Learned, Pious, and Faithful Servant of JESUS CHRIST, Mr. JOHN BROWN, Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Wamphray in Annandale, and afterwards Minifter to the Scots Congregation at Rotterdam in Holland. ABRIS BIB. THEO. DINENSIS Carefully printed from the AUTHOR'S OWN MANUSCRIPT. EDINBURGH: Printed by DAVID PATERSON, And fold by him at his Printing-house, LAWN-MARKET, and by the Bookfellers, The PREFACE. T is faid, The righteous fhall be in everlasting remembrance, Pfal. cxii. 6. and, The me I'mory of the just is bleffed, Prov. m dlho, it is now near a hundred years fince the Rev. learned and pious author fell asleep in the Lord, and is gone to receive the fruit of his labours, from his Lord and Mafter, whom he served in the gospel; yet the wifdom of Divine Providence cannot but be noticed in the prefervation of the author's own manufcript of the following lectures fo long, and now raifing it from the duft of obfcurity, and bringing it forth to the light, which, under the divine bleffing, will no doubt be useful for clearing up and fetting in a proper light, the neceffary truths of the chriftian faith and doctrine, therein contained, efpecially the great and fundamental doctrine of justification fo fully and largely treated of in the infpired epiftle, and fo confequently by the judicious expofitor. It is prefumed, it will be needless to make any apology for the publication of the following lectures; as they who are acquainted with Mr. Brown's fingular judiciousness in the management of such subjects as he has undertaken, will certainly make any of the remains of fuch an eminent minifter and Christian very acceptable. Those who have been converfant with his writtings will ftand in need of little other voucher of genuinenefs befide the lectures themfelves, as they evidently carry in them fuch marks as have always diftinguished his performances., It is not without ground to be feared, that, to the bulk of the prefent age, the following lectures will feem as idle tales, yet to fuch as have their fenfes exercifed to difcern good and evil, they will appear words fitly fpoken, as apples of gold in pictures of filver, wifely calculated both for informing the judgment and reforming the heart. It appears that the author defigned the following Lectures for the prefs, on account. of the correctness and compleatnefs of his manufcript; fo that unless it be the prefixing a title. preface, and introduction to the first feven chapters, it has flood in need of no other help, either by adding or impairing. Such as hefitate any manner of way with refpect to the agreement of the printed copy, in any word or fentence, with the manufcript, may be fatisfied by comparing, as the manufcript is preserved in the hands of the Publishers at Edinburgh. That the public has been fo long deprived of such a valuable and useful expofition, can no otherways be accounted for, than that the perfons into whofe cuftody it has been, had never fallen on proper means for having it publifhed. What further feems neceffary in this way, fhall be only, I. More particularly to mention a few things concerning the author. III. To point out a very few reafons which appear to render the prefent publication the more neceffary. 1. The deserved reputation the author has already gained in the church of Christ, not only for his extenfive abilities, fingular piety and holinefs, but his useful labours in the work of the ministry, and fruits of his study, many years fince gone abroad in the world, will very juftly fuperfede almost any thing neceffary to be faid about him; fuch fingular and excellent treatifes, both in the polemic and practical way, have undoubtedly evinced to unprejudiced perfons, his good learning and folid judgment, and that he has been every way a workman who needed not be afhamed *. The great Mr. Rutherfoord in one of his letters from Aberdeen to the Author's mother fays, "I rejoice to hear your fon is coming to vifit Chrift, and taste of his love: I hope he "fhall not lofe his pains, and rue of that choice. I had always (as I faid often to you) a great love to dear Mr. JoHN BROWN, because I thought I faw Chrift in "him more than in his brethren: Fain would I write to him to ftand by my sweet Mafter; and I wish you would let him read my letter, and the joy I have if he will appear for and fide with my LORD JESUS." This letter is dated in the year 1637, about which time 'tis probable the Author had been fetting forward for the miniftry. He was fettled at Wamphray a good number of years before his banishment, as appears by the dates he puts to his fermons, a large collection whereof, and feveral other practical treatifes, are yet unpublished; that the church fhould be de-. prived of any part of the labours of this eminent divine, is furely a very great pity. If a more particular account of the life, fufferings and death of this great man, than what can be got, was here inferted, it would be certainly valuable and ufeful; but feeing that during the latter part of his life, for his fingular zeal and faithfulness to his Lord and Mafter, he was banished to Holland 1662 t, till about 1679, when he died *If thou be not a stranger in our Ifrael, whoever thou be, then if either eminency in grace or learning, if vaftnefs or pregnancy of parts, if fervour of zeal according to knowledge, if unwearied diligence in the work of the Lord, (wherein he laboured more abundantly than any of us all, for no man in the church of Scotland hath filled up his meafure, even as to that; nor know, nor fee I a man who is like to do it, nay, who is in capacity for it) if a holy heroic mifregard of men, and their eftimation, in approving himfelf to God, by a ready and refolute withstanding the corruptions of his time, and oppofing all thefe courfes and contrivances, and thefe unworthy connivings, whereby the caufe hath been prejudged, yea bafely abandoned, and the free courfe and progrefs of the gofpel obftructed; if fingle 'follicitoufnefs, and ftrenuous endeavours how to have pure ordinance: preferved in this generation, and propagate to the pofterity; in a word, if faithfulness as a fervant in all the house and matters of his God, even that God, who counted him faithful, and put him in the miniftry, and loyalty to his princely Lord and Mafter, (the prerogatives of whofe crown, the privileges of whofe kingdom and the establishment of whofe throne, were more prized by him, more precious and dear unto him, than all other interefts whatfoever; nay, he was fo far from regarding any other intereft, in refpect of that alone valuable one, that as he was never daunted from a plain peremptorinefs in owning thereof, by the dread of poor mortals, or the fear of what the stated enemy could do unto him; fo he was never demurred into a forbearance, or brow-beaten into a base and un-ambaffador becoming filence, by the difpleasure and discountenancings, even of such of his brethren, whom otherwife he loved and highly honoured, as to a plain contending with them, wherein he perceived them not to walk uprightly, according to the truth of the gofpel, and to the former principles of that church, while fhe retained first love, and did first works; yea, he judged it duty (and in this he had the mind of Christ) to contend earnestly with them, for their not earnest contendings for the faith, tho' for this he fhould have been contemned, and accounted, as he was, a man of contention :) I fay, if thou be fuch an one to whom fuch a bleffed conjunction of tare gifts, with fuch a rich and plentiful measure of grace, can endear any man; I then nothing doubt, but Mr. BROWN, great and gracious Mr. Brown, hath fuch a place in thy foul, and fuch a preference to others, as thou wilt judge it fuperfluous in me to lay any thing to commend what the truly great Elijah of his time, (I mean of this prefent time, when haying ferved his generation according to the will of God, he fell asleep) the man jealous for the Lord God of Hofts, above all his brethren whom he hath left behind him, I except not one foul. M'Ward's Preface to the Sawan-Song. On the 6th day of November 1662, the learned, zealous and pious Mr. JOHN BROWN militer at Wamphray, was ordered to be imprifoned for fpeaking against thofe who countenanced the diocefan affembly's. Great were the hardships he underwent in prifon, for he was denied even the neceffaries of life; and tho', because of the ill treatment he met with, he was brought almoft to the gates of death, yet he could not have the benefit of the free air, until he figned a bond obliging himself to a voluntary banishment without caufe. Crookshank's Hift. vol. I. P. 134. died of a lingering difeafe, few particular circumftances concerning him have been tranfmitted to the place of his nativity. The cruel rage of his enemies could not be fatisfied in going this length only with him, but the infamous Sharp was fo mad against him and Mr. M Ward, that he prevailed with the King to write to the States of Holland, to have them removed out of their provinces, but the States being convinced of the unreasonablenefs of fuch a demand, refused to comply with it .. The particular grounds and caufes why he was thus inhumanly and barbarously treated, was his ftrict attachment to, and maintaining the binding force and perpetual obligations of the nations folemn vows and covenants; his refufing acceptation of the then finful Indulgences; his publicly and ftrenuously teftifying against the facrilegious ufurpation of the regal and incommunicable head/hip of the Lord Jefus Chrift in and over his church; his public and zealous teftifying against licentious tolerations, and the many other abounding wickedneffes and defections that prevailed (and which.. alas! continues and are come to a prodigious height) for thefe and fuch like, was he violently thurst from his flock: yet the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence is very remarkable, in that whilft his enemies meant it for evil to him, God meant it for good; tho', like Jofeph, fold by unnatural brethren, yet was he fent to preferve life and comfort among his poor afflicted and perfecuted brethren in Scotland, expofed to the blood-thirsty rage and cruelty of their wicked, ungodly and apoftate rulers : He wrote and fent over to Scotland many ufeful and confolatory treatifes, wherein he difcovers the true ftate of the teftimony of the church of Scotland, efpecially his remarkably eminent piece entitled The Life of Faith in the time of trouble, and SwanSong, and a number of others, fome of which the circumftances of the times. would not fuffer his name to be prefixed. L His fingular judicioufnefs and honefty, in being a faithful witnefs and wrestler for the purity of Reformátion, appears very obvious in his piece entitled An Apologetical Relation, wherein he holds forth the dreadful and hainous nature of national perjury. and covenant-breaking, and convincingly difcovers that it is not in the power of the nations to shake themselves loofe of their facred obligations, either as to the matter or manner of them; tho' to the great flame and unfpeakable lofs of thefe nations, the bulk and body of them have not only once or twice difcovered their contempt of thefe facred vows to the Moft High, but have ftill perfifted and continued in an open course: of backfliding upwards of thefe hundred years past *. II. The next thing fhall be very fummarily to notice the fcope of the infpired epiftle, . and the expofition: It is very obfervable that the method of this epiftle is, first doctri-> nal, and then practical, which however diftinct in themselves, muft never be feparated; It is faid, They that know thy name will put their trust in thee, Pfal. ix. 10. and, If any man do his will, he shall know the doctrine, John vii. 29. In this epiftle the profound and deep myfteries and foundation principles of the gospel are laid open, fuch as the imputation of the First Adam's fin to his pofterity; the imputation of the Second Adam's righteoufoefs to all his fpiritual feed and off-fpring, whereby their perfons are accepted and fins pardoned; the doctrine of the adorable Trinity of perfons and unity of effence; the myfterious conftitution of the perfon of our Lord Jefus Chrift; the doctrine of predeftination; the union of believers with Chrift; perfeverance, fanctification, and glorification. This infpired writer lays the foundation of acceptance and falvation, See the refolution of the States, inferted in Wodrow's Hift. vol. I. P. 434, 435. not |