“The Just shall Live by Faith.”

ROM. i. 17; HEB. x. 38.

THIS inspired sentence formed one of the outstanding watch-words of the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century. The words which it embodies came three times, like a voice from heaven, to the soul of Martin Luther before he finally shook off the fetters of the Church of Rome and became the leading reformer from Popery. The Spirit of God had been moving upon the conscience and heart of this remarkable man, and he had been gradually led through a variety of circumstances to realise that he was a sinner in the sight of God, and to tremble in view of appearing before God at death and at the judgment seat. The terrors of the Lord took hold of him, and he endeavoured, according to the legal system of the Church, to propitiate the divine favour by extraordinary diligence in the observance of religious rites and in the practice of severe penances. All his toils and tears were, however, of no avail. His body was worn almost to death by his rigorous austerities, but his soul was further from peace than ever, and it was not until he was directed to Christ and the forgiveness of sins through Him, by John Staupitz, a dean of theology, and by an old monk, both of whom were men evidently taught of God, that Luther understood the way of salvation, and found the true peace for his soul. Though a man in intellect and a scholar in learning, he was still but a babe in grace, and not altogether free from the legalism of Rome, and it was after this crisis in his history that the words, “The just shall live by faith,” struck him with great force on three different occasions. He found instruction, comfort, and reproof in them, and as a message from God, they constantly followed him in his after career as a powerful preacher of the gospel and reformer of the evils of the Church.

The word of the Lord is a great deep, and there is as much need to-day as ever there was in the history of the Christian Church that the truth concerning salvation by grace through faith

should be impressed upon the minds of men. The very air is full of the legal spirit, and though the name of Christ as a Saviour is in the mouths of many, yet good works are in reality accorded the chief place in the matter of salvation. If you are a member of “the Church” and a worker on behalf of its interests, you are necessarily a godly person, and on the way to heaven. Moderatism, with a thin evangelical dress, is again in the ascendancy in Scotland.

It may be further affirmed that it is always profitable to keep before the minds of men the truths embodied in such a sentence as this—”The just shall live by faith,” as the natural tendency in every human heart is to seek salvation by the deeds of the law. Even God’s people need to be reminded from time to time of the true nature of the life of godliness as a life of faith upon the Son of God. The legal spirit follows them in some of its most subtle forms, often disposing them to look for the grounds of their hope and comfort in themselves rather than in Christ and His finished work, and thus marring their happiness to an unnecessary degree, and weakening their strength in the way of godliness. Though the Lord generally overrules these entanglements to the eventual benefit of His people, that does not make them good things, or things not to seek deliverance from, as far as possible in this imperfect life. The Papist loves his “doubtful faith,” his “voluntary humility,” his miserable penances, and gloomy self mortifications much better than the joyful assurance of a finished redemption as presented in the everlasting gospel, and this Papist is in every breast. May the Lord graciously enable His own children to look unto Jesus in whom they have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of grace,” to rejoice in Him, as their all in all, and to walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, “having no confidence in the flesh”!

In considering this important statement, “The just shall live by faith,” let us observe:

i. The persons described as “the just.” These are evidently the children of God—such as are born of the Spirit. Sinners in their natural state are “the unjust.” Some of them may be very just and upright towards their fellowmen, but all are unjust and unrighteous towards God. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” But those who are here described as “the just,” have become, by the grace of God, just in two important respects—just in nature, and just in state. They are just in nature in virtue of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and they are just in state in virtue of justification—in virtue of “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” They are renewed in nature by the power of the Holy Ghost, and they are justified in state through the grace of God the Father in imputing to them the righteousness of the Lord

Jesus Christ, which He wrought out on behalf of all who were given Him. “The just” have been made deeply conscious of their own injustice, unrighteousness, and unholiness, and they are often afraid, notwithstanding what they may have felt and seen, that they have never been changed in nature or state; but still it remains that it is the chief desire of their souls to have the marks of the new creation upon them, and to be “found in” Christ, not having their “own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

1. We proceed to notice, in the second place and more fully, the life of the just. This is declared to be a life “by faith.” The words, “The just shall live by faith,” occur four times in the Scriptures. They were first spoken by the prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and are quoted three times in the New Testament, in the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. The prophet, by the illumination of the Spirit, expressed in this brief but most suggestive sentence the special character of the life of the just in all ages: it is a life of faith. At the time he wrote, he seems to have had specially in view the threatenings of the Lord against a transgressing people and the promises of the Lord with regard to the future prosperity of His cause in the world, and the leading thought is that “the just shall live by his faith” of these things. The just man shall be upheld in the way of truth by his faith that the Lord will vindicate His cause against the wicked, and will make it triumph in the earth. For we find that after the prophet proclaims woes against those who will exalt themselves by covetousness and will build a town with blood and establish a city by iniquity, and declares that all their labour shall be “in the very fire;” he gives expression to the wonderful prediction, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The righteous under the old dispensation lived by faith in the word and promises of God. Their dependence was not in themselves or in an arm of flesh, either for their own personal salvation or for the triumph of the cause of truth in the world. They looked by faith to the coming of the Messiah, who would redeem Israel and obtain the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession; and they were enabled to live unto God and His glory, and to run with patience the race set before them by the faith of the approaching Redeemer and Deliverer. In harmony with this, the apostle, in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, directs those to whom he writes to Christ, who has now come in the flesh, as the Saviour who was provided to supply all their need, and to whom they are to look by faith for righteousness, sanctification and redemption—blessings to be enjoyed now in time. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the apostle is writing with a view to stimulate and encourage the Hebrew Christians to endure patiently the afflictions and

persecutions to which they were exposed. He reminds them that the complete fulfilment of all that is contained in the promises of God will not be realised in time, but in eternity,—at death, and at the second coming of Christ,—and that the just are called upon to live by faith here, looking for a better country, even an heavenly.

It appears, then, that these memorable and historic words, “The just shall live by faith,” are expounded by the apostles, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, to show that the life of godliness is not a life of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, but a life of entire dependence by faith upon the Word of the Lord, which endureth for ever, and upon Him whom that Word reveals as the Head over all things to His body, the Church.

We hope (D.V.) to resume this subject in our next issue.

A Sermon.

BY MR. ANDREW CANT, MINISTER AT PITSLIGO AND
ABERDEEN.

Delivered at Glasgow in 1638, immediately after the Renovation of the National Covenant and Celebration of the Lord’s Supper.*

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, who made a marriage for his son, and he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding; and they would not come,” etc.—MATT. xxii. 2-6.

I PURPOSE not to handle this parable punctually, because it stands not with the nature of a parable, neither will the time suffer me so to do.

The parable runs upon an evident declaration and clear manifestation of God’s sweetest mercies, in offering the marriage of His Son, His own Son, His well-beloved Son, the Son of His love, the Son of His bosom, the Son as good as the Father, the Son as great and as glorious as the Father, the Son whose generation none can declare. The Father offers this His Son in marriage: (1) to the Jews, as you have in the first seven verses of the parable; (2) to the Gentiles, in the rest of the parable.

1. To the Jews, not because of their worthiness, “But even so, O Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” This offer was the effect of no merit, neither of congruity nor of condignity in the Jews; for they were like that wretched and menstruous infant (Ezek. xvi. 3, 4), unwaddled, unwashen, uncleaned, “lying in its blood, its navel not cut, nor salted at all, nor swaddled at all, cast out in the open field, having no eye to pity it.”

* Part of the inscription on Mr. Cant’s tombstone is, “A Boanerges and Barnabas: a Magnet and Adamant.” This sermon is taken from “The Covenants and Covenanters,” by the late Rev. Dr. Kerr, Glasgow.—Ed.

1. As for the Gentiles, ye may see what case they were in if ye read this same parable, Luke xiv. 21, “Go ye out into the streets and lanes of the city, and call the poor, the lame, blind, and maimed,” etc. Some were cripple, some poor, and blind, and withered, and miserable, and naked, and leper; unworthy to come to our Lord’s gates, let be to have them opened wide to us; unworthy to be set down at His table, let be to be admitted to His royal marriage feast, and to get Christ, our Lord, to be our match, and to be the food and cheer of our souls; and therefore let all souls, let all pulpits, let all schools, let all universities, let all men, let all women, let all Christians cry, Grace, grace, grace, praise, praise, praise, blessing, blessing, for evermore to the Lord’s free grace. Fy, fy, upon the man, fy, fy, upon the woman, that is an enemy to the Lord’s free grace. The fullest and the fairest and the freest thing in heaven or earth is the free grace of God to our poor souls. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory.”

At another occasion I handled the parable after a more general manner, and propounded these points unto you: (1) Who was this great King? (2) Who was the Son of this great King?

1. This great King is God Himself, “the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Then for the Lord’s sake, stand in awe of Him, love Him and fear Him. And I charge you all here before that great and dreadful Lord, that ye humble yourselves under His mighty hand, and that ye prostrate and submit yourselves under His almighty hand, and come away as ye promised. Kiss the Son and embrace Him, and then shall wrath be holden off you, and a shower of God’s mercy shall come down upon you. Then the King is God.

2. The King’s Son is Christ. Then there follows a dinner: “I have prepared my dinner.” Yea, I have a supper also, for Luke says, He “prepared a great supper.” I told you in what respects it is great. (1) I told you it was great in respect of the author of it—God. (2) I told you it was great in respect of the matter of it. Ye know the matter of it, as holy Scripture tells. Whiles it gets base, silly, simple names, and is delineated and expressed under common terms; but the most common term it gets is so considerable that our case would not be good if it were wanting. Whiles ’tis called “a feast of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.” Whiles it is called “gold.” Whiles it is called “fatlings, and a fatted and fed calf.” Whiles ’tis “honey and milk.” Whiles it is called “oil and wine.” Whiles it is called the “bread of life.” In a word, to tell you what this feast is, it is this Christ and all His saving graces freely given to thy soul. Then (3) it is great in respect of the manner of its preparation: I confess, this feast, though prepared in silver, is often administered in earthen vessels and clay dishes; and though it be mingled with butter and honey, yet this makes the natural man, when he looks upon it, not to think much of it, because he looks

on the outside of it only. But would to God your eyes were opened to see the inside of it, and not to be like proud Naaman, who said, “What better is this water of Jordan than the water of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus?” As some say, What better is this feast than the feast we have at home? As the man of God prayed for his servant, “Lord, open his eyes, that he may see”; and the Lord opened his eyes, and he saw another sight—even the mountain full of horses and flaming chariots of fire; so I pray, the Lord open all your eyes, that ye may see the many differences between this feast and all other feasts; for other feasts are but feasts for the body and they are but feasts for the belly. An Esau may have them; a reprobate may feed upon them. These are nothing else but the swine’s husks whereon the prodigal fed for a time, and scarce could get them; but when he came back again to his father’s house, then he fed upon the fatted calf, and then he got a feast, and then was there plenty. Then did his well run over; then was his cup to the brim, and overflowing. O that ye knew your Father’s house, and the fatness, the fulness, the feast, and the plenty that are there, ye would all hunger after it, and would then say, Alas! I have been feeding on husks too long; “now will I arise and go to my father’s house, where there is bread enough.” All the Lord’s steps drop plenty and fatness.

(4) I told you that this supper is a great feast in respect of the great number that are called unto it. The poorest thing in all the land is called unto it. The Jews are called; the Gentiles are called; yea, the poorest thing that is hearing me is called; such as a great man would not look on, but he would close the gates on such an one; a great man would not deign himself to look on them in his kitchen. Yet come ye away to this feast. The King of kings has His house open and His gates patent. He has a ready feast, and a room house, and fair open gates, and everybody shall be welcome that will come. “Whosoever thirsts, let him come, and take of the water of life freely.” And now through all the nooks and corners of this kingdom of Scotland Christ is sending out His servants, and I am sent out unto you this day, crying unto you, “Come away; His oxen and fatlings are killed, His wine is drawn, and His table furnished, and all things ready.”

(5) I told you it was a great feast in respect of the place where it is kept. There are two dining-rooms—(1) a dining-room above; (2) a dining-room below. A dining-room above—that is, a high dining-room; that is, a fair house; that is, a trim place. O the rivers of the Lord’s consolations that run there. I confess, in this lower dining-room of the Church, the waters come first to the ankles, then to the mid-leg, then to the knees, then to the thigh, and then past wading. But then shall ye get fulness when ye come up to that dining-room. And when ye come there, there shall be no more hunger, no more thirst; there shall be no more scant nor want, nor any more sour sauce in your feasts, neither any more sadness nor sorrowful days, but eat your fill and drink

your fill. And many shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down at the royal and rare covered table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and get their fill to their hungered. “When I awake (says David) I shall be filled with thy likeness.” Poor soul, thou canst never get thy fill. I wish to God thou got a sop and a drop to set thee by till then. Indeed, if thou hadst a vessel thou shouldst get thy fair fill even in this life. And I dare say, if thou wouldst seek, and seek on and seek instantly, the Lord would one day or other make thee drink of the new wine of the gospel. He would give thee a draught—a fair draught, a fill, a fair fill—of the wine of His consolation; He would make you suck the milk at the breasts of His consolation; but He will aye keep the best wine hindmost, as He did at the marriage of Cana. Therefore, poor thing, lift up thy head and gather thy heart. Ere it be long thou shalt get a draught of the best wine in thy Father’s house, where there are many mansions and many dwelling-places. “I go (says Christ) to prepare a place for you.” And He will come again and receive you to Himself, where ye shall drink abundantly of the new wine of the gospel. Lastly, This supper is a great one in respect of the continuance of it—it lasts not for one day, but for ever; it lasts not for a hundred and fourscore days, but for ever and evermore. Poor thing, who possibly gets some blyth morning blinks in upon thy soul, and possibly gets a taste of this cup in the morning, and long ere even thou art hungering and thirsting again, and thou wots not where to meet thy Lord, and all the thing thou hast gotten is forgotten. In the day that He shall come, then thou shalt feast constantly and continually in thy Father’s house, where thou shalt never want thy arms full, thou shalt never want thy Lord out of thy sight, neither shall thy Lord ever want thee, but He shall ever be with thee and thou with Him; thou shalt follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes.

“Behold, I have prepared my dinner.” All this feast was for a marriage. And here is a wonder—a world’s wonder—a behold which denotes divers things. (1) Behold it for an admiration. (2) Behold it for an excitation. (3) Behold it for consolation. (4) Behold it for instruction. Behold, and be awakened; behold, and be excited; behold, and be comforted; behold, and admire; behold, and wonder that the King of heaven’s son will marry your soul! Then behold, and come away to your own marriage; behold, lost man shall get a Saviour; behold, the King’s Son will be a Saviour to a slave; behold, the King’s Son will drink the potion, and the sick shall get health; behold, the King’s Son will marry Himself upon thee! “I will marry thee unto me in faith and in righteousness.” “Thou that was a widow and reproached,”—like a poor widow that has many foes but few friends—yet says the Lord, “thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” Then behold, and come away to the marriage. Now, “who are these that are invited to the marriage?” I told

you (1) the Jews are invited; (2) the Gentiles are invited. Yea, you are invited. I thank the bridegroom you are invited. I shall bear witness of it when I am gone from you, you are invited. And I thank the Lord I have more to bear witness of; yea, that which comforts my soul—by all appearance the greatest part of you are come in, and by all good appearance ye have the wedding garment. I hope God has a people among you. This I shall bear witness of when I am gone from among you—the greatest part has lent an ear; the Lord bear it in upon your hearts with His own blessed preference.

1. “He sent his servants forth.” He gives many a cry Himself and many a shout Himself. Is not that one of God’s cries—”Come unto me, all ye that are weary and laden, and I will ease you”? O but that is a sweet word! Thou art a weary thing, with a sore load of sin upon the neck of thy soul, and thou art like to sink under it, and art crying, What will come of thee? He is bidding thee come away and get a drink of the marriage wine to cheer thy fainting spirit; and if thou be weary, He shall ease thee.

Object. Alas! sin hinders me, that I cannot come; sin is so black and ugly upon me, and so heavy, that I cannot come. Ans. “Come (says the Lord), I will reason with you,” that is, I will have your faults discovered, and I will have you convicted of your faults. But when I have reasoned with you, will I cast you away? Nay; but though your sins were red as “crimson, they shall be made white as snow or wool.”

Object. 2. Alas! but my sins are many. How can the Lord look upon me or pardon me? Ans. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon; for my ways are not your ways, neither my thoughts your thoughts; but as the heaven is high above the earth, so are my thoughts (in pardoning) higher nor yours (in sinning).” Come away, poor thing, then, and get thy heart full of mercy. And because such a fair offer is hard to be laid hold on, therefore He goes to the market-cross, like an herald with a great “O yes,” that all men there may be awakened. It is not little that will awaken sleeping sinners, therefore He puts, too, an “O yes.” “Ho, come, every one that thirsteth, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do ye spend your money for nought?” Ye have spent your strength too long in vain; ye have been feeding on husks too long; ye have forsaken mercy and embraced vanity too long. Come away, and He “will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

1. “He sent forth his servants.” This is a great wonder—that He calls on His servants and sends them to them. This is wonderful! He stood not on compliments—who should be first in the play. Ye would never have sought Him if He had not sought you; ye would never have loved Him if He had not loved

you with the love of Christ. I would say a comfortable word to a poor soul. Is there any soul in this house this day that has chosen the Lord for the love and delight of his soul? Thou wouldst never have chosen Him if that loving and gracious God had not chosen thee. Is there any soul in this house this day that is filled with the love of Christ? Thou wouldst never have loved Him if He had not loved thee first. Is there any soul that is seeking unto Him in earnest? Be comforted; He is seeking thee and hast found thee, and gart thee seek Him. I might produce Scripture for all these, but the points are plain.

1. Lo, a greater wonder! “He sent forth his servants.” Ye would think, if any had wronged you, it were their part to seek you and not yours to seek them; or if any baser than another had done a wrong, it beseeemed him to be the most careful to take pains, and seek to him whom he had wronged. But behold here a wonder! The great God seeking base man; the offended God seeking offending man! And is this because He has need of you? Nay; canst thou be a party for Him? Canst thou hold the field against Him? Nay. “Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” Shall the crawling worm and the pickle of small dust fight against the King of kings? Art thou able to stand out against Him, or pitch any field against Him? Nay. I tell thee, O man, there is not a pickle of hair in thy head but, if God arise in anger, He can cause it seem a devil unto thee, and every nail of thy fingers to be a torment of hell against thee. O Lord of hosts and King of kings, who can stand out against Thee? And yet thou hast offended Him, and run away from Him, and miskent Him, and transgressed all His commandments; and hell and wrath and judgment is thy portion, which thou deservest; and yet the Lord is sending out His servants to see if they can make an agreement. Then, for God’s sake, think on this wonder; for all this text is full of wonders. All God’s works are indeed full of wonders, but this is the wonder of wonders. We then are God’s ambassadors. I beseech you to be reconciled to God. Should not ye have sought unto Him first with ropes about your necks, with sackcloth upon your loins, and with tears in your eyes? Should not ye have lain at His door, and scraped if ye could not knock? And yet the Lord hath sent me to you, and our faithful men about here, crying, Come away to the marriage; come away. I will renew my contract with you; I will not give you a bill of divorcement, but I will give my Son to you; and your souls that are black and blae, I will make them beautiful. Behold yet another wonder! When He has sent out other servants, and they got a nay-say, yet He will not take a nay-say. Ye know a good neighbour, when he has prepared a dinner for another of his neighbours, sends out his servants, intimating that all things are ready, the table is covered, and dishes set on. If once warned, he refuses, he might well send once or twice to him, but at last he would take a displeasure, and

not send again. But behold a wonder! He sends out His servants in the plural number. But behold a great wonder! After one servant is abused He sends out others, and when they are slain and spitefully used by these who should have followed their call and come in, what does the Lord? Read the chapter before and ye shall see a great wonder. “He sent out his own SON.” When Moses cannot do it; when the prophets cannot do it; when John the Baptist cannot do it; well, says the Lord, I will see if my Son can do it. I have not a Son but one, and that is the Son of my love, and I will make Him a man and send Him down among them, and see how they will treat Him. And when He comes they cry out, “There is the heir; let us kill him.” But behold a greater wonder! That after these servants are abused and spitefully handled, and after the Son Himself is come and has drunken of the same cup—after He has died a shameful death—and after they had put their hands on the heir, yet, when all is done, the Lord sends servants upon servants, preachers upon preachers, apostles upon apostles, to call in the people of the Jews, to see if they will marry His Son. Then behold and wonder at all these wonders, and let all knees bow down before God. Lord stamp your hearts with this word of God. God grant you could be kind to Him, as He has been kind to you, and testified the same by putting salve to your soul and bringing it into the wedding.

“He sent forth his servants.” We may learn from this that we, who are the brethren in the ministry, must be servants and not lords. I wish at my heart that we knew what we are, and that we knew our calling and what we have gotten in trust, for we serve the best Master in the world; but I’ll tell you He is the strictest Master that can be. I’ll tell thee, O minister, and I speak it to thee with reverence, and I speak it to myself, there is a day coming when thou must answer to God for what thou hast got in charge. Thou must answer to God for all the talents thou hast got, whether ten or two; for all have not got alike. But, dear brethren, happy is the man, if he had but one talent, that puts it out for his Lord’s use; and the Lord be thanked that He will seek no more of me than He has given me. There are many things to discourage a faithful minister; but yet this may encourage us—that we serve the best Master, and that is a sure recompence of reward that is abiding us. Indeed, He has not sent us out to seek ourselves, or to get gain to ourselves; He has not sent us out to woo a bride to ourselves, or to woo home the lord to our own bosom only, but He has sent us to woo a bride, and to deck and trim a spouse, for our Lord and Master. And ye that are ministers of Glasgow, ye shall all be challenged upon this—whether or not ye have laboured to woo and trim a bride for your Lord. But I know that you will be careful to present your flocks as a chaste spouse to Him. And we also that are ministers in landwart, we are sent out for this errand. It matters not what part of the world we be in if we do

our Master’s service; and the day is coming when thou must answer to God for thy parish, whether thou hast laboured to present it as a chaste spouse to Christ. It may gar the soul of the faithful minister leap for joy when he remembers the day of His Majesty’s faithful meeting and his, when he shall give up his accounts, and then it shall be seen who has employed his talent well. Then shall He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into thy Master’s joy.” Or rather, “Let thy Master’s joy enter into thee, and take and fill thy soul with it.” Many a sad heart has a faithful watchman, but there is a day coming when he shall get a joyful heart. But for whom especially is this joy reserved? It is even for those “who convert many to righteousness; they shall shine like the stars in the firmament in the kingdom of their Father.” It is plain this belongs not to thee, O faithless watchman. What hast thou been doing? Busking a bride for thyself? Busking a bride for the Pope of Rome, the Bishop of Rome, even for antichrist? Becking and bingeing to this table and that altar, bringing in the tapestry of antichristian hangings, and endeavouring to set the crown on another man’s head, nor Christ’s? But thou that wilt not set on the crown on His head, and labour to hold it on, thou, O preacher, the vengeance of God shall come upon thee; the blood of souls shall be upon thee. Many a kirkman eats blood and drinks blood. Lord, deliver our souls from blood-guiltiness. Dear brethren, let us repent, let us repent. I trow we have been all in the wrong to the Bridegroom. Shame shall be upon thee that thinks shame to repent. I charge you all, before the timber and stones of this house, and before that same daylight that ye behold, and that under no less pain nor the loss of the salvation of your souls, that ye wrong not the Bridegroom nor His bride any more. But we come to our point:

We are servants and not lords. I see never a word in this text—nay, nor in all the Scripture—that the Master of the feast sent out lords to woo home His bride. He “sent out his servants,” but not His lords. Read all the Bible from the beginning to the ending, you shall not find it. Daft men may dispute, and by respect may carry it away; but read all the Old and New Testament, both, and let me see if ever this lord prelate or that lord bishop was sent to woo home His bride.

Object. 1. We have our prerogative from Aaron, from Moses, from the Apostles, from Timothy. Ans. I trow ye be like bastard bairns that can find no father. So they shall never be able to get a father, for man has set them up and man is their father.

Object. 2. Find we not the name of bishop under the New Testament? Ans. Yes; but not the bishop of a diocese, such as my Lord Glasgow and my Lord St. Andrews, but we find a pastor or a bishop over a flock. It is a wonderful matter to me that men should think to reason this way. For in the Old Testament there

is not an office, nor an office-bearer, but is distinctly determined in the making of the tabernacle; there is not a tackle nor the quantity of it, not a curtain nor the colour thereof, not a snuffer, nor a candlestick, nor a besom that sweeps away the filth; nor an ashpan that keepeth the ashes, but all are particularly set down; yet we will not get a bishop, nor an archbishop, nor this metropolitan, nor that great and cathedral man, no, not within all the Bible. The Lord pity them, for indeed I think them objects of pity rather than of malice. Christ is a perfect king and a perfect prophet. Thou canst never own Him to be a perfect priest and king that denies Him to be perfect prophet; and a perfect prophet He can never be except He has set down all the offices and office-bearers requisite for the government of His house. But so has He done, therefore is He perfect.

Object. 3. But they will call themselves servants. Ans. 1. The fox may catch a while the sheep, and the Pope may call himself servus servorum—the servant of servants, and they will call themselves brethren when they write to us, but they will take it very highly and hardly if we call them brethren when we write back to them again. But men shall be known by their fruits and by their works to be what they are, and not what they call themselves. But if they will be called servants and yet remain lords, let them take heed that they be not such servants as cursed Canaan was—”a servant of servants shall he be.” Take heed that they be not serving men’s wrath and vengeance, and not servants “by the grace of God and by the mercy of God,” as they style themselves.

2. Let them take heed that they be not such servants as Gehazi was. He was a false servant. He ran away after the courtier Naaman, seeking gifts, and said his master sent him, when (God knows) his master sent him not. At the time he should have been praying to the Lord to help his poor Kirk and comfort her. The curse and vengeance of God came upon him, and he was stricken with leprosy for his pains. Such servants are these men who now sit down on their cathedral nests, labouring to make themselves great like Gehazi. Let them take heed that their hinder end be not like his.

3. Let them take heed that they be not such servants as Ziba was to Mephibosheth, who not only took away what was his by right, but also went to the king with ill tales of poor cripple Mephibosheth. Such servants are these who not only rob the Church of her privileges and liberties but also run up to the king with lies and ill tales of poor Mephibosheth, the cripple Kirk of Scotland.

4. Let them take heed that they be not such servants as Judas was—an evil servant indeed. He sold his Master for gain, as ill servants do. Or like these that strike the bairns when they are not doing any fault. And they are ill servants who busk their Master’s spouse with antichrist’s busking. Woe unto them and the man who is the head of their Kirk, whose cross and trumpery they would put on the Lord’s chaste spouse. But if they will call themselves servants and yet remain lords, let

them take heed that they be not of this category that I have reckoned up. The Lord make us faithful servants, and the Lord rid His house of them.

Time will not suffer me to go through the rest of the text, only I will take a glance of some things which make for your use at this time.

Question. How are their servants treated? Ans. Some of them get nolumus upon the back of their bill; some of them are beaten, and spitefully used, and slain. Dear heart, know ye not how Moses was used? how Aaron and Jeremiah, etc., were used? how Zechariah was slain between the porch and the altar? how Jeremiah was smitten, and he that did it got his name changed into Magor Missabib, terror round about? Know ye not that Zedekiah struck Micaiah, and how his threatenings against him came to pass? Always we may learn from this that the Lord’s best servants have been, and will be, abused and spitefully used. This is a great sin lying upon Scotland, England, and Ireland. Many faithful servants in the three kingdoms have been spitefully used—their cheeks burnt, their noses ript up, their faces marked; some of them put into a stinking prison, where they had not an hour’s health; and many of them rugged from their flocks and their flocks from them. Look over to the kingdom of Ireland—the many desolate congregations that are there. Many a dear one there that would have had a blythe soul to have had your last Sabbath, or seen it, or to have assurance of such a day before they come into heaven. Pray for the peace of Zion, and pity those poor things who would be content to go from one sea-bank to the other to be in your place to-day. And truly the blood of these poor things is crying for vengeance to light where it should light; for the blame lies upon none but the proud prelates. If I would pose you with this question, as you will answer to God, who have been the instruments of all this mischief? I am sure the most ignorant among you can answer, None but the proud beasts, the prelates. The Lord give them repentance.

I know not how you have handled your pastors in this town, because I am but a stranger, but trow ye that two silly men that came among you can do anything if your own pastors had not laid the foundations; but, for God’s sake, honour and respect your pastors—I mean those of them that keep the covenant of Levi. And ye that have broken it and will not come to renew it again, shame and dishonour will be upon you for evermore. I have my message from the second of Malachi—”I will pour contempt upon them who have broken the covenant of Levi.” Therefore let pastors and people enter both within this covenant; for it is the sweetest thing in the world to see pastors and a people going one way. Therefore come away, all of you, unto the wedding; come and subscribe the contract—put your heart and hand to it. Blessed be God for what already ye have done.

(To be Continued.)

Memoirs or Spiritual Exercises of Katherine Colace or Mrs. Ross.

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A SCHOOLMISTRESS OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

(Written with her own Hand.)

(Continued from page 146.)

THE Lord was shewing me marvellous loving kindness at all times and in all things, and still discovering the causes of humiliation and self-abhorrence betwixt-hands, which He made use of as preparations for new discoveries of His love. He also discovered to me that which I never saw before, which was a necessity of dependence, even after the greatest receiving—one being never more ready to miscarry than at such a time. He convinced me of the hazard of laying weight upon any thing but the written Word, and also gave me new confirmations of the unlawfulness of hearing curates, and likewise established me in many fundamental truths I had been exercised about. He gave me temporal mercies in a spiritual way; one of my children by prayer, another of them by prayer and the faith of His power, which by great pains my heart was brought to, before he was delivered of an universal disease. And, whenever I won to the faith of His power, He was pleased to manifest the same in his recovery, contrary to the expectation of all that saw him. He also comforted me in the hopes of His appearing gloriously in this land, and that the cause of delay was the unpreparedness of His people: and that it was their duty, who professed their desire of this, to evidence it by serious preparation for the same, together with endeavours in their stations to help others forward in preparing for His coming, and that this should be done with great diligence. He likewise enlarged my heart to bless Him for all these mercies, so that the great inward troubles of several sorts wanted not a sweet mixture of mercies.

Another remarkable passage was this: Having a sweet child threatened with death, I was somewhat troubled about her eternal salvation. I laid hold on the promise, as I used to do in the like cases; and not being fully satisfied, she being of more age than the rest that died before—being three years and a half old,—and so guilty of actual sins, at least in words, being very capable to discern between good and evil. The Lord did wonderfully condescend to me, and made her to speak to admiration. Being the Lord’s day, and several coming to see her, I was somewhat vexed how to get the time right spent. She helped me in that. Having asked her if she would take any meat, she answered, That there was brave meat in heaven: “The meat that I will give you,” saith Christ, “is my flesh to eat.” I asked: How she thought to come there? was she not a sinner? She said she was, but she

would come there by Christ, and He would take away the old image that spake the ill words, and give a new tongue to sing the new song—Hallelujah. Then she began to commend heaven, saying, “The Lord is there, and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is there, and all the holy angels are there, and all the bonnie things are there.” She says, moreover, “This is the Lord’s Day, and we may not sing nor speak our own words, but we may sing spiritual songs, and we may sing Hallelujahs this day.” Then she asked me, What the Lord would say unto her when He would raise her up at the last day? I told her He would say, “Awake and sing.” She replied He would say, “Awake and sing, thou that sleepest in the dust.” I looked on this as an evidence of His condescension.

The Lord called me out of that place back to the place I was in before with desire and respect, at that very time when these who occasioned my discouragements to stay there formerly were brought to the very lowest ebb of disgrace.

There the Lord did great things for me; and passing by many and great failings, He remembered that I had quit that place and company for Him; therefore He would make the company and place there desirable. Before my coming there the Lord persuaded my heart that I should have good days in that place, and the audience of many prayers both for spiritual and temporal mercies, which made me long to be there that He might perform His gracious Word to me. But when I came there the first thing I met with was the death of my dearest child, and that upon the very morrow’s night after I came, being nursing in that place. This Providence seemed to contradict my former expectations; but it did not move, but rather confirm, me (glory to His name), knowing that I stood in need of preparation for these mercies I was to meet with. And, even in that affliction, I met with many mercies, as (1) I saw an opportunity to place my delight wholly in God, and to live like a pilgrim upon the earth. (2) He persuaded me that tribulation should not separate between Him and me, but rather unite. (3) He taught me that I ought to approve myself to Him in that affliction, and I should know Him to be the God that comforteth those who are cast down; and He helped me in some measure to obey, and performed His gracious Word to me, and told me that I had comforts that could not die. (4) He took occasion to clear up my sincerity by letting me see that, though I had all the earth without God, it could not satisfy me; but He alone could in the want of all things. (5) He set me upon the trial of my humiliation, and brought my soul to contrition. He told me that former rods of this nature were to cure the slips of my practice in departing from Him, but this to cure the departing frame of my heart, and end controverting with me after this manner, which afterward he showed me more clearly.

The Lord was pleased, after He had thus exercised me for a time, to begin to make out His promises about the good days,

and discovered to me what good things He would do for His children in this land, and what of His glory He was to manifest in it, and persuaded me of these things from many testimonies of Scripture.

In the year 1667, in the summer, one afternoon being taken up about the public, the Lord was pleased to make intimation to my soul that He was risen again in Scotland, and laid the foundation of a work in the blood of His witnesses, that all the devils in hell, nor men on earth, should not prevail against. Upon which my soul was so transported with joy that my body was all broken, so that I longed for the time that I should be in a capacity to partake of the fulness of joy. I was still made to say for a long time, Welcome, Lord Jesus, welcome to Thy own land; I do not expect to be more joyful till I see Him on His throne in heaven. I was put to tell what I met with by several arguments, because unwilling to speak of a mercy so great for me to receive. Then the Lord laid His hand upon my body, and told me that was the reason of it. Then I told it to a special friend that the Lord Jesus was again risen in this land, that that morning should arise to a perfect day. Sometime after I fell sick again, which sickness was made a furnace indeed; I was put to search sins both past and present. I saw sin in its own colours, and was bruised under the sense of it, and set a-work to mortify it, yet still broken. The Lord Jesus held forth Himself as bruised for me, and that by His wounds I should be healed. This with many other Scriptures to this purpose, were held forth to me, and I made use of them as I could; but no sensible consolation as yet, sin still wounding. The Lord at length, after many ups and downs, persuaded my soul that my sins and transgressions He would remember no more, which was very comfortable. Yet, having such a deep sense of my departing from Him, my heart remained suspicious. Whereupon the Lord, who was tenderly binding up my wounds, convinced me that through His grace I could pardon others: and should I question the Lord’s pardoning of me? Then I saw an all-sufficiency in the suffering of Christ for the remission of sins; and that He, who was the Prince exalted to give repentance and remission of sins, had given me the one, and helped me to lay hold on the Covenant for the other. He told me likewise that He would walk with me as agreed, by teaching, leading, and commanding me, which He also performed. Then He gave confidence of the child’s life as a token for good, and assured me of the audience of all my prayers that were according to His will for the Church, for my acquaintances and relations, and for myself.

In that sickness the Lord was pleased to teach me many profitable lessons for the ordering of my conversation, which in my recovery He led me to practice in some measure. Then, having pronounced me blessed from His own mouth, both because He had pardoned my sins and opened my eyes and ears to see and hear, He restored me to health in some measure. Then clear and fair made He my day to arise, by discovering to me a

glory in the unity of His people by these truths: You are members one of another. Suffer affliction, as being in the body. Jerusalem is a city compact together. They became one stick in my hand, &c. But before I noticed what the Lord would have me mainly to take notice of, I conceived such a glory to be in the Word that, when I apprehended such a fulness to be in two or three testimonies, I thought what fulness behoved there to be in the whole? Upon which I took such a disgust at the Quakers for their undervaluing of the written Word that I was never able to think of them after but with displeasure. But that which the Lord was holding forth to me was that about which I was sore tried since, viz.: That there should be a glorious unity in the Church of Scotland; and this my heart greatly rejoiced in as I had often seen it.

Next, being put upon a piece of hard service that my heart had no will to be employed in, yet durst not refuse, viz., to reprove a person of quality who was guilty of an evil, which, if he had gone on in, might have drawn deep, but was prevented by that same reproof. After this was gone about the Lord, for my encouragement to obey Him, condescended to put me upon the asking Him what I would and it should be granted me; and I putting it again upon Him to be directed, He put me upon enquiring what way He would deliver His work and people in this land? He answered me, that it should be by the preaching of the Gospel. Now, this being before I heard of the stirring of any to preach, I replied, Alas! Where are the ministers? I got that answer, “The handful of corn shall shake and fill the mountains; the small beginnings shall wonderfully increase.” Now, Mr. Thomas Hog was preaching in his house, being one of the first that was put out to this work. I was made to expect that he would be made very instrumental in this work, which came to pass, he being the main instrument of licensing the first that was licensed in Scotland without compliance with Episcopacy. I was sometime after that, for my further confirmation, put upon it by the Lord to ask the same question. The Lord answered me by making an impression upon my heart of the principal truths professed by the Church of Scotland, and persuaded me that these, and none but these, He would own as His, whatever specious pretexts opposers of the same may have made. Now, I had been taken up in getting my heart confirmed in fundamental truths, being frequently, by Satan’s working upon my unbelief, shaken in them, and now, finding my heart strengthened wonderfully in the full persuasion of them, I was made to admire and bless the Lord for His great power in working so effectually upon me.

But then, I began to think, is this the answer of my question about the land’s delivery from the bondage of Prelacy? It was answered me, that by ministers owning of these truths in preaching, and people in hearing, He will deliver the land. Then I asked a Scripture to confirm this, and got it, which was that, “And they

overcame by the blood of the lamb, and the word of their testimony.” The Lord, in the depth of His condescendency, trysted me with these things that were most desirable to me; so that one said to me, Since I was not taken up to heaven, as my soul frequently desired, the Lord had brought down heaven to me, I was under so many mercies.

(To be Continued.)