CCCXXII. To his reverend and worthy brother, Prospect of death-Christ the true support in death. Reverend and dear Brother,—I cannot speak to you: the way ye know; the passage is free and not stopped; the print of the footsteps of the Forerunner is clear and manifest; many have gone before you. Ye will not sleep long in the dust before the day-break. It is a far shorter piece of the hinder-end of the night to you than to Abraham and Moses; beside all the time of their bodies resting under corruption, it is as long yet to their day as to your morning-light of awaking to glory; though their spirits, having the advantage of yours, have had now the fore-start of the shore before you. I dare say nothing against his dispensation. I hope to follow quickly. The heirs, that are not there before you, are posting with haste after you, and none shall take your lodging over your head. Be not heavy. The life of faith is now called for; doing was never reckoned in your accounts, (though Christ in and by you hath done more, than by twenty, yea, an hundred grey-haired and godly pastors;) believing now is your last. Look to that word, "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."2 Ye know the I that liveth, and the I that liveth not; it is not single ye that live. Christ by law liveth in the broken debtor; it is not a life by doing or holy walking, but the living of Christ in you. If ye look to yourself as divided from Christ, ye must be more than heavy. All your wants, dear brother, be upon him: ye are his debtors; grace must sum and subscribe your accounts as paid. Stand not upon items, and small or little sanctification. Ye know that inherent holiness must stand by, when imputed is all. I fear the clay house is a-taking down and undermining: but it is nigh the dawning. Look to the east, the dawning of the glory is near. Your Guide is good company, and knoweth all the miles, and the ups and downs in the way—the nearer the morning the darker. Some travel 'Gillespie was lying on his death-bed when this letter was written to him by Rutherford, who had heard of the dangerous illness of his friend. He died on the 17th of December following. Gal. ii. 10. lers see the city twenty miles off, and at a distance: and yet within the eighth part of a mile they cannot see it. It is all keeping, that ye would now have, till ye need it and if sense and fruition come both at once, it is not your loss. Let Christ tutor you as he thinketh good; ye cannot be marred nor miscarry in his hand. Want is an excellent qualification; and "no money, no price," to you, (who I know, dare not glory in your own righteousness,) is fitness warrantable enough to cast yourself upon Him who justifieth the ungodly. Some see the gold once, and never again till the race's end; it is coming all in a sum together; when ye are in a more gracious capacity to tell it than now. "Ye are not come to the mount that burneth with fire, or unto blackness, darkness, and tempest; but ye are come to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling," &c. Ye must leave the wife to a more choice Husband, and the children to a better Father. If ye leave any testimony to the Lord's work and covenant, against both malignants, and sectaries, (which I suppose may be needful,) let it be under your hand, and subscribed before faithful witnesses. Your loving and afflicted brother, ST ANDREWS, Sept. 27, 1648. CCCXXIII.-To MISTRESS GILLESPIE. S. R. On the death of a child-God afflicts in order to save us from the world. DEAR SISTER,-I have heard how the Lord hath visited you, in removing the child Archibald. I hope ye see that the setting down of the weight of your confidence and affection upon any created thing, whether husband or child, is a deceiving thing; and that the creature is not able to bear the weight, In this matter Gillespie complied with Rutherford's advice, having left behind him a testimony against both Malignants and Sectaries, subscribed by his own hand, on the 15th of December, only two days before he died. but sinketh down to very nothing under your confidence. And, therefore, ye are Christ's debtor for all providences of this kind, even in that he buildeth an hedge of thorns in your way: for so ye see that his gracious intention is to save you, (if I may say so,) whether ye will or not. It is a rich mercy that the Lord Christ will be Master of your will and of your delights, and that his way is so fair for landing of husband and children before-hand in the country whitherto ye are journeying. No matter how little ye be engaged to the world, since ye have such experience of cross dealing in it. Had ye been a child of the house, the world would have dealt more warmly with its own. There is less of you out of heaven, in that the child is there, and the husband is there, but much more that your Head, Kinsman, and Redeemer doth fetch home such as are in danger to be lost. And from this time forward, fetch not your comforts from such broken cisterns and dry wells: if the Lord pull at the rest, ye must not be the creature that will hold when he draweth. Truly, to me your case is more comfortable than if the fireside were well plenished with ten children. The Lord saw that ye were able, by his grace, to bear the loss of husband and child: and that ye are that weak and tender as not to be able to stand under the mercy of a gracious husband, living and flourishing in esteem with authority, and in reputation for godliness and learning. For he knoweth the weight of these mercies would crush you and break you; and as there is no searching out of his understanding, so he hath skill to know what providence will make Christ dearest to you; and let not your heart say, "It is an ill-waled dispensation." Sure Christ, who hath seven eyes, had before him the good of a living husband and children for Margaret Murray, and the good of a removed husband and children translated to glory. Now that he hath opened his decree to you, say, "Christ hath made for me a wise and gracious choice, and I have not one word to say to the contrary." Let not your heart charge anything, nor unbelief libel injuries upon Christ because he will not let you alone, nor give you leave to play the adulteress with such as have not that right to your love that Christ hath. I should wish that, at the reading of this, ye may fall down and make a surrender of those that are gone, and of those that are yet alive, to him: and for you, let him have all and wait for himself, for he will come, and will not tarry. Live by faith, and the peace of God guard your heart. He cannot die whose ye are. My wife suffereth with you; and remembereth her love to you. Your brother, in Christ, ST ANDREWS, Aug. 14, 1649. S. R. CCCXXIV. To the worthy and much honoured -- COLONEL GILBERT KER, [COLONEL GILBERT KER was a leading man among the covenanters. He was one of the officers of the west country army, and adhered with great zeal to the Western Remonstrance, sent by that army to the committee of estates, which among other things condemned the treaty with the king, accused many of the committee of estates of covetousness and oppression, and opposed the invasion of England, or forcing a king upon that kingdom. In the year 1655 he was named justice of peace for Roxburghshire, but declined to accept; stating as his reasons, that he considered the employment sinful, not allowed by the word of God, contrary to the solemn league and covenant, and an encroachment on the liberty of Christ's church. In his letter to the sheriff, declining his appointment, after assigning his reasons, he adds, “It is to me a weighty Scripture that, Mal. ii. 10, Why do ye deal treacherously every man with his neighbour, by blaspheming the covenant of our fathers.' This ought to be seriously laid to heart in its season, lest this sad threatening in verse 12 overtake the despiser." Thurloe's Papers, vol. iv. p. 480. At the restoration of Charles II. when those concerned in the Western Remonstrance were particularly marked out for the vengeance of the government, he left the country, but was allowed by the Privy Council to return, in the beginning of the year 1671, upon "giving bond to behave himself peaceably and loyally, under the penalty of L.500 sterling." Wodrow's History, vol. ii. p. 186. He died previous to October 5, 1677, as at that date, Mr James Row, merchant in Edinburgh, his son-in-law, presents a petition to the Privy Council, praying that he might obtain the remission of a fine of five hundred merks, which had been imposed on the deceased Colonel Gilbert Ker, upon account of a conventicle, and for the payment of which 1 Rutherford was married a second time on the 24th March 1649, about five months previous to the date of the above letter. The name of his second wife was Jean M'Math.. the petitioner had become cautioner, in respect the deceased had no estate or means by which he might obtain relief. In compliance with the petition, this fine was remitted. Register of Acts of Privy Council.] Singleness of aim-Judgment in regard to adversaries. MUCH HONOURED AND TRULY WORTHY,-I hope I shall not need to show you, that ye are in greater hazard from yourself and your own spirit, which should be watched over,-that your actings for God may be clean, spiritual, purely for God, for the Prince of the kings of the earth,-than ye can be in danger from your enemies. Oh, how hard is it, to get the intentions so cut off from, and raised above the creature, as to be without mixture of creature and carnal interest, and to have the soul, in heavenly actings, only, only eyeing Himself, and acting from love to God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ! Ye will find yourself, your delights, your solid glory, (far above the air and breathings of mouths, and the thin, short, poor applauses of men,) before you in God. All the creatures, all the swords, all the hosts in Britain, and in this poor globe of the habitable world, are but under him single cyphers making no number, the product being nothing but painted men, and painted swords in a brod,1 without influence from him. And, oh, what of God is in Gideon's sword, when it is the sword of the Lord! I wish a sword from Heaven to you, and orders from Heaven to you to go out, and as much peremptoriness of a heavenly will, as to say, and abide by it, "I will not, I shall not go out unless thou goest with me." I desire not to be rash in judging; but I am a stranger to the mind of Christ, if our adversaries who have unjustly invaded us, be not now in the camp of those that make war with the Lamb. But the Lamb shall overcome them at length; for he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they who are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And though ye and I see but the dark side of God's dispensations this day towards Britain, yet the fair, beautiful, and desirable close of it must be the confederacy of the nations of the world with Britain's Lord of armies. And let me die in the comforts of the faith of this, that a throne shall be set up for Christ in this island of Britain, (which is, and shall be, a garden more fruitful of trees of 1 Board. |