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To his loving, Friend, John Henderson
(Continuing in Christ--Preparedness for Death)
Loving friend,--continue in the love of Christ, and the doctrine which I taught you faithfully and painfully, according to my measure. I am free of your blood. Fear the dreadful Name of God. Keep in mind the examinations which I taught you, and love the truth of God, Death, as fast as time fleeth, chaseth you out of this life; it is possible that ye may make your reckoning with your judge before I see you. et salvation be your care, night and day, and set aside hours and times of the day for prayer. I rejoice to hear that there is prayer in your house. See that your servants keep the Lord's Day. This dirt and god of clay (I mean vain world) is not worth the seeking.
An hireling pastor is to be thrust upon you, in the room to which I have Christ's warrant and right. Stand to your liberties, for the Word of God alloweth you to vote in choosing your pastor.
What I write to you, I write to your wife. Commend me heartily to her. The grace of God be with you.
You're loving friend and Pastor,
S.R.
Aberdeen March 14, 1637
For Marion M'Naught, in the prospect of a Communion season.
(PRAYER SOLICITED -- THE CHURCH'S PROSPECTS)
Mistress, -- my love in Christ as remembered. Our communion is on the Sabbath come eight days. I will entreat you to recommend it to God, and to pray for me in that work. I have more sins upon me now than the last time. Therefore I will beseech you in Christ, seek this petition to me from God, that the Lord would give me grace to vow and perform new obedience. I have cause to suit this of you; and show it to Thomas Carson, Fergus and Jean Brown, for I have been and am exceedingly cast down, and am fighting against a malicious devil, of whom I can win little ground. I would think a spoil plucked from him and his trusty servant sin, a lawful and Just conquest. And it were no sin to take from him, in the name of Goodman of our house, our king Jesus. I invite you to the banquet. He saith, ye shall be dearly welcome to him. And I desire you to believe (howbeit is not without great fear) He shall be as hearty in His own house as He has been before. For me, it is but a small reckoning; but I would fain have our Father and Lord to break the great fair loaf, Christ, and to distribute his slain Son amongst the bairns of His house, and that if any were a step-bairn, in respect of comfort and sense, it were rather myself than his poor bairns. Therefore bid our well-beloved come to His garden and feed among the lilies.
And as concerning Zion, I hope our Lord, who sent his angel (Zech. II. 1,2) with a measuring line in his hand to measure the length and breadth of Jerusalem, in token he would not want a foot length or inch of his own free heritage, shall take order with those who have taken away many acres of His own land from him. And God will build Jerusalem in the old sted and place where it was before. In this hope rejoice and be glad. Christ's garment was not dipped in blood for nothing, but for His bride, whom He bought with strokes. I will desire you to remember my old suits to God, God's glory and the increase of light,that I dry not up. For your town, hope and believe that the Lord will gather in His loose sheaves among you to his barn, and send one with a well-toothed, sharp hook, and strong gardies, to reap His harvest. And the Lord Jesus be husbandman, and oversee the growing. Remember my love to your husband and to Samuel. Grace upon you and your children. Lord, make them corner-stones in Jerusalem, and give them grace in their youth to take band with the fair Chief Corner-stone, who was hewed out of the mountain without hands, and got many a knock with His Father's fore-hammer, and endured them all, and the stone did neither cleave nor break. Upon that stone make your soul to lie. King Jesus be with your spirit.
Your friend in his well beloved Lord Jesus,
S.R.
ANWOTH
for Marion M’Naught, when in distress as to prospects of the Church
(ARMINIANISM -- CALL TO PRAYER -- NO HELP BUT IN CHRIST.)
Well beloved sister, -- my dearest love in Christ remembered to you. Know that I am in great heaviness for the pitiful case of our Lord's Kirk. I hear the cause why Dr. Burton is committed to prison is his writing and preaching against the Arminians. I therefore entreat the aid of your prayers for myself, and the Lords captives of hope, and for Zion. The Lord hath let and daily lets me see clearly, how deep furrows Arminianism and the followers of it draw up on the back of God's Israel (but the Lord cut the cords of the wicked!). "Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (Isa xlix 14). "Zion weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks; amongst all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies" (lamentation 1:2). "Our silver is become dross, our wine mixed with water" (Isa. i. 22). "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the Potter!" (Lam ix. 1, 2). It is time now for the Lords secret ones, who favour the dust of Zion, to cry "how long, Lord?" And to go up to their watchtower, and to stay there, and not come down again until the vision speak; for it shall speak (Hab. ii. 3). In the meantime, the just shall live by faith. Let us wait on and not weary. I have not a thread to hang up on and rest, but this one, "can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee up on the palms of My hands; Thy walls are continually before Me (Isa xlix. 15, 16). For all outward helps do fail; it is time therefore for us to hang ourselves, as our Lord's vessels, upon the nail that is fastened in a sure place. We would make stakes of our own fastening, but they will break. Our Lord will have Zion on his own nail. Edom is busy within boss, and babel without us, against the handful of Jacobs seed.
It were best that we were up on Christ's side of it, for his enemies will get the stalks to keep, as the proverb is forced up our greatest difficulty will be to win upon the rock now, when the wind and waves of persecution so lofty and proud. Let sweet Jesus take us by the hand. Neither must we think that it will be otherwise; for it is told to the souls under the altar, "that their fellow servants must be killed as they were" (Revelation vi. 11). Surely, it cannot be long to the day. Nay, hear him say, "behold I come, my dear bride; think not long. I shall be at you at once. I hear you, and am coming." Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly; for the prisoners of hope are looking out at the prison windows, to see if they can behold the King's ambassador coming with the King's warrant and the keys. I write not to you by guess now, because I have a warrant to say unto you, the garments of Christ's spouse must be once again dyed in blood, as long ago her husband's were. But our father sees his bleeding son. What I write unto you, show it to I.G. grace, Grace, Grace and Mercy be with you your husband, and children.
Yours in the Lord
S.R.
ANWOTH
Letter XVI--for Marion McNaught, on occasion of a proposal to remove him from Anwoth.
(Babylon's destruction and Christ's coming -- -- the young invited.)
Worthy and dear mistress, -- my dearest love in Christ remembered. As to the business which I know you would so fain have taken effect, my earnest desire he is, that you stand still. Haste not, and you shall see their salvation of God. The great master gardener, the father of our lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand (I dare, if it were for edification, swear it), planted me here, where, by his grace, in this part of his vineyard, I grow. -- I dare not say but Satan and the world (one of his pages whom he sends on his errands) have said otherwise. And here I will abide till the great master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me. But when he sees meet to loose me at the root, and to plant me where I may be more useful, both as to fruit and shadow, and when he who planted pulleth up that he may transplant, who dare put to their hand and hinder? If they do, God shall break their arm at the shoulder blade, and do his turn. When our lord is going west, the Devil and world go east; and do you not know that it hath been ever this way betwixt God and the world -- God drawing, and they holding, God "yea" and the world "Nay"? But they fall on their back and are frustrated, and how Lord holdeth his grip.
Wherefore doth the word say, that our Christ, the good man of this house, his dear Kirk, hath feet like fine brass, as if they were burned in a furnace (Revelation i. 15)? For no other cause but because where our lord setteth down his brazen feet, he will forward; and withersoever he looketh, he will follow his look; and his feet burn all under them, like as fire doth stubble and thorns. I think he hath name given the world a proof of his exceeding great power, when he is doing such great things, wherein Zion is concerned, by the sword of the Swedish king, as of a Gideon. As you love the glory of God, pray incidentally (yea engage all your praying acquaintance, and take their faithful promise to do the like) for this king, and every one that Zion's King armeth, to execute the written vengeance on Babylon. Our lord hath begun to loose some of Babylon's cornerstones. Prayed to him to hold on, for that city must fall, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the Earth must make a banquet of Babylon; for he hath invited them to eat the flesh of that whore, and to drink her blood. And the cup of the Lord's right-hand shall be turned unto her, and shameful spewing shall be upon her glory. He whose word must stand hath said, "take this cup at the hand of the Lord, and drink and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more" (Jeremiah XXV. 27). Our Jesus is setting up himself, as his father's ensign (Isa. xi. 10), as God's fair white colours, that his soldiers may all flock about him. Long, long may these colours stand. It is long since he displayed a banner against Babylon in the fight of men and angels. Let us rejoice and triumph in our God. The victory certain; for when Christ and babel wrestle, then angels and saints may prepare themselves to sing, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." Howbeit that Prince of renown, precious Jesus, be now weeping and bleeding in his members, yet Christ will laugh again, and it is time enough for us to laugh, when our Lord Christ laugheth, -- and that will be shortly. For when we hear of wars and rumours of wars, the judges feet are then before the door, and he must be in heaven giving orders to the angels to make themselves ready, and prepare their hooks and sickles for that great harvest. Christ will be upon us in haste; watch but a little, and ere long the skies will rive, and that fair lovely person, Jesus, shall form in the clouds, freighted and loaded with glory. And then all these knaves and foxes that destroyed the vines shall call to the hills, and cry to the mountain's to cover them, and hide them from the face of him who sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Remember me to your husband, and desire him from me to help Christ, and to take his part, and in judgement seat ever beside him, and receive a blow patiently for his sake; for he is worthy to be suffered for, not only to blows, but also to blood. He shall find that innocency and uprightness in judgement shall hold its feet and make him happy, when joking will not do it. I speak this because a person said to me, "I pray God the country be In worse case now when the Provost and bailiffs are agreed, than formally," -- to whom I replied, "I trust the Provost is agreed with the man's person, but not with his faults." I pray for you, with my whole soul and desire, that your children may walk in the truth, and that the Lord may shine upon them, and make their faces to shine, when the faces of others shall blush. I dare promise them, in his name, whose truth I preach, if they will but try God service, that they shall find him the sweetest master that they ever served. And desire them from me but to try for a while the service of this blessed master, and then, if his service be not sweet, if it affords not what is pleasant to the souls taste, change him up on trial, and seek a better. Christ is an unknown Christ to the young ones; and therefore they seek him not, because they know him not. Bid them come and see, and seek a kiss of his mouth; and then they will find his mouth is so sweet, that they will be everlastingly chained unto him by their own consent. If I have any credit with your children, I entreat them in Christ's name to try what truth and reality is in what I say, and leave not his service till they have found me a liar. I give you, your husband, and them, to his keeping to whom I have, and dare venture myself and soul, even to our dear friend Jesus Christ, in whom I am.
Yours,
S.R.
Anwoth
For Marion McNaught on occasion of the threatened introduction of the Episcopalian service book.
(Troubles of the Church -- private wrongs.)
Letter no: XV
Well-beloved sister,-my love in Christ remembered. They have received a letter from Edinburgh, certainly informing me that the English service, and the organs, and King James's psalms, are to be imposed upon our kirk; and that the bishops are dealing for a General assembly. A.R. hath confirmed the news also, and says he spoke with William Alexander,*who is to come down with his Princes warrant for that effect. I am desired in the received letter to acquaint the best affected about me with that storm: therefore I entreat you, and charge you in the Lord's name, pray; but do not communicate this to any till I see you. My heart is broken at the remembrance of it, and it was my fear, and answereth to my last letter except one, that I wrote unto you. Dearly beloved, be not casten down, but let us, as our Lord's doves, take to our wings (for other armour we have none), and flee into the hole in the rock. It is true A.R. says, the worthiest men in England are banished, and silenced, about the number of sixteen or seventeen choice Gospel preachers, and the persecution is already begun. Howbeit I do not write this to you with a dry face, yet I am confident in the Lords strength, Christ and His side shall overcome; and you shall be assured; the Kirk were not a Kirk, if it were not so. As our dear husband, in wooing his Kirk, received many a black stroke, so his bride, in wooing him, gets many blows, and in this wooing there are strokes upon both sides. Let it be so. The devil will not make the marriage go back, neither can he tear the contract; the end shall be mercy. Yet not withstanding of all this, we have no warrant of God to leave off all lawful means. I have been writing unto you the counsels and draughts of men against the Kirk; but they know not, as Micah says, the Counsel of Jehovah. The great men of the world may make ready the fiery furnace of Zion; but trow ye that they can cause the fire to burn? No. He that made the fire, I trust, shall not say amen to their decrees. I trust in my Lord, that God hath not subscribed their bill, and their conclusions have not yet passed our great King's seal. Therefore, if ye think good, address yourself first to the Lord, and then to A.R., anent the business that you know.
I am most unkindly handled by the presbytery; and (as if I had been a stranger, and not a member of their seat to sit in judgement with them) I was summoned by their order as a witness against B,A. but they have got no advantage in that matter. Other particulars you shall hear, God willing, at meeting.
Anent the matter betwixt you and I.E., I remember it to God. I entreat you in the Lord, to be submissive to his will; for the higher that their pride mounts up, they are nearer to a fall. The Lord will more and more discover that man. Let your husband, in all matters of judgement, take Christ's part, for the defence of the poor and needy, and the oppressed, for the maintenance of equity and justice in the town. And take you no fear. He shall take your part, and then you are strong enough. What? Howbeit you receive indignities for your Lord's sake, let it be so. When he shall put His holy hand up to your face in heaven, and dry your face, and wipe the tears from your eyes, judge if ye will wnot have cause then to rejoice. Anent other particulars, if you would speak with me, appoint any of the first three days of the next week in Carlton,*when Carlton is at home, and acquaint me with your desires. And remember me to God, and my dearest affection to your husband; and for Zion's sake hold not your peace. The grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you, and your husband and children.
Yours in the Lord
S.R
.
Anwoth, June 2, 1631
*Carlton in Galloway not far from Anwoth where Mr Fullerton, a true friend resided.
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