Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 29
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 to restore you again safe to your brethren & sisters in Christ: take heaven and Christ's back-bond for a fair back-door out of your suffering. The Saviour is on his journey with salvation and deliverance for mount Zion & the sword of the Lord is drunk with blood and made fat with fatness, his sword is bathed in heaven against Babylon, for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompences for the comtroversie of Zion: And perswade your selves, the streams of the rivers of Babylon shall be pitch, and the dust of the land brimstone and burning pitch, Isa. 34: 8. And if your deliverance be conjoyned with the deliverance of Zion, it shall be two salvations to you. It were good to be armed before hand for death or bodily tortures for Christ, and to think what a crown of honour it is, that God hath given you pieces of living clay to be tortured witnesses for saving truth, and that ye are so happy as to have some pints of blood to give out for the crown of that royal Lord, who hath caused you to avouch himself before men. If ye can lend fines of three thousand pound sterling for Christ, let heaven's register and Christ's count-book keep in reckoning your depursments for him: It shall be engraven & printed in great letters upon heaven's throne, what you are willing to give for him: Christ's papers of that kinde cannot be lost or fall by. Doe not wonder to see clay boast the great potter, & to see blinced men to threaten the Gospel with death & burial & to raze out Truth's name: but where will they make a grace for the Gospel & the Lord's bride! Earth & hell shall be but little bounds for their burial: lay all the clay & rubbish of this inch of the whole earth above our Lord's spouse, yet it will not cover her nor hold her down; she shall live & not die, she shall behold the salvation of God. Let your faith frist God a little & be not afraid for a smoking fire-brand: there is more smoke in Babylon's furnace then there is fire: till doomsday shall come, they shall never see the Kirk of Scotland & our Covenant burnt to ashes, or if it should be thrown in tho fire, yet it cannot be so burnt or buried, as not to have a resurrection: angry clay's wind shall shake none of Christ's corn; he will gather in all his wheat into his barn: onelyonly let your fellowship with Christ be renewed: ye are sibber to Christ now when you are imprisoned for him, then before; for now the stroakes laid on you, doe come in remembrance before our Lord, & he can owne his own wounds: a drink of Christ's love, which is better then wine, is the drink-silver which Suffering for his majesty leaves behinde it: it is not your sins which they persecute in you, but God's grace, & loyalty to King Jesus: they see no treason in you to your Prince, the King of Britain, albeit they say so, but it is heaven in your that earth is fighting against, & Christ is owning his own cause: grace is a party that fire will not burn, not water drown: when they have eaten & drunken you, their stomack shall be sick, & they shall spue you out alive. O what glory is it to be suffering abjects, for the Lord's glory & royalty! Nay, though his servants had a body to burn for ever, for this Gospel, so being that triumphing & exalted Jesus his high glory did rise out, of these flames & out of that burning body, Oh, what a sweet fire! O what soul-refreshing torment should that be! What if the pickles of dust & ashes of the burnt & dissolved body, were musicians to sing his praises, & the highness of that never-enough-exalted Prince of ages? O what love is it in him, that he will have such musicians as we are to tune that Psalm of his everlasting praises in heaven! Oh what shining & burning flames of love are these, that Christ will divide his share of life, of heaven & glory with you. Luk. 22. 29. Ioh. 17: 24. Rev. 3: 21. A part of his throne, one draught of his wine (his wine of glory & life, that comes from under the throne of God & of the Lamb) & one apple of the tree of life will doe more then make up all the expences & charges of clay, lent out for heaven. Oh! Oh but we have short & narrow & creeping thoughts of Jesus, & doe but shape Christ in our conceptions according to some created portraiture! O Angels, lend in your help to make love-books & songs of our fair & white & ruddy standard-bearer amongst ten thousand! O heavens! O heaven of heavens! O glorified tennants & triumphing house-holders with the Lamb, put in new Psalms & love-sonnets of the excellency of our bridegroom & help us to set him on high! O indwellers of earth & heaven, sea & air! & O all ye created beings within the bosom of the outmost circle of this great world! O come help to set on high the praises of our Lord! O fairness of creatures, blush before his uncreated beauty! O created strength, be amazed to stand before your strong Lord of hosts! O created love, think shame of thy self before this unparalleled love of heaven! O angel-wisdom, hide thy self before our Lord whose understanding passeth finding out! O sun in thy shining beauty, for shame put on a web of darkness & cover thy self before thy brightest master & maker! O who can adde glory by doing or suffering, to this never-enough-admired and praised lover! Oh we can but bring our drop to this sea, and our candle, dim and dark as it is, to this clear and lightsom sun of heaven and earth! Oh but we have cause to drink ten deaths in one cup dry, to swim through ten seas, to be at that land of praises, where we shall see that wonder of wonders & enjoy this jewel of heavens jewels! O death, doe thy outmost against us! O torments! O malice of men & devils, waste thy-strength on the witnesses of our Lord's testament! O devils, bring hell to help you in tormenting the followers of the Lamb! we will defie you to make us too soon happy, & to waft us too soon over the water to the land where the noble plant, the plant of venown groweth. O cruel Time, that torments us & suspends our dearest enjoyments that we wait for, when we shall be bathed & steeped, soul & body, down in the depths of this love of loves! O Time, I say, run fast! O motions, mend your pace! O Welbeloved, be like a young Roe upon the mountains of Separations! Post, post; & hasten our desired & hungered-for meeting: love is sick to hear tell of to morrow. And what then can come wrong to you, O honourable witnesses of his Kingly truth? Men have no more of you to work upon, but some few inches and span-lengths of fick, coughing and flegmatick clay: your spirits are above their benches, courts, or High Commissions: your souls, your love to Christ, your faith, cannot be summoned not sentenced nor accused nor condemned by Pope, Deputy, Prelat, Ruler or Tyrant: your faith is a free Lord, & cannot be a captive: all the malice of hell & earth, can but hurt the scabbard of a beleever: & death at the worst can get but a clay-pawne in keeping till your Lord make the King's keys & open your graves. Therefore upon luck's head [as we use to say] take your sill of his love, and let a post way or a causey be laid betwixt your prison and heaven, and goe up & visit your treasure: Enjoy your Beloved & dwell upon his love, till Eternity come in Time's room & possess you of your eternal happiness: Keep your love to Christ, lay up your faith in heaven's keeping; & follow the chief of the house of the Martyrs, that witnessed a fair confession before Pontius Pilate; your cause and his is all one. The opposers of his cause are like drunken Judges & transported, who in their cups would make Acts & Lawes in their drunken courts, that the Sun should not rise and shine on the earth, and send their Officers & Pursevants to charge the Sun and Moon to give no more light to the world, & would enact in their Court-bookes that the Sea after once ebbing should never flow again: But would not the Sun & Moon & Sea break these Acts & keeep their Creator's directions. The Devil, the great fool & father of these under-fools, is older & more malicious then wise, that sets the spirits in earth on work to contend & clash with heaven's wisdom, and to give mandats and law summonds to our Sun, to our great Star of heaven, Iesus, not to shine, in the beauty of his Gospel, to the chosen and bought ones, O thou fair and fairest Sun of righteousness, arise and shine in thy strength, whether earth and hell will or not! O Victorious! O Royal! O stout Princely soul-conqueror, ride prosperously upon truth, stretch out thy Scepter as far as the Sun shines & the Moon waxeth & …aineth! Put on thy glistering crown, O thou maker of Kings! & make but one stride or one step of the whole earth, & travell in the greatness of thy strength, Isa. 63: 1, 2. & let thy apparel be red & all dyed with the blood of thy enemies: Thou art fallen righteous heir by line to the Kingdoms of the world. Laugh ye at the giddy-headed clay pots & stout brain-sick worms, that dare say in good earnest, this man shall not reign over us: as though they were casting the dice for Christ's crown, who of them shall have it. I know, ye beleeve the coming of Christ's Kingdom, and that their is a hole out of your prison through which ye see day-light: let not faith be dazled with the temptation from a dying Deputy & from a sick Prelat: beleeve under a cloud, & wait for him, when there is no moonlight nor star-light: Let faith live & breath and lay hold on the sure salvation of God, when clouds and darkness are about you and appearance of rotting in the prison, before you: take heed of unbeleeving hearts which can father lies upon Christ: beware of, Doeth his promise fail for evermore? Psal. 77. 8. For is was a man and not God that said it, who dreamed that a promise of God could fail, fall a-swoon or die: we can make God sick or his promises weak, when we are pleased to seek a plea with Christ. O sweet! O stout word of faith, Iob. 13. v. 15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. O sweet Epitaph written on the grave-stone of a dying beleever! To wit, I died hoping, & my dust & ashes beleevelife. Faith's eyes, that can see thorow a mill-stone, can see thorow a gloom of God, and under it read God's thoughts of love and peace. Hold fast Christ in the dark: surely ye shall see the savation of God. Your adversaries are ripe and dry for the fire, yet a little while and they shall goe up in a flame: the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone shall kindle about them, Isa. 30: 33. What I write to one, I write to you all, that are sound hearted in that Kingdom, whom in the bowels of Christ, I would exhort not to touch that Oath; albeit the adversaries put a fair meaning on it, yet the swearer must swear according to the professed intent & godless practise of the oath-breakers, which is known to the world: otherwise I might swear that the Creed is false, according to yet this private meaning & sense put upon it. Oh let them not be beguiled to wash petjury and the denial of Christ and the Gospel with ink-water, some foul and rotten distinctions: Wash and wash again and again the devil & the lye, it shall be long ere their skin be white. I profess, it should beseem men of great parts, rather then me, to write to you; but I love your C…use, & desires to be excused, and must intreat for the help of your prayers in this my weighty charge here for the University and Pulpit, & that ye would intreat your acquaintance also to help me. Grace be with you all. Amen.
St. Andrewes. 1640. Your brother & companion in the patience & Kingdom of Iesus Christ, S. R.