Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 35 – LETTER 36
To the Lady FINGASK. (35.)
MADAM.
GRace mercy & peace be to you: Though not acquainted, yet at the desire of a Christian, I make bold to write a line or two unto you by way of counsel [howbeit I be most unfit for that] I hear, and I blesse the father of lights for it, that ye have a spirit set to seek God, and that the posture of your heart is to look heaven-ward; which is a work and cast of the Mediator Christ's right hand, who putteth on the heart a new frame, for the which I would have your La: to see a tye & bond of obedience laid upon you, that all may be done not so much from obligation of Law, as from the tye of free love; that the law of ransom-paying by Christ may be the chief ground of all your obedience, seeing that ye are not under the Law but under Grace: withall know that unbeleef is a spiritual sin & so not seen by nature's light, & that all that Conscience saith is not Scripture: Suppose your heart bear witness against you for sins done long agoe; yet because many have pardon with God, that have not peace with themselves, ye are to stand & fall by Christ's esteem & verdict of you & not by that which your heart saith: Suppose it may by accident be a good signe to be jealouse of your heavenly husband's love, yet it is a sinful sign: as there be some happy sins [If may speak so] not of themselves but because they are neighboured with faith and love: and so, worthy Lady, I would have you hold by this that the ancient love of an old husband standeth firm and sure, and let faith hing by this small threed, that he loved you before he laid the corner-stone of the world, & therefore, he cannot change his minde because he is God, and rests in his love; neither is sin in you, a good reason wherefore ye should doubt of him, or think because sin hath put you in the courtesie and reverence of justice, that therefore he is wroth with you: Neither is it presumption in you to lay the burden of your salvation upon one mighty to save; so being ye lay aside all confidence in your self-worth & righteousness. True faith is humble & seeth no way to escape but onelyonly in Christ: And I beleeve ye have put an esteem & high price upon Christ: & they cannot but beleeve, & so be saved, who love Christ and to whom he is precious: for the love of Christ hath chosen Christ as a lover, & it were not like God, if ye should chuse him as your liking & he not chuse you again, nay he hath prevented you in that, for ye have not chosen him but he hath chosen you. O consider his loveliness & beauty, & that there is nothing which can commend & make fair, heaven or earth, or the creature, that is not in him, in infinite perfection, for fair sun and fair moon are black and think shame to shine before his fairness, Isa. 24, 23. Base heavens & excellent Jesus: weak Angels, & strong & mighty Jesus: foolish angel-wisdom & onelyonly wise Jesus: short-living creature & long living & everliving Ancient of dayes: miserable & sickly & wretched are these things that are within times circle & onelyonly, onelyonly blessed Jesus! If ye can wynd-in in his love: [and he giveth you leave …o love him & allurements also] what a second heaven's paradise, a young heaven's glory is it, to be hot & burned with fevers of love-sickness for him? & the more your La: drink of this love, there is the more room & the greater delight & desire for this love: be homely & hunger for a feast & fill of his love, for that's the borders & march of heaven: nothing hath a nearer resemblance to the colour & hew & lustre of heaven; then Christ loved, & to breath out love-word, & love-sighs for him. Remember what he is: when twenty thousand millions of heavens lovers have worn their hearts threed-bare of love, all is nothing, yea less then nothing to his matchless worth & excellency: O so broad & so deep as the sea of his desireable loveliness is! Glorified spirits, triumphing Angels, the crowned & exalted lovers of heaven, stand without his loveliness & cannot put a cricle on it. O if sin & time were from betwixt us, & that royall & King's love! That high Majesty, eternitie's bloom & flower of high-lustred beauty might shine upon pieces of created spirits, & might bedew and overflow us who are portions of endless misery & lumps of redeemed sin: Alas what doe I! I but spill & lose words in speaking highly of him, who will bide & be above the musick & songs of heaven, & never be enough praised by us all, to whose boundless & bottomless love I recommed your La: & am.
St Andrews. March. 27. 1640. Your La: in Christ Iesus, S. R.
To his reverend & dear Brother Mr DAVID DICKSON. (36)
Reverend & dear Brother.
YE look like the house whereof ye are a branch: the Cross is a part of the life rent that lieth to all the sons of the house. I desire to suffer with you, if I take a lift of your housetrial off you: but ye have preached it ere I knew any thing of God: your Lord may gather his roses, & shake his apples, at what season of the year he pleaseth; each husbandman cannot make harvest when he pleaseth, as He can doe: ye are taught to know & adore his soveraignity which he exerciseth over you, which yet is lustered with mercy: the childe hath but changed a bed in the garden, & is planted up higher nearer the sun, where he shall thiivē better then in this out-held moor-ground: Ye must think your bold would not want him one hour longer, & since the … of your loan of him was expired [as it is, if ye read the …eas…] let him have his own with gain, as good reason were. I read on it an exaltation & a richer measure of grace, as the s…t fruit of your cross: and I am bold to say, that, that College where your Master hath set you now, shall finde it. I am content that Chirst is so homely with my dear Brother David Dickson, as to borrow & lend, & take & give with him, & ye know what are called the visitations of such a friend, it's to come to the house & be homely with what is yours: I perswade my sel… upon his credit, he hath left drink-money, and that he hath made the house the better of him. I envie not his waking love; who saw that this water was to be past through & that now the number of crosses lying in your way to glory, are fewer by one then when I saw you; they must decrease: it is better then any ancient or modern commentary on your Text that ye preach upon in Glasgow: read and spell right, for he knoweth what he doeth, he is onelyonly lopping & snedding a fruitfull tree that it may be more fruitfull. I congratulate heartily with you, his new welcome to your new charge. Dearest Brother, goe on & faint not, something of yours is in heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Saviour, & ye goe on after your own: time's threed is shorter by one inch then it was: an oath is sworn & past the seals; whether afflictions will or not, ye must grow & swell out of your shell, & live & triumph & reign, & be more then conquerour, for your captain who leadeth you on, i… more then conquerour, and he makes you a partaker of his conquest and Victory. Did not love to you compell me, I would not fetch water to the well, & speak to one who knoweth b…ter then I can doe, what God is doing with him. Remember my love to your wife, to Mr Iohn, & all friends there. Let us be helped by your prayers, for I cease not to make mention of you to the Lord as I dow. Grace be with you.
St Andrews. May. 28. 16…0. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.