Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 57 – LETTER 58
To the worthy & much honoured Collonel G. KER. (57)
Much honoured & truely worthy.
I hope I shall not need to shew you that ye are in greater hazard from yourself and your own spirit, which would be watched over [that your actings for God may be clean, spirituall, purely for God, for the Prince of the Kings of the earth] then ye can be in danger from your enemies. O how hard is it to get the intentions so cut off from, and raised above the creature, as to be without mixture of creature and carnall-interests, & to have the soul in heavenly actings onelyonly, onelyonly eveing himself and acting from love to God revealed to us in Jesus Christ! Ye will finde your self, your delights, your solid glory [far above the air & breathings of mouths, & the thin, short, poor applauses of men] before you in God. All the creatures, all the swords, all the hosts in Britain and in this poor glob of the habitable world, are but under him single ciphers making no number, the product being nothing, & but painted men & painted swords in a brod, without influence from him: And O what of God is in Gideon's sword when it is the sword of the Lord! I wish a sword from heaven to you, & orders from heaven to you to goe out, & as much peremptorinesse of a heavenly will, as to say & abide by it, I will not, I shall not goe out, except thou goe with me. I desire not to be rash in judging, but I am a stranger to the minde of Christ, If our Adversaries who have unjustly invaded us be not now in the camp of these that make war with the Lamb; but the lamb shall overcome them at length, for he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, & they who are with him are called & chosen & faithfull: & though ye & I see but the dark side of God's dispensations this day towards Britain, yet the fair beautifull & desireable close of it must be the confederacie of the nations of the world with Britain's Lord of Armies: & let me die in the cōforts of the faith of …i, that a throne shall be set up for Christ in this Island of great Britain [which is & shall be a garden more fruitfull of trees of righteousness, & payeth & shall pay moe thousands to the Lord of the vineyard then is paid in thrice the bounds of great Britain upon the earth] And then there can be neither Papist, Prelate, Caval…er, Malignant, nor Sectarie who dare draw a sword against him, that sitteth upon the throne. Sir, I shall wish a clean Army so far as may be, that the shout of a King, who hath many crowns, may be among you, & that ye may fight in faith and prevail with God first. Think it your glory to have a sword to act, & suffer, and die (if it please him) so being ye may adde any thing to the declarative glory of Christ, the plant of renown, Immanuel God with us: Happy & thrice blessed are they by whose actings, or blood, or pain, or loss; the diadems & rubies of his highest & glorious crown (whose ye are) shall gli…ter and shine in this quarter of the habitable world: Though he need not Gilbert Ker nor his sword; yet this honour have ye with his redeemed souldiers, to call Christ High Lord General, of whom ye hope for pay, and all areers well told: Goe on worthy Sir, in the courage of faith, following the Lamb, make not haste unbeleevingly; but in hope & silence keep the watch tower & look out, he will come in his own time, his salvation shall not tarry, he shall place salvation in Britain's Zion, for Israel his glory. His good will who dwelt in the bush & it burnt not, be yours, & with you, I am.
St Andrews. August. 10. 1650. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus, S R.
To the worthy & much honoured, Collonel G. KER. (58)
Much honoured & worthy Sir.
WHat I wrote to you before I spake not upon any private warrant: I am where I was, Cromwell and his [I shall not say but there may be, & are, severall sober & godly amongst them, who have either joyned through misinformation, or have gone alongst with the rest in the simplicitie of their hearts, not knowing any thing] fight in an unjust cause, against the Lord's secret ones: & now to the trampling of the worship of God & persecuting the people of God in England & Ireland, he hath brought upon his score, the blood of the people of God in Scotland: I intreat you, Dear Sir, as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ, whose free grace prevented you, when ye were his enemy, goe on without fainting, equally eschewing all mixture with Sectaries & Malignants, neither of the two shall ever be instrumentall to save the Lords people, or build his house: And without prophesying or speaking further then he whose I am, & whom I desire to serve in the Gospel of his son, shall warrant; I desire to hope, & doe beleeve there is a glory, & a majesty of the Prince of the Kings of the earth, that shall shine & appear in great Britain, which shall Darken all the glory of men, confound Sectaries & Malignants, & rejoyce the spirits of the followers of the Lamb, & dazle the eyes of beholders. Sir, I suppose that God is to gather Malignants & Sectaries ere all be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; & to bid the Daughter of Zion arise & thresh: I hope ye will mix with none of them: I am aboundantly satisfied that our Armie through the sinfull miscarriage of men hath fallen, & dare say, it is a better & a more comfortable dispensation, then if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God, because he hath done it: For. 1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be upon the accounts of the men, whose land the Lord forbade us to invade. 2. Victory is such a burdening & weighty mercy, that we have not strength to bear it as yet. 3. That was not the Army nor Gideon's three hinderth, by whom he is to save us. We must have one of the Lord's carving. 4. Our enimies on both sides, are not enough hardned nor we enough mortified to multitude, valour, & Creatures. Grace grace be with you.
St Andrews. Sept. 5. 1650. Your friend & servant in his sweet Lord Iesus, S. R.