Vol 16 - TO CARDONESS, ELDER.

TO CARDONESS, ELDER.
MUCH HONORED SIR,
I LONG to hear how your soul prospereth. I wonder that ye write not to me; for the HOLY GHOST beareth me witness, that I cannot, I dare not forget you, nor the souls of those with you, who are redeemed by the blood of the great Shepherd. Ye are in my heart in the nightwatches; ye are my joy and crown in the day of CHRIST. O LORD, bear witness, if my soul thirsteth for any thing out of heaven, more than your salvation: let Go]) lay me in an even balance, and try me in this. Love heaven; let your heart be on it. Up, up, and visit the new land, and view the fair city, and the white throne, and the LAMB sitting on it. It were time that your soul should cast itself and your burdens upon CHRIST. I beseech you, by the wounds of your REDEEMER, and by your compearance before him, and by the salvation of your soul, lose no more time; run fast, for it is late. God has sworn by himself, who made the world and time, "that time shall be no more." (Revelation 10:1-11 :) Ye are now upon the very border of the other life. Your LORD cannot be blamed for not giving you warning: I have taught the truth of CHRIST to you, and delivered unto you the whole counsel of Go]); and I have stood before the LORD for you, and I shall yet still stand. Awake, awake to do righteously. Think not to be eased of the debts that are on your house, /by oppressing any, or being rigorous to those that are under you remember how I endeavored to walk before you in this matter, as an example. " Behold here am I, witness against me, before the LORD and his Anointed, whose ox or whose ass have I taken Whom have I defrauded Whom have I oppressed" Who knows how my soul feedeth upon a good conscience, when I remember how I spent this body in feeding the lambs of CHRIST! At my first entry hither, I took it ill of my LORD, because he had cast me over the dike of the vineyard as a dry tree, and would have no. more of my service; my dumb Sabbaths broke my heart, and I would not be comforted: but now " he whom my soul loves" is come again, and it pleases him to feast me with his love; a King dineth with me, " and his spikenard casteth a sweet smell." The Lon") above is my witness, that I write my heart to you; I never knew, by my nine years' preaching, so much of CHRIST'S love, as he has taught me in Aberdeen, by six months' imprisonment. I charge you, in CHRIST'S name, help me to praise, and show that people the loving kindness of the LORD to my soul; that so my sufferings may in some way preach to them, when I am silent. He has made me know now, better than before, what it is to be crucified to the world: I would not now give a drink of cold water for all the world's kindness; I owe no service to it. I would not exchange my sighs with the laughing of adversaries. The LORD Math given you much, and therefore he will require much of you again. Number your talents, and see what ye have to render back; ye cannot be enough persuaded of the shortness of your time. I charge you to write to me, and in the fear of GOD be plain with me, whether or not ye have made your salvation sure: I am confident, and hope the best; but I know, your reckonings with your Judge are many and deep. Sir, be not beguiled, neglect not your " one thing," your " one necessary thing," " the good part that shall not be taken from you." Look beyond time; things here are but moonshine; they have but children's wit, who are delighted with shadows, and deluded with feathers flying in the air. Desire your children, in the morning of their life, to begin and seek the LORD; to "remember their Creator in the days of their youth;" (Ecclesiastes 12:1;) and to "cleanse their way, by taking heed thereto according to Gem's word." (Psalms 119:9.) Youth is a glassy age; SATAN finds a swept chamber (for the most part) in youth, and a garnished lodging for himself and his train. Let the LORD have the flower of their age; the best sacrifice is due to him. Instruct them in this, that they have a soul, and that this life is nothing in comparison of eternity: they will have much need of GOD's conduct in this world, to guide them amongst those rocks upon which most men split; but far more need, when it cometh to the hour of death, and their compearance before CHRIST. O that there were such a heart in them, to fear the name of the great and dreadful GOD, who has laid up great things for those that love and fear him! I pray that GOD may be their portion. Show others of my parishioners, that I wrote to them my best wishes, and the blessings of their lawful Pastor; say to them from me, that I beseech them, by the bowels of CHRIST, to keep in mind the doctrine of OUR LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, which I taught them that so they may lay hold on eternal life, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, and making sure salvation to themselves. Walk in love, and do righteousness; seek peace, love one another, and wait for the coming of our Master and Judge. Receive no doctrine contrary to that which I delivered to you; if ye fall away, and forget it, and so forsake your own mercy, the LORD be judge between you and me. I take heaven and earth to witness, that such shall eternally perish; but, if they serve the LORD, great will be their reward when they and I stand before our Judge. Set forward up the mountain, to meet with Go]) climb up, for your Savior calls on you. It may be, that GOD will call you to your rest when I am far from you; but ye have my love, and the desires of my heart' for your soul's welfare. He that is holy, keep you from falling, and establish. you till his own glorious appearance!
Your affectionate and lawful Pastor,
S. R.
Aberdeen, 1637.
ROBERT STEWART.
MY VERY DEAR BROTHER,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! Ye are heartily welcome to my Master's house; GOD give you much joy of your new Master. If I have been in the house before you, I were not faithful to give the house an ill name, or to speak evil of the Lord of the family. I rather wish GOD’s HOLY SPIRIT (O LORD, breathe upon me with that SPIRIT!) to tell you the fashions of the house. One thing I can say, by waiting ye will grow a great man with the Lord of the house. Hang on, till ye get some good from CHRIST; lay all your loads by faith upon CHRIST; ease yourself, and let him bear all: He can, he will bear you, although hell were upon your back. I rejoice that he is come, and has chosen you in the furnace. Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way to heaven, that ye have started in the morning: like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun to be high in the heaven, before ever I took the way. I pray ye now, keep the advantage ye have. Be not lazy; and be careful to take heed to your feet, in that slippery and dangerous way of youth. The Devil and temptations now have the advantage of you; dry timber will soon take lire. Be covetous and greedy of the. grace of GOD, and beware that it be not that kind of holiness that cometh only from the cross; for too many are disposed like those described in Psalms 78:34; Psalms 78:36, " When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after GOD. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues." It is hypocrisy, to give God fair words, when he has us in his gripe, (if I may so speak,) and to flatter him till we win the fair fields again. Try well green Godliness, and examine what it is ye love in CHRIST. If ye love but CHRIST'S sunshine, and would have only summer weather to heaven, your profession will play you a slip, and the winterwell will grow dry again in summer. Make no sport of CHRIST; but labor for a sound and lively sight of sin, that ye may judge yourself an undone man, a damned slave of hell and sin, one dying in your blood, except CHRIST come and take you up: and therefore make sure and fast work of conversion; cast the earth deep; down, down with the old. work, the building of confusion, that was there before; and let CHRIST lay new work, and make a new creation within you. Look if CHRIST'S rain go down to the root of your withered plants; and if his love wound your heart, while it bleeds with sorrow for sin; and if it can pant, and be like to die, for that lovely one, JESUS. I know, CHRIST will not be hid where he is; grace will ever speak for itself, and be fruitful in welldoing. The sanctified cross is a fruitful tree, it bringeth forth many apples. If I should tell you, by some weak experience, what I have found in CHRIST, ye or others could hardly believe me. I thought not the hundredth part of CHRIST long since, that I do now; though, alas! my thoughts are still infinitely below his worth. I would refuse no conditions, not hell excepted, (reserving always GOD’s hatred,) to buy possession of JESUS: but, alas! I am not a merchant, who have any money to give for him; I must either come to a cheap market, where wares are had for nothing, or else I go borne empty. But I have cast this work upon CHRIST, to get me himself; I have his faith, and truth, and promise, (as a pawn' of his,) all engaged that I shall obtain that which my hungry desires would be at; and I esteem that the choice of my happiness. And as for CHRIST'S cross, especially the flower of all crosses, " to suffer for his name," I esteem it more than I can speak; and I write it under mine own hand to you,—it is one of the steps of the ladder up to our country, and CHRIST is still at the heavy end of this black tree, and so/it is but as a feather to inc. I need not run at leisure, because of the burden on my back; my back never bare the like of it: the more heavily crossed for CHRIST the soul is, it is still the lighter for the journey. Now,’ would to GOD. that all cold blooded, fainthearted soldiers of CHRIST would look again to JESUS, and to his love; and when they look, I would have them to look again and again, and fill themselves with beholding CHRIST'S beauty; and I dare say then, that CHRIST would come into great request with many; they would take hold of him, and not let him go. But, when I have spoken of him till my head ached, I have. said just nothing; and I may begin again. A GODhead, a GODhead is a world's wonder! Set ten thousand newmade worlds of angels and men, and double them in number’ten thousand thousand thousand times; let their hearts and tongues be ten thousand thousand times more agile and large than the heart and tongues of the Seraphim, that stand with six wings before him; (Isaiah 6:2;)—when they have said all they can for the glorifying and praising of the LORD JESUS, they have but spoken little or nothing: his love will surpass the praise of all possible creatures.
O that I could wear this tongue to the stump, in extolling his highness! But it is my sorrow, that I am confounded with his incomparable love; he does so great things for my soul, and he got never yet any thing of me worth the speaking of. It is a shame to speak of what he has done for me, and what I do to him again. To Him and his rich grace I recommend you! Pray_ for me, and forget not to praise.
Yours in his LORD JESUS,
S. R.