Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 19
To my Lady KENMURE. (19)
MADAM.
ALl submissive & dutifull obedience in our Lord Jesus remembered: I trust I need not much intreat your La: to look to him who hath stricken you at this time, but my duty in the memory of that comfort I found in your La: kindness, when I was no less heavy in a case not unlike that, speaketh to me, to say something now: & I wish I could ease your La: at least with words. I am perswaded your Physician will not slay you, but purge you: & seeing he calleth himself the Chirurgian who maketh the wound & bindeth it up again, [for to launce a wound is not to kill, but cure the patient] Deut. 32. 30. 1 Sam. 2: 6. Iob 6: v. 18. Hos. 6. 1. I beleeve, Faith will teach you to kiss a striking Lord, & so acknowledge the soveraignty of God [in the death of a childe] to be above the power of us mortal men, who may pluck up a flower in the bud & not be blamed for it: If our dear Lord pluck up one of his Roses, and pull down sowre & green fruit before harvest, who can challenge him? For he sendeth us to his world as men to a market, wherein some stay many hours, & eat & drink, & buy & sell, & pass through the fair, till they be weary, & such are these who live long & get a hearty fill of this life: And others again come slipping in to the morning-market, & doe neither sit nor stand, nor buy nor sell, but look about them a little & pass presently home again, and these are infants & young ones, who end their short market in the morning, & get but a short view of the fair: Our Lord, who hath numbered man's moneths & set him bounds that he cannot pass, Iob. 14, 5. hath written the length of our market, & it is easier to complain of the decree then to change it. I verily beleeve when I write this, your Lord hath taught your La: to lay your hand on your mouth: But I shall be far from desiring your La: or any others to cast by a cross, like an old useless bill that is onelyonly for the fire, but rather would wish, each cross were looked in the face seven times, & were read over & over again: It is the Messenger of the Lord, & speakes something, & the man of understanding will hear the rod & him that hath appointed it: Try what is the taste of the Lord's cup, & drink with God's blessing, that ye may grow thereby. I trust in God, whatever other speach it utter to your soul, this is one word in it, Iob. 5. 17. Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth: And that it saith to you, Ye are from home while here, ye are not of this world, as your Redeemer, Christ, was not of this world: There is something keeping for you, which is worth the having: All that is here is condemned to die, to pass away like a snow-ball before a summer-sun: & since Death took first possession of something of yours, it hath been & daily is creeping nearer & nearer to your self, howbeit with no noise of feet. Your husbandman & Lord hath lopped off some branches already, the tree it self is to be transplanted to the high harden; in a good time be it, our Lord ripen your La: all these crosses [& indeed when I remember them, they are heavy & many: peace, peace be the end of them] are to make you white & ripe for the Lord's harvest-hook. I have seen the Lord weaning you from the breasts of this world: it was never his minde it, should be your patrimony, & God be thanked for that, ye look the liker one of the heirs: let the moveables goe, why not? They are not yours: fasten your grips upon the heritage; & our Lord Jesus make the charters sure, & give your La: to grow as a palm-tree on God's mount Zion, howbeit shaken with winds, yet the root is fast. This is all I can doe, to recommend your case to your Lord, who hath you written upon the palms of his hand: if I were able to doe more, your La: may beleeve me, that gladly I would. I trust shortly to see your La: Now he who hath called you, confirm & stablish your heart in grace unto the day of the liberty of the sons of God.
Ardwell, April 29. 1634. Your La: at all submissive obedience in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.