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Epift. 27. it up, and fire the house? Sanctified thoughts, thoughts made confcience of, and called in, and kept in awe, are green fuel that burn not, and are a water for Satan's coal. Yet I must tell you, the whole faints now triumphant in heaven, and standing before the throne, are nothing but Chrift's forlorn and beggarly dyvours. What are they but a pack of redeemed finners? but their redemption is not only paft the feals, but compleated; and yours is on the wheels, and in doing: all Chrift's good bairns go to heaven with a broken brow, and with a crooked leg. Chrift hath an advantage of you, and I pray you let him have it, he fhall find employment for his calling in you: if it were not with you as you write, grace should find no fale nor market in you; but ye muft be content to give Christ somewhat ado; I am glad that he is employed that way; let your bleeding foul and your fores be put in the hand of this expert Phyfician; let young and ftrong corruptions and his free grace be yoked together, and let Christ and your fins deal it betwixt them. I will be loth to put you off your fears, and your fenfe of deadnefs; (I wish it were more) there be fome wounds of that nature that their bleeding fhould not be foon stopped: ye must take a house beside the Physician; it shall be a miracle if ye be the first fick man he put away uncured, and worfe than he found you. Nay, nay, Chrift is honeft, and in that, flyting free with finners, John vi. 37. And him that cometh to me I will in no wife caft out.' Take ye that; it cannot be prefumption to take that as your own, when ye find your wounds stound you; prefumption is ever whole at the heart, and hath but the truant-ficknefs, and groaneth only for the fashion; faith hath fenfe of fickness, and looketh like a friend to the promises; and looking to Chrift therein is glad to fee a known face. Chrift is as full a feaft as ye can have to hunger. Nay, Chrift, I say, is not a full man's leavings; his mercy fends always a letter of defiance to all your fins, if there were ten thousand more of them. I grant you it is a hard matter for a poor hungry man to win his meat upon hidden Chrift: for then the key of his pantry door, and of the house of wine, is a feeking, and cannot be had; but hunger muft break through iron locks. I bemoan them not who can make a din, and all the fields ado, for a loft Saviour; ye must let him hear it, to fay fo, upon both the fides of his head, when he hideth himself; it is not time then to be bird-mouth'd and patient. Chrift is rare indeed, and a delicate to a finner; he is a miracle, and world's wonder to a feeking and a weeping finner; but yet fuch a miracle as will be seen by them, who will come and fee: the fecker and figher is at laft a finger and enjoyer; nay I have feen a dumb man get an alms from Chrift. He that can tell his tale, and fend fuch a letter to heaven as he hath fent to Aberdeen, it is very like he will come fpeed with Chrift; it bodeth God's mercy,

mercy to complain heartily for fin. Let wrestling be with Chrift, till he fay, How is it, Sir, that I cannot be quit of your bills, and your milearned cries? and then hope for Chrift's bleffing, and his bleffing is better than other ten bleffings, Think not shame because of your guiltinefs: neceffity muft not blufh to beg: it standeth you hard to want Chrift; and therefore that which idle on waiting cannot do, mifnurtured crying and knocking will do. And for doubtings, because you are not as you were long fince with your master, confider three things: 1ft. What if Christ had fuch tottering thoughts of the bargain of the new covenant betwixt you and him, as you have? zd. Your heart is not the compafs Chrift faileth by; he will give you leave to fing as you please, but he will not dance to your daft fpring. It is not referred to you and your thoughts what Christ will do with the charters betwixt you and him your own misbelief hath torn them; but he hath the principal in heaven with himself: your thoughts are no parts of the new covenant; dreams change not Chrift. 3d. Doubtings. are your fins, but they are Chrift's drugs and ingredients that the Phyfician maketh ufe of for the curing of your pride. Is it not fuitable for a beggar to fay at meat, God reward the winners? for then he faith, he knoweth who beareth the charges of the houfe. It is alfo meet ye fhould know by experience that faith is. not nature's ill-gotten baftard, but your Lord's free gift that lay in the womb of God's free grace; praised be the winner. I may add a fourth, In the paffing of your bill and your charters, when they went through the Mediator's great feal, and were concluded, faith's advice was not fought: faith hath not a vote befide Christ's merits; blood, blood, dear blood, that came from your Cautioner's holy body, maketh that fure work. The ufe then which ye have of faith now (having already closed with Jefus Chrift for justification) is, to take out a copy of your pardon; and fo ye have peace with God upon the account of Chrift: for, fince faith apprehendeth pardon, but never payeth a penny for it, no marvel that falvation doth not die and live, ebb or flow with the working of faith. But, because it is your Lord's honour to believe his mercy and his fidelity, it is infinite goodness in our Lord, that misbelief giveth a dash to our Lord's glory, and not to our falvation. And fo, whoever want, (yea, howbeit God here bear with the want of what we are obliged to give him, even the glory of his grace by believing, yet) a poor covenanted finner wanteth not: but if guil tinefs were removed, doubtings would find no friend, nor life; and yet faith is to believe the removal of guiltinefs in Chrift. A reafon why ye get lefs now (as ye think) than before (as I take it) is, because, at our firft converfion, our Lord putteth the meat in young bairns mouths with his own hand; but when we grow to fome further perfection, we must take heaven by violence, and

take

take by violence from Christ what we get; and he can, and doth hold, because he will have us to draw. Remember, now ye muft live upon violent plucking. Lazinefs is a greater fault now than long fince; we love always to have the pap in our mouth. Now for myself; alas! I am not the man I go for in this nation; men have not juft weights to weigh me in. Oh, but I am a filly fecklefs body, and overgrown with weeds; corruption is rank and fat in me. O if I were antwerable to this holy caufe, and to that honourable Prince's love for whom I now fuffer! It Christ would refer the matter to me, (in his presence I speak it) I might think Shame to vote my own falvation; I think Chrift might say, Think'ft thou not fhame to claim heaven, who doft fo little for it? I am very often fo, that I know not whether I fink or fwim in the water; I find myself a bag of light froth; I would bear no weight, (but vanity and nothings weigh in Chrift's balance) if my Lord caft not in borrowed weight and metal, even Chrift's righteoufnefs, to weigh for me. The ftock I have is not mine own; I am but the merchant that traffics with other folks goods: if my creditor Chrift would take from me what he hath lent, I would not long keep the caufeway; but Chrift hath made it mine and his. I think it manhood to play the coward, and joak in the lee-fide of Chrift; and thus I am not only faved from my enemies, but I obtain the victory. I am fo empty, that I think it were an almsdeed in Chrift, if he would win a poor prisoner's bleffing for ever. more, and fill me with his love. I complain when Chrift cometh, be cometh always to fetch fire, he is ever in hafte, he may not tarry; and poor I (a beggarly dyvour) get but a ftanding visit and a standing kifs, and but, How doeft thou? in the bygoing. I dare not fay he is lordly, because he is made a king now at the right hand of God; or is grown mifkenning and dry to his poor friends; (for he cannot make more of his kiffes than they are worth :) but I think it my happiness to love the love of Chrift: and when he goeth away, the memory of his fweet prefence is like a feaft in a dear fummer. I have comfort in this, that my foul defireth tha: every hour of my imprisonment were a company of heavenly tongues to praise him on my behalf; howbeit, my bonds were prolonged for many hundred years. O that I could be the man who could procure my Lord's glory to flow like a full sea, and blow like a mighty wind upon all the four airths of Scotland, England and Ireland! O if I could write a book of his praifes! O faireft among the fons of men, why ftayeft thou fo long away? O heavens, move fast! O time, run, run, and hasten the marriageday! for love is tormented with delays. O angels, O feraphims who ftand before him, O bleffed fpirits who now fee his face, fet him on high! for when ye have worn your harps in his praises, all is too little, and is nothing, to cast the smell of the praise of that

fair flower, that fragrant rofe of Sharon, through many worlds! Sir, take my hearty commendations to him, and tell him that I am fick of love. Grace be with you,

Aberdeen, June 16,

1637.

Tours in his fweet Lord

Jefus, S. R.

28. To his honoured and dear brother ALEXANDER GORDON

of Knockgray.

Dearest and truly honoured brother,

GRace, mercy and peace be to you. I have feen no letter from

you fince I came to Aberdeen; I will not interpret it to be forgetfulness. I am here in a fair prifon. Chrift is my sweet and honourable fellow-prifoner, and his fad and joyful Lord-prifoner, if I may speak fo) I think this crofs becometh me well, and is fuitable to me in refpect of my duty to suffer for Chrift; howbeit not in regard of my deferving, to be thus honoured. However it be, I see Chrift is ftrong, even lying in the duft, in priton, and in banishment. Lofies and difgraces are the wheels of Chrift's triumphing chariot; in the fufferings of his own faints, as he intendeth their good, fo he intendeth his own glory, and that is the butt his arrows fhoot at; and Christ shooteth not at the rovers, he hitteth what he purposeth to hit: therefore he doth make his own feckless and weak nothings, and thefe who are the con tempt of men, a new tharp threshing inftrument having teeth, to thresh the mountains, and beat them fmall, and to make the hills as chaff, and to fan them,' Ifa. xli. 15, 16. What harder ftuff, or harder grain for threshing out, than high and rocky mountains but the faints are God's threshing inftruments to beat them all in chaff: are we not God's leem veffels! and yet when they cast us over an house we are not broken in sheards; we creep in under our Lord's wings in the great shower, and the water cannot go thorough thefe wings. It is folly then for men to fay, this is not Chrift's plea, he will lofe the wed fee, men are like to beguile him that were indeed a strange play. Nay. I dare pledge my foul, and lay it in pawn on Chrift's fide of it, and be halftiner half-winner with my mafter: let fools laugh the fools laughter, and fcorn Chrift, and bid the weeping captives in Babylon fing us one of the fongs of Zion, play a fpring to chear up your fad-hearted God; we may fing upon luck's head before hand, even in our winter form, in the expectation of a fummer fun at the turn of the year; no created powers in hell, or out of hell, can mar our Lord Jefus his music. nor fpill our fong of joy; let us then be glad and rejoice in the falvation of our Lord: for faith had never yet caufe to have wet cheeks, and hanging down brows, ar to droop or die; what can all faith, fecing Chrift fuffereth himself

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Epift. 28. himself (with reverence to him be it spoken) to be commanded by it, and Chrift commandeth all things? Faith may dance because Chrift fings; and we may come in the quire, and lift our hoarfe and rough voices, and chirp and fing, and fhout for joy with our Lord Jefus. We fee oxen go to the fhambles leaping and startleing; we fee God's fed oxen prepared for the day of flaughter, go dancing and finging down to the black chambers of hell; and why fhould we go to heaven weeping, as if we were like to fall down through the earth for forrow? If God were dead (if I may speak fo, with reverence of him who liveth for ever and ever) and Chrift buried, and rotten among the worms, we might have caufe to look like dead folks; but the Lord liveth, and bleffed be the rock of our falvation.'. Pfalm xviii. 46. None have right to joy but we; for joy is fown for us, and an ill fummer or harveft will not spill the crop. The children of this world have much robbed joy that is not well come: it is uo good fport they laugh at: they fteal joy, as it were, from God; for he commandeth them to mourn and howl; then let us claim our leel come and lawfullyconquifhed joy. My dear brother, I cannot but fpeak what I have felt; feeing my Lord Jefus hath broken a box of spikenard upon the head of his poor prifoner, and it is hard to hide a fweet fmell; it is a pain to finother Chrift's love; it will be out, whe ther we will or not. If we did but fpeak according to the matter, a crofs for Chrift should have another name; yea, a cross, efpecially when he cometh with his arms full of joys, is the happiest hard tree that ever was laid upon my weak shoulder. Chrift and his crofs together are fweet company, and a bleffed couple. My prifon is my palace, my forrow is with child of joy, my loffes are rich loffes, my pain easy pain, my heavy days are holy and happy days. I may tell a new tale of Chrift to my friends. Oh if I could make a love-fong of him, and could commend Christ, and tune his praises aright! O if I could fet all tongues in Great Britain and Ireland to work, to help me to fing a new fong of my Well-beloved! O if I could be a bridge over a water for my Lord Jefus to walk upon, and keep his feet dry! O if my poor bit heaven could go betwixt my Lord and blafphemy, and dishonour ! (upon condition he loved me.) O that my heart could fay this word, and bide by it for ever! is it not great art and incompara ble wifdom in my Lord, who can bring forth fuch fair apples out of this crabbed tree of the crofs? Nay, my Father's never enough admired providence can make a fair feast out of a black devil; nothing can come wrong to my Lord in his fweet working I would even fall found afleep in Chrift's arms, and my finful head on his holy breast, while he kiffeth me; were it not that often the wind turneth to the north, and whiles my fweet Lord Jefus is fo that he will neither give nor take, borrow nor lend with me. I

complain

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