Fruitful and Comfortable Exhortation in Death, Title page – Dedication
Ane FRVITFVL AND COMFORTABLE Exhortatioun anent Death.
Gif thou wald lead a godly life,
Think daylie thou man die:
Gif thou wald die a blessed dead,
Liue weill I counsell thee.
EDINBVRGH PRINTED BY RObert Walde-graue, Printer to the Kings Maiestie. Anno Do. 1597. Cum Priuilegio Regio.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND HIS DEARE Brother in the death of the Lord Iesus, IAMES LVMMISDEN of Airdrie, Grace and peace, &c.
MY Bed-fellow, best beloued, being visited with ane extreame Fever, so that I saw nothing in her but evident takens of death: I set my selfe (Right Honorable, and deare Brother in the Lord Iesus) to seeke out sik comforts as might best confirm me against sik ane assault, and prepare me for the patient behalding of that spectacle quhilk I looked shortly to hauehave seene, and ease mee of that importable sorrowe, quhilk soone might hauehave insewed vponupon that dulefull departure. So casting over my scrolles, I fell vponupon the minutes of a certaine Sermon, quhilk sometime comfortablie God hath vttered be the mouth of me his simple servand, in the hearing of ane honourable and frequent Auditorie, of the quhilk, that honorable man of speciall account in the eyes and hearts of all the gude men, quhair he remaines, for vnfenzeit godlines and earnest care in all gude vvarkes, Sir GEORGE DOVVGLAS of Elenehill Knight, and your selfe gif I bee richtlie remembred was ane pairt: And the quhilk as I vnderstude of you and him both, thairefter was the first motion of our coniunction and affection in Christ. The quhilk quhen I had found, I recognosced the heads of the samin, and fostered a peece of meditation vponupon the pointes thairof at certaine dayes to my great comfort, and of the persone afflicted, vvith quhome I communicated also. The pleasure quhair of, mooued me to employe my pen, and set them downe in some order, with sik affections as the present constitution furnished, flowing alwayes from that fountaine of al consolation, the haly speiches of the spreit set furth in sacred Scripture. Nowe because of the estate of your disease, I daylie langed and purposed quhiles ye wer heir at home, to come and spend some peece of time with you, and to bestowe as it suld please the Lord to giuegive, some spirituall gift by conference, for your strengthning in the truth, and that ready resolution to dye in Christ, quhilk I hauehave often reioyced in sa gude a measure to be graunted vntounto you: But being from day to day empeshed & stayed, till I hard ye had transported your selfe to that maist noble Towne and Kirk of all this Realme; howbeit I knewe yee had then na neede of ony sik thing from me, hauing there at hand sik store and aboundance of all: yet it behoued mee for testifying of my affection towards you. And supplying some part of the inlack of my promised Christian dewty, in visiting of you, to send you a copy of the saide Sermon, with a little historie of the departure of Iean d'Albret, vmquhile Mother to this present King of France, for a plaine and comfortable example and practise thairof, and all for furthering of that gude wark, where about I wot ye are maist occupied; that is, after a reformed and sanctified life, to make a gude and godlie end. How farre thir litle things may serue for so great a wark, I remit that to the chiefe Master of the warke, the haly Ghaist. Certaine I am be a peece of experience in my selfe, that sum thing they may serue by his grace, for howbeit they be farre from the faire stuffe yee hauehave there at hand; yet now and then, it may be, ye finde them feat for pinnings and wages: vse them therfore as ye think thay may deme. It is aneuch for mee, that I hauehave testified in some sort my affectionat remembrance of you in the tender bowels of his louelove, quha hes dyed once for vsus, to make vsus liue with him for ever, quha mote perfite and crowne the wark of his grace in you.
From Anstruther, the 17. of December 1596. Yours dearly in Christ, I. M.