Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 156 – LETTER 160
To ROBERT LENNO X. of Disdove. (156.)
Dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I beseech you in the Lord Jesus make fast and sure work of life eternall: Sow not rotten seed, every man's work will speak for it self what his seed hath been. O how many see I, who sow to the flesh! Alas what a crop will that be, when the Lord shall put in his hook to reap this world, that is ripe & white for judgement. I recommend to you holiness & sanctification, & that ye keep your self clean from this present evil world: We delight to tell our own dreams, & to flatter our own flesh with the hope we have: It were wisdom for us to be free, plain, honest & sharp with our own souls, and to charge them to brew better, th…t they may drink well and fare well, when time is melted away like snow in a hot summer. O how hard a thing is it to get the soul to give up with all things on this side of death and doomsday! We say we are removing and going from this world; but our heart stirreth not one foot off it's seat. Alas I see few heavenly minded souls that have nothing upon the earth, but their body of clay going up and down this earth, because their soul & the powers of it are up in heaven, & there, their hearts live, desire, enjoy, rejoyce. Oh mens souls have no wings, and therefore night and day they keep their nest and are not acquaint with Christ! Sir, take you to your one thing, to Christ, that ye may be acquainted with the taste of his sweetness & excellency, & charge your love not to dote upon this world; for it will not doe your business in that day, when nothing will come in good stead to you, but God's favour: Build upon Christ some good, choice & fast work; for when your soul for many years hath taken the play & hath posted & wandered through the creatures ye will come home again with the wind: They are not good, at least not the souls good, it is the infinite Godhead that must allay the sharpness of your hunger after happiness: otherwise there shall still be a want of satisfaction to your desires: And if he would cast in ten worlds in your desires, all shall fall thorow, & your soul shall still cry red hunger, black hunger: But I am sure there is sufficient for you in Christ, if ye had seven souls & seven desires in you. Oh if I could make my Lord Jesus market-sweet, lovely desireable & fair to all the world both to Jew and Gentil! O let my part of heaven goe for it, sobeing he would take my tongue to be his instrument, to set out Christ in his whole braveries of love, vertue, grace, sweetness & matchless glory, to the eyes & hearts of Jews & Gentiles! But who is sufficient for these things? O for the help of Angels tongues to make Christ eye-sweet and amiable to many thousands! O how little doeth this world see of him, & how far are they from the love of him, seeing there is so much loveliness, beauty and sweetness in Christ that no created eye did ever yet see! I would that all men knew his glory, and that I could put many in at the bridegroom's chamber door to see his beauty, & to be partakers of his high and deep and broad and boundless love. O let all the world come nigh and see Christ, and they shall then see more then I can say of him! O if I had had a pledge or pawne to lay down for a sea-full of his love! that I could come by somuch of Christ, as would satisfie griening and longing for him, or rather increase it, till I were in full possession! I know we shall meet & therein I rejoyce. Sir, stand fast in the truth of Christ, that ye have received: Yeeld not to winds, but ride out & let Christ be your anchor & the onelyonly He, whom ye shall look to see in peace: Pray for me his prisoner, & that the Lord would send me among you to feed his people. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To JOHN FLEMING Bailiffe of Leith. (157)
Worthy Sir.
GRace, mercy and peace be to you: The Lord hath brought me safe to this strange town: Blessed be his holy name, I finde his cross easie and light, and I hope he shall be with his poor sold Joseph, who is separated from his brethren: His comforts have abounded towards me, as if Christ thought shame [if I may speak so] to be in the common of such a poor man as I am, and would not have me lose any thing in his errands: My enemies have, beside their intention, made me more blessed, and have put me in a sweeter possession of Christ, then ever I had before: OnelyOnly the memory of the fair dayes I had with my welbeloved amongst the flock intrusted to me, keepeth me low, and sowreth my unseen joy: But it must be so, and he is wise who tutoureth me this way: For that which my brethren have and I want, and others of this world have, I am content, my faith will frist God my happiness: No Son offendeth that his father giveth him not hire twice a year, for he is to abide in the house, when the inheritance is to be divided: It is better God's children live upon hope then upon hire. Thus remembring my love to your worthy and kinde wife: I bless you and her and all yours in the Lord's name.
Aberd. Sept 20. 1637. Yours in his on…ly, onelyonly Lord Iesus. S. R.
To WILLIAM GLENDINING. Bailiffe of Kirkcudbright. [158]
Worthy Sir.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I am well, honour be to God, & aswell as a r…joycing prisoner of Christ can be, hoping that one day He for whom I now suffer shall enlarge me, & put me above the threatnings of men: I am sometimes sad, heavy & casten down at the memory of the fair dayes I had with Christ in Anwoth, Kirk cudbright & cet: The remembrance of a feast encreaseth hunger in a hungry man; but who knoweth but our Lord will yet cover a table in the wilderness to his hungry bairns & build the old waste places in Scotland, & bring home Zion's captives: I desire to see no more glorious sight, till I see the Lamb on his throne, then to see Mount Zion all green with grass, & the dew lying upon the tops of the grass, & the crown put upon Christ's head in Scotland again: And I beleeve it shall be so, & that Christ shall mowe down his enemies & fill the pits with their dead bodies. I finde people here dry & uncouth: A man pointed at for suffering dare not be countenanced; so that I am like to sit mine alone upon the ground: But my Lord payeth me well home again, for I have neither tongue nor pen nor heart to express the sweetness & excellency of the love of Christ: Christ's honey-combs drop hony & sloods of consolation upon my soul: My chains are gold: Christ's cross i… all overguilded and perfumed: His prison is the garden and orchard of my delights: I would goe through burning quick to my lovely Christ: I sleep in his arms all the night & my head betwixt his breasts: My welbeloved is altogether lovely: This is all nothing to that which my soul hath felt: Let no man for my cause scar at Christ's cross: If my stipend, place, countrey, credit, had been an Earledom, a Kingdom, ten Kingdoms and a whole earth, all were too little for the crown and scepter of my royall King: Mine enemies, mine enemies have made me blessed: They ave sent me to the bridegroom's chamber: Love is his banner over me: I live a Kings life: I want nothing but heaven, and the possession of the crown, my earnest is great, Christ is no niggard to me. Dear Brother, be for the Lord Jesus and his heart-broken bride. I need not [I hope] remember my distressed brother to your care. Remember my love to your wife. Let Christ want nothing of us: His garments shall be rolled in the blood of the slain of Scotland. Grace, grace be with you: pray for Christ's prisoner.
Aberd. Sept. 21. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To ROBERT GORDON. Of Knockbrex. (159]
Dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I am by God's mercy come now to Aberden, the place of my confinement, & setled in an honest man's house: I finde the town's-men cold & generall & dry in their kindness, yet I finde a lodging in the heart of many strangers: My challenges are revived again, & I finde old sores bleeding of new; so dangerous & painfull is an undercotted conscience; yet I have an eye to the blood that is physick for such sores: But verily I see Christianity is conceived to be more easie & lighter then it is; so that I sometimes think I never knew any thing, but the letters of that name; for our nature contenteth it self with little in godliness. Our Lord, Lord, seemeth to us ten Lord Lords: little holiness in our ballance is much because it is our own hol…ness, & we love to lay small burdens upon our soft natures, & to make a fair courtway to heaven: And I know it were necessary to take more pains then we doe, & not to make heaven a city more easily taken then God hath made it: I perswade my self many runners shall come short & get a disappointment. Oh how easie is it to deceive our selves, & to sleep & wish that heaven may fall down in our laps! Yet for all my Lord's glooms I finde him sweet, gracious, loving, kinde, & I want both pen & words to set forth the fairness, beauty & sweetness of Christ's love, & the honour of this cross of Christ, which is glorious to me, though the world thinketh shame thereof: I verily think that the cross of Christ would blush & think shame of these thin-skined worldlings, who are so married to their credit that they are ashamed of the sufferings of Christ. O the honour to be scourged, stoned with Christ, & to goe through a furious-faced death to life eternall! But men would have Lawborrows against Christ's cross. Now, My dear Brother forget not the prisoner of Christ; for I see very few here who kindely fear God. Grace be with you. Let my love in Christ & hearty affection be remembred to your kinde wife, to your Brother Iohn & to all friends. The Lord Jesus be with your Spirit.
Abed. Sept. 20. 1636. Yours in his onelyonly, onelyonly Lord Iesus, S. R.
To EARLESTOWN Younger. 160.
Much Honoured Sir.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I am well, Christ triumpheth in me, blessed be his name: I have all things, I burden no man: I see this earth and the fullness thereof is my father's: sweet, sweet is the cross of my Lord: The blessing of God upon the cross of my Lord Jesus: My enemies have contributed [beside their designe] to make me blessed: This is my palace, not my prison, especially, when my Lord shineth & smileth upon his poor afflicted & sold Joseph, who is separated from his brethen: But often he hideth himself, & there is a day of law, & court of challenges within me; I know not if fenced in God's name, but Oh my neglects! Oh my unseen guiltiness! I imagined that a sufferer for Christ kept The keys of Christ's treasure, & might take out his womb-full of comforts when he pleased; but I see a sufferer & witness will be holden at the door aswell as another poor sinner, & be glad to eat with the bairns & to take the by-board. This cross hath let me see that heaven is not at the next door & that it is a castle not soon taken: I see also, it is neither pain nor art to play the hyprocrite: We have all learned to sell our selves for double price & to make the people who call ten twenty, & twenty an hundred esteem us half-gods, or men fallen out of the clouds: But Oh sincerity, sinc…rity, if I knew what sincerity meaneth. Sir, lay the foundation thus & ye shall not soon shrink nor be shaken: Make tight work at the bottom, & your ship shall ride against all storms, if with all your anchor be fastned upon good ground, I mean with in the vail; & verily I think this is All, to gain Christ: All other things are shadows, dreams, fansies & nothing. Sir, remember my love to your mother: I pray for mercy & grace to her: I wish her ongoing toward heaven: As I promised to write, so shew her, I want nothing in my Lord's service, Christ will not be in such a poor man's common as mine. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. Sept. 22. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.