LONDON, _Feb. 16, 1646_.
CCCXXI.--_To the LADY ARDROSS, in Fife._ [_There is an Ardross near
Ferintosh in Ross-shire._]
[LADY ARDROSS, whose maiden name was Helen Lindsay, was the
daughter of Lady Christian Hamilton, eldest daughter of Thomas,
first Earl of Haddington, by her first husband Robert, ninth Lord
Lindsay of Byres. She was married to Sir William Scott of
Ardross, son of Sir W. Scott of Elie. Her daughter, Euphemia,
Countess of Dundonald, some thirty years after this, attended the
field conventicles, and entertained the field preachers at her
house. (Douglas' "Peerage," vol. i. p. 386.) This letter was
written to her on the occasion of the death of her mother, who
was then Lady Boyd, having married for her second husband,
Robert, sixth Lord Boyd. (See notice of Lady Boyd, Letter
LXXVII.)]
(_ON HER MOTHER'S DEATH--HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN, AND BLESSEDNESS OF DYING
IN THE LORD._)
MADAM,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--It hath seemed good, as I
hear, to Him that hath appointed the bounds for the number of our
months, to gather in a sheaf of ripe corn, in the death of your
Christian mother, into His garner. It is the more evident that winter
is near, when apples, without the violence of wind, fall of their own
accord off the tree. She is now above the winter, with a little change
of place, not of a Saviour; only she enjoyeth Him now without
messages, and in His own immediate presence, from whom she heard by
letters and messengers before.
I grant that death is to her a very new thing; but heaven was prepared
of old. And Christ (as enjoyed in His highest throne, and as loaded
with glory, and incomparably exalted above men and angels, having such
a heavenly circle of glorified harpers and musicians above, compassing
the throne with a song) is to her a new thing, but so new as the first
summer-rose, or the first fruits of that heavenly field; or as a new
paradise to a traveller, broken and worn out of breath with the sad
occurrences of a long and dirty way.
Ye may easily judge, Madam, what a large recompense is made to all her
service, her walking with God, and her sorrows, with the first cast of
the soul's eye upon the shining and admirably beautiful face of the
Lamb, that is in the midst of that fair and white army which is there,
and with the first draught and taste of the fountain of life, fresh
and new at the well-head; to say nothing of the enjoying of that face
without date, for more than this term of life which we now enjoy. And
it cost her no more to go thither, than to suffer death to do her this
piece of service: for by Him who was dead, and is alive, she was
delivered from the second death. What, then, is the first death to the
second? Not a scratch of the skin of a finger to the endless second
death. And now she sitteth for eternity mail-free, in a very
considerable land, which hath more than four summers in the year. Oh,
what spring-time is there! Even the smelling of the odours of that
great and eternally blooming Rose of Sharon for ever and ever! What a
singing life is there! There is not a dumb bird in all that large
field; but all sing and breathe out heaven, joy, glory, dominion to
the high Prince of that new-found land. And, verily, the land is the
sweeter that Jesus Christ paid so dear a rent for it. And He is the
glory of the land: all which, I hope, doth not so much mitigate and
allay your grief for her part (though truly this should seem
sufficient), as the unerring expectation of the dawning of that day
upon yourself, and the hope you have of the fruition of that same King
and kingdom to your own soul. Certainly the hope of it, when things
look so dark-like on both kingdoms, must be an exceedingly great
quickening to languishing spirits, who are far from home while we are
here. What misery, to have both a bad way all the day, and no hope of
lodging at night! But He hath taken up your lodging for you.
I can say no more now; but I pray that the very God of peace may
establish your heart to the end. I rest, Madam,
Your Ladyship's, at all respective obedience in the Lord,