Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 138 – LETTER 139
To Mr JAMES FLEMING. (138)
Reverend & welbeloved in our Lord.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I received your letter, which hath refreshed me in my bonds. I cannot but testifie unto you, my dear Brother, what sweetness I finde in our Master's cross; but alas, what can I either doe or suffer for him? If I my alone had as many lives as there have been drops of rain since the creation, I would think them too little for that lovely one, our welbeloved; but my pain and my sorrow is above my sufferings, that I finde not wayes how to set out the praises of his love to others: I am not able by tongue, pen or sufferings to provoke many to fall in love with him, but he knoweth whom I love to serve in the spirit, what I would doe & suffer by his own strength, sobeing I might make my Lord Jesus lovely & sweet to many thousands in this land. I think it amongst God's wonders that he will take any praise or glory or any testimony to his honourable cause, from such a forlorn sinner as I am: But when Christ worketh he needeth not ask the question by whom he will be glorious: I know, seeing his glory at the beginning did shine out of poor nothing to set up such a fair house for man & Angels, & so many glorious creatures to proclaim his goodness, power & wisdom, if I were burnt to ashes, out of the smoke and powder of my dissolved body he could raise glory to himself: His glory is his end, Oh that I could joyn with him to make it my end! I would think that fellowship with him sweet & glorious. But alas, few know the guiltiness that is on my part, it is a wonder that this good cause hath not been marred and spilt in my foul hands: But I rejoyce in this that my sweet Lord Jesus hath found something adoe, even a ready market for his free grace and incomparable and matchless mercy in my wants: OnelyOnly my loathsom wretchedness and my wants have qualified me for Christ and the riches of his glorious grace, he behooved to take me for nothing or else to want me: Few know the unseen & private reckonings betwixt Christ and me; yet his love, his boundless love would not bide away nor stay at home with himself, & yet I dow not make it welcome as I ought, when it's come unsent for and without hire. How joyfull is my heart that ye write ye are desirous to joyn with me in praising; for it is charity to help a Dyvour to pay his debts; but when all have helped me, my name shall stand in his count-book under ten thousand thousands of summes unpayed: But it easeth my heart that …is dear servants will but speak of my debts to such a sweet creditour. I desire he may lay me in his own ballance & weigh me, if I would not fain have a feast of his boundless love made to my own soul and to many others. One thing I know, we shall not all be able to come neer his excellency with eye, heart or tongue; for he is above all created thoughts; All nations before him are as nothing & as less then nothing, he …itteth in the circuit of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth are as grashoppers before him! O that men would praise him! Ye complain of your private case: Alas, I am not the man who can speak to such an one as ye are: Any sweet presence I have had in this town is [I know] for this cause, that I might express & make it known to others: but I never finde my self nearer Christ and with that royal and Princely One, then after a great weight and sense of deadness & gracelesness! I think the sense of our wants, when withall we have a restlesness and a sort of spirituall impatience under them and …an make a din because we want him whom our soul loveth, is that which maketh an open door to Christ: & when we think we are going backward because we feel deadness, we are going forward: For the more sense the more life, & no sense argueth no life. There is no sweeter fellowship with Christ, then to bring our wounds & our sores to him. But for my self, I am ashamed of Christ's goodness & love since the time of my bonds, for he hath been pleased to open up new treasures of love & felt sweetness, & give visitations of love & access to himself in this strange land. I would think a fill of his love, young & green heaven: & when he is pleased to come, & the tide is in, & the sea full, & the King & a poor prisoner together in the house of wine, the black tree of the cross is not so heavie as a feather. I cannot, I dow not but give Christ an honourable and glorious testimony: I see, the Lord can ride through his enemies bands & triumph in the sufferings of his own, & that this blinde world seeth not, that Suffering is Christ's armour wherein he is victorious: & they that contend with Zion, see not what he is doing when they are set to work as under-smiths & servants to the work of refining of the saints [Satan's hand also by them is at the melting of our Lord's vessels of mercy] and their office in God's house, is to scour & cleanse vessels for the King's table. I marvel not to see them triumph & sit at ease in Zion, our father must lay up his rods and keep them carefully for his own use: our Lord cannot want fire in his house, his furnace is in Zion & his fire in Ierusalem: but little know the adversaries the counsel & the thoughts of the Lord. And for your complaints of your ministry, I now think all I did too little: Plainness, freedom, watchfulness, fidelity, shall swell upon you in exceeding large comforts in your sufferings: The feeding of Christ's lambs in private visitations, & catechising, in painfull preaching, & fair, honest & free warning of the flock is a sufferer's garland. O ten thousand times blessed are they, who are honoured of Christ to be faithfull and painfull in wooing a Bride to Christ! My dear Brother. I know ye think more on this then I can write, & I rejoyce that your purpose is, in the Lord's strength to back your wronged Master & to come out & call your self Christ's man, when so many are now denying him, as fearing that Christ cannot doe for himself & them. I am a lost man for ever, or this, this is the way to Salvation, even this way that they call Heresie, that men now doe mock & scoff at. I am confirmed now that Christ will accept of his servants sufferings as good service to him at the day of his appearance, & that ere it be long he will be upon us all, & men in all their black's & white's shall be brought out before God Angels and men. Our Master is not far off: Oh if we could wait on & be faithfull! The good will of him who dwelt in the bush, the tender favour & love, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Help me with your pravers, & desire from me, other brethren to take courage for their Master.
Aberd. Aug. 15. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.
To Mr JOHN MEINE. (139)
Worthy & dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I have been too long in answering your letter, but other business took me up. I am here waiting if the fair wind will turn upon Christ's sails …o Scotland, & if deliverance be breaking out to this overclouded & benighted Kirk. Oh that we could contend by prayers & supplications with our Lord for that effect! I know he hath not given out his last doom against this land. I have little of Christ in this prison, but groanings & longings & desires: All my stock of Christ is some hunger for him [And yet I cannot say but I am rich in that] my faith & hope & holy practice of new obedience are scarce worth the speaking of: But blessed be my Lord who taketh me, light & clipped & naughty & feckless as I am. I see Christ will not prig with me nor stand upon stepping stones, but cometh in at the broad side without ceremonies or making it nice, to make a poor ransomed one his own. O that I could feed upon his breathing & kissing and embracing, & upon the hopes of my meeting and his, when love-letters shall not goe betwixt us, but he shall be messenger himselfthen: But there is required patience on our part till the summer-…uit in heaven be ripe for us; it is in the bud, but there be many things to doe before our harvest come: And we take ill with it & can hardly endure to set our paper-face to one of Christ's storms, and to goe to heaven with wet feet & pain & sorrow: We love to carry heaven to heaven with us, & would have two summers in one year, and no less then two heavens; but this will not be for us, one, & such an one, may suffice us well enough: The man Christ got but one onelyonly, and shall we have two? Remember my love in Christ to your Father & help me with your prayers. If ye would be a deep Divine, I recommend to you Sanctification: Fear him, & he shall reveal his Covenant to you. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Jan. 5. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.