ABERDEEN, _March 13, 1637_.
CXXXVII.--_To_ WILLIAM GLENDINNING.
[WILLIAM GLENDINNING was the son of Mr. Robert Glendinning,
minister of Kirkcudbright. A short time before this letter was
written, he was ordered to be imprisoned in Kirkcudbright by
Bishop Sydserff, for refusing to incarcerate his father, whom
that intolerant prelate had suspended from his office, and had
ordered to be imprisoned, because he would neither conform to
Episcopacy, nor admit as his assistant a creature of the Bishop.
He was a member of the General Assembly of Glasgow 1638, being
returned by the burgh of Kirkcudbright, of which he was then
Provost. During the subsequent years, he was frequently a member
of the General Assembly; and his name appears as a member of
Parliament for the burgh of Kirkcudbright, and sent by the
Committee of Estates, in 1644, 1645, and 1646.]
(_PERSEVERANCE AGAINST OPPOSITION._)
WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR BROTHER,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I
thank you most kindly for your care and love to me, and in particular
to my brother, in his distress in Edinburgh.[230] Go on through your
waters without wearying; your Guide knoweth the way; follow Him, and
cast your cares and temptations upon Him. And let not worms, the sons
of men, affright you; they shall die, and the moth shall eat them.
Keep your garland; there is no less at the stake, in this game betwixt
us and the world, than our conscience and salvation. We have need to
take heed to the game, and not to yield to them. Let them take other
things from us; but here, in matters of conscience, we must hold and
draw with kings, and set ourselves in terms of opposition with the
shields of the earth. Oh, the sweet communion, for evermore, that hath
been between Christ and His prisoner! He wearieth not to be kind. He
is the fairest sight I see in Aberdeen, or in any part that ever my
feet were in.
[230] Rutherford here refers to the trial of his brother George,
schoolmaster and reader in Kirkcudbright, before the High Commission,
at Edinburgh, in November the preceding year, for his nonconformity
and zealous support of Mr. Robert Glendinning, the persecuted minister
of Kirkcudbright. As previously noticed (Letter LXVII.), he was
condemned to resign his office, and to remove from Kirkcudbright
before the ensuing term of Whitsunday. When at Edinburgh, and on his
trial, he experienced much kindness from several of the correspondents
of our author, who, in his letters to them, makes the most heartfelt
grateful acknowledgments. After his ejection, "he seems," says Murray,
"to have taken refuge in Ayrshire; for in a letter to Lord Loudon,
Rutherford speaks of his brother as being nigh his Lordship's bounds;
and every individual whom he addressed on his behalf (after his
removal from Kirkcudbright) was connected with that county. The
kindness and the frequency with which, in his letters, he speaks of
him, do honour to his heart" ("Life of Rutherford," p. 93).
Remember my hearty kindness to your wife. I desire her to believe, and
lay her cares on God, and make fast work of salvation. Grace be with
you.
Yours in his only Lord Jesus,