Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 62
To JAMES LINDSAY. (62.)
Dear Brother.
THe constant & daily observing of God's going alongst with you, in his coming, going, ebbing, flowing, embracing & kissing, glooming & striking giveth me [a witless & lazie observer of the Lord's way & working] an heavie stroke: could I keep sight of him, & know when I want, & carry as became me in that condition, I would blesse my case. But. 1. For desertions, I think them like lying-lay of lean & weak land, for some yeers, while it gather sap for a better crope: It is possible to gather gold where it may be had with moon light. Oh if I could but creep one foot, or half a foot neerer in to Jesus in such a dismal night as that, when he is away: I should think it an happy absence. 2. If I knew the beloved were onelyonly gone away for triall, & for further humiliation, & not smoked out of the house with new provocations, I would forgive desertions, & hold my peace at his absence, but Christ's bought absence [that I bought with my sin] is two running boils at once, one upon either side, & what side then can I lie on? 3. I know as night & shaddows are good for flowers, & moonlight, & dews are better then a continuall sun; so is Christ's absence of speciall use, & it hath some nourishing vertue in it, & giveth sap to humility, & putteth an edge on hunger, & furnisheth a fair field to faith to put forth it self, & to exercise it's fingers in gripping, it seeth not what. 4. It is mercy's wonder, & grace's wonder, that Christ will lend a piece of the lodging, & a back-chamber beside himself to our lusts, & that he & such swine should keep house together in our soul: For suppose they couch & contract themselves into little room, when Christ cometh in, & seem to lie as dead under his feet; yet they often break out again: And that a foot of the old man, or a leg or arm nailed to Christ's cross looseth the naile or breaketh out again; & yet Christ beside this unruly & misnurtured neighbour can still be making heaven in the saints one way or other, may not I say, Lord Iesus, what doest thou here? Yet here he must be; but I will but lose my feet to goe on into this depth & wonder, for free mercy & infinite merits took a lodging to Christ & us beside such a loath some guest as sin. 5. Sanctification & mortification of our lusts, are the hardest part of Christianity: It is in a manner as naturall to us to leap when we see the new Jerusalem, as to laugh when we are tickled, joy is not under command, or at our nod when Christ kisseth: but O how many of us would have Christ divided in two halves, that we might take the half of him onelyonly & take his office Iesus & salvation, but Lord is a cumbersome word, & to obey & work out our own salvation & to perfect holyness, is the cumbersome & stormy north-side of Christ, & that we eshew & shift. 6. For your question, the accesse that reprobats have to Christ [which is none at all, for to the Father in Christ neither can they, nor will they come, because Christ dyed not for them; & yet by law, God & justice overtaketh them] I say, First, there are with you more worthy & learned then I am Mrs Dickson, Blair, & Hamilton who can more fully satisfie you; but I shall speak in brief what I think of it in these assertions. 1. All God's justice toward man & Angels floweth from an act of the absolut soveraign free-will of God, who is our former & potter, & we are but clay; for if he had forbidden to eat of the rest of the trees of the Garden of Eden, & commanded Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge of good & evil, that command no doubt had been as just as this, Eat of all the trees, but not at all of the tree of knowledge of good & evil: The reason is, because his will is before his justice by order of nature, & what is his will, is his justice, & he willeth not things without himself because they are just: God cannot, God needeth not to hunt sanctity, holyness or righteousness from things without himself, & so not from the actions of men or Angels; because his will is essentially holy and just, & the prime rule of holyness & justice: as the fire is naturally light, and inclineth upward & the earth heavie, & inclineth downward. The 2 assertion then is, that God saith to reprobats beleeve in Christ [who hath not dyed for your salvation] & ye shall be saved, is just & right, because his eternall & essentially just will, hath so enacted & decreed: Suppose naturall reason speak against this, this is the deep & speciall mystery of the Gospel. God hath obliged hard and fast all the reprobats in the visible Church to beleeve his promise, he that beleeveth shall be saved, & yet in God's decree and secret intention, there is no salvation at all decreed and intended to reprobats; and yet the obligation of God being from his Soveraign free-will, is most just, as said is in the first assertion. 3. Assertion: The righteous Lord hath right over the reprobats & all reasonable creatures that violat his commandements, this is easie. 4. Assertion: the faith that God seeketh of reprobats, is, That they rely upon Christ as despairing of their own righteousness, leaning wholly, & withall humbly, as weary & leaden, upon Christ, as on the resting stone laid in Sion; but he seeketh not that without being weary of their sin they rely on Christ, mankind's Saviour; for to rely on Christ & not to weary of sin, is presumption, not faith: faith is ever neighbour to a contrite spirit, & it's impossible that faith can be where there is not a casten down & contrite heart in some measure for sin: Now it is certain God commandeth no man to presume. 5. Assertion: then Reprobats are not absolutly obliged to beleeve, that Christ dyed for them in particular; for in truth neither reprobats nor others are obliged to beleeve a lye, onelyonly they are obliged to beleeve, Christ dyed for them, if they be first weary, burdened, sin-sick & condemned in their own consciences, & striken dead & killed with the law's sentence, & have indeed embraced him as offered, which is a second & subsequent act of faith, following after a coming to him, & closing with him. 6. Assertion: Reprobatsare not formally guilty of comtempt of God, & misbelief because they apply not Christ and the promises of the Gospel to themselves in particular, for so they should be guilty because they beleeve not a lye, which God never obliged them to beleeve. 7. Assertion: justice hath a right to punish reprobats, because out of pride of heart, confiding in their own righteousness, they rely not upon Christ, as a Saviour of all them that come to him: This, God may justly oblige them unto; Because in Adam they had perfect ability to doe, and men are guilty because they love their own inability & rest upon themselves, & refuse to deny their own righteousness, & to take them to Christ, in whom there is righteousness for wearied sinners. 8. Assertion: It is one thing to rely, lean, & rest upon Christ in humility & weariness of spirit, & denying our own righteousness beleeving him to be the onelyonly righteousness of wearied sinners, & it is another thing to beleeve Christ dyed for me, Iohn, Thomas, Anna, upon an intention & decree to save us by name. For 1. the first goeth first, the latter is alway after in due order 2. The first is faith, the second is a fruit of faith. 3. The first obligeth reprobats & all men in the visible Kirk, the latter obligeth onelyonly the weary & leaden, & so onelyonly the elect & effectually called of God. 9. Assertion: It is a vain order, I know not if Christ dyed for me, Iohn, Thomas, Anna by name; & therefore I dare not rely on him? The reason is, because It is not faith, to beleeve God's intention & decree of election at the first, ere ye be wearied: look first to your own intention & soul, if ye finde sin a burden, and can, and doe rest, under that burden upon Christ; if this be once, now come & beleeve in particular or rather apply by sense [for in my judgement it is a fruit of belief, not belief] & feeling the goodwill, intention, and gracious purpose of God anent your salvation: Hence because there is malice in reprobats and contempt of Christ, guilty they are; and justice hath law against them: And which is the mystery, they cannot come up to Christ because he dyed not for them; but their sin is, that they love this their inability to come to Christ, and he who loveth his chains, deserveth chains: And thus in short remember my bonds.
Aberd. Sept, 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.