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

MEMENTO QUAMDIU VIVAS
139
si vwdo culiuroe patientem prccbeat aurem; 2. Ane disposition
fitted to the purpose we hear, as to beleave promises, trimble
at threatnings, obey praecepts; After hearing, 1. meditation
quhairby the seed is harroued and we chau our cood,1 2.
practise and obedience quhilk maketh ane man to be that wyse
man that buildeth his house on ane rok, 7 c. Math. 24 v., and
is Chrysts brother 12 c. Math. 50 v. We sould be attentive to
hear, 1. becaus God speaketh ; 2. it is the word of fayth quhilk
cometh by hearing, 10 c. Rom. 17 v.; 3. therby we may dis-
ceme if we be Gods children or no, for Chryst sayeth, 10 Jhon,
‘ My scheepe heareth my voyce, and not the voyce of ane
strainger’; and, as ane ancient sayeth, The delyte of Gods word
is ane infallible taken of election.
Having prayed in Mr. Robert gallery after sermon, I wryte [fol.7e.]
ane comfortable letter to my mother; I spend the afternoone
in reading of Rogers2 hou to live by fayth, the warrant and
the singes of fayth, and that with intermixed prayers and
prayses; quhairon I remembred of Gods goodnes giving me
first the experience of his love befor I taisted of his wrayth.
Then I resolved, seing I was to give myselth unto the study of
the laues, to read Dod3 on the comandements quhilk is Gods lau,
as also to study exactly the Jeuisch laues contained in Moyses Deuteronomie.
books, that therby thairafter I might examine the equitie and
conscionablenes of causes. Thairafter I confessed apairt
Bifields 12 and 13 c. and conjured God by his evangelical
comands, ‘ Repent and beleave,’ Mark 1 c. 15 v. and Actes 2 c.
38 v. quhairto he had annexed the promise of remission and sal¬
vation. Thairafter, in meditation and in prayer, God, bringing
me in mynd of quhat I had read in Rogers al that afternoone,
remembred me also that nou God was trying my fayth in this
particular to seie if, quhen al apearances failed me, yet that
I wald rest on him; for, if I rested not on God that he wald
delyver me from this trouble and that he could and would yet
blisse me, hou could I beleave that he wald saive me from hell
and give me heaven ? Quhairupon I resolved that on pro-
1 Chew the cud.
2 The Doctrine of Faith. See note, p. 132.
* See note, p. 94.