Vol 16 - TO THE LADY BOYD.

TO THE LADY BOYD.
My very honorable and Christian Lady,
GRACE, mercy, and peace, be to you! I received your. letter,: and am well pleased that your thoughts: of CHRIST stay with you, and that your purpose still is, by all means, to take the kingdom of heaven by violence; and it is a degree of watchfulness, and thankfulness: also, to observe sleepiness and unthankfulness. We have all good cause to complain of false light, that, playeth the thief, and stealeth away the lantern; when it cometh to constant walking with GOD, our journey is ten times aday broken. CHRIST getteth only broken work of us; and, alas! too often against the hair. I have been somewhat nearer the LORD; but when I draw nigh, and see my vileness, for shame I would be out of his presence again; but yet desire of his soul refreshing love putteth me under an arrest. O what am I, so slothful a burden of sin, to stand beside such a holy LORD, such a high and lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity! But, since it pleases CHRIST to condescend to such a one as me, let shamefacedness be laid aside, and lose itself in his condescending love. O that I were at yonder end of my weak designs! Then should I be where CHRIST My LORD lives and reigns; there I should be everlastingly solaced with the sight of his face, and satisfied with the surpassing sweetness of his love. But truly now I stand in the nether side of my desires; and, with a drooping head, and panting heart, I look up to JESUS, standing afar off from us, until corruption and death shall scour and refine the body of clay. In the mean time, we are blessed in sending word to the Beloved, that we love him; and till then there is joy in seeking him, in lying about his house, looking in at the windows, and sending a poor soul's groans and wishes through a hole of the door to JESUS, till GOD send a glad meeting. And blessed be GOD, that after a low ebb, and so sad a word, "LORD JESUS, it is long since I saw thee;" that, even then, our wings are growing, and the absence of JESUS breedeth new desires and longings for him. I know that no man has a velvet cross; but the cross is made of that which GOD will have it. Let my LORD JESUS weave my spanlength of time with white and black; and let the rose be neighbored with the thorn; yet hope, that maketh not ashamed, has written a letter of hope to the mourners in Zion, that it shall not be long so. When we are over the water, CHRIST shall cry down crosses, and up heaven for evermore. In this hope, I sleep quietly in CHRIST'S bosom, till He come, who is not slack;.; and would sleep so, were it not that the noise of the Devil's and sin's feet, and the cries of an unbelieving heart, awaken me; but for the present I have nothing whereof I can accuse CHRIST'S cross. O that I could please myself in CHRIST only! If the fruit of your Ladyship's womb be helpers of CHRIST, ye have good ground to rejoice in GOD. All your Ladyship can expect for your goodwill to me and my brother, is the prayers of a prisoner. of JESUS, to whom I recommend your Ladyship and children, and in whom I am,
Aberdeen,
Madam, your Ladyship's in CHRIST,
Sept. 8, 1637. S. R.