ABERDEEN, _August 10, 1637_.
CCXXVIII.--_To_ MR. JAMES FLEMING.
[JAMES FLEMING was minister of Abbey St. Bathans, now called
Yester, a parish in the Presbytery of Haddington, East Lothian.
He had previously lived some time in England, and is described by
Livingstone as "an ingenuous, single-hearted man." Livingstone
was related to him, having been married to the eldest daughter of
his brother, Bartholomew Fleming, merchant in Edinburgh, and was
present with him at his "gracious death." Fleming was opposed to
Prelacy, and the ceremonies which James VI. and Charles I. were
so zealous in attempting to impose on the Church of Scotland. In
the controversy occasioned by the Public Resolutions, he took the
side of the party favourable to them. He was first married to
Martha, eldest daughter of John Knox, the celebrated Scottish
Reformer. He married a second wife, by whom he had the well-known
Robert Fleming, the author of the "Fulfilling of the Scriptures,"
who was minister of Cambuslang, and afterwards of the Scottish
congregation in Rotterdam, whither he retired some years after
his ejection for nonconformity, on the restoration of Charles
II.]
(_GLORY GAINED TO CHRIST--SPIRITUAL DEADNESS--HELP TO PRAISE HIM--THE
MINISTRY._)
REVEREND AND WELL-BELOVED IN OUR LORD,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to
you.--I received your letter, which hath refreshed me in my bonds. I
cannot but testify unto you, my dear brother, what sweetness I find in
our Master's cross; but, alas, what can I either do or suffer for
Him! If I my lone had as many lives as there have been drops of rain
since the creation, I would think them too little for that lovely One,
our Well-beloved; but my pain and my sorrow is above my sufferings,
that I find not ways to set out the praises of His love to others. I
am not able, by tongue, pen, or sufferings, to provoke many to fall in
love with Him: but He knoweth, whom I love to serve in the Spirit,
what I would do and suffer by His own strength, so being that I might
make my Lord Jesus lovely and sweet to many thousands in this land. I
think it amongst God's wonders, that He will take any praise or glory,
or any testimony to His honourable cause, from such a forlorn sinner
as I am. But when Christ worketh, He needeth not ask the question, by
whom He will be glorious. I know (seeing His glory at the beginning
did shine out of poor nothing, to set up such a fair house for men and
angels, and so many glorious creatures, to proclaim His goodness,
power, and wisdom) that, if I were burnt to ashes, out of the smoke
and powder of my dissolved body He could raise glory to Himself. His
glory is His end: oh that I could join with Him to make it my end! I
would think that fellowship with Him sweet and glorious. But, alas!
few know the guiltiness that is on my part: it is a wonder, that this
good cause hath not been marred and spilled in my foul hands. But I
rejoice in this, that my sweet Lord Jesus hath found something ado,
even a ready market for His free grace and incomparable and matchless
mercy, in my wants. Only my loathsome wretchedness and my wants have
qualified me for Christ, and the riches of His glorious grace. He
behoved to take me for nothing, or else to want me. Few know the
unseen and private reckonings betwixt Christ and me; yet His love, His
boundless love would not bide away, nor stay at home with Himself. And
yet I do not make it welcome as I ought, when it is come unsent-for
and without hire.
How joyful is my heart, that ye write that ye are desirous to join
with me in praising; for it is a charity to help a dyvour to pay his
debts. But when all have helped me, my name shall stand in His
account-book under ten thousand thousands of sums unpaid. But it
easeth my heart that His dear servants will but speak of my debts to
such a sweet Creditor. I desire that He may lay me in His own balance
and weigh me, if I would not fain have a feast of His boundless love
made to my own soul, and to many others. One thing I know, that we
shall not at all be able to come near His excellency with eye, heart,
or tongue; for He is above all created thoughts. All nations before
Him are as nothing, and less than nothing: He sitteth in the circuit
of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers before
Him. Oh that men would praise Him!
Ye complain of your private case. Alas! I am not the man to speak to
such an one as ye are. Any sweet presence which I have had in this
town, is, I know, for this cause, that I might express and make it
known to others. But I never find myself nearer Christ, that royal and
princely One, than after a great weight and sense of deadness and
gracelessness. I think that the sense of our wants, when withal we
have a restlessness and a sort of spiritual impatience under them and
can make a din, because we want Him whom our soul loveth, is that
which maketh an open door to Christ. And when we think we are going
backward, because we feel deadness, we are going forward; for the more
sense, the more life; and no sense argueth no life. There is no
sweeter fellowship with Christ than to bring our wounds and our sores
to Him. But for myself, I am ashamed of Christ's goodness and love,
since the time of my bonds; for He hath been pleased to open up new
treasures of love and felt sweetness, and give visitations of love and
access to Himself, in this strange land. I would think a fill of His
love young and green heaven. And when He is pleased to come, and the
tide is in, and the sea full, and the King and a poor prisoner
together in the house-of-wine, the black tree of the cross is not so
heavy as a feather. I cannot, I dow not, but give Christ an honourable
and glorious testimony.
I see that the Lord can ride through His enemies' bands, and triumph
in the sufferings of His own; and that this blind world seeth not that
sufferings are Christ's armour, wherein He is victorious. And they who
contend with Zion see not what He is doing, when they are set to work,
as under-smiths and servants, to the work of refining the saints.
Satan's hand also, by them, is at the melting of the Lord's vessels of
mercy, and their office in God's house is to scour and cleanse vessels
for the King's table. I marvel not to see them triumph, and sit at
ease in Zion; for our Father must lay up His rods, and keep them
carefully for His own use. Our Lord cannot want fire in His house: His
furnace is in Zion, and His fire in Jerusalem. But little know the
adversaries the counsel and the thoughts of the Lord.
And for your complaints of your ministry. I now think all I do too
little. Plainness, freedom, watchfulness, fidelity, shall swell upon
you, in exceeding large comforts, in your sufferings. The feeding of
Christ's lambs in private visitations and catechising, in painful
preaching, and fair, honest, and free warning of the flock, is a
sufferer's garland. Oh, ten thousand times blessed are they, who are
honoured of Christ to be faithful and painful in wooing a bride to
Christ! My dear brother, I know that ye think more on this than I can
write; and I rejoice that your purpose is, in the Lord's strength, to
back your wronged Master; and to come out, and call yourself Christ's
man, when so many are now denying Him, as fearing that Christ cannot
do for Himself and them. I am a lost man for ever, or this, this is
the way to salvation, even this way, which they call heresy, that men
now do mock and scoff at. I am confirmed now that Christ will accept
of His servant's sufferings as good service to Him at the day of His
Appearance; and that, ere it be long, He will be upon us all, and men
in their blacks and whites shall be brought out before God, angels,
and men. Our Master is not far off. Oh, if we could wait on and be
faithful! The good-will of Him who dwelt in The Bush, the tender
favour and love, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you.
Help me with your prayers; and desire, from me, other brethren to take
courage for their Master.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,