* This article was translated from the Dutch by a friend.—Editor.
Not far from Leyden lies the little village of Woubrugge. One evening—it was pretty late—about 1720, a Dutch farmer stood before his window. On the road he saw a tall young man approaching, opening his gate and walking towards his door. The farmer was not too pleased when this benighted traveller asked for shelter, but seeing the kind and determined face, he did not show his suspicion. Though the stranger spoke a broken Dutch, the farmer complied with the request, opened the door, took the young man to a little barn, gave him a candle, some bread and milk, and wished him goodnight. Then the farmer went to his own bedroom adjoining the little barn. It was dark in his own room, but through a hole in the wall he could see how the stranger carried on. Imagine his astonishment when the stranger uncovered his head, took off his clothes, and, falling on his knees, poured out his soul in a fervent and touching prayer before the Lord, thanking Him for His guidance and goodness he had experienced, pleading with the Lord if the farmer was still unconverted, to grant His mercy and grace to his host and family. During the prayer the farmer saw a holy expression on the stranger’s face, which made him ashamed. This was too much for the farmer. It seemed as if he had seen a heavenly appearance. Was the stranger a messenger from above? Had he entertained angels unawares? The farmer fell on his knees, the prayer of the stranger humbled his heart, a heavenly joy entered his soul as he had never tasted before. It was the first fruit of Comrie’s prayer, in the village of Woubrugge.
The next morning the young man told his story. His name was Alexander Comrie, a Scotsman by origin. His father, Patrick Comrie, was a grandson of the famous Glasgow minister, Andrew Gray, as can be seen from the following family tree:—Andrew Gray and Rachel Ballie—Rachel Gray and John Vause—Rachel Vause and Patrick Comrie—Alexander Comrie.
Though originally destined for the ministry, his father had sent Alexander to Amsterdam and Rotterdam to be engaged at a commercial office. In Amsterdam Comrie had heard about the working of the Spirit in the villages along the Rhine, near Leyden. So he made up his mind to go and see more of it himself. On his way, however, he was shipwrecked and had scarcely saved his life by swimming to the shore. So he had landed at this farm. Comrie requested the farmer to take him to some godly people. The Dutchman went with him to his landowner, Arnold de Steike, a godly man. When this friend had listened, full of interest, to the wonderful story of his tenant, he spoke with Comrie himself. The godly, well-to-do man noticed Comrie’s desire to become a minister, and with the aid of Rev. Tarée and Arnold de Steike, Comrie was enabled to continue his study.
Alexander Comrie was a student at the University of Croningen, where he applied himself to theology and philosophy under the professors Van Velzen and Ariessen. He frequently visited these godly men, as he writes himself that Mrs. Van Velzen was “a mother in Israel.” In his Practical Explanation of the Heidelberg Catechisms he makes mention of Professor Antonius Ariessen when speaking about the soul’s distress of a sinner in the way of discovery of this miserable state and not being able to do anything with his literal knowledge. “I have clearly seen this in a professor under whom I studied, being present when the sorrows of death had compassed him, and the pains of hell got hold upon him, creeping as a worm and crying unto the Lord out of the depths: O God is there a way of escaping? Make him known to me. And this learned man had recently published his Ceratia Victrix (Conquering Grace). After four years Comrie went to the University at Leyden and studied philosophy. Professor Schultens, sen., was a great friend of his, and later on Comrie refers to him as a loving teacher and faithful guide in his youth. He honours him as a father. Even Professor Schultens, jun., later on one of Comrie’s bitterest enemies, does not deny this friendship, though he remarks that his father frequently warned Comrie for the latter’s masterful character and applying the plumb-line of his own experience. In 1737 Comrie finished his academic course after maintaining a thesis: De Moiabilitatis Fundamento et Natura Vertutis. Comrie became a Doctor in Philosophy. In the same year he became a minister at Woubrugge.
Comrie’s native country was Scotland, and in his heart he remained a Scotsman. On the title page of all his works the addition—Scot Britannus—is never missed under the name of the author. The Scottish Confession was, in his opinion, the soundest in the world, and when giving religious instruction to his pupils he used the Westminster Catechism, which he translated for them. The Scottish divines had a great influence on him. His teachers were Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, whom he often heard when a child. Thomas Boston was another divine whom he knew personally. Comrie writes himself: After tasting and experiencing the sovereign grace of God, bestowed on me the chief of sinners, it has always been my prayer that God should keep me, to stick to the doctrines of the Reformation.
In 1737 Comrie married Johannede Heyde. One year later his beloved wife died. In a preface to the A.B.C. of Faith Comrie gives a touching description of their love and his great loss. “I have experienced many sorrows but this loss exceeds anything. It made me chatter like a crane or a swallow and mourn as a dove.” In this preface Comrie refers to Isaiah xxx. 17: “Behold for peace I had great bitterness, but Thou hast in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption.” Johannede Heyde had the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, her moderation was known unto all men, enjoying God’s presence, clothed with humility. When she was very young the fear of the Lord was implanted into her soul. She walked with God in this vale of tears. She was a great help to him in his studies and experience in the truth, and advising him not to preach beyond the comprehension of his hearers, saying, “You cannot believe enough how slow of understanding people are.” Whenever he was depressed about the unfruitfulness of the means, she tried to encourage him. This was a great comfort to him, as he often felt a stranger in a strange country. After the birth of their only daughter the godly couple had often to call out, “Blessed be the Lord who will compass with favour as with a shield.” To his great refreshment the Lord gave her a full assurance of faith. When she died Comrie believed that he had not lost his wife but sent her away to a place where he hoped to follow her. Her last words were: “The Lord shall provide for you. He is the father of the fatherless and a judge of the widowers.” Comrie had often to say with the Psalmist: “My soul melteth for heaviness and my moisture is turned into the drought of summer, but he knew that his tribulation should be for ten days. Then a wilderness should be exchanged for a Caanan and the darkness turned into a precious light, for sorrow and sighing shall flee away and all sorrow be forgotten when God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Alexander Comrie was inducted by Rev. Nicolas Holtius at Koudekeike—a great friend of his. Comrie preached his first sermon on Zechariah vi. 15: “And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord and ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me unto you.” Woubrugge is a prospering village not far from Leyden. Attractive by its canal, on either side of which are the farms. A footpath along the canal is called Comrie Quay. It is a long time since the Lord began His work of saving grace among the people, in the early days of the Reformation, when Jan Arents, basketmaker at Alkinaar, preached the Gospel, on his way from Amsterdam to Delft. In the early part of the eighteenth century spiritual life was very low. People were religious, but there were no living activities of the heart. This condition wonderfully changed when some labourers from Benthuizen came to live there. One of them, Klaas Janse Poldervaart, was a simple but God-fearing man. His heart was full of sorrow when he saw the spiritual wilderness of Woubrugge. He was granted to pray. He gathered some people and together they read the sermons of Brakel and Vanderkemp, Dutch divines. It pleased the Lord to bless these means richly. Many were quickened: Christ was revealed unto them. The minister, Comrie’s predecessor, was also converted, and his preaching was richly blessed. Although Comrie had bitter enemies, the Lord gave him some great friends—Rev. N. Holtius, Rev. J. L. Verster, and a minister of the Scottish Church at Rotterdam, Rev. Kennedy.
Some members of his congregation complained that he did not visit his people very much, but Comrie spent a good deal of his time in his study, in order to publish his works and sermons. In this way the Lord has made use of him, to bless and instruct His people, at the time and afterwards and by it, “He being dead yet speaketh.” Woubrugge was Comrie’s first and only place as a minister. Of the seven calls he got he could not accept any. Towards the end of his life Comrie took part in the controversy against the errors which threatened the Dutch Church and darkened the evening of his life. Arminianism caused great concern to him. It was taught at the University at Groningen, and not before it was publicly preached did it arouse the champions of truth. Comrie and his friend, Rev. N. Holtius, controverted the spirit of mutual tolerance at the sacrifice of truth in their polemical work, Examination of Tolerance, a series of dialogues. A complaint was lodged against the examiners about their conception of justification from eternity by Professor Van den Honert, jun., Leyden. However, the accuser died before the matter was investigated. Comrie refuted this complaint in the preface of the tenth dialogue, which embittered his opponents to such an extent that silence was imposed upon him.
Comrie was not only the author of several works, as the reader will see later on, but he also translated some of the works of the Scottish divines. In the first place Thomas Shepherd’s Parable of the Ten Virgins, according to Comrie, was one of the most useful books ever written in the English language. Now and then the translator makes some remarks or gives some notes. In the second place Thomas Boston’s A View of the Covenant of Grace. Comrie writes in his preface a treatise on the Covenant of Works, and makes mention of the fact that he has known Boston very well. In the third place, George Hutcheson’s Lesser Prophets. Some sermons by Stephen Charnock were translated into Dutch by John Ross. In this work Comrie wrote a short historical preface about the works of Scottish divines and translated into Dutch. “I quite remember how an old Godly Scottish minister informed me that I could safely read the books which were written and printed after the Reformation until 1637. Comrie writes about Archbishop Abbot and tells us that through the latter’s influence King James I advised the Dutch States to hold the National Synod at Dordrecht. Comrie also translated Chauncy’s Guide of the Westminster Catechism, which he used when giving religious instruction to his pupils.
However, it is especially through his own works that Comrie continues to live in the hearts of the Lord’s people. They mainly deal on saving faith and spiritual life. It is his desire to set forth the sweetness and consolation of the Gospel. In his days many ministers preached a mixture of Gospel and law. Law and Gospel, Comrie writes, must be preached both, but it must not be the intention to knock down the souls through a legal fear and to leave them alone. The intention must be to heal them. “In the course of my ministry I have experienced that the proclamation of sovereign grace, the glory of the mediator, the offer of salvation of Christ’s willingness to save, and the preaching of the privileges of those who are found in Him are the principal means to touch the heart sweetly; and, on the other hand, that all thunders of the law alone bring about a Cain’s repentance and a Judas’ conversion. The Sun of righteousness melts but Moses is as the cold from the North and benumbs.” Nevertheless, in the application of his sermon Comrie is very solemn and personal, insisting on self-examination, conversion and faith. His labour at Woubrugge was not in vain. It has pleased the Lord to make use of Comrie’s preaching and to open the hearts of sinners.
Comrie wrote the following works:—Treatise on Some Attributes of Saving Faith; Faith and Mercy Joining the Soul unto the Lord (I Cor. vi. 17); Faith and Mercy by which the Soul is Justified (Rom. v. 1); Faith and Mercy which Purifies the Soul (Acts xv. 9); Faith and Mercy which Highly Esteems Jesus Christ (I Peter ii. 7); Faith and Mercy Calling the Soul to Enter into Rest (Hebrews iv. 3); Faith and Mercy which Overcometh the World (I John v. 4); Faith and Mercy which is Tried (I Peter i. 7); Faith and Mercy which makes the Heart Partial unto God though the Promises are not Fulfilled at First (Isaiah xxviii. 16); Faith and Mercy Coming unto the Throne of Grace in Full Assurance to Obtain Mercy and Find Grace to Help in Time of Need (Heb. x. 22); Faith and Mercy Upon which the Sealing Follows (Ephesians i. 13); Faith and Mercy Through which a Christian Lives (Galatians ii. 20); The Life of Faith unto Daily Righteousness (Romans x. 10); The Life Through Faith in Darkness (Micah vii. 8); The Life of Faith on the Promise (Hebrews xi. 13); Various Designations of Saving Faith; A.B.C. of Faith; To Put on Christ (Galatians iii. 27); To Be Joined unto the Lord (I Cor. vi. 17); To Follow Hard after the Lord (Ps. lxxiii. 8); To Receive the Lord (John i. 12); Amen; The Poor in Spirit; To Begin in the Spirit (Gal. iii. 3); To Acknowledge One’s Iniquity (Jer. iii. 13); To Trust in God (Ps. xxxvii. 22); To Abide in Him (John xv. 5); To Thirst for God (Ps. xlii. 2); To Drink His Blood and to Eat His Flesh (John vi. 56); To Give Him One’s Heart (Proverbs xxiii. 26); To Hunger after Christ; To Choose the Way of Truth; To Come to the Waters; To Kiss the Son; To Lean upon the Beloved; to Commit Oneself to Him; To Wait upon the Lord; Examination of Tolerance; Treatise on the Justification of the Sinner through the Immediate Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness as the Redeemer; Practical Explanation of the Heidelberg Catechism (Volume I).
Rev. Theodorus Avinek writes in the preface: “Shall we not thank the Lord that there are still champions to be found who defend the truth against those who attack the doctrine of Atonement and the work of the Holy Ghost, the pillars of the doctrine of sovereign grace, among whom we may mention our now blessed Alexander Comrie.”
Comrie’s sermons on the Languishing Condition of Believers and the Way in which they are Restored are full of instruction and practical spiritual knowledge. These sermons were published and dedicated to his congregation after having declined a call from another place. Sermons on Psalms xliii. 11; Jeremiah ii. 13; Hosea ii. 6; Jeremiah xxxi. 9; Isaiah xli. 17; Song of Solomon i. 3; Psalm cii. 17 and 18; Song of Solomon i. 5; Genesis xvii. 1. Comrie had a thorough knowledge of the truth sanctified unto his heart. His works are saturated with an enviable piety; he penetrates into the inmost hiding places of the heart. Therefore he is more able to fathom the comforting power of the sound doctrine of grace from his own experience, based on the infallible Word of God in all its length and breadth, depth and height.
In 1771 Comrie retired. On 7th April he preached his last sermon. His text was I John ii. 27: “Which ye have heard from the beginning.” He settled at Goude—only 18 months he lived there. His end was quickly approaching. In October, 1777, his only daughter died, and two months afterwards he fell asleep in Jesus. He was buried in St. John Church, Groude. “Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God.”