PRISON LITERATURE.
LETTER FROM MR. ANDREW MELVILLE
TO A FRIEND IN
SCOTLAND, September 4, 1608.
I must confess, that miraculouslie above all expectatioun
the Lord has upholdin and underpropped my weaknesse, that nather wearinese in
bodie, nor faintnesse in soule, has assailed me unto this day; but, in an
wholesome bodie I have alwayes carried an inward peace of conscience, with
great cherefulnesse in spirit; being comforted by experience of perfytting the
promises made unto us in the Word of that Prince of Glorie, and God of all
consolatioun, yea, even feeling the same most sweetlie watering my barren soule
with drops of grace from above, in suche sort, that I dare not conceale from
you the wayes of the Lord in His incomprehensible mercie toward suche a poore
wretch as I am.
Cald. “Hist.,” VI., 784.
LETTER FROM
ANDREW MELVILLE TO Siit JAMES SEMPILL OF BELTREES. It is dated, “London
Tower this first of December 1610,” and will be found in
M’Crie’s “Life of Melville,” p. 487.