed from my eyes, because
my soul was taken up with a care for Christ's lambs,—even these add
sorrow to my sorrow. Now my Lord hath only given me this to say, and I
write it under mine own hand (be ye the Lord's servant's witness),
welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet cross of Christ; welcome, fair, fair,
lovely, royal King with Thine own cross. Let us all three go to heaven
together. Neither care I much to go from the south of Scotland to the
north, and to be Christ's prisoner amongst unco faces, in a place of this
kingdom, which I have little reason to be in love with. I know Christ shall
make Aberdeen my garden of delights. I am fully persuaded that Scotland
shall eat Ezekiel's book, that is written within and without, "lamentation,
and mourning, and woe" (Ezek. 2:10). But the saints shall get a drink of
the well that goeth through the streets of the New Jerusalem, to put it
down. Thus hoping that ye will think upon the poor prisoner of Christ, I
pray, grace, grace be with you.

Your Ladyship's in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

EDINBURGH, July 30, 1636.

LXIII.—To MR. ROBERT CUNNINGHAM,

Minister of the Gospel at Holywood, in
Ireland
[MR. ROBERT CUNNINGHAM was for some time employed as chaplain
to the Earl of Buccleuch's regiment in Holland. On the return of the
troops to Scotland, he removed to the north of Ireland, where he was
admitted minister of Holywood in 1615. "He was the one man to my
discerning," says Livingstone, "of all that ever I saw, who resembled most
the meekness of Jesus Christ in his whole carriage, and was so far
reverenced by all, even the most wicked, that he was oft troubled with
that Scripture, 'Woe to you when all men speak well of you.' " He
continued to labour in his charge, and in the surrounding district, with
great success, until the Presbyterian ministers began to be molested for
their nonconformity. Owing to the singular gentleness of Cunningham's
disposition, he was for some time less subjected to trouble than his
brethren; but at length, on the 12th of August 1636, he and four other
ministers (among whom was Mr. Hamilton mentioned in the close of this
letter) were formally deposed for refusing to subscribe certain canons,
one of which was kneeling at the Lord's Supper. Not long after, he, with
some of his deposed brethren, came over to Scotland; but he did not long
survive his arrival. He died at Irvine, on the 29th of March 1637, scarcely
eight months after this letter was written. A little before he expired, his
wife sitting on the front of his bed with her hand clasped in his, after
committing to God his flock at Holywood, his friends and his children, he
added, "And last of all, I recommend to Thee this gentlewoman, who is no
more my wife." His affectionate wife bursting into tears, he sought by
comfortable words to allay her grief; but in the act of so doing, fell asleep
in Jesus.]

(CONSOLATION TO A BROTHER IN TRIBULATION—HIS OWN

DEPRIVATION OF MINISTRY—CHRIST WORTH SUFFERING FOR.)

WELL-BELOVED AND REVEREND BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and

peace be to you. Upon acquaintance in Christ, I thought good to take the
opportunity of writing to you. Seeing it hath seemed good to the Lord of
the harvest to take the hooks out of our hands for a time, and to lay upon
us a more honourable service, even to suffer for His name, it were good to
comfort one another in writing. I have had a desire to see you in the face;
yet now being the prisoner of Christ, it is taken away. I am greatly
comforted to hear of your soldier's stately spirit, for your princely and
royal Captain Jesus our Lord, and for the grace of God in the rest of our
dear brethren with you.

You have heard of my trouble, I suppose. It hath pleased our sweet Lord
Jesus to let loose the malice of these interdicted lords in His house to
deprive me of my ministry at Anwoth, and to confine me, eight score
miles from thence, to Aberdeen; and also (which was not done to any
before) to inhibit me to speak at all in Jesus' name, within this kingdom,
under the pain of rebellion. The cause that ripened their hatred was my
book against the Arminians, whereof they accused me, on those three
days I appeared before them. But, let our crowned King in Zion reign! By
His grace the loss is theirs, the advantage is Christ's and truth's. Albeit
this honest cross gained some ground on me, and my heaviness and my
inward challenges of conscience for a time were sharp, yet now, for the
encouragement of you all, I dare say it, and write it under my hand,
"Welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet cross of Christ." I verily think the
chains of my Lord Jesus are all overlaid with pure gold, and that His
cross is perfumed, and that it smelleth of Christ, and that the victory shall
be by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His truth, and that
Christ, lying on His back, in His weak servants, and oppressed truth, shall
ride over His enemies' bellies, and shall "strike through kings in the day
of His wrath" (Psa. 110:4). It is time we laugh when He laugheth; and
seeing He is now pleased to sit with wrongs for a time, it becometh us to
be silent until the Lord hath let the enemies enjoy their hungry, lean, and
feckless paradise. Blessed are they who are content to take strokes with
weeping Christ. Faith will trust the Lord, and is not hasty, nor
headstrong; neither is faith so timorous as to flatter a temptation, or to
bud and bribe the cross. It is little up or little down that the Lamb and His
followers can get no law-surety, nor truce with crosses; it must be so, till
we be up in our Father's house. My heart is woe indeed for my mother
Church, that hath played the harlot with many lovers. Her Husband hath
a mind to sell her for her horrible transgressions; and heavy will the hand
of the Lord be upon this backsliding nation. The ways of our Zion mourn;
her gold has become dim, her white Nazarites are black like a coal. How
shall not the children weep, when the Husband and the mother cannot
agree! Yet I believe Scotland's sky shall clear again; that Christ shall build
again the old waste places of Jacob; that our dead and dry bones shall
become one army of living men, and that our Well-beloved may yet feed
among the lilies, until the day break and the shadows flee away (Song 4:5,
6). My dear brother, let us help one another with our prayers. Our King
shall mow down His enemies, and shall come from Bozrah with His
garments all dyed in blood. And for our consolation shall He appear, and
call His wife Hephzibah, and His land Beulah (Isa. 62:4); for He will
rejoice over us and marry us, and Scotland shall say, "What have I to do
any more with idols?" Only let us be faithful to Him that can ride through
hell and death upon a windlestrae, and His horse never stumble; and let
Him make of me a bridge over a water, so that His high and holy name
may be glorified in me. Strokes with the sweet Mediator's hand are very
sweet. He was always sweet to my soul; but since I suffered for Him, His
breath hath a sweeter smell than before. Oh that every hair of my head,
and every member and every bone in my body, were a man to witness a
fair confession for Him! I would think all too little for Him. When I look
over beyond the line, and beyond death, to the laughing side of the world,
I triumph, and ride upon the high places of Jacob; howbeit otherwise I
am a faint, dead-hearted, cowardly man, oft borne down, and hungry in
waiting for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Nevertheless, I think it the
Lord's wise love that feeds us with hunger, and makes us fat with wants
and desertions.

I know not, my dear brother, if our worthy brethren be gone to sea or not.
They are on my heart and in my prayers. If they be yet with you, salute
my dear friend, John Stuart, my well-beloved brethren in the Lord, Mr.
Blair, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Livingston, and Mr M'Clelland, and acquaint
them with my troubles, and entreat them to pray for the poor afflicted
prisoner of Christ. They are dear to my soul. I seek your prayers and
theirs for my flock: their remembrance breaketh my heart. I desire to love
that people, and others my dear acquaintance in Christ, with love in God,
and as God loveth them. I know that He who sent me to the west and
south, sends me also to the north. I will charge my soul to believe and to
wait for Him, and will follow His providence, and not go before it, nor
stay behind it. Now, my dear brother, taking farewell in paper, I
commend you all to the word of His grace, and to the work of His Spirit,
to Him who holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, that you may be
kept spotless till the day of Jesus our Lord.

I am your brother in affliction in our sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

From IRVINE, being on my journey to Christ's

Palace in Aberdeen, August 4, 1636.

LXIV.—To ALEXANDER GORDON of

Earlston
(HIS FEELINGS UPON LEAVING ANWOTH.)

MUCH HONOURED SIR,—I find small hopes of Q.'s business. I intend,

after the council-day, to go on to Aberdeen. The Lord is with me: I care
not what man can do. I burden no man, and I want nothing. No king is
better provided than I am. Sweet, sweet, and easy is the cross of my Lord.
All men I look in the face (of whatsoever denomination, nobles and poor,
acquaintance and strangers) are friendly to me. My Well-beloved is some
kinder and more warmly than ordinary, and cometh and visiteth my soul.
My chains are overgilded with gold. Only the remembrance of my fair
days with Christ in Anwoth, and of my dear flock (whose case is my
heart's sorrow), is vinegar to my sugared wine. Yet both sweet and sour
feed my soul. No pen, no words, no ingine can express to you the
loveliness of my only, only Lord Jesus. Thus, in haste, making for my
palace at Aberdeen, I bless you, your wife, your eldest son, and other
children. Grace, grace be with you.

Yours in his only, only Lord Jesus,

S. R.

EDINBURGH, Sept. 5, 1636.

LXV.—To ROBERT GORDON of Knockbreck,

on his way to Aberdeen
[ROBERT GORDON of Knockbrex, in the parish of Borgue, which adjoins
Anwoth, is, by Livingstone in his "Characteristics," described as "a single-
hearted and painful Christian, much employed at parliaments and public
meetings after the year 1638." He was a member of the famous Assembly
which met at Glasgow in 1638, as commissioner from the Presbytery of
Kirkcudbright. The precise date of his death is uncertain; but we find, in
1657, John Gordon in Garloch, five miles from Dalry, is retoured "heir of
Robert Gordon of Knockbreck, his granduncle, in the lands of
Knockbreck." (Inq. Retor. Abbrev. Kirkcudbright, No. 274.) This John
Gordon, and Robert, his brother, were executed together at Edinburgh on
the 7th of December 1666, for having been engaged in the rising at
Pentland. (See Letter CCXVII. They inherited, and suffered for, the
principles of Robert Gordon of Knockbreck, their granduncle, to whom
this letter was written.

Knockbrex stands near the sea-shore, amid thick woods, looking down on
the opening of Wigtown Bay. But a modern mansion has taken the place
of Gordon's residence.]

(HOW UPHELD ON THE WAY.)

MY DEAREST BROTHER,—I see Christ thinketh shame (if I may speak

so) to be in such a poor man's common as mine. I burden no man; I want
nothing; no face hath gloomed upon me since I left you. God's sun and
fair weather conveyeth me to my time-paradise in Aberdeen. Christ hath
so handsomely fitted for my shoulders this rough tree of the cross, as that
it hurteth me no ways. My treasure is up in Christ's coffers; my comforts
are greater than ye can believe; my pen shall lie for penury of words to
write of them. God knoweth I am filled with the joy of the Holy Ghost.
Only my memory of you, my dearest in the Lord, my flock and others,
keepeth me under, and from being exalted above measure. Christ's sweet
sauce hath this sour mixed with it; but O such a sweet and pleasant taste!
I find small hopes of Q.'s matter. Thus in haste. Remember me to your
wife, and to William Gordon. Grace be with you,

Yours in his only, only Lord Jesus,

S. R.
EDINBURGH, Sept. 5, 1636.

LXVI.—To ROBERT GORDON of

Knockbreck, after arriving at Aberdeen
(CHALLENGES OF CONSCIENCE—EASE IN ZION.)

DEAR BROTHER,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I am, by God's

mercy, come now to Aberdeen, the place of my confinement, and settled
in an honest man's house. I find the town's-men cold, general, and dry in
their kindness; yet I find a lodging in the heart of many strangers. My
challenges are revived again, and I find old sores bleeding of new;
dangerous and painful is an under-cotted conscience; yet I have an eye to
the blood that is physic for such sores. But, verily, I see Christianity is
conceived to be more easy and lighter than it is; so that I sometimes think
I never knew anything but the letters of that name; for our nature
contenteth itself with little in godliness. Our "Lord, Lord," seemeth to us
ten "Lord-Lords." Little holiness in our balance is much, because it is our
own holiness; and we love to lay small burdens upon our soft natures,
and to make a fair court-way to heaven. And I know it were necessary to
take more pains than we do, and not to make heaven a city more easily
taken than God hath made it. I persuade myself that many runners shall
come sh