children's play: I would I could begin to be a Christian in sad earnest. I need not blame Christ if I be not one; for he hath shewed me heaven and hell in Aberdeen; but the truth is, for all my sorrow, Christ is nothing in my debt, for comforts have to lift him upon his throne, to carry a weak man. Nay, verily I was a his train, and bear up the hem of child before; all by-gones are but his robe royal; he hath an hidingplace for Mr. A.C. against the storm; go on, and fear not what man can do. The saints seem to have the worst of it; for apprehensions can make a lie of Christ and his love, but it is not so; providence is not rolled upon unequal and crooked refreshed my soul; I have heard wheels; all things work together for the good of those who love God, and are called according to his purpose. Ere it be long, we shall see the white side of God's providence. My brother's case hath moved me not a lit. tle; he wrote to me your care and kindness. Sir, the prisoner's blessings and prayers, I trust, shall not go by you. He that is able to keep you, and to present you before the presence of his face with joy, establish your heart in the love of Christ. To EARLSTOUN, Younger. Honoured & dear Brother, GRACE, mercy and peace be to you. I received your letter, which refreshed my soul. I thank God, the court is closed, I think shame of my part of it; I pass now from my unjust summons of unkindness, libelled against Christ my Lord; he is not such a Lord and master as I took him to be; verily he is God, and I am dust and ashes; I took Christ's glooms to be as good as Scripture speaking wrath; but I have seen the other side of Christ, and the white side of his cross now. I behoved to come to Aberdeen, to learn a new mystery in Christ, that his promise is better to be believed than his looks, and that the devil can cause Christ's glooms speak a lie to and seen him in his sweetness, so, as I am almost saying, it is not he that I was wont to meet with; he laugheth more cheerfully, his kisses are more sweet and soul-refreshing, than the kisses of the Christ I saw before, were, though he be the same; or rather, the King hath led me up to a measure of joy and communion with my Bridegroom, that I never attained to before; so that I often think, I will neither borrow nor lend with this world; I will not strike sail to crosses, nor flatter them to be quit of them, as I have one. Come all crosses, welcome, welcome! so I may get my heart full of my Lord Jesus. I have been so near him, as I have said, I take instruments, this is the Lord; leave a token behind thee, that I may never forget this. Now, what can Christ do more to dawt one of his poor prisoners; Therefore, Sir, I charge you in the name of my Lord Jesus, praise with me, and shew unto others what he hath done unto my soul. This is the fruit of my sufferings, that I desire Christ's name may be spread abroad in this kingdom, in my behalf. I hope in God not to slander him again; yet in this, I get not my feasts without some mixture of gall; neither am I free of old jealousies; for he hath removed my lovers and friends far from me: he hath made my congregation desolate, and taken away my crown; and my dumb sabbaths are like a stone tyed to a bird's foot, that wanteth wings, they seem to R hinder me to flee, were it not that I dare not say one word, but, Well done, Lord Jesus. We can in our prosperity sport ourselves, and be too bold with Christ; yea, be that insolent, as to chid with him; but under the water we dare not speak. I wonder now of my sometimes boldness, to chide and quarrel Christ, to nickname providence, when it stroaked me against the hair; but now swimming in the waters, I think my will is fallen to the ground of the water; I have lost it. I think I would fain let Christ alone, and give him leave to do with me what he pleaseth, if he would smile upon me. Verily, we know not what an evil it is to spill and indulge ourselves, and to make an idol of our will; I was once, I would not eat, except I had wailed meat; now I dare not complain of the crumbs and parings under his table: I was once that I would make the house ado, if I saw not the world carved, and set in order to my liking; now I am silent, when I see God hath set servants on horseback, and is fattening and feeding the children of perdition. I pray God, I never find my will again; Oh if Christ would subject my will to his, and trample it under his feet, and liberate me from that lawless lord! Now, Sir, in your youth gather fast; your sun will mount to the meridian quickly, and thereafter decline; be greedy of grace: study above any thing, my dear brother, to mortify your lusts. O but pride of youth, vanity, lust, idolizing of the world, and charming pleasures, take long time to root them out! As far as ye are advanced in the way to heaven, as near as ye are to Christ, as much progress as ye have made in the way of mortification, ye will find that ye are far behind, and have most of your work before you. I never took it to be so hard, to be dead to my lusts and to this world; when the day of visitation cometh, and your old idols come weeping about you, ye will have much ado not to break your heart; it is best to give up in time with them, so as ye could at a call quit your part of this world for a drink of water, or a thing of nothing. Verily I have seen the best of this world, a motheaten thread-bare coat; I purpose to lay it aside, being holey and old. O for my house above, not made with hands! Pray for Christ's prisoner, and write to me. Remember my love to your mother; desire her from me, to make ready for removing; the Lord's tide will not bide her; and to seek an heavenly mind, that her heart may be often there. Grace be with you. Your's and Christ's prisoner, Aberdeen, Feb. 20, 1637. මම්මම LETTER XCVII. To ROBERT GLENDINING. S. R My dear Friend, GRACE, mercy and peace be to you. I thank you most kindly for your care of me, and your love and respective kindness to my brother in his distress. I pray the Lord ye may find mercy in the day of Christ; and I intreat you, Sir, to consider the times ye live in, and that your soul is more worth to you than the whole world, which, in the day of the blowing of the last trumpet, shall lye in white ashes, as an old castle burnt to nothing; and remember that judgment and eternity is before you. My dear and worthy friend, let me intreat you in Christ's name, and by the salvation of your soul, and by your compearance before the dreadful and sin-revenging Judge of the world, make your accounts ready, read them ere ye come to the water side; for your afternoon will wear that we now naturally love, shall be Your's in his sweet Lord Jesus, LETTER XCVIII. S. R. be to you. to the loss of the soul; there is no hope of regaining that loss. O how joyful would my soul be, to hear that ye would start to the gate, and contend for the crown, and leave all vanities, and make Christ your garland! Let your soul put away your old lovers, and let Christ have your whole love; I have some experience to write of this to you. My witness is in heaven, I would not exchange my chains and bonds for Christ, and my sighs, for ten world's glory. I judge this clay idol, that Adam's sons are rouping and selling their souls for, not worth a drink of cold water. O if your soul were in my soul's stead, how sick would ye be of love for that fairest one, that fairest among the sons of men! Mayflowers and morning-vapour, and summer-mist posteth not so fast away, as these worm-eaten pleasures that we follow: we build castles in the air, and night-dreams are our daily idols that we dote on. Salva. vation, salvation is our only necessary thing. Sir, call home your thoughts to this work, to enquire for your Well-beloved: this earth is the por. tion of bastards; seek the son's inheritance, and let Christ's truth be the fairest sight I see in Aberdeen, dear to you. I pawn my salvation or any part that ever my feet were on it, that this is the honour of in. Remember my hearty kindness Christ's kingdom I now suffer for, to your wife; I desire her to believe, and this world, I hope, shall not and lay her cares on God, and make fast work of salvation. Grace be come between me and my garland, with and that this is the way to life. When ye and I shall lye like lumps of pale To WILLIAM GLENDINING. Well-beloved and dear brother, GRACE, mercy and peace I thank you most kindly for your lar to my brother, in his distress in care and love to me, and in particuEdinburgh: go on through your wa ters without wearying; your guide knoweth the way, follow him, and cast your cares and tentations upon him; and let not worms, the sons of men, affright you; they shall die, and the moth shall eat them; keep your garland; there is no less at the stake, in this game betwixt us and the world, than our conscience and salvation; we have need to take heed to the game, and not to yield to them. Let them take other things from us; but here, in matters of conscience, we must hold and draw with kings, and set ourselves in terms of opposition with the shields of the earth. O the sweet commun ion for evermore, that hath been between Christ and his prisoner! He wearieth not to be kind; he is you. Your's in his only Lord Jesus, clay upon the ground, our pleasures Aberdeen, March, 18, 1637. LETTER XCIX. To JEAN BROWN Well Beloved and Dear Sister, hope ye are near your lodging. O but I would think myself blessed, for my part, to win the house before the shower come on! for God hath GRACE, mercy, and peace be to you a quiver full of arrows to shoot at, I received your letter, which I es- and shower down upon Scotland. teem an evidence of your Christian Ye have the prayers of a prisoner of affection to me, and of your love to Christ. I desire Patrick to give my honourable Lord and Master. Christ his young love, even the My desire is, that your communion flower of it, and to put it by all with Christ may grow, and that your others; it were good to start soon reckonings may be put by-hand with to the way; he should thereby have your Lord ere ye come to the water- a great advantage in the evil day. side. O who knoweth how sweet Grace be with you. Christ's kisses are! who hath been more kindly embraced and kissed than I his banished prisoner? If the comparison could stand, I would not exchange Christ with heaven itself: he hath left a dart and arrow of love in my soul, and it paineth me till he come and taketh it out. I find Your's in his only Lord Jesus, Aberdeen, March 7, 1637. LETTER C. To Mr. JOHN FERGUSHILL. S. R. Reverend and Well-beloved in the Lord, pain of these wounds, because II WAS refreshed with your letter: I would have possession. I know am sorry for that lingering and longnow, this worm-eaten apple, the some visitation that is upon your plaistered, rotten world, that the wife; but I know ye take it as the silly children of this world are beat-raark of a lawfully begotten child, ing and buffeting, and pulling others' and not of a bastard, to be under ears for, is a portion for bastards your Father's rod. Till ye be in good enough; and that is all they have to look for. I offend not, that my adversaries stay at home at their own fire-side, with more yearly rent than I; should I be angry that the good-man of this house of the world casteth a dog a bone to hurt his teeth? He hath taught me to be content with a borrowed fire-side, and an uncouth bed; and I think I have lost nothing, the income is so great. O what telling is in Christ! Ŏ how weighty is my fair garland, my crown, my fair supping-hall in glory, where I shall be above the blows and buffetings of prelates! Let this be your desire, and let your thoughts dwell much upon that blessedness that abideth you in the other world. The fair side of the world will be turned to you quickly, when ye shall see the crown. I to praise, and to lift Christ up on heaven it will be but foul weather, one shower up and another down. The lintle stone and pillars of the New-Jerusalem suffer more knocks of God's hammer and tool, than the common side-wall stones: and if twenty crosses be written for you in God's book, they will come to nineteen, and then at last to one, and after that to nothing; but your head shall lye betwixt Christ's breasts for evermore, and his own soft hand shall dry your face, and wipe away your tears. As for public sufferings for his truth, your Master also will see to these; let us put him in his own office, to comfort and deliver. The gloom of Christ's cross is worse than itself. I cannot keep up what he hath done to my soul. My dear brother, will I not get help of you Aberdeen, March 7, 1637. LETTER CI. S. R. To his Rev. and dear Brother Mr. ROBERT high? He hath pained me with his | it shall once pass through God's sieve. love, and hath left a love-arrow in Praise, praise, and pray for me; for my heart, that hath made a wound, I cannot forget you: I know you and swelled me up with desires, so will be friendly to my afflicted brothat I am to be pitied for want of ther, who is now embarked in the real possession. Love would have same cause with me; let him have the company of the party loved: your counsel and comforts. Reand my greatest pain is the want of member my love in Christ to your him, not of his joys and comforts, wife; her health is coming, and her but of a near union and communion. salvation sleepeth not. Ye have the This is his truth, I am fully persuad-prayers and blessing of a prisoner in ed, I now suffer for: for Christ hath Christ; sow fast, deal bread plentitaken upon him to be witness to it, fully; the pantry-door will be locked by his sweet comforts to my soul; on the children, in appearance, ere and shall I think him a false witness, long. Grace, grace be with you. or that he would subscribe blank Your's in his sweet Lord Jesus, paper? I thank his high and dreadful name for what he hath given; I hope to keep his seal and his pawn till he come and loose it himself. I defy hell to put me off it, but he is Christ, and he hath met with his prisoner, and I took instruments in My very Reverend and dear Brother, his own hand, that it was he, and GRACE, mercy, and peace be to you. none other for him. When the I long to see you on paper. I candevil fenceth a bastard-court in my not but write you, that this which I Lord's ground, and giveth me forged now suffer for is Christ's truth; besummons, it will be my shame to cause he hath been pleased to seal misbelieve, after such a fair broad my sufferings with joy unspeakable seal; and yet Satan and my appre- and glorious; I know he will not put hension sometimes make a lie of his seal upon blank paper; Christ Christ, as if he hated me; but I dare hath not dumb seals, neither will believe no evil of Christ: if he would he be witness to a lie. I beseech cool my love-fever for himself with you, my dear brother, help me to real presence and possession I would praise, and to lift Christ up on his be rich; but I dare not be mislearn-throne, above the shields of the ed, and seek more in that kind, how- earth. I am astonished and conbeit it be no shame to beg at Christ's founded at the greatness of his kinddoor. I pity my adversaries; Iness to such a sinner. I know, grudge not that my Lord keepeth Christ and I shall never be even, İ them at their own fire-side, and hath shall die in his debt; he hath left an given me a borrowed bed and a bor- arrow in my heart that paineth me rowed fire-side: let the good-man of for want of real possession; and hell the house cast the dog a bone! why cannot quench this coal of God's should I offend! I rejoice that the kindling. I wish no man slander broken bark shall come to land, and Christ or his cross for my cause; for that Christ will, on the shore, wel- I have much cause to speak much come the sea-sick passenger. We good of him; he hath brought me have need of a great stock against to a nick and degree of communion this day of trial that is coming; nei- with himself that I knew not before. ther chaff nor corn in Scotland, but The din and gloom of our Lord's |