Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 15 – LETTER 16
To my Lady KENMURE. (15.)
MADAM.
HAving saluted you with grace & mercy from God our father & from our Lord Jesus Christ, I long both to see your La: & to hear how it goeth with you; I doe remember you, & present you & your necessities to him who is able to keep you & present you blameless before his face with joy: & my prayer to our Lord is that ye may be sick of love for him who died of love for you, I mean, your Saviour Jesus: And O sweet were that sickness to be soul-sick for him! And a living death it were, to die in the fire of the love of that soul-lover, Iesus! And Madam, if ye love him ye will keep his commandements, & this is not one of the least, to lay your neck cheerfully & willingly under the yoke of Jesus Christ: For I trust your La: did first contract and bargain with the Son of God to follow him upon these terms, that by his grace ye should endure hardship & suffer affliction as the souldier of Christ: They are not worthy of Jesus who will not take a blow for their Master's sake: For our glorious peace-maker, when he came to make up the friendship betwixt God & us, God bruised him & strooke him, the sinfull world also did beat him and crucifie him; yet he took buffets of both the parties, and honour to our Lord Jesus, he would not leave the field for all that, till he had made peace betwixt the parties. I perswade …y self, your sufferings are but like your Saviour's [yea incomparably less & lighter] which are called but a bruising of his …eel. Gen. 3. 15, a wound far from the heart: Your life is hid with Christ in God, Col. 3. 3. And therefore ye cannot be robbed of it. Our Lord handleth us as fathers doe their young children; they lay up jewels in a place above the reach of the short arm of bairns, else …ai…ns would put up their hands & take them down & lose them soon: So hath our Lord done with our spiritual life, Jesus Christ is the high coffer in the which our Lord hath hid our life, we children are not able to reach up our arm so high as to take down that life & lose it, it is in our Christ's hand: O, long, long may Jesus be Lord-keeper of our life! & happy are they that can with the Apostle, 2 Tim. 1. lay their soul in pawne in the hand of Jesus, for he is able to keep that which is committed in pawne to him against that day. Then, Madam, so long as this life is not hurt, all ether troubles are but touches in the heel: I trust ye will soon be cured. Ye know, Madam, Kings have some servants in their court that receive not present wages in their hand, but live upon their hopes: The King of Kings also hath servants in his court that for the present get little or nothing but the heavie cross of Christ, troubles without & terrours within, but they live upon hope, when it cometh to the parting of the inheritance, they remain in the house as heirs: It is better to be so, then to get present payment & a portion in this life, an inheritance in this world [God forgive me that I should honour it with the name of an inheritance, it is rather a farme-room] & then in the end to be casten out of God's house with this word, Ye have received your consolation, ye will get no more: Alas! What get they? The rich glutton's heaven: Oh but our Lord, Luk. 16. maketh it a sillie heaven! He fared well [saith our Lord] & delicately every day: Oh no more! A sillie heaven! Truly no more, except that he was clothed in purple, & that is all: I perswade my self. Madam, ye have joy when ye think that your Lord hath dealt more graciously with your soul. Ye have gotten little in this life: It is true indeed: Ye have then the more to crave, yea ye have all to crave: For except some tastings of the first fruits & some kisses of his mouth whom your soul loveth, ye get no more: But I cannot tell you what is to come; yet I may speak as our Lord doeth of it: The foundation of the city is pure gold, clear as crystall, the twelve ports are set with precious stones: If orchards & rivers commend a soil upon earth, there is a Paradise there, wherein groweth the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every monethmonth, which is seven score & four harvests in the year, & there is there, a pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God & of the Lamb, & the city hath no need of the light of the sun or moon or of a candle, for the Lord God Almighty & the Lamb is the light thereof. Madam, beleeve and hope for this, till ye see & enjoy: Jesus is saying in the Gospel, Come & see; & he is come down in the chariot of Truth wherein he rideth through the world to conquer mens souls, Psal. 45. 4. & is now in the word saying, Who will goe with me? will ye goe? my Father will make you welcome & give you house-room, for in my Father's house are many dwelling places: Madam, consent to goe with him. Thus I rest, commending you to God's dearest mercy.
Anwoth. Yours in the Lord Iesus, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (16.)
MADAM.
I Am afraid now [as many others are] that at the sitting down of our Parliament, our Lord Jesus his Spouse shall be roughly handled: And it must be so, since false & deelining Scotland, whom our Lord took off the dunghill & out of hell, & made a fair Bride to himself, hath broken her faith to her sweet husband, & hath put on the forehead of a whore; & therefore he saith he will remove: would God we could stir up our selves to lay hold upon him, who being highly provoked with the handling he hath met with, is ready to depart! Alas, we doe not importune him by prayer & supplication, to abide amongst us… If we could but we…p upon …m & in the holy pertinacy of faith, wrestle wit… & say We will not let thee goe, it may be that then, he who is easy to be intreated would yet, notwithstanding of our high provocations, condescend to stay & feed among the lilies, till that fair & desirable day break and the shadows fl…e away. Ah! What cause of mourning is there? When our gold is become dim, & the visage of our Nazarites sometimes whiter then snow, is now become blacker then a coal, & Levi's house, once comparable to fine gold, is now changed, & become like vessels in whom he hath no pleasure. Madam, think upon this, that when our Lord who hath his handkerchief to wipe the face of the mourners in Zion, shall come to wipe away all tears frō their eyes, he may wipe yours also in the passing amongst others. I am confident, Madam, that our Lord will yet build a new house to himself, of our rejected and scattered stones: for our bridegroom cannot want a wife: Can he live a widow? Nay, he will embrace both Us the little young sister, & the elder sister The church of the Iews, & there will yet be a day of it; & therefore we have cause to rejoyce, yea to sing & shout for joy. The Church hath been …nce the world began, ever hanging by a small threed, & all the hands of hell & of the wicked have been drawing at the threed, but God be thanked they onelyonly break their arms by pulling, but the threed is not broken, for the sweet fingers of Christ our Lord have spun and twisted it: Lord hold the threed whole! Madam, stir up your husband to lay hold upon the Covenant, & to doe good: What hath he to doe with the World? It is not his inheritance: Desire him to make him home over, & put to his hand to lay one stone or two upon the wall of God's house before he goe hence. I have heard also, Madam, that your childe is removed: But to have or want is best as he pleaseth: Whether she be with you or in God's keeping, think it all one; nay think it the better of the two by far, that she is with him. I trust in our Lord that there is something laid up and kept for you; for our kinde Lord who hath wounded you, will not be so cruel as not to allay the pain of your green wound; & therefore claim Christ still as your own, & own him as your One thing. So resting I recommend your La: your soul & spirit in pawne to him who keepeth all his father's pawnes, & will make an account of them faithfully, even to that fairest amongst the sons of men, our sweet Lord Jesus, the fairest, the sweetest, the most delicious rose in all his father's great field: The smell of that rose perfume your soul.
Anwoth. April. 1. 1633. Your La: in his sweetest Lord Iesus, S. R.