ANWOTH, _Sept. 19, 1632_.
[121] _Noon_, or a little before it, was then the usual hour for
dinner.
[122] In regard to whom I pray for the mercy Paul sought for the house
of Onesiphorus (2 Tim. i. 6).
XXVII.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_LOVE TO CHRIST AND SUBMISSION TO HIS CROSS--BELIEVERS KEPT--THE
HEAVENLY PARADISE._)
MADAM,--Having saluted you with grace and mercy from God our Father,
and from our Lord Jesus Christ, I long both to see your Ladyship, and
to hear how it goeth with you.
I do remember you, and present you and your necessities to Him who is
able to keep you, and present you blameless before His face with joy;
and my prayer to our Lord is, that ye may be sick of love for Him, who
died of love for you,--I mean your Saviour Jesus. And O sweet were
that sickness to be soul-sick for Him! And a living death it were, to
die in the fire of the love of that soul-lover, Jesus! And, Madam, if
ye love Him, ye will keep His commandments; and this is not one of the
least, to lay your neck cheerfully and willingly under the yoke of
Jesus Christ. For I trust your Ladyship did first contract and bargain
with the Son of God to follow Him upon these terms, that by His grace
ye should endure hardship, and suffer affliction, as the soldier of
Christ. They are not worthy of Jesus who will not take a blow for
their Master's sake. As for our glorious Peace-maker, when He came to
make up the friendship betwixt God and us, God bruised Him, and struck
Him; the sinful world also did beat Him, and crucify Him, yet He took
buffets of both parties, and (honour to our Lord Jesus!) He would not
leave the field for all that, till He had made peace betwixt the
parties. I persuade myself your sufferings are but like your Saviour's
(yea, incomparably less and lighter), which are called but a "bruising
of His heel" (Gen. iii. 15); a wound far from the heart. Your life is
hid with Christ in God (Col. iii. 3), and therefore ye cannot be
robbed of it. Our Lord handleth us, as fathers do their young
children; they lay up jewels in a place, above the reach of the short
arm of bairns, else bairns would put up their hands and take them
down, and lose them soon. So hath our Lord done with our spiritual
life. Jesus Christ is the high coffer in the which our Lord hath hid
our life; we children are not able to reach up our arm so high as to
take down that life and lose it; it is in our Christ's hand. O long,
long may Jesus be Lord Keeper of our life! and happy are they that
can, with the Apostle (2 Tim. i. 12), lay their soul in pawn in the
hand of Jesus, for He is able to keep that which is committed in pawn
to Him against that day. Then, Madam, so long as this life is not
hurt, all other troubles are but touches in the heel. I trust ye will
soon be cured. Ye know, Madam, kings have some servants in their court
that receive not present wages in their hand, but live upon their
hopes: the King of kings also hath servants in His court that for the
present get little or nothing but the heavy cross of Christ, troubles
without and terrors within; but they live upon hope; and when it
cometh to the parting of the inheritance, they remain in the house as
heirs. It is better to be so than to get present payment, and a
portion in this life, an inheritance in this world (God forgive me,
that I should honour it with the name of an inheritance, it is rather
a farm-room!), and then in the end to be casten out of God's house,
with this word, "Ye have received your consolation, ye will get no
more." Alas! what get they? The rich glutton's heaven (Luke xvi. 25).
O but our Lord maketh it a silly heaven! "He fared well," saith our
Lord, "and delicately every day." O no more? a silly heaven! Truly no
more, except that he was clothed in purple, and that is all. I
persuade myself, Madam, ye have joy when ye think that your Lord hath
dealt more graciously with your soul. Ye have gotten little in this
life, it is true indeed: ye have then the more to crave, yea, ye have
all to crave; for, except some tastings of the first fruits, and some
kisses of His mouth whom your soul loveth, ye get no more. But I
cannot tell you what is to come. Yet I may speak as our Lord doth of
it. The foundation of the city is pure gold, clear as crystal; the
twelve ports are set with precious stones; if orchards and rivers
commend a soil upon earth, there is a paradise there, wherein groweth
the tree of life that beareth twelve manner of fruits every month,
which is seven score and four harvests in the year; and there is there
a pure river of water of life, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb; and the city hath no need of the light of the sun or
moon, or of a candle, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is the
light thereof. Madam, believe and hope for this, till ye see and
enjoy. Jesus is saying in the Gospel, Come and see; and He is come
down in the chariot of truth, wherein He rideth through the world, to
conquer men's souls (Ps. xlv. 4), and is now in the world saying, "Who
will go with Me? will ye go? My Father will make you welcome, and give
you house-room; for in My Father's house are many dwelling-places."[123]
Madam, consent to go with Him. Thus I rest, commending you to God's
dearest mercy.
Yours in the Lord Jesus,