LONDON, _May 15, 1646_.
CCCXXIV.--_To his Reverend and worthy Brother_, MR. GEORGE
GILLESPIE.[463]
[463] Gillespie was lying on his deathbed when this letter was written
to him by Rutherford, who had heard of the dangerous illness of his
friend. He died on the 17th of December following.
(_PROSPECT OF DEATH--CHRIST THE TRUE SUPPORT IN DEATH._)
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--I cannot speak to you. The way ye know;
the passage is free and not stopped; the print of the footsteps of the
Forerunner is clear and manifest; many have gone before you. Ye will
not sleep long in the dust, before The Daybreak. It is a far shorter
piece of the hinder-end of the night to you than to Abraham and Moses.
Beside all the time of their bodies resting under corruption, it is as
long yet to their day as to your morning-light of awaking to glory,
though their spirits, having the advantage of yours, have had now the
fore-start of the shore before you.
I dare say nothing against His dispensation. I hope to follow quickly.
The heirs that are not there before you are posting with haste after
you, and none shall take your lodging over your head. Be not heavy.
The life of faith is now called for; _doing_ was never reckoned in
your accounts, though Christ in and by you hath done more than by
twenty, yea, an hundred grey-haired and godly pastors. Believing now
is your last.[464] Look to that word, "Nevertheless I live, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). Ye know the I that liveth, and
the _I_ that liveth not; it is not single _Ye_ that live. Christ by
law liveth in the broken debtor; it is not a life by doing or holy
walking, but the living of Christ in you. If ye look to yourself as
divided from Christ, ye must be more than heavy. All your wants, dear
brother, be upon Him: ye are His debtors; grace must sum and subscribe
your accounts as paid. Stand not upon items, and small or little
sanctification. Ye know that _inherent_ holiness must stand by, when
_imputed_ is all. I fear the clay house is a-taking down and
undermining: but it is nigh the dawning. Look to the east, the dawning
of the glory is near. Your Guide is good company, and knoweth all the
miles, and the ups and downs in the way. The nearer the morning, the
darker. Some travellers see the city twenty miles off, and at a
distance; and yet within the eighth part of a mile they cannot see it.
It is all keeping that ye would now have, till ye need it; and if
sense and fruition come both at once, it is not your loss. Let Christ
tutor you as He thinketh good; ye cannot be marred, nor miscarry, in
His hand. Want is an excellent qualification; and "no money, no
price," to you (who, I know, dare not glory in your own righteousness)
is fitness warrantable enough to cast yourself upon Him who justifieth
the ungodly. Some see the gold[465] once, and never again till the
race's end. It is coming all in a sum together, when ye are in a more
gracious capacity to tell it than now. "Ye are not come to the mount
that burneth with fire, or unto blackness, darkness, and tempest; but
ye are come to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to
the blood of sprinkling," etc.
[464] Your believing now is your last believing; closing the whole
course.
[465] See Letter CCCXVIII.
Ye must leave the wife to a more choice Husband, and the children to a
better Father.
If ye leave any testimony to the Lord's work and Covenant, against
both Malignants and Sectaries (which I suppose may be needful), let it
be under your hand, and subscribed before faithful witnesses.[466]
[466] In this matter Gillespie complied with Rutherford's advice,
having left behind him a testimony against both Malignants and
Sectaries, subscribed by his own hand, on the 15th of December, only
two days before he died.
Your loving and afflicted brother,