of God in hard trial, lay themselves down, as hidden in the leefide of a bifh, while Chrift their Mafter be taken, as Peter did; and lurk there, while the ftorm be overpaft: all of us know the way to a whole fkin; and the singleft heart that is hath a by-purse that will contain the denial of Chrift, and a fearful backfliding. O how rare a thing is it to be loyal and honest to Christ, when he hath a controverfy with the fhields of the earth. I wish all of you would confider, that this trial is from Chrift, it is come upon you unbought (indeed when we buy a temptation with our own money, no marvel that we be not easily free of it, and that God be not at our elbow to take it off our hand;) this is Christ's ordinary house-fare that he makes use of, to try all the vessels of his houfe withal, and Christ now is about to bring his treasure out before fun and moon, and to tell his money, and in the telling to try what weight of gold, and what weight of watered copper is in his house. Do not now joak, or bow, or yield to your adverfaries in a hair-breadth : Christ and his truth will not divide; and his truth hath not latitude and breadth, that ye may take fome of it, and leave other fome of it; nay, the gofpel is like a small hair, that hath no breadth, and will not cleave in two: it is not poffi ble to twist and compound a matter betwixt Chrift and Antichrift; and therefore, ye must either be for Chrift, or ye must be against him. It was but man's wit, and the wit of P. and their god-father the Pope (that man without law) to put Chrift, and his prerogatives royal, and his truth, or the fmalleft nail-breadth of his latterwill, in the new kalendar of indifferences; and to make a blank of un-inked paper, in Chrift's teftament, that men may fill up; and fo fhuffle the truth, and matters they call indifferent, thorow other;' and fpin both together, that Antichrift's wares may fell the better. This is but the device and forged dream of men, whofe confciences are made of ftoutnefs, and have a throat, that a graven image, greater than the bounds of the kirk-door, would get free paffage into: I am fure, when Christ shall bring all out in our blacks and whites, at that day, when he fhall cry down time, and the world, and when the glory of it fhall ly in white afhes, like a May flower cut down and having loft the bloffom, there fhall be few, yea none, that dare make any point, that toucheth the worship and honour of our King and Law giver, to be indifferent. O that this misled and blindfolded world would fee, that Chrift doth not rife and fall, stand or ly, by mens apprehenfions! What is Chrift the lighter, that men do with him by open proclamation, as men do with clipped and light money? they are now crying down Christ some grain weights, and fome pounds or fhillings, and they will have him ly for a penny or a pound, for one, or for an hundred, according as the wind bloweth from the caft or from the weft; but the Lord hath weighed him, and ballanced him already; This is my B 2 loved : loved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him;' his worth and his weight standeth ftill. It is our part to cry, Up, up with Chrift, and down, down with all created glory before him. O, that I could heighten him, and heighten his name, and heighten his throne! I know, and am perfuaded, that Christ shall again be high, and great in this poor, withered, and fun-burnt-kirk of Scot land; and that the fparks of our fire fhall flee over fea, and round about, to warm you and other fifter churches; and that this tabernacle of David's houfe that is fallen, even the Son of David, his waste places fhall be built again; and I know the prifon, croffes, perfecutions, and trials of the two flain witneffes, that are now dead and buried, Rev. xi. and of the faithful profeffors, have a back-door and back-entry of escape; and that death aud hell, and the world, and tortures, fhall all cleave and fplit in twain, and give us free paffage and liberty to go through them toll-free; and we fhall bring all God's good metal out of the furnace again, and leave behind us but our dross, and our fcum; we may then beforehand proclaim Chrift, to be victorious. He is crowned King in mount Zion; God did put the crown upon his head, Pfal. ii. and who dare take it off again? Out of queftion, he hath fore and grievous quarrels against his church and therefore he is called, Ifa. xxxi. 9. He whofe fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerufalem. But when he hath performed his work on mount Zion, all Zion's haters fhall be as the hungry and thirty man, that dreams he is eating and drinking, and behold when he awakeneth, he is faint, and his foul empty: and this advantage we have alfo, that he will not bring before fun and moon all the infirmi ties of his wife; it is the modefty of marriage, anger, or hufband-wrath, that our fweet Lord Jefus will not come with chiding to the streets, to let all the world hear what is betwixt him and us; his fweet glooms ftay under roof, and that because he is God. Two fpecial things ye are to mind: 1. Try and make sure your profeffion; that ye carry not empty lamps: alas, fecurity, fecurity is the bane and the wreck of the most part of the world! Oh, how many profeffors go with a golden luftre, and gold-like before men (who are but witneffes to our white skin) and yet are but baftard and base metal! Confider how fair before the wind some do ply with up-fails and white, even to the nick of illuminations ? Heb. vi. 5. And tafting of the heavenly gift; and a share and part of the holy Ghoft; and the tafting of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come and yet this is but a falfe nick of renovation, and in a fhort time fuch are quickly broken upon the rocks, and never fetch the harbour, but are stranded in the botton of hell. O make your heaven fure, and try how ye come by converfion; that it be not ftolen goods, in a white and wellluftered profeffion! A white skin over old wounds maketh an undercoating dercoating confcience: falfe under water not feen is dangerous, and that is a leak and rift in the bottom of an enlightened conici ence, often falling, and finning against light. Wo, wo is me, that the holy profeffion of Chrift is made a stage garment by many to bring home a vain fame: and Christ is made to ferve mens ends: this is, as it were, to ftop an oven with a king's robes. Know, 2. Excellent men martyr and flay the body of fin in fanctified felfdenial, they fhall never be Chrift's martyrs and faithful witnesses. Oh if I could be mafter of that houfe idol, myfelf, my own, mine, my own will, wit, credit, and ease! How bleffed were I! O but we have need to be redeemed from ourselves, rather than from the devil and the world! Learn to put out yourselves, and to put in Chrift for yourselves: I should make a sweet bartering and niffering, and give old for new, if I could fhuffle out felf, and substi tute Christ'my Lord in place of myself; to say, Not I, but Chrift; not my will, but Chrift's; not my eafe, not my luft, not my fecklefs credit, but Chrift, Chrift. But alas! in leaving ourselves, in fetting Chrift before our idol, (felf) we have yet a glaiked backlook to our old idol. O wretched idol, myfelf! when shall I fee thee wholly decourted, and Christ wholly put in thy room? Oif Chrift, Chrift had the full place and room of myfelf! that all my aims, purposes, thoughts and defires, would coaft and land upon Christ, and not upon myfelf! and howbeit we cannot attain to this denial of me and mine; that we can fay, I am not myself, myself is not myself, mine own is no longer mine own yet our aiming at this in all we do fhall be accepted: for, alas, I think I fhall die, but minting and aiming to be a Chriftian: Is it not our comfort, that Chrift the Mediator of the new covenant is come betwixt us and God in the bufinefs, fo that green and young heirs, the like of finners have now a tutor, that is God. And now, God be thanked, our falvation is bottomed on Chrift; fure I am, the bottom shall never fall out of heaven and happiness to us, I would give over the bargain a thousand times, were it not that Chrift his free grace hath taken our falvation in hand. Pray, pray, and contend with the Lord, for your fifter church; for it would appear, the Lord is about to afk for his fcattered fheep, in the dark and cloudy day. O that it would please our Lord to fet up again David's old wafted and fallen tabernacle in Scotland, that we might fee the glory of the fecond temple in this land. O that my little heaven were wadfet, to redeem the honour of my Lord Jefus among Jews and Gentiles. Let never dew ly upon my branches, and let my poor flower wither at the root, fo being Christ were enthroned, and his glory advanced in all the world, and efpecially in these three kingdoms: but I know he hath no need of me; what can I add to him? but oh that he would cause his high and pure glory fun through fuch a foul channel as I am! and Epift. 4. and howbeit he hath caused the blossom fall off my one poor joy, that was on this fide of heaven, even my liberty to preach Chrift to his people, yet I am dead to that now, fo being he would hew and carve glory, glory for evermore, to my royal King, out of my filence and fufferings. Oh that I had my fill of his love; but I know ill manners make an ancouth and strange bridegroom. I intreat you earnestly for the aid of your prayers, for I forget not you; and I falute with my foul in Christ the faithful paftors, and honourable and worthy profeffors in that land. Now the God of peace, that brought again our Lord Jefus from the dead, the great Shepherd of the fheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will; working in you that which is well pleasing in his fight. Grace, grace be with you. Aberdeen, Feb. 4. 1638. Yours in his sweetest Lord Jefus, S. R: 4. To the truly noble and elect Lady, my Lady VISCOUNTESS of KENMURE. Noble and elect Lady, That honour that I have prayed for these fixteen years, with ftowed upon me; even to fuffer for my royal and princely King Jefus, and for his kingly crown, and the freedom of his kingdom that his Father hath given him. The forbidden lords have fentenced me with deprivation, and confinement within the town of Aberdeen, I am charged in the king's name, to enter against the twentieth day of Auguft next, and there to remain during the king's pleasure, as they have given it out. Howbeit Chrift's green crofs, newly laid upon me, be fomewhat heavy, while I call to mind the many fair days, fweet and comfortable to my foul, and to the fouls of many others, and how young ones in Christ are plucked from the breaft, and the inheritance of God laid wafte; yet that fweet-fmelled and perfumed crofs of Chrift is accompanied with fweet refreshment, with the kiffes of a King, with the joy of the Holy Ghoft, with faith that the Lord hears the fighing of a prifoner, with undoubted hope, (as fure as my Lord liveth) after this night to fee daylight, and Chrift's fky to clear up again upon me, and his poor kirk, and that in a strange land, amongst ftrange faces: he will give favour in the eyes of men to his poor oppreffed fervant, who do not but love that lovely one, that princely one, Jefus the comforter of his foul. All would be well, if I were free of old challenges for guiltinefs, and for neglect in my calling, and for fpeaking too little for my Well-beloved's crown, honour, and kingdom. Oh for a day in the affembly of the faints τα to advocate for King Jefus! If my Lord go on now to quarrels alfo, I die, I cannot endure it: but I look for peace from him; because he knoweth I do bear mens feud, but I do not bear his feud. This is my only exercife, that I fear I have done little good in my mi niftry: but I dare not but fay, I loved the bairns of the wedding. chamber, and prayed for, and defired the thriving of the marriage, and coming of his kingdom. I apprehend no less than a judgment upon Galloway; and that the Lord shall vifit this whole nation, for the quarrel of the covenant. But what can be laid upon me, or any the like of me, is too light for Chrift; Chrift do bear more, and would bear death and burning quick, in his weak fervants, even for this honourable caufe, that I now fuffer for. Yet for all my complaints (and he knoweth that I dare not now diffemble) he was never fweeter and kinder than he is now; one kifs now is fweeter than ten long fince; fweet, fweet is his cross; light, light and easy is his yoke. O what a sweet step were it up to my Father's house, through ten deaths, for the truth and caufe of that unknown, and fo not half well loved plant of renown, the man called the Branch, the chief among ten thousands, the fairest among the fons of men! O what unfeen joys, how many hidden heart-burnings of love are in the remnants of the sufferings of Chrift! My dear worthy Lady, I give it to your Ladyship under my hand, (my heart-writing, as well as my hand) welcome, welcome, fweet, fweet, and glorious crofs of Chrift; welcome fweet Jefus, with thy light cross, thou haft now gained and gotten all my love from me, keep what thou haft gotten. Only, wo, wo is me, for my bereft flock, for the lambs of Jefus, that I fear fhall be fed with dry breasts; but I fpare now. Madam, I dare not promise to fee your Ladyship, because of the little time I have allotted me, and I purpose to obey the king, who hath power over my body; and rebellion to kings is unbefeeming Chrift's minifters. Be pleafed to acquaint my Lady Mary with my eafe: I will look, your Ladyship and that good Lady will be mindful to God of the Lord's prifoner, not for my caufe, but for the gofpel's fake. Madam, bind me more (if more can be) to your Ladyship: and write thanks to you brother, my Lord of Lorne, for what he hath done for me, a poor unknown ftranger to his Lordship, I fhall pray for him and his houfe, while I live: it is his honour to open his mouth in the ftreets for his wronged and oppressed Master Christ Jefus. Now, Madam, commending your Ladyfhip, and the fweet child to the tender mercies of mine own Lord Jefus, and his good will whe dwelt in the bush; I rest Edinburgh, July 28, ** 1636. Yours, in his own fweetest S. R. |