Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 26
To the Vicountess of KENMURE. (26)
MADAM.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I know ye are near many comforters & that the promised comforter is near hand also: yet because I found your La: comfortable to my self in my sad dayes that are not yet over my head, it is my part and more in many respects [howbeit I can doe little, God knoweth, in that kinde] to speak to you in your wilderness-lot. I know, Dear & Noble Lady, this loss of your dear childe came upon you, one piece & part of it after another, & that ye was looking for it, & that now the Almighty hath brought on you that which ye feared, & that your Lord gave you lawfull warning, & I hope for his sake who brewed & masked this cup in heaven, ye will gladly drink, and salute & welcome the cross. I am sure, it is not your Lord's minde to f…ed you with judgement & worm wood, & to give you waters of gall to drink, Ezek. 34. 16. Ier. 9. 15. I know your cup is sugared with mercy, & that the withering of the bloom, the flower, even the white & red of worldly joyes, is for no other end, but to buy out at the ground the reversion of your heart and love. Madam, subscribe the Almightie's will, put your hand to the pen, & let the crosse of your Lord Jesus have your submissive and resolute AMEN. If ye ask and try whose this cross is? I dare say, it is not all your own, the best half of it is Christ's; then your cross is no born bastard, but lawfully begotten, It sprang not out of the dust, Iob. 5. 6. if Christ & ye be halvers of this suffering, & he say half mine, what should aile you? & I am sure, I am here right upon the stile of the word of God. Phil. 3. 10. The fellowship of Christ's sufferings, Col. 1. 29. The remnant of the afflictions of Christ. Heb. 11. 28. The reproach of Christ. It were but to shi…t the comforts of God, to say, Christ had never such a cross as mine, he had never a dead childe, & so this is not his crosse, neither can he in that meaning be the owner of this cross: but I hope, Christ when he married you, married you and all the crosses & wo…-hearts that follow you, & the word maketh no exception. Isa. 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted: Then Christ bore the first stroke of this cross, it rebounded off him on upon you, & ye got it at the second hand, & ye and he are halvers in it: And I shall beleeve for my part, he mindeth to destill heaven out of this loss and all others the like: for wisdom devised it, and love laid it on, and Christ owneth it as his own, and putteth your shoulder onelyonly beneath a piece of it: take it with joy as no bastard cross, but as a vintation of God, well born; and spend the rest of your appointed time till your change come in the work of beleeving; and let faith, that never yet made a lye to you, speak for God's part of it, he will not, he doth not make you a sea or a whalefish, that he keepeth you inward, lob. 7. 12. It may be, ye think not many of the children of God in such a hard case as your self, but what would ye think of some who would exchange afflictions & give you to the boot; but I know, yours must be your own alone and Christ's together. I confess it seemed strange to me, that your Lord should have done that which seemeth to ding out the bottom of your comforts worldly; but we see not to the ground of the Almightie's soveraignity, he goeth by on our right hand, & on our left hand, & we see him not: We see but pieces of the broken links of the chain of his providence, and he coggeth the wheels of his own providence that we see not. O let the former work his own clay in what frame he pleaseth! Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge? If he pursue dry stubble, who dare say, what doest thou? doe not wonder to see the Judge of the world weave in one web, your mercies, & the judgements of the house of the Kenmure: he can make one web of contraries. But my weak advice, with reverence & correction, were for you, Dear & worthy Lady, to see how far mortification goeth on, & what scum the Lord's fire casteth out of you. I know ye see your knottiness, since our Lord whyteth & heweth & plaineth you, & the glanceing of the furnace is to let you see, what scum or refuse ye must want, & what froath is in nature, that must be boiled out, & taken off in the fire of your trials. I doe not say, heavier afflictions prophesie heavier guiltiness; a cross is often but a false prophet in this kinde: but I am sure, our Lord would have the tin & the bastard mettall in you, removed, least the Lord say, the bellowes are burnt, the lead is consumed in the fare, the founder melteth in vain. Ier. 6, 29, And I shall hope, that grief shall not so far smother your light as not to practize this so necessary a duty to concur with him in this blessed design. I would gladly plead for the comforter's part of it, not against you, Madam, [for I am sure ye are not his party] but against your grief, which will have it's own violent incursions in your soul, & I think it be not in your power to help it; But I must say, there are comforts allowed upon you, & therefore want them not: When ye have gotten a running-over soul with joy now, that joy will never be missed out of the infinite Ocean of delight which i… not diminished by drinking at it, or drawing out of it. It is a Christian art to Comfort your self in the Lord, to say, I was obliged to render back again this childe to the giver, & if I have had four years loan of him, & Christ eternitie's possession of him, the Lord hath keeped condition with me. If my Lord would not have him & me to tryst both in one hour at death's door threshold together, it is his wisdom so to doe, I am satisfied, my tryst is suspended, not broken off, nor given up. Madam, I would I could divide sorrow with you for your ease; But I am but a beholder, it is easie to me to speak: The God of comfort speak to you, & allure you with his feasts of love. My removal from my flock is so heavy to me, that it maketh my life a burden to me; I had never such a longing for death: The Lord help & hold up sad clay. I fear ye sin in drawing Mr William Dalgleish from this countrey, where the labourrers are few and the harvest great: Madam, desire my Lord Argyle to see for provision to a Pastor for this poor people. Grace be with you.
Kircudbright, Octob. 1. 1639. Your La: at all obedience in Christ, S. R.