Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 133
To JOHN GORDON Of Cardoness younger. (133).
Dearly beloved in our Lord.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I long exceedingly to hear of the case of your soul which hath a large share both of …y prayers & carefull thoughts. Sir, remember that a precious treasure & prize is upon this short play that ye are now upon, even the eternity of well or woe to your soul standeth upon the little point of your ill or well employed short & swift posting sand-glass: Seek the Lord while he may be found, the Lord waiteth upon you: Your soul is of no little price: gold or silver of as much bounds as would cover the highest heavens round about, cannot buy it: To live as others doe & to be free of open sins that the world crieth shame upon, it will not bring you to heaven: as much civility & countrey-discretion as would lye between you & heaven, will not lead you one foot or one inch above condemned nature: & therefore take pains upon seeking of salvation, & give your will, wit, humour the green desires of youth's pleasures, off your hand to Christ, It is not possible for you to know, till experience teach you, how dangerous a time Youth is: It is like green & wet timber; when Christ casteth fire on it, it taketh not fire: There is need here of more then ordinary pains; for corrupt nature hath a good back-friend of Youth, & sinning against light will put out your candle & stupifie your conscience & bring upon it moe coverings & skins & less feeling & sense of guiltiness, & when that is done the Devil is like a mad horse that hath broken the bridle & runneth away with his rider whither he listeth. Learn to know that which the Apostle knew, the deceitfulness of sin: strive to make prayer & reading & holy company & holy conference your delight, & when delight cometh in, ye shall by little & little smell the sweetness of Christ, till at length your soul be over head & ears in Christ's sweetness: then shall ye be taken up to the top of the mountain with the Lord, to know th… ravishments of spiritual love & the glory & excellency of a s…en, revealed, felt & embraced Christ: & then ye shall not be able to loose your self off Christ & to binde your soul to old lovers: then & never till then are all the paces, motions, walkings & wheels of your soul in a right tune & in a spiritual temper: But if this world & the lusts thereof be your delight, I know not what Christ can make of you, ye cannot be mettall to be a vessel of glory & mercy: as the Lord liveth, thousand thousands are beguiled with security, because God & wrath & judgement is not terrible to them: stand in aw of God, & of the warnings of a checking & rebuking conscience: make others to see Christ in you moving, doing, speaking & thinking; your actions will smell of him, if he be in you: there is an instinct in the new born babes of Christ, like the instinct of nature, that leades birds to build their nests & bring up their young & love such & such places as woods, forests & wildernesses better then other places: The instinct of nature maketh a man love his mother-countrey above all countreys: The instinct of renewed nature & supernatural grace, will lead you to such & such works, as to love your countrey above, to sigh to be clothed with your house not made with hands, & to call your borrowed prison here below a borrowed prison, & to look upon it servant-like & pilgrim-like: And the pilgrim's eye & look, is a disdainfull like discontented cast of his eye, his heart crying after his eye, Fy, fy, t… is is not like my countrey. I recommend to you the mending of a hole & reforming of a failing, one or other, every week, & put off a sin or a piece of it, as of anger, wrath, lust, intemperance, every day, that ye may more easily master the remnant of your corruption. God hath given you a wife, love her & let her breasts satisfie you, & for the Lord's sake drink no waters but out of your own cistern, strange wells are poison. Strive to learn some new way against your corruption from the man of God M. W. D. or other servants of God: sleep not sound till ye finde your self in that case, that ye dare look death in the face & durst hazard your soul upon eternity. I am sure many ells & inches of the short threed of your life are by hand, since I saw you: and that threed hath an end, and ye have no hands to cast a knot & adde one day or a finger-breadth to the end of it: When hearing and seeing and the utter walls of the clay-house shall fall down & life shall render the besieged castle of clay to death & judgement, & ye finde your time worn ebbe & run out, what thoughts will ye then have of idol-pleasures, that possibly are now sweet? what bud or hire would ye then give for the Lord's favour? & what a price would ye then give for pardon? It were not amiss to think, what if I were to receive a doom & to enter into a surnace of fire & brimstone? What if it come to this: that I shall have no portion but utter darkness? And what if … be brought to this, to be banished from the presence of God & to be given over to God's serjeants, the Devil & the power of the second Death? Put your soul by supposition in such a case, & …sider what horrour would take hold of you & what then ye would esteem of pleasing your self in the course of sin! O dear Sir, for the Lord's sake awake to live righteously & love your poor soul, & after ye have seen this my letter, say with yourself, the Lord will seck an account of this warning I have received. Lodge Christ in your family. Receive no stranger hireling as your Pastor. I bless your children. Grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Your lawful and loving Pastor. S. R.