our lamps, for the Bridegroom's coming: the other fide of this world will be turned up incontinent, and up fhall down; and these that are weeping in fackcloth fhall triumph on white horfes, with whofe name is, The word of God. These dying idols, the fair creatures that we whorishly love better than our Creator, will pass away like fnow-water. The God-head, the God-head, a communion with God in Chrift, to be halvers with Christ of the purchased house and inheritance in heaven, fhould be your scope and aim. For myfelf, when I lay my counts, O what telling, O what weighing is in Chrift! O how foft are his kiffes! O love, love furpaffing in Jefus! I have no fault to that love, but that it feemeth to deal niggardly with me; I have little of it. O that I had Christ's feen and read band, fubfcribed by himself, for my fill of it! What garland have I, or what crown, if I looked right on things, but Jesus? Oh there is no room in us on this fide of the water for that love! This narrow bit of earth, and these ebb and narrow fouls can hold little of it, because we are full of rifts. I would glory, glory would enlarge us (as it wiH) and make us tight, and close up our feams and rifts, that we might be able to comprehend it, which yet is incomprehenfible. Remember my love to your wife. Grace be with you, Yours in his fweet Lord Jefus, S. R.

Aberdeen, Sept. 7. 1637.

81. To ALEXANDER GORDON of Earlestoun. Much honoured Sir.

:

of

Owbeit I would have been glad to have feen you; yet, feeing our Lord hath been pleased to break the fnare of your adverfaries, I heartily blefs our Lord on your behalf, Our croffes for Chrift are not made of iron, they are fofter and of more gen. tle metal it is eafy for God to make a fool of the devil, the father of all fools: as for me, I but breathe out what my Lord breatheth in. The fcum and froth of my letters I father upon my unbelieving heart. I know your Lord hath fomething to do with you, because Satan and malice have fhot fore at you; but your bow abideth in its ftrength. Ye fhall not, by my advice, be a balver with Chrift, to divide the glory of your deliverance betwixt youríelf and him, or any other fecond mean whatsoever. Chrift (as it fetteth him well) have all the glory and triumph his alone. The Lord fet himself on high in you. Ifee Chrift can borrow a crofs for fome hours, and fet his fervants befides it, rather than under it, and win the plea too, yea, and make glory to himfelf, and fhame to his enemies, and comfort to his children, out of it: but whether Chrift buy or borrow croffes, he is King of croffes, and King of devils, and King over hell, and King over

Let

malice.

malice. When he was in the grave, he came out, and brought the keys with him; he is Lord Jaylor: nay, what fay I? he is Captain of the caftle, and he hath the keys of death and hell: and what are our troubles but little deaths: and he who commandeth the great caftle commandeth the little alfo. 2. I see a hardened face and two skins upon our brows, against the winter-hail and ftormy wind, is meetest for a poor traveller in a winter-journey to heaven. O what art is it to learn to endure hardness, and to learn to go bare-footed either through the devil's fiery coals, or his frozen waters! 3. I am perfuaded a fea-venture with Christ maketh great riches: is not our King Jefus his fhip coming home, and fhall not we get part of the gold? Alas, we fools miscount our gain when we feem lofers. Believe me, I have no challenges against this well born crofs; for it is come of Chrift's house, and is honourable, and his propine; to you it is given to suffer; O what fools are we, to undervalue his gifts, and to lightly that which is true honour! for if we could be faithful, our tackling fhall not loose, nor our maft break, nor our fails blow into the fea. The baftard croffes, the kinless and base-born crosses of worldlings for evil-doing, must be heavy and grievous; but our afflictions are light and momentary. 4. I think myself happy, that I have loft credit with Christ, and that in this bargain I am Chrift's fworn dyvour, to whom he will lippen nothing, no not ene pin in the work of my falvation: let me ftand in black and white in the dyvour-book before Chrift, I am happy that my falvation is concredited to Chrift's mediation: Chrift oweth no faith to me, to lippen any thing to me; but O what faith and credit [ owe to him! Let my name fall, and let Christ's name stand in honour with men and angels. Alas! I have no room to spread out my affection before God's people; and I fee not how I can shout out and cry out the loveliness, the high honour, and the glory of my faireft Lord Jefus. Oh that he would let me have a bed to ly in, to be delivered of my birth, that I might paint him out in his beauty to men, as I do. 5. I wondered once at providence, and called white providence black and unjuft, that I should be fmothered in a town where no foul will take Chrift off my hand; but providence hath another luftre with God than with my bleared eyes. I proclaim myfelf a blind body, who know not black and white, in the uncouth courfe of God's providence. Suppofe Chrift would fet hell where heaven is, and devils up in glory befide the elect angels, (which yet cannot be) would I had a heart to acquiefce in his way, without further difpute. I fee, infinite wifdom is the mother of his judgments, and his ways paft finding out. 6. I cannot learn; but I defire to learn to bring my thoughts, will, and lufts, in under Chrift's feet, that he may

trample

trample upon them: but alas, I am ftill upon Christ's wrong fide! Grace be with you,

Aberdeen, Sept. 12.

1637.

Yours in his fweet Lord

Jefus. S. R.

82. To ROBERT LENNOX ef Difdove.

Worthy and dear brother,

Forgot you not in my bonds: I know ye are looking to Chrift; and I beseech you, follow your look. I can fay more of Chrift now by experience (though he be infinitely above and beyond all that can be faid of him) than when I faw you. I am drowned over head and ears in his love. Sell, fell, fell all things for Chrift. If this whole world were the balk of a ballance, it should not be able to bear the weight of Chrift's love; men and angels have short arms to fathom it; fet your feet upon this piece blue and bafe clay of an over-gilded and fair plaistered world; an hour's kiffing of Chrift is worth a world of worlds. Sir, make fure work of your falvation build not upon fand; lay the foundation upon the rock in Zion; ftrive to be dead to this world, and to your wills and Jufts; let Chrift have a commanding power and a king's throne in you; walk with Chrift, howbeit the world fhould take the hide off your face: I promise you Chrift will win the field. Your pa ftors caufe you to err; except you fee Chrift's word, go not one foot with them; countenance not the reading of that Rome fervicebook; keep your garments clean, as ye would walk with the Lamb cloathed in white. The wrongs I fuffer are recorded in heaven; our great Master and Judge will be upon us all, and bring us before the fun in our blacks and whites: bleffed are they who watch and keep themselves in God's love. Learn to difcern the Bridegroom's tongue, and to give yourself to prayer and reading. Ye was often a hearer of me: I would put my heart's blood upon the doctrine I taught, as the only way to falvation; go not from it, my dear brother. What I write to yourself, I write to your wife alfo. Mind heaven and Chrift, and keep the spunk of the love of Chrift you have gotten: Chrift fhall blow on it if ye entertain it, and your end fhall be peace. There is a fire in our Zion, but our Lord is but fecking a new bride refined and purified out of the furnace; I affure you, howbeit we be nick-named Puritans, all the powers of the world fhall not prevail against us; remember, though a finful man write it to you, thefe people fhall be in Scotland as a green olive-tree, and a field bleffed of the Lord; and it fhall be proclaimed, Up, up with Chrift, and down, down with all contrary powers. Sir, Pray for me, (I name you to the Lord) for further evil is determined against me. Remember my love to Chriftian Murray, and her daughter; I defire her, in the edge of

her

her evening, to wait a little, the King is coming, and he hath fomething, that the never faw, with him: heaven is no dream; come and fee will teach her beft. Grace, grace be with you. Aberdeen, Sept. 13. Yours in his fweet Lord

1637.

Jefus, S. R.

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83. To MARION MACKNAUGHT.

Deareft in our Lord Jefus,

Count

Ount it your honour, that Chrift hath begun at you, to fine your firft. Fear not, faith the Amen, the true and faithful witness: I write to you, As my Mafter liveth, upon the word of my royal King, continue in prayer and in watching, and your glorious deliverance is coming: Chrift is not far off; a fig, a ftraw for all the bits of clay that are rifen against us. Ye fhall thresh the mountains, and fan them like chaff, Ifa. xli. If ye flack your hands at your meetings, and your watching to prayer, then it would feem our Rock hath fold us; but be diligent, and be not discouraged. I charge you in Christ, rejoice, give thanks, believe, be ftrong in the Lord: that burning bush in Galloway and Kirkcudbright shall not be burnt to afhes; for the Lord is in the bufh. Be not difcouraged, that banishment is to be procured, by the king's warrant to the council, against me; the earth is my Lord's; I am filled with his sweet love and running over I rejoice to hear you are in your journey: fuch news as I hear, of all your faith and love, rejoice my fad heart. Pray for me, for they seek my hurt, but I give myfelf to prayer. The bleffing of my Lord, and a prisoner of Chrift's bleffing be with you. O chofen and greatly beloved woman, faint note fy, fy, if ye faint now, ye loofe a good caufe: double your meetings: ceafe not for Zion's fake, and hold not your peace, till he make Jerufalem a praise in the earth.

Aberdeen, 1637.

Yours in Chrift Jefus his Lord, S. R.

84. To THOMAS CORBET. Dear friend,

Forget you not: it fhall be my joy, that ye follow after Chrift till ye find him: my confcience is a feaft of joy to me, that I fought in fingleness of heart, for Chrift's love, to put you upon the King's high-way to our Bridegroom, and our Father's houfe: thrice bleffed are ye, my dear brother, if ye hold the way, I believe, ye and Chrift once met, I hope ye will not funder with him: follow the counsel of the man of God, Mr. William Dal gliefh. If ye depart from what I taught you in a hair breadth, for fear or favour of men, or defire of eafe in this world, I take heaven and earth to witnefs, that ill fhall come upon you in end. R

Build

Epift. 85. Build not your neft here: this world is an hard ill made bed, no reft in it for your foul; awake, awake, and make haste to seek that pearl, Chrift, that this world feeth not. Your night, and your mafter Chrift will be upon you within a clap; your handbreadth of time will not bide you; take Chrift, howbeit a storm follow him; howbeit this day be not yours and Christ's, the morrow will be yours and his. I would not exchange the joy of my bonds and imprisonment for Christ, with all the joy of this dirty and foul-skinned world. I have a love-bed with Christ, and am filled with his love. I defire your wife to do what I write to you: let her remember how dear Chrift would be to her, when her breath turneth cold, and the eye-strings shall break. O how joyful fhould my foul be, to know that I had brought on a marraige betwixt Chrift and that people, few or many; if it be not fo, I will be wo to be a witness against them. Ufe prayer; love not the world; be humble, and efteem little of yourself; love your enemies, and pray for them; make confcience of speaking truth, when none knoweth but God. I never eat, but I pray for you all. Pray for me: ye and I fhall fee one another up in our Father's houfe, I rejoice to hear that your eye is upon Chrift. Follow on, hang on, and quit him not. The Lord Jefus be with your fpirit. Aberd. 1637.

Your affectionate brother in our
Lord Jefus, S. R.

85. To ALEXANDER GORDON of Earlstoun. Much honoured Sir,

:

GRace, mercy and peace be to you. I received your letter, which refreshed me: except from your fon and my brother, I have feen few letters from my acquaintance in that country, which maketh me heavy but I have the company of a Lord, who can teach us to be all kind, and hath the right gait of it: for though, for the prefent, I have feen ups and downs every day, yet I am abundantly comforted and feafted with my King and Well-beloved daily: it pleaseth him to come and dine with a fad prisoner,and a folitary stranger: his spikenard cafteth a fmell; yet my fweet hath fome four mixed with it, wherein I must acquiefce; for there is no reason that his comforts be too cheap, feeing they are delicates; why fhould he not make them so to his own? But I verily think now, Chrift hath led me up to a nick in Chriftianity that I was never at before; I think all before was but childhood and bairns-play. Since I departed from you, I have been fcalded, while the smoke of hell's fire went in at my throat, and I would have bought peace with a thousand years torment in hell: and I have been up alfo, after these deep down-castings and forrows, before the Lamb's white throne, in my Father's inner court,

the