Chapter XXXVIII: Letter CCCXII: ) (2)

I judge you ten thousand times happy, that ever ye were grace's debtor; for certainly Christ hath engaged you over head and ears to free grace. And take the debt with you to eternity, Immanuel's highest land, where ye find before you a houseful of Christ's everlasting debtors; the less shame to you. Yea, and this lower kingdom of grace is but Christ's hospital, and guest-house of sick folks, whom the brave and noble Physician, Christ, hath cured, upon a venture of life and death. And, if ye be near the water-side (as I know ye are), all that I can say is this, Sir, that I feel by the smell of that land which is before you, that it is a goodly country, and it is well paid for to your hand. And He is before you who will heartily welcome you. Oh, to suck those breasts of full consolation above, and to drink Christ's new wine up in His Father's house, is some greater matter than is believed; since it was brewed from eternity for the Head of the house, and so many thousand crowned kings. Rubs in the way, where the lodging is so good, are not much.

He that brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, establish you to the end.

Your friend and servant in Christ Jesus,

S. R.

LONDON, _May 15, 1646_.

CCCXXIV.--_To his Reverend and worthy Brother_, MR. GEORGE GILLESPIE.[463]

[463] Gillespie was lying on his deathbed 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.

(_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 Daybreak. 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.[464] Look to that word, "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). 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 travellers 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[465] 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," etc.

[464] Your believing now is your last believing; closing the whole
course.

[465] See Letter CCCXVIII.

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.[466]

[466] 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.

Your loving and afflicted brother,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Sept. 27, 1648_.

CCCXXV.--_To SIR JAMES STEWART, Lord Provost of Edinburgh_.[467]

[467] As an accurate facsimile of this letter from the original, among
the papers of the Town Council of Edinburgh, is inserted here, it has
been thought proper, in this instance, to retain Rutherford's
orthography.

[SIR JAMES STEWART of Kirkfield and Cultness, to whom this letter
is addressed, was a man of high Christian excellence. "Sir James
Stewart," said the celebrated George Gillespie, "has more
sterling religion in ready cash than any man ever I knew; he is
always agreeably composed and recollected, in a permanent devout
frame of spirit, and such as I should wish to have in my last
moments" ("Coltness Collections," p. 15). He was a zealous
Covenanter, and suffered considerably for his principles during
the persecution of Charles II. He died March 31, 1681, at his own
house at Edinburgh, in the seventy-third year of his age, in the
full assurance of faith. Rutherford wrote this letter on occasion
of his own election to be Professor of Divinity in the College of
Edinburgh.]

Richt honorablee

THE mater of my transportation is so poor a contraversie, I truely not beeing desyrous to be the subject of any dine[468] in the Generall Assemblie of the Kirk of Scotland whoe have greater bussines to doe, and haveing suffered once the paine of transportation, moist humbly intreat your w. [worships] that favour as to cast yo^r thoughts vpon some fitter man; for as it is vnbeseemeing me to lie or dissemblee, so I must friely show you it will but mak me the subject of suffereing and passive obedience, and I trust your w. [worships] intend not that hurt to me, and I am persuaded it is not yo^r mind, it shall be my prayer to God, to send that worthie societie an hable[469] and pious man. Grace be with you.

[468] _Din_, noise. The superfluous "_e_," at the end of several of
these words, may possibly have been a dash in the writing. "Dine," for
"din"; "whoe," for "who"; "humblee," for "humble." Compare
"_honorable_," on the address of the letter with the same word in the
commencement. (A kind friend, reading this letter carefully over,
maintains that "_dine_," or "_din_," is not the word in the autograph,
but that it is "_drane_," which would mean that he did not wish _to be
a drain_ on the time of the Assembly, who had greater business to
attend to than this personal affair of his. But, so far as we are
aware, that phrase, "_to be a drain_," never occurs elsewhere in
Rutherford's writings. What if the writer, in the agitation of the
moment, allowed his pen to write "drane," though he meant it to be
"dine"?)

[469] From French, "habile," in which we see the etymology of
"_able_."

Yours at all humblee
observance in the Lord
SAMUEL RUTHERFURD

for the richt honorable my varie good lord,
Sr James Steuart proveist of Edinbrugh and
remanent magistrats Counsellers of the Citie.

S Andrews the
Last of Junii
1649

CCCXXVI.--_To MISTRESS GILLESPIE, Widow of George Gillespie._

(_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, 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,[470] and remembereth her love to you.

Your brother in Christ,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Aug. 14, 1649_.

[470] Rutherford was married a second time on 24th March 1649, about
five months previous to the date of this Letter, to Jean M'Math.

CCCXXVII.--_To the_ EARL OF BALCARRAS.

[ALEXANDER LINDSAY, second Lord Balcarras, and first Earl of
Balcarras, to whom this letter is addressed, was a man of
superior talents, and espoused the cause of the Covenant. He
commanded a troop of horse in the Covenanters' army at the battle
of Alford, 2nd July 1645, when General Baillie was defeated by
Montrose. He was one of the Commissioners despatched by the
Parliament of Scotland, 19th December 1646, to King Charles I.,
with their last proposals, which his Majesty rejected; upon which
the Scottish army surrendered him to the English Parliament, and
retired from England. When, in 1648, troops were raised with the
design of rescuing the King from the English Parliament, and
restoring him to liberty and power, without requiring from him
any concessions to his subjects, which was called "The
Engagement," Balcarras took an active part in this enterprise,
for which Rutherford, by the way, tenders to him a reproof. On
the arrival of Charles II. in Scotland, 1650, he repaired to his
Majesty, by whom he was advanced to the dignity of Earl of
Balcarras. He was High Commissioner to the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland which met at St. Andrews, 16th July 1651.
In 1652 he settled with his family at St. Andrews, keeping up a
correspondence with his exiled sovereign; and in 1653 again took
arms, and joined in an ineffectual attempt to uphold the Royal
cause against Cromwell. His estate, after this, being
sequestrated, he withdrew to the Continent. His Lordship did not
live to see the Restoration of Charles, having died of
consumption in the prime of life, at Breda, on the 30th of August
1659. His mortal remains were brought over to Scotland, and
interred at Balcarras. (Douglas' "Peerage of Scotland.") This
letter is given from the original, among the Balcarras Papers,
vol. ix., No. 135, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. _Balcarras
House_ is three miles from Largo. A tower on the crag above it
marks it out from a distance. The old mansion has been nearly
superseded, but you see carved on the walls the old motto,
"Astra, castra, lumen, Numen." In old books it is written
"_Balcarrs_."]

(_REGARDING SOME MISUNDERSTANDING._)

MY VERY HONOURABLE LORD,--I am sorry that your Lordship should be offended at any sinistrous misinformation concerning your supposed discountenancing of ministers. For the general I can say nothing, being utterly ignorant thereof. I hope your Lordship will make the best use of it may be. For myself, I owe no thanks to any that have named me as the object of any discountenancing; for, truly, I value not any of these when, as the conscience of my innocence showeth me (and, for aught known to me, truly) that I offended no nobleman in the kingdom, far less my Lord Balcarras, whose public deservings have been such as I esteem him to have been most instrumental in this work of God. I hope, my Lord, you will pardon me to make a little exception in the matter of the late sinful engagement. And therefore, my Lord, I entreat you to forget that business; for since your Lordship said of me, in your letter to Mr. David Forret,[471] more than I deserve, I shall be satisfied with it as an expiation, more than any discountenancing of me can amount unto by millions of degrees. And therefore entreat your Lordship to accept of this for anything that any could say to your Lordship of that business. If I had thought so much of myself as the discountenancing of me had been a sinful neglect (whereas I know there is little ground for the contrary), I should have spoken to your Lordship myself. So trusting your Lordship will rest satisfied, I am, your Lordship's, at power in the Lord,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Dec. 24, 1649_.

[471] Mr. David Forret, or Forrest, was minister of Kilconquhar. He
had formerly been minister of Deninno, where he appears in 1639. He
was translated thence to Forgan in 1640; and to Kilconquhar, May 27,
1646. He refused to conform to Prelacy in 1662, but was not ejected,
and died February 26, 1672.

CCCXXVIII.--_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.

At the restoration of Charles II., when those concerned in the Western Remonstrance were particularly marked out for the vengenance of the Government, he left the country, but was allowed by the Privy Council to return in the beginning of the year 1671. He must have died previous to October 5, 1677; for 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, imposed on the deceased Colonel Gilbert Ker upon account of a conventicle, and for the payment of which the petitioner had become cautioner. 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, 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 righteousness, and which payeth and shall pay more thousands to the Lord of the vineyard than is paid in thrice the bounds of Great Britain upon earth), and there can be neither Papist, Prelate, Malignant, nor Sectary, who dare draw a sword against Him that sitteth upon the throne.

Sir, I shall wish a clean[472] army, so far as may be, that the shout of a King who hath many crowns may be among you; and that ye may fight in faith, and prevail with God first. Think it your glory to have a sword to act, and suffer, and die (if it please Him), so being ye may add anything to the declarative glory of Christ, the Plant of Renown, Immanuel, God with us. Happy and thrice blessed are they by whose actings, or blood, or pain, or loss, the diadems and rubies of His highest and most glorious crown (whose ye are) shall glister and shine in this quarter of the habitable world. Though He need not Gilbert Ker, nor his sword, yet this honour have ye with His redeemed soldiers, to call Christ High Lord-General, of whom ye hope for pay and all arrears well told. Go on, worthy Sir, in the courage of faith, following the Lamb. Make not haste unbelievingly; but in hope and silence keep the watch-tower, and look out. He will come in His own time; His salvation shall not tarry. He will place salvation in Britain's Zion for Israel's glory.

[472] Free from malignants. See note, Letter CCCXXX.

His good-will who dwelt in The Bush and it burned not, be yours, and with you.

I am yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Aug. 10, 1650_.

CCCXXIX.--_To the worthy and much honoured_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.

(_COURAGE IN DAYS OF REBUKE--GOD'S ARRANGEMENTS ALL WISE._)

MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--What I wrote to you before, I spake not upon any private warrant. I am where I was. Cromwell and his army (I shall not say but there may be, and are, several sober and godly among them, who have either joined through misinformation, or have gone alongst with the rest in the simplicity of their hearts, not knowing anything) fight in an unjust cause, against the Lord's secret ones. And now to the trampling of the worship of God, and persecuting the people of God in England and Ireland, he hath brought upon his score the blood of the people of God in Scotland. I entreat you, dear Sir, as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ, whose free grace prevented you when ye were His enemy, go on without fainting, equally eschewing all mixtures with Sectaries[473] and Malignants.[474] Neither of the two shall ever be instrumental to save the Lord's people, or build His house. And without prophesying, or speaking further than He, whose I am and whom I desire to serve, in the Gospel of His Son, shall warrant, I desire to hope and to believe there is a glory and a majesty of the Prince of the kings of the earth, that shall shine and appear in Great Britain, which shall darken all the glory of men, confound Sectaries and Malignants, and rejoice the spirits of the followers of the Lamb, and dazzle the eyes of the beholders.

[473] The Independents.

[474] The Cavaliers.

Sir, I suppose that God is to gather Malignants and Sectaries, ere all be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; and to bid the daughters of Zion arise, and thresh. I hope that ye will mix with none of them. I am abundantly satisfied, that our army, through the sinful miscarriage of men, hath fallen; and dare say it is a better and a more comfortable dispensation, than if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God; because He hath done it. For, 1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be upon the accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade. 2. Victory is such a burdening and weighty mercy, that we have not strength to bear it as yet. 3. That was not the army, nor Gideon's three hundred, by whom He is to save us; we must have one of our Lord's carving. 4. Our enemies on both sides are not enough hardened, nor we enough mortified to multitude, valour, and creatures.

Grace, grace be with you.

Your friend and servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Sept. 5, 1650_.

CCCXXX.--_To MR. WILLIAM GUTHRIE, when the army was at Stirling, after the defeat at Dunbar,[475] and the godly in the West were falsely branded with intended compliance with the usurpers, about the time when those debates and that difference concerning the Public Resolutions arose._[476]

[475] The battle was fought between Cromwell and the Scots, and the
latter were completely defeated, with great loss. It was fought on the
3rd September 1650.

[476] After the battle of Dunbar, it was proposed that the restraints
by which such as had, by various Acts of Parliament, been excluded
from places of power and trust in the army and state, on account of
their Malignancy, or opposition to the Covenant and liberties of the
nation, should be removed. This was at first refused; but after the
defeat at Hamilton, the Commission agreed to certain resolutions, for
admitting into places of power and trust in the Army and State such as
had been excluded by the Acts of Parliament referred to. These were
called "Public Resolutions," and they became a source of much
dissension in the church. At last they were formally approved of by
the General Assembly held in July 1651, at St. Andrews, and adjourned
to Dundee. At the last sederunt at St. Andrews, Rutherford, who was
strongly opposed to the Resolutions, gave in a protestation against
the lawfulness of that Assembly. It was subscribed by twenty-one
besides himself. Hence those opposed to the Public Resolutions were
called "Protesters," and those friendly to them, "Resolutioners."

[WILLIAM GUTHRIE was born at Pitforthy, in the shire of Angus, in
the year 1620. He was the eldest son of the Laird of Pitforthy, a
cadet of the old family of Guthrie, and by his mother's side was
descended from the ancient house of Easter-Ogle. He attended the
literary and philosophical classes at the University of St.
Andrews, and studied theology under Rutherford. On the 7th of
November 1644, he was ordained minister of Fenwick. There he
continued successfully to discharge his ministry till the 24th of
July 1664, when, for nonconformity, he was suspended from and
discharged to exercise his ministry, and his church declared
vacant, by order of Bishop Burnet. He died at Brechin on the 10th
of October 1665.

It may be mentioned here that William Guthrie of Fenwick was
cousin to the famous James Guthrie, and was brought to Christ by
Samuel Rutherford's ministry at St. Andrews, being one of his
first fruits there. ("Life" by Wodrow.) It was he who wrote "The
Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ," so well known.]

(_DEPRESSION UNDER DARK TRIALS--DANGER OF COMPLIANCE._)

REVEREND BROTHER,--I did not dream of such shortness of breath, and fainting in the way toward our country. I thought that I had no more to do than die in my nest, and bow down my sinful head, and let Him put on the crown, and so end. I have suffered much; but this is the thickest darkness, and the straitest step of the way I have yet trodden. I see more suffering yet behind, and, I fear, from the keepers of the vine. Let me obtain of you, that you would press upon the Lord's people that they would stand far off from these merchants of souls who have come in amongst you. If the way revealed in the word be that way, we then know that these soul-cowpers and traffickers show not the way of salvation. Alas, alas! poor I am utterly lost, my share of heaven is gone, and my hope is poor; I am perished, and I am cut off from the Lord, if hitherto out of the way! But I dare not judge kind Christ; for, if it may be but permitted (with reverence to His greatness and highness be it spoken), I will, before witnesses, produce His own hand that He said, "This is the way, walk thou in it." And He cannot except against His own seal. I profess that I am almost broken and a little sleepy, and would fain put off this body. But this is my infirmity, who would be under the shadow and covert of that Good Land, once[477] to be without the reach and blast of that terrible One. But I am a fool: there is none that can overbid, or take my lodging over my head, since Christ hath taken it for me.

[477] Once for all; completely.

Dear brother, help me, and get me the help of their prayers who are with you in whom is my delight. You are much suspected of intended compliance; I mean, not of you only, but of all the people of God with you. It is but a poor thing the fulfilling of my joy; but let me obtest all the serious seekers of His face, His secret sealed ones, by the strongest consolations of the Spirit, by the gentleness of Jesus Christ, that Plant of Renown, by your last accounts and appearing before God, when the White Throne shall be set up, be not deceived with their fair words. Though my spirit be astonished at the cunning distinctions which are found out in the matters of the Covenant, that help may be had against these men; yet my heart trembleth to entertain the least thought of joining with those deceivers.

Grace, grace be with you. Amen.

Your own brother, in our common Lord and Saviour,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS.

CCCXXXI.--_To the worthy and much honoured_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.

(_COURAGE IN THE LORD'S CAUSE--DUTY IN REGARD TO PROVIDENCE TO BE OBSERVED--SAFETY IN THIS._)

MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--It is considerable that the Lord may, and often doth call to a work and yet hide Himself, and try the faith of His own. If I conceive aright, the Lord hath called you to act against that enemy; and the withdrawers of their sword (in my weak apprehension) add their zeal unto, and take upon them the guilt of that unjust invasion of this land made by Cromwell's army, and of the blood of the Lord's people in this kingdom; since the sword, put into the hand of His children, is to execute wrath and vengeance upon evil-doers. The Lord's time of appearing for His broken land is reserved to the breathings of the Spirit of the Lord, such as came upon Gideon and Samson; and that is an act of princely and royal sovereignty in God. Ye are, Sir, to lay hold on opportunities of Providence, and to wait for Him.

As for your particular treating by yourselves with the invaders of our land, I have no mind to it, and do look upon their way as a carrying on of the mystery of iniquity; for Babylon is a seat of many names. Sir, let[478] this controversy stand undecided till the Second Appearance of Jesus Christ, and our appeal lie before the throne undiscussed till that day, I hope to lie down in the grave in the faith of the justness of our cause. I speak nothing of the maintaining the greatness of men, not subordinate to the Prince of the kings of the earth. I judge that the blood of the witnesses of Jesus is found upon the skirts of this society, as well as in Babylon's skirts. I believe that the way of the Lord is Colonel Gilbert Ker's strength and glory; and I should be content to want my part of him (which is, I confess, precious and dear in Christ), so that he be spent in the service of Him who will anon make inquisition for the blood of the truly godly; which these men have shed, after fair warning that they were the godly of Scotland.

[478] Supposing that this controversy remains undecided.

Worthy Sir, believe; faint not. Set your shoulder under the glory of Jesus that is misprised in Scotland, and give a testimony for Him. He hath many names in Scotland, who shall walk with Him in white. This despised Covenant shall ruin Malignants, Sectaries, and Atheists. Yet a little while, and behold He cometh, and walketh[479] in the greatness of His strength, and His garments dyed with blood. Oh, for the sad and terrible day of the Lord upon England, their ships of Tarshish, their fenced cities, etc., because of a broken covenant!

[479] The Hebrew of Isa. lxiii. 1 is alluded to (צֹעֶה): "_marching on_
in the greatness of His strength." Rutherford, in the latter part of
his life, studied Isaiah very closely. See Sketch of his Life.

A conference with the enemy, not to hinder acting (Oh that the Lord would thereby, or by some other way, remove the cloud that is over you!), if authority should concur, were to be desired; but it can hardly be expected. However, in the way of duty, and in the silence of faith, go on. If ye perish, ye are the first of the creation with whom the Lord hath taken that dispensation. I should humbly desire you, Sir, to look to that: "Dying, and, behold, we live; killed all the day long, and yet more than conquerors." There shall be the heat and warmness of life in your graves and buried bones. But look not for the Lord's coming the higher way only, for He may come the lower way. Oh, how little of God do we see, and how mysterious is He! Christ known is amongst the greatest secrets of God. Keep yourself in the love of God; and, in order to that, as far in obedience and subjection to the King (whose salvation and true happiness my soul desireth), and to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, and to the fundamental laws of this kingdom, as your Lord requireth. Sir, ye are in the hearts and prayers of the Lord's people in this kingdom, and in the other two.[480] The Lord hath said, "There is blessing in the cluster of grapes; destroy it not."

[480] England and Ireland.

Grace, grace be upon the head of him that is separated from his brethren; and the good-will of Him that dwelt in The Bush be with you.

Your servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

PERTH, _Nov. 23, 1650_.

CCCXXXII.--_To the much honoured and truly worthy_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.

(_CHRISTS CAUSE DESERVES SERVICE AND SUFFERING FROM US._)

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it
shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it."--HAB.
ii. 3, 4.

MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--Your chains now shine as much for Christ (the cause being His) as your sword was made famous in acting for that cause; and blessed are such as can willingly tender to Christ both action and blood, doing and suffering. Resisting unto blood is little for that precious and never-enough exalted Redeemer, who, when ye were a-buying, gave blood somewhat dearer than ye gave for Him, even the blood of God (Acts xx. 28). I know a man, who, upon the receipt of a letter that ye were killed and the people of God destroyed, wished that he might be quickly under the wall of the higher palace from under the dint[481] of the storm, and who longed to have the weather-beaten and crazy bark safely landed in that harbour of eternal quietness.

[481] The blow, Zachary Boyd ("Last Battle") speaks of "the dint of
God's judgment-stroke."

What further service Christ hath for you, I know not; it is enough that in your captivity[482] ye offer your service to Christ. But if I see anything, it looketh like a merciful defeat. I see the nobles and the state falling off from Christ, and the night coming upon the prophets; which we should pray to prevent, because it is a rare thing to see a fallen star ever win up again to the firmament to shine. And what if this be the thick darkness going before the break of day? Sure, Sir, the sun shall rise upon Scotland; but if I shall see it, or how near is it to that day, I leave that to Him, even unto Jehovah, who "createth upon every dwelling-place in Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." But, Sir, "the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as a rose:" and happy he who hath a bone, or an arm, to put the crown upon the head of our highest King, whose chariot is paved with love. Were there ten thousand millions of heavens created above these highest heavens, and again as many above them, and as many above them till angels were wearied with counting, it were but too low a seat to fix the princely throne of that Lord Jesus (whose ye are) above them all. Created heavens are too low a seat of majesty for Him. Since, then, there is none equal to your Master and Prince who hath chosen out for you (amongst many sufferings for sin) that only cross which cometh nearest in likeness to His own cross, watered with consolation, take courage, and comfort yourself in Him who hath chosen you to glory hereafter and to conformity with Him here. We fools would have a cross of our own choosing, and would have our gall and wormwood sugared, our fire cold, and our death and grave warmed with heat of life; but He who hath brought many children to glory, and lost none, is our best Tutor. I wish that, when I am sick, He may be keeper and comforter. I judge it a blessed Fall that we are forfeited heirs, broken and out of credit, and that Christ is become a Tutor in the place of free-will, and that we are no more our own. I am broken and wasted with the wrath that is on the land, and have been much tempted with a design to have a pass from Christ; which, if I had, I would not stay to be a witness of our defection for any man's intreaty. But I know it is my softness and weakness, who would ever be ashore when a fit of sea-sickness cometh on; though I know I shall come soon enough to that desirable country, and shall not be displaced: none shall take my lodging.

[482] On the 1st of December 1650, being Sabbath, the west country
forces of the Covenanters were scattered at Hamilton by a party of
English, under the conduct of Lambert. Several of them were killed,
and Colonel Ker was wounded and taken. (Lamont's "Diary," p. 24.)

Sir, many eyes are upon you, and the godly are exceedingly refreshed that ye listen not to the ways of many about you, who with fair words make merchandise of souls. Sir, if the way you are in be not the way of Christ, then wo to me, for I am eternally lost. But truly, the Lord Christ's dealings with Colonel Gilbert Ker hath proven to me, that the New Testament and the covenant of grace is a piece that a solemn meeting and assembly of all created angels (join all their wits together) could not have devised. Since, Sir, ye paid nothing for the change that Christ made, and ye will take that debt of free grace to heaven with you (for what was Christ Jesus indebted to you, more than to all your kindred and name!), therefore, since ye are made His own, follow no other way. What is my salvation, though I should lay it in pawn (it is but a poor pledge), that this, this only is the way! But Christ is surety Himself that it is the way. The Forerunner went before you, and He is safely landed: and there is a fair company before you of such as "have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their garments, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," to whom these promises are now performed: "He that overcometh shall eat of the tree of life, that is in the midst of the paradise of God;" and, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain"--"He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."

I may, Sir, possibly keep you from better work. The God of peace, that brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect.

Yours, in Jesus Christ,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _Jan. 7, 1651_.

CCCXXXIII.--_To the much honoured and truly worthy COLONEL GILBERT KER, when taken prisoner._

(_COMFORTING THOUGHTS TO THE AFFLICTED--DARKNESS OF THE TIMES--FELLOWSHIP IN CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS--SATISFACTION WITH HIS PROVIDENCES._)

MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--I have heard of your continued captivity in England, as well as in this afflicted land. But, go where ye will, ye cannot go from under your Shadow, which is broader than many kingdoms. Ye change lodging and countries; but the same Lord is before you, if ye were carried away captive to the other side of the sun, or as far as the rising of the morning star. It is spoken to your mother (who hath yet received no bill of divorce), which was written to Judah, "Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies" (Micah iv. 10). England shall be accountable for you, to render you back: "I will say to the north, 'Give up;' and to the south, 'Keep not back'" (Isa. xliii. 6). It is a sermon that flesh and blood laugheth at: "Prophesy upon these dry bones, and say unto them, 'O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'" It is a preaching to the cold grave: "Thus saith the Lord unto the bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live'" (Ezek. xxxvii. 4, 5, 6). "And the sea gave up the dead that were in it" (Rev. xx. 13). Berwick must render back the Scottish captives, and Colonel Gilbert Ker with them. "For thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships" (Isa. xliii. 14). "If any of thine be driven out to the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee" (Deut. xxx. 4). "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness" (Zech. viii. 7, 8). Sir, ye are both booked by the Lord who writeth up the people (Ps. lxxxvii. 5, 6), and counted to the Lord as one of the house and stock (Ps. xxii. 30). Fear not, faint not; all your hairs are numbered.

It is the desire of the people of God, that, as your bonds hitherto have been exemplary to the strengthening of the feeble and to the stopping of the mouth of the adversary, without any declining to the right or left hand; so your sufferings in the place ye now go to, may be (as we are confident in the Lord of you, and in humility boast of His grace in you) savoury, convincing, and like unto this honourable cause, that will prevail in Britain, contrary to all the machinations and counsels of devils and men. And though there were no other ink in the pen I now write with but some dewing of my last cooling blood, this I purpose (His grace, whose I am, enabling me) to stand to. Sir, we desire to adore no instruments; yet we conceive the shining and rays of grace from the Fountain, Jesus Christ, the fulness of the Godhead, bestowed on sinful men, hold forth the good thoughts of Christ to this poor land, whose multiplied graves, and whose souls under the altar, slain by Sectaries and Malignants, cry aloud to heaven.

I see nothing, Sir, if the Lord be not near (though I dare not say how soon) to awake for the year of Zion's controversy. "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven" (Isa. xxxiv. 5). Behold, it shall come down upon England, and on the residue of His enemies in Scotland. Wo is me for England! That land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness; that pleasant land shall be a wilderness, and the dust of their land pitch; a judgment upon their walled towns, their pleasant fields, their strong ships, etc., if they do not repent.

Ye have not, I conceive, seen such searching and trying times as now these are. And yet the question will be drawn to a more narrow state, and multitudes will yet leave the cause; for we took all into the covenant that offered to build with us. But Christ must have but a small remnant (few nobles, if any; few ministers; few professors), though our way standeth unchanged. "By honour and dishonour, by good report and evil report: as deceivers and yet true; as unknown, yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed" (2 Cor. vi. 8, 9). Neither is this your condition alone, but the experienced lot of all the saints that have gone before you. It is one and the same cross of Christ; but there be sundry faces and diverse circumstances in the same remnant (Col. i. 24), the sufferings of Christ and yours. Sir, to be delivered to soldiers, and in captivity, looketh like His suffering of whom Isaiah saith, "He was taken from prison, and from judgment" (Isa. liii. 8): yea, and taken bound (John xviii. 12). When the cause is the truth of God, the lustre and face of suffering is so much the more lovely that it hath the hue and colour of Christ's sufferings, who endured contradiction of sinners and despised the shame. Oh it is a great word, "Christ shamed, and Christ abased!" But thus was the Head, and so are the members, dealt with in the world; and truly anything of Christ, even the worst of Him (to speak so), His reproach and shame, are lovely. Though superstitious love to the material cross He suffered upon be foolery, and doting upon the holy grave[483] be cursed idolatry; yet is there a communion with Him in His sufferings most desirable. "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Pet. iv. 13): in which sense, the cup that His lip touched hath the sweeter taste, even though death were in it; the grave, because He did lie in it, is so much the softer and the more refreshful a bed of rest; and that part of the sky and clouds that the Beloved shall break through, and come to judgment, is as lovely a piece of the created heaven as any is, if we may love the ground He goeth on the better. But all this is to be understood in a spiritual manner. The Lord calleth you, Sir, upon whom the Spirit of God and His glory resteth, to put your soul's AMEN to this dispensation; and requireth of us, that our desires follow the now-declared decree of God concerning the desolation of our sinful land, so many ways guilty of a despised Gospel, and a broken Covenant; and that with all submission. Certainly, no man hath failed more in this thing, than he who writeth to you. For I have brought my health into great hazard, and tormented my spirit with excessive grief, for our present provocations, and the rendings of our kirk; and I see it is a challenging of, and a bold pleading against, Him upon whose shoulder the government is (Isa. xxii. 22). The Father hath put a glorious trust upon Christ: "And I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place, and He shall be for a glorious throne to His Father's house; and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons" (Isa. xxii. 23, 24). Our unbelieving apprehensions do so quarrel at the prosperity of enemies in an evil cause, that we wrestle with defeats, spoiling, captivity of the godly, killing of His people, the wasting of our land, starving and famishing of the kingdom, which is worse than the sword. But this is a sinful contradicting of the Lord's revealed decree. His wisdom saith, "Spoiling and desolation is best for Scotland;" and we say, "Not," and so accuse Christ of misgovernment, and of not being true to the trust put upon Him. But since He doth not drag the government at His heels, but hath it upon His shoulder, and since the Nail fastened in a sure place cannot be broken,[484] nor can the smallest vessel fail to find sweet security in dependence upon Him, since all the weight of heaven and earth, of redeemed saints and confirmed angels, is upon His shoulder, I am a fool, and brutish to imagine that I can add anything to Christ's special care of and tenderness to His people. He who keepeth the basins and knives of His house, and bringeth the vessels again to the second temple (Ezra i. 8-10), must have a more tender care of His redeemed ones than of a spoon, or of Peter's old shoes (Acts xii. 8), which yet must not be lost in His captivity. Oh for grace to suffer Christ to tutor His own minors and young heirs! But we cannot endure to be under the actings of His government; we love too much to be our own. Oh, how sweet to be wholly Christ's, and wholly in Christ! to be out of the creature's owning, and made complete in Christ! to live by faith in Christ, and to be, once for all, clothed with the uncreated majesty and glory of the Son of God, wherein He maketh all His friends and followers sharers! 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 seas nor floods flow but the pure water of life, that proceedeth 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? Oh, when shall the night be gone, the shadows flee away, and the morning of that long, long day, without cloud or night, dawn? The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Oh, when shall the Lamb's wife be ready, and the Bridegroom say, "Come!"

[483] The Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

[484] Isa. xxii. 25 is alluded to, where the Hebrew word means either
"broken," or cut down. See note, p. 655.

Worthy Sir, I mind you to the Hearer of prayer. Oh help me in that kind.

The Spirit of Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours, in his only Lord Jesus,

S. R.

ST. ANDREWS, _May 14, 1651_.

CCCXXXIV.--_To the worthy and much honoured_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.

(_COMFORT UNDER THE CLOUD HANGING OVER SCOTLAND--DISSUASION FROM LEAVING SCOTLAND._)

MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--I know not why the people of God should not take notice of the bonds of any who have blood in readiness to be let out for His cause; and I judge it was not of you that ye died not in the undecided controversy which the Lord of the whole earth hath with the men whom He hath sent against us.