Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 2
To his Parochiners. (2)
DEarly beloved, & longed for in the Lord, my crown & my joy in the day of Christ: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I long exceedingly to know, if the oft-spoken-of match betwixt you & Christ holdeth; and if you follow on to know the Lord. My day thoughts, and my night thoughts are of you, while ye sleep, I am afraid of your souls that they be off the rock: next to my Lord Jesus, and this fallen kirk, ye have the greaest share of my sorrow, and also of my joy; ye are the matter of the tears, care, fear, and daily prayers of an oppressed prisoner of Christ: as I am in bonds for my high and lofty one, my Royall and princely master, my Lord Jesus; so I am in bonds for you, for I should have sleeped in my warme nest, & kept, the fat world in my armes, and the cords of my tabernacle should have been fastned more strongly, I might have sung an Evangel of Ease to my soul and you for a time, with my brethren, the sons of my mother, that were angry at me, & have thrust me out of the vineyard, if I should have been broken and drawn on to mire you the Lords flock; & to cause you eat pastures troden upon with mens feet, and to drink foul and muddie waters: But truly the almighty was a rerror to me, & his fear made me afraid. O my Lord judge if my ministry be not deare to me, but not so dear by many degrees, as Christ Jesus my Lord: God knoweth the heavie, & sad Sabbaths I have bad since I laid down at my Masters feet my two shepherds staves, I have been often saying as it is writen, Lam. 3: 52. my enemies chased me sore like a bird without cause, they have cut off my life in the dungeon & cast a stone upon me: for next to Christ, I had but one joy, the apple of the eye of my delights, to preach Christ my Lord, and they have violently plucked that away from me, & it was to me like the poor mans one eye, & they have put out that eye, and quenched my light in the inheritance of the Lord; but my eye is toward the Lord; I know I shall see the salvation of God, and that my hope shall not alwayes be forgotten; And my sorrow shall want nothing to compleat it, and to make me say, what availeth it me to live? if ye follow the voice of a stranger, of one that cometh in to the sheepfold not by Christ the door, but climbeth up another way, if the man build his hay and stuble upon the golden foundation, Christ Iesus already laid among you, & ye follow him, I assure you the mans work shall burn & never bide Gods fire, and ye & he both shall be in danger of everlasting burning, except ye repent. O if any pain, any sorrow, any losse that I can suffer for Christ, and for you were laid in pledge to buy Christs love to you, and that I could lay my dearest joyes, next to Christ my Lord in the gap, betwixt you & eternall destruction! O if I had paper as broad as heaven and earth, and inke as the sea, and all the rivers and fountaines of the earth, & were able to write the love, the worth, the excellency, the Sweetnesse, and due praises of our dearest, and fairest welbeloved; and then if ye could read & understand it! what could I want if my ministry among you, should make a marriage between the little bride in that bounds, & the bridegroom? O how rich a prisoner were I, if I could obtaine of my Lord (before whom I stand for you) the salvation of you all! O What a prey had I gotten to have you catched in Christs net! O then I had cast out my Lords lines & his net with a rich gain! O then wel-wared pained breast and sore back, and a crased body, in speaking early and late to you! my witnesse is above, your heaven would be two heavens to me, & the salvation of you all, as two salvations to me, I would subscribe a suspension, and a fristing of my heaven, for many hundred yeers, (according to Gods good pleasure) if ye were sure in the upper lodging, in our fathers house before me. I take to witnesse heaven and earth against you, I take instruments in the hands of that sun, & day light, that beheld us, & in the hands of the timber & walls of that kirk, if I drew not up a fair contract of mariage betvvixt you & Christ, if I went not with offers betwixt the bridegroome, & you, & your conscience did bear you witnesse, your mouths confessed, that there were, many fair trysts, & meetings drawn on, betwixt Christ and you, at communion-feasts, & other occasions; there were braclets, jewels, rings, and loveletters, sent to you, by the bridegroom, it was told you what a fair dowrie ye should have, and what a house your husband and ye should dwell in, and what was the bridgroomes excellencie, Sweetnesse, might, Power. The Eternitie, and glory of his Kingdome, the exceeding deepnesse of his love, who sought his black wife through pain, fires, shame, death, & the grave; and swimmed the salt sea for her, undergoeing the curse of the law, & then was made a curse for you, & ye then consented and said, Even so I take him: I counsell you beware of the new & strange leaven of mens inventions, beside, and against the word of God, contrair to the oath of this kirk. novv comeing among you: I instructed you of the superstition, & Idolatry, of kneeling in the instant of receiving the Lords supper, & crosseing in baptisme, and the observing of mens dayes, vvithout any vvarrant of Christ our perfect lawgiver: Countenance not the Surplice the attire of the Mass… preist, the garment of Baals preists, the abominable bovving to altars of tree is comeing upon you: hate & keep your selves from idols: forbear in any case to hear the reading of the new fatherlesse service-book, full of grosse heresees, popish and superstitious errors, vvithout any vvarrant of Christ, tending to the overthrovv of preaching: you ovv no obedience to the bastard Canons, they are unlavvfull, blasphemous and superstitious; all the ceremonies that lie in the Antichrists foul vvomb, the vvares of that great mother of fornications, the kirk of Rome, are to be refused, ye see vvhither they lead you: Continue still in the Doctrine, vvhichwhich ye have recieved; ye heard of me the vvhole counsell of God, so we no cl…ts upon Christs robe, take Christ in his ragges, & losses & as persecuted by men, & be content to sigh, and pant up the mountain, vvith Christs crosse on your back, let me be repute a false prophet (& your conscience once said the contrair) if your Lord Jesus shall not stand by you, and mantaine you, and mantaine your cause, aganst your enemies: I have heard, (and my soul is greived for it) that since my departure from you, many among you are turned back from the good old way to the dogs vomite again; let me speak to these men, it vvas not vvithout Gods speciall direction, that the first sentence that ever my mouth uttered to you, vvas that of John Chap. 9: 39. And Iesus said for judgment came I into the world that they which see not might see, & they which see might be made blind. It is possible, my first meeting & yours be, when vve shall both stand before the dreadfull judge of the World, & in the name & authoritie of the Son of God, my great King & Master, I write by these presents, summonds to these men, I arrest their souls & bodies to the day of our compearance; their eternall damnation stands subscribed, and sealed in heaven; by the hand-write of the great Judge of quick & dead, and I am ready to stand up, as a preaching witnesse against such to their face, that day, & to say, Amen to their condemnation, except they repent: The vengeance of the Gospel is heavier, nor the vengeance of the law, the Mediators malediction and vengeance, is tvvice vengance, & that vengeance is the due portion of such men, & there I leave them, as bound men, ay & while they repent & amend: You vvere vvitnesses hovv the Lords day vvas spent, vvhile I vvas among you: O sacrilegious robber of Gods day, vvhat vvill thou ansvver the Almightie, vvhen he seeketh so many Sabbaths back again, from thee? What vvill the Curser, Svvearer, & Blasphemer doe, vvhen his tongue shall be rosted in that broad, and burning lake of fire & brimstone? And what will the drunkard doe, when tongue, lights, & liver, bones, & all, shall boile & frye in a torturing fire for he shall be far from his barrels of strong drinke then, & there is not a cold well of vvater for him in hell? What shall be the case of the wretch, the covetous man? the opperssor? the deceaver? the earth worme, who can never get his vvombfull of clay, when in the day of Christ, Gold and Silver must lie burnt in ashes, and he must compear and answer his judge, and quite his clayie and naughtie heaven? woe, woe, for ever more be, to the time-turning Atheist, that hath one God, and one religion for summer, and another God, and another religion, for winter, and the day offanning; when Christ fanneth all that is in his barn floor, who hath a conscience for every faire and mercat, and the soul of him runneth upon these oiled wheels, Time, Custome, the world and Command of men: O if the carelesse Atheist, and sleeping man, who edgeth by all, (with, God forgive our Pastors if they lead us wrong, we must doe as they command,) and layes down his head upon times bosome, and giveth his conscience to a deputy, and sleepeth so, while the smoak of hell fire flie up in his throat, and cause him start out of his dooleful bed. O if such a man would awake, many woes are for the over-guilded, and gold-plastered Hypocrite, a heavie doom is for the liar and white tongued flatterer, and the fleing book of Gods irefull vengeance, twentie cubits long, and twentie cubits broad, that goeth out from the face of God, shall enter into the house, and in upon the soul of him that stealeth, and sweareth falsely by Gods name, Zechar. 5: ver. 23. I denounce eternall burning, hotter then Sodoms flames, upon the men, that boile in their filthie lusts of fornication, adultery, incest, and the like wickednesse; no Room, no not a footbroad for such viledogs, within the clean Jerusalem: Many of you put off all with this, God forgive us, we know no better: I renew my old answer, 2 Thess. 1. the judge is coming in flaming fire, with all his mighty Angels to render vengeance to all these, that know not God, and beleeve Not. I have often told you security shall slay you, all men say they have faith, as many men and women now, as many saints in heaven; and all beleeve (say ye) every foul dog is clean enough, & good enough, for the clean & new Jerusalem above: Every man hath conversion, & the new birth; but it is not …el come; they had never a sick night for sin, conversion came to them in a night dream: in a word hell will be empty at the day of judgement, and heaven panged full: Alace it is neither easie, nor ordinarie to beleeve & to be saved; many must stand in the end at heavens gates; when they goe to take out their faith they take out a fair nothing (or as ye use to speak) a bl…ume: O lamentable Disappointment: I pray you, I charge you in the name of Christ, make fast work of Christ, and salvation: I know there are some beleevers among you; and I write to you O poor broken hearted beleevers, all the comforts of Christ, in the New and Old Testament are yours. O what a father & husband you have! O if I had pen, and ink, and ingine, to write of him! Let heaven and earth be consolidat, in massie and pure gold, it will not weigh the thousand part of Christs love to a soul, even to me a poor prisoner; O that is a massie and marvellous love! Men and Angels unit your force, and strength in one; ye shall not heave, nor poise it off the ground: Ten thousand thousand worlds, as many worlds, as Angels can number, and then as a new world of Angels can multiply, would not all be the balk of a ballance, to weigh Christs excellencie, sweetnesse, and love; Put ten earth's in one, and let a rose grow 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, o… 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 a… 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.