1

2. A

yet come not ye away, albeit ye fhould fall afwoon at his feet. 6. Ye crave my mind, whether found comfort may be found in prayer, when conviction of a known idol is prefent. I answer, An idol, as an idol, cannot ftand with found comforts; for that comfort that is gotten at Dagon's feet is a cheat or ble-flume; yet found comfort, and conviction of an eye to an idol, may as well dwell together as tears and joy; but let this do you no ill, I fpeak it for your encouragement, that ye may make the beft out of your joys ye can, albeit you find them mixed with mutes. 2dly. Sole conviction, if alone, without remorfe and grief, is not enough; therefore lend it a tear if ye do win at it. 7. Ye question, when ye win to more fervency fometimes with your neighbour in prayer, than when you're alone, whether hypocrify be in it or not? anfwer, If this be always, no question a spice of hypocrify is in it, which would be taken heed to; but poffibly defertion may be in private, and prefence in public, and then the cafe is clear. fit of applaufe may occafion, by accident, a rubbing off a cold heart, and fo heat and life may come; but it is not the proper cause of that heat; hence God of his free grace will ride his errands upon our stinking corruption; but corruption is but a mere occafion and accident, as the playing on a pipe removed anger from the prophet, and made him fitter to prophefy, 2 Kings iii. v. 15. 8. Ye complain of Chrift's fhort vifits, that he will not bear your company one night; but when ye ly down warm at one night, ye rife cold at morning. Anfwer, I cannot blame you (nor any other, who knoweth that fweet gueft) to bemoan his withdrawings, and to be moft defirous of his abode and company; for he would captivate and engage the affection of any creature that faw his face: fince he looked on me, and gave me a fight of his fair love, he gained my heart wholly, and got away with it: well, well may he brook it; he fhall keep it long, ere I fetch it from him. But I fhall tell you what ye fhall do; treat him well, give him the chair and the board head, and make him welcome to the mean portion ye have; a good fupper and kind entertainment maketh the guest love the inns the better: yet sometimes Chrift has an errand elsewhere, for mere trial; and then, though ye give him king's cheer, he will away: as is clear in defertions for mere trial, and not for fin. 9. Ye feek the difference betwixt the motions of the fpirit, in their least measure, and the natural joys of your own heart. Answer, As a man can tell, if he joy and delight in his wife, as his wife or if he delight and joy in her for fatisfaction of his luft, but hating her perfon, and fo loving her for her flesh, and not grieving when ill befalleth her; fo will a man's joy in God, and his whorish natural joy, be discovered: if he forrow for any thing that may offend the Lord, it will speak the fingleness of that love to him. 10. Ye afk the reafon why

fenfe

fente overcometh faith. Anfwer, Becaufe fenfe is more natural, and near of kin to our own selfish and soft nature. Ye aík, if faith in that cafe be found? Anlwer, If it be chafed away, it is neither found nor unfound, because it is faith; but it might be, and was faith, before fenfe did blow out the act of believing. Lastly, Ye afk what to do, when promifes are born in upon you, and fenfe of impenitency, for fins of youth, hinderech application. Ianswer, If it be living fenfe, it may stand with application; and in this cafe, put to your hand and eat your meat in God's name: if falfe, fo that the fins of youth are not repented of, then, as faith and impenitency cannot ftand together, fo neither that fenfe and application can confift. Brother, excufe my brevity, for time Atraitneth me, that I get not my mind faid in these things, but must refer that to a new occafion, if God offer it. Brother, pray for me. Grace be with you.

Aberdeen, 1637,

Yours in his dearest Lord Jefus, S. R.

31. To JOHN STEWART, Provost of Air, now in Ireland. Much bonoured Sir,

GRace, mercy and peace be unto you. I long to hear from

you, being now removed from my flock, and the prison-. er of Chrift at Aberdeen. I would not have you to think it strange, that your journey to New-England hath gotten fuch a dafh: it indeed hath made my heart heavy; yet I know it is no dumb providence, but a fpeaking one, whereby our Lord speaketh his mind to you, though for the prefent ye do not well underftand what he faith: however it be, he who fitteth upon the floods,hath fhewn you his marvellous kindness in the great depths. I know your lofs is great, and your hope gone against you; but I intreat you, Sir, expound aright our Lord's laying all hinderances in the way. I perfuade myself, your heart aimeth at the footfteps of the flock, to feed befide the shepherds tents, and to dwell befide Him whom your foul loveth; and that is your defire to remain in the wilderness, where the woman is kept from the dragon: and this being your defire, remember that a poor prifoner of Chrift faid it to you, that, that mifcarried journey is with child to you of mercy and confolation; and fhall bring forth a fair birth, and the Lord fhall be midwife to this fair birth: wait on then, for he that believeth maketh not haste, Isaiah xxviii. 16. I hope, ye have been asking what the Lord meaneth, and what further may be his will, in reference to your return. My dear brother, let God make of you what he will, he will end all with confolation, and fhall make glory out of your fufferings; and would ye wish better work? This water was in your way to heaven, and written in your Lord's book, ye behoved to cross it; and therefore kifs his wife and unerring providence. Let not

the

the cenfures of men, who see but the outside of things (and scarce well that) abate your courage and rejoicing in the Lord: howbeit your faith feeth but the black fide of providence, yet it hath a better fide, and God fhall let you fee it. Learn to believe Chrift better than his strokes, himself and his promifes better than his glooms: dashes and disappointments are not canonic fcripture; fighting for the promised land, feemed to cry to God's promife, Thou lieft. If our Lord ride upon a straw, his horse shall neither ftumble nor fall, Rom. viii. 28. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God; ergo, fhipwreck, loffes, &c. work together for the good of them that love God: hence I infer, that loffes, disappointments, ill tongues, lofs of friends, houfes or country, are God's workmen, fet on work to work out good to you, out of every thing that befalleth you. Let not the Lord's dealing feem harfh, rough, or unfatherly, because it is unpleasant: when the Lord's bleffed will bloweth cross your defires, it is beft, in humility, to ftrike fail to him, and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleafeth. It is a point of denial of yourself, to be as if ye had not a will, but had made a free difpofition of it to God, and had fold it over to him; and to make use of his will for your own, is both true holiness, and your eafe and peace: ye know not what the Lord is working out of this, but ye fhall know it hereafter. And what I write to you, I write to your wife; I compaffionate her cafe, but intreat her not to fear or faint: this journey is a part of her wilderness to heaven and the promised land, and there are fewer miles behind it is nearer the dawning of the day to her, than when she went out of Scotland. I would be glad to hear that ye and she have comfort and courage in the Lord. Now as concerning our kirk: our fervice book is ordained, by open proclamation and found of trumpet, to be read in all the kirks of this kingdom our prelates are to meet this month for it and our canons, and for a reconciliation betwixt us and the Lutherans. The profeffors of Aberdeen univerfity are charged to draw up the articles of an uniform confeffion; but reconciliation with Popery is intended; this is the day of Jacob's vifitation: the ways of Zion mourn, our gold is become dim, the fun is gone down upon our prophets. A dry wind, but neither to fan nor to cleanse, is coming upon this land; and all our ill is coming from the multiplied tranfgreffions of this land, and from the friends and lovers of Babel amongst us, Jer. xxxi. 53. The violence done to me and my flesh be upon thee, Babylon, fhall the inhabitants of Zion fay, and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, fhall Jerufalem fay. Now for myfelf, I was three days before the high commiffion, and accused of treafon preached against our king: a minifter being witness, went well nigh to fwear it; God hath fav

ed

ed me from their malice. 1ft, They have deprived me of my miniftry; 2dly, Silenced me, that I exercife no part of the minifterial function within this kingdom, under the pain of rebellion; 3dly, Confined my perfon within the town of Aberdeen, where I find the minifters working for my confinement in Caithness or Orkney, far from them; because fome people here (willing to be edified) refort to me. At my first entry, I had heavy challenges within me, and a court fenced (but I hope, not in Chrift's name) wherein it was afferted, that my Lord would have no more of my fervice, and was tired of me: and, like a fool, I fummoned Chrift alfo for unkindness; my foul fainted, and I refused comfort, and faid, What ailed Christ at me? for I defired to be faithful in his houfe. Thus, in my rovings and mistakings, my Lord Jefus bestowed mercy on me, who am lefs than the least of all faints. I lay upon the duft, and bought a plea from Satan againft Chrift, and he was content to fell it but at length Christ did fhew himself friends with me, and in mercy pardoned and past my part of it, and only complained that a court should be holden in his bounds, without his own allowance. Now I pafs from my compearance; and, as if Chrift had done the fault, he hath made the mends, and returned to my foul; fo that now his poor prifoner feedeth on the feafts of love. My adverfaries know not what a courtier I am now with my royal King, for whose crown I now fuffer: it is but our foft and lazy flesh that hath raised an ill report of the crofs of Chrift; O fweet, fweet is his yoke! Christ's chains are of pure gold; fufferings for him are perfum. ed: I would not give my weeping for the laughing of all the fourteen prelates, I would not exchange my fadnefs with the world's joy. O lovely, lovely Jefus, how fweet muft thy kiffes be, when thy crofs fmelleth fo fweetly! O if all the three kingdoms had part of my love-feast, and of the comfort of a dawted prifoHer! Dear brother, I charge you to praise for me, and feek help of our acquaintance there, to help me to praife. Why should I fmother Chrift's honefty to me? My heart is taken up with this, that my filence and fufferings may preach. I befeech you in the bowels of Chrift, to help me to praife. Remember my love to your wife, to Mr. Blair, and Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Cunningham. Let me hear from you, for I am anxious what to do: if I faw a call for New-England, I would follow it. Grace be with you. Aberdeen, 1637. Yours in our Lord Jefus, S. R.

52. To JOHN STEWART Provost of Air. Much honoured and dearest in Chrift,

GRace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and from our

Lord Jefus Chrift, be upon you. I expected the comfort of a letter to a prifoner from you, ere now. I am here, Sir,

M

putting

Epift. 52. putting off a part of my inch of time; and when I awake first in the morning (which is always with great heaviness and fadness) this question is brought to my mind; Am I ferving God or not? Not that I doubt of the truth of this honourable cause, wherein I am engaged (I dare venture into eternity, and before my judge, that I now fuffer for the truth: because that I cannot endure that my mafter, who is a free-born King, should pay tribute to any of the shields or pot-fheards of the earth; Oh that I could hold the crown upon my princely King's head with my finful arm, howbeit it fhould be ftruck from me in that fervice from the fhoulder blade!) but my closed mouth, my dumb fabbaths, the memory of my communion with Chrift, in many fair, fair days in Anwoth (whereas now my mafter getteth no service of my tongue as then) hath almost broken my faith in two halves: yet in my deepest apprehenfions of his anger, I fee through a cloud that I am wrong; and he, in love to my foul, hath taken up the controverfy betwixt faith and apprehenfions, and a decreet is paft on Chrift's fide of it, and I fubfcribe the decreet. The Lord is equal in his ways, but my guiltinefs often over mastereth my believing. I have not been well known; for, except as to open out-breakings, I want nothing of what Judas and Cain had; only he hath been pleased to prevent me in mercy, and to caft me into a fever of love for himself, and his abfence maketh my fever most painful; and befide, he hath vifited my foul and watered it with his comforts: but yet I have not what I would, the want of real and felt poffeffion is my only death; I know Christ pitieth me in this. The great men my friends, that did for me, are dried up, like winter-brooks of water: all fay, No dealing for that man; his best will be, to be gone out of the kingdom. So I fee they tire of me; but, believe me, I am most gladly content that Chrift breaketh all my idols in pieces: it hath put a new edge upon my blunted love to Chrift; I fee he is jealous of my love, and will have all to himself. In a word, these fix things are my burden; 1. I am not in the vineyard as others are, it may be, becaufe Christ thinketh me a withered tree, not worth its room; but God forbid. 2. Wo, wo, wo is coming upon my harlot mo ther, this apoftate kirk: the time is coming, when we shall wifh for doves wings, to fly and hide us: Oh for the defolation of this land! 3. I fee my dear mafter, Chrift, going as alone (as it were) mourning in fackcloth: his fainting friends fear that King Jefus fhall lofe the field; but he muft carry the day. 4. My guiltinefs and the fins of my youth are come up against me, and they would come in the plea in my fufferings, as deferving caufes in God's juftice; but I pray God, for Chrift's fake, he never give them that room. Wo's me that I cannot get my royal, dreadful, mighty, and glorious prince of the kings of the earth set on high.