1656.
CCCXLVII.--_To my_ LADY KENMURE.
(_UNKINDNESS OF THE CREATURE--GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY IN PERMITTING HIS
CHILDREN TO BE INJURED BY MEN._)
MADAM,--I confess that I have cause to be grieved at my long silence
or laziness in writing. I am also afflicted to hear, that such who
were debtors to your Ladyship for better dealing have served you with
such prevarication. Ye know that crookedness is neither strong, nor
long enduring; and ye know likewise, that these things spring not out
of the dust. It is sweet to look upon the lawless and sinful stirrings
of the creature as ordered by a most holy hand in heaven. Oh, if some
could make peace with God! It would be our wisdom, and afford us much
sweet peace, if oppressors were looked on as passive instruments, like
the saw or axe in the carpenter's hand. They are bidden (if such a
distinction may be admitted), but not commanded, of God (as Shimei
was, 2 Sam. xvi. 10), to do what they do.
Madam, these many years the Lord hath been teaching you to read and
study well the book of holy, holy, and spotless sovereignty, in
suffering from some nigh-hand, and some far off. Whoever be the
instruments, the replying of clay to the Potter, the Former of all, is
unbeseeming the nothing-creature. I hope that He will clear you: but,
when Zion's public evils lie not nigh some of us, and leave no
impression upon our hearts, it is no wonder that we be exercised with
domestic troubles. But I know that ye are taught of God to prefer
Jerusalem to your chiefest joy. Madam, there is no cause of fainting:
wait upon the not-tarrying vision, for it will speak.
The only wise God be with you, and God, even your own God, bless you.
Yours, at all observance, in God,