Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 124
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 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: OnelyOnly 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.