Epift. 39. are growing up, where nobles did fpread a table) if you engage your eftate and nobility for this noble King Jefus, with whom the created powers of the world are still in tops; all the world fhall fall before him, and (as God liveth) every arm lifted up to take the crown off his royal head, or that refufeth to hold it upon his head, shall be broken from the shoulder blade: the eyes that behold Chrift weep in fackcloth, and wallow in his blood, and will not help, even thefe eyes fhall rot away in their eyeholes. O if ye, and the nobles of this land, faw the beauty of that world's wonder, Jefus our King, and the glory of him, who is angels wonder, and heaven's wonder for excellency! Oh what would men count of clay-eftates, of time-eaten life, of worm-eaten and moth-eaten worldly glory, in comparison of that fairest of God's creation, the Son of the Father's delights. I have but small experience of fuffering for him; but let my judge and witnefs in heaven lay my foul in the ballance of juftice, if I find not a young heaven, and a little paradife of glorious comforts and foul-delighting love-kiffes of Chrift here beneath the moon, in fuffering for him and his truth: and that the glory, joy, and peace, and fire of love, I thought had been kept while fupper-time, when we fhall get leifure to feaft our fill upon Chrift; I have felt it in glorious beginnings, in my bonds for this princely Lord Jefus. Oh! it is my forrow, my daily pain, that men will not come and see : I would now be afhamed to believe, that it fhould be poffible for any foul to think that he could be a lofer for Chrift, fuppofe he fhould lend Chrift the Lordship of Lindfay, or fome fuch great worldly eftate. Therefore, my worthy and dear Lord, fet now your face against the oppofite of Jefus, and let your foul take courage to come under his banner, to appear as his foldier for him; and the bleffings of a falling kirk, the prayers of the prifoners of hope who wait for Zion's joy, and the good-will of him who dwelt in the bush, and it burned not, fhall be with you. To his faving grace I recommend your Lordship, and your house, and ftill am Chrift's prifoner, and

Aberdeen, Sept. 7, 1637.

Your Lordship's obliged fervant in his fweet Lord Jefus, S. R.

39. To my Lord BOY D.

My very honourable and good Lord,

GR

Race, mercy and peace be to you. I am glad to hear that you, in the morning of your fhort day, mind Chrift; and that you love the honour of his crown and kingdom. I beseech your Lordship, begin now to frame your love, and to caft it in no mould but one, that it may be for Chrift only; for when your love is now in the framing and making, it will take beft with

Chrift =

67 Chrift: if any other than Jefus get a grip of it, when it is green and young, Chrift will be an uncouth and ftrange world to you. Promise the lodging of your foul firft away to Christ, and stand by your first covenant, and keep to Jefus, that he may find you honeft. It is eafy to mafter an arrow, and to fet it right, ere the ftring be drawn; but when once it is fhot and in the air, and the flight begun, then ye have no power at all to command it: it were a bleffed thing, if your love could now level only at Chrift, that his fair face were the black of the mark ye fhot at: for when your love is loofed, and out of your grips, and in its motion to fetch home an idol, and hath taken a whorish gadding journey, to feck an unknown and strange lover, ye shall not then have power to call home the arrow, or to be master of your love; and ye fhall hardly give Chrift what ye fcarcely have yourfelf. I fpeak not this, as if youth itself could fetch heaven and Chrift: believe it, my Lord, it is hardly credible what a neft of dangerous temptations youth is; how inconfiderate, foolish, proud, vain, heady, rath, profane, and careless of God, this piece of your life is; fo that the devil findeth in that age a garnished and fwept houfe for himself, and feven devils worse than himself: for then affections are on horseback, lofty and ftirring; then the old man hath blood, luft, much will, and little wit, and hands, feet, wanton eyes, profane ears, as his fervants, and as king's officers at command, to come and go at his will; then a green confcience is as fouple as the twig of a young tree; it is for every way, every religion, every lewd courfe prevaileth with it: and therefore, O what a sweet couple, what a glorious yoke are youth and grace, Christ and a young man! This is a meeting not to be found in every town. None who have been at Chrift can bring back to your Lordship a report answerable to his worth; for Chrift cannot be spoken of, or commended according to his worth: come and fee is the most faithful meffenger to fpeak of him; little perfuafion would preVail where this were. It is impoffible, in the fetting out of Christ's love, to lie and pafs over truth's line: the difcourfes of angels, or love-books written by the congregation of feraphims (all their wits being conjoined and melted in one) would for ever be in the nether fide of truth, and plentifully declaring the thing as it is. The infinitenefs, the boundlefnefs of that incomparable excellency that is in Jefus, is a great word. God fend me, if it were but the relicks and leavings, or an ounce weight or two, of his matchless love; and fuppofe I never got another heaven (providing this bleffed fire was evermore burning) I could not but be happy for ever. Come hither then, and give out your money wifely for bread; come here, and bestow your love. I have caufe to fpeak this, because except ye enjoy and poffefs Chrift, ye will be a cold friend to his fpoule; for it is love to the husband that caufeth

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Epift. 39. feth kindness to the wife. I dare fwear it were a bleffing to your house, the honour of your honour, the flower, of your credit, now in your place, and as far as ye are able, to lend your hand to your weeping mother, even your oppreffed and fpoiled motherkirk. If ye love her, and beftir yourself for her, and hazard the Lordship of Boyd for the recovery of her vail (which the fmiting watchmen have taken from her) then furely her husband will scorn to Aeep in your common or reverence. Bits of Lordships are little to him, who hath many crowns on his head, and the kingdoms of the world in the hollow of his hand. Court, honour, glory, riches, ftability of houses, favour of princes are all on his fingerends. O what glory were it to lend your honour to Chrift, and to his Jerufalem. Ye are one of Zion's born fons; your honourable and Christian parents would venture you upon Chrift's errands therefore I beseech you, by the mercies of God, by the death and wounds of Jefus, by the hope of your gloricus inheritance, and by the comfort and hope of the joyful prefence ye would have at the water-fide, when ye are putting your foot in the dark grave, take courage for Chrift's truth, and the honour of his free kingdom; for, howbeit ye be a young flower, and green before the fun, ye know not how foon death will caufe you caft your bloom, and wither root and branch and leaves; and therefore write up what ye have to do for Chrift, and make a treasure of good works, and begin in time. By appearance we have the advantage of the brae; fee what ye can do for Chrift, against these who are waiting while Chrift's tabernacle fall, that they may run away with the boards thereof, and build their nefts on Zion's ruins. They are blind who fee not lowns now pulling up the ftakes, and breaking the cords, and rending the curtains of Chrift's (fometimes) beautiful tent in this land: Antichrift is lifting that tent up upon his fhoulders, and going away with it; and when Chrift and the gofpel are out of Scotland, dream not that your houses shall thrive, and that it shall go well with the nobles of the land. 'As the Lord liveth, the ftreams of your waters fhall become pitch, and the duft of your land brimftone, and your land fhall become burning pitch, and the owl and the raven shall dwell in your houses; and where your table ftood there fhall grow briars and nettles,' Ifa. xxxiv. 9, 11. The Lord gave Chrift and his gospel as a pawn to Scotland; the watchmen have fallen foul, and loft their part of the pawn; and who feeth not, that God hath dried up their right eye, and their right arm, and hath broken the fhepherd's ftaves, and men are treading in their hearts upon fuch unfavoury falt, that is good for nothing clfe? If ye the nobles put away the pawn alfo, and refufe to plead the controverfy of Zion with the profeffed enemies of Jefus, ye have done with it. Oh! where is the courage and zeal now of the ancient nobles of this land, who win their

69. their fwords, and hazard of life, honour and houfes, brought Chrift to our hands? And now the nobles cannot be but guilty of fhouldering out Chrift, and murdering of the fouls of their pofterity, if they fhall hide themfelves, and lurk in the lee-fide of the hill, till the wind blow down the temple of God. It goeth now under the name of wisdom, for men to caft their cloke over Christ and their profeffion, as if Chrift were stolen goods and durft not be avouched: though this be reputed a piece of policy, yet God esteemeth fuch men to be but state fools and court gouks, whatever they, or other heads of wit like to them, think of themselves fince their damnable filence is the ruin of Christ's kingdom. O but it be true honour and glory to be the fast friends of the Bridegroom, and to own Chrift's bleeding head, and his forsaken cause, and to contend legally, and in the wifdom of God, for our sweet Lord Jefus, and his kingly crown. But I will believe your Lordship will take Christ's honour to heart, and be a man in the streets. (as the prophet fpeaketh) for the Lord and his truth. To his rich grace and sweet prefence, and the everlasting confolation of the promifed comforter, I recommend your Lordship, and am Aberdeen, Sept. 7. Your Lordship's in his sweet 1637. Lord Jefus, S. R.,

40. To my Lady BOYD.

My very Honourable and Chriftian Lady,

Grace, mercy and peace be to you. I received your letter,

and am well pleased that your thoughts of Christ stay with you, and that your purpose still is, by all means, to take the kingdom of heaven by violence, which is no fmall conqueft; and it is a degree of watchfulness and thankfulness alfo, to observe sleepinefs and unthankfulness. We have all good caufe to complain of falfe light, that playeth the thief, and stealeth away the lanthorn; when it cometh to the practice of constant walking with God, our journey is ten times a day broken in ten pieces; Chrift getteth but only broken, and half-fed, and tired work of us, and alas, too often against the hair. I have been fomewhat nearer the Bridegoom; but when I draw nigh, and fee my vilenefs, for fhame I would be out of his prefence again; but yet defire of his foul-refreshing love putteth blushing me under an arreft, O what am I, fo lothfome a burden of fin, to ftand befide fuch a beautiful and holy Lord, fuch an high and lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity! But, fince it pleafeth Chrift to condefcend to fuch an one as me, let shamefacedness be laid afide, and lose itself in his condescending love. I would heartily be content to keep a corner of the King's hall: Oh if I were at the yonder end of my weak defires! then should I be where Chrift my Lord and Lover lives

and

and reigns; there I should be everlastingly folaced with the fight of his face, and satisfied with the fur paffing fweetnefs of his matchlefs love but truly now I stand in the nether fide of my defires, and with a drooping head, and panting heart, I look up to fair Jefus ftanding afar off from us, while corruption and death fhall fcour and refine the body of clay, and rot out the bones of the old man of fin. In the mean time we are bleffed in fending word to the Beloved, that we love to love him; and till then there is joy in wooing, fuiting, lying about his houfe, looking in at the windows, and fending a poor foul's groans and wishes through a hole of the door to Jefus, till God fend a glad meeting: and bleffed be God, that after a low ebb, and fo fad a word, Lord Jefus it is long fince I faw thee; that even then, our wings are growing, and the abfence of fweet Jefus breedeth a new fleet of defires and longings for him. I know no man hath a velvet crofs, but the cross is made of that which God will have it. But verily, howbeit it be no warrantable market to buy a cross, yet I dare not fay, ✪ that I had liberty to fell Chrift's cross, left therewith alfo I fhould fell joy, comfort, fenfe of love, patience, and the kind vifits of a Bridegroom: and therefore, bleffed be God, we get croffes, unbought and good, cheap. Sure I am, it were better to buy croffes for Chrift than to fell them; howbeit neither be allowed to us. And for Chrift's joyful coming and going, which your Ladyfhip fpeaketh of, I bear with it, as love can permit: it should be enough to me, if I were wife, that Chrift will have joy and forrow halvers of the life of the faints, and that each of them fhould have a share of our days; as the night and the day are kindly partners and halvers of time, and take it up betwixt them: but if forrow be the greedieft halver of our days here, I know joy's day fhall dawn, and do more than recompence all our fad hours. Let

Lord Jefus (fince he will do fo) weave my bit and fpan-length of time with white and black, well and wo, with the bridegroom's coming and his fad departure, as warp and woof in one web; and let the rose be neighboured with the thorn; yet hope (that maketh not ashamed) hath written a letter and lines of hope to the mourners in Zion, that it shall not be long fo: when we are over the water, Christ shall cry down croffes, and up heaven for evermore; and down hell, and down death, and down fin, and down forrow; and up glory, up life, up joy for evermore. In this hope I fleep quietly in Chrift's bofom till he come, who is not flack and would fleep fo, were it not that the noise of the devil, and fin's feet, and the cries of an unbelieving heart awaken me; but for the prefent, I have nothing whereof I can accufe Chrift's crofs. Oh if I could pleafe myfelf in Chrift only! I hope, Madam, your fons will improve their power for Jefus; for there is no danger, neither is there any question or justling betwixt Christ and authority

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