[85] So in his "sermon before the House of Lords," 1645: "Faith
thinketh no evil of Christ." Also Letters XX. and XCII.: "Love
believeth no evil."
[Illustration: KENMURE HOUSE.]
III.--_To the_ VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE, _on occasion of illness and
spiritual depression_.
[LADY JANE CAMPBELL, Viscountess of Kenmure, was the third
daughter of Archibald Campbell, seventh Earl of Argyle, and
sister to the Marquis of Argyle who was beheaded in 1661. She was
a woman distinguished, in her day, for the depth of her piety,
and her warm attachment to the Presbyterian interest in Scotland.
Nor was she less distinguished for generosity and munificence,
than for piety. Her bounty was in a particular manner extended to
those whom suffering for conscience' sake had reduced to poverty
or exile. In the year 1628 she was married to Sir John Gordon of
Lochinvar, afterwards Viscount Kenmure and Lord Gordon of
Lochinvar, which is not far from Carsphairn. This union did not
last many years. In 1634 she became a widow, his Lordship having
died at Kenmure Castle, on the 12th of September that year, in
the 35th year of his age. But her sorrow on this occasion was
alleviated by the Christian resignation and faith which he was
enabled to exercise under his last illness. To this noble man she
had two daughters, who died in infancy, one about the beginning
of the year 1629, and the other in 1634, as may be gathered from
allusions to these bereavements, contained in two consolatory
letters written to her by Rutherford in these years. She had
also, by the same marriage, a son, John, second Viscount of
Kenmure, who, however, died under age and unmarried, in August
1649. This event forms the subject of a letter written to her by
Rutherford the 1st of October that year. She married a second
husband, on the 21st of September 1640, the Hon. Sir Henry
Montgomery of Giffen, second son of Alexander, fifth Earl of
Eglinton; but this marriage was without issue. Sir Henry's
religious views were congenial to her own; and he is described as
an "active and faithful friend of the Lord's kirk." She was soon
left a widow a second time, in which state she lived till a very
venerable age, having survived the Restoration a number of years,
as appears from the fact that Livingstone, at the time of his
death (which took place at Rotterdam in 1672), speaks of her as
the oldest acquaintance he then had alive in Scotland. She was a
regular correspondent of Rutherford, the last of whose letters to
her is dated July the 24th, 1661, after the execution of her
brother above mentioned. Nor after Mr. Rutherford's death was she
unmindful of his widow. "Madam," says Mr. M'Ward, in a letter to
her, "Mrs. Rutherford gives me often an account of the singular
testimony which she met with of your Ladyship's affection to her
and her daughter."
_Kenmure Castle_ is well seen from the road that leads along the
banks of the Ken. The loch, the river, the old baronial house,
combine to attract notice. It is built on an insulated knoll,
well wooded all around. It is four miles from Dalry, and the
approach is through an avenue of lime-trees. The old garden has a
hedge of very lofty beech trees, and a curious dial with a Latin
inscription, dated "1623. _Joannes Bonar_ fecit"--the name of the
person who (it is said) brought it from the Continent.]
(_ACQUIESCENCE IN GOD'S PURPOSE--FAITH IN EXERCISE--ENCOURAGEMENT IN
VIEW OF SICKNESS AND DEATH--PUBLIC AFFAIRS._)
MADAM,--All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of
your Ladyship's infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have
learned to say, "It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in
His eyes." It is now many years since the apostate angels made a
question, whether their will or the will of their Creator should be
done; and since that time, froward mankind hath always in that same
suit of law compeared to plead with them against God, in daily
repining against His will. But the Lord being both party and judge,
hath obtained a decreet, and saith, "My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure" (Isa. xlvi. 10). It is then best for us, in
the obedience of faith, and in an holy submission, to give that to God
which the law of His almighty and just power will have of us.
Therefore, Madam, your Lord willeth you, in all states of life, to
say, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:" and herein shall
ye have comfort, that He, who seeth perfectly through all your evils,
and knoweth the frame and constitution of your nature, and what is
most healthful for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to your
head, with His own gracious hand. Never believe that your
tender-hearted Saviour, who knoweth the strength of your stomach,
will mix that cup with one drachm-weight of poison. Drink then with
the patience of the saints, and the God of patience bless your physic.
I have heard your Ladyship complain of deadness, and want of the
bestirring power of the life of God. But courage! He who walked in the
garden, and made a noise that made Adam hear His voice, will also at
some times walk in your soul, and make you hear a more sweet word.
Yet, ye will not always hear the noise and the din of His feet, when
He walketh. Ye are, at such a time, like Jacob mourning at the
supposed death of Joseph, when Joseph was living. The new creature,
the image of the second Adam, is living in you; and yet ye are
mourning at the supposed death of the life of Christ in you. Ephraim
is bemoaning and mourning (Jer. xxxi. 18), when he thinketh God is far
off and heareth not; and yet God is like the bridegroom (Song ii. 9),
standing only behind a thin wall and laying to His ear; for He saith
Himself, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself." I have good
confidence, Madam, that Christ Jesus, whom your soul through forests
and mountains is seeking, is within you. And yet I speak not this to
lay a pillow under your head, or to dissuade you from a holy fear of
the loss of your Christ, or of provoking and "stirring up the Beloved
before He please," by sin. I know, in spiritual confidence, the devil
will come in, as in all other good works, and cry "Half mine;" and so
endeavour to bring you under a fearful sleep, till He whom your soul
loveth be departed from the door, and have left off knocking. And,
therefore, here the Spirit of God must hold your soul's feet in the
golden mid-line, betwixt confident resting in the arms of Christ, and
presumptuous and drowsy sleeping in the bed of fleshly security.
Therefore, worthy lady, so count little of yourself, because of your
own wretchedness and sinful drowsiness, that ye count not also little
of God, in the course of His unchangeable mercy. For there be many
Christians most like unto young sailors, who think the shore and the
whole land doth move, when the ship and they themselves are moved;
just so, not a few do imagine that God moveth and saileth[86] and
changeth places, because their giddy souls are under sail, and subject
to alteration, to ebbing and flowing. But "the foundation of the Lord
abideth sure." God knoweth that ye are His own. Wrestle, fight, go
forward, watch, fear, believe, pray; and then ye have all the
infallible symptoms of one of the elect of Christ within you.
[86] So it is in the earlier editions; not "faileth."
Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a
death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see
through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. I doubt
not but that, if hell were betwixt you and Christ, as a river which ye
behoved to cross ere you could come at Him, but ye would willingly put
in your foot, and make through to be at Him, upon hope that He would
come in Himself, in the deepest of the river, and lend you His hand.
Now, I believe your hell is dried up, and ye have only these two
shallow brooks, sickness and death, to pass through; and ye have also
a promise that Christ shall do more than meet you, even that He shall
come Himself, and go with you foot for foot, yea and bear you in His
arms. O then! O then! for the joy that is set before you; for the love
of the Man (who is also "God over all, blessed for ever"), that is
standing upon the shore to welcome you, run your race with patience.
The Lord go with you. Your Lord will not have you, nor any of His
servants, to exchange for the worse. Death in itself includeth both
the death of the soul and the death of the body; but to God's children
the bounds and the limits of death are abridged and drawn into a more
narrow compass. So that when ye die, a piece of death shall only seize
upon you, or the least part of you shall die, and that is the
dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered from the
second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not sin
(although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but eat
your earthly part. As for your soul, it is above the law of death. But
it is fearful and dangerous to be a debtor and servant to sin; for the
count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except
Christ both count and pay for you.
I trust also, Madam, that ye will be careful to present to the Lord
the present estate of this decaying kirk. For what shall be concluded
in Parliament anent[87] her, the Lord knoweth. Sure I am, the decree
of a most fearful parliament in heaven is at the very point of coming
forth, because of the sins of the land. For "we have cast away the law
of the Lord, and despised the words of the Holy One of Israel" (Isa.
v. 24). "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar
off; truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter" (Isa.
lix. 14). Lo! the prophet, as if he had seen us and our kirk,
resembleth _Justice_ to be handled as an enemy holden out at the ports
of our city [so is she banished!], and _Truth_ to a person sickly and
diseased, fallen down in a deadly swooning fit in the streets, before
he can come to an house. "The priests have caused many to stumble at
the law, and have corrupted the covenant of Levi" (Mal. ii. 3). "But
what will they do in the end?" Therefore give the Lord no rest for
Zion. Stir up your husband, your brother,[88] and all with whom ye are
in favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I
have good hope that your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of
Zion. The peace of God be upon him, for his intended courses anent the
establishment of a powerful ministry in this land. Thus, not willing
to weary your Ladyship further, I commend you now, and always, to the
grace and mercy of that God who is able to keep you, that ye fall not.
The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Your Ladyship's servant at all dutiful obedience in Christ,