Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 82 – LETTER 85
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 see Christ can borrow a cross for some hours, & set his servants beside it, rather then under it, & win the plea too, yea & make glory to himself & shame to his enemies & comfort to his children out of it: But whether Christ buy or borrow crosses, he is King of crosses, & King of Devils, & King over hell, & King over malice: When he was in the grave, he came out, & brought the keys with him: he is Lord-Jaylor, nay what say I, he is Captain of the castle, & he hath the keys of deaths hell; & what are our troubles but little deaths: & he who commandeth the great castle commandeth the little also. 2. I see, a hardned face & two skins upon our browes, against the winter hail, & stormy wind, is meetest for a poor traveller in a winter journey to heaven. O what art is it to learn to endure hardness & to learn to goe bare footed either through the devil's fiery coals or his frozen waters! 3. I am perswaded a sea-venture with Christ maketh great riches: Is not our King Jesus his ship coming home, & shall not we get part of the gold? Alas, we fools miscount our gain when we seem losers. Beleeve me, I have no challenges against this well-born cross, for it is come of Christ's house & is honourable & his propine, To you it is given to suffer. O what fools are we to undervalue his gifts, & to lightlie that which is true honour! For if we could be faithfull, our tackling shall not loose, nor our mast break, nor our sails blow into the sea. The bastard crosses, the kinless & base-born crosses of worldlings for evil doing, must be heavie & grievous; but our afflictions are light & momentany. 4. I think my self happy that I have lost credit with Christ, & that in this bargain I am Christ's sworn dyvour, to whom he will lippen nothing, no not one pin in the work of my salvation: Let me stand in black and white in the Dyvourbook be ore Christ, I am happy that my salvation is concredited to Christ's mediation: Christ oweth no faith to me, to lippen any thing to me; but O what faith & credit I ow to him! Let my name fall & let Christ's name stand in honour with man & angel. Alas, I have no room to spread out my affection before God's people, & I see not how I can shout out & cry out the loveliness, the high honour & the glory of my fairest Lord Jesus. Oh that he would let me have a bed to lie in, to be delivered of my birth, that I might paint him out in his beauty to men as I dow. 5. I wondered once at providence & called white providence black & unjust, that I should be smothered in a town where no soul will take Christ off my hand: But providence hath another lustre with God, then with my bliered eyes. I proclaim my self a blinde body who know not black & white in the uncouth course of God's providence. Suppose Christ would set hell where heaven is & devils up in glory beside the elect Angels [which yet cannot be] I would I had a heart to acquiesce in his way without further dispute. I see, infinite wisdom is the mother of his judgements & his wayes pass finding out. 6. I cannot learn, but I desire to learn to bring my thoughts, will, & lusts, in under Christ's feet, that he may trample upon them: But alas, I am still upon Christ's wrong side. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Sept. 12. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus: S. R.
To ROBERT LENNOX. Of Disdove. [83]
Worthy & dear Brother.
I Forget you not in my bonds: I know ye are looking to Christ, & I beseech you, follow your look. I can say more of Christ now by experience [though he be infinitly above & beyond all that can be said of him] then when I saw you. I am drowned over head & ears in his love. Sell, sell, sell all things for Christ. If this whole world were the balk of a ballance, it should not be able to bear the weight of Christ's love; man & angels have short arms to fathom it: Set your feet upon this piece blew & base clay of an over-guilded & fair plaistered world; an hours kissing of Christ is worth a world of worlds. Sir, make sure work or your salvation, build not upon sand, lay the foundation upon the rock in Zion: strive to be dead to this world & to your will & lusts: Let Christ have a commanding power & a King throne in you: Walk with Christ, howbeit the wind should take the hide off your face: I promise you Christ will win the field: Your pastors cause you to erre; except you see Christ's word, goe not one foot with them: Countenance not the reading of that Romish Service-book: Keep your garments clean, as ye would walk with the Lamb clothed in white. The wrongs I suffer are upon record in heaven: our great Master & Judge will be upon us all, & bring us before the sun in our black's & white's: Blessed are they who watch & keep themselves in God's love. Learn to discern the Bridegroom's tongue, & to give your self to prayer & reading. Ye was often a hearer of me: I would put my heart blood upon the doctrine I taught, as the onelyonly way to salvation: goe not from it, my dear Brother. What I write to your self, I write to your wife also. Minde heaven & Christ, & keep the spunk of the love of Christ you have gotten; Christ shall blow on it, if ye entertain it, & your end shall be peace. There is a fire in our Zion; but our Lord is but seeking a new Bride refined & purified out of the furnace. I assure you, howbeit we be nick-named Puritans, all the powers of the world shall not prevail against us: Remember, though a sinfull man write it to you, these people shall yet be in Scotland as a green olive-tree & a field blessed of the Lord, & it shall be proclaimed, up, up with Christ, & down, down with all contrary powers. Sir, pray for me, [I name you to the Lord] for further evil is determined against me. Remember my love to Christian Murray & her daughter: I desire her in the edge of her evening to wait a little, the King is coming, & he hath something, that she never saw, with him: heaven is no dream: Come & see will teach her best. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. Sept. 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To MARION McKNAUGHT: [84]
Dearest in our Lord Iesus.
COunt it your honour that Christ hath begun at you to fine you first: Fear not, saith the Amen, the true & faithfull witness: I write to you, as my Master liveth, upon the word of my royal King, continue in prayer & in watching, & your glorious deliverance is coming: Christ is not far off, a fig, a straw for all the bits of clay that are risen against us: Ye shall thresh the mountains & fan then like 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 & Kirk…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 Dalgl…ish. If ye depart from what I taught you in a hair-breadth, for f…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 lovebed 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.