Vol 16 - TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD.LOUDOUN.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD.LOUDOUN.
RIGHT HONORABLE
GRACE, mercy, And peace " be to your Lordship! I rejoice exceedingly, that I hear your Lordship has a good mind to CHRIST, and his truth. My very dear Lord, go one in the strength of the Lord, to carry your honor and worldly glory to the New Jerusalem. For this cause your Lordship received these Of the LORD, and this is a sure way for the establishment of your house, if ye be one of those who are' willing in your place to build Zion's waste places. Yolk, Lordship wants `not Gob's aid man's' law both but’ suppose the bastard laws of man were against you, it is an honest error, if here ye slip against a point of standing', policy. O what a blessed thing is it, to see nobility, learning, and sanctification, all conquer in one!' For these ye owe yourself to CHRIST and his' kingdom. GOD has bewildered the wit and the learning of the scribes and disputers, this time; they look asquint to the Bibles this world blindfoldeth men's light, that they are afraid to see straight before them. Your Lordship knows, that within a little while, policy against truth will blush, and the works of men will burn. How had they forgotten the LORD, that they dare go against even. that truth which once they preached themselves, although their sermons now be as thin sown as strawberries in a wood Certainly the safest course is, for the short time of this world, to stand for JESUS. He has said it, and it is our part to believe it, that, ere it be long, " time shall be no more," and " the heavens shall wax old as a garment." Do we not see it already an old, threadbare garment Does not cripple and lame nature tell us, that the Lord will fold up the old garment, and lay it aside; and that the heavens shall be folded together as a scroll, and this pesthouse shall be burnt with fire, and shall melt with fervent heat For, at the Lord's coming, he will do with this earth, as men do with a leperhouse; he will burn the walls with fire, and the furniture of the house also. (2 Peter 3:10; 2 Peter 3:12.) My very dear Lord, how shall ye rejoice in that day, to have CHRIST, angels, heaven, and your own conscience, smiling upon you I am persuaded that one sick night, through the terrors of the Almighty, would make men (whose conscience has such a wide throat) have other thoughts of CHRIST and his worship than those with which now they please themselves. The scarcity of faith in the earth says that we are hard upon the last nick of time: blessed are those who keep, their garments clean against the Bridegroom's coming. There shall be spotted clothes, and many defiled garments, at his last coming'; and therefore few found worthy to walk with him in white. The weak and feeble, these that are as signs and wonders in Israel, have chosen the best side. Verily, for myself, I am so well pleased with CHRIST and his cross, that I should weep if it should come to bartering of condition with those that are at ease in Zion. I hold still to my choice, and bless myself in it. I see, and I believe, that there is salvation in this way that is every where spoken against. I hope to face eternity, and to venture even upon death, fully persuaded, that this only, even this, is the saving way for racked consciences, and for weary and laden sinners, to find ease and peace for evermore. Now the very GOD of peace establish your Lordship in CHRIST JESUS unto the end!
Aberdeen,
Your Lordship's in JESUS,
Sept. 10, 1637.