CCCLXIV.--_To_ [Brethren in] ABERDEEN.
(_SINFUL CONFORMITY AND SCHISMATIC DESIGNS REPROVED._)
REVEREND AND DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,--Grace be to you, and peace
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There were some who rendered thanks, with knees bowed to Him "of whom
is named the whole family in heaven and earth," when they heard of
"your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our
Lord Jesus;" and rejoiced not a little, that where Christ was scarce
named, in savouriness and power of the Gospel, even in Aberdeen, there
Christ hath a few names precious to Him, who shall walk with Him in
white. We looked on it (He knoweth whom we desire to serve in our
spirit in the Gospel of His Son) as a part of the fulfilling of that,
"The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them; and the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isa. xxxv. 1). But now
it is more grievous to us than a thousand deaths, when we hear that
you are shaken, and so soon removed from that which you once
acknowledged to be the way of God. Dearly beloved, the sheep follow
Christ, who calleth them by name: a stranger they will not follow, but
they flee from him, for they know not the voice of a stranger. Ye know
the way, by which ye were sealed to the day of redemption; and ye
received the Spirit, by the hearing of faith. Part not with that way,
except ye see there be no rest for your souls therein. Neither listen
to them that say, "Many were converted under episcopal as well as
under presbyterial government, and yet the godly gave testimony
against bishops;" for the instruments of conversion loathed
Episcopacy, with the ceremonies thereof, and never sealed it with
their sufferings. We shall desire instances of any engaged by oaths,
and sufferings of the faithful messengers of God, and the
manifestations of the Lord's presence, in the way ye now forsake, who
yet turned from it, and went one step toward sinful separation (and
did it in that way ye now aim at), and did yet flourish and grow in
grace. But we can bring proofs of many who left it, and went further
on to abominable ways of error. And you have it not in your power
where you shall lodge at night, having once left the way of God. And
many, we know, lost peace and communion with God, and fell into a
condition of withering, and not being able to find their lovers, were
forced to return to their first Husband. We shall entreat you,
consider what a stumbling it is to malignant opposers of the way and
cause of God (who with their ears heard you, and with their eyes saw
you, so strenuously take part with the godly in their sufferings, and
profess yourselves for religion truth, doctrine, government of the
house of God, His Covenant and cause), if now you build again what you
once destroyed, and destroy what you builded. And shall you not make
yourselves, by so doing, transgressors? How shall it wound the hearts
of the godly, stain the profession, darken the glory of the Gospel,
shake the faith of many, weaken the hands of all, if you (and you
first of all in this kingdom) shall stretch out the hand to raze the
walls of our Jerusalem, by reason of which the Lord made her "terrible
as an army with banners!" For when kings came, and saw the palaces and
bulwarks thereof, they marvelled and were troubled, and hasted away;
fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail. And
we shall be grieved, if you should be heirs to the guiltiness of
breaking down the same hedge of the vineyard, for the which the sad
indignation of God pursueth this day the Royal Family, many Nobles,
houses great and fair, and all the Prelatical party in these three
kingdoms. And when your dear brethren are weak and fainting, shall we
believe that you will leave us, and be divided from this so blessed a
conjunction? The Lord Jesus Christ, we trust, shall walk in the midst
of the golden candlesticks, and be with us, if you will be gone from
us. Beloved in the Lord, we cannot but be persuaded better things of
you; and we shall not conceal from you that we are ignorant what to
answer when we are reproved, on your behalf, in regard that your
change to another gospel-way (which the Lord avert!) is so much the
more scandalous, that the sudden alteration (unknown to us before) now
overtaketh you when men come amongst you against whom the furrows of
the fields of Scotland do complain. Forget not, dear brethren, that
Christ hath now the fan in His hand, and this is also the day of the
Lord, that shall burn as an oven; and that Christ now sitteth as a
refiner of silver, purifying the sons of Levi, and purging them as
gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of
righteousness; and those that keep the word of His (not their own)
patience shall be delivered from the hour of temptation, that shall
come on all the earth to try them.
If ye exclude all non-converts from the visible city of God (in which,
daily, multitudes in Scotland, in all the four quarters of the land,
above whatever our fathers saw, throng into Christ), shall they not be
left to the lions and wild beasts of the forest, even to Jesuits,
seminary-priests, and other seducers? For the magistrate hath no power
to compel them to hear the Gospel, nor have ye any church-power over
them, as ye teach; and they bring not love to the Gospel and to Christ
out of the womb with them; and so they must be left to embrace what
religion is most suitable to corrupt nature. Nor can it be a way
approven by the Lord in Scripture, to excommunicate from the visible
church (which is the office-house of the free grace of Christ, and His
draw-net) all the multitudes of non-converts, baptized, and visibly
within the covenant of grace, which are in Great Britain, and all the
reformed churches; and so to shut the gates of the Lord's gracious
calling upon all these (because they are not, in your judgment, chosen
to salvation), when once you are within yourselves.[527] For how can
the Lord call Egypt His people, and Assyria the work of His hands, and
all the Gentiles (who for numbers are as the flocks of Kedar, and the
abundance of the sea) the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, if
you number infants (as many do), and all such as your charity cannot
judge converts (as others do) among heathens and pagans, who have not
a visible claim and interest in Christ? The candlestick is not yours,
nor the house; but Christ fixeth and removeth the one, and buildeth
or casteth down the other, according to His sovereignty. We in
humility judge ourselves, though the chief of sinners, the sons of
Zion and of the seed of Christ; if ye remove from us, and carry from
hence the candlestick, let our Father be judge, and show us why the
Lord hath bidden you come out from among us. We look upon this visible
church, though black and spotted, as the hospital and guest-house of
sick, halt, maimed, and withered, over which Christ is Lord,
Physician, and Master: and we would wait upon those that are not yet
in Christ, as our Lord waited upon us and you both. We, therefore,
your brethren, children of one Father, cannot but with tears and
exceeding sorrow of heart earnestly entreat, beseech, and obtest you,
by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His sufferings and precious
ransom which He paid for us both, by the consolations of His Spirit,
by your appearance before the dreadful tribunal of our Lord Jesus,
yea, and charge you before God and the same Lord Jesus, "who shall
judge the quick and the dead, at His appearing, and His kingdom;"
break not the spirits and hearts of those to whom ye are dear as their
own soul. Forsake not the assemblies of the people of God; let us not
divide.
[527] When you yourselves have got safe within.
Not a few of the people of God in this shire of Fife (in whose name I
now write) dare say, if ye depart, that ye will leave Christ behind
you with us, and the golden candlesticks; and shut yourselves, we much
fear, out of the hearts and prayers of thousands dear to Jesus Christ
in Scotland. Therefore, before ye fix judgment and practice on any
untrodden path, let a day of humiliation be agreed upon by us all, and
our Father's mind and will inquired, through our one common Saviour.
And let us see one another's faces at best conveniency, and plead the
interest of Christ, and be comforted; and not be stumbled at your
ways.
So expecting your answer, we shall pray that the God of peace, who
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may make you
perfect in every work to do His will, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. And I shall remain,
Your affectionate brother in the Lord,