(See letter 328)
Much Honoured and Worthy Sir,—What I wrote to you before, I did not speak from any private source. I am where I was. Cromwell and his army (I shall not say but there may be, and are, several sober and godly among them, who have either joined through misinformation, or have gone alongst with the rest in the simplicity of their hearts, not knowing anything) fight in an unjust cause, against the Lord’s secret ones. And now to the trampling of the worship of God, and persecuting the people of God in England and Ireland, he hath brought upon his score the blood of the people of God in Scotland. I entreat you, dear Sir, as ye desire to be serviceable to Jesus Christ, whose free grace prevented you when ye were His enemy, go on without fainting, equally rejecting all mixtures with Sectaries and evil men. Neither of the two shall ever be instrumental to save the Lord’s people, or build His house. And without prophesying, or speaking further than He, whose I am and whom I desire to serve, in the Gospel of His Son, shall confirm, I desire to hope and to believe there is a glory and a majesty of the Prince of the kings of the earth, that will shine and appear in Great Britain, which will darken all the glory of men, confound Sectaries and evil men, and rejoice the spirits of the followers of the Lamb, and dazzle the eyes of the onlookers.
Sir, I suppose that God is to gather evil men and Sectaries, before all be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; and to bid the daughters of Zion arise, and thresh. I hope that you will mix with none of them. I am abundantly satisfied, that our army, through the sinful wrong deeds of men, has fallen; and dare say it is a better and a more comfortable outcome, than if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God; because He has done it. For,
1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be on the accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade.
2. Victory is such a burdening and weighty mercy, that we have not strength to bear it as yet.
3. That was not the army, nor Gideon’s three hundred, by whom He is to save us; we must have one of our Lord’s carving.
4. Our enemies on both sides are not enough hardened, nor we enough deadened to multitude, valour, and creatures.
Sir, I suppose that God is to gather evil men and Sectaries, before all be done, as sheaves in a barn-floor; and to bid the daughters of Zion arise, and thresh. I hope that you will mix with none of them. I am abundantly satisfied, that our army, through the sinful wrong deeds of men, has fallen; and dare say it is a better and a more comfortable outcome, than if the Lord had given us the victory and the necks of the reproachers of the way of God; because He has done it. For,
1. More blood, blasphemies, cruelty, treachery, must be on the accounts of the men whose land the Lord forbade us to invade.
2. Victory is such a burdening and weighty mercy, that we have not strength to bear it as yet.
3. That was not the army, nor Gideon’s three hundred, by whom He is to save us; we must have one of our Lord’s carving.
4. Our enemies on both sides are not enough hardened, nor we enough deadened to multitude, valour, and creatures.
Grace, grace be with you.
Your friend and servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus, S. R.
Your friend and servant, in his sweet Lord Jesus, S. R.
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