Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 88
To my welbeloved & reverend brother Mr ROBERT BLAIR. [88]
Reverend & dearly beloved Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace from God our father & from our Lord Jesus Christ be to you: It is no great wonder, my Dear Brother, that ye be in heaviness for a season, & that God's will in crossing your design & desires to dwell amongst a people whose God is the Lord, should move you: I deny not, but ye have cause to enquire what his providence speaketh in this to you; but God's directing & commanding will, can by no good logick, be concluded from events of providence. The Lord sent Paul many errands for the spreading of his Gospel, where he found lions in his way: a promise was made to his people of the holy land & yet many nations in the way fighting against, & ready to kill them who had the promise, or keep them from poss…ssing that good land which the Lord their God had given them. I know ye have most to doe with submission of spirit; but I perswade my self, ye have learned in every condition wherein ye are cast, therein to be content, & to say, good is the will of the Lord, let it be done. I beleeve, the Lord tackleth his ship often to fetch the wind, & that he purposeth to bring mercy out of your sufferings & silence, which [I know from mine own experience] is grievous to you: s…eing he knoweth our willing minde to serve him, our wages & stipend is running to the fore with our God; even as some tick souldiers get their pay when then they are bed-…ast & not able to goe to the fields with others. Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord & my God shall be my strentgh, Isa. 49: 3. & we are to beleeve it shall be thus ere all the play be played, Ier. 51: 35. The violence done to me & my flesh, be upon Babylon, & the great whore's lovers, shall the inhabitants of Zion say, and my blood be upon Caldea, shall Ierusalem say & Zech. 12: 2. Behold, I will make Ierusalem a cap of trembling to all the people about, where they shall be in the siege bosh against Iudah and Ierus them v. 3. And is that day, I will make Ierusalem a burden so… stone for all people, they that burden themselves with it, shall be broken in pieces: though all the people of the earth be gathered against it. When they have eaten & swallowed us up, they shall be sick & vomit us out living men again: the devil's stomack cannot digest the Church of God. Suffering is the other half of our ministry, howbeit the hardest: For we would be content our King Jesus would make an open proclamation & cry down crosses; & cry up joy, gladness, ease, honour, & peace; but it must not be so; through many aff…ctions we must enter into the Kingdom of God: not onelyonly by them, but through them must we goe: & wiles will not take us by the cross: It is folly to think, to steal to heaven with a whole skin. For myself I am here a prisoner confined in Aberd…n, threatned to be removed to Caithness, because I desire to edifie in this town; & I am openly preached against in the pulpits in my hearing, & tempted with disputations by the Doctors, especially by D. B. Yet I am not ashamed of my Lord Jesus his garland & crown: I would not exchange my weeping with the fourteen Prelat, painted laughter. At my first coming here, I took the Dorts at Christ & would forsooth summond him for unkindness; I sought a plea of my Lord & was tossed with challenges, whether he loved me or not? & disputed all over again that he had done to me; because his word was a fire shut up in my bowels & I was weary with forbearing; because I said I was cast out of the Lord's inheritance: but now I see I was a fool: My Lord miskend all & did bear with my foolish jealousies & miskend that ever I wronged his love, and now he is come again with mercy under his wings: I past from my [O witless] summonds: he is God [I see] & I am man. Now it hath pleased him to renew his love to my soul, & to dâte his poor prisoner. Therefore, my dear Brother, help me to praise, & shew the Lord's people with you, what he hath done to my soul, that they may pray & praise: & I charge you, in the name of Christ, not to omit it; for, for this cause I write to you that my sufferings may glorifie my royal King & edifie his church in Ireland. He knoweth how one of Christ's love-coals hath burnt my soul with a desire to have my bonds to preach his glory, whose cross I now bear. God forgive you if ye doe it not; But I hope the Lord will move your heart to proclaim in my behall, the sweetness, excellency & glory of my royal King. It is but our soft flesh that hath raised a slander on the cross of Christ; I see now the white side of it: My Lord's chains are all overguilded. O if Scotland & Ireland had part of my feast! & yet I get not my meat but with many strokes. There are none here to whom I can speak; I dwell in Kedar's tents. Refresh me with a letter from you: Few know what is betwixt Christ & me. Dear Brother, upon my salvation, this is his truth that we suffer for: Christ would not seal a blank charter to souls. Courage, courage, joy, joy for evermore! O joy unspeakable & glorious! Oh for help to set my crowned King on high! O for love to him who is altogether lovely! That love which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods drown! I remember you, & I bear your name on my breast to Christ: I beseech you forget not his afflicted prisoner. Grace, mercy & peace be with you. Salute in the Lord from me Mr Cuninghame, Mr Livingston, Mr Ridge, Mr Colwart, &c.
Aberd. Feb. 7. 1637. Your Brother & fellow prisoner. S. R.