Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 143 – LETTER 144
To ROBERT STUART. (143.)
My Very dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: Ye are heartily welcome to my world of suffering & heartily wel-come to my Master's house, God give you much joy of your new Master: If I have been in the house before you, I were not faithfull to give the house an ill name, or to speak evil of the Lord of the family: I rather wish God's Holy Spirit [O Lord breath upon me with that Spirit] to tell you the fashions of the house. One thing I can say, by on-waiting ye will grow a great man with the Lord of the house: Hang on till ye get some good from Christ: Lay all your loads & your weights by faith upon Christ: Ease your self & let him bear all: he can, he dow, he will bear you, howbeit hell were upon your back. I rejoyce that he is come & hath chosen you in the furnace, it was even there where ye & he set tryst, that is an old gate of Ch…ist's, he keepeth the good old fashion with you, that was in Hosea's days, Hos. 2, 14. Therefore behold I will allure her & bring her to the wilderness and speak to her heart: There was no talking to her heart while he & she were in the fair & flourishing city & at ease; but out in the cold, hungry, waste wilderness, he allureth her, he whispered in newes into her ear there, & said, Thou art mine. What would ye think of such a bed? Ye may soon doe worse then say, Lord holds all, Lord Iesus a bargain be it, it shall not goe back on my side. Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way to heaven, that ye have started to the gate in the morning: Like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun to …e high in the heaven and near afternoon, before ever I took the gate by the end: I pray you now, keep the advantage ye have: My heart, be not lazie, set as quickly up the b…ae on hands & feet, as if the last pickle of sand were running out of your glass, & death were coming to turn the glass: & be very carefull to take heed to your feet in that slippery & dangerous way of youth, that ye are walking in: The devil & temptations now have the advantage of the brae of you, & are upon your wand-hand & your working hand: Dry timber will soon take fire: Be covetous & greedy of the grace of God, & beware that it be not holiness that cometh on…ly from the cross, for too many are that way disposed, Psal. 78. 34. When he slew them then they sought him & they r…turned & enquired early after God. v. 35. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues. It is a part of our hypocrisie to give God …air white words, when he hath us in his grips [if I may speak so] & to flatter him till we win to the fair fields again. Try well green godliness, and ex…mine what it is ye love in Christ: if ye love but Christ's sunny side, & would have onelyonly summerweather & a land-gate, not a sea-way to heaven, your profession will play you a slip, and the winter-well will goe dry again in summer: Make no sports nor bairns-play of Christ: But labour for a sound & lively sight of sin, that ye may judge your self an undone man, a damned slave of hell & sin, one dying in your own blood, except Christ come and rue upon you, & take you up; and therefore make sure & fast work of conversion: Cast the earth deep; and down, down with the old work, the building of confusion that was there before, & let Christ lay new work & make a new creation within you: look if Christ's rain goeth down to the root of your withered plants, and if his love wound your heart while it bleed with sorrow for sin, & if ye can pant & fall a swoon & be like to die for that lovely one, Jesus: I know Christ will not to be hid where he is, grace will ever speak for it self, be fruitfull in weldoing: The sanctified cros, is a fruitfull tree, it bringeth forth many apples. If I should tell you by some weak experience what I have found in Christ, ye or others could hardly beleeve me: I thought not the hundred part of Christ long since that I doe now, though alas my thoughts are still infinitely below his worth. I have a dwining, sickly and pained life for a reall possession of him, and am troubled with lovebrashes and love-fevers, but it is a sweet pain: I would refuse no conditions, not hell excepted [reserving alwayes God's hatred] to buy possession of Jesus; but alas I am not a merchant who have any money to give for him, I must either come to a good cheap market where wares are had for nothing, else I goe home empty: But I have casten this work upon Christ to get me himself: I have his faith & truth & promise [as a pawne of his] all engaged, that I shall obtain that which my hungry desires would be at, & I esteem that the choice of my happiness: And for Christ's cross, especially the garland & the flower of all crosses, to suffer for his name, I esteem it more then I can write or speak to you: And I write it under mine own hand to you, it is one of the steps of the ladder up to our countrey, & Christ [who ever be one] is still at the heavy end of this black tree, & so it is but as a feather to me: I need not run at leisure because of a burthen on my back, my back never bare the like of it, the more heavily crossed for Christ, the soul is still the lighter for the journey. Now would to God, all coldblooded, faint-hearted souldiers of Christ, would look again to Jesus & to his love, & when they look, I would have them to look again & again, & fill themselves with beholding of Christ's beauty, & I dare say then, that Christ should come in great court & request with many: The virgins would flock fast about the Bridegroom, they would embrace and take hold of him & not let him goe. But when I have spoken of him till my head rive, I have said just nothing, I may begin again: A God-head, a God-head is a world's wonder: Set ten thousand thousand new made worlds of angels and elect men, & double them in number, ten thousand, thousand, thousand times, let their heart & tongues be ten thousand, thousand times more agile & large, then the heart & tongues of the Seraphims that stand with six wings before him, Isa. 6. 2. When they have said all for the glorifying & praising of the Lord Jesus, they have but spoken little or nothing: his love will bide all possible creatures to praise. Oh if I could wear this tongue to the stump in extolling his highness! but it is my daily growing sorrow, that I am confounded with his incomparable love, & he doeth so great things for my soul, & he got never yet any thing of me worth the speaking of. Sir, I charge you help me to praise him: It is a shame to speak of what he hath done for me & what I doe to him again. I am sure, Christ hath many drowned Dyvours in heaven beside him, & when we are conveened, man & angel, at the great day in that fair last meeting, we are all but his drowned Dyvours: It is hard to say who oweth him most: If men could doe no more, I would have them to wonder: If we cannot be filled with Christ's love; we may be filled with wondering. Sir, I would I could perswade you to grow sick for Christ & to long after him, & be pained with love for himself; but his tongue is in heaven, who can doe it! To him & his rich grace I recommend you. I pray you, pray for me & forget not to praise.
Aberd. June. 17. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To the Lady GAITGIRTH. (144)
MISTRESS.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I long to know how matters stand betwixt Christ and your soul: I know ye finde him still the longer the better: time cannot change him in his love: ye may your self ebbe & flow, rise & fall, wax & wane, but your Lord is this day as he was yesterday: & it is your comfort that your salvation is not rolled upon wheels of your own making, neither have ye to doe with a Christ of your own shaping: God hath singled out a Mediator, strong & mighty, if ye & your burdens were as heavy as ten hills or hells, he is able to bear you & save you to the utt…rmost: Your often seeking to him cannot make you a burden to him. I know, Christ compassionateth you & maketh a moan for you in all your dumps, & under your downcastings; but it is good for you that he hideth himself sometimes, it is not niceness driness, nor coldness of love, that causeth Christ withdraw & slip in under a curtain & a vail, that ye cannot see him; but he knoweth, ye could not bear with up-sailes, a fair gaile, a full moon & a high spring-tide of his felt love, & alwayes a fair summer-day & a summer-sun of a felt & poss…ssed & embracing Lord J…sus: His kisses & his visits to his dearest o…es are thin sowen: He could not let out his rivers of love upon his own, but th…se rivers would be in hazard to loose a young plant at the root; & he knoweth this of you: Ye should therefore first Christ's kindness as to it's sensible and full manife…ations, till ye and he be above sun & moon: that is the countrey where ye will be enlarged for that love which ye dow not now contain. Cast the burden of your sweet babes upon Christ, & lighten your heart by laying your All upon him, he will be their God. I hope to s…e you up the mountain yet, & glad in the salvation of God: Frame your self for Christ & gloom not upon his cross. I finde him so sweet, that my love, suppose I would charge it to remove from Christ, it would not obey me: His love hath stronger fingers then to let goe it's grips of us bairns, who cannot goe but by such a hold as Christ. It is good that we want legs of our own, since we may borrow from Christ: & it is our happiness that Christ is under an act of cautionry for heaven, & that Christ is booked in heaven as the principal debter for such poor bodies as we are. I request you, give the Laird your husband thanks for his care of me, that he hath appeared in publike for a prisoner of Christ: I pray & write mercy & peace & blessings to him & his. Grace, grace be with you for ever.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R.