Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 128 – LETTER 129
To Mr HUGH HENDERSON. (128)
Reverend and dear Brother.
WHo knoweth but the wind may turn in to the West again upon Christ & his desolate bride in this land? And that Christ may get his summer by course again; for he hath had ill weather this long time, & could not finde law or justice for himself & his truth these many years. I am sure, the wheels of this crazed & broken Kirk run all upon no other axel-tree, nor is there any other to roll them, & cogge them, & drive them, but the wisdom & good pleasure of our Lord: And it were a just trick & glorious, of never-sleeping providence, to bring our brethrens darts they have shot at us, back upon their own heads: Suppose they have two strings in their bow, & can take one as another saileth them, yet there are moe then three strings upon our Lord's bowe; and besides he cannot miss the white that he shooteth at. I know, he shuffleth up & down in his hand the great body of heaven & earth, & that Kirk & Commonwealth are in his hand, like a stock of Cards, & that he dealeth …he play to the mourners in Zion and these that say, lye down, that we may goe over you, at his own soveraign pleasure: And I am sure, Zion's adversaries in this play shall not take up their own stakes again. O how sweet a thing it is to trust in him! When Christ hath sleeped out his sleep [if I may speak so of him who is the watch-man of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth] and his own are tried, he will arise as a strong man after wine, and make bare his holy arm, and put on vengeance as a cloak, and deal vengeance thick & double amongst the haters of Zion. It may be we see him sow and send down maledictions & vengeances as thick as drops of rain or hail upon his enemies: For our Lord oweth them a black day & he useth duely to pay his debts neither his friends & followers, nor his foes & adversaries shall have it to say, that he is not faithfull & exact in keeping his word. I know no bar in God's way but Scotland's guiltiness, & he can come over that impediment & break that bar also, & then say to guilty Scotland as he said Ezek. 36. Not for your sakes, &c. On-waiting had ever yet a blessed issue, & to keep the word of God's patience keepeth still the saints dry in the water, cold in the fire, & breathing & blood-hot in the grave. What are prisons of iron walls & gates of brass to Christ? Not so good as feal dikes, fortifications of straw, or old tottering walls: If he give the word, then the chains will fall off the arms & legs of his prisoners. God be thanked that our Lord Jesus hath the tutouring of King and Court and Nobles, and that he can dry the gutters and the mires in Sion, and lay causeys to the Temple with the carcases of bastard Lord-Prelats & idol-shepherds: The corn on the house-tops got never the husband-man's prayers, & so is seen on it, for it filleth not the hand of mowers. Christ & truth & innocency worketh even under the earth, & verily there is hope for the righteous: We see not what conclusions pass in heaven anent all the affaris of God's house: we need not give hire to God to take vengeance of his enemies; for Justice worketh without hire. O that the seed of hope would grow again and come to maturity! And that we could importune Christ & double our knocks at his gate, & cast our cries & shouts over the wall, that he might come out & make our Ierusalem the praise of the whole earth, & give us Salvation for walls & bulwarks! If Christ bud & grow green and bloom & bear seed again in Scotland. & his father send him two summers again in one year, & bless his crop; O what cause have we to rejoyce in the free salvation of our Lord & to set up our banners in the name of our God! O that he would hasten the confusion of the leprous strumpet, the mother & mistress of abominations in the earth, & take graven images out of the way, & come in with the Iews in troops, & agree with his old out cast & forsaken wife, & take them in again to his bed of love! Grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in our Master and Lord, S. R.
To the Lady LARGIRIE. [129.]
MISTRESS.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I exhort you in the Lord to goe on in your journey to heaven, & to be content of such fare by the way as Christ & his followers have had before you; for they had alwayes the wind on their faces, & our Lord hath not changed the way to us for our ease; but will have us following our sweet guide. Alas how doeth sin dog us in our journey & retard us! What fools are we to have a by-god or an other lover or match to our souls beside Christ? It were best for us like ill bairns [who are best heard at home] to seek our own home, & to sell our hopes of this little clay Innes & idol of the earth, where we are neither well summered nor well wintered. Oh that our souls would fall so at oddes with the love of this world, as to think of it as a traveller doeth of a drink of water, which is not any part of his treasure, but goeth away with the using; for ten miles journey maketh that drink to him as nothing! O that we had as soon done with this world and could as quickly dispatch the love of it! But as a childe cannot hold two apples in his little hand, but the one putteth the other out of it's room; so neither can we be masters and Lords of two loves: Blessed were we if we could make our selves masters of that invaluable treasure the love of Christ; or rather suffer our selves to be mastered and subdued to Christ's love, so as Christ were our all things, & all other things our nothings & the refuse of our delights. O let us be ready for shipping against the time our Lord's wind & tide call for us! Death is the last thief that shall come without din or noise of feet, & take our souls away, & we shall take our leave at Time & f…ce Eternity, & our Lord shall lay together the two sides of this earthly Tabernacle & fold us & lay us by, as a man layeth by his clothes at night, & put the one half of us in a house of clay, the dark grave, & the other half of us in heaven or hell. Seek to be found of your Lord in peace & gather in your flitting & put your soul in order, for Christ will not give a nail-breadth of Time to our little sand-glass. Pray for Zion, & for me his prisoner, that he would be pleased to bring me amongst you again full of Christ & fraughted & laden with the blessings of his Gospel. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his onelyonly Lord and Master, S. R.