ST. ANDREWS, _Aug. 10, 1650_.
CCCXXIX.--_To the worthy and much honoured_ COLONEL GILBERT KER.
(_COURAGE IN DAYS OF REBUKE--GOD'S ARRANGEMENTS ALL WISE._)
MUCH HONOURED AND WORTHY SIR,--What I wrote to you before, I spake not
upon any private warrant. I am where I was. Cromwell and his army (I
shall not say but there may be, and are, several sober and godly among
them, who have either joined through misinformation, or have gone
alongst with the rest in the simplicity of their hearts, not knowing
anything) fight in an unjust cause, against the Lord's secret ones.
And now to the trampling of the worship of God, and persecuting the
people of God in England and Ireland, he hath brought upon his score
the blood of the people of God in Scotland. I entreat you, dear Sir,
as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ, whose free grace
prevented you when ye were His enemy, go on without fainting, equally
eschewing all mixtures with Sectaries[473] and Malignants.[474]
Neither of the two shall ever be instrumental to save the Lord's
people, or build His house. And without prophesying, or speaking
further than He, whose I am and whom I desire to serve, in the Gospel
of His Son, shall warrant, I desire to hope and to believe there is a
glory and a majesty of the Prince of the kings of the earth, that
shall shine and appear in Great Britain, which shall darken all the
glory of men, confound Sectaries and Malignants, and rejoice the
spirits of the followers of the Lamb, and dazzle the eyes of the
beholders.
[473] The Independents.
[474] The Cavaliers.
Sir, I suppose that God is to gather Malignants and Sectaries, ere all
be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; and to bid the daughters of Zion
arise, and thresh. I hope that ye will mix with none of them. I am
abundantly satisfied, that our army, through the sinful miscarriage of
men, hath fallen; and dare say it is a better and a more comfortable
dispensation, than if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks
of the reproachers of the way of God; because He hath done it. For,
1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be upon the
accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade. 2.
Victory is such a burdening and weighty mercy, that we have not
strength to bear it as yet. 3. That was not the army, nor Gideon's
three hundred, by whom He is to save us; we must have one of our
Lord's carving. 4. Our enemies on both sides are not enough hardened,
nor we enough mortified to multitude, valour, and creatures.
Grace, grace be with you.
Your friend and servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus,