Series 5 > Religious Controversy in Scotland 1625-1639

John Guthrie, bishop of Moray, ‘Life’
MrJohn Guthrie, Bishop of Murray his Life. Transcribed from the originall, written and
subscribed at Spiney Aprile 7. 1639. Communicat By The Laird of Guthrie, In whose
Hands The originall Remains, Collated By Rt. Wodrow. Dec. 1727.
[1] ‘My defense is in God who saveth the upright in heart. In him I put my trust
and shall not be confoundit.’1
Memento mori has been to me those many years past my special memento thereby
to hold me in memory of my Creator, who had not only put into me a waking
and warning conscience, but also appoynted to follow (as Phillip s page2) a quick
and painfull gravell,3 joyned with other infirmitys, which spared neither morn
nor even, midnight nor mid-day, to advertise me of my bride condition and bid
me make ready for God. And now when old age and gray hairs are come, having
attained in the mercy of my God, to the age of sixty, they speak sensibly and tell
that I shall die: young men may die, old men must die. Mors seni in ianuis, adollescenti
in insidiis,4 said old Bernard.This warning cannot be unwelcome, nor the charge
grievous to me to whom it is not come as a thunder clap, with ‘O fool, this night
will he fetch away thy soul from the[e]’.5 It neither can nor shall be so to me
who, by the grace of God, am what I am, [2] and have long since comended my
spirit into the hands of him who hath redeemed it, being fully perswaded that he
is able to keep what I have committed to him till the appearing of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, whom I love and whose comeing I wish.‘Even so come,
Lord Jesus’, come and tarry not.6 One thing rests as just and necessary (for fulfill¬
ing of all righteousness)—that I put my house in order. That which concerneth
my private is done as I am able to do in this strait time, when man’s hand hasteneth
1 Psalm 7:10 GB.The second phrase is based on Psalm 25:2.
2 See p. 24, n. 11 above.
3 This condition is discussed in Mullan, Scottish Puritanism, 32-4.
4 ‘Death to an old man in doorways, to a youngster in ambushes.’
5 Luke 12:20GB,exceptthatithas‘they’whereGuthriehas‘he’.
6 Revelation 22:20.