self, as at night you may say, Master, I have wronged none; behold, you have your own with advantage. Oh! your soul then will esteem much of one of God's kisses and embracements in the testimony of a good conscience. The wicked, howbeit they be casting many evil thoughts, bitter words, and sinful deeds behind their back, yet they are, in so doing, clerks to their own process, and doing nothing all their life but gathering dittays against themselves, for God is angry at the wicked every day; and I hope your present process shall be sighted one day by him who knoweth your just cause, and the bloody tongues, crafty foxes, double ingrained hypocrites, shall appear as they are before his Majesty, when he shall take the mask off their faces; and, O! thrice happy shall your soul be then, when God finds you covered with nothing but the white robe of the saint's innocence, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You have been of late in the king's wine cellar, where you were welcomed by the Lord of the Inns, upon a condition that you would walk in love; put on love, and brotherly-kindness, and longsuffering; wait as long upon the favour and turned hearts of your enemies as Christ waited upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's door, with dewy and rainy locks, the long cold night. Be angry, but sin not. I persuade myself, that holy unction within you, which teacheth you all things, is also saying, "Overcome evil with good." If that had not spoken in your soul, at the tears of your aged pastor, you would not have agreed, and forgiven his foolish son, who wronged you; but my Master bade me tell you, God's blessing shall be upon you for it; and from him I say, Grace, grace, grace, and everlasting peace be upon you. It is my prayer for you, that your carriage may grace and adorn the gospel of that Lord who hath graced you. I hear your husband also was sick, but I beseech you in the bowels of Jesus, welcome every rod of God; for I find not in the whole book of God a greater note of the child of God, than to fall down and kiss the feet of an angry God; and when he seems to put you away from him, and loose your hands that grip him, to look up in faith and say, I shall not, I will not be put away from thee; howbeit thy Majesty draw to free thyself of me, yet, Lord, give me leave to hold and cleave unto thyself. I will pray that your husband may return in peace; your decreet comes from heaven, look up thither; for many (says Solomon) seek the face of the ruler, but every man's judgment cometh of the Lord; and be glad that it is so.

for Christ is the clerk of your process, and will see that all go right; and I persuade myself he is saying, Yonder servants of mine are wronged; for my blood, Father, give them justice. Think you not, dear sister, but our High Priest, our Jesus, the Master of requests, presents our bills of complaint to the great Lord-Justice? Yea, I believe it, since he is our Advocate, and Daniel calls him the spokesman, whose hand presents all to the Father. For other businesses I say nothing, until the Lord give me to see your face. I am credibly informed, that multitudes of England, and especially worthy preachers and silenced preachers of London, are gone to New England ('); and I know one learned, holy preacher, who hath written against the Arminians, who is gone thither. Our blessed Lord Jesus, who cannot get leave to sleep with his Spouse in this land, is going to seek an inn where he will be better entertained; and what marvel? Wearied Jesus, after he had travelled from Geneva, by the ministry of worthy Mr Knox, and was laid down in his bed, and reformation begun, and the curtains drawn, he had not gotten his dear eyes well together, when irreverent bishops came in, and with the din and noise of ceremonies, holidays, and other Romish corruptions, they awoke our Beloved. Others came to his bedside, and drew the curtains, and put hands on his servants, banished, deprived, and confined them; and for the pulpit, they got a stool and a cold fire in Blackness; and the nobility drew the covering off him, and have made him a poor naked Christ, in spoiling his servants of the tithes and kirk rents,* and now there is such a noise of crying sins in the land, as they want of the knowledge of God, of mercy and truth; such swearing, whoring, lying, and blood touching blood, that Christ is putting on his clothes, and making him like an ill handled stranger, to go to other lands. Pray him, sister, to lie down again with his beloved. Remember my dearest love to John Gordon, to whom I will write when I am strong; and to John Brown, Grizzel, Samuel, and William; grace upon them. As you love Christ, keep Christ's favour, and put not upon him when he sleeps, to awake him before he please. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit. Your brother in Christ, S. R. Anwoth, July 21, 1630.'

John Brown is here grouped with her three children, Grizzel, Samuel, and William, as if he had been one of the family; he is put before them, but closely conjoined with them, as if * Mr Rutherford, like a certain clergyman, seems to have reckoned stipends, manses, and glebes, means of grace.

he had been in the same house. He was now, according to our calculation, twenty-one, but he is just called John Brown. John Gordon is mentioned, but John Brown is mentioned precisely, as one of her own children. He could not be far distant.

"For Marion Macnaught.

"Mistress,-My love in Christ remembered. I am in care and fear for this work of our Lord's, now near approaching, because of the danger of the time, and I dare not for my soul be silent; to see my Lord's house burning, and not cry, Fire! fire! therefore seek from our Lord wisdom spiritual, not black policy, to speak with liberty our Lord's truth. I am cast down, and would fain have access and presence to the King that day, even howbeit I should break up iron doors. I believe you will not forget me, and you will desire Jane Brown, Thomas Carsen, and Marion Carsen, to help me. Pray for well cooked meat, and an heartsome Saviour with joy, crying, welcome in my Father's name. I am confident Zion shall be well; the bush shall burn and not consume, for the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush. But the Lord is making on a fire in Jerusalem, and purposeth to blow the bellows, and to melt the tin and brass, and bring out a fair beautiful bride out of the furnace, that will be married over again upon the new husband, and sing as in the days of her youth, when the contract of marriage is written over again; but I fear the bride be hidden for a time from the dragon that pursueth the woman with child; but what, howbeit, we go and lurk in the wilderness for a time? For the Lord will take his kirk to the wilderness, and speak to her heart. Nothing casteth me down, but only I fear the Lord will cast down the shepherds' tents, and feed his own in a secret place. But let us, however matters frame, cast over the affairs of the bride upon the bridegroom; the government is upon his shoulders, and he does bear us all well enough; that fallen star, the prince of the bottomless pit, knoweth it is near the time when he shall be tormented; and now in his evening he has gathered his armies to win one battle or two in the edge of the evening at the sun going down. And when our Lord has been watering his vineyard in France, and Germany, and Bohemia, how can we think ourselves Christ's sister, if we be not like him and our other great sisters. I cannot but think, seeing the ends of the earth are given to Christ, Psal. ii. 8, and Scotland is the end of the earth (and so we are in Christ's charter-tailie,) but our Lord will keep his possession;

we fall by promise and law to Christ; he won us with the sweat of his brow (if I may say so); his Father promised him his liferent of Scotland. Glory, glory to our King; long may he wear his crown! O Lord, let us never see another king. O let him come down like rain upon the new mown grass. I had you in remembrance on Saturday in the morning last; in a great measure, and was brought thrice on end, in remembrance of you in my prayer to God. Grace, grace be your portion. Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus, S. R. Anwoth, March 2, 1634."

Marion Macnaught, or Mrs Fullerton, must have been a woman, who, when there were few newspapers, indeed, and few books upon geography, and when the science was not taught but to the gentry, was nevertheless acquainted, with the physical and moral states of France, Germany, and Bohemia. Europe at that period was convulsed from end to end, and side to side; and Mr Rutherford, and his pious friends, suffering in Britain, could not help casting a glance beyond the Channel. Adversity makes mankind to feel for others, if they have any feeling. Say to him that liveth in prosperity, said he, who was hunted like a partridge on the mountains of Judea: 1 Sam. xxv.

Rutherford remembers that others are suffering for their faults, both to their great and glorious Head, and to their fellow-men, for neither in France, Germany, nor Bohemia, were the Prostestants guiltless, nor were the Presbyterians in Britain altogether free from blame, but each, and all of them, suffered more from man than they deserved. But, whether individuals, families, or nations, suffer from their fellow-men, the persecutors, whether Papists or Protestants, always hold they deserved all they receive. We do not hold Papists and Protestants alike. Äh no! But the tender-mercies of the best, are nearly allied to cruelty. There is only One Being who is patient, long-suffering, and even in his severest punishments, absolutely just, and perhaps, even merciful. Ĥe, and He only, is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and slow to anger, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. His followers should be greatly assimilated to himself, or should, at the very lowest degree of sanctification, be striving to be like him, and should, in the very worst of cases, feel for humanity, and strive, by gentleness, to be no barrier, at least, to incipient Christianity. Those who are spiritual should strive to restore those who are erring, in the spirit of meekness, if they be only overtaken in a fault, and should perhaps try by meek

ness and gentleness, to bring in those who are most ignorant, excessively vicious, and entirely, and perhaps determinately, out of the way. The most we can say for humanity, there are some who will not do any evil to their fellow-men, and will not join with those who wish evil, or will do evil to them. To be even neutral in the cause of forbearance is a great attainment; there may be some, (would there were many,) who will go much farther, who will not injure, but will do good, in the worst of cases, even to an enemy. When this shall be more generally the case, the amelioration of human society is fairly begun, and God may soon, though not as some visionaries dream, dwell with men upon earth.

"For Marion Macnaught.

"Hon. and dearest in the Lord,-Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. I am well, and my soul prospereth; I find Christ with me, I burden no man, I want nothing; no face looketh on me but it laugheth on me; sweet, sweet is the Lord's cross. I overcame my heaviness. My bridegroom's love-blinks fatten my weary soul. I go to my king's palace at Aberdeen; tongue, and pen, and wit, cannot express my joy. Remember my love to Jean Gordon, to my sister Jean Brown, to Grizzel, to your husband. Thus, in haste, grace be with you. Yours in his only, only Lord Jesus, S. R. Edinburgh, April 5, 1636. A postscript-My charge is to you to believe, rejoice, sing, and triumph. Christ has said to me, mercy, mercy, grace and peace, for Marion Macnaught."

"For Marion Macnaught.

Worthy and dearest in the Lord, I rejoice you are a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. Faint not, keep breath, believe, howbeit men, and husband, and friends, prove weak, yet your strength faileth not. It is not pride for a drowning man to grip to the rock. It is your glory to lay hold on your Rock. O woman greatly beloved, I testify and avouch it in my Lord, the prayers you sent to heaven these many years bygone, are come up before the Lord, and shall not be forgotten. What it is that will come, I cannot tell; but I know, as the Lord liveth, these cries shall bring down mercy. I charge you, and those people with you, to go on without fainting or fear, and still believe, and take no nay-say. If you leave off, the field is lost; if you continue, our enemies shall be like a tottering wall and a bowing fence. I write it, (and keep this letter) Utter, utter destruction shall be to your