ABERDEEN, _March 9, 1637_.
[Illustration: LOUDON CASTLE.]
CXVI.--_To the Right Honourable my_ LORD LOUDON.
[JOHN CAMPBELL, first Earl of Loudon, and the son of Sir James
Campbell of Lawers, was a man of distinguished talents, and of a
very decided character. In the history of his country he makes no
small figure as a strenuous opponent of the attempts made by
Charles I. to impose Prelacy and arbitrary power on Scotland. He
was a member of the General Assembly which met at Glasgow in
1638, in the business of which he took an active part. When the
King, dissatisfied with the proceedings of this Assembly, put
himself at the head of an army to reduce his Scottish subjects to
submission, Loudon had a leading hand in the measures then
adopted for preserving the religion and liberties of Scotland, as
secured by the ecclesiastical and civil laws of the kingdom. In
the skirmish at Newburn, where the King's forces were defeated by
the Scottish army, he commanded a brigade of horse. In 1641, when
peace was restored between the King and his Scottish subjects,
Loudon was made Lord Chancellor of Scotland, a situation which he
held till after the execution of Charles I., and the calling home
of Charles II. by the Scots in 1650. Malignants being again
brought into places of power and trust, he demitted his office.
He continued, however, strongly to adhere to the cause of
Charles, in consequence of which he was excepted from Cromwell's
act of indemnity, and his estates forfeited. But all that he had
suffered for the royal cause did not recommend him to the favour
of the unprincipled government of Charles II. His name is in the
list of Middleton's fines (imposed upon the gentlemen of Ayrshire
in 1662) for £12,000. He felt convinced that, should his life be
spared, he would fall an early victim to the vengeance of his
enemies, and often exhorted his pious lady to beseech the Lord
that he might not live to the next session of Parliament, else he
would share the same fate with the Marquis of Argyle. His wish
was granted; for he died at Edinburgh, March 15, 1662.
Rutherford's "Divine Right of Church Government and
Excommunication," printed at London in 1646, is dedicated to this
nobleman, who was then Chancellor of the University of St
Andrews. His son James, second Earl of Loudon, was subjected to
no small persecution under the dominancy of Prelacy; and, seeking
refuge in Holland, took up his residence at Leyden, where he died
on the 29th of October 1684.]
(_BLESSEDNESS OF ACTING FOR CHRIST--HIS LOVE TO HIS PRISONER._)
MY VERY NOBLE AND HONOURABLE LORD,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to
you.--I make bold to write to your Lordship, that you may know the
honourable cause which ye are graced to profess is Christ's own truth.
Ye are many ways blessed of God, who have taken upon you to come out
to the streets with Christ on your forehead, when so many are ashamed
of Him, and hide Him (as it were) under their cloak, as if He were a
stolen Christ. If this faithless generation, and especially the nobles
of this kingdom, thought not Christ dear wares, and religion
expensive, hazardous, and dangerous, they would not slip from His
cause as they do, and stand looking on with their hands folded behind
their back when louns are running with the spoil of Zion on their
back, and the boards of the Son of God's tabernacle. Law and justice
are to be had by any, especially for money and moyen; but Christ can
get no law, good-cheap or dear. It were the glory and honour of you,
who are the nobles of this land, to plead for your wronged Bridegroom
and His oppressed spouse, as far as zeal and standing law will go with
you. Your ordinary logic from the event, "that it will do no good to
the cause, and, therefore, silence is best till the Lord put to His
own hand," is not (with reverence to your Lordship's learning) worth a
straw. Events are God's. Let us do,[210] and not plead against God's
office. Let Him sit at His own helm, who moderateth all events. It is
not a good course to complain that we cannot get a providence of gold,
when our laziness, cold zeal, temporizing, and faithless fearfulness
spilleth good providence.
[210] Act.
Your Lordship will pardon me: I am not of that mind, that tumults or
arms is the way to put Christ on His throne; or that Christ will be
served and truth vindicated, only with the arm of flesh and blood.
Nay, Christ doth His turn with less din, than with garments rolled in
blood. But I would that the zeal of God were in the nobles to do their
part for Christ; and I must be pardoned to write to your Lordship
thus.
I dow not, I dare not, but speak to others what God hath done to the
soul of His poor, afflicted exile-prisoner. His comfort is more than I
ever knew before. He hath sealed the honourable cause which I now
suffer for, and I shall not believe that Christ will put His amen and
ring[211] upon an imagination. He hath made all His promises good to
me, and hath filled up all the blanks with His own hand. I would not
exchange my bonds with the plastered joy of this whole world. It hath
pleased Him to make a sinner the like of me an ordinary banqueter in
His house-of-wine, with that royal, princely One, Christ Jesus. Oh,
what weighing, oh, what telling is in His love! How sweet must He be,
when that black and burdensome tree, His own cross, is so perfumed
with joy and gladness! O for help to lift Him up by praises on His
royal throne! I seek no more than that His name may be spread abroad
in me, that meikle good may be spoken of Christ on my behalf; and this
being done, my losses, place, stipend, credit, ease, and liberty,
shall all be made up to my full contentment and joy of heart.
[211] As if sealing it by His ring as in marriage, or as Esth. iii.
10.
I shall be confident that your Lordship will go on in the strength of
the Lord, and keep Christ, and avouch Him, that He may read your name
publicly before men and angels. I shall entreat your Lordship to
exhort and encourage that nobleman, your chief,[212] to do the same.
But I am wo[213] that many of you find a new wisdom, which deserveth
not such a name. It were better that men would see that their wisdom
be holy, and their holiness wise.
[212] The Earl of Argyle.
[213] Sorrowful.
I must be bold to desire your Lordship to add to your former favours
to me (for the which your Lordship hath a prisoner's blessing and
prayers) this, that ye would be pleased to befriend my brother, now
suffering for the same cause; for as he is to dwell nigh your
Lordship's bounds, your Lordship's word and countenance may help him.
Thus recommending your Lordship to the saving grace and tender mercy
of Christ Jesus our Lord, I rest, your Lordship's obliged servant in
Christ,