[467] As an accurate facsimile of this letter from the original, among
the papers of the Town Council of Edinburgh, is inserted here, it has
been thought proper, in this instance, to retain Rutherford's
orthography.
[SIR JAMES STEWART of Kirkfield and Cultness, to whom this letter
is addressed, was a man of high Christian excellence. "Sir James
Stewart," said the celebrated George Gillespie, "has more
sterling religion in ready cash than any man ever I knew; he is
always agreeably composed and recollected, in a permanent devout
frame of spirit, and such as I should wish to have in my last
moments" ("Coltness Collections," p. 15). He was a zealous
Covenanter, and suffered considerably for his principles during
the persecution of Charles II. He died March 31, 1681, at his own
house at Edinburgh, in the seventy-third year of his age, in the
full assurance of faith. Rutherford wrote this letter on occasion
of his own election to be Professor of Divinity in the College of
Edinburgh.]