because it is a rare thing to see a that is on the land, and have been fallen star win ever up again to the much tempted with a design to have. firmament to shine; and what if this a pass from Christ, which if I had, be the thick darkness going before I would not stay to be a witness of the break of day? Sure, Sir, the our defection, for no man's intreaty ; sun shall rise upon Scotland; but if I but i know it is my softness and shall see it, or how near it is to that day, weakness, who would ever be ashore, I leave that to Him, even unto Jeho-when a fit of sea-sickness cometh on; vah, who creates upon every dwelling- though I know, I shall come soon place in mount Zion, and upon her as- enough to that desirable country, semblies a cloud, and a smoke by day, and shall not be displaced, none shall the shining of a flaming fire by night. take my lodging. Sir, many eyes But, Sir, the wilderness shall rejoice are upon you, and the godly are and blossom as a rose: and happy exceedingly refreshed, that ye listen he, who hath a bone or an arm, to not to the ways of many about you, put the crown upon the head of our who with fair words make merchanhighest King, whose chariot is pa- dize of souls. Sir, if the way you ved with love. Were there ten are in be not the way of Christ, then thousand millions of heavens created wo to me, for I am eternally lost; above these highest heavens, and a- but truly, the Lord Christ's dealing gain as many above them, and as with Colonel Gilbert Ker hath promany above them till angels were ven to me, that the New Testament, wearied with counting, it were but and the covenant of grace, is a piece, too low a seat to fix the princely that a solemn meeting and assembly throne of that Lord Jesus (whose ye of all created angels, join all their are) above them all: created heav- wits together, could not have deens are too low a seat of majesty for vised. Since, Sir, ye paid nothing him. Since then there is none equal for the change that Christ made, to your Master and Prince, who hath chosen out for you, amongst many sufferings for sin, that only cross, which cometh nearest in likeness to his own cross, watered with consolation, take courage, and comfort yourself in him, who hath chosen you to glory hereafter, and to conformity it in pawn (it is but a poor pledge) with him here: we fools would have a that this, this only is the way? but cross of our own choosing, and would Christ is surety himself, that it is have our gall and wormwood sugar- the way; the Fore-runner went beed, our fire cold, and our death and fore you, and he is safely landed, grave warmed with heat of life; but and there is a fair company before he who hath brought many children you of such as have come out of to glory, and lost none, is our best great tribulation, and have washed Tutor. I wish, when I am sick, that their garments, and made them white he may be keeper and comforter. in the blood of the Lamb; to whom judge it a blessed fall, that we are these promises are now performed, forfeited heirs, broken and out of He that overcomes shall eat of the credit, and that Christ is become a tree of life, that is in the midst of Tutor in the place of free-will, and the paradise of God; and God shall that we are no more our own. I am wipe away all tears from their eyes; broken and wasted with the wrath and there shall be no more death;

and ye will take that debt of free grace to heaven with you, (for what was Christ Jesus indebted to you, more than to all your kindred and name! therefore, since ye are made his own, follow no other way. What is my salvation, though I should lay

Pro

neither sorrow, nor crying, neither and to the south, Keep not back, shall there be any more pain: He It is a sermon that flesh and blood that sitteth on the throne shall dwell laugheth at, Ezek. xxxvii. 4. among them; they shall hunger no phesy upon these dry bones, and say more, neither thirst any more, nei- unto them, O ye dry bones, hear ther shall the sun light on them, nor the word of the Lord !' it is a preachany heat; for the Lamb, that is in ing to the grave: Thus saith the the midst of the throne, shall feed Lord unto the bones, Behold, I will them, and shall take them unto the cause breath enter into you, and ye living fountains of waters.' I may, shall live, and I will lay sinews upon Sir, possibly keep you from better you, and bring flesh upon you, and work: the God of peace, that cover you with skin, and put breath brought again from the dead the in you, and ye shall live." Rev. xx, great Shepherd of the sheep, through 13. And the sea gave up the dead the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect.

that were in it.' Berwick must render back the Scottish captives, and Colonel Gilbert Ker with them. Isa. xliii. 14. For thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the holy One of Israel, For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships."

To the much honoured and truly worthy Colonel Deut. xxx. 4. If any of them be

GILBERT KER.

driven out to the utmost parts of Much honoured and worthy Sir, heaven, from thence will the Lord I HAVE heard of your continued cap- thy God gather thee, and from thence tivity in England, as well as in this will he fetch thee.' Zech. viii. 7. afflicted land; but, go where ye will, Thus saith the Lord of liosts, Beye cannot go from under your shad- hold, I will save my people from ow, which is broader than many the east country, and from the west kingdoms; ye change lodging and country, and I will bring them, and countries; but the same Lord is be- they shall dwell in the midst of Jerfore you: if ye were carried away usalem, and they shall be my peocaptive to the other side of the sun, ple, and I will be their God, in or as far as the rising of the morn-truth and in righteousness." Sir, ye ing star; it is spoken to your moth- are both booked by the Lord, who er, who hath yet received no bill of writeth up the people.' Psal. lxxxvii. divorce, which was written to Ju- 5, 6. and counted to the Lord as dah, Micah iv. 10. 'Be in pain and one of the house and stock, Psal. labour to bring forth, O daughter xxii. 30. Fear not, faint not, all of Zion, like a woman in travail: your hairs are numbered. It is the for now shalt thou go forth out of desire of the people of God, that as the city, and thou shalt dwell in the your bonds hitherto have been exfield, and thou shalt go even to emplary, to the strengthening of Babylon, there shalt thou be deliv- the feeble, and to the stopping of ered, there the Lord shall redeem the mouth of the adversary, withthee from the hand of thine enemies, England shall be countable for you, to render you back, Isa. xliv. 6. I will say to the north, Give up;

out any declining to the right or left hand; so your sufferings, in the place ye now go to, may be (as we are confident in the Lord of you,

He

and in humility boast of his grace behold we live; as chastened, and in you) savoury, convincing, and yet not killed. Neither is this your like unto this honourable cause, condition alone, but the experienc. that will prevail in Britain, contrary ed lot of all the saints that have to all the machinations and counsels gone before you: it is one and the of devils and men; and though there same cross of Christ! but there be were no other ink in the pen I now sundry faces and diverse circum write with, but some dewing of my stances in the same remnant, the last cooling blood, this I purpose sufferings of Christ and your's. Sir, (his grace, whose I am, enabling to be delivered to soldiers, and in me) to stand to. Sir, we desire to captivity, looks like His suffering, of adore no instruments; yet we con- whom Isaiah saith, chap. liii. S. ceive the shining and rays of grace, was taken from prison, and from from the fountain Jesus Christ, the judgment; yea, and taken bound,' fulness of the God-head, bestowed John xviii, 1. When the cause is on sinful men, hold forth the good the truth of God, the lustre and thoughts of Christ to this poor land, face of suffering is so much the more whose multipled graves, and whose lovely, that it hath the hue and cosouls under the alter, slain by sect-lour of Christ's sufferings: who enaries and Malignants, cry aloud to dured contradiction of sinners, and heaven. I see nothing, Sir, if the despised the shame: O it is a great Lord be not near, though I dare word, Christ shamed, and Christ anot say how soon, to awake for based! but thus was the Head, and the year of Zion's controversy, Isa. so are the members dealt with in xxxiv. 5. For my sword shall be the world; and truly any thing of bathed in heaven; behold, it shall Christ, even the worst of him, to come down upon England, and the speak so, his reproach and shame, residue of his enemies in Scotland.' are lovely. Though superstitions Wo is me, for England! that land love to the material cross be suffershall be soaked with blood, and their ed upon be foolery, and doating dust made fat with fatness; that upon the holy grave be cursed idolpleasant land shall be a wilderness, atry: yet is there a communion with and the dust of their land pitch; a him in his sufferings most desirable, judgment upon their walled towns, 1 Pet. iv. 15. But rejoice in as their pleasant fields, their strong much as ye are partakers of Christ's ships, &c. if they do not repent. Ye sufferings: in which sense the cup have not, I conceive, seen such that his lip touched hath the sweeter searching and trying times as now taste, even though death were in it; these are; and yet the question will the grave because he did lie in it, is be drawn to a more narrow state, so much the softer, and the more and multitudes will yet leave the refreshful a bed of rest; and that cause; for we took all into the cov- part of the sky and clouds that the enant that offered to build with us: Beloved shall break through, and but Christ must have but a small come to judgment, is as lovely a remnant; few nobles, if any, few piece of the created heaven as any ministers, few professors, though our is, if we may love the ground he way standeth unchanged, 2 Cor. vi. goeth on the better; but all this is By honour and dishonour, by to be understood in a spiritual mangood report and evil report, as de- ner. The Lord calleth you, Sir, ceivers, and yet true, as unknown, upon whom the spirit of God and and yet well known; as dying, and his glory resteth, to put your soul's

8. 6

AMEN to this dispensation: and re- gels, is upon his shoulder I am a quireth of us. that our desires follow fool, and brutish to imagine, that I the now declared decree of God can add any thing to Christ's special concerning the desolation of our sin- care of, and tenderness to his peoful land, so many ways guilty of a ple: he who keepeth the "asons and despised gospel, and a broken cove- knives of his house, and bringeth the nant, and that with all submission: vessels again to the second temple, certainly no man hath failed more Fzra i 8. 9, 10. must have a more in this thing, than he who writeth tender care of his redeemed ones, to you: for I have brought my than of a spoon or of Peter's old health in great hazard, and torment shoes, which yet must not be lost in ed my spirit with excessive grief, his captivity Acts xii 8. O for for cur present provocations and grace to suffer Christ to tutor his the rentings of our kirk; and I see own minors and young heirs! But it is a challenging of, and a bold we cannot endure to be under the pleading against him, upon whose actings of his government; we love shoulder the government is, Isa. too much to be our own. O how xxii. 22. The Father hath put a glo sweet to be wholly Christ's, and rious trust upon Christ, ver. 23 wholly in Christ! To be out of the • And I will fasten him as a nail in creatures owning, and made coma sure place, and he shall be for a plete in Christ, to live by faith in glorious throne to his Father's house, Christ; and to be once for all clothver. 24. And they shall hang upon ed with the created majesty and him all the glory of his Father's glory of the Son of God, wherein house, the offspring and the issue, he makes all his friends and followall vessels of small quantity, from er sharers! To dwell in Immanuel's the vessels of cups even to all the high and blessed land, and live in vessels of flagons,' Our unbelieving that sweetest air, where no wind apprehensions do so quarrel at the bloweth, but the breathings of the prosperity of enemies in an evil Holy Ghost; no seas nor floods flow, cause, that we wrestle with defeats, but the pure waters of life, that prospoiling, captivity of the godly, kili-ceedeth from under the throne, and ing of his people, the wasting of our from the Lamb; no planting but land, starving and famishing of the the tree of life, that yieldeth twelve kingdom, which is worse than the manner of fruit every month! What sword: but this is a sinful contra do we here but sin and suffer? O dicting of the Lord's revealed de- when shall the nights be gone, the cree: his wisdom saith, Spoiling shadows flee away, and the mornand desolation is best for Scotlanding of that long, long day, without and we say, Not; and so accuse cloud or night, dawn! The Spirit Christ of misgovernment, and of not and the bride say Come; O when being true to the trust put upon shall the Lamb's wife be ready, and him; but since he doth not drag the Bridegroom say, Come! Worthy the government at his heels, but Sir, I mind you to the Hearer of hath it upon his shoulder; and since prayer: O help me in that kind! the nail fastened in a sure place The Spirit of Jesus be with your cannot be broken, nor can the smal- spirit. lest vessel fail to find sweet security in dependence upon him: since all

Your's in his only, only Lord Jesus,

the weight of heaven and earth, of St. Andrews, May, 14, 1651. redeemed saints and confirmed an

S. R.

of

Madam,

LETTER LXII.

To my Lady KENMURE.

Your Ladyship's at all observance in the Lord Jesus.

Glasgow, Sept. 28, 1651,

ම

LETTER LXIII.

S. R,

eth not from me: I flee from him, but he pursueth. I hear your Ladyship hath the same esteem of the GRACE, mercy and peace be to you. despised cause and covenant of our We are fallen in winnowing and try-Lord, ye had before: Madam, hold ing times; I am glad that your you there; I dare and would gladly breath serveth you to run to the end, breathe out my spirit in that way, in the same condition and way with a nearer communion and felwherein ye have walked these twen- lowship with the Father and the ty years past; it is either the way Son, and would seek no more, but peace, or we are yet in our sins, that I might die believing; and also and have missed the way. The I would hope, that the earth should Lord, it is true, hath stained the not cover the blood of the godly pride of all our glory; and now, last slain in Scotland; but that the Lord of all, the sun hath gone down upon will make inquisition for their blood, many of the prophets; but, stumble when the sufferings of the saints in not, men are men, and God ap- these lands shall be fulfilled. The peareth more and more to be God, good will of him that dwelt in the and Christ is still Christ. Madam, bush be with you. stronger than I am, had almost stumbled me and cast me down; but oh, what mercy is it, to discern between what is Christ's and what is man's, and what way the hue, colour and lustre of gifts and grace dazzle and deceive our weak eyes! Oh to be dead to all things that are below Christ, were it even a created heaven and created grace! Holi- GRACE, mercy, and peace be to ness is not Christ; nor are the blos- you: I know ye think of an out'soms and flowers of the tree of life going, and that your quartering in the Tree itself. Men and creatures time, and your abode in this life, may wind themselves between us and is short; for we flee away as a Christ; and therefore the Lord hath shadow; the declining of the sun, done much to take out of the way and the lengthening of the shadow, all betwixt him and us; there are saith our journey is short and near not in our way now kings, or ar- the end; I speak it, because I have mies, or nobles, or judicatories, or warnings of my removal. Madam, strong holds, or watchmen, or godly I know not any against whom the professors: the fairest things, and Lord is not; for he is against the most eminent in Britain, are stained, proud and lofty; the day of the and have lost their lustre; only, Lord is upon all the cedars, upon only Christ keeps his greatness and all the high mountains, upon every beauty, and remaineth what he was; high tower, and upon every fenced Oh! if he were more and more ex-wall, upon all the ships of Tarcellent to our apprehensions than shish, and upon all pleasant pic. ever he was, (whose excellency is tures. I know not any thing com above all apprehensions,) and still parable to a nearness and spiritual more and more sweet to our taste. communion with the Father and the I care for nothing, if so be I were Son Christ: there is much deadness. nearer to him, and yet he fly- and witheredness upon many spirits,

Madam,

To my Lady KENMURE.