LXXXIII.--_To the_ EARL OF LOTHIAN.
[WILLIAM, third EARL OF LOTHIAN, to whom this letter is
addressed, was the eldest son of Robert, first Earl of Ancrum;
and he acquired the title of Earl of Lothian by his marriage with
Anne Ker, Countess of Lothian, by whom he succeeded to the estate
and titles of Lothian in 1624. In 1638 he manifested great zeal
for the Covenant. He was a member of the General Assembly which
met at Glasgow that year, as elder for the Presbytery of
Dalkeith. Hostilities having again commenced in 1640, his
Lordship was in the Scottish army that invaded England, and
defeated the Royalists at Newburn. In 1643 he was sent from
Scotland by the Privy Council, with the approbation of Charles I.
In 1644 he commanded, with the Marquis of Argyle, the forces sent
against the Marquis of Montrose, whom he obliged to retreat, and
then delivered up his commission to the Committee of Estates, who
passed an act in approbation of his services. He was president of
the Committee despatched by the Parliament to the King in
December 1646, with their final propositions. He protested
against the raising of an army in 1648 to rescue the King from
the hands of the English, without receiving from His Majesty
assurance that he would secure the religious liberties of his
Scottish subjects,--an attempt which was called the "Engagement."
But while resisting the arbitrary measures of his prince, he was
of sincere and ardent loyalty. No sooner was it known that the
Parliament of England intended to proceed against Charles I.
before the High Court of Justice, than he and other commissioners
were sent, in name of the kingdom of Scotland, to remonstrate
against their proceedings in regard to the sacred person of the
king. He took a solemn protest against their proceedings, for
which he was put under arrest, sent with a guard to Gravesend,
and thence to Scotland. On his return he received the thanks of
Parliament for his conduct on this occasion; and, along with the
Earl of Cassillis, was despatched to Breda in 1650 to invite King
Charles to Scotland. His Lordship died in the year 1675. By Anne,
Countess of Lothian, he had five sons and nine daughters.]
(_ADVICE AS TO PUBLIC CONDUCT--EVERYTHING TO BE ENDURED FOR CHRIST._)
RIGHT HONOURABLE, AND MY VERY WORTHY AND NOBLE LORD,--Out of the
honourable and good report that I hear of your Lordship's good-will
and kindness, in taking to heart the honourable cause of Christ, and
His afflicted Church and wronged truth in this land, I make bold to
speak a word on paper, to your Lordship, at this distance, which I
trust your Lordship will take in good part. It is to your Lordship's
honour and credit, to put to your hand, as ye do (all honour to God!),
to the falling and tottering tabernacle of Christ, in this your
mother-Church, and to own Christ's wrongs as your own wrongs. O
blessed hand, which shall wipe and dry the watery eyes of our weeping
Lord Jesus, now going mourning in sackcloth in His members, in His
spouse in His truth, and in the prerogative royal of His kingly power!
He needeth not service and help from men; but it pleaseth His wisdom
to make the wants and losses, the sores and wounds of His spouse, a
field and an office-house for the zeal of His servants to exercise
themselves in. Therefore, my noble and dear Lord, go on, go on in the
strength of the Lord against all opposition, to side with wronged
Christ. The defending, and warding of strokes off Christ's bride, the
King's daughter, is like a piece of the rest of the way to heaven,
knotty, rough, stormy, and full of thorns. Many would follow Christ,
but with a reservation that, by open proclamation, Christ would cry
down crosses, and cry up fair weather, and a summer sky and sun, till
we were all fairly landed at heaven. I know that your Lordship hath
not so learned Christ; but that ye intend to fetch heaven, suppose
that your father were standing in your way, and to take it with the
wind on your face; for so both storm and wind were on the fair face of
your lovely Forerunner, Christ, all His way. It is possible that the
success answer not your desire in this worthy cause. What then? duties
are ours, but events are the Lord's; and I hope, if your Lordship, and
others with you, will go on to dive to the lowest ground and bottom of
the knavery and perfidious treachery to Christ of the accursed and
wretched prelates, the Antichrist's first-born, and the first-fruit of
his foul womb, and shall deal with our Sovereign (law going before
you) for the reasonable and impartial hearing of Christ's bill of
complaints, and set yourselves singly to seek the Lord and His face,
that your righteousness shall break through the clouds which prejudice
hath drawn over it, and that ye shall, in the strength of the Lord,
bring our banished and departing Lord Jesus home again to His
sanctuary. Neither must your Lordship advise with flesh and blood in
this; but wink, and in the dark, reach your hand to Christ, and follow
Him. Let not men's fainting discourage you; neither be afraid of men's
canny wisdom, who, in this storm, take the nearest shore, and go to
the lee and calm side of the Gospel, and hide Christ (if ever they had
Him) in their cabinets, as if they were ashamed of Him, or as if
Christ were stolen wares, and would blush before the sun.
My very dear and noble Lord, ye have rejoiced the hearts of many,
that ye have made choice of Christ and His Gospel, whereas such great
temptations do stand in your way. But I love your profession the
better that it endureth winds. If we knew ourselves well, to want
temptations is the greatest temptation of all. Neither is father, nor
mother, nor court, nor honour, in this over-lustred world with all its
paintry and farding, anything else, when they are laid in the balance
with Christ, but feathers, shadows, night-dreams, and straws. Oh, if
this world knew the excellency, sweetness, and beauty of that high and
lofty One, the Fairest among the sons of men, verily they would see,
that if their love were bigger than ten heavens, all in circles beyond
each other, it were all too little for Christ our Lord! I hope that
your choice will not repent you, when life shall come to that twilight
betwixt time and eternity, and ye shall see the utmost border of time,
and shall draw the curtain, and look into eternity, and shall one day
see God take the heavens in His hands, and fold them together, like an
old holely garment, and set on fire this clay part of the creation of
God, and consume away into smoke and ashes the idol-hope of poor
fools, who think that there is not a better country than this low
country of dying clay. Children cannot make comparison aright betwixt
this life and that which is to come; and, therefore, the babes of this
world, who see no better, mould, in their own brain, a heaven of their
own coining, because they see no farther than the nearest side of
time.
I dare lay in pawn my hope of heaven, that this reproached way is the
only way of peace. I find it is the way that the Lord hath sealed with
His comforts now, in my bonds for Christ; and I verily esteem and find
chains and fetters for that lovely One, Christ, to be watered over
with sweet consolations, and the love-smiles of that lovely
Bridegroom, for whose coming we wait. And when He cometh, then shall
the blacks and whites of all men come before the sun; then shall the
Lord put a final decision upon the pleas that Zion hath with her
adversaries. And as fast as time passeth away (which neither sitteth,
nor standeth, nor sleepeth), as fast is our hand-breadth of this short
winter-night flying away, and the sky of our long-lasting day drawing
near its breaking.
Except your Lordship be pleased to plead for me against the tyranny of
prelates, I shall be forgotten in this prison; for they did shape my
doom according to their new, lawless canons, which is, that a deprived
minister shall be utterly silenced, and not preach at all; which is a
cruelty, contrary to their own former practices.
Now, the only wise God, the very God of peace, confirm, strengthen,
and establish your Lordship upon the stone laid in Zion, and be with
you for ever.
Your Lordship's at all respectful obedience in his sweet Lord Jesus,