Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 208 – LETTER 209
To ROBERT GORDON. Of Knockbrex. (208)
Dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I received your letter from Edinburgh. I would not wish to see another heaven wh…e I get mine own heaven, but a new moon like the light of the sun, & a new sun like the light of seven days shining upon my poor self & the Church of Iews & Gentiles, & upon my withered & sun-burnt mother, the Church of Scotland, & upon her sister Churches, England & Ireland; & to have this done to to the setting on high our great King: it maketh not, howbeit I were separate from Christ & had a sense of ten thousand years pain in hell, if this were. O blessed Nobility, O glorious renouned Gentry, O blessed were the tribes in this land to wipe my Lord Jesus's weeping face, & to take the sackcloth off Christ's loins & to put his kingly robes upon him! O if the Almighty would take no less wager of me then my heaven, to have it done! But my fears are still for wrath once upon Scotland: But I know her day shall clear up & glory shall be upon the top of the mountains and joy at the noise of the married wife once again. O that our Lord would make us to contend & plead & wrestle by prayers & tears for our husband's restoring of his forfeited heritage in Scotland. Dear Brother, I am for the present in no small battel betwixt felt guiltiness and pining longings & high fevers for my welbeloved's love. Alas! I think Christ's love playeth the niggard to me, & I know, it is not for scarcity of love, there is enough in him; but my hunger prophesieth of in-holding and sparingness in Christ, for I have but little of him and little of his sweetness: It is a dear summer with me, yet there is such joy in the eagerness & working of hunger for Christ, that I am often at this, that if I had no other heaven but a continuall hunger for Christ, such a heaven of ever-working hunger, were still a heaven to me. I am sure, Christ's love cannot be cruel, it must be a rueing, a pitifull, a melting-hearted love: But suspension of that love▪ I think it half a hell, & the want of it more then a whole hell. When I look to my guiltiness, I see my salvation one of our Saviour's greatest miracles either in heaven or earth: I am sure, I may defie any m…n to shew me a greater wonder, but seeing I have no wares, no hire, no money for Christ, he must either take me with want, misery, corruption, or then want me. O if he would be pleased to be compassionat and pitifull hearted to my pining fevers of longing for him, o… then give me a reall pawne to keep, out of his own hand, till God send a meeting betwixt him & me! But I finde neither as yet; howbeit he who is absent be not cruel nor unkinde, yet his absence is cruel and unkinde: His love is like it self, his love is his love; but the cove…ing & the cloud, the vail & the mask of his love, is more wise then kinde, if I durst speak my apprehensions. I lead no process now against the suspension & delay of God's love: I would with all my heart frist till a day, ten heavens and the sweet manifestations of his love: Certainly I think I could give Christ much on his word: But my whole pleading is about intimated & born-in assurance of his love. O if he would perswade me of my heart's desire of his love at all, he should have the term-day of payment at his own carving: But I know, raving unbeleef speaketh it's pleasure; while it looketh upon guiltinesse and this body of corruption. O how loathsom & burdensom is it to carry about a dead corps, this old carrion of corruption! O how steadable a thing is a Saviour to make a sinner rid of his chains & fetters! I have now made a new question, Whether Christ be more to be loved for giving Sanctification, or for free Justification? And I hold he is more & most to be loved for S…n… tification: it is in some respect greater love in him to sanctifie then to justifie, for he maketh us most like himself in his own essential pourtraiture & image, in sanctifying us: Justification doth but make us happy, which is to be like the Angels onelyonly: Neither is it such a misery to lie a condemned man & under unforgiven guiltiness, as to serve sin & work the works of the Devil; & therefore I think Sanctification cannot be bought, it's above all price, God be thanked for ever that Christ was a told down price for Sanctification: Let a sinner [if possible] lie in hell for ever, if he make him truly holy, & let him lie there burning in love to God, rejoycing in the Holy Ghost, hanging upon Christ by faith & hope; that is heaven in the heart and bottom of hell. Alas, I finde a very thin harvest here & few to be saved! Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his lovely & longedfor Lord …sus, S. R.
To my Lord CRAIGHALL. (209)
My Lord.
I Perswade my self, notwithstanding of the greatness of this temptation, ye will not let Christ want a witness of you, to avow him before this evil generation. And if ye advise with God's truth, the perfect testament of Christ, that forbiddeth all mens additions to his worship, & with the truly learned & withall the sanctified in this land, & with that warner within you [that will not fail to speak against you in God's time, if ye be not now fast & fixed for Christ] I hope then your Lo: will acquit your self as a man of courage for Christ, & refuse to bow your knee superstitiously & idolatrously to wood or stone or any creature whatsoever. I perswade my self when ye shall take good-night at this world, ye shall think it God's truth I now write. Some fear your Lo: have obliged your self to his Maj: by promise to satisfie his desire: If it be so, my dear & worthy Lord, hear me for your soul's good: Think upon swimming a shore after this ship wrack, & be pleased to write your humble Apologie to his Majestie, it may be God give you favour in his eyes: However it be, far be it from you to think, a promise made out of weakness & extorted by the terrour of a King, should binde you to wrong your Lord Jesus. But for my self, I give no faith to that report, but I beleeve ye shall prove fast … Christ: To his grace I recommend you.
Aberd. July. 8. 1637. Your Lo: at all obedience in Christ. S. R.