prayer and give Him thanks if ye be straitned with business it is not so much the length of your Prayer that he regards as the Uprightness the Earnestnes of the heart but neglect not the dutie and if ye be without the hearing of others utter your voice it is sometime a great help but do it not to be heard of others sing also a Psalme or some part of a Psalme ye may learne some by heart for that purpose 3. Through the whole day labour to set the Lord alwayes before you as present to observe you and strengthen you for every dutie and then look over how the day hath been spent before ye sleep 4. Such as have Families set up the Worship of God in your Families as ye would avoid the wrath that shall be poured on the Families that call not on his name 5. As occasion offers of any honest Minister coming alongs neglect not the same and on the Lords Day go where ye can hear the Word sincerly preached by a sent Minister who will witness against the evils of the time without which I apprehend wharever a mans gifts be the Lord will not send the blessing Oxnam is not far off and I hope Mr Scot doth and will declare for the sworn Reformation and testify against the present defection but I dar not bid you hear any of the intruded Hirelings whom they call Curats I know some good men have heard or do hear some of them but I believe if all fear of inconvenience were removed they would do otherwayes If no occasion of a publick meeting be or if ye cannot go to it sanctifie the Lords Day in your Families or at least each of you in your own heart 6. Give no occasion to the World to say that ye neglect your Calling or are busie bodies in other mens matters or have any doublness in your worldly dealings a faithful carriage free of covetousness is a great ornament to the profession 7. Have a care of your Children that they be taught to read and have Bibles so soon as they can use them and take them with you to hear the Word preached and instruct them your selves the more diligently that publick means are scarce 8. Such as have any leasure read some good Books whereby ye may profite in knowledge and affection read now and then the Covenants the Confession of Faith and the longer Catechisme and the little Treatise printed with them I would recommend to you the writings of Mr Durham and Mr Binning and Mr William Gutrie and Mr An drew Gray especially Mr Rutherford's Letters I hope shortly ye shall be supplied with some more Copies of them as also any good pieces from England as Mr Allen or the like I dar not recommend Baxter to you he is a dangerous Man let Chasters and Standhil buy some such as they oan and lend them to others to be read 9. Any thoughts ye have of the business of the time examine them well by the word and present them oft to God by prayer and what ye get so confirmed be not easily moved therefrom although some Ministers should be of a contrair opinion for in those dayes sundrie of the common People have clearer light and steadier practice than some Ministers but be not proud or self willed in your own opinion 10 By any means see that ye be not drawn to a contempt of the Ministrie or Ministers in whom any thing of God really appeareth although some might have sliden in an houre of temptation but study all lawful wayes of union and healing yet so as ye approve nothing which the word and your conscience condemne 11. Strengthen your selves in the main grounds of Religion against Popery and read some short treatises for that purpose ye know not but it may be a great part of the trial of the time 12. Some Ministers have begun of late to question Christs imputed righteousness look uponthese whatever shew they may make of moderation and accurat walking as enemies to Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls 13. Keep you far very far from this last device of Satans Quakerisme which under colour of sobriety and patience overthrows all the grounds of Christian Religion and indeed they should not be looked-on as Christians themselves and the light within them which is also in all Pagans is all their Saviour converse not with them as much as ye can avoid conference with them the evil Spirit that is in them desires no better nor continual wrangling many are much mistaken if there be not much Devilry among them as some com'd off from them have testified 14. I know the course ceaseth now that was taken for providing the poore with meat but after your ability set apart some of your means for the poore I mean not the sturdie Vagabonds but poor Housholders especially those that have any good in them 13. Deal in all earnestness and love with any of your Neighbours whom ye perceive in a way that will destroy their souls visite your Neighbours in their sickness and drop something for their souls good 16. Let such as have been Elders and have not run the wicked course of the time know that their obligation ceaseth not but rather is increased to visite and oversee the Flock and warn and comfort as occasion requires 17. Forget not Christs Command to love your Enemies and pray for them that persecute you many a time our carnal anger and bitterness puts on a disguise as if it were zeal true love to God and our Neighbour would prompt us to many duties that now are forgot and to a better way of doing duties and yet keep us from being partakers of other mens sins 18. Guard your hearts from a carnal disposition in speaking or hearing of the miscarriages of others and let not that be all the matter of your discourse howbeit it may be part but there is more edifying to be speaking of what is good 19. I hear there is a rare work of grace begun of late in some not far from you in the borders of Northumberland I judge it were for your advantage if some of you such as are able went thither to be acquainted with them your Friend Henry Hall would easily make your acquaintance their fire edge might help to kindle-up old sitten-up professours yea if some of you who are yet graceless would go see their way they might be smitted with that blessed disease I fear ye shall hardly read my hand and yet it hath taken neerby as many dayes to write as there are pages but it was not fitting to make use of any others hand Let this Letter be read to all of the Parish who will be willing to hear it and to any that are gon out of it as Andrew Burkholme and Margaret Walker or any that used ordinarily to meet with us as Mrs Eliot Isabel Simpson and such others I know there is a great change since I left you by the death of some and coming in of others but I am sometime refreshed to look over the roll of the Parish as it was when I left you Desire from me Mr Henry and Mr William Erskin or any other of that sort to come now and then to visite and water you I could wish that when ye hear of any honest Merchant in Edinburgh or any other coming hither some of you would give them a particular account of both good and evil to bring to me I had a little account lately from John Tetchaâ— that made me both joyful and sad I shall write when any of my Sons are to come over that if they can they will come to you a day or two and bring me information how it is with you Now as I oan at this distance I embrace you all and all that used to join with us at our Communions I salute you all I bless you all I commend you all to God and the Word of His Grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified The rich and powerful Grace of the Lord JESUS CHRIST be with you all Thus wisheth Your loving and lawful Pastor JOHN LIVINGSTOUN Rotterdam 7. October 1671.
Word and Discipline which terrified and tormented them and may now both swear terrible Oaths and drinke drunk which by some will be expounded as a clear evidence of their loyaltie they may now after the example of many Great ones walk in the lust of uncleanness mind nothing but how by any means just or unjust to get the World and then how to spend it on their lusts and hate and to their power persecute all who will not run with them to the same excess of riot Now as I have often in publick with as great earnestness and tenderness as I could warned these to flee from the wrath to come so I would yet desire them to stand still a little before they go to the pit and hear from a truely loving Friend a few words which I am confident in the day of the great reckoning shall be found a message from the living God Do you beleeve there is a God or Heaven or Hell or can ye with all your will and strength scrape the thoughts of these out of your sleeping consciences Or do ye in such sort hate God that because ye are his creatures ye will so far be avenged on your selves as to sell your selves to his enemie the Devil for nought to be tormented in all eternity I am most sure none of you all can be sure that ye are Reprobats and I can give you assurance greater than the stability of Heaven and Earth even the sworn word of him that liveth and reigneth for ever that if ye will forsake your wicked way and yet betake your selves to the only Saviour of lost sinners ye are no Reprobates O! what advantage have ye when ye have gained all the World and all the Pleasures all the Riches and all the Favoure of it and have lost your immortal and precious Souls It is utterly impossible but that sometimes your own heart tells you there will be bitterness in the end Doth not Whoredom and Drunkenness waste the body take away the Judgment and leave a sting in the Conscience Can any avoid the Curse that goods gotten by falshood or oppression bring upon the man and all he hath yea on his Posterity Is it not sad that Satan can prompt men to Swear Curse and Blaspheme and utter that which he dare not utter himself And although ye were free of all outward Outbreakings doth not an unrenewed estate the neglect of commanded duties Sabbath-breaking and such evils binde you over to the wrath of Him who is coming there in flaming fire to take vengeance on them who know not God and obey not the Gospel Ye may possibly think you reso far gone on that there is no retreat and the wayes of the Lord are such as your disposition can never agree with but how can your disposition agree to burn consume never consume in everlasting flames where each of all your fins shall have the own particular torment How can ye agree to dwell with Internal Furies Or will ye adde to all your other wickedness despaire despising of all the Lords loving loud and long continued Invitations What shall you answer if hereafter the Lord shall say to some of you I would have given thee both Grace and Glory if thou hadst but sough it thou wouldst not give once two or three knocks at my door thou wouldst not open when I knocked oft and long at thy door by so doing thou hast subscribed thine own Reprobation and Condemnation Oh let me obtain this much of all and every one of you for all the pains I have taken among you in preaching for all my Nine years banishment from you for all the prayer I have put up for you for all the love which he who knoweth all things knoweth I bear to you yea let your own souls and the love you have to your own welfare here and hereafter obtain it or rather let him who for sinners shed all his most precious blood at Jerusalem obtain this of you that you will take one day each of you alone from morne to evening forbearing both meat and drink and go apart rather into some quiet room in an house or unto some part of the fields where you may be most quiet and having before-hand marked in the Bible such Places as are fit to be read at such a time as also having somewhat searched your way toward God and his wayes toward you there set yourselves in his sight spending the time in Confession of sins and Prayer for Pardon and grace to serve him and save your own souls and if which is not readily to be supposed ye get no access on such a day yet continue thereafter in such exercise and suits for deliverance from Hell Enjoying of Heaven and the Favour of God are worth more pains then ye can take all our Life Now if this so easie and necessary advice shall be rejected without prescribing time and place or measure and manner but if the main intent of taking some time to humble yourselves before God and turning unto him be rejected I take instruments before Son and Moon and all the Creatures that I have left this warning as an indorsed summones fixed on the doore of your consciences to be called and judged before him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and in his Glory when beside the witnessing of all your sins of your own consciences and of all the Creatures I also as your lawful Minister sent to procure your Reconciliation with God shall appear to witness that ye got fair warning but did reject the same and would needs choose death Therefore while it is called to day take a trial of Christs Yoke do but put him to it and see whether or not he will open the windowes of Heaven and raine Blessings and Righteousness upon you come and see and tast the goodness of the Lord ye shall be made to say He is a rich and loving Master once engage your hearts to him and ye may defye Sathan and all the allurments and terrours of the World to draw you from him Glad would my heart be to hear before I go to the grave that some of you have begun a new course and if ye begin indeed ye will not get it supprest it will be heard I shall as I can pray for it and desire others here to pray for it It is not needful to multiply words I leave it with you as ye shall answer to Jesus Christ when he shall come in the clouds The Second Rank is of those who either had true grace or seemed to have it and who went a length beyond others in an orderly walk and following the Ordinances at home and abroad but since the late change have either turned loose and profane or so far sided with the corruptions of the time that not one footprint of their former stedfastness tenderness doth appear but they are justly reckoned among those who will obey whatsoever is
A LETTER Written by that famous and faithful Minister of Christ M R JOHN LIVINGSTOUN Vnto his Parishoners of ANCRAM in SCOTLAND Dated ROTTERDAM October 7. 1671. M R LIVINGSTOUN'S Letter to his Parishoners of Ancram VVell beloved in the Lord I cannot excuse my long silence I have a woful lazie disposition and indisposition for writing yea I judge any thing I write is scarse worthie that any should look on or read besides that my slow and shaking hand is some hinderance to me Yet when I consider that I have an account to make for you to the great Shepheard as having laboured amongst you in the ministrie of this Word some fourteen Years and now after neerby nine years banishment age and infirmities creep on and through a constant pain of the gravel I have much ado once a week on the Lords Day to go a very short way to the publick Worship so as there is no great probability I can see your face in this life and it is most fitting for me to set my face forward toward my last reckoning I thought I behooved in a manner to make unto you my Testament and open my minde concerning my self concerning you and concerning the present postour of affairs in that Land And in the entrie notwithstanding of all the sad things that have fallen out of late I would put you in minde of the many good dayes we have seen together both of Sabbath Dayes and solemne Communion Dayes wherein we saw the Lords Power and his Grace in his Sanctuary that in remembrance thereof we may exalt his Name together and know that though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his Mercies ye may easily discerne what a difference is between those dayes and such as ye now see and what an evil and bitter thing it is that by our not improving of those dayes we have provoked him to hide his face and send such an inundation of matchless Apostacy Perjurie Persecution Profanity Atheism yea Darkness Distractions and Despondency amongst his own in all which we may yet expect he is waiting to be gracious and will be exalted that he may have mercy upon us I. For my part I have peace in regard of these particulars 1. That not only since my entrie into the Ministrie but even from my infancy the Lord was pleased to lead me to an aversion from Prelacy a stinted Liturgie the Ceremonies and other Corruptions of that time and that in my Ministrie both in Irland and Scotland I joined with those who were streight in the Cause of God and testified against these evils that I joined in the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant and other parts of the work of Reformation that was carried on in the Year 1638. and thereafter as being assured that the Lord did then does yet and will ever approve of that work and the prosecution thereof 2. That I came to Ancram not out of any worldly end but from a desire to do service to God and to the Souls of his People and had thereto the Lords call by your invitation and the consent and sending of the rightly constituted Church that then was both the General Assemblie and Presbytery 3. That in my Ministrie among you howbeit I came much short of attainment my resolution and aime was only to set the Glory of God good of your Souls before mine eyes that it pleased him so to bless my poor weak endeavours as that sundrie Seals of the Ministrie of his Word were visibly seen some whereof are already in Glory and some are wrestling thither 4. That when I appeared before the Council at what time I was sentenced with banishment for refusing to swear the Oath as they called it of Alledgeance and which was indeed the Oath of Supremacy and did really contain such a Supremacy as is since fully established that then I did not as was propounded by them take time to advise of mine Answer which I judged could import my unclearness in the matter and that it was not so much out of respect to me as for that very end propounded but told plainly I was fully clear and resolved not to take it For these and many such singular passages of the Lords gracious guiding me in my Pilgrimage I desire from my heart to blesse his Glorious Name and would beg help of all his People to joine with me therein But 2. I have challenges beside many others in respect of these particulars that all along in my Ministrie I did not so stir up or improve the gift that the Lord had given me nor so carry my self like a Spiritual Grave Diligent and Faithful Servant of Christ as I ought to have done 2. That in my Ministrie among you I was not more frequent in visiting Families and dealing with Persons in particular to bring them to and keep them in the wayes of God 3. That when the late grievous defection began in the Year 1661. and 1662. I did not stir up my self and others whatsoever hazard might have ensued to appear by Supplications and publick Testimonies in avowing the Covenant and work of Reformation which if it had been done by Church Judicatories or but singly by Ministers and Professours in the due season according to our engagements might both have glorified God been a doore of hope for the Posterity procured more Peace to our own Consciences yea possibly stopped much of the Defection and Suffering that hath since ensued 4. That when I appeared before the Council I did not take occasion humbly yet plainly to remonstrate the guilt of those things which were publickly enactcted and done against the Prerogative Royal of Jesus Christ and against his Church and People and to give warning of the wrath to come on them and the Land without Repentance but did content my self with answering what was propounded to me For these and such other neglects and miscariages in my life I would desire to go mourning to the grave and would intreat for help from you and others of the Lords People to seek from Himself pardon and purifying of both private and publick both sins of Person and Calling II. As for you I may reckon you all in three Ranks The first Rank and I fear the greater number is of those who although in general profesours of Christianity yet so far as could be observed never laid Religion to heart and some of these for grosse Ignorance and loosness were alway debarred from the Lords Supper others although having some knowledge and a civil walk yet upon good grounds were alwayes suspected to be void of the Love and Fear of God continuing in their natural unrenewed condition neglecting the Worship of God in their Families and alone and shewing by all their carriage that their thoughts and desires never went beyond this World These no doubt are glad of the change now com'd that they may cast off Christs yoke and be free of the