Vol 16 - TO MR. WILLIAM DALGLIES.

TO MR. WILLIAM DALGLIES.
Reverend and well beloved Brother,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be unto you! I have heard somewhat of your trials in Galloway. Let me entreat you to be steadfast to CHRIST. My witness is above, that you have added much joy to me in my bonds, when I hear that you grow in the grace of GOD, and zeal' for your Master. Our ministry, whether by preaching or suffering, will cast an odor through the world both of heaven and hell. (2 Cron 2:15, 16.) There is nothing out of heaven, next to CHRIST, dearer to me than my ministry; and the worth of it, iri my estimation, is swelled, and paineth me exceedingly: yet I am content, for the honor of my LORD, to surrender it back again to the LORD of the vineyard; let him do, both with me and it, what he thinketh good. I think myself too little for him. And let me speak to you, how kind a fellow prisoner is CHRIST to me! Believe me, this kind of cross, (which would not go by my door, but would needs visit me,) the longer it lasts is still the more welcome to me. It is true, my silent sabbaths have been and are still glassy ice, whereon my faith can scarcely hold its feet, and I am often blown if my feet with a storm of doubting; yet truly my bonds all this time emit a mighty fragrance of high and deep love in CHRIST. I cannot indeed see through my cross to the far end; yet I am praising the LAMB, in sorrow, deprivation, losses, want of friends, and death. Let us be glad that we have blood, losses, and wounds, to show to our Master and Captain at his appearance. Woe is me, my dear brother, that I say often, u I am but dry bones, which my LORD veil. not bring out of the grave again; and that my faithless. fears say, C O I am a dry tree, that can bear no fruit;, I am a useless body, who can beget no children to the LORD in his house." Yet I often get the advantage of the hill above my temptations; and then I despise temptations, and even hell itself, and am proud of my honorable Master; I resolve, whether contrary winds will or not, to fetch CHRIST'S harbor; and I think a resolute and earnest contention with my LORD JESUS for his love very lawful. Since my entry hither, many a time has my fair sun shone without a cloud: hot and burning has CHRIST'S love been to me; I have no vent for the expression of it. Except CHRIST would seize upon myself, and make the readiest payment that can be of my heart and love to himself, I have no other thing to give him. If my sufferings could do beholders good, and proclaim the incomparable worth of CHRIST'S love to the world, then would my soul be overjoyed, and my sad heart cheered and calmed! Dear brother, I cannot tell what is become of my labors among that people. If all that my LORD built by me be cast down, and none stand by CHRIST, whose love I once preached as clearly and plainly as I could to that people; (though far below its worth and excellency;) if so, how can I bear it And if another make a foul harvest, where I have made a painful and honest sowing, it will not soon digest with me; but I know his ways are past finding out. Yet my witness both within me and above me knows, and my pained breast upon the LORD's day at night, that my desire to have made CII KIST awful, and amiable, and sweet to that people, is now my joy; and it was my desire and aim to make CHRIST and them one. O my GOD., seek not an account of the violence done to me by my brethren, whose salvation I love and desire! I pray, that they and I be not heard as contrary parties, in the day of our compearance before our Judge. O how silly an advantage is my deprivation to men, seeing that my LORD JESUS has many ways, to recover his own losses, so that his lily may grow among thorns, and his little kingdom exalt itself, even under the sword and spears of contrary powers! My dear brother, go on in the strength of his rich grace: stand fast for CHRIST; deliver the Gospel with a clean and undefiled conscience. Nothing, nothing (I say, nothing) but sound sanctification can abide the LORD's fan. I recommend you, and GOD’s people committed by CHRIST to your trust, to the rich grace of our all sufficient LORD. Remember my bonds: praise my LORD, who beareth me up in my sufferings. As you find occasion (according to the wisdom given you) show our acquaintance what the LORD has done to my soul. This I seek not, verily, to hunt my own praise, but that my Master may be magnified in my sufferings.
Aberdeen,
Your Brother in JESUS,
June 17, 1637. S.R.