ANWOTH, _Feb. 2, 1632_.
XXIII.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_EXHORTING TO REMEMBER HER ESPOUSAL TO CHRIST--TRIBULATION A
PREPARATION FOR THE KINGDOM--GLORY IN THE END._)
MADAM,--Your Ladyship will not (I know) weary nor offend, though I
trouble you with many letters. The memory of what obligations I am
under to your Ladyship, is the cause of it.
I am possibly impertinent in what I write, because of my ignorance of
your present estate; but for all that is said, I have learned of Mr.
W. D.[116] that ye have not changed upon, nor wearied of your sweet
Master, Christ, and His service; neither were it your part to change
upon Him who "resteth in His love." Ye are among honourable company,
and such as affect grandeur and court. But, Madam, thinking upon your
estate, I think I see an improvident wooer coming too late to seek a
bride, because she is contracted already, and promised away to
another; and so the wooer's busking and bravery (who cometh to
you[117] as "who but he?") are in vain. The outward pomp of this busy
wooer, a beguiling world, is now coming in to suit[118] your soul too
late, when ye have promised away your soul to Christ many years ago.
And I know, Madam, what answer ye may now justly make to the late
suitor; even this: "Ye are too long of coming; my soul, the bride, is
away already, and the contract with Christ subscribed, and I cannot
choose, but I must be honest and faithful to Him." Honourable lady,
keep your first love, and hold the first match with that
soul-delighting, lovely Bridegroom, our sweet, sweet Jesus, fairer
than all the children of men, "the Rose of Sharon," and the fairest
and sweetest smelled rose in all His Father's garden. There is none
like Him; I would not exchange one smile of His lovely face with
kingdoms. Madam, let others take their silly, feckless heaven in this
life. Envy them not; but let your soul, like a tarrowing and
mislearned child, take the dorts (as we use to speak), or cast at all
things and disdain them, except one only: either Christ or nothing.
Your well-beloved, Jesus, will be content that ye be here devoutly
proud, and ill to please, as one that contemneth all husbands but
Himself. Either the King's Son, or no husband at all; this is humble,
and worthy ambition. What have ye to do to dally with a whorish and
foolish world? Your jealous Husband will not be content that ye look
by Him to another: He will be jealous indeed, and offended, if ye kiss
another but Himself. What weights do burden you, Madam, I know not;
but think it great mercy that your Lord from your youth hath been
hedging in your outstraying affections, that they may not go a-whoring
from Himself. If ye were His bastard, He would not nurture you so. If
ye were for the slaughter, ye would be fattened. But be content; ye
are His wheat, growing in our Lord's field (Matt. xiii. 25, 38); and
if wheat, ye must go under our Lord's threshing-instrument, in His
barn-floor, and through His sieve (Amos ix. 9), and through His mill
to be bruised (as the Prince of your salvation, Jesus, was) (Isa.
liii. 10), that ye may be found good bread in your Lord's house. Lord
Jesus, bless the spiritual husbandry, and separate you from the chaff,
that dow not bide the wind. I am persuaded your glass is spending
itself by little and little; and if ye knew who is before you, ye
would rejoice in your tribulations. Think ye it a small honour to
stand before the throne of God and the Lamb? and to be clothed in
white, and to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb? and to be
led to the fountain of living waters, and to come to the Well-head,
even God Himself, and get your fill of the clear, cold, sweet,
refreshing water of life, the King's own well? and to put up your own
sinful hand to the tree of life and take down and eat the sweetest
apple in all God's heavenly paradise, Jesus Christ, your life and your
Lord? Up your heart! shout for joy! Your King is coming to fetch you
to His Father's house.
[116] Mr. William Dalgleish, minister at Kirkmabreck.
[117] A proverbial expression, as in Herbert's Poem, 84:
"Then came brave Glory passing by,
With silks that whistled, Who but he."
[118] Z. Boyd's _Last Battle_, p. 185.
Madam, I am in exceeding great heaviness, God thinking it best for my
own soul thus to exercise me, thereby, it may be, to fit me to be His
mouth to others. I see and hear, at home and abroad, nothing but
matter of grief and discouragement, which indeed maketh my life
bitter. And I hope in God never to get my will in this world. And I
expect ere long a fiery trial upon the Church; for as many men almost
in England and Scotland, as many false friends to Christ, and as many
pulling and drawing to pull the crown off His holy head! and for fear
that our Beloved stay amongst us (as if His room[119] were more
desirable than Himself), men are bidding Him go seek His lodging.
Madam, if ye have a part in silly, friendless Zion (as I know ye
have), speak a word on her behalf to God and man. If ye can do nothing
else, speak for Jesus, and ye shall thereby be a witness against this
declining age. Now, from my very soul, laying and leaving you on the
Lord, and desiring a part in your prayers (as, my Lord knoweth, I
remember you), I deliver over your body, spirit, and all your
necessities, to the hands of our Lord, and remain for ever
Your Ladyship's, in your sweet Lord Jesus and mine,