Vol 16 - TO CARLETOUN.

TO CARLETOUN.
Worthy and much honored,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! I received your letter from my brother, to which I now answer particularly. I confess two things of myself:—1. Woe, woe is me, that men should think there is any thing in me: He is my witness, before whom I am as crystal, that the secret house devils, that bear me too often company, and that this sink of corruption which I find within, make me go with low sails; and, if others saw what I see, they would look by me, but not to me.—2. I know that this shower of his free grace behooved to be on me, otherwise I would have withered. I know also, that I have need of a buffeting Tempter, that grace may be put to exercise, and I kept low. Worthy and dear brother in our LORD JESUS, I write that from my heart which ye now read.1. I vouch, that CHRIST. And sweating and sighing under his cross, are sweeter to me by far, than all the kingdoms of the world.—2. If you and my dearest acquaintance in CHRIST reap any fruit by my suffering, let me be weighed in GOD's even balance, if my joy be not fulfilled: What am I, to carry the marks of such a great King But although I am a sinful mass, my LORD JESUS can hew heaven out of worse timber than I am, if worse can be.—5. I now rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious, that I have desired to have and keep CHRIST all alone, and that he should never rub clothes with the harlot of Rome. I am now fully paid; so that nothing aileth me for the present, but anxious desires for a real possession of my Well beloved. I have gotten the choicest of CHRIST'S crosses,—to bear witness to the truth; and herein find I liberty, joy, life, comfort, love, faith, submission, patience, and resolution to take delight in waiting: and withal, in my race, he has come near to me, and let me see the crown. What then want I but real enjoyment, which is reserved to my country Let no man think that he shall lose at CHRIST'S hands in suffering for him.—4. As to these present trials, they are most dangerous. For people shall be stolen off their feet with plausible pretences of indifferency; but it is the power of the great Antichrist working in this land. Woe, woe, woe be to apostate Scotland; there is wrath, and a cup of the red wine of the wrath of GOD almighty in the LORD's hand, that they shall drink, and fall, and not rise again. The star, called " Wormwood and Gall," is fallen into the fountains and rivers, and has made them bitter. The sword of the LORD is furbished against the idol shepherds of the land; all hearts shall be faint, and all knees shall tremble. An end is coming; the leopard and the lion shall watch over our cities; houses great and fair shall be desolate, without an inhabitant.—5. I am assaulted by the learned and pregnant wits of this kingdom; but, all honor be to my LORD, truth but laughs at disputers of this world; GOD's wisdom confoundeth them; and CHRIST triumpheth in his own strong truth, that speaketh for itself.6. Let my conceptions of CHRIST'S love go to the grave with me, and to hell with me, I may not, I dare not quit them. I hope to keep CHRIST'S pawn: if he never come to loose it, let him see to his own promise. I know that presumption, although it be made of stoutness, will not thus be wilful in heavy trials. Now, my dearest in CHRIST, the great Messenger of the Covenant, the only wise and all sufficient JEHOVAH, establish you to the end! I hear the LORD has been at your house, and has called home your wife to her rest. I know, Sir, ye see the LORD loosing the pins of your tabernacle, and wooing your love from this overgilded world, and calling upon you to be making yourself ready to go to your Father's country. Ye know, to " send the Comforter" was a King's word when he ascended on high: ye have claim to, and interest in, that promise. All love, all mercy, all grace and peace, all multiplied saving consolations, all joy and faith in CHRIST, all stability and confirming strength of grace, and the goodwill of Him that dwelt in the bush, be with you!
Your unworthy brother in the LORD JESUS,
Aberdeen,
S. R.
June 15, 1639.