mine and I am his; and spake much of the white stone, and the new name. Mr. Blair, who loved to hear Christ commended with all his heart, said to him again, What think ye now of Christ? to which he replied, I shall live and adore him: glory, glory, to my Creator, and to my Redeemer for ever: glory shines in Immanuel's land.

In the afternoon of that day, he said, O! that all my brethren, in the public, may know what a Master I have served, and what peace I have this day: I shall sleep in Christ, and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with his likeness.' And he said, This night shall close the door, and put my anchor within the vail, and I shall go away in a sleep, by five of the clock in the morning: which exactly fell out according as he had told that night. Though he was very weak, he had often this expression, O for arms to embrace him; O for a well tuned harp. And he exhorted Dr. Colvil, (a man that complied with Episcopacy afterwards,) to adhere to the government of the kirk of Scotland, and to the doctrine of the covenant; and to have a care that youth were fed with sound knowledge; and exprest his desire that Christ might dwell in that society, and that vice and profaneness might be borne down; and the doctor being a professor in the new college, he told him, That he heartily forgave him all offence he had done him.

He spake likewise to Mr. Honeyman, who came to see him, (the man, who afterward not only submitted to the Episcopal government, but wrote in defence of it, and was made Bishop of Orkney,) and desired him to tell the presbytery to appear for God and his cause, and covenant, saying, The case is not desperate, let them be in their duty. And directing his speech to Dr. Colvil, and Mr. Honeyman, he said; Stick to it. Ye may think it an easy thing in me, a dying man, that is now going out of the reach of all that man can do, but he, before whom I stand, knows I dare advise no colleague or brother to do what I would not cordially do myself, upon all hazard: and as for the Causes of God's Wrath, that men have now condemned; tell Mr. James Wood from me, that I had rather lay my head down on a scaffold, and suffer it to be chopped off many times, were it possible, before I had passed from them. And to Mr. Honeyman he said, Tell Mr. James Wood from me, I heartily forgive him all wrongs he has done me; and desire him from me, to declare himself the man that he is, still for the government of the church of Scotland.

And truly Mr. Rutherford was not deceived in him, for the learned, pious, and worthy Mr. Wood was true and faithful to the presbyterian government; nothing could bow him to comply, in the least degree, with abjured prelacy; so far from that, that apostacy and treachery of others, whom he had too much trusted, broke his upright spirit, especially the aggravated defection and perfidy of one whom he termed Judas, Demas, and Gehazi, concentred in one, after he found what part he acted to the church of Scotland, under trust. For this Mr. Wood went to the grave a man of sorrows, and left his testimony behind him to the work of God in this land, which has been in print a long time ago. I owe this piece of justice to the memory of this great man; and to shew that the only differences betwixt Mr. Rutherford and him, were occasioned by Mr. Wood's joining with the promoters of the public resolutions of that time, but Mr.

B

Rutherford ever spoke of him with regard, and as a good man whom he loved. After, when some spoke to Mr. Rutherford of his former painfulness and faithfulness in the work of God, he said, I disclaim all that, the port I would be at is redemption and forgiveness, through his blood. Thou shalt shew me the path of life, in thy sight is fulness of joy. There is nothing now betwixt me and the resurrection; "But to-day thou shalt be with me in paradise:" Mr. Blair saying, shall I praise the Lord for all the mercies he hath done for you, and is to do? He answered, O for a well tuned harp. To his child he said, I have again left you upon the Lord; it may be you will tell this to others, That the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, I have a goodly heritage: I bless the Lord that gave me counsel.

On the 19th of March 1661, about five o'clock in the morning, (as he himself had foretold,) it was said unto him, Come up hither, and he gave up the ghost; and the renowned eagle took its flight unto the mountain of spices.

Thus died the famous Mr. Rutherford, who may justly be accounted among the sufferers of that time; for surely he was a martyr both in his own design and resolution, and by the design and determination of men. Few men ever ran so long a race without cessation, so constantly, so unweariedly, and so unblameably. Two things, rarely to be found in one man, were eminent in him, viz. a quick invention and sound judgment, and these accompanied with a homely but clear expression, and graceful elocution; so that such as knew him best were in a strait whether to admire him most for his penetrating wit and sublime genius in the schools, and peculiar exactness in disputes and matters of controversy, or his familiar condescension in the pulpit, where he was one of the most moving and affectionate preachers in his time, or perhaps in any age of the church. To sum up all in a word, He seems to be one of the most resplendent lights that ever arose in this horizon.

In all his writings he breathes the true spirit of religion, but in his every way admirable Letters, he seems to have outdone himself, as well as every body else, which, although jested on by the profane wits of the age, because of some homely and familiar expressions in them, it must be owned by all who have any relish for true piety, that they contain such sublime flights of devotion, that they must at once ravish and edify every sober, serious, and understanding reader.

Among the posthumous works of the laborious Mr Rutherford are his Letters; the Trial and Triumph of Faith; Christ's Dying and Drawing of Sinners, &c, and a Discourse on Prayer; all in octavo. A Discourse on the Covenant; on Liberty of Conscience; A Survey of Spiritual Antichrist; A Survey of Antinomianism; Antichrist Stormed; and several other controverted pieces, such as Lex Rex; the Due Right of Church Government; the Divine Right of Church Government; and Peaceable Plea for Presbytery; are for the most part in quarto, as also his Summary of Church Discipline, and a Treatise on the Divine Influence of the Spirit. There are also a variety of his Sermons in print, some of which were preached before both houses of parliament annis 1644 and 1645. He wrote also upon Providence, but that being in Latin, is only

in the hands of a few; as are also the greater part of his works, being so seldom republished. There is also a volume of Sermons, Sacramental Discourses, &c.

1

AN EPITAPH ON HIS GRAVE-STONE.

What tongue! What pen, or skill of men
Can famous Rutherford commend!
His learning justly rais'd his fame,
True goodness did adorn his name.
He did converse with things above,
Acquainted with Emmanuel's love.
Most orthodox he was, and sound,
And many errors did confound.
For Zion's king, and Zion's cause,
And Scotland's covenanted laws,
Most constantly he did contend,
Until his time was at an end.

At last he wan to the full fruition

Of that which he had seen in vision.

October 9th, 1735.

W. W.

CHRISTIAN READER,

In each of these Epistles thou mayest perceive, how the Writer's heart is inflamed with a holy fire; and how his soul ascends in the smoke: as snatched up to heaven, and caught up above all that is below God: 0 how much drops from his pen above the ordinary attainments and experience, even of such who seem to have out-run others! So that in respect of us, this angel of the church speaks as one standing already in the choir of angels, or as an angel come down from heaven among men, to give us some account of what they are doing above. And thus leaving thee to peruse what is made public for thy edification; and to press this pomegranate and squeeze this grape; and to suck till thou find thy soul refreshed with its spiced wine; and wishing thee an experimental knowledge of that surpassing and inconceivable sweetness which is in the fruition of God, and to be enjoyed in a fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and a full draught of these pure streams of solid joy and consolation, wherein the soul of this saint swimmed, and which run through these lines; without which, while he speaks as coming forth out of the king's banqueting house, to persuade thee to go in thither, and feast and bathe thy soul in the same pure delights, and permanent pleasures, whereon he fed, and which flow in upon the soul and overflow it, while the saint finds himself, with his Beloved's left hand under his head, and his right hand embracing him, he will be to thee a barbarian. I shall only wish and beg, that thou wouldest seriously seek of God, the same thing for him, who seeks this for thee, and hath this design in the pains taken in publishing these Letters, if thou be thereby provoked to seek till thou find; this is that adequate recompense which he seeks, earnestly intreats, and expects, who is

Thy soul's well-wisher,

and Servant in Christ Jesus.

NOTE.

The Letters are divided into three Parts ;-Part First contains those which were written from Aberdeen, where he was confined by a sentence of the High Commission drawn forth against him, partly upon the account of declining them, partly upon the account of his Nonconformity.

Parts Second and Third contain some which were written from Anwoth, before he was by the Prelates' persecution thrust out of his ministry; and others upon divers occasions afterward, from St. Andrews, London, &c.

LETTER S.

LETTER I.

PART FIRST,

To MR. ROBERT CUNINGHAME, Minister of the Gospel at Holywood, in Ireland. Well Beloved and Rev. Brother,

ragement 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 GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to my Lord Jesus are all overlaid with you: Upon acquaintance in Christ, pure gold, and that his cross is perI thought good to take the oppor- fumed, and that it smelleth of Christ; tunity of writing to you. Seeing it and that the victory shall be by the hath seemed good to the Lord of blood of the Lamb, and by the word the harvest, to take the hooks out of his truth; and that Christ lying of our hands for a time, and so lay on his back, in his weak servants upon us a more honourable service, and oppressed truth, shall ride over even to suffer for his name; it were his enemies' bellies, and shall strike good to comfort one another in writ-through kings in the day of his wrath. ing. I have had a desire to see you It is time to laugh when he laugheth; in the face, yet now being the pri- and seeing he is now pleased to sit soner of Christ, it is taken away. I with wrongs for a time, it becometh am greatly comforted to hear of your us to be silent, until the Lord hath stately spirit, for your princely and let the enemies enjoy their hungry, royal Captain, Jesus Christ our Lord, lean, and feckless paradise; blessed and of the grace of God in the rest are they who are content to take of our dear brethren with you. You strokes with weeping Christ; faith have heard of my trouble I suppose. will trust the Lord, and is not hasty, It hath pleased our sweet Lord Je-nor head-strong; neither is faith so sus, to let loose the malice of these timorous, as to flatter a tentation, interdicted lords in his house, to de- or to bud and bribe the cross. It prive me of my ministry at Anwoth, is little up or little down that the and to confine me eightscore miles Lamb and his followers can get no from thence to Aberdeen; and also law-surety, nor truce with crosses; (which was not done to any before) it must be so, till we be up in our to inhibit me to speak at all in Jesus' Father's house; my heart is woe inname, within this kingdom, under deed for my mother church, that the pain of rebellion. The cause hath played the harlot with many that ripened their hatred was my lovers; for her husband hath a mind book against the Arminians, whereof to sell her for her horrible transgresthey accused me, those three days sions, and heavy will the hand of the I appeared before them; but let our Lord be upon this backsliding nacrowned King in Zion reign; by his tion. The ways of our Zion mourn grace the loss is theirs, the advan- her gold is become dim, her white tage is Christ's and truth's. Albeit Nazarites are black like a coal; how this honest cross gained some ground shall the children not weep, when on me by my heaviness, and inward the husband and the mother cannot challenges of conscience for a time agree; yet I believe Scotland's skies were sharp, yet now for the encou-shall clear again, and that Christ