ANWOTH, _Sept. 25, 1634_.
XXXIX.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_PREPARATION FOR DEATH AND ETERNITY._)
MADAM,--All dutiful obedience in our Lord remembered. I know ye are
now near one of those straits in which ye have been before. But
because your outward comforts are fewer, I pray Him whose ye are to
supply what ye want another way. For howbeit we cannot win to the
bottom of His wise providence, who ruleth all; yet it is certain this
is not only good which the Almighty hath done, but it is _best_. He
hath reckoned all your steps to heaven; and if your Ladyship were
through this water, there are the fewer behind; and if this were the
last, I hope your Ladyship hath learned by on-waiting to make your
acquaintance with death, which being to the Lord, the woman's seed,
Jesus, only a bloody heel and not a broken head (Gen. iii. 15), cannot
be ill to His friends, who get far less of death than Himself.
Therefore, Madam, seeing ye know not but the journey is ended, and ye
are come to the water-side, in God's wisdom look all your papers and
your counts, and whether ye be ready to receive the kingdom of heaven
as a little child, in whom there is little haughtiness and much
humility. I would be far from discouraging your Ladyship; but there is
an absolute necessity that, near eternity, we look ere we leap, seeing
no man winneth back again to mend his leap. I am confident your
Ladyship thinketh often upon it, and that your old Guide shall go
before you and take your hand. His love to you will not grow sour, nor
wear out of date, as the love of men, which groweth old and
grey-haired often before themselves. Ye have so much the more reason
to love a better life than this, because this world hath been to you a
cold fire, with little heat to the body, and as little light, and much
smoke to hurt the eyes. But, Madam, your Lord would have you thinking
it but dry breasts, full of wind and empty of food. In this late
visitation that hath befallen your Ladyship, ye have seen God's love
and care, in such a measure that I thought our Lord brake the sharp
point off the cross, and made us and your Ladyship see Christ take
possession and infeftment upon earth, of him who is now reigning and
triumphing with the hundred forty and four thousand who stand with the
Lamb on Mount Zion. I know the sweetest of it is bitter to you; but
your Lord will not give you painted crosses. He pareth not all the
bitterness from the cross, neither taketh He the sharp edge quite from
it; then it should be of your waling and not of His, which should have
as little reason in it as it should have profit for us. Only, Madam,
God commandeth you now to believe and cast anchor in the dark night,
and climb up the mountain. He who hath called you, establish you and
confirm you to the end.
I had a purpose to have visited your Ladyship; but when I thought
better upon it, the truth is, I cannot see what my company would
profit you; and this hath broken off my purpose, and no other thing.
I know many honourable friends and worthy professors will see your
Ladyship, and that the Son of God is with you, to whose love and
mercy, from my soul, I recommend your Ladyship, and remain,
Your Ladyship's at all dutiful obedience, in his sweet Lord Jesus,