ST. ANDREWS, _Dec. 24, 1649_.
[471] Mr. David Forret, or Forrest, was minister of Kilconquhar. He
had formerly been minister of Deninno, where he appears in 1639. He
was translated thence to Forgan in 1640; and to Kilconquhar, May 27,
1646. He refused to conform to Prelacy in 1662, but was not ejected,
and died February 26, 1672.
CCCXXVIII.--_To the worthy and much honoured_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.
[COLONEL GILBERT KER was a leading man among the Covenanters. He was
one of the officers of the west country army, and adhered with great
zeal to the Western Remonstrance, sent by that army to the Committee
of Estates, which, among other things, condemned the treaty with the
King, accused many of the Committee of Estates of covetousness and
oppression, and opposed the invasion of England, or forcing a king
upon that kingdom. In the year 1655 he was named Justice of Peace for
Roxburghshire, but declined to accept; stating as his reasons, that he
considered the employment sinful, not allowed by the word of God,
contrary to the Solemn League and Covenant, and an encroachment on the
liberty of Christ's church.
At the restoration of Charles II., when those concerned in the Western
Remonstrance were particularly marked out for the vengenance of the
Government, he left the country, but was allowed by the Privy Council
to return in the beginning of the year 1671. He must have died
previous to October 5, 1677; for at that date Mr. James Row, merchant
in Edinburgh, his son-in-law, presents a petition to the Privy
Council, praying that he might obtain the remission of a fine of five
hundred merks, imposed on the deceased Colonel Gilbert Ker upon
account of a conventicle, and for the payment of which the petitioner
had become cautioner. This fine was remitted. ("Register of Acts of
Privy Council.")]
(_SINGLENESS OF AIM--JUDGMENT IN REGARD TO ADVERSARIES._)
MUCH HONOURED AND TRULY WORTHY,--I hope I shall not need to show you
that ye are in greater hazard from yourself, and your own spirit
(which should be watched over, that your actings for God may be clean,
spiritual, purely for God, for the Prince of the kings of the earth),
than ye can be in danger from your enemies. Oh how hard is it to get
the intentions so cut off from and raised above the creature, as to be
without mixture of creature and carnal interest, and to have the soul,
in heavenly actings, only, only eyeing Himself, and acting from love
to God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ! Ye will find yourself, your
delights, your solid glory (far above the air and breathings of
mouths, and the thin, short, poor applauses of men), before you in
God. All the creatures, all the swords, all the hosts in Britain, and
in this poor globe of the habitable world, are but under Him single
cyphers making no number; the product being nothing but painted men,
and painted swords in a brod, without influence from Him. And oh what
of God is in Gideon's sword, when it is "The sword of the Lord!"
I wish a sword from heaven to you, and orders from heaven to you to go
out; and as much peremptoriness of a heavenly will as to say, and
abide by it, "I will not, I shall not go out, unless Thou goest with
me." I desire not to be rash in judging; but I am a stranger to the
mind of Christ, if our adversaries, who have unjustly invaded us, be
not now in the camp of those that make war with the Lamb. But the Lamb
shall overcome them at length; for He is the Lord of lords, and King
of kings, and they who are with Him are called, and chosen, and
faithful. And though ye and I see but the dark side of God's
dispensations this day towards Britain, yet the fair, beautiful, and
desirable close of it must be the confederacy of the nations of the
world with Britain's Lord of armies. And let me die in the comforts of
the faith of this, that a throne shall be set up for Christ in this
island of Britain (which is, and shall be, a garden more fruitful of
trees of righteousness, and which payeth and shall pay more thousands
to the Lord of the vineyard than is paid in thrice the bounds of Great
Britain upon earth), and there can be neither Papist, Prelate,
Malignant, nor Sectary, who dare draw a sword against Him that sitteth
upon the throne.
Sir, I shall wish a clean[472] army, so far as may be, that the shout
of a King who hath many crowns may be among you; and that ye may fight
in faith, and prevail with God first. Think it your glory to have a
sword to act, and suffer, and die (if it please Him), so being ye may
add anything to the declarative glory of Christ, the Plant of Renown,
Immanuel, God with us. Happy and thrice blessed are they by whose
actings, or blood, or pain, or loss, the diadems and rubies of His
highest and most glorious crown (whose ye are) shall glister and shine
in this quarter of the habitable world. Though He need not Gilbert
Ker, nor his sword, yet this honour have ye with His redeemed
soldiers, to call Christ High Lord-General, of whom ye hope for pay
and all arrears well told. Go on, worthy Sir, in the courage of faith,
following the Lamb. Make not haste unbelievingly; but in hope and
silence keep the watch-tower, and look out. He will come in His own
time; His salvation shall not tarry. He will place salvation in
Britain's Zion for Israel's glory.
[472] Free from malignants. See note, Letter CCCXXX.
His good-will who dwelt in The Bush and it burned not, be yours, and
with you.