EDINBURGH, _July 28, 1636_.
[156] See Letter CXL.
LXII.--_To the LADY CULROSS, on occasion of his banishment to
Aberdeen._
[ELIZABETH MELVILLE, wife of James Colvill, the eldest son of
Alexander, Commendator of Culross, was the daughter of Sir James
Melville of Halhill, in Fife. Her father was ambassador from
Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth, and a privy councillor to King
James VI. He was also a man of piety, who (says Livingstone),
"professed he had got assurance from the Lord, that himself,
wife, and all his children, should meet in heaven." Lady Culross
held a high place among the eminent Christians of her day.
Livingstone says: "She was famous for her piety, and for her
dream concerning her spiritual condition, which she put in verse,
which was published by others. Of all that ever I saw, she was
most unwearied in religious exercises; and the more she enjoyed
access to God therein she hungered the more." She was present at
the famous Communion at Shotts in June 1636, when the sermon
preached by Livingstone, on the Monday after, was the means, it
is believed, of the conversion of not less than five hundred
individuals. The night before had been spent in prayer by a great
number of Christians in a large room of the inn where she slept;
and the minister who should have preached on Monday having fallen
sick, it was at her suggestion that the other ministers assisting
on that occasion, to whom Livingstone was a stranger, laid upon
him the work of addressing the people. There is a poem written by
her, entitled "Ane Godlie Dream;" and there is still preserved a
sonnet of her composition, which she sent to Mr. John Welsh when
he was imprisoned in Blackness, 1605:--
"My dear brother, with courage bear the cross,
Joy shall be joined with all thy sorrow here.
High is thy hope, disdain this earthly dross,
Once shall you see the wished day appear.
"Now it is dark, thy sky cannot be clear;
After the clouds it shall be calm anon;
Wait on His will whose blood hath bought thee dear:
Extol His name, though outward joys be gone.
"Look to the Lord, thou art not left alone,
Since He is thine, what pleasure canst thou take!
He is at hand, and hears thy every groan:
End out thy fight, and suffer for His sake.
"A sight most bright thy soul shall shortly see,
When store of glore thy rich reward shall be."
--_Wodrow_ MSS. Adv. Lib. Edin. vol. xxix.]
(_CHALLENGES OF CONSCIENCE--THE CROSS NO BURDEN._)
MADAM,--Your letter came in due time to me, now a prisoner of Christ,
and in bonds for the Gospel. I am sentenced with deprivation and
confinement within the town of Aberdeen. But O my guiltiness, the
follies of my youth, the neglects in my calling, and especially in not
speaking more for the kingdom, crown, and sceptre of my royal and
princely King Jesus, do so stare me in the face, that I apprehend
anger in that which is a crown of rejoicing to the dear saints of God.
This, before my compearance, which was three several days, did trouble
me, and burdeneth me more now; howbeit Christ, and in Him God
reconciled, met me with open arms, and trysted me precisely at the
entry of the door of the Chancellor's hall, and assisted me so to
answer, as that the advantage is not theirs but Christ's. Alas! that
is no cause of wondering that I am thus borne down with challenges;
for the world hath mistaken me, and no man knoweth what guiltiness is
in me so well as these two, who keep my eyes now waking and my heart
heavy, I mean (1) my heart and conscience, and (2) my Lord, who is
greater than my heart.
Shew your brother that I desire him, while he is on the watch-tower,
to plead with his mother, and to plead with this land, and spare not
to cry for my sweet Lord Jesus His fair crown, that the interdicted
and forbidden lords are plucking off His royal head. If I were free of
challenges, and a High Commission within my soul, I would not give a
straw to go to my Father's house through ten deaths, for the truth and
cause of my lovely, lovely One, Jesus. But I walk in heaviness now. If
ye love me, and Christ in me, my dear Lady, pray, pray for this only,
that bygones betwixt my Lord and me may be bygones, and that He would
pass from the summons of His High Commission, and seek nothing from
me, but what He will do for me and work in me. If your ladyship knew
me as I do myself, ye would say, "Poor soul, no marvel." It is not my
apprehension that createth this cross to me; it is too real, and hath
sad and certain grounds. But I will not believe that God will take
this advantage of me, when my back is at the wall. He who forbiddeth
to add affliction to affliction, will He do it Himself? Why should He
pursue a dry leaf and stubble? Desire Him to spare me now. Also the
memory of the fair feast-days, that Christ and I had in His
banqueting-house of wine, and of the scattered flock once committed
to me, and now taken off my hand by Himself, because I was not so
faithful in the end as I was in the two first years of my entry, when
sleep departed from my eyes, because my soul was taken up with a care
for Christ's lambs,--even these add sorrow to my sorrow. Now my Lord
hath only given me this to say, and I write it under mine own hand (be
ye the Lord's servant's witness), welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet cross
of Christ; welcome, fair, fair, lovely, royal King with Thine own
cross. Let us all three go to heaven together. Neither care I much to
go from the south of Scotland to the north, and to be Christ's
prisoner amongst unco faces, in a place of this kingdom, which I have
little reason to be in love with. I know Christ shall make Aberdeen my
garden of delights. I am fully persuaded that Scotland shall eat
Ezekiel's book, that is written within and without, "lamentation, and
mourning, and woe" (Ezek. ii. 10). But the saints shall get a drink of
the well that goeth through the streets of the New Jerusalem, to put
it down. Thus hoping that ye will think upon the poor prisoner of
Christ, I pray, grace, grace be with you.
Your Ladyship's in his sweet Lord Jesus,