Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 8
To my Lady KENMURE. (8)
MADAM.
GRace mercy & peace be multiplied upon you: I received your La: letter, in the which I perceive your case in this world smelleth of a fellowship & communion with the Son of God in his sufferings: Ye cannot, ye must not have a more pleasant or more easie condition here, then he had, who through afflictions was made perfect, Heb. 2: 10, We may indeed think, Cannot God bring us to heaven with ease & prosperity? Who doubteth but he can? But his infinite wisdom thinketh & decreeth the contrary, and we cannot see a reason of it, yet he hath a most just reason: We never with our eyes saw our own soul, yet we have a soul; we see many rivers, but we know not their first spring & original fountain, yet they have a beginning. Madam, when ye are come to the other side of the water & have set down your foot on the shore of glorious Eternity, & look back again to the waters & to your wearisom journey, & shall see in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom; ye shall then be forced to say, If God had done otherwise with me then he hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory. It is your part now to beleeve & suffer & hope & wait on, for I protest in the presence of that all-discerning eye, who knoweth, what I write & what I think, that I would not want the sweet experience of the consolations of God, for all the bitterness of affliction: nay, whether God come to his children with a rod or a crown, if he come himself with it, it is well: Welcome, welcome Jesus, what way soever thou come, if we can get a sight of thee: & sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bed-side & draw the curtains & say, Courage, I am thy salvatiō, thē to enjoy health being lustie & strong, & never to be visited of God. Worthy & de a… Lady, in the strength of Christ, fight & overcome: Ye are now your alone, but ye may have for the seeking, three alwayes in your company, the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: I trust they are near you. Ye are now deprived of the comfort of a lively Ministery, so was Israel in their captivity, yet hear God's promise to them, Ezek. 11: 16. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God, Although I have cast them far off among the heat e… & although I have scattered them among the countreys, yet will be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countreys where they shall come: Behold a Sanctuary, for a Sanctuary, God himself in the place & room of the Temple of Ierusalem: I trust in God, carrying this Temple about with you, ye shall see Iehovah's beauty in his house. We are in great fears of a great & fearfull trial to come upon the Kirk of God; For these who would build their houses & nests upon the ashes of mourning Ierusalem, have drawn our King upon hard & langerous conclusions against such as are termed Puritans, for the rooting of them out. Our Prelats [the Lord take the keyes of his house from these bastard-porters] assure us, that for such as will not confor…, there is nothing but Imprisonment & Deprivation… The Spouse of Jesus will ever be in the fire, but I trust in my God, she shall not consume, because of the goodwill of him who dwelleth in the bu…h for he dwelleth in it with good will. All sort of crying sins without controlment abound in our Land … the glory of the Lord is departing from Israel, & the Lord is looking back over his shoulder, to see if any will say, Lord tarry, & no man requesteth him to stay. Corrupt & false doctrine is openly preached by the Idol-shepherds of the Land. For myself, I have daily griefs through the disobedience unto, & contempt of the word of God. I was summoned before the High Commission by a profligate person in this Parish, convicted of incest: in the business Mr Alexander Colvill [for respect to your La:] was my great friend, & wrote a most kinde letter to me: The Lord give him mercy in that day. Upon the day of my compearance, the sea & winds refused to give passage to the Bishop of St Andrews. I intreat you La: thank Mr Alexander Colvill with two lines of a letter. My wife now after long disease & torment, for the space of a year & monethmonth, is departed this life: the Lord hath done it, blessed be his name. I have been diseased of a fever tertian for the space of thirteen weeks, & am yet in that sickness, so that I preach but once on the sabbath with great difficulty: I am not able either to visite or examine the Congregation. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.
Anwoth. 26. June. 1630. Your La: at all obedience, S. R.