his dark, dreary, solitary, and unwholsome abode, be meditating upon Him in the night watches. Upon his cold and hard pallet, he would be directing his prayer unto the God of his life, and looking up. With the light of His countenance lifted upon him, he would feel more solid and substantial gladness in his heart than any of his persecutors could do, when their corn and wine did most abound. The apostate Archbishop of St Andrews would not be so calm, composed, and tranquillised, in the solitary moments of deliberation and self-reflection, as the persecuted and imprisoned minister of Wamphray. Yet there might be times, in his lonesome cell, when he might be led to adopt the language of the prophet Jeremiah, "Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" If he was ever deprived of the light of his Father's countenance-if Satan, the accuser of the brethren, was ever allowed to sift him like wheat-if, ruminating upon all he had spoken and all he had done, he saw that he had omitted duties, and committed sins, of the aggravation of which he was not so sensible till he was brought into the deep valley of adversity --from any of these causes, or from some of them combined, he might be led to express himself in the words of the Psalmist, "I call to remembrance my song in the night, I commune with mine own heart; and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." Trembling for the ark of God-having his heart set upon the Church of his fathers and marking all that the enemy had done wickedly in the sanctuary-how the enemies of God roared in the midst of the congregation, and set up their ensigns for signs-how they had broken down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.

These cogitations, observations, and reflections, would tend to bring down his earthly frame. And though there is an appointed time for man upon earth, and his days are as the days of an hireling, yet we can scarce conceive, that, with his days of darkness, and dismay, when hope deferred maketh the heart sick, he would weather fourscore winters. That he attained a good old age, we learn from the words of his friend :"To rob you of Mr Brown, said he, to the session and con

gregation of Rotterdam,-to rob you of Mr Brown, of whom I have confidence to say, for a conjunction of great learning, soundness in the faith, fervent zeal for the interests of Christ and the souls of men, together with his unwearied painfulness, while upon the brink of the grave, spending his life to give light to others, and laying out his great receivings for the vindication of precious truth, contradicted and blasphemed by adversaries. I know no minister alive, (though the residue of the Spirit be with him,) that would fill his room, were he removed." This, written two years before his death, proves that he had attained a good old age. But a man at sixty-eight, with a constitution shattered by the blasts of adversity, will make him appear on the brink of the grave. Besides, is a man not on the very verge of the grave, who has scarcely two years to run, till he step into its devouring jaws ? Were every year a

mile, and had we seventy of them to walk on the longest summer day, would we not reckon our journey near a close when, weary and almost worn out, we reached the sixty-eighth milestone? Supposing them to be epochs of as long eras as have or shall yet run, and were we only two of them from the joys of heaven, would not we think we saw the ever-green fields beyond the swelling flood; and that we heard the symphonies and hallelujahs of the blessed? or, what is inexpressibly more awful, were we on the broad way that leads directly down to the chambers of death, and had we passed sixty-eight seasons of grace, and had just two to run, after the door of mercy was for ever shut, although they were a thousand years, which, with the Eternal is only as one day, would we not constantly think we saw the smoke of the torment, and heard the howlings of hell? A great deal of happiness may be enjoyed, and a great deal of misery endured, in two years; but he is near his end who has lived sixty-eight, and has only two years to run. But, from one of the letters to Marion M‘Naught, and another to his mother, it is apparent Mr Brown was not ordained, if he was licensed, in 1637, when, according to our calculation, he must have been twenty-eight years of age. Supposing he had lived to fourscore, instead of threescore and ten, he must have been thirty-eight before he was ordained, if not before he was licensed, which is not very probable, considering his circumstances, even in that early age of the Reformed Church. We therefore fix the days of the years of his pilgrimage, few and evil as they were, about threescore and ten years, and thus, with great probability, we fix his birth about the year 1609.

The place where Mr Brown first drew the breath of life is nearly equal in uncertainty with the time. From the letters of the pious and learned Mr Samuel Rutherford, we learn where, or at least nearly whereabouts, his parents resided. That eminent divine wrote at least forty-six letters to Marion Macnaught, who, as some of his other published letters evidence, was the wife of William Fullerton, Esq. provost of Kirkcudbright. In five of them, Jean, or Jane Brown, as he alternately calls her, Mr Brown's mother, is mentioned, with singular honour. In two of them Mr Brown is mentioned, and in one of the two, with equal respect. The letters must be given entire, for it is not easy to abridge them, without doing them great injustice. Those that are dated, shall be inserted according to time, and the undated, shall precede them, arranged in order, according to internal evidence, if it is perceptible. No other remarks shall be made upon them than are absolutely necessary to bring out their point to the unlearned reader. They are printed from the Edinburgh edition of 1809, in which they are not arranged according to time, nor numbered, as they are said to be in the edition published by Mr Thomson of Shields.

"To Marion Macnaught.*

"Mistress,--My love inChrist remembered. Our communion is on Sabbath come-eight-days; I will entreat you to recommend it to God, and to pray for me in that work. I have more sins upon me now than the last time. Therefore I will beseech you in Christ, seek this petition to me from God, that the Lord would give me grace to vow and perform new obedience. I have cause to suit this of you, and show it to Thomas Carsen, Fergus, and Jean Brown; for I have been, and am exceedingly cast down, and am fighting against a malicious devil, of whom I can win little ground: and I would think a spoil plucked from him, and his trusty servant sin, a lawful and just conquest and it were no sin to take it from him. In the name of the goodman of our house, King Jesus, I invite you to the banquet. He saith, ye shall be dearly welcome to him. And I desire to believe, (howbeit, not without great fear,) he shall be as hearty in his own house, as he has been before. For me it is but small reckoning; but I would fain have our Father and Lord to break

⚫ Could not be written before 1627, when he was settled in Anwoth, nor later than 1630.

the fair Loaf, Christ, and to distribute his slain Son amongst the bairns of his house; and that, if any were a stepbairn, in respect of comfort and sense, it were rather myself than his poor bairns. Therefore bid our well-beloved come to his garden, and feed among the lilies. And, as concerning Zion, I hope our Lord, who, Zech. ii. sent his angel with a measuring line in his hand, to measure the length and breadth of Jerusalem, in token he would not want a foot length or inch of his own free heritage, shall take order with those, who have taken away many acres of his own land from him: and God will build Jerusalem, in the old stead and place where it was before; in this hope rejoice and be glad. Christ's garments were not dipt in blood for nothing, but for his bride, whom he bought with strokes. I will desire you to remember my old suits to God, God's glory, and the increase of light, that I dry not up. For your town, hope and believe that the Lord will gather in his loose sheaves among you to his barn, and send one with a well-toothed sharp-hook and strong gardies, to reap his harvest, and the Lord Jesus be husbandman, and oversee the growing. Remember my love to your husband and to Samuel: grace upon you and your children. Lord, make them corner-stones in Jerusalem, and give them grace in their youth, to take band with the fair chief Corner-stone, who was hewed out of the mountain without hands, and got many a knock with his Father's fore-hammer, and endured them all, and the stone did neither cleave nor break upon that stone your soul to lie. King Jesus be with your spirit.-Your friend in his well-beloved Lord Jesus. S. R. Anwoth.

:

“For Marion Macnaught.*

"Mistress,-My love in Christ remembered. At the desire of this bearer, whom I love, I thought to request you, if you can help his wife with your advice, for she is in a most dangerous and deadly-like condition; for I have thought she was far changed in her carriage and life, this time bye-past, and had hope that God would have brought her home; and now, by appearance, she will depart this life, and leave a number of children behind her. If ye can be entreated, help her, it is a work of mercy. My own wife is in exceeding great torment, night and day. Pray for us, for my life was never so

⚫ Written in 1629 or 1630, for in June 1630, his wife died.

wearisome to me. God hath filled me with gall and wormwood; but I believe, (which holds up my head above the water,) it is good for a man, (saith the Spirit of God, Lam. iii.) that he bear the yoke in his youth. I do remember you: I pray you be humble and believe; and I entreat you in Jesus Christ, pray for John Stewart and his wife, and desire your husband to do the same. Remember me heartily to Jane Brown; desire her to pray for me and my wife; I do remember her. Forget not Zion, she is the ship we sail in to Canaan; if she be broken on a rock, we will be cast overboard to swim to land betwixt death and life. The grace of Jesus be with your husband and children.-Yours in our Christ, S. R. Anwoth."

"For Marion Macnaught.

“Well-beloved and dear Sister,—My love in the Lord remembered. I understand that you are still under the Lord's visitation in your former business with your enemies, which is God's dealing; for till He takes his children out of the furnace, that knoweth how long they should be tried, there is no deliverance; but after God's highest and fullest tide, that the sea of trouble is gone over the souls of his children, then comes the gracious long hoped for ebbing, and drying up of the waters. Dear sister, do not faint; the wicked may hold the bitter cup to your head, but God mixeth it, and there is no poison in it; they strike, but God moves the rod. Shimei curseth, but it is because the Lord bids him. I tell you, and I have it from Him before whom I stand for God's people, there is a decree given out in the great court of the highest heavens, that your present trouble shall be dispersed as the morning cloud, and God shall bring forth your righteousness as the light at noontide of the day. Let me entreat you, in Christ's name, to keep a good conscience in your proceedings in that matter, and beware of yourself; yourself is a more dangerous enemy than I, or any without you; innocence and an upright cause is a good advocate before God, and shall plead for you, and win your cause; and count much of your Master's approbation and his smiling. He is now as the king that is gone to a far country. God seems to be from home, (if I may say so,) yet he sees the ill servants, who say, "Our Master deferreth his coming," and so strike their fellow-servants. But patience, my beloved; Christ the king is coming home, the evening is at hand, and he will ask an account of his servants; make a fair clear count to him: so carry your