Covenanted Reformation

Original spelling:

I can resemble our Saviour to nothing better, than to a wise and skilfull Pylot, who seeing his company sicke, and weary with continuall stormes at sea, whenneth hee knoweth hee is neare any land, letteth his sick, and faint-hearted company go on shoare to refresh themselves, to get aire of the land, to take in new victuals and provision, to serve the neccessitie of their succeeding voyage: but if hee finde them to begin to be enamoured with love of the land, and the pleasures thereof, staright wayes he sendeth a boat on shoare, and reclaimes them from the surfet of their pleasures, telling them, if any amongst them would bee at home, at his owne countrie, hee must come aboard againe; for it is not the dallying with the pleasures of a strange country, that will bringe him home to his own soyle.
—William Wishart “An expostion of the Lord’s Prayer”

Modern English:

I can resemble our Saviour to nothing better, than to a wise and skilfull Pilot, who seeing his company sick, and weary with continual storms at sea, whenneth he knoweth he is near any land, letteth his sick, and faint-hearted company go on shore to refresh themselves, to get air of the land, to take in new victuals and provision, to serve the neccessity of their succeeding voyage: but if he find them to begin to be enamoured with love of the land, and the pleasures thereof, staright wayes he sendeth a boat on shore, and reclaims them from the surfet of their pleasures, telling them, if any amongst them would be at home, at his own country, he must come aboard again; for it is not the dallying with the pleasures of a strange country, that will bring him home to his own soil.

The first cause of distraction in God’s service is secret atheism. There is an atheism of the head, an atheism of the heart, and an atheism of the life. In the first, “The fool hath said in his heart that there is no God,” (Ps. 14:1). Mark, it is not, he has thought in his heart, but says it by rote to himself, rather as what he would have, than what he does believe… It is notorious madness to conclude, from the variety and diversity of opinions about religion and government, that there is no God, seeing you are supported by Him, while you dispute and argue about Him.
Athiesm of the heart is that whereby the fool says, “also in his heart, there is no God;” that is either secretly questions or heartily wishes there were none at all. And it is worth observing both of these, that they are such as are obnoxious to the Divine Majesty….
Atheism of the life is to “profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him” (Titus 1:16). Now these latter originate from the first, and the last is most visible in our distractions; for if you did truly believe God present in an ordinance, as he that sits next to you, dare you trifle so egregiously as you do? The minister looks at you and you dare not talk; if you saw Him that looks at you from Heaven, you would dare not wander…
The remedy of this evil is, humbly to read the Scriptures, which is the most clear, certain and convincing way to work faith herein. Prayer and the Bible have convinced more than any other arguments…
—Richard Steele “A remedy for Wandering Thoughts” pp. 60-63

Behold you ruined pile, which rears its head
Like some grim spectre of the mighty dead;
While girt by boundless Ocean’s bulwark strong,
With Time’s relentless hand it struggles long;
Wild sea-mews ‘thwart the troubled billows sail,
And through the din resounds their mournful wail;
While stately ships are gulfed in that dark main,
Against whose might the pilots skill is vain,
And created waves besiege yon rocky steep,
Which guards the shell-paved caverns of the deep:
Cast in the sternest mould of Nature’s hand,
Behold a scene magnificently grand!

Those ancient halls, in the days of other years,
Have oft been trod by Scotland’s noblest peers;
And she, the dark eyeed Queen, upon whose brow
The bright gems paled before her beauty’s gow,
Ere yet her fortune’s star was on the wane,
She here hath gazed upon yon surgy main.
The thunders of our mighty Knox have rolled,
Athwart these portals and these chambers old,
Which oft have witnessed midnight deeds of woe,
And seen the brave by murder’s stroke laid ow.
The birth place of a Royal Stuart-child,
‘Twas here his days of spring-time smiled,
Ere yet a monarch’s wreath had crowned his head,
Ere yet dark visions hovered round his bed.

But ’tis not regal pomp of other days
Which now enchains our faith-enraptured gaze,
It is a little spot of hallowed turf,
Oft sprinkled by the wild waves foamy surf;
Now o’er that spot the gay and thoughtless tread,
Unmindful of their country’s sainted dead.
Yet many an eye with sorrow’s tear is filed,
And many a Scottish heart with awe is thrilled;
For here our WISHART stood amidst his foes
Unmoved, ave by his trammelled country’s s woes;

Although  the stake with threatening frown stood by,
To shoot its faming columns to the sky.

Tis done! that deed of bigot rage is o’er
And WISHART’s spirit brave aloft doth soar.
Oh, Solemn hour! When that long fettered soul,
Freed from its chains, doth reach the martyrs goal;
Where, mid the glories of yon Palm-crowned throng,
Praise to their God for ever swells the song!
Clad in its sablest garb, the vault of heaven,
By deafening peals and lightning’s flash is riven,
While stormy winds with trumpet tongues proclaim
The martyr’s courage and tyrants shame!
Lo, where proud BEATON sits, in fiend like rage,
His deadly war with innocence to wage,
And gloats exuting o’er his victim’s fate,
Inflamed with venomed ire–with quenchless hate;
But though the flames obeye his mandate given,
On fiery wings they bear the soul to heaven;
‘tib but the body they to dust recall.
Obedient to the Bigot’s vengeful calll.
But lo! amid the spirit’s parting strife,
The martyr’s  soul is fired with heavenly life;
Hark! from his lips prophetic numbers flow,
In awful cadence, ”gainst his country’s foe.

“Vengeance is mine” the Lord of hosts hath said,
“That vengeance, BEATON, hovers o’er thy head;
“Ere many moons have wanted, a summons dread,
“Shall beckon thee to Death’s dark mouldering bed;
“And when that hour of mortal woe is o’er,
“And thy brief dream hath fled of earthly power,
“Then shall our spirits disembodied meet,
“Amidst the thunders of the judgement-seat.
“I go, I go! my spirits chains are riven,
“I go! m y soul hath from her slumbers risen!”

Ages have passed since WISHART’S fearful doom,
O’ercast broad Scotland with a darkening gloom,
Since Fate’s dread voice proclaimed the BEATON’S knell,
And in the death-grasp of his foes he fell.
Ages have passed–the papal night is o’er,
The Gospel, beams illume our Scotland’s shore;
And now our martyred champion’s far-spread name
Re-echoes o’er our hills with deathless fame,
Linked with the band who, in the bygone days,
Died for their God and the flames fierce blaze.
BRAVE HAMILTON! the young-the earthly doomed,
Sadly amid thy death-pangs ocean boomed;
And aged MILNE, upon whose time-worn form
Was spent the last dread fury of the storm;
With FOREST, CRAW, and RESBY, (England’s son,)
Who midst St. Andrew’s fanes the combat won.

Then pause awhile! for this is holy ground,
Although ye mark nor cross, nor stone around.
Sepulchral trophies crown the monarch’s name,
The stately column warrior deeds proclaim;
The minstrel hath his shrine in lofty song,
And shall thy names be lost, oh fearless throng
Not so my country! from your slumbers wake,
Ye dweller’s by the mountain and the lake;
And now, when  many a peaceful year hath fled,
Oppression rears once more her Gorgon head,
And fetters clank mid Zion’s bulwarks free,
Rousing the brave for Truth and Liberty,–
The hour is come, Oh patriots to arise,–
Recall the days of yore with tear-dimmed eyes,
And let the obelisk its crest upraise
For Scotland’s martyr’s of the olden days!
—Author Unknown

The above book, will give you a quick over-view and potted history of the testimony and martyrdom of George Wishart.

Message V.

“Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men.”—Proverbs 8:4.

THESE are the words of wisdom; and wisdom in the book of Proverbs is none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is evident from chapter 1, verse 23, where He says, “Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you”; but it is Christ alone who has the gift of the Holy Spirit. And again, from 8:22, where He says, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way”; and verse 30: “Then I was by him as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” These words are true of none but of Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God, and was God, by whom all things were made.

Observe the places He goes to with the invitation.—

First, He goes to the country. He climbs every eminence, and cries there; then He descends to the highway where many roads meet.

Second, He goes to the city. He begins at the gates, where the people are assembled to make bargains and hear causes; then He proceeds along the principal avenue into the city, and cries in at every door as He passes. He first goes out into the highways and hedges, then goes into the streets and lanes of the city, carrying the blessed message.

Observe the manner in which He invites.—He cries aloud, He puts forth the voice, He stands and cries, He calls and lifts up His voice, He seems like some merchant offering his wares, first in the market, and then from door to door. Never did busy crier offer to sell his goods with such anxiety as Jesus offers His salvation; verse 10: “Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.”

Observe to whom the invitation is addressed.—Verse 4: “Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men.” Merchants only offer their goods to certain classes of the people that will buy; but Jesus offers His to all men. Wherever there is a son of Adam, wherever there is one born of woman, the word is addressed to him: he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. continue

My Very Noble and Worthy Lady,

So often 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. 24:1), 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 has made you a widow, 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 you know (when the fields are emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if you shall wait upon Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God’s honor and truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. Let your faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now spend your whole love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ.

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 propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the inheritance is yours. You 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 you have laid such strength upon the Holy One of Israel, that you defy troubles, and that your soul is a castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has 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.

Anwoth, Sept. 14, 1634

2 Tim 1:9.—Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

The mystical union betwixt Christ and a sinner is brought to pass in the effectual calling of a sinner, which I come now to explain, and we have in the text. The apostle had exhorted Timothy to a confident adhering to the doctrine of the gospel, over the belly of afflictions for the cause of God; and in the text shews a good reason that both he himself and Timothy had to do so, taken from what God had done for them.

1. What the Lord had done for them. (1) Saved them; namely, from sin and wrath; i.e. had brought them into a state of salvation out of a state of sin and misery, applied Christ’s salvation to them, which is so effectual that never one dies of the disease after it is applied, and therefore may be said thereupon to be saved. (2) Called them, namely, by his Spirit, when they were at a distance from him; he called them to himself, saved and called; not that he first saved, and then called them; but he saved them by calling them; which shews this call to be an effectual call. Therefore also it is called an holy calling, not only as proceeding from an holy God, but as making the called holy too. continue

The last words of Mr. Ephraim Melvine, Minister of Linlithgow, on Wednesday,  April 20, 1653

He had a long continued speech of his faith of  God’s good will to Scotland. Saying, the Lord is able to help; yea, he shall be great in Scotland: yea, thre shall be great changes in thee, O sCotland; and blessed are they that endure to the end. He is doing what he will through the earth. The Lord shall be great in these three kingdoms; he shall be seen to act in behalf of his poor people in Scotland. And although we should neither see day-light, nor sun-light, fo ra long time, yet God shall be seen to come; and come forth in these kingdoms. “Although the vine should not blossom, and there should be no calf in the stall; yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Hab. iii. 17, 18. Then speaking of himself, he said, I thought to have praized God, and spoken of his glorious works in the land of the living. But God hath told me, that he will not accept a sacrifce of that kind of my hand. Then immediate3ly, after, he said, “Well is it for me, that  hecounted me worthy to give a testimony for his truth. I rue nothing whatever I did for him; but thinks it far short of what I ought to have3 done.” And then turning himself to his wife, he said to her, ” My heart quits the vanities of this world, and let me willingly go to him that sends for me. For when the Bridegroom callsl me to the wedding, shall I not go with him? Shall I not go to him? God shall bear thee up, and own thee and thy children, and perfect what concerrneth thee, and them.” And then he blessed his children; and said to one of them, “The good will of him that dwelt in the bushes be with thee.” Then unto the youngest he said, “Thou art in covenant with God; the blessing of the new covenant be with thee; the God of my salvation be thy God.” Then, turning himself to standers by, he said, “Shall God want witnesses? Shall this generaiion pass away, and the Lord not be known by it? Shall men and women bury his praises in oblivion?,O, who would not praise him? I would do anyuthing for Christ. O that he were the song of many thousands! It is a sore matter, that  Christ is so little praised by men and angels. O! how narrow and clipped are 3the thoughts of the sons of men, of precious Chirst. We may all think shame that Christ gets so little glory from us. We can pass by him, and rarely take notice of him.” Then he said, “Be not looking from you, sirs. O! beware of not drawing near the Son of God, when aflliction is near, for that is the foresaking of mercy. O! that all the sons and daughters of Zion may be kept off this rock. O!lippen to God, and he shall l ead you unto all truth. I would be glad, yea, I hope for it, that the Son of Man may yet be gre3at in these lands. They are3 wise, yea, wisest, that build upon this stone. The Lord make me ready for a change; let me go willingly to him, that liveth and re3gnetgh for ever and ever. He shall reign and never but reign, to him be praise for ever and ever. The saints shall praise him that siteth and rideth between the cherubims. To hm that liveth forever and ever,  be praise for ever and ever, amen.” And then, speaking of himself, he said, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living: I shall live and not die, (which words he did often repeat,) to him who will keep me safe unto the day of his appearance, be praise forever and ever.” Then, being demanded what he thoughts were anent, the work and people of God in the land? He said, “I think God will be glorious in the midst of a poor people,” &c. Then being demanded what he thought  of the place which he was to leave or what God would do with it? Answered: “I think God will be seen in this place, he will be seved in this place, he shall be sought unto, and found in this place, and blessed shall he be that shall not be offended in him.” Then again, turning himself to standers by he said,  “Express your good will tgo the living, and to the dead; take away the dead out of your sight. Let us look again and again unto God, and say unto corruption, thou art our mother; and to the worms ye are our bretghren and our sisters. Go into your chambers ye poor  people of God, you prisoners of hope, and close the doors behind you, till the indignation, that is, but for a moment, pass over. Turn not aside from truth. Will ye go away to him and wait upon the redemption of Israel, and the Redeemer of all things. O! he is good to the soul that seeks him! O! all ye that seek him; I say seek him, seek him, and your hearts shall ever live.” He insistged much on this, that by-standers should implore Christ for him, and that they would not be burdensome to him that was sick. Then, growing weak in speech, he disired one to pray. So, after prayer, he lay quiet and still, and spoke no more. It was obsreved that all the time he spoke, he was discernibly in a spiritual rapture. He had many more expressions, but we could not overtake them; and these are only as part of his words:

Blessed are they in the Lord that die
While to the wicked death is a misery.
From  “A Collection of the Dying Testimonies of some holy and pious Christians, who lived in Scotland Before and since the Revolution” John Calderwood

John Knox’s time as a galley slave, left him weak constitutionally, and with recurrent attacks of an acute condition they called “The gravel.” He had to labour still while this was upon him, but even Knox expresses how the body in pain, is a cross that can be hard to bear. He was also called to London while in these attacks to answer some trumped up charges against him. In 3 excerpts of letters he wrote to his sister, he speaks of his bodily infirmity

My daily labors must now increase, and therefore spare me as much as you may. My old
malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my health
than writing. Think not that I weary to visit you; but unless my pain shall
cease, I will altogether become unprofitable. Work, O Lord, even as
pleaseth Thy infinite goodness, and relax the troubles, at Thy own
pleasure, of such as seeketh Thy glory to shine. Amen.

The pain of my head and stomach troubles me greatly. Daily I find my body decay; but the providence of
my God shall not be frustrate. I am charged to be at Widrington on
Sunday, where I think I shall also remain Monday. The Spirit of the Lord
Jesus rest with you. Desire such faithful as with whom ye communicate
your mind, to pray that, at the pleasure of our good God, my dolor both
of body and spirit may be relieved somewhat; for presently it is very
bitter. Never found I the Spirit, I praise my God, so abundant where
God’s glory ought to be declared; and therefore I am sure there abides
something that yet we see not.

Your messenger found me in bed, after a sore trouble and most dolorous night; and
so dolor may complain to dolor when we two meet. But the infinite
goodness of God, who never despiseth the petitions of a sore troubled
heart, shall, at His good pleasure, put end to these pains that we presently
suffer, and in place thereof shall crown us with glory and immortality for
ever. But, dear sister, I am even of mind with faithful Job, yet most sore
tormented, that my pain shall have no end in this life. The power of God
may, against the purpose of my heart, alter such things as appear not to be
altered, as He did unto Job; but dolor and pain, with sore anguish, cries the
contrary. And this is more plain than ever I spake, to let you know ye
have a fellow and companion in trouble, and thus rest in Christ, for the
head of the serpent is already broken down, and he is stinging us upon the
heel.

Let me ever hold in grateful reverence and estimation that Sabbath which commemorates the resurrection of my Saviour. O, on this day, may I always be enabled to hold fellowship with the Father and the Son–honouring the Son even as I honour the Father; and rendering the tributes of  all my acknowledgements to Him who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
—-Thomas Chalmers “Sabbath Scripture Readings” Luke xxiv

Eighth Pastoral Letter

Warnings to the Unsaved—Causes Why So Many Among Us are Unsaved.

Edinburgh, March 20, 1839.

TO all of you my dear flock, who are dearly beloved and I longed for, my joy and crown, your pastor wishes grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

In my last letter I showed you that, in all human probability, there are many of you to whom I have preached the gospel of salvation, to whom I shall never preach it again face to face. I cannot be blind to the many dangers that accompany foreign travel—the diseases and accidents to which we shall be exposed; but if, through your prayers, I be given to you again, how many blanks shall I find in my flock! How many dear children of God gone to be “where the weary are at rest,” where the imperfect “are made perfect!” How many of you that have stood out against all the invitations of Christ, and all the warnings of God, shall I find departed, to give in your account before the throne! It is to these last I wish now to speak.

For two years I have testified to you the gospel of the grace of God. I came to you in “weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling;” and if the case of the children of God and of backsliding souls has often lain heavy at my heart, I can truly say that your dreadful condition—“settled like wine upon her lees,” when you are about to be “turned upside down, as a man turneth a dish and wipeth it”—has been a continued anxiety to me; and sometimes, when I have had glimpses of the reality of eternal things, it has been an insupportable agony to my spirit. I know well that this is a jest to you, that you care not whether ministers go or stay; and if you get a short sermon on the Sabbath day that will soothe and not prick your conscience, that is all you care for. Still, it may be the Lord who opened Manasseh’s heart will open yours, while I go over solemnly, in the sight of God, what appear to be the chief reasons that, after my two years’ ministry among you, there are still so many unconverted, perishing souls. continue

Here we read of John Knox answering the call to the ministry as called out by John Rough.
If ever there was no man more suited to the ministry and who worked great things by the power of God by his ministry, it would be Knox. Yet today, it often seems, that people enter the ministry without any real calling to. They may have some notion that they can do good, yet, if unsuited and it not being their true calling, they may be responsible for being the instrument for many souls to perish. Being a Christian, is no reason to think one has what it takes to be a minister of the Gospel. The state of the ministry today, in much of Christendom, validates this. The call if the ministry is a very special and high calling. Those who have the calling and are faithful ministers for Christ and his gospel, is a different thing entirely from those who on some notion that has nothing of God given wisdom behind it, think themselves fit to enter the ministry to do so, and do far more harm than good, and far more work for Satan than for God.
No fitter candidate for the office of Minister existed than John Knox, yet he recognized the great responsibility that went with it, and he wrestled with it, heavy in heart, because he didn’t want to go where he was not truly called to be. Oh for more men to take notice of Knox’s example in this way, and for many to recognize, that unlike Knox, they do not have what it takes to be a minister of the Gospel, without doing Satan’s work. Passing all one’s exams is one thing, but head knowledge never did make a heart what it needs to be, for any mission or calling in life.
As told by Thomas McCrie in his life of John Knox, of Knox’s anguish at this time in his life after John Rough called him out publicly to take up the call of Minister of the Gospel of Christ:

This scene cannot fail to interest such as are impressed with the weight of the ministerial function, and will awaken a train of feelings in the breasts of those who have been intrusted with the gospel. It revives the memory of
those early days of the Church, when persons did not rush forward to the altar, nor beg to “be put into one of the priests’ offices, to eat a piece of bread”; when men of piety and talents, deeply impressed with the awful responsibility of the office, and their own insufficiency, were, with great difficulty, induced to take on those orders, which they had long desired, and for which they had labored to qualify themselves. What a glaring contrast to this was exhibited in the conduct of the herd, which at this time filled the stalls of the popish Church! The behavior of Knox also reproves those who become preachers of their own accord; who, from vague and enthusiastic desires of doing good, or a fond conceit of their own gifts, trample upon good order, and thrust themselves into a sacred public employment, without any regular call. continue

While he was in Geneva:

We have received letters from our brethren of Strasbourg, but not
in such sort and ample wise as we looked for; whereupon we
assembled together in the Holy Ghost (we hope), and have, with
one voice and consent, chosen you so particularly to be one of the
ministers of our congregation here, to preach unto us the most
lively Word of God, according to the gift that God hath given you;
forasmuch as we have here, through the merciful goodness of God,
a Church to be congregated together in the name of Christ, and be
all of one body, and also being of one nation, tongue, and country.
And at this present, having need of such a one as you, we do desire
you and also require you, in the name of God, not to deny us, nor
to refuse these our requests; but that you will aid, help, and assist
us with your presence in this our good and godly enterprise, which
we have taken in hand, to the glory of God and the profit of His
congregation, and the poor sheep of Christ dispersed abroad, who,
with your and like presences, would come hither and be of one
fold, whereas now they wander abroad as lost sheep without any
guide. We mistrust not but that you will joyfully accept this
calling.
Fare ye well from Frankfurt this 24th of September.

Ye are not your own but brought with a price, and your sorrow is not your own.
—Samuel Rutherford

[The martyr to whom reference is here made is James
Guthrie, whose last words were, " The Covenants ! the cov
enants shall yet be Scotland's reviving." In the story of
his life, as told by the Rev. Thomas Thomson, is the fol-
lowing passage which Mrs. Menteath has made the subject
of her touching poem : " James Guthrie had a son named
William, about four or five years old ; so young, indeed,
and therefore so ignorant of the dismal tragedy that was
approaching, that James Cowie (Mr. Guthrie's servant,
precentor, and amanuensis) could scarcely detain him from
playing in the streets on the day of his father's execution.
Guthrie, whose soul yearned over his boy, so soon to be-
come an orphan, took him upon his knee and gave him
such advices as were suited to his capacity. He bade him
to become serious — to become religious — and to be sure to
devote himself to that honest and holy course in which his
father had walked to the death. 'Willie,' he said, 'they
will tell you. and cast up to you, that your father was hang-
ed ; but think not shame of it, for it is upon a good cause.'
After the execution, the head was set up on the Nether
Bow Port as a spectacle for the finger of scorn to point at.
But among those who repaired thither, and looked up at
the long grey hairs rustling in the wind, and the features
embrowning and drying in the sun, one little hoy was oft-
en seen gazing fixedly upon that countenance with looks
of love and terror — and still returning, day after day, and
hour after hour, as if there was for him a language in that
silent head which none else could hear. And who could
that child be but Guthrie's young son — the little ' Willie'
of the Martyr's last affectionate counsels and cares? His
love of playing in the streets was now over ; a new occu-
pation had absorbed him ; and as he returned from these
pilgrimages, we may conceive with what feelings his moth-
er heard him when, on her anxious inquiry as to where he
had been, his usual reply was, ' I have been seeing my
father's head !' The dyiug admonitions of the departed
parent, enforced by such a solemnizing spectacle, seem to
have sunk deep into William's heart ; for it was observed
that after his father's death, he spent much time in solitude,
and was often employed in prayer. Resolving to walk in
his father's steps, he directed his studies to the^jhurch,
and became a scholar of excellent promise ; but he died in
early youth, when he was entering upon trials to be licensed
as a preacher."]

0. the sunrise! the sunrise hath wondrous power
To gladden all living things;
It breaks on the chill night’s milkiest hour.
Like a smile from the King of kings!
“Pis earliest June, and the earth hatli thrilled
With the earnest of summer given :
And the very city’s self is tilled
With the breath and the beam of heaven !

A glory is circling the stern dark brow
Of Dunedin’s fortress old,
And a gleam is waking, more faintly now.
Her Tolbooth prison-hold,
“Where one hath risen, but not from sleep.
To gaze on that dawning sky —
True wife! what aileth thee now to weepy
Heaven brightens ere I die!” continue

Most folks know, one of John Knoxes daugher’s married John welsh. Welsh was driven into exile in 1606, in France, but in 1621 he was told he may return if he would agree to be “dealt with” which undoubtedly meant submit to the bishops. He came to London, and his wife was given an audience with King James I. At which the following conversation took place:

the King asked her if her father had been John Knox.

He said: “Knox and Welch! The devil never made sic a match as that.
Knox’s Daughter, Mrs Welch replied: “It’s right, like, sir, for we never asked his advice.”
The king then asked how many of John Knoxes children were still living, to which she replied three and that they were all lasses.
“God be thanked,” exclaimed the King, “for if they had been three lads, I had never enjoyed my three kingdoms in peace.”
She urged that her husband John Welch maybe allowed to return to Scotland.
“Give him his native air!” James said, “Give him the devil!”
Her wit flashed forth at that and she answered: “Give that to your hungry courtiers.”
The king finally agreed that her husband could return if he would submit to the bishops. At which, she lifted up her apron, held it out, and showed herself to be her father’s daugher with the reply: “Please your majesty, I’d rather keep his head there.”
John Welsh died in London in April 1622, and he died while crying in sweet ecstasty in communion with Christ “Hold, Lord! Enough; I can bear no more.”

As these did in Covenanting Scotland, after receiving this letter from John Knox.

‘We, perceiving how Satan in his members, the Antichrists of our
time, cruelly doth rage, seeking to dounthring the Evangel of Christ
and His Congregation, ought, according to our bounden duty, to
strive in our Master’s cause, even unto the death, being certain of
the victory in Him. The which our duty being well considered, We
do promise before the Majesty of God, and His Congregation, that
we, by His grace, shall with all diligence continually apply our
whole power, substance, and our very lives, to maintain, set
forward, and establish the Most Blessed Word of God and His
Congregation; and shall labor at our possibility to have faithful
Ministers purely and truly to minister Christ’s Evangel and
Sacraments to His people. We shall maintain them, nourish them,
and defend them, the whole Congregation of Christ, and every
member thereof, at our whole powers and wearing of our lives
against Satan, and all wicked power that does intend tyranny or
trouble against the aforesaid Congregation.
‘Unto which Holy Word and Congregation we do join us, and also
do forsake and renounce the Congregation of Satan, with all the
superstitious abominations and idolatry thereof. Moreover, we
declare ourselves manifestly enemies thereto, by this our faithful
promise before God, testified to His Congregation, by our
subscriptions at these presents.
‘At Edinburgh, the third day of December, the year of God One
thousand five hundred fifty-seven years: God called to witness,
‘A. ERLE OF ERGILE.
‘GLENCARNE.
‘MORTON.
‘ARCHIBALD, LORD OF LORNE.
‘JOHNNE ERSKYNE OF DOUN.’

‘The Spirit of Wisdom, Constancy, and Strength be multiplied
with you, by the favor of God Our Father, and by the grace of Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
‘According to my promise, Right Honorable, I came to Dieppe, the
24th of October, of full mind, by the good will of God, with the
first ship to have visited you. But because two letters, not very
pleasing to the flesh, were there presented to me, I was compelled
to stay for a time. The one was directed to myself from a faithful
brother, which made mention, that new consultation was
appointed for final conclusion of the matter before purposed, and
willed me therefore to abide in these parts, till the determination of
the same. The other letter was directed from a gentleman to a
friend, with charge to advertise me, that he had communed with all
these that seemed most frack (eager) and fervent in the matter, and
that in none did he find such boldness and constancy as was
requisite for such an enterprise. Some, as he writeth, did repent
that ever any such thing was moved. Some were partly ashamed;
and others were able to deny, that ever they did consent to any
such purpose, if any trial or question should be taken thereof.
‘Which letters, when I had considered, I partly was confounded,
and partly was pierced with anguish and sorrow. Confounded I
was, that I had so far travailed in the matter, moving the same to
the most godly and the most learned that this day we know to live
in Europe, to the effect that I might have their judgments and grave
counsels, for assurance as well of your consciences as of mine, in
all enterprises. That nothing should succeed so long consultation,
cannot but redound either to your shame or mine. Either it shall
appear that I was marvelously vain, being so solicitous where no
necessity required, or else, that such as were my movers thereto
lacked ripeness of judgment in their first vocation. To some it may
appear a small and light matter, that I have east off, and as it were
abandoned, as well my particular care as my public office and
charge [at Geneva], leaving my house and poor family destitute of
all head, save God only, and committing that small, but to Christ
dearly beloved, flock, over which I was appointed one of the
ministers, to the charge of another. This to worldly men may
appear a small matter, but to me it is such, that more worldly
substance than I will express, could not have caused me willingly
to behold the eyes of so many grave men weep at once for my
cause, as I did in taking of my last good-night from them. To
whom, if it please God that I return, and question be demanded,
What was the impediment of my purposed journey? judge you
what I shall answer. The cause of my pain and sorrow—God is
witness—is for nothing pertaining either to my corporal
contentment or worldly displeasure; but it is for the grievous
plagues and punishments of God, which assuredly shall apprehend
not only you, but every inhabitant of that miserable Realm and Isle,
except the power of God, by the liberty of His Evangel, deliver
you from bondage.
‘My words shall appear to some sharp and indiscreetly spoken;
but as charity ought to interpret all things to the best, so ought
wise men to understand, that a true friend cannot be a flatterer,
especially when the questions of salvation, both of body and soul,
are moved; and that not of one nor of two, but as it were of a
whole realm and nation. What are the sobs, and what is the
affliction of my troubled heart, God shall one day declare. But this
will I add to my former rigor and severity, to wit, if any persuade
you, for fear of dangers that may follow, to faint in your former
purpose, be he never esteemed so wise and friendly, let him be
judged of you both foolish and your mortal enemy. Foolish,
because he understandeth nothing of God’s approved wisdom.
Enemy unto you, because he laboreth to separate you from God’s
favor; provoking His vengeance and grievous plagues against you,
because he would that ye should prefer your worldly rest to God’s
praise and glory, and the friendship of the wicked to the salvation
of your brethren.
‘Your subjects, yea, your brethren are oppressed, their bodies and
souls held in bondage. God speaketh to your consciences that ye
ought to hazard your own lives, be it against Kings or Emperors,
for their deliverance. Only for that cause are ye called princes of
the people, and ye receive of your brethren honor, tribute, and
homage at God’s commandment; not by reason of your birth and
progeny, as the most part of men falsely do suppose, but by
reason of your office and duty, which is to vindicate and deliver
your subjects and brethren from all violence and oppression, to the
uttermost of your power. Advise diligently I beseech you, with the
points of that Letter, which I directed to the whole Nobility, and
let every man apply the matter and ease to himself. Your
consciences shall one day be compelled to acknowledge, that the
Reformation of Religion, and of public enormities, doth appertain
to more than to the Clergy, or chief rulers called Kings.
‘The Mighty Spirit of the Lord Jesus rule and guide your counsels,
to His glory, your eternal comfort, and the consolation of your
brethren. Amen.
‘From Dieppe, ‘27th day of October 1557.’

In reply to letters he received from Lord James Stewart, Ersikyn (of Dun) and the Earle of Glencarne Lord of Lorne.

All good soldiers of Jesus Christ have… under their pillow or not far from it, Rutherford’s letters… and holding fast by these they come back into time for a season or pass out into Eternity more than Conquerors.
—Alexander Whyte

Hold off the Bible, such a book, the world never saw.
—Richard Baxter

Personally, aside from Scripture it is one of the most if not THE most edifying book I have read. In it, we see the full genius of Rutherford. And while to the modern reader, his language may seem flowery, poetic, and surreal, we must also remember that these letters when he wrote them, were never intended for public consumption; they were simply the our-pourings of a pastor’s heart to his friends, and rich with encouragment, and full of Jesus.

There is an abridged puritan paperback from Banner of truth with a selection of his letters.

And there is an unabridged copy available from here:

Anyone investing in these letters will not be disappointed; it really is food for the hungry soul.

Below is a youtube video of letter #89 being read aloud to get a sample.

God often lets the wicked triumph for a little while to try us, to make us humble and full of faith; but be not afraid—God is ever true to his people; his arm is strong, and he will rise up and help us
—John Knox

On his being ordered to leave Dundee he cried out with tears running down his face:

God is my witness that I never meant your hurt, only your good and your comfort. To refuse to hear God’s word and drive away me, his messenger, whom he has sent to tell you the truth, will not save you trouble. Oh no; it will bring on you the great wrath of God who is higher than all Cardinals or Bishops. I have offered you the truth of God. At the risk of my life I would stay here and preach to you, but now you chase me away and I must leave my case with God. You shall not long proper. God will send sharp trouble here. When he sends it, repent at once, I pray you, and turn to him or he will visit you with fire and sword.

Elizabeth Adamson, then spouse to James Barroun [Dean of Guild],burgess of Edinburgh, who, by reason that she had a troubled conscience,delighted much in the company of the said John Knox, because he,according to the grace given unto him, opened more fully the fountain ofGod’s mercies than did the common sort of teachers that she had heard before; for she had heard none except Friars. She did with such greediness drink thereof, that at her death she did express the fruit of her hearing, to the great comfort of all those that repaired to her. She suffered most grievous torment in her body, yet out of her mouth was heard nothing but praising of God, except that sometimes she would lament the troubles of those that were troubled by her. Being sometimes demanded by her sisters, what she thought of that pain which she then suffered in body, in respect of that wherewith sometimes she was troubled in spirit, she answered: ‘A thousand years of this torment, and ten times more joined unto it, is not to be compared to the quarter of an hour that I suffered in my spirit. I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, that hath delivered me from that most fearful pain; and welcome be this, even so long as it pleaseth His Godly Majesty to exercise me therewith.’
A little before her departure, she desired her sisters, and some others that were beside her, to sing a Psalm, and amongst others, she appointed the Hundred and Third Psalm, beginning ‘My soul, praise thou the Lord always.’ This ended, she said: ‘At the teaching of this Psalm, began my troubled soul first effectually to taste of the mercy of my God, which now to me is more sweet and precious, than if all the kingdoms of the earth were given to me to possess a thousand years.’ The Priests urged her with their ceremonies and superstitions; to whom she answered: ‘Depart from me, ye Sergeants of Satan! I have refused, and in you              r own presence do refuse, all your abominations. That which ye call your Sacrament and Christ’s Body, as ye have deceived us to believe in times past, is nothing but an idol, and hath nothing to do with the right Institution of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in God’s name, I command you not to trouble me.’They departed, alleging, ‘That she raved, and knew not what she said.’ Short thereafter she slept in the Lord Jesus, to no small comfort of those that saw her blessed departing. This we could not omit of this worthy woman, who gave so notable a confession, before the great light of God’s
Word did universally shine through this realm.
–History of the reformation of Religion in scotland, Vol. 1. John Knox

Psalm 78 tells us to study Christian history and trace how God has always delivered his people. This is one such example from the land of Scotland:

The time the galleys remained in Scotland that winter there were delivered
Master James Balfour, his two brethren, David and Gilbert, Sir John
Auchinleek, John Sibbald, Master John Gray, parson of St. Nicholas Kirk,
near Cupar, William Guthrie, and Stephen Bell. By the procurement of the
Queen Dowager to the Cardinal of Lorraine and to the King of France, the
Gentlemen that remained in prison were set at liberty in the month of
July, Anno 1550. Short thereafter they were called to Scotland; peace was
proclaimed; and they themselves were restored to their lands, in despite of
their enemies. That was done in hatred of the Duke of Chatelherault,
Governor of Scotland, because France began to thirst to have the regiment
of Scotland in their own hands. Howsoever it was, God made the hearts of
their enemies to set them at liberty. There rested a number of common
servants yet in the galleys, who were all delivered upon the Contract of
Peace that was made betwixt France and England, after the taking of
Boulogne. So was the whole company set at liberty, none perishing except
James Melvin, who departed from the misery of this life in the Castle of
Brest, in Brittany.
This we write to let posterity understand how potently God wrought in
delivering those that had but a small knowledge of His Truth, but for the
love of the same hazarded all. If we now, having greater light, or our
posterity, shall see a fearful dispersion of such as oppone themselves to
impiety—if, we say, we or they shall see such left of men, yea, as it were,
despised and punished of God, yet let us not condemn the persons that
punish vice for just causes’ nor yet despair, but that the same God that
dejects, for causes unknown to us, will raise up again the persons dejected,
to His glory and their comfort.
–From John Knox’s “The History of the Reformation in scotland” Volume 1

To Lady Kenmure:

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, by 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 has 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 has the more need to look to yourself, because our Lord has 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 thorn, the cumbersome world, but also through these dangerous paths, the vain-glory of it; the consideration whereof has 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 amongst 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, A Selection from his Letters Samuel Rutherford and the Standard-bearer among ten thousand (Song of Sol. 5.1O). 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.

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 keey 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 honorable 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 know 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. 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 Lord, in whom I am your Ladyship’s obedient.
ANWOTH, Nov, 15, 1633

[This distinguished martyr was the son of the Laird of
Guthrie, the representative of an ancient Forfarshire family.
Educated for the ministry, James Guthrie, as soon as he
was ordained, took a very high place among his brethren
as a preacher of the Gospel, and a zealous defender of the
Church of Scotland. He was a man of high talents, and
spotless character, no less eminent for his candour and pru-
dence than for his burning zeal in the service of his Divine
Master. He was appointed minister of Lauder in 1638,
and was translated to Stirling in 1649. He took a leading
part in the councils of the Covenanters. Soon after the
Restoration of CharlesII. , in 1660, he was marked out for
vengeance by the Court party. He was accordingly tried
and condemned for high treason at Edinburgh. He re-
ceived his sentence with perfect equanimity, and was exe-
cuted on the 1st June, 1661. His death, like that of
Argyle. had all the features of a judicial murder. As he
was among the first, so certainly he was one of the noblest
of the Scottish Covenanting martyrs.]

Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold
stands:
Freedom, law, and life are playthings where the Tyrant’s voice
commands:
Found in blood your throne and temple ! fortaste of a glorious
reign ;
Though the heavens were hung in sackcloth, let the Witnesses
be slain!

‘Tis the merriest month of summer, ’tis the sweetest day in
June,
And the sun breathes joy in all things, riding at his highest
noon ;
Yet a silence, deep and boding, broods on all the city round.
And a fear is on the people, as an earthquake rocked the ground .

Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold
stands;
And the Guardsmen prance and circle, marshalled in their
savage bands ;
And the people swell and gather, heaving darkly like the deep,
When, in fitful gusts, the north winds o’er its troubled bosom
sweep.

JS”ow the grim Tolbooth is opened, and the death-procession
forms,
With the tinsel pomps of office, with a vain parade of arms;
Lowly in the midst, and leaning on his staff, in humble guise
Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr! ready for the sacrifice;
Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr! and a stern and stifled groan
Runs through the multitude; but patiently he passeth on;

And the people stand uncovered, and they gaze with stream-
ing eyes,
As when of old the fiery chariot rapt Elijah to the skies.
On his staff in meekness leaning, see him bend infirm and weak ;
Man in youth, and old in manhood, pale and sunken is his
cheek.
And adown his shoulders flowing, locks grown prematurely
gray.
Yet the spirit, strong in weakness, feels no languor nor decay ;
And a loftiness is on him, such as fits a noble mind,
Like the oak in grandeur rising, howsoever blows the wind;
On his lip, though blanched with vigils, sits the will to dare
or die,
And the fires of grace and genius sparkle in his cloudless eye.

“This frail and mortal flesh, I give it
Freely to the Lord of all!
“Were my limbs of brass and iron.
‘T were an offering far too small.
Life is only ours to serve Him :
And our term of service done,
Death for Him and for His Covenant
Is an honour cheaply won.

” 4 Not as felon, nor as traitor,
Whatso evil tongues proclaim.
Am I hither come to suffer
Every brand of outward shame.
Fixed and serious in my purpose
Where the hand of God was seen :

Yet in all things have I laboured
To preserve ray garments clean.
” I was loyal when the kingdom
Bowed to Cromwell’s haughty frown;
Few would own the royal standard
All defaced and trodden down.

Then the flatterers who doom me
To suffer in the street,
Whined and fawned like stricken spaniels
Round the Lord Protector’s feet!

” Constant to my Prince, and constant
To the vows we both had taken,
Faithful to his right I stood, when
By his summer friends forsaken.

Loyal am I, free to render
Unto Caesar Caesar’s due.
Tribute, custom, temporal honour.
And obedience leal and true.

But the King who reigns in Zion,
High o’er every earthly throne.
Shall I flinch from His allegiance?
Or my solemn vows disown?

With uplifted hands I swore it.
When the Nation joined in band.
Monarch, magistrates, and nobles,
And the peasants of the land!

Though I knew by signs and shadows
That my life-blood must be spent
In the work and in the warfare,
Struggling for the Covenant.

•’ Welcome scaffold! ’tis a Bethel,
Angel- wings are hovering here;
Welcome ladder! thou shalt lift me
Far beyond this cloudy sphere.

Ah! thou Daughter of my people!
Sweet and lovely at thy birth.
When the throes of Reformation
Shook the old astonished earth,

What a blight is on thy beauty,
Since thou hast forgot thy truth.
And the joys of thy bright morning.
The sweet espousals of thy youth !

” Thou shalt suffer! God’s true Gospel
Shall be darkened, and a brood
Of locusts overspread thy valleys.
Leaving neither flower nor food ;

And the wild -boar from the forest
Rush on thy defenceless home;
For thy watchmen do not warn thee
Of the woes about to come;
But they slumber, drugged with wine-lees.

Or they quail in carnal fear;
And thy bondage shall continue
Till the Lord Himself appear,
Till He make His right arm naked.

To avenge His people’s wrongs!
And restore the mournful captives.
With everlasting songs.

” Here my pilgrim’s staff is broken,
All my bands are now untied ;
I die to live with Him for ever.
Who for my salvation died.

Faith, which long hath groped and wavered
In this world’s uncertain light,
Leaping from its mortal prison,
Now is passing into sight.

Earthly cares and human contests,
Inward pangs and darkness cease,
Now, O Lord! dismiss Tby servant
Into everlasting peace!

He hath spoken! Seal his sentence; little boots it w r hat ye do :
He hath spoken! and recorded darker, heavier doom on you!
Hurry on the doom assigned him by the minions of your State,
Rend the head from off his body, fix it on your city-gate;

Let the Lyon-Herald taint him, be his arm reversed and torn ;
Be his earthly goods confiscate, let his household wail and
mourn ;
Crush the Spiritual b} r the Carnal, answer Conscience with the
sword;
By the dungeon and the scaffold force submission to your word :

Good and Evil, Force and Freedom, let them close with dead-
ly yell !
‘Tis a warfare old as Satan, deep as the abyss of Hell!
He hath spoken! and bis words are not water on the ground;
Years may vanish, but his warnings shall in all their truth be
found.

He hath spoken ! and the Nation to its inmost soul hath heard
And the withered bones are shaken by the breathings of his
word ;
And, though dead, his guiding spirit in the land for aye shall
dwell,
And Oppression’s boasted strongholds shiver at the mighty
spell.
–From Poets and Poetry of the Covenants

On His Deliverance from Shipwreck

John Stuart, Provost of Ayr, another correspondent of Rutherford (Letter 29), was told that a ship of his, bound from Rochelle to Ayr, had been captured by the Turks. The rumor proved incorrect, for at length it arrived in the roads. Kennedy, an intimate friend of Stuart, was so overjoyed that he went out to it in a small boat. But a violent storm suddenly arose and he was driven out to sea and given up for drowned. But three days later Kennedy, who had managed to land safely on another part of the coast, returned home. Kennedy was member for Ayr of the Scottish Parliament from 1664 to 1666, and was then Provost of the town. He was also a member of the General Assembly of the Church for some years.

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 you 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, you had never come to land. Thank your God, who saith, “I have the keys of hell and 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). You were knocking at these black gates, and you found the doors shut; and we do all welcome you back again.

I trust that you know that it is not for nothing that you are sent to us again. The Lord knew that you had forgotten something that was necessary for your journey; that your armor was not as yet thick enough against the stroke of death. Now, in the strength of Jesus dispatch your business; that debt is not forgiven, but fristed: death has not bidden you farewell, but has only left you for a short season.

End your journey ere the night come upon you. Have all in readiness against the time that you 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 you forget anything, when your sea is full, and your foot in that ship, there is no returning again to fetch it. What you do amiss in your life today, you may amend it tomorrow; for as many suns as God maketh to arise upon you, you have as many new lives; but you can die but once, and if you mar or spill that business, you 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, you must work till the shadow of the evening come upon you, and you shall run out your glass even to the last pickle of sand.

Fulfill 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.

You contracted with Christ, I hope, when first you began to follow Him, that you would bear His cross. Fulfill 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 has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five thousand years; and His children 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 children; no, His eldest Son and His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3:19; Heb. 12:7–8; 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. Forward then, dear brother, and lose not your grips.

Now I commend you, your whole soul, and body, and spirit, to Jesus Christ and His keeping, hoping that you 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,

Anwoth, Feb. 2, 1632

And John Knox’s gift of prophesy.

This section is extracted and is telling of the time where Knox was a galley slave:

At certain times the Mass was said in the galleys, or else heard upon the shore, and those that were in the galleys were threatened with torments if they would not give reverence to the Mass. But they could never make the poorest of that company to give reverence to that idol. Yea, when upon
the Saturday at night they sang their Salve Regina, the whole Scottishmen put on their caps, their hoods, or such things as they had to cover their heads; and when others were compelled to kiss a painted brod (board), which they called ‘Notre Dame,’ they were not pressed after once; for this was the chance:—
Soon after their arrival at Nantes, their great Salve was sung, and a glorious painted Lady was brought in to be kissed, and, amongst others, was presented to one of the Scottishmen then chained. He gently said: ‘Trouble me not. Such an idol is accursed; therefore I will not touch it.’ The Patron (Skipper) and the Arguesyn (Lieutenant), with two officers, having the chief charge of all such matters, said, ‘Thou shalt handle it’; and they violently thrust it to his face, and put it betwixt his hands. He, seeing the extremity, took the idol, and advisedly looking about him, east it into the river, and said: ‘LET OUT LADY NOW SAVE HERSELF. SHE IS LIGHT ENOUGH; LET HER LEARN TO SWIM!’ After that was no Scotsman urged with that idolatry!

I have heard some say that Scotsman was John Knox, but since it does not say so here, I shall leave that for the reader to discern.

These are things that appear to be of no great importance. Yet, if we do rightly consider, they express the same obedience that God required of His people Israel, when they were to be carried to Babylon. He gave charge to them, that when they should see the Babylonians worship their gods of gold, silver, metal, and wood, they should say: ‘The gods that have not made the Heaven and the Earth shall perish from the Heaven and out of the Earth.’ But to proceed. Master James Balfour and John Knox being in one galley, and being wondrous familiar, Master James would oftentimes ask Knox’s judgment, ‘If he thought that ever they should be delivered?’ Whose answer was ever, from the day they entered into the galleys, ‘God will deliver us from this bondage, to His glory, even in this life.’ Lying betwixt Dundee and St. Andrews, the second time the galleys returned to Scotland, the said John Knox being so extremely sick that few hoped his life, Master James willed him to look to the land, and asked him if he knew it; who
answered, ‘Yes; I know it well. I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to His glory, and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, I shall not depart this life till my tongue shall glorify His Holy Name in the same place.’ This reported Master James in presence of many famous witnesses many years before ever John Knox set his foot in Scotland this last time to preach.
–From John Knox’s History of Reformation of Religion in Scotland, Volume One pp. 81

The martyrdom of Walter Mill effectually brought the downfall of popery in Scotland; the Scottish people were so enraged by his death, that the solemnly bound themselves to oaths and covenants and the Truth, declaraing they would rather take up arms than be subjected again to Papal tyranny.

When this noble servant of Christ was led out to execution, he was called upon by catholics to recant his profession, to which he replied:

I marvel at your rage ye hypocrites, who do so cruelly pursue the servants of God; as for me, I am now eighty two years old and cannot live long by course of nature; but an hundred shall rise out of my ashes, who, shall scatter you, ye hypocrites and persecutors of God’s people, and such as you as now think yourselves the best shall not die such an honest death as I now do. I trust in God, I shall be the last who shall suffer death in this fashion, and for this cause, in this land.

Standing upon the sticks before they kindled the flames that would remove him from this world he said:

Many faithful martyrs have offered their lives most gladly, so this day I praise God that He hath called me among the rest of His servants, to seal His truth with my life; which as I have received it of Him, so I willingly offer it up for His glory. Therefore, as ye would escape eternal death, be no longer seduced by the lies of bishops, abbots, friars, monks and the rest of that sect of antichrist, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and His mercy so that ye may be delivered from condemnation.

As the fire lit and was kindled he stood at the stake and cried:

Lord have mercy on me: Pray, pray good people, while there is time.

John Howie’s chapter from the Scots Worthies of Walter Mill can be read here.

I had planned for a blog post tonite on the doctrine of election, but after a bolt out of the blue tonite, I have decided to post this instead.
I have long felt perplexed, confusion, even anger, at those Professors of Christ who when I was already dealing with more than enough for anyone to cope with at one time, continued to pile me up in additional afflictions so that at times, I have felt I knew not how to stand. Being sick unto death would be enough to cope with for most people, to die alone, estrange from and abandoned by the church you once loved, and forsaken of humanity in such dreadful illness is another matter entirely, and a cross of great magnitude. Yet for all those who have used their hands against me, I can only think now, forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. They were the instruments to pile me up so high, yet the first cause of anything is always the God of heaven and earth, and by these crosses, whether directly from God of men being used as the instruments to pile them up, through them, I have gained by the grace of God much sanctification, and ultimately, true conversion. Sometimes I have felt like Alexander Peden, the prophet of the Covenant when he said he felt the visible church was trying to shut him out of heaven. in his case however, he was not talking of his covenanting brethren or those of like mind, but of enemies of God and true religion. But God is the first cause of everything that befalls us–good, bad, or indifferent. When men are used as the tools which strike us or afflict us, we must see the affliction as ultimately from the hand of God. The same was true of Herod and pontus Pilate, and like Christ with his persecutors and murderers, the only dignified thing to say is Father forgive them, they know not what they do, whether they are true believers are false professors that remains true.
Sometimes you think things are fine, and out of the blue you get a shock or some insult or sleight, and you feel knocked down. But you will only stay down if you choose to. It is said of William Wilberforce the politician and abolitionist, that the thing that made him notable, was no matter how many times he got knocked down, he always got back up, and stronger. I think affliction works that in you. That you get knocked down so often, you don’t know how not to get back up, because if you do not, you have lost it all. Christ said do not fear those who can kill the body, but those who can kill the soul. We will only lose our souls if we let them be taken or give our consent. When your soul is one of the few things one has left of any worth to you, and you have lost everything and everyone that once mattered to you, as well as your health and freedom, then you are not going to give consent for your souls eternal welfare to be snatched from you, or killed, but we will commit to the Lord for safe keeping, knowing that we are unable to keep it, just as we cannot do a thing in our own strength, but we have a Saviour, and Advocate, an Intercessor who is more than able and more than willing.

1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

I will close this blog post with a prayer of George Wishart, whose surely was as his name suggests, wise of heart.

‘O Thou Savior of the World, have mercy upon me! Father of
Heaven, I commend my spirit into Thy holy hands.’ Then he
turned to the people and said: ‘I beseech you, Christian Brethren
and Sisters, be not offended at the Word of God, for the affliction
and torments which ye see prepared for me. But I exhort you, love
the Word of God and suffer patiently, and with a comfortable
heart, for the Word’s sake, which is your undoubted salvation and
everlasting comfort. Moreover, I pray you, show my brethren and
sisters, which have heard me oft, that they cease not to learn the
Word of God which I taught unto them, for no persecutions in this
world, which lasteth not. Show them that my doctrine was no
wives’ fables, after the constitutions made by men. If I had taught
men’s doctrine, I had gotten greater thanks by men. But for the
true Evangel, which was given to me by the Grace of God, I suffer
this day by men, not sorrowfully, but with a glad heart and mind.
For this cause I was sent, that I should suffer this fire for Christ’s
sake. Consider and behold my visage. Ye shall not see me change
my color! This grim fire I fear not: and so I pray you to do, if any
persecution come unto you for the Word’s sake; and not to fear
them that slay the body, and afterward have no power to slay the
soul. Some have said I taught that the soul of man should sleep
until the Last Day; but I know surely that my soul shall sup with
my Savior this night, ere it be six hours, for whom I suffer this.’

From George Wishart’s arrival in Scotland in 1544 and subsequent persecution of:

IN the midst of all the calamities that came upon this Realm after the
defection of the Governor, the Earl of Arran, from Christ Jesus, came to
Scotland that Blessed Martyr of God I, MASTER GEORGE WISHART, in the
year of God 1544. He was a man of such graces as before him were never
heard within this Realm, yea, and are rare to be found yet in any man,
notwithstanding the great light of God that since his days hath shined unto
us. He was singularly learned, as well in all godly knowledge, as in all
honest human science. Also he was so clearly illuminated with the Spirit
of Prophecy, that he saw not only things pertaining to himself, but also
such things as some towns and the whole Realm afterwards felt, which he
forespake, not in secret, but in the audience of many. The beginning of his
doctrine (teaching) was in Montrose. continue