XLIV.--_For_ MARION M'NAUGHT.
(_TROUBLES THREATENING THE CHURCH._)
WELL-BELOVED SISTER,--My love in Jesus Christ remembered. Your
daughter is well, thanks be to God. I trust in Him ye shall have joy
of her; the Lord bless her. I am now presently going about
catechising. The bearer is in haste. Forget not poor Zion; and the
Lord remember you, for we shall be shortly winnowed. Jesus, pray for
us, that our faith fail not! I would wish to see you a Sabbath with
us, and we shall stir up one another, God willing, to seek the Lord;
for it may be He hide Himself from us ere it be long. Keep that which
you have: ye will get more in heaven. The Lord send us to the shore
out of all the storms, with our silly souls sound and whole with us;
for if liberty of conscience come, as is rumoured, the best of us will
be put to our wits to seek how to be freed. But we shall be like those
who have their chamber to go in unto, spoken of in Isaiah (Isa. xxvi.
20). Read the place yourself, and keep you within your house while the
storm be passed. If you can learn a ditty against C., try, and cause
try, that ye may see the Lord's righteous judgment upon the devil's
instruments. We are not much obliged to his kindness. I wish all such
wicked doers were cut off.
These in haste. I bless you in God's name, and all yours. Your
daughter desires a Bible and a gown. I hope she shall use the Bible
well, which if she do, the gown is the better bestowed. The Lord Jesus
be with your spirit.
Yours for ever in Christ,