Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 62 – LETTER 68
To the much honoured and truely worthy, Collonel G. K E R. (62)
Much honoured and worthy Sir.
I have heard of your continued captivity in England as wel as in this afllicted land; but goe where ye will, ye cannot goe from under your shadow, which is broader then many Kingdoms: Ye change lodgings and countreys, but the same Lord is before you: if ye were carried away captive to the other fide of the sun, or as far as the rising of the morningstar; It is spoken to your Mother who hath yet received no bill of divorce, which was written to Judah. Mic: 4: 10: Be in pain and labour to bring forth, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in travell: for now shall thou goe fort…out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt goe even to Babylon, there shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. England shall be countable for you, to render you back, Isai. 44: 6. I will say to the North give up, and to the South, keep not back. It's a sermon that flesh and blood laughteth at, Ezek. 37: 4. Prophesie upon these dry bones, and say unto them; O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! It is a preaching to the cold grave. Thus saith the Lord unto the bones, behold I will cause breath enter into you, and ye shall live, and I will lay sine…s upon you, and bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin & put breath in you & ye shall live. Rev. 20: 13. And the sed gave up the dead that were in it. Berwick must render back the Scottish captives, & Col. Gilbert Ker with them. Isa. 43: v. 14 For thus saith the Lord your Redeemer the holy one of Israel, for your sake I have sent to Babylon, & have brought down all their Nobles, and the Caldeans whose cry is in the ships. Deut. 30: 4. If any of them be driven out to the utmost parts of heaven, from … will the Lord thy God gather thee, & from thence will he fetch thee Zech. 8: 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold I will save my People from th… cast countrey, and from the west countrey, and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Ierusalem, & they shall be my People, & I will be their God in truth & in righteousness. Sir, ye are both booked by the Lord, who writeth up the People Ps. 87: 5, 6. And counted to the Lord, as one of the house & stock. Ps. 22: 30. Fear not, faint not, all your hairs are numbered. It is the desire of the People of God, that as your bonds hitherto have been exempla…y, to the strengthning of the seeble, & to the stopping of the Mouth of the adversary, without any declining to the right or left hand, so your sufferings in the place ye now goe to, may be [as we are confident in the Lord of you, and in humility boast of his grace in you] savoury, convincing, and like unto this honourable cause, that will prevail in Britain, contrary to all the Machinations and counsels of Devils & men, & though there were no other ink in the pen I now write with, but some dewing of my last cooling blood, this I purpose [his grace, whose I am, enabling me] to Stand too. Sir, we desire to adore no instruments, yet we conceive the shining & rayes of grace from the fountain Iesus Christ, the fulness of the Godhead, bestowed on sinfulmen, hold forth the good thoughts of Christ to this poor land, whose multipied graves, and whose souls under the Altar, slain by Sestaries & Malignants, cry aloud to heaven: I see nothing Sir, if the Lord be not near [though I dare not say how soon] to awak for the year of Zion's controversie, Isai. 34: 5. for my sword shall be bathed in heaven. behold it shall come down upon England and the residue of his enemies in Scotland. Woe is me for England, that land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness: That pleasant land shall be wildernesse, & the dust of their land pitch: A judgement upon their walled towns' th… pleasant feilds, their strong ships &c, if they doe not repent. Ye have not I conceive, seen such searching & trying times as now these are, & yet the question will be drawn to a more narrow state & multitudes will yet leave the cause; for we took all in to the Covenant that offered to build with us, but Christ must have but a small remnant: few Nobles if any, few Ministers, few Professors; though our way standeth unchanged, 2 Cor. 6: 8. by honour & di honour by good report & evil report, as dece…ers & yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastned and yet not killed. Neither is this your condition alone, but the experienced lot of all the saints that have gone before you. It is one & the same cross of Christ, but there be sundry faces & diverse circumstances in the same remnant, the sufferings of Christ, & yours. Sir, to be delivered to Souldiers, & in captivity, looketh like his sufferings, of whom Isaiah saith Chap. 53: 8. he was taken from prison, & from judgement, yea & taken bound, Ioh. 18: 12. when the cause is the truth of God, the lustre and face of suffering is somuch the more lovely, that it hath the hew & colour of Christ's sufferings, who endured contradiction of sinners, and despised the shame: O it is a great word, Christ shamed and Christ abased! but thus was the Head & so are the members dealt with in the world: and truely any thing of Christ even the worst of him (to speake so) his reproach and shame are lovely. Though superstitious love to the materiall crosse he suffered upon, be foolery, & doting upon the holy grave be cursed idolatry; yet is there a communion with him in his sufferings most desirable, 1 Pet. 4: 15. but rejoyce in as much as ye are Partakers of Christ's sufferings: in which sense, the cup that his lip touched, hath th… sweeter taste, even though death were in it: The grave, because He did lie in it, is so much the softer, & the more refreshfull a bed of rest: And that part of the sky & clouds that the Beloved shall break through & come to judgement, it is as lovely a piece of the created heaven as any is, if we may love the ground he goeth on the better; But all this is to be understood in a spirituall manner. The Lord calleth you, Sir, [upon whom the Spirit of God & his glory resteth] to put your soul's Amen to this dispensation, & requireth of us that our desires follow the now-declared decree of God concerning the desolation of our sinfull land, so many wayes guilty of a despised Gospel and a broken Covenant, and that with all submission: Certainly no man hath failed more in this thing then he who writeth to you; for I have brought my health in great hazard, and tormented my spirit with excessive grief so▪ our present provocations & the rentings of our Kirk; and I see it is a challenging of, & a bold pleading against him, upon whose …er the government is, Isa. 22: 2…. The Father hath …ut a glorious … … Christ, v. 23. & I will fasten him as a na… a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house. v. 24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity; from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of slagons. Our unbeleeving apprehensions doe so quarrel at the prosperity of enemies in an evil cause, that we wrestle with defeat…, spoiling, captivity of the Godly, killing of his people, the wasting of our land, starving and famishing of the Kingdom, which is worse then the sword; but this is a sinfull coutradicting of the Lord's revealed decree: His wisdom saith Spoiling & desolation is best for Scotland, & we say, Not, & so accuse Christ of misgovernment, & of not being true to the trust put upon him: But since he doeth not drag the government at his heels, but hath it upon his shoulder, & since the … fastned in a sure place cannot be broken, nor can the smallest vessel fail to finde sweet security in dependence upon him, since all the weight of heaven & earth, of redeemed saints & confirmed Angels, is upon his shoulder; I am a fool, & brutish to imagine, that I can adde any thing to Christ's speciall care of & tenderness to his people: He who keepeth the basons & knives of his house, & bring…th the vessels back again to the second temple Ezra: 1: 8, 9, 10. must have a more tender care of his redeemed ones, then of a spoon, or of Peter's old shoes, which yet must not be lost in his captivity Act. 12: 8. O for grace to suffer Christ to tutour his own Minors & young Heirs! But we cannot endure to be under the actings of his government: We love too much to be our own: O how sweet to be wholly Christ's, & wholly in Christ! To be out of the creatures owning, & made compleat in Christ, to live by faith in Christ, & to be once for all clo… with the … Majesty & glory of the Son of God, wherein he makes all his friends and followers sharers! To dwell in Immanuel's high and blessed land, and live in that sweetest air, where no wind bloweth, but the breathings of the Holy Ghost! No seas or sloods flow, but the pure water of life, that proceedeth from under the throne and from the Lamb: No planting but the tree of life, that yeeldeth twelve manner of fruits every monethmonth: What doe we here but fin and suffer? O when shall the night be gene, the shadows … away and the morning of that long, long day, without cloud or night, dawn! The Spirit & the Bride say Co…, O when shall the Lamb's wife be ready, and the Bridegroom say Come! Worthy Sir, I minde you to the hearer of prayer, O help me in that kind! The Spirit of Jesus be with your Spirit.
S. Andrews, May. 14. 1651. Yours in his onelyonly, onelyonly Lord Iesus, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (63)
MADAM.
GRace… mercy & peace be to you: We are fallen in win…owing & trying times: I am glad that your breath serveth you to run to the end, in the same condition & way wherein ye have walked these twenty years past: It is either the way of peace, or, we are yet in our sins, & have missed the way: the Lord [it's true] hath stained the pride of all our glory, & now last of all the sun hath gone down upon many of the Prophets; but stumble not, men are men, & God appeareth more & more to be God, & Christ it still Christ. Madam, stronger then I am, had, almost stumbled me & cast me down; But O what mercy is it, to discern betwixt what is Christ's & what is man's, & what way the hew, colour & lustre of gifts & grace, dazle & deceive our weak eyes! Oh to be dead to all things that are below Christ, were it even a created heaven & created grace! Holiness is not Christ, nor are the blossoms & flowers of the tree of life, the tree it self: Men & creatures may winde themselves in between us & Christ; & therefore the Lord hath done much to take out of the way all betwixt him and us: There are not in our way now, Kings, or Armies, or Nobles, or Judicatories, or strong holds, or watchmen, or godly professours: The fairest things & most eminent in Britain are stained and have lost their lustre: OnelyOnly, onelyonly Christ keeps his greenness & beauty, & remaineth what he was: Oh! If he were more & more ezcellent to our apprehensions then ever he was [whose excellency is above all apprehensions] & still more & more sweet to our taste, I care for nothing, if so be I were nearer to him, & yet he flyeth not from me, I flee from him, but he pursueth. I hear your La: hath the same esteē of the despised cause & Covenant of our Lord, ye had before: Madam, hold you there: I dare & would gladly breath out my spirit in that way, with a nearer communion & fellowship with the Father & the Son, & would seek no more, but, that I might die, beleeving: And also I would hope that the earth shall not cover the blood of the Godly slain in Scotland; but that the Lord will make inquisition for their blood, when the sufferings of the saints in these lands shall be fulfilled. The goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush be with you.
Glasgow. Sept: 28. 1651. Your La: at all observance in the Lord Iesus, S. R
To my Lady KENMURE. (64.)
MADAM.
GRace, mercy & peace be to you: I know, ye think of an out-going & that your quartering in Time, and your abode in this life is short; for we flee away as a shadow, the declining of the Sun & the lengthning of the shadow saith, our journey is short & near the end: I speak it because I have warnings of my removal. Madam, I know not any, against whom the Lord is not: for he is against the proud and lofty, the day of the Lord is upon all the Cedars, upon all the high mountains, upon every high tower and upon every fenced wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish &, upon all pleasant pictures. I know not any thing comparable to a nearness & spirituall communion with the Father & the Son Christ: there is much deadnes & witheredness upon many spirits, sometimes near to God: and I wish the Lord have not more to say & to doe against the Land. Ye have, Madam, in your accounts, mercies deliverances, rods, warnings, plenty of means, consolations, when refuge failed you, when ye looked on the right hand, & behold no man would know you nor care for your soul, when young & weak, manifestations of God, the out-goings of the Lord for you, experiences, answers from the Lord; by all which ye may be comforted now & confirmed in the certain hope that Grace, free Grace in a fixed & established Surety, shall perfect that good work in you: happy they who see not & yet beleeve. Grace, grace eternally in our Lord Jesus be with you.
Edinburgh. May. 27. 1653. Yours in the Lord Iesus, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (65)
MADAM.
I have been so long silent that I am almost ashamed now to speak. I hear of your weakly condition of body which speaketh some warning to you, to look for a longer life, where ye shall have more leisure to praise then Time can give you here: it shall be a loss to many, but sure, your self, Madam, shall he onelyonly free of any loss. And truly considering what dayes we are now fallen into, if failing were not serving of the Lord [which I can hardly attain] a calm harbour were very good, when storms are so high: The fore-runner who hath landed first, must help to bring the sea-beaten vessel safe to the port, & the sick passengers who are following the fore-runner, safe a-shore. Much deadness prevaile…h over some; but there is much life in him who is the resurrection and tho life, to quicken. O what of our hid life is without us, & how little & poor a stock is in the hand of some! The onelyonly wise God supply what is wanting: the more ye want, & the more your joy hath run on, the more is owing to you by the promise of Grace: by gons of waterings from heaven, which your La: wanted in Kenmure, Rusco, the West, Clasgow, Edinburgh, England, etc. Shall all come in a great summe together: the marriagesupper of the Lamb must not be marred with too large a fourhours-refreshment. Know, Madam, he who hath tutoured you from the breasts, knoweth how to time his own day-shinings & love-visits. Grace that runs on, be with you,
St. Andrews. Yours in the Lord at all observance: S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (66)
MADAM.
I Confess I have cause to be grieved at my long silence or Laziness in writing: I am also afflicted to hear, that such, who were debters to your La: for better dealing, have served you with such prevarication: Ye know crookedness is neither strong nor long-enduring, & ye know likewise that these things spring not out of the dust: It's sweet to look upon the lawless & sinfull stirrings of the creatures, as ordered by a most holy hand in heaven O if some could make peace with God! It would be our wisdom, & afford us much sweet peace, if oppressours were looked upon as passive instruments, like the saw or ax in the Carpenters hand; they are bidden [if such a distinction may be admitted] but not commanded of God (as Shimei was, 2. Sam. 16: 10.) to doe what they doe. Madam, these many years the Lord hath been teaching you, to read & study well the book of holy, holy & spotless soveraignity, in suffering from some nigh hand & some far off: Whoever be the instruments, the replying of …lay to the Potter, the Former of all, is unbeseeming the nothing creature: I hope he shall clear you, but when Zion's publict evils lie not nigh some of us, & leave no impression upon our hearts, it is no wonder that we be exercised with domestick troubles; but I know ye are taught of God to prefer Jerusalem to your chiefest joy. Madam, there is no cause of fainting: Wait upon the not-carrying vision, for it will speak. The onelyonly wise God be with you, & God even your own God bless you.
St Andrews June. 1657. Yours at all observance in God, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. [67.]
MADAM.
I Should not forget you; but my deadness under a threatning-stroke, both of a failing Church, a broken Covenant, a despised remnant, & craziness of body [that I cannot get a piece sickly clay carryed about from one house or town to another] lies most he…vy on me: The Lord hath removed Scotland's crown; for we owned not his crown; we fretted at his Catholick Government of the world, & fretted that he would not be ruled & led by us, in breaking our adversaries; & he makes us suffer & pine away in our in quities under the broken Government of his house. It's like, it would be our snare to be tryed with the honour of a peaceable Reformation, we might mar the carved work of his house worse then th…se against whom we cry out. It's like he hath bidden us lie on our left side three hundred & ninetie dayes, & yet so astonishing is our stupiditie, that we …oan not our sore side: Our gold is become dim the visage of our Nazarites is become black, the Sun is gone down on our See…s, the crown is sallen from our head, we roar like bears. Lord save us from that, He that hath made them, will not have me…, on them. The heart of the Scribe meditats terror. Oh, Madam if the Lord would help to more, self-judging, and to make sure an interest in Christ! Ah, we forget eternity, & it approacheth quickly. Grace be with you.
St Andrewes, 20 Nov. 1657. Your La: at all obedience in the Lord, S. R.
To my Lady KENMURE. (68)
MADAM.
I am ashamed of my long silence to your L…: Your …ossings & wanderings are known to him, upon whom ye have been cast from the breasts, & who hath been your God of old. The temporall loss of creatures dear to you there, may be the more easily endured, that the gain of one who onelyonly hath immortality groweth. There is an universal complaint of deadness of spirit on all that know God; he that writes to you, Madam, is as deep in this as any, & is afraid of a strong & hot battle before time be at a close; but no matter if the Lord crown all with the victorious triumphing of faith. God teacheth us by terrible things in righteousness: we see many things, but we observe nothing. Our drink is sowre, gray hairs are here & there on us, & we change many Lords & Rulers; but the same bondage of soul & body remains: We live little by faith, but much by sense, according to the times, & by humane policy: The watchmen sleep, & the people perish for lack of knowledge. How can we be enlightened when we turn our back on the Sun? And must we not be withered when we leave the fountain? It should be my onelyonly desire to be a minister gifted with the white stone & the new name written on it. I judge it were fit [now when tall Professors, & when many stars fall from heaven, & God poureth the Isle of great Britain from vessel to vessel, & yet we sit & are setled on our lees] to consider [as sometimes I doe, but, ah, rarely] how irrecoverable a …oe it is, to be under a beguile in the matter of eternity; & what if I who can have a subscribed testimoniall of many, who shall stand at the right hand of the judge, shall miss Christ's approving testimony, & be set upon the left hand among the goats? there is such a beguile, Math. 7: 22. Math. 25: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Luke 13. 25, 26. And i… befalls many, & what if it befall me, who have but too much art to coosen my own soul & others with the flourish of ministerial or Countrey-holiness? Dear Lady, I am afraid of prevailing security, we watch little, [I have mainly relation to my self] we wrettle little: I am like one travelling in the night, who sees a Spirit & sweats for fear, & dare not tell it to his fellow for encreasing his own fear; however, I am sure when the Master is nigh his coming, it were safe to write over a double & new copy of our accounts, of the sins of nature, childhood, youth, riper years, & old age. What if Christ have another written representation of me then I have of my self, sure his is right, & if it contradict my mistaking & sinfully erroneous account of myself, ah where am I then? But, Madam, I discourage none, I know Christ hath made a new marriage contract of love, & sealed it with his blood, & the trembling beleever shall not be confounded. Grace be with you.
St Andrews, May 26. 1659. Yours at all obedience in Christ, S. R.