Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 4 – LETTER 5
To the elect & noble Lady my Lady Kenmure. (4)
MADAM.
SAluting your La: with grace & mercy from God our father & from om Lord Jesus Christ, I was sorry at my departure, leaving your La: in grief, & would still be g…d at it, if I were not assured that ye have one with you in the …urnace, … visage is like unto the Son of God: I am glad that ye have been acquainted from your youth with the wrestlings of God, & that ye getscarce liberty to swallow down your spittle, being casten from furnace to furnace, knowing if ye were not dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of him, he would not spend so much Physick upon you. All the brethren & sisters of Christ must be conform to his image & copy in suffering. Rom, 8, And some doe more vively resemble the copy then others: Think Madam, that it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among these, whom one of the Elders, Rev. 7, 14. pointeth out to Iohn, th…se are they which came out of great tribulation, & have washed their robes & made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Behold your forerunner going out of the world all in a lake of blood, & it is not ill to die as he did: Fulfill with joy the remnant of the grounds & remainders of the afflictions of Christ in your body. Ye have lost a childe: Nay: She is not lost to you, who is found to Christ, she is not sent away, but onelyonly sent before, like unto a star, which going out of our sight doeth not die & evanish, but shineth in another hemisphere: ye see her not, yet she doeth shine in another countrey: If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time, that she hath gotten of eternity: & ye have to rejoyce that ye have now some plenishing up in heaven: Build your nest upon no tree here, for ye see God hath sold the forrest to death, and every tree whereupon we would rest, is ready to be cut down, to the end we may flee & mount up & build upon the rock & dwell in the holes of the rock. What ye love besides Jesus your husband, is an adulterous lover: Now it is God's special blessing to Iudah that he will not let her finde her paths in following her strange lovers, Hos. 2, 6. Therefore behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, & make a wall, that she shall not finde her paths, v. 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtakè them. O thrice happy Iudah, when God buildeth a double stone-wall betwixt her & the fire of hell! The World & the things of the World, Madam, is the lover ye naturally affect beside your own husband, Christ: The hedge of thorns & the wall which God buildeth in your way, to hinder you from this lover, is the thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children, weakness of body, iniquity of the time, uncertainty of estate, lack of worldly comfort, fear of God's anger for old unrepented of sins: What lose ye, if God twist & …let the hedge daily thicker? God be blessed, the Lord will not let you finde your paths: Return to your first husband: Doe not weary, neither think that Death walketh towards you with a slow pace, ye must be riper ere ye be shaken: your daves are no longer then Iob's, that were swifter then a post & passed away as the ships of desire & as the Eagle that hasteth for the prey, Iob. 9: 25, 26. There is less sand in your glass now, then there was yesternight, this span-length of ever-posting time, will soon be ended: But the greater is the mercy of God, the moe years ye get to advise upon what terms & upon what conditions ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending Eternity: The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till he come, wait & hasten [saith Peter] for the coming of our Lord: All is night that is here, in respect of ignorance & daily ensuing troubles, one alwayes making way to another, as the ninth wave of the sea to the tenth; therefore sigh & long for the dawning of that morning, & the breaking of that day of the coming of the Sō of man, when the shadows shall flee away: Perswade your self, the King is coming: read his letter sent before him, Rev. 3. 11. Behold, I come quickly: Wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the eastern skie, & think that ye have not a morrow: As the wise father said, who being invited against to morrow to dine with his friends, answered, These many dayes I have had no morrow at all. I am loath to weary you: Shew your self a Christian by suffering without murmuring, for which sin fourteen thousand & seven hundred were slain, Numb. 16. 49. In patience possess your soul, they lose nothing who gain Christ. Thus remembring my brother's & my wife's humble service to your La: I commend you to the mercy & grace of our Lord Jesus, assuring you, that your day is coming & that God's mercy is abiding you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Anwoth. Jan. 15. 1629. Yours in the Lord Iesus at all dutifull obedience, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (5.)
MADAM..
SAluting you in Jesus Christ, to my grief I must bid you [… may be] for ever farewell in paper, having small assurance …. to see your face again, till the last general Assembly, where the whole church universal shall meet: Yet promising by his grace to present your La: & your burdens to him who is able to save you & give you an inheritance with the saints, after a more special manner then ever I have done before. Ye are going to a countrey where the Sun of righteousness in the Gospel shineth not so clearly as in this Kingdom; but if ye would know where he whom your soul loveth doeth rest & where he feedeth at the noon-tide of the day, where ever ye be, get you forth by the footsteps of the stock & feed your self beside the shepherds tents. Cant. 1, 7. that is, ask for some of the watchmen of the Lord's city, who will tell you truly, & will not lye, where ye shall finde him whom your soul loveth. I trust ye are so betrothed in marriage to the true Christ, that ye will not give your love to any false Christ: Ye know not how soon your marriage-day will come, nay, is not Eternity hard upon you? It were time then that ye had your wedding garment in readiness, be not sleeping at your Lord's coming: I pray God, ye may be upon your feet standing when he knocketh. Be not discouraged to goe from this countrey to another part of the Lord's earth, the earth is his & the fulness thereof, Psal. 24, 1. This is the Lord's lower house, while we are lodged here we have no assurance to lie ever in one chamber, but must be content to remove from one corner of our Lord's nether-house to another, resting in hope, that when we come up to the Lord's upper city, Ierusalem that is above, we shall remove no more; because then we shall be at home. And goe wheresoever ye will, if your Lord goe with you, ye are at home, & your lodging is ever taken before night, so long as he who is Israel's dwelling house is your home, Psal. 90, 1. Beleeve me Madam, my minde is that ye are well lodged & that in your house there are fair ease-rooms & pleasant lights, if ye can in faith lean down your head upon the breast of Jesus Christ, & till this be, ye shall never get a sound sleep: Jesus, Jesus be your shadow & your covering: It is a sweet soul-sleep to lie in the arms of Christ, for his breath is very sweet. Pray for poor friendless Zion; Alas! No man will speak for her now, although at home in her own countrey she hath good friends, her husband Christ, & his father, her father in law: Beseech your husband to be a friend to Zion & pray for her. I have received many & divers dashes & heavy strokes since the Lord called me to the Ministery, but indeed I esteem your departure from us amongst the weightiest: but I perceive God will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idolize, that he may have his own room. I see exceeding small fruit of my Ministery, & would be glad to know of one soul to be my crown & rejoycing in the day of Christ. Though I spend my strength in vain, yet my labour is with my God, Isa. 49, 9. I wish & pray that the Lord would harden my face against all, & make me to learn to goe with my face against a storm. Again I commend you, body & spirit to him who hath loved us & washed us from our sins in his own blood. Grace, grace, grace for ever be with you. Pray, pray continually.
Anwoth. Sept, 14. 1629. Your La: at all dutifull obedience in Christ, S. R.