Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 161 – LETTER 165
To JOHN GORDON. (161)
Worthy & dear Brother.
GRace, mercy and peace be to you: I have been too long in writing to you, but multitude of letters taketh much time from me. I bless his great name whom I serve in the spirit, if it came to voting amongst Angels and men, how excellent and sweet Christ is, even in his reproaches and in his cross; I cannot but vote with the first, that all that is in him, both cross & crown, kisses & glooms, embracements and frownings and strokes are sweet and glorious: God send me no more happiness in heaven or out of heaven, but Christ: For I finde this world when I have looked upon it on both sides, within & without, & when I have seen even the laughing and lovely-like side of it, to be but a fool's idol, a clay prison: Lord, let it not be the nest that my hope buildeth in. I have now cause to judge my part of this earth not worth a blast of smoke or a mouth-full of brown bread. I wish my Hope may take a running-leap & skip over Time's pleasures, Sin's plaistering & gold-…o…e, this vain earth, & rest upon my Lord. O how great is our night-darkness in this wilderness! To have any conceit at all of this world, is, as a man would close his handfull of water and holding his hand in the river, say, all the water of the flood is his, as if it were indeed all within the compass of his hand: Who would not laugh at the thoughts of such a crack-brain? Verily they have but an handfull of water & are but like a childe clasping his two hands about a night-shadow, who idolize any created hope, but God. I now ligh lie & put the price of a dream or fable or black nothing upon all things, but upon God & that desireable & love-worthy one my Lord Jesus: Let all the world be nothing [for nothing was their seed & mother] & let God be all things. My very dear Brother, know ye are as near heaven as ye are far from your self & far from the love of a bewitching & whorish world: For this World in it's gain and glory, is but the great and notable common whore that all the sons of men have been in fancy & lust withall these 5000 years: the children that they have begotten with this uncouth & lustfull lover are but vanity, dreams, golden imaginations & night-thoughts: For there is no good ground here under the covering of heaven for men & poor wearied souls to set down their foot upon. O he who is called God, that one whom they term Iesus Christ, is worth the having indeed, even if… had given away all without my eye-holes, my soul and my self for sweet Jesus my Lord! O let the claim be cancelled that the creatures have to me, except that claim my Lord Iesus hath to me! Oh that he would claim poor me, my silly, light & worthless soul! O that he would pursue his claim to the utmost point & not want me! For it is my pain & remediless sorrow to want him. I see nothing in this life but sinks & mires & dreams & beguiling ditches & ill ground for us to build upon. I am fully perswaded of Christs victory in Scotland, but I fear this land be not yet ripe and white for mercy: Yet I dare be halfer [upon my salvation] with the losses of the church of Scotland, that her foes afternoon shall sing dole & sorrow for evermore, and that her joy shall once again be cried up & her skie shall clear: But vengeance & burning shall be to her adversaries & the sinners of this land. Oh that we could be awakened to prayers & humiliation! Then should our sun shine like seven suns in the heaven, then should the temple of Christ be builded upon the mountains tops, & the land from coast to coast should be filled with the glory of the Lord. Brother, your day-task is wearing short, your hour-glass of this span-length and hand-breadth of life will quickly pass, & therefore take order & course with matters betwixt you and Christ before it come to open pleading there are no quarters to be had of Christ in open judgement. I know ye see your threed wearing short, & that there are not many inches to the threed's end, and therefore lose not time. Remember me his prisoner, that it would please the Lord to bring me again amongst you with abundance of the Gospel. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To Mr HUGH Mc KAILL. (162)
Reverend & dear Brother.
I thank you for your letter: I cannot but shew you that as I never expected any thing from Christ but much good & kindness, so he hath made me to finde it in the house of my pilgrimage? And beleeve me, Brother, I give it to you under mine own hand-writ, that who so looketh to the white side of Christ's cross and can take it up handsomly with faith and courage shall finde it such a burden as … are to a ship or wings to a bird. I finde my Lord hath overguilded that black tree & hath perfumed it & oiled it, with joy & consolation. Like a fool once I would chide & plead with Christ & slander him to others of unkindness, but I trust in God not to call his glooms unkinde again, for he hath taken from me my sackcloth, & I verily cannot tell you what a poor sold Ioseph & prisoner [with whom my mother's children were angry] doeth now think of kinde Christ: I will chide no more, providing he will quite me all by-gones; for I am poor. I am taught in this ill weather to goe on the lee-side of Christ & to put him in between me and the storm, & I thank God I walk on the sunny side of the brae. I write it, that ye may speak in my behalf the praises of my Lord to others, that my bonds may preach. O if all Scotland knew the feasts & love-blenks & visites that the Prelats have sent me unto! I will verily give my Lord Jesus a free discharge of all that I like a fool, laid to his charge, & beg him pardon to the mends. God grant that in my temptations I come not on his wrong side again, and never again fall a raving against my Physician in my fever. Brother, plead with your mother while ye have time: A pulpit would be a high feast to me, but I dare not say one word against him who hath done it, I am not out of the house as yet, my sweet Master saith, I shall have house-room at his own elbow, albeit their synagogues will need force cast me out. A letter were a work of charity to me. Grace be with you. Pray for me.
Aberd. Novemb. 22. 1636. Your Brother & Christ's prisoner, S. R.
To JAMES MURRAY. (163)
Dear Brother.
I Received your letter: I am in good health of body, but far better in my soul. I finde my Lord no worse then his word, I will be with him in trouble is made good to me now: He heareth the sighing of the prisoner. Brother, I am comforted in my royal Prince and King: This world knoweth not our life, it is a mysterie to them: We have the sunny side of the world, and our Paradise is far above theirs, yea our weeping above their laughing, which is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot; And therefore we have good cause to fight it out, for the day of our Laureation is approaching. I finde my prison the sweetest place that ev r I was in, my Lord Jesus is kinde to me, and hath taken the mask off his face, and is content to quite me, all by-gones: I dare not complain of him. And for my silence, I lay it before Christ, I hope it shall be a speaking silence: He who knoweth what I would, knoweth that my soul desireth no more, but that King Jesus may be great in the North of Scotland, in the South and in the East & West, through my sufferings for the freedom of my Lord's house and Kingdom. If I could keep good quarters in time to come with Christ, I would fear nothing: But Oh! Oh! I complain of my wofull out-breakings; I tremble at the remembrance of a new out-cast betwixt him and me, and I have cause, when I consider what sick & sad dayes I have had for his absence who is now come. I finde Christ dow not be long unkinde, our Ioseph's bowels yern within him, he cannot smother love long, it must break out at length. Praise, praise with me Brother, & desire my acquaintance to help me: I dare not conceal his love to my soul, I wish you all a part of my feast, that my Lord Jesus may be honoured: I allow you not to hide Christ's bountie to me, when ye meet with such as know Christ. Ye write nothing to me what are the cruel mercies of the Prelats towards me: The ministers of this town, as I hear, intend that I shall be more strickly confined, or else transported, because they finde some people affect me. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Nov. 21. 1637. Yours in the Lord Iesus. S. R.
To JOHN FLEMING. Bailiffe of Leith. (164)
My very worthy friend.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I received your letter: I bless my Lord through Jesus Christ, I finde his word good, Isa, …8, …0. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble. I never exp…cted other at Christ's hand, but much good & comfort, & I am not disappointed: I finde my Lord's cross overguilded & oiled with comforts: My Lord hath now showen me the white side of his cross: I would not exchange my weeping in prison with the fourteen Prelats laughter amidst their hungry … lean joyes. This world knoweth not the sweetness of Christ's love, it is a mystery to them. At my first coming here, I found great heaviness, especially because it had pleased the Prelats to adde this gentle cruelty to my former sufferings […or it is gentle to them] to inhibite the Ministers of the town to give me the liberty of a pulpit: I said, what adeth Christ at my service? But I was a fool, he hath chided himself friends with me: If ye & others of God's children shall praise his great name who maketh worthless men witnesses for him, my silence & sufferings shall preach more then my tongue could doe; if his glory be seen in me I am satisfied; for I want no kindness of Christ: And Sir, I dare not smother his liberality: I write it to you, that ye may praise, & desire your brother & others to joyn with me in this work. This land shall be made desolate, our iniquities are full: the Lord saith, we shall drink & spue & fall. Remember my love to your good kinde wife. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Nov. 23. 1636. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.
To EARLESTOVVN ELDER. Rev. 12: 11. And they overcame the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb & the word of their testimony, & they loved not their lives unto the death. (165)
Much honoured Sir.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I long to see you in paper & to be refreshed by you. I cannot but desire you & charge you to help me to praise him, who feedeth a poor prisoner with the fatness of his house. O how weighty is his love! O but there is much telling in Christ's kindness! The Amen, the faithfull & true witness hath payed me my hundred fold well told & one to the hundred: I complained of him, but he is owing me nothing now. Sir, I charge you to help me to praise his goodness, & to proclaim to others my Bridegroom's kindness, whose love is better then wine. I took up an action against Christ & bought a plea against his love, & libelled unkindness against Christ my Lord, & I said, this is my death, he hath forgotten me: But my meek Lord held his peace & beheld me, & would not contend for the last word of flyting, & now hath chided himself friends with me: And now I see, he must be God & I must be flesh: I pass from my summonds, I acknowledge he might have given me my fill of it & never troubled himself: But now he háth taken away the mask, I have been comforted, he could not smother his love any longer to a prisoner & a stranger: God grant that I may never buy a plea against Christ again, but may keep good quarters with him. I want no kindness, no love-token; but Oh, wise is his love! for notwithstanding of this hot summer-blenk, I am keeped low with the grief of my silence, for his word is in me as a fire in my bowels, and I see the Lord's vineyard laid waste, & the heathen entred into the sanctuary, and my belly is pained and my soul in heaviness, because the Lord's people is gone into captivity & because of the fury of the Lord & that wind, [but neither to fan nor to purge] that is coming upon Apostate Scotland. Also I am kept awake with the late wrong done to my brother, but I trust ye will counsel & comfort him. Yet in this mist I see & beleeve, the Lord will heal this halting Kirk & will lay her stones with fair colours & her foundations with Saphires, & will make her windows of Agates & her gates Carbuncles, Isa. 54. 11, 12. And for brass he will bring gold: He hath created the smith that formed the sword, no weapon in war shall prosper against use Let us be glad & rejoyce in the Lord, for his Salvation is near to come. Remember me to your wife & your son Iohn: And I entreat you to write to me. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. Decemb. 30. 1636. Yours in his onelyonly, onelyonly Lord Iesus. S. R.