Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 132
To the Laird of CALLY. (132)
Much honoured Sir.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I long to hear how your soul prospereth: I have that confidence that your soul mindeth Christ & salvation: I beseech you in the Lord give more pains & diligence to fetch heaven, then the countrey-sort of lazie professors; who think their own faith & their own godliness, because it is their own, best; & content themselves with a coldrife custom & course, with a resolution to summer & winter in that sort of profession, that the multitude and the times favour most, and are still shaping and clipping and carving their faith, according as it may best stand with their summer-sun and a whole skin; and so breath out both hot and cold in God's matters, according to the course of the times: This is their compass they sail toward heaven by, in stead of a better. Worthy & dear Sir, separate your self from such, and bend your self to the utmost of your strength & breath, in running fast for salvation, and in taking Christ's Kingdom, use violence: It cost Christ and all his followers sharp showers and hot sweats ere they won to the top of the mountain: But still our soft nature would have heaven coming to our bed-side when we are sleeping, & lving down with us, that we might goe to heaven in warm clothes; but all that came there …ound wet feet by the way, & sharp storms that did take the hide off their face, & …ound to's & fro's & up's & down's & many enemies by the way. It is impossible a man can take his lusts to heaven with him, such wares as these will not be welcome there. O how loath are we to forgoe our packalds & burdens that hinder us to run our race with patience! It is no small work to displease & anger nature, that we may please God. O if it be hard to win one foot or half an inch out of our own will, out of our own wit, out of our own ease & worldly lusts, & so to deny our self, & to say, It is not I but Christ, not I but grace, not I but God's glory, not I but God's love constraining me, not I but the Lord's word, not I but Christ's commanding power as King in me! O what pains & what a death is it to nature, to turn me, my self, my lust, my ease, my credit, over in, my Lord, my Saviour, my King & my God, my Lord's will, my Lord's grace! But alas that idol, that whorish creature my self, is the master-idol we all bow to: What made Evah miscarry? & what hurried her headlong upon the forbidden fruit, but that wretched thing her self? What drew that brother-murtherer to kill Abel? That wilde himself What drove the old world on to corrupt their wayes? Who but themselves, & their own pleasure? What was the cause of Solomon's falling into idolatry & multiplying of strange wives? What but himself, whom he would rather pleasure then God. What was the hook that took David & snared him first in adultery but his self-lust, & then in murther but his self-credit & self-honour? What led Peter on to deny his Lord? Was it not a piece of himself & self-love to a whole skin? What made Iudas sell his Matter for 30 pieces of money, but a piece of self-love idolizing of avaritions self? What made Demas to goe off the way of the Gospel, to embrace this present world? even self love & love of gain for himself: Every man blameth the devil for his sins, but the great devil, the house-devil of every man, the house-devil that eateth & lieth in every man's bosom, is that idol that killeth all, himself. O blessed are they who can deny themselves & put Christ, in the room of themselves! O would to the Lord, I had not a my self, but Christ; nor a my lust, but Christ, no… a my ease, but Christ; nor a my honour, but Christ! O sweet word, Gal. 2: 20. I live no more, but Christ liveth in me! O if every one would put away himself, his own self, his own ease, his own pleasure, his own credit, & his own twenty things, his own hundred things, that he setteth up as idols above Christ! Dear Sir, I know ye will be looking back to your old self & to your self-lust & self-idol that ye set up in the lusts of youth above Christ. Worthy Sir, pardon this my freedom of love: God is my witness that it is out of an earnest desire after your soul's eternal welfare, that I use this freedom of speech. Your sun I know is lower & your evening skie and sun-setting nearer then when I saw you last: Strive to end your task before night, and to make Christ your-self, and to acquaint your love and your heart with the Lord Stand now by Christ and his truth, when so many fail foully and are false to him: I hope ye love him and his truth, let me have power with you to confirm you in him. I think more of my Lord's sweet cross then of a crown of gold and a free Kingdom lying to it. Sir, I remember you in my prayers to the Lord, …ding to my promise: Help me with your prayers that our Lord would be pleased to bring me amongst you again with the Gospel of Christ: Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweetest Lord and Master, S. R.