CXCIV.--_To_ MR. HUGH HENDERSON, _Minister of Dalry, Ayrshire_.
(_THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE--BELIEVING PATIENCE._)
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--Who knoweth but the wind may turn into the
west again, upon Christ and His desolate bride in this land; and that
Christ may get His summer by course again? For He hath had ill-weather
this long time, and could not find law or justice for Himself and His
truth these many years. I am sure the wheels of this crazed and broken
kirk run all upon no other axle-tree, nor is there any other to roll
them, and cog them, and drive them, than the wisdom and good pleasure
of our Lord. And it were a just trick and glorious of never-sleeping
Providence, to bring our brethren's darts, which they have shot at us,
back upon their own heads. Suppose they have two strings to their bow,
and can take one as another faileth them, yet there are more than
three strings upon our Lord's bow; and, besides, He cannot miss the
white that He shooteth at. I know that He shuffleth up and down in His
hand the great body of heaven and earth; and that kirk and
commonwealth are, in His hand, like a stock of cards, and that He
dealeth the play to the mourners of Zion, and to those that say, "Lie
down, that we may go over you," at His own sovereign pleasure: and I
am sure that Zion's adversaries, in this play, shall not take up their
own stakes again. Oh how sweet a thing is it to trust in Him! When
Christ hath sleeped out His sleep (if I may speak so of Him who is the
Watchman of Israel, that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth), and His
own are tried, He will arise as a strong man after wine, and make bare
His holy arm, and put on vengeance as a cloak, and deal vengeance,
thick and double, amongst the haters of Zion. It may be that we may
see Him sow and send down maledictions and vengeances as thick as
drops of rain or hail upon His enemies; for our Lord oweth them a
black day, and He useth duly to pay His debts. Neither His friend and
followers, nor His foes and adversaries shall have it to say, "That He
is not faithful and exact in keeping His word."
I know of no bar in God's way but Scotland's guiltiness; and He can
come over that impediment, and break that bar also, and then say to
guilty Scotland, as He said, "Not for your sakes" (Ezek. xxxvi. 22,
23), etc. On-waiting had ever yet a blessed issue; and to keep the
word of God's patience, keepeth still the saints dry in the water,
cold in the fire, and breathing and blood-hot in the grave. What are
prisons of iron walls, and gates of brass, to Christ? Not so good as
fail dykes, fortifications of straw, or old tottering walls. If He
give the word, then chains will fall off the arms and legs of His
prisoners. God be thanked, that our Lord Jesus hath the tutoring of
king, and court, and nobles; and that He can dry the gutters and the
mires in Zion, and lay causeways to the temple with the carcases of
bastard lord-prelates and idol shepherds. The corn on the housetops
got never the husbandman's prayers, and so is seen[311] on it, for it
filleth not the hand of mowers. Christ, and truth, and innocency,
worketh even under the earth; and verily there is hope for the
righteous. We see not what conclusions pass in heaven anent all the
affairs of God's house. We need not give hire to God to take vengeance
of His enemies, for justice worketh without hire. Oh that the seed of
hope would grow again, and come to maturity! and that we would
importune Christ, and double our knocks at His gate, and cast our
cries and shouts over the wall, that He might come out, and make our
Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth, and give us salvation for
walls and bulwarks! If Christ bud, and grow green, and bloom, and bear
seed again in Scotland, and His Father send Him two summers in one
year, and bless His crop, what cause have we to rejoice in the free
salvation of our Lord, and to set up our banners in the name of our
God! Oh that He would hasten the confusion of the leprous strumpet,
the mother and mistress of abominations in the earth, and take graven
images out of the way, and come in with the Jews in troops, and agree
with His old outcast and forsaken wife, and take them again to His bed
of love. Grace be with you.
Yours, in our Master and Lord,