CCCLIX.--_To a_ BROTHER MINISTER.
Judgment of a draught or minute of a Petition, to have been
presented to the Committee of Estates, by those Ministers who
were then prisoners in the Castle of Edinburgh for that other
well-known Petition to his Majesty, about which they were when
seized upon and made prisoners.[521]
[521] See note prefixed to Letter CCCLVII., p. 692.
["But that no man may mistake or judge amiss of persons so fixed
in the cause and faithful in their generations, know that this
draught was not sent to Mr. Rutherford as a paper concluded and
condescended upon among these brethren, whose love to truth made
them in all things so tender that they were ever fond to abstain
from all appearance of evil. It was more like the suggestion of
some other men (wherein was laid before them what kind of address
would most probably please, waiving the just measures of what was
simply duty in their circumstances), than anything flowing from
themselves, as the product of a mature deliberation. And,
secondly, know (which confirmeth what was said), that whatever it
was, or whoever gave the rise to it, yet it was never made use
of, nor presented to the Committee of Estates, by any of these
faithful men, whose praise, for their fidelity, fixedness, real
and untainted integrity, is in the churches of Christ" (Note by
Mr. Robert M'Ward, the original editor of Rutherford's
"Letters").]
DEAR BROTHER,--I am, as ye know, straitened as another suffering man,
but dare not petition this Committee:--
1. Because it draweth us to capitulate with such as have the advantage
of the mount, the Lord so disposing for the present: and, to bring the
matters of Christ to yea and no (ye being prisoners and they the
powers) is a hazard.
2. A speaking to them in write, and passing in silence the sworn
Covenant and the cause of God (which is the very present controversy),
is contrary to the practice of Christ and the Apostles, who, being
accused or not accused, avouched Christ to be the Son of God and the
Messias, and that the dead must rise again, even when the adversary
misstated the question. Yea, silence on the cause of God, which
adversaries persecute, seemeth a tacit deserting of the cause, when
the state of the question is known to beholders: and I know that the
brethren intend not to leave the cause.
3. I know of no offence that you have given (I will not say what
offence may be taken), either as to the matter or manner of your
petition. For, if what you have done be a necessary duty laid aside by
others, a duty can never give an offence to Christ, and so none to
men; but Christians will look upon a pious, harmless, and innocent
petition to the Prince, in the matters of the Lord's honour and the
good of His church (though proffered by one or two, when they are
silent whose it is to speak and act), as a seasonable duty.
4. The draught of that petition, which you sent me, speaketh not one
word of the Covenant of God for the adhering to which you now suffer,
and which is the object of men's hatred, and the destruction whereof
is the great work of the times. Your silence in this nick of time
appeareth to be a non-confession of Christ before men; and you want
nothing to beget an uncleanly deliverance but the profession of
silence.
5. There is a promise and real purpose, as the petition saith, to live
peaceably under the King's authority. But, 1. Ye do not answer
candidly and ingenuously the mind of the rulers, who, to your
knowledge, mean a far other thing by authority than ye do. For _ye_
mean, _his just authority_, his authority in the Lord, and his just
greatness, in the maintenance of true religion, as in the Covenant,
Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, is expressed from the Word of
God: _they_ mean his _supreme authority_, and absolute prerogative
above laws, as their acts make clear, and as their practice is. For
they refused, to such as were unwilling to subscribe their bond, to
add "authority in the Lord," or, "just and lawful authority," or
"authority as it is expressed in the Covenant." But this draught of a
petition, under your own hand, yieldeth the sense and meaning to them
which they crave. 2. That authority for which they contend is
exclusive of the sworn Covenant; so that, except ye had said, "We
shall be subject to the King's authority in the Lord, or according to
the sworn Covenant," ye say nothing to the point in hand; and that,
sure, is not your meaning. 3. Whoever promised so much peaceable
living under his Majesty's authority, leaving out the exposition of
the fifth commandment, as your petition doth, may upon the very same
ground subscribe the bond refused by the godly; and so you pass from
the Covenant, and make all those by-past actings of this Kirk and
State, these years by-past, to be horrid rebellion! And how deep that
guiltiness draweth, consider.
6. A condemning of the Remonstrance, simply and without any limitation
and distinction, is a condemning of many precious ones in the land,
and a passing from the causes of God's wrath, which is the chief
matter of the Remonstrance.
7. That nothing is before your eyes but the exoneration of your
conscience, is indeed believed by the godly who know you; but a
passing in silence of the honest materials in your former petition to
his Majesty seemeth to be a deserting thereof, since, in all your
petition, ye do not once say ye cannot but adhere to that pious
petition, as your necessary duty. And, that ye intend in the petition
the happiness of his Majesty, is also believed.
Dear brother, show to our brethren, that the Lord Christ, in your
persons, hath a stated question betwixt Him and the powers on earth.
The only wise God lead you now, when He hath brought you forth in
public, so to act as if ye did see Jesus Christ by you, and beholding
you. It is easy for such as are on the shore to throw a counsel to
those that are tossed in the sea; but, only by living by faith, and by
fetching strength and comfort from Christ, can you be victorious, and
have right to the precious promises "of the tree of life," "of the
hidden manna," of the gifted "morning star," and the like, made to
those who overcome: to whose strength and grace, brethren who desire
with me to remember you do recommend you. I am, dear brother,
Yours, in the Lord,