ST. ANDREWS, _Sept. 27, 1648_.
CCCXXV.--_To SIR JAMES STEWART, Lord Provost of Edinburgh_.[467]
[467] As an accurate facsimile of this letter from the original, among the papers of the Town Council of Edinburgh, is inserted here, it has been thought proper, in this instance, to retain Rutherford's orthography.
[SIR JAMES STEWART of Kirkfield and Cultness, to whom this letter is addressed, was a man of high Christian excellence. "Sir James Stewart," said the celebrated George Gillespie, "has more sterling religion in ready cash than any man ever I knew; he is always agreeably composed and recollected, in a permanent devout frame of spirit, and such as I should wish to have in my last moments" ("Coltness Collections," p. 15). He was a zealous Covenanter, and suffered considerably for his principles during the persecution of Charles II. He died March 31, 1681, at his own house at Edinburgh, in the seventy-third year of his age, in the full assurance of faith. Rutherford wrote this letter on occasion of his own election to be Professor of Divinity in the College of Edinburgh.]
Richt honorablee
THE mater of my transportation is so poor a contraversie, I truely not beeing desyrous to be the subject of any dine[468] in the Generall Assemblie of the Kirk of Scotland whoe have greater bussines to doe, and haveing suffered once the paine of transportation, moist humbly intreat your w. [worships] that favour as to cast yo^r thoughts vpon some fitter man; for as it is vnbeseemeing me to lie or dissemblee, so I must friely show you it will but mak me the subject of suffereing and passive obedience, and I trust your w. [worships] intend not that hurt to me, and I am persuaded it is not yo^r mind, it shall be my prayer to God, to send that worthie societie an hable[469] and pious man. Grace be with you.
[468] _Din_, noise. The superfluous "_e_," at the end of several of these words, may possibly have been a dash in the writing. "Dine," for "din"; "whoe," for "who"; "humblee," for "humble." Compare "_honorable_," on the address of the letter with the same word in the commencement. (A kind friend, reading this letter carefully over, maintains that "_dine_," or "_din_," is not the word in the autograph, but that it is "_drane_," which would mean that he did not wish _to be a drain_ on the time of the Assembly, who had greater business to attend to than this personal affair of his. But, so far as we are aware, that phrase, "_to be a drain_," never occurs elsewhere in Rutherford's writings. What if the writer, in the agitation of the moment, allowed his pen to write "drane," though he meant it to be "dine"?)
[469] From French, "habile," in which we see the etymology of "_able_."
Yours at all humblee observance in the Lord SAMUEL RUTHERFURD
for the richt honorable my varie good lord, Sr James Steuart proveist of Edinbrugh and remanent magistrats Counsellers of the Citie.
S Andrews the Last of Junii 1649
CCCXXVI.--_To MISTRESS GILLESPIE, Widow of George Gillespie._