Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 63 – LETTER 71
To the Earle of Cassills. (63)
My very honourable & Noble Lord.
GRace, mercy & peace be to your Lo: pardon me to expresse my earnest desire to your Lo: for Zions sake, for whom we should not hold our peace. I know your Lo: will take my pleading on this behalf in the better part, because the necessity of a falling & weak church is urgent. I beleeve your Lo: is one of Zion's friends, & that by obligation; for when the Lord shall count & write up the people, it shall be written this man was born there: Therefore because your Lo: is a born son of the house, I hope your desire is, that the beauty & glory of the Lord may dwell in the midst of the city, whereof your Lo: is a son. It must be without all doubt the greatest honour of your place & house, to kiss the son of God, & for his sake to be kind to his oppressed & wronged bride, who now in the day of her desolation beggeth help of you that are the shields of the earth: I am sure ma…y Kings, Princes & Nobles in the day of Christ's second coming, would be glad to run errands for Christ, even bare footed thorow fire & water; but in that day he will have none of their service: Now he is asking if your Lo: will help him against the mighty of the earth, when men are setting their shoulders to Christ's fair & beautifull tent in this land, to loose it's stakes & to break it down, & certainly such as are not with Christ are against him: & blessed shall your Lo: be of the Lord, blessed shall your house & seed be, & blessed shall your Honour be, if ye empawnd & lay in Christ's hand the Earledom of Cassills [& it is but a shaddow in comparison of the city made without hands] and lay it even at the stake, rather then Christ & born-down truth want a witness of you, against the apostasie of this land. Ye hold your lands of Christ, your charters are under his seal, & he who hath many crownes on his head, dealeth, cutteth, & carveth pieces of this clay-heritage to men at his pleasure. It is little your Lo: hath to give him, he will not sleep long in your common, but shall surely pay home your losses for his cause. It is but our bliered eyes that look thorow a false glass to this idol-god of clay & think some thing of it: They who are past with their last sentence to heaven or hell, and have made their reckoning & departed out of this smoky inne, have now no other conceit of this world, but as a piece of beguiling, wel-lustred clay: & how fast doeth time [like a flood still in motion] carry your Lo: out of it? & is not eternity coming with wings? Court goeth not in heaven as it doeth here. Our Lord, [who hath all you the Nobles lying in the shell of his ballance] esteemeth you, accordingly as ye are the bridegroom's friends or foes. Your Honourable Ancestors with the hazard of their lives brought Christ to our hands, & it shall be cruelty to the posterity if ye lose him to them. One of our tribes, Levi's Sons, the watchmen, are fallen from the Lord, & have sold their mother, & their father also, and the Lord's truth, for their new velvet-world, and there satin-church. If ye the Nobles play Christ a slip, now when his back is at the wall [if I may so speak] then may we say that the Lord hath casten water upon Scotland's smoking coal: But we hope better things of you. It is no wisdom; however it be the State-wisdom now in request, to be silent, when they are casting lots for a better thing then Christ's coat. All this land, & every man's part of the play for Christ, & the tears of poor & friendless Zion [now going doollike in sackcloth] are up in heaven before our Lord, & there is no question but our king & Lord shall be master of the fields at length, & we would all be glad to divide the spoile with Christ, & to ride in triumph with him; but Oh how few will take a cold bed of straw in the camp with him! How fain would men have a wel-thatched house above their heads, all the way to heaven? And many now would goe to heaven the land way [for they love not to be sea-sick] riding up to Christ upon footmantles, & ratling coaches, & rubbing their velvet with the Princes of the Land, in the highest seats. If this be the way Christ called strait & narrow. I quite all skill of the way to salvation. Are they not now rooping Christ & the Gospel? Have they not put our Lord Jesu to the market & he who outbideth his fellow, shall get him? O my Dear & Noble Lord, goe on [howbeit the wind be in your face] to back our princely Captain, be couragious for him: fear not these who have no subscribed lease of dayes, the worms shall eat kings, let the Lord Jehovah be your fear: And then, as the Lord liveth the victory is yours. It is true many are striking up a new way to heaven, but my soul for theirs, if they finde it, & if this be not the onelyonly way whose end is Christ's father's house: And my weak experience since the day I was first in bonds hath confirmed me in the truth & assurance of this: Let doctors & learned men cry the contrair, I am perswaded this is the way: the bottom hath fallen out of both their wit & conscience at once, their book hath beguiled them, for we have fallen upon the true Christ. I dare hazard, if I alone had ten souls, my salvation upon this stone that many now break their bones upon. Let them take this fat world, Oh poor and hungry is their paradise! Therefore let me entreat your Lo: By your compearance before Christ, now while this piece of the afternoon of your day is before you, [for ye know not when your sun will turn, & eternity shall benight you] let your glory, honour & might worldly, be, for our Lord Jesus: And to his rich grace, & tender mercy, and to the never-dying comforts of his gracious Spirit I recommend your Lo: And Noble house.
Aberd. Sept. 9. 1637. Your Lo: at all obedience. S, R.
To the Lady Largirie. (64)
MISTRESS.
GRace, Mercy & Peace be to you. I hope ye know what conditions past betwixt Christ & you at your first meeting: Ye remember he said, your summer dayes would have clouds and your rose a prickly thorn bende it: Christ is unmixt in heaven, all sweetness and honey, here we have him with his thorny and rough cross; yet I know no tree beareth sweeter fruit then Christ's cross, except I would raise a lving report on it: It is your part to take Christ as he is to be had in this life: Sufferings are like a wood planted round about his house, over door and window: If we could hold fast our grips of him; the field were won: Yet a little while and Christ shall triumph: Give Christ his own short time to spin, out these two long threeds of heaven and hell to all mankind, for certainly the threed will not break; and when he hath accomplished his work in mount Zion and hath refined his silver, he will bring new vessels out of the furnace, and plenish his house and take up house again. I counsel you to free your self of clogging temptations, by overcoming some, & contemning others; and watching over all: abide true and loyal to Christ, for few now are fast to him: they give Christ blank paper for a bond of service and attendance, now when Christ hath most adoe: to waste a little blood with Christ, and to put out part of this drossie world in pawne over in his hand, as willing to quite it for him, is the safest cabinet to keep the world in: But these who would take the world & all their flitring on their back & run away from Christ, they will fall by the way & leave their burden behinde them, & be taken captive themselves. Well were my soul to put all I have; life & soul, over in Christ's hands; let him be forth-coming for all. If any ask, how I doe? I answer, none can be but well that are in Christ: And if I were not so, my sufferings had melted me away in ashes and smoke; I thank my Lord that he hath something in me that this fire cannot consume. Remember my love to your husband & show him from me, I desire that he may set aside all things & make sure work of salvation, that it be not a seeking when the sand-glass is run out, & time & eternity shall tryst together: There is no errand so wieghty as this: O that he would take it to heart. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Yours in Christ Iesus his Lord. S. R.
To the Lady DUNGUEIGH. (65)
MISTRESS.
I Long to hear from you, & how ye goe on with Christ: I am sure that Christ & ye once met: I pray you fasten your grips; there is holding & drawing & much sea-way to heaven, & we are often sea-sick; but the voyage is so needfull, that we must on any termes take shipping with Christ. I beleeve it is a good countrey we are going to, & there is ill lodging in this smoaky house of the world, in which we are yet living. Oh that we should love smoke so well & clay, that holdeth our feet fast! It were our happiness to follow on after Christ, & to anchor our selves upon the rock in the upper side of the vail. Christ & Satan are now drawing to parties, & they are blinde who see not Scotland divided in two camps, & Christ coming out with his white banner of love, & he hangeth that over the heads of his souldiers: And the other Captain, the Dragon, is coming out with a great black flag, & crieth, the world, the world, case, honour, & a whole skin, and a soft couch, & there lie they, & leave Christ to fend for himself: My counsel is that ye come out & leave the multitude & let Christ have your company: Let them take clay & this present world who love it: Christ is a more worthy & noble portion: Blessed are these who get him: It is good ere the storm rise to make ready all, & to be prepared to goe to the camp with Christ, seeing he will not keep the house, nor sit at the fire-side with couchers: A showr for Christ is little enough Oh I finde all too little for him! Woe, woe, woe's me, that I have no propine for my Lord Jesus: My love is so feckless that it is a shame too offer it to him. Oh if it were as broad as heaven, as deep as the sea, I would gladly bestow it upon him! I pers…ade you God is wringing grapes of red wine for Scotland, & this land shall drink & spue & fall: His enemies shall drink the thick of it & the grounds of it: But Scotland's withered tree shall blossom again, & Christ shall make a second marriage with her, & take home his wife out of the furnace; but if our eyes shall see it, he knoweth who hath created time. Grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord, Iesus. S. R.
To JONET MCCULLOCH. (66)
Loving Sister.
GRace, mercy, & peace be to you: Hold on your course, for it may be, I will not soon see you: venture through the thick of all things after Christ, & tine not your Master Christ in the throng of this great market. Let Christ know how heavy & how many a stone weight you & your cares, burdens, crosses, & sins are; let him bear all: Make the heritage sure to your self, get charters & writs pass…d & through, & put on arms for the battel, & keep you fast by Christ, & then let the wind blow out of what airth it will, your soul will not blow in the sea. I finde Christ the most steadable friend and companion in the world to me now: the need & usefulness of Christ i seen best in trials. Oh if hebe not well worthy of his room! Lodge him in house & heart; & stir up your husband to seek the Lord: I wonder he hath never written to me: I doe not forget him. I taught you the whole counsel of God & delivered it to you, it will be inquired for, at your hands, have it in readiness against the time that the Lord ask for it: make you to meet the Lord; & rest & sleep in the love of that fairest among the sons of men: Desire Christ's beauty: give out all your love to him & let none fall by: Learn in prayer to speak to him: help your mother's soul, & desire her from me to seek the Lord & his salvation, it's not soon found, many miss it. Grace be with you.
Aberd. 1637. Your Loving Pastor. S. R.
To my Lord CRAIGHALL. (67)
My Lord.
I cannot expound your Lo: contrary tides and these tentations wherewith ye are assaulted to be any other thing but Christ trying you, & saying unto you & will ye also leave me. I am sure Christ hath a great advantage against you, if ye play foul play to him, in that the holy Spirit hath done his part, in evidencing to your conscience, that this is the way of Christ wherein ye shall have peace, & the other, as sure as God liveth, the Antichrist's way: Therefore as ye fear God, fear your light & stand in aw of a convincing conscience: it is far better for your Lo: to keep your conscience, & to hazard in such a honourable cause, your place; then wilfully & against your light to come under guiltiness: Kings cannot heal broken consciences; & when death & judgement shall comprize your soul, your counsellers & others cannot become caution to Justice for you. Ere it be long our Lord will put a finall determination to Acts of Parliament & mens laws, & will clear you before men & Angels of mens unjust sentences. Ye received honour, & place, & Authority, & riches & reputation from your Lord, to set forward & advance the liberties & freedom of Christ's Kingdom: Men whose consciences are made of stoutness, think little of such matters, which notwithstanding incroach directly upon Christ's prerogative royal. So would men think it a light matter for VZZah to put out his hand to hold the Lord's falling ark, but it cost him his life. And who doubteth but a carnal friend will advise you to shut your window & pray beneath your breath: Ye make too great a d… with your prayers, so would a head-of-wit speak, if ye were in Daniel's place: But mens overguilded reasons will not help you when your conscience is like to rive with a double charge. Alas, alas, when will this world learn to submit their wisdom to the wisdom of God. I am sure your Lo: hath found the truth; goe not then to search it over again; for it is ordinary for men to make doubts, when they have a minde to desert the truth. Kings are not their own men, their wayes are in God's hand. I rejoyce & am glad that ye resolve to walk with Christ, howbeit his court be thin. Grace be with your Lo:
Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Your Lo: in his sweet Master and Lord Iesus, S. R.
To WILLIAM RIGGE. of Atherny. (68)
Worthy & much honoured Sir.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: How sad a prisoner would I be, if I knew not that my Lord Jesus had the keys of the prison himself, & that his death & blood hath bought a blessing to our crosses aswell as to our selves. I am sure, troubles have no prevailing right over us, if they be but our Lord's Serjeants to keep us in ward while we are in this side of heaven: I am perswaded also, that they shall not goe over the bound-road, nor enter in to heaven with us; for they finde no welcome there, where there is no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither any more pain: & therefore we shall leave them behinde us. Oh if I could get as good a gate of sin, even this wofull & wretched body of sin, as I get of Christ's cross! Nay indeed I think the cross beared b…th me & it self, rather then I it, in comparison of the tyranny of the lawless flesh & wicked nighbour that dwelleth beside Christ's new creature: But Oh, this is that which presseth me down, & pai…eth me: Jesus Christ in his saints sitteth neighbour with an ill second, corruption, deadness, coldness, pride, lust, worldliness, self-love, security, falshood, & a world of …o… the like, which I finde in me, that are daily doing violence to the new man. O but we have cause to carry low sails, & to cleave fast to free grace, free, free grace! Blessed be our Lord that ever that way was found out: If my one foot were in heaven & my soul half in, if free-will & corruption were absolute Lords of me, I should never win wholly in. O but the sweet, new & living way that Christ hath stroke up to our home, be a safe way! I finde now presence & acc…ss a greater dainty then b…fore, but yet the bridegroom looketh through the lattes & thorow the hole of the door. O if he & I were in fair dry land together in the other side of the water. Grace be with you.
Aberd. Sept. 30. 1637 Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S R.
To the Lady KILCONQUHAIR. (69)
MISTRESS.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I received your letter: I am heartily content ye love & own this opp…essed and wronged cause of Christ, & that now wh…n so many are miscarried, ye are in any measure taken with the love of Jesu…: weary not, but come in & see if there be not more in Christ then the tongue of men & Angels can express: If ye seek a gate to heaven, the way is in him, or, he is it: What ye want is treasured up in Jesus, & he saith, all his are yours, even his Kingdom, he is content to divide it betwixt him & you, yea his throne & his glory, Luk. 21. 29. Ioh. 17. 24. Rov. 3. 21. & Therefore take pains to climb up to that bes…eged house to Christ: for devils, men & armies of temptations are lying about the house to hold out all that are out; & it is taken with violence: It is not a smooth & easie way, neit…er will your weather be fair & pleasant; but whosoever saw the invisible God & the fair city, make no reckoning of loss…s or crosses: in ye must be, cost you what it will; stand not for a price & for all that ye have, to win the castle; the rights to it are won to you, & it is disponed to you in your Lord Jesus's testament, & see what a fair legacy your dying friend Christ hath left you: And there wanteth nothing but possession. Then get up in the strength of the Lord; get over the water to poss…ss that good land: It is better then a land of olives & wine-trees, for the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every monethmonth is there before you, & a pure river of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, is there. Your time is short, therefore lose no time: Gracious & faithfull is he who hath called you to his Kingdom & glory. The city is yours by free conquest & by promise, & therefore let no uncouth Lord-idol put you from your own. The devil hath cheated the simple heir of his Paradise, & by enticing us to taste of the forbidden fruit, hath, as it were, bought us out of our kindly heritage: But our Lord, Christ Jesus, hath done more then bought the devil by, for he hath redeemed the wodset & made the poor heir free to the inheritāce. If we knew the glory of our elder brother in heaven, we would long to be there to see him, & to get our fill of heaven: We children think the earth a fair garden, but it is but God's out-field & wilde, cold, barren ground: All things are fading that are here: It is our happiness to make sure Christ to our selves. Thus remembring my love to your husband & wi…king to him what I write to you, I commit you to God's tender mercy.
Aberd. Sepr. 13. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To the Lady CRAIGHALL. (70)
Honourable and Christian Lady.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I cannot but write to your La: of the sweet & glorious termes I am in with the most joyful King that ever was, under this well thrifing & prosperous cross: it is my Lord's salvation wrought by his own right hand, that the water doeth not suffocat the breath of …pe & joyfull courage in the Lo…d Jesus: For his own person is still in the camp with his poor souldier. I see, the cross is tied with Christ's hand to the end of an honest profession: We are but fools to endeavour to loose Christ's knot. When I consider the comforts of God, I durst not consent to sell or wod-set my short life-rent of the cross of the Lord Jesus. I know that Christ bought with his own blood a right to sanctified & blessed crosses, in as far, as they blow me over the water to my long desired home: & it were not good that Christ should be the buyer & I the seller. I know time & death shall take sufferings fairly off my hand: I hope we shall have an honest parting at night, when this piece cold & frosty afternoon-tide of my evil & rough day, shall be over: Well is my soul of either sweet or sowre that Christ hath any part or portion in: if he be at the one end of it, it hall be well with me. I shall die ere I libell faults against Christ's cross; it hall have my testimonial under my hand, as an honest & saving mean of Christ for mortification & faith's growth. I have a stronger assurance since I came over Forth, of the excellency of Jesus then I had before. I am rather about him then in him, while I am absent from him in this house of clay: But I would be in heaven for no other cause, but to essay & try, what boundies joy it must be, to be over head & ears in my welbeloved Christ's love. O that fair one hath my heart for evermore! but alas, it is over little for him! O if it were better & more worthy for his sake! O if I might meet with him face to face in this side of eternity, & might have leave to plead with him that I am so hungred & famished here, with the niggardly portion of his love that he giveth me! O that I might be carver & steward my sel… at mine own will of Christ's love! [if I may lawfully wish this] then would I enlarge my vessel [alas, a narrow & ebbe soul] & take in a sea of i▪ love. My hunger for it is hungry & lean in beleeving that ever I shall be satisfied with that love, so fain would I have, what I know I cannot hold. O Lord Jesus, delightest thou, delightest thou to pine & torment poor souls with the want of thy incomparable loved. O if I durst call thy dispensation cruell! I know thou thy selfa…t mercy without either brim or bottom; I know tho… art a God bankfull of mercy & love, but Oh alas, little of it cometh my way: I die to look a far off to that love, because I can get but little of it: But hope saith, this providence shall ere long look more favourably upon poor bodies, & me also. Grace be with your La: Spirit.
Aberd. Sept. 10. 1637. Yours La: in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.
To Mr JAMES HAMILTON. (71)
Reverend & dear Brother.
PEace be to you from God our father and from our Lord Jesus: I am laid low when I remember what I am, and that my out-side casteth such a lustre when I finde so little within. It is a wonder that Christ's glory is not defiled in running through such an unclean & impure channel: But I see Christ will be Christ in the dreg and refuse of men: his art, his shining wisdom, his beauty speaketh loudest in blackness, weakness, deadness, yea in nothing. I see, nothing, no money, no worth no good, no life, no deserving is the ground that omnipotency delighteth to draw glory out of. O how sweet is the inner side of the walls of Christ's house, and a room beside himself! my distance from him maketh me sad. O that we were in others arms! O that the middle things betwixt us were removed! I finde it a difficult matter to keep all stots with Christ: when he laugheth I scarce beleeve it, I would so fain have it true. But I am like a low man looking up to a high mountain, whom weariness and fainting overcometh. I would climb up, but I finde that I doe not advance in my journey as I would wish: Yet I trust he shall take me home against night. I marvel not that Antichrist in his slaves is so busie, but our crowned King seeth and beholdeth, and will arise for Zion's safety. I am exceedingly distracted with letters and company that vilite me; what I can doe, or time will permit, I shall not omit: Excuse my brevity, for I am straitned. Remember the Lord's prisoner: I desire to be mindfull of you. Grace, grace be with you.
Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.