Series 1 > Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston 1632-1639

100
DIARY OF LORD WARISTON
with thos treu heavenly joies nior non nor ever, eyther in lyfe
or in death according to his good pleasure.
In going to the kirk my heart sang the 119 Ps., and ever-
mor was ejaculating prayses unutterable unto God the Fayther
the Son and the Holy Ghost. In the kirk with unspeakable
comfort I blissed God in reading 89 Ps., {I wil sing of the
mercies of the Lord for ever.1 In the Grayfreers kirk I heard
Mr. James Fairly on 32 Ps. 11 v., ‘Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoyce, ye righteous : and schout for joie, al ye that ar upright
in heart.1 Was not this ane sueat text and, as it wer, apointed
by Gods special providence for the augmenting and confirming
my mornings comforts ? He gaive thre mids for to bread or
augment our cairfulnes for to be upright in heart, to wit to
haive ever befor our eies Gods omnipresence and omniscience
and Gods alsufficience, 17 Genesis; for he is ane upright mans
scheild and his exceading great reward, 15 Genes: as also ane
sunne and ane scheild giving grace and glory, 84 Ps. 3. The
last jugement he insisted on the necessite of dischairging this
deutie of rejoycing in the Lord upon the ingemination of the
comand, Be glad, rejoyce, schout for joie; siklyk the apostle,
4 c. Philip: 4 v., doubles the samen, ‘Rejoyce in the Lord
alway : and againe I say, Rejoyce.1
After sermon instantly I prayed the Lord for to hear al my
former petitions, and to contineu as he begoud nou (for the
quhilk heartily my saule blissed him) for to comfort me. After
desner I sched tears discoursing with Mr. Robert Burnat. At
night having blissed God for that dayes comfort and instantly
desyred him for to direct me in my confusions, I thought God
bad me be doing quhat I was doing, quhilk was to settle my
saule in ane assured faith and hoope of that heavenly inherit¬
ance according to Rogers Evidence of Heaven 1 quhilk I was
then reading, and leave al the rest unto his special providence.
And then my heart ardently and affectionatly blissed God for
the resolving in som kynd al my perplexities by assuring me of
his pardoning my guiltines, by his comforting me under my
1 The righteous man's Evidence for Heaven ; or, a treatise shelving how every¬
one while he lives here may certainly know what shall become of him after his
departure out of this life, by Timothy Rogers, a Puritan divine. Eighth edition,
published in 1629.