Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 147
To CARSLUTH. (147)
Much honoured Sir.
I Long to hear how your soul prospereth. I earnestly desire you to try how matters stand between your soul & the Lord: think it no easy matter to take heaven by violence: Salvation cometh now to the most part of men in a night dream: there is no scarcity of faith now, such as it is; for ye shall not now light upon the man, who will not say he hath faith in Christ: But alas! dreams make no man's rights. Worthy Sir, I beseech you in the Lord, give your soul no rest till ye have reall assurance & Christ's rights confirmed & sealed to your soul: The common faith & countrey-holiness & week-day's zeal that is among people, will never bring men to heaven: Take pains for your salvation, for in that day when ye shall see many mens labours & conquests & idol-riches lying in ashes, when the earth & all the works thereof shall be burnt with fire, O how dear a price would your soul give for God's favour in Christ! It is a blessed thing to seek Christ with up-sun, & to read over your papers & soul-accounts with fair day-light: It will not be time to cry for a lamp when the Bridegroom is entred into his chamber & the door shut. Fy, fy upon blinded & base souls who are committing whoredom with this idol-clay & hunting a poor wretched hungry heaven, a hungry break-fast, a day's meat, from this hungry world, with the forfeiting of God's favour & the drinking over their heaven over the board [as men use to speak] for the laughter & sports of this short forenoon! All that is under this vault of heaven & betwixt us & death, & in this side of sun & moon, are but toyes, night-visions, head-fancies, poor shadows, watery froth, godless vanities at their best, & black hearts & salt & sowre miseries sugared over & confected with an hour's laughter or two & the conceit of riches, honour, vain, vain Court & lawless pleasures. Sir, if ye look both to the laughing side & the weeping side of this world, & if ye look not onelyonly upon the skin and colour of things, but in to their inwards & the heart of their excellency, ye shall see that one look of Christ's sweet & lovely eye, one kiss of his fairest face, is worth ten thousand worlds of such rotten stuff as the foolish sons of men set their heart upon. Oh Sir, turn, turn your heart to the other side of things, & get it once free of these entanglements, to consider Eternity, Death, the clay-bed the Grave, awsom Judgement, everlasting burning quick in Hell, where Death would give as great a price [if there were a Market where Death might be bought & sold] as all the world. Consider heaven & glory: But alas, why speak I of considering these things which have not entered into the heart of man to consider? Look into these depths [without a bottom] of loveliness, sweetness, beauty, excellency, glory, goodness, grace & mercy that are in Christ, & ye shall then cry down the whole world & all the glory of it, even when it is come to the summer-bloom, & ye shall cry up with Christ, up with Christ's father, up with eternity of glory. Sir, there is a great deal of less sand in your glas… then when I saw you, & your afternoon is nearer even-tide now then it was. As a flood carried back to the sea, so doth the Lord's swi…t post, Time, carry you & your life with wings to the grave: Ye eat & drink, but Time standeth not still; ye laugh, but your day fleeth away, y… sleep, but your hours are reckoned & put by hand. O how soon will Time shut you out of the poor & cold & hungry Innes of this life! & then what will yesterday's short-born pleasures doe to you, but be as a snow-ball melted away many years since, or worse; for the memorie of these pleasures useth to fill the soul wit… bitternesse: Time & experience will prove thi… to be true, & dying men, if they could speak, would make this good: Lay no more on the creatures then they are able to carry: Lay your soul and your weights upon God: Make him your onelyonly, onelyonly best beloved: Your errand to this life is to make sure an eternity of glory to your soul, & to match your soul with Christ: your love, if it were more then all the love of Angels in one, is Christ's due: Other things worthy in themselves, in respect of Christ are not worth a windlestraw, or a drink of cold water. I doubt not but in death ye will see all things more distinctly, and that then the world shall bear no more bulke then it is worth, & that then it shall couche & be contracted into nothing, & ye shall see Christ longer, higher, broader & deeper then ever he was. O blessed conquest to lose all things & to gain Christ! I know not what ye have if ye want Christ: Alas, how poor is your gain if the earth were all yours in f…ee heritage, holding it of no man of clay, if Christ be not yours? O seek all midses, lay all oars in the water, put forth all your power, & bend all your endeavours to put away & part with all things, that ye may gain & enjoy Christ: try & search his word, & stri…e to goe a step above & beyond ordinary professours, & resolve to sweat more & run faster then they doe for Salvation: mens mid-way, cold and wise courses in godliness, and their neighbour-li…e cold & wise pace to heaven, will cause many a man want his lodging at night & li… in the fields. I recommend Christ & his love to your seeking, & yourself to the tender mercy & rich grace of our Lord. Remember my love in Christ to your wife: I desire her to learn to make her soul's anchor fast upon Christ himself: Few are saved: Let h…r consider what jo… the smiles of God in Christ will be, & what the love-kisses of sweet, sweet Jesus, & a welcome home to the new Ierusalem from Christ's own mouth, will be to her soul; when Christ shall fold together the clay tent of her body and lay it by his hand for a time, till the fair morning of the generall resurrection. I avouch before God, man and Angel, that I have not seen, nor can imagine a lover to be comparable to lovely Jesus: I would not exchange or niffer him with ten heavens: If heaven could be without him, what could we doe there. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Your soul's eternal wellwisher, S. R.