Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 27
To EARLESTOUN YOUNGER. (27)
Much honoured & welbeloved in the Lord.
GRace, mercy and peace be to you. Your letters give a dash to my laziness in writing: I must first tell you, there is not such a glassie, Icie, & slippery piece of way, betwixt you and heaven as Youth: I have experience to say with me here, and seal what I assert: the old ashes of the sins of my youth, are new fire of sorrow to me: I have seen the Devil, as it were, dead & buried, & yet rise again & be a worse Devil then ever he was. Therefore, my brother, beware of a green young Devil that hath never been buried: the Devil in his flowers (I mean, the hot fiery lusts & passions of youth) is much to be feared: better yoke with an old gray-haired, withered, dry Devil: For in youth he findeth dry sticks, & dry coals, and an hot hearth-stone, and how soon can he with his flint cast fire, and with his bellows blow it up, and fire the house: sanctified thoughts, thoughts made conscience of, and called in, and kept in aw, are green fewel, that burn not, & are a water for Satans coal. Yet I must tell you, the whole saints now triumphant in heaven and standing before the throne, are nothing but Christs forlorn and beggerly Dyvours: What are they but a pack of redeemed sinners? But their redemption is not onelyonly past the seals, but compleated, and yours is on the wheels, and in doing: All Christs good bairns go to heaven with a broken brow, and with a crooked leg. Christ hath an advantage of you, and I pray you let him have't, he shall finde employment for his calling in you: if it were not with you as you write, grace should finde no sale nor mercat in you; but ye must be content to give Christ somewhat adoe: I am glad that he is employed that way: let your bleeding soul, and your sores be put in the hand of this expert physician: let young and strong corruptions, and his free grace be yoked together, and let Christ & your sins deal it betwixt them. I will be loath to put you off your fears, and your sense of deadness: (I wish it were more) there be some wounds of that nature, that their bleeding should not be soon stoped: ye must take a house beside the Physician, it shall be a miracle if ye be the first sick man he put away uncured, & worse then he found you: nay, nay, Christ is honest, and in that flyting free with sinners (Ioh. 6. 37. And him that cometh to me, I will in no, case cast out) Take ye that: It cannot be presumption to take that as your own, when ye find your wounds stound you, presumption is ever whole at the heart, and hath but the truant-sickness, and groaneth onelyonly for the fashion: faith hath sense of sickness, and looketh like a friend to the promise, and looking to Christ therein, is glad to see a known face. Christ is as full a feast, as ye can have to hunger: nay Christ, I say, is not a full mans leavings; his mercy sends alwayes a letter of defiance to all your sins, if there were ten thousand moe of them. I grant you, it is a hard matter for a poor hungry man, to win his meat upon hidden Christ, for then the key of his pantrie door, and of the house of wine is a seeking, & cannot be had; but hunger must break thorow ironlocks. I be moan them not who can make a din, & all the fields adoe, for a Lost Saviour: ye must let him hear it (to say so) upon both the sides of his head, when he hideth himself: it is no time then to be bird-mouth'd and patient. Christ is rare indeed, and a delicate to a sinner; he is a miracle and a world's wonder, to a seeking and a weeping sinner, but yet such a miracle, as will be seen by them, who will come and see: the seeker, and sigher is at last a singer and enjoyer: nay, I have seen a dumb man get an almes from Christ. He that can tell his tale, and send such a letter to heaven, as he hath sent to Aberden, it is very like he will come speed with Christ. It bodeth Gods mercy to complain heartily for sin. Let wrestling be with Christ till he say, How is it, Sir, that I cannot be quite of your bills, & your misl…arned crys? And then hope for Christs blessing, and his blessing is better then other ten blessings. Think not shame because of your guiltiness; necessity must not blush to beg; it standeth you hard to want Christ, and therefore that which idle on-waiting cannot doe, mis…ur…ured crying and knocking will doe. And for doubtings, because ye are not as ye were long since with your master, consider three things. 1. What if Christ had such tottering thoughts of the bargain, of the new covenant, betwixt you & him, as you have. 2. Your heart is not the compass Christ saileth by: He will give you leave to sing as ye please: But he will not dance to your daft spring. It is not referred to you, and your thoughts, what Christ will doe with the charters betwixt you and him, your own misbeleef hath torn them, but he hath the principal in heaven, with himself; your thoughts are no parts of the New covenant, dreams change not Christ. 3. Doubtings are your sins; but they are Christs d…ugges, & ing…dients, that the Phisician maketh use of, for the cu…ing of your pride. Is it not suitable for a begger, to say, at meat, God re…ard the winners? for then he sayeth, he knoweth who beareth the charges of the house. It is also meet ye should know by experience, that faith is not natur's il gotten bastard, but your Lords free gift, that lay in the womb of Gods free grace, praised be the winner. I may adde a 4. In the passing of your bill, & your charters, when they went through the Mediators great seal, and were concluded, faith's advice was not sought: saith hath not a vote beside Christs merits, blood, blood, dear blood that came from your cautioners holy body, maketh that sure work. The use then which ye have of faith now, (having already closed with Jesus Christ for justification) is, to take out a copy of your pardon; & so ye have peace with God, upon the account of Christ: for since faith apprehendeth pardon, but never payeth a penny for it, no marvel that Salvation doeth not die and live, ebbe, or flow, with the working of faith, but because it is your Lords honour to beleeve his mercy, and his fidelity, it is infinit goodness in our Lord, that misbeleef giveth a dash to our Lords glory, and not to our Salvation: and so who ever want (yea, howbeit God here bear with the want of what we are obliged to give him, even the glory of his grace, by beleeving, yet) a poor covenanted sinner wanteth not: but if guiltiness were removed, doubtings would find no friend, nor life; and yet faith is to beleeve the removal of guiltiness, in Christ. A reason why ye get less now (as ye think) then before (as I take it) is, because at our first conversion, our Lord putteth the meat in young bairns mouthes, with his own hand, but when we grow to some further perfection, we must take heaven by violence, and take by violence from Christ, what we get; and he can, and doeth hold, because he will have us to draw. Remenber now ye must, live upon violent plucking, laziness is a greater fault now, then long since; we love alwayes to have the pape put in our mouth. No for my self; alace, I am not the man I goe for in this nation men have not just weights to weigh me … …, but I am a li…y…less Body, and ove… … … … … whom … … … If Christ would refer the matter to … (in his presence I speak it) I might think shame to vote my own salvation: I think Christ might say, think… thou not shame to claim heaven, who does so … for it I am very often so, that I know not whether … …nk o… swine in the water; I find my self a bag of light froth; I would bear no weight, (but vanities & nothing's weigh in Christs balance) if my Lord cast not in borrowed weight & metall, even Christs righteousness, to weigh for me: the stock I have is not mine own, I am but the merchand that traffiques with other folks goods, if my creditor Christ would take from me what he hath lent, I would not long keep the causey; but Christ hath made it m…e & his: I think it manhood to play the coward, & jouke in the lee-side of Christ, and thus I am not onelyonly saved from my enemies, but I obtain the victory. I am so empty that I think it were an almes-deed in Christ, if he would win a poor prisoners blessing for evermore, and fill me with his love. I complain when Christ cometh, he cometh alwayes to fetch fire, he is ever in haste, he may not tarry; & poor … [a beggerly Dyvour,] get but a standing visit, & a standing kiss, & but, how doest thou? in the by-going. I dare not say, he is lordly because he is made a King now, at the right hand of God, or is grown miskenning & dry to his poor freinds, [for he cannot make more of his kisses then they are worth:] but I think it my happiness to love the love of Christ; & when he goeth away, the memory of his sweet presence is like a feast in a dear summer. I have comfort in this, that my soul desireth that every hour of my imprisonment were a company of heavenly tongues, to praise him on my behalf; howbeit my bonds were prolonged for many hundred yeers. O that I could be the man, who could procure my Lords glory to flow like a full sea, & blow like a mighty wind upon all the four Airths of Scotland, England & Ireland! O if I could write a book of his praises! O fairest among the sons of men, why stayest thou so long away? O heavens, move fast! O time, run, run, & hasten the marriage-day, for love is tormented with delayes! O Angels, O Seraphims who stand before him, O blessed Spirits who now see his face, set him on high, for when ye have worn your harps in his praises, all is too little, & is nothing, to cast the smel of the praise of that fair flower, that fragrant rose of Sharon, through many worlds! Sir, take my hearty commendations to him, & tell him that I am sick of love. Grace be with you.
Aberd. June 16. 1637. Yours in his sweet L. Iesus, S. R.