excellency ye shall see that one look of Christ's sweet lovely eye one kiss of his fairest face is worth ten thousand worlds of such rotten stuff as the foolish sons of men set their heart upon Oh Sir turn turn your heart to the other side of things get it once free of these entanglements to consider Eternity Death the clay-bed the Grave awsom Judgement everlasting burning quick in Hell where Death would give as great a price if there were a Market where Death might be bought sold as all the world Consider heaven glory But alas why speak I of considering these things which have not entered into the heart of man to consider Look into these depths without a bottom of loveliness sweetness beauty excellency glory goodness grace mercy that are in Christ ye shall then cry down the whole world all the glory of it even when it is come to the summer-bloom ye shall cry up with Christ up with Christ's father up with eternity of glory Sir there is a great deal of less sand in your glasâ— then when I saw you your afternoon is nearer even-tide now then it was As a flood carried back to the sea so doth the Lord's swiâ—t post Time carry you your life with wings to the grave Ye eat drink but Time standeth not still ye laugh but your day fleeth away yâ— sleep but your hours are reckoned put by hand O how soon will Time shut you out of the poor cold hungry Innes of this life then what will yesterday's short-born pleasures doe to you but be as a snow-ball melted away many years since or worse for the memorie of these pleasures useth to fill the soul witâ— bitternesse Time experience will prove thiâ— to be true dying men if they could speak would make this good Lay no more on the creatures then they are able to carry Lay your soul and your weights upon God Make him your onely onely best beloved Your errand to this life is to make sure an eternity of glory to your soul to match your soul with Christ your love if it were more then all the love of Angels in one is Christ's due Other things worthy in themselves in respect of Christ are not worth a windlestraw or a drink of cold water I doubt not but in death ye will see all things more distinctly and that then the world shall bear no more bulke then it is worth that then it shall couche be contracted into nothing ye shall see Christ longer higher broader deeper then ever he was O blessed conquest to lose all things to gain Christ I know not what ye have if ye want Christ Alas how poor is your gain if the earth were all yours in fâ—ee heritage holding it of no man of clay if Christ be not yours O seek all midses lay all oars in the water put forth all your power bend all your endeavours to put away part with all things that ye may gain enjoy Christ try search his word striâ—e to goe a step above beyond ordinary professours resolve to sweat more run faster then they doe for Salvation mens mid-way cold and wise courses in godliness and their neighbour-liâ—e cold wise pace to heaven will cause many a man want his lodging at night liâ— in the fields I recommend Christ his love to your seeking yourself to the tender mercy rich grace of our Lord. Remember my love in Christ to your wife I desire her to learn to make her soul's anchor fast upon Christ himself Few are saved Let hâ—r consider what joâ— the smiles of God in Christ will be what the love-kisses of sweet sweet Jesus a welcome home to the new Ierusalem from Christ's own mouth will be to her soul when Christ shall fold together the clay tent of her body and lay it by his hand for a time till the fair morning of the generall resurrection I avouch before God man and Angel that I have not seen nor can imagine a lover to be comparable to lovely Jesus I would not exchange or niffer him with ten heavens If heaven could be without him what could we doe there Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your soul 's eternal well-wisher S. R. To CASSINCARRIE 148. Much honoured Sir GRace mercy and peace be to you I have been too long in writing to you I am confident ye have learned to prize Christ his love favour more then ordinary professours who scarce see Christ with half an eye because their sight is taken up with eying liking the beauty of this over-guileded world that promiseth fair to all it's lovers but in the push of a trial when need is can give nothing but a fair beguile I know ye are not ignorant that men come not to this world as some doe to a market to see and be seen or as some come to behold a May-game and onely to behold and to goe home again Ye came hither to treat with God to tryst with him in his Christ for salvation to your soul to seek reconcilation with an angry and wrathful God in a covenant of peace made to you in Christ this is more then an ordinary sport or the play that the greatest part of the world give their heart unto And therefore Worthy Sir I pray you by the salvation of your soul and by the mercy of God your compearence before Christ doe this in sad earnest let not salvation be your by-work or your holy-day's task onely or a work by the way For men think that this may be done in three dayes space on a feather-bed when death they are fallen in hands together and that with a word or two they shall make their soul-matters right Alas this is to â—it loose and unsure in the matters of our salvation Nay the seeking of this world the glory of it is but an odde by-errand that we may slip sobeing we make salvation sure Oh when will men learn to be that heavenly wise as to divorce from free their soul of all Idol-lovers and make Christ the onely onely One and trim make ready their lamps while they have time and day How soon will this house skail and the Innes where the poor soul lodgeth fall to the earth How soon will some few years pass away then when the day is ended this life's lease expired what have men of world's glory but dreams thoughts O how blessed a thing is it to labour for Christ to make him sure Know and try in time your holding of him and the rights and charters of heaven and upon what terms ye have Christ and the Gospel and what Christ is worth in your estimation and how lightly ye esteem of other things and how dearly of Christ I am sure if ye see him in his beauty and
servant know the well-head for all that learn the way to the well it self Thank God that Christ came to your house in your absence took with him some of your children He presumed that much on your love that ye would not offend howbeit he should take the rest he cannot come upon your wrong side I question not if they were children of gold but ye think them well bestowed upon him Expound well two rods on you one in your house at home another on your own person abroad Love thinketh no evil If ve were not Christ's wheat appointed to be bread in his house he would not grind you thus But keep the middle line neither despise nor faint Hebr 12. 6. Ye see your father is homely with you Strokes of a father evidence kindness care take them so I hope your Lord hath manifâ—sted himself to you and suggested these or more choice thoughts about his dealing with you we are using our weak moyen credit for you up at our own court as we dow we pray the King to hear us the Son of man to goe side for side with you hand in hand in the fiery oven to quicken encourage your unbeleeving heart when ye droop despond Sir to the honour of Christ be it said my faith goeth with my pen now I am presently beleeving Christ shall bring you out Truth in Scotland shall keep the crown of the causey yet the saints shall see Religion goe naked at noonday free from shame fear of men We shall yet divide Sechem ride upon the high places of Iacob Remember my obliged respects love to my lady Kenmure her sweet childe Anwoth July 6. 1636. Yours ever in his sweet Lord Iesus S R. To the Vicountess of KENMURE 26 MADAM GRace mercy peace be to you I know ye are near many comforters that the promised comforter is near hand also yet because I found your La comfortable to my self in my sad dayes that are not yet over my head it is my part and more in many respects howbeit I can doe little God knoweth in that kinde to speak to you in your wilderness-lot I know Dear Noble Lady this loss of your dear childe came upon you one piece part of it after another that ye was looking for it that now the Almighty hath brought on you that which ye feared that your Lord gave you lawfull warning I hope for his sake who brewed masked this cup in heaven ye will gladly drink and salute welcome the cross I am sure it is not your Lord's minde to fâ—ed you with judgement worm wood to give you waters of gall to drink Ezek. 34. 16. Ier. 9. 15. I know your cup is sugared with mercy that the withering of the bloom the flower even the white red of worldly joyes is for no other end but to buy out at the ground the reversion of your heart and love Madam subscribe the Almightie's will put your hand to the pen let the crosse of your Lord Jesus have your submissive and resolute AMEN If ye ask and try whose this cross is I dare say it is not all your own the best half of it is Christ's then your cross is no born bastard but lawfully begotten It sprang not out of the dust Iob. 5. 6. if Christ ye be halvers of this suffering he say half mine what should aile you I am sure I am here right upon the stile of the word of God Phil. 3. 10. The fellowship of Christ's sufferings Col. 1. 29. The remnant of the afflictions of Christ. Heb. 11. 28. The reproach of Christ. It were but to shiâ—t the comforts of God to say Christ had never such a cross as mine he had never a dead childe so this is not his crosse neither can he in that meaning be the owner of this cross but I hope Christ when he married you married you and all the crosses woâ—-hearts that follow you the word maketh no exception Isa. 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted Then Christ bore the first stroke of this cross it rebounded off him on upon you ye got it at the second hand ye and he are halvers in it And I shall beleeve for my part he mindeth to destill heaven out of this loss and all others the like for wisdom devised it and love laid it on and Christ owneth it as his own and putteth your shoulder onely beneath a piece of it take it with joy as no bastard cross but as a vintation of God well born and spend the rest of your appointed time till your change come in the work of beleeving and let faith that never yet made a lye to you speak for God's part of it he will not he doth not make you a sea or a whalefish that he keepeth you inward lob 7. 12. It may be ye think not many of the children of God in such a hard case as your self but what would ye think of some who would exchange afflictions give you to the boot but I know yours must be your own alone and Christ's together I confess it seemed strange to me that your Lord should have done that which seemeth to ding out the bottom of your comforts worldly but we see not to the ground of the Almightie's soveraignity he goeth by on our right hand on our left hand we see him not We see but pieces of the broken links of the chain of his providence and he coggeth the wheels of his own providence that we see not O let the former work his own clay in what frame he pleaseth Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge If he pursue dry stubble who dare say what doest thou doe not wonder to see the Judge of the world weave in one web your mercies the judgements of the house of the Kenmure he can make one web of contraries But my weak advice with reverence correction were for you Dear worthy Lady to see how far mortification goeth on what scum the Lord's fire casteth out of you I know ye see your knottiness since our Lord whyteth heweth plaineth you the glanceing of the furnace is to let you see what scum or refuse ye must want what froath is in nature that must be boiled out taken off in the fire of your trials I doe not say heavier afflictions prophesie heavier guiltiness a cross is often but a false prophet in this kinde but I am sure our Lord would have the tin the bastard mettall in you removed least the Lord say the bellowes are burnt the lead is consumed in the fare the founder melteth in vain Ier. 6 29 And I shall hope that grief shall not so far smother your light as not to practize this so necessary a duty to concur with him in this blessed design I would gladly plead for the
not but goeth with even equal legs yet are they not the greatest sinners upon whom tower of Siloam fell was not time's lease expired the sand of heaven's sand-glass set by our Lord run out Is not he an unjust debter who payeth due debt with chiding I beleeve Christian Lady your faith leaveth that much charity to our Lord's judgements as to beleeve how beit ye be in blood sib to that cross that yet ye are exempted freed from the gall wrath that is in it I dare not deny but Iob. 18 15. the King of terrors dwelleth in the wicked man's tabernacle brimstone shall be scattered on his habitation yet Madam it is safe for you to live upon the faith of his love whose arrows are over-watered pointed with love mercy to his own who knoweth how to take you yours out of the roll book of the dead Our Lord hath not the eyes of flesh in distributing wrath to the thousand generation without exception Seeing ye are not under the Law but under Grace married to another husband Wrath is not the Court that ye are liable to As I would not wish neither doe I beleeve your La doeth despise so neither faint read spell aright all the words syllabes in the visitation miscall neither letter nor syllabe in it Come along with the Lord see lay no more weight upon the Law then your Christ hath laid upon it If the Law 's bill get an answer from Christ the curses of it can doe no more And I hope ye have resolved that if he should grind you to powder your dust powder shall beleeve his salvation And who can tell what thoughts of love peace our Lord hath to your children I trust he shall make them famous in excuting the written judgements upon the enemies of the Lord this honour have all his saints Psal. 149 9. that they shall bear stones on their shoulders for building that city that is called Ezek. 46 35. The Lord is there happy shall they be who have a hand in the sacking of Babel come out in the year of vengeance for the controversy of Zion against the land of graven images Therefore Madam let the Lord make out of your father's house any work even of judgement that he pleaseth What iâ— wrath to others is mercy to you your house It is Faith's work to claim and challenge loving kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God Doe that for the Lord which ye will doe for time time will calme your heart at that which God hath done let our Lord have it now What love ye did bear to friends now dead seeing they stand now in no need of it let it fall as just legacy to Christ. O how sweet to put out many strange lovers to put in Christ It is much for our half-slain affections to part with that which we beleeve we have right unto but the servant's will should be our will he is the best servant who retaineth least of his own will most of his Master's That much wisdom must be ascribed to our Lord that he knoweth how to lead his own in-through and out-through the little time-hells and the pieces of time-during wraths in this life yet keep safe his love without any blurre upon the old great seal of free Election And seeing his mountains of brass the mighty strong decrees of free grace in Christ stand sure the Covenant standeth fast for ever as the dayes of heaven let him strike nurture his striking must be a very act of saving seeing strokes upon his secret ones come from the soft heavenly hand of the Mediatour his rods are steeped watered in that flood river of love that cometh from the God-man's heart of our soul-loving soul-redeeming JESUS I hope ye are content to frist the Cautioner of mankinde his own conquest heaven till he pay it you bring you to a state of glory where he shall never crook a finger upon nor lift a hand to you again And be content withall greedily covetous of Grace the interest pledge of Glory If I did not beleeve your crop to be on the ground your part of that heaven of the saints heaven white ruddy fair fair beautifull Jesus were come to the bloom the flower near your hook I would not write this but seeing time ' threed is short ye are upon the entry of heaven's harvest Christ the field of heaven's glory is white ripe-like the losses that I write of to your La are but summer-showers that will onely wet your garments for an hour or two and the Sun of the new Ierusalem shall quickly dry the wet coat especially seeing rains of Affliction cannot stain the image of God or cause Grace cast the colour And since ye will not alter upon him who will not change upon you I durst in weakness think my self no spiritual Seer if I should not prophesie that day-light is neer when such a morning-darkness is upon you that this trial of your Christian minde towards him whom ye dare not leave howbeit he should slay you shall close with a doubled mercy It is time for faith to hold fast as much of Christ as ever ye had to make the grip stronger to cleave closer to him seeing Christ loveth to be beleeved in trusted to The glory of laying strength upon one that is mighty to save is more then we can think That piece of service of beleeving in a smiting Redeemer is a precious part of obedience O what glory to him to lay over the burden of our heaven upon him that purchased for us an eternal Kingdom O blessed soul who can adore kiss his lovely free Grace The rich grace of Christ be with your spirit St. Andrews Octob. 15. 1640. Yours at all obedience in Christ Iesus S. R. To AGNES MCMATH 38 Dear Sister IF our Lord hath taken away your childe your lease of him is expired seeing Christ would want him no longer it is your part to hold your peace worship adore the soveraignty liberty that the potter hath over the clay pieces of clay-nothings that he gave life unto And what is man to call summond the Almighty to his lower Court down here For he giveth account of none of his doings And if ye will take a loan of a childe give him back again to our Lord laughing as his borrowed goods should return to him beleeve he is not gone away but sent before that the change of the countrey should make you think he is not lost to you who is found to Christ that he is now before you that the dead in Christ shall be raised again A going down star is not annihilat but shall appeare again If he have casten his bloom flower the bloom is fallen
notwithstanding that your service to Christ miscarrieth To the which I answer God forbid that there were buying and selling and blocking for as good again betwixt Christ and us for then free grace might goe play it and a Saviour sing dumb and Christ goe and sleep but we goe to heaven with light shoulders and all the bairn-time and the vessels great and small that we have are fastned upon the sure nail Isa 23 24. the onely danger is that we give grace more a doe then God giveth it that is by turning his grace into wantonness 6. Ye write few see your guiltiness and ye cannot be free with many as with me I Answer blessed be God Christ we are not heard before men's courts it is at home betwixt him and us that pleas are taken away Grace be with you Aberd. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the right honourable Christian Lady my Lady KENMURE 13 MADAM GRace mercy and peace be to your La God be thanked ye are yet in possession of Christ that sweet childe I pray God the former may be sure heritage the latter a loan for your comfort while he doe good to his poor afflicted withered mount Sion who knoweth but our Lord hath comforts laid up in store for her you I am perswaded Christ hath bought you by the devil hell sin that they have no claime to you that is a rich unvaluable mercy Long since ye were half challenging deaths cold kindness in being so slow and swier to come and loose a tired prisoner but ye stand in need of all the erosses losses changes sad hearts that befell you since that time Christ knoweth the body of sin unsubdued will take them all more we know that Paul had need of the devils service to buffet him far more we But my dear honourable Lady spend your sand-glasse well I am sure ye have law to raise 2 suspension against all that devils men friends world losses hell or sin can decree against you it 's good your crosses will but convey you to heavens gates Inâ—an â—an they not goe the gate shall be closed on them when ye shall be admitted to the throne Time standeth not still eternity is hard at our door O what is laid up for you Therefore harden your face against the wind the Lamb your husband is making ready for you the bridegroom would fain have that day as gladly as your Honour would wish to have it he hath not forgotten you I have heard a rumour of the Prelats purpose to banish me but let it come if God so will the other side of the sea is my fathers ground aswell as this side I ow bowing to God but no servil bowing to crosses I have been but too soft in that I am comforted that I am perswaded fully that Christ is halfer with me in this well-born and honest crosse if he claime right to the best half of my troubles as I know he doeth to the whole I shall remit it over to Christ what I shall doe in this case I know certainly my Lord Jesus will not marre nor spill my sufferings he hath use for them in his house O what it worketh on me to remember that a stranger who cometh not in by the door shall build hay stuble upon the golden foundation I laâ—d amongst that people in Anwoth but I know providence looketh not asquint but looketh straight out thorow all mens darknesse O that I could wait upon the Lord I had but one eye one joy one delight even to preach Christ my mothers sons were angry at me have put out the poor mans one eye and what have I behinde I am sure this sowre world hath lost my heart deservedly but oh that there were a dâ—â—es-man to lay his hand upon us both determine upon my part of it Alace that innocent and lovely truth should be sold my tears are but little worth but yet for this thing I weep I weep alace that my fair lovely Lord Jesus should be miskent in his own house it reckoneth little of five hundred the like of me Yet the water goeth not over faiths breath yet our King liveth I write the prisoners blessing the good will long lasting Kindnesse with the comforts of the very God of peace be to your La to your sweet childe grace grace be with you Aberd. Sep. 7. 1637 Your honours at all obedience in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the much honoured JOHN GORDON Of Cardoness elder 14 MUch honoured and dearest in my Lord Grace mercy peace be to you my soul longeth exceedingly to hear how matters goe betwixt you and Christ and whether or not there be any work of Christ in that parish that will bide the triall of fire water let me be weighed of my Lord in a just ballance if your souls lie not weighty upon me you goe to bed you rise with me thoughts of your soul my dearest in our Lord depart not from me in my sleep ye have a great part of my tears sighs supplications prayers O if I could buy your souls salvation with any suffering whatsoever that ye I might meet with joy up in the Rain-bow when we shall stand before our judge O my Lord forbid I have any hard thing to depon against you in that day O that he who quickneth the dead would give life to my sowing among you what joy is there next to Christ that standeth on this side of death would comfort me more then that the souls of that poor people were in â—afety beyond all hazard of losing Sir shew the people this for when I write to you I think I write to you all old and young fulfill my joy and seek the Lord Sure I am once I discovered my lovely royall princely Lord Jesus to you all Woe woe woe shall be your part of it for evermore if the Gospel be not the savour of life unto life to you as many sermons as I preached as many sentences as I uttered as many points of dittay shall they be when the Lord shall plead with the world for the evil of their doings Beleeve me I finde heaven a city hard to be won the righteous will scarcely be saved O what violence of thronging will heaven take alace I see many deceiving them selves for we will all to heaven now every foul dog with his foul feet will in at the neerest to the new clean Jerusalem all say they have faith the greatest part in the world know not and will not consider that a slip in the matter of their salvation is the most pitifull slip that can be that no losse is comparable to this losse O then see that there be not a loose pin in the work of your salvation for ye will not beleeve how quickly the judge will come for your self I know that death
his joyes my losses with his own presence I finde it a sweet rich thing to exchange my sorrows with Christs joyes my afflictions with that sweet peace I have with himself Brother this is his own truth I now suffer for he hath sealed my sufferings with his own comforts I know he will not put his seal upon blank paper his seals are not dumb nor delusive to confirm imaginations lyes Goe on my dear Brother in the strength of the Lord not fearing man that is a worm or the son of man that will die Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of his own when it is even come to a conclamatum est Let us be faithfull and care for our own part which is to doe suffer for him lay Christs part on himself leave it there duties are ours events are the Lord's when our faith goeth to medle with events to hold a court if I may so speak upon Gods providence and begineth to say how wilt Thou do this that we lose ground we have nothing to doe there it is our part to let the Almighty exerce his own office and stir his own helme there is nothing left to us but to see how we may be approved of him and how we may roll the weight of our weak souls in wel-doing upon him who is God Omnipotent and when what we thus essay miscarrieth it shall neither be our sin nor cross Brother remember the Lord's word to Peter Simon lovest thou me Feed my sheep no greater testimony of our love to Christ can be then to feed painfully and faithfully his lambs I am in no better neighbourhood with the Ministers here then before they cannot endure that any speak of me or to me thus I am in the mean time silent which is my greatest grief Dr Barron hath often disputed with me especially about Arminian-controversies and for the Ceremonies three yokings laid him by and I have not been troubled with him since now he hath appointed a dispute before witnesses I trust Christ and truth shall doe for themselves I hope Brother ye will help my people and write to me what ye hear the Bishop is to doe to them Grace be with you Aberd. Your Brother in bonds S. R. To Mr HUGH M C KAILL Minister of the Gospel 19 Reverend Dear Brother I bless you for your Letter he is come down as rain upon the mowen grasse he hath revived my withered root and he is as the dew of herbs I am most secure in this prison salvation is for walls in it and what think ye of these walls he maketh the dry plant to bud as the lilie and to blossome as Lebanon the great husband man's blessing cometh down upon the plants of righteousness who may say this my dear Brother if I his poor exiled stranger prisoner may not say it Howbeit all the world should be silent I cannot hold my peace O how many black counts hath Christ and I rounded over together in the house of my pilgrimage and how sat a portion hath he given to a hungry soul I had rather have Christs four-hours then have dinner and Supper both in one from any other his dealing and the way of his judgements passe finding out No preaching no book no learning could give me that which I behooved to come and get in this Town but what of all this if I were not misted confounded and astonished how to be thankfull and how to get him praised for evermore And which is more he hath been pleased to pain me with his love and my pain groweth through want of reall possession Some have written to me that I am possibly too joyfull of the cross but my joy over-leapeth the cross it is bounded and terminat upon Christ I know the sun will over-cloud eclipse and I shall again be put to walk in the shaddow but Christ must be welcome to come and goe as he thinketh meet yet he would be more welcome to me I trow to come then goe I hope he pitieth and pardoneth me in casting apples to me at such a fainting time as this holy and blessed is his name It was not my flattering of Christ that drew a kiss from his mouth but he would send me as a spie into this wilderness of suffering to see the land and to try the foord and I cannot make a lye of Christs cross I can report nothing but good both of him it lest others should faint I hope when a change cometh to cast anchor at midnight upon the rock which he hath taught me to know in this day light whether I may run when I must say my lesson without book beleeve in the dark I am sure it is sin to tarrow of Christs good meat not to eat when he saith eat O welbeloved drink abundantly If he bear me on his back or carry me in his armes over this water I hope for grace to set down both my feet on dry ground when the way is better but this is slippery ground my Lord thought good I should goe by an hold lean on my welbeloved's shoulder it 's good to be ever taking from him I desire he may get the fruit of praises for dâting and thus dandling me upon his knee I may give my bond of thankfulness sobeing I have Christ's back-bond again for my relief that I shall be strengthned by his powerfull grace to pay my vowes to him But truly I finde we have the advantage of the brae upon our enemies we are more then conquerours through him who hath loved us they know not wherein our strength lieth Pray for me grace be with you Aberd. Your Brother in Christ S. R. To my Lady Boyd 20 MADAM GRace mercy peace be unto you the Lord hath brought me to Aberd where I see God in few This town hath been advised upon of purpose for me It consisteth either of Papists or men of Gallio's naughtie faith it is counted wisdom in the most not to countenance a confined Minister but I finde Christ neither strange nor unkind for I have found many faces smile upon me since I came hither I am heavie and sad considering what is betwixt the Lord my soul which none seeth but he I finde men have mistaken me it would be no art as I now see to spin small and make hypocrisie seem a goodly web and to goe through the mercat as a saint among men yet steal quietly to hell without observation So easie is it to deceive men I have disputed whether or noe I ever knew any thing of Christianity save the letters of that name Men see but as men and they call ten twenty and twenty an hundred but O to be approved of God in the heart in sincerity is not an ordinary mercy my neglects while I had a pulpit other things whereof I am ashamed to speak meet
the whole ordering and disposing of my sufferings Let him tutour me tutour my crosses as he thinketh good there is no danger nor hazard in following such a guide howbeit he should lead me through hell if I could put faith foremost fill the fieldwith a quiet on-waiting beleeving to see the salvation of God I know Christ is not obliged to let me see both the sides of my cross turn it over over that I may see all My faith is richer to live upon credit Christ's borrowed money then to have much in my hand Alas I have forgotten that faith in times past hath stopped a lek in my crazed barke hath filled my sailes with a fair wind I see it a work of God that experiences are all lost when summonds of improbation to prove our Charters of Christ to be counterfit are raised against poor souls in their heavie trials but let me be a sinner worse then the chief of sinners yea a guilty devil I am sure my welbeloved is God when I say Christ is God my Christ is God I have said all things I can say no more I would I could build as much on this my Christ is God as it would bear I might lay all the world upon it I am sure Christ untried and untaken up in the power of his love Kindness mercies goodness wisdom long-suffering greatness is the rock that dim-sighted travellers dash their foot against so stumble fearfully But my wounds are sorest pain me most to sin against his love his mercy if he would set me my conscience by the ears together resolve not to rid the plea but let us deal it betwixt us my spitting upon the fair face of Christ's love mercies by my Jealousies unbelief and doubting would be enough to sink me Oh oh I am convinced O Lord I stand dumb before thee for this Let me be mine own Judge in this and I take a dreadfull doom upon me for it for I still misbeleeve though I have seen that my Lord hath made my cross as if it were all Crystal so as I can see thorow it Christs fair face and heaven and that God hath honoured a lump of sinfull flesh and blood the like of me 〈◊〉 to be Christ's honourable Lord-prisoner I ought to esteem the walls of the theeves-hole if I were shut up in it or any stinking dungeon all hung with tapestrie most beautifull for my Lord Jesus yet I am not so shut up but that the sun shineth upon my prison the fair wide heaven is the covering of it But my Lord in his sweet visits hath done more for he make me finde that he will be a confined prisoner with me he lieth down riseth up with me when I sigh he sigheth When I weep he suffereth with me I confesse here is the blessed issue of my sufferings already begun that my heart is filled with hunger desire to have him glorified in my sufferings Blessed ye of the Lord Madam if ye would help a poor Dyvour cause others of your acquaintance in Christ help me to pay my debt of love even reall praises to Christ my Lord. Madam let me charge you in the Lord as ye will answer to him help me in this duty which he hath tyed about my neck with a chain of such singular expressions of his loving kindness to set on high Christ to hold in my honesty at his hands for I have nothing to give him O that he would arrest comprise my love my heart for all I am a Dyvour who have no more free goods in the world for Christ save that it is both the whole heritage I have all my movables besides Lord give the thirsty man a drink Oh to be over the ears in the well Oh to be swattering swimming over head ears in Christ's love I would not have Christ's love entering in me but I would enter into it be swallowed up of that love But I see not my self here for I fear I make more of his love then of himself whereas himself is far beyond much better then his love Oh if I had my sinfull armes filled with that lovely one Christ Blessed be my rich Lord Jesus who sendeth not away beggers from his house with a toom dish He filleth the vessels of such as will come seek We might beg our selves rich if we were wise if we could but hold out our withered hands to Christ learn to suit seek aske knock I ow my salvation for Christ's glory low it to Christ desire that my hell yea a new hell seven times hotter then the old hell might buy praises before men and Angels to my Lord Jesus providing alwayes I were free of Christ's hatred displeasure What am I to be forfeited sold in soul body to have my great royall King set on high and extolled above all O if I knew how high to have him set all the world far far beneath the soles of his feet Nay I deserve not to be the matter of his praises far less to be an agent in praising of him But he can win his own glory out of me out of one worse then I if any such be if it please his holy Majesty so to doe he knoweth that I am not now flattering him Madam let me have your prayers as ye have the prayers blessing of him that is separated from his Brethren Grace Grace be with you Aberd. June 15. 1637. Your own in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Earle of Cassills 42 My very Noble honourable Lord. I make bold out of the honourable Christian report I hear of your Lo having no other thing to say but that which concerneth the honourable cause which the Lord hath enabled your Lo to professe to write this that it is your Lo crown your glory your honour to set your shoulder under the Lords glory now falling to the ground to back Christ now when so many think it wisdom to let him send for himself the shields of the earth ever did doe still beleeve that Christ is a cumbersom neighbour that it is a pain to hold up his yea's nay's They fear he take their chariots their crownes their honour from them but my Lord standeth in need of none of them all But it is your glory to own Christ his buried truth for let men say what they please the plea with Sion's enemies in this day of Jacob's trouble is If Christ should be King no mouth steak lawes but his It concerneth the apple of Christ's eye his royall priviledges what now is debated Christ's Kingly honour is come to yea nay But let me be pardoned my my dear Noble Lord to beseech you by the mercies of God by the comforts of the Spirit by the wounds of your dear
them and our Nobles bid Christ send for himself if he be Christ It were good we should learn in time the way to our strong hold Sir howbeit not acquainted remember my love to your wife I pray God establish you Aberd. March 9 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN EWART Bailiffe of Kirkcudbright 94 My very worthy dear Friend I Cannot but most kindly thank you for the expressions of your love your love respect to me is a great comfort to me I blesse his high glorious name that the terrors of great men have not affrighted me from open avouching of the Son of God nay his cross is the sweetest burden that ever I bare It is such a burden as wings are to a bird or sailes to a ship to carry me forward to my harbour I have not much cause to fall in love with the world but rather to wish that he who sitteth upon the floods would bring my broken ship to Land keep my conscience safe in these dangerous times for wrath from the Lord is coming on this sinfull Land It were good that we prisoners of hope knew of our strong hold to run to before the storm come on Therefore Sir I beseech you by the mercies of God and comforts of his Spirit by the blood of your Saviour by your compearance before the sin-revenging Judge of the world keep your garments clean stand for the truth of Christ which ye professe When the time shall come that your eye strings shall break your face wax pale your breath grow cold this house of clay shall totter your one foot shall be over the march in eternity it shall be your comfort joy that ye gave your name to Christ. The greatest part of the world think heaven at the next door that Christianity is an easie task but they will be beguiled Worthy Sir I beseech you make sure work of salvation I have found by experience that all I could doe hath had much adoe in the day of my trial therefore lay up a sure foundation for the time to come I cannot requite you for your your undeserved favours to me my nowafflicted brother but I trust to remember you to God remember me heartily to your kinde wife Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To VVILLIAM FULLERTON Provest of Kirkcudbright 95 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy and peace be to you I am obleiged to your love in God I beseech you Sir let nothing be so dear to you as Christ's truth for salvation is worth all the world therefore be not afraid of men that shall die the Lord shall doe for you in your suffering for him shall blesse your house seed ye have God's promise that ye shall have his presence in fire water in seven tribulations Your day will wear to an end your sun goe down in death it will be your joy that ye have ventured all ye have for Christ there is not a promise of heaven made but to such as are willing to suffer for it it is a Castle taken by force This earth is but the clay-portion of bastards therefore no wonder the world smile on it's own but better things are laid up for hiâ— lawfully begotten bairnes whoÌ„ the world hateth I have experience to speak this for I would not exchange my prison sad nights with the court honour ease of my adversaries My Lord is pleased to make many unknown faces to laugh upon me to provide a lodging for me he himself visiteth my soul with feasts of spiritual comforts O how sweet a Master is Christ Blessed are these who lay down all for him I thank you kindly for your love to my distressed brother Ye have the blessing prayers of the prisoner of Christ to you your Wife Children Remember my love blessing to William Samuel I desire them in their youth to seek the Lord fear his great name to pray twice a day at least to God to read God's word to keep themselves from cursing lying filthie talking Now the onely wise God the presence of the Son of God be with you all Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the worthy much honoured Mr ALEXANDER COLVILL Of Blair 96 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you The bearer hereof M. R. F. is most kinde to me I desire you to thank him But none is so kinde as my onely royal King Master whose cross is my garland The King dineth with his prisoner his spikenard casteth a smell He hath led me up to such a pitch nick of joyfull communion with himself as I never knew before When I look back to by-gones I judge my self to have been a childe at A B C. with Christ. Worthy Sir pardon me I dare not conceal it from you it is as a fire iâ— my bowels In hiâ— presâ—nce who seeth me I spâ—ak it I am pained pained with the love of Christ he hath made me sick wounded me Hunger for Christ out-runneth faith I miss faith more then love O if the three Kingdoms would come see O if they knew his kindness to my soul It hath pleased him to bring me to this that I will not strike sails to this world nor flatter it nor adore this clay idol that fools worship As I am now disposed I think I will neither borrow nor lend with it yet I get my meat from Christ with nurture for seven times a day I am lifted up casten down My dumb Sabbaths burthen my heart make it bleed I want not fearful challenges jealousies sometimes of Christ's love that he hath casten me over the dike of the vineyard as a dry tree But this is my infirmity By his grace I take my self in these ravings It is kindly that faith love both be sick fevers are kindly to most joyful communion with Christ. Ye are blessed who avouch Christ openly before the Princes of this Kingdom whose eyes are upon you It is your glory to lift him up on his throne to carry his trâ—in bear up the hem of his robe royal He hath an hiding place for M. A. C. against the storm goe on fear not what man can doe The saints seem to have â—he worst of it for apprehensions can make a lye of Christ of his love but it is not so Providence is not rolled upon unequal crooked wheels All things work togâ—ther for the good of these who love God are called according to his purpose Ere it be long we shall see the white side of God's Providence My Brother's case hath moved me not a little He wrote to me your care kindness Sir the prisoner's blessings prayers I trust shall not goe by you He that is able to keep you to present you before
the presence of his face with joy establish your heart in the love of Christ. Aberd. 19. Febr. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To EARLESTOWN Younger 97 Honoured Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter which refreshed my soul. I thank God the court is closed I think shame of my part of it I pass now from my unjust summonds of unkindness libelled against Christ my Lord He is not such a Lord Master as I took him to be verily he is God I am dust ashes I took Christ's glooms to be as good as Scripture speaking wrath but I have seen the other side of Christ the white side of his cross now I behooved to come to Aberdeen to learn a new mystery in Christ that his promise is better to be beleeved then his looks that the devil can cause Christ's glooms speak a lie to a weak man Nay verily I was a childe before all by-gones are but bâ—irns play I would I could begin to be a Christian in sad earnest I nâ—ed not blame Christ if I be not one for he hath shewed me heaven hell in Aberdeen But the truth is for all my sorrow Christ is nothing in my debt for his comforts have refreshed my soul I have heard sâ—en him in his sweetness so as I am almost saying it is not he that I was wont to meet with He laugheth more chearfully his kisses are more sweet soul-refreshing then the kisses of the Christ I saw before were though he be the same or rather the King hath led me up to a measure of joy communion with my Bridegroom that I never attained to before so that often I think I will neither borrow nor lend with this world I will not strike sail to crosses nor flatter them to be quite of them as I have done Come all crosses welcome welcome So I may get my heartfull of my Lord Jesus I have been so near him as I have said I take instruments this is the Lord leave a token behinde thee that I may never forget this Now what can Christ doe more to dâte one of his poor prisoners Therefore Sir I charge you in the name of my Lord Jesus praise with me shew to others what he hath done unto my soul. This is the fruit of my sufferings that I desire Christ's name may be spread abroad in this Kingdom in my behalf I hope in God not to slander him again yet in all this I get not my feasts without some mixture of gall neither am I free of old jealousies for he hath removed my lovers friends far from me he hath made my congregation desolate taken away my crown my dumb sabbaths are like a stone tied to a bird's foot that wanteth not wings they seem to hinder me to fleo Were it not that I dare not say one word but Well done Lord Iesus We can in our prosperity sport our selves be too bold with Christ yea be that insolent as to chide with him but under the water we dare not speak I wonder now of my sometimes boldness to chide quarrell Christ to nickname Providence when it stroaked me against the hair but now swimming in the waters I think my will is fallen to the ground of the water I have lost it I think I would fain â—et Christ alone give him leave to doe with me what he pleaseth if he would smile upon me Verily we know not what an evil it is to spill indulge our selves to make an idol of our will I was once I would not eat except I had wailed meat now I dare not complain of crumbs pairings under his table I was once that I would make the house adoe if I saw not the world carved set in order to my liking now I am silent when I see God hath set servants on horseback is fatning feeding the children of perdition I pray God I never finde my will again Oh if Christ would subject my will to his trample it under his feet liberate me from that lawless Lord. Now Sir in your youth gather fast your sun will mount to the Meridian quickly thereafter decline Be greedy of grace Study above any thing my dear Brother to mortifie your lusts Oh but pride of youth vainty lust idolizing of the world charming pleasures take long time to root them out As far as ye are advanced in the way to heaven as neer as ye are to Christ as much progress as ye have made in the way of mortification ye will finde that ye are far behinde have most of your work before you I never took it to be so hard to be dead to my lusts to this world When the day of visitation cometh your old idols come weeping about you ye will have much adoe not to break your heart it 's best give up in time with them so as ye could at a call quite your part of this world for a drink of water or a thing of nothing Verily I have seen the best of this world a moth-eaten threed bare coat I purpose to lay it aside being now hollie old O for my house above not made with hands Pray for Christ's prisoner write to me Remember my love to your mother Desire her from me to make for removing the Lord's tide will not bide her to seek an heavenly minde that her heart may be often there Grace be with you Aberd. Feb. 20. 1637. Yours Christ's prisoner S. R. To ROBERT GLENDINING 98 My Dear Friend GRace mercy peace be to you I thank you most kindly for your care of me your love and respective kindness to my brother in his distresse I pray the Lord ye may finde mercy in the day of Christ I entreat you Sir to consider the times ye live in that your soul is of more worth to you then the whole world which in the day of the blowing of the last trumpet shall lie in white ashes as an old castle burnt to nothing Remember that judgement eternity is before you My dear worthy friend let me entreat you in Christ's name by the salvation of your soul by your compearance before the dreadful sin-revenging judge of the world make your accounts ready read them ere ye come to the water side for your after-noon will wear short your sun fall low and goe down ye know that this long time your Lord hath waited on you O how comfortable a thing shall it be to you when time shall be no more your soul shall depart out of the house of clay to vaste endlesse eternity to have your soul dressed up prepared for your bridegroom No losse is comparable to the losse of the soul there is no hope of regaining that losse O how joyfull would my soul be to hear that ye would start to
once cometh nigh hand taketh a hearty look of Christ's inner side shall never wring nor wrestle themselves out of his love-grips again I would rest contented in my prison yea in a prison without light of sun or candle providing Christ I had a love-bed not of mine but of Christ his own making that we might lie together among the lilies till the day break the shadows flee away Who knoweth how sweet a drink of Christ's love is O but to live on Christ's love is a King's life The worst things of Christ even that which seemeth to be the refuse of Christ his hard cross his black cross is white fair the cross receiveth a beautifull lustre a perfumed smell from Jesus Mydear Brother scar not at it While ye have time to stand upon the watch tower to speak contend with this land plead with your harlot-mother who hath been a treacherous half-marrow to her husband Iesus For I would think liberty to preach one day the root top of my desires would seek no more of the blessings that are to be had on this side of time till I be over the water but to spend this my crazed clay-house in his service saving of souls But I hold my peace because he hath done it my shallow ebbe thoughts are not the compass Christ saileth by I leave his wayes to himself for they are far far above me Onely I would contend with Christ for his love and be bold to make a plea with Jesus my Lord for a heart-fill of his love for there is no more left to me What standeth beyond the far end of my sufferings and what shall be the event he knoweth and I hope to my joy shall make me know when God shall unfold his decrees concerning me for there are windings and too 's and fro's in his wayes which blinde bodies like us cannot see This much for further acquaintance So recommending you what is before you to the grace of God I rest Aberd. June 16. 1637. Your very loving Brother in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr WILLIAM DALGLEISH 125 Reverend welbeloved Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you I have heard somewhat of your trials in Galloway I bless the Lord who hath begun first in that corner to make you a new Kirk to himself Christ hath the less adoe behinde when he hath refined you Let me entreat you my dearly beloved to be fast to Christ My witness is above My dearest Brother that ye have added much joy to me in my bonds when I hear that ye grow in the grace and zeal of God for your Master Our ministery whether by preaching or suffering will cast a smell through the world both of heaven hell 2 Cor. 2 15 16. I perswade you my dear Brother there is nothing out of heaven next to Christ dearer to me then my ministery the worth of it in my estimation is swelled paineth me exceedingly yet I am content for the honour of my Lord to surrender it back again to the Lord of the vineyard let him doe with me it both what he thinketh good I think my self too little for him let me speak to you how kinde a fellow prisoner is Christ to me Beleeve me this kinde of cross that would not goe by my door but would needs visite me is still the longer the more welcome to me It 's true my silent sabbaths have been are still as glassy yee whereon my faith can scarce hold it's feet I am often blowen on my back and off my feet with a storm of doubting yet truly my bonds all this time cast a mighty and ranck smell of high and deep love in Christ I cannot indeed see through my cross to the far end Yet I beleeve I am in Christ's books in his decree not yet unfolded to me a man triumphing dancing singing over on the other side of the red sea laughing praising the lamb over beyond time sorrow deprivation prelat's indignation losses want of friends death Heaven is not a foul flying in the air as men use to speak of things that are uncertain nay it is well paid for Christ's comprizement lieth on Glory for all the mourners in Zion shall never be loosed Let us be glad rejoyce that we have blood losses wounds to show our Master Captain at his appearance and what we suffered for his cause Woe is me my dear Brother that I say often I am but dry bones which my Lord will not bring out of the grave again that my faithless fears say Oh I am a dry tree that can bear no fruit I am an useless body who â—an beget no children to the Lord in his house Hopes of deliverance look cold uncertain afar off as if I had done with it it is much for Christ if I may say so to get Lawborrows of my sorrow of my quarrelous heart Christ's love playeth me fair play I am not wronged at all but there is a tricking and false heart within me that still playeth Christ foul play I am a cumbersom neighbour to Christ It is a wonder that he dwelleth beside the like of me yet I often get the advantage of the hill above my temptations then I despise the temptation even hell it self the stink of it the instruments of it and am proud of my honourable Master And I resolve whether contrary winds will or not to fetch Christ's harbour I think a willfull stiff contention with my Lord Jesus for his love very lawfull it 's sometimes hard to me to win my meat upon Christ's love because my faith is sick my hope withereth my eyes wax dim unkinde comfort-eclipsing clouds goe over the fair bright light Sâ—n-Jesus And then when I my temptation tryste the matter together we spill all through unbelief Sweet sweet for evermore would my life be if I could keep faith in exercise But I see my fire cannot alwayes cast light I have even a poor man's hard world when he goeth away But surely since my entry hither many a time hath my fair sun shined without a cloud Hot burning hath Christ's love been to me I have no vent to the expression of it I must be content with stoln smothered desires of Christ's glory O how far is his love behinde the hand with me I am just like a man who hath nothing to pay his thousands of debt All that can be gotten of him is to seâ—â—e upon his person Except Christ would seâ—â—e upon my self make the readiest payment that can be of my heart love to himself I have no other thing to give him If my sufferings could doe beholders good edifie his Kirk proclaim the incomparable worth of Christ's love to the world O then how would my soul be overjoyed my sad heart cheered and calmed Dear
must be taken with violence Your afternoon's sun is wearing low Time will eat up your frail life like a worm gnawing at the root of a May-flower Lend Christ your heart Set him as a seal there Take him in within let the world and children stand at the door they are not yours make you and them for your proper owner Christ It is good He is your husband and their father What missing can there be of a dying man when God filleth his chair Give hours of the day to prayer Fash Christ If I may speak so and importune him be often at his gate give his door no rest I can tell you he will be found O what sweet fellowship is betwixt him and me I am imprisoned but he is not imprisoned He hath shamed me with his kindness He hath come to my pâ—ison run away with my heart all my love Well may he brooke it I wish my love get never an owner but Christ Fy fy upon old lovers that held us so long asunder We shall not parr now He I shall be heard before he win out of my grips I resolve to wrestle with Christ ere I quite him But my love to him hath casten my soul in a fever there is no cooling of my fever till I get râ—all possession of Christ O strong strong love of Jesus thou hast wounded my heart with thine arrows O pain O pain of love ioâ— Christ Who will help me to praise Let me have your prayers Grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To GRISSAL FULLERTON 176 Dear Sister I Exhorr you in the Lord to seek your one thing Marie's good part that shall not be taken from you Set your heart soul on the Childrens inheritance This clay-idol the world is but for Bastards ye are his lawfull begotten childe Learn the way as your dear mother hath hath gone before you to knock at Christ's door Many an almes of mercy hath Christ given to Her hath abundance behinde to give to you Ye are the seed of the faithfull born within the Covenant claim your right I would not exchange Christ Jesus for ten worlds of glory I know now blessed be my teacher how to shut the lock unbolt my welbeloved's door he maketh a poor stanger welcome when he cometh to his house I am swelled up satisfied with the love of Christ that is better then wine It is a fire in my soul let hell the world cast water on it they will not mend themselves I have now gotten the right gate of Christ I recommend him to you above all things Come finde the smell of his breath See if his kisses be not sweet He desireth no better then to be much made of Be homely with him ye shall be the more welcome Ye know not how fain Christ would have all your love Think not this is imaginations bairns-play we make din for I would not suffer for it if it were so I dare pawnd my heaven for it that it is the way to glory Think much of truth abhorre these wayes devised by men in God's worship The Grace of Christ be with you Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To PATRICK CARSEN 177 Dear loving friend I Cannot but upon the opportunity of a bearer exhort you to reâ—gnâ— the love of your youth to Christ in this day while your sun is high and your youth serveth you to seek the Lord and his face for there is nothing out of heaven so necessary for you as Christ And ye cannot be ignorant but your day will end the night of death will call you from the pleasures of this life a doom given out in death standeth for ever as long as God liveth Youth ordinarily is a Post ready servant for Satan to run errands for it is a nest for lust cursing drunkenness blaspheming of God lying pride vanitie O that there were such an heart in you as to fear the Lord to dedicate your soul body to his service When the time cometh that your eye-strings shall break your face wax pale and legs arms tremâ—le your breath grow cold your poor soul look out at youâ— prison-housâ— of clay to be set at liberty then a good conscience your Lord's favour shall be worth all the world's glory Seek it as your garland crown Grace be with you Aberd. March 14. 1636. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN CARSEN 178 My welbeloved dear friend EVery one â—eeketh not God far fewer finde him because they seek amiss He is to be sought for above all things if men would finde what they seek Let feathers shadows alone to children goe seek your welbeloved Your onely errand to the world is to wooe Christ therefore put other lovers from about his house let Christ have all your love without miniching or dividing it It is little enough if there were more of it The serving of the world sin hath but a base reward smoke in stead of pleatures but a night-dream for true case to the soul Goe where ye will your soul shall not sleep sound but in Christ's bosom Come in to him lie down rest you on the slain Son of God enquire for him I sought him now a fig for all the worm-eaten pleasures moth-eaten glory out of heaven since I have found him in him all I can want or â—ish He hath made me a King over the world Princes cannot overcome me Christ hath given me the marriage-kiss he hath my maâ—â—ing love We have made up a full bargain that shall not goe back on either side O if ye and all in that countrey knew what sweet terms of mercy are betwixt him me Grace be with you Aberd. March 11. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady BOYD. 179 MADAM I Would have written to your La ere now but peoples beleeving there is in me that which I know there is not hath put me out of love with writing to any for it is easie to put religion to a market publick fair but alas it is not so soon made eye-sweet for Christ My Lord seeth me a tired man far behinde I have gotten much love from Christ but I give him little or none again My whiteside cometh out in paper to men but at home within I finde much black work great cause of a low sail of little boasting yet Howbeit I see challenges to be true the manner of the Tempter's pressing of them is unhonest in my own thoughts knavish-like My peace is that Christ may finde sale â—uting of his wares in the like of me I mean for saving grace I wish all professors to fall in love with Grace All ouâ— songs should be of his free-Grace We are
none of it When I am near the apple he draweth back his hand goeth away to cause me follow And again when I am within an arm-length to the apple he maketh a now break to the gate I have him to seek of new He seemeth not to pity my dwining my swooning for his love I dare sometimes put my hunger over to him to be judged if I would not buy him with a thousand years in the hottest furnace in hell sobeing I might enjoy him But my hunger is fed with want absence I hunger I have not but my comfort is to lie wait on to put my poor soul my sufferings in Christ's hand Let him make any thing out of me sobeing he be glorified in my salvation for I know I am made for him O that my Lord may win his own gracious end in me I will not be at ease while I but stand so far aback O if I were near him with him that this poor soul might be satisfied with himself Your son in law W. G. is now truly honoured for his Lord and Master's cause when the Lord is fanning Zion it is a good token that he is a true branch of the vine that the Lord beginneth first to dress him He is strong in his â—â—râ— as he hath written to me and his wife is his encourager which should make you rejoyce For your son who is your grief your Lord waited on you and me till we were â—ipe and brought us in It is your part to pray wait upon him When he iâ— ripe he will bâ— spoken for who can command our Lord's wind to blow I know it shall be your good in the latter end That is one of your waters to heaven ye could not goe about it there are the fewer behinde I remember you him yours as I am able But alas I am beleeved to be something I am nothing but an emptie reed Wants are my best riches because I have these suppâ—…ed by Christ Remember my dearest love to your brother I know he pleadeth with his harlot-mother for her Apostasie I know also ye are kinde to my worthy Lady Kenmure a woman beloved of the Lord who hath been very mindfull of my bonds The Lord give her to finde mercy her childe in the day of Christ. Great men are dry and cold in doing for me the tinckling of chains for Christ affrighteth them but let my Lord break all my idols I will yet bless him I am obliged to my Lord Lorâ— I wish him mercy Remember my bonds with praises and pray for me that my Lord my leaven the North by my bands sufferings Grace be with you Aberd. July 9. 1637 Yours â—his s swe Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON Of Knockgray 206. Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you There is no question but our mother-church hath a father that she shall not die withont an heir that her enemies hall not make mount Zion theâ— heritage We see whethersoever Zion's enemies goe suppose they dig many miles under the ground yet our Lord findeth them out and he hath vengeances laid up in â—orâ— for them the poor needy shall not alwayes be forgotten Our hope was drouping withering man was saying what can God make out of the old dry bones of this buried Kirk The Prelats their followers were a grave above us it is like our Lord is to open our graves purposeth to cause his two slain witnesses rise the third day O how long wait I to hear our weeping Lord Jesus sing again triumph rejoyce divide the spoil I finde it hard work to beleeve when the course of providence goeth cross-wayes to our faith when misted souls in a dark night cannot know East by West our sea Compass seemeth to fail us Every man is a beleever in day-light A fair day seemeth to be made all of faith hope What a trial of gold is it to smoke it a little above the fire But to keep gold perfect â—ellow-coloured amidst the flames to be turned from vessel to vessels yet to cause out furnace sound speak cry the praises of the Lord is another matter I know my Lord made me not for fire howbâ—it he hath fitted me in some measure for the fire I bless his high name that I wax not pale neither have I lost the colour of gold and that his fire hath made me somewhat thin that my Lord may pour me in any vessel he pleaseth For a small wager I may justly quite my part of this world's laughter give up with time cast out with the pleasures of this world I know a man who wondered to see any in this life laugh sport surely our Lord seeketh this of us as to any rejoycing in present perishing things I see above all things that we may sit down fold legs arms stretch our selves upon Christ laugh at the feathers that children are chasing here For I think the men of this world like children in a dangerous storm in the sea that play make sport with the white foam of the waves thereof coming in to sink drown them so are men making fool's sports with the white pleasures of a stormy world that will sink â—em But alas what have we to doe with their sports that they make If Solomon said of Laughter that it was madness what may we say of this world 's laughing sporting themselves with gold silver honours court broad large conquests but that they are poor souls in the height and rage of a fever gone mad Then a straw a fig for all created sports and rejoycing out of Christ Nay I think that this world at it's prime perfection when it is is come to the top of it's excellency and to the bloom might be bought with an half penny that it would scarce weigh the worth of a drink of water There is nothing better then to esteem it our crucified idol that is dead slain as Paul did â—al 6 14. Then let pleasures be crucified riches be crucified court honour be crucified since the Apostle faith the world is crucified to him we may put this world to the hanged man's doom and to the gallowes who will give much for a hanged man as little should we give for a hanged crucified world Yet what a sweet smell hath this dead carrion to many fools in the world and how many wooers and suiters findeth this hanged carrion Fools are pulling it off the gallowes and contending for it O when shall we learn to be mortified men to have our fill of these things that have but their short summer-quarter of this life If we saw our father's house and that great and fair citie the new Ierusalem which is up above sun moon we would cry to be over the water
your hands His love to you will not grow sowre nor wear out of date as the love of men which groweth old gray haired often before themselves Ye have so much the more reason to love a better life then this because this world hath been to you a cold fire with little heat to the body as little light much smoke to hurt the eyes But Madam your Lord would have you thinking it but day breasts full of wind empty of food In this late visitation that hath befallen your Laâ—e â—e have seen God's love care in such a measure that I thought our Lord brake the sharp point off the cross made us and your La see Christ take possession and infestment upon earth of him who is now reigning triumphing with the hundred forty four thousand who stand with the Lamb on mount Zion I know the sweetest of it is bitter to you but your Lord will not give you painted crosses He paireth not all the bitterness from the cross neither taketh he the sharp â—dge quite from it then it should be of your wailing not of his which should have as little reason in it as it should have profit for us Onely Madam God commandeth you now to beleeve cast anchor in the dark night climb up the mountain He who hath called you establish you confirm you to the end I had a purpose to have visited your La but when I thought better upon it the truth is I cannot see what my company could profit you this hath broken off my purpose no other thing yknow many honourable friends worthy professours will see I our La that the Son of God is with you to whose love mercy from my soul I recommend your La remain Anwoth Nov. 29. 1634. Your La at all dutifull obedience in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 22 MADAM MY humble obedience in the Lord remembered Know it hath pleased the Lord to let me see by all appearance my labours in God's house here are at an end I 〈◊〉 now learn to suffer in the which I am a dull Scholar By a strange Providence some of my papers anent the corruptions of this time are come to our King's hand I know by the wise well affected I shall be censured as not wise nor circumspect enough but it is ordinary that that should be a part of the cross of these who suffer for him Yet I love pardon the instrument I would commit my life to him howbeit by him this hath befallen me but I look higher then to him I make no question of your La love car to doe what ye can for my help am perswaded that in my adversities our La will with me well I seek no other thing but that my Lord may be honoured by me in giving a â—…ony I was wiâ—ling to doe him more service but seeing he will have no more of my labours this land will thrust me out I pray for grace to learn to be acquaint with misery iâ—â— may give so rough a name to such a mark of these who shall be crowned with Christ And howbeit I will possibly prove a faint-hearted unwise man in that yet I dare say I intend otherwise And I desire not to goe on the lee-side or sunny-side of Religion to put Truth betwixt me a storm my Saviour did not so for me who in his suffering took the windy side of the hill No further but the Son of God be with you Anwoth Dec. 5. 1634. Your La in the Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 23. MADAM I Received your La letter from I. G. I thank our Lord ye are as well at least as one may be who is not come home it is a mercy in this stormy sea to get a second wind for none of the saints get a first but they must take the winds as the Lord of the seas causeth them to blow the Inne as the Lord Master of the Innes hath ordered it if contentment were here heaven were not heaven Who ever seek the world to be their bed shall at best finde it short ill made a stone under their side to hold them waking rather then a soft pillow to sleep upon Ye ought to bless your Lord that it is not worse we live in a sea where many have suffered ship wrack and have need that Christ sit at the helm of the ship it is a mercy to win to heaven though with much hard toil heavy labour to take it by violence ill well as it may be better goe swimming wet through our waters then drown by the way especially now when Truth suffereth great men bid Christ sit lower contract himself in less bounds as if he took too much room I expect our new Prelate shall try my sitting I hang by a threed but it is if I may speak so of Christ's spinning there is no quarrel more honest or honourable then to suffer for truth but the worst is that this Kirk is like to sink all her lovers friends stand afar off none mourn with her none mourn for her But the Lord Jesus will not be put out of his conquest so soon in Scotland it will be seen the Kirk Truth will rise again within three dayes Christ again shall ride upon his white horse howbeit his horse seem now to stumble yet he cannot fall the fulness of Christ's harvest in the end of the earth is not yet come in I speak not this because I would have it so but upon better grounds then my naked liking but enough of this sad subject I long to be fully assured of your La welfare that your soul prospereth especially now in your solitary life when your comforts outward are few when Christ hath you for the very uptaking I know his love to you is still running over his love hath not so bad a memory as to forget you your dear childe who hath two fathers in heaven the one the Ancient of dayes I trust in his mercy he hath something laid up for him above however it may goe with him here I know it is long since your La saw this world turned your step-mother did forsake you Madam ye have reason to take in good part a lean dinner spare diet in this life seeing your large supper of the Lamb 's preparing will recompense all let it goe which was never yours but onely in sight not in property the time of your loan will wear shorter shorter time is measured to you by ounce-weights then I know your hope shall be a full ear of corn not blasted with wind it may be your joy that your anchor is up within the vail that the ground it is cast upon is not false but firm God hath done his part I hope ye will not deny to fish
due value were put on that worthy worthy Prince Iesus O who can weigh him Ten thousand thousand heavens would not be one scale or the half of the scale of the ballance to lay him in O black Angels in comparison of him O dim dark lightless Sun in regard of that fair Sun of Righteousness O feckless worthless heaven of heavens when they stand beside my worthy lofty high excellent Welbeloved O weak infirm clay-Kings O soft feeble mountains of brass weak created strength in regard of our mighty strong Lord of armies O foolish wisdom of men Angels when it is laid in the ballance beside that spotless substantial wisdom of the Father If heaven earth ten thousand heavens even round about these heavens that now are were all in one garden of Paradise decked with all the fairest roses flowers trees that can come forth from the art of the Almighty himself yet set but our one flower that groweth out of the root Iesse beside that orchard of pleasure one look of him one view one taste one smell of his sweet Godhead would infinitely exceed goe beyond the smell colour beauty loveliness of that Paradise O to be with childe of his love to be suffocate if that could be with the smell of his sweetness were a sweet fill lovely pain O worthy worthy loveliness O less of the creatures more of thee O open the passage of the well of love glory on us dry pits withered trees O that jewel flower of heaven If our Beloved were not mistaken by us unknown to us he would have no scarcity of wooers suiters he would make heaven earth both see that they cannot quench his love for his love is a sea O to be a thousand fathoms deep in this sea of love He He Himself is more excellent then heaven for Heaven as it cometh into the souls spirits of the glorified is but a creature He is something a great something more then a Creature Oh what a life were it to sit beside this well of love drink sing sing drink then to have desires soul-faculties stretched extended out many thousand fathoms in length breadth to take in seas rivers of love I earnestly desire to recommend this love to you that this love may cause you to keep his commandments to keep clean fingers make clean feet that ye may walk as the redeemed of the Lord. Woe woe be to them that put on his name shame this love of Christ with a loose prophanelife their feet tongue hands eyes give a shameless lye to the holy Gospel which they profess I beseech you in the Lord keep Christ walk with him let not his fairness be spotted stained by godless living Oh who can finde in their heart to sin against love And such a love as the glorified in heaven shall delight to dive into drink of for ever for they are evermore drinking-in love the cup is still at their head yet without loathing for they still drink still desire to drink for ever ever is not this a long lasting supper Now if any of our countrey-people professing Christ Jesus have brought themselves under the stroke wrath of the Almighty by yeelding to Antichrist in an hair-breadth but especially by swearing subscribing that blasphemous Oath which is the Church of Ireland's black hour of temptation I would intreat them by the mercies of God at their last summonds to repent openly confess before the world to the glory of the Lord their denial of Christ Or otherwise if either man or woman will stand abide by that Oath then in the name authority of the Lord Jesus I let them see that they forfeit their part of heaven let them look for no less then a back-burden of the pure unmixed wrath of God the plague of Apostates deniers of our Lord Jesus Let not me a stranger to you who never saw your face in the flesh be thought bold in writing to you For the hope I have of a glorious Church in that land and the love of Christ constraineth me I know the worthy servants of Christ who once laboured among you cease not to write to you also I shall desire to be excused that I doe joyn with them Pray for your Sister Church in Scotland let me entreat you for the aid of your prayers for my self flock ministery my fear of a transportation from this place of of the Lord's vineyard Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout Grace be with you all Anwoth 1639. Your brother and companion in the Kingdom and patience of Iesus Christ S. R. To his reverend much honoured Brother Dr WILLIAM LIGHTON Christ's prisoner in bonds at London 28 Reverend much honoured prisoner of hope GRace mercy peace be to you It was not my part whom our Lord hath enlarged to forget you his prisoner When I consider how long your night hath been I think Christ hath a minde to put you in free grace's debt so much the deeper as your sufferings have been of so long a continuance But what if Christ minde you no joâ— but publike joy with enlarged triumphing Zion I think Sir ye would love it best to share divide your song of joy with Zion to have mystical Chriâ—â— in Eritain halfer compartner with your enlargement I am sure your joy bordering neighbouring with the joy of Christ's Bride would be so much the sweeter that it were publike I thought if Christ had halved my mercies and delivered his Bride and not me that his praises should have been double to what they are But now two rich mercies conjoyned in one have stoln from our Lord more then half-praises Oh that mercy should so beguile us and steal away our counts and acknowledgements Worthy Sir I hope I need not exhort you to goe on in hoping for the salvation of God There hath not been so much taken from your time of ease created joyes as Eternity shall adde to your heaven Ye know when one day in heaven hath paved you yea overpayed your blood bonds sorrow sufferings that it would trouble Angels understanding to lay the count of that superplus of glory which Eternity can will give you O but your sand-glass of sufferings losses cometh to little when it shall be counted and compared with the glory that bideth you on the other side of the water Ye have no leisure to rejoyce fing here while time goeth about you where your Psalms will be short therefore ye will think Eternity the long day of heaven that shall be measured with no other sun nor horologe then the long life of the Ancient of dayes to measure your praises little enough for you if your span-length
who hath skill to melt his own mettall and knoweth well what to doe with his surnace let your heart be willing that God's fire have your tin and brass and dross to consent to want corruption is a greater mercy then many professors doe well know and to refer the manner of God's Physick to his own wisdom whither it be by drawing blood or giving sugared drinks that cure sick folks without pain it is a great point of faith and to beleeve Christ's cross to be a friend as he himself is a friend is also a special act of faith but when ye are over the water this case shall be a yesterday past an hundred years ere ye were born the cup of glory shall wash the memory of all this away and make it as nothing Onely now take Christ in with you under your yoke and let patience have her perfect work for this haste is your infimity The Lord is rising up to doe you good in the latter end put on the faith of his salvation see him posting hasting towards you Sir my employments being so great hinder me to write at more length excuse me I hope to be mindfull of you I shall be obliged to your if ye help me with your prayers for this people this College my own poor soul. Grace be with you Remember my love to your wife St Andrews Feb. 13. 1640. Yours in Christ Iesus S. R. To the much honoured PETER STIRLING 34 Much honoured worthy Sir I Received yours cannot but be ashamed that mistaking love hath brought me in court account in the heart of God's children especially of another nation I should not make a lye of the grace of God if I should think I have little share of it my self O how much better were it for me to stand in the counting table of many for a half-penny to be estemed a liker rather than a lover of Christ If I were weighed vanity should bear down the scale as having weight in the ballance above me except my lovely Saviour should cast in beside me some of his borrowed worth Oh if I were writing now sincerely in this extenuation which may be I fear is subtile coosening pride I would I could love something of heaven's worth in you all of your mettall O how happy were I if I could regain conquer back from the creature my sold lost love that I might lay it upon heaven's jewel that ever ever blooming flower of the highest garden even my soul-redeeming never-enoughprized Lord Jesus O that he would wash my love put it on the Mediator's wheel refine it from it's dross tin that I might propine gift that Lord so love-worthy with all my love Oh if I could set a lease of thousands of years a suspension of my part of heaven's glory frist till a long day my desired salvation sobeing I could in this lower kitchin under-vault of his creation be feasted with his love that I might be a footstool for his glory before men Angels Oh if he would let out heaven's fountain upon withered me dry sapless me If I were but sick of love for his love O how would that sickness delight me How sweet would that easing refreshing pain be to my soul I shall be glad to be a witness to behold the Kingdom of the world become Christ's I could stay out of heaven many years to see that victorious triumphing Lord act that prophesied part of his soul-conquering love in taking in to his Kingdom the greater Sister that Kirk of the Iews who sometimes courted our Welbeloved for her little Sister Cant. 8 8. to behold him set up as an ensign a banner of love to the ends of the world And truly we are to beleeve that his wrath is ripe for the land of graven images for the falling of that mill-stone in the midst of the sea Grace be with you St Andrews March 6. 1640. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady FINGASK 35. MADAM GRace mercy peace be to you Though not acquainted yet at the desire of a Christian I make bold to write a line or two unto you by way of counsel howbeit I be most unfit for that I hear and I blesse the father of lights for it that ye have a spirit set to seek God and that the posture of your heart is to look heaven-ward which is a work and cast of the Mediator Christ's right hand who putteth on the heart a new frame for the which I would have your La to see a tye bond of obedience laid upon you that all may be done not so much from obligation of Law as from the tye of free love that the law of ransom-paying by Christ may be the chief ground of all your obedience seeing that ye are not under the Law but under Grace withall know that unbeleef is a spiritual sin so not seen by nature's light that all that Conscience saith is not Scripture Suppose your heart bear witness against you for sins done long agoe yet because many have pardon with God that have not peace with themselves ye are to stand fall by Christ's esteem verdict of you not by that which your heart saith Suppose it may by accident be a good signe to be jealouse of your heavenly husband's love yet it is a sinful sign as there be some happy sins If may speak so not of themselves but because they are neighboured with faith and love and so worthy Lady I would have you hold by this that the ancient love of an old husband standeth firm and sure and let faith hing by this small threed that he loved you before he laid the corner-stone of the world therefore he cannot change his minde because he is God and rests in his love neither is sin in you a good reason wherefore ye should doubt of him or think because sin hath put you in the courtesie and reverence of justice that therefore he is wroth with you Neither is it presumption in you to lay the burden of your salvation upon one mighty to save so being ye lay aside all confidence in your self-worth righteousness True faith is humble seeth no way to escape but onely in Christ And I beleeve ye have put an esteem high price upon Christ they cannot but beleeve so be saved who love Christ and to whom he is precious for the love of Christ hath chosen Christ as a lover it were not like God if ye should chuse him as your liking he not chuse you again nay he hath prevented you in that for ye have not chosen him but he hath chosen you O consider his loveliness beauty that there is nothing which can commend make fair heaven or earth or the creature that is not in him in infinite perfection for fair sun and fair
satisfie thy desire nor answer thy expectation It 's not my present work to tell thee that he was a Gentleman by extraction That he was educat at Scholes Colleges where he was admired for the Pregnancy of his parts deservedly looked upon even then as a person of whom great things might be expected Of his being pitched upon for a Profession of Philosophy by the College of Edinburgh where he was educat when he was yet very young Of his being called thence to the Ministery in Anwoth to which charge be entered by the means of that worthy Noble-man my Lord Kenmur without giving any engagment to the Bishop where he laboured night day with great success the whole countrey being to him accounting themselves as his particular flock There it was where he wrote that great Master-piece of Learning against the Arminians wich yet was but a compend of what he then intended his Exercitationes Apologeticae Of his persecution by the Prelats who were so sound in the faith as to challenge and accuse him for writting that book Being called before their high Commission court he appeared declined it as none of the Courts of Christ nor was there need of any thing else for a confirmation that it came not from on high but from below save it 's procedor for it's Acts had the very dy and visage of hell upon them If they will plead that it is from above they will be pusled to pitch upon a period or fix upon any other time when it came down except with the fallen Angels but it may be this please such Angells of the Church so they will be called for they boast much of Antiquity And truely that which gives ground â—or this conjecture that it came down from heaven in that company is that it persecuts the saints and servants of the most high if there were none such upon earth it would have no work was by this high Commission put from his ministery sent to Aberdeen where the Doctors found to their confusion that the Puritans were Clergy-men aswell as they Of his returning to his former Charge upon that happy change of affairs in the Yeer 1638 his being shorthly after sent to the profession of Theology in the Vniversity of St Andrews by the Generall Assembly where he was also called to be worthy Mr Blair's Collegue in the Ministery which being the seat of the Arch-preâ—ate was the very Nursery of all superstition in worship Errour in Doctrine the sink of all Profanity in conversation amongst the Students where God did so singularly second his servants indefatigable pains both in teaching in the Schooles preaching in the Congregation that it became forth with a Lebanon out of which were taken Cedars for building the house of the Lord through the whole land Not a few of whom are this day amongst these who have obtained mercy of the Lord to be his faithfull witnesses against Scotland's present shamfull unparaleelled defection Of his being sent with other worthy Ministers by the Generall Assembly to the famous Synod at London where during the time of his aboad he published severall pieces In a word of his unparaleelled painfullness holy Zeal in being about his Master's business so that he seemed to pray Constantly to preach constantly to catechise constantly to be still in visiting the sick in exhorting from house to house to teach as much in the schooles spend as much time with the young men as if he had been sequestrat from all the world besids withall to write as much as if he had been constantly shut up in his closet sufficient proof whereof hath been given to the world by the many pieces he hath published but the great bulk of Manuscripts which he hath left behinde him must lie buried with himself will put this further out of doubt so that one Mr Rutherfoord seemed to be many able godly men in one or one who was furnished with the grace and abilities of many It is not I say my present purpose to give any particular account to the world of these or of the many things he had to wrestle with especially towards the end of his dayes of his edifying death that may be done herafter by a more dexterous hand skillfull pen with much advantage edification to the Church of God Onely I may say that if amongst the heathens Hercules was looked upon as so far both above the applause of any who undertook to commend him beyond the reach of the obloquie reproach of any who had so fallen out with his wits as to derogat from his worth that it was a Probleme amongst them whether he who undertook to praise him or he who vented any thing to his prejudice did commit the greatest Soloecisme though it was but Belluina gloria whereof he could boast I suppose with more reasoÌ„ among them who know better to make the true paralleel betwixt things that differ are more fit to judge of that which is of true worth great price in the sight of God I should seem more ridiculous to say much to the advantage of the Author whose praise without the help of my blunt pen is in all the Churches of Christ whose manner of life in all Godliness holy conversation rendered him dear to the lovers of holmess who hath left his name for a blessing to the chosen of God he was a true Iohn the Baptist indeed totus vox a voice in habit gesture conversation in a word in his life at his death he obtained that mercy of the Lord even when he said nothing to preach to all who beheld his conversation which was observed to be in heaven while he conversed amongst men that their was nothing good but to draw near to God And now being got up above amongst these pages of honour who wait upon the King 's own person having taken up his place amongst the spirits of just men made perfect after which this saint often panted for which he prayed night day he doth by these Epistles which he hath left behinde him wherein thou wilt perceive how his soul was drawn forth in uncessant longings after that whereof he is now possessed cry aloud to you his companions the saints that are in the world to come up hither see that which cannot be seen while ye are there that which is onely worth the seeing that which if it were known would make you quarrel with death for delaying to shut your eyes upon other objects Leave the dark world doth he say come up hither to this blessed land of light where all our childish thoughts of God are gone evanished in this noon-day-vision where the understanding is fully illuminat there is no cloud to be-night or eclipse the soul in it's uptakings of God where the will hath a through compliance with a perfect complacencie in the will
of God are unsavoury The wind of thy mouth though accompanied with all the venome thou canst vomit up will not blast the Authors reputation it will onely be a blazing of thy own shame then thou wilt see thy self so unhappy as to have hit the marke at which thou didst not aime For without doing him any hurt who is far above thy reach thy tongue falls upon thy own head in striking at one whom thou canst not wound thy sword rebounds back upon thy self enters into thine own bowells but if thou remainest a man of imperswasion hast so much pleasure in publishing thine own shame I cannot help it it is sufficient for me to have warned thee of thy hazard nor shall I endeavour hence forth to deprive the world of their liberty since thou wilt have it so to look upon thee according to the character which thou hast given of thy self that is Deest aliquid intus to make the a man a Christian since this Brutish shape pleases thee thou mayest goe eat grasse let alone this bread which is onely designed for Children And so I leave thee to make use of that liberty of saying what thou pleases which thou hast now purchased with the loss of thy own reputation If any think it had been more convenient to have concealed the names of these to whom the Author wrote for some reasons obvious in regard of the present Lamentable posture of affairs when it is almost sufficent to make a man guilty that ever he was really zealous for God I have onely this to say for my self that I designed their honour not their prejudice nor hurt in prefixing their names Neither can I well imagine what ever others may apprehend what prejudice they can sustain by this since none or very few of them come from the Author as returns to any thing they had written to him there being no law either discharging him to write or any persons to receive his letters there can be no transgression upon their part so nothing to ground a prejudice or found a rational plea against them And much less in that their names are prefixed or if there be any thing in this blame worthy I alone am in the transgression who have done it without consulting themselves or asking their consent yet in order to the satisfaction of any who may be offended at what is done I have this to say for my self further that I was induced to it first that thereby it might appear these were indeed the very Letters which that faithfull sufferer witness of Jesus Christ wrote though there is sufficient in the stile straine to put this beyond debat no forgeries 2. many of these worthy persons being removed whereby the Church of God is at a seen sad loss in that she is deprived of so many who would have weeped made supplication on her behalfe in this day of her distress when not a few of her friends have dealt treacherously with her are become her enemies their Posterity might think themselves wronged if I should have deprived their worthy Predecessors by suppressing their names smothering their affection to the work of God of the honour of making their faithfullness known to the world And truely I judged it the least that was due to the memory of these who ought to be had in everlasting remembrance to erect this poor monument over their grave wherby they may live amongst the posterity when they are gone as persons who obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithfull in their generation that when the account of such comes to be taken it may be said this that man was borne there 3. I did it to encourage the posterity of such to be followers of the faith patience of their worthy progeâ—â—tors and that the may not without shame horrour think of declining or turning aside either to the right or left hand from the way of these dear relations who by following the Lord fully in an evil time left them a noble Paterne worthy of imitation 4. As for such who are yet alive I hope they will think that God by this Providence is making a honourable mention of their fidelity before the nations is remembring for them the Love of their espousals when they went after him thereby to ingage them to cleave more closely adhere more firmely to him with full purpose of heart when the generality have gadded about to change their way many of his professed disciples have gone back are like to walk no more with him And upon the other hand God will have this to be a witness before the world against any of them who shall depart from the good way of the Lord be offended in him because of persecution I hope what ever hazard threaten these who abide in Christs company that they will never forsake him nor give him cause to say what iniquity have ye found in me that ye are gone far from me But if it should prove otherwise they may be sure that he whose soul hath no pleasure in any man that draws back hats the work of such as turne aside will count himself ingaged in a peculiar way to lead them forth with the workers of iniquity but we hope for better things of them all though we thus speak If none of these reasons which moved me to doe this be strong enough then let it be judged my weakness for it is more fit that I should pass in the world as such which is no great mistake then these honourable worthy persons should suffer any prejudice by a deed whereto they had not the least accession Reader much pains hath been taken in collecting these together that they might be in the hands of many a thing greatly desired of a long time by the godly which have been hitherto onely in some broken imperfect parcells in the hands of a few Severall of the most correct copies that could be had have been carefully compared many fruits therby corrected which were crept in by their being often transcribed that by unskillfull hands If it fall out so as I suppose it shall not often be found that they who have the Autographs by them perceive any difference in a word or senteÌ„ce betwixt this printed copy these let them imput it to my want of he principals for though I had a good number of them yet it was not possible for me to get the most part In some very few places also to the end that this book might be of more universall use it may be that a scottish word which would have darkned the sense or rendered the sentence wholly unintelligble to strangers is either changed into some equivalent one or a synonimous terme inserted by it but in most places these words are retained without any alteration because either alteration or addition would have made them less taking with
Hic Amor Christi decor hic coelestis et aulae Gloria depicta est horrida ira Dei. Ardua materies sublimibus apta cothurnis Hic tenui facilifusa legenda stylo est Lividus at voces si carpat Zoilus ullas Non Divina sapit Cor sine mente gerit Praesulibus celerem attulerant haec Scripta ruinam Impressa extremum praestituuntque diem READER Thou may possibly finde in some very few places one letter for an other as an n for an n c. or a transposition of two letters of a for a it may be also that the Chap. or verse be miscited but the words being insert will easily lead the to correct that mistake There was so much pains taken in overseeing the press to prevent misprinting that thou wilt scarce meet with any thing that will mar the sense yet these few though they be not very materiall I have set down to fill up this Page In the Epistle to the Reader P. 3. l. 14. for Minister r. Ministers p. 10. l. 26. a afraid r. afraid p. 16. l. 9. but dele but. p. 17 l. antipen to to r. to p. 25. l. 19. miserably r. miserable p. 32. l. 28. Arestotle r Aristotle In the Book P. 30. l. penult Isa. 45. r. 54 p. 60. l. 19. Act. 2. r. 1. p. 65. l. antip Isai. 51. r. 41. p. 116. l. penult is r. in p. 151 l. 1. Luk. 21. r. 22. p. 204. l. 8. for r. sort p. 282. l. ult bed r. bode p. 385. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 398. l. 19 eek r. seek p. 441. l. 28. you earnest r you an earnest p. 449. l. 33. Isa. 53. 9. r. ver 3. p. â—64 l. 28. Deut. 32. 30. r. v. 39. ibid. Job 〈◊〉 r. 5. p. 465. l. 32. harden r. Garden p. 483. l. 2. Col. 2. r. 〈◊〉 p. 491. l. 33. blinced r. blinded ibid. l. 35. grace r. grave p. 492. l. 18. your r. you p. 496. l. 1. yet this r. this ibid. l. 22. witten r. written ibid. l. 24 Lam. 3. 51. r. 56 p. 500. l. 34. I am 3. 36. r. 56. p. 516. l. 29. Ezek. 46. r. 48. p. 527. l. 4. Levit. 13. r. 10. p. 555. l. 26. dele To Mr ROBERT CUNYNGAME Minister of the Gospel at Holywood in Ireland Epist. 1. WElbeloved and reverend Brother grace mercy and peace be to you upon acquaintance in Christ I thought good to take the opportunity of writing to you seeing it hath seemed good to the Lord of the harvest to take the hooks out of our hands for a time and to lay upon us a more honourable service even to suffer for his name It were good to comfort one another in writing I have had a Desire to see you in the face yet now being the prisoner of Christ it is taken away I am greatly comforted to hear of your souldiers stately spirit for your princely and royall Captain Jesus our Lord and for the grace of god in the rest of our dear brethren with you you have heard of my trouble I suppose It hath pleased our sweet Lord Jesus to let loose the malice of these interdicted Lords in his house to deprive me of my Ministery at Anwoth and to confine me eight score miles from thence to Aberden and also which vvas not done to any before to inhibit me to speak at all in Jesus his name within this Kingdome under the paine of rebellion The cause that ripened their hatred was my book against the Arminians whereof they accused me these three Dayes I appeared before them But let our crowned king in Zion raigne by his grace the losse is theirs the advantage is Christs and truths albeit this honest crosse gained some ground on me by my heavniesse and inward Challenges of conscience for a time were sharpe yet now for the incouragment of you all I dare say it and write it under my hand welcome welcome sweet svveet Crosse of Christ I verely think the Chaines of my Lord Jesus are all overlaid with pure gold that his crosse is perfumed and that it smelleth of Christ that the Victorie shall be by the blood of the lamb and by the word of his truth and that Christ laying on his backe in his weake servants and oppressed truth shall ride over his enemies bellies and shall stricke through Kings in the day of his wrath It is time we laughe when he laugheth and seeing he is now pleased to sit with wrongs for a time it becometh us to be silent untill the Lord hath let the enemies enjoy their hungerie leane and fecklesse paradise Blessed are they who are content to take stroks with weeping Christ faith will trust the Lord and is not hastie nor head strong neither is faith so timorous as to flatter a tentation or to bud and bribe the crosse It is little up or little dovvn that the lamb and his followers can get no lavv-suitie nor truce with crosses it must be so till we be up in our fathers house my heart is woe indeed for my mother Church that hath plaid the harlot with many lovers her husband hath a mind to sell her for her horrible transgressions heavy will the hand of the Lord be upon this backsliding nation The wayes of our Zion mourne her gold is become dim her white Nazarites are blck like a coale how shall not the Children weep when the husband and the mother can not agree yet I beleeve Scotlands skie shall clear again that Christ shall build againe the old wast places of Jacob and that our dead and dry bones shall become ane army of living men that our beloved may yet feed among the lillies untill the day breake and the shaddows flee away My deare brother let us helpe one another with our prayers Our king shall mowedown his enemies and shall come from Bozra with his garments all died in blood and for our onsolation shall he appear and call his wife Hephzibah and his land Beulah for he will rejoyce over us marie us Scotland shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Only let us be faithfull to him that can ride through hell and death upon a windlestrae and his horse never stumble and let him make of me a bridge over a water so that his high and holy name may be glorified in me stroks with the sweet mediators hand are very sweet he was always sweet to my soul but since I suffered for him his breath hath a sweeter smell then before Oh that every hair of my head and every member and every bone in my bodie were a man to witness a fair confession for him I would think all too little for him when I look over beyond the line and beyond death to the laughing side of the world I trimmph and ride upon the high places of Jacob howbeit otherways I am a faint dead-hearted cowardly man oft borne
greater then ten whole earths or ten worlds O what beauty would be in it and what a smell would it cast but a blast of the breath of that fairest rose in all Gods Paradise even of Christ Jesus our Lord one look of that fairest face would be infinitly in beauty and smell above all imaginable and created glory I wonder that men dow bide off Christ I would esteem my self blessed if I could make an open proclamation and gather all the world that are living upon the earth Jew and Gentile and all that shall be borne to the blowing of the last trumpet to flock round about Christ and to stand looking wondering admiring and adoring his beauty and sweetnesse for his fire is hotter then any other fire his love sweeter then common love his beauty surpasseth all other beauty When I am heavie and sad one of his love-looks would do me meekel worlds good o if ye would fall in love with him Hovv blessed were I how glad would my soul be to help you to love him but amongst us all we could not love him enough he is the Son of the Fathers love and Gods delight the Fathers love lieth all upon him o if all mankind would fetch all their love and lay it upon him invit him and take him home to your houses in the exercise of prayer morning and evening as I often desired you especially now let him not want lodgeing in your houses nor lie in the feilds when he is shut out of pulpits and Kirks If ye will be content to take heaven by violence the wind on your face for Christ and his crosse I am here one who hath some tryall of Christs crosse I can say that Christ was ever kind to me but he overcometh himself if I may speak so in kindness vvhile I suffer for him I give you my word for it Christs crosse is not so evil as they call it it is sweet light and comfortable I would not want the visitations of love and the very breathings of Christs mouth when he kisseth and my Lords delightsome smiles and love-embracements under my sufferings for him for a mountain of fine gold nor for all the honours court and grandour of velvet-kirk-men Christ hath the yolke and heart of my love I am my beloveds and my welbeloved is mine O that ye were all handfasted to Christ o my Dearly beloved in the Lord I would I could change my voice and had a tongue tuned with the hand of my Lord and had the art of speaking of Christ that I might paint out unto you the worth and highnesse and greatnesse and excellencie of that fairest and renowned bridegroom I beseech you by the mercies of the Lord by the sighes tears heart blood of our Lord Jesus by the salvation of your poor and precious souls set up the mountain that ye and I may meet before the Lambs throne amongst the congregation of the first borne Lord grant that that may be the trysting place that ye and I may put up our hands together and pluck and eat the apples oâ— the tree of life and we may feast together and drink together of that pure river of the water of life that cometh out from under the throne of God and from the Lamb O how little is your hand-breadth and span length of dayes here your inch of time is Lesse then when ye and I parted eternitie eternitie is comeing posting on with wings then shall every mans black 's and whit's be brought to light O how low will your thoughts be of this fair-skined but heart roten apple the vain vain fecklesse world when the wormes shall make their houses in your eye holes and shall eat aâ—â— the flesh from the ball of your cheeks and shall make that body a number of drie bones think not the common gate of serving God as neighbour and others doe will bring yow to heaven few few are saved the Devils court is thick and many he haththe greatest number of mankind for his vassels I know this world is a great forrest of thornes in your way to heaven but ye most through it acquaint your selves with the Lord hold fast Christ hear his voice only blesse his name sanctifie and keep his day keep the new commandment love one another let the Holy Spirit dwell in your bodies and be clean and holy love not the worldly not love and follow truth learn to know God keep in mind what I taught you for God will seek ane account of it when I am far from you abstain from all evil and all appearance of evil follow good carefully and seek peace and follow after it honour your King and pray for him remember me to God in your prayers I dow not forget you I told you often while I was with you and now I write it again heavie sad and sore is that strok of the Lords wrath that is comeing upon Scotland woe woe woe to this Harlotland for they shall take the cup of Gods wrath from his hand and drink and spue and fall and net rise again In In In with speed to your strong hold ye prisoners of hope hide you there while the anger of the Lord passe Follow not the Pastors of this Land for the sun is gone down upon them as the Lord liveth they lead you from Christ and from the good old way yet the Lord will keep the holy Citie and make this withered Kirk to bud again like a rose and a field blessed of the Lord. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all The prayers and blessing of a prisoner of Christs in bonds for him and for you be with you all AMEN Aberden July 14. 1637. Your Lawfull and loving Pastor S. R. To the Honourable Reverend and Welbeloved Professors of Christ his Truth in sincerity in Ireland 3 DEarly beloved in our Lord partakers of the heavenly calling Grace mercy peace be to you from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ I alwayes but most of all now in my bonds most sweet bonds for Christ my Lord rejoyce to hear of your faith and love to hear that our King our welbeloved our bridegroom without tireing stayeth still to wooe you as his wife and that persecutions mockings of sinners have not chased away the wooer from the house I perswade you in the Lord the men of God now Scattered driven from you put you upon the right sent and pursuit of Christ my salvation on it if ten heavens were mine if this way this way that I now suffer for this way that the world nicknameth and reproacheth no other way be not the Kings gate to heaven I shall never see Gods face and alace I were a beguiled wretch if it were so if this be not the only saving way to heaven Oh that you would take a prisoner of Christs word for it nay I know you have the greatest Kings word for it
one poor joy that was on this side of heaven even my liberty to preach Christ to his people yet I am dead to that now so being he would hew and carve glory glory for evermore to my royall King out of my silence sufferings Oh that I had my fill of his love but I know ill manners make an uncouth strange bridegroom I intreat you earnestly for the aide of your prayers for I forget not you I salute with my soul in Christ the faithfull Pastors and honourable worthy Professors in that Land Now the God of peace that brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead the great shephered of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight Grace Grace be with you Aberden Feb. 4. 1638. Yours in his sweeetest Lord Iesus S. R. To the truly noble elect lady my lady VICOUNTESSE of KENMURE 4 Noble elect Lady THat honour that I have prayed for these sixteen yeers with submission to my Lords will my kind Lord hath now bestowed upon me even to suffer for my royall princely King Jesus for his Kingly crown the freedom of his Kingdom that his father hath given him The forbidden Lords have sentenced me with deprivation confinement within the town of Aberden I am charged in the Kings name to enter against the twentie day of August next there to remain during the Kings pleasure as they have given it out howbeit Christs green crosse newly laid upon me be somewhat heavie while I call to minde the many fair dayes sweet comfortable to my soul to the souls of many others how young ones in Christ are plucked from the breast and the inheritance of God laid waste yet that sweet smelled perfumed crosse of Christ is accompanied with sweet refreshments with the kisses of a King with the joy of the holy Ghost with faith that the Lord hears the sighing of a prisoner with undoubted hope as sure as my Lord liveth after this night to see day light Christs skie to clear up again upon me his poor Kirk that in a strange Land amongst strange faces he will give favour in the eyes of men to his poor oppressed servant who dow not but love that lovely one that princely one Jesus the comforter of his soul. All would be well if I were free of old challanges for guiltiness for neglect in my calling and for speaking too little for my welbeloveds crown honour Kingdom Oh for a day in the assembly of the saints to advocate for King Jesus If my Lord goe on now to quarrels also I die I cannot endure it but I look for peace from him because he knoweth I dow bear mens feud but I dow not bear his feud this is my onely exercise that I fear I have done little good in my ministry but I dare not but say I loved the baiâ—â—s of the wedding chamber and prayed for desired the thriving of the marriage coming of his Kingdom I apprehend no lesse then a judgement upon Galloway that the Lord shall visit this whole nation for the quarrell of the covenant But what can be laid upon me or any the like of me is too light for Christ Christ dow â—ear more would bear death burning quick in his weâ—k servants even for this honourable cause that I now suffer for Yet for all my complaints he knoweth that I dare not now dissemble he was never sweeter Kinder then he is now one kisse now is sweeter then ten long since sweet sweet is his crosse light light easie is his yoke O what a sweet step were it up to my fathers house thorow ten deaths for the truth and cause of that unknown and so not-halfe-wel-loved plant of renown the man called the Branch the chief among ten thousands the fairest among the sons of men O what unseen joyes how many hidden heart-burnings of love are in the remnants of the sufferings of Christ my dear worthy Lady I give it to your La under my own hand my heart-writing as well as my hand welcome welcome sweet sweet glorious crosse of Christ welcome sweet Jesus with thy light crosse thou hast now gained gotten all my love from me â—eep what thou hast gotten Onely woe woe is me for my bereft-flock for the Lambs of Jesus that I fear shall be fed with dry breasts but I sparenow Madam I dare not promise to see your La because of the little time I have alloted me I purpose to obey the King who hath power of my body rebellion to Kings is unbeseeming Christs Ministers Be pleased to acquiant my Lady Marre with my case I will look your La that good Lady will be mindfull to God of the Lords prisoner not for my cause but for the Gospels sake Madam bind me more if more can be to your La and write thanks to your brother my Lord of Lorne for what he hath done for me a poor unknown stranger to his Lo I shall pray for him his house while I live It is his honour to open his mouth in the streets for his wronged and oppressed master Christ Jesus Now Madam commending your La and the sweet childe to â—he tender mercies of mine own Lord Jesus and his good will who dwelt in the bush I Rest. Edinb July 28. 1636. Yours in his own sweetest Lord Iesus S. R. To the Noble Christian Lady the VICOUNTESSE of KENMURE 5 My very Honourable dear Lady GRace mercy peace be to you I cannot forget your La that sweet childe I desire to hear what the Lord is doing to you him to write to me were charity I cannot but write to my friends that Christ hath tryâ—ted me in Aberden my adversaries have sent me here to be feasted with love-banquets with my royall high high princely King Jesus Madam why should I smother Christs honesty I dare not conceal his goodness to my soul he looked fram'd and uncouth-like upon me when I came first here but I beleeve himself better then his looks I shall not again quarrell Christ for a gloome now he hath taken the mask off his face saith kisse thy fill what can I have more while I get great heaven in my little armes O how sweet are the sufferings of Christ for Christ God forgive them that raise an ill report upon the sweet crosse of Christ it is but our weak dim eyes that look but to the black side that makes us mistake these who can take that crabbed-tree hand-somely upon their back fasten it on cannily shall finde it such a burden as wings unto a bird or sailes to ship Madam rue not of your having chosen the better part upon my salvation this is Christs truth I now suffer for if I found
but cold comfort in my sufferings I would not beguile others I would have told you plainly but the truth is Christs crown his scepter and the freedom of his Kingdom is that which is now called in question because we will not allow that Christ pay tribute and be a vassall to the shields of the earth therefore the sons of our mother are angry at us but it becometh not Christ to hold any mans stirâ—up It were a sweet and honourable death to die for the honour of that royall princely King Jesus his love is a mystery to the world I would not have beleeved that there was so much in Christ as there is Come see maketh Christ to be known in his excellency glory I wish all this Nation knew how sweet his breath is it is little to see Christ in a book as men doe the world in a card they talke of Christ by the book the tongue no more but to come nigh Christ and hausse him embrace him is another thing Madam I write to your Honour for your encouragement in that honourable profession Christ hath honoured you with Ye have gotten the Sunny side of the brae the best of Christs good things he hath not given you the bastard's portion howbeit ye get strokes sowre looks from your Lord yet beleeve his love more then your own feeling for this world can take nothing from you that is truly yours death can doe you no wrong your rock doeth not ebbe flow but your sea that which Christ hath said he will bide by it he will be your tutour you shall not get your charters of heaven to play you with It is good that ye have lost your credit with Christ that Lord frâ—ewill shall not be your tutour Christ will lippen the taking of you to heaven neither to your self nor any deputy but onely to him self blessed be your tutour When your head shall appear your bridegroom Lord your day shall then dawn it shall never have an afternoon nor an evening shadow Let your childe be Christs let him stay beside you as the lords pledge that you shall willingly render again if God will Madam I finde folks here kind to me but in the night under their breath my masters cause may not come to the crown of the causey others are kind according to their fashion many think me a strange man my cause not good but I care not much for mans thoughts or approbation I think no shame of the crosse The preachers of this town pretend great love but the Prelats have added to the rest this gentle cruelty for so they think of it to discharge me of the pulpits of this town the people murmur cry out against it and to speak truly howbeit Christ is most indulgeat to me otherwise yet my silence on the Lords day keeps me from being exalted above measure froÌ„â—â—artling in the heat of my Lords love Some people affect me for the which cause I hear the preachers here purpose to have my confinement changed to another place so cold is northern love but Christ and I will bear it I have vvrestled long with this sad silence I said what aileth Christ at my service and my soul hath been at a pleading with Christ at yea nay but I will yeeld to him providing my suffering may preach more then my tongue did for I gave not Christ an inch but for twice as good again in a word I am a fool he is God I will hold my peace hereafter Let me hear from your La your Dear Childe pray for a prisoner of Christ who is mindfull of your La Remember my obliged obedience to my good Lady Marre Grace Grace be with you I write pray blessings to your sweet childe Aberd. Nov. 22. 1636. Yours in all Dutiefull obedience in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To the right honourable Christian Lady my Lady VICOUNTESSE of KENMURE 6 MADAM GRace Mercy peace be to you I received your La letter it refreshed me in my heavinesse the blessing prayers of a prisoner of Christs come upon you Since my coming hither Galloway sent me not a line except what my Brother Earlstoun his son did write I cannot get my papers transported but Madam I want not kindnesse of one who hath the gate of it Christ if he had never done more for me since I was borne hath ingaged my heart gained my blessing in this house of my pilgrimage It pleaseth my welbeloved to dine with a poor prisoner and the Kings spiknard casteth a fragrant smell nothing grieveth me but that I eat my feasts my alone and that I cannot edifie his saints O that this Nation knew what is betwixt him and me none would skar at the crosse of Christ my silence eates me up but he hath told me he thanketh me no lesse then if I were preaching daily he sees how gladly I would be at it therefore my wages are going to the fore up in heaven as if I were still preaching Christ. Captains pay duely bedfast souldiers howbeit they dow not march nor carry armour Though â—srael be not gathered yet shall 〈◊〉 be glorious in the eyes of my Lord my lord shall be my strength Ifâ—â— 49 5. my garland The Banished Minister the teâ—ne of Aberden ashameth me not I have seen the white side of Christs crosse lovely hath he been to his oppressed servant Psal. 146 7. The Lord executeth judgement for the oppressed he giveth food to the hungry the Lord looseth the prisoner the Lord raisetâ— them that are bowed down the Lord preserveth the stranger If it were come to exchanging of crosses I would not exchange my crosse with any I am wel-pleased with Christ he with me I hope none shall hear us It 's true for all this I get my meat with many stroks and am seven times a day up down am often anxious cast down for the case of my oppressed brother yet I hope the Lord will be surty for his servant But now upon some weak very weak experience I am come to love a rumbling and raging devil beit seeing we must have a devil to hold the saints waking I wish a cumbersome devil rather then a secure sleeping one At my first coming hither I took the dorts at Christ and took up a stomaâ—k against him I said he had cast me over the dike of the vineyard like a drie tree but it was his mercy I see that the fire did not burn the drie tree now as if my Lord Jesus had done the fault not I who belied my Lord he hath made the first mends he spake not one word against me but hath come again quickned my soul with his presence nay now I think the very aâ—â—uety and casualities of the crosse of Christ Jesus my Lord these comforts that accompany it better then the worlds
the free salvation Christs sweet balme for thy wounds O poor humble beleever Christs kisses for thy watery checks Christs blood of atonement for thy guilty soul Christs heaven for thy poor soul though once banished out of paradise my master shall make good my word ere long O that people were wise O that people were wise O that people would spier out Christ never est while they finde him O how shall my soul mourn in secret if my nine yeers pained head sore breast and pained back and grieved heart and privat publike prayers to God shall all be for nothing among that people Did my Lord Jesus send me but to summond you before your judge to leave your summonds at your houses was I sent as a witness onnly to gather your dittay's O my God forbid often did I tell you of a fan of Gods word to come among you for the contempt of it I told you often of wrath wrath from the Lord to come upon Scotland and yet I bide by my Masters word it is quickly coming desolation for Scotland because of the quarrell of a broken covenant Now worthy Sir now my dear people my joy and my crown in the Lord let him be your fear seek the Lord and his face save your souls doves flee to Christs windows pray for me praise for me The blessing of my God the prayers and blessing of a poor prisoner and your lawfull pastor be upon you Abrd. Iune 16. 1367. Your Lawfull Loving Pastor S. R. To the right honourable Christian Lady my Lady BOYD. 15 MADAM GRace mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ I cannot but thank your La for your Letter that hath refreshed my soul. I think my self many wayes obliged to your La for your love to my afflicted brother now embarked with me in that same cause his Lord hath been pleased to put him upon truths side I hope your La will befriend him with your counsell and countenance in that countrey where he is a stranger your La needeeth not fear but your kindness to his own shall be put up in Christs accounts Now Madam for your La case I rejoyce exceedingly that the Father of lights hath made you see that there is a niâ—â— in Christianity which ye contend to be at that is to quit the right eye the right hand to keep the Son of God I hope your desire is to make him your garland your eye looketh up the mount which certainly is nothing but the new creature fear not Christ will not cast water upon your smoaking coal then who else dare doe it if he say nay Be sorry at corruption not secure that companion lay with you in your mothers womb was as early friends with you as the breath of life Christ will not have it otherwise for he delighteth to take up fallen bairns to mend broken browâ— binding up of wounds is his office Isai. 61. First I am glad Christ will get employment of his calling in you many a whole soul is in heaven which was sicker then ye are He is content ye lay broken arms legs on his knee that he may spelk them 2. Hiding of his face is wise love his love is not fond doting reasonless to give your head no other pillow while ye be in at heavens gates but to lie betwixt his brests lean upon his bosome Nay hisbairns must often have the frosty cold side of the hill set down both their bare feet among thorns His love hath eyes in the mean time is looking on Our pride must have winter weather to rot it But I know Christ ye shall not be heard ye will whisper it over betwixt your selves agree again for the Anchor-tow abideth fast within the vaile the end of it is in Chrssts ten fingers who dare pull if he hold I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying fear not I will help thee Isa. 41 13. fear not Iacob The sea-sick passenger shall come to Land Christ will be the first that will meet you on the shore I hope your La will keep the Kings high-way goe on in the strength of the Lord in haste as if ye had not leisure to speak to the Inne-keepers by the way he is over beyond time in the other side of the water who thinketh long for you For my unfaithfull self Madam I must say a word At my first coming hither the devil made many black lies of my Lord Jesus said the court was changed and he was angry would give an evil servant his leave at mid-terme but he gave me grace not to take my leave I resolved to bide summonds and sit howbeit it was suggested said what should be done with a withered tree but over the dâ—ke with it But now now I dare not I dow not keep it up who is feasted as his poor exiled prisoner I think shame of the board-head the first messe the royall Kings dining-hall and that my black hand should come on such a rulers table but I cannot mend it Christ must have his will onely he paineth my soul so sometimes with his love that I have been nigh to passe modesty to cry out he hath lest a smoaking burning coal in my heart gone to the door himself and left me it together yet it is not desertion I know not what it is but I was never so sick for him as now I durst not challenge my Lord if I got no more for heaven it is a dâting crosse I know he hath other thing to doe then to play with me trâ—â—le an apple with me that this feast will end O for instruments in Gods name that this is he and that I may make use of it when it will be a neer friend within me when it will be said by a challengingdevil were is my God Since I know it will not laste I desire but to keep broken meat but let no man after me slander Christ for his crosse The Great Lord of the Covenant who brought from the dead the great shepherd of his sheep by the blood of the eternall covenant establish you and keep you yours to his appearance Aberd. March 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr ALEXANDER HENDERSON 16 My reverend dear Brother I Received your Letters They are as apples of gold to me for wich my sweet feasts they are above the deserving of such a sinner high out of measure I have sadness to ballast me weight me a little It is but his boundless wisdom who hath taken the tutouring of his witlesse childe and he knoweth to be drunken with comforts is not safest for our stomackes However it be the din and noise and glooms of Christs crosse are weightier then it self I protest to you my witnesse is in heaven I
could wish many pound weights added to my crosse to know that by sufferings Christ were set forward in his kingly office in this Land Oh what is my skin to his glory Or my losses or my sad heart to the apple of the eye of our Lord his beloved spouse his precious truth his royal priviledges the glory of manifested justice in giving of his foes a dash the testimony of his faithfull servants who doe glorifie him when he rideth upon poor weak wormes triumpheth in them I desire you to pray that I may come out of this furnace with honesty that I may leave Christs truth no worse then I found it that this most honourable cause may neither be stained nor weakned As for your case my Reverend and Dearest Brother ye are the talking of the North and South looked to so as if ye were all crystall glasse your mots and dust should soon be proclaimed trumpets blowne at your slips But I know ye have laid help upon one that is mighty Intrust not your comforts to mens airy frothy applause neither lay your down-castings on the tongues of salt mockers reproachers of godliness As deceivers yet true as unknown yet well known God hath called you to Christs side and the wind is now on Christs face in this land and seeing ye are with him ye cannot expect the lee-side or the sunny-side of the brae But I know ye have resolved to take Christ upon any termes whatsoever I hope ye doe not rue though your cause be hated that prejudices are taken up against it The shields of the world think our Master cumbersome wares that he maketh too great din that his cords and yoks make blains deep scores in their neck therefore they kick they say this man shall not reigne over us Let us pray one for another He who hath made you a chosen arrow in his quiver hide you in the hollow of his hand I am Aberd. March 9. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the right honourable my Lord LOWDON 17 MY very noble honourable Lord Grace mercy and peace be to you I make bold to write to your Lo that you may know the honourable cause ye are graced to prosesse is Christs own truth Ye are many wayes blessed of God who hath taken upon you to come out to the strects with Christ on your fore-head when so many are ashamed of him and hide him as it were under their cloak as if he were a stolen Christ. If this faithless generation and especially the Nobles of this Kingdom thought not Christ dear wares and Religion expensive hazardous and dangerous they would not slip from his cause as they doe and stand looking on with their hands folded behinde their back when lowns are running away with the spoile of Sion on their back and the boards of the Son of Gods tabernacle Law and Justice are to be had to any especially for money moyen but Christ can get no law good cheap nor dear It were the glory and honour of you who are the Nobles of this land to plead for your wronged bridegroom and his oppressed Spouse as far as zeal standing law will goe with you Your ordinary logicke from the event that it will doe no good to the cause and therefore silence is best till the Lord put to his own hand it is not with reverence of your Lo Learning worth a straw Events are Gods let us doe and not plead against Gods Office let him sit at his own helme who moderateth all events It is not a good course to complain that we cannot get a providence of gold when our lasiness cold zeal temporizing and faithless fearfulness spilleth good providence Your Lo will pardon me I am not of that minde that tumults or armes is the way to put Christ on his throne or that Christ will be served truth vindicated onely with the arme of flesh and blood nay Christ doeth his turn with lesse din then with garments rolled in blood But I would the zeal of God were in the Nobles to doe their part for Christ and I must be pardoned to write to your Lo this I dow not I dare not but speak to others what God hath done to the soul of his poor afflicted exiled prisoner his comfort is more then I ever knew before he hath sealed the honourable cause I now suffer for I shall not beleeve that Christ will put his Amen ring upon an imagination he hath made all his promises good to me and hath filled up all the blanks with his own hand I would not exchange my bonds with the plaistered joy of this whole world It hath pleased him to make a sinner the like of me an ordinary banquetter in his house of wine with that royall Princely one Christ Jesus O what weighing O what telling is in his love how sweet must he be when that black and Burdensome tree his own crosse is so perfumed with joy and gladness O for help to lift him up by praises on his royall throne I seek no more but that his name may be spread abroad in me that meekle good may be spoken of Christ on my behalf this being done my losses place stipend credit case and Liberty shall all be made up to my full contentment and joy of heart I will be confident your Lo Will goe on in the strength of the Lord and keep Christ avouch him that he may read your name publikly before men Angels I wil entreat your Lo to exhort encourage that Nobleman your Chief to doe the same but I am woe many of you finde a new wisdom which deserveth nor such a name it were better that men should see that their wisdom be holy their holiness wise I must be bold to desire your Lo To adde to your former favours to me for the which your Lo hath a prisoners blessing prayers this that ye would be pleased to befriend my brother now suffering for the same cause For he is to dwell nigh your Lo Bounds your Lo word countenance may help him Thus recommending your Lo to the saving grace tender mercy of Christ Jesus our Lord. I rest Aberd. March 9. 1637. Your Lo obliged Servant in Christ S. R. To Mr. WILLIAM DALGLISH Minister of the Gospel 18 Reverend Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I am well my Lord Jesus is Kinder to me then ever he was it pleaseth him to dine sup with his afflicted prisoner a King feasteth me and his spiknard casteth a sweet smell Put Christs love to the triall and put upon it burdens then it will appear love indeed we employ not his love therefore we know it not I verily count more of the sufferings of my Lord then of this worlds lustred overguilded glory I dare not say but my Lord Jesus hath fully recompensed my sadness with
in the loof of their hand Cur Lord maketh delicates and dainties of his sweet presence and love-visits to his own but Christs love under a vaile is love if ye get Christ howbeit not the sweet and pleasant way you would have him it is enough for the wel-beloved cometh not our way he must waile his own gate himself For worldly things seeing they are medows and fair flowers in your way to heaven a smell in the by-going is sufficient he that would reckon and tell all the stones in his way in a journey of three or four hundred miles and write up in his count book all the herbs and flowers growing in his way might come short of his journey you cannot stay in your inch of time to lose your day seeing you are in haste and the night and your after-noon will not bide you in setting your heart on this vain world it were your wisdom to read your count book to have in readinâ—sâ— your bussinesse against the time you come to deaths water-side I know your lodging is taken your forerunner Christ hath not forgotten that therefore you must set your self to your one thing which ye cannot well want In that our Lord took your husband to himself I know it was that he might make room for himself he cuteth off your love to the creature that ye might learn that God onely is the right owner of your love sorrow losse sadnesse death or the worst things that are except sin but Christ knoweth well what to make of them can put his own in the crosses common that we shall be obliged to affliction thank God who learned us to make our acquaintance with such a rough companion who can hale us to Christ you must learn to make evils your great good and to spin out comforts peace joy communion with Christ out of your troubls that are Christs wooers sent to speak for you to himself It is easie to get good words and a comfortable message from our Lord even from such rough serjeants as diverse temptations Thanks to God for crosses when we count and reckon our losses in seeking God we finde godliness is great gain Great partners of a shipfull of gold are glad to see the ship come to the harbour surely we and our Lord Jesus together have a shipfull of gold coming home and our gold is in that ship Some are so in love or rather in lust with this life that they sell their part of the ship for a little thing I would counsel you to buy hope but sell it not and give not away your crosses for nothing the inside of Christs crosse is white and joyfull and the far end of the black crosse is a fair and glorious heaven of ease and seeing Christ hath fastned heaven to the far end of the crosse he will not loose the knot him self none else can for when Christ casteth a knot all the world cannot loose it let us then count it exceeding joy when we fall into diverse temptations Thus recommending you to the tender mercy grace of our Lord I rest Aberd. Your Loving Brother S. R. To JOHN GORDON Of Card nes Younger 25 Honoured Dear Brother I Wrote of late to you multitudes of letters burden me now I am refreshed with your letter I exhort you in the bowels of Christ set to work for your soul let these bear weight with you and ponder them seriously 1. Weeping gnasâ—ing of teeth in utter-darkness or heaven's joy 2. Think what ye would give for an hour when ye shall lie like dead cold blackned clay 3. there is sand in your glass yet your sun is not gone down 4. Consider what joy peace is in Christs service 5. Think what advantage it will be to have Angels the world life death crosses yea and devils all for you as the Kings serjeants and servants to doe your bussinesse 6. To have mercy on your seed a blessing on your house 7. To have true honour a name on earth that casts a sweet smell 8. How ye will rejoyce when Christ layeth down your head under his chinne betwixt his brests dryeth your face welcometh you to glory happyness 9. Imagine what pain torture is a guilty conscience What slavery to carry the Devils unhonest loads 10. Sins joyes are but night-dreames thoughts vapours imaginations and shadowes 11. What dignity it is to be a son of God 12. Dominion and mastery over tentations over the world and sin 13. That your enemies should be the taile and you the head For your bairns now at their rest I speak to you and your wife and cause her read this 1. I am a witness of Barbara's glory in heaven 2. For the rest I write it under my hand there are dayes coming on Scotland when barren wombs dry breasts and childless parents shall be pronounced blessed they are then in the lee of the harbour ere the storm come on 3. They are not lost to you that are laid up in Christs treasury in heaven 4. At the Resurrection ye shall meet with them there they are sent beâ—ore but not sent away 5. Your Lord loveth you who is homely to take and give borrow and lend 6. Let not bairns be your Idols for God will be jealouse and take away the Idol because he is greedy of your love wholly I bless you your wife and children Grace for evermore be with you Aberd. Your Loving Pastor S. R. To JOHN GORDON Of Cardoness elder 26 HOnourable dearest in the Lord. Your Letter hath refreshed my soul. My joy is fulfilled if Christ and ye be fast together ye are my joy my crown ye know I have recommended his love to you I defie the world Satan sin His love hath neither brim nor bottome in it My dearest in Christ I write my souls desire to you heaven is not at the next door I finde Christianity an hard task set to it in your evening we would all keep both Christ our right eye our right hand foot but it will not be with us I beseech you by the mercies of God and your compearance before Christ look Christs count book and your own together and collation them give the remnant of your time to your soul this great Idol-god the world will be lying in white ashes in the day of your compearance why should night-dreames and day-shaddowes water-froth May-flowers run away with your heart when we win to the water-side and black deaths river brinke and put our foot in the boat we shall laugh at our folly Sir I recommend you unto the thoughts of death and how ye would wish your soul to be when ye shall lie cold blew ill-smelling clay For any hireling to be intruded I being the Kings prisoner can not say much but as Gods minister I desire you to read Act. 2 15 16. to the end Act. 6. 2 3 4 5.
ye shall finde God's people should have a voice in chusing Church-rulers teachers I shall be sorry if willingly ye shall give way to his unlawful intrusion upon my labours The onely wise God direct you God's grace be with you Aberd. Your loving Pastor S. R. To EARLESTOUN YOUNGER 27 Much honoured welbeloved in the Lord. GRace mercy and peace be to you Your letters give a dash to my laziness in writing I must first tell you there is not such a glassie Icie slippery piece of way betwixt you and heaven as Youth I have experience to say with me here and seal what I assert the old ashes of the sins of my youth are new fire of sorrow to me I have seen the Devil as it were dead buried yet rise again be a worse Devil then ever he was Therefore my brother beware of a green young Devil that hath never been buried the Devil in his flowers I mean the hot fiery lusts passions of youth is much to be feared better yoke with an old gray-haired withered dry Devil For in youth he findeth dry sticks dry coals and an hot hearth-stone and how soon can he with his flint cast fire and with his bellows blow it up and fire the house sanctified thoughts thoughts made conscience of and called in and kept in aw are green fewel that burn not are a water for Satans coal Yet I must tell you the whole saints now triumphant in heaven and standing before the throne are nothing but Christs forlorn and beggerly Dyvours What are they but a pack of redeemed sinners But their redemption is not onely past the seals but compleated and yours is on the wheels and in doing All Christs good bairns go to heaven with a broken brow and with a crooked leg Christ hath an advantage of you and I pray you let him have 't he shall finde employment for his calling in you if it were not with you as you write grace should finde no sale nor mercat in you but ye must be content to give Christ somewhat adoe I am glad that he is employed that way let your bleeding soul and your sores be put in the hand of this expert physician let young and strong corruptions and his free grace be yoked together and let Christ your sins deal it betwixt them I will be loath to put you off your fears and your sense of deadness I wish it were more there be some wounds of that nature that their bleeding should not be soon stoped ye must take a house beside the Physician it shall be a miracle if ye be the first sick man he put away uncured worse then he found you nay nay Christ is honest and in that flyting free with sinners Ioh. 6. 37. And him that cometh to me I will in no case cast out Take ye that It cannot be presumption to take that as your own when ye find your wounds stound you presumption is ever whole at the heart and hath but the truant-sickness and groaneth onely for the fashion faith hath sense of sickness and looketh like a friend to the promise and looking to Christ therein is glad to see a known face Christ is as full a feast as ye can have to hunger nay Christ I say is not a full mans leavings his mercy sends alwayes a letter of defiance to all your sins if there were ten thousand moe of them I grant you it is a hard matter for a poor hungry man to win his meat upon hidden Christ for then the key of his pantrie door and of the house of wine is a seeking cannot be had but hunger must break thorow ironlocks I be moan them not who can make a din all the fields adoe for a Lost Saviour ye must let him hear it to say so upon both the sides of his head when he hideth himself it is no time then to be bird-mouth'd and patient Christ is rare indeed and a delicate to a sinner he is a miracle and a world's wonder to a seeking and a weeping sinner but yet such a miracle as will be seen by them who will come and see the seeker and sigher is at last a singer and enjoyer nay I have seen a dumb man get an almes from Christ. He that can tell his tale and send such a letter to heaven as he hath sent to Aberden it is very like he will come speed with Christ. It bodeth Gods mercy to complain heartily for sin Let wrestling be with Christ till he say How is it Sir that I cannot be quite of your bills your mislâ—arned crys And then hope for Christs blessing and his blessing is better then other ten blessings Think not shame because of your guiltiness necessity must not blush to beg it standeth you hard to want Christ and therefore that which idle on-waiting cannot doe misâ—urâ—ured crying and knocking will doe And for doubtings because ye are not as ye were long since with your master consider three things 1. What if Christ had such tottering thoughts of the bargain of the new covenant betwixt you him as you have 2. Your heart is not the compass Christ saileth by He will give you leave to sing as ye please But he will not dance to your daft spring It is not referred to you and your thoughts what Christ will doe with the charters betwixt you and him your own misbeleef hath torn them but he hath the principal in heaven with himself your thoughts are no parts of the New covenant dreams change not Christ. 3. Doubtings are your sins but they are Christs dâ—ugges ingâ—â—dients that the Phisician maketh use of for the cuâ—ing of your pride Is it not suitable for a begger to say at meat God reâ—ard the winners for then he sayeth he knoweth who beareth the charges of the house It is also meet ye should know by experience that faith is not natur's il gotten bastard but your Lords free gift that lay in the womb of Gods free grace praised be the winner I may adde a 4. In the passing of your bill your charters when they went through the Mediators great seal and were concluded faith's advice was not sought saith hath not a vote beside Christs merits blood blood dear blood that came from your cautioners holy body maketh that sure work The use then which ye have of faith now having already closed with Jesus Christ for justification is to take out a copy of your pardon so ye have peace with God upon the account of Christ for since faith apprehendeth pardon but never payeth a penny for it no marvel that Salvation doeth not die and live ebbe or flow with the working of faith but because it is your Lords honour to beleeve his mercy and his fidelity it is infinit goodness in our Lord that misbeleef giveth a dash to our Lords glory and not to our Salvation and so who ever want yea howbeit God here bear
reverence of him ho liveth for ever ever Christ buried rotten among the worms we might have cause to look like dead folks but the Lord liveth blessed be the rock of our salvation Psal. 18 46. None have right to joy but we for joy is sown for us an ill summer or harvest will not spill the crop The children of this world have much robbed joy that is not well come It is no good sport they laugh at They steall joy as it were from God for he commandeth them to mourn howle Then let us claim our â—eel-come lawfully conquished joy My dear Brother I cannot but speak what I have felt seeing my Lord Jesus hath broken a box of spikenard upon the head of his poor prisoner it is hard to hide a sweet smell it is pain to smother Christs love it will be out whether we will or not If we did but speak according to the matter a cross for Christ should have another name yea a cross especially when he cometh with his arms full of joyes is the happiest hard tree that ever was laid upon my weak shoulders Christ his cross together are sweet company a blessed couple My prison is my palace my sorrow is with childe of joy my losses are rich losses my pain easie pain my heavie dayes are holy happy dayes I may tell a new tale of Christ to my friend Oh if I could make a love-song of him could commend Christ tune his praises aright O if I could set all tongues in great Britain Ireland to work to help me to sing a new song of my welbeloved O if I could be a bridge over a water for my Lord Jesus to walk upon keep his feet dry O if my poor bit heaven could goe betwixt my Lord blasphemy dishonour upon condition he loved me O that my heart could say this word bide by it for ever Is it not great art incomparable wisdom in my Lord who can bring forth such fair apples out of this crabbed tree of the cross nay my fathers never enough admired providence can make a fair feast out of a black Devil nothing can come wrong to my Lord in his sweet working I would even fall sound a sleep in Christs arms my sinful head on his holy breast while he kisseth me were is not that often the wind turneth to the north whiles my sweet Lord Jesus is that he will neither give nor take borrow nor lend with me I complain he is not social I half call him proud lordly of his company nice of his lookes which yet is not true It would content me to give howbeit he should not take I should be content to want his kisses at such times providing he would be content to come near hand take my wersh dry feckless kisses But at that time he will not be entreated but lets a poor soul stand still knock never let it on him that he heareth then the old leavings broken meat dry sighs are greater chear then I can tell all I have then is that howbeit the law wrath have gotten a decret against me I yet lippen that meekle good in Christ as to get a suspension to bring my cause in reasoning again before my welbeloved I desire but to be heard And at last he is content to come agree the matter with a fool forgive freely because he is God Oh if men would glorify him taste of Christs sweetness Brother ye have need to be busie with Christ for this whorish-Kirk I fear Christ cast water upon Scotlands coal nay I know Christ his wife will be heard he will plead for the broken covenant Arme you against that time Grace be with you Aberd. June 16 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady Kilconqhuair 29. MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I am glad to hear that you have your face home-ward towards your fathers house now when so many are for a home nearer hand but your Lord calleth you to another life glory then is to be found here-away therefore I would counsel you to make sure the charters rights which ye have to Salvation You came to this life about a necessary weighty business to tryst with Christ anent your precious soul the eternal salvation of it this is the most necessary business ye have in this life your other adoés beside this are but toyes feathers dreams fancies this is the greatest haste should be done first Means are used in the Gospel to draw on a meeting betwixt Christ you if ye neglect your part of it it is as if you would tear the contract before Christ's eyes give up the match that there shall be no more communing of that business I know other lovers beside Christ are in suit of you your soul wanteth not many wooers but I pray you make a chaste virgin of your soul let it love but one most worthy is Christ alone of all your souls love howbeit your love were higher then the heaven deeper then the lowest of this earth broader then this world many alas too many make a common strumpet of their soul for every lover that cometh to the house Marriage with Christ would put your love your heart by the gate out of the way out of the eyes of all other unlawfull suiters then you had a ready answer for all others I am already promised away to Christ the match is concluded my soul hath a husband already it cannot have two husbands Oh if the world did but know what a smel the ointments of Christ cast and how ravishing his beauty even the beauty of the fairest of the sons of men is how sweet powerful his voice is the voice of that one welbeloved Certainly where Christ cometh he runneth away with the souls love so that they cannot command it I would far rather look but thorow the hole of Christs door to see but the one half of his fairest most comely face for he looketh like heaven suppose I should never win in to see his excellency glory to the full then to enjoy the flower the bloome chiefest excellency of the glory riches of ten worlds Lord send me for my part but the meanest share of Christ that can be given to any of the indwellers of the new Jerusalem But I know my Lord is no niggard He can it becometh him well to give more then my narrow soul can receive If there were ten thousand thousand millions of worlds as many heavens full of men Angels Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants and to fill us all Christ is a well of life but who knoweth how deep it is to the bottom This soul of ours hath love and cannot but love some fair
to hear from you I hear Christ hath been that Kind as to visit you with sickness to bring you to the door of the grave but ye found the door shut blessed be his glorious name while ye be riper for eternity He will have more service of you therefore he seeketh of you that hence forth ye be honest to your new husband the Son of God We have all Idol-love are wh 〈…〉 y inclined to love other things beside our Lord and therefore our Lord hunteth for our love moe wayes then one or two Oh that Christ had his own of us I know he will not want you that is a sweet wilfulness in his Love ye have as good cause oâ— the other part to be head strong peremptory in your love to Christ not to part or divide your love betwixt Him the world if it were more it is little enough yea too little for Christ. I am now every way in good terms with Christ he hath set a banished prisoner as a seal on his heart and as a bracelet on his arme that crabbed and black tree of the cross laugheth upon me now the alarming noise of the cross is worse then it self I love Christs glooms better then the world 's worm-eaten joyes Oh if all the Kingdom were as I am except these bonds my losse is gain my sadness joyfull my bonds liberty my tears comfortable This world is not worth a drink of cold water O but Christ's love casteth a great heat 〈◊〉 hell all the salt sea and the rivers of the earth cannot quench it I remember you to God ye have the prayers of a prisoner of Christ Grace grace be with you Aberd. March 9. 1637. Yours â—n his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady Caskiberry 31 MADAM GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how your La is I know not how to requite your La kindness but your love to the Saints Madam is Laid up in heaven I know it is for your welbeloved Christs sake that ye make his friends so dear to you concerne your self somuch in them I am in this house of my pilgrimage every way in good case Christ is most kind and loving to my soul it pleaseth him to feast with his unseen consolations a stranger and an exiled prisoner and I would not exchange my Lord Jesus with all the comfort out of heaven his yoke is easie and his burden light This is his truth I now suffer for for he hath sealed it â—ith his blessed presence I know Christ shall yet win the day and gaine the battell in Scotland Grace be with you Aberd. March 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr. JAMES BRUCE Minister of the Gospel 32 Reverend welbeloved Brother GRace mercy and peace be to you Upon the nearest acquaintance that we are fathers children I thought good to write to you My case in my bonds for the honour of my royall Prince and King Jesus iâ— as good as becometh the witness of such a Soveraign King At my first coming hither I was in great heaviness wrestling vvith challenges being burdened in heart as I am yet for my silent Sabbaths and for a bereft people young ones new-borne plucked from the breasts the Childrens table drawn I thought I was a drie tree cast over the dike of the vine-yard but my secret conceptions of Christs love at his sweet long-desired return to my soul were found to be a lye of Christs love forged by the tempter and my own heart and I am perswaded that it was so Now there is greater peace and security within then before the court is raised and dismissed for it was not fenced in God's name I was far mistaken who should have summoned Christ for unkindness misted faith my sever conceived amiss of him novv novv he is pleased to feast a poor prisoner and to refresh me vvith joy unspeakable and glorious so as the holy Spirit is witness that my sufferings are for Christs truth and God forbid I should deny the testimony of the holy Spirit and make him a false witness Now I testify under my hand out of some small experience that Châ—ists cause even with the cross is better then the Kings crown that his reproaches are sweet his cross perfumed the walls of my prison fair large my losses gain I desire you my dear Brother help me to praise and remember me in your prayers to God Grace grace be with you Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in our Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady Earlstoun 33 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how your soul prospereth I exhort you to go on in your journey your day is short your afternoon-sun will soon goe down make an end of your accounts with your Lord for Death and Judgement are tides that bide no man salvation is supposed to be at the door and Christianity is thought an easie task but I finde it hard and the way strait and narrow were it not but my guide is content to wait on me and to care for a tired traveller Hurt not your conscience with any known sin let your children be as so many flowers borrowed from God if the flowers die or wither thank God for a summers-loan of them keep good neighbourhood to borrow lend with him Set your heart upon heaven and trouble not your spirit with this clay-Idol of the world which is but vanity and hath but the lustre of the Rain-bow in the air which cometh and goeth with a flying March-shower Clay is the Idol of bastards not the inheritance of the children My Lord hath been pleased to make many unknown faces laugh upon me and hath made me well content of a borrowed fire-side and a borrowed bed I am feasted with the joyes of the holy Ghost my royal King beareth my charges honourably I love the smell of Christ's sweet breath better then the worlds gold I would I had help to praise him The great Messenger of the Covenant the Son of God establish you on your rock keep you to the day of his coming Aberd. March 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To CARLETOUN 34 Worthy much honoured GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter from my Brother to the which I now answer particularly I confess two things of my self 1. Woe woe is me that men should think there is any thing in me He is my witness before whom I am as crystall that the secret housâ—-devils that bear me too oft company that this sink of corruption which I finde within maketh me goe with low sailes if otherâ— saw what I see they would look by me but not to me 2. I know this shower of his free grace behooved to be on me otherwayes I would have withered I know also I have need of a buffeting tempter that grace may be
ascended on high ye have claim to interest in that promise Remember my love in Christ to your father shew him it is late black might with him his long lying at the water-side is that he may look his papers eâ—â— he take shipping be at a point for his last answer before his judge Lord. All love all mercy all grace peace all multiplied saving consolations all joy faith in Christ all stability confirming strength of grace the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush be with you Aberd. 15. June 1637. Your unworthy brother is his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To MARION M C KNAUGHT 35 Worthy dearest in the Lord. I Ever loved since I knew you that little vineyard of the Lord 's planting in Galloway But now much more since I have heard that he who hath his fire in Zion his furnace in Ierusalem hath been pleased to set up a furnace amongst you with the first in this Kingdom He who maketh old things new seeing Scotland an old drossie rusted Kirk is beginning to make a new clean bride of her to bring a young chast wife to him self out of the fire This fire shall be quenched so soon as Christ hath brought a clean spouse thorow the fire Therefore my dearly beloved in the Lord fear not a worm fear noâ— worm Iacob Christ iâ— iâ— that plea shall win the plea Charge an unbeleeving heart under the pain of treason against our great royall King Jesus to dependence by faith quiet on-waiting on our Lord Get you in to your chambers shut the doors about you In in with speed to your strong hold ye prisoners of hope ye doves flee in to Christ's windowes till the indignation be over the storme be past Glorifie the Lord in your sufferings take his banner of love spread over you others will follow you if they see you strong in the Lord their courage shall take life from your Christian carriage look up see who is coming lift up your head he is coming to save in garments died in blood travelling in the greatness of his strength I laugh I smile I leap for joy to see Christ coming to save you so quickly O such wide steps as Christ taketh Three or four hills are but a step to him he skippeth over the mountains Christ hath set a battell betwixt his poor weak saints his enemies he waileth the weapons for both parties saith to the enemies Take you a sword of steel Law Authority Parliaments Kings upon your side that is your armour he saith to his saints I give you a feckless tree-sword in your hand that is suffering receiving of strokes spoiling of your goods with your tree-sword ye shall get gain the Victory Was not Christ dragged through the ditches of deep distâ—esses great straits yet Christ who is your head hath win through with his life howbeit not with a whole skin Ye are Christs members 〈◊〉 is drawing his members thorow the thorny hedge up to heaven after him Chrisâ— one day will not have so much as a pained toe but there are great 〈◊〉 portions of Christ's mystical body not yet within the gates of the great high city the new Jerusalem the dragon will strike at Christ so long as there is one 〈◊〉 member of Christ's body out of heaven I tell you Christ 〈◊〉 make new work out of old fore-castâ—n Scotland gather 〈◊〉 old broken boards of his tabernacle pin them nail them togâ—ther our bills supplications are up in heaven Christ 〈◊〉 â—offers full of them there is mercy on the other 〈◊〉 of this hiâ—… a good answer to all our bills is agreed 〈◊〉 I must tell you what lovely Jesus fair Jesus King Jesus â—ath done to my soul sometimes he sendeth me out a standing drink whispereth a word thorow the wall I am well content of kindnessâ—t the second hand his bode is ever welcome to â—â—e be what it will but at other times he will be messenger himself I get the cup of salvation out of his own hand 〈◊〉 to me we cannot rest till we be in others armes and O how swèet is a fresh kiss from his holy mouth his â—…athing that goeth before a kiss upon my poor soul is sweet 〈◊〉 faultâ— but that it is too short I am careless stand not much on this howbeit â—oines back shoulders head â—ive in pieces in steping up to my fathers house I know my Lord can make long broad high deep glory to his name out of this bit feckless body for Christ looketh not what stuffe 〈◊〉 â—…eth glory ouâ— of My dearly beloved ye have often frâ—hed 〈◊〉 but that is put up in my Master's accounts â—e have him debter for me but if ye will doe any thing for me 〈◊〉 â—â—ow ye will now in my extremity tell all my dear friends that a prisoner is fettered chained in Christ's love Lord never loâ—… the fetters ye they together take 〈◊〉 hartiest commâ—…tions to my Lord Jesus thank him for a poor friend I desire your husband to read this letter I send him a prisoners blessing I will be obliged to him if he will be willing to suffer for my dear Master suffering is the professors golden garment there shall be no losses on Christ's side of it ye have been witnesses of much joy betwixt Christ me at communion-feasts the remembrance whereof howbeit I be feasted in secret holleth my heart for I am put from the board-head the kings first mess to his by-board his broken meat is sweet unto me I thank my Lord for borrowed crumbs no less then when I was feasted at the communion-table in Anwoth Kirkâ—udbright pray that I may get one day of Christ in publike as I have had long since before my eyes be closed Oh that my Master would take up house again lend me the keys of his wine-cellar again God send me borrowed drink till then Remember my love to Chist's kinsmen with you I pray for Christ's father's blessing to them all Grace be with you a prisoners blessing be with you I write it and I bide by it God shall be glorious in Marion M c Knaught when this stormy blast shall be over O woman beloved of God beleeve rejoyce be strong in the Lord Grace is thy portion Aberd. 15. June 1637. Your brother in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN GORDON At Risco in Galloway 36 My worthy dear Brother MIspend not your short sand-glass which runneth very fast seek your Lord in time let me obtain of you a letter under your hand for a promise to God by his grace to take a new course of walking with God heaven is not at the next door I finde it hard to be a Christian there is no little thrusting thronging to thrust in at
heavens gates it is a castle taken by force many shall strive to enter in shall not be able I beseech obtest you in the Lord make conscience of rash passionat oathes of raging sudden revenging anger of night-drinking of needless companionry of Sabbath-breaking of hurting any under you by word or deed of hating your very enemies Except ye receive the Kingdom of God as a little childe be as meek sober-minded as a babe ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That is a word which should touch you near and make you stoop cast your self down and make your great spirit fall I know this will not be easily done but I recommend it to you as you tender your part of the Kingdom of heaven Brother I may from new experience speak of Christ to you Oh if ye saw in him what I see a river of God's unseen joyes hath flowed from bank to brae over my soul since I parted with you I wish I wanted part so being ye might have that your soul might be sick of love for Christ or rather satiat with him this clay-idol the world would seem to you then not worth a fig time will eat you out of possession of it when the eye strings break the breath groweth cold the imprisoned soul looketh out at the windowes of the clay house ready to leap out into eternity what would ye then give for a lamp full of oyl Oh seek it now I desire you to correct curb banning swearing lying drinking sabbath-breaking idle spending of the Lords day in absence from the Kirk as far as your Authority reacheth in that Parish I hear a man is to be thrust in to that place to the which I have God's right I know ye should have a voice by God's word in that Act. 1 15 16. to the end and Act. 6 3 5. Ye would be loath that any Prelat should put you out of your possession earthly this is your right What I write to you I write to your wife Grace be with you Aberd. March 14 1637. Your loving Pastor S. R. To the Lady HALHILL 37. DEar Christian Lady Grace mercy peace be to you I longed much to write to your La But now the Lord offering a fit occasion I would not omit to doe it I cannot but acquaint your Lae with the Kind dealing of Christ to my soul in this house of my pilgrimage that your La May know Christ is as good as he is called For at my first entry into this triall being easten down troubled with challenges jealousies of his love whose name testimony I now bear in my bonds I feared nothing more then that I was casten over the dike of the vineyard as a dry tree but blessed be his great name the dry tree was in the fire was not burnt his dew came down quickned the root of a withered plant now he is come again with joy hath been pleased to feast his exiled afflicted prisoner with the joy of his consolations now I weep but am not sad I am chastned but I die not I have losse but I want nothing this water cannot drown me this fire cannot burn me because of the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush The worst things of Christ his reproaches his crosse is better then Egypt's treasures He hath opened his door taken into his house of wine a poor sinner hath leâ—t me so sick of love for my Lord Jesus that if heaven were at my disposing I would give it for Christ would not be content to goe to heaven except I were perswaded Christ were there I would not give nor exchange my bonds for the I'relats velvets nor my prison for their coaches nor my sighs for all the world's laughter this clay idol the world hath no great court in my soul Christ hath come run away to heaven with my heart my love so that neither heart nor love is mine I pray God Christ may keep both without reversion In my estimation as I am now disposed if my part of this world's clay were rooped sold I would think it dear of a drink of water I see Christ's love is so Kingly that it will not abide a marrow it must have a throne all alone in the soul I see apples beguile bairns howbeit they be worm-eaten the moth-eaten pleasures of this present world make bairns beleeve ten is a hundred yet all that are here are but shaddowes if they would draw by the curtain that is hanged betwixt them Christ they should think themselves fools who have so long miskenned the Son of God I seek no more next to heaven but that he may be glorified in a prisoner of Christ that in my behalf many would praise his high glorious name who heareth the sighing of the prisoner Remember my service to the Laird your husband to your son my aquaintance I wish Christ had his young love that in the morning he would start to the gate to seek that which this world knoweth not therefore doeth not seek it The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the right honourable my Lord LINDSAY 38 Right honourable my very good Lord. GRace mercy peace be to your Lo Pardon my boldness to express my self to your Lo At this so needful a time when your wearied friendless mother-kirk is looking round about her to see if any of her sons doeth really bemoan her desolation Therefore my dear worthy Lord I beseech you in the bowels of Christ pity that widow-like sister spouse of Christ. I know her husband iâ— not dead but he seemeth to be in another countrey seeth well beholdeth who are his true tender hearted friends who dare venture under the water to bring out to dry land sinking truth who of the Nobles will cast up their arm to warde a blow off the crowned head of our Royal law-giver who reigneth in Zion who will plead contend for â—acob in the day of his controversie It iâ— now time my worthy noble Lord for you who are the little nurse-fathers under our Soveraign Prince to put on courage for the Lord Jesus to take up a fallen orphan speaking out of the dust to embrace in your arms Christ's Bride he hath no more in Scotland that is the delight of his eyes but that one little sister whose breasts were once well fashioned She once ravished her welbeloved with her eyes and overcame him with her beauty She looked forth as the morning fair as the moon clear as the sun terrible as an army with banners Her stature was like the palm-tree and her breasts like clusters of grapes she held the King in his galleries Cant. 4 9. 6 10. 7 5 7. But now the crown is fallen
rejoyce in death Oh for a yeer's lease of the sense of his love without a cloud to try what Christ is Oh for the coming of the bridegroom Oh when will I see the bridegroom the bride meet in the clouds kisse each other Oh when will we get our day our hearts full of that love Oh is it were lawfull to complain of the fâ—mine want of that love of the immediat vision of God! O time time how doest thou torment the souls of these that would be swallowed up of Christ's love because thou movest so slowly Oh if he would pity a poor prisoner blow love upon me give a prisoner a taste or draught of that surpassing sweetness which is glory as it were begun to be a confirmation that Christ I shall have our fill of other for ever Come hither O love of Christ that I may once kisse thee before I die what would I not give to have time that lieth betwixt Christ me taken out of the way that we might once meet I cannot think but â—t the first sight I shall see of that most lovely fairest face love shall come out of his two eyes fill me with astonishment I would but desire to stand at the utter side of the gates of the new Jerusalem look thorow a hole of the door see Christ's face a borrowed vision in this life would be my borrowed begun heaven while the long long-looked for day dawn It is not for nothing that it is said Colos. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory I will be content of no pawne of heaven but Christ himself for Christ possessed by faith here is young heaven glory in the bud If I had that pawne I would bide horning hell both ere I gave it again All we have here is scarce the picture of glory Should not we young bairns long look for the expiring of our minority It were good to be daily begging propines love-gifts the bridegroom's favours if we can doe no more seek Crumbs hungry dinners of Christ's love to keep the taste of heaven in our mouth while supper time I know it is far afternoon and nigh the marriage-supper of the Lamb the table is covered already O welbeloved run run fast O fair day when wil't thou dawn O shaddows flee away I think hope love woven thorow other make our absence from Christ spirituall torment It is a pain to wait on but hope that maketh not a hamed swalloweth up that pain It is not unkindness that keepeth Christ us so long asunder What can I say to Christ's love I think more then I can say To consider that when my Lord Jesus may take the air if I may so speak goe abroad yet he will be confined keep the prison with me but in all this sweet communion with him what am I to be thanked for I am but a sufferer whether I will or not he will be kind to me as if he had defied my guiltiness to make him unkind so he beareth in his love on me Here I die with wondering that justice hindereth not love for there are none in hell nor out of hell more unworthy of Christ's love Shame may confound and scar me once to hold up my black mouth to receive one of Christ's undeserved kisses If my inner-side were turned out all men saw my vileness they would say to me It is a shame for thee to stand still while Christ kiss thee embrace thee It would seem to become me rather to run away from hi love as ashamed at my own unworthiness Nay I may think shame to take heaven who have so higly provoked my Lord Jesus But seeing Christ's love will shame me I am content to be shamed My desire is that my Lord would give me broader deeper thoughts to feed my self with wondering at his love I would I could weigh it but I have no ballance for it When I have worn my tongue to the stump in praising of Christ I have done nothing to him I must let him alone for my withered armes will not goe about his high wide long and broad love What remaineth then but that my debt to the love of Christ lie unpaid for all eternity All that are in heaven are black sham'd with his love as well as I we must all be Dyvours together the blessing of that house-full or heaven-full of Dyvours shall rest for ever upon him Off this Land Nation would come stand beside his inconceivable glorious perfections look in love wonder adore would to God I could bring in many lovers to Christ's house But this Nation hath forsaken the fountain of living waters Lord cast not water on Scotland's coal Woe woe will be to this Land because of the day of the Lord 's fierce anger that is so fast coming Grace be with you Aberd. Your affectionat Brother in our Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN KENNEDY Bailiffe of Ayr. 46 Worthy Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I long to see you in this Northerne world in paper I know it is not forgetfulness that ye write not I am every way in good case both in soul body all honour glory be to my Lord I want nothing but a further revelation of the beauty of the unknown Son of God Either I know not what Christianity is or we have stinted a measure of so many ounce weights no more upon holiness there we are at a stay drawing our breath all our life a moderation in God's way now is much in request I profess I have never taken pains to finde out him whom my soul loveth there is a gate yet of finding out Christ that I have never lighted upon Oh if I could finde it out Alas how soon are we pleased with our own shaddow in a glass It were good to be beginning in sad earnest to finde out God to seek the right tread of Christ time custome a good opinion of our selves our good meaning our lazie desires our fair showes the world's glistering lustres these broad passements buskings of religion that bear bulk in the Kirk is that wherewith most satisfie themselves but a watered bed with tears a dry throat with praying eyes a fountain of tears for the sins of the land is rare to be found among us Oh if we could know the power of godliness This is one part of my case an other is that I like a fool once summoned Christ for unkindness complained of his sickelness unconstaney because he would have no more of my service nor preaching had casten me out of the inheritance of the Lord And I confess now this was but a bought plea I was a fool yet he hath born with me I gave him a fair advantage against me but love mercy would not let him take it
to follow cannot be blowen away with winds either from hell or the evil smelled air of this polluted world Sir for aback from the walls of this pest-house even the pollutions of this defiling world Keep your taste your love and hope in heaven it 's not good your love your Lord should be in two sundry countreys Up up after your lover that ye he may be together A King from heaven hath sent for you by faith he sheweth you the new Jerusalem taketh you alongst in the Spirit thorow all the ease-rooms dwelling-houses in heaven saith All these are thine this palace is for thee Christ if ye onely had been the chosen of God Christ would have built that one house for you and himself Now it is for you many also take with you in your journey what ye may carry with you your conscience faith hope patience meekness goodness brotherly kindness for such wares as these are of great price in the high new countrey whether ye goe As for other things that are but the world's vanity trash since they are but the house-sweepings ye shall doe best not to carry them with you ye found them here leave them here and let them keep the house Your Sun is well turned low be nigh your lodging against night We goe one one out of this great market till the town be empty the two lodgings Heaven Hell be filled At length there will be nothing in the earth but room walls burnt ashes therefore it is best to make away Antichrist his Master are busie to plenish Hell to seduce many Stars great church-lights are falling from heaven many are missed seduced make up with their faith sell their birth-right by their hungry hunting for I know not what Fasten your grips fast upon Christ I verily esteem him the best aught that I have He is my second in prison having him though my cross were as heavie as ten mountains of iron when he putteth his sweet shoulder under me it my cross is but a feather I please my self in the choice of Christ he is my waile in heaven earth I rejoyce that he is in heaven before me God send a joyfull meeting in the mean time the traveller's charges for the way I mean a burden of Christ's love to sweeten the journey to encourage a breathless runner for when I lose breath climbing up the mountain he maketh new breath Now the very God of peace establish you to the day of his appearance Aberd. Sept. 9 1637. Yourâ— in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To MARGARET REID 49 My very Dear worthy Siâ—â—er GRace mercy peace be to you Ye are truly blessed of the Lord however a lowre world gloom upon you if ye continue in the faith grounded settled be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel it is good there is a heaven it is not a night dream or a fancy It is a wonder that men deny not that there is a heaven as they deny there is a way to it but of mens making You have learned of Christ that there is a heaven contend for it contend for Christ bear well submissivily the hard cross of this step-mother world that God will not have to be yours I confess it is hard I would I were able to ease you of your burthen But beleeve me this world which the Lord will not have to be yours is but the dross the refuse scum of God's creation the portion of the Lord 's poor hired servants the moveables not the heritage a hard bone casten to the dogs holden out of the new Jerusalem whereupon they rather break their teeth then satisfie their appetite It is your father's blessing Christ's birth-right that our Lord is keeping for you I perswade you your seed also shall inherit the earth if that be good for them for that iâ— promised to them God's bond is as good and better then if men would give every one of them a bond for thousand thousands Ere ye was born crossâ—s in number measure weight were written for you your Lord will lead you thorow them make Christ sure the blessings of the earth shall be at Christ's back I see many professors for the fashion follow on but they are professors of glass I would cause a little knock of persecution ding them in twenty pieces so the world should laugh at the sheards Therefore make fast work see that Christ lay the ground-stone of your profession for wind rain speats will not wash away his building his works have no shorter date then to stand for evermore I should tweâ—ty times have perished in my affliction if I had not leaned my weak back laid my pressing burthen both upon the stone the foundation-stone the corner-stone laid in Zion I desire never to rise off this stone Now the very God of peace confirm establish you unto the day of the blessed appearance of Christ Jesus God be with you Aberd. Yours in his dearest Lord Iesus S. R. To JAMES BAUTIE 50 Loving Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you I received your letter renders you thanks for the same but I have not time to answer all the heads of it as the bearer can inform you 1. Ye doe well to take your self at the right stot when ye wrong Christ by doubting misbeleef for this is to nick-name Christ terme him a liar which being spoken to our Prince would be hanging or heading but Christ hangeth not alwayes for treason It is good that he may registrat a beleevers bond a hundred times more then seventy times a day have law against us yet he spareth us as a man doeth his son that serveth him No tender hearted mother who may have law to kill her sucking childe would put in execution that law 2. For your failings even ye have a set tryst with Christ when ye have a fair seen advantage by keeping your appointment with him Salvation cometh to the very passing of the seals I would say two things 1. Concluded sealed Salvation may goe through be ended suppose ye write your name to the tail of the Covenant with ink that can hardly be read Neither think I ever any man's Salvation passed the seals but there was an odde trick or slip in less or more upon the fools part who is infested in heaven In the most grave serions work of our Salvation I think Christ had ever good cause to laugh at our filliness to put on us his merits that we might bear weight 2. It is a sweet law of the new Covenant a priviledge of the new burgh that the citizens pay according to their means for the new covenant saith not so much obedience by ounce weights no less under the pain of damnation Christ taketh as
crave my minde whether found comfort may be found in prayer when conviction of a known idol is present I answer an idol as an idol can not stand with found comfort for that comfort that is gotten at Dagon's sect is a cheat or blea-flumme yet sound comfort conviction of an eye to an idol may as well dwell together as tears joy But let this doe you no ill I speak it for your encouragement that ye may make the best out of your joyes ye can albeit ye finde them mixed with motes 2. Sole conviction if alone without remorse and grief is not enough therefore lend it a tear if ye dow win at it 7. Ye question when ye win to more fervency sometimes with your neighbour in prayer then your alone whether hypocrisie be in it or not I answer if this be alwayes no question a spice of hypocrisie in in it which would be taken head to out possibly desertion may be in privat presence in publike then the case is clear 2. A fit of applause may occasion by accident a rubbing of a cold heart so heat life may come but it is not the proper cause of that heat hence God of his free grace will ride his errands upon our stinking corruption but corruption is but a meer occasion accident as the playing on a pipe removed anger from the prophet made him fitter to prophesie 2. King 3 v. 15. 8. Ye complain of Christ's short visits that he will not bear you company one night but when ye lie down warm at night ye rise cold at morning Ans. I cannot blame you nor any other who knoweth that sweet guest to bemoan his withdrawings to be most desirous of his abode company for he would captivat engage the affection of any creature that saw his face since he looked on me gave me a sight of his fair love he gained my heart wholly got away with it Well well may he brook it he shall keep it long ere I fetch it from him But I shall tell you what ye shall doe treat him well give him the chair the board-head make him welcome to the mean portion ye have a good supper kind entertainment maketh the guest love the innes the better Yet sometimes Christ hath an errand elsewhere for meer trial then though ye give him king's-chear he will away as is clear in desertions for meer trial not for sin 9. Ye seek the difference betwixt the motions of the Spirit in their least measure the natural joyes of your own heart Ans. as a man can tell if he joy delight in his wife as his wife or if he delight joy in her for satisfaction of his lust but hating her person so loving her for her her flesh not grieving when ill befalleth her so will a man's joy in God and his who â—ish naturall joy be discovered if he sorrow for any thing that may offend that Lord it will speak the singleness of his love to him 10. Ye aske the reason why sense overcometh faith Ans. because sense is more naturall neer of kin to our own selfish soft nature Ye aske if faith in that ease be found Ans If it be chased away it is neither sound nor unsound because it is not faith but it might be was faith before sense did blow out the act of beleeving Lastly ye aske what to doe when promises are born in upon you sense of impenitency for sins of youth hindereth application I answer if it be living sense it may stand with application in this case put to your hand eat your meat in God's name if false so that the sins of youth are not repented of then as faith impenitency cannot stand together so neither that sense application can consist Brother excuse my brevity for time straitneth me that I get not my minde said in these things but must refer that to a new occasion if God offer it Brother Pray for me Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his dearest Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN STUART Provest of Ayr now in Ireland 51 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be unto you I long to hear from you being now removed from my flock the prisoner of Christ at Aberd I would not have you to think it strange that your journey to New-England hath gotten such a dash It indeed hath made my heart heavie yet I know it is no dumb providence but a speaking one whereby our Lord speaketh his minde to you though for the present ye doe not well understand what he saith however it be he who sitteth upon the floods hath showen you his marvellous kindness in the great depths I know your loss is great your hope is gone far against you But I entreat you Sir expound aright our Lord 's laying an hinderance is the way I perswade my self your heart aimeth at the footsteps of the flock to feed beside the shepherds tents to dwell beside him whom your soul loveth that it is your desire to remain in the wilderness where the woman is kept from the Dragon this being your desire remember that a poor prisoner of Christ said it to you that That miscarried journey is with childe to you of mercy consolation and shall bring forth a fair birth and the Lord shall be midwife to the birth wait on he that beleeveth maketh not haste Isa 28. 16. I hope ye have been asking what the Lord meaneth what further may be his will in reference to your return my dear Brother let God make of you what he will he will end all with consolation shall make glory out of your sufferings would ye wish better work this water was in your way to heaven written in your Lord's book ye behooved to cross it therefore kisse his wise unerring providence Let not the censures of men who see but the out side of things scarce well that abate your courage rejoycing in the Lord howbâ—it your faith seeth but the black side of providence yet it hath a better side God shall let you see it Learn to beleeve Christ better then his strokes himself his promises better then his gloomes dashes disappointments are not Canonick scripture fighting for the promised land seemed to cry to God's promise thoulyest If our Lord rideupon a straw his horse shall neither stumble nor fall Rom. 8. 28. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God Ergo shipwrak losses c work together for the good of them that love God Hence I inferre that losses disappointments ill tongues losse of friends houses or countrey are God's work men set on work to work out good to you out of every thing that befalleth you let not the Lord's dealing seem harsh rough ot unfatherly because it is unpleasant when the Lord
's blessed will bloweth cross your desires it is best in humility to strike saile to him and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth it is a point of denial of your self to be as if ye had not a will but had made a free disposition of it to God had sold it over to him to make use of his will for your own is both true holiness your ease peace ye know not what the Lord is working out of this but ye shall know it hereafter what I write to you I write to your â—…ife I compassionat her case but intreat her not to fear or faint this journey is a part of her wilderness to heaven the promised land and there are sewer miles behinde it is neerer the dawning of the day to her then when she went out of Scotland I would be glad to hear that ye she have comfort courage in the Lord. Now as concerning our Kirk Our Service-book is ordained by open proclamation sound of trumpet to be read in all the Kirks of this Kingdom Our Prelats are to meet this moneth for It our Canons for a Reconciliation betwixt us the Lutherians The Professors of Aberden-Universitie are charged to draw up the Articles of an Uniform Confession But Reconciliation with Popery is intended this is the day of Jacob's Visitation the wayes of Zion mourn our gold is become dim the sun is gone down upon our Prophets a dry wind but neither to fan nor to cleanse is coming upon this land all our ill is coming from the multiplied transgressions of this land and from the friends lovers of Babel amongst us Jer 31 35. The violence done to me my flesh be upon thee Babylon shall the inhabitants of Zion say my blood upon the inhabitants of Caldea shall Ierusalem say Now for my self I was three dayes before the High Comission accused of treason preached against our King A Minister being witness went well nigh to swear it God hath saved me from their malice 1. They have deprived me of my Ministery 2. Silenced me that I exercise no part of the Ministeriall function within this Kingdom under the pain of Rebellion 3. Confined my person within the town of Aberden where I finde the Ministers working for my confine ment in Caithnesse or Orknay far from them because some people here willing to be edified resort to me At my first entry I had heavie challenges within me a court fenced but I hope not in Christ's name wherein it was asserted that my Lord would have no more of my service was tired of me And like a fool I summoned Christ also for unkindness my soul fainted I refused comfort said what ailed Christ at me for I desired to be faithfull in his house thus in my rovings mistakings my Lord Jesus bestowed mercy on me who am less then the least of all saints I lay upon the dust bought a plea from Satan against Christ he was content to sell it but at length Christ did show himself friends with me in mercy pardoned past my part of it onely complained that a court should be holden in his bounds without his own allowance now I passe from my compearance as if Christ had done the fault he hath made the mends returned to my soul so that now his poor prisoner feedeth on the feast of love my adversaries know not what a courtier I am now with my Royall King for whose crown I now suffer it iâ— but our soft lazie flesh that hath raised an ill report of the cross of Christ. O sweeet sweet is his yoke Christ's chains are of pure gold sufferings for him are perfumed I would not give my weeping for the laughing of all the fourteen Prelats I would not exchange my sadness with the world's joy O lovely lovely Jesus how sweet must thy kisses be when thy cross smelleth so sweetly O if all the three Kingdoms had part of my love-feasts of the comforts of a dated prisoner Dear Brother I charge you to praise for me seek help of our acquaintance there to help me to praise Why should I smother Christ's honesty to me my heart is taken up with this that my silence and sufferings may preach I beseech you in the bowels of Christ to help me to praise Remember my love in Christ to your wife to Mr Blair Mr Livingston Mr Cuninghame let me hear from you for I am anxious what to doe If I saw a call for New-England I would follow it Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in our Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN STUART Provest of Ayr. 52. Much honoured Dearest in Christ. GRace mercy peace from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you I expected the comfort of a letter to a prisoner from you ere now I am here Sir putting off a part of my inch of time when I awake first in the morning which is alwayes with great heaviness sadness this question is brought to my minde Am I serving God or not Not that I doubt of the truth of this honourable cause wherein I am engaged I dare venture in to eternity before my judge that I now suffer for the truth because that I cannot endure that my Master who is a free-born King should pay tribute to any of the shields or pot-sheards of the earth Oh that I could hold the crown upon my Princely King's head with my sinfull arm howbeit it should be stroke from me in that service from the shoulder blade but my closed mouth my dumb Sabbaths the memory of my communion with Christ in many fair fair dayes in Anwoth whereas now my master gotteth no service of my tongue as then hath almost broken my faith in two halves yet in my deepest apprehensions of his anger I see thorow a cloud that I am wrong he in love to my soul hath taken up the controversie betwixt faith apprehensions and a decret is past on Christ's side of it I subscribe the decret The Lord is equal in his wayes but my guiltiness often overmastereth my beleeving I have not been well known for except as to open out-breakings I want nothing of what Judas Cain had onely he hath been pleased to prevent me in mercy to cast me into a fever of love for himself his absence maketh my fever most painfull beside he hath visited my soul watered it with his comforts but yet I have not what I would the want of reall and felt possession is my onely death I know Christ pitieth me in this The great men my friends that did for me are dried up like winter brooks of water All say no dealing for that man â—is best will be to be gone out of the Kingdom so I see they tire of me but beleeve me I am most gladly content that
Christ breaketh all my idols in pieces it hath put a new edge upon my blunted love to Christ I see he is Jealouse of my love will have all to himself In a word these six things are my burden 1. I am not in the vineyard as others are it may be because Christ thinketh me a withered tree not worthy it's room but God forbid 2. Woe woe woe is coming upon my harlot-mother this Apostat-kirk the time is coming when we shall wish for doves wings to flee and hide us Oh for the desolation of this land 3. I see my dear master Christ going his alone as it were mourning in sackeloth his fainting friends fear that King Jesus shall lose the field but he must carry the day 4. My guiltiness and the sins of my youth are come up against me and they would come in the plea in my sufferings as deserving causes in God's justice but I pray God for Christ's sake he never give them that room woe 's me that I cannot get my Royall dreadfull mighty glorious Prince of the Kings of the earth set on high Sir ye may help me pity me in this and bow your knee blesse his name desire others to doe it that he hath been pleased in my sufferings to make Atheists Papists enemies about me say It is like God is with this prisoner Let hell the powers of hell I care not be let loose against me to doe their worst so being Christ my Father his Father be magnified in my sufferings 6. Christ's love hath pained me for howbeit his presence hath shamed me and drowned me in debt yet he often goeth away when my love to him is burning he seemeth to look like a proud wooer who will not look upon a poor match who is dying of love I will not say he is lordly but I know he is wise in hiding himself from a childe a fool who maketh an idol a God of one of Christ's kisses which is Idolatry I fear I adore his comforts more then himself and that I love the apples of life better then the tree of life Sir write to me Commend me to your wife mercy be her portion Grace be with you Aberd. 1637 Yours in his dearest Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN STUART Provest of Ayr. 53 Worthy and dearly beloved in our Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you I was refreshed comforted with your letter what I wrote to you for your comfort I doe not remember but I beleeve love will prophesie home-ward as it would have it I wish I could help you to praise his great and holy name who keepeth the feet of his saints hath numbred all your goings I know our dearest Lord will pardon passe by our honest errours mistakes when we minde his honour yet I know none of you have seen the other half the hidden side of your wonderfull return home to us again I am confident ye shall yet say that God's mercy blew your sailes back to Ireland again Worthy dear Sir I cannot but give you an account of my present state that ye may goe an errand for me to my high royall master of whom I boast all the day I am as proud of his love nay I blesse my self boast more of my present lot as any poor man can be of an earthly Kings court or of a Kingdom First I am very often turning both the sides of my cross especially my dumb silent Sabbaths not because I desire to finde a crook or defect in my Lord's love but because love is sick with phansies fears whether or not the Lord hath a processe leading against my guiltiness that I have not yet well seen I know not my desire is to ride fair not to spark dirt if with reverence of him I may be permitted to make use of such a word in the face of my onely onely welbeloved but fear of guiltness iâ— a tale-bearer betwixt me Christ is still whispering ill tales of my Lord to weaken my faith I had rather a cloud went over my comforts by these messages then that my faith should be hurt for if my Lord get no wrong by me verily I desire grace not to care what become of me I desire to give no faith nor credit to my sorrow that can make a lye of my best friend Christ. Woe woe be to them all who speak ill of Christ. Hence these thoughts awake with me in the morning goe to bed with me Oh what service can a dumb body doe in Christ's house Oh I think the word of God is imprisoned also Oh I am a dry tree Alas I can neither plant nor water Oh if my Lord would make but dung of me to fatten and make fertile his own corn-ridges in mount Sion Oh if I might but speak to three or four herd-boyes of my worthy master I would be satisfied to be the meanest and most obscure of all the Pastors in this land to live in any place in any of Christ's basest out-housâ—s but he saith Sirra I â—ill not send you I have no errands for you there away My desire to serve him is sick of jealousie lest he be unwilling to employ me Secondly this is seconded with another Oh all that I have done in Anwoth the fair work that my Master began there is like a bird dying in the shell what will I then have to show of all my labour in the day of my compearance before him when the Master of the vineyard calleth the labourers giveth them their hire Thirdly but truly when Christ's sweet wind is in the right airth I repent I pray Christ to take law-borrows of my quarrelous unbeleeving sadness sorrow Lord rebuke them that put ill betwixt a poor servant like me his good master then I say whether the black cross will or not I must climb hands feet up to my Lord. I am now ruing from my heart that I pleasure the law my old dead husband so far as to apprehend wrath in my sweet Lord Jesus I had far rather take an hire to plead for the grace of God for I think my self Christ's sworn debter the truth is to speak of my Lord what I cannot deny I am over head ears drowned in many obligations to his love mercy he handleth me sometimes so that I am ashamed almost to seek more for a four-hours but to live content till the marriage-supper of the Lamb with that which he giveth but I know not how greedy how ill to please love is for either my Lord Jesus hath taught me ill manners not to be content of a seat except my head lie in his bosom except I be fed with the fattest of his house or else I am grown impatiently dainty ill to please as if Christ were obliged under this cross to doe no other thing but bear me in his armes
in as sweet communion with Christ as a poor sinner can be am onely pained that he hath much beauty and fairness and I little love he great power mercy I little faith he much light I bliered eyes Oh that I saw him in the sweetness of his love in his marriage clothes were over head ears in love with that princely one Christ Jesus my Lord Alas my riven dish running-out vessel can hold little of Christ Jesus I have joy in this that I would not refuse death before I put Christ's lawfull heritage in mens trysting what know I if they would have pleased both Christ me Alas that this land hath put Christ to open rooping to an any man more bâ—â— Blessed are they who would hold the crown on his head buy Christ's honour with their own losses I rejoyce to hear your son Iohn is coming to visit Christ taste of his love I hope he shall not lose his pains or rue of that choice I had alwayes as I said often to you a great love to dear Mr Iohn Brown because I thought I saw Christ in him more then in his brethren fain would I write to him to stand by my sweet Master I wish ye would let him read my letter the joy I have if he will appeare for side with my Lord Jesus Grace grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JEAN M c MILLAN 58 Loving Sister GRace mercy peace be to you I cannot come to you to give you my counsel howbeit I would come I cannot stay with you but I beseech you keep Christ for I did what I could to put you within grips of him I told you Christ's Testament latterwill plainly I kept nothing back that my Lord gave me I gave Christ to you with good will I pray you make him your own goe not from that truth I taught you in one hair breadth that truth shall save you if ye follow it salvation is not an easie thing soon gotten I often told you few are saved many many damned I pray you make your poor soul sure of salvation make the seeking of heaven your daily task if ye never had a sick night a pained soul for sin ye have not yet lighted upon Christ look to the right marks of having closed with Christ if ye love him better then the world would quite all the world for him then that saith the work is sound O if ye saw the beauty of Jesus felt the smell of his love ye would run through fire water to be at him God send you him Pray for me for I cannot forget you Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your loving Pastor S. R. To the Lady Busbie 59 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I am glad to hear that Christ ye are one that ye have made him your one thing Whereas many are painfully tâ—…iled in seeking many things their many things are nothing It 's onely best ye set your self apart as a thing laid up out of the gate for Christ alone for ye are good for no other thing but Christ he hath been going about you these many years by afflictions to engage you to himself it were a pity a loss to say him nay Verily I could wish that I could swim through hell all the ill weather in the world Christ in my arms but it is my evil folly that except Christ come unsent for I dow not goe to seek him When he I fall in reckoning we are both behinde he in payment I in counting so marches lie still unrid counts uncleared betwixt us O that he would take his own blood for counts miscounts that I might be a free man none had any claim to me but onely onely Jesus I will think it no bondage to be rooped comprised possessed by Christ as his bond-man Think well of the visitations of your Lord For I finde one thing I saw not well before that when the saints are under trials well humbled little sins raise great cryes war-shouts in the conscience in prosperity conscience is a Pope to give dispensations let out in give latitude elbow-room to our heart O how little care we for pardon at Christ's hand when we make dispensations And all is but bairns-play till a cross without beget an heavier cross within then we play no longer with our Idols It is good still to be severe against ourselves for we but transform God's mercy into an Idol an Idol that hath a dispensation to give for turning of the grace of God into wantonness Happy are they who take up God wrath justice sin as they are in themselves For we have miscarrying light that parteth with childe when we have good resolutions But God be thanked that Salvation is not rolled upon our wheels O but Christ hath a saving eye Salvation is in his eye-lids When he first looked on me I was saved It cost him but a look to make hell quite of me O merits free merits the dear blood of God was the best gate that ever we could have gotten of hell O what a sweet O what a safe sure way is it to come out of hell leaning on a Saviour That Christ a sinner should be one have heaven betwixt them be halvers of Salvation is the wonder of Salvation What more humble could love be what an excellent smell doeth Christ cast on his lower garden where there grow but wilde flowers if we speak by way of comparison but there is nothing but perfect garden flowers in heaven the best plenishing that is there is Christ We are all obliged to love heaven for Christ's sake he graceth heaven all his father's house with his presence He is a rose that beautifieth all the upper garden of God a leaf of that rose of God for smell is worth a world O that he would blow his smell upon a withered dead soul let us then goe on to meet with him to be filled with the sweetness of his love Nothing will hold him from us he hath decreed to put time sin hell devils men death out of the way to rid the rough way betwixt us him that we may enjoy one another It 's strange wonderfull that he would think long in heaven without us that he would have the company of sinners to solace delight himself withall in heaven now the supper is abiding us Christ the bridegroom with desire is waiting on till the bride the Lamb's wife be busked for the marriage the great hall be rid for the meeting of that joyfull couple O fools what doe we here why sit we still Why sleep we in the prison Were it not best to make us wings
to flee up to our blessed match our marrow our fellow-friend I think Misterss ye are looking there-away this is your second or third thought make forward your guide waiteth on you I cannot but bless you for your care kindness to the saints God give you to finde mercy in that day of our Lord Jesus to whose saving grace I recommend you Aberd. 1637. Yours in our Lord Iesus S. R. To WILLIAM RIGGE Of Athernie 60. Much honoured worthy Sir YOur letter full of complaints bemoaning your guiltiness hath humbled me but give me leave to say ye seem to be too far upon the law's side ye will not gain much to be the Law 's Advocat I thought ye had not been the law 's but grace's man Nevertheless I am sure ye desire to take God's part against your self what ever your guiltiness be yet when it falleth into the sea of God's mercy it is but like a drop of blood fallen in the great Ocean There is nothing here to be done but let Christ's doom light upon the old man let him bear his condemnation seeing in Christ he was condemned for the Law hath but power over your worst half let the blame therefore lie where the blame should be let the new man be sure to say I am comely as the tents of Kedar how beit I be black sun-burnt by sitting neighbour beside a body of sin I seek no more here but room for Grace's defence Christ's white throne wherto a sinner condemned by the law may appeal But the use that I make of â—t is I am sorry that I am not so tender thin skin'd though I am sure Christ may finde employment for his calling in me if in any living seeing from my youth upward I have been making up the blackest process that any minister in the world or any other can answer to when I had done this I painted a providence of my own wrote ease for my self a peaceable ministery the sun shining on me till I should be in at heaven's gates Such green raw thoughts had I of God I thought also of a sleeping Devil that would pass by the like of me lying in moores out-fields So I bigged the gook's nest dreamed of dying at ease living in a fools paradise but since I came hither I am often so as that they would have much Rhetorick that would perswade me that Christ hath not written wrath on my dumb silent Sabbaths which is a persecution of the latest edition being used against none in this land that I can learn of besides me often I lie under a non-entry would gladly sell all my joyes to be confirmed King Jesus's free tennent to have sealed assurances but I see often blank papers my greatest desires are these two 1. That Christ would take me in hand to cure me undertake for a sick man I know I should not die under his hand yet in this while I still doubt I beleeve through a cloud that sorrow which hath no eyes hath but put a vail on Christ's love 2. It pleaseth him often since I came hither to come with some short blenks of his sweet love then because I have none to help me to praise his love can doe him no service in my own person as I thought once I did in his temple then I die with wishes desires to take up house dwell at the well-side to have him praised set on high But alas what can the like of me doe to get a good name raised upon my welbeloved Lord Jesus suppose I could desire to be suspended for ever of my part of heaven for his glory I am sure If I could get my will of Christ's love could be once over head ears in the beleeved apprehended seen love of the Son of God it were the fulfilling of the desires of the onely happiness I would be at but the truth is I hinder my communion with him because of want of both faith repentance because I will make an idol of Christ's kisses I will neither lead nor drive except I see Christ's love run in my channel when I wait and look for him the upper way I see his wisdom is pleased to play me a slip come the lower way so that I have not the right art of guiding Christ for there is art wisdom required in guiding of Christ's love aright when we have gotten it O how far are his wayes above mine O how little of him doe I see when I am as dry as a burnt heath in a drouthy summer when my root is withered howbeit I think then that I would drink a sea-full of Christ ere ever I would let the cup goe from my head yet I get nothing but delayes as if he would make hunger my daily food I think my self also hungered of hunger The rich Lord Jesus satisfie a famished man Grace be with you Aberd. 10. Sept. 1637. Your own in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To his worthy much honoured friend FULK ELIES 61 Worthy much honoured in our Lord GRace mercy peace be to you I am glad of our more then paper-acquaintance Seeing we have one father it reckoneth the less though we never saw one anothers faces I profess my self most unworthy to follow the camp of such a worthy renowned captain as Christ. Oh alas I have cause to be grieved that men expect any thing of such a wretched man as I am It is a wonder to me if Christ can make any thing of my naughtie short narrow love to him surely it is not worth the up-taking 2. As for our lovely and beloved Church in Ireland my heart bleedeth for her desolation but I beleeve our Lord is onely lopping the vine-trees but not intending to cut them down or root them out It is true seeing we are heart-Atheists by nature cannot take providence aright because we halt crook ever since we fell we dream of an halting providence as if God's yard whereby he measureth joy sorrow to the sons of men were crooked unjust because servants are on horse-back Princes goe on foot but our Lord dealeth good evil some one portion or other to both by ounce-weights measureth them in a just and even ballance It is but folly to measure the Gospel by summer or winter-weather The summer-sun of the saints shineth not on them in this life how should we have complained if the Lord had turned the same providence that we now stomacke at up-side down had ordered matters thus that first the saints should have enjoyed heaven glory ease then Methusalem's dayes of sorrow daily miseries we should think a short heaven no heaven certainly his wayes pass finding out 3. Ye complain of the evil of heart-atheism but it is to a greater atheist then any man can be
RIGGE of Atherny 68 Worthy much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you How sad a prisoner would I be if I knew not that my Lord Jesus had the keys of the prison himself that his death blood hath bought a blessing to our crosses aswell as to our selves I am sure troubles have no prevailing right over us if they be but our Lord's Serjeants to keep us in ward while we are in this side of heaven I am perswaded also that they shall not goe over the bound-road nor enter in to heaven with us for they finde no welcome there where there is no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither any more pain therefore we shall leave them behinde us Oh if I could get as good a gate of sin even this wofull wretched body of sin as I get of Christ's cross Nay indeed I think the cross beared bâ—th me it self rather then I it in comparison of the tyranny of the lawless flesh wicked nighbour that dwelleth beside Christ's new creature But Oh this is that which presseth me down paiâ—eth me Jesus Christ in his saints sitteth neighbour with an ill second corruption deadness coldness pride lust worldliness self-love security falshood a world of â—oâ— the like which I finde in me that are daily doing violence to the new man O but we have cause to carry low sails to cleave fast to free grace free free grace Blessed be our Lord that ever that way was found out If my one foot were in heaven my soul half in if free-will corruption were absolute Lords of me I should never win wholly in O but the sweet new living way that Christ hath stroke up to our home be a safe way I finde now presence accâ—ss a greater dainty then bâ—fore but yet the bridegroom looketh through the lattes thorow the hole of the door O if he I were in fair dry land together in the other side of the water Grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 30. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S R. To the Lady KILCONQUHAIR 69 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter I am heartily content ye love own this oppâ—essed and wronged cause of Christ that now whâ—n so many are miscarried ye are in any measure taken with the love of Jesuâ— weary not but come in see if there be not more in Christ then the tongue of men Angels can express If ye seek a gate to heaven the way is in him or he is it What ye want is treasured up in Jesus he saith all his are yours even his Kingdom he is content to divide it betwixt him you yea his throne his glory Luk. 21. 29. Ioh. 17. 24. Rov 3. 21. Therefore take pains to climb up to that besâ—eged house to Christ for devils men armies of temptations are lying about the house to hold out all that are out it is taken with violence It is not a smooth easie way neitâ—er will your weather be fair pleasant but whosoever saw the invisible God the fair city make no reckoning of lossâ—s or crosses in ye must be cost you what it will stand not for a price for all that ye have to win the castle the rights to it are won to you it is disponed to you in your Lord Jesus's testament see what a fair legacy your dying friend Christ hath left you And there wanteth nothing but possession Then get up in the strength of the Lord get over the water to possâ—ss that good land It is better then a land of olives wine-trees for the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every moneth is there before you a pure river of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb is there Your time is short therefore lose no time Gracious faithfull is he who hath called you to his Kingdom glory The city is yours by free conquest by promise therefore let no uncouth Lord-idol put you from your own The devil hath cheated the simple heir of his Paradise by enticing us to taste of the forbidden fruit hath as it were bought us out of our kindly heritage But our Lord Christ Jesus hath done more then bought the devil by for he hath redeemed the wodset made the poor heir free to the inheritaÌ„ce If we knew the glory of our elder brother in heaven we would long to be there to see him to get our fill of heaven We children think the earth a fair garden but it is but God's out-field wilde cold barren ground All things are fading that are here It is our happiness to make sure Christ to our selves Thus remembring my love to your husband wiâ—king to him what I write to you I commit you to God's tender mercy Aberd. Sepr 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady CRAIGHALL 70 Honourable and Christian Lady GRace mercy peace be to you I cannot but write to your La of the sweet glorious termes I am in with the most joyful King that ever was under this well thrifing prosperous cross it is my Lord's salvation wrought by his own right hand that the water doeth not suffocat the breath of â—â—pe joyfull courage in the Loâ—d Jesus For his own person is still in the camp with his poor souldier I see the cross is tied with Christ's hand to the end of an honest profession We are but fools to endeavour to loose Christ's knot When I consider the comforts of God I durst not consent to sell or wod-set my short life-rent of the cross of the Lord Jesus I know that Christ bought with his own blood a right to sanctified blessed crosses in as far as they blow me over the water to my long desired home it were not good that Christ should be the buyer I the seller I know time death shall take sufferings fairly off my hand I hope we shall have an honest parting at night when this piece cold frosty afternoon-tide of my evil rough day shall be over Well is my soul of either sweet or sowre that Christ hath any part or portion in if he be at the one end of it it hall be well with me I shall die ere I libell faults against Christ's cross it hall have my testimonial under my hand as an honest saving mean of Christ for mortification faith's growth I have a stronger assurance since I came over Forth of the excellency of Jesus then I had before I am rather about him then in him while I am absent from him in this house of clay But I would be in heaven for no other cause but to essay try what boundies joy it must be to be over head ears in my welbeloved Christ's love O that fair one
our cup in which there is no taste of hell My dear Brother ye know all these better then I I send water to the sea to speak of these things to you But it easeth me to desire you to help me to pay tribute of praise to Jesus O what praises I ow him I would I were in my free heritage that I might begin to pay my debts to Jesus I entreat for your prayers praises I forget not you Aberd. Sept. 17. 1637 Your brother and fellow sufferer in and for Christ. S. R. To Mr DAVID DICKSON 73 Reverend and welbeloved brother in the Lord. I Bless the Lord who hath so wonderfully stopped the on-going of that lawless process against you The Lord reigneth hath a saving eye upon you your ministery therefore fear not what men can doe I bless the Lord that the Irish ministers finde employment the professors comfort of their ministery Beleeve me I durst not as I am now disposed hold an honest brother out of the pulpit I trust the Lord shall guard you hide you in the shadow of his hand I am not pleased with any that are against you in that I see this in prosperity mens conscience will not start at small sins But if some had been where I have been since I came from you a little more would have caused their eye water troubled their peace O how ready are we to incline to the world's-hand Our arguments being well examined are often drawn from our skin the whole skin a peaceable tabernacle is a topick maxime in great request in our Logick I finde a little breirding of God's seed in this town for the which the Doctors have told me their minde that they cannot bear with it and have examined and threatned the people that haunt my company I fear I get not leave to winter here and whether I goe I know not I am ready at the Lord's call I would I could make acquaintance with Christ's cross for I finde comforts lie to follow upon the cross I suffer in my name by them I take it as a part of the crucifying of the old man Let them cut the throat of my credit doe as they like best with it when the wind of their calumnies hath blown away my good name from me in the way to heaven I know Christ will take my name out of the mire wash it restore it to me again I would have a minde if the Lord would be pleased to give me it to be a fool for Christ's sake Sometimes while I have Christ in my arms I fall asleep with the sweetness of his presence he in my sleep stealeth away out of my arms when I awake I misâ— him I am much comforted with my Lady Piâ—sligo a good woman acquainted with God's wayes Grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 11. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord. Iesus S. R. To the right honourable my Lord LOWDOUN 75. Right honourable GRace mercy peace be to your Lo I rejoyce exceedingly that I hear your Lo hath a good minde to Christ his now-born-down truth My very dear Lord goe on in the strength of the Lord to carry your honour worldly glory to the new Ierusalem For this cause your Lo received these of the Lord this is a sure way for the establishment of your house if ye be of these who are willing in your place to build Zion's old waste places in Scotland Your Lo wanteth not God's man's law both now to come to the streets for Christ suppose the bastard laws of man were against you it is an honest zealous errour if here ye slip against a point or punctilio of standing policy when your foot slippeth in such known ground as is the royal prerogative of our high most truly dread â—overaign who hath many crowns on his head the liberties of his house he will hold you up Blessed shall they be who take Babel's little ones dash their heads against stones I wish your Lo have a share of that blessing with other worthy Nobles in our land It is true it is now accounted wisdom for men to be partners in pullin up the stakes looâ—ng the cords of the tent of Christ but I am peswaded that that wisdom is cried down in heaven shall never passe for true wisdom itâ— the Lord whose word crieth shame upon wit against Christ truth accordingly it shall prove shame confusion of face in the end Our Lord hath given your Lo 〈◊〉 of a better stamp learning also wherein yeare not behinde th disputer and the sâ—â—be O what a blessâ—d thing iâ— it to see Noâ—ility Learning Sanctification all co curre in one For these ye ow your sel to Christ his â—ingdom God hath be-wildered bâ—-misted the wit the learning of the scribes disputer of this time they look asquint to the Bible This blinding be-â—…ing world blindfoldeth mens light that they are affraid to se straight out bâ—fore them nay their very light playeth the knave or woâ—s to truth Your Lo knoweth within a little while Policy against trutâ— will bluâ—h the works of men shall burn even their spider-wâ—b who spin out many hundred ells webs of indifferencie in the Lord's worship moe then ever â—oses who would have anâ—oof mâ—â—t rial Daniel who would have a look out at a wiâ—dow a matter of life death then ever I say these men of God dreamed of Alas that men dare shape carve cut clippe our King 's princâ—ly Testament in length and breadth and in all dimensions answerable to the conceptions of such policy as a h ad-of-wit thinketh a safe and trim way of serving God How have men forgotten the Lord that they dà re goe against even that truth which once they preached themselves howbeit their sermons now be as thin sown as strav-berriâ—s in a wood or wilderness Certainly the sâ—eetest safest course is for this short time of the afternoon of this olâ— declining world to stand for Jesus he hath said it it is our part to beleeve it that ere is be long Time shall be no more and the heaven shall wax old as a garment 〈◊〉 Doe we not see it already an old hollie threed-bare garment doeth not or ple laâ—e ature tâ—â—l us that the Lord will fold up the old garment 〈◊〉 and lay it aside that the heavens shall be folded together as a scroll this pest-house shall be burnt with fire that both plenishing walls shall melt with fervent heat for at the Lord 's coming he will doe with this earth as men doe with a leper house he wil burn the walls with fire the plenishing of the house also 2 Pet. 3 10 11 12. My very Daer Lord how shall ye rejoyce in that day to have Christ Angels heaven your own conscience to smile upon you I am perswaded one
sick night through the terrors of the Almighty would make men whose conscience hath such a wide throat as an image like a Chathedral Church would goe down it have other thoughts of Christ and his worship then now they please themselves with The scarcity of faith in the earth saith We are hard upon the last nick of time Blessed are these who keep their garments clean against the bridegroom's coming There shall be spotted clothes many defiled garments at his last coming therefore few found worthy to walk with him in white I am perswaded my Lord this poor travelling woman our pained Church is with childe of victory shall bring forth a man-childe that shall be caught up to God his throne howbeit the Dragon in his followers be attending the childe-birth-pain as an Egyptian midwife to receive the birth strangle it Isa. 29 8. But they shall be disappointed who thirst for the destruction of Zion they shall be as when a hungry man dreameth that he eateth but behold he awaketh his soul is empty or when a thirsty man dreameth that he drinketh but behold he awaketh is faint his soul is not satisfied so shall it be I say with the multitude of all the nations that fight against mount Zion Therefore the weak feeble these that are as signes wonders in Israel have chosen the best side even the side that victory is upon I think this is no evil policy Verily for my self I am so well pleased with Christ his noble honest-born cross this cross that is come of Christ's house is of kin to himself that I should weep if it should come to niffering barâ—â—ring of lots condition with these that are at ease in Zion I hold still my choice blesse my self in it I see I beleeve there is salvation in this way that is every where spoken against I hope to goe to eternity to venture upon the last evil to the saints even upon death fully perswaded that this onely even this is the saving way for rackel consciences for weary laden sinners to finde ease peace for evermore into indeed it is not for any worldly respect that I speak so of it the weather is not so hot that I have great cause to startle in my prison or to boast of that â—ntertainment that my good friends the Prelats intend for me which is banishment if they shall obtain their desire effectu at what they design but let it come I rue not that I made Christ my waile my choice I think him ay the longer the better My Lord It shall be good service to God to hold your noble friend Chief upon a good course for the truth of Christ. Now the very God of peace establish your Lo in Christ Jesuâ— unto the end Aberd. Sept 10. 1637. Your Lo in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Laird of GAITGIRTH 76 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I can doe no more but thank you in paper remember you to him whom I serve for your kindness care of a prisoner I bleâ—s the Lord the cause I suffer for needeth not to bluâ—h before Kings Christs white honest fair truth needeth neither wax pale for fear nor blush for shame I bless the Lord who hath graced you to own Christ now when so many are affraid to profess him hide him for fear they suffer loss by avouching him Alas that so many in these dayes are carried with the times As if their conscience rolled upon oyled wheels so doe they goe any way the wind bloweth them because Christ is not market-sweet men put him away from them Worthy much honoured Sir goe on to own Christ his oppressed truth The end of sufferings for the Gospel is rest and gladness light joy is sown for the mourners in Zion and the harvest which is of God's making for time manner is neer Crosses have right claim to Christ in hs members till legs arms whole mystical-Christ be in heaven There will be rain hail stormâ—â—n the saints clouds ever till God cleanse with fire the works of creation till he burn the botch-house of heaven earth that mens sin hath subjected unto vanity They are blessed who suffer sin not for suffering is the badge that Christ hath put upon his followers Take what way we can to heaven the way is hedged up with crosses there is no way but to break through them wit wiles shifts laws will not finde out a way about the cross of Christ but we must through one thing by experience my Lord hath taught me that the waters betwixt this heaven may all be ridden if â—e be well hors'd I mean if we be in Christ not one shall drown by the way but such as love their own destruction Oh if we could wait on for a time beleeve in the dark the salvation of God! At least we are to beleeve good of Christ till he give us the slip which is impossible to take his word for caution that he shall fill up all the blanks in his promises give us what we want but to the unbeleever Christ's Testament is white blank unwritten paper worthy and dear Sir set your face to heaven make you to stoop at all the low entries in the way that ye may receive the Kingdom as a childe without this he that knew the way said there is no entry in O but Christ be willing to lead a poor sinner O what love my poor soul hath found in him in the house of my pilgrimage Suppose love in heaven and earth were lost I dare swear it may be found in Christ. Now the very God of peace establish you till the day of the glorious appearance of Christ. Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady GAITGIRTH 77 Much honoured Christian Lady GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how it goeth with you your children I exhort you not to lose breath nor to faint in your journey The way is not so long to your home as it was it will wear to one step or an inch at length ye shall come ere long to be within your arm-length of the glorious crown Your Lord Jesus did sweat pant ere he got up that mount he was at father save me with it it was he who Psal. 22 14. said I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joynt Christ waâ— as if they had broken him upon the wheel my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels v. 15. My strength is dried up like a poâ—sheard I am sure ye love the way the better that his holy feet trod it before you Crosses have a smell of crossed pained Christ. I beleeve your Lord will not leave you to
before as the day in the declining of the sun toward 's the evening is often most desired And as for Christ's cross I never received evil of it but what was of mine own making when I miscooked Christ's physick no marvel that it hurt me For since it was on Christ's back it hath alwayes a sweet smell these 1600 Years it keepeth the smell of Christ nay it is elder then that too for it is a long time since Abel first hansel'd the cross had it laid upon his shoulders down from him all alongst to this very day all the saints have known what it is I am glad that Christ hath such a relation to this cross that it is called the cross of our Lord Iesus Gal. 6 v. 14. His reproaches Heb. 13 13. As if Christ would claim it as his proper goods so it cometh in the reckoning among Christ's own property If it were simple evil as sin is Christ who is not the author nor owner of sin would not own it I wonder at the enemies of Christ in whom malice hath run away with wit will is up wit down that they would essay to lift up the stone laid in Zion surely it is not laid in such sinking ground as that they can raise it or remove it for when we are in their belly they have swallowed us down they will be sick spue us out again I know Zion her Husband cannot both sleep at once I beleeve our Lord once again shall water with his dew the withered hill of mount Zion in Scotland come down make a new marriage again as he did long since Remember our Covenant Your excuse for your advice to me is needless Alas many sit beside light as sick folks beside meat cannot make use of it Grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Your brother in Christ S. R. To Mr JOHN MEINE 80 Dear Brother I Received your letter I cannot but testifie under mine own hand that Christ is still the longer the better that this time is the time of loves When I have said all I can others may begin say I have said nothing of him I never knew Christ to ebbe or flow wax or wane his winds turn not when he seemeth to change it is but we who turn our wrong side to him I never had a plea with him in my hardest conflicts but of mine own making Oh that I could live in peace good neighbourhood with such a second let him alone My unbelief made many black lies but my recantation to Christ is not worth the hearing Surely he hath born with strange gâdes in me He knoweth my heart hath not naturall wit to keep quarters with such a Saviour Ye doe well to fear your own backsliding I had stood sure if I had in my youth borrowed Christ to be my bottom But he that beareth his own weight to heaven shall not fail to slip sink Ye had no need to be bare-footed among the thorns of this apostat generation lest a stob strike up in your foot cause you to halt all your dayes And think not Christ will doe with you in the matter of suffering as the Pope doeth in the matter of sin Ye shall not finde that Christ will sell a Dispensation or give a Dyvour's Protection against crosses Crosses are proclaimed as common Accidents to all the saints in them standeth a part of our communion with Christ But there lieth a sweet casuality to the cross even Christ's presence his comforts when they are sanctified Remember my love to your father mother Grace be with you Aberd. 7. Sept. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN FLEEMING Bailiffe of Leith 81 Much honoured in the Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you I am still in good termes with Christ however my Lord's wind blow I have the advantage of the calm sunny side of Christ. Devils hell Devil's servants are all blowen blinde in pursuing the Lord 's little Bride They shall be as a night-dream who fight against mount Zion Worthy Sir I hope ye take to heart the worth of your calling This great fair meeting of people will skaile the port is open for us As fast as time weareth out we flee away Eternity is at our elbow O how blessed are they who in time make Christ sure for themselves Salvation is a great errand I finde it hard to fetch heaven Oh that we could take pains on our lamps for the Bridegroom 's coming the other side of this world will be turned up incontinent up shall down these that are weeping in sack-cloth shall triumph on white horses with him whose name is The word of God These dying idols the fair creatures that we whorishly love better then our Creator will pass away like snow water The Godhead the Godhead a communion with God in Christ to be halvers with Christ of the purchased house inheritance in heaven should be your scope aime For my self when I lay my counts O what telling O what weighing is in Christ O how soft are his kisses O love love surpassing in Jesus I have no fault to that love but that it seemeth to deal niggardly with me I have little of it O that I had Christ's seen read band subscribed by himself for my fill of it What garland have I or what crown if I looked right on things but Jesus Oh there is no room in us on this side of the water for that love This narrow bit earth these ebbe narrow souls can hold little of it because we are full of rifts I would glory glory would enlarge us as it will make us tight close up our seams rifts that we might be able to comprehend it which yet is incomprehensible Remember my love to your wife Grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON Of Earlestoun 82. Much honoured Sir HOwbeit I would have been glad to have seen you yet seeing our Lord hath been pleased to break the snare of your adversaries I heartily bless our Lord on your behalf Our crosses for Christ are not made of iron they are softer and of more gentle mettall It is easy for God to make a fool of the Devil the father of all fools As for me I but breath out what my Lord breatheth in The scum froth of my letters I father upon my own unbeleeving heart I know your Lord hath something to doe with you because Satan malice have shot sore at you but your bowe abideth in it's strength Ye shall not by my advice be a halver with Christ to divide the glory of your deliverance betwixt your self him or any other second mean whatsoever Let Christ as it setteth him well have all the glory triumph his alone The Lord set himself on high in you I
chaff Isa. 41. If ye slack your hands at your meetings your watching to prayer then it would seem our rock hath sold us but be dililigent be not discouraged I charge you in Christ rejoyce give thanks beleeve be strong in the Lord That burning bush in Galloway Kirkâ—…dbright shall not be burnt to ashes for the Lord is in the bush Be not discouraged that banishment is to be procured by the King's warrand to the Councel against me the earth is my Lord's I am filled with his sweet love running over I rejoyce to hear ye are in your journey such newes as I hear of all your faith love rejoyce my sad heart Pray for me for they seek my hurt but I give my self to prayer The blessing of my Lord a prisoner of Christ's blessing be with you O chosen greatly beloved woman faint not Fy fy if ye faint now Ye lose a good cause double your meetings cease not for Zion's sake hold not your peace till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth Aberd. 1637. Yours in Christ Iesus his Lord. S. R. To THOMAS CORBET 85 Dear friend I Forget you not It shall be my joy that ye follovv after Christ till ye finde him My conscience is a feast of joy to me that I sought in singleness of heart for Christ's love to put you upon the King's high-vvay to our Bridegroom our father's house Thrice blessed are ye my dear Brother if ye hold the way I beleeve ye and Christ once met I hope ye will not sunder with him Follovv the counsel of the man of God Mr William Dalglâ—ish If ye depart from what I taught you in a hair-breadth for fâ—ar or favour of men or desire of ease in this world I take heaven earth to witness that ill shall come upon you in end Build not your nest here This world is an hard ill made bed no rest in it for your soul awake awake make haste to seek that pearl Christ that this world seeth not Your night and your Master Christ will be upon you within a clap your hand-breadth of time will not bide you Take Christ hovvbeit a storm follow him howbeit this day be not yours Christ's the morrow will be yours his I would not exchange the joy of my bonds imprisonment for Christ with all the joy of this dirty soul-skinned world I have a love-bed with Christ am filled with his love I desire your vvife to doe what I write to you Let her remember how dear Christ would be to her when her breath turneth cold the eye-strings shall break O how joyfull should my soul be to know that I had brought on a marriage betvvixt Christ that people fevv or many if it be not so I vvill be woe to be a vvitness against them Use prayer love not the world be humble and esteem little of your self love your enemies pray for them make conscience of speaking truth when none knoweth but God I never eat but I pray for you all Pray for me Ye I shall see one another up in our father's house I rejoyce to hear that your eye is upon Christ. Follow on hing on quite him not The Lord Jesus be with your spirit Aberd. 1637. Your affectionat Brother in our Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON of Earlestoun 86. Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter which refreshed me Except from your son my brother I have seen few lâ—tters from my acquaintance in that countrey which maketh me heavie But I have the company of a Lord who can teach us all to be kind hath the right gate of it though for the present I have seven up's down's every day yet I am abundantly comforted feasted with my King welbeloved dâ—ily It pleaseth him to come dine with a sad prisoner a solitary stranger His spikenard casteth a smell yet my sweet hath some sowre mixed with it wherein I must acquiesce for there is no reason that his comforts be too cheap seeing they are delicates why should he not make them so to his own But I verily think now Christ hath led me up to a nick in Christianity that I was never at before I think all before vvas but child-hood bairns-play Since I departed from you I have been scalded vvhile the smoak of hell's fire vvent in at my throat I vvould have bought peace vvith a thousand years torment in hell I have been up also after these deep dovvn-castings sorrovvs before the Lamb 's vvhite throne in my father's inner court the great King'â— dining-hall Christ did cast a coveâ—ing of love over me he hath casten in a coal in my soul it is sâ—oking â—mong the stravv keeping the hearth warme I look back to what I vvas before I laugh to see the sand-houses I built vvhen I vvas a childâ— At first the remembrance of many fair feast-dayes vvith my Lord Jesus in publike wich are now changed into silent sabbaths raised a great tempest if I may speak so made the Devil a doe in my soul the devil came in would prompt me to make a plea with Christ to lay the blame on him as a hard master But now these mists are blowen away I am not onely silenced as to all quarrelling but fully satisfied Now I wonder that any man living can laugh upon the world or give it a hearty good-day The Lord Jesus hath handled me so that as I am now disposed I think never to be in this world 's common again for a night's lodging Christ beareth me good company he hath eased me when I saw it not lifting the cross off my shoulders so that I think it to be but a feather because underneath are everlasting arms God forbid it came to bartering or niffering of crosses for I think my cross so sweet that I know not where I would get the like of it Christ's honey-combs drop so abundantly that they sweeten my gall Nothing breaketh my heart but that I cannot get the daughters of Ierusalem to tell them of my bride-groom's glory I charge you in the name of Christ that ye tell all ye come to of it yet it is above telling understanding Oh if all the kingdom were as I am except my bonds they know not the love-kisses that my onely Lord Jesus wasteth on a dâted prisoner On my salvation this is the onely way to the new city I know Christ hath no dumb seals would he put his privy seal upon blank paper he hath sealed my sufferings with comforts I write this to confirm you I write now what I have seen as well as heard Now then my silence burneth up my spirit But Christ hath said thy stipend is running up with interest in heaven as if thou wert preaching And this from a King's mouth rejoyceth my heart At other
times I am sad for dwelling in Kedar's tents There are none that I yet know of but two persons in this town that I dare give my word for And the Lord hath removed my brethren my acquaintance far from me it may be I be forgotten in the place where the Lord made me the instrument to doe some good But I see this is vanity in me Let him make of me what he pleaseth if he make salvation out of it to me I am tempted troubled that all the fourteen Prelats should have been armed of God against me onely while the rest of my brethren are still preaching But I dare not say one word but this it is good Lord Iesus beacuse thou hast done it Wo is me for the virgin daughter wo is me for the desolation of the virgin daughter of Scotland O if my eyes were a fountain of tears to weep day night for that poor widow Kirk that poor miserable harlot Alas that my father hath put to the door my poor harlot mother Oh for that cloud of black wrath fury of the indignation of the Lord that is hanging over the Land Sir write to mel beseech you I pray you also be kind to my â—fflicted brother Remember my love to your wife The prayers the blessinâ— of the prisoner of Christ be on you Frequent your meetings for prayer communion with God they would be sweet meerings to me Aberd. 16. Febr. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON of Knockbrex 87 My Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be multiplied upon you I am almost wearying yea wondering that ye write not to me though I know it is not forgetfulness As for my self I am every way well all glory to God I was before at a plea with Christ but it was bought by me unlawfull because his whose providence was not yea nay to my yea nay because I beleeved Christ's outward look better then his faithfull promise Yet he hath in patience waited on while I'be come to my self hath not taken advantage of my weak apprehensions of his goodness Great holy is his name He looketh to what I desire to be not to what I am One thing I have learned If I had been in Christ by way of adhesion onely as many branches are I should have beene burnt to ashes this world should have seen a suffering minister of Christ turned of something once in shew into unsavoury salt But my Lord Jesus had a good eye that the tempter should not play foul play blow out Christ's candle he took no thought of my stomacke fretting grudging humour but of his own grace when he burnt the house he saved his own goods And I beleeve the devil the persecuting world shall reap no fruit of me but burnt ashes for he will see to his own gold save that from being consumed with the fire O what ow I to the file to the hammer to the furnace of my Lord Jesus Who hath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goeth through his mill his oven to be made bread for his own table Grace tried is better then grace it is more then grace it is glory in it's infancy I now see godliness is more then the out-side this world's passements their buskings Who knoweth the truth of grace without a trial O how little getteth Christ of us but that which he winneth to speak so with much toil pains And how soon would faith frieze without a cross How many dumb crosses have been laid upon my back that had never a tongue to speak the sweetness of Christ as this hath when Christ blesseth his own crosses with a tongue they breath out Christ's love wisdom kindness care of us Why should I start at the plough of my Lord that maketh deep furrows on my soul I know he is no idle husbandman he purposeth a crop O that this white withered lay-ground were made fertile to bear a crop for him by whom it is so painfully dressed that this fallow ground were broken up Why was I a fool grieved that he put his garland his rose upon my head the glory honour of his faithfull witnesses I desire now to make no moe pleas with Christ Verily he hath not put me to a loss by what I suffer he oweth me nothing for in my bonds how sweet comfortable have the thoughts of him been to me where in I finde a sufficient recompence of reward How blinde are my adversaries who sent me to a banquetting house to a house of wine to my lovely Lord Jesus his love-feasts not to a prison or place of exile Why should I smother my husband's honesty or sin against his love or be a niggard in giving out to others what I get for nothing Brother eat with me give thanks I charge you before God that ye speak to others invite them to help me to praise Oh my debt of praise how weighty is it how far run up Oh that others would lend me to pay learn me to praise Oh I a drowned Dyvour Lord Jesus take my thoughts for payment Yet I am in this hot summer-blenk with the tear in my eye for by reason of my silence sorrow sorrow hath filled me My harp is hanged upon the willow trees because I am in a strange land I am still kept in exercise with envious brethren My mother hath born me a man of contention Write to me your minde anent Y. C. I cannot forget him I know not what God hath to doe with him your minde anent my Parishoners behaviour how they are served in preaching or if there be a Minister as yet thrust in upon them which I desire greatly to know which I much fear Dear Brother ye are in my heart to live to die with you Visite me with a letter Pray for me Remember my love to your wife Grace grace be with you God who heareth prayer visite you set it be unto you according to the prayers of Aberd. Jan. 1. 1367. Your own Brother Christ's Prisoner S. R. To my welbeloved reverend brother Mr ROBERT BLAIR 88 Reverend dearly beloved Brother GRace mercy peace from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ be to you It is no great wonder my Dear Brother that ye be in heaviness for a season that God's will in crossing your design desires to dwell amongst a people whose God is the Lord should move you I deny not but ye have cause to enquire what his providence speaketh in this to you but God's directing commanding will can by no good logick be concluded from events of providence The Lord sent Paul many errands for the spreading of his Gospel where he found lions in his way a promise was made to his people of the holy land yet many
nations in the way fighting against ready to kill them who had the promise or keep them from possâ—ssing that good land which the Lord their God had given them I know ye have most to doe with submission of spirit but I perswade my self ye have learned in every condition wherein ye are cast therein to be content to say good is the will of the Lord let it be done I beleeve the Lord tackleth his ship often to fetch the wind that he purposeth to bring mercy out of your sufferings silence which I know from mine own experience is grievous to you sâ—eing he knoweth our willing minde to serve him our wages stipend is running to the fore with our God even as some tick souldiers get their pay when then they are bed-â—ast not able to goe to the fields with others Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord my God shall be my strentgh Isa. 49 3. we are to beleeve it shall be thus ere all the play be played Ier. 51 35. The violence done to me my flesh be upon Babylon the great whore's lovers shall the inhabitants of Zion say and my blood be upon Caldea shall Ierusalem say Zech. 12 2. Behold I will make Ierusalem a cap of trembling to all the people about where they shall be in the siege bosh against Iudah and Ierus them v. 3. And is that day I will make Ierusalem a burden so 〈…〉 stone for all people they that burden themselves with it shall be broken in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered against it When they have eaten swallowed us up they shall be sick vomit us out living men again the devil's stomack cannot digest the Church of God Suffering is the other half of our ministry howbeit the hardest For we would be content our King Jesus would make an open proclamation cry down crosses cry up joy gladness ease honour peace but it must not be so through many affâ—ctions we must enter into the Kingdom of God not onely by them but through them must we goe wiles will not take us by the cross It is folly to think to steal to heaven with a whole skin For myself I am here a prisoner confined in Aberdâ—…n threatned to be removed to Caithness because I desire to edifie in this town I am openly preached against in the pulpits in my hearing tempted with disputations by the Doctors especially by D. B. Yet I am not ashamed of my Lord Jesus his garland crown I would not exchange my weeping with the fourteen Prelat painted laughter At my first coming here I took the Dorts at Christ would forsooth summond him for unkindness I sought a plea of my Lord was tossed with challenges whether he loved me or not disputed all over again that he had done to me because his word was a fire shut up in my bowels I was weary with forbearing because I said I was cast out of the Lord's inheritance but now I see I was a fool My Lord miskend all did bear with my foolish jealousies miskend that ever I wronged his love and now he is come again with mercy under his wings I past from my O witless summonds he is God I see I am man Now it hath pleased him to renew his love to my soul to dâte his poor prisoner Therefore my dear Brother help me to praise shew the Lord's people with you what he hath done to my soul that they may pray praise I charge you in the name of Christ not to omit it for for this cause I write to you that my sufferings may glorifie my royal King edifie his church in Ireland He knoweth how one of Christ's love-coals hath burnt my soul with a desire to have my bonds to preach his glory whose cross I now bear God forgive you if ye doe it not But I hope the Lord will move your heart to proclaim in my behall the sweetness excellency glory of my royal King It is but our soft flesh that hath raised a slander on the cross of Christ I see now the white side of it My Lord's chains are all overguilded O if Scotland Ireland had part of my feast yet I get not my meat but with many strokes There are none here to whom I can speak I dwell in Kedar's tents Refresh me with a letter from you Few know what is betwixt Christ me Dear Brother upon my salvation this is his truth that we suffer for Christ would not seal a blank charter to souls Courage courage joy joy for evermore O joy unspeakable glorious Oh for help to set my crowned King on high O for love to him who is altogether lovely That love which many waters cannot quench neither can the floods drown I remember you I bear your name on my breast to Christ I beseech you forget not his afflicted prisoner Grace mercy peace be with you Salute in the Lord from me Mr Cuninghame Mr Livingston Mr Ridge Mr Colwart c. Aberd. Feb. 7. 1637. Your Brother fellow prisoner S. R. To JOHN KENNEDY Bailiffe of Ayr. 89 Worthy welbeloved Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you I am yet waiting what our Lord will doe for his afflicted church for my re-entry to my Lord's house Oh that I could hear the forfeiture of Christ now casten out of his inheritance recalled taken off by open proclamation that Christ were restored to be a Free holder and a landed Hieritour in Scotland That the courts fenced in the name of the bastard Prelats their God-father's the Pop's Bailiffes Sherifes were cryed down Oh how sweet a sight were it to see all the Tribes of the Lord in this land fetching home again our banished king Christ to his own palace his Sanctuary and his throne I shall think it mercy to my soul if my faith shall out-watch all this winter night not nod or slumber till my Lord's summer day dawn upon me It is much if faith hope in the sad nights of our heavie trial escape with a whole skin without crack or crook I confess unbelief hath not reason to be either father or mother to it for unbelief is alwayes an irrationall thing but how can it be but such weak eyes as ours must cast water in a great smoke or that a weak head should not turn giddy when the water runneth deep and strong But God be thanked that Christ in his children can endure a stress storm howbeit soft nature would fall down in peices Oh that I had that confidence as to rest rest on this though he should grind me into small powder bray me into dust scatter the dust to the four winds of heaven that my Lord would gather up the powder make me up a new
as would goe round about the earth over the heaven yea the heaven of heavens ten thousand worlds that I might let all out upon fair fair onely fair Christ But alas I have nothing for him yet he hath much for me it is no gain to Christ that he getteth my little feckless span-length hand-breadth of love If men would have something to doe with their hearts their thoughts that are alwayes rolling up down like men with oares in a boat after sinfull vainities they may finde great sweet employment to their thoughts upon Christ If these frothie fluctuaring restless hearts of ours would come all about Christ look in to his love to bottomless love to the depth of mercy to the unsearchable riches of his grace to enquire after search into the beauty of God in Christ they would be swallowed up in the depth height length breadth of his goodness Oh if men would draw the curtains look in to the inner side of the arke behold how the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily O who would not say let me die let me die ten times to see a sight of him ten thousand deaths were no great price to give for him I am sure sick fainting love would highten the market raise the price to the double for him But alas if men Angels were rouped sold at the dearest price they would not all buy a night's love or a four twentie hours sight of Christ O how happy are they who get Christ for nothing God send me no more for my part of Paradise but Christ and surely I were rich enough as well heaven'd as the best of them if Christ were my heaven I can write no better thing to you then to desire you if ever ye laid Christ in a count to take him up count over again and weigh him again and again And after this have no other to court your love and to wooe your soul's delight but Christ he will be found worthy of all your love howbeit it should swell upon you from the earth to the uppermost circle of the heaven of heavens To our Lord Jesus his love I commend you Aberd. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JONET KENNEDY 91 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be unto you Ye are not a little obliged to his rich grace who hath separat you for himself for the promised inheritance with the saints in light from this condemned guilty world Hold fast Christ contend for him it is a lawfull plea to goe to holding drawing for Christ it is not possible to keep Christ peaceably having once gotten him except the devil were dead It must be your resolution to set your face against Satan's northern tempests stormes for salvation Nature would have heaven come sleeping to us in our beds we would all buy Christ sobeing we might make price our selves but Christ is worth more blood lives then either ye or I have to give him When we shall come home enter to the possession of our brother's fair kingdom when our heads shall finde the weight of the eternall crown of glory when we shall look back to pains sufferings then shall we see life sorrow to be less then one step or stride from a prison to glory that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first night's welcome-home to heaven O what then will be the weight of every one of Christ's kisses O how weighty of what worth shall every one of Christ's love-smiles be O when once he shall thrust a wearied traveller's head betwixt his blessed breasts the poor soul shall think one kiss of Christ hath fully paid home fourtie or fiftie yeers wet feet all it's sore hearts light sufferings it had in following after Christ O thrice blinded souls whose hearts are charmed betwitched with dreams shadows feckless things night-vanities night fancies of a miserable life of sin Shame on us who sit still fettered with the love liking of the loan of a piece dead clay O poor fools who are beguiled with painted things this world's fair weather smooth promises rotten worm-eaten hopes may not the devil laugh to see us give out our souls get in but corrupt counterfeit pleasures of sin O for a sight of eternity's glory a little tasting of the Lamb's marriage-supper halt a draught or a drop of the wine of consolations that is up in our banquetting house out of Christ's own hand would make our stomacks loath the brown bread the sowre drink of a miserable life O how far are we berest or wit to chase hunt run till our souls be out of breath after a condemned happiness of our own making doe we not sit far in our own light to make it a matter of bairns-play to skink drink over paradise the heaven that Christ did sweat for even for a blast of smoke for Esau's morning break-fast O that we were out of ourselves dead to this world this world dead crucified to us then we should be close out of love conceit of any masked fairded lover whatsoever then Christ would win conquer to himself a lodging in the inmost yolk of our heart then Christ should be our night-song our morning-song then the very noise din of our welbeloved's feet when he cometh his first knock or rap at the door should be as the newes of two heavens to us Oh that our eyes our soul's-smelling should goe after a blasted sun-burnt flower even this plaistered fair out-sided world then we have neither eye nor smell for the flower of Iâ—sse for that plant of renown for Christ the choisest the fairest the sweetest rose that ever God planted O let some of us die to feel the smell of him let my part of this rotten world be forfeited sold for evermore providing I may anchor my tottering soul upon Christ I know it is sometimes at this Lord what wilt thou have for Christ But O Lord canst thou be budded or propined with any gift for Christ O Lord can Christ be sold or rather may not a poor needy sinner have him for nothing If I can get no more O let me be pained to all eternity with longing for him The joy of hungring for Christ should be my heaven for evermore Alas that I cannot draw souls Christ together but I desire the coming of his KingdoÌ„ that Christ as I assuredly hope he shall would come upon withered Scotland as rain upon the new mowen grass O let the king come O let his Kingdom come O let their eyes rot in their eye holes who will not receive him home again to reign rule in Scotland Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord. Iesus S. R. To his
the gate contend for the crown leave all vanities make Christ your garland Let your soul put away your old lovers let Christ have your whole love I have some experience to write of this to you My witnesse is in heaven I would not exchange my chains bonds for Christ my sighs â—or ten worlds glory I judge this clay-idol that Adam's sons are rouping selling their souls for not worth a drink of cold water O if your soul were in my soul's stead how sick would ye be of love for that fairest one that fairest among the sons of men Mayflowers morning vapours summer mist posteth not so fast away as these worm-eaten pleasures that we follow We build castles in the air night dreams are our day idols that we dote on Salvation Salvation is our onely one necessarie thing Sir call home your thoughts to this work to inquire for your welbeloved This earth is the portion of bastards seek the sons inheritance let Christ's truth be dear to you I pawnd my salvation on it that this is the honour of Christ's Kingdom I now suffer for this world I hope shall not come between me my garland that this is the way to life When ye I shall lie lumps of pale clay upon the cold ground our pleasures that we now naturally love shall be lesse then nothing in that day dear Brother fulfill my joy betake you to Christ without further delay ye will be fain at length to seek to him or doe infinitly worse Remember my love to your wife grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To WILLIAM GLENDINING 99 Welbeloved dear Brother GRace mercy and peace be to you I thank you most kindly for your care love to me in particular to my brother in hiâ— distresse in Edinburgh Goe on thorow your waters without wearying your guide knoweth the way follow him cast your caâ—es tentation upon him let not wormes the sons of men affright you they shall die the moth shall eat them keep your garland there is no lesse at the stake in this game betwixt us the world then our conscience salvation we have need to take heed to the game not to yield to them Let them take other things from us but here in matters of conscience we must hold draw with Kings set our selves in termes of opposition with the shields of the earth O the sweet communion for evermore that hath been between Christ his poor prisoner He wearieth not to be kinde He is the fairest sight I see in Aberd or any part that ever my feet were in Remember my hearty kindness to your wife I desire her to beleeve lay her cares on God make fast work of salvation Grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To JEAN BROWN 100 Welbeloved and dear Sister GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter which I esteem an evidence of your Christian affection to me of your love to my honourable Lord Master My desire is that your communion with Christ may grow that your reckonings may be put by hand with your Lord ere ye come to the water side O who knoweth how sweet Christs ' kisses are who hath been more kindly embraced kissed then I his banished prisoner If the comparison could stand I would not exchange Christ with heaven it self He hath left a dart arrow of love in my soul it paineth me till he come take it out I finde pain of these wounds because I would have possession I know now this worm-eaten apple the plaistered rotten world that the silly Children of this world are beating buffetting pulling others ears for is a portion for bastards good enough that is all they have to look for I offend not that my adversaries stay at home at their own fire-side with more yearly rent then I should I be angry that the good-man of this house of the world casteth a dog a bone to hurt his teeth he hath taught me to be content with a borrowed fire-side an uncouth bed I think I have lost nothing the in come is so great O what telling is in Christ O how weighty is my fair garland my crown my fair supping-hall in glory where I shall be above the blowes and buffettings of Prelats Let this be your desire let your thoughts dwell much upon that blessednesse that abideth you in the other world The fair side of the world will be turned to you quickly when ye shall see the crown I hope ye are neer your lodging O but I would think my self blessed for my part to win the house before the shower come on For God hath a quiver full of arrowes to shoot at shower down upon Scotland Ye have the prayers of a prisoner of Christ. I desire Patrick to give Christ his young love even the flower of it and put it by all others it were good to start soon to the way He should thereby have a great advantage in the evil day Grace be with you Aberd. March 7. 1637. Yours in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr JOHN FERGUSHILL 101 Reverend and welbeloved in the Lord. I Was refreshed with your letter I am sorry for that lingering and long some visitation that is upon your wife but I know ye take it as a mark of a lawfully begotten childe not of a bastard to be under your father's rod till ye be in heaven it will be but foul weather one shower up another down The lintel-stones pillars of the new Jerusalem suffer moe knocks of God's hammer tool then the common side-wall stones if twenty crosses be written for you in God's book they will come to ninteen then at last to one after that nothing but your head betwixt Christ's breasts for evermore his own soft hand to dry your face wipe away your teares As for publike sufferings for his truth your Master also will see to these Let us put him in his own office to comfort deliver the gloom of Christ's crosse is worse then it self I cannot keep up what he hath done to my soul My dear Brother will I not get help of you to praise to lift Christ up on high He hath pained me with his love hath left a love arrow in my heart that hath made a wound swelled me up with desires so that I am to be pitied for want of reall possession love would have the company of the party loved my greatest pain is the want of him not of his joyes comforts but of a neer union communion This is his truth I am fully perswaded I now suffer for For Christ hath taken upon him to be witnesse to it by his sweet comforts to my soul
Grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Your Brother in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady ROBERTLAND 105. MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I shall be glad to hear that your soul prospereth that fruit groweth upon you after the Lord's husbandry pains in his rod that hath not been a stranger to you from your youth It is the Lord's kindness that he will take the scum off us in the fire Who knoweth how needfull winnowing is to us what dross we must want ere we enter into the Kingdom of God So narrow is the entry to heaven that our knots our bunches lumps of pride and self-love idol-love world-love must be hammered off us that we may throng in stooping low creeping thorow that narrow thorny entry And now for my self I finde it the most sweet heavenly life to take up house dwelling at Christ's fire-side set down my tent upon Christ that foundation-stone who is sure faithfull ground hard under foot Oh if I could win to it proclaim my self not the world's debter nor a lover obliged to it that I minde not to hire or bud this world's love any longer but defie the kindness feud of God's whole creation whatsomever especially the lower vault clay part of God's creatures this vain earth For what hold I of his world A borrowed lodging some years house-room bread water fire bed candle c. are all a part of the pension of my King Lord to whom I ow thanks not to a creature I thank God that God is God Christ is Christ the earth the earth the Devil the devil and the world the world that sin is sin and that every thing is what it is Because he hath taught me in my wilderness not to shuffle my Lord Jesus nor to intermix him with creature-vanities nor to spin or twine Christ or his sweet love in one web or in one threed with the world and the things thereof Oh if I could hold and keep Christ all alone and mix him with nothing O if I could cry down the price and weight of my cursed self and cry up the price of Christ and double triple and augment and heighten to millions the price worth of Christ I am if I durst speak so might lawfully complain so hungredly tutoured by Christ Jesus my liberall Lord that his nice love which my soul would be in hands with flyeth me yet I am trained on to love him lust long die for his love whom I cannot see it is a wonder to pine away with love for a covered hid lover to be hungred with his love so as a poor soul cannot get his fill of hunger for Christ It is hard to be hungered of hunger whereof such abundance for other things is in the world But sure if we were tutours and stewards and Masters and Lordcarvers of Christ's love we should be more lean worse fed then we are Our meat doeth us the more good that Christ keepeth the keys that the wind the air of Christ's sweet breathing of the influence of his spirit is locked up in the hands of the good pleasure of him who bloweth where he listeth I see there is a sort of impatient patience required in the want of Christ as to his manifestations waiting on They thrive who wait on his love the blowing of it the turning of his gracious wind they thrive who in that on-waiting make haste and din and much adoe for their lost and hidden Lord Jesus However it be God feed me with him any way If he would come in I shall not dispute the matter where he got a hole or how he opened the lock I should be content that Christ and I met suppose he should stand on the other side of hell's lake and cry to me Either put in your foot come through else ye shall not have me at all But what fools are we in the taking up of him and of his dealing He hath a gate of his own beyond the thoughts of men that no foot hath skill to follow him But we are still ill Scholars and will goe in at heavens gates wanting the half of our lesson and shall still be bairns so long as we are under time's hands and till eternity cause a sun to arise in our souls that shall give us wit We may see how we spill and maâ— our own fair heaven and our salvation and how Christ is every day putting in one bone or other in these fallen souls of ours in the right place again and that in this side of the new Ierusalem we shall still have need of forgiving and healing grace I finde crosses Christ's carved work that he marketh out for us and that with crosses he figureth pourtraieth us to his own image cutting away pieces of our ill corruption Lord cut Lord carve Lord wound Lord doe any thing that may perfect thy Father's image in us make us meet for glory Pray for me I forget not you that our Lord would be pleased to lend me house-room to preach his righteousness tell what I have heard seen of him Forget not Zion that is now in Christ's calmes in his forge God bring her out new work Grace grace be with you Aberd. Jan. 4. 1638. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Earle of Cassills 106 Right honourable my very good Lord. GRace mercy peace be to your Lo I hope your Lo Will be pleased to pardon my boldness if upon report of your zealous forward minde that I hear our Lord hath given you in this his honourable cause when Christ his Gospel are so foully wronged I speak to your Lo in paper entreating your Lo to goe on in the strength of the Lord toward and against a storm of Antichristian wind that bloweth upon the face of this your poor mother-Church Christ's lilie amongst the thorns It is your Lo Glory happiness when ye see such a blow coming upon Christ to cast up your arm to prevent it Neither is it a cause that needeth to blush before the sun or to flee the sentence or censure of impartial beholders seeing the Question indeed if it were rightly stated is about the Prerogative royal of our princely royal law-giver our Lord Jesus whose ancient march-stones land-bounds our bastard Lord's the earthly generation of tyrannizing Prelats have boldly shamefully removed they who have but-half an eye may see that it is the greedy desires of Demas's and the itching scab of ambitous and climbing Diotrephes's who love the goat's life to climb till they cannot finde a way to set their soles on ground again that hath made such a wide breach in our Zion's beautifull walls and these are the men who seek no hire for the crucifying of
Christ but his coat Oh how forlorn desolate is the Bride of Christ made to all passers by Who seeth not Christ buried in this land his prophets hidden in caves silenced banished imprisoned Truth weeping in sackcloth before the Judges Parliament the Rulers of the land But her bill is cast by them Holiness hideth it self fearing the streets for the reporoaches persecution of men Justice is fallen a swoon in the gate the long shadows of the evening are stretched out upon us Woe woe to us for our day flyeth away what remaineth but that the Antichrist set down his tent in the midst of us except your Lo others with you read Christ's supplication give him that which the most lewd and scandalous wretches in this land may have before a judge even the poor man's due law and justice for God's sake O therefore my noble dear Lord as ye have begun goe on in the mighty power and strength of the Lord to cause our Lord in his Gospel and afflicted members laugh to cause the Christian Churches whose eyes are all now upon you to sing for joy when Scotland's moon shall shine like the light of the sun the sun like the light of seven dayes in one ye can doe noless then run bear up the head of your dying swooning mother-Church plead for the production of her ancient charters They hold out and put out they hold in and bring in at their pleasure men in God's house they stole the keys from Christ and his Church and came in like the thief the robber not by the door Christ now their song is Authority Authority obedience to Church-Governours When such a bastard lawless pretended step-dame as our prelacy is gone mad it is your place who are the Nobles to rise binde them at least law should fetter such wilde bulls as they are who push all who oppose themselves to their domination Alas What have we lost since Prelats were made Master coiners to change our gold in brass and to mix the Lord's wine with their water Blessed for ever shall ye be of the Lord if ye help Christ against the mighty and shall deliver the flock of God scattered upon the mountains in the dark cloudy day out of the hands of these idol-shepherds Fear not men that shall be moth-eaten-clay that shall be rolled up in a chest casten under the earth Let the holy one of Israel be your fear be couragious for the Lord and his truth Remember your accounts coming upon you with wings as fast as time posteth away Remember what peace with God in Christ the presence of the Son of God in the revealed felt sweetness of his love will be to you when eternity shall put time to the door ye shall take good-night at Time this little shepherd's tent of clay this Innes of a borrowed earth I hope your Lo is now then sending out thoughts to view this world's naughtiness vanity the hoped-for glory of the life to come that ye resolve that Christ shall have your self all yours at command for him his honour Gospel Thus trusting your Lo Will pardon my boldness I pray that the onely wise God the very God of peace may preserve strengthen establish you to the end Aberd. 1637. Your Lo at all command obedience in Chrst. S. R. To the Lady ROVVALAND 107 MADAM THough not acquainted I am bold in Christ to speak to vour La in paper I rejoyce in our Lord Jesus on your behalf that it hath pleased him whose love to you is as old as himself to manifest the savour of his love in Christ Jesus to your soul in the revelation of his will minde to you now when so many are shut up in unbelief O the sweet change ye have made in leaving the black kingdom of this world sin coming over to our bridegroom 's new kingdom to know to be taken with the love of the beautifull Son of God I beseech you Madam in the Lord make now sure work see that the old house be casten down razed from the foundation and that the new building of your soul be of Christ's own laying for then wind and storm shall neither loose it nor shake it asunder Many now take Christ by guess Be sure that it be he and onely he whom ye have met with His sweet smell his lovely voyce his fair face his sweet working in the soul will not lye they will soon tell if it be Christ indeed I think your love to the saints speaketh that it is he therefore I say be sure that ye take Christ himself take him with his father's blessing his father alloweth him well upon you your lines are well fallen it could not have been better nor so well with you if they had not fallen in these places In heaven or out of heaven there is nothing better nothing so sweet excellent as the thing ye have lighted on therefore hold you with Christ Joy much joy may ye have of him But take his cross with himself cheerfully Christ and his cross are not separable in this life howbeit Christ his cross part at heaven's door for there is no house-room for crosses in heaven one tear one sigh one sad heart one fear one losse or thought of trouble cannot finde lodging there they are but the markes of our Lord Jesus down in this wide innes stormy countrey on this side of death Sorrow the saints are not married together of suppose it were so heaven shall make a divorce I finde his sweet presence eateth out the bitterness of sorrow suffering I think it a sweet thing that Christ saith of my cross Halfmine that he divideth these sufferings with me taketh the largest share to himself nay that I my whole cross are wholly Christ's O what a portion is Christ O that the saints would dig deeper in the treasures of his wisdom excellency Thus recommending your La to the goodwill tender mercies of our Lord I rest Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637 Yours La in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON Of Knockbrex 108 My very worthy dear Friend GRace mercy peace be unto you Though all Galloway should have forgotten me I would have expected a letter from you ere now But I will not expound it to be forgetfulness of me Now My dear Brother I cannot shew you how matters goe betwixt Christ and me I finde my Lord going and coming seven times a day His visits are short but they are both frequent sweet I dare not for my life think of a challenge of my Lord I hear ill tales hard reports of Christ from the Tempter and my flesh but love beleeveth no evil I may swear that they are lyars and that apprehensions make lyes of Christ's honest and unalterable love to me
that will not doe it For my self I am as well as Christ's prisoner can be For by him I am master King of all my crosses I am above the prison the lash of mens tongues Christ triumpheth in me I have been casten down heavie with fears hunted with challenges I was swimming in the depths but Christ had his hand under my chin all the time took good heed that I should not lose breath And now I have gotten my feet again there are love-feasts of joy spring-tides of consolation betwixt Christ me We agree well I have court with him I am still welcome to his house O my short arms cannot fathom his love I beseech you I charge you help me to praise Ye have a prisoner's prayers therefore forget me not I desire Sibilla to remember me dearly to all in that Parish who know Christ as if I had named them Grace grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my very dear Brother VVILLIAM LIVINGSTONE 113 My very dear Brother I Rejoyce to hear that Christ hath run away with your young love that ye are so early in the morning matched with such a Lord for a young man is often a dressed lodging for the devil to dwell in be humble and thankfull for grace weigh it not so much by weight as if it be true Christ will not cast water on your smoking coal he never yet put out a dim candle that was lighted at the sun of righteousness I recommend to you prayer watching over the sins of your youth for I know missive letters goe between the Devil young blood Satan hath a friend at court in the heart oâ— youth there pride luxury lust revenge forgetfulness of God are hired as his agents happy is your soul if Christ man the house take the keys himself command all as it suiteth him full well to rule all where ever he is keep him entertain Christ well cherish his grace blow upon your own coal let him tutour you Now for my self know I am fully agreed with my Lord Christ hath put the father me in other's arms many a sweet bargain he made before he hath made this among the rest I reign as King over my crosses I will not flatter a temptation nor give the Devil a good word I defie Hell's iron gates God hath past over my quarrelling of him at my entry here now he feedeth feasteth with me praise praise with me let us exalt his name together Aberd. March 13. 1637. Your brother in Christ S. R. To WILLIAM GORDON of VVhite parke 114 Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be unto you I long to hear from you I am here the Lord's prisoner patient handled as softly by my Physician as if I were a sick man under cure I was at hard terms with my Lord pleaded with him But I had the worst side It is a wonder he should have suffered the like of me to have nicknamed the Son of his love Christ to call him a changed Lord who had forsaken me but misbelief hath never a good word to speak of Christ. The dross of my cross gathered a scum of fearsin the fire doubtings impatience unbelief challenging of providence as sleeping not regarding my sorrow but my gold smith Christ was pleased to take off the scum burn it in the fire And blessed be my finer he hath made the metall better furnished new supply of grace to cause me hold out weight I hope hath not loosed one grain weight by burning his servant Now his love in my heart casteth a mighty heat He knoweth that the desire I have to be at himsâ—lf paineth me I have sick nights frequent fits of love-fevers for my welbeloved Nothing paineth me now but want of presence I think it long till day I challenge time as too slow in it's pace that holdeth my onely onely fair one my love my welbeloved from me O if we were together once I am like an old crazed ship that hath endured many storms that would fain be in the lee of the shore feareth new storms I would be that nigh heaven that the shadow of it might break the force of the storm the crazed ship might win to land My Lord's sâ—n casteth a heat of love beam of light on my soul. My blessing thrice every day upon the sweet cross of Christ I am not ashamed of my garland The banished â—inister which is the term of Aberden Love Love defieth reproaches The love of Christ hath a croslet of proof on it arrows will not draw blood of it We are more then conquerours through the blood of him that hath loved us Rom. 8. The devil the world they cannot wound the love of Christ. I am further from yeelding to the course of defection then when I came hither sufferings blunt not the fiery edge of love Cast love in the floods of hell it will swim above it careth not for the world 's busked and plaistered offers It hath pleased my Lord so to lyne my heart with the love of my Lord Jesus that as if the field were already won I on the other side of time I laugh at the world 's golden pleasures at this dirtie Idol that the sons of Adam worship This worm-eaten God is that which my soul hath fallen out of love with Sir ye were once my hearer I desire now to hear from you your wife I salute her your children with blessings I am glad that ye are still hand-fasted with Christ goe on in your journey take the city by violence Keep your garments clean Be clean virgins to your husband the Lamb the world shall follow you to heaven's gates ye would not wish it to goe in with you Keep fast Christ's love Pray for me as I doe for you the Lord Jesus be with your Spirit Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr GEORGE GILLESPIE 115 Reverend dear Brother I Received your letter as for my case Brother I bless his glorious name my losses are my gain my prison a palace my sadness joyfulness At my first entry my apprehensions wrought so upon my cross that I becâ—me jealouse of the love of Christ as being by him thrust out of the vineyard I was under great challenges as ordinarily melted gold casteth first a drossie scum Satan our corruption form the first words that the heavy cross speaketh say â—od is angry He loveth you not But our apprehensions are not cannonicall they dite lyes ' of God Christ's love but since my spirit was setled the clay fallen to the bottom of the well I see better what Christ was doing And now my Lord is returned with salvation under his wings now I want little of half a heaven I finde
Christ every day so sweet comfortable lovely Kinde as three things onely trouble me 1. I see not how to be thankfull or how to get help to praise that royall King who raiseth up these that are bowed down 2. His love paineth me woundeth my soul so as I am in a fever for want of reall presence 3. An excessive desire to take instruments in God's name that this is Christ his truth I now suffer for yea the apple of the eye of Christ's honour even the Soveraignity royall priviledges of our King law-giver Christ therefore let no man scar at Christ's cross or raise an ill report upon him or it for he beareth the sufferer it both I am here troubled with the disputes of the great Doctors especially with D. B. in Ceremoniall Arminian controverâ—â—es for all are corrupt here but I thank God with no detriment to the truth or discredit to my profession So then I see that Christ can triumph in a weaker man nor I who can be more weak But his grace is sufficient for me Brother remember our old Covenant pray for me write to me your case The Lord Jesus be with your spirit Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN MEINE 116 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you I wonder ye sent me â—ot an answer to my last letter for I stand in need of it I am still 〈◊〉 some piece of court with our great King whose love would cause a dead man speak live whether my court will continue or not I cannot well say but I have his ear frequently to his glory onely I speak it no penurie of the love-kisses of the Son of God He thinketh good to cast apples to me in my prison to play withall lest I should think long faint I must give over all attempts to fathom the depth of his love all I can doe is but to stand beside his great love look wonder my debts of thankfulness affright me I fear my Creditor get a Dyvour-bill a ragged account I would be much the better of help O for help that ye would take notice of my case Your not writing to me maketh me think ye suppose that I am not to be bemoaned because he is comfortable but I have pain in my unthankfulness pain in the feeling of his love while I am sick again for real presence reall possession of Christ yet there is no gooked if I may speak so nor fond love in Christ He casteth me down sometimes with challenges for old faults I know he knoweth well that sweet comforts are swelling therefore sorrow must make a vent to the wind my dumb sabbaths are undercotting wounds The condition of this oppressed kirk my brother's case I thank you your wife for your kindness to him hold my sore smarting keep my wounds bleeding but the ground-work standeth sure Pray for me Grace be with you Remember meto your wife Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr THOMAS GARVEN 117 Reverend and dear Brother I Blesse you for your letter it was a shower to the new mowen grass The Lord hath given you the tongue of the Learned Be fruitfull humble It is possible ye come to my case or the like but the water is neither so deep nor the stream so strong as it is called I think my fire is not hot my water dry land my loss rich loss O if the walls of my prison be high wide large the place sweet No man knoweth it no man I say knoweth it my Dear Brother so well as he I no man can put it down in black white as my Lord hath sealed it in my heart My poor stock is growen since I came to Aberden And if any had known the wrong I did in being jealous of such an honest lover as Christ who witheld not his love from me they would think the more of it but I see he must be above me in mercy I will never strive with him To think to recompense him is folly If I had as many Angel's tongues as there have fallen drops of rain since the creation or as there are leaves of trees in all the forrests of the earth or stars in the heaven to praise yet my Lord Jesus would ever be behinde with me We will never get our accounts sitted A pardon must close the reckoning for his comforts to me in this his honourable cause have almost put me beyond the bounds of modesty howbeit I will not let every one know what is betwixt us Love love I mean Christ's love is the hottest coal that ever I felt O but the smoke of it be hot Cast all the salt sea on it it will flame hell cannot quench it Many many waters will not quench love Christ is turned over to his poor prisoner in a masse globe of love I wonder he should waste so much love upon such a waster as I am but he is no waster but abundant in mercy He hath no niggards almes when he is pleased to give O that I could invite all the nation to love him Free grace is an unknown thing This world hath heard but a bare name of Christ no more There are infinite plyes in his love that the saints will never win to unfold I would it were better known that Christ got more of his own due then de doeth Brother ye have chosen the good part who have taken part with Christ Ye will see him win the field ye shall get part of the spoile when he divideth it They are but fools who laugh at us for they see but the backside of the moon yet our moon-light it better thâ—n their twelve-hours-sun We have gotten the new heavens as a pledge of that the bridegroom's love-ring The children of the wedding chamber have cause to skip leap for joy for the marriage supper is drawing nigh we finde the fours-hours sweet comfortable O time be not slow O sun move speedily hasten our banquet O bridegroom be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains O welbeloved run fast that we may once meet Brother I contain my self for want of time Pray for me I hope to remember you The goodwill of him who dwelt in the bush the tender mercies of God in Christ enrich you Grace be with you Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To BETHAIA AIRD. 118 Worthy Sister GRace mercy peace be unto you I know ye desire news from my prison I shall shew you news At my first entry hither Christ I agreed not well upon it The devil made a plea in the house I laid the blame upon Christ for my heart was fraughted with challenges I feared that I was an outcast that I was but a withered tree in
troubles I have received false reports of Christ's love misbeleeved him in his chastning whereas the event hath said all was in mercy 11. Nothing more moveth me weighteth my soul then that I could never for my heart in my prosperity so wrestle in prayer with God nor be so dead to the world so hungry sick of love for Christ so heavenly minded as when ten stone weight of a heavy cross was upon me 12. That the cross extorted vows of new obedience which ease hath blowen away as chaff before the wind 13. That practice was so short narrow light so long broad 14. That death hath not been often meditated upon 15. That I have not been carefull of gaining others to Christ. 16. That my grace gifts bring forth little or no thankfulness There are somethings also whereby I have been helped As 1. I have benefited by riding alone a long journey in giving that time to prayer 2. By abstinence giving dayes to God 3. By praying for others for by making an errand to God for them I have gotten something for my self 4. I have been really confirmed in many particulars that God heareth prayers and therefore I used to pray for any thing of how little importance soever 5. He enabled me to make no question that this mocked way which is nicknamed is the onely way to heaven Sir these many moe occurrences in your life would be looked unto 1. Thoughts of Atheisme would be watched over as If there be a God in heaven Which will trouble assault the best at some times 2. Growth in grace would be cared for above all things falling from our first love mourned for 3. Conscience made of praying for the enemies who are blinded Sir I thank you most kindly for your care of my brother me also I hope it is laid up for you and remembred in heaven I am still ashamed with Christ's kindness to such a sinner as I am He hath left a fire in my heart that hell cannot cast water on to quench or extinguish it Help me to praise and pray for me for ye have a prisoner's blessing prayers Remember my love to your wife Grace be with you Aberd. March 15. 1367. Yours in Christ Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON of Knokbrex 121 My very dear Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you I thought to have answered your two letters upon this occasion though I cannot say all that I would Your timeous word not to delight in the cross but in him who sweetneth it came to me in due time I finde the consolations off-fallings that follow the cross of Christ so sweet that I almost forget my self my desire purpose is when Christ's honey combs drop neither to refuse to receive feed upon his comforts nor yet to make joy my bastard-god or my new found heaven But what shall I say Christ very often in his sweet comforts cometh unsent for it were a sin to close the door upon him It is not unlawfull to love delight in Christ's apples when I am not dottingly wooing nor eagerly begging kisses but when they come clean from the timber like kindness it self that cometh of it's own accord then I cannot but laugh upon him who laugheth upon me If joy comforts came single alone without Christ himself I think I would send them back again the gate they came and not make them welcome But when the King's train cometh and the King in the midst of the company O how am I overjoyed with floods of love I fear not that too great speats of love wash away the growing corn loose my plants at the roots Christ doeth no skaith where he cometh but certainly I would wish such spirituall wisdom as to love the bridegroom better then his gifts his propines or drink-money I would be further in upon Christ then at his joyes they but stand in the utter side of Christ I would wish to be in as a seal on his heart in where his love mercy lodgeth beside his heart My welbeloved hath ravished me but it is done with consent of parties it is allowable enough But my dear Brother ere I part with this subject I must tell you that ye may lift up my King in praises with me Christ hath been keeping something these fourteen years for me that I have now gotten in my heavy dayes that I am in for his name sake even an opened coffer of perfumed comforts fresh joyes coming new green powerfull from the fairest fairest face of Christ my Lord. Let the sowre law let crosses let hell be cryed down Love love hath shamed me from my old wayes Whether I have a race to run or some work adoe I see not but I think Christ seemeth to leave heaven to say so his court come down to laugh play sport with a daft bairn I am not this plain with many I write to It is possible I be misconstructed deemed to seek a name but my witness above knoweth I seek to have a good name raised upon Christ. I observe it to be our folly to seek little from Christ because our four-hours may not be our supper nor our propine sent by the Bridegroom our tocher-good nor our earnest our principal summe But I trow few of us know how much may be had of Christ for a four-hours a propine earnest We are like the young heir who knoweth not the whole bounds of his own Lordship Certainly it is more then my part to say O sweetest Lord Iesus what hoâ— beit I were split broken in five thousand sheards or bits of clay so being every sheard â—ad a heart to love thee every one as many tongues as there are stars in heaven to sing praises to thee before man angel for evermore Therefore if my sufferings cry goodness praise honour upon Christ my stipend is well payed Each one knoweth not what a life Christ's love is Scar not at suffering for Christ for Christ hath a chair a cushion sweet peace for a sufferer Christ's trencher from the first mess of the high-table is for a sinfull witness O then Brother who but Christ Who but Christ Hold your tongue of lovers where he cometh out O all flesh O dust ashes O Angels O glorified spirits O all the shields of the world be silent before him come hither behold our Bridegroom stand still wonder for evermore at him Why cease we to love wonder to kiss adore him It is a hard matter that dayes lie betwixt me him hold us asunder O how long how long O how many miles are there to my Bridegroom 's dwelling house It is a pain to frist Christ's love any longer But it may be a drunken man lose his feet miss a step Ye write to me hall biâ—ks are slippery I doe not think my dâting world
will still last that feasts will be my ordinary food I would have humlity patience faith to set down both my feet when I come to the north-side of the cold thorny hill It is ill my common to be swier to goe an errand for Christ to take the wind upon my face for him Lord let me never be a false witness to deny that I saw Christ take the pen in his hand subscribe my writes My Dear Brother ye complain to me ye cannot hold sight of me but were I a footman I should goe at leisure but sometimes the King taketh me into his coach draweth me then I ontrun myself but alas I am still a forlorn transgressour O how unthankfull I will not put you off your sense of deadness but let me say this who gave you Proctor-fee to speak for the law that can speak for it self better then ye can doe I would not have you to bring your dittay in your own bosom with you to Christ Let the old man the new man be summoned before Christ's white throne let them be confronted before Christ let each one of them speak for themselves I hope howbeit the new man complain of his lying among the pots which maketh the beleever look black yet he can say also I am comely as the tents of Kedar Ye shall not have my advice not to bemoan your deadness but I finde by some experience which ye knew before I knew Christ it suiteth not a ransomed man of Christ's buying to goe plea for the sowre law our old forecasteâ— husband for we are now not under the law as a covenant but under grace Ye are in no man's common but Christ's I know he bemoaneth you more then ye doe your self I say this because I am wearied of complaining I thought it had been humility to imagine that Christ was angry with me both because of my dumb sabbaths my hard heart but I feel now nothing but aking wounds my grief whether I will or not swelleth upon me But let us die in Grace's hall-floor pleading before Christ I deny nothing that the Mediator will challenge me of but I turn it all back upon himself Let him look his own old counts if he be angry for he will get no more of me when Christ saith I want Repentance I meet him with this True Lord but thou art made a King Prince to give me Repentance Act. 5â— 31. When Christ bindeth a challenge upon us we must binde a promise back upon him Be woe lay your self in the dust before God which is suitable but withall let Christ take payment in his own hand pay himself off the first end of his own merits else he will come behinde for any thing we can doe I am every way in your case as hard hearted dead as any man but yet I speak to Christ through my sleep Let us then proclaim a free market for Christ swear our selves bare desire cry on him to come without money buy us take us home to our ransom-payer's fire-side let us be Christ's free-boarders because we dow not pay the old we may not refuse to take on Christ's new debt of mercy Let us doe our best Christ will still be behinde with us many terms will run together For my part let me stand for evermore in his book for a forlorn Dyvour I must desire to be this far in his common of new as to desire to kiss his feet I know not how to win to a heartsom fill feast of Christ's love for I dow neither buy nor beg nor borrow yet I cannot want it I dow not want it O if I could praise him yea I would rest content with a heart submissive dying of love for him howbeit I won never personally in at heaven's gates O would to God I could send in my praises to my incomparable welbeloved or cast my love-songs of that matchless Lord Jesus over the walls that they might light in his lap before men Angels Now grace grace be with you Remember my love to your wife daughter brother Iohn Aberd. June 11. 1638. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON Of Earlestown 122 Much honoured worthy Sir GRace Mercy peace be unto you I long to hear from you I received few letters since I came hither I am in need of a word A dry plant would have some watering My case betwixt Christ my Lord me standeth between love jealousie faith suspicion of his love It is a marvel he keepeth house with me I make many pleas with Christ but he maketh as many agreements with me I think his unchangeable love hath said I defie thee to break me change me If Christ had such changeable new thoughts of my salvation as I have of it I think I should then be at a sad loss He humoureth not a fool like me in my unbelief but rebuketh me â—athereth kindness upon me Christ is rather like the poor friend needy prisoner begging love then I am I cannot for shame get Christ said Nay of my whole love for he will not want his errand for the seeking God be thanked my bridegroom tireth not of wooing Honour to him he is a wilfull suiter of my soul But as love is his pain is mine that I have nothing to give him His count-book is full of my debts of mercy kindness free love towards me Oh that I might read with watery eyes O that he would give me the interest of interest to pay back Or rather my soul's desire is that he would comprize my person soul body love joy confidence fear sorrow desire drive the Puynd let me be rouped sold to Christ taken home to my creditor's house his fire-side The Lord knoweth if I could I would sell my self without reversion to Christ. O sweet Lord Jesus make a market over-bid all my buyers I dare swear there is a Mystery in Christ which I never saw A mystery of love O if he would lay by the lap of the covering that is over it let my griening soul see it I would break the door be in upon him to get an wombfull of love for I am an hungered â—amished soul. Oh Sir if ye or any other would tell him how sick my soul is dying for want of a hearty draught of Christ's love Oh if I could dote if I may make use of that word in this case as much upon himself as I doe upon his love It is a pity that Christ himself should not rather be my heart's choice then Christ's manifested love It would satisfie me in some measure if I had any bud to give for his love shall I offer him my praises Alas he is more then praises I give it over to get him exalted according to his worth which is above what
a nearer communion with my Lord-tutour the prime heir of all Christ I wish for my part I could send you that gentleman who wrote his commendations to me in to the kings innermost cellar house of wine to be filled with love A drink of this love is worth the having indeed We carry our selves but too too nicely with Christ our Lord our Lord loveth not niceness dryness uncouthness in friends Since need force we must be in Christ's common then let us be in his common for it will be no otherwayes Now for my present case in my imprisonment deliverance for any appearance I see looketh cold like My hope if it looked to or leaned upon men should wither soon at the root like a May-flower Yet I resolve to ease my self with on-waiting on my Lord to let my faith swim where it looseth ground I am under a necessity either offainting which I hope my master of whom boast all the day shall avert or then to â—ay my faith upon omnipotency to wink stick by my grip And I hope my ship shall ride it out seeing Christ is willing to blow his sweet wind in my sailes mendeth closeth the leks in my ship ruleth all It will be strange if a beleeving passenger be casten â—ver beard As for your Master My Lord my Lady I will be loath to forget them I think my prayers such as they are are due debt to him I shall be faâ— more engaged to his Lo if he be fast for Christ as I hope he will now when so many of his coat quality slip from Christ's back leave him to send for himself I entreat you remember my love to that wo thy Gentleman A. C. who salated me in your letter I have heard that he is one of my Master's friends for the which cause I am tied to him I wish he may more more fall in love with Christ. Now for your question as far as I rawly conceive I think God is praised two wayes First by a concional profession of his highness before men such as is the very hearing of the word receiving of either of the Sacraments in which acts by profession we give out to men that he is our God with whom we are in covenant our Lawgiver Thus eating drinking in the Lord's supper is an annunciation profession before men that Christ is our slain Redeemer Here because God speaketh to us not we to him it is not a formal thanks giving but an annunciation or predication of Christ's death concionall not adorative neither hath it God for the immediat object and therefore no kneeling can be here Secondly there is another praising of God formal when we are either formally blessing God or speaking his praises And this I take to be twofold 1. When we directly formally direct praises and thanksgiving to God This may well be done kneeling in token of our recognizance of his highness yet not so but it may be standing or sitting especially seeing joyfull elevation which should be in praising is not formally signified by kneeling 2. When we speak good of God declare his glorious nature attributes extolling him before men to excite men to conceive highly of him The former I hold to be worship every way immediat else I know not any immediat worship at all the latter hath God for the subject not properly the object seeing the predication is directed to men immediatly rather then to God for here we speak of God by way of praising rather then to God And for my own part as I am for the present minded I see not how this can be done kneeling seeing it is praedicatio Dei Christâ— non laudatio aut benedictio Dei But observe that it is formal praising of God not meerly concional as I distinguished in the first member for in the first member any speaking of God or of his works of creation providence redemption is indirect concional praising of him formally preaching or an act of teaching not an act of predication of his praises for there is a difference betwixt the simple relation of the vertues of a thing which is formally teaching the extolling of the worth of a thing by way of commendation to cause others to praise with us Thus recommending you to God's grace I rest Aberd. June 15. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr J. R. 124. Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be unto you upon the report I hear of you without any further acquaintance except our straitest bonds in our Lord Jesus I thought good to write unto you hearing of your danger to be thrust out of the Lord's house for his name sake Therefore my earnest humble desire to God is that ye may be strengthned in the grace of God by the power of his might to goe on for Christ not standing in aw of a worm that shall die I hope ye will not put your hand to the ark to give it a wrong totch to overturn it as many now doe when the archers are shooting sore at Joseph whose bowe shall abide in it's strength We ow to our royall King Princely Master a testimony O how blessed are they who can warde a blow off Christ his born-down truth Men think Christ a gone man now that he shall never get up his head again And they beleeve his court is failed because he suffereth men to break their spears swords upon him and the enemies to plow Sion make long deep their furrows on her back But it would not be so if the Lord had not a sowing for his plowing What can he doe but melt an old drossie Kirk that he may bring out a new bride out of the fire again 〈◊〉 I think Christ is just now reparing his house exchanging his old vessels with new vessels is going through this land and taking up an inventure a roll of so many of Levi's sons good Professors that he may make them new work for the second temple And whatsoever shall be found not to be for the work shall be casten over the wall When the house shall be builded he shall lay by his hammers as having no more to doe with them It is possible he doe worse to them then lay them by I think the vengeance of the Lord the vengeance of his temple shall be upon them I desire no more but to keep weight when I am past the fire I can now in some weak measure give Christ a testimonial of a lovely loving companion under suffering for him I saw him before but afar off his beauty to my eye's sight groweth a fig a straw for ten worlds plaistered glory for childish shadows The idol of clay this God the world that fools fight for If I had a lease of Christ of my own dating for whoever
to trust in him When Christ hath sleeped out his sleep if I may speak so of him who is the watch-man of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and his own are tried he will arise as a strong man after wine and make bare his holy arm and put on vengeance as a cloak and deal vengeance thick double amongst the haters of Zion It may be we see him sow and send down maledictions vengeances as thick as drops of rain or hail upon his enemies For our Lord oweth them a black day he useth duely to pay his debts neither his friends followers nor his foes adversaries shall have it to say that he is not faithfull exact in keeping his word I know no bar in God's way but Scotland's guiltiness he can come over that impediment break that bar also then say to guilty Scotland as he said Ezek. 36. Not for your sakes c. On-waiting had ever yet a blessed issue to keep the word of God's patience keepeth still the saints dry in the water cold in the fire breathing blood-hot in the grave What are prisons of iron walls gates of brass to Christ Not so good as feal dikes fortifications of straw or old tottering walls If he give the word then the chains will fall off the arms legs of his prisoners God be thanked that our Lord Jesus hath the tutouring of King and Court and Nobles and that he can dry the gutters and the mires in Sion and lay causeys to the Temple with the carcases of bastard Lord-Prelats idol-shepherds The corn on the house-tops got never the husband-man's prayers so is seen on it for it filleth not the hand of mowers Christ truth innocency worketh even under the earth verily there is hope for the righteous We see not what conclusions pass in heaven anent all the affaris of God's house we need not give hire to God to take vengeance of his enemies for Justice worketh without hire O that the seed of hope would grow again and come to maturity And that we could importune Christ double our knocks at his gate cast our cries shouts over the wall that he might come out make our Ierusalem the praise of the whole earth give us Salvation for walls bulwarks If Christ bud grow green and bloom bear seed again in Scotland his father send him two summers again in one year bless his crop O what cause have we to rejoyce in the free salvation of our Lord to set up our banners in the name of our God! O that he would hasten the confusion of the leprous strumpet the mother mistress of abominations in the earth take graven images out of the way come in with the Iews in troops agree with his old out cast forsaken wife take them in again to his bed of love Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in our Master and Lord S. R. To the Lady LARGIRIE 129. MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I exhort you in the Lord to goe on in your journey to heaven to be content of such fare by the way as Christ his followers have had before you for they had alwayes the wind on their faces our Lord hath not changed the way to us for our ease but will have us following our sweet guide Alas how doeth sin dog us in our journey retard us What fools are we to have a by-god or an other lover or match to our souls beside Christ It were best for us like ill bairns who are best heard at home to seek our own home to sell our hopes of this little clay Innes idol of the earth where we are neither well summered nor well wintered Oh that our souls would fall so at oddes with the love of this world as to think of it as a traveller doeth of a drink of water which is not any part of his treasure but goeth away with the using for ten miles journey maketh that drink to him as nothing O that we had as soon done with this world and could as quickly dispatch the love of it But as a childe cannot hold two apples in his little hand but the one putteth the other out of it's room so neither can we be masters and Lords of two loves Blessed were we if we could make our selves masters of that invaluable treasure the love of Christ or rather suffer our selves to be mastered and subdued to Christ's love so as Christ were our all things all other things our nothings the refuse of our delights O let us be ready for shipping against the time our Lord's wind tide call for us Death is the last thief that shall come without din or noise of feet take our souls away we shall take our leave at Time fâ—ce Eternity our Lord shall lay together the two sides of this earthly Tabernacle fold us lay us by as a man layeth by his clothes at night put the one half of us in a house of clay the dark grave the other half of us in heaven or hell Seek to be found of your Lord in peace gather in your flitting put your soul in order for Christ will not give a nail-breadth of Time to our little sand-glass Pray for Zion for me his prisoner that he would be pleased to bring me amongst you again full of Christ fraughted laden with the blessings of his Gospel Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his onely Lord and Master S. R. To EARLESTOWN Younger 130 Worthy dearly beloved in the Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear from you I remain still a prisoner of hope doe think it service to the Lord to wait on still with submission till the Lord's morning-skie break his summer day dawn for I am perswaded it is a piece of the chief errand of our life that God sent us for some years down to this earth among devils men the fire-brands of the devil temptations that we might suffer for a time here amongst our enemies otherwise he might have made heaven to wait on us at our coming out of the womb and have carried us home to our countrey without letting us set down our feet in this knotty and thorny life but seeing a piece of suffering is carved to every one of us less or more as infinite wisdom hath thought good our part is to harden and habituat our soft and thin skinned nature to endure fire and water devils lions men losses woe hearts as these that are looked upon by God Angels men devils O what folly is it to sit down weep upon a decree of God that is both dumb deaf at our tears must stand still as unmovable as God who made it for who can come behinde our Lord to
alter or better what he hath decreed done It were better to make windows in our prison to look out to God our countrey Heaven to cry like fettered men who long for the King 's free air Lord let tâ—y Kingdom come O let the Bridegroom come And O day O fair day O everlasting summer day dawn and shine out break out from under the black night skie and shine I am perswaded if every day a little stone in the prison walls were broken thereby assurance given to the chained prisoner lying under twenty stone of irons upon arms legs that at length his chain should wear in two pieces a hole should be made at length as wide as he might come safely out to his long desired liberty he would in patience wait on till time should hole the prison wall break his chains The Lord 's hopefull prisoners under their trials are in that case Years moneths will take out now one little stone then another of this house of clay at length time shall win out the breadth of a fair door and send out the imprisoned soul to the free air in heaven and time shall filâ— off by little and little our iron bolts which are now on legs and arms out-date and wear our troubles threed-bare and hollie and then wear them to nothing For what I suffered yesterday I know shall never come again to trouble me O that we could breath out new hope and new submission every day in Christ's lap For certainly a weight of glory well weighed yea encreasing to a far more exceeding and eternall weight shall recompence both weight and length of light and clipped and short-dated crosses Our waters are but ebbe and come neither to our chin nor to â—he stopping of our breath I may see if I would borrow eyes from Christ dry land and that near Why then should we not laugh at adversity and scorn our short-born and soon-dying temptations I rejoyce in the hope of that glory to be revealed for it is no uncertain glory we look for our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted threed as I imagine so or it is likely but the cable the strong tow of our fastened anchor is the oath and the promise of him who is eternall verity our Salvation is fastened with God's own hand and with Christ's own strength to the strong stoup of God's unchangeable nature Mal 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not and therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed We may play and dance and leap upon our worthy and immoveable rock the ground is sure and good and will bide hell's brangling and devils brangling and the world's assaults Oh if our faith could ride it out against the high and proud winds and waves when our sea seemeth all to be on fire O how oft doe I let my grips goe I am put to swimming and half sinking I finde the devil hath the advantage of the ground in this battel for he fighteth in known ground in our corrupt nature Alas that is a friend neer of kin and blood to himself and will not fail to fall foul upon us And hence it is that he who saveth to the uttermost and leadeth many sons to glory is still righting my salvation and twenty times a day I ravel my heaven then I must come with my ill raveled work to Christ to cumber him as it were to right it to seek again the right end of the threed to fold up again my eternall glory with his own hand to give a right cast of his holy gracious hand to my marred spilt salvation Certainly it is a cumbersom thing to keep a foolish childe from falls broken brows weeping for this that toy rash running sickness bairns diseases ere he win through them all and win out of the mires he costeth meekle black cumber and fashrie to his keepers And so is a beleever a cumbersom piece of work and an ill raveled hesp as we use to say to Christ But God be thanked for many spilt salvations and many ill raveled hesps hath Christ mended since first he entered tutour to lost mankinde O what could we bairns doe without him how soon would we mar all But the less of our weight be upon our own feeble legs and the more that we be on Christ the strong Rock the better for us It is good for us that ever Christ took the cumber of us it is our heaven to lay many weights and burdens upon Christ and to make him all we have root and top beginning and ending of our salvation Lord hold us â—ere Now to this tutour and rich Lord I recommend you Hold fast till he come and remember his prisoner Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his and your Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr WILLIAM DALGLEISH 131 Reverend dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter I bless our high and onely wise Lord who hath broken the sâ—are that men had laid for you I hope that now he shall keep you in his house in despite of the powers of hell Who knoweth but the streets of our Ierusalem shall yet be filled with young men with old men boyes women with childe that they shall plant vines in the mountains of Samaria I am sure the wheels paces motions of this poor Church are tempered ruled not as men would but according to the good pleasure infinite wisdom of our onely wise Lord. I am here waiting in hope that my innocency in this honourable cause shall melt this cloud that men have casten over me I know my Lord had his own quarrels against me that my dross stood in need of this hot furnace but I rejoyce in this that fair truth beautifull truth whose glory my Lord cleareth to me more more bearth me company that my weak aimes to honour my Master in bringing guests to his house now swell upon me in comforts that I am not affraid to want a witness in heaven that it was my joy to have a crown put upon Christ's head in that countrey O what joy would I have to see the wind turn upon the enemies of the cross of Christ to see my Lord Jesus restored with the voice of praise to his own fâ—ee throne again to be brought amongst you to see the beauty of the Lord's house I hope that countrey will not be so silly as to suffer men to pluck you away from them that ye will use means to keep my place empty to bring me back again to the people to whom I have Christs right and his Church's lawfull calling Dear Brother let Christ be dearer dearer to you let the conquest of souls be top and root flower and bloom of your joyes and desires in this side of sun and moon and in the day when the Lord shall
pull up the four stakes of this clay tent of the earth the last pickle of sand shall be at the nick of falling down in your watch-glass the master shall call the servants of the vincyard to give them their hire ye will esteem the bloom of this world's glory like the colours of the rain-bow that no man can put in his purse treasure Your labours pains shall then smile upon you My Lord now hath given me experience howbeit weak small that our best fare here is hunger we are but at God's by-board in this lower house we have cause to long for supper-time the high table up in the high palace This world deserveth nothing but the utter court of our soul. Lord hasten the marriage-supper of the Lamb. I finde it still peace to give up with this present world as with an old decourted cast-off lover My bread drink in it is not so much worth that I should not loath the Innes pack up my desires for Christ that I have sent out to the feckless creatures in it Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your affectionat Brother Crhist's prisoner S. R. To the Laird of CALLY 132 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how your soul prospereth I have that confidence that your soul mindeth Christ salvation I beseech you in the Lord give more pains diligence to fetch heaven then the countrey-sort of lazie professors who think their own faith their own godliness because it is their own best content themselves with a coldrife custom course with a resolution to summer winter in that sort of profession that the multitude and the times favour most and are still shaping and clipping and carving their faith according as it may best stand with their summer-sun and a whole skin and so breath out both hot and cold in God's matters according to the course of the times This is their compass they sail toward heaven by in stead of a better Worthy dear Sir separate your self from such and bend your self to the utmost of your strength breath in running fast for salvation and in taking Christ's Kingdom use violence It cost Christ and all his followers sharp showers and hot sweats ere they won to the top of the mountain But still our soft nature would have heaven coming to our bed-side when we are sleeping lving down with us that we might goe to heaven in warm clothes but all that came there â—ound wet feet by the way sharp storms that did take the hide off their face â—ound to 's fro's up's down's many enemies by the way It is impossible a man can take his lusts to heaven with him such wares as these will not be welcome there O how loath are we to forgoe our packalds burdens that hinder us to run our race with patience It is no small work to displease anger nature that we may please God O if it be hard to win one foot or half an inch out of our own will out of our own wit out of our own ease worldly lusts so to deny our self to say It is not I but Christ not I but grace not I but God's glory not I but God's love constraining me not I but the Lord's word not I but Christ's commanding power as King in me O what pains what a death is it to nature to turn me my self my lust my ease my credit over in my Lord my Saviour my King my God my Lord's will my Lord's grace But alas that idol that whorish creature my self is the master-idol we all bow to What made Evah miscarry what hurried her headlong upon the forbidden fruit but that wretched thing her self What drew that brother-murtherer to kill Abel That wilde himself What drove the old world on to corrupt their wayes Who but themselves their own pleasure What was the cause of Solomon's falling into idolatry multiplying of strange wives What but himself whom he would rather pleasure then God What was the hook that took David snared him first in adultery but his self-lust then in murther but his self-credit self-honour What led Peter on to deny his Lord Was it not a piece of himself self-love to a whole skin What made Iudas sell his Matter for 30 pieces of money but a piece of self-love idolizing of avaritions self What made Demas to goe off the way of the Gospel to embrace this present world even self love love of gain for himself Every man blameth the devil for his sins but the great devil the house-devil of every man the house-devil that eateth lieth in every man's bosom is that idol that killeth all himself O blessed are they who can deny themselves put Christ in the room of themselves O would to the Lord I had not a my self but Christ nor a my lust but Christ noâ— a my ease but Christ nor a my honour but Christ O sweet word Gal. 2 20. I live no more but Christ liveth in me O if every one would put away himself his own self his own ease his own pleasure his own credit his own twenty things his own hundred things that he setteth up as idols above Christ Dear Sir I know ye will be looking back to your old self to your self-lust self-idol that ye set up in the lusts of youth above Christ. Worthy Sir pardon this my freedom of love God is my witness that it is out of an earnest desire after your soul 's eternal welfare that I use this freedom of speech Your sun I know is lower your evening skie and sun-setting nearer then when I saw you last Strive to end your task before night and to make Christ your-self and to acquaint your love and your heart with the Lord Stand now by Christ and his truth when so many fail foully and are false to him I hope ye love him and his truth let me have power with you to confirm you in him I think more of my Lord 's sweet cross then of a crown of gold and a free Kingdom lying to it Sir I remember you in my prayers to the Lord â—…ding to my promise Help me with your prayers that our Lord would be pleased to bring me amongst you again with the Gospel of Christ Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweetest Lord and Master S. R. To JOHN GORDON Of Cardoness younger 133 Dearly beloved in our Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you I long exceedingly to hear of the case of your soul which hath a large share both of â—y prayers carefull thoughts Sir remember that a precious treasure prize is upon this short play that ye are now upon even the eternity of well or woe to your soul standeth upon the little point of your ill or well employed short swift
posting sand-glass Seek the Lord while he may be found the Lord waiteth upon you Your soul is of no little price gold or silver of as much bounds as would cover the highest heavens round about cannot buy it To live as others doe to be free of open sins that the world crieth shame upon it will not bring you to heaven as much civility countrey-discretion as would lye between you heaven will not lead you one foot or one inch above condemned nature therefore take pains upon seeking of salvation give your will wit humour the green desires of youth's pleasures off your hand to Christ It is not possible for you to know till experience teach you how dangerous a time Youth is It is like green wet timber when Christ casteth fire on it it taketh not fire There is need here of more then ordinary pains for corrupt nature hath a good back-friend of Youth sinning against light will put out your candle stupifie your conscience bring upon it moe coverings skins less feeling sense of guiltiness when that is done the Devil is like a mad horse that hath broken the bridle runneth away with his rider whither he listeth Learn to know that which the Apostle knew the deceitfulness of sin strive to make prayer reading holy company holy conference your delight when delight cometh in ye shall by little little smell the sweetness of Christ till at length your soul be over head ears in Christ's sweetness then shall ye be taken up to the top of the mountain with the Lord to know thâ— ravishments of spiritual love the glory excellency of a sâ—en revealed felt embraced Christ then ye shall not be able to loose your self off Christ to binde your soul to old lovers then never till then are all the paces motions walkings wheels of your soul in a right tune in a spiritual temper But if this world the lusts thereof be your delight I know not what Christ can make of you ye cannot be mettall to be a vessel of glory mercy as the Lord liveth thousand thousands are beguiled with security because God wrath judgement is not terrible to them stand in aw of God of the warnings of a checking rebuking conscience make others to see Christ in you moving doing speaking thinking your actions will smell of him if he be in you there is an instinct in the new born babes of Christ like the instinct of nature that leades birds to build their nests bring up their young love such such places as woods forests wildernesses better then other places The instinct of nature maketh a man love his mother-countrey above all countreys The instinct of renewed nature supernatural grace will lead you to such such works as to love your countrey above to sigh to be clothed with your house not made with hands to call your borrowed prison here below a borrowed prison to look upon it servant-like pilgrim-like And the pilgrim's eye look is a disdainfull like discontented cast of his eye his heart crying after his eye Fy fy tâ— is is not like my countrey I recommend to you the mending of a hole reforming of a failing one or other every week put off a sin or a piece of it as of anger wrath lust intemperance every day that ye may more easily master the remnant of your corruption God hath given you a wife love her let her breasts satisfie you for the Lord's sake drink no waters but out of your own cistern strange wells are poison Strive to learn some new way against your corruption from the man of God M. W. D. or other servants of God sleep not sound till ye finde your self in that case that ye dare look death in the face durst hazard your soul upon eternity I am sure many ells inches of the short threed of your life are by hand since I saw you and that threed hath an end and ye have no hands to cast a knot adde one day or a finger-breadth to the end of it When hearing and seeing and the utter walls of the clay-house shall fall down life shall render the besieged castle of clay to death judgement ye finde your time worn ebbe run out what thoughts will ye then have of idol-pleasures that possibly are now sweet what bud or hire would ye then give for the Lord's favour what a price would ye then give for pardon It were not amiss to think what if I were to receive a doom to enter into a surnace of fire brimstone What if it come to this that I shall have no portion but utter darkness And what if 〈◊〉 be brought to this to be banished from the presence of God to be given over to God's serjeants the Devil the power of the second Death Put your soul by supposition in such a case â—…sider what horrour would take hold of you what then ye would esteem of pleasing your self in the course of sin O dear Sir for the Lord's sake awake to live righteously love your poor soul after ye have seen this my letter say with yourself the Lord will seck an account of this warning I have received Lodge Christ in your family Receive no stranger hireling as your Pastor I bless your children Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your lawful and loving Pastor S. R. To my Lord BOYD. 134 My very honourable good Lord. GRace mercy peace be to your Lo Out of the worthy report that I hear of your Lo zeal for this born down oppressed Gospel I am bold to write to your Lo beseeching you by the mercies of God by the honour of our royal and princely King Jesus by the sorrows tears desolation of your afflicted mother-church by the peace of your conscience your joy in the day of Christ that your Lo would goe on in the strength of your Lord and in the power of his might to bestir your self for the vindicating of the fallen honour of your Lord Jesus O blessed hands for evermore that shall help to put the crown upon the head of Christ again in Scotland I dare promise in the name of our Lord that this shall fasten fix the pillars the stakes of your own honourable house upon earth if ye lend lay in pledge in Christ's hand upon spiritual hazard life estate house honour credit moyen friends the favour of men suppose King 's with three crownâ— sobeing ye may bear witness acquit your self as a man of valour and courage to the Prince of your salvation for the purging of his temple sâ—…eeping out the Lordly Diotrephes's time-courting Demas's corrupt Hymeneus's Philetus's other such oxen that with their dung defile the Temple of the
Lord. Is not Christ now crying Who will help me Who will come out with me to take part with me share in the honour of my victory over these mine enemies who have said Wee â—ill not have this man to rule over us My very honourable and dear Lord joyn joyn aâ— ye doâ— with Christ he is more worth to you your posterity then this world's May flowers withering Riches Honour that shall goe away as smoke evanish in a night-vision shall in one half hour after the blast of the Archangel's trumpet lie in white ashes Let me beseech your Lo to draw by the lap of Time's curtain look in through that window to great endless Eternity consider if a worldly price suppose this little round clay globe of this ashie dirty earth the dying idol of the fools of this world were all your own can be given for one smile of Christ's God-like soul ravishing countenance in that day when so many joints and knees of thousand thousands wailing shall stand before Christ trembling shouting making their prayers to hills mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the Lamb. O how many would sell Lordships Kingdoms that day buy Christ But Oh the market shall be closed ended ere then Your Lo hath now a blessed venture of winning court with the Prince of the Kings of the earth He himself weeping truth born down fallen in the streets an oppressed Gospel Christ's bride with watery eyes spoiled of her vail her hair hanging about her eyes forced to goe in ragged apparel the banished silenced imprisoned prophets of God who have not the favour of liberty to prophesie in sackcloth all these I say call for your help Fear not worms of clay the moth shall eat them as a garment let the Lord be your fear he is with you shall fight for you thus shall ye cause the blessing of these who are ready to perish come upon you ye shall make the heart of this your mother-Church to sing for joy The Lamb his armies are with you the Kingdoms of the earth are the Lord 's I am perswaded there is not another Gospel nor another saving truth then that which ye now contend for I dare hazard my heaven salvation upon it that this is the onely saving way to glory Grace grace be with your Lo Aberd. 1637. Your Lo at all respective obedience in Christ. S. R. To ROBERT GORDON Bailiffe of Ayr. 135 Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear from you Our Lord is with his afflicted Kirk so that this burning bush is not consumed to ashes I know submissive on-waiting for the Lord shall at length ripen the joy deliverance of his own who are truly blessed on-waiters What is the dry miscarrying hope of all them who are not in Christ but confusion wind O how pitifully and miserably are the children of this world beguiled whose wine cometh home to them water their gold brass tin And what wonder that hopes builded upon sand should fall sink It were good for us all to abandon the forlorn blasted withered hope we have had in the creature let us henceforth come drink water out of our own well even the fountain of living waters build our selves our hope upon Christ our rock But alas that naturall love that we have to this borrowed home that we were born in and that this clay-city the vain earth should have the largest share of of our heart Our poor lean and empty dreams of confidence in some-thing beside God are no further travelled then up down the naughty feckless creatures God may say of us as he said Amos 6 13. Ye rejoyce in a thing of nougâ—t Surely we spin our spider's web with pain and build our rotten and tottering house upon a lye and falshood and vanity O when will we learn to have thoughts higher then the sun and moon and learn our joy hope confidence and our soul's desires to look up to our best countrey and to look down to clay tents set up for a night's lodging or two in this unknown land laugh at our childish conceptions imaginations that suck our joy out of creatures woe sorrow losses grief O sweetest Lord Jesus O fairest Godhead O flower of man angels why are we such strangers to far-off beholders of thy glory O it were our happiness for evermore that God would cast a pest a botch a leprosie upon our part of this great whore a fair and well busked World that clay might no longer deceive us but O that God may burn and blast our Hope hereaway rather then our Hope should live to burn us Alas the wrong side of Christ to speak so his blackside his suffering side his wounds his bare coat his wants his wrongs the oppressions of men done to him are turned towards mens eyes they see not the best fairest side of Christ nor see they his amiable face and his beauty that man and angels wonder at Sir lend your thoughts to thâ—se things learn to contemn this world to turn your eyes and heart away from beholding the masked beauty of all things under Time's law and doom See him who is invisible and his invisible things draw by the curtain and look in with liking and longing to a Kingdom undefiled that fadeth not away reserved for you in the heaven This is worthy of your pains and worthy of your soul 's sweating and labouring seeking after night and day Fire will flee over the earth and all that is in it even destruction from the Almighty Fy fy upon that hope that shall be dryed up by the root Fy upon the drunken night-bargains And the drunken and mad covenant that sinners make with death and hell after cups and when mens souls are mad and drunken with the love of this lawless life They think to make a nest for their hopes and take quarters and conditions of hell and death that they shall have ease long life peace in the morning when the last trumpet shall awake them then they rue the block It is time high time for you to think upon death and your accounts and to remember what ye are where ye will be before the year of our Lord 1700. I hope ye are thinking upon this pull upon your soul and draw it aside from the company that it is with and round whisper in to it newes of eternity death judgement heaven and hell Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON Of Earlestown 136 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you It is like if ye the Gentry Nobility of this nation be men in the streets as the word speaketh for the Lord that he will now deliver his flock
man who can speak to such an one as ye are Any sweet presence I have had in this town is I know for this cause that I might express make it known to others but I never finde my self nearer Christ and with that royal and Princely One then after a great weight and sense of deadness gracelesness I think the sense of our wants when withall we have a restlesness and a sort of spirituall impatience under them and â—an make a din because we want him whom our soul loveth is that which maketh an open door to Christ when we think we are going backward because we feel deadness we are going forward For the more sense the more life no sense argueth no life There is no sweeter fellowship with Christ then to bring our wounds our sores to him But for my self I am ashamed of Christ's goodness love since the time of my bonds for he hath been pleased to open up new treasures of love felt sweetness give visitations of love access to himself in this strange land I would think a fill of his love young green heaven when he is pleased to come the tide is in the sea full the King a poor prisoner together in the house of wine the black tree of the cross is not so heavie as a feather I cannot I dow not but give Christ an honourable and glorious testimony I see the Lord can ride through his enemies bands triumph in the sufferings of his own that this blinde world seeth not that Suffering is Christ's armour wherein he is victorious they that contend with Zion see not what he is doing when they are set to work as under-smiths servants to the work of refining of the saints Satan's hand also by them is at the melting of our Lord's vessels of mercy and their office in God's house is to scour cleanse vessels for the King's table I marvel not to see them triumph sit at ease in Zion our father must lay up his rods and keep them carefully for his own use our Lord cannot want fire in his house his furnace is in Zion his fire in Ierusalem but little know the adversaries the counsel the thoughts of the Lord. And for your complaints of your ministry I now think all I did too little Plainness freedom watchfulness fidelity shall swell upon you in exceeding large comforts in your sufferings The feeding of Christ's lambs in private visitations catechising in painfull preaching fair honest free warning of the flock is a sufferer's garland O ten thousand times blessed are they who are honoured of Christ to be faithfull and painfull in wooing a Bride to Christ My dear Brother I know ye think more on this then I can write I rejoyce that your purpose is in the Lord's strength to back your wronged Master to come out call your self Christ's man when so many are now denying him as fearing that Christ cannot doe for himself them I am a lost man for ever or this this is the way to Salvation even this way that they call Heresie that men now doe mock scoff at I am confirmed now that Christ will accept of his servants sufferings as good service to him at the day of his appearance that ere it be long he will be upon us all men in all their black 's white 's shall be brought out before God Angels and men Our Master is not far off Oh if we could wait on be faithfull The good will of him who dwelt in the bush the tender favour love the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Help me with your pravers desire from me other brethren to take courage for their Master Aberd. Aug. 15. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr JOHN MEINE 139 Worthy dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I have been too long in answering your letter but other business took me up I am here waiting if the fair wind will turn upon Christ's sails â—o Scotland if deliverance be breaking out to this overclouded benighted Kirk Oh that we could contend by prayers supplications with our Lord for that effect I know he hath not given out his last doom against this land I have little of Christ in this prison but groanings longings desires All my stock of Christ is some hunger for him And yet I cannot say but I am rich in that my faith hope holy practice of new obedience are scarce worth the speaking of But blessed be my Lord who taketh me light clipped naughty feckless as I am I see Christ will not prig with me nor stand upon stepping stones but cometh in at the broad side without ceremonies or making it nice to make a poor ransomed one his own O that I could feed upon his breathing kissing and embracing upon the hopes of my meeting and his when love-letters shall not goe betwixt us but he shall be messenger himselfthen But there is required patience on our part till the summer-â—â—uit in heaven be ripe for us it is in the bud but there be many things to doe before our harvest come And we take ill with it can hardly endure to set our paper-face to one of Christ's storms and to goe to heaven with wet feet pain sorrow We love to carry heaven to heaven with us would have two summers in one year and no less then two heavens but this will not be for us one such an one may suffice us well enough The man Christ got but one onely and shall we have two Remember my love in Christ to your Father help me with your prayers If ye would be a deep Divine I recommend to you Sanctification Fear him he shall reveal his Covenant to you Grace be with you Aberd. Jan. 5. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To CARDONNESS Elder 140 Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I have longed to hear from you to know the estate of your soul the estate of that people with you I beseech you Sir by the salvation of your precious soul and the mercies of God make good sure work of your salvation try upon what ground-stone ye have builded Worthy dear Sir if ye be upon sinking sand a storm of death a blast will loose Christ you and wash you close off the rock O for the Lord's sake look narrowly to the work read over your life with the light of God's day-light and sun for Salvation is not casten down at every man's door It is good to look to your compass all ye have need of ere ye take shipping for no wind can blow you back again Remember when the race is ended the play either won or lost ye are in the utmost circle
beleeve me I thought not the hundred part of Christ long since that I doe now though alas my thoughts are still infinitely below his worth I have a dwining sickly and pained life for a reall possession of him and am troubled with lovebrashes and love-fevers but it is a sweet pain I would refuse no conditions not hell excepted reserving alwayes God's hatred to buy possession of Jesus but alas I am not a merchant who have any money to give for him I must either come to a good cheap market where wares are had for nothing else I goe home empty But I have casten this work upon Christ to get me himself I have his faith truth promise as a pawne of his all engaged that I shall obtain that which my hungry desires would be at I esteem that the choice of my happiness And for Christ's cross especially the garland the flower of all crosses to suffer for his name I esteem it more then I can write or speak to you And I write it under mine own hand to you it is one of the steps of the ladder up to our countrey Christ who ever be one is still at the heavy end of this black tree so it is but as a feather to me I need not run at leisure because of a burthen on my back my back never bare the like of it the more heavily crossed for Christ the soul is still the lighter for the journey Now would to God all cold-blooded faint-hearted souldiers of Christ would look again to Jesus to his love when they look I would have them to look again again fill themselves with beholding of Christ's beauty I dare say then that Christ should come in great court request with many The virgins would flock fast about the Bridegroom they would embrace and take hold of him not let him goe But when I have spoken of him till my head rive I have said just nothing I may begin again A God-head a God-head is a world's wonder Set ten thousand thousand new made worlds of angels and elect men double them in number ten thousand thousand thousand times let their heart tongues be ten thousand thousand times more agile large then the heart tongues of the Seraphims that stand with six wings before him Isa. 6. 2. When they have said all for the glorifying praising of the Lord Jesus they have but spoken little or nothing his love will bide all possible creatures to praise Oh if I could wear this tongue to the stump in extolling his highness but it is my daily growing sorrow that I am confounded with his incomparable love he doeth so great things for my soul he got never yet any thing of me worth the speaking of Sir I charge you help me to praise him It is a shame to speak of what he hath done for me what I doe to him again I am sure Christ hath many drowned Dyvours in heaven beside him when we are conveened man angel at the great day in that fair last meeting we are all but his drowned Dyvours It is hard to say who oweth him most If men could doe no more I would have them to wonder If we cannot be filled with Christ's love we may be filled with wondering Sir I would I could perswade you to grow sick for Christ to long after him be pained with love for himself but his tongue is in heaven who can doe it To him his rich grace I recommend you I pray you pray for me forget not to praise Aberd. June 17. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady GAITGIRTH 144 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I long to know how matters stand betwixt Christ and your soul I know ye finde him still the longer the better time cannot change him in his love ye may your self ebbe flow rise fall wax wane but your Lord is this day as he was yesterday it is your comfort that your salvation is not rolled upon wheels of your own making neither have ye to doe with a Christ of your own shaping God hath singled out a Mediator strong mighty if ye your burdens were as heavy as ten hills or hells he is able to bear you save you to the uttâ—rmost Your often seeking to him cannot make you a burden to him I know Christ compassionateth you maketh a moan for you in all your dumps under your downcastings but it is good for you that he hideth himself sometimes it is not niceness driness nor coldness of love that causeth Christ withdraw slip in under a curtain a vail that ye cannot see him but he knoweth ye could not bear with up-sailes a fair gaile a full moon a high spring-tide of his felt love alwayes a fair summer-day a summer-sun of a felt possâ—ssed embracing Lord Jâ—sus His kisses his visits to his dearest oâ—es are thin sowen He could not let out his rivers of love upon his own but thâ—se rivers would be in hazard to loose a young plant at the root he knoweth this of you Ye should therefore first Christ's kindness as to it 's sensible and full manifeâ—â—ations till ye and he be above sun moon that is the countrey where ye will be enlarged for that love which ye dow not now contain Cast the burden of your sweet babes upon Christ lighten your heart by laying your All upon him he will be their God I hope to sâ—e you up the mountain yet glad in the salvation of God Frame your self for Christ gloom not upon his cross I finde him so sweet that my love suppose I would charge it to remove from Christ it would not obey me His love hath stronger fingers then to let goe it's grips of us bairns who cannot goe but by such a hold as Christ. It is good that we want legs of our own since we may borrow from Christ it is our happiness that Christ is under an act of cautionry for heaven that Christ is booked in heaven as the principal debter for such poor bodies as we are I request you give the Laird your husband thanks for his care of me that he hath appeared in publike for a prisoner of Christ I pray write mercy peace blessings to him his Grace grace be with you for ever Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr JOHN FER GUSHILL 145. Reverend Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you My longings desires for a sight of the new builded tabernacle of Christ again in Scotland that tabernacle that came down from heaven hath now taken some lâ—fe again when I see Christ making a mint to sow vengeance among his enemies I care not if this land be ripe for such a great wonderfull mercy but I know he must
doe when ever it is done without hire I finde the grief of my silence my fâ—ar to be holden at the door of Christ's house swelling upon me the truth is were it not that I am dâted now then with pieces of Christ's sweet love comforts I fear I should have made an ill browst of this honourable cross that I know such a soft sillyminded body as I am is not worthy of For I have little in me but softness superlative excessive apprehensions of fear sadness sorrow often God's terrors doe surround me because Christ looketh not so favourably upon me as a poor witness would have him And I wonder how I have past a year a quarter's imprisonment without shaming my sweet Lord to whom I desire to be faithfull I think I shall die but even minting aiming to serve honour my Lord Jesus Few know how toom empty I am at home but it is a part of Marriage-love husband love that my Lord Jesus goeth not to the streets with his chiding against me It is but stoln concealed anger that I finde feel his glooms to me are kept under roof that he will not have mine enemies hearing what is betwixt me Christ And beleeve me I say the truth in Christ the onely gall and wormwood in my cup that which hath filled me with fear hath been lest my sins that sun moon the Lord's children were never witness to should have moved my Lord to strike me with dumb sabbaths Lord pardon my soft weak jealousies if I be here in an error My very dear Brother I would have looked for more large more particular letters from you for my comfort in this for your words before have strengthned me I pray you mend this be thankfull painâ—ull while ye have a piece or corner of the Lord's vineyard to dress O would to God I could have leave to follow you to break the clods but I wish I could command my soul silence wait upon the Lord. I am sure while Christ lives I am well enough friend-stead I hope he will extend his Kindness power for me but God be thanked it is not worse with me then a cross for Christ his truth I know he might have pitched upon many more choise worthy witnesses if he had pleased â—ut I seek no more be what timber I will suppose I were made of a piece of hell then that my Lord in his infinite art hew glory to his name enlargement to Christ's Kingdom out of me Câ— that I could attain to this to desire that my part of Christ might be laid in pledge for the heightning of Christ's throne in Britain Let my Lord redeem the pledge or if he please let it sink drown unredeemed But what can I adde to him Or what way can a smothered and born-down prisoner set out Christ in open market as a lovely desireable Lord to many souls I know he sieth to his own glory better then my ebbe thoughts can dream of that the vvheels paces of this poor distempered Kirk are in his hands that things shall roll as Christ will have them Onely Lord tryst the matter so as Christ may be made a housholder Lord again in Scotland and wet faces for his departure may be dried at his sweet much desired welcome-home I see in all our trials our Lord will not mix our wares his grace over head through other but he will have each man to know his own that the like of me maâ— say in my sufferings This is Christ's grace this is but my course stuff this is free grace this is but nature and reason We know what our legs would play us if they should carry us through all our waters and the least thing our Lord can have of us is to know we are grace's debters or grace's dyvours that nature is of a base house blood grace is better born ofâ— in blood to Christ of a better house Oh that I were free of that Idol that they call my self that Christ were for myself my self a decourted cipher a denied forsworn thing But that proud thing my self will not play except it ride up side for side with Christ or rather have place before him O my self another devil as evil as the prince of devils if thou could give Christ the way take thine own room which is to sit as low as nothing or corruption O but we have much need to be ransomed redeemed by Christ from that master-tyrant that cruel lawless Lord our self Nay when I am seeking Christ out of my self I have the third part of a squint eye upon that vain vain thing my self my self something of mine own But I must hold here I desire you to contribute your help to see if I can be restored to my wasted lost flock I see not how it can be except the Lords would procure me a liberty to preach they have reason 1. Because the opposers my adversaries have practised their new Canons upon me whereof one is That no deprived Minister preach under the pain of excommunication 2. Because my opposing of these Canons was a special thing that incensed Sidserf against me 3. Because I was indicially accused for my book against the Arminians commanded by the Chancellour to acknowledge I had done a fault in writing against Dr Iackson a wicked Arminian Pray for a room in the house to me Grace grace be as it is your portion Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN STUART Provest of Ayr 146. Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I long for the time when I shall see the beauty of the Lord in his house would be as glad of it as of any sight on earth to see the halt the blinde the lame come back to Zion with supplications Ier. 31 8 9. going weeping seeking the Lord asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward Ier. 50. 5 6. to see the woman travelling in birth delivered of the man childe of a blessed Reformation If this land were humbled I would look that our skie should clear our day dawn again ye should then bless Christ who is content to save your travel to give himself to you in pure ordinances on this side of the sea I know the mercy of Christ is engaged by promise to Scotland notwithstanding he bring wrath as I fear he shall upon this land I am waiting on for enlargement half content that my faith bow if Christ while he bow it keep it unbroken for who goeth through a fire without a mark or a scald I see the Lord making use of this fire to scour his vessels from their rust Oh that my will were silent as a childe weaned from the breasts Psal.
130. But alas who hath a heart that will give Christ the last word in flyting will hear not speak again Oh contestations quarrelous replies as a soon sadled spirit I doe well to be angry even to the death Ion. 4 9. Smell of the stink of strong corruption O blessed soul that could sacrifice his will goe to heaven having lost his will made resignation of it to Christ I would seek no more but that Christ were absolute King over my will that my will were a sufferer in all crosses without meeting Christ with such a word why is it thus I wish still that my love had but leave to stand beside beautifull Jesus to get the mercy of looking to him burning for him suppose possession of him were suspended fristed till my Lord fold together the leaves two sides of the little shepherds tents of clay Oh what pain is in longing for Christ under an over-clouded and eclipsed assurance What is harder then to burn and dwine with longings and deaths of love then to have blanks uninked paper for assurance of Christ in real fruition or possession O how sweet were one line or half a letter of a written assurance under Christ's own hand But this is our exercise daily that guiltiness shall overmist and darken assurance It is a miracle to beleeve but for a sinner to beleeve is two miracles But O what obligations of love are we under to Christ who beareth with our wilde apprehensions in suffering them to nick-name sweet Jesus to put a lye upon his good name If he had not been God and if long-suffering in Christ were not like Christ himself we should long agoe have broken Christ's mercies in two pieces put an iron bar upon our own salvation that mercy should not have been able to break or overleap but long-suffering in God is God himself that is ouâ— salvation the stability of our heaven is in God He knew who said Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. For our hope the bottom pillars of it is Christ-God sinners are anchor-fast made stable in God So that if God doe not change which is impossible then my hope shall not fluctuat O sweet stability of suâ—e-bottomed salvation Who could win heaven if this were not who could be saved if God were not God if he were not such a God as he is O God be thanked that our Salvation is coasted landed shored upon Christ who is master of winds storms what sea-winds can blow the coast or the land out of it's place Bulwarks are often casten down but coasts are not removed but suppose that were or might be yet God cannot reel nor remove Oh that we goe from this strong unmoveable Lord that we loose our selves if it were in our power from him Alas our green young love hath not taken with Christ as being unacquainted with him He is such a wide broad deep high surpassing sweetness that our love is too little for him But O if our love little as it is could take baâ—d with his great huge sweetness and transcendent excellency O thrice blessed eternally blessed are they who are out of themselves above themselves that they may be in love united to him I am often rolling up down the thoughts of my faint sick desires of expressing Christ's glory before his people but I see not through the throng of impediments cannot finde eyes to look higher and so I put many things in Christ's way to hinder him that I know he would but laugh at with one stride set his foot over them all I know not if my Lord will bring me to his sanctuary or not but I know he hath the placing of me either within or without the house that nothing will be done without him But I am often thinking saying within my self that my dayes flee away and I see no good neither yet Christ's work thriving and it is like the grave shall prevent the answer of my desires of saving souls as I would But alas I cannot make right work of his wayes I neither spell nor read my Lord's providence aright My thoughts goe a way that I fear they meet not God for it is like God will not come the way of my thoughts I cannot be taught to crucifie to him my wisdom desires to make him King over my thoughts for I would have a Princedom over my thoughts would boldly blindly prescribe to God guide my self in a way of my own making But I hold my peace here let him doe his will Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweetest Lord and Master S. R. To CARSLUTH 147 Much honoured Sir I Long to hear how your soul prospereth I earnestly desire you to try how matters stand between your soul the Lord think it no easy matter to take heaven by violence Salvation cometh now to the most part of men in a night dream there is no scarcity of faith now such as it is for ye shall not now light upon the man who will not say he hath faith in Christ But alas dreams make no man's rights Worthy Sir I beseech you in the Lord give your soul no rest till ye have reall assurance Christ's rights confirmed sealed to your soul The common faith countrey-holiness week-day's zeal that is among people will never bring men to heaven Take pains for your salvation for in that day when ye shall see many mens labours conquests idol-riches lying in ashes when the earth all the works thereof shall be burnt with fire O how dear a price would your soul give for God's favour in Christ It is a blessed thing to seek Christ with up-sun to read over your papers soul-accounts with fair day-light It will not be time to cry for a lamp when the Bridegroom is entred into his chamber the door shut Fy fy upon blinded base souls who are committing whoredom with this idol-clay hunting a poor wretched hungry heaven a hungry break-fast a day's meat from this hungry world with the forfeiting of God's favour the drinking over their heaven over the board as men use to speak for the laughter sports of this short forenoon All that is under this vault of heaven betwixt us death in this side of sun moon are but toyes night-visions head-fancies poor shadows watery froth godless vanities at their best black hearts salt sowre miseries sugared over confected with an hour's laughter or two the conceit of riches honour vain vain Court lawless pleasures Sir if ye look both to the laughing side the weeping side of this world if ye look not onely upon the skin and colour of things but in to their inwards the heart of their
glory ye shall see him to be all things and that incomparable jewel of gold that ye should seek howbeit ye should sell wod-set forfeit your few years portion of this life's joyes O happy soul for evermore who can rightly compare this life with that long-lasting life to come can ballance the weighty glory of the one with the light golden vanity of the other The day of the Lord is now near hand all meÌ„ shall come out in their black 's white 's as they are There shall be no borrowed lying colours in that day when Christ shall be called Christ no longer nicknamed now men borrow Christ his white colour the lustre fairding of Christianity but how many counterfeit masks will be burnt in the day of God in the fire that shall burn the earth the works that are in it And howbeit Christ have the hardest part of it now yet in the presence of my Lord whom I serve in the spirit I would not niffer or exchange Christ's prison bands chains with the gold chains Lordly rents smiling happy-like heavens of the men of this world I am far from thoughts of repenting because of my losses bonds for Christ I wish all my adversaries were as I am except my bonds Worthy worthy worthy for evermore is Christ for whom we should suffer pains like hell's pains far more the short hell that the saints of God have in this life Sir I wish your soul may be more acquainted with the sweetness of Christ. Grace grace be with you Abord 1637. Yours in his onely Lord Master S. R. To his Parishoners at Anwoth 149 Dearly beloved in our Lord. GRace mercy peace from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied upon you I long exceedingly to hear of your on-going advancement in your journey to the Kingdom of God My onely joy out of heaven is to hear that the seed of God sowen among you is growing coming to an harvest for I ceased not while I was among you in season out of season according to the measure of grace given unto me to warn stir up your mindes I am free from the blood of all men for I have communicated to you the whole counsel of God And I now again charge warn you in the great dreadfull name and in the soveraign authority of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and I beseech you also by the mercies of God and by the bowels of Christ by your appearance before Christ Jesus our Lord by all the plagues that are written in God's book by your part of the holy city the new Jerusalem that ye keep the truth of God as I delivered it to you before many witnesses in the sight of God and his holy Angels for now the last dayes are come coming when many forsake Christ Jesus he saith to you will ye also leave me Remember that I forewarned you to forbear the dishor ouring of the Lord's blessed name in swearing bâ—â—spheming cursing And the prefaning of the Lord's sabbath willing you to give that day from morning to night to praying praising hearing of the word conferring and speaking not your own words but God's word thinking and meditating on God's nature word and works And that every day at morning and at right at least ye should sanctifie the Lord by praying in your houses publickly in the hearing of all that ye should in any sort forbear the receiving of the Lord's supper but after the form that I delivered it to you according to the example of Christ our Lord that is that ye should sit as banquetters at one table with our King eat drink divide the elements one to another The timber stones of the church walls shall bear witness that my soul was refreshed with the comforts of God in that supper and that crossing in baptisme was unlawfull and against Christ's ordinances And that no day besides the sabbath which is of his own appointment should be kept holy and sanctified with preaching the publick worship of God for the memory of Christ's birth death resurrection ascension seeing such dayes so observed are unlawfull wil-worship and not warranted in Christ's word And that every thing in God's worship not warranted by Christ's Testament word was unlawfull And also that Idolatry worshipping of God before hallowed creatures adoring of Christ by kneeling before bread wine was unlawfull And that ye should be humble sober modest forbearing pride envy malice wrath hatred contentim debate lying slandering stealing defrauding your neighbours in grass corn or cattell in buying or selling borrowing or lending taking or giving in bargains or covenants And that ye should work with your own hands be content with that which God hath given you That ye should studie to know God his will and keep in minde the doctrine of the Catechisme which I taught you carefully and speak of it in your houses and in the fields when ye lie down at night and when ye rise in the morning That ye should beleeve in the Son of God and obey his commandments and learn to make your accounts in time with your judge because death judgement are before you And if ye have now penury and want of that word which I delivered to you in abundance yea to God's honour I speak it without arrogating any thing to my self who am but a poor empty man ye had as much of the word in nine years while I was among you as some others have had in many Mourn for your loss of time repent My soul pitieth you that ye should suck dry breasts be put to draw at dry wells O that ye would esteem highly of the lamb of God your welbeloved Christ Jesus whose vertues and praises I preached unto you with joy which he did countenance accompany with some power and that ye would call to minde the many fair dayes and glorious feasts in our Lord's house of wine that ye and I have have had with Christ Jesus But if there be any among you that take liberty to sin because I am removed from amongst you and forget that word of truth which ye heard and turn the grace of God into wantoness I here under my hand in the name of Christ my Lord write to such persons all the plagues of God the curses that ever I preached in the pulpit of Anwoth against the childrens of disobedience And as the Lord liveth the Lord Jesus shall make good what I write unto you Therefore Dearly beloved fulfill my joy Fear the great and dreadfull name of the Lord seek God with me Scotland's judgement sleepeth not awake repent the sword of the Lord shall goe from the North to the South from the East to the West and through all the corners of the land and that sword shall be drunk with your blood amongst
the first I shall stand up as witness against you if ye doe not amend your wayes and your doings and turn to the Lord with all your heart I beseech you also my beloved in the Lord my joy my Crown offend not at the sufferings of me the prisoner of Jesus Christ I am filled with joy and with the comforts of God Upon my salvation I know am perswaded it is for God's Truth and the Honour of my King Royall Prince Jesus I now suffer and howbeit this town be my prison yet Christ hath made it my palace a garden of pleasures a field orchard of delights I know likewise albeit I be in bonds that yet the word of God is not in bonds my spirit also is in free ward Sweet svveet have his comforts been to my soul my pen tongue and heart have not vvords to express the kindness love mercy of my vvelbeloved to me in this house of my pilgrimage I charge you to fear love Christ to seek a house not made vvith hands but your father's house above This laughing and white skinned world beguileth you if ye seek it more then God it shall play you a slip to the endless sorrow of your heart Alas I could not make many of you fall in love with Christ howbeit I endeavoured to speak much good of him to commend him to you which as it was your sin so it is my sorrow yet once again suffer me to exhort beseech obtest you in the Lord to think of his love to be delighted with him who is altogether lovely I give you the word of a King ye shall not repent it ye are in my prayers night day I cannot forget you I doe not eat I doe not drink but I pray for you all I entreat you all every one of you to pray for me Grace grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 23. 1636. Your lawfull loving Pastor S. R. To the Lady CARDONNESS 150 MISTRESS I Beseech you in the Lord Jesus make every day more more of Christ try your growth in the grace of God what new ground ye win daily on corruption for travellers are day by day either advancing further on nearer home or else they goe not right about to compass their journey I think still the better better of Christ Alas I know not where to set him I would so fain have him high I cannot set heavens above heavens till I were tired with numbering set him upon the highest step story of the highest of them all But I wish I could make him great through the world suppose my loss pain shame were set under the soles of his feet that he might stand upon me I request you faint not because this world ye are at yea nay because this is not a home that laugheth upon you The wise Lord who knoweth you will have it so because he casteth a net for your love to catch it gather it in to himself therefore bear patiently the loss of children and burdens and other discontentments either within or without the house Your Lord in them is seeking you and seek ye him Let none be your love choice the flower of your delights but your Lord Jesus Set not your heart upon the world since God hath not made it your portion for it will not fall you to get two portions and to laugh twice and to be happy twice and to have an upper-heaven and an under-heaven too Christ our Lord his saints were not so therefore let goe your grip of this life of the good things of it I hope your heaven groweth not hereaway Learn daily both to possess miss Christ in his secret bridegroom-smiles He must goe come because his infinite wisdom thinketh it best for you we will be together one day We shall not need to borrow light from sun moon or candle There shall be no complaints on eiher side in heaven There shall be none there but He we the bridegroom the bride Devils temptations trials desertions losses sad hearts pain death shall all be put out of play the Devil must give up his office of Tempting O blessed is the soul whose hope hath a face looking straight out to that day It is not our part to make a treasure here Any thing under the covering of heaven we can build upon is but ill ground a sandy foundation Every good thing except God wanteth a bottom cannot stand it's alone how then can it bear the weight of us Let us not lay a load upon a windlestraw there shall nothing finde my weight or found my happiness but God I know all created power should sink under me if I should lean down upon it therfore it is better to rest on God then sink or fall we weak souls must have a bottom being-place for we cannot stand our alone let us then be wise in our choice chuse waile our own blessedness which is to trust in the Lord Each one of us hath a whore idol besides our husbend Christ But it is our folly to divide our narrow little love It will not serve two best then hold it whole together give it to Christ for then we get double interest for our love when we lend it to lay it out upon Christ we are sure besides that the stock cannot perish Now I can say no more remember me I have God's right to that people howbeit by the violence of men stronger then I I am banished from you chased away The Lord give you mercy in the day of Christ It may be God clear my sky again howbeit there is small appearance of my deliverance But let him doe with me what seemeth good in his own eyes I am his clay let my porter frame fashion me as he pleaseth Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your lawfull loving Pastor S. R. To SIBILLA Mc ADAM 151 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I can bear witness in my bonds that Christ is still the longer the better no worse yea inconceivably better then he is or can be called I think it half an heaven to have my fill of the smâ—ll of his sweet breath to sleep in the arms of Christ my Lord with his left hand under my head his right hand embracing me There is no great reckoning to be made of the withering of my flower in comparison of the foul manifest wrongs done to Christ Nay let never the dew of God lie upon my branches again let the bloom fall from my joy and let it wither let the Almighty blow out my candle sobeing the Lord might be great among Jews Gentiles and his oppressed church delivered Let Christ fare well suppose I should eat ashes I know he must be sweet himself when his cross is so sweet And it is
the part of us all if we marrie Himself to marrie the crosses losses reproaches also that follow him for mercy followeth Christ's cross His prison for beauty is made of marble ivory his chains that are laid on his prisoners are golden chains the fighes of the prisoners of hope are perfumes with comforts the like whereof cannot be bred of found in this side of sun moon Follow on after his love â—ire not of Christ but come in and see his beauty excellency feed your soul upon Christ's sweetness This world is not yours neither would I have your heaven made of such mettall as mire clay Ye have the choice waile of all lovers in heaven or out of heaven when ye have Christ the onely delight of God his father Climb up the mountain with joy faint not for time will cut off the men who pursue Christ's followers Our best things here have a worm in them Our joyes besides God in the inner half are but woes sorrowes Christ Christ is that which our love and desires can sleep sweetly rest safely upon Now the very God of peace establish you in Christ Help a prisoner with your prayers and entreat that our Lord would be pleased to visite me with a fight of his beauty in his house as he hath sometimes done Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Laird of CALLY 152 Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I have been too long I confess in writing to you My sute now to you in paper since I have no access to speak to you as formerly is that ye would lay the foundation sure in your youth When ye begin to seek Christ try I pray you upon what terms ye covenant to follow him and lay your accounts what it may cost you that summer nor winter nor well nor woe may not cause you change your master Christ Keep fair to him be honest and faithfull that he finde not a crack in you Surely ye are now in the throng of temptations When youth is come to it's fairest bloom then the Devil the lusts of a deceiving world sin are upon horse-back and follow with up sails If this were not Paul needed not to have written to a sanctified holy youth Timothy a faithfull preacher of the Gospel flee the lusts of youth Give Christ your virgin-love ye cannot put your love heart in a better hand O if ye knew him saw his beauty Your love your liking your heart your desires would close with him cleave to him Love by nature when it seeth cannot but cast out it 's spirit and strength upon amiable objects good things things love-worthy and what fairer thing then Christ O fair sun and fair moon and fair stars and fair flowers and fair roses and fair lilies and fair creatures but O ten thousand thousand times fairer Lord Jesus Alas I wronged him in making the comparison this way O black sun moon but O fair Lord Jesus O black flowers black lilies roses but O fair fair ever fair Lord Jesus O all fair things black deformed without beauty when ye are beside that fairest Lord Jesus O black heaven but O fair Christ O black Angels but O surpassingly fair Lord Jesus I would seek no more to make me happy for evermore but a through clear sight of the beauty of Jesus my Lord Let my eyes enjoy his fairness store him for ever in the face I have all that can be wished Get Christ rather then gold or silver seek Christ howbeit ye should lose all things for him They take their marks by the moon look asquint in looking to fair Christ who resolve for the world their ease for their honour court credit or for fear of losses a sore skin that they will turn their back upon Christ his truth Alas how many blinde eyes squint-lookers look this day in Scotland upon Christ's beauty they see a spot in Christ's fair face Alas they are not worthy of Christ who look this way upon him see no beauty in him why they should desire him God send me my fill of his beauty if it be possible that my soul can be full of his beauty here But much of Christ's beauty needeth not abate the eager appetite of a soul sick of love for himself to see him in the other world where he is seen as he is I am glad with all my heart that ye have given your greenest morning age to this Lord Jesus Hold on weary not faint not resolve upon suffering for Christ but fear not ten dayes tribulation for Christ's sowre cross is sugared with comforts hath a taste of Christ himself I esteem it my glory my joy my crown I bless him for this honour to be yoked with Christ married with him in suffering who therefore was born therefore came into the world that he might bear witness to the truth Take pains above all things for salvation for without running fighting sweating wrestling heaven is not taken O happy soul that crosseth nature's stomack delighteth to gain that fair garland crown of glory What a feckless loss is it for you to goe through this wilderness never taste of sin's sugared pleasures What poorer is a soul to want pride lust love of the world the vanities of this vain worthless world Nature hath no cause to weep at the want of such toyes as these Esteem it your gain to be an heir of glory O but that is an eye-look to a fair rent The very hope of heaven under troubles is like wind sails to the soul like wings when the feet come out of the share O for what stay we here Up up after our Lord Jesus this is not our rest nor our dwelling What have we to doe in this prison except onely to take meat house-room in it for a time Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your soul's welwisher Christ prisoner S. R. To WILLIAM GORDON At Kenmure 153 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I have been long in answering your letter which came in good time to me It is my aim hearty desire that my furnace which is of the Lord 's kindling may sparkle fire upon standers by to the warming of their hearts with God's love The very dust that falleth from Christ's feet his old ragged clothes his knotty black cross is sweeter to me then Kings golden crowns their time-eaten pleasures I should be a liar false witness if I should not give my Lord Jesus a fair testimonial with my whole soul my word I know will not heighten him he needeth not such props under his feet to raise his glory high But Oh that I could raise him the height of heaven the breadth length often heavens in the
in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To WILLIAM GLENDINING 155. Dear Brother YE are heartily welcome to that honour that Christ hath made common to us both which is to suffer for his name Verily I think it my garland crown if the Lord should ask of me my blood life for this cause I would gladly in his strength pay due debt to Christ's honour glory in that kinde Acquaint your self with Christ's love ye shall not miss to finde new goldeÌ„ mines treasures in Christ Nay truly we but stand beside Christ we goe not in to him to take our fill of him But if he should doe two things 1. Draw the curtains make bare his holy face then 2. Clear our dim bleared eyes to see his beauty glory he should finde many lovers I would seek no more happiness but a sight of him so near hand as to see hear smell touch embrace him But oh closed doors vails curtains thick clouds hold me in pain while I finde the sweet burning of his love that many waters cannot quench O what sad hours have I when I think that love of Christ scarreth at me bloweth by me If my Lord Jesus would come to bargaining for his love I think he should make price himself I should not refuse ten thousand years in hell to have a wide soul enlarged made wider that I might be exceedingly even to the running over filled with his love O what am I to love such an one or to be loved by that high lofty One I think the Angels may blush to look upon him what am I to file such infinite brightness with my sinfull eyes O that Christ would come near stand still give me leave to look upon him For to look seemeth the poor man's priviledge since he may for nothing without hire behold the sun I should have a King's life if I had no other thing to doe but for evermore to behold eye my fair Lord Jesus Nay suppose I were holden out at heaven's fair entry I should be happy for evermore to look through an hole in the door see my dearest fairest Lord's face O great King why standest thou aloof Why remainest thou beyond the mountains O welbeloved why doest thou pain a poor soul with delayes a long time out of thy glorious presence is two deaths two hells to me We must meet I must see him I dow not want him hunger longing for Christ hath brought on such a necessity of enjoying Christ that cost me what it will I cannot but assure Christ I will not I dow not want him For I cannot master or command Christ's love nay hell as I now think all the pains in it laid on me alone would not put me from loving Yea suppose my Lord Jesus would not love me it is above my strength or power to keep back or imprison the weak love I have but it must be out to Christ I would set heaven's joy aside live upon Christ's love it 's alone Let me have no joy but the warmness fire of God's love I seek no other God knoweth if this love be taken from me the bottom is fallen out of all my happiness joy therefore I beleeve Christ will never doe me that as to bereave a poor prisoner of his love it were cruelty to take it from me he who is kindness it self cannot be cruel Dear Brother weary not of my sweet Master's chains we are so much the sibber to Christ that we suffer Lodge not a hard thought of my royal King rejoyce in his cross Your deliverance sleepeth not he that will come is not slack of his promise Wait on for God's timeous salvation ask not when or How long I hope he shall lose nothing of you in the furnace but dross Commit your cause in meekness forgiving your oppressours to God and your sentence shall come back from him laughing Our Bridegroom's day is posting fast on this world that seemeth to goe with a long and a short foot shall be put in two ranks Wait till your ten dayes be ended and hope for the crown Christ will not give you a blinde in the end Commend me to your wife and father to Bailiffe M. A. And send this letter to him The prayers of Christ's prisoner be upon you the Lord's presence accompany you Aberd. July 6. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT LENNO X. of Disdove 156. Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I beseech you in the Lord Jesus make fast and sure work of life eternall Sow not rotten seed every man's work will speak for it self what his seed hath been O how many see I who sow to the flesh Alas what a crop will that be when the Lord shall put in his hook to reap this world that is ripe white for judgement I recommend to you holiness sanctification that ye keep your self clean from this present evil world We delight to tell our own dreams to flatter our own flesh with the hope we have It were wisdom for us to be free plain honest sharp with our own souls and to charge them to brew better thâ—t they may drink well and fare well when time is melted away like snow in a hot summer O how hard a thing is it to get the soul to give up with all things on this side of death and doomsday We say we are removing and going from this world but our heart stirreth not one foot off it's seat Alas I see few heavenly minded souls that have nothing upon the earth but their body of clay going up and down this earth because their soul the powers of it are up in heaven there their hearts live desire enjoy rejoyce Oh mens souls have no wings and therefore night and day they keep their nest and are not acquaint with Christ Sir take you to your one thing to Christ that ye may be acquainted with the taste of his sweetness excellency charge your love not to dote upon this world for it will not doe your business in that day when nothing will come in good stead to you but God's favour Build upon Christ some good choice fast work for when your soul for many years hath taken the play hath posted wandered through the creatures ye will come home again with the wind They are not good at least not the souls good it is the infinite Godhead that must allay the sharpness of your hunger after happiness otherwise there shall still be a want of satisfaction to your desires And if he would cast in ten worlds in your desires all shall fall thorow your soul shall still cry red hunger black hunger But I am sure there is sufficient for you in Christ if ye had seven souls seven desires in you Oh if I could make my
Lord Jesus market-sweet lovely desireable fair to all the world both to Jew and Gentil O let my part of heaven goe for it sobeing he would take my tongue to be his instrument to set out Christ in his whole braveries of love vertue grace sweetness matchless glory to the eyes hearts of Jews Gentiles But who is sufficient for these things O for the help of Angels tongues to make Christ eye-sweet and amiable to many thousands O how little doeth this world see of him how far are they from the love of him seeing there is so much loveliness beauty and sweetness in Christ that no created eye did ever yet see I would that all men knew his glory and that I could put many in at the bridegroom's chamber door to see his beauty to be partakers of his high and deep and broad and boundless love O let all the world come nigh and see Christ and they shall then see more then I can say of him O if I had had a pledge or pawne to lay down for a sea-full of his love that I could come by somuch of Christ as would satisfie griening and longing for him or rather increase it till I were in full possession I know we shall meet therein I rejoyce Sir stand fast in the truth of Christ that ye have received Yeeld not to winds but ride out let Christ be your anchor the onely He whom ye shall look to see in peace Pray for me his prisoner that the Lord would send me among you to feed his people Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN FLEMING Bailiffe of Leith 157 Worthy Sir GRace mercy and peace be to you The Lord hath brought me safe to this strange town Blessed be his holy name I finde his cross easie and light and I hope he shall be with his poor sold Joseph who is separated from his brethren His comforts have abounded towards me as if Christ thought shame if I may speak so to be in the common of such a poor man as I am and would not have me lose any thing in his errands My enemies have beside their intention made me more blessed and have put me in a sweeter possession of Christ then ever I had before Onely the memory of the fair dayes I had with my welbeloved amongst the flock intrusted to me keepeth me low and sowreth my unseen joy But it must be so and he is wise who tutoureth me this way For that which my brethren have and I want and others of this world have I am content my faith will frist God my happiness No Son offendeth that his father giveth him not hire twice a year for he is to abide in the house when the inheritance is to be divided It is better God's children live upon hope then upon hire Thus remembring my love to your worthy and kinde wife I bless you and her and all yours in the Lord's name Aberd. Sept 20. 1637. Yours in his onâ—ly onely Lord Iesus S. R. To WILLIAM GLENDINING Bailiffe of Kirkcudbright 158 Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I am well honour be to God aswell as a râ—joycing prisoner of Christ can be hoping that one day He for whom I now suffer shall enlarge me put me above the threatnings of men I am sometimes sad heavy casten down at the memory of the fair dayes I had with Christ in Anwoth Kirk cudbright cet The remembrance of a feast encreaseth hunger in a hungry man but who knoweth but our Lord will yet cover a table in the wilderness to his hungry bairns build the old waste places in Scotland bring home Zion's captives I desire to see no more glorious sight till I see the Lamb on his throne then to see Mount Zion all green with grass the dew lying upon the tops of the grass the crown put upon Christ's head in Scotland again And I beleeve it shall be so that Christ shall mowe down his enemies fill the pits with their dead bodies I finde people here dry uncouth A man pointed at for suffering dare not be countenanced so that I am like to sit mine alone upon the ground But my Lord payeth me well home again for I have neither tongue nor pen nor heart to express the sweetness excellency of the love of Christ Christ's honey-combs drop hony sloods of consolation upon my soul My chains are gold Christ's cross iâ— all overguilded and perfumed His prison is the garden and orchard of my delights I would goe through burning quick to my lovely Christ I sleep in his arms all the night my head betwixt his breasts My welbeloved is altogether lovely This is all nothing to that which my soul hath felt Let no man for my cause scar at Christ's cross If my stipend place countrey credit had been an Earledom a Kingdom ten Kingdoms and a whole earth all were too little for the crown and scepter of my royall King Mine enemies mine enemies have made me blessed They ave sent me to the bridegroom's chamber Love is his banner over me I live a Kings life I want nothing but heaven and the possession of the crown my earnest is great Christ is no niggard to me Dear Brother be for the Lord Jesus and his heart-broken bride I need not I hope remember my distressed brother to your care Remember my love to your wife Let Christ want nothing of us His garments shall be rolled in the blood of the slain of Scotland Grace grace be with you pray for Christ's prisoner Aberd. Sept. 21. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON Of Knockbrex 159 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I am by God's mercy come now to Aberden the place of my confinement setled in an honest man's house I finde the town's-men cold generall dry in their kindness yet I finde a lodging in the heart of many strangers My challenges are revived again I finde old sores bleeding of new so dangerous painfull is an undercotted conscience yet I have an eye to the blood that is physick for such sores But verily I see Christianity is conceived to be more easie lighter then it is so that I sometimes think I never knew any thing but the letters of that name for our nature contenteth it self with little in godliness Our Lord Lord seemeth to us ten Lord Lords little holiness in our ballance is much because it is our own holâ—ness we love to lay small burdens upon our soft natures to make a fair courtway to heaven And I know it were necessary to take more pains then we doe not to make heaven a city more easily taken then God hath made it I perswade my self many runners shall come short get a disappointment Oh how easie is it to deceive our selves
to sleep wish that heaven may fall down in our laps Yet for all my Lord's glooms I finde him sweet gracious loving kinde I want both pen words to set forth the fairness beauty sweetness of Christ's love the honour of this cross of Christ which is glorious to me though the world thinketh shame thereof I verily think that the cross of Christ would blush think shame of these thin-skined worldlings who are so married to their credit that they are ashamed of the sufferings of Christ. O the honour to be scourged stoned with Christ to goe through a furious-faced death to life eternall But men would have Lawborrows against Christ's cross Now My dear Brother forget not the prisoner of Christ for I see very few here who kindely fear God Grace be with you Let my love in Christ hearty affection be remembred to your kinde wife to your Brother Iohn to all friends The Lord Jesus be with your Spirit Abed Sept. 20. 1636. Yours in his onely onely Lord Iesus S. R. To EARLESTOWN Younger 160. Much Honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I am well Christ triumpheth in me blessed be his name I have all things I burden no man I see this earth and the fullness thereof is my father's sweet sweet is the cross of my Lord The blessing of God upon the cross of my Lord Jesus My enemies have contributed beside their designe to make me blessed This is my palace not my prison especially when my Lord shineth smileth upon his poor afflicted sold Joseph who is separated from his brethen But often he hideth himself there is a day of law court of challenges within me I know not if fenced in God's name but Oh my neglects Oh my unseen guiltiness I imagined that a sufferer for Christ kept The keys of Christ's treasure might take out his womb-full of comforts when he pleased but I see a sufferer witness will be holden at the door aswell as another poor sinner be glad to eat with the bairns to take the by-board This cross hath let me see that heaven is not at the next door that it is a castle not soon taken I see also it is neither pain nor art to play the hyprocrite We have all learned to sell our selves for double price to make the people who call ten twenty twenty an hundred esteem us half-gods or men fallen out of the clouds But Oh sincerity sincâ—rity if I knew what sincerity meaneth Sir lay the foundation thus ye shall not soon shrink nor be shaken Make tight work at the bottom your ship shall ride against all storms if with all your anchor be fastned upon good ground I mean with in the vail verily I think this is All to gain Christ All other things are shadows dreams fansies nothing Sir remember my love to your mother I pray for mercy grace to her I wish her on-going toward heaven As I promised to write so shew her I want nothing in my Lord's service Christ will not be in such a poor man's common as mine Grace grace be with you Aberd. Sept. 22. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN GORDON 161 Worthy dear Brother GRace mercy and peace be to you I have been too long in writing to you but multitude of letters taketh much time from me I bless his great name whom I serve in the spirit if it came to voting amongst Angels and men how excellent and sweet Christ is even in his reproaches and in his cross I cannot but vote with the first that all that is in him both cross crown kisses glooms embracements and frownings and strokes are sweet and glorious God send me no more happiness in heaven or out of heaven but Christ For I finde this world when I have looked upon it on both sides within without when I have seen even the laughing and lovely-like side of it to be but a fool's idol a clay prison Lord let it not be the nest that my hope buildeth in I have now cause to judge my part of this earth not worth a blast of smoke or a mouth-full of brown bread I wish my Hope may take a running-leap skip over Time's pleasures Sin 's plaistering gold-â—oâ—e this vain earth rest upon my Lord. O how great is our night-darkness in this wilderness To have any conceit at all of this world is as a man would close his handfull of water and holding his hand in the river say all the water of the flood is his as if it were indeed all within the compass of his hand Who would not laugh at the thoughts of such a crack-brain Verily they have but an handfull of water are but like a childe clasping his two hands about a night-shadow who idolize any created hope but God I now ligh lie put the price of a dream or fable or black nothing upon all things but upon God that desireable love-worthy one my Lord Jesus Let all the world be nothing for nothing was their seed mother let God be all things My very dear Brother know ye are as near heaven as ye are far from your self far from the love of a bewitching whorish world For this World in it's gain and glory is but the great and notable common whore that all the sons of men have been in fancy lust withall these 5000 years the children that they have begotten with this uncouth lustfull lover are but vanity dreams golden imaginations night-thoughts For there is no good ground here under the covering of heaven for men poor wearied souls to set down their foot upon O he who is called God that one whom they term Iesus Christ is worth the having indeed even ifâ— had given away all without my eye-holes my soul and my self for sweet Jesus my Lord O let the claim be cancelled that the creatures have to me except that claim my Lord Iesus hath to me Oh that he would claim poor me my silly light worthless soul O that he would pursue his claim to the utmost point not want me For it is my pain remediless sorrow to want him I see nothing in this life but sinks mires dreams beguiling ditches ill ground for us to build upon I am fully perswaded of Christs victory in Scotland but I fear this land be not yet ripe and white for mercy Yet I dare be halfer upon my salvation with the losses of the church of Scotland that her foes afternoon shall sing dole sorrow for evermore and that her joy shall once again be cried up her skie shall clear But vengeance burning shall be to her adversaries the sinners of this land Oh that we could be awakened to prayers humiliation Then should our sun shine like seven suns in the heaven then
should the temple of Christ be builded upon the mountains tops the land from coast to coast should be filled with the glory of the Lord. Brother your day-task is wearing short your hour-glass of this span-length and hand-breadth of life will quickly pass therefore take order course with matters betwixt you and Christ before it come to open pleading there are no quarters to be had of Christ in open judgement I know ye see your threed wearing short that there are not many inches to the threed's end and therefore lose not time Remember me his prisoner that it would please the Lord to bring me again amongst you with abundance of the Gospel Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr HUGH Mc KAILL 162 Reverend dear Brother I thank you for your letter I cannot but shew you that as I never expected any thing from Christ but much good kindness so he hath made me to finde it in the house of my pilgrimage And beleeve me Brother I give it to you under mine own hand-writ that who so looketh to the white side of Christ's cross and can take it up handsomly with faith and courage shall finde it such a burden as 〈◊〉 are to a ship or wings to a bird I finde my Lord hath overguilded that black tree hath perfumed it oiled it with joy consolation Like a fool once I would chide plead with Christ slander him to others of unkindness but I trust in God not to call his glooms unkinde again for he hath taken from me my sackcloth I verily cannot tell you what a poor sold Ioseph prisoner with whom my mother's children were angry doeth now think of kinde Christ I will chide no more providing he will quite me all by-gones for I am poor I am taught in this ill weather to goe on the lee-side of Christ to put him in between me and the storm I thank God I walk on the sunny side of the brae I write it that ye may speak in my behalf the praises of my Lord to others that my bonds may preach O if all Scotland knew the feasts love-blenks visites that the Prelats have sent me unto I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I like a fool laid to his charge beg him pardon to the mends God grant that in my temptations I come not on his wrong side again and never again fall a raving against my Physician in my fever Brother plead with your mother while ye have time A pulpit would be a high feast to me but I dare not say one word against him who hath done it I am not out of the house as yet my sweet Master saith I shall have house-room at his own elbow albeit their synagogues will need force cast me out A letter were a work of charity to me Grace be with you Pray for me Aberd. Novemb. 22. 1636. Your Brother Christ's prisoner S. R. To JAMES MURRAY 163 Dear Brother I Received your letter I am in good health of body but far better in my soul. I finde my Lord no worse then his word I will be with him in trouble is made good to me now He heareth the sighing of the prisoner Brother I am comforted in my royal Prince and King This world knoweth not our life it is a mysterie to them We have the sunny side of the world and our Paradise is far above theirs yea our weeping above their laughing which is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot And therefore we have good cause to fight it out for the day of our Laureation is approaching I finde my prison the sweetest place that ev r I was in my Lord Jesus is kinde to me and hath taken the mask off his face and is content to quite me all by-gones I dare not complain of him And for my silence I lay it before Christ I hope it shall be a speaking silence He who knoweth what I would knoweth that my soul desireth no more but that King Jesus may be great in the North of Scotland in the South and in the East West through my sufferings for the freedom of my Lord's house and Kingdom If I could keep good quarters in time to come with Christ I would fear nothing But Oh! Oh! I complain of my wofull out-breakings I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me and I have cause when I consider what sick sad dayes I have had for his absence who is now come I finde Christ dow not be long unkinde our Ioseph's bowels yern within him he cannot smother love long it must break out at length Praise praise with me Brother desire my acquaintance to help me I dare not conceal his love to my soul I wish you all a part of my feast that my Lord Jesus may be honoured I allow you not to hide Christ's bountie to me when ye meet with such as know Christ. Ye write nothing to me what are the cruel mercies of the Prelats towards me The ministers of this town as I hear intend that I shall be more strickly confined or else transported because they finde some people affect me Grace be with you Aberd. Nov. 21. 1637. Yours in the Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN FLEMING Bailiffe of Leith 164 My very worthy friend GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter I bless my Lord through Jesus Christ I finde his word good Isa â—8 â—0 I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction And Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble I never expâ—cted other at Christ's hand but much good comfort I am not disappointed I finde my Lord's cross overguilded oiled with comforts My Lord hath now showen me the white side of his cross I would not exchange my weeping in prison with the fourteen Prelats laughter amidst their hungry 〈◊〉 lean joyes This world knoweth not the sweetness of Christ's love it is a mystery to them At my first coming here I found great heaviness especially because it had pleased the Prelats to adde this gentle cruelty to my former sufferings â—or it is gentle to them to inhibite the Ministers of the town to give me the liberty of a pulpit I said what adeth Christ at my service But I was a fool he hath chided himself friends with me If ye others of God's children shall praise his great name who maketh worthless men witnesses for him my silence sufferings shall preach more then my tongue could doe if his glory be seen in me I am satisfied for I want no kindness of Christ And Sir I dare not smother his liberality I write it to you that ye may praise desire your brother others to joyn with me in this work This land shall be made desolate our iniquities are full the Lord saith we shall drink
bemoaned I desire no more till I be in heaven but such a feast fill of Christ's love as I would have This love would be fair adorning passements which would beautifie set forth my black unpleasant cross I cannot tell my Dear Brother what a great lead I would bear if I had a hearty fill of the love of that lovely one Christ Iesus Oh if ye would seek pray for that to me I would give Christ all his love stiles and titles of honour if he would give me but this nay I would sell my self if I could for that love I have been waiting to see what friends of place power would doe for us But when the Lord looseth the pins of his own Tabernacle he will have himself to be acknowledged as the onely builder up thereof therefore I would take back again my hope that I lent and laid in pawne in mens hands give it wholly to Christ it is no time for me now to set up idols of my own it were a pity to give an ounce weight of hope to any besides Christ I think him well worthy or all my hope though it were as weighty as both heaven earth Happy were I if I had any thing that Christ would seek or accept of But now alas I see not what service I can doe to him except it to be talk a little bable upon a piece of paper concerning the love of Christ. I am often as if my faith were wedset so that I cannot command it and then when he hideth himself I run to the other extream in making each wing and toe of my case as big as a mountain of iron And then misbelief can spin out an hell of heavy desponding thoughts then Christ seeketh law-borrows of my unbeleeving apprehensions chargeth me to beleeve his day-light at midnight But I make pleas with Christ though it be ill my common so to doe It were my happiness when I am in his house of wine when I finde a feast-day if I could hearken hear for the time to come Isa 42. 3. But I see we must be off our feet in wading a deep water then Christ's love findeth timeâ—us employment at such a dead lift as that And besides after broken brows bairns learn to walk more circumspectly If I come to heaven any way howbeit like a tired traveller upon my guide's shoulder it 's good enough for these who have no legs of their own for such a journey I never thought there had been need of so much wrestling to win to the top of that steâ—p mountain as now I finde Woe 's me for this broken backsliding Church it is like an old bowing wall leaning to the one side there is none of all her sons who will set a prop under her I know I need not bemoan Christ for he careth for his own honour more then I can doe but who can blame me to be woe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had grace so to doe to see my welbeloved ' fair face spittâ—d upon his crown plucked off hiâ— head the ark of God taken carryed in the Philistins caâ—t and the â—ine put to carry it who will let it fall to the ground The Lord put to his own helping hand I would desire you to prepare your self for a fight with beast ye will not get leave to steel quietly to heaven in Christ's company without a conflict a cross Remember my bonds praise my second fellow prisoner Christ. Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in Christ Iesus his Lord. S. R. To WILLIAM GLENDINNING 167 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you Your ease is unknown to me whether ye be yet our Lord's prisoner at Wâ—gton or not However it be I know our Lord Iesus hath been enquiring for you that he hath honoured you to bear his chains which is the golden end of his cross so hath wailed out a chosen honourable cross for you I wish you much joy comfort of it for I have nothing to say of Christ's cross but much good I hope my ill word shall never meet either Christ or his sweet easie cross I know he seeketh of us an out-cast with this house of clay this mother-prison this earth that we love fall well verily when Christ snuffeth my candle causeth my light to shine upward it is one of my greatest wonders that dirt clay hath so much court with a soul not made of clay that our soul goeth out of kinde so far as to make an idol of this earth such a deformed harlot as that it should wrong Christ of our love How fast how fast doeth our ship sail And how fair a wind hath Time to blow us off these coasts this land of dying perishing things And alas our ship saileth one way fleeth many miles in one hour to hasten us upon eternity our love hearts are sailing close back over swimming towards ease lawless pleasure vain honour perishing riches to build a fool's nest I know not where to lay our egges within the sea-mark fasten our bits of broken anchors upon the worst ground in the world this fleetting perishing life in the mean while time tide carry us upon another life there is daily less less oile in our lamp less less sand in our watch-glass O what a wise course were it for us to look away from the false beauty of our borrowâ—d prison to minde eye lust for our countrey Lord Lord take us home And for my self I think if a poor weak dying sheep seek for an old dike the lee-side of an hill in a storm I have cause to long for a covert from this storm in heaven I know none will take my room over my head there But certainly sleepy bodies would be at rest a well made bed an old crazed bark at a shore a wearied traveller at home a breathless horse at the rink's end I see nothing in this life but sin the sowre fruits of sin And O what a burden is sin what a slavery miserable bondage is it to be at the nod yea's nay's of such a lord-master as a body of sin Truly when I think of it it is a wonder that Christ maketh not fire ashes of such a dry branch as I am I would often lie down under Christ's feet bid him trample upon me when I consider my guiltiness But seeing he hath sworn that sin shall not loose his unchangeable covenant I keep house-room amongst the rest of the ill learned bairns must cumber the Lord of the house with with the rest till my Lord take the fetters off legs arms destroy this body of sin make a hole or a breach in this cage of earth that the bird may flee out and the imprisoned soul be at liberty In the
mean time the least intimation of Christ's love is sweet and the hope of marriage with the Bridegroom holdeth me in some joyfull on-waiting that when Christ's summer-birds shall sing upon the branches of the tree of life I shall be tuned by God himself to help them to sing the home-coming of our welbeloved his Bride to their house together When I think of this I think winters summers years dayes time doe me a pleasure that they shorten this untwisted weak threed of my life that they put sin miseries by hand that they shall carry me to my Bridegroom within a clap Dear Brother pray for me that it would please the Lord of the vineyard to give me house-room to preach his righteousness again to the great congregation Grace grace be with you Remember me to your wife Aberd. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady CULROSS Rev. 7 14. These are they vvhich came out of great tribulation have vvashed their robes made them vvhite in the blood of the Lamb. 168 MADAM GRace mercy peace be multiplied upon you I greatly long to be refreshed with your letter I am now all honour glory to the King eternal immortal invisible in better terms with Christ then I was I like a fool summoned my husband Lord libelled unkindness against him but now I pass from that foolish pursuit I give over the plea he is God I am man I was loosing a fast stone digging at the ground-stone the love of my Lord to shake unsettle it but God be thanked it is fast all iâ— sure In my prison he hath showen me day-light he dought not hide his love any longer Christ was disguised masked I apprehended it was not he he hath said It is 〈…〉 be not afraid And now his love is better then wine Oh that all the virgins had part of the Bridegroom's love whereupon he maketh me to feed Help me to praise I charge you Madam help me to pay praises tell others the daughters of Jerusalem how kinde Christ is to a poor prisoner he hath payed me my hundred fold it is well told me one to the hundred I am nothing behinde with Christ Let not fools because of their lazie soft flesh raise a slander an ill report upon the cross of Christ it is sweeter then fair I see grace groweth best in winter This poor pâ—rsecuted Kirk this lilie amongst the thorns shall blossom and laugh upon the gardiner the husband-man's blessing shall light upon it Oh if I could be free of jealousies of Christ after this beleeve keep good quarters with my dearest husband for he hath been kinde to the stranger yet in all this fair hot summer-weather I am keeped from saying 〈◊〉 is good to be here with my silence with grief to see my mother wou ded her vail taken from her the fair Temple casten down my belly is pained my soul is heavy for the captivity of the daughter of my people because of the fury of the Lord his fierce indignation against Apostate Scotland I pray you Madam let me have that which is my prayer here that my sufferings may preach to the four quarters of this land and therefore tell others how open-handed Christ hath been to the prisoner and the oppressed stranger Why should I conceal it I know no other way how to glorifie Chriâ—t but to make an open proclamation of his love and of his his soft and sweet kisses to me in the furnace of his fidelity to such as suffer for him Give it me under your hand that ye will help me to pray praise but rather to praise rejoyce in the salvation of God Grace grace be with you Aberd. Dec. 30. 1636. Yours in his dearest onely onely Lord Iesus S. R To the Lady CARDONNESS 169 My dearly beloved longed for in the Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how your soul Prospereth how the Kingdom of Christ thriveth in you I exhort you beseech you in the bowels of Christ faint not weary not There is a great necessity of heaven ye must needs have it All other things as houses lands children husband friends countrey credit health wealth honour may be wanted but Heaven is your one thing necessary the good part that shall not be taken from you See that ye buy the field where the pearl is sell all make a purchase of salvation think it not easie for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory Many are lying dead by the way that are slain with security I have now been led by my Lord Jesus to such a nick in Christianity as I think little of former things Oh what I want I want so many things that I am almost asking if I had any thing at all Every man thinketh he is rich enough in grace till he take out his purse tell his money then he findeth his pack but poor light in the day of a heavy trial I found I had not to bear my expences and should have fainted if want penury had not chased me to the store-house of all I beseech you make couscience of your wayes deal kindly with conscience with your Tenants to fill a breach or a hole make not a greater breach in the conscience I wish plenty of love to your soul let the world be the portion of bastards make it not yours after the last trumpet is blowen the world all its glory will be like an old house that is burnt to ashes like an old fallen castle without a roof Fy fy upon us fools who think our selves debters to the world My Lord hath brought me to this that I would not give a drink of cold water for this world's kindness I wonder that men long after love or care for these feathers it is almost an uncouth world to me to think that men are so mad as to block with dead earth to give cut conscience to get in clay again is a strange bargain I have written my minde at length to your husband write to me again his case I cannot forget him in my prayers I am looking Christ hath some claim to him My counsel is that ye bear with him when passion overtaketh him A soft answer putteth away wrath answer him in what he speaketh apply your self in the fear of God to him then ye will remove a pound weight of your heavy cross that way so it shall become light When Christ hideth himself wait on make diâ— till he return it is not time then to be carelesly patient I love it to be grieved when he hideth his smiles yet beleeve his love in a patient on-waiting and beleeving in the dark Ye must learn to swim hold up your head above the water even when the sense of his presence
is not with you to hold up your chin I trust in God he shall bring your ship safe to land I counsel you to study sanctification to be dead to this world urge kindness on Knockbrex labour to benefite by his company the man is acquaint with Christ. I beg the help of your prayers for I forget not you counsel your husband to fulfill my joy to seek the Lord's face shew him from me that my joy desire is to hear he is in the Lord God casteth him often in my minde I cannot forget him I hope Christ he have something to doe together Bless Iohn from me I write blessings to him to your husband the rest of your children Let it not be said I am not in your house through neglect of the Sabbath-exercise Aberd. Febr. 20. 1637. Your lawfull loving Pasior in his onely onely Lord S. R. To JONET McCULLOCH 170 Dear Sister GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear how your soul prospereth I am as well as a prisoner of Christ can be feasted made fat with the comforts of God Christ's kisses are made sweeter to my soul then ever they were I would not change my Master with all the Kings of clay upon the earth O my welbeloved is altogether lovely loving I care not what flesh can doe I perswade my soul I delivered the truth of Christ to you slip not from it for no boasts or fear of men If ye goe against the truth of Christ that I now suffer for I shall bear witness against you in the day of Christ. Sister fasten your grips fast on Christ follow not the guises of this sinfull world Let not this clay-portion of earth take up your soul it is the portion of bastards ye are a childe of God therefore seek your father's heritage send up your heart to see the dwelling house fair rooms in the new City Fy sy upon these who cry up with the World down with Conscience Heaven We have bairns wits therefore we cannot prize Christ aright Counsel your husband mother to make them for eternity that day is drawing nigh Pray for me the prisoner of Christ I cannot forget you Aberd. Febr. 20. 1637. Your lawfull Pasior Brother S. R. To my Lord CRAIGHALL 171 My Lord. I Received Mr Ls letter with your Lo his learned thoughts in the matter of Ceremonies I ow respect to the man's learning for that I hear him opposite to Arminian Heresies but with reverence of that worthy man I wonder to hear such popish-like expression as he hath in his letter as Your Lo may spare doubtings when the King Church have agreed in the settling of such orders the Church's direction in things indifferent circumstantial as if Indifferent Circumstantial were all one should be the rule of every private Christian. I onely viewed the papers in two hour space the bearer hasting me to write I finde the worthy man not so seen in this controversie as some turbulent men of our countrey as he calleth refusers of conformity And let me say it I am more confirmed in non-conformity when I see such a great 〈◊〉 it play the agēt so slenderly but I will lay the blame on the weakness of the cause not on the meanness of Mr Ls. learning I have ever been stil I am confident that Britain cannot answer one argument a scandalo I longed much to hear Mr L. speak to the cause I would say if some ordinary Divine had answered as Mr L. doeth that he understood not the nature of a Scandal but I dare not vilifie that worthyman so I am now upon the heat of some other employment I shall but God willing answer this to the satisfying of any not prejudged I will not say that every one is acquaint with the reason in my letter from God's presence bright shining face in suffering for this cause Aristotle never knew the medium of the clusion Christ saith few know it See Rev. 2. 17. I am sure a conscience standinginaw of the Almighty fearing to make a little hole in the bottom for fear of under-water is a strong medium to hold off an erroneous conclusion in the least wing or lith of sweet sweet Truth that concerneth the royal Prerogative of our Kingly highest Lord Jesus And my witness is in heaven I saw neither pleasure nor profit nor honour to hook me or catch me in entring in prison for Christ but the wind on my face for the present if I had loved to sleep in a whole skin with the ease present delight that I saw on this side of sun moon I should have lived at ease in good hopes to fare as well as others The Lord knoweth I preferred preaching of Christ still doe to any thing next to Christ himself their new Canons took my one my one joy from me which was to me as the poor man's one eye that had no moe alas there is little lodging in their heart for pity or mercy to pluck out a poor man's one eye for a thing indifferent id est for knots of straws things as they mean off the way to heaven I desire not that my name take journey goe a pilgrim to Cambridge for fear I come in the ears of Authority I am sufficiently burnt already In the mean time be pleased to try if the Bishop of St Andrewes Glasgow Galloway's Ordinary will be pleased to abate from the heat of their wrath and let me goe to my charge Few know the heart of a prisoner yet I hope the Lord shall hew his own glory out of as knotty timber as I am Keep Christ my dear worthy Lord pretended paper-arguments from angering the mother-Church that can reel nod stagger are not of such weight as peace with the father husband let the wife gloom I care not if the husband laugh Remember my service to my Lord your father Mother your Lady Grace be with you Aberd. Jan. 24. 1637. Yours at all obodience in Christ S R. To his Reverend dear Brother Mr ROBERT BLAIR 172 Reverend dear Brother THe reason ye gave for your not writing to me affecteth me much giveth me a dash when such an one as ye conceive an opinion of me or any thing in me The truth is when I come home to my self O what penury doe I finde and how feckless is my supposed stock how little have I He to whom I am as crystal who seeth through me perceiveth the least mote that is in me knoweth that I speak what I think am convinced of But men cast me through a gross wide sieve my very dear Brother the room of the least of all saints is too great for the like of me But lest this should seem art to fetch home reputation I speak no more of it It is my worth
to be Christ's ransomed sinner sick one His relation to me is that I am sick He is the physician of whom I stand in need Alas how often play I fast loose with Christ He bindeth I loose he buildeth I cast down he tâ—immeth up a salvation for me I mar it I cast out with Christ he agreeth with me again twenty times a day I forfeit my Kingdom heritage I lose what I had but Christ is at my back and following on to stoop take up that falleth from me Were I in heaven had the crown on my head if Freewill were my tutour I should lose heaven seeing I lose my self what wonder I should let goe lose Jesus my Lord O well to me for evermore that I have cracked my credit with Christ cannot by law at all borrow from him upon my feckless worthless bond faith for my faith reputation with Christ is that I am a creature that God will not put any trust into I was am bewildered with temptations wanted a guide to heaven O what have I to say of that excellent surpassing supereminent thing they call The Grace of God the way of free redemption in Christ And when poor poor I dead in law was sold fettered imprisoned in Justice's closest ward which is hell damnation when I a wretched one lighted upon noble Iesus eternally kinde Iesus tender hearted Iesus nay when he lighted upon me first knew me I found that he scorned to take a price or any thing like hire of Angels or Seraphims or any of his creatures and therefore I would praise him for this that the whole armie of the redeemed ones sit rent-free in heaven Our holding is better then Blench We are all Free-holders seeing our eternall feuduty is but thanks Oh woefull me that I have but spilt thanks broken lame miscarried praises to give him so my silver is not good current with Christ were it not that free merites have stamped it washen it me both And for my silence I see somewhat better through it now If my high lofty one my princely Royall Master say Hold hold thy peace I lay bonds on thee thou speak none I would fain be content let my fire be smothered under ashes without light or flame I cannot help it I take laws from my Lord but I give none As for your journey to F. ye doe well to follow it The camp in Christ's ordinary bed A carried bed is kindly to the Beloved down in this lower house It may be who knoweth but our Lord hath some Centurions ye are sent to Seeing your angry mother denieth you lodging house-room with her Christ's call to unknown faces must be your second wind seeing ye cannot have a first O that our Lord would water again with a new visite this piece withered dry hill of our widow-mount Zion my Dear Brother I will think it comfort if ye speak my name to our welbeloved wherever ye are I am mindefull of you O that the Lord would yet make the light of the moon in Scotland like the light of the sun and the light of the sun seven fold brighter For my self as yet I have received no answer whither to goe I wait on O that Jesus had my love Let matters frame as they list I have some more to doe with Christ yet I would fain we were nearer Now the great shepherd of the sheep the very God of peace establish confirm you till the day of his coming Aberd. Sept. 9 1637. Yours in his lovely sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady CARLETON 173 MISTRESS GRace mercy and peace be to you My soul longeth once again to be amongst you to behold that beauty of the Lord that I would see in his house But I know not if he in whose hands are all our waves seeth it expedient for his glory I ow my Lord I know submission of spirit suppose he should turn me into a stone or pillar oâ— salt Oh that I were He in whom my Lord could be glorified suppose my little heaven were forfeited to buy glory to him before men and Angels suppose my want of his presence and separation from Christ were a pillar as high as ten heavens for Christ's glory to stand upon above all the world What am I to him How little am I though my feathers stood out as broad as the morning lighâ— to such a high to such a lofty to such a never-enough admired glorious Lord My trials are heavy bâ—cause of my sad sabbaths but I know they are less then my high provocations I seek no more but that Christ may be the gainer and I the loser that he may be raised and hightned and I cryed down and my worth made dust before his glory Oh that Scotland all with one shout would cry up Christ and that his name were high in this land I finde the very utmost borders of Christ's high excellency and deep sweâ—tness heaven and earth's wonder O what is he if I could win in to see his inner side Oh I am run dâ—y of loving and wondering and adoring of that greatest most admirable one Woe woe is me I have not half-love for him Alas what can my drop doe to his great sea What gain is it to Christ that I have casten my little sparkle in his great fire What can I give to him Oh that I had love to fill a thousand worlds that I might emptie my soul of it all upon Christ I think I have now just reason to quite my part of any hope or love that I have to this scum and the refuse of the dross of God's work-manâ—hip this vain earth I ow to this stormy world whose kindness 〈◊〉 heart to me hath been made of iron or of a piece of a wilde sea-Island that never a creature of God yet lodged in not a look I ow it no love no hope therefore Oh if my love were dead to it my soul dead to it What am I obliged to this house of my pilgrimage A straw for all that God hath made to my soul's liking except God that lovely one Iesus Christ Seeing I am not this world's debter I desire I may be striped of all confidence in any thing but my Lord that he may be for me I for my onely onely onely Lord that he may be the morning evening-tide the top the root of my joyes the heart flower yolk of all my soul's delights O let me never lodge any creature in my heart confidence Let the house be for him I rejoyce that sad dayes cut off a piece of the lease of my short life that my shadow even while I suffer weareth long my evening hasteneth on I have cause to love home with all my heart to take the opportunity of the day to hasten to the
hand of God Stir up your husband to minde his own countrey at home Counsel him to deal mercifully with the poor people of God under him They are Christ's not his therefore desire him to shew them mercifull dealing kindness to be good to their souls I desire you to write to me It may be that my Parish forget me but my witness is in heaven I dow not I doe not forget them They' are my sighes in the night my tears in the day I think my self like an husband plucked from the wife of his youth O Lord be my Judge what joy it would be to my soul to hear that my ministery hath left the Son of God among them that they are walking in Christ Remember my love to your Son and Daughtre Desire them from me to seek the Lord in their youth and to give him the morning of their dayes Acquaint them with the word of God prayer Grace be with you Pray for the prisoner of Christ In my heart I forget you not Aberd. March 6. 1637. Your lawfull loving Pastor in his onely Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr. JAMES HAMILTON 181 Reverend dearly beloved in our Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you Our acquaintance is neither in bodily presence nor in paper but as sons of the same father sufferers for the same truth Let no man doubt but the state of our question we are now forced to stand to by suffering exile imprisonment is If Iesus should reign over his Kirk or not Oh if my sinfull arm could hold the crown on his head howbeit it should be striken off from the shoulder-blade For your ensuing feared trial my very dearest in our Lord Iesus Alas what am I to speak to comfort a souldier of Christ who hath done an hundred times more for that worthy honourable cause then I can doe But I know these whom the world was not worthy of wandered up down in deserts in mountains in dens caves of the earth that while there is one member of mystical Christ out of heaven that member must suffer strokes till our Lord Jesus draw in that member within the gates of the new Ierusalem which he will not fail to doe at last for not one toe or finger of that body but it shall be take in within the city What can be our part in this pitched battel betwixt the Lamb the Dragon But to receive the darts in patience that rebound off us on upon our sweet Master or rather light first upon him then rebound off him upon his servants I think it a sweet North-wind that bloweth first upon the fair face of the chief among ten thousand then lighteth upon our sinfull black faces When once the wind bloweth off him upon me I think it hath a sweet smell of Christ so must besome more then a single cross I know ye have a guard about you your attendance train for your safety is far beyond your pursuers force or fraud It is good under feud to be near our war-house strong hold We can doe but little to resist them who persecut us oppose him but keep our blood our wounds to the next Court-day when our complaints will be read If this day be not Christ's I am sure the morrow shall be his As for any thing I doe in my bonds when now then a word falleth from me alas it is very little I am exceedingly grieved that any should conceive any thing to be in such a broken emptie reed let no man impute it to me that the free unbought wind for I gave nothing for it bloweth upon an empty reed I am his overburdened debter I cry down with me down down with all the excellency of the world up up with Christ Long long may that fair One that holy One be on high My curse be upon them that love him not O how glad would I be if his glory would grow out spring up out of my bonds sufferings Certainly since I became his prisoner he hath won the yolk heart of my soul Christ is even become a new Christ to me his love greener then it was now I strive no more with him his love shall carry it away I lay down my self under his love I desire to sing to cry to proclaim my self even under the water in his common eternally indebted to his kindness I will not offer to quite commons with him as we use to say for that will not be All all for evermore be Christ's What further trials are before me I know not but I know Christ will have a saved soul of me over on the other side of the water in the yonder side of crosses beyond mens wrongs I had but one eye that they have put out My one joy next to the flower of my joyes Christ was to preach my sweetest sweetest Master and the glory of his Kingdom and it seemed no cruelty to them to put out the poor man's one eye And now I am seeking about to see if suffering will speak my fair One's praises I am trying if a dumb man's tongue can raise one note or one of Zion's springs to advance my Welbeloved's glory Oh if he would make some glory to himself out of a dumb prisoner I goe with childe of his word I cannot be delivered none here will have my Master Alas What aileth them at him I bless you for your prayers adde to them praises As I am able I pay you home I commend your diving in Christ's Testament I would I could set out the dead man's goodwill to his friends in his sweet Testament Speak a prisoner 's hearty commendations to Christ fear not your ten dayes will over These that are gathered against mount Zion their eyes shall melt away in their eye-holes and their tongues consume away in their mouthes Christ's withered garden shall grow green again in Scotland My Lord Jesus hath a word hid in heaven for Scotland not yet brought out Grace be with you Aberd. July 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To MISTRESS STUART 182 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I am sorry that ye take it so hardly that I have not written to you I am judged to be that which I am not I fear if I were put in the fire I should melt away fall down in sheards of painted nature For truly I have little stuff at home that is worth the eye of God's servants If there be any thing of Christ's in me as I dare not deny some of his work it is but a spunk of borrowed fire that can scarce warm my self hath little heat for standers by I would sain have that which ye and others beleeve I have but ye are onely witnesses to my utter side and to some words in paper Oh that he would give me
low sail I would I had desires with wings running upon wheels swift active speedy in longing for Christ's honour But I know my Lord is as wise here as I dow be thirsty infinitely more zealous of his honour then I can be hungered for the manifestation of it to men angels But Oh that my Lord would take my desires off my hand adde a thousand-fold more unto them and sowe spiritual inclinations upon them for the coming of Christ's Kingdom to the sons of men that they might be higher and deeper longer broader For my longest measures are too short for Christ my depth is ebbe the breadth of my affections to Christ narrow pinched Oh for an ingine a wit to prescribe wayes to men how Christ might be all in all the world Wit is here behinde affection affection behinde obligation Oh how little dow I give to Christ and how much hath he given me Oh that I could sing grace's praises love's praises Seeing I was like a fool solisting the Law making moyen to the Law 's court for mercy found challenges that way but now I deny that Judge's power for I am Grace's man I hold not worth a drink of water of the Law or of any Lord but Jesus And till I bethought me of this I was slain with doubtings and fears terrours I praise the new court the new Land-lord the new Salvation purchased in Jesus his name at his instance Let the old man if he please goe make his moan to the Law seek acquaintance thereaway because he is condemned in that Court I hope the new man I Christ together shall not be heard and this is the more soft and the more easie way for me for my cross together Seeing Christ singeth my welcome-home and taketh me in maketh short counts short work of reckoning betwixt me my Judge I must be Christ's man his Tennant subject to his Court I am sure suffering for Christ could not be born otherwise But I give my hand my faith to all who would suffer for Christ they shall be well handled fare well in the same way that I have found the cross easie light Grace be with you Aberd. July 8. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ALEXANDER GORDON Of Garlock 184 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you If Christ were as I am that time could work upon him to alter him or that the morrow could be a new day to him or bring a new minde upon him as it is to me a new day I could not keep a house or a covenant with him But I finde Christ to be Christ that he is far far even infinite heavens height above man And that is all our happiness Sinners can doe nothing but make wounds that Christ may heal them and make debts that he may pay them and make falls that he may raise them make deaths that he may quicken them spin out dig hells to themselves that he may ransom them Now I will bless the Lord that ever there was such a thing as the free Grace of God a free ransom given for sold souls Onely alas guiltiuess maketh me ashamed to apply Christ to think it pride in me to put out my unclean withered hand to such a Saviour but it is neither shame nor pride for a drowning man to swim to a rock nor for a ship-broken soul to run himself a shore upon Christ Suppose once I be guilty need force I cannot I dow not goe by Christ We take in good part that pride that beggers beg from the richer who is so poor as we who is so rich as he who selleth fine gold Rev. 3 18. I see then it is our best let guiltiness plead what it listeth that we have no mean under the covering of heaven but to creep in lowly submissively with our wants to Christ I have also cause to give his cross as good name report O how worthy is Christ of my feckless light suffering how hath he deserved it at my hands that for his honour glory I should lay my back under seven hells pain in one if he call me to that but alas my soul is like a ship run on ground through ebbeness of water I am sanded and and my love is sanded I finde not how to bring it on float again it is so cold and dead that I see not how to bring it to a flame Fy fy upon the meeting that my love hath given Christ woe woe is me I have a lover Christ yet I want love for him I have a lovely desirable Lord who is love-worthy who beggeth my love heart I have nothing to give him Dear Brother come further in on Christ see a new treasure in him come in look down see Angels wonder heaven earth's wonder of love sweetness majesty excellency in him I forget you not pray for me that our Lord would be pleased to send me among you again fraughted full of Christ. Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN BELL Elder 185 My very loving friend GRace mercy peace be to you I have very often long expected your letter but if ye be well in soul body I am the less solicitous I beseech you in the Lord Jesus to minde your country above now when old age the twilight going before the darkness of the grave the falling low of your sun before your night is now come upon you advise with Christ ere ye put your foot in the ship turn your back on this life Many are beguiled with this that they are tree of scandalous crying abominations but the tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is for the fire the man that is not born again cannot enter into the kingdom of God common honesty will not take men to heaven Alas that men should think they ever met with Christ who had never a sick night through the terrours of God in their soul or a sore heart for sin I know the Lord hath given you light the knowledge of his will but that is not all neither will that doe your turn I wish you an awakned soul that ye beguile not your self in the matter of your salvation My dear Brother search your self with the candle of God try if the life of God Christ be in you Salvation is not casten to every man's door Many are carried over see land to a far countrey in a ship whileas they sleep much of all the way but men are not landed at heaven sleeping The righteous are scarcily saved and many run as fast as either ye or I who miss the prize and the crown God send me salvation and save me from a disappointment
and I seek no more Men think it but a stryde or a step over to heaven but when so few are saved even of a mumber like the sand of the sea but a handfull a remnant as God's word saith what cause have we to shake our selves out of our selves to ask our poor soul whether goest thou where shalt thou lodge at night Where are thy charters and writes of thy heavenly inheritance I have known a man turn a key in a door lock it by Many men leap over as they think leap in O see see that ye give not your salvation a wrong cast think all is well leave your soul loose uncertain look to your building to your ground-stone what signes of Christ are in you set this world behinde your back It is time now in the evening to cease from your ordinary work high time to know of your lodging at night It is your Salvation that is in dependence that is a great weighty business though many make light of the matter Now the Lord enable you by his grace to work it out Aberd. 1637. Your lawfull and loving Pastor S. R. To WILLIAM GORDON Of Robertovvn 186 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you So often as I think on our case in our souldiers night-watch of our sighting life in the fields while we are here I am forced to say prisoners in a dungeon condemned by a judge to want the light of the sun and moon candle till their dying day are no more nay not so much to be pitied as we are for they weary of their life they hate their prison But we fall to in our prison where we see little to drink our selves drunk with the night-pleasures of our weak dreams we long for no better life then this but at the blast of the last trumpet the shout of the Archangel when God shall take down the shepherd's tent of this fading world we shall not have somuch as a drink of water of all the dreams that we now build on Alas that the sharp bitter blasts on face sides which meet us in this life have not learned us mortification made us dead to this world We buy our own sorrow we pay dear for it when we spend out our love our joy our desires our confidence upon an handfull of snow ice that time will melt away to nothing go thirstie out of the drunken Innes when all is done Alas that we enquire not for the clear fountain but are so foolish as to drink foul muddy rotten waters even till our bed-time then in the resurrection when we shall be awakned our yesternight's sowre drinke swinish dregs shall rift up upon us and sick sick shall many a soul be then I know no wholesom fountain but one I know not a thing worth the buying but heaven And my own minde is if comparison were made betwixt Christ heaven I would sell heaven with my blessing buy Christ. Oh if I could raise the market for Christ heighten the market a pound for a penny cry up Christ in mens estimation ten thousand talents more then men think of him But they are shaping him crying him down valuing him at their unworthy half-penny or else exchanging bartering Christ with the miserable old fallen house of this vain world or then they lend him out upon interest play the usurers with Christ Because they profess him give out before men that Christ is their treasure stock in the mean time praise of men a name case the summmer-sun of the Gospel is the usury they would be at so when the trial cometh they quite the stock for the interest loose all Happy are they who can keep Christ by himself alone and keep him clean and whole till God come count with them I know in your hard and heavy trials long since ye thought well and highly of Christ but truly no cross should be old to us We should not forget them because years are come betwixt us and them cast them by hand as we doe old clothes We may make a cross old in time new in use as fruitfull as in the beginning of it God is where and what he was seven years agoe what ever change be in us I speak not this as if I thought ye had forgotten what God did to have your love long since but that ye may awake your self in this sleepy age remember fruitfully of Christ's first wooing and suiting of your love both with fire water try if he got his answer or if ye be yet to give him it For I finde in my self that water runneth not faster through a sieve then our warnings slip from us for I have lost casten by hands many summonds the Lord sent to me therefore the Lord hath given me double charges that I trust in God shall not rive me I bless his great name who is no niggard in holding in crosses upon me but spendeth largely his rods that he may save me from this perishing world how plentifull God is in means of this kinde is esteemed by many one of God's unkinde mercies but Christ's cross is neither a cruel nor unkinde mercy but the love-token of a father I am sure a lover chasing us for our well to have our love should not be run away from or fled God send me no worse mercy then the sanctified cross of Christ portendeth I am sure I should be happy blest Pray for me that I may finde house-room in the Lord's house to speak in his name Remember my dearest love in Christ to your wife Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1636. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady BOYD. 187 MADAM GRace mercy peace from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied upon you I have reasoned with your son at large I rejoyce to see him set his face in the right airth now when the Nobles love the sunny side of the Gospel best and are afraid that Christ want souldiers and shall not be able to doe for himself Madam our debts of obligation to Christ are not small the freedom of grace salvation is the wonder of man and Angels but mercy in our Lord scorneth hire Ye are bound to lift Christ on high who hath given you eyes to discern the Devil now coming out in in his white 's the Idolatry and Apostacy of the time well washen with fair pretences but the skin is black the water foul It were art I confess to wash a black Devil and make him white I am in strange up's down's seven times a day I lose ground I am put often to swimming and again my feet are set on the rock that is higher then my self He hath now let me see 4 Things I never saw before 1.
to Christ his oppressed truth I am bold to write to you earnestly desiring you to joyn with us so many as in these bounds profess Christ to wrestle with God one day of the week especially the Wedensday for mercy to this fallen decayed Kirk and to such as suffer for Christ's name for your own necessities the necessities of others who are by covenant engaged in that business For we have no other armour in these evil times but prayers now when wrath from the Lord is gone out against this back-sliding land for ye know we can have no true publike fasts neither are the true causes of our humiliation ever laid before the people Now very worthy Sir I am glad in the Lord that the Lord reserveth any of your place or of note in this time of common Apostacy to come forth in publike to bear Christ's name before men when the great men think Christ a cumbersom neighbour and that religion carrieth hazards trials persecutions with it I perswade my self it is your glory your garland shall be your joy in the day of Christ the standing of your house seed to inherit the earth that ye truly sincerely profess Christ Neither is our King whom the father hath crowned in mount Zion so weak that he cannot doe for himself his own cause I verily beleeve they are blessed who can hold the crown upon his head and carry up the train of his robe royal and that he shall yet be victorious and triumph in this land It is our part to back our royal King howbeit there were not six in all the land to follow him It is wisdom now to take up and discern the devil the Antichrist coming out in their whites the Apostacy Idolatry of this land washen with foul water I confess it is art to wash the Devil till his skin be white For my self Sir I have bought a plea against Christ since I came hither in judging my princely Master angry at me because I was cast out of the vineyard as a withered tree my dumb sabbaths working me much sorrow But I see now sorrow hath not eyes to read love written upon the cross of Christ therefore I pass from my rash plea Woe woe is me that I should have received a slander of Christ's love to my soul for all this my Lord Jesus hath forgiven all as not willing to be heard with such a fool is content to be as it were confined with me to bear me company to feast a poor oppressed prisoner And now I write it under my hand Worthy Sir that I think well honourably of this cross of Christ I wonder that he will take any glory from the like of me I finde that when he but sendeth his hearty commendations to me but bloweth a kiss afar off I am confounded with wondering what the supper of the Lamb will be up in our father's dining-palace of glory since the four-hours in his dismall wilderness when in prisons in our sad dayes a kiss of Christ is so comfortable O how sweet glorious shall our case be when that fairest among the sons of men shall lay his fair face to our now sinfull faces wipe away all tears from our eyes O Time Time run swiftly hasten that day O sweet Lord Jesus come flying like a roe or a young hart Alas that we blinde fools are fallen in love with moon-shine shadows how sweet is the wind that bloweth out of the airth where Christ is Every day we may see some new thing in Christ his love hath neither brim nor bottom Oh if I had help to praise him He knoweth if my sufferings glorifie his name encourage others to stand fast for the honour of our supream Law-giver Christ my wages then are payed to the full Sir help me to love that never-enough praised Lord. I finde now that the faith of the saints under suffering for Christ is fair before the wind with full sails carried upon Christ I hope to lose nothing in this furnace but dross for Christ can triumph in a weaker man then I am if there be any such And when all is done his love paineth me leaveth me under such debt to Christ as I can neither pay principal nor interest Oh if he would comprize my self if I were sold to him as a bond-man that he would take me home to his house fire-side for I have nothing to render to him Then after me let no man think hard of Christ's sweet cross for I would not change my sighs with the painted laughter of all my adversaries I desire grace in patience to wait on to lie upon the brink till the water fill flow I know he is fast coming Sir ye will excuse my boldness till it please God I see you ye have the prayers of a prisoner of Christ to whom I recommend you in whom I rest Aberd. May 14. 1637. Yours at all obedience in Christ S. R. To JOHN CLARK 190. Loving Brother HOld fast Christ without wavering contend for the faith because Christ is not easily gotten nor kept The lazie professour hath put heaven as it were at the very next door thinketh to flye up to heaven in his bed and in a night-dream but truly that is not so easie a thing as most men beleeve Christ himself did sweat ere he won this city howbeit he was the free-born Heir It is Christianity My heart to be sincere unfeigned honest upright-hearted before God to live serve God suppose there were not one man or woman in all the world dwelling beside you to eye you Any little grace that ye have see that it be sound true Ye may put a difference betwixt you and reprobats if ye have these markes 1. If ye prize Christ his truth so as ye will sell all buy him suffer for it 2. If the love of Christ keepeth you back from sinning more then the Law or fear of hell 3. If ye be humble deny your own will wit credit ease honour the world the vainity glory of it 4. Your profession must not be barren void of good works 5. Ye must in all things aime at God's honour ye must eat drink sleep buy sell sit stand speak pray read and hear the word with a heart-purpose that God may be honoured 6. Ye must shew your self an enemy to sin and reprove the works of darkness such as drunkenness swearing lying albeit the company should hate you for doing so 7. Keep in minde the truth of God that ye heard me teach and have nothing to doe with the corruptions and new guises entred into the house of God 8. Make conscience of your calling in covenants in buying selling 9. Acquaint your self with daily praying commit all your wayes actions to God by prayer supplication thank
giving and count not much of being mocked for Christ Jesus was mocked before you Perswade your self that this is the way of peace and comfort I now suffer for I dare goe to death in to eternity with it though men may possibly seek another way Remember me in your prayers the state of this oppressed Church Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your soul's Well-wisher S. R. To CARDONNESS Elder 191 Much honoured Sir I long to hear how your soul prospereth I wonder that ye write not to me for the holy Ghost beareth me witness I cannot I dare not I dow not forget you nor the souls o these with you who are redeemed by the blood of the greaf Shepherd Ye are in my heart in the night watches ye are my◠joy crown in the day of Christ O Lord bear witness if my soul thirsteth for any thing out of heaven more then for your salvation Let God lay me in an even ballance try me in this Love heaven let your heart be on it Up up visit the new land view the fair city the white throne the Lamb the bride 's husband in his bridegroom's clothes sitting on it It were time your soul should cast it self all your burdens upon Christ. I beseech you by the wounds of your Redeemer by your compearance before him by the salvation of your soul lose no more time run fast for it is late God hath sworn by himself who made the world and time that time shall be no more Rev. 10 Ye are now upon the very border of the other life your Lord cannot be blamed for not giving you warning I have taught the truth of Christ to you delivered unto you the whole counsel of God I have stood before the Lord for you I shall yet still stand awake awake to doe righteously Think not to be eased of the burthens debts that are on your house by oppressing any or being rigorous to these that are under you remember how I endeavoured to walk before you in this matter as an example behold here am I witness against me before the Lord his Anointed whose ox or whoseass have I taken Whom have I defrauded Whom have I oppressed Who knoweth how my soul feedeth upon a good conscience when I remember how I spent this body in feeding the lambs of Christ At my first entry hither I grant I took a stomack against my Lord because he had casten me over the dike of the vineyard as a dry tree would have no more of my service My dumb sabbaths broke my heart and I would not be comforted but now he whom my soul love this come again and it pleaseth him to feast me with the kisses of his love A King dineth with me and his spikenard casteth a sweet smell The Lord my witness is above that I write my heart to you I never knew by my nine years preaching so much of Christ's love as he hath taught me in Aberden by six moneths imprisonment I charge you in Christ's name help me to praise shew that people countrey the loving kindness of the Lord to my soul that so my sufferings may someway preach to them when I am silent He hath made me know now better then before what it is to be crucified to the world I would not now give a drink of cold water for all the world's kindness I ow no service to it I am not the flesh's debter My Lord Jesus hath dâted his prisoner hath thoughts of love concerning me I would not exchange my sighs with the laughing of my adversaries Sir I write this to inform you that ye may know it is the truth of Christ I now suffer for he hath sealed nay sufferings with the comforts of his spirit on my soul I know he putteth not his seal upon blank paper Now Sir I have no comfort earthly but to know that I have espoused and shall present a bride to Christ in that congregation The Lord hath given you much and therefore he will require much of you again Number your talents see what ye have to render back again ye cannot be enough perswaded of the shortness of your time I charge you to write to me in the fear of God be plain with me whether or no ye have made your salvation sure I am confident hope the best but I know your reckonings with your Judge are many and deep Sir be not beguiled neglect not your one thing Philip. 3 13 your one necessary thing Luke 10 42 the good part that shall not be taken from you Look beyond time things here are but moon-shine they have but Childrens wit who are delighted with shadows deluded withfeathers flying in the air Desire your children in the morning of their life to begin seek the Lord to remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth Eccles. 12 1. to cleanse their way by taking heed thereto according to God's word Ps. 119 9. youth is a glassy age Satan findes a swept chamber for the most part in youth-hood a garnished lodging for himself his train Let the Lord have the flower of their age The best sacrifice is due to him Instruct them in this that they have a soul that this life is nothing in comparison of eternity They will have much need of God's conduct in this world to guide them by these rocks upon which most men split but far more need when it cometh to the hour of death their compearance before Christ. O that there were such a heart in them to fear the name of the great dreadfull God who hath laid up great things for these that love fear him I pray that God may be their portion Show others of my parishoners that I write to them my best wishes and the blessings of their lawfull Pastor Say to them from me that I beseech them by the bowels of Christ to keep in minde the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which I taught them that so they may lay hold on eternal life striving together for the faith of the Gospel making sure salvation to themselves Walk in love doe righteousness seek peace love one another wait for the coming of our Master Judge Receive no doctrine contrary to that which I delivered to you If ye fall away forget it that Catechisme which I taught you so forsake your own mercy the Lord be judge betwixt you me I take heaven earth to witness that such shall eternally perish but if they serve the Lord great will their reward be when they I shall stand before our Judge Set forward up the mountain to meet with God climb up for your Saviour calleth on you It may be God call you to your rest when I am far from you but ye have my love the desires of my heart for your souls wel-fare
Dear Brother I Fear ye have never known me well If ye saw my inner-side it is possible ye would pitie me but ye would hardly give me either love or respect Men mistake me the whole length of the heavens My sins prevaile over me the terrors of their guiltiness I am put often to ask if Christ I did ever shake hands together in earnest I mean not that my feast-dayes are quite gone but I am made of extremities I pray God ye never have the woefull driery experience of a closed mouth for then ye shall judge the sparrows that may sing in the Church of Irwin blessed birds But my soul hath been refreshed watered when I hear of your courage zeal for your never-enough-praised praised Master in that ye put the men of God chased out of Ireland to work O if I could confirm you I dare say in God's presence That this shall never hasten your suffering but shall be David Dickson's feast and speaking joy that while he had time and leisure he put many to work to lift up Iesus his sweet Master high in the skies O man of God goe on goe on be valiant for that plant of renown for that chief among ten thousands for that Prince of the Kings of the earth It is but little that I know of God yet this I dare write Christ shall be glorified in David Dickson howbeit Scotland be not gathered I am pained pained that I have not more to give my sweet bridegroom His comforts to me are not dealt with a niggard's hand but I would fain learn not to idolize comfort sense joy and sweet felt-presence All these are but creatures and nothing but the kingly robe the Gold-ring and the Bracelets of the Bridegroom The Bridegroom himself is better then all the ornaments that are about him Now I would not so much have these as God him sâ—lâ— to be swallowed up of love to Christ I see in delighting in a communion with Christ we may make moe Gods then oneâ— but however all was but baiâ—ns-play between Christ me till now If one would have sworn unto me I would not have beleeved what may be found in Christ I hope ye pitie my pain that much in my prison as to help me your self to cause others help me a Dyvour a sinfull wretched Dy your to pay some of my debts of praise to my great King Let my God be judge witness if my soul would not have sweet ease comfort to have many hearts confirmed in Christ enlarged with his love many tongues set on work to set on high my Royal princely welbeloved O that my sufferings could pay tribute to such a King I have given over wondering at his love for Christ hath manifested a piece of art upon me that I never revealed to any living He hath gotten fair and rich employment sweet sale a goodly market for his honourable calling of showing mercy on me the chief of sinners Every one knoweth not so well as I doe my woefully oftenbroken covenants My sins against light working in the very act of sinning hath been met with admirable mercy But Alas He will get nothing back again but wretched unthankfulness I am sure if Christ pitie any thing in me next to my sin it is pain of love for an armfull soul-full of himself in faith love begun fruition My sorrow is that I cannot get Christ lifted off the dust in Scotland set on high above all the skies heaven of heavens Aberd. May. 1. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To His Reverend dear Brother Mr JOHN LIVINGSTONE 198 My Reverend dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear from you to be refreshed with the comforts of the bride of our Lord Jesus in Ireland I suffer with you in grief for the dash that your desires to be at N. E have received of late But if our Lord who hath skill to bring up his children had not seen it your best it should not have befallen you Hold your peace stay your selves upon the holy one of Israel hearken what he saith in crossing of your desires he will speak peace to his people I am here removed from my flock silenced confined in Aberden for the testimony of Jesus And I have been confined in spirit also with desertions challenges I gave in a bill of quarrels complaints of unkindness against Christ who seemed to cast me over the dike of the vineyard as a dry tree separated me from the Lord's inheritance But high high loud praises be to our royal crowned King in Zion that he hath not burnt the dry branch I shall yet live see his glory Your Mother-church for her whoredom is like to be cast off The bairns may break their heart to see such chiding betwixt the husband the wife Our Clergie is upon a Reconciliation with the Lutherians the Doctors are writing books drawing up a Common Confession at the Councel's command Our Service-book is proclaimed with sound of trumpet The night is fallen down upon the P'rophets Scotland's day of visitation is come It is time for the bride to weep while Christ is a saying He will chuse another wife But our skie will clear again The dry branch of cut-down Lebanon will bud again be glorious they shall yet plant vines upon our mountains Now My dear Brother I write to you for this end that ye may help me to praise and seek help of others with you that God may be glorified in my bonds My Lord Jesus hath taken the withered dry stranger his broken-in-heart prisoner in to his house of wine O! O If ye all Scotland all our brethren with you knew how I am feasted Christ's honâ—combs drop comforts He dineth with his prisoner the King's spikenard casteth a smell The Devil cannot get it denied but we suffer for the apple of Christ's eye his royal prerogatives as King Law-giver Let us not fear or faint He will have his Gospel once again rouped in Scotland have the matter going to voices to see who will say let Christ be crowned King in Scotland It is true Antichrist stirreth his tail but I love a rumbling raging Devil in the kirk â—ncâ— the Church militant cannot or may not want a Devil to trouble her rather then a subtile or sleeping Devil Christ never yet goâ— a bride without stroke of sword It is now nigh the bridegroom's entring in to his chamber let us awake goe in with him I bear your name to Christ's door I pray you Dear Brother forget me not Let me hear from you by Letter I charge you smother not Christ's bounty towards me I write what I have found of him in the house of my pilgrimage Remember my love to all our brethren sisters there The keeper of the vineyard watch for
his besieged city for you Aberd. Feb. 7. 1637. Your brother fellow sufferer S. R. To Mr EPHRAIM MELVIN 199 Reverend dear Brother I Received your letter am contented with all my heart that our acquaintance in our Lord continue I am wrestling as I dow up the mount with Christ's cross My second is kinde able to help As for your questions because of my manifold distractions letters to multitudes I have not time to answer them What shall be said in common for that shall be imparted to you for I am upon these questions therefore spare me a little for the Service-book would take a great timeâ— but I think Sicut deosculatio religio sà imaginis aut etiam elâ—mentorum est in se idololatria externa etsi intentio deosculandi tota quanta in actu est feratur in Deum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it a geniculatio coram pane quando nempe ex instituto totus homo externus internus ver sarâ— debeat circa elementaria signa est adoratio relativa adoratioâ— sius panis Ratio Intentio adorandi objectum materiale non est de essentiâ externae adorationis ut pateâ— iâ— deosculatione religio sà Sic geniculatio coram imagine Babylonicâ est externa adoratio imaginis etsitrâ—s pueri mente intendissent adorare Iehovam Sic qui ex metu solo aut spe pretij aut inanis gloria geniculatur coram aureo vitulo Ieroboami quod ab ipso rege qui nullà religione inductâ—s sed libidine dominâ—ndi tantum vitulumerexit factitatum esse textus satis luculenter clamat adorat vitulum externâ adoratione esto quod putaret vitulum esse meram creaturam honore nullo dignum quia geniculatio sive nos nolumâ—s sive volumus ex instituto Dei naturae in actu religioso est symbolum religiosae adorationis Ergo sicut panis signat corpus Christi etsi absit actus omnis nostrae intentionis sic religiosae geniculatio sublatâ omni intentione humanâ est externae adoratio paniscoram quo adoramus ut coram signo vicario repraesentativo Dei Thus recommending you to God's tender mercy I desire that ye would remember me to God sanctification shall settle you most in the truth Grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Your Brother in Christ Iesus S. R. To a Gentle woman upon the death of her husband 200 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you I cannot but rejoyce and withall be grieved at your case It hath pleased the Lord to remove your husband my friend this Kirk's faithfull professor soon to his rest but shall we be sorry that our losse is his gain seeing his Lord would want his company no longer think not much of short summonds for seeing he walked with his Lord in his life desired that Christ should be magnified in him at his death ye ought to be silent and satisfied When Christ cometh for his own he runneth fast mercy mercy to the saints goeth not at leisure love love in our Redeemer is not slow withall he is homely with you who cometh at his own hand to your house and intrometeth as a friend with any thing that is yours I think he would fain borrow lend with you Now he shall meet with the solacious company the fair flock and blessed bairn-time of the first-born banquetting at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. It is mercy that the poor wand iâ—g sheep get a dike-fide in this storn iâ— day and a lecking ship a safe harbrie a sea-sick passenger a sound and soft bed a shore Wrath wrath wrath from the Lord iâ— coming upon this land that he hath left behinde him know therefore that your Lord Jesus his wounds are the wounds of a lover and that he will have compassion upon a sad hearted servant and that Christ hath said he will have the husband's room in your heart he loved you in your first husband's time and he is but wooeing you still give him heart and chair house and all he will not be made companion with any other love is full of Jealousies he will have all your love and who should get it but He I know ye allow it upon him there are comforts both sweet satisfying laid up for you wait on first Christ he is an honest debter Now for mine own case I think some poor body would be glad of a dâted prisoner's leavings I have no scarcitie of Christ's love he hath wasted moe comforts upon his poor banished servant then would have refreshed many souls my burden was once so heavie that one cunce weight would have casten the ballance broken my back but Christ said hold hold to my sorrow hath wiped a bluchered face which was foul with weeping I may joyfully goâ— my Lord's errands with wages in my hands deferred hopes need not to make me dead swier as we use to say my crosse is both my crosse my reward Oh that men would sound his high praises I love Christ's worst reproaches his glooms his crosse better then all this world 's plastered glory my heart is not longing to be back again from Christ's countrey it ' a sweet soil I aâ— coâ—e to I if any in the world have good cause to speak much good of him O Hell were a good cheap price to buy him aâ— Oh if all the three Kingdoms were witnesses to â—y pained pained soul overcome wounded with Christ's love I thank you most kindly my dear Sister for your love render care to my brother I will think my self obliged to you if ye continue his friend he is more to me then a brother now being engaged to suffer for so honourable a master and cause pray for Christ's prisoner and Grace grace be with you Aberd. March 7. 16â—6 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To His reverend dear Brother Mr JOHN NEVAY 201 My reverend dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I have exceeding many â—wâ—ite to else I would be kinder in paper I rejoyce that my sweet Master hath any to oack him Thick thick may my royal Kings Court be O that his Kingdom might grow It were my joy to have his house full of guests Except that I have some cloudy dayes for the most part I have a King's life with Christ he is all perfumed with the powders of thâ— marchant he hath a King's face a King'â— smell his chariot wherein be carrieth his poor prisoneri of the wood of Lebanon it is paved with love is not that soft ground to walk or lie on I think better of Christ then ever I did my thoughts of his love grow swell on me I never write to any of him so much as I have felt Oh if If could write a book of Christ of his love Suppose I were made white ashes burnt for this same truth that men count but as knots of straws it were my gain if
my ashes could proclaim the worth excellency love of my Lord Jesus There is much telling in Christ I give over the weighing of him Heaven would not be the beam of a ballance to weigh him in What eyes be on me or what wind of tongues be on me I care not Let me stand in this stage in the fools coat act a fools part to the rest of this nation If I can set my welbeloved on high witness fair for him a fig for their Hosanna If I can roll my self in a lap of Christ's garment I will â—e there laugh at the thoughts of dying bits of clay Brother we have cause to weep for our harlot-mother her husband is sending her to Rome's brothell-house which is the gate she liketh well Yet I perswade you there shall be a fair after-growth for Christ in Scotland this Church shall sing the Bridegroom's welcome-home again to his own house The worms shall eat them first ere they cause Christ take good-night at Scotland I am here assaulted with the Doctors gun but I bless the father of lights they draw not blood of truth I finde no lodging in the heart of natural men who are cold friends to my Master I pray you Remember my love to that Gentleman A. C. My heart is knit to him because he I have one Master Remember my bands present my service to my Lord my Lady I wish Christ may be dearer to them then to many of their place Grace be with you Aberd. July 5. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady BOYD. 202. GRace mercy peace be to you Few I beleeve knâ—w the pain torment of Christ's fristed love fristing of Christ's presence is a matter of torment I know a poor soul that would lay all oars in the water for a banquet or feast oâ—â— Christ's love I cannot think but it must be uptaking sweet to see the white red of Christ's fair face for he is white ruddy the chiefest among ten thousands Cant 5 10. I am sure that must be a well made face of his heaven must be in his visage glory glory for evermore must â—it on his countenance I dare not curse the mask covering that is on his face but O if there were a hole in it O if God would tear the mask Fy fy upon us we were never shamed till nowâ— that we doe not proclaim our pining languishing for him I am sure nevâ—r tongue spake of Christ as he is I am still of that minde and still will be that we wrong undervalue that holy holy One in having such short and shallow thoughts of his weight worth O if I could have but leave to stand beside see the Father weigh Christ the Son if it were possible But how every one of them comprehendeth another we who have eyes of clay cannot comprehend But it is pity for evermore more then shame that such an one as Christ should sit in heaven his alone for us To goe up thither one's errand and on purpose to see were no small glory O that he would strike out windows fair and great lights in this old house this fallen down soul and then set the soul near hand Christ that the rays beams of light th soul-delighting glances of the fair fair God-head might shine in at the windows fill the house A fairer more near direct sight of Christ would make room for his love for we are but pinched straitned in his love Alas it were easy to measure weigh all the love that we have for Christ by inches and ounces Alas that we should love by measure weight and not rather have floods feasts of Christ's love Oh that Christ would break down the old narrow vessels of these narrow ebbe souls make fair deep wide broad souls to hold a sea a full tide flowing over all it's banks of Christ's love Oh that the Almighty would give me my request That I might see Christ come to his temple again as he is minting it's like minding to doe if the land were humbled the judgements threatned are with this reservation I know if we shall turn and repent O what heaven should we want on earâ—h to see Scotland's moon like the light of the Sun Scotland's sun-light seven fold like the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people healeth the stroke of their wounds Isa. 30 26. Alas that we will not pull draw Christ to his old tents again to come feed among the lilies till the day break shadows flee away O that the Noblâ—s would goe on in the strength courage of the Lord to bring our lawfull King Jesus home again I am perswaded he shall return again in glory to this land but happy â—ere they who could help to convoy him to his sanctuary set him again up upon the mercy-seat betwixt the Cherâ—bâ—ms O Sun return to darkned Britain O fairest among all the sons of men O most excellent One come home again come home win the praises blessings of the mourners in Zion the prisoners of hope that wait for thee I know he can also triumph in suffering weep reign die triumph remain in prison yet subdue his enemies But how happy were I to sâ—e the coronation day of Christ to see his mother who bare him put the crown upon his head again cry with shouting till the earth should ring Let Iesus our King live reign for evermore Grace grace be with your La. Aberd. 1637. Your La at all obedience in Christ S. R. To Mr ALEXANDER COLVILL Of Blair 203. Much honoured Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I would desire to know how my Lord took my letter I sent him how he is I desire nothing but that he be fast and honest to my royal Master King I am well every way all praise to him in whose books I must stand for ever as his debter Onely my silence paineth me I had one joy out of heaven next to Christ my Lord that was to preach him to this faithless generation they have taken that from me It was to me as the poor man's one eye they have put out that eye I know the violence done to me his poor be-rest Bride is come up before the Lord suppose I see not the other side of my cross or what my Lord will bring out of it yet I beleeve the vision shall not tarry that Christ is on his journey for my deliverance he goeth not slowly but passeth over ten mountains at one stride In the mean time I am pained with his love because I want reall possession when Christ cometh he stayeth not long but certainly the blowing of his breath upon a poor soul is heaven upon earth
when the wind turneth into the North he goeth away I die till the wind change in the West he visite his prisoner But he holdeth me not often at his door I am richly repayed for suffering for him O if all Scotland were as I am except my bonds O what pain I have because I cannot get him praised by my sufferings O that heaven within and without the earth were paper all the rivers fountains sâ—as were ink I able to write all the paper within without full of his praises love excellency to be read by man Angel Nay this is little I ow my heaven for Christ to desire howbeit I should never enter in at the gates of the new Ierusalem to send my love my praises over the wall to Christ. Alas that Time Days lie betwixt him me adjourn our meeting It is my part to cry O when will the night be past the day dawn that we shall see one another Be pleased to remember my service to my Lord to whom I wrote shew him that for his affection to me I cannot but pray for him earnestly desire that Christ miss him not out of the roll of these who are his witnesses now when his kingly honour is called in question It is his honour to hold up Christ's royal train to be an instrument to hold the crown upon Christ's head Shew him because I love his true honour standing that this is my earnest desire for him Now I bless you the prayers of Christ's prisoner come upon you his sweetest presence whom ye serve in the spirit accompany you Aberd. June 23. 1637. Yours at all obliged obedâ—ince in Christ S. R. To Mr JOHN ROW 204 Reverend dear Brother I Received yours I bless his high great name I like my sweet Master still the longer the better A sight of his cross is more awsom then the weight of it I think the worst things of Christ even his reproaches his cross when I look on these not with bleared eyes far rather to be chosen then the laughter worm-eaten joys of my adversaries Oh that they were as I am except my bonds My witness is above my Ministery next to Christ is dearest to me of any thing but I lay it down at Christ's feet for his glory his honour as supreme Law-giver which is dearer to me My dear Brother if ye will receive the testimony of a poor prisoner of Christ who dare not now dissemble for the world I beleeve certainly expect thanks from the Prince of the Kings of the earth for my poor hazards such as they are for his honourable cause whom I can ever enough extoll for his running-over love to my sad soul since I came hither O that I could get him set on high praised I seek no more as the top root of my desires but that Christ may make glory to himself edification to the weaker out of my sufferings I desire ye would help me both to pray praise Grace be with you Aberd. July 8. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the Lady CULROSS 205 MADAM GRace mercy peace be to you I am much refreshed with your letter now at length come to me I finde my Lord Jesus cometh not in that precise way that I lay wait for him he hath a gate of his own O how high are his wayes above my wayes I see but little of him It is best not to offer to learn him a lesson but to give him absolutely his own will in coming going ebbing flowing in the manner of his gracious working I want nothing but a back burtheâ— of Christ's love I would goe through hell the thick of the damned Devils to have a hearty feast of Christ's love for he hath fettered me with his love run away left me a chained man Woe is me that I was so loose rash vain graceless in my unbeleeving thoughts of Christ's love But what can a soul under a non-entry when my rights were wod-set and lost doe else but make a false libel against Christ's love I know your self Madam and many moe will be witnesses against me if I repent not of my unbelief for I have been seeking the Pope's wares some hire for grace within my self I have not learned as I should doe to put my stock all my treasure in Christ's hand but I would have a stock of mine own ere I was aware I was taking hire to be the Law 's advocate to seek Justification by works I forgot that grace is the onely garland that is worn in heaven upon the heads of the glorified And now I half rejoyce that I have sickness for Christ to work upon since I must have wounds well's my soul I have a day's work for my Physician Christ I hope to give Christ his own calling it setteth him full well to cure diseases My ebbings are very low the tide is far out when my Beloved goeth away then I cry Oh cruelty to put out the poor man's one eye that that was my joy next to Christ to preach my welbeloved then I make a noise about Christ's house looking uncouth-like in at his window casting my love my desires over the wall till God send better I am often content my bill lie in heaven till the day of my departure providing I had assurance that mercy shall be written on the back of it I would not care for on-waiting but when I draw in a tired arm empty hand withall it is much to me to keep my thoughts in order but I will not get a gate for Christ's love When I have done all I can I would fain yeeld to his stream row with Christ not against him But while I live I see that Christ's Kingdom in me will not be peaceable so many thoughts in me rise up against his honour kingly power Surely I have not expressed all his sweet kindness to me I spare to doe it lest I â—e deemed to seek my self but his breath hath sinelled of the powder of the merchants of the King's spikenard I think I conceive new thoughts of heaven because the Carde the Mappe of Haven that he letteth me now see is so fair so sweet I am sure we are niggards sparing bodies in seeking I verily judge we know not how much may be had in this life there is yet something beyond all we see that seeking would light upon O that my love-sickness would put me to a business when all the world are sound sleeping to cry knock But the truth is since I came hither I have been wondering that after my importunity to have my fill of Christ's love I have not gotten a reall sign but have come from him crying hunger hunger I think Christ letteth me see meat in my extremity of hunger giveth me
to be carried in Christ's arms out of this borrowed prison Grace grace be with you Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the â—aird of CARLETOUN 207 Worthy Six GRace mercy and peace be to you I received your letter am heartily glad that our Lord hath begun to work for the apparent delivery of this poor oppressed Kirk O that salvation would come for Zion I am for the present hanging by hope waiting what my Lord will doe with me if it will please my sweet Master to send me amongst you again keep out a hireling from my poor people flock It were my heaven till I come home even to spend this liâ—e in gathering in some to Christ. I have still great heaviness for my silence my forced standing idle in the market when this land hath such a plentifull thick harvest but I know his judgements who hath done it pass fiâ—…ding out I have no nowledge to take up the Lord in all his strange wayes 〈◊〉 pâ—ssages of deep unsearchable providences for the Lord is bâ—fore me I am so be-misted that I cannot follow him He is behinde me and following at the heels and I am not aware of him he is above me but his glory so 〈◊〉 my twilight of short knowledge that I cannot look up to him He is upon my right hand and I see him no He is upon my left hand and within me and goeth and comâ—th his going coming are a drâ—aâ—… to me He is round about me compâ—…th â—l my goingâ— aâ—d still I have him to eek He is every way higher dâ—eper broadâ—r then the shallow ebbe hand-breadth of my shoâ—t dâ—… light can take up therefore I would my heart could be silent sit down in the learnedly-ignorant wondering at that Lord whom m n Angâ—ls caâ—not comprehend I know the noon-day-light of the highest Angels who see him face to face seeth not the borders of his infiniteness They apprehend God near hand but they cannot comprehend him And therefore it is my happiness to look afar off and to come near to the Lord's back parts to light my dark candle at his brightness to have leave to sit content my self with a traveller's light without the clear vision of an enjoyer I would seek no more till I were in my countrey but a little watering sprinkling of a withered soul with some half out breakin gs half-outlookings of the beam and small raviâ—hing smiles of the fairest face of a revealed beleeved on Godhead A little of God would make my soul bank-full O that I had but Christ's odde off fallings that he would let but the meanest of his love-rayes love-beams fall from him so as I might gather carry them with me I would not be ill to please with Christ and vailed visions of Christ neither would I be dainty in seeing and enjoying of him A kiss of Christ blowen over his shoulder the parings and crumbs of glory that fall under his table in heaven a shower like a thin May-mist of his love would make me green and sappy joyfull till the summer-sun of an eternall glory break up O that I had any thing of Christ O that I had a sip or half a drop out of the hollow of Christ's hand of the sweetness excellency of that lovely One O that my Lord Jesus would â—ue upon me give me but the meanest almes of felt beleeved salvation O how little were it for that infinite sea that infinite fountain of love joy to fill as many thousand thousand little vessels the like of me as there are minutes of hours since the creation of God! I finde it true that a poor soul finding half a smell of the Godhead of Christ hath desires paining wounding the poor heart so with longings to be up at him that make it sometimes think were it not better never to have felt any thing of Christ then thus to lie dying twenty deaths under these felt wounds for the want of him O where is he O fairest Where dwellest thou O never enough admired Godhead how can clay win up to thee How can creatures of yesterday be able to enjoy thee O what pain is it that time sin should be as so many thousand miles betwixt a loved longed-for Lord a dwining love-sick soul who would rather then all the world have lodging with Christ O let this bit love of ours this inch half span-length of heavenly longging meet with thy infinite love O if the little I have were swallowed up with the infiniteness of that excellency which is in Christ O that we little ones were in at the greatest Lord Jesus our wants should soon be swallowed up with his fulness Grace grace be with you Aberd. May. 1. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON Of Knockbrex 208 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be to you I received your letter from Edinburgh I would not wish to see another heaven whâ—â—e I get mine own heaven but a new moon like the light of the sun a new sun like the light of seven days shining upon my poor self the Church of Iews Gentiles upon my withered sun-burnt mother the Church of Scotland upon her sister Churches England Ireland to have this done to to the setting on high our great King it maketh not howbeit I were separate from Christ had a sense of ten thousand years pain in hell if this were O blessed Nobility O glorious renouned Gentry O blessed were the tribes in this land to wipe my Lord Jesus's weeping face to take the sackcloth off Christ's loins to put his kingly robes upon him O if the Almighty would take no less wager of me then my heaven to have it done But my fears are still for wrath once upon Scotland But I know her day shall clear up glory shall be upon the top of the mountains and joy at the noise of the married wife once again O that our Lord would make us to contend plead wrestle by prayers tears for our husband's restoring of his forfeited heritage in Scotland Dear Brother I am for the present in no small battel betwixt felt guiltiness and pining longings high fevers for my welbeloved's love Alas I think Christ's love playeth the niggard to me I know it is not for scarcity of love there is enough in him but my hunger prophesieth of in-holding and sparingness in Christ for I have but little of him and little of his sweetness It is a dear summer with me yet there is such joy in the eagerness working of hunger for Christ that I am often at this that if I had no other heaven but a continuall hunger for Christ such a heaven of ever-working hunger were still a heaven to me I am sure Christ's love cannot be cruel
the dear saints of God! This before my compearance which was three several dayes did trouble me burdeneth me more now howbeit Christ in him God reconciled met me with open arms trysted me precisely at the entry of the door of the Chancellour's hall assisted me to answer so as the advantage that is is not their's but Christ's Alas There is no cause of wondering that I am thus born down with challenges for the world hath mistaken me no man knoweth what guiltiness is in me so well as these two who keep my eyes now waking my heart heavie I mean my Heart Conscience my Lord who is greater then my Heart Shew your brother that I desire him while he is on the watch-tower to plead with his mother to plead with thiâ—land spare not to cry for my sweet Lord Jesus his fair crown that the interdited forbidden Lords are plucking off his royal head If I were free of challenges a High Commission within my soul. I would not give a straw to goe to my father's house through ten deaths for the truth cause of my lovely lovely one Iesus But I walk in heaviness now If ye love me Christ in me my dear Lady pray pray for this onely that by-gones betwixt my Lord me may be by-gones that he would pass from the summonds of his High Commission seek nothing from me but what he will doe for me work in me If your La knew me as I doe my self ve would say Poor soul no marvel It is not my apprehension that createth this cross to me it is too real hath sad certain grounds But I will not beleeve that God will take this advantage of me when my back is at the wall He who forbiddeth to adde affliction to affliction will he doe it himself Why should â—e pursue a dry leaâ— stubble Desire him to spare me now Also the memory of the fair feast-dayes that Christ I had in his banquetting house of wine the scattered flock once committed to me now taken off my hand by himself because I was not so faithfull in the end as I was in the first two years of my entry when sleep departed from my eyes because my soul was taken up with a care for Christ's lambs even these adde sorrow to my sorrow Now my Lord hath onely given me this to say I write it under mine own hand be ye the Lord's servant's witness Welcome welcome sweet sweet cross of Christ welcome fair fair lovely royal King with thine own cross Let us all three goe to heaven together Neither care I much to goe from the South of Scotland to the North to be Christ's prisoner amongst 〈◊〉 couth faces a place of this Kingdom which I have little reason to be in love with I know Christ shall make Abâ—rdeen my garden of delights I am fully perswaded that Scotland shall â—at Ezâ—kiel's book that is written within without Lamenâ—… mourniâ—g â—oe Ezek. 2 10. But the saints shall get a drink of the well that goeth through the streets of the nâ—w Ierusalem to put it down Thus hoping ye will think upon the poor prisoner of Christ I pray Grace grace be with you Edinb July 30. 1636. Your La in his sweet Lord Iesus S. 〈◊〉 To ALEXANDER GORDON of Earlestovvn 212 Much honoured Sir I Finde small hopes of Qs. business I intend after the Councel-day to goe on to Aberdeen The Lord is with me I care not what man can doe I burden no man I want nothing No King is better provided then I am Sweet sweet easie is the cross of my Lord All men I look in the face of whatsoever rank Nobles poor acquaintance strangers are friendly to me My welbeloved is some kinder more warmly then ordinary cometh and visiteth my soul My chains are overguilded with gold Onely the remembrance of my fair dayes with Christ in Anwoth of my dear floâ—â— whose case is my heart's sorrow is vinegar to my sugared wine yet both sweet sowre feed my soul No pen no words no ingine can express to you the loveliness of my onely onely Lord Jesus Thus in haste making for my palace at Aberdeen I bless you your wife your eldest son other children Grace grace be with you Edinb Sept. 5. 1636. Your in his onely onely Lord Iesus S. R. To ROBERT GORDON of Knockbrex 213. My dearest Brother I See Christ thinketh shame if I may speak so to be in such a poor man's common as mine I burden no man I want nothing no face hath gloomed upon me since I left you God's son fair weather conveyeth me to my time Paradise in Aberdeen Christ hath so handsomely fitted for my shoulders this â—â—ugh â—â—ee of the cross as that it hurteth me no wayes My treasure is up in Christ's â—â—ffers my comforts are greater then ye can beleeve my per shall ye for pâ—â—ury of words to write of them God knoweth I am filled with the joy of the Holy Ghost Onely the memory of you my dearest in the Lord my flock others keepeth me under from being exalted above measure Christ's sweet saâ—… hath this sowre mixed with it but O such a sweet pleasant taste I finde small hopes of Qs matter Thus in haste Remember me to your wife to William Gordon Grace be with you Edinb Sept. 5. 1636. Yours in his onely onely Lord Iesus R. S. To my Lord LOWDOUN 214 Right honourable my very worthy Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you Hearing of your Lo zeal courage for Christ our Lord in owning his honourable cause I am bold I plead pardon sor it to speak in paper by a line or two to your Lo since I have not access any other way beseeching your Lo by the mercies of God by the everlasting peace of your soul by the tears prayers of our mother-Church to goe on as ye have worthily begun in purging of the Lord's house in this land plucking down the sticks of Antichrist's filthy nest this wretched Prelacy that black Kingdom whose wicked aims have ever been still are to make this fat world the onely Compass they would have Christ and Religion to sail by and to mount up the man of sin their god-father the Pope of Rome upon the highest stair of Christ's throne and to make a velvet-Church in regard of Parliament-grandour wordly pomp whereof alwayes their stinking breath smelleth to put Christ truth in sack-cloth prison to eat the bread of adversitie and drink the water of affliction Half an eye of any not misted with the darkness of Antichristian smoke may see it thus in this land now our Lord hath begun to awaken the Nobles others to plead for born-down Christ his weeping Gospel My dear noble Lord the eye of Christ is upon you the eyes
of many noble many holy many learned worthy ones in our neighbour Churches about are upon you This poor Church your mother Christ's spouse is holding up her hands heart to God for you and doeth beseech you with tears to plead for her husband his Kingly Scepter for the liberties that her Lord King hath given to her as to a free Kingdom that oweth spiritual tribute to none on earth as being the free-born Princess daughter to the King of Kings This is a Cause that before God his Angels the World before Sun Moon needeth not to blush O what glory true honour is it to lend Christ your hand service to be amongst the repairers of the breaches of Sion's walls to help to â—uild the old waste places and stretch forth the curtains strengthen the stakes of Christ's tent in this land O blessed are they who when Christ is driven away will bring him back again lend him lodging And blessed are ye of the Lord your name honour shall never rot or wither in heaven at least if ye deliver the Lord's sheep that have been scattered in the dark cloudy day out of the hands of strange Lords hirelings who with rigour cruelty have caused them to eat the pastures troden upon with their foul feet to drink muddy water who have spun out such a world of yards of â—ndifferencies in God's Worship to make weave a web for the Antichrist that shall not keep any from the cold as they minde nothing else but that by the bringing in of the Pope's foul tail first upon us their wretched and beggerly Ceremonies they may thrust in after them the Antichrist's legs thighs his belly head shoulders then cry down Christ the Gospel up the merchandise wares of the great whore Fear not my worthy Lord to give your self all ye have out for Christ his Gospel No man dare say who ever did thus hazard for Christ that Christ payed him not his hundred fold in this life duely in the life to come life everlasting This is his own truth ye now plead for for God and man cannot but commend you to beg justice from a just Prince for oppressed Christ to plead that Christ who is the King's Lord may be heard in a free court to speak for himself when the standing established laws of our nation can strongly plead for Christ's crown in the pulpits his chair as Law-giver in the free Government of his own house But Christ shall never be content pleased with this land neither shall his hot fiery indignation be turned away so long as the Prelate the man that lâ—y in Antichrist's foul womb the Antichrist's Lord Bailiffe shall sit Lord-carver in the Lord Jesus his courts The Prelate is both the egge the nest to cleck bring forth Popery Plead therefore in Christ's behalf for the plucking down of the nest crushing of the egge let Christ's Kingly Office suffer no more unworthy indignities Be valiant for your royal King Jesus contend for him your adversaries shall be moth-eaten worms and shall die as men Christ and his honour now lieth upon your shoulders let him not fall to the ground Cast your eye upon him who is quickly coming to decide all the controversies in Zion remember the sand in your night-glass will run out Time with wings will flye away Eternity is hard upon you what will Christ's love-smiles the light of his lovely soul delighting countenance be to you in that day when God shall take up in his right hand this little lodge of heaven like as a shepherd lifteth up his little tent sold together the two leaves of his tent put the earth all the plenishing of it into a fire turn this clay-Idol the god of Adam's sons in to smoke white ashes O what hire how many worlds would many then give to have a favourable decreet of the Judge Or what moneyes would they not give to buy a mountain to be a grave above both soul body to hide them from the awsom looks of an angry Lord Judge I hope your Lo thinketh upon this that ye minde loyalty to Christ to the King both Now the very God of peace the onely wise God establish strengthen you upon the rock laid in Zion Aberd. Jan. 4. 1638. Your Lo at all obedience in Christ S. R. To a Christian Gentlewoman 2â—5 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you Though not acquainted yet at the desire of a Christian brother I thought good to write a line unto you intreating you in the Lord Jesus under your trials to keep an ear open to Christ who can speak for himself howbeit your visitations and your own sense should dream hard things of his love and favour Our Lord never getteth so kinde a look of us nor our love in such a degree nor our faith in such a measure of stedfastness as he getteth out of the furnace of our tempting fears sharp trials I verily beleeve too sad proofs in me say no less that if our Lord would grind our whorish lust in powder the very old ashes of our corruption should take life again and live and hold us under so much bondage that may humble us make us sad till we be in that countrey where we shall need no Physick at all O what violent means doth our Lord use to gain us to him as if indeed we were a prize worthy his fighting for And be sure if leading would doe the turn he would not use pulling of hair and drawing But the best of us will bide a strong pull of our Lord 's right arm ere we follow him Yet I say not this as if our Lord alwayes measured afflictions by so many ounce weights answerable to the grain weights of our guiltiness I know he doeth in many and possibly in you seek nothing so much as faith that can endure summer and winter in their extremity O how precious to the Lord is faith and love that when threshed beaten and chased away and boasted as it were by God himself doeth yet look warm-like love-like kindlike and life-like home-over to Christ would be in at him ill well as it may be Think not much that your husband or the dearest to you in the world proveth to have the bowels mercy of the Ostrich hard rigourous cruel For Psal. 27. 10. The Lord taketh up such fallen ones as these I could not wish a more sweet life nor more satisfying expressions of kindness till I be up at that Prince of kindness then the Lord's saints finde when the Lord taketh up mens refuse lodgeth this world's out-lawes whom no man seeketh after His breath is never so hot his love casteth never such a flame as when this world and these who should be the helpers of our
then now food for the journey God give you eyes to see through sickness death to see something beyond death I doubt not but if hell were betwixt you Christ as a river which ye behooved to cross ere ye could come at him but ye would willingly put in your foot make through to be at him upon hope that he would come in himself in the deepest of the river lend you his hand Now I beleeve your hell is dried up ye have onely these two shallow brooks Sickness Death to pass through ye have also a promise that Christ shall doe more then meet you even that he shall come himself goe with you foot for foot yea bear you in his arms O then O then for the joy that is set before you For the love of the man who is also God over all blessed for ever that is standing upon the shore to welcome you run your race with patience The Lord goe with you Your Lord will not have you nor any of his servants to exchange for the worse Death in it self includeth both the death of the soul the death of the body but to God's children the bounds the limits of death are abridged drawn into a more narrow compass So that when ye die a piece of death shall onely seise upon you or the least part of you shall die that is the dissolution of the body for in Christ ye are delivered from the second death therefore as one born of God commit not sin although ye cannot live not sin that serpent shall but eat your earthly part As for your soul it is above the law of Death But it is fearfull dangerous to be a debter and servant to sin for the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God except Christ both count pay for you I trust also Madam that ye will be carefull to present to the Lord the present estate of this decaying Kirk For what shall be concluded in Parliament anent her the Lord knoweth sure I am the decree of a most fearfull Parliament in heaven is at the very point of coming forth because of the sins of the land For We have cast away the law of the Lord and despised the words of the holy one of Israel Isa. 5 24. Iudgement is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off truth is fallen in the streâ—ts and equity cannot enter Lo the prophet as if he had seen us our Kirk resembleth justice to be handled as an enemy holden out at the ports of our city so is she banished Truth to a person sickly diseased fallen down in a deadly swooning sit in the streets before he can come to an house Isa. 59. 14. The Priests have caused many to stumble at the Law have corrupted the Covenant of Levi Mal. 2. 8. But what will they doe in the end Ier. 5 31. Therefore give the Lord no rest for Zion Stir up your husband your brother all with whom ye are in favour and credit to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal I have good hope your husband loveth the peace prosperity of Zion The peace of God be upon him for his intended courses anent the establishment of a powerfull Ministery in this land Thus not willing to weary your La further I recommend you now alwayes to the grace mercy of that God who is able to keep you that ye fall not The Lord Jesus be with your spirit Anwoth July 27. 1628. Your La servant at all dutifull obedience in Christ S. R. To the Parishoners of KILMACOLME 2 Worthy welbeloved in Christ Iesus our Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you Your letters could not come to my hand in a greater throng of business then I am now pressed with at this time when our Kirk requireth the publike help of us all yet I cannot but answer the heads of both your letters with provision that ye chuse after this a fitter time for writing 1. I would not have you pitch upon me as the man able by lettters to answer doubts of this kinde while there are in your bounds men of such great parts most able for this work I know the best are unable yet it pleaseth that Spirit of Jesus to blow his sweet wind through a piâ—ce dry stick that the empty reed may keep no glory to it self but a Minister can make no such wind as this to blow he is scarce able to lend it a passage to blow through him 2. Know that the wind of this Spirit hath a time when it bloweth sharp pierceth so strongly that it would blow through an iron door this is commonly rather under suffering for Christ then at any other time Sick children get of Christ's pleasant things to play them withall because Jesus is most tender of the sufferer for he was a sufferer himself O if I had but the leavings the drawing of the by-board of a sufferer's table But I leave this to answer yours First ye write that God's vows are lying on you security strong â—â—b to nature stealing on you who are weak I answer 1. Till we be in heaven the best have heavy heads as is evident Cant. 5. 1. Psal. 30. 6. Iob. 29. 18. Matth. 26. 33. Nature is a sluggard loveth not the labour of religion Therefore rest should not be taken till we know the disease be over in the way of turning that it is like a fever past the cool And the quietness the calms of the faith of victory over corruption would be entertained in place of security so that if I sleep I would desire to sleep faith's sleep in Christ's bosom 2. Know also none that sleep sound can seriously complain of sleepiness sorrow for a slumbering soul is a token of some watchfulness of spirit But this is soon turned into wantonness as grace in us too often is abused therefore our waking must be watched over else sleep will even grow out of watching there is as much need to watch over grace as to watch over sin full men will soon sleep sooner then hungry men 3. For your weakness to keep off security that like a thief stealeth upon you I would say two things 1. To want complaints of weakness is for heaven Angels that never sinned not for Christians in Christ's camp on earth I think our weakness maketh us the Church of the redeemed ones Christ's field that the Mediator should labour in If there were no diseases on earth there needed no Physicians on earth If Christ had cried down weakness he might have cried down his own calling but weakness is our Mediator's world Sin is Christ's onely onely fa e market no man should rejoyce at weakness diseases but I think we may have a sort of gladness at boils sores because without them Christ's fingers as a slain Lord
friend although ye should never see her again your care for her would be but small Oh now is she not with a dear friend gone higher upon a certain hope that ye shall in the Resurrection see her again when be ye sure she shall neither be hectick nor consumed in body Ye would be sorry either to be or to be esteeemed an Atheist yet not I but the Apostle 1 Thess. 4â— 13. thinketh these to be hopeless Atheists who mourn excessively for the dead but this is not a challenge on my part I doe speak this onely fearing your weakness for your daughter was a part of yourself therefore nature in you being as it were cut halved will indeed be grieved but ye have to rejoyce that when a part of you is on earth a great part of you is glorified in heaven Follow her but envy her not for indeed it is self-love in us that maketh us mourn for them that die in the Lord Why because for them we cannot mourn since they are never happy till they be dead therefore we mourn for our own private respect take heed then that in shewing your affection in mourning for your daughter ye be not out of self-affection mourning for your self Consider what the Lord is doing in it your daughter is plucked out of the fire she resteth from her labours your Lord in that is trying you casting you in the fire Goe through all fires to your rest now remember that the eye of God is upon you beholding your patience faith he delighteth to see you in the burning bush not consumed he is gladly content that such a weak woman as ye should send Satan away frustrate of his design Now honour God shame the strong roaring lion when ye seem weakest Should such a one as ye faint in the day of adversity Call to minde the dayes of old the Lord yet liveth trust in him although he should stay you faith iâ— exceeding charitable beleeveth no evil of God Now is the Lord laying in the one scale of the ballance your making conscience of submission to his gracious will in the other your affection love to your daughter which of the two will ye then chuse to satisfie Be wise then as I trust ye love Christ better then a sinfull woman pass by your daughter kiss the Lord's rod. Men doe lop the branches off their trees round about to the end they may grow up high tall The Lord hath this way lopped your branch in taking from you many children to the end ye should grow upward like one of the Lord's cedars setting your heart above where Christ is at the right hand of the father what is next but that your Lord cut down the stock after he hath cutted the branches Prepare your self ye are nearer your daughter this day then ye were yesterday while ye prodigally spend time in mourning for her ye are speedily posting after her Run your race with patieÌ„ce let God have his own ask of him in stead of your daughter which he hath taken from you the daughter of faith which is Patience in patience possess your soul. Lift up your head ye doe not know how near your redemption doeth draw Thus recommending you to the Lord who is able to establish you â—â—â—st Anwoth April 23. 1628. Your loving affects not fâ—… in the Lord Iesus S. R. To the elect noble Lady my Lady Kenmure 4 MADAM SAluting your La with grace mercy from God our father from om Lord Jesus Christ I was sorry at my departure leaving your La in grief would still be gâ—…d at it if I were not assured that ye have one with you in the â—urnace 〈◊〉 visage is like unto the Son of God I am glad that ye have been acquainted from your youth with the wrestlings of God that ye getscarce liberty to swallow down your spittle being casten from furnace to furnace knowing if ye were not dear to God and if your health did not require so much of him he would not spend so much Physick upon you All the brethren sisters of Christ must be conform to his image copy in suffering Rom 8 And some doe more vively resemble the copy then others Think Madam that it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among these whom one of the Elders Rev. 7 14. pointeth out to Iohn thâ—se are they which came out of great tribulation have washed their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Behold your forerunner going out of the world all in a lake of blood it is not ill to die as he did Fulfill with joy the remnant of the grounds remainders of the afflictions of Christ in your body Ye have lost a childe Nay She is not lost to you who is found to Christ she is not sent away but onely sent before like unto a star which going out of our sight doeth not die evanish but shineth in another hemisphere ye see her not yet she doeth shine in another countrey If her glass was but a short hour what she wanteth of time that she hath gotten of eternity ye have to rejoyce that ye have now some plenishing up in heaven Build your nest upon no tree here for ye see God hath sold the forrest to death and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down to the end we may flee mount up build upon the rock dwell in the holes of the rock What ye love besides Jesus your husband is an adulterous lover Now it is God's special blessing to Iudah that he will not let her finde her paths in following her strange lovers Hos. 2 6. Therefore behold I will hedge up her way with thorns make a wall that she shall not finde her paths v. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtakè them O thrice happy Iudah when God buildeth a double stone-wall betwixt her the fire of hell The World the things of the World Madam is the lover ye naturally affect beside your own husband Christ The hedge of thorns the wall which God buildeth in your way to hinder you from this lover is the thorny hedge of daily grief loss of children weakness of body iniquity of the time uncertainty of estate lack of worldly comfort fear of God's anger for old unrepented of sins What lose ye if God twist â—let the hedge daily thicker God be blessed the Lord will not let you finde your paths Return to your first husband Doe not weary neither think that Death walketh towards you with a slow pace ye must be riper ere ye be shaken your daves are no longer then Iob's that were swifter then a post passed away as the ships of desire as the Eagle that hasteth for the prey Iob. 9 25 26. There is less sand in
your glass now then there was yesternight this span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended But the greater is the mercy of God the moe years ye get to advise upon what terms upon what conditions ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending Eternity The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till he come wait hasten saith Peter for the coming of our Lord All is night that is here in respect of ignorance daily ensuing troubles one alwayes making way to another as the ninth wave of the sea to the tenth therefore sigh long for the dawning of that morning the breaking of that day of the coming of the SoÌ„ of man when the shadows shall flee away Perswade your self the King is coming read his letter sent before him Rev. 3. 11. Behold I come quickly Wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the eastern skie think that ye have not a morrow As the wise father said who being invited against to morrow to dine with his friends answered These many dayes I have had no morrow at all I am loath to weary you Shew your self a Christian by suffering without murmuring for which sin fourteen thousand seven hundred were slain Numb 16. 49. In patience possess your soul they lose nothing who gain Christ. Thus remembring my brother's my wife's humble service to your La I commend you to the mercy grace of our Lord Jesus assuring you that your day is coming that God's mercy is abiding you The Lord Jesus be with your spirit Anwoth Jan. 15. 1629. Yours in the Lord Iesus at all dutifull obedience S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 5. MADAM SAluting you in Jesus Christ to my grief I must bid you 〈◊〉 may be for ever farewell in paper having small assurance 〈◊〉 to see your face again till the last general Assembly where the whole church universal shall meet Yet promising by his grace to present your La your burdens to him who is able to save you give you an inheritance with the saints after a more special manner then ever I have done before Ye are going to a countrey where the Sun of righteousness in the Gospel shineth not so clearly as in this Kingdom but if ye would know where he whom your soul loveth doeth rest where he feedeth at the noon-tide of the day where ever ye be get you forth by the footsteps of the stock feed your self beside the shepherds tents Cant. 1 7. that is ask for some of the watchmen of the Lord's city who will tell you truly will not lye where ye shall finde him whom your soul loveth I trust ye are so betrothed in marriage to the true Christ that ye will not give your love to any false Christ Ye know not how soon your marriage-day will come nay is not Eternity hard upon you It were time then that ye had your wedding garment in readiness be not sleeping at your Lord's coming I pray God ye may be upon your feet standing when he knocketh Be not discouraged to goe from this countrey to another part of the Lord's earth the earth is his the fulness thereof Psal. 24 1. This is the Lord's lower house while we are lodged here we have no assurance to lie ever in one chamber but must be content to remove from one corner of our Lord's nether-house to another resting in hope that when we come up to the Lord 's upper city Ierusalem that is above we shall remove no more because then we shall be at home And goe wheresoever ye will if your Lord goe with you ye are at home your lodging is ever taken before night so long as he who is Israel's dwelling house is your home Psal. 90 1. Beleeve me Madam my minde is that ye are well lodged that in your house there are fair ease-rooms pleasant lights if ye can in faith lean down your head upon the breast of Jesus Christ till this be ye shall never get a sound sleep Jesus Jesus be your shadow your covering It is a sweet soul-sleep to lie in the arms of Christ for his breath is very sweet Pray for poor friendless Zion Alas No man will speak for her now although at home in her own countrey she hath good friends her husband Christ his father her father in law Beseech your husband to be a friend to Zion pray for her I have received many divers dashes heavy strokes since the Lord called me to the Ministery but indeed I esteem your departure from us amongst the weightiest but I perceive God will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idolize that he may have his own room I see exceeding small fruit of my Ministery would be glad to know of one soul to be my crown rejoycing in the day of Christ. Though I spend my strength in vain yet my labour is with my God Isa. 49 9. I wish pray that the Lord would harden my face against all make me to learn to goe with my face against a storm Again I commend you body spirit to him who hath loved us washed us from our sins in his own blood Grace grace grace for ever be with you Pray pray continually Anwoth Sept 14. 1629. Your La at all dutifull obedience in Christ S. R. To JOHN KENNEDY 6. My loving most affectionat brother in Christ. I Salute you with grace mercy peace from God our father from our Lord Iesus Christ. I promised to write to you although late enough yet now I make it good I heard with grief of your great danger of perishing by the sea but of your mercifull deliverance with joy Sure I am Brother Satan will leave no stone unrolled as the proverb is to roll you off your rock or at least to shake unsettle you For at that same time the mouths of wicked men were opened in hard speeches against you by land the Prince of the power of the air was angry with you by sea See then how much ye are obliged to that malitions murderer who would beat you with two rods at one time but blessed be God his arm is short If the sea winds would have obeyed him ye had never come to land Thank your God who saith Rev. 1 18. I have the keys of hell and of death Deut 32 39. I kill and I make alive 1 Sam. 2 6. The Lord bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up If Satan were Iaylâ—ur and had the keys of Death or the Grave they should be stored with moe prisoners Ye were knocking at these black gates and ye found the doors shut and we doe all welcome you back again I trust ye know it is not for nothing that ye are sent to us again The Lord knew ye had forgotten something that was necessary for your journey that your armour was not as yet thick enough
take from you against your will It is good to play the â—surer with him take in in stead of ten of the hundred an hundred often an hundred of one Madam fearing to be tedious to you I break off here commending you as I trust to doe while I live your person wayes burdens all that concerneth you to that Almighty who is able to bear you your burdens I still remember you to him who will cause you one day to laugh I expect that what ever ye can doe by word or deed for the Lord 's friendless Zion ye will doe it She is your mother forget her not for the Lord intendeth to melt try this land it is high time we were all upon our feet falling about to try what claim we have to Christ It is like the the Bridegroom will be taken from us then we shall mourn Dear Iesus remove not else take us with thee Grace grace be with you for ever Anwoth 14. Jan. 1632. Your La at all dutifull obedience S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 12 MADAM YOur La will not I know weary nor offend though I trouble you with many letters the memory of what obligations I am under to your La is the cause of it I am possibly impertinent in what I write because of my ignorance of your present estate But for all that is said I have learned of M W. D. that ye have not changed upon nor wearied of your sweet Master Christ his service neither were it your part to change upon him who resteth in his love Ye are among honourable company such as affect grandour court But Madam thinking upon your estate I think I see an improvident wooer coming too late to seek a Bride because she is contracted already promised away to another so the wooer's busking bravery who cometh to you as who but he is in vain the outward pomp of this busie wooer a beguiling world is now coming in to sute your soul too late when ye have promised away your soul to Christ many years agoe And I know Madam what answer ye may now justly make to the late suter even this Ye are to long of coming my soul the Bride is away already the contract with Christ subscribed I cannot cause but I must be honest faithfull to him Honourable-Lady keep your first love hold the first match with that soul-delighting lovely Bridegroom our sweet sweet Jesus fairer then all the children of men the Rose of Sharon the fairest sweetest smelled Rose in all his father's garden there is none like him I would not exchange one smile of his lovely face with Kingdoms Madam let others take their silly feckless heaven in this life envy them not but let your soul like a tarrowing misiearned childe take the dorts as we use to speak or cast at all things disdain them except one onely either Christ or nothing your welbeloved Jesus will be content that ye be here devotely proud ill to please as one that contemneth all husbands but himself Either the King's son or no husband at all this is humble worthy ambition What have ye to doe to dally with a whorish foolish world Your jealous husband will not be content that ye look by him to another he will be jealous indeed offend if ye kiss another but himself What weights doe burden you Madam I know not but think it great mercy that your Lord from your youth hath been hedging in your out-straying affections that they may not goe a whoring from himself If ye were his bastard he would not nurture you so If ye were for the slaughter ye would be fatned But be content ye are his wheat growing in our Lord's field Matth. 13 v. 25 38. And if wheat ye must goe under our Lord's threshing instrument in his barn-â—oor through his sieve Amos 9 v. 9. And through his mill to be bruised as the Prince of your salvation Iesus was Isa. 53 9. that ye may be found good bread in your Lord's house Lord Jesus bless the spiritual husbandry separate you from the chaff that dow not bide the wind I am perswaded your glass is spending it self by little little if ye knew who is before you ye would rejoyce in your tribulations Think ye it a small honour to stand before the throne of God and the Lamb to be clothed in white to be called to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb to be led to the fountain of living waters to come to the well-head even God himself get your fill of the clear cold sweet refreshing water of life the King 's own well to put up your now sinfull hand to the tree of life take down eat the sweetest apple in all God's heavenly Paradise Jesus Christ your life your Lord Up your heart shout for joy your King is coming to fetch you to his father's house Madam I am in exceeding great heaviness God thinking it best for my own soul thus to exercise me thereby it may be to fit me to be his mouth to others I see hear at home abroad nothing but matter of grief discouragement which indeed maketh my life bitter And I hope in God never to get my will in this world I expect ere long a fiery trial upon the Church for as many men almost in England Scotland as many false friends to Christ as many pulling and drawing to pull the crown off his holy head for fear that our Beloved stay amongst us as if his room were more desirable then himself men are bidding him goe seek his lodging Madam if ye have a part in silly friendless Zion as I know ye have speak a word on her behalf to God man If ye can doe nothing else speak for Jesus ye shall thereby be a witness against this declining age Now from my very soul laying leaving you on the Lord desiring a part in your prayers as my Lord knoweth I remember you I deliver over your body spirit all your necessities to the hands of our Lord remains for ever Answeth Febr. 13. 1632. Your La. in your sweet Lord Iesus mine S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 14 MADAM THe cause of my not writing to your La is not my forgetfulness of you but the want of the opportunity of a convenient bearer for I am under more then a simple obligation to be kinde in paper at least to your La I bless our Lord through Christ who hath brought you home again to your countrey from that place where ye have seen with your eyes that which our Lord's truth taught you before to wit that worldly glory is nothing but a vapour a shadow the foam of the water or something less lighter even nothing that our Lord hath not without cause said in his word 1 Cor. 7. 31. The
countenance or fashion of this world passeth away In which place our Lord compareth it to an Image in a looking-glass for it is the looking-glass of Adam's sons Some come to the glass see in it the picture of Honour and but a picture indeed for true Honour is to be great in the sight of God others see in it the shadow of Riches but a shadow indeed for durable Riches stand as one of the maids of Wisdom upon her left hand Prov. 3. 16. a third sort see in it the face of painted Pleasures the beholders will not beleeve but the Image they see in this glass is a living man till the Lord come break the glass in pieces remove the face then like Pharaoh awakened they say And behold it was a dream I know your La thinketh your self little in the common of this world for the favourable aspect of any of these three painted faces blessed be our Lord that it is so the better for you Madam they are not worthy to be wooers to sute in marriage your soul that looks to an higher match then to be married upon painted clay know therefore Madam the place whither our Lord Jesus cometh to wooe a Bride it is even in the furnace for if ye be one of Zion's daughters which I ever put beyond all question since I first had occasion to see in your La such pregnant evidences of the grace of God the Lord who hath his fire in Zion his furnace in Ierusalem Isa. 31 9. is purifying you in the furnace And therefore be content to live in it and every day to be adding sowing-to a pasment to your wedding garment that ye may be at last decored trimmed as a Bride for Christ a Bride of his own busking beautified in the hidden man of the heart forgetting your Father's house so shall the King greatly desire your beauty Psal. 45 11. If your La be not changed as I hope ye are not I beleeve ye esteem your self to be of these whom God hath tried these many years refined as silver But Madam I will shew your La a priviledge that others want ye have in this case Such as are in prosperity are fatted with earthly joyes encreased with children friends though the Word of God is indeed written to such for their instruction yet to you who are in trouble spare me Madam to say this from whom the Lord hath taken many children whom he hath exercised otherwise there are some chapters some particular promises in the Word of God made in a most special manner which should never have been yours so as they now are if ye had your portion in this life as others therefore all the comforts promises mercies God offereth to the afflicted they are as many love-letters written to you take them to you Madam claim your right be not robbed It is no small comfort that God hath written some Scriptures to you which he hath not written to others ye seem rather in this to be envied then pitied ye are indeed in this like people of another world these that are above the ordinary rank of mankinde whom our King Lord our Bridegroom Iesus in his love-letter to his welbeloved Spouse hath named beside all the rest hath written comforts and his hearry commendations in the 56 of I saiah vers 4 5. Bsal. 147 2 3 to you Read these the like think your God is like a friend that sendeth a letter to a whole house family but speaketh in his letter to some by name that are dearest to him in the house Ye are then Madam of the dearest friends of the Bridegroom If it were lawfull I would envie you that God honoured you so above many of his dear children Therefore Madam your partis in this case seeing God taketh nothing from you but that which he is to supply with his own presence to desire your Lord to know his own room take it even upon him to come in in the room of dead children Iehovah know thy own place take it to thee is all ye have to say Madam I perswade my self that this world is to you an uncouth Innes that ye are like a traveller who hath his bundel upon his back his staff in his hand his feet upon the door-threshold Goe forward honourable elect Lady in the strength of your Lord let the world bide at home keep the house with your face toward him who longeth more for a sight of you then ye can doe for him ere it be long he will see us I hope to see you laugh as cheerfully after-noon as ye have mourned before-noon The hand of the Lord the hand of the Lord be with you in your journey What have ye to doe here This is not your mountain of rest arise then and set your foot up the mountain goe up out of the wilderness leaning upon the shoulder of your Beloved Caent 8 v. 5 If ye knew the welcome that abideth you when ye come home ye would hasten your pace for ye shall see your Lord put up his own holy hand to your face wipe all tears from your eyes I trow then ye shall have some joy of heart Madam paper willeth me to end before affection Remember the estate of Zaon pray that Ierusalem may be as Zechariah prophesied Ch. 12 3. A burdensom stone for all that whosoever boweth down to roll the stone out of the way may hurt break the joynts of their back strain their arms disjoynt their shoulder-blades pray Iehovah that the stone may lie still in it's own place keep bond with the corner-stone I hope it shall be so he is a skilled Master-builder who laid it I would Madam under great heaviness be refreshed with two lines from your La pen which I refer to your own wisdom Madam I would seen undutifull not to shew you that great solistation is made by the town of Kircudbright for to have the use of my poor labours amongst them If the Lord shall call his people cry who am I to resist but without his seen calling till the flock whom I now oversee be planted with one to whom I dare intrust Christ's Spouse gold nor silver nor favour of men I hope shall not loose me I leave your La praying more earnestly for grace mercy to be with you multiplied upon you here hereafter then my pen can express The Lord Jesus be with your spirit Kirkcudbright Your La at all obedience in the Lord S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 15. MADAM HAving saluted you with grace mercy from God our father from our Lord Jesus Christ I long both to see your La to hear how it goeth with you I doe remember you present you your necessities to him who is able to keep you present you blameless before
his face with joy my prayer to our Lord is that ye may be sick of love for him who died of love for you I mean your Saviour Jesus And O sweet were that sickness to be soul-sick for him And a living death it were to die in the fire of the love of that soul-lover Iesus And Madam if ye love him ye will keep his commandements this is not one of the least to lay your neck cheerfully willingly under the yoke of Jesus Christ For I trust your La did first contract and bargain with the Son of God to follow him upon these terms that by his grace ye should endure hardship suffer affliction as the souldier of Christ They are not worthy of Jesus who will not take a blow for their Master's sake For our glorious peace-maker when he came to make up the friendship betwixt God us God bruised him strooke him the sinfull world also did beat him and crucifie him yet he took buffets of both the parties and honour to our Lord Jesus he would not leave the field for all that till he had made peace betwixt the parties I perswade â—y self your sufferings are but like your Saviour's yea incomparably less lighter which are called but a bruising of his â—eel Gen. 3. 15 a wound far from the heart Your life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. And therefore ye cannot be robbed of it Our Lord handleth us as fathers doe their young children they lay up jewels in a place above the reach of the short arm of bairns else â—aiâ—ns would put up their hands take them down lose them soon So hath our Lord done with our spiritual life Jesus Christ is the high coffer in the which our Lord hath hid our life we children are not able to reach up our arm so high as to take down that life lose it it is in our Christ's hand O long long may Jesus be Lord-keeper of our life happy are they that can with the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. lay their soul in pawne in the hand of Jesus for he is able to keep that which is committed in pawne to him against that day Then Madam so long as this life is not hurt all ether troubles are but touches in the heel I trust ye will soon be cured Ye know Madam Kings have some servants in their court that receive not present wages in their hand but live upon their hopes The King of Kings also hath servants in his court that for the present get little or nothing but the heavie cross of Christ troubles without terrours within but they live upon hope when it cometh to the parting of the inheritance they remain in the house as heirs It is better to be so then to get present payment a portion in this life an inheritance in this world God forgive me that I should honour it with the name of an inheritance it is rather a farme-room then in the end to be casten out of God's house with this word Ye have received your consolation ye will get no more Alas What get they The rich glutton's heaven Oh but our Lord Luk. 16. maketh it a sillie heaven He fared well saith our Lord delicately every day Oh no more A sillie heaven Truly no more except that he was clothed in purple that is all I perswade my self Madam ye have joy when ye think that your Lord hath dealt more graciously with your soul. Ye have gotten little in this life It is true indeed Ye have then the more to crave yea ye have all to crave For except some tastings of the first fruits some kisses of his mouth whom your soul loveth ye get no more But I cannot tell you what is to come yet I may speak as our Lord doeth of it The foundation of the city is pure gold clear as crystall the twelve ports are set with precious stones If orchards rivers commend a soil upon earth there is a Paradise there wherein groweth the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every moneth which is seven score four harvests in the year there is there a pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God of the Lamb the city hath no need of the light of the sun or moon or of a candle for the Lord God Almighty the Lamb is the light thereof Madam beleeve and hope for this till ye see enjoy Jesus is saying in the Gospel Come see he is come down in the chariot of Truth wherein he rideth through the world to conquer mens souls Psal. 45. 4. is now in the word saying Who will goe with me will ye goe my Father will make you welcome give you house-room for in my Father's house are many dwelling places Madam consent to goe with him Thus I rest commending you to God's dearest mercy Anwoth Yours in the Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 16. MADAM I Am afraid now as many others are that at the sitting down of our Parliament our Lord Jesus his Spouse shall be roughly handled And it must be so since false deelining Scotland whom our Lord took off the dunghill out of hell made a fair Bride to himself hath broken her faith to her sweet husband hath put on the forehead of a whore therefore he saith he will remove would God we could stir up our selves to lay hold upon him who being highly provoked with the handling he hath met with is ready to depart Alas we doe not importune him by prayer supplication to abide amongst usâ— If we could but weâ—p upon â—â—m in the holy pertinacy of faith wrestle witâ—… say We will not let thee goe it may be that then he who is easy to be intreated would yet notwithstanding of our high provocations condescend to stay feed among the lilies till that fair desirable day break and the shadows flâ—e away Ah! What cause of mourning is there When our gold is become dim the visage of our Nazarites sometimes whiter then snow is now become blacker then a coal Levi's house once comparable to fine gold is now changed become like vessels in whom he hath no pleasure Madam think upon this that when our Lord who hath his handkerchief to wipe the face of the mourners in Zion shall come to wipe away all tears froÌ„ their eyes he may wipe yours also in the passing amongst others I am confident Madam that our Lord will yet build a new house to himself of our rejected and scattered stones for our bridegroom cannot want a wife Can he live a widow Nay he will embrace both Us the little young sister the elder sister The church of the Iews there will yet be a day of it therefore we have cause to rejoyce yea to sing shout for joy The Church hath been â—nce
the world began ever hanging by a small threed all the hands of hell of the wicked have been drawing at the threed but God be thanked they onely break their arms by pulling but the threed is not broken for the sweet fingers of Christ our Lord have spun and twisted it Lord hold the threed whole Madam stir up your husband to lay hold upon the Covenant to doe good What hath he to doe with the World It is not his inheritance Desire him to make him home over put to his hand to lay one stone or two upon the wall of God's house before he goe hence I have heard also Madam that your childe is removed But to have or want is best as he pleaseth Whether she be with you or in God's keeping think it all one nay think it the better of the two by far that she is with him I trust in our Lord that there is something laid up and kept for you for our kinde Lord who hath wounded you will not be so cruel as not to allay the pain of your green wound therefore claim Christ still as your own own him as your One thing So resting I recommend your La your soul spirit in pawne to him who keepeth all his father's pawnes will make an account of them faithfully even to that fairest amongst the sons of men our sweet Lord Jesus the fairest the sweetest the most delicious rose in all his father's great field The smell of that rose perfume your soul. Anwoth April 1. 1633. Your La in his sweetest Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 17 MADAM I Determined was desirous also to have seen your La but because of a pain in my arm I could not I know ye will not impute it to any unsutable forgetfulness of your La from whom at my first entry to my calling in this countrey since also I received such comfort in my affliction as I trust in God never to forget it shall labour by his grace to recompense it the onely way possible to me that is by presenting your soul person house all your necessities in prayer to him whose I hope ye are who is able to keep you till that day of appearance to present you before his face with joy I am confident your La is going forward in the begun journey to your Lord father's home Kingdom howbeit ye want not temptations within without And who among the saints hath ever taken that castle without stroke of sword The chief of the house our elder brother our Lord Iesus not being excepted who won his own house home due to him by birth with much blood many blowes Your La hath the more need to look to your self because our Lord hath placed you higher then the rest and your way to heaven lieth through a more wilde and waste wilderness then the way of many of your fellow-travellers not onely through the midst of this wood of thorns The cumbersom world but also through these dangerous paths The vain glory of it The consideration whereof hath often moved me to pity your soul the soul of your worthy noble husband And it is more to you to win heaven being ships of greater burden and in the main sea then for little vessels that are not so much in the mercy and reverence of the storms because they may come quietly to their port by lanching alongst the coast For the which cause ye doe much if in the midst of such a tumult of business croud of temptations ye shall give Christ Jesus his own court his own due place in your soul. I know am perswaded that that lovely one Iesus is dearer to you then many Kingdome and that ye esteem him your welbeloved and the standard-bearer among ten thousand Cant. 5 10 And it becometh him full well to take the place and the board-head in your soul before all the world I knew saw him with you in the furnace of affliction for there he wooed you to himself chose you to be his now he craveth no other hire of you but your Love that he get no cause to be jealous of you And therefore Dear Worthy Lady be like to the fresh river that keepeth it's own fresh taste in the salt sea This world is not worthy of your soul Give it not a good-day when Christ cometh in competition with it Be like one of another countrey Home stay not for the sun is fallen low nigh the tops of the mountains the shadows are stretched out in great length linger not by the way The world and sin would train you on make you turn aside Leave not the way for them the Lord Jesus be at the voyage Madam many eyes are upon you many would be glad your La should spill a Christian and maâ— a good professour Lord Jesus mar their godless desires keep the conscience whole without a crack If there be a hole in it so that it take in water at a leck it will with difficulty mend again It is a dainty delicate creature a rare piece of the workmanship of your maker therefore deal gently with it keep it intire that amidâ—â— this world's glory your La may learn to entertain Christ whatsoever creature your La findeth not to smell of him it may have no better relish to you then the white of an egge Madam it is a part of the truth of your profession to drop words in the ears of your Noble husband continually of Eternity Judgement Death Hell Heaven The honourable Profession The sins of his Father's House He must reckon with God for his father's debt Forgetting of accounts payeth not debt Nay the interest of a forgotten bond runneth up with God to interest upon interest I know he looketh homeward loveth the truth but I pity him with my soul because of his many temptations Satan layeth upon men a burthen of cares above a load maketh a pack-horse of mens souls when they are wholly set upon this world We ow the Devil no such service It were wisdom to throw off that load into a mire to cast all our cares over upon God Madam think ye have no childe Subscribe a bond to your Lord That she shall be his if he take her thanks praise glory to his holy name shall be the interest for a year's loan of her Look for crosses while it is fair weather mend the sails of the ship Now hoping your La will pardon my tediousness I recommend your soul person to the grace mercy of our sweet Lord Jesus in whom I am Anwoth Nov. 15. 1633. Your La at all dutifull obedience in Christ S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 18 MADAM HAving received a letter from some of the worthiest of the Ministery in this Kingdom the contents where of I am â—â—nred to communicate to such
comforter's part of it not against you Madam for I am sure ye are not his party but against your grief which will have it 's own violent incursions in your soul I think it be not in your power to help it But I must say there are comforts allowed upon you therefore want them not When ye have gotten a running-over soul with joy now that joy will never be missed out of the infinite Ocean of delight which iâ— not diminished by drinking at it or drawing out of it It is a Christian art to Comfort your self in the Lord to say I was obliged to render back again this childe to the giver if I have had four years loan of him Christ eternitie's possession of him the Lord hath keeped condition with me If my Lord would not have him me to tryst both in one hour at death's door threshold together it is his wisdom so to doe I am satisfied my tryst is suspended not broken off nor given up Madam I would I could divide sorrow with you for your ease But I am but a beholder it is easie to me to speak The God of comfort speak to you allure you with his feasts of love My removal from my flock is so heavy to me that it maketh my life a burden to me I had never such a longing for death The Lord help hold up sad clay I fear ye sin in drawing Mr William Dalgleish from this countrey where the labourrers are few and the harvest great Madam desire my Lord Argyle to see for provision to a Pastor for this poor people Grace be with you Kircudbright Octob. 1. 1639. Your La at all obedience in Christ S. R. To the persecuted Church in Ireland 27 Much honoured reverend dearly beloved in our Lord. GRace mercy peace be to you all I know there are many in this Nation more able then I to speak to the sufferers for witnesses of Jesus Christ yet pardon me to speak a little to you who are called in question for the Gospel once committed to you I hope ye are not ignorant that if peace was left to you in Christ's Testament so the other half of the Testament was a legacy of Christ's sufferings Ioh. 16 35. These things I have spoken that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have trouble Because then ye are made assignayes heâ—â—s to a life-rent of Christ's Cross think that fiery trial no strangething For the Lord Jesus shall be no loser by purging the dross tin out of his Church in Ireland his wine press is out squising out the dreg the scum the froath refuse of that Church I had once the proof of the sweet smell the honest honourable peace of that slandered thing the Cross of our Lord Jesus But though Alas that these golden dayes that then I had be now in a great part gone yet I dare say that the issue outgate of your sufferings shall be the advantage the golden reign dominion of the Gospel the high glory of the never-enough-praised Prince of the Kings of the earth the changing of the brass of the Lord's temple among you into gold the iron into silver the wood into brass your officers shall yet be peace your exactors righteousness Isa. 60 v. 17 18. Your old fallen walls shall get a new name the gates of your Ierusalem shall get a new stile they shall call your walls Salvation your gates Praise I know that Deputy Prelats Papists temporizing Lords proud mockers of our Lord crucifiers of Christ for his coat all your enemies have neither fingers nor instruments of war to pick out one stone out of your wall for each stone of your wall is Salvation I dare give you my royal Princely Master's word for it that Ireland shall be a fair Bride to Jesus Christ shall build on her a palace of silver Cant. 8 9. Therefore weep not as if there were no hope fear not put on strength put on your beautifull garments Isa. 52 1. Your foundation shall be saphires Isa. 54 11 12. Your windows gates precious stones Look over the water behold see who is on the dry land waiting for your landing Your deliverance is concluded subscribed sealed in heaven Your goods that are taken from you for Christ his truth's sake are but arrested laid in pawne not taken away There is much laid up for you in his store-house whose the earth the fulness thereof is your garments are spun your flocks are feeding in the fields your bread is laid up for you your drink is browen your gold silver is at the bank the interest goeth on groweth yet I hear that your task-masters doe robe spoil you fine you your prisons my brethren have two keyes the Deputy Prelats Officers keep but the iron keyes of the prison wherein they put you but he that hath created the smith hath other keyes in heaven therefore ye shall not die in the prison other mens ploughs are labouring for your bread your enemies are gathering in your rents He that is kissing his Bride on this side of the sea in Scotland is beating her beyond the sea in Ireland and feeding her with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction and yet he is the same Lord to both Alas I fear that Scotland be undone and slain with this great mercy of Reformation because there is not here that life of Religion answerable to the huge greatness of the work that dazleth our eyes For the Lord is rejoycing over us in this land as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride the Lord hath changed the name of Scotland they call us now no more Forsaken nor Desolate but our land is called Heph Zibah Beislah Isa. 62 4 for the Lord delighteth in us this land is married to himself there is now an high way made through our Zion it is called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it the wayfaring men though fools shall not erre in it the wilderness doth rejoyce blossom as the rose the ransomed of the Lord are returned back unto Zion with songs everlasting joy up on their heads Isa. 35. The Canaanite is put out of our Lord's house there is not a beast left to doe hurt at least professedly in all the holy mountain of the Lord our Lord is fallen to wrestle with his enemies hath brought us out of Egypt we have the strength of an Unicorn Numb 23 22. The Lord hath eaten up the sons of Babel he hath broken their bones hath pierced them through with his arrows we take them captives whose captives we were we rule over our oppressors Isa 14 2. It is not brick nor clay nor Babel's cursed timber stones that is in our second temple but our Princely King â—esus is
of time be cloudy ye cannot but think your Lord can no more take your blood your band without the in-come reeompence of free grace hâ—…e would take the sufferings of Paul his other dear servants that were well paid home beyond all counting Rom. 8 18. If the wisdom of Christ hath made you Antichrist's eye-sore his envy ye are to thank God that such a piece of clay as ye are is made the field of glory to work upon it was the potter's aim that the clay should praise him I hope it satisfieth you that your clay is for his glory Oh who can suffer enough for such a Lord who can lay out in bank enough of pain shame losses tortures to receive in again the free interest of eternall glory 2 Cor. 4 17. O how advantagious a bargaining is it with such a rich Lord If your hand pen had been at leisure to gain glory in paper it had been but paper-glory but the bearing of a publike cross so long for the now controverted priviledges of the crown scepter of free King Jesus the Prince of the Kings of the earth is glory booked in heaven Worthy dear Erother if ye goe to weigh Jesus his sweetness excellency glory beauty say fore-against him your ounces or drams of Suffering for him ye shall be straitned two wayes 1. It will be a pain to make the comparison the disproportion being by no understanding imaginable nay if heaven's Arithmetick Angels were set to work they should never number the degrees of difference 2. It should straiten you to finde a scale for the ballance to lay that High Lofty One that overtranscending Prince of excellency into If your minde could fancy as many created heavens as time hath had minutes trees have had leaves clouds have had rain drops since the first stone of the creation was laid they should not make half a scale to bear weight boundless excellency it to And therefore the King whose marks ye are bearing whos 's dying ye carry about with you in your body is out of all cry consideration beyond above all our thoughts For my self I am content to feed upon wondering sometimes at the beholding but of the borders skirts of the incomparable glory which is in that exalted Prince I think ye could wiâ—h for more ears to give him then ye have since ye hope these ears ye now have give him shall be passages to take in the musick of his glorious voice I would fain both beleeve pray for a new Bride of Iews Gentiles to our Lord Jesus after the land of graven images shall be laid waste that our Lord Jesus is on horse-back hunting pursuing the beast that England Ireland shall be well sweeped chambers for Christ and his righteousness to dwell in for he hath opened our graves in Scotland the two dead buried witnesses are risen again are prophesying O that Princes would glory boast themselves in carrying the train of Christ's tobe royal in their arms Let me die within an half-hour after I have seen the Son of God his temple enlarged the cords of Iâ—rusalem's tent lengthned to take in a more numerous company for a Bride to the Son of God Oh if the corner or foundation-stone of that house that new house were laid above my grave O who can adde to him who is that great ALL If he would create suns moons new heavens thousand thousand degrees more perfect then these that now are again make a new creation ten thousand thousand degrees in perfection beyond that new creation again still for eternity multiplie new heavens they should never be a perfect resemblance of that infinite excellency order weight measure beauty sweetness that is in him O how little of him doe we see O how shallow are our thoughts of him Oh if I had pâ—in for him shame losses for him more clay spirits for him that I could goe upon earth without love desire hope because Christ hath taken away my love desire hope to heaven with him I know Worthy Sir your sufferings for him are your glory therefore weary not his salvation is near hand and shall not tarry Pray for me his grace be with you St Andrewes Nov. 22. 1639. Yours in his sweet Lorâ— Iesus S R. To Mr HENRY STUART his Wife two Daughters all Prisoners of Christ at Dublin Rev. 2 10. Fear none of these things which ye shall suffer c. 29. Truly Honoured Dearly beloved GRace mercy peace be to you from God our father our Lord Jesus Christ. Think it not strange beloved in our Lord Iesus that Satan can command keyes of prisons bolts chains this is a piece of the Devil's Princedom that he hath over the world interpret understand our Lord well in this be not jealous of his love though he make devils and men his under-servants to scour the rust off your faith purge you from your dross And let me charge you O prisoners of hope to open your window to look out by faith behold heavens post that speedy swift salvation of God that is coming to you it is a broad river that faith will not look over it is a mighty a broad sea that they of a lively hope cannot behold the furthest bank other shore thereof Look over the water your anchor is fixed within the vail the one end of the cable is about the prisoner of Christ the other is entred within the vail whither the forerunner is entred for you Heb. 6 19 20. It can goe straight thorow the flames of the fire of the wrath of men devils losses tortures death and not a threed of it be either singed or burnt men and devils have no teeth to bite it in two Hold fast till he come Your cross is of the colour of heaven Christ pasmented over with the faith comforts of the Lord 's faithfull Covenant with Scotland that dy colour will abide the foul weather neither be stained nor cast the colour yea it reflects a scad like the cross of Christ whose holy hands many a day lifted up to God praying for sinners were fettered and bound as if these blessed hands had stoln shed innocent blood When your lovely lovely Jesus had no better then the thief's doom it is no wonder that your process be lawless and turned upside down for he was taken fettered buffetted whipped spitted upon before he was convicted of any fault or sentenced Oh such a pair of sufferers and witnesses as high and royal Jesus and a poor piece guilty clay marrowed together under one yoke O how lovely is the cross with such a second I beleeve that your prison is enacted in God's court not to keep you till your hope breath out it's life last Your cross is under law
bonds blood sufferings are not committed to every ordinary professour Some that would back Christ honestly in summer-time would but spill the beauty of the Gospel if they were put to suffering And therefore let us beleeve that wisdom dispenseth to every one here as he thinks good who bears them up that bear the cross since our Lord hath put you to that part which was the flower of his own sufferings we all expect that as ye have in the strength of our Captain begun so ye will goe on without fainting Providence maketh use of men devils for the refining of all the vessels of God's house small great for doing of two works at once in you both for smothing of a stone to make it take bond with Christ in Ierusalem's wall for witnessing to the glory of this reproached born down Gospel which cannot die though hell were made a grave about it It shall be timous joy for you to divide joy betwixt you Christ's laughing Bride 〈◊〉 these three Kingdoms what if your mourning continue till mystical Christ in Ireland in Britain ye laugh both together your laughing joy were the more blessed that one sun should shine upon Christ the Gospel you laughing altogether in these three Kingdoms Your time is measured your dayes hours of suffering from eternity were by infinite wisdom considered If heaven recompense not to your own minde inches of sorrow then I must say that infinite mercy cannot get you pleased but if the first kiss of the white and ruddy cheek of the standard bearer and chief among ten thousand Cant. 5 10 shall over-pay your prison at Dublin in Ireland then ye shall have no counts unanswered to give in to Christ if your faith cannot see a nearer term-day yet let me charge your hope to give Christ a new day till eternity time meet in one point a payed summe if ever payed is payed if no day be broken to the hungry creditour take heaven's bond subscribed obligation for the summe Iohn 14. 3. If Hope can trust Christ I know he can will pay but when all is done suffered by you ten hundred deaths for lovely lovely Jesus is but eternitie's half penny figures ciphers cannot lay the proportion O but the super-plus of Christ's glory is broad large Christ's Item's of eternal glory are hard cumbersom to tell ifye borrow by faith hope ten dayes or ten hundred years from that eternity of glory that abides you ye are payed more in your own hand Therefore O prisoner of hope wait on posting hasting salvation sleeps not Antichrist is bleeding in the way to death he bites forest when he bleeds fastest Keep your intelligence betwixt you heaven your court with Christ he hath in heaven the keyes of your prison can set you at liberty when he pleaseth His rich grace support you I pray you help me with your prayers Grace be with you St Andrews 1640. Your brother in the patience Kingdom of Iesus Christ S. R. To Mr JAMES WILSON 31 Dear Brother GRace mercy peace be multiplied upon you I bless our rich onely wise Lord who careth so for his new creation that he is going over it again trying every piece in you blowing away the motes of his new work in you Alas I am not so fit a Physician as your disease requireth sweet sweet lovely Jesus be your Physician where his under-Chirurgians cannot doe any thing for putting in order the wheels paces goings of a marred soul. I have little time but yet the Lord hath made me so concern my self in your condition that I dow not I dare not be altogether silent First ye doubt from 2 Cor. 13 5. whether ye be in Christ or not so whether ye be a reprobate or not I answer three things to the doubt 1. Ye ow charity to all men but most of all to lovely loving Jesus some also to your self especiall to your renewed self because your new self is not yours but another Lord's even the work of his own Spirit therefore to slander his work is to wrong himself Love thinketh no evil if ye love Grace think not ill of Grace in your self and ye think ill of Grace in your self when ye make it but a bastard and a work of nature for a holy fear that ye be not Christ's and withall a care and a desire to be his not your own is not nay cannot be bastard nature The great Advocate pleadeth hard for you be upon the Advocate 's side O poor feared client of Christ stay side with such a lover who pleadeth for no other man's goods but his own for he if I may say so scorneth to be enriched with an unjust conquest and yet he pleadeth for you whereof your letter though too too full of jealousie is a proof for if ye were not his your thoughts which I hope are but the suggestion of his Spirit that onely bringeth the matter in debate to make it sure to you would not be such nor so serious as these am I his or whose am I 2. Dare ye forswear your owner and say in cold blood I am not his what nature or corruption saith at starts in you I regard not your thoughts of your self when sin and guiltiness round you in the ear and when ye have a sight of your deservings are Apocrypha and not Scripture I hope Hear what the Lord saith of you he will speak peace if your Master say I quite you I shall then bid you eat ashes for bread and drink waters of gall and wormwood But howbeit Christ out of his own mouth should seem to say I came not for thee as he did Matth. 15 24. yet let me say The words of tempting Jesus are not to be stretched as Scripture beyond his intention seeing his intention in speaking them is to strengthen not to deceive therefore here Faith may contradict what Christ seemeth at first to say and so may ye I charge you by the mercies of God be not that cruel to Grace and the new birth as to cast water on your own coal by misbelief If ye must die as I know ye shall not it were a folly to slay your self 3. I hope ye love the new birth a claim to Christ howbeit ye dow not make it good if ye were in hell saw the heavenly face of lovely ten thousand times lovely Iesus that hath God's hew and God's fair fair and comely red and white wherewith it is beautified beyond comparison and imagination ye could not forbear to say Oh! if I could but blow a kiss from my sinfull mouth from hell up to heayen upon his cheeks that are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers Cant. 5 13. I hope ye dare say O fairest sight of heaven O boundless mass of crucified slain love for me give
mercy cannot dry it up your troubles are many great yet not an ounce-weight beyond the measure of infinite wisdom I hope not beyond the measure of grace that he is to bestow for our Lord never yet brake the back of his childe nor spilt his own work nature's plastering counterfit work he doeth often break in sheards putteth out a candle not lighted at the Sun of righteousness but he must cherish his own reeds handle them softly never a reed getteth a thrust with the Mediator's hand to lay together the two ends of the reed O what bonds ligaments hath our Chirurgion of broken spirits to binde up all his lame bruised ones with cast your disjoynted spirit in his lap lay your burden upon one who is so willing to take your cares your fears off you to exchange niffer your crosses to give you new for old gold for iron even to give you garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness It 's true in a great part what ye write of this Kirk that the letter of Religion onely is reformed scarce that I doe not beleeve out Lord will build his Zion in this land upon this skin of Reformation so long as our scum remaineth our heart-idols are keeped this work must be at a stand and therefore our Lord must yet sift this land and search us with candles and I know he shall give and not sell us his Kingdom his Grace and our remaining guiltiness must be compared the one must be seen in the glory of it and the other in the sinfulness of it But I desire to beleeve and would gladly hope to see that the glancing and shining luster of glory coming from the diamonds and stones set in the crown of our Lord Jesus shall cast rayes and beams many thousand miles about I hope Christ is upon a great Marriage and that his wooing and suting of his excellent Bride doeth take it's beginning from us the ends of the earth O what joy and what glory would I judge it if my heaven should be suspended till I might have leave to run on foot to be a witness of that Marriage-glory see Christ put on the glory of his last married Bride and his last Marriage-love on earth when he shall enlarge his love-bed and set it upon the top of the mountains and take in the elder Sister the Iewes and the fulness of the Gentiles It were heaven's honour glory upon earth to be his lackey to run at his horse-foot and hold up the train of his Marriage-roberoyal in the day of our high aâ—d royal Solomon's espousals But O what glory to have a seat or â—eâ— in King Iesus his chariot that is bottomed with gold paved and lined over and floored within with Love fâ— the daughters of Ierusalem Cant. 3. 10. To lie upon such a King's love were a bed next to the flower of heaven's glory I am sorry to hear you speak in your Letter of a God anâ—ry at you and of the sense of his indignation which onely ariseth from suffering for Jesus all that is now come upon you Indeed apprehended wrath flameth out of such ashes as apprehended sin but not from suffering for Christ But suppose ye were in hell for by-gones and for old debt I hope ye ow Christ a great summe of charity to beleeve the sweetness of his love I know what it is to sin in that kinde it is to sin our if it were possible the unchangeableness of a Godhead out of Christ to sin away a lovely unchangeable God Put more honest apprehensions upon Christ put on his own mask upon his face and not your vail made of unbelief which speaketh as if he borrowed love to you from you and your demerits sinfull deservings Oh no! Christ is man but he is not like man he hath man's love in heaven but it is lustered with God's love it is very God's love ye have to doe with When your wheels goe about he standeth still Let God be God and be ye a man and have ye the deserving of man the sin of one who hath suffered your Welbeloved to slip away nay hath refused him entrance when he was knocking till his head and locks were frozen Yet what is that to him his book keepeth your name and is not printed and reprinted and changed and corrected And why but he should goe to his place hide himself Howbeit his Departure be his own good work yet the belief of it in that manner is your sin But wait on till he return with Salvation and cause you rejoyce in the latter end It is not much to complain but rather beleeve then complain and sit in the dust and close your mouth till he make your sown light grow again for your afflictions are not eternal Time will end them so shall ye at length see the Lord's salvation his love sleepeth not but is still in working for you his Salvation will not tarry nor linger Suffering for him is the noblest cross that is out of heaven Your Lord had the waile choice of ten thousand other crosses beside this to exercise you withall but his wisdom his love wailed and choosed out this for you beside them all take it as a choice one make use of it so as ye look to this world as your step-mother in your borrowed prison For it is a love-look to heaven and the other side of the water that God seeketh this is the fruit the flower bloom growing out of your cross that ye be a dead man to time to clay to gold to countrey to friends wife children all pieces of created nothings for in them there is not a seat nor bottom for your soul's love O what room is for your Love if it were as broad as the sea up in heaven and in God! and what would not Christ give for your love God gave so much for your soul blessed are ye if ye have a love for him can call in your soul's love from all idols and can make a God of God a God of Christ draw a line betwixt your heart and him If your deliverance come not Christ's presence and his beleeved love must stand as caution and surety for your deliverance till your Lord send it in his blessed time for Christ hath many Salvations if we could see them and I would think it better born comfort and joy that cometh from the faith of deliverance and the faith of his love then that which cometh from deliverance it self It is not much matter if ye finde ease to your afflicted soul what be the means either of your own wishing or of God's choosing the latter I am sure is best and the comfort strongest and sweetest let the Lord absolutely have the ordering of your evils troubles and put them off you by recommending your cross and your furnace to him
in heaven in Christ's lap And as he was lent a while to Time so is he given now to Eternity which will take yourself And the difference of your shipping his to heaven Christ's shore the land of life is onely in some few years which weareth every day shorter some short soon-reckoned summers will give you a meeting with him but what with him â—â—y with better company with the chief leader of the heavenly troups that are riding on white horses that are triumphing in glory If Death were a sleep that had no wakening we might sorrow But our Husband shall quickly be at the bed-sides of all that lie sleeping in the grave shall raise their mortal bodies Christ was Death's Cautioner who gave his word to come loose all the clay-pawnes set them at his own right hand our Cautioner Christ hath an Act of Law-surety upon Death to render back his captives And that Lord Jesus who knoweth the turnings windings that is in that black trance of Death hath numbered all the steps of the stair up to heaven he knoweth how long the turnpike is or how many pair of stairs high it is for he ascended that way himself Rev. 1 18. I was dead am alive now he liveth at the right hand of God and his garments have not so much as a smell of death Your afflictions smell of the childrens case the bairns of the house are so nurtured Suffering is no new life it is but the rent of the sons bastards have not so much of the rent take kindly heartsomly with his cross who never yet slew a ehilde with the cross He breweth your cup therefore drink it patiently with the better will Stay wait on till Christ loose the knot that fasteneth his cross on your back for he is coming to deliver I pray you Sister learn to be worthy of his pains who correcteth let him wring be ye waâ—hen for he hath a father's heart a father's hand who is training you up making you meet for the high hall This School of Suffering is a preparation for the King 's higher house let all your visitations speak all the letters of your Lord summonds they cry 1. O vain World 2. O bitter Sin 3 O short uncertain Time 4. O fair Eternity that is above sickness Death 5. O Kingly Princely Bridegroom Hasten Glorie's Marriage shorten Time's short-spun soon-broken threed conquer Sin 6. O happy blessed Death that golden bridge laid over by Christ my Lord betwixt Time's clay-banks heaven's shore the Spirit the Bride say Come answer ye with them Even so come Lord â—esus Come quickly Grace be with you St Andrews Octob. 15. 1640. Your brother in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To Mr MATHEW MOWAT 39 Reverend dear Brother WHat am I to answer you Alas my books are all bare shew me little of God I would fain goe beyond books in to his house of love to see himself Dear Brother neither ye nor I are parties worthy of his love or knowledge Ah! how hath sin bemisted blinded us that we cannot see him But for my poor sâ—lf I am pained like to burst because he will not take down the wall fetch hiâ— uncreated beauty bring his matchless white ruddy face out of heaven one's errand that I may have heaven meeting me ere I goe to it in such a wonderfull sight ye know that Majesty Love doe humble because homely love to sinners dwelleth in him with Majesty Ye should give him all his own court-stiles his high heaven-names What am I to shape conceptions of my highest Lord How broad how high how deep he is above beyond what these conceptions are I cannot tell but for my own weak practice which alas can be no rule to one so deep in love-sickness with Christ as ye are I would fain adde to my thoughts esteem of him make him more high would wish an heart love ten thousand times wider then the outmost circle curtain that goeth about the heaven of heavens to entertain him in that heart with that love But that which is your pain my dear Brother is mine also I am confounded with the thoughts of him I know God is casten if I may speak so in a sweet mould lovely image in the person of that heaven's jewel the man Christ that the steps of that steep ascentâ— stair to the Godhead is the flesh of Christ the new living way there is footing for faith in that curious Ark of the humanity therein dwelleth the Godhead married upon our Humanity I would be in heaven suppose I had not another errand but to see that dainty golden Ark God personally looking out at ears eyes a body such as we sinners have that I might wear my sinfull mouth in kisses on him for evermore I know all the Three blessed Persons should be well pleased that my piece of faint created love should first coast upon the man Christ I should see them all through him I am called from writing by my great imployments in this town have said nothing but what can I say of him Let us goe see St Andrews 1640. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 40 MADAM GRace mercy peace be to your La I am heartily sorry that your La is deprived of such an husband the Lord's Kirk of so active faithfull a friend I know your La long agoe made acquaintance with that wherein Christ will have you joyned in a fellowship with himself even with his own Cross hath taught you to stay your soul upon the Lord's goodwill who giveth not account of his matters to any of us When he hath led you through this water that was in your way to glory there are fewer behinde his order in dismissing us sending us out of the market one before another is to be reverenced One year's time of heaven shall swallow up all sorrows even beyond all comparison What then will not a duration of blessedness so long as God shall live fully and abundantly recompense It is good that our Lord hath given a debter obliged by gracious promises for more in Eternity then Time can take from you I beleeve your La hath been now many years advising thinking what that Glory will be which is abiding the pilgrims strangers on the earth when they come home which we may think of love thirst for but we cannot comprehend it nor conceive of it as it is far less can we over-think or over-love it O so long a Chapter or rather so large a Volume as Christ is in that Divinity of Glory There is no more of him let down now to be seen enjoyed by his children but as much as may feed hunger in
this life but not satisfie it Your La is a debter to the Son of God's Cross that is weaâ—ing out love and affiance in the creature out of your heart by degrees or rather the obligation standeth to his free grace who careth for your La in this gracious dispensation and who is preparing making ready the garments of Salvation for you who calleth you with a new name that the mouth of the Lord hath named purposeth to make you a crown of glory a royal diadem in the hand of your God Isa. 62. 2. 3. Ye are obliged to frist him more then one heaven yet he craveth not a long day it is fast coming is sure payment though ye gave no hire for him yet hath he given a great price ransom for you if the bargain were to make again Christ would give no less for you then what he hath already given he is far from ruing I shall wish you no more till Time be gone out of the way then the earnest of that which he hath purchased prepared for you which can never be fully preached written or thought of since it hath not entered into the heart to consider it So recommending your La to the rich grace of our Lord Jesus I am rests St Andrews Your La at all respective observance in Christ Iesus S R. To Mistress TAYLOR 41 MISTRESS GRace mercy peace be to you Though I have no relation worldly or acquaintance with you yet upon the testimony importunity of your Elder son now at London where I am but chiefily because I esteem Jesus Christ in you to be in place of all relations I make bold in Christ to speak my poor thoughts to you concerning your Son lately fallen asleep in the Lord who was some time under the ministery of the worthy servant of Christ my fellow-labourer Mr Blair and by whose ministery I hope he reaped no small advantage I know grace rooteth not out the affections of a mother but putteth them on his wheel who maketh all things new that they may be refined therefore sorrow for a dead childe is allowed to you though by measure ounce-weights the redeemed of the Lord have not a dominion or Lordship over their sorrow other affections to lavish out Christ's goods at their pleasure for ye are not your own but bought with a price your sorrow is not your own nor hath he redeemed you by halves therefore ye are not to make Christ's cross no cross He commandeth you to weep that Princely one who took up to heaven with him a man's heart to be a compassionat high priest became your fellow companion on earth by weeping for the dead Ioh. 11 35. And therefore ye are to love that cross because it was once on Christ's shoulders before you so that by his own practice he hath overguilded and covered your cross with the Mediator's lustre The cup ye drink was at the lip of sweet Jesus he drank of it so it hath a smell of his breath And I conceive ye love it not the worse that it is thus sugared therefore drink beleeve the resurrection of your Son's body If one coal of hell could fall off the exalted head Iesus Jesus the Prince of the Kings of the earth burn me to ashes knowing I were a partner with Christ a fellow-sharer with him though the unworthiest of men I think I should die a lovely death in that fire with him The worst things of Christ even his cross have much of heaven from himself so hath your Christian sorrow being of kin to Christ's in that kinde If your sorrow were a Bastard not of Christ's house because of the relation ye have to him in conformity with his death sufferings I should the more compassionat your condition but kinde compassionat Jesus at every sigh ye give for the loss of your now-glorified childe so I beleeve as is meet with a man's heart cryeth halfe mine I was not a witness to his death being called out or the Kingdom but ye shall credit these whom I doe credit I dare not lye he died comfortably It is true he died before he did so much service to Christ on earth as I hope heartily desire your Son Mr Hugh very dear to me in Jesus Christ shall doe But that were a reall matter of sorrow if this were not to counterballance it that he hath changed service-houses but hath not changed services or master Rev. 22 3. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God of the Lamb shall be in it his servants shall serve him What he could have don in this lower house he is now upon that same service in the higher house it is all one it is the same service the same Master onely there is a change of conditions And ye are not to think it a bad bargain for your beloved son where he hath gold for copper brass Eternity for Time I beleeve Christ hath taught you for I give credit to such a witness of you as your Son Mr Hugh not to sorrow because he died All the knot must be he died too soon he died too young he died in the morning of his life this is all but soveraignity must silence your thoughts I was in your condition I had but two children both are dead since I came hither The supream and absolut former of all things giveth not an account of any of his matters The good husband-man may pluck his roses gather in his lilies at midsummer for ought I dare say in the beginning of the first summer-moneth he may transplant young trees out of the lower-ground to the higher where they may have more of the sun a more free air at any season of the year what is that to you or me The goods are his own The Creator of time winds did a mercifull injurie if I dare borrow the word to nature in landing the passenger so early They love the sea too well who complain of a fair wind a desirable tide and a speedy coming ashore especially a coming ashore in that land where all the inhabitants have everlasting joy upon their heads He cannot be too earely in heaven His twelve hours were not short hours And withall if ye consider this had ye been at his bed-side and should have seen Christ coming to him ye would not ye could not have adjourned Christ's free love who would want him no longer And dying in an other land where his mother could not close his eyes is not much who closed Mose's eyes And who put on his winding-sheet For ought I know neither father nor mother nor friend but God onely And there is as expedite fair easie a way betwixt Scotland heaven as if he had died in the very bed he was born in The whole earth is his father's Any corner of his
father's house is good enough to die in It may be the living childe I speak not of Mr. Hugh is more grief to you then the dead Ye are to wait on if at any time God shall give him repentance Christ waited as long possibly on you me certainly longer on me if he should deny repentance to him I could say some thing to that but I hope better things of him It seemeth that Christ will have this world your step-dame I love not your condition the woâ—se it may be a proof that ye are not a childe of this lower house but a stranger Christ seeth it not good onely but your onely good to be lead thus to heaven think this a favour that he hath bestowed upon you Free free grace that is mercy without hire ye paid nothing for it And who can put a price upon any thing of Royal and Princely Jesus Christ And that God hath given to you to suffer for him the spoiling of your goods esteem it as an act of free grace also Ye are no loser having himself And I perswade my self if ye could prize Christ nothing could be bitter to you Grace grace be with you London 1645. Your Brother Well-wisher S. R. To BARBARA HAMILTON 42 Worthy Friend GRace be to you I doe unwillingly write unto you of that which God hath done concerning your son in law onely I beleeve ye look not below Christ and the higest and most supream act of providence which moveth all wheels And certainly what came down enacted concluded in the great book before the throne signed subscribed with the hand which never did wrong should be kissed adored by us we see God's decrees when they bring forth their fruits all actions good ill sweet sowre in their time But we see not presently the after-birth of God's decree to wit his blessed end the good that he bringeth out of the womb of his holy spotless counsel we see his working we sorrow The end of his counsel working lieth hidden underneath the ground therefore we cannot beleeve Even amongst men we see hewen stones timber an hundred scattered parcels pieces of an house all under-tools hammers axes saws yet the house the beauty ease of so many lodgings ease-rooms we neither see nor understand for the present these are but in the minde head of the builder as yet wee see red earth unbroken clods furrows stones but we see not summer-lilies roses the beauty of a garden If ye give the Lord time to work as often he that beleeveth not maketh haste but not speed his end is under the ground ye shall see it was your good that your Son hath changed dwelling-places but not his Master Christ thought good to have no more of his service here yet Rev. 22 3. His servants shall serve him He needeth not us or our service either in earth or in heaven But ye are to look to him who giveth the hireling both his leave his wages for his naked aim purpose to serve Christ as well as for his labours It is put up in Christ's account such a labourer did sweat fourty years in Christ's vineyard howbeit he got not leave to labour so long because he who accepteth of the will for the deed counteth so None can teach the Lord to lay an account He numbereth the drop of rain knoweth the stars by their names It would take us much studying to give a name to every star in the firmament great or small See Lev. 13 13. And Aaron held his peace Ye know his two Sons were â—â—ain whilst they offered strange fire to the Lord Command your thoughts to be silent If the souldiers of Newcasile had done this ye might have stomacked but the weapon wa in another hand Hear the rod what it preacheth see the name of God Mâ—… 6. 9. And know that there is somewhat of God Heaven in the â—od The Majesty of the unsearchable bottomless wayes judgements of God is not seen in the rod the seeing of them râ—quireth the eyes of the man of wisdom If the sufferings of some other with you in that loss could ease you ye want them not But He can doe no wrong he cannot halt his goings are equal who hath done it I know our Lord aimeth at more mortification let him not come in vain to your house lose the pâ—ins of a mercifull visite God the founder never melteth in vain howbeit to us he seemeth often to lose both fire mettall But I know yeare more in this work then I can be There is no cause to faint or weary Grace be with you the rich consolations of Jesus Christ sweeten your cross support you under it I rest London Octob. 15. 1645. Yours in his Lord Master S. R. To Misâ—ress HUME 43. Loving Sister GRace mercy peace be to you If ye have any thing better then the husband of your youth ye are Jesus Christ's deâ—ter for it Pay not then your debts with grudging Sorrow may diminish from the sweet fruit of righteousness but quietness silence submission faith put a crown upon your sad losses ye know whose voice the voice of a crying rod is Micah 6. 9. The name majesty of the Lord is written on the rod read be instructed Let Christ have the room of the husband he hath now no need of you or of your love for he enjoyeth asmuch of the love of Christ as his heart can be capable of I confess it is a dear-bought experience to teach you to undervalue the creature yet it is not too dear if Christ think it so I know that the disputing of your thoughts against his going thither the way manner of his death the instruments the place the time will not ease your spirit except ye rise higher then second causes be silent because the Lord hath done it If we measure the goings of the Almighty his wayes the bottom whereof we see not we quite mistake God O how little a portion of God see we He is far above our ebbe narrow thoughts He ruled the world in wisdom ere we creatures of yesterday were born shall rule it when we shall be lodging beside the worms corruption Onely learn heavenly wisdom self-deniall mortification by this sad loss I know that it is not for nothing except ye deny God to be wise in all he doeth that ye have loâ— one in earth There hath been too little of your love heart in heaven therefore the jealousie of Christ hath done this It is a mercy that he contendeth with you all your lovers I should dâ—sire no greater savour for my self then that Christ laid a necessity took on such bonds upon himself Such an one I must have such a soul I cannot live in heaven without Ioh. 10. 16. And beleeve it it
to glory though their spirits having the advantage of yours have had now the fore-start of the shore before you I dare say nothing against his dispensation I hope to follow quickly The heirs that are not there before you are posting with haste after you none shall take your lodging over your head Be not heavy the life of faith is now called for doing was never reckoned in your accounts though Christ in by you hath done more then by twenty yea an hundred gray-haired godly Pastors beleeving now is your last Look to that word Gal. 2 v. 20. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Ye know the I that liveth the I that liveth not It is not single Ye that liveth Christ by law liveth in the broken debter It is not a life by doing or holy walking but the living of Christ in you If ye look to your self as divided from Christ ye must be more then heavy All your wants dear Brother be upon him ye are his debter Grace must summe subscribe your accounts as paid stand not upon Items small or little Sanctification ye know inherent Holiness must stand by when imputed is all I fear the clay-house is a-taking down undermining but it is nigh the dawning look to the East the dawning of glory is near your Guide is good company knoweth all the miles the up's down's in the way the nearer the morning the darker Some traveller seeth the city 20 miles off at a distance yet within the eight part of a mile he cannot see it It is all keeping that ye would now have till ye need it if sense fruition come both at once it is not your loss let Christ tutour you as he thinks good ye cannot be marred nor miscarry in his hand Want is an excellent qualification no money no price to you who I know dare not glory in your own righteousness is ritness warrantable enough to cast your self upon him who justifieth the ungodly Some see the gold once never again till the race's end it is coming all in a summe together when ye are in a more gracious capacity to tell it then now Ye are not come to the mount that burneth with fire nor unto blackness darkness tempest but ye are come to mount Zion unto the city of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly Church of the first-born which are written in heaven to God the Iudge of all the Spirits of just men made perfect to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant to the blood of sprinkling c. Ye must leave the wife to a more choice husband the children to a better father If ye leave any testimony to the Lord's work Covenant against both Malignants Sectaries which I suppose may be needfull let it be under your hand subscribed before faithfull witnesses St Andrews Sept. 27. 1648. Your loving afflicted Brother S. R. To Mistress GILLESPIE 56 Dear Sister I have heard how the Lord hath visited you in removing the childe Archibald I hope ye see the setting down of the weight of your confidence affection upon any created thing whether husband or childe is a deceiving thing that the Creature is not able to bear your weight but sinketh down to very nothing under your confidence and therefore ye are Christ's debter for all providences of this kinde even in that he buildeth an hedge of thorns in your way for so ye see his gracious intention is to save you If I may say so whether ye will or not It is a rich mercy that the Lord Christ will be Master of your will and of all your delights and that his way is so fair for the landing of husband children before-hand in the countrey wherherto ye are journeying No matter how little ye be ingaged to the world since ye have such experience of cross-dealing in it had ye been a childe of the house the world would have dealt more warmly with it's own there is less of you out of heaven that the childe is there and the husband is there but much more that your Head and Kinsman Redeemer doeth fetch home such as are in danger to be lost from this time forward fetch not your comforts from such broken cisterns dry wells if the Lord pull at the rest ye must not be the creature that shall hold when he draweth Truly to me your case is more comfortable then if the fire-side were well plenished with ten children the Lord saw ye was able by his grace to bear the loss of husband and childe that ye are that weak and tender as not to be able to stand under the mercy of a gracious husband living flourishing in esteem with Authority and in reputation for Godliness and Learning for he knoweth the weight of these mercies would crush you and break you and a there is no searching out of his understanding so he hath skill to know what providence will make Christ dearest to you and let not your heart say it is an ill waâ—led dispensation sure Christ who hath seven eyes had before him the good of a living husband and children for Margaret Murray the good of a removed husband and children translated to gloâ—y now he hath opened his decree to you say Christ hath made for me a wise and gracious choice and I have not one word to say on the contrary Let not your heart charge any thing or Unbeleef libell injuries upon Christ because he will not let you alone nor give you leave to play the idolatress with such as have not that right to your love that Christ hath I should wish at the reading of this that ye may fall down and make a surrender of these that are gone and these that are yet alive to him and for you let him have all and wait for himself for he will come will not tarry live by faith and the peace of God guard your heart he cannot die whose ye are My wife suffers with you remembreth her love to you St Andrews August 14. 1649 Your brother in Christ S. R. To the worthy much honoured Collonel G. KER 57 Much honoured truely worthy I hope I shall not need to shew you that ye are in greater hazard from yourself and your own spirit which would be watched over that your actings for God may be clean spirituall purely for God for the Prince of the Kings of the earth then ye can be in danger from your enemies O how hard is it to get the intentions so cut off from and raised above the creature as to be without mixture of creature and carnall-interests to have the soul in heavenly actings onely onely eveing himself and acting from love to God revealed to us in Jesus Christ Ye will finde your self your delights your solid
glory far above the air breathings of mouths the thin short poor applauses of men before you in God All the creatures all the swords all the hosts in Britain and in this poor glob of the habitable world are but under him single ciphers making no number the product being nothing but painted men painted swords in a brod without influence from him And O what of God is in Gideon's sword when it is the sword of the Lord I wish a sword from heaven to you orders from heaven to you to goe out as much peremptorinesse of a heavenly will as to say abide by it I will not I shall not goe out except thou goe with me I desire not to be rash in judging but I am a stranger to the minde of Christ If our Adversaries who have unjustly invaded us be not now in the camp of these that make war with the Lamb but the lamb shall overcome them at length for he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings they who are with him are called chosen faithfull though ye I see but the dark side of God's dispensations this day towards Britain yet the fair beautifull desireable close of it must be the confederacie of the nations of the world with Britain's Lord of Armies let me die in the coÌ„forts of the faith of â—â—i that a throne shall be set up for Christ in this Island of great Britain which is shall be a garden more fruitfull of trees of righteousness payeth shall pay moe thousands to the Lord of the vineyard then is paid in thrice the bounds of great Britain upon the earth And then there can be neither Papist Prelate Cavalâ—er Malignant nor Sectarie who dare draw a sword against him that sitteth upon the throne Sir I shall wish a clean Army so far as may be that the shout of a King who hath many crowns may be among you that ye may fight in faith and prevail with God first Think it your glory to have a sword to act suffer and die if it please him so being ye may adde any thing to the declarative glory of Christ the plant of renown Immanuel God with us Happy thrice blessed are they by whose actings or blood or pain or loss the diadems rubies of his highest glorious crown whose ye are shall gliâ—ter and shine in this quarter of the habitable world Though he need not Gilbert Ker nor his sword yet this honour have ye with his redeemed souldiers to call Christ High Lord General of whom ye hope for pay and all areers well told Goe on worthy Sir in the courage of faith following the Lamb make not haste unbeleevingly but in hope silence keep the watch tower look out he will come in his own time his salvation shall not tarry he shall place salvation in Britain's Zion for Israel his glory His good will who dwelt in the bush it burnt not be yours with you I am St Andrews August 10. 1650. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S R. To the worthy much honoured Collonel G. KER 58 Much honoured worthy Sir WHat I wrote to you before I spake not upon any private warrant I am where I was Cromwell and his I shall not say but there may be are severall sober godly amongst them who have either joyned through misinformation or have gone alongst with the rest in the simplicitie of their hearts not knowing any thing fight in an unjust cause against the Lord's secret ones now to the trampling of the worship of God persecuting the people of God in England Ireland he hath brought upon his score the blood of the people of God in Scotland I intreat you Dear Sir as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ whose free grace prevented you when ye were his enemy goe on without fainting equally eschewing all mixture with Sectaries Malignants neither of the two shall ever be instrumentall to save the Lords people or build his house And without prophesying or speaking further then he whose I am whom I desire to serve in the Gospel of his son shall warrant I desire to hope doe beleeve there is a glory a majesty of the Prince of the Kings of the earth that shall shine appear in great Britain which shall Darken all the glory of men confound Sectaries Malignants rejoyce the spirits of the followers of the Lamb dazle the eyes of beholders Sir I suppose that God is to gather Malignants Sectaries ere all be done as sheaves in a barn-floor to bid the Daughter of Zion arise thresh I hope ye will mix with none of them I am aboundantly satisfied that our Armie through the sinfull miscarriage of men hath fallen dare say it is a better a more comfortable dispensation then if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God because he hath done it For. 1. More blood blasphemies cruelty treachery must be upon the accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade 2. Victory is such a burdening weighty mercy that we have not strength to bear it as yet 3. That was not the Army nor Gideon's three hinderth by whom he is to save us We must have one of the Lord's carving 4. Our enimies on both sides are not enough hardned nor we enough mortified to multitude valour Creatures Grace grace be with you St Andrews Sept. 5. 1650. Your friend servant in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To the worthy much honoured Collonel G. KER 59 Much honoured worthy Sir IT is considerable that the Lord may often doeth call to a work yet hide himself try the faith of his own If I conceive aright the Lord hath called you to act against that enemy the withdrawers of their sword in my weak apprehension adde their seale unto take upon them the guilt of that unjust invasion of this Land made by Cromwel's Army of the blood of the Lord's people in this Kingdom since the sword put into the hand of his Children is to execute wrath vengeance upon evil doers the Lord's time of appearing for his broken Land is reserved to the breathings of the Spirit of the Lord such as came upon Gideon Sampson that is an Act of princely royal soveraignity in God Ye are Sir to lay hold on opportunities of providence to wait for him As for your parcular treating by your selves with the invaders of our land I have no minde to it doe look upon their way as a carriyng on of the mystery of iniquity for Babylon is a seat of many names Sir let this controversie stand undecided till the second appearance of Jesus Christ our Appeal lye before the throne undiscussed till that day I hope to lie down in
long day without cloud or night dawn The Spirit the Bride say Coâ—… O when shall the Lamb's wife be ready and the Bridegroom say Come Worthy Sir I minde you to the hearer of prayer O help me in that kind The Spirit of Jesus be with your Spirit S. Andrews May. 14. 1651. Yours in his onely onely Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 63 MADAM GRaceâ— mercy peace be to you We are fallen in winâ—owing trying times I am glad that your breath serveth you to run to the end in the same condition way wherein ye have walked these twenty years past It is either the way of peace or we are yet in our sins have missed the way the Lord it's true hath stained the pride of all our glory now last of all the sun hath gone down upon many of the Prophets but stumble not men are men God appeareth more more to be God Christ it still Christ. Madam stronger then I am had almost stumbled me cast me down But O what mercy is it to discern betwixt what is Christ's what is man's what way the hew colour lustre of gifts grace dazle deceive our weak eyes Oh to be dead to all things that are below Christ were it even a created heaven created grace Holiness is not Christ nor are the blossoms flowers of the tree of life the tree it self Men creatures may winde themselves in between us Christ therefore the Lord hath done much to take out of the way all betwixt him and us There are not in our way now Kings or Armies or Nobles or Judicatories or strong holds or watchmen or godly professours The fairest things most eminent in Britain are stained and have lost their lustre Onely onely Christ keeps his greenness beauty remaineth what he was Oh! If he were more more ezcellent to our apprehensions then ever he was whose excellency is above all apprehensions still more more sweet to our taste I care for nothing if so be I were nearer to him yet he flyeth not from me I flee from him but he pursueth I hear your La hath the same esteeÌ„ of the despised cause Covenant of our Lord ye had before Madam hold you there I dare would gladly breath out my spirit in that way with a nearer communion fellowship with the Father the Son would seek no more but that I might die beleeving And also I would hope that the earth shall not cover the blood of the Godly slain in Scotland but that the Lord will make inquisition for their blood when the sufferings of the saints in these lands shall be fulfilled The goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush be with you Glasgow Sept 28. 1651. Your La at all observance in the Lord Iesus S. R To my Lady KENMURE 64. MADAM GRace mercy peace be to you I know ye think of an out-going that your quartering in Time and your abode in this life is short for we flee away as a shadow the declining of the Sun the lengthning of the shadow saith our journey is short near the end I speak it because I have warnings of my removal Madam I know not any against whom the Lord is not for he is against the proud and lofty the day of the Lord is upon all the Cedars upon all the high mountains upon every high tower and upon every fenced wall upon all the ships of Tarshish upon all pleasant pictures I know not any thing comparable to a nearness spirituall communion with the Father the Son Christ there is much deadnes witheredness upon many spirits sometimes near to God and I wish the Lord have not more to say to doe against the Land Ye have Madam in your accounts mercies deliverances rods warnings plenty of means consolations when refuge failed you when ye looked on the right hand behold no man would know you nor care for your soul when young weak manifestations of God the out-goings of the Lord for you experiences answers from the Lord by all which ye may be comforted now confirmed in the certain hope that Grace free Grace in a fixed established Surety shall perfect that good work in you happy they who see not yet beleeve Grace grace eternally in our Lord Jesus be with you Edinburgh May. 27. 1653. Yours in the Lord Iesus S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 65 MADAM I have been so long silent that I am almost ashamed now to speak I hear of your weakly condition of body which speaketh some warning to you to look for a longer life where ye shall have more leisure to praise then Time can give you here it shall be a loss to many but sure your self Madam shall he onely free of any loss And truly considering what dayes we are now fallen into if failing were not serving of the Lord which I can hardly attain a calm harbour were very good when storms are so high The fore-runner who hath landed first must help to bring the sea-beaten vessel safe to the port the sick passengers who are following the fore-runner safe a-shore Much deadness prevaileâ—…h over some but there is much life in him who is the resurrection and tho life to quicken O what of our hid life is without us how little poor a stock is in the hand of some The onely wise God supply what is wanting the more ye want the more your joy hath run on the more is owing to you by the promise of Grace by gons of waterings from heaven which your La wanted in Kenmure Rusco the West Clasgow Edinburgh England etc. Shall all come in a great summe together the marriage-supper of the Lamb must not be marred with too large a fourhours-refreshment Know Madam he who hath tutoured you from the breasts knoweth how to time his own day-shinings love-visits Grace that runs on be with you St. Andrews Yours in the Lord at all observance S. R. To my Lady KENMURE 66 MADAM I Confess I have cause to be grieved at my long silence or Laziness in writing I am also afflicted to hear that such who were debters to your La for better dealing have served you with such prevarication Ye know crookedness is neither strong nor long-enduring ye know likewise that these things spring not out of the dust It 's sweet to look upon the lawless sinfull stirrings of the creatures as ordered by a most holy hand in heaven O if some could make peace with God! It would be our wisdom afford us much sweet peace if oppressours were looked upon as passive instruments like the saw or ax in the Carpenters hand they are bidden if such a distinction may be admitted but not commanded of God as Shimei was 2. Sam. 16 10. to doe what they doe Madam these many years the Lord hath been teaching
Saviour by your compearance before the Judge of quick dead to stand for Christ and to back him Oh if the Nobles had done their part been zealous for the Lord it had not been as it is now but men think it wisdom to stand beside Christ till his head be broken sing dumb there is a time coming when Christ will have a thick court he will be the glory of Scotland he shall make a diadem a garland a seal upon his heart a ring on his finger of these who have avouched him before this faithlesse generation Howbeit ere that come wrath from the Lord is ordained for this land My Lord I have cause to write this to your Lo for I dare not conceal his kindness to the soul of an afflicted exiled prisoner Who hath more cause to boast in the Lord then such a sinner as I Who am feasted with the consolations of Christ have no pain in my sufferings but the pain of soul-sickness of love for Christ sorrow that I cannot get help to sound aloud the high praises of him who hath heard the fighing of the prisoner is content to lay the head of his oppressed servant in his bosome under his chinne let him feel the smell of his garments This I behooved to write that your Lo might know Christ is as good as he is called to testifie to your Lo the cause your Lo now professeth before this faithless world is Christ's your Lo shall have no shame of it Grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Your Lo obliged Servant S. R. To the much honoured JOHN OSBURN Provest of Ayr. 43 Much honoured Sir GRrace mercy peace be to you Upon our small acquaintance the good report I hear of you I could not but write to you I have nothing to say but Christ in that honourable place lie hath put you in hath intrusted you with a dear pledge which is his own glory hath armed you with his sword to keep the pledge make a good account of it to God Be not affraid of me Your master can mowe down his enemies make with red hay of fair flowers your time will not be long after your after 〈…〉 will come your evening after evening night serve Christ back him lethis cause be your cause give not an hair breadth of 〈◊〉 away for it is not yours but God's then since ye are going take Christ's tâ—â—tiâ—cat with you out of this life Well done good faithfull servant His well done is worth a shipfull of Good-dayes earthly honours I have cause to say this because I finde him truth it self In my sad dayes Christ laugheth cheerfully saith All will be well Would to God all this Kingdom ye all that know God knew what is betwixt me Christ in this prison what kisses embracements love-communings I take his cross in my armes with joy I blesse it I rejoyce in it suffering for Christ is my garland I would not exchange Christ for ten thousand worlds nay if the comparison could stand I would not exchange Christ with heaven Sir pray for me the prayers blessing of a prisoner of Christ meet you in all your straits Grace be with you Aberd. March 14. 1637. Yours in Christ Iesus his Lord. S. R. To ROBERT GORDON Bailiffe of Ayr. 44 Worthy Sir GRace mercy peace be to you I long to hear from you in paper Remember your Chief's speeches on his death-bed I pray your Sir sell all buy the pearle time will cut you from this world's glory Look what will doe you good when your glasse shall be run out let Christ's love bear most court in your soul that court will bear down the love of other things Christ seeketh your help in your place give him your hand Who hath more cause to encourage others to own Christ then I have for he hath made me sick of love leâ—t me in pain to wrestle with his love love is like to fall a swoon through his absence I mean not that he deserteth me or that I am ebbe of comforts but this is an uncouth pain Oh that I had a heart a love to render to him back again O if principalities powers thrones dominions all the world would help me to praise Praise him in my behalf Remember my love to your wife I thank you most kindly for your love to my brother Grace be with you Aberd. March 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R. To JOHN KENNEDY Bailiffe of Ayr. 45 GRace mercy and peace be unto you Your nor writing to me cannot binde me up from remembring you now then that at least ye may be a witness a third man to behold in paper what is betwixt Christ me I was in his eyes like a young Orphan wanting known parents casten out in the open fields either Christ behooved to take me up to bring me home to his house and fire-side else I had dyed in the fields now I am homly with Christ's love so that I think the house mine own the master of the house mine also Christ enquired not when he began to love me whether I was fair or black sun-burnt love taketh what it may have He loved me before this time I know but now I have the flower of his love his love is come to a fair bloom like a young rose opened up out of the green leaves it casteth a strong fragrant smell I want nothing but wayes of expressing Christ's love A full vessel would have a vent O if I could smoke out cast out coales to make a fire in many brests of this land Oh it is a pity that there were not many imprisoned for Christ for no other purpose but to write books love-songs of the love of Christ. This love would keep all created tongues of men Angels in exercise busie night day to speak of it Alas I can speak nothing of it but wonder at three things in his love First Freedome O that lumps of sin should get such love for nothing Secondly The Sweetness of his love I give over either to speak or write of it but these that feel it may better bear witness What it is but it is so sweet that next to Christ himself nothing can match it nay I think a soul could live eternally blessed onely on Christ's love feed upon no other thing yea when Christ in love giveth a blow it doeth a soul good it is a kinde of comfort joy to it to get a cuff with the lovely sweet soft hand of Jesus And Thirdly what power strength is in his love I am perswaded it can climb aâ—stâ—ep hill hell upon it's back swim through the water not droâ—n sing in the fire finde no pain triumph in losles prisons sorrows exile disgrace laugh