Epift. 88. entry to my Lord's houfe. O that I could bear the forfeiture of Chrift (now out of his inheritance) recalled and taken off by open proclamation; and that Chrift were reftored to be a freeholder and a landed heritor in Scotland; and that the courts, fenced in the name of the bastard prelates, (their god-fathers the pope's bailiffs and fheriffs) were cried down! O how fweet a fight were it, to see all the tribes of the Lord in this land fetching home again our banished king, Chrift, to his own palace, his fanctuary and throne! I fhall think it mercy to my foul, if my faith shall outwatch all this winter night. and not nod or flumber till my Lord's fummer-day dawn upon me. It is much if faith and hope, in the fad nights of our heavy trial, efcape with a whole fkin, and without crack or crook. I confefs, unbelief hath not reason to be either father or mother to it: (for unbelief is always an irrational thing) but how can it be, but fuch weak eyes as ours must cast water in a great smoke: or that a weak head should not turn giddy when the water runneth deep and ftrong? but, God be thanked, that Chrift in his children can endure à ftrefs and storm, howbeit soft nature would fall down in pieces. Oh that I had that confidence as to rest on this, though he should grind me into fmall powder, and bray me into duft, and scatter the duft to the four winds of heaven; that my Lord would gather up the pow der, and make me up a new veffel again, to bear Christ's name to the world! I am fure that love, bottomed and feated upon the faith of his love to me, would defire and endure this, and would even claim and thriep kindness upon Christ's strokes, and kifs his love-glooms; and both spell and read falvation upon the wounds made by Christ's fweet hands. O that I had but a promise from the mouth of Christ, of his love to me! and then, howbeit my faith were as tender as paper, I think longing, and dwining, and griening of fick defires would cause it bide out the fiege, till the Lord came to fill the foul with his love; and I know also, in that cafe, faith fhould bide green and fappy at the root, even at midwinter, and stand out against all ftorms. However it be, I know : Chrift winneth heaven in despite of hell; but I owe as many praifes and thanks to free grace as would by betwixt me and the utmost border of the highest heaven, fuppofe ten thousand heavens were all laid above other. But oh! I have nothing that can hire of bud grace; for if grace would take hire, it were no more grace: but all our stability, and the ftrength of our falvation, is anchored and faftened upon free-grace; and I am fure Chrift hath, by his death and blood, caften the knot fo faft, that the fingers of the devils, and hell-fulls of fins cannot loofe it: and that bond of Chrift (that never yet was, nor never fhall, nor can be registrated) ftandeth forer than heaven, or the days of heaven, as that fweet pillar of the covenant, whereupon we all hang. Chrift, and and all his little ones under his two wings, and in the compafs or circle of his arms, is fo fure, that caft him and them in the ground of the fea, he fhall come up again, and not lofe one; an odd one cannot, nor fhall not be loft in the telling. This was always God's aim, fince Chrift came in the play betwixt him and us, to make men dependent creatures, and in the work of our falvation to put created ftrength and arms, and legs of clay, quite out of play, and out of office and court: and now God hath fubftituted in our room, and accepted his Son the Mediator for us, and all that we can make. If this had not been, . I would have skinked over and foregone my part of paradife and falvation, for a breakfaft of dead moth-eaten earth; but now I would not give it, nor let it go, for more than I can tell; and truly they are filly fools, and ignorant of Chrift's worth, (and fo full ill trained and tutored) who tell heaven and Christ over the board, for two feathers or two ftraws of the devil's painted pleafures, only lustered in the outer fide. This is our happinefs now, that our reckonings at night, when eternity fhall come upon us, cannot be told; we shall be fo far gainers, and fo far from being fuperexpended (as the poor fools of this world are, who give out their money, and get in but black hunger) that angels cannot lay our counts, nor fum our advantage and incomes. Who knoweth how far it is to the bottom of our Christ, and to the ground of our heaven? who ever weighed Christ in a pair of ballances? who hath feen the foldings and plyes, and the heights and depths of that glory which is in him, and kept for us? Oh for fuch a heaven as to stand afar off, and fee, and love, and long for him, while time's thread be cut, and this great work of creation diffolved at the coming of our Lord! Now to his grace I recommend you. befeech you allo, pray for a re-entry to me into the Lord's houfe, if it be his good will. Aberdeen, Jan. 6. Yours in his fweet Lord 1637. 89. Miftrefs, Jefus, S. R. To ELIZABETH KENNEDY. Race, mercy and peace be unto you. I have long had a purpofe of writing unto you, but I have been hindered. I heartily defire that ye would mind your country, and confider to what airth your foul fetteth its face; for all come not home at night, who fuppofe they have fet their face heavenward: it is a woful thing to die and mifs heaven, and to lose house-room with Christ at night; it is an evil journey where travellers are benighted in the fields. I perfuade myself, that thousands fhall be deceived and ashamed of their hope; because they caft their anchor in fink Epift. 89 ing fands, they must lose it. Till now, I knew not the pain, la bour, nor difficulty that there is to win at home; nor did I underftand fo well, before this, what it meaneth, The righteous fhall fcarcely be faved. Oh how many a poor profeffor's candle is blown out, and never lighted agaiu! I fee ordinary profeffion, and to be ranked amongst the children of God, and to have a name among men, is now thought good enough to carry profeffors to heaven; but certainly a name is but a name, and will never bide a blast of God's ftorm: I counsel you, not to give your foul or Christ rest, nor your eyes fleep, till ye have gotten fomething that will bide the fire, and ftand out the form. I am fure if my one foot were in heaven, and then he would fay, Fend thyfelf, I will hold my grips of thee no longer; I should go no further, but prefently fall down in as many pieces of dead nature. They are happy for evermore who are over head and ears in the love of Christ, and know no fickness but love-fickness for Chrift, and feel no pain but the pain of an absent and hidden Well beloved. We run our fouls out of breath, and tire them in courfing and gallopping after our own night-dreams (fuch are the roving of our miscarrying hearts) to get fome created good thing in this life, and on this fide of death: we would fain stay and spin out a heaven to ourfelves in this fide of the water; but forrow, want, changes, croffes and fin, are both woof and warp in that ill-fpun web. how fweet and dear are thefe thoughts that are still upon the things which are above! and how happy are they who are longing to have little fand in their glass, and to have time's thread cut, and can cry to Chrift, Lord Jefus, have over, come and fetch the driery paffenger? I wish our thoughts were more frequently than they are upon our country. O but heaven cafteth a sweet smell afar off, to thofe who have fpiritual smelling! God hath made many fair flowers, but the fairest of them all is heaven, and the flower of all flowers is Chrift. O why do we not flee up to that lovely one? Alas, that there is fuch scarcity of love, and lovers of Chrift amongst us all! Fy, fy upon us, who love fair things, as fair gold, fair houfes, fair lands, fair pleafures, fair honours, and fair perfons, and do not pine and melt away with love to Christ! O would to God I had more love for his fake' O for as much love as would lie betwixt me and heaven for his fake! O for as much as would go round about the earth, and over the heaven, yea, the heaven of heavens, and ten thousand worlds, that I might let all out upon fair, fair, only fair Chrift! But alas, I have nothing for him, yet he hath much for me. It is no gain to Chrift, that he getteth my . little fecklefs fpan-length and hand-breadth of love. If men would have fomething to do with their hearts and their thoughts, that are always rolling up and down like men with oars in a boat, after finful vanities, they may find great and fweet employment to their thoughts 139 thoughts upon Chrift: if those frothy, fluctuating, and restless hearts of ours would come all about Chrift, and look into his love, to bottomlefs love, to the depth of mercy, to the unfearchable riches of his grace, to enquire after, and fearch into the beauty of God in Chrift, they would be swallowed up in the depth and heighth, length and breadth of his goodness. Oh if men would draw the curtains, and look into the inner fide of the ark, and behold how the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily! O who would not fay, Let me die, let me die ten times to fee a fight of him? Ten thoufand deaths were no great price to give for him; I am fure, fick, fainting love would heighten the market, and raise the price to the double for him. But alas, if men and angels were rouped, and fold at the deareft price, they would not all buy a night's love, or a four and twenty hours fight of Chrift. O how happy are they who get Chrift for nothing! God fend me no more for my part of paradife but Chrift; and furely I were rich enough, and as well heaven'd as the best of them, if Chrift were my heaven. I can write no better thing to you than to defire you, if ever ye laid Christ in a count to take him up, and count over again; and weigh him again and again: and after this, have no other to court your love, and to woo your foul's delight, but Chrift; he will be found worthy of all your love, howbeit it should fwell upon you from, the earth to the uppermoft circle of the heaven of heavens. To our Lord Jefus and his love I command you. Aberd. 1637. Mistress. Yours in his fweet Lord Jefus, S. R. 90, To JANET KENNEDY. GRace, mercy and peace be unto you, Ye are not a little o : bliged to his rich grace, who hath feparate you for himfelf, and for the promised inheritance, with the faints in light; from this condemned and guilty world. Hold faft Chrift, contend for him it is a lawful plea to go to holding and drawing for Chrift; and it is not poffible to keep Chrift peaceably, having once gotten him, except the devil were dead. It must be your refolution to fet your face against Satan's northern tempefts and ftorms for falvation: nature would have heaven come to us while fleeping in our beds. We would all buy Chrift, fo being we might make price ourselves; but Chrift is worth more blood and lives than either you or I have to give him. When we fhall come home and enter to the poffeffion of our brother's fair kingdom, and when our heads fhall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and fufferings, then thall we fee life, and forrow, to be less than one step or ftride from a prifon to glory; and that our little inch of time fuffering is not $ 2 worth O what worthy of our first night's welcome home to heaven. then will be the weight of every one of Christ's kiffes! O how weighty, and of what worth fhall every one of Chrift's love fmiles be! Oh when once he shall thrust a wearied traveller's head be twixt his blessed breafts, the poor foul fhall think one kiss of Christ hath fully paid home forty or fifty years wet feet, and all its fore hearts and light fufferings, it had in following after Christ ! O thrice blinded fouls, whofe hearts are charmed and bewitched with dreams, fhadows, feckless things, night-vanities and nightfancies of a miferable life of fin. Shame on us, who fit ftill fet tered with the love and liking of the loan of a piece of dead clay. O poor fools, who are beguiled with painted things, and this world's fair weather and fmooth promifes, and rotten worm-eaten hopes! May not the devil laugh to fee us give out our fouls, and get in but corrupt and counterfeit pleasures of fin? O for a fight of eternity's glory, and a little tafting of the Lamb's marriagefupper! Half a draught or a drop of the wine of confolations, that is up at our banqueting houfe, out of Chrift's own hand, would make our ftomachs lothe the brown bread and the four drink of a miferable life. O how far are we bereft of wit to chafe and hunt and run till our fouls be out of breath, after a condemned happinefs of our own making! And do we not fit far in our own light, to make it a matter of bairns-play to fkin and drink over paradile, and the heaven that Chrift did fweat for, even for a blast of smoke, and for Elan's morning breakfast? O that we were out of ourselves and dead to this world, and this world dead and crucified to us! and when we should be close out of love and conceit of any masked and fairded lover whatsoever; then Chrift would win and conquer to himself a lodging in the inmoft yolk of our heart; then Chrift should be our night fong and our morning-fong; then the very noife and din of our Well-beloved's feet when he cometh, and his firfl knock or rap at the door fhould be as the news of two heavens to us. Oh that our eyes and our foul's fmelling should go after a blafted and fun burnt flower, even this fair plaistered out fided world; and then we have neither eye nor fmell for the Flower of Jeffe, for that Plant of Renown, for Chrift, the choiceft, the faireft, the fweeteft Rofe that ever God planted! O let fome of us die to feel the fmell of him! and let my part of this rotten world be forfeited and fold for evermore, providing I may anchor my tottering foul upon Chrift! I know it is fometimes at this, Lord, what wilt thou have for Chrift? but, O Lord, canft thou be budded or propined with any gift for Chrift? O Lord, can Christ be fold? or rather, may not a poor finner have hing for nothing? If I can get no more, O let me be pained to all eternity, with longing for him! the joy of hungering for Chrift fhould be my heaven for evermore. Alas, that I cannot draw fouls and & |