Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 150 – LETTER 151
To the Lady CARDONNESS. [150]
MISTRESS.
I Beseech you in the Lord Jesus make every day more & more of Christ, & try your growth in the grace of God, & what new ground ye win daily on corruption; for travellers are day by day either advancing further on, & nearer home, or else they goe not right about to compass their journey: I think still the better & better of Christ: Alas I know not where to set him, I would so fain have him high! I cannot set heavens above heavens till I were tired with numbering, & set him upon the highest step & story of the highest of them all: But I wish I could make him great through the world, suppose my loss & pain & shame were set under the soles of his feet, that he might stand upon me. I request you faint not because this world & ye are at yea & nay, & because this is not a home that laugheth upon you, The wise Lord who knoweth you will have it so, because he casteth a net for your love to catch it & gather it in to himself; therefore bear patiently the loss of children and burdens and other discontentments either within or without the house: Your Lord in them is seeking you, and seek ye him: Let none be your love & choice, & the flower of your delights but your Lord Jesus: Set not your heart upon the world, since God hath not made it your portion; for it will not fall you to get two portions, and to laugh twice, and to be happy twice, and to have an upper-heaven and an under-heaven too: Christ our Lord & his saints were not so; & therefore let goe your grip of this life & of the good things of it: I hope your heaven groweth not hereaway: Learn daily both to possess & miss Christ in his secret bridegroom-smiles: He must goe & come because his infinite wisdom thinketh it best for you: we will be together one day: We shall not need to borrow light from sun, moon or candle: There shall be no complaints on eiher side in heaven: There shall be none there but He & we, the bridegroom & the bride; Devils, temptations, trials, desertions, losses, sad hearts, pain & death shall all be put out of play, & the Devil must give up his office of Tempting: O blessed is the soul whose hope hath a face looking straight out to that day! It is not our part to make a treasure here: Any thing under the covering of heaven we can build upon, is but ill ground, & a sandy foundation: Every good thing except God wanteth a bottom, & cannot stand it's alone; how then can it bear the weight of us? Let us not lay a load upon a windlestraw, there shall nothing finde my weight or found my happiness, but God: I know all created power should sink under me, if I should lean down upon it; & therfore it is better to rest on God then sink or fall: & we weak souls must have a bottom & being-place; for we cannot stand our alone: let us then be wise in our choice, & chuse & waile our own blessedness, which is to trust in the Lord: Each one of us hath a whore & idol besides our husbend Christ: But it is our folly to divide our narrow & little love: It will not serve two, best then hold it whole & together, & give it to Christ; for then we get double interest for our love, when we lend it to, & lay it out upon Christ, & we are sure besides, that the stock cannot perish. Now, I can say no more, remember me: I have God's right to that people; howbeit by the violence of men, stronger then I, I am banished from you & chased away: The Lord give you mercy in the day of Christ: It may be God clear my sky again; howbeit there is small appearance of my deliverance: But let him doe with me what seemeth good in his own eyes: I am his clay, let my porter frame & fashion me as he pleaseth. Grace be with you,
Aberd. 1637. Your lawfull & loving Pastor, S. R.
To SIBILLA Mc ADAM. (151)
MISTRESS.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I can bear witness in my bonds that Christ is still the longer the better, & no worse, yea, inconceivably better then he is, or can be called: I think it half an heaven to have my fill of the sm…ll of his sweet breath, & to sleep in the arms of Christ my Lord with his left hand under my head, & his right hand embracing me: There is no great reckoning to be made of the withering of my flower, in comparison of the foul & manifest wrongs done to Christ: Nay, let never the dew of God lie upon my branches again, let the bloom fall from my joy and let it wither, let the Almighty blow out my candle; sobeing the Lord might be great among Jews & Gentiles, and his oppressed church delivered: Let Christ fare well, suppose I should eat ashes: I know he must be sweet himself, when his cross is so sweet: And it is the part of us all, if we marrie Himself, to marrie the crosses, losses, & reproaches also that follow him; for mercy followeth Christ's cross: His prison for beauty is made of marble & ivory, his chains that are laid on his prisoners are golden chains, & the fighes of the prisoners of hope are perfumes with comforts, the like whereof cannot be bred of found in this side of sun & moon: Follow on after his love, …ire not of Christ; but come in and see his beauty & excellency, & feed your soul upon Christ's sweetness: This world is not yours, neither would I have your heaven made of such mettall as mire & clay: Ye have the choice & waile of all lovers in heaven or out of heaven when ye have Christ, the onelyonly delight of God his father: Climb up the mountain with joy & faint not; for time will cut off, the men who pursue Christ's followers: Our best things here have a worm in them: Our joyes besides God; in the inner half are but woes & sorrowes: Christ, Christ is that which our love and desires, can sleep sweetly & rest safely upon. Now, the very God of peace establish you in Christ: Help a prisoner with your prayers, and entreat that our Lord would be pleased to visite me with a fight of his beauty in his house, as he hath sometimes done. Grace, be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.