Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,
S. R.
St. Andrews, May 28, 1640.
[CCXCIX.—To my Lady Boyd, on the loss of several Friends.]
(TRUST EVEN THOUGH SLAIN—SECOND CAUSES NOT TO BE REGARDED—GOD'S THOUGHTS OF PEACE THEREIN—ALL IN MERCY.)
M ADAM,—Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.—Impute it not to a disrespective forgetfulness of your Ladyship, who ministered to me in my bonds, that I write not to you.
I wish that I could speak or write what might do good to your Ladyship; especially now when I think we cannot but have deep thoughts of the deep and bottomless ways of our Lord, in taking away, with a sudden and wonderful stroke, your brethren and friends. Ye may know, that all who die for sin die not in sin; and that "none can teach the Almighty knowledge." He answereth none of our courts,[428] and no man can say, "What doest Thou?" It is true that your brethren saw not many summers; but adore and fear the sovereignty of the great Potter, who maketh and marreth His clay-vessels when and how it pleaseth Him.
The under-garden is absolutely His own, and all that groweth in it. His absolute liberty is law-biding. The flowers are His own. If some be but summer apples, He may pluck them down before others. Oh what wisdom is it to believe, and not to dispute; to subject the thoughts to His court, and not to repine at any act of His justice? He hath done it: all flesh be silent! It is impossible to be submissive and religiously patient, if ye stay your thoughts down among the confused rollings and wheels of second causes; as, "Oh the place!" "Oh the time!" "Oh if this had been, this had not followed!" Oh the linking of this accident with this time and place! Look up to the master-motion and the first wheel. See and read the decree of Heaven and the Creator of man, who breweth death to His children, and the manner of it. And they see far into a millstone, and have eyes that make a hole to see through the one side of a mountain to the other, who can take up His ways. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" His providence halteth not, but goeth with even and equal legs. Yet are they not the greatest sinners upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. Was not time's lease expired? and the sand of heaven's sand-glass, set by our Lord, run out? Is not he an unjust debtor who payeth due debt with chiding?