Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 25
To EARLESTOWN Elder. (25.)
Much honoured Sir.
I Have heard of the minde & malice of your adversaries against you: It's like they will extend the law they have, in length & breadth answerable to their heat of minde; but it is a great part of your glory that the cause is not yours, but your Lord's whom ye serve, & I doubt not but Christ will count it his honour to back his weak servant, & it were a shame for him (with reverence to his holy Name) that he should suffer himself to be in the common of such a poor man as ye are, & that ye should give out for him & not get in again: Write up your depursments for your Master Christ, & keep the count what ye give out, whether name, credit, goods, or life, & suspend your reckoning till nigh the evening, & remember that a poor weak servant of Christ wrote it to you, ye shall have Christ, a King, caution for your incomes & all your losses: Reckon not from the fore-noon: Take the word of God for your warrand, and for Christ's act of cautionry; howbeit body, life & goods goe for Christ your Lord, & though ye should lose the head for him; yet Luk 21. 18. There shall not one hair of your head perish. ver. 19. in patience therefore possess your soul: & because ye are the first man in Galloway called out & questioned for the name of Jesus, his eye hath been upon you as upon one whom he hath designed to be among his witnesses: Christ hath said, Alexander Gordon shall lead the ring in witnessing a good confession; & therefore he hath put the garland of suffering for himself first upō your head: think your self so much the more obliged to him, & fear not; for he layeth his right hand on your head: He who was dead & is alive will plead your cause, & will look attentively upon the process from the beginning to the end, & the Spirit of glory shall rest upon you. Rev. 2: 10. Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer, behold the Devil shall cast some …f you into prison that ye may be tried, & ye shall have tribu…tion ten dayes: Be thou faithfull unto the death, & I will give thee the crown of life: That lovely one esus, who also became the Son of man that he might take strokes for you, write the cross-sweetning & soul-supporting sense of these words in your heart: These rumbling wheels …f Scotland's ten dayes tribulation are under his look who hath seven eyes: Take a house on your head, & slip your self by faith in under Christ's wings, till the storm be over: And remember when they have drunken us down, Ierusalem will be a Cup of trembling & of poison, Zech. 12: 2. They shall be fain to vomit out the saints; for Iudah, v. 6. Shall be a hearth of …ire in a sheaf, & they shall devour all the people round about, on the right band & on the …ft. Woe to Zion's enemies; they have the worst or it; for we have write for the victory. Sir, ye were never honourable till now: this is your glory that Christ hath put you in the roll with himself, and the rest of the witnesses, who are come out of great tribulation, & have washen their garments & made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Be not cast down for what the servants of Antichrist cast in your t…eth, that Yeare ahead to, and favourer of the Puritanes, & leader to th… …ct, if your conscience say, Alas, here is much din & little done [is the proverb is] because ye have not done so much service to Christ that way as ye might & should: Take courage from that same temptation; for …our Lord Christ looketh …po… that very challenge as an hungring desire in you to have done more then ye did, & that filleth up the blank, & he will accept of what ye have done in that kinde. If great men be kinde to you, I pray you overlook them; if they smile on you, Christ but borroweth their face to smile through them upon his afflicted servant: know the well-head, & for all that, learn the way to the well it self. Thank God that Christ came to your house in your absence & took with him some of your children: He presumed that much on your love, that ye would not offend; & howbeit he should take the rest, he cannot come upon your wrong side: I question not, if they were children of gold, but ye think them well bestowed upon him: Expound well two rods on you, one in your house at home, another on your own person abroad: Love thinketh no evil: If ve were not Christ's wheat appointed to be bread in his house, he would not grind you thus: But keep the middle line, neither despise nor faint. Hebr 12. 6. Ye see your father is homely with you: Strokes of a father evidence kindness & care, take them so: I hope your Lord hath manif…sted himself to you and suggested these or more choice thoughts about his dealing with you: we are using our weak moyen & credit for you, up at our own court; as we dow we pray the King to hear us, & the Son of man to goe side for side with you, & hand in hand in the fiery oven, & to quicken & encourage your unbeleeving heart when ye droop & despond. Sir, to the honour of Christ be it said, my faith goeth with my pen now, I am presently beleeving Christ shall bring you out, Truth in Scotland shall keep the crown of the causey yet: the saints shall see Religion goe naked at noonday free from shame & fear of men: We shall yet divide Sechem & ride upon the high places of Iacob. Remember my obliged respects & love to my lady Kenmure & her sweet childe.
Anwoth. July 6. 1636. Yours ever in his sweet Lord Iesus, S, R.