Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 167 – LETTER 168
To WILLIAM GLENDINNING. (167)
Dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: Your ease is unknown to me, whether ye be yet our Lord's prisoner at W…gton or not: However it be, I know our Lord Iesus hath been enquiring for you, & that he hath honoured you to bear his chains, which is the golden end of his cross, & so hath wailed out a chosen & honourable cross for you: I wish you much joy & comfort of it, for I have nothing to say of Christ's cross but much good, I hope my ill word shall never meet either Christ or his sweet & easie cross. I know he seeketh of us an out-cast with this house of clay, this mother-prison, this earth, that we love fall well: & verily, when Christ snuffeth my candle & causeth my light to shine upward, it is one of my greatest wonders that dirt & clay hath so much court with a soul not made of clay, & that our soul goeth out of kinde so far; as to make an idol of this earth, such a deformed harlot, as that it should wrong Christ of our love. How fast, how fast doeth our ship sail! And how fair a wind hath Time to blow us off these coasts & this land of dying & perishing things! And alas, our ship saileth one way & fleeth many miles in one hour to hasten us upon eternity, & our love & hearts are sailing close back over & swimming towards ease, lawless pleasure, vain honour, perishing riches, & to build a fool's nest I know not where, & to lay our egges within the sea-mark, & fasten our bits of broken anchors upon the worst ground in the world, this fleetting & perishing life; & in the mean while, time & tide carry us upon another life, & there is daily less & less oile in our lamp, & less & less sand in our watch-glass. O what a wise course were it for us, to look away from the false beauty of our borrow…d prison, & to minde & eye & lust for our countrey! Lord, Lord, take us home. And for my self, I think, if a poor, weak, dying sheep seek for an old dike & the lee-side of an hill in a storm, I have cause to long for a covert from this storm in heaven: I know none will take my room over my head there; But certainly sleepy bodies would be at rest & a well made bed, & an old crazed bark at a shore, & a wearied traveller at home & a breathless horse at the rink's end. I see nothing in this life but sin & the sowre fruits of sin: And O what a burden is sin; & what a slavery & miserable bondage is it, to be at the nod & yea's & nay's of such a lord-master as a body of sin! Truly when I think of it, it is a wonder that Christ maketh not fire & ashes of such a dry branch as I am. I would often lie down under Christ's feet, & bid him trample upon me, when I consider my guiltiness: But seeing he hath sworn that sin shall not loose his unchangeable covenant, I keep house-room amongst the rest of the ill learned bairns, & must cumber the Lord of the house with with the rest, till my Lord take the fetters off legs & arms, & destroy this body of sin, & make a hole or a breach in this cage of earth, that the bird may flee out and the imprisoned soul be at liberty. In the mean time the least intimation of Christ's love is sweet, and the hope of marriage with the Bridegroom holdeth me in some joyfull on-waiting, that when Christ's summer-birds shall sing upon the branches of the tree of life, I shall be tuned by God himself to help them to sing the home-coming of our welbeloved & his Bride to their house together. When I think of this, I think winters & summers & years & dayes & time doe me a pleasure that they shorten this untwisted & weak threed of my life, & that they put sin & miseries by hand, & that they shall carry me to my Bridegroom within a clap. Dear Brother, pray for me, that it would please the Lord of the vineyard to give me house-room to preach his righteousness again to the great congregation. Grace, grace be with you. Remember me to your wife.
Aberd. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To the Lady CULROSS. Rev. 7: 14. These are they vvhichwhich came out of great tribulation, & have vvashed their robes & made them vvhite in the blood of the Lamb. [168]
MADAM.
GRace, mercy & peace be multiplied upon you: I greatly long to be refreshed with your letter: I am now [all honour & glory to the King eternal, immortal & invisible] in better terms with Christ then I was. I like a fool summoned my husband & Lord, & libelled unkindness against him, but now I pass from that foolish pursuit, I give over the plea, he is God & I am man: I was loosing a fast stone & digging at the groundstone [the love of my Lord] to shake & unsettle it, but God be thanked, it is fast, all i… sure: In my prison he hath showen me daylight; he dought not hide his love any longer: Christ was disguised & masked, & I apprehended it was not he, & he hath said It is…, be not afraid: And now his love is better then wine. Oh that all the virgins had part of the Bridegroom's love, whereupon he maketh me to feed! Help me to praise: I charge you, Madam, help me to pay praises, & tell others, the daughters of Jerusalem, how kinde Christ is to a poor prisoner: he hath payed me my hundred fold, it is well told me & one to the hundred: I am nothing behinde with Christ: Let not fools, because of their lazie soft flesh, raise a slander & an ill report upon the cross of Christ, it is sweeter then fair: I see, grace groweth best in winter: This poor, p…rsecuted Kirk, this lilie amongst the thorns, shall blossom and laugh upon the gardiner, the husband-man's blessing shall light upon it. Oh if I could be free of jealousies of Christ after this, & beleeve & keep good quarters with my dearest husband! for he hath been kinde to the stranger: & yet in all this fair hot summer-weather, I am keeped from saying … is good to be here, with my silence, & with grief to see my mother wou ded & her vail taken from her, & the fair Temple casten down: & my belly is pained, my soul is heavy for the captivity of the daughter of my people, & because of the fury of the Lord & his fierce indignation against Apostate Scotland. I pray you, Madam, let me have that which is my prayer here, that my sufferings may preach to the four quarters of this land, and therefore tell others how open-handed Christ hath been to the prisoner and the oppressed stranger: Why should I conceal it? I know no other way how to glorifie Chri…t, but to make an open proclamation of his love, and of his his soft and sweet kisses to me in the furnace, & of his fidelity to such as suffer for him. Give it me under your hand that ye will help me to pray & praise, but rather to praise & rejoyce in the salvation of God. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. Dec. 30. 1636. Yours in his dearest & onelyonly, onelyonly Lord Iesus, S. R