ANWOTH, _June 26, 1630_.
XII.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT.
(_GOD MIXETH THE CUP--THE WICKED HAVE THEIR
REWARD--FAITHFULNESS--FORBEARANCE--TRIALS._)
WELL-BELOVED AND DEAR SISTER,--My love in the Lord Jesus remembered. I
understand that you are still under the Lord's visitation, in your
former business with your enemies, which is God's dealing. For, till
He take His children out of the furnace that knoweth how long they
should be tried, there is no deliverance; but after God's highest and
fullest tide, that the sea of trouble is gone over the souls of His
children, then comes the gracious long-hoped-for ebbing and drying up
of the waters. Dear sister, do not faint; the wicked may hold the
bitter cup to your head, but God mixeth it, and there is no poison in
it. They strike, but God moves the rod; Shimei curseth, but it is
because the Lord bids Him. I tell you, and I have it from Him before
whom I stand for God's people, that there is a decreet given out, in
the great court of the highest heavens, that your present troubles
shall be dispersed as the morning cloud, and God shall bring forth
your righteousness, as the light of the noontide of the day. Let me
intreat you, in Christ's name, to keep a good conscience in your
proceedings in that matter, and beware of yourself: yourself is a more
dangerous enemy than I, or any without you. Innocence and an upright
cause is a good advocate before God, and shall plead for you, and win
your cause. And count much of your Master's approbation and His
smiling. He is now as the king that is gone to a far country. God
seems to be from home (if I may say so), yet He sees the ill servants,
who say, "Our Master deferreth His coming," and so strike their
fellow-servants. But patience, my beloved; Christ the King is coming
home; the evening is at hand, and He will ask an account of His
servants. Make a fair, clear count to Him. So carry yourself as at
night you may say, Master, I have wronged none; behold, you have your
own with advantage. O! your soul then will esteem much of one of God's
kisses and embracements, in the testimony of a good conscience. The
wicked, howbeit they be casting many evil thoughts, bitter words, and
sinful deeds behind their back, yet they are, in so doing, clerks to
their own process, and doing nothing all their life but gathering
dittayes against themselves; for God is angry at the wicked every day.
And I hope your present process shall be sighted one day by Him, who
knoweth your just cause; and the bloody tongues, crafty foxes,
double-ingrained hypocrites, shall appear as they are before His
majesty, when He shall take the mask off their faces. And O, thrice
happy shall your soul be then, when God finds you covered with nothing
but the white robe of the saint's innocence, and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ.
You have been of late in the King's wine-cellar, where you were
welcomed by the Lord of the inn, upon condition that you walk in love.
Put on love, and brotherly kindness, and long-suffering; wait as long
upon the favour and turned hearts of your enemies as your Christ
waited upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's door, with
dewy and rainy locks, the long cold night. Be angry, but sin not. I
persuade myself, that holy unction within you, which teacheth you all
things, is also saying, "Overcome evil with good." If that had not
spoken in your soul, at the tears of your aged pastor, you would not
have agreed, and forgiven his foolish son, who wronged you; but my
Master bade me tell you, God's blessing shall be upon you for it; and
from Him I say, Grace, grace, grace, and everlasting peace be upon
you. It is my prayer for you, that your carriage may grace and adorn
the Gospel of that Lord who hath graced you. I heard your husband also
was sick; but I beseech you in the bowels of Jesus, welcome every rod
of God, for I find not in the whole book of God a greater note of the
child of God, than to fall down and kiss the feet of an angry God. And
when He seems to put you away from Him, and loose your hands that grip
Him, to look up in faith, and say, "I shall not, I will not, be put
away from Thee. Howbeit Thy Majesty draw to free Thyself of me, yet,
Lord, give me leave to hold, and cleave unto Thyself." I will pray,
that your husband may return in peace. Your decreet comes from heaven;
look up thither, for many (says Solomon) seek the face of the ruler,
but every man's Judgment cometh from the Lord. And be glad that it is
so, for Christ is the clerk of your process, and will see that all go
right; and I persuade myself He is saying, "Yonder servants of mine
are wronged; for My blood, Father, give them justice." Think you not,
dear sister, but our High Priest, our Jesus, the Master of requests,
presents our bills of complaint to the great Lord Justice? Yea I
believe it, since He is our Advocate, and Daniel calls Him the
Spokesman, whose hand presents all to the Father.
For other business, I say nothing, till the Lord give me to see your
face. I am credibly informed, that multitudes of England, and
especially worthy preachers, and silenced preachers of London, are
gone to New England; and I know one learned holy preacher, who hath
written against the Arminians, who is gone thither.[101] Our Blessed
Lord Jesus, who cannot get leave to sleep with His spouse in this
land, is going to seek an inn where He will be better entertained. And
what marvel? Wearied Jesus, after He had travelled from Geneva, by the
ministry of worthy Mr. Knox, and was laid in His bed, and reformation
begun, and the curtains drawn, had not gotten His dear eyes well
together, when irreverent bishops came in, and with the din and noise
of ceremonies, holy days, and other Romish corruptions, they awake our
Beloved. Others came to His bedside, and drew the curtains, and put
hands on His servants, banished, deprived, and confined them; and for
the pulpit they got a stool and a cold fire in the Blackness;[102] and
the nobility drew the covering off Him, and have made Him a poor naked
Christ, spoiling His servants of the tithes and kirk rents. And now
there is such a noise of crying sins in the land, as the want of the
knowledge of God, of mercy, and truth; such swearing, whoring, lying,
and blood touching blood; that Christ is putting on His clothes, and
making Him,[103] like an ill-handled stranger, to go to other lands.
Pray Him, sister, to lie down again with His beloved.
[101] The emigration of preachers and people to New England was the
consequence of the persecuting measures pursued by Archbishop Laud for
enforcing conformity, in the prosecution of his favourite scheme of
bringing the Church of England as near to that of Rome as could
consort with his own supremacy and that of his sovereign. About
seventy ministers and four thousand other persons emigrated to the
American continent to escape the tyranny of Laud and his agents.
[102] Blackness Castle, on the Forth, was used as a prison.
[103] In the sense of making a show of or appearing as if He would go;
Luke xxiv. 28.
Remember my dearest love to John Gordon, to whom I will write when I
am strong, and to John Brown, Grissel, Samuel, and William; grace be
upon them. As you love Christ, keep Christ's favour, and put not upon
Him when He sleeps, to awake Him before He please. The Lord Jesus be
with your spirit.
Your brother in Christ,