LAST WORDS (3)

[193] Off, probably.

[194] More than He; setting Him aside.

[195] See Letter LXVIII.

[196] "Neither borrow nor lend," have no dealings with it.

[197] See Letter XCVIII.

[198] Occasionally.

[199] Jer. xxxi. 20; Hos. xi. 8.

[200] The fear to be deprived of it. Early editions give "laughing," which seems a misprint.

[201] Confessor.

[202] Luke i. 35.

[203] No one will ever hear the chiding. See Note, Letter LXX.

[204] Discharge His servant before the term.

[205] To be on good terms with.

[206] Rutherford seems here to allude to a plan of furnishing short commentaries on the whole Bible, which was suggested and set on foot by Dickson at the beginning of the seventeenth century. "The Hebrews," as is mentioned in this letter, together with "The Psalms" and "Matthew," were undertaken by Dickson; and "Hosea," which Rutherford here intimates his intention to undertake, but never accomplished, was contributed by Hutchison in his stead. In the Preface to one of the earliest editions of the Letters, a complaint is made that some one was secreting a MS. commentary of Rutherford's upon "Isaiah."

[207] Opens and constitutes an unauthorized court.

[208] Sooner or later.

[209] Ps. lxxiii. 23.

[210] Act.

[211] As if sealing it by His ring as in marriage, or as Esth. iii. 10.

[212] The Earl of Argyle.

[213] Sorrowful.

[214] "All is over."

[215] Barron was of the family of Kinnaird in Fifeshire. He became minister of the parish of Keith; in 1624 was appointed to a charge in Aberdeen. In 1625 he was nominated Professor of Divinity in Marischal College there. He was a determined opponent of such men as Rutherford and Dickson, and at length resigned his chair and retired to Berwick, where he died in 1639.

[216] Frowns for form's sake.

[217] Alluding to Job xxxii. 19.

[218] The smallest return, the quit-rent of a quit-rent.

[219] "Therapeutica Sacra; seu de curandis casibus conscientiæ circa regenerationem per Fœderum Divinorum applicationem," is the title of the book.

[220] Which will try the skill of men and angels to estimate.

[221] Required no skill, but would come as I chose.

[222] In most editions, it is "a wonder," as if in way of exclamation.

[223] Be conscientious as to sinning when out of sight of men.

[224] See 1 Kings ii. 18.

[225] He alludes to the almost classical saying, "Præmissi, non amissi." See Letter IV.

[226] The words of Lord Kenmure.

[227] I would die, ere ever I would put Christ's property at the disposal of men who may choose to appoint their own times.

[228] The same who was afterwards so well known as minister of Wamphray.

[229] Perhaps this word means kindness that had respect to his special needs.

[230] Rutherford here refers to the trial of his brother George, schoolmaster and reader in Kirkcudbright, before the High Commission, at Edinburgh, in November the preceding year, for his nonconformity and zealous support of Mr. Robert Glendinning, the persecuted minister of Kirkcudbright. As previously noticed (Letter LXVII.), he was condemned to resign his office, and to remove from Kirkcudbright before the ensuing term of Whitsunday. When at Edinburgh, and on his trial, he experienced much kindness from several of the correspondents of our author, who, in his letters to them, makes the most heartfelt grateful acknowledgments. After his ejection, "he seems," says Murray, "to have taken refuge in Ayrshire; for in a letter to Lord Loudon, Rutherford speaks of his brother as being nigh his Lordship's bounds; and every individual whom he addressed on his behalf (after his removal from Kirkcudbright) was connected with that county. The kindness and the frequency with which, in his letters, he speaks of him, do honour to his heart" ("Life of Rutherford," p. 93).

[231] Carcases; properly, the trunk, or bulk of the man. In some editions it is written "bouks;" but "bulks" is in all the old editions.

[232] Authentic Scripture.

[233] Dr. Robert Barron.

[234] This seems to mean mould, or fashion, yourself and them.

[235] Perhaps (see in Letter CLXVI.) his instructions on the Catechism are meant.

[236] "Oh if;" q.d., What will you say if I tell you that the walls of my prison are, etc.

[237] Never have got His due from me.

[238] "I thought" is the old reading, but it has no meaning.

[239] Christ has paid me all my claim.

[240] It is written "rifle" in old editions.

[241] Dr. Daniel Rogers, a Puritan divine, author of a treatise called "David's Cost; or, What it will cost to serve God aright," "Naaman the Syrian," and others. He was born in 1573, educated at Cambridge, suffered from the persecution of Laud, and died in 1652 at the age of eighty. He was a man of great talents, deep humility and devotion, but of a temper so bold that a friend said of him, "He had grace enough for two men, but not enough for himself."

[242] Richard Greenham, a Puritan, who was born in 1531, and died of the plague 1591. He was the author of several sermons and practical treatises. (See Brooke's "Lives of the Puritans," vol. ii.)

[243] Dr. Wm. Perkins, an English divine, who lived in the end of the sixteenth century, and was the author of several practical and doctrinal treatises; among others, the one here referred to, "A Case of Conscience, and Thirteen Principles of Religion," published after his death. He was a strict Calvinist, and took part in the controversy against Arminianism. He used so to apply the terrors of the law to the conscience, that oftentimes his hearers fell down before him. It was also said that he pronounced the word "Damnation" with such an emphasis and pathos as left a doleful echo in the ear long after. He wrote on all his books, "Thou art a minister of the Word: mind thy business."

[244] Should probably be "from;" though it is "for" in other editions.

[245] In the sense of not to be turned from His purpose.

[246] The Bishop of Galloway held this year a High Commission Court in Galloway, in which, besides fining some gentlemen, and confining the magistrates of Kirkcudbright to Wigtown, for matters of nonconformity, he fined Gordon of Earlston for his absence, five hundred merks, and banished him to Montrose. (Baillie's "Letters and Journals.") This, no doubt, is the "new trial by the Bishop of Galloway," to which Rutherford refers. See Letter LIX.

[247] See note at Letter LXIII.

[248] The Service-Book, or Liturgy, at this time imposed upon Scotland, was that of England, but with numerous alterations. The Act of Privy Council, enjoining the use of the Service-Book, is dated 20th December 1636; and it was next day proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh: but it was not published till towards the end of May 1637. Its title is, "The Booke of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other parts of Divine Service, for the use of the Church of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1637." This book was extremely obnoxious to the great body of the ministers and people of Scotland, both from the manner of its introduction, which was by the sole authority of the King, without the Church having been even consulted in the matter, and from the doctrines which it contained, in which it approached nearer to the Roman Missal than the English liturgy. It was drawn up by James Wedderburn, Bishop of Dunblane, and John Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, with the assistance of Sydserff, Bishop of Galloway, and Ballenden, Bishop of Aberdeen. It was revised by Archbishop Laud, and Wren, Bishop of Norwich. Kirkton mentions that he saw the original copy corrected by Laud's own hands, and that all his corrections approached towards Popery and the Roman Missal. (Kirkton's "History," p. 30.)

[249] "The Book of Canons" was, in obedience to the King's orders, drawn up by four of the Scottish bishops,—Sydserff of Galloway, Maxwell of Ross, Ballenden of Aberdeen, and Whiteford of Dunblane. It received the Royal sanction, and became law in 1635. This book, like the Service-Book which followed it, was extremely obnoxious to the people of Scotland, because it was imposed solely by Royal authority, and from the nature of the canons themselves, which prescribed a variety of ceremonial and superstitious rites in the observance of baptism and the Lord's Supper; invested bishops with uncontrollable power; inculcated the doctrine of the King's supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil,—affirming that no meeting of General Assembly could be held unless called by the King's authority; with other unscriptural innovations.

[250] Jer. li. 35.

[251] Acted for me; as Ps. cix. 21.

[252] The ministers, after their return to this country, were settled in various parishes; Messrs. Blair at Ayr, Livingstone at Stranraer, M'Clelland at Kirkcudbright, and Hamilton at Dumfries. They were zealous promoters of all the measures by which the triumph of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland was ultimately secured; and all of them were members of the celebrated Assembly held at Glasgow in 1638. Speaking of their return, Row of Ceres says: "Neither the prelates and conformists, nor they themselves, knew that within a year the Lord would not only root out the prelates in Scotland, and, after that, out of England and Ireland, but make some of them, especially Messrs. Blair, Livingstone, and M'Clelland, to be very instrumental in the work of reformation" ("Life of Robert Blair," Wodrow Society).

[253] Boys, like David, keeping the sheep or cattle.

[254] Before we come to heaven, the very way (gate) to heaven is pleasant.

[255] Rutherford appears sometimes to have entertained the idea of removing abroad, should he succeed in obtaining his liberty. In a preceding letter to Stuart, he names New England; and some of his friends thought that he might be honourably and usefully employed abroad. Robert Baillie, in a letter to Mr. William Spang, minister at Campvere, dated January 29, 1637, says: "Alwayes I take the man [Rutherford] to be among the most learned and best ingynes of our nation. I think he were verie able for some profession in your colledges of Utrecht, Groningen, or Rotterdam; for our King's dominions, there is no appearance he will ever gett living into them. If you could quietly procure him a calling, I think it were a good service to God to relieve one of his troubled ministers; a good to the place he came to, for he is both godlie and learned; yea, I think by time he might be ane ornament to our natione" (Bailie's "Letters and Journals," vol. i. p. 9).

[256] Letter CIV. might suggest "do not" to be the right word.

[257] Guide them past.

[258] Lord Boyd. See Letter LXXVIII.

[259] When even the slight afternoon meal and the cup handed to one at the door is so sweet.

[260] "Joist" was in some old editions.

[261] Not used; cast off.

[262] A thrust back. In a sermon at Anwoth, 1630, on Zech. xiii. 7, he says, "God gives a back-set and fall under temptation."

[263] Mr. Matthew Mowat, minister of Kilmarnock. See notice of him, Letter CXX.

[264] On, not "in," as in old editions.

[265] When Mr. Robert Blair and Mr. John Livingstone, who had been deposed in Ireland by the Bishop of Down, were obliged to leave that country, they came over to Irvine in 1637, to Mr. Dickson. Dickson had been advised by some respectable gentlemen not to ask them to preach, lest the bishops should thereby take occasion to remove him from his ministry. But his reply was: "I dare not be of their opinion, nor follow their counsel, so far as to discountenance these worthies, now when they are suffering for holding fast the name of Christ, and every letter of that blessed name, as not to employ them as in former times. Yea, I would think my so doing would provoke the Lord, so that I might upon another account be deposed, and not have so good a conscience" ("Life of Robert Blair").

[266] The sense may be, "My sins against light which was at work even when I was in the act of sinning."

[267] Mattereth? In other editions it is "maketh."

[268] "Noise," in old editions.

[269] Convince me that He intends to gratify my heart's desire.

[270] Carving.

[271] Not willing to be heard disputing with such a fool.

[272] The Bishops whom the King sought to thrust on Scotland.

[273] See Letter XCII.

[274] Probably Mr. Loudian. Letter LXXXVI., note.

[275] "Status quæstionis," a phrase in logical works—the way of stating a matter to be discussed.

[276] Worthless; good for nothing. It is, however, written "naughty," evil, in old editions.

[277] He has so fully paid me.

[278] Look past me.

[279] To bring under man's appointment the smallest part of Christ's truth.

[280] Till I reach the heavenly country?

[281] In old editions, "word;" but the contrast, "tree-sword" (sword of wood, instead of steel), shows the true reading.

[282] It is like the stirrup-cup.

[283] Offer made in order to bargain.

[284] Sad.

[285] To keep up my character with Him.

[286] Mr. Andrew Cant was at this time minister of Pitsligo, in Buchan, Aberdeenshire. He had been previously minister of Alford. In 1639 he was removed from Pitsligo to Newbottle, and in 1640 to the New Town of Aberdeen, where he became Professor of Theology in Marischal College. In this situation he continued till the year after the restoration of Charles II. Rutherford's "Lex Rex" having then, by the orders of the State, been publicly burnt, and the author himself summoned before Parliament to answer an accusation of high treason, Cant, indignant at such ungenerous treatment of a great and good man, condemned it in one of his sermons. For this he was accused of treason before the magistrates. Whereupon he demitted his charge, and came to dwell with his son at Liberton. In 1663 he was formally deposed by the Bishop and Synod of Aberdeen, and died not long after, aged seventy-nine. He is the author of a treatise on "The Titles of our Blessed Saviour."