take in the business, for it is not payable to me, and therefore no way in my power, for my lord Bargeny hath a lease of all my little dues in these parts for nineteen years, upon very easy terms as they inform me; yet whether he will consider that so as to make such an abatement of what is now his due and not mine, I can not tell; neither have I any power to carve upon what is his without paying it back, or some way compensing it to him myself; and yet even that I shall not decline, if, after you and I both know the more particular state of the business and the person, you shall judge it reasonable. This is all I can say to that at present; and I will not enter upon any other discourse by this; for the truth is, there is little to be said and much to be done. You and I are, I trust, upon a design that will reflect a very low estimate upon all below it, and it shall certainly succeed if we be careful to stick to our Leader, and follow him. Pray for Your poor friend and servant, March, 1660. To the Rev. Mr. AIRD. XI. R. L. I should chide you, if I could do it sharply enough, for entertaining the least thought of any such jealousy, as I think very incongruous with the strength and mutual confidence of solid friendship. Received at Carmarthen, May 14, 1668. XII. ing, though you are possibly enamored with SIR Waving all other discourse till meetyour vacancy, yet if you find any return of appetite to employment in the ministry, I am once again to offer you an invitation, for there is a place or two now vacant at my disposal. It is true it is by the removal of the former incumbents against their will, but you are not guilty of that by succeeding them, nor I by giving a call to any that will; for you may be sure they are not within the bounds I have charge of, but in other dioceses. There is one place indeed in my precincts now vacant, and yet undisposed of, by the voluntary remove of a young man that was in it to a better benefice, and this is likewise in my hand; but it is so wretchedly mean a provision, that I am ashamed to name it-little, I think, above five hundred marks a year. If the many instances of that DEAR FRIEND: I am very sorry for the in-kind you have read have made you in love disposition you are under, but I assure you I do not value myself, nor anything I say or do either upon this or any other occasion, worth your pains of writing, far less on a journey hither; yet I should gladly enjoy your mistake in thinking otherwise, if I was in a posture capable of the pleasure others have of your abode under my roof for some longer time. The persons you mention in order to that affair, &c., I have not seen nor heard anything from any of them since my last, nor expect that I shall till the beginning of June, at Edinburgh, where I intend, God willing, to be, and desire, if it may be, to see you there. I have thoughts of going thither somewhat before that time, and therefore, if I did not signify such to you, I fear you might miss me if you came hither. As for the business, it is very safe, with all our other interests of time and eternity, in our blessed Father's hand, of all fathers the wisest and the best. He, I am sure, can mould either your heart or theirs you have to do withal, as he thinks fit, and it shall be as it is best to be; therefore if we were together, I should not very eagerly dispute the matter with you, far less will I by scribbling. Let your heart keep near to him, and be daily purging out all that may interpose and obstruct our closest union, and we have nothing else to care for. This moment is posting away, and that blessed day is hastening forward that shall complete that union. Pray for your lame fellow-traveller, R. L. with voluntary poverty, there you may have Edinburgh, July 5, 1662. XIII. SIR: I long to hear how you dispose of yourself, if it be determined. If still in suspense, I still wish you the favorable impression of that hand to which I know you have delivered up yourself; if you be resolved upon a removal, and incline to the like charge here upon a fair call, I desire to know it, by the first opportunity, for I hear there is somewhat of that kind in the west likely to be at my disposal: I would not have this unsettle your pretension to stay where you are, if you find anything within you, for thorns grow everywhere, and from all things below: and to a soul transplanted out of itself into the root of Jesse, peace grows every where too, from Him who is called our peace, and whom we still find the more to be so, the more entirely we live to him, being dead to this world, and self, and all things besides him. Oh! when shall it be? Well, let all the world go as it will, let this be our only pursuit and ambition, and to all other things fiat voluntas tua Domine--that both is painful in some instance is the dubiousness. XIV. DEAR FRIEND: Being at present not well, I shall say no more but that I take these communications as a singular act of the traest kindness and friendship, and heartily thank you for them, and am glad to find that there are some souls in this world truly sick of it all; that being, in my mind, a very happy symptom and prognostic of a prevailing health-such a degree of it, at least, as may be had in the diseased, defiled cottages wherein we dwell, and may be to us a certain pledge of real beginning of that full health we look for at our removal, and therefore have so much reason to long and wish ear nestly and sigh and groan for that day, and yet have no less reason to wait patiently for it. Pray for Your poor friend, March 21, 1669. XV. R. L. DEAR FRIEND: I was refreshed by the account of your feast in your former, of which I trust I was participant as to the blessing of it, for though absent, I was heartily with you in desire. The accident your letter acquaints me with, I think concerns you little or nothing; for if there was any offence in the printing it, it rests upon him that procured it, and the printer; but for instructing your own flock in what way you judge most accommodated to them, who can blame you? However, when I meet with the archbishop, I shall, God willing, represent the business to him as it is, if I find it needful; but if you think it hath come to his knowledge, and that with with some misreport and disguise, I believe it might not be amiss for you to give him the true and ingenuous account yourself by a letter, for, it may be, some weeks may pass before I see him. But oh! how quickly will all these things be gone, and even at present a look beyond them makes them disappear! Let us manage our ways as prudently and profitably to our main end as we can, and let the world DEAR FRIEND: I do very much commend the activeness of your charity in the journey you have taken; for the success, though 1 had much desire and some little hopes of unless this one consideration, the extreme better, yet I suspected how it might prove, necessity of this church at this time, did prevail with our friend to do violence to himself. I hope you both pardon me for the very reason that I moved it, and that I am but to be angry or impatient at it, I could not pardon myself. I look to Him who makes every thing beautiful in its season, and remember that saying of his, "Your time is always ready, but my time is not yet." As we are to forbear forbidden fruits at all times, so not to pull the best fruit in his garden till he allows us, and some way signifies he thinks them duly ripe for use. communicating the enclosed letters; for next I do heartily thank you for the kindness of to what is within me, the painful reflecting I have on this world is, that there is so small a part of mankind in whose breasts such thoughts are stirring, and am somewhat relieved when I meet with anything of that kind, and long to meet with more, or be gone where no such wishes are needful. O! this dark night is very long; but blessed hope of that bright morning without cloud that is hastening forward. Well, no more, but pray for Your poor friend and servant, R. L. I beseech you pain me not again with so excessively canonical a superscription of your letters, for there is no need of it, though they were to pass through twenty hands. Since I wrote this, I received another of yours for Mr. Blair. The truth is, for the next year I am already engaged to one that both needs and deserves a little help, and am bespoke for another to succeed the year after, but have not absolutely promised, and I therefore am at a little more liberty to consider it against that time, if it please God to continue me here so long for the youth you name you may be assured, if it can fall on that side, his relation to our brother, and your recommendation, will have very much weight to make it so, and that is all I can say of it at present. For my Rev. brother Mr. AIRD, Minister at Torriburn, XVII. SIR: I wish I could punctually resolve you concerning that freedom of commencing to that excellent work which you desire; but the truth is, though I believe they are not there so straightlaced by far as here, yet you having never exercised at all in public, I am not sure they would not all inquire concerning that, but it is likely nothing would be required which, if you be not superstitious on the other hand, would trouble you. If you thought fit in the meantime to spend some weeks in that place you speak of, and to use the liberty of it in exercising, it might possibly pass for what you would avoid in the other. And if a fair invitation shall come, he to whom you have resigned yourself will direct you. Sir, Your very affectionate friend. To my own motions or stay, as I am in a most quiet indifferency myself, you, I am sure, may much more easily be so. We are at sea, and can not expect still to sail within speech, no nor within sight, but we hope to arrive at the same "fair havens." XVIII. SIR There is one here come from Ireland to inquire after able young men for the ministry, whom they invite thither, sending them transport-money, and assuring them of a liberal and certain provision there. He they sent hath been with me, and was desirous to know if I could recommend any. It came into my thoughts to give you notice, that if you find any inclination that way, I may know. I will not advise you, much less press you in it, but leave you wholly to the freedom of your own thoughts and choice, and to the best hand to determine them. I believe they expect of those that go, an engaging to a pastoral charge; but whether for some time they may not give a little liberty to some or to one at least in a freer posture to preach, or whether their pastoral engagement be so in dissolubly fast as here, I know not. You will think on that, and if you judge it worth so much, let me hear from you how you relish it. However, I wish you as to myself much happy success and advancement in your great design. Your friend to serve you. XIX. SIR; The Lords of the Council having appointed some ministers from other parts, to preach in such churches within the diocese of Glasgow as do most need their help, I desire the Reverend Mr. James Aird, minister of Torry, to bestow his pains in that circuit that lies eastward from Hamilton or thereabouts, and particularly in the kirk of Carluke; not doubting that the minister thereof, and others in the like case, will very gladly receive and earnestly entreat what help he can do toward the bringing of their people to frequent the public ordinances, and the removing of their prejudices and calming of their passions, that they may with one heart worship that one Lord whose name we all profess to love and honor. Glasgow, Sept. 17, 1670. R. LEIGHTON. This is to recommend to the kind reception and assistance of the gentlemen and ministers, to whose parishes he shall resort, for preaching of the gospel, within the diocese of Glasgow, our Reverend brother, Mr. Lawrence Charteris, Minister at Bar, being nominated and appointed by the Lords of Council, with some others from other parts for that effect. Glasgow, Sept. 20, 1670. To Mr. Charteris are recommended, within the presbytery of Paisley, these kirks, Neelson, Kilbarchun-vacant. Likewise, if his health permit, Killelen, and Kilmacome-though not vacant. R. LEIGHTON. Oct. 19, 1670. |