Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 27
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 & he…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 …esus is building his house all palace-work & carved stones, it is the habitation of the Lord: We doe welcome Ireland and England to our Welbeloved: we invite you, O daughters of Ierusalem, to come down to our Lord's garden and seek our Welbeloved with us, for his love will suffice both you & us: we doe send love-letters over t…e sea, to request you to come & to marry our King & to take part of our bed: & we trust our Lord is fetching a blow upon the Beast & the scarlet-coloured Whore, to the end he may bring in his ancient widowwife, our dear Sister, the Church of the Iews. O what a heavenly heaven were it to see them come in by this mean, & suck the breasts of their little Sister, & renew their old love with their first husband, Christ, our Lord! They are booked in God's word as a Bride contracted upon Jesus: O for a sight in this, flesh of mine, of the prophesied marriage between Christ & & them! The Kings of Tarshish & the Isles, must bring presents to our Lord Jesus. Psal. 72: 10. And Britain is one of the chiefest Isles: Why then but we may beleeve that our Kings of this Island shall come in & bring their glory to the new Ierusalem, wherein Christ shall dwell in the latter dayes? It is our part to pray that the Kingdoms of the earth may become Christ's. Now I exhort you in the Lord Jesus not to be dismaid nor afraid for the two tails of these two smoking fire-bands, the fierce anger of the Deputy with his Civil Power, and of the bastard Prelats with the Power of the Beast, for they shall be cut off: They may well eat you and drink you, but they shall be forced to vomit you out again alive. If two things were firmly beleeved, sufferi…gs would have no weight: If the fellowship of Christ's suffering were well known, who would not gladly take part with Jesus? For Christ & we are halvers & joynt owners of one & the same cross: & therefore he that knew well what sufferings were, as he esteemed all things but loss for Christ & did judge them but dung, so did he also judge of them that he might know the fellowship of his sufferings. Philip. 3: 10. O how sweet a sight is it, to see across betwixt Christ & us, to hear our Redeemer say at every sigh & every blow, & every loss of a beleever, half mine! So they are called the sufferings of Christ, & the reproach of Christ, Col. 2: 24. Heb. 11: 26. As when two are partners & owners of a ship, the half of the gain & half of the loss belongeth to either of the two; so Christ in our sufferings is half-gainer & half-loser with us: Yea, the heaviest end of the black tree of the cross lieth on your Lord, it falleth first upon him, & it but reboundeth off him upon you: The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psal. 69: 9. Your sufferings are your treasure, & are greater riches then the treasures of Egypt, Heb, 11; 26. And if your cross come first through Christ's fingers ere it come to you, it receiveth a fair luster from him, it getteth a taste & a relish of the King's spikenard & of heaven's perfume, & the half of the gain, when Christ's ship full of gold cometh home, shall be yours: It is an augmenting of your treasure to be rich in sufferings, to be in labours abundant, in stripes above measure, 2. Cor. 11: ver. 23. & to have the sufferings of Christ abounding in you 2. Cor. 1: 5. is a part of heaven's stock: Your goods are not lost which they have plucked from you, for your Lord hath them in keeping; they are but arrested & seised upon, he shall loose the arrest: Ye shall be fed with the heritage of Iacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, Isa. 38. 14. Till I shall be in the hall-floor of the highest palace and get a a draught of glory out of Christ's hand above and beyond Time and beyond Death, I will never it's like see fairer dayes, then I saw under that blessed tree of my Lord's cross: His kisses then were King's kisses, these kisses were sweet and soul-reviving, one of them at that time was worth two and a half [if I may speak so] of Christ's week-dayes kisses. O sweet, sweet for evermore, to see a rose of heaven growing in as ill ground as hell, and to see Christ's love, his embracements, his dinners and suppers of joy, peace, faith, goodness, long-suffering and patience, growing and springing like the flowers of God's garden, out of such stony and cursed ground as the hatred of the Prelats and the malice of their High Commission & the Antichrist's bloody hand & heart! Is not here art and wisdom? is not here heaven indented in hell [if I may say so] like a jewel set with skill in a ring with the enamle of Christ's cross? The rubie & riches of glory that groweth up out of this cross, is beyond telling. Now the blackest & hottest wrath & most fiery & all-devouring indignation of the Judge of men & Angels, shall come upon them that deny our sweet Lord Jesus & put their hand to that oath of wickedness now pressed: the Lord's coal at their heart shall burn them up both root and branch: the estates of great men that have done so, if they doe not repent, shall consume away, & the ravens shall dwell in their houses, & their glory shall be shame. O for the Lord's sake, keep fast by Christ, & fear not man that shall die & wither as the grass: the Deputy's bloom shall fall, & the Prelats shall cast their flower, & the East wind of the Lord, of the Lord strong & mighty, shall blast & break them: therefore fear them not, they are but idols that can neither doe evil nor good. Walk not in the way of these people that slander the footsteps of our royal & princely anointed King Iesus, now riding upon his white horse in Scotland: let Iehovah be your fear. That decree of Zion's deliverance, passed & sealed up before the throne, is now ripe, & shall bring forth a childe, even the ruine & fall of the Irelats black Kingdom & the Antichrist's throne in these Kingdoms: the Lord hath begun & he shall make an end. Who did ever h…ar the like of this? Before Scotland travelled, she brought forth, & before her pain came, she was delivered of a manchilde. Isa. 66. 7. 8. And when all is done, suppose there were no sweetness in our Lord's cross, yet it is sweet for his sake, for that lovely one, Iesus Christ, whose Crown and Royal Supremacy is the question this day in Great Britain betwixt us & our adversaries: & who would not think him worthy of the suffering for? what is burning quick? what is drinking of our own heart-blood? & what i… a draught of melted lead, for his glory? less then a drink of cold water to a thirsty man, if the right price & 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.