171. To his reverend and dear brother, Mr. ROBERT BLAIR. Reverend and dear brother,

THE

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HE reafon ye gave for your not writing to me, affecteth me much, and giveth me a dash, when fuch an one as ye conceive an opinion of me, or any thing in me: the truth is, when I come home to myself, O what penury do I find, and how feckless is my fuppofed ftock, and how little have I! He, to whom I am as cryftal, and who feeth through me, and perceiveth the leaft mote that is in me, knoweth that I fpeak what I think and am convinced of but men caft me through a grofs and wide fieve. My very dear brother, the room of the least of all faints is too great for the like of me: but, left this should seem art, to fetch home reputation, I fpeak no more of it: it is my worth, to be Christ's ranfomed finner and fick one; his relation to me, is that I am fick, and he is the Physician of whom I ftand in need. Alas how often play I faft and loose with Chrift? he bindeth, I loose; he buildeth, I caft down; he trimmeth up a falvation for me, I mar it; I caft out with Chrift, and he agreeth with me again, twenty times a day; I forfeit my kingdom and heritage, I lose what I had; but Chrift is at my back, and following on, to stoop and take up what falleth from me. Were I in heaven, and had the crown on my head, if free-will were my tutor, I should lose heav

en;

feeing I lofe myself, what wonder I fhould let go, and lofe Jefus my Lord? O well to me for evermore, that I have cracked my credit with Chrift, and cannot by law at all borrow from him, upon my feckless and worthlefs bond and faith! for my faith and reputation with Chrift, is, that I am a creature that God will not put any truft into: I was, and am bewildered with temptations, and wanted a guide to heaven. O what have I to fay of that excellent, furpaffing and fupereminent thing, they call, The grace of God, the way of free redemption in Chrift! And when poor, poor I, dead in law, was fold fettered and imprison-· ed in justice's closest ward, which is hell and damnation; when I, a wretched one, lighted upon noble Jesus, eternally kind Jesus, tender-hearted Jefus; nay, when he lighted upon me first, and knew me; I found that he fcorned to take a price, or any thing like hire, of angels or feraphims, or any of his creatures; and therefore I would praise him for this, that the whole army of the redeemed ones fit rent-free in heaven: our holding it better than blench: we are all free-holders; and feeing our eternal feu-duty is butthanks, Owoful me! thatIhave butfpilt thanks,lame and broken and miscarried praises to give him; and fo my filver is not good and current with Chrift, were it not that free merits have stamped it, and wafhen it and me both! And for my filence, I fee fomewhat better through it now: if my high and lofty One, my princely

and royal Master, fay. Hold, hold thy peace, I lay bonds on thee thou must fpeak none; I would fain be content, and let my fire be fmothered under ashes, without light or flame: I cannot help it; I take the laws from my Lord, but I give none. As for your journey to F. ye do well to follow it: the camp is Chrift's ordinary bed; a carried bed is kindly to the Beloved, down in this lower houfe. It may be, and who knoweth but our Lord hath some centurions, ye are fent to, seeing your angry mother denieth you lodging and house-room with her. Chrift's call to unknown faces must be your fecond wind, feeing ye cannot have a first. O that our Lord would water again, with a new vifit, this piece withered and dry hill of our widow mount Zion! My dear brother, I will think it comfort, if ye fpeak my name to our Well beloved. Whereever ye are, I am mindful of you. O that the Lord would yet make the light of the moon in Scotland like the light of the fun, and the light of the fun seven-fold brighter. For myself, as yet Í have received no anfwer whither to go; I wait on: O that Jefus had my love! Let matters frame as they lift, I have some more to do with Chrift; yet I would fain we were nearer. Now, the great Shepherd of the fheep, the very God of peace, eftablish and confirm you, till the day of his coming.

Aberd. Sept. 9. 1637.

Mistress,

Yours in his lovely and fweet Lord
Jefus, S. R.

172. To the Lady GARLETON.

Race. mercy and peace be to you. My foul longeth once again to be amongst you, and to behold that beauty of the Lord, that I would fee in his houfe: but I know not if he, in whofe are all our ways, feeth it expedient for his glory. I owe my Lord (I know) submission of spirit, fuppofe he should turn mẹ into a stone or pillar of falt. Oh that I were he, in whom my Lord could be glorified; fuppofe my little heaven were forfeited, to buy glory to him before men and angels; fuppofe my want of his prefence, and feparation from Chrift were a pillar, as high as ten heavens for Christ's glory to stand upon, above all the world! What am I to him? how little am I (though my feathers flood out, as broad as the morning light) to fuch a high, to fuch a lofty, to fuch a never-enough admired and glorious Lord! My trials are heavy, because of my fad, fad fabbaths; but I know they are lefs than my high provocations: 1 feek no more, but that Chrift may be the gainer, and I the lofer; that he may be raised and heightened, and I cried down, and my worth made dust before his glory. Oh that Scotland, all with one fhout, would cry, Up Chrift, and that his name were high in this land! I find the very utmost borders of Christ's

high excellency and deep fweetness, heaven and earth's wonder. O what is he, if I could win-in to see his inner fide! Oh I am run dry of loving, and wondering, and adoring of that greatest and most admirable One! Wo, wo is me, I have not half love for him! Alas, what can my drop do to his great fea! what gain is it to Christ, that I have caften my little fparkle in his great fire! what can I give to him! O that I had love to fill a thousand worlds, that I might empty my foul of it all upon Chrift! I think I have now juft reafon to quit my part of any hope or love thatI have to this fcum, and the refufe of the drofs of God's workmanship, this vain earth: I owe to this ftormy world (whofe kindness and heart to me hath been made of iron, or of a piece of a wild fea-ifland, that never a creature of God yet lodged in) not a look: I owe it no love, no hope; and therefore, oh if my love were dead to it, and my foul dead to it! what am I obliged to this house of my pilgrimage? a ftraw for all that God hath made, to my foul's liking, except God, and that lovely One, Jefus Chrift. Seeing I am not this world's debtor, I defire, I may be stripped of all confidence in any thing, but my Lord, that he may be for me, and I for my only, only, only Lord; that he may be the morning and evening-tide, the top and the root of my joys, and the heart and flower and yolk of all my foul's delights. O let me never lodge any creature in my heart and confidence! let the houfe be for, him: I rejoice, that fad days cut off a piece of the leafe of my fhort life; and that my fhadow (even while I fuffer) weareth long, and my evening hafteneth on. I have caufe to love home with all my heart, and to take the opportunity of the day, to hasten to the end of my journey, before the night come on, wherein a man cannot fee to walk or work; that once after my falls, I may at night fall in, weary and tired as I am, in Chrift's bosom, and betwixt his breasts. Our prison cannot be our best country: this world looketh not like heaven and the happiness that our tired fouls would be at: and therefore it were good to feek about for the wind, and hoife up our fails towards our New Jerufalem, for that is our beft. Remember a prifoner to Chrift. Grace, grace be with you.

Aberdeen.

1637.

Yours in his only Lord and Mafter, S. R.

173. To my Lord CRAIGHALL. My Lord,

Received one letter of your Lordship's from C. and another of late from A. B. wherein I find your Lordship in perplexity what to do: but let me entreat your Lordship not to cause your felf mistake truth and Christ, because they seem to encounter with your peace and cafe. My Lord, remember that a prifoner hath

written

Epift. 173. written it to you, As the Lord liveth, if ye put to your hand with other apoftates in this land, to pull down the fometime beautiful tabernacle of Christ in this land, and join hands with them in one hair-breadth, to welcome Antichrift to Scotland, there is wrath gone out from the Lord against you and your house.' If the terror of a king hath overtaken you, and your Lordship looketh to fleep in your neft in peace, and take the neareft (hore, there are many ways, too, too many ways, how to shift Chrift with fome ill-wafhen and foul distinctions; but affure yourself, fuppofe a king fhould affure you, he would be your God (as he shall never be, for that piece of fervice) your clay god fhall die, and your carnal counsellors, when your confcience shall storm against you, and ye complain to them, they will fay, What is that to us? believe not that Christ is weak, or that he is not able to fave: of two fires that ye cannot pafs, take the least. Some few years will bring us all out in our blacks and whites, before our Judge; eternity is nearer to you, than ye are aware of. To go in a course of defection, when an enlightened confcience is ftirring, and looking you in the face, and crying within you, That ye are going in an evil way, is a step to the fin against the Holy Ghost: either many of this land are near that fin, or elfe I know not what it is. And if this, for which I now fuffer, be not the way of peace, and the King's high-way, to falvation, I believe there is not a way at all; there is not fuch breadth and elbow-room in the way to heaven, as men believe: howbeit this day be not Chrift's, the morrow fhall be his. I believe affuredly, our Lord fhall repair the old wafte places, and his ruined houfe in Scotland; and this wilderness fhall yet bloffoi as the rofe. My very worthy and dear Lord, wait upon him, who hideth his face from the houfe of Jacob, and look for him; wait patiently a little upon the Bridegroom's return again, that your foul may live, and ye may rejoice with the Lord's inheritance: I dare pawn my foul and life for it, if ye take this storm with borne down Chrift, your sky fhall quickly clear, and your fair morning dawn. -Think (as the truth is) that Chrift is juft now faying, And will ye alfo leave me? Ye have a fair occafion to gratify Chrift now, if ye will stay with him, and want the night's fleep with your suffering Saviour, one hour, now when Scotland hath fallen asleep, and leaveth Chrift to fend for himself. I profefs myself but a weak feeble man: when I came first to Christ's camp, I had nothing to maintain this war, or to bear me out in this encounter, and I am little better yet. But fince I find furniture, armour, and strength from the confecrated Captain, the Prince of our falvation, who was perfected through fuffering; Iefteem fuffering for Chrift a king's life. I find that our wants qualify us for Chrift; and howbeit your Lordfhip write, ye defpair to attain to fuch a communion and fellowship (which I would not have you to think) yet would ye nobly

nobly and couragiously venture, to make over to Chrift, for his honour, now lying at the stake, your estate, place and honour, he would lovingly and largely requite you, and give you a king's word for a recompence: venture upon Chrift's come, and I dare fwear, ye fhall fay, as it is, Pfal. xvi. 7. I blefs the Lord who gave me counfel. My very worthy Lord, many eyes in both the kingdoms are upon you now, and the eye of our Lord is upon you; ac quit yourself manfully for Chrift: fpill not this good play: fub. fcribe a blank fubmiffion, and put it in Chrift's hands: win, win the bleffings and prayers of your fighing and forrowful motherchurch, feeking your help: win Chrift's bond (who is a King of his word) for a hundred-fold more even in this life. If a weak man hath past a promise to a king, to make a flip to Christ (if we look to flesh and blood, I wonder not of it; poffibly I might have done worse myself, but) add not further guiltinefs, to go on in fuch a fcandalous and foul way; remember that there is a wo, wo to him by whom offences come: this wo came out of Chrift's mouth, and it is heavier than the wo of the law; it is the Mediator's vengeance, and that is two vengeances to thofe who are enlightened. Free yourself from unlawful anguish, about advising and refolving: when the truth is come to your hand, hold it fast, go not again to make a new fearch and inquiry for truth; it is eafy to cause conscience believe as ye will, not as ye know; it is eafy for you to caft your light into prifon, and detain God's truth in unrighteousness; but that prifoner will break ward, to your incomparable torture. Fear your light, and ftand in awe of it; for it is from God: think what honour it is in this life alfo, to be enrolled to the fucceeding ages, amongst Christ's witneffes, ftanding against the re-entry of Antichrift. I know certainly, your light looking to two ways, and to the two fides, crieth fhame upon the courfe that they would counfel you to follow the way, that is halfer and compartner with the fmoke of this fat world, and with ease, smelleth strong of a foul and falfe way. The Prince of peace, he who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of his fheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, establish you, and give you found light, and counsel you to follow Chrift. Remember my obliged fervice to my Lord your your father, and mother, and your Lady. Grace be with you. Aber d. Aug. 10. Your Lordship's at all obliged obedience, 1637.. in his fweet Lord Jefus, S. R.

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174. To JEAN GORDON.

My very dear and loving fifter,

Race, mercy and peace be to you: I long to hear from you; I exhort you to fet up the brae to the King's city, that muft be taken with violence: your afternoon's fun is wearing low;