Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 1
To the Vicountess of Kenmure. (1.)
MADAM..
ALL dutifull obedience in the Lord remembred: I have heard of your La: Infirmity and sickness with grief yet I trust ye have learned to say. It is the Lord, let him doe whatsoever seemeth good in his eyes. It is now many years since the Apostate Angels made a question, whether their will or the will of their Creator should be done, & since that time, fr…ward mankinde hath alwayes in that same sute of Law compeared, to plead with them against God, in a dayly repining against his will: but the Lord being both party & Judge, hath obtained a decreet & saith, Isa. 46. 10. My counsel shall stand, & I will doe all my pleasure. It is then best for us in the obedience of faith & in an holy submission, to give that to God which the Law of …is almighty & just power will have of us. Therefore, Madam, your Lord willeth you in all states of life to say Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven: & herein shall ye have comfort, that he who seeth perfectly through all your evils, & knoweth the frame & constitution of your nature, & what is most healthfull for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to your head with his own gracious hand: Never beleeve that your tender-hearted Saviour who knoweth the strength of your stomack, will mix that cup with one dram weight of poison: Drink then with the patience of the saints, & the God of patience bless your Physick. I have heard your La: complain of deadness & want of the bestirring power of the life of God, but courage, he who walked in the garden & made a noise that made Adam hear his voice, will also at sometimes walk in your soul & make you hear a more sweet word: Yet ye will not alwayes hear the no…se & the din of his feet when he walketh: Ye are at such a time like Iacob mourning at the supposed death of Ioseph, when Joseph was living: The new creature, the image of the second Adam is living in you, & yet ye are mourning at the supposed death of the life of Christ in you: Ephraim is bemoaning & mourning, Ier. 31. 18. When he thinketh God is far off & heareth not, & yet God is like the Bridegroom, Cant. 2. standing onelyonly behinde a thin wall & laying to his ear, for he saith himself, ver 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. I have good confidence, Madam, that Christ Jesus whom your soul through forrests & mountains is seeking, is within you: And yet I speak not this to lay a pillow under your head, or to disswade you from an holy fear of the losse of your Christ or of provoking & stirring up the beloved before he please, by sin. I know, in spiritual confidence the Devil will come in, as in all other good works, & cry half mine, & so endeavour to bring you under a fearfull sleep, till he whom your soul loveth be departed from the door & have left off knocking & therefore, here the Spirit of God must hold your souls feet in the golden mid-line betwixt confident resting in the arms of Christ, & presumptuous and drousie sleeping in the bed of fleshly security. Therefore, worthy Lady, so count little of your self, because of your own wretchedness and sinfull drousiness, that ye count not also little of God in the course of his unchangeable mercy: For there be many Christians, most like unto young sailers, who think the shore & the whole land doeth move, when the ship & they themselves are moved; just so, not a few doe imagine that God moveth & saileth & changeth places, because their giddy souls are under sail & subject to alteration, to ebbing & flowing; but the foundation of the Lord abideth sure. God knoweth that ye are his own: Wrestle, fight, goe forward, watch, fear, beleeve, pray, & then ye have all the infallible symptomes of one of the elect of Christ within you. Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you & also after that a death, gather then now food for the journey: God give you eyes to see through sickness & death, & to see something beyond death. I doubt not but if hell were betwixt you & Christ, as a river which ye behooved to cross ere ye could come at him, but ye would willingly put in your foot & make through to be at him, upon hope that he would come in himself in the deepest of the river & lend you his hand. Now I beleeve your hell is dried up & ye have onelyonly these two shallow brooks, Sickness & Death, to pass through, & ye have also a promise that Christ shall doe more then meet you, even that he shall come himself & goe with you foot for foot, yea & bear you in his arms. O then! O then for the joy that is set before you! For the love of the man [who is also God over all, blessed for ever] that is standing upon the shore to welcome you, run your race with patience: The Lord goe with you. Your Lord will not have you nor any of his servants to exchange for the worse. Death in it self includeth both the death of the soul & the death of the body, but to God's children the bounds & the limits of death are abridged & drawn into a more narrow compass: So that when ye die, a piece of death shall onelyonly seise upon you, or the least part of you shall die, & that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered from the second death: & therefore, as one born of God commit not sin [although ye cannot live & not sin] & that serpent shall but eat your earthly part? As for your soul, it is above the law of Death: But it is fearfull & dangerous to be a debter and servant to sin, for the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except Christ both count & pay for you. I trust also, Madam, that ye will be carefull to present to the Lord the present estate of this decaying Kirk: For, what shall be concluded in Parliament anent her, the Lord knoweth: sure I am, the decree of a most fearfull Parliament in heaven, is at the very point of coming forth, because of the sins of the land: For, We have cast away the law of the Lord and despised the words of the holy one of Israel, Isa. 5, 24. Iudgement is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off, truth is fallen in the stre…ts and equity cannot enter. Lo, the prophet, as if he had seen us & our Kirk, resembleth justice to be handled as an enemy holden out at the ports of our city, so is she banished: & Truth to a person sickly & diseased, fallen down in a deadly swooning sit in the streets before he can come to an house: Isa. 59. 14. The Priests have caused many to stumble at the Law, & have corrupted the Covenant of Levi: Mal. 2. 8. But what will they doe in the end? Ier. 5 31. Therefore give the Lord no rest for Zion. Stir up your husband, your brother, & all with whom ye are in favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord's side against Baal. I have good hope your husband loveth the peace & prosperity of Zion: The peace of God be upon him for his intended courses anent the establishment of a powerfull Ministery in this land. Thus not willing to weary your La: further, I recommend you now, & alwayes, to the grace & mercy of that God who is able to keep you that ye fall not. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Anwoth. July. 27. 1628. Your La: servant at all dutifull obedience in Christ, S. R.