Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 141
To the Earle of LOTHIAN. (141)
Right honourable & my very worthy and Noble Lord.
OUt of the honourable & good report that I hear of your Lo: goodwill & kindness in taking to heart the honourable cause of Christ & his afflicted Church & wronged truth in this land, I make bold to speak a word in paper to your Lo: at this distance, which I trust your Lo: will take in good part. It is your Lo: honour & credit to put to your hand [as ye doe, all honour to God] to the fa…ling & tottering tabernacle of Christ in this your mother-Church, & to own Christ's wrongs as your own wrongs. O blessed hand which shall wipe and dry the watery eyes of our we…ping Lord Jesus, now going mourning in sackcloth in his members, in his spouse, in his truth & in the prerogative royal of his Kingly power! He needeth not service and help from men, but it pleaseth his wisdom to make the wants & losses, sores and wounds of his spouse, a …ield & an office-house for the zeal of his servants to exercise themselves in: Therefore, my noble & dear Lord, goe on, goe on in the strength of the Lord against all opposition to side with wronged Christ: The defending & warding of strokes off Christ; his Bride, the King's daughter, is like a piece of the rest of the way to heaven, knotty, rough, stormy & full of thorns: Many would follow Christ, but with a reservation, that by open proclamation Christ would cry down crosses, & cry up fair weather & a summer-skie & sun till we were all fairly landed at heaven. I know your Lo: hath not so learned Christ, but that ye intend to fetch heaven, suppose your father were standing in your way, & to take it with the wind on your face; for so both storm & wind was on the fair face of your lovely fore-runner Christ all his way. It is possible the success answer not your desire in this worthy cause: what then? Duties are ours but events are the Lord's: & I hope, if your Lo: & others with you shall goe on, to dive to the lowest ground & bottom of the knavery & perfidious treachery to Christ, of the cursed & wretched Prelats, the Anti-Christ's first-born & the first fruit of his foul womb, & shall deal with our Soveraign [Law going before you] for the reasonable & impartial hearing of Christ's bill of complaints, & set your selves singley to seek the Lord & his face, your righteousness shall break through the clouds, that prejudice hath drawn over it: & ye shall in the strength of the Lord bring our banished & departing Lord Jesus home again to his Sanctuary. Neither must your Lo: advise with flesh & blood in this, but wink, & in the dark reach your hand to Christ & follow him. Let not mens fainting discourage you, neither be afraid of mens canny wisdom, who in this storm take the nearest shore & goe to the lee & calm side of the Gospel, & hide Christ [if ever they had him] in their cabinets, as if they were ashamed of him, or as if Christ were stoln wares & would blush before the sun. My very dear & noble Lord, ye have rejoyced the hearts of many, that ye have made choice of Christ & his Gospel, whereas such great temptations doe stand in your way: But I love your profession the better that it endureth winds: If we knew our selves well, to want temptations is the greatest temptation of all: Neither is father nor mother, nor court, nor honour, in this overlustred world with all it's paintry & fairding any thing else, when they are laid in the ballance with Christ; but feathers, shadows, night-dreams & straws. O if this world knew the excellency, sweetness & beauty of that high & lofty one, that fairest among the sons of men! verily they should see, if their love were bigger then ten heavens, all in circles without other, that it were all too little for Christ our Lord. I hope your choice shall not repent you, when life shall come to that twilight betwixt Time & Eternity, and ye shall see the utmost border of Time & shall draw the curtain & look in to Eternity, & shall one day see God take the heavens in his hands & fold them together like an old holly garment, & set on fire this clay-part of the creation of God, & consume away in smoke & ashes the idol-hopes of poor fools, who think there is not a better countrey then this low countrey of dying clay. Children can not make comparison aright betwixt this life and that to come; & therefore the babes of this world who see no better, mould in their own brain a heaven of their own coyning, because they see no further then the nearest side of Time. I dare lay in pawne my hope of heaven that this reproached way, is the onelyonly way of peace: I finde it is the way that the Lord hath sealed with his comforts now in my bonds for Christ: & I verily esteem & finde chains & fetters for that lovely one Christ, to be watered over with sweet consolations & the love-smiles of that lovely Bridegroom, for whose coming we wait: & when he cometh, then shall the black's & white's of all men come before the sun, then shall the Lord put a finall decision upon the pleas that Zion hath with her adversaries: And as fast as Time posteth away [which neither sitteth, nor standeth, nor sleepeth] as fast is our handbreadth of this short winter-night flying away & the skie of our long lasting day drawing near it's breaking. Except your Lo: be pl…ased to plead for me against the tyranny of Prelats, I shall be forgotten in this prison: for they did shape my doom according to their new lawless Canons, which is, that a deprived minister shall be utterly silenced & not preach at all, which is a cruelty contrary to their own former practices. Now the onelyonly wise God, the very God of peace confirm, strengthen & establish your Lo: upon the stone laid in Zion & be with you for ever.
Aberd. 1637. Your Lo: at all respective obedience in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.