X. to Lady Kenmure, on the Death of Her Husband

MY VERY NOBLE AND WORTHY LADY, -- So oft as I call to mind the comforts

that I myself, a poor friendless stranger, received from your Ladyship

here in a strange part of the country, when my Lord took from me the

delight of mine eyes (Ezek. 24.1), as the Word speaketh (which wound is

not yet fully healed and cured), I trust your Lord shall remember that,

and give you comfort now at such a time as this, wherein your dearest

Lord has made you a widow, albeit I must out of some experience say,

the mourning for the husband of your youth be, by God's own mouth, the

heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel 1.8).

And though this be the weightiest

burden that ever lay upon your back; yet ye know (when the fields are

emptied and your husband now asleep in the Lord), if ye shall wait upon

Him who hideth His face for a while, that it lieth upon God's honor and

truth to fill the field, and to be a Husband to the widow. Let your

faith and patience be seen, that it may be known your only beloved

first and last has been Christ. And, therefore, now ware your whole

love upon Him; He alone is a suitable object for your love and all the

affections of your soul. God has dried up one channel of your love by

the removal of your husband.

Let now that speat run upon Christ.

And I dare say that God's hammering of you from your youth is only to

make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New

Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world's vain painted glory a

gift worthy of you; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because

He is to propane you with a better portion. Let the movable go; the

inheritance is yours. Ye are a child of the house, and joy is laid up

for you, it is long in coming, but not the worse for that.

I am now

expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of

you since I knew you fully; even that ye have laid such strength upon

the Holy One of Israel, that ye defy troubles, and that your soul is a

castle that may be besieged, but cannot be taken. And withal consider

how in all these trials (and truly they have been many) your Lord has

been loosing you at the root from perishing things, and hunting after

you to grip your soul. Madam, for the Son of God's sake, let Him not

miss His grip, but stay and abide in the love of God, as Jude saith

(Jude 21).

Now.

Madam, I hope your Ladyship will take these lines in good part;

and wherein I have fallen short and failed to your Ladyship, in not

evidencing what I was obliged to your more-than-undeserved love and

respect, I request for a full pardon for it. Again, my dear and noble

lady, let me beseech you to lift up your head, for the day of your

redemption draweth near. And remember, that star that shined in

Galloway is now shining in another world. Now I pray that God may

answer, in His own style, to your soul, and that He may be to you the

God of all consolations.

ANWOTH, Sept. 14, 1634