Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 50
To JAMES BAUTIE. (50)
Loving Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be unto you: I received your letter & renders you thanks for the same; but I have not time to answer all the heads of it as the bearer can inform you. 1. Ye doe well to take your self at the right stot when ye wrong Christ by doubting & misbeleef, for this is to nick-name Christ & terme him a liar, which being spoken to our Prince would be hanging or heading, but Christ hangeth not alwayes for treason: It is good that he may registrat a beleevers bond a hundred times, & more then seventy times a day have law against us, & yet he spareth us as a man doeth his son that serveth him: No tender hearted mother who may have law to kill her sucking childe, would put in execution that law. 2. For your failings even ye have a set tryst with Christ & when ye have a fair seen advantage by keeping your appointment with him, & Salvation cometh to the very passing of the seals: I would say two things. 1. Concluded & sealed Salvation may goe through & be ended, suppose ye write your name to the tail of the Covenant with ink that can hardly be read: Neither think I ever any man's Salvation passed the seals, but there was an odde trick or slip in less or more, upon the fools part, who is infested in heaven: In the most grave & serions work of our Salvation, I think Christ had ever good cause to laugh at our filliness, & to put on us his merits, that we might bear weight. 2. It is a sweet law of the new Covenant, & a priviledge of the new burgh, that the citizens pay according to their means, for the new covenant saith not so much obedience by ounce weights, & no less under the pain of damnation: Christ taketh as poor men may give, where there is a mean portion, he is content with the less; if there be sincerity: broken summes & little feckless obedience will be pardoned, & hold the foot with him: know ye not that our kindly Lord retaineth his good old heart yet? He breaketh not a bruised reed nor quencheth the smoaking flax: but if the wind blow, he holdeth his hands about, it till it rise to a flame. The Law cometh on with three Oyes's, with all the heart: with all the soul, & with all the whole strength: & where would poor folke like you & me furnish all these summes? it feareth me, (may it is most certain) that if the payment were to come out of our purse, when we should put our hand in our bag, we would bring out the wind or worse: But the new Covenant seeketh not heap mete nor stented obedience as the condition of it, because forgiveness hath alwayes place. Hence I draw this conclusion: To think matters betwixt Chirst & us goe back for want of heaped measure, is a piece of old Adam's pride, who would either be at legal payment or nothing: We would still have God in our common & buy his kindness with our merits; for beggerly pride is Devil'shonest, & blusheth to be in Christ's common, & scarce giveth God a grammercy & a lifted cap [except it be the Pharisee's unlucky God I … thee] or a bowed knee to Christ: it will onelyonly give a good-day for a good-day again; & if he dissemble his kindness as it were in jest & seem to misken it, it in earnest spurneth with the heels & snuffeth in the wind, & careth not much for Christ's kindness: If he will not be friends let him goe, saith pride: beware of this thief, when Christ offereth himself. 3. No marvell then of whisperings, whether you be in the Covenant or not? For Pride it maketh loose work of the Covenant of grace, & will not let Christ be full bargainmaker. To speak to you particularly & shortly. 1. All the truly regenerated cannot determinatly tell you the measure of their dejections, because Christ beginneth young with many & stealeth into their heart ere they wit of themselves & becometh homely with them with little din, or noise. I grant, many are blinded in rejoycing in a good-cheap conversion, that never cost them a sick night; Christ's physick wrought in a dream upon them: But for that, I would say; if other markes be found that Christ is indeed come in, never make a plea with him because he will not answer, Lord Iesus how camest thou in? whether in at door or window? Make him welcome since he is come. The wind bloweth where it listeth; all the world's wit cannot perfectly render a reason, why the wind should bea monethmonth in the east, six weeks possibly in the west: & the space onelyonly of an afternoon in the south or north: Ye will not finde …t all the nicks & steps of Christ's way with a foul doe what ye can; for sometimes he will come in stepping softly, like one walking beside a sleeping person & slip to the door, & let none know he was there. 2. Ye object, the truly regenerat should love God for himself: & ye fear that ye love him more for his benefits (as incitements & motives to love him) then for himself. I Answer, to love God for himself as the last end, & also for his benefits as incitements & motives to love him, may stand well together, as a son loveth his mother because she is his mother, howbeit she be poor, & he loveth her for an apple also: I hope ye will not say that benefits are the onelyonly reason & bottom of your love; it seemeth there is a better foundation for it: Alwayes if a hole be in it, sow it up shortly. 3. Ye feel not such mourning in Christ's absence as ye would. I Answer, that the regenerat mourn at all times, & all in alike measure for his absence, I deny: There are different degrees of mourning less or more, as they have less or more love to him & less or more sense of his absence: But, 1. Some they must have. 2. Sometimes they miss not the Lord, & then they cannot mourn, howbeit it is not long so: At least it is not alwayes so. 3. Ye challenge your self that some truthes finde more credit whith you then others: Ye doe well, for God is true in the least as well as in the greatest, & he must be so to you: Ye must not call him true in the one page of the leaf, & false in the other, for our Lord in all his writtings never contradicted himself yet, although the best of the regenerat have slipped here, alwayes labour ye to hold your feet. 4. Comparing the estate of one truly regenerat [whose heart is a temple to the Holy Ghost] & yours [which is full of uncleanness & corruption] ye stand dumb & discouraged & dare not sometimes call Christ heartsomely your own. I Answer, the best regenerat have their defilements & [if I may speak so] their draff-poke that will …log behinde them all their dayes, & was la as they will, there will be filth in their bosom: But let not this put you from the well. 2. I Answer, albeit there be some ounce weights of carnality & some squint look, or eye in our neck to an idol, yet love in it's own measure may be sound; for glory must purifie & perfect our love, it will never till then be absolutly pure: yet if the idol reign & have the yolk of the heart & the keyes of the house, & Christ onelyonly be made an underling to run erra…ds, all is not right; therefore examine well. 3. There is a two fold discouragement: one of unbeleef to conclude & make doubting the conclusion for a mote in your eye, & a by-look to an idol, this is ill. There is another discouragement of sorrow for sin, when ye finde a by-look to an idol: this is good & a matter of thanksgiving, therefore examine here also. 5. The assurance of Jesus's love ye say would be the most comfortable newes that ever ye heard: Ans. That may stop twenty holes, & loose many objections: That love hath tellng in it I trow. Oh that ye knew & felt it as I have done! I wish ye a share of my feast; sweet, sweet hath it been to me: If my Lord had not given me his love, I would have fallen thorow the causey of Aberdeen ere now: But for you, hing on, your feast is not far off, ye shall be filled ere ye goe, there is as much in our Lord's pantry as will satisfie all his bairns, & as much wine in his cellar as will quench all their thirst: hunger on, for there is meat in hunger for Christ: Goe never from him, but fash him [who yet is pleased with the importunity of hungry souls] with a dish-full of hungry desires till he fill it; & if he delay, yet come not ye away, albeit ye should fall a swoon at his feet. 7. Ye crave my minde, whether found comfort may be found in prayer, when conviction of a known idol is present. I answer, an idol as an idol can not stand with found comfort; for that comfort that is gotten at Dagon's sect is a cheat or blea-flumme: yet sound comfort & conviction of an eye to an idol, may as well dwell together, as tears & joy: But let this doe you no ill, I speak it for your encouragement, that ye may make the best out of your joyes ye can, albeit ye finde them mixed with motes. 2. Sole conviction, if alone without remorse and grief, is not enough, therefore lend it a tear if ye dow win at it. 7. Ye question, when ye win to more fervency sometimes with your neighbour in prayer then your alone, whether hypocrisie be in it, or not? I answer, if this be alwayes, no question a spice of hypocrisie in in it, which would be taken head to; out possibly desertion may be in privat, & presence in publike, & then the case is clear. 2. A fit of applause may occasion by accident a rubbing of a cold heart & so heat & life may come, but it is not the proper cause of that heat: hence God of his free grace will ride his errands upon our stinking corruption, but corruption is but a meer occasion & accident; as the playing on a pipe removed anger from the prophet & made him fitter to prophesie: 2. King. 3: v. 15. 8. Ye complain of Christ's short visits, that he will not bear you company one night, but when ye lie down warm at night, ye rise cold at morning. Ans. I cannot blame you [nor any other who knoweth that sweet guest] to bemoan his withdrawings, & to be most desirous of his abode & company; for he would captivat & engage the affection of any creature that saw his face: since he looked on me & gave me a sight of his fair love, he gained my heart wholly, & got away with it: Well, well may he brook it, he shall keep it long ere I fetch it from him. But I shall tell you what ye shall doe: treat him well, give him the chair & the board-head, & make him welcome to the mean portion ye have; a good supper & kind entertainment maketh the guest love the innes the better: Yet sometimes Christ hath an errand elsewhere, for meer trial, & then though ye give him king's-chear he will away; as is clear in desertions for meer trial, & not for sin. 9. Ye seek the difference betwixt the motions of the Spirit in their least measure, & the natural joyes of your own heart. Ans. as a man can tell if he joy & delight in his wife, as his wife, or if he delight & joy in her for satisfaction of his lust, but hating her person, & so loving her for her her flesh & not grieving when ill befalleth her: so will a man's joy in God, and his who …ish naturall joy be discovered, if he sorrow for any thing that may offend that Lord, it will speak the singleness of his love to him. 10. Ye aske the reason why sense overcometh faith Ans. because sense is more naturall, & neer of kin to our own selfish & soft nature. Ye aske, if faith in that ease be found? Ans: If it be chased away, it is neither sound nor unsound, because it is not faith; but it might be & was faith before sense did blow out the act of beleeving. Lastly, ye aske what to doe when promises are born in upon you, & sense of impenitency for sins of youth, hindereth application. I answer; if it be living sense, it may stand with application, & in this case, put to your hand & eat your meat in God's name: if false, so that the sins of youth are not repented of, then as faith & impenitency cannot stand together, so neither that sense & application can consist. Brother, excuse my brevity, for time straitneth me, that I get not my minde said in these things, but must refer that to a new occasion, if God offer it. Brother, Pray for me. Grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his dearest Lord Iesus. S. R.