Vol 16 - TO EARLESTOUN, YOUNGER.

TO EARLESTOUN, YOUNGER.
Much honored and well beloved in the LORD,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! There is not such a glassy, icy, and slippery piece of way, between you and heaven, as youth. I have experience to say with me here, and seal what I assert; the old ashes of the sins of my youth are now fire of sorrow to me. I have seen the Devil, as it were, dead and buried, and yet rise again, and be a worse devil than ever he was. Therefore, my Brother, beware of a green young devil, that has never been buried: the devil in his youth is much to be feared. Better yoke with an old grey haired, withered, dry devil: for in youth he finds thy sticks, and dry coals, and a hot hearthstone; and how soon can he with his flint cast fire, and with his bellows blow it up, and fire the house Sanctified thoughts, thoughts made conscience of, and kept in awe, are green fuel that burn not, and are a water for SATAN'S coal. Yet, I must tell you, that all the saints, now triumphant in heaven, are nothing but a company of redeemed sinners. But their redemption is not only past the seals, but completed; and yours is on the wheels, and in doing. Let your bleeding soul, and your sores, be put into the hands of CHRIST: let young and strong corruptions, and his free grace, be yoked together; and let CHRIST and your sins deal it between them. I would be does to remove your fears, and your sense of deadness; (I wish it were more;) there are some wounds of such a nature, that their bleeding should not be soon stopped. Ye must take a house beside the Physician; it shall be a miracle, if you be the first sick man he puts away uncured. , nay, CHRIST IS honest and free with sinners; (John 6:37;) " And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Take ye that; it cannot be presumption to take that as your own, when ye find your wounds. Presumption is ever whole at the heart, and groaneth only for the sake of fashion.; faith has sense of sickness. CHRIST is as full a feast as ye can have. His mercy sends always a letter of defiance to all your sins, if there were ten thousand more of them. I grant you, it is a hard matter for a poor hungry man to find CHRIST, when the key of his banqueting house is sought, and cannot be had: but hunger must break through iron locks. I bemoan them not, who can cry out for a SAVIOR: ye must let him hear it (to say so) upon both sides of his head, when he hideth himself; it is not time then, to be careless and patient. CHRIST is rare, indeed, and delicate to a sinner; he is a miracle, to a seeking and weeping sinner; but yet such a miracle as will be seen by them who will " come and see." The seeker and sigher is at last a singer and enjoyer; nay, I have seen a dumb man get an alms from CHRIST. It bodeth the approach of GOD’s mercy, when we complain heartily for sin. Let wrestling be continued with CHRIST, till he say, " How is it that I cannot be quit of your cries " And then hope for CHRIST'S blessing his blessing is better than ten other blessings. Think not shame because of' your guiltiness. Necessity must not blush to beg: it standeth you hard to want CHRIST; and that which idle waiting cannot do, crying and knocking will do. Now, for myself; alas, I am not the man I go for in this nation: men have not just weights to weigh me in. O, I am a silly body, and overgrown with weeds! Corruption is too Tank in me. O that I were answerable to this holy cause, and to that honorable Prince's love, for whom I now suffer! If CHRIST would refer the matter to me, (in his presence I speak it) I might think it shame to vote my awn salvation. I think, CHRIST might say, " Thinkest you not shame to claim heaven, who dost so little for it" I am very often so, that I know not whether I sink or swim in the water; I find myself a bag of light froth; I could bear no weight. if my LORD did not cast in borrowed weight, even CHRIST'S righteousness, to weigh for me. The stock I have is not mine own; I am but the merchant that trafficks with other people's goods. If my creditor, CHRIST, would take from me what he hath lent, I could not long keep the causeway; but CHRIST has made it mine and his. I complain, that when CHRIST cometh, he cometh always to fetch fire; he is ever in haste, he may not tarry: but I think it my happiness to love the love of CHRIST; and, when he go away, the memory of his sweet presence is like a feast in a dear summer. O that I could write a book of his praises! O fairest among the sons of men, why stayest you so long away O heavens, move fast! O time, run, run, and hasten the marriage day! For love is tormented with delays. O Angels, O Seraphim, who stand. before him, O blessed Spirits who now see his face, set him on high; for when ye have worn your harps with his praises, all is too little, and is nothing, to cast the smell of the praise of that fair flower, that fragrant rose of Sharon, through many worlds! Grace be with you!
Aberdeen,
Yours in JESUS,
June 16, 1637•