[410] When the National Covenant had been solemnly renewed throughout
almost the whole of Scotland, every means was used to prevent the
Presbyterians in Ireland from entering into it. To accomplish this, an
oath was imposed in May 1639, known by the name of the _Black Oath_,
from the calamities which it occasioned. The oath is as follows:--"I,
----, do faithfully swear, profess, and promise, that I will honour
and obey my sovereign Lord, King Charles, and will bear faith and true
allegiance unto him, and defend and maintain his royal power and
authority; and that I will not bear arms, or do any rebellious or
hostile act against his Majesty, King Charles, or protest against any
his royal commands, but submit myself in all due obedience thereunto;
and that I will not enter into any covenant, oath, or band of mutual
defence and assistance against any person whatsoever by force, without
his Majesty's sovereign and legal authority. And I do renounce and
abjure all covenants, oaths, and bands whatsoever, contrary to what I
have herein sworn, professed, and promised. So help me God, in Jesus
Christ." All Scottish residents in Ulster, above the age of sixteen,
were required to take this oath; and it was imposed equally on women
and on men. Great numbers refusing to take it, the highest penalties
of the law, short of death, were inflicted on them, and that, too,
under circumstances of great cruelty. Such was the condition of the
Presbyterians in Ireland at the date of this letter, which was written
to comfort them under persecution, and to encourage their stedfastness
(Reid's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland").
(_CHRIST'S LEGACY OF TROUBLE--GOD'S DEALINGS WITH SCOTLAND IN GIVING
PROSPERITY--CHRIST TAKES HALF OF ALL SUFFERINGS--STEDFASTNESS FOR HIS
CROWN--HIS LOVE SHOULD LEAD TO HOLINESS._)
MUCH HONOURED, REVEREND, AND DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD,--Grace,
mercy, and peace be to you all.--I know that there are many in this
nation more able than I to speak to the sufferers for, and witnesses
of, Jesus Christ; yet pardon me to speak a little to you, who are
called in question for the Gospel once committed to you.
I hope that ye are not ignorant that, as peace was left to you in
Christ's testament, so the other half of the testament was a legacy of
Christ's sufferings. "These things have I spoken, that in Me ye might
have peace; in the world ye shall have trouble" (John xvi. 33).
Because, then, ye are made assignees and heirs to a liferent of
Christ's cross, think that fiery trial no strange thing; for the Lord
Jesus shall be no loser by purging the dross and tin out of His church
in Ireland. His wine-press is but squeezing out the dregs, the scum,
the froth, and refuse of that church. I had once the proof of the
sweet smell, and the honest and honourable peace, of that slandered
thing, the cross of our Lord Jesus. But though, alas! these golden
days that then I had be now in a great part gone, yet I dare say, that
the issue and outgate of your sufferings shall be the advantage, the
golden reign and dominion of the Gospel, and the high glory of the
never-enough-praised Prince of the kings of the earth; and the
changing of the brass of the Lord's temple among you into gold, and
the iron into silver, and the wood into brass. Your officers shall yet
be peace, and your exactors righteousness (Isa. lx. 17, 18). Your old,
fallen walls shall get a new name, and the gates of your Jerusalem
shall get a new style. They shall call your walls Salvation, and your
gates Praise. I know that Deputy,[411] prelates, Papists, temporizing
lords, and proud mockers of our Lord, crucifiers of Christ for His
coat, and all your enemies, have neither fingers nor instruments of
war to pick out one stone out of your wall; for each stone of your
wall is "Salvation." I dare give you my royal and princely Master's
word for it, that Ireland shall be a fair bride to Jesus, and Christ
will build on her a palace of silver (Cant. viii. 9). Therefore, weep
not as if there were no hope; fear not, put on strength, put on your
beautiful garments (Isa. lii. 1). Your foundation shall be sapphires,
your windows and gates precious stones (Isa. liv. 11, 12). Look over
the water, and behold and see who is on the dry land waiting for your
landing. Your deliverance is concluded, subscribed, and sealed in
heaven. Your goods, that are taken from you for Christ and His truth's
sake, are but arrested and laid in pawn, and not taken away. There is
much laid up for you in His storehouse, whose the earth and the
fulness thereof is. Your garments are spun, and your flocks are
feeding in the fields, your bread is laid up for you, your drink is
brewn, your gold and silver is at the bank, and the interest goeth on
and groweth: and yet I hear that your taskmasters do rob and spoil
you, and fine you. Your prisons, my brethren, have two keys. The
Deputy, prelates, and officers keep but the iron keys of the prison
wherein they put you; but He that hath created the smith, hath other
keys in heaven; therefore ye shall not die in the prison. Other men's
ploughs are labouring for your bread; your enemies are gathering in
your rents. He that is kissing His bride on this side of the sea, in
Scotland, is beating her beyond the sea in Ireland, and feeding her
with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction; and yet He is
the same Lord to both.
[411] Wentworth, Earl of Stafford, was at this time Deputy or Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland. Previous to his appointment to that office,
which was in 1632, the Scottish settlers in Ireland were not troubled
on account of their nonconformity. After the Black Oath was imposed in
this year, he declared that he would prosecute "to the blood" all who
refused to take it, and drive them "root and branch" out of the
kingdom. His violent and unconstitutional proceedings at length issued
in his being arraigned for high treason before the English Parliament,
and beheaded on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641, in the forty-ninth year of
his age.
Alas! I fear that Scotland be undone and slain with this great mercy
of reformation, because there is not here that life of religion,
answerable to the huge greatness of the work that dazzleth our eyes.
For the Lord is rejoicing over us in this land, as the bridegroom
rejoiceth over the bride: and the Lord hath changed the name of
Scotland. They call us now no more "Forsaken," nor "Desolate;" but our
land is called "Hephzibah" and "Beulah" (Isa. lxii. 4). For the Lord
delighteth in us, and this land is married to Himself. There is now an
highway made through our Zion, and it is called the "Way of holiness;"
the unclean shall not pass over it; the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err in it. The wilderness doth rejoice and blossom as the
rose; "The ransomed of the Lord are returned back unto Zion, with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads" (Isa. xxxv. 10); the
Canaanite is put out of our Lord's house: there is not a beast left to
do hurt (at least, professedly) in all the holy mountain of the Lord.
Our Lord is fallen to wrestle with His enemies, and hath brought us
out of Egypt; we have "the strength of an unicorn" (Num. xxiii. 22).
The Lord hath eaten up the sons of Babel; He hath broken their bones,
and hath pierced them through with His arrows. We take them captives
whose captives we were, and we rule over our oppressors (Isa. xiv. 2).
It is not brick, nor clay, nor Babel's cursed timber and stones, that
is in our second temple; but our princely King Jesus is building His
house all palace-work and carved stones. It is the habitation of the
Lord.
We do welcome Ireland and England to our Well-beloved. We invite you,
O daughters of Jerusalem, to come down to our Lord's garden, and seek
our Well-beloved with us; for His love will suffice both you and us.
We do send you love-letters over the sea, to request you to come and
to marry our King, and to take part of our bed. And we trust our Lord
is fetching a blow upon the Beast, and the scarlet-coloured Whore, to
the end that He may bring in His ancient widow-wife, our dear sister,
the church of the Jews. Oh, what a heavenly heaven were it to see
them come in by this mean, and suck the breasts of their little
sister, and renew their old love with their first Husband, Christ our
Lord! They are booked in God's word, as a bride contracted unto Jesus!
Oh for a sight, in this flesh of mine, of the prophesied marriage
between Christ and them! The kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, must
bring presents to our Lord Jesus (Ps. lxxii. 10). And Britain is one
of the chiefest isles; why then but we may believe that our kings of
this island shall come in, and bring their glory to the New Jerusalem,
wherein Christ shall dwell in the latter days? It is our part to pray,
"That the kingdoms of the earth may become Christ's."
Now I exhort you, in the Lord Jesus, not to be dismayed nor afraid for
the two tails of these smoking firebrands, the fierce anger of the
Deputy with civil power, and of the bastard prelates with the power of
the Beast; for they shall be cut off. They may well eat you and drink
you, but they shall be forced to vomit you out again alive. If two
things were firmly believed, sufferings would have no weight. If the
fellowship of Christ's sufferings were well known, who would not
gladly take part with Jesus? For Christ and we are halvers and
joint-owners of one and the same cross: and, therefore, he that knew
well what sufferings were, as he esteemed all things but loss for
Christ, and did judge them but dung, so did he also judge of them,
"that he might know the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. iii. 10).
Oh, how sweet a sight is it, to see a cross betwixt Christ and us, to
hear our Redeemer say, at every sigh, and every blow, and every loss
of a believer, "Half mine!" So they are called "The sufferings of
Christ," and "the reproach of Christ" (Col. i. 24; Heb. xi. 26). As,
when two are partners and owners of a ship, the half of the gain and
half of the loss belong to each of the two; so Christ in our
sufferings is half-gainer and half-loser with us. Yea, the heaviest
end of the black tree of the cross lieth on your Lord: it falleth
first upon Him, and it but reboundeth off Him upon you: "The
reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon Me" (Ps. lxix.
9). Your sufferings are your treasure, and are greater riches than the
treasures of Egypt (Heb. xi. 26). And if your cross come through
Christ's fingers ere it come to you, it receiveth a fair lustre from
Him; it getteth a taste and relish of the King's spikenard, and of
heaven's perfume. And the half of the gain, when Christ's shipful of
gold cometh home, shall be yours. It is an augmenting of your treasure
to be rich in suffering, "to be in labours abundant, in stripes above
measure" (2 Cor. xi. 23); and to have the sufferings of Christ
abounding in you (2 Cor. i. 5) is a part of heaven's stock. Your goods
are not lost which they have plucked from you, for your Lord hath them
in keeping; they are but arrested and seized upon. He shall loose the
arrest. Ye shall be fed with the heritage of Jacob, your father; for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isa. lviii. 14).
Till I shall be on the hall-floor of the highest palace, and get a
draught of glory out of Christ's hand, above and beyond time and
beyond death, I shall never (it is like) see fairer days than I saw
under that blessed tree of my Lord's cross. His kisses then were
king's kisses. Those kisses were sweet and soul-reviving; one of them,
at that time, was worth two and a half (if I may speak so) of Christ's
week-day kisses. Oh, sweet, sweet for evermore, to see a rose of
heaven growing in as ill ground as hell! and to see Christ's love, His
embracements, His dinners and suppers of joy, peace, faith, goodness,
long-suffering, and patience, growing and springing like the flowers
of God's garden, out of such stony and cursed ground as the hatred of
the prelates, and the malice of their High Commission, and the
Antichrist's bloody hand and heart! Is not here art and wisdom? Is not
here heaven indented in hell (if I may say so), like a jewel set with
skill in a ring with the enamel of Christ's cross? The ruby and riches
of glory, that grow up out of the cross, are beyond telling. Now, the
blackest and hottest wrath, and most fiery and all-devouring
indignation of the Judge of men and angels, shall come upon them who
deny our sweet Lord Jesus, and put their hand to that oath of
wickedness now pressed. The Lord's coal at their heart shall burn them
up both root and branch. The estates of great men that have done so,
if they do not repent, shall consume away, and the ravens shall dwell
in their houses, and their glory shall be shame. Oh, for the Lord's
sake! keep fast by Christ, and fear not man that shall die and wither
as the grass. The Deputy's bloom shall fall, and the prelates shall
cast their flower, and the east wind of the Lord, of "the Lord strong
and mighty," shall blast and break them; therefore, fear them not.
They are but idols, that can neither do evil nor good. Walk not in the
way of those people that slander the footsteps of our royal and
princely anointed King Jesus, now riding upon His white horse in
Scotland. Let Jehovah be your fear. That decree of Zion's deliverance,
passed and sealed up before the throne, is now ripe and shall bring
forth a child, even the ruin and fall of the prelates' black kingdom,
and the Antichrist's throne, in these kingdoms. The Lord hath begun,
and He shall make an end. Who did ever hear the like of this? Before
Scotland travailed, she brought forth; and before her pain came, she
was delivered of a man-child (Isa. lxvi. 7, 8).
And when all is done, suppose there were no sweetness in our Lord's
cross, yet it is sweet for His sake, for that lovely One, Jesus
Christ, whose crown and royal supremacy is the question this day in
Great Britain, betwixt us and our adversaries. And who would not think
Him worthy of the suffering for? What is burning quick, what is
drinking of our own heart's blood, and what is a draught of melted
lead, for His glory? Less than a draught of cold water to a thirsty
man, if the right price and due value were put on that worthy, worthy
Prince, Jesus! Oh, who can weigh Him! Ten thousand thousand heavens
would not be one scale, or the half of the scale, of the balance to
lay Him in. O black angels, in comparison of Him! O dim, and dark, and
lightless sun, in regard of that fair Sun of righteousness! O feckless
and worthless heaven of heavens, when they stand beside my worthy, and
lofty, and high, and excellent Well-beloved! O weak and infirm
clay-kings! O soft and feeble mountains of brass, and weak created
strength, in regard of our mighty and strong Lord of armies! O foolish
wisdom of men and angels, when it is laid in the balance beside that
spotless, substantial Wisdom of the Father! If heaven and earth, and
ten thousand heavens even (round about these heavens that now are),
were all in one garden of paradise, decked with all the fairest roses,
flowers, and trees that can come forth from the art of the Almighty
Himself; yet set but our one Flower that groweth out of the root of
Jesse beside that orchard of pleasure, one look of Him, one view, one
taste, one smell of His sweet Godhead would infinitely exceed and go
beyond the smell, colour, beauty, and loveliness of that paradise. Oh
to be with child of His love! and to be suffocated (if that could be)
with the smell of His sweetness were a sweet fill and a lovely pain. O
worthy, worthy, worthy loveliness! Oh, less of the creatures, and more
of Thee! Oh, open the passage of the well of love and glory on us, dry
pits and withered trees! Oh, that Jewel and Flower of heaven! If our
Beloved were not mistaken by us, and unknown to us, He would have no
scarcity of wooers and suitors. He would make heaven and earth both
see that they cannot quench His love, for His love is a sea. Oh to be
a thousand fathoms deep in this sea of love! He, He Himself is more
excellent than heaven; for heaven, as it cometh into the souls and
spirits of the glorified, is but a creature; and He is something (and
a great something) more than a creature. Oh, what a life were it to
sit beside this Well of love, and drink and sing, and sing and drink!
and then to have desires and soul-faculties stretched and extended
out, many thousand fathoms in length and breadth, to take in seas and
rivers of love!
I earnestly desire to recommend this love to you, that this love may
cause you to keep His commandments, and to keep clean fingers, and
make clean feet, that ye may walk as the redeemed of the Lord. Wo, wo
be to them who put on His name, and shame this love of Christ, with a
loose and profane life! Their feet, tongue, and hands, and eyes, give
a shameless lie to the holy Gospel, which they profess. I beseech you
in the Lord, to keep Christ and walk with Him: let not His fairness be
spotted and stained by godless living. Oh, who can find in their heart
to sin against love? and such a love as the glorified in heaven shall
delight to dive into, and drink of for ever? For they are evermore
drinking in love, and the cup is still at their head; and yet without
loathing, for they still drink, and still desire to drink for ever and
ever. Is not this a long-lasting supper?
Now, if any of our country people, professing Christ Jesus, have
brought themselves under the stroke and wrath of the Almighty, by
yielding to Antichrist in an hair-breadth, but especially by swearing
and subscribing that blasphemous oath (which is the Church of
Ireland's black hour of temptation), I would entreat them, by the
mercies of God at their last summons, to repent, and openly confess
before the world to the glory of the Lord their denial of Christ. Or
otherwise, if either man or woman will stand and abide by that oath,
then, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus, I let them see that
they forfeit their part of heaven! And let them look for no less than
a back-burden of the pure, unmixed wrath of God, and the plague of
apostates and deniers of our Lord Jesus.
Let not me, a stranger to you, who never saw your face in the flesh,
be thought bold in writing to you: for the hope I have of a glorious
church in that land, and the love of Christ, constraineth me. I know
that the worthy servants of Christ, who once laboured among you, cease
not to write to you also; and I shall desire to be excused that I do
join with them.
Pray for your sister-church in Scotland; and let me entreat you for
the aid of your prayers for myself, and flock, and ministry, and my
fear of a transportation from this place of the Lord's vineyard.[412]
Now the very God of peace sanctify you throughout. Grace be with you
all.
[412] See note, Letter CCLXXXVI. The decision of the Commission was,
to translate him from Anwoth to the professorship at St. Andrews.
Your brother and companion, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus
Christ,