ABERDEEN, _June 15, 1637_.
CLXXIX.--_To his reverend and loving Brother_, MR. JOHN NEVAY.
[MR. JOHN NEVAY, or NEAVE, was minister of Newmills, in the
parish of Loudon, and chaplain to the Earl of Loudon. In all the
questions which divided the Covenanters in his day, he adhered to
what may be called the strict party, being opposed to the Public
Resolutions. After the restoration of Charles II., Nevay, in
1662, was obliged to subscribe an engagement to remove forth of
the king's dominions before the 1st of February, and not to
return under pain of death. He reached Holland, and lived for
some time in Rotterdam. On the 26th of July 1670, a letter of
Charles II. was laid before the assembled States of Holland,
accusing Nevay and other two ministers, Mr. Robert Trail and Mr.
Robert M'Ward (who was secretary to Rutherford at the Westminster
Assembly, and who first edited his "Letters"), all residing
within the jurisdiction of the States, of writing and publishing
_pasquils_ against his Majesty's Government. However, it would
appear that he still continued at Rotterdam, and died there.
Wodrow describes him as "a person of very considerable parts, and
bright piety." Robert M'Ward, in 1677, thus writes: "Oh! when I
remember that burning and shining light, worthy and warm Mr.
Livingstone, who used to preach as within the sight of Christ,
and the glory to be revealed; _acute and distinct Nevay_;
judicious and neat Simson; fervent, serious, and zealous
Trail;--when I remember, I say, that all these great luminaries
are now set and removed by death from our people, and out of our
pulpit, in so short a time, what matter of sorrow presents itself
to my eye!" Nevay cultivated the art of poetry, and is the author
of a paraphrase (called by Wodrow "a handsome paraphrase") of the
Song of Solomon in Latin verse. The General Assembly entertained
so high an opinion of his poetical talents, that they appointed
him, in August 1647, along with three other ministers, to revise
Rons' metrical version of the Psalms. The portion assigned to him
for revisal was the last thirty psalms of that version. After his
death, a volume of sermons, preached by him on "the Covenant of
Grace," was published at Glasgow in 1748, 12mo. His son married
Sarah Van Brakel, whose poetical compositions are favourably
exhibited in her elegy upon a popular preacher, and who was a
kind friend to the British refugees.]
(_CHRIST'S LOVE SHARPENED IN SUFFERING--KNEELING AT THE
COMMUNION--POSTURES AT ORDINANCES._)
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I
received yours of April 11, as I did another of March 25, and a letter
for Mr. Andrew Cant.[286]
[286] Mr. Andrew Cant was at this time minister of Pitsligo, in
Buchan, Aberdeenshire. He had been previously minister of Alford. In
1639 he was removed from Pitsligo to Newbottle, and in 1640 to the New
Town of Aberdeen, where he became Professor of Theology in Marischal
College. In this situation he continued till the year after the
restoration of Charles II. Rutherford's "Lex Rex" having then, by the
orders of the State, been publicly burnt, and the author himself
summoned before Parliament to answer an accusation of high treason,
Cant, indignant at such ungenerous treatment of a great and good man,
condemned it in one of his sermons. For this he was accused of treason
before the magistrates. Whereupon he demitted his charge, and came to
dwell with his son at Liberton. In 1663 he was formally deposed by the
Bishop and Synod of Aberdeen, and died not long after, aged
seventy-nine. He is the author of a treatise on "The Titles of our
Blessed Saviour."
I am not a little grieved that our mother church is running so quickly
to the brothel-house, and that we are hiring lovers, and giving gifts
to the Great Mother of Fornications (Rev. xvii. 5). Alas, that our
Husband is like to quit us so shortly! It were my part (if I were
able) when our Husband is departing, to stir up myself to take hold of
Him, and keep Him in this land; for I know Him to be a sweet
second,[287] and a lovely companion to a poor prisoner.
[287] Helper.
I find that my extremity hath sharpened the edge of His love and
kindness, so that He seemeth to divise new ways of expressing the
sweetness of His love to my soul. Suffering for Christ is the very
element wherein Christ's love liveth, and exerciseth itself, in
casting out flames of fire, and sparks of heat, to warm such a frozen
heart as I have. And if Christ weeping in sackcloth be so sweet, I
cannot find any imaginable thoughts to think what He will be, when we
clay-bodies (having put off mortality) shall come up to the
marriage-hall and great palace, and behold the King clothed in his
robes royal, sitting on His throne. I would desire no more for my
heaven beneath the moon, while I am sighing in this house of clay, but
daily renewed feasts of love with Christ, and liberty now and then to
feed my hunger with a kiss of that fairest face, that is like the sun
in his strength at noon-day. I would willingly subscribe an ample
resignation to Christ of the fourteen prelacies of this land, and of
all the most delightful pleasures on earth, and forfeit my part of
this clay god, this earth, which Adam's foolish children worship, to
have no other exercise than to lie on a love-bed with Christ, and fill
this hungered and famished soul with kissing, embracing, and real
enjoying of the Son of God; and I think that then I might write to my
friends, that I had found the Golden World, and look out and laugh at
the poor bodies who are slaying one another for feathers. For verily,
brother, since I came to this prison, I have conceived a new and
extraordinary opinion of Christ which I had not before. For, I
perceive, we frist all our joys to Christ till He and we be in our own
house above, as married parties, thinking that there is nothing of it
here to be sought or found, but only hope and fair promises; and that
Christ will give us nothing here but tears, sadness, and crosses; and
that we shall never feel the smell of the flowers of that high garden
of paradise above, till we come there. Nay, but I find that it is
possible to find young glory, and a young green paradise of joy, even
here. I know that Christ's kisses will cast a more strong and
refreshful smell of incomparable glory and joy in heaven than they do
here; because a drink of the well of life, up at the well's head, is
more sweet and fresh by far than that which we get in our borrowed,
old, running-out vessels, and our wooden dishes here. Yet I am now
persuaded it is our folly to frist all till the term-day, seeing
abundance of earnest will not diminish anything of our principal sum.
We dream of hunger in Christ's house while we are here, although He
alloweth feasts to all the bairns within God's household. It were
good, then, to store ourselves with more borrowed kisses of Christ,
and with more borrowed visits, till we enter heirs to our new
inheritance, and our Tutor put us in possession of our own when we are
past minority. Oh that all the young heirs would seek more, and a
greater, and a nearer communion with my Lord Tutor, the prime heir of
all, Christ! I wish that, for my part, I could send you, and that
gentleman who wrote his commendations to me, into the King's innermost
cellar and house of wine, to be filled with love. A drink of this love
is worth the having indeed. We carry ourselves but too nicely with
Christ our Lord; and our Lord loveth not niceness, and dryness, and
unconess in friends. Since needforce that we must be in Christ's
common, then let us be in His common; for it will be no otherwise.
Now, for my present case in my imprisonment: deliverance (for any
appearance that I see) looketh cold-like. My hope, if it looked to or
leaned upon men, would wither soon at the root, like a May flower. Yet
I resolve to ease myself with on-waiting on my Lord, and to let my
faith swim where it loseth ground. I am under a necessity either of
fainting (which I hope my Master, of whom I boast all the day, will
avert), or then to lay my faith upon Omnipotency, and to wink and
stick by my grip. And I hope that my ship shall ride it out, seeing
Christ is willing to blow His sweet wind in my sails, and mendeth and
closeth the leaks in my ship, and ruleth all. It will be strange if a
believing passenger be casten overboard.
As for your master, my lord and my lady,[288] I shall be loath to
forget them. I think my prayers (such as they are) are debt due to
him; and I shall be far more engaged to his Lordship, if he be fast
for Christ (as I hope he will) now when so many of his coat and
quality slip from Christ's back, and leave Him to fend for Himself.
[288] John Campbell, first Earl of Loudon, and his lady, Margaret
Campbell, Baroness of Loudon, daughter of George Campbell, master of
Loudon.
I entreat you to remember my love to that worthy gentleman, A. C., who
saluted me in your letter: I have heard that he is one of my Master's
friends, for the which cause I am tied to him. I wish that he may more
and more fall in love with Christ.
Now for your question:--As far as I rawly conceive, I think that God
is praised two ways: _1st_. By a _concional_[289] profession of His
highness before men, such as is the very hearing of the word, and
receiving of either of the sacraments; in which acts by profession, we
give out to men, that He is our God with whom we are in covenant, and
our Lawgiver. Thus eating and drinking in the Lord's Supper, is an
annunciation and profession before men, that Christ is our slain
Redeemer. Here, because God speaketh to us, not we to Him, it is not a
formal thanksgiving, but an annunciation or predication of Christ's
death--_concional_, not _adorative_--neither hath it God for the
immediate object, and therefore no kneeling can be here.
[289] An act in which we address men, not God.
_2ndly._ There is another praising of God, _formal_, when we are
either formally blessing God, or speaking His praises. And this I take
to be twofold:--1. When we directly and formally direct praises and
thanksgiving to God. This may well be done kneeling, in token of our
recognizance of His Highness; yet not so but that it may be done
standing or sitting, especially seeing joyful elevation (which should
be in praising) is not formally signified by kneeling. 2. When we
speak good of God, and declare His glorious nature and attributes,
extolling Him before men, to excite men to conceive highly of Him. The
former I hold to be worship every way immediate, else I know not any
immediate worship at all; the latter hath God for the subject, not
properly the object, seeing the predication is directed to men
immediately, rather than to God; for here we speak _of_ God by way of
praising, rather than _to_ God. And, for my own part, as I am for the
present minded, I see not how this can be done kneeling, seeing it is
_prædicatio Dei et Christi, non laudatio aut benedictio Dei_. [A
preaching of God and Christ, and not a praising or blessing of God.]
But observe, that it is formal praising of God, and not merely
concional, as I distinguished in the first member; for, in the first
member, any speaking of God, or of His works of creation, providence,
and redemption, is indirect and concional praising of Him, and
formally preaching, or an act of teaching, not an act of predication
of His praises. For there is a difference betwixt the simple relation
of the virtues of a thing (which is formally teaching), and the
extolling of the worth of a thing by way of commendation, to cause
others to praise with us.
Thus recommending you to God's grace,[290] I rest, yours, in his sweet
Lord Jesus,