ST. ANDREWS, _March 23, 1653_.
CCCXLI.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_PRESENT NEED HELPED BY PAST EXPERIENCE._)
MADAM,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--I know that ye think of an
outgoing, and that your quartering in time, and your abode in this
life, is short; "for we flee away as a shadow." The declining of the
sun, and the lengthening of the shadow, say that our journey is short
and near the end. I speak it, because I have warnings of my removal.
Madam, I know not any against whom the Lord is not: for He is against
"the proud and lofty; the day of the Lord is upon all the cedars, upon
all the high mountains, upon every high tower, and upon every fenced
wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures"
(Isa. ii. 12-16). I know not anything comparable to a nearness and
spiritual communion with the Father and the Son Christ. There is much
deadness and witheredness upon many spirits sometime near to God; and
I wish the Lord have not more to say and to do against the land.
Ye have, Madam, in your accounts, mercies, deliverances, rods,
warnings, plenty of means, consolations (when "refuge failed, when ye
looked on the right hand, and behold no man would know you, nor care
for your soul," when young and weak), manifestations of God, the
outgoings of the Lord for you, experiences, answers from the Lord; by
all which, ye may be comforted now, and confirmed in the certain hope,
that grace, free grace, in a fixed and established Surety, shall
perfect that good work in you. Happy they who see not and yet believe.
Grace, grace, eternally in our Lord Jesus be with you.
Yours, in the Lord Jesus,