persuaded of Christ's victory in whoso looketh to the white side of Scotland, but I fear this land be Christ's cross, and can take it up not yet ripe and white for mercy: handsomely with faith and courage, yet I dare be halfer, upon my sal- shall find it such a burden, as sails vation, with the losses of the church are to a ship, or wings to a bird. of Scotland, that her foes afternoon I find my Lord hath overgilded shall sing dool and sorrow for ever- that black tree, and hath perfumed more, and that her joy shall once it, and oiled it, with joy and consolagain be cried up, and her sky shall ation. Like a fool, once I would clear; but vengeance and burning chide and plead with Christ, and shall be to her adversaries, and the slander him to others of unkindness: sinners of this land. Oh that we but I trust in God, not to call his could be wakened to prayers and glooms unkind again; for he hath humiliation! Then should our sun taken from me my sackcloth; and shine like seven suns in the heaven, I verily cannot tell you, what a then should the temple of Christ be poor Joseph and prisoner, with builded upon the mountain tops, whom my mother's children were and the land from coast to coast angry, doth now think of kind should be filled with the glory of Christ. I will chide no more, prothe Lord. Brother your day-task, viding he will quit me all by-gones; is wearing short, your hour-glass of for I am poor. I am taught, in this span length and hand-breath of this ill weather to go on the lee-side life will quickly pass; and therefore of Christ, and to put him in between take order and course with matters me and the storm; and I thank God betwixt you and Christ, before it I walk on the sunny side of the come to open pleading; there are brae. I write it, that ye may speak no quarters to be had of Christ, in in my behalf the praises of my Lord open judgement. I know, ye see to others, that my bonds may preach, your thread wearing short, and that O if all Scotland knew the feasts there are not many inches to the and love-blinks, and visits, that the thread's end; and therefore lose not prelates have sent me unto! I will time Remember me his prisoner, verily give my Lord Jesus a free that it would please the Lord to discharge of all, that I, like a fool, bring me again amongst you with laid to his charge, and beg him abundance of the gospel, Grace, pardon to the mends. God grant, grace be with you. that, in my temptations, I come not on this wrong side again, and never S. R. again fall a raving against my Physician, in my fever. Brother, plead with your mother, while ye have time; a pulpit would be a high feast to me; but I dare not say one word against him, who hatlı done it; I am not out of the house I THANK you for your letter. I as yet; my sweet Master saith, I cannot but shew you, that as I nev-shall have house-room at his own er expected any thing from Christ, elbow, albeit their synagogue will but much good and kindness; so need force to cast me out. A lethe hath made me to find it, in the ter were a work of charity to me. house of my pilgrimage; and be Grace be with you. Pray for me. lieve me, brother, I gave it to you under mine own hand writ, that, Your's in his sweet Lord Jesus. Aberdeen, 16837, LETTER CLXI. To Mr. HUGH MACAIL, Reverend and dear Brother, Your brother and Christ's prisoner. Aberdeen, Nov. 22, 1636. S. R ་་་་ LETTER CLXII. To JAMES MURRAY. Dear Brother, wish you all a part of my feast, that my Lord Jesus may be honoured; I allow you not to hide Christ's I RECEIVED your letter; I am in bounty to me, when ye meet with Ye write good health of body, but far better such as know Christ. in my soul. I find my Lord no nothing to me, what are the cruel worse than his word; I will be with mercies of the prelates toward me. him in trouble, is made good to me The ministers of this town, as I hear, now; he heareth the sighing of the intend that I shall be more strictly prisoner. Brother, I am comforted confined, or else transported, bein my royal Prince and King; the cause they find some people affect world knoweth not our life, it is a me. Grace be with you. mystery to them; we have the sun Your's in the Lord Jesus. LETTER CLXIII. S. R. ny side of the world, and our para Aberdeen, Nov. 21st, 1637. dise is far above theirs, yea, our weeping above their laughing, which is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot; and therefore we have TO JOHN FLEMING, Baillie of Leith. good cause to fight it out, for the day of our laureation is appoaching. My very Dear Friend, I find my prison the sweetest place GRACE, mercy and peace be to you. that ever I was in; my Lord Jesus is I received your letter; I bless my kind to me, and hath taken the mask Lord through Jesus Christ, I find off his face, and is content to quit me his word good, Isa. xlviii. 10. I have all by-gones; I dare not complain chosen thee in the furnace of afflicof him. And for my silence, I lay tion, and Psal. xci. 15. I will be with it before Christ; I hope it shall be him in trouble. I never expected a speaking silence; he who knoweth other at Christ's hand, but much what I would, knoweth that my soul good and comfort; and I am not desireth no more, but that King disappointed: I find my Lord's cross Jesus may be great in the north of overgilded and oiled with comforts. Scotland, in the south, and in the My Lord hath now shewn me the east and west, through my sufferings white side of his cross: I would not for the freedom of my Lord's house exchange my weeping in prison and kingdom. If I could keep with the fourteen prelates' laughter, good quarters in time to come with amidst their hungry and lean joys. Christ, I would fear nothing; but This world knoweth not the sweetoh! oh! I complain of my wofulness of Christ's love, it is a mystery outbreakings; 1 tremble at the re- to them. At my first coming here, membrance of a new out-cast be- I found great heaviness, especially twixt him and me; and I have because it had pleased the prelates to cause, when I consider what sick add this gentle cruelty to my foriner and sad days I have had for his sufferings, (for it is gentle to them,) absence, who is now come. I find to inhibit the ministers of the town Christ cannot be long unkind; our to give me the liberty of a pulpit: Joseph's bowels yearn within him, I said, what aileth Christ at my he cannot smother love long, it must service? but I was a fool, he hath break out at length. Praise, praise chid himself friends with me: if ye with me, brother, and desire my and others of God's children shall acquaintance to help me; I dare praise his great name, who maketh not conceal his love to my soul, I worthless men witnesses for him, my Your's in his sweet Lord Jesus. Aberdeen, Nov. 13th, 1636, LETTER CLXIV. To EARLSTOUN, Elder. Rev. xii. 11. And they overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony; and they a silence and sufferings shall preach for the last word of flyting, and now more than my tongue could do: he hath chided himself, friends with if his glory be seen in me I am me: and now I see he must be satisfied; for I want no kindness God, and I must be flesh. I pass of Christ. And Sir, I dare not from my summons. I acknowledge sinother his liberality; I write it to he might have given me my fill of you, that ye may praise and desire it, and never troubled himself: but your brother and others to join now he hath taken away the mask; with me in this work. This land I have been comforted; he could shall be made desolate, our ini- not smother his love any longer to quities are full: the Lord saith, prisoner and a stranger. God grant we shall drink, and spue, and fall. that I may never buy a plea against Remember my love to your good Christ again, but may keep good kind wife. Grace be with you. quarters with him. I want no kindness, no love-tokens; but oh, wise is his love for notwithstanding of S. R. this hot summer blink, I am kept low with the grief of my silence; for his word is in me as a fire in my bowels; and I see the Lord's vineyard laid waste, and the heathen entered into the sanctuary; and my belly is pained, and my soul in heaviness, because the Lord's people are gone into captivity, and because of the fury of the Lord, and that wind Much Honoured Sir, but neither to fan nor to purge that GRACE, mercy and peace is coming upon apostate Scotland. I long to see you on paper, and to Also I am kept awake with the late be refreshed by you. I cannot but wrong done to my brother; but I desire you, and charge you to help trust ye will counsel and comfort me to praise him, who feedeth a him. Yet in this mist, I see, and poor prisoner with the fatness of his believe, the Lord will heal this halthouse. O how weighty is his love? ing kirk, and will lay her stones with O but there is much telling in fair colours, and her foundations Christ's kindness! The Amen, the with sapphires, and will make her faithful and true Witness hath paid windows of agates, and her gates me my hundred fold, well, told and carbuncles, Isa. liv. 11, 12. one to the hundred: I complained for brass he will bring gold: he hath of him, but he is owing me nothing created the smith that formed the now. Sir, I charge you to help me sword, no weapon in war shall proto praise his goodness, and to prosper against us. Let us be glad and claim to others my Bridegroom's rejoice in the Lord, for his salvation kindness, whose love is better than is near to come. Remember me to wine. I took up an action against your wife and your son John: and I Christ Lord; and I said, This is my intreat you to write to me. Grace, my death, he hath forgotten me: but grace be with you. my meek Lord held his peace, and beheld me, and would not contend loved not their lives unto the death. be to you. And Your's in his only, only Lord Jesus. Aberdeen, Dec. 30, 1686. S. R. LETTER CLXV. . To Mr. JOHN FERGUSHILL. account. I have nothing to comfort me, but that I say, Oh! will the Lord dissappoint an hungry on-waitReverend and well-beloved in our Lord Jesus, er? The smell of Christ's wine and ap. I MUST still provoke you to write by ples, which surpass the up-taking of my lines, whereat ye need not won dull sense, bloweth upon my soul, der; for the cross is full of talk, and and I get no more for the mean time. speak it must, either good or bad: I am sure, to let a famishing body neither can grief be silent. I have see meat, and give him none of it, is no dittay nor inditement to bring a double pain; our Lord's love is against Christ's cross, seeing he hath not so cruel, as to let a poor man see made a friendly agreement betwixt Christ and heaven, and never give me and it, and we are in terms of him more, for want of money to buy: love together. If my former mis-nay, I rather think Christ such fair carriages, and my now silent sab market wares, as buyers may have baths, seem to me to speak wrath without money and without price: from the Lord, I dare say, it is but and thus I know, it shall not stand Satan borrowing the use and loan of upon my want of money; for Christ my cowardly and feeble apprehen- upon his own charges, must buy my sions, which starts at straws. Iwedding garment, and redeem the know faith is not so faint and foolish inheritance which I have forfeited, as to tremble at every false alarm; and gave his word for one the like yet I gather this out of it, Blessed are they who are graced of God to guide a cross well, and that there is some art required therein.' I pray God I may not be so ill friend-stead, as that Christ my Lord should leave me to be my own tutor, and my own physician Shall I not think, but my Lord Jesus, who deserveth his own place very well, will take his own place upon him as it becometh him, and that he will fill his own chair for in this is his office, to comfort us, and those that are casten down, in all their tribulations, 2 Cor. i. 4 Alas! I know I am a fool to seek an hole or defect in Christ's of me, who am not law-biding of myself; poor folks must either borrow or beg from the rich; and the only thing that commendeth sinners to Christ, is extreme necessity and want: Christ's love is ready to make and provide a ransom and money for a poor body, who hath lost his purse; Ho ye that have no money, come and buy, Isa. lv. 1. that is the poor man's market Now, brother, I see old crosses would have done nothing at me, and therefore Christ hath taken a new fresh rod to me, that seemeth to talk with my soul, and make me tremble. I have often more ado now with faith, when I lose way with my soul. If I have not a my compass, and am blown on a rock, stock to present to Christ, at his ap- than those who are my beholders, pearance, yet I pray God I may be standing upon the shore, are aware able, with joy, faith, and constancy, of. A counsel to a sick man is to shew the Captain of my salvation, sooner given than taken. Lord in that day, a bloody head that I resend the wearied man a borrowed ceived in his service. Howbeit my bed from Christ: I think often it is faith hang by a small thread, I hope after supper with me, and I am the thread shall not break; and heavy; O but I would sleep soundhowbeit my Lord get no service of ly, with Christ's left hand under my me but broken wishes, yet I trust head, and his right hand embracing these shall be accepted upon Christ's me; the devil could not spill that bed. When I consider how tender- chargeth me to believe his day-light ly Christ hath cared for me in this at mid-night. But I make pleas prison, I think he hath handled me with Christ, though it be ill my comas the child that is pitied and be- mon so to do; it were my happiness, moaned; I desire no more till I be when I am in this house of wine, and in heaven, but such a feast and fill when I find a feast-day, if I could of Christ's love as I would have; this hearken and hear for the time to love would be fair and adorning pass come, Isa. xlii. 23. But I see, we ments, which would beautify and set must be off our feet in wading a deep forth my black unpleasant cross. I water; and then Christ's love findcannot tell, my dear brother, what eth timeous employment at such a a great load I would bear, if I had a dead lift as that; and besides, after hearty fill of the love of that lovely broken brows, children learn to walk One, Christ Jesus; oh if ye would more circumspectly. If I come to seek and pray for that to me! I heaven any way, howbeit, like a would give Christ all his love-styles tired traveller, upon my Guide's and titles of honour, if he would shoulder, it is good enough for give me but this; nay, I would sell those who have no legs of their own myself (if I could) for that love. I for such a journey. I never thought have been waiting to see what friends there had been need of so much of place and power would do for us; wrestling to win to the top of that but when the Lord looseth the pins steep mountain as now I find. Wo of his own tabernacle, he will have is me for this broken and back-slidhimself to be acknowledged as the ing church; it is like an old bowing only builder up thereof; and there- wall, leaning to the one-side, and fore I would take back again my there are none of all her sons who hope, that I lent and laid in pawn will set a prop under her. I know, in mens' hands, and gave it wholly I need not bemoan Christ; for he to Christ. It is no time for me now careth for his own honour, more to set up idols of my own; it were than I can do; but who can blame a pity to give an ounce weight of me to be wo (if I had grace so to do) hope to any besides Christ; I think to see my Well-beloved's fair face him well worthy of all my hope, spitted upon, and his own crown though it were as weighty as both plucked off his head, and the ark heaven and earth. Happy were I, of God taken, and carried in the if I had any thing that Christ would Philistines cart. and the kine put seek or accept of; but now alas, to carry it, who will let it fall to the I see not what service I can do to ground? The Lord put to his own him, except it be to talk a little, helping hand. I would desire you and babble upon a piece of paper, to prepare yourself for a fight with concerning the love of Christ. I beasts: ye will not get leave to steal am often as if my faith were wadset, quietly to heaven, in Christ's comso that I cannot command it; and pany, without a conflict and a cross. then, when he hideth himself, I run Remember my bonds, and praise to the other extreme, in making my second and fellow-prisoner, each wing and toe of my case as big Christ. Grace be with you. as a mountain of iron; and then misbelief can spin out an hell of Your's in Christ Jesus his Lord, heavy and desponding thoughts; Aberdeen, 1637. S. R. |