Part 10 (2/2)
Upon Friday morning, the day of his departure from this life, he said, ”This night must I sup with Jesus Christ in paradise.” The minister read to him 2 Cor. v. Rev. xxii. and some observations on such places as concerned his state. After prayer, he said, ”I conceive good hopes that G.o.d looketh upon me when he granteth such liberty to pray for me. Is it possible that Jesus Christ can lose his grip of me? neither can my soul get itself plucked from Jesus Christ.” He earnestly desired a sense of G.o.d's presence; and the minister said, What, my lord, if that be suspended, till you come to your own home, and be before the throne clothed in white, and get your harp in your hand, to sing salvation to the Lamb, and to him that sitteth on the throne, for that is heaven; and who dare promise it to you upon earth? There is a piece of nature in desiring a sense of G.o.d's love, it being an apple that the Lord's children delight to play with. But, my Lord, if you would have it only as a pledge of your salvation, we shall seek it from the Lord for you, and you may lawfully pray for it.--Earnest prayers were made for him, and he testified that he was filled with the sense of the Lord's love.
Being asked, What he thought of the world? he answered, ”It is more bitter than gall or wormwood.” And being demanded, if he now feared death, he answered, I have tasted death, now it is more welcome, the messenger of Jesus Christ, &c.
The minister said, There is a process betwixt the Lord and your father's house, but your name is taken out of it. How dear was heaven bought for you by Jesus Christ? he frequently said, ”I know there is wrath against it, but I shall get my soul for a prey.”----Oftimes he said, ”It is a sweet word G.o.d saith, _As I live, I delight not in the death of a sinner._ I will not let go the hold I have got of Jesus Christ; _though he should slay me, yet will I trust in him._”
In deep meditation on his change, he put this question, What will Christ be like when he cometh? It was answered, Altogether lovely. Before he died, he was heard praying very fervently, and said to the doctor, ”I thought to have been dissolved ere now.”--The minister said, Weary not of the Lord's yoke, Jesus Christ is posting fast to be at you, he is within a few miles.--He answered, This is my infirmity. I will wait on, he is worth the onwaiting, though he be long in coming, yet I dare say he is coming, leaping over the mountains and skipping over the hills.----The minister said, Some have gotten their fill of Christ in this life, howbeit he is often under a mask to his own. Even his best saints, Job, David, Jeremiah, &c. were under desertions.--My lord said, But what are these examples to me? I am not in holiness near to them. The minister said, It is true you cannot take so wide steps as they did, but you are in the same way with them. A young child followeth his father at the back, though he cannot take such wide steps as he.--My lord, your hunger overcometh your faith, only but believe his word;--you are longing for Christ, only believe he is faithful, and will come quickly. To which he answered, ”I think it is time--Lord Jesus, come.”
Then the minister said, My lord, our nature is anxious for our own deliverance, whereas G.o.d seeketh first to be glorified in our faith, patience and hope. He answered, Good reason to be first served. Lord, give me to wait on; only, Lord, turn me not to dross.
Another said, Cast back your eyes, my lord, on what you have received, and be thankful.--At the hearing of which he brake forth in praising of G.o.d, and finding himself now weak, and his speech failing more than an hour before his death, he desired the minister to pray. After prayer, the minister cried in his ear, ”My lord, may you now sunder with Christ?” To which he answered nothing, nor was it expected that he would speak any more.--Yet in a little the minister asked, Have you any sense of the Lord's love?--He answered, I have. The minister said, Do you now enjoy?--He answered, I do enjoy. Thereafter he asked him, Will ye not sunder with Christ?----He answered, By no means:--This was his last word, not being able to speak any more. The minister asked if he should pray, and he turned his eyes towards him. In the time of the last prayer he was observed joyfully smiling and looking upward. He departed this life about sun setting, September 12, 1634. aged 35 years. It was observed, that he died at the same instant that the minister concluded his prayer.
Mr. Rutherford in one of his letters to the viscountess of Kenmuir a little after the death of her husband, to comfort her, among other things lets fall this expression, ”In this late visitation that hath befallen your ladys.h.i.+p, ye have seen G.o.d's love and care in such a measure, that I thought our Lord brake the sharp point of the cross, and made us and your ladys.h.i.+p see Christ take possession and infestment upon earth, of him who is now reigning and triumphing with the hundred and forty and four thousand who stand with the Lamb on mount Zion, &c.”
Some may object, what did this n.o.bleman for the cause of Christ, or Scotland's covenanted work of reformation, that he should be inserted among the Scottish worthies? To this it may be answered, What did the most eminent saint that ever was in Scotland, or any where else, until they were enabled by the grace of G.o.d. So it was with reference to him; for no sooner was he made partaker of this, than he gave a most ample and faithful testimony for his truths and interest; and although the Lord did not see it proper that he should serve him after this manner, in his day and generation, yet he no doubt accepted of the will for the deed, and why should we not inroll his name among these worthies on earth, seeing he hath written his name among the living in Jerusalem.
_The Life of Mr. ROBERT CUNNINGHAM._
After Mr. Robert Cunningham had received a good education, he became chaplain to the duke of Buccleugh's regiment in Holland, and was afterward settled minister at Holywood in Ireland, sometime before Mr.
Blair was settled at Bangor, and with whom Mr. Blair, after his settlement in that place, contracted such an acquaintance as was comfortable to them both.
He applied himself close unto the work of the ministry, which no doubt to him was the most desireable of all employments, being in the pulpit in his own element, like a fish in the water, or bird in the air, always judging that therein a Christian might enjoy much fellows.h.i.+p with Christ and have an opportunity of doing him the best of services, considering what Christ said to Peter, John xxi. 15. &c. _Lovest thou me more than these----feed my lambs----feed my sheep._
Here he continued to exercise his office as a faithful pastor over the flock to whom he was appointed overseer, until the time that several of his faithful brethren were deposed and ejected by the bishops, at which time the bishop of Down threatening Mr. Blair with a prosecution against him, Mr. Cunningham and some others; to whom Mr. Blair said, ”Ye may do with me and some others as you please, but if ever ye meddle with Mr.
Cunningham your cup will be full,” and indeed he was longer spared than any of the rest, which was a great benefit to their flocks, for when they were deposed, he preached every week in one or other of their kirks. So with great pains both at home and abroad he wore out his body which before was not very strong.
When Mr. Blair and Mr. Livingston were summoned before the bishop to be deposed, they went the night before their appearance, to take their leave of Mr. Cunningham, but the next day as they were going to the church of Parphilips, he came up to them, whereat being surprised they asked, Why he came thither? To which he answered, ”All night I have been troubled with that place, _at my first answer no man stood with me_, therefore I am come to stand by you.” But being the eye-sore of the devil and the prelatical clergy in that part of the country, he could not be suffered long to exercise his ministry, and in August 1636, he, with other of his faithful brethren, was thrust out and deposed. He continued mostly after this with the rest of his suffering brethren, until after the defeat of their enterprise to New-England, that they were obliged to leave Ireland and come over to Scotland, and not long after he took his last sickness in Irvine, whereof he soon after died.
During his sickness, besides many other gracious expressions, he said, ”I see Christ standing over death's head, saying, Deal warily with my servant, loose thou this pin, then that pin, for his tabernacle must be set up again.”
The day before his death, the members of the presbytery of Irvine made him a visit, whom he exhorted to be faithful to Christ and his cause, and to oppose the service-book (then pressed upon the church). ”The bishop,” said he, ”hath taken my ministry from me, and I may say, my life also, for my ministry is dearer to me than my life.” A little before his departure, his wife sitting by his bed-side with his hand in hers, he did by prayer recommend the whole church of Ireland, the parish of Holywood, his suffering brethren in the ministry, and his children to G.o.d, and withal added, ”Lord, I recommend this gentlewoman to thee, who is no more my wife:”--and with that he softly loosed his hand from hers, and thrust it a little from him, at which she and several of the company fell a-weeping, he endeavoured to comfort them with several gracious expressions, and with the Lord's servant of old, mentioned, Acts xiii.
36. _Having served his own generation by the will of G.o.d, he fell on sleep_, March 27. 1637.
Mr. Cunningham was a man mostly under deep exercises of mind, and although in public preaching he was to his own sense sometimes not so a.s.sisted as ordinarily, yet even then the matter he treated of was edifying and refreshful, being still carried through with a full gale, using more piercing expressions than many others. For meekness he was Moses-like, and in patience another Job,--”to my discerning (says one of our Scots worthies[60]) he was the man, who most resembled the meekness of Jesus Christ in all his carriage, that ever I saw, and was so far reverenced of all, even by the wicked, that he was often troubled with that scripture, _Wo to you when all men speak well of you._”
_The Life of Mr. JAMES MITCHEL._
He was son to James Mitchel of d.y.k.es in the parish of Ardrossan, and was born about the year 1621. His father, being factor to the earl of Eglinton and a very religious man himself, gave his son a most liberal and religious education.----For, being sent to the university of St.
Andrews, when very young, he profited to such a degree, that by the time that he was eighteen years of age he was made master of arts.
After this he returned home to his father's house, where he studied for near two years and a half, the Lord in a good measure blessing his pains and endeavours therein. Mr. Robert Bailie, then minister at Kilwinning, shewed him no small kindness, both by the loan of his books, by his counsel, and by superintending his studies.
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