Vol 16 - TO THE LORD BOYD.

TO THE LORD BOYD.
My very honorable and very good Lord,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! I am glad to hear that you, in the morning of your short day, mind CHRIST; and that you love the honor of his kingdom. I beseech your Lordship, begin now to frame your love, and to cast it in no mould but one, that It may be for CHRIST only; for when your love is now in the framing, it will take best with CHRIST. If any other than JESUS get it when it is green and young, CHRIST will be an uncouth and strange world to you. Promise the lodging of your soul first to CHRIST, and stand by your first covenant. It is easy to master an arrow, and to set it right, ere the string be drawn; but when once it is shot, and the flight begun, then ye have no power at all to command it. It were a blessed thing, if your love could now level at CHRIST, and his fair face were the mark ye shot at; for, when your love is loosed, and in its motion to fetch home an idol, ye shall not then have power to call home the arrow; and ye shall hardly give CHRIST what ye scarcely have yourself. I speak not this, as if youth itself could fetch heaven and CHRIST. Believe it, my LORD, it is hardly credible, what a nest of dangerous temptations youth is; how inconsiderate, foolish, proud, vain, heady, rash, profane, and careless of GOD, this piece of your life is; so that the Devil finds in that age a garnished and swept house for himself, and for seven devils worse than, himself. For then affections are lofty and stirring; then the old man has much will and little wit; and hands, feet, wanton eyes, and profane ears, as his servants, and as a King's officers at command, come and go at his will. And therefore, O what a sweet couple are youth and grace, CHRIST and a young man! This is a meeting not to be found in every town. None, who have been at CHRIST, can bring back to your Lordship a report answerable to his worth; for CHRIST cannot be commended according to his worth. " Come and see," is the most faithful messenger to speak of him a little persuasion would prevail where this was. It is impossible, in setting forth CHRIST'S love, to pass over truth's line: the discourses of angels would for ever be on the nether side of truth. The infiniteness, the boundlessness, of that incomparable excellency that is in JESUS, is a great word. Go]) send me, if it were but the relics and leavings of his matchless love; and, suppose I never got another heaven, (providing this blessed fire were ever burning,) I could not but be happy for ever. O what glory were it to lend your honor to CHRIST, and to his Jerusalem! Ye are one of Zion's born sons; your parents would venture you upon CHRIST's errands: therefore I beseech you by the mercies of GOD, by the death and wounds of JESUS, by the hope of your glorious inheritance, and by the comfort and hope of the joyful presence ye would have when ye are putting your fool in the dark grave, take courage for CHRIST'S truth, and the honor of his free kingdom. For, although ye be a young flower, and green before the sun, ye know not how soon death will cause you to cast your bloom, and wither,—root, and branch, and leaves: and therefore, write up what ye have to do for CHRIST, and make a treasure of good works, and begin in time. It go now under the name of wisdom, for men to cast their cloak over CHRIST, and their profession; as if CHRIST were stolen goods, and durst not be avouched. But it is true honor and glory, to be the fast friends of the SAVIOR; to own CHRIST'S bleeding head, and his forsaken cause i and to contend legally, and in the wisdom of GOD, for our LORD JESUS. To his rich grace and sweet presence, and the everlasting consolation of the COMFORTER, I recommend your Lordship; and Aberdeen,
Your Lordship's, in his Lo RD JESUS,
Sept. 7, 1637. S. R.