ANWOTH, _May 20_.
XXXVII.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_ON THE DEATH OF LORD KENMURE--DESIGNS OF AND DUTIES OF AFFLICTION._)
MY VERY NOBLE AND WORTHY LADY,--So oft as I call to mind the comforts
that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship
here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the
delight of mine eyes (Ezek. xxiv. 16), as the Word speaketh (which
wound is not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall
remember that, and give you comfort now at such a time as this,
wherein your dearest Lord hath made you a widow, that ye may be a free
woman for Christ, who is now suiting for marriage-love of you. And
therefore, since you lie alone in your bed, let Christ be as a bundle
of myrrh, to sleep and lie all the night betwixt your breasts (Cant.
i. 13), and then your bed is better filled than before. And seeing,
amongst all crosses spoken of in our Lord's Word, this giveth you a
particular right to make God your Husband (which was not so yours
while your husband was alive), read God's mercy out of this
visitation; albeit I must out of some experience say, the mourning for
the husband of your youth be, by God's own mouth, the heaviest worldly
sorrow (Joel i. 8). And though this be the weightiest burden that ever
lay upon your back; yet ye know (when the fields are emptied and your
husband now asleep in the Lord), if ye shall wait upon Him who hideth
His face for a while, that it lieth upon God's honour and truth to
fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. See and consider
then what ye have lost, and how little it is. Therefore, Madam, let me
intreat you, in the bowels of Christ Jesus, and by the comforts of His
Spirit, and your appearance before Him, let God, and men, and angels
now see what is in you. The Lord hath pierced the vessel; it will be
known whether there be in it wine or water. Let your faith and
patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved first and
last hath been Christ. And, therefore, now ware your whole love upon
Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the
affections of your soul. God hath dried up one channel of your love by
the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ. Your
Lord and lover hath graciously taken out your husband's name and your
name out of the summonses that are raised at the instance of the
terrible sin-revenging Judge of the world against the house of the
Kenmures. And I dare say that God's hammering of you from your youth
is only to make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of
the New Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world's vain painted
glory a gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you,
because He is to propine you with a better portion. Let the movables
go; the inheritance is yours. Ye are a child of the house, and joy is
laid up for you; it is long in coming, but not the worse for that. I
am now expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I
hoped of you since I knew you fully, even that ye have laid such
strength upon the Holy One of Israel, that ye defy troubles, and that
your soul is a castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. What
have ye to do here? This world never looked like a friend upon you. Ye
owe it little love. It looked ever sour-like upon you. Howbeit ye
should woo it, it will not match with you; and therefore never seek
warm fire under cold ice. This is not a field where your happiness
groweth; it is up above, where there are a great multitude, which no
man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms in their hands (Rev. vii. 9). What ye could never get
here ye shall find there. And withal consider how in all these trials
(and truly they have been many) your Lord hath been loosing you at the
root from perishing things, and hunting after you to grip your soul.
Madam, for the Son of God's sake, let Him not miss His grip, but stay
and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith (Jude 21).
Now, Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part;
and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not
evidencing what I was obliged to your more-than-undeserved love and
respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble
lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your
redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in
Galloway is now shining in another world. Now I pray that God may
answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the
God of all consolations. Thus I remain,
Your Ladyship's at all dutiful obedience in the Lord,