Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 50 – LETTER 52
To Mr I. G. (50)
Reverend & dear Brother
I shall with my soul desire the peace of these Kingdoms, & I doe beleeve, it shall at last come as a river & as the mighty waves of the sea; but O that we were ripe & in readiness to receive it! The preserving of two or three or four or five berries in the outmost boughs of the Olive-tree after the vintage, is like to be a great matter ere all be done: yet I know, a Cluster in both Kingdoms shall be saved, for a blessing is in it: but it is not [I fear] so near to the dawning of the day of Salvation, but that the clouds must send down moe showers of blood, to water the vineyard of the Lord, & to cause it to blossom. Scotland's scum is not yet removed, nor is England's dross & tin taken away, nor the filth of our blood purged by the spirit of judgement & the spirit of Burning. But I am too much on this sad subject. As for my self, I doe esteem nothing out of heaven and next to a communion with Jesus Christ, more, then to be in the hearts & prayers of the saints: I know, he feedeth there amongst the lies till the day break: but I am at a low ebbe, as to any sensible communion with Christ, yea, as low as any soul can be, & doe scarce know where I am, & doe now make it a Question, If any can goe to him who dwelleth in light inaccessible through nothing but darkness? Sure, all that come to heaven have a stock in Christ, but I know not where mine is: It cannot be enough for me to beleeve the Salvation of others, & to know Christ to be the honey-comb, the Rose of Sharon, the Paradise & Eden of the Saints & first-born written in heaven, & not to see afar the borders of that good land: But what shall I say? Either this is the Lord making grace a new creation, where there is pure nothing & sinfull nothing to work upon, or I am gone. I should count my soul ingaged to your self & others there with you, if ye would but carry to Christ for me a letter of ciphers & non-sense [for I know not how to make language of my condition] onelyonly showing that I have need of his love; for I know, many fair & washen ones stand now in white before the throne, who were once as black as I am. If Christ pass his word to wash a sinner, it is less to him then a word to make fair Angels of black Devils: OnelyOnly let the art of free Grace be ingaged. I have not a Cautioner to give Surety, nor doeth a Mediator, such as he is in all perfection, need a Mediator: But what I need, he knoweth: onelyonly, it is his depth of wisdom to let some pass millions of miles over score in debt, that they may stand between the winning & the losing, in need of more then ordinary free grace. Christ hath been multiplying Grace & Mercy above these sive thousand years, & the latter born heirs have so much greater guiltiness, that Christ hath passed moe experiments & multiplied essays of heart-love on others, by misbeleeving, after it is past all question many hundreds of ages, that Christ is the undeniable & now uncontroverted Treasurer of multiplied redemptions; so now he is saying, The more of the disease there is, the more of the Physician's art of Grace & tenderness, there must be: OnelyOnly I know, no sinner can put infinite Grace to it, so as the Mediator shall have difficultie or much adoe to save this or that man: Millions of hells of sinners cannot come near to exhaust infinite Grace. I pray you [remembring my love to your wife & friends there] let me finde that I have Sollicitors there amongst your acquaintance, and forget not Scotland.
London. Jan. 30. 1646. Your Brother in Iesus Christ, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. [51]
MADAM.
IT is too like, the Lord's controversie with these two Nations is but yet beginning, & that we are ripened & white for the Lord's sickle. For the particular condition your La: is in, another might speak, (if they would say all) of more sad things. If there were not a fountain of free Grace to water the dry ground & an uncreated wind to breath on withered & dry bones, we were gone. The wheels of Christ's Chariot to pluck us out of the womb of many deaths, are winged like Eagles. All I have, is, to desire to beleeve that Christ will show all good-will to save, & as for your La: I know that the Lord Jesus carrieth on no design against you, but seeketh you to save & redeem you: He lieth not in wait for your fall's, except it be to take you up: His way of redeeming is ravishing & taking: There are moe miracles of glorified sinners in heaven, then can be on the earth. Nothing of you, Madam, nay not your leaf can wither: Verily it is a King's life to follow the Lamb: But when ye see him in his own countrey at home, ye will think ye never saw him before: He shall be admired of all them that beleeve, 2 Thess 1: 10. Ye may judge how far all your now sad dayes & tossings, changes, losses, wants conflicts, shall then be below you. Ye look to the Cross, now it's above your head & seems to threaten Death as having a Dominion; but it shall then be …o far below your thoughts, or your thoughts so far above it, that ye shall have no leisure to lend one thought to old-dated crosses, in youth, in age, in this countrey or in that, from this instrumet or from another, except it be to the heightning of your consolation; being now got above & beyond all these. Old age & waxing old as a garment is written on the fairest face of the Creation, Psal. 102: 26, 27. Death from Adam to the second Adam's appearance playeth the King & reigneth over all, the prime heir died, his children which the Lord hath given follow him; & we may speak freely of the life which is here, were it heaven, there were not much gain in godliness: but there a is a rest for the people of God, Christ-man possesseth it now 1600. years before many of his members, but it weareth not out. Grace be with you.
London. Febr. 16. 1646. Your La: in his sweet Lord, S. R.
To the Lady ARDROSS. (52)
MADAM.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: It hath seemed good [as I hear] to him who hath appointed a bounds for the number of our moneths, to gather-in a sheaf of ripe corn [in the death of your Christian Mother] into his garner: It's the more evident that winter is near, when apples without violence of wind, doe of their own accord fall off the tree. She is now above the winter, with a little change of place, not of a Saviour, onelyonly she enjoyeth him now without messages & in his own immediat presence, from whom she heard by letters & messengers before. I grant, Death is to her a very new thing, but Heaven was prepared of old: & Christ, as enjoyed in his highest throne & as loadē with glory & incomparably exalted above men & Angels, having such a heavenly Circle of glorified harpers & Musicians above, compassing the throne with a song, is to her a new thing; but so new, as the first summer-rose or the first fruits of that heavenly field, or as a new Paradise to a traveller broken & worn out of breath with the sad occurrences of a long & dirty way. Ye may easily judge, Madam, what a large recompence is made to all her service, her walking with God, & her sorrows, with the first cast of the soul's eye upon the shining & admirably beautifull face of the Lamb that is in the midst of that fair & white Army that is there, & with the first draught & taste of the fountain of life fresh & new at the well-head: To say nothing of the enjoying of that face without a date, for more then this terme of life which we now enjoy. And it cost her no more to goe thither, but to suffer Death to doe her this piece of service: For by him who was dead & is alive, she was delivered from the second death: What then is the first death to the second? Not a scratch of the hide of a singer, to the endless second death. And now she …itteth for eternity meal-free, in a very considerable Land, which hath more then four summers in the year: O what Spring-time is there! Even the smelling of the odours of that great & eternally blooming Rose of Sharon for ever & ever? What a singing life is there? There is not a dumb bird in all that large field, but all sing & breath out heaven, joy, glory, dominion, to the high Prince of that new found Land. And verily the Land is the sweeter, that Jesus Christ payed so dear a rent for it, & he is the glory of the Land. All which, I hope, doeth not so much mitigate & alley your grief for her part [& truely this should seem sufficient] as the unerring exprctation of the dawning of that day upon your self, and the hope ye have the the fruition of that same King and Kingdom to your own soul: Certainly, the hope of it when things look so dark-like on both Kingdoms, must be an exceeding great quickning to languishing spirits, who are far from home while we are here. What misery to have both a bad way all the day, & no hope of lodging at night? But He hath taken up your lodging for you. I can say no more now but I pray that the very God of peace may establish your heart to the end. I rest.
London. Febr. 24. 1646. MADAM. Your La: at all respective obedience in the Lord. S. R.