milium 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY 
 
 FROM 
 
 RUTHERFORD'S LAMP. 
 
Light for the Journey 
 
 RUTHERFORD'S LAMP 
 
 ROBERT G. SEYMOUR, D. D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA . 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 1420 Chestnut Street. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S8G, by the 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Often a simply uttered word, in the name of 
 the Master, has lifted the cloud from the soul, 
 and given the Christian Pilgrim new strength 
 and hope ; these words selected from the saintly 
 Rutherford's letters, arranged to help the Pil- 
 grim on his journey, are sent forth in hope of 
 quickening Christian life in those who declare 
 " they seek a better country, that is, an heavenly." 
 One letter is given entire, that the style of his 
 epistles (which came as rays of light from his 
 prison-house) may be seen. R. G. S. 
 
 Boston, Mass., 1886. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prefatory Note 7 
 
 Life of Rutherford 9 
 
 Letter to John Clark 12 
 
 Pilgrim Marks 15 
 
 Faith • 15 
 
 Self-Renunciation 18 
 
 Prayer 20 
 
 Watchfulness 21 
 
 Patience 22 
 
 Inward Life 23 
 
 Joy 27 
 
 Confession 29 
 
 Attachment to Christ 30 
 
 Pilgrim Paths 31 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Pilgrim Guide 37 
 
 Pilgrim Company 41 
 
 Pilgrim Trials 44 
 
 Pilgrim Crosses 60 
 
 Pilgrim Exercises 63 
 
 Pilgrim Safety 67 
 
 Pilgrim Desires 75 
 
 Pilgrim Judgment 77 
 
 Pilgrim Choice 83 
 
 Pilgrim Rest 93 
 
 Pilgrim Fare 95 
 
 Pilgrim Perseverance 102 
 
 Pilgrim Hopes 105 
 
 Pilgrim Wages 110 
 
 Pilgrim Value 117 
 
 Pilgrim End 118 
 
 Rutherford's Hymn 125 
 
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. 
 
 QAMUEL RUTHERFORD was born about 
 ^ the year 1600, in Nisbet, Roxburghshire, 
 Scotland. He was educated in the school at 
 Jedburgh Abbey, and in Edinburgh College, 
 where in 1621 he received the degree of A. M. 
 He was soon after made a Professor in this col- 
 lege, which position he held but a short time. 
 He studied theology, and after yielding himself 
 up to the Master, became the minister of Anwoth 
 in 1627. It was a rural parish — but he loved 
 the sheep that were scattered over the hills and 
 in the valleys. His ministry was unceasing ; he 
 labored night and day. It was said of him, " He 
 is always praying, always preaching, always visit- 
 ing the sick, always catechizing, always writing 
 and studying." His mind was full of Christ. \ 
 His biographer relates that he was known to 
 
10 MEMORIAL. 
 
 talk about him until he fell asleep, and even to 
 speak of him during his sleep. His ministry was 
 in the stormy time when King Charles and 
 Archbishop Laud attempted to coerce the Scot- 
 tish people into conformity with the ritualism of 
 the English Church — to transform Presbyterian- 
 ism into Episcopacy. In July 27, 1636, Ruther- 
 ford was summoned before the High Commission 
 Court, because of non-conformity — was sentenced 
 to be deprived of his ministry, and banished to 
 Aberdeen. From this place came the rich letters, 
 (from which most of the following pages are ex- 
 tracted). Many of them were dated " Christ's palace 
 in Aberdeen." He was confined to these limits 
 for nearly two years. The Covenant became vic- 
 torious in Scotland. Rutherford went back to An- 
 woth ; then entered into the work of reformation, 
 visiting different parts of Scotland. In 1639 he 
 was appointed Professor in St. Andrew's. In 
 July, 1643, he was sent as one of the Commission- 
 ers of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly. 
 In the library at the Edinburgh University there 
 is a MS. sketch of the Shorter Catechism in 
 
MEMORIAL. 11 
 
 Rutherford's handwriting. From the Assembly, 
 he went back to St. Andrew's, to preach and to 
 teach. In 1660, he published a work, Lex Rex, 
 which gave offence to the government, and he 
 was summoned to the next Parliament to answer 
 the charge of high treason — but the summons 
 came to him on his death bed. On hearing it he 
 said : " I behove to answer my first summons ; 
 and ere your day arrive, I will be where few 
 kings and great folks come ! " On the last day 
 of his sickness he said, " this night will close the 
 door, and fasten my anchor within the veil, and 
 I shall go away in a sleep by five o'clock in the 
 morning." At that hour, March 20, 1661, in ^ 
 his home at St. Andrew's, he fell asleep. His last 
 words were, " Glory, glory, dwelleth in Imman- 
 uel's land." 
 
TO JOHN CLARK. 
 
 T OVING BROTHER:— Hold fast Christ 
 -*-^ without wavering, and contend for the 
 faith, because Christ is not easily gotten nor 
 kept. The lazy professor has put heaven, as it 
 were, at the very next door, and thinketh to fly 
 up to heaven in his bed, and in a night dream ; 
 but, truly that is not so easy a thing as most men 
 believe. Christ himself did sweat ere he won 
 this city, howbeit, he was the free-born Heir. It 
 is Christianity, my heart, to be sincere, unfeigned, 
 honest, and upright-hearted before God ; and to 
 live and serve God, suppose there was not one 
 man nor woman in all the world dwelling beside 
 you, to eye you. Any little grace that ye have, 
 - see that it be sound and true. Ye may put the 
 difference between you and reprobates, if ye have 
 
LETTER. 13 
 
 these marks : — 1. If ye prize Christ and his truth 
 so as ye will sell all and buy him, and suffer 
 for it. 2. If the love of Christ keepeth you 
 back from sinning, more than the law or fear of 
 hell. 3. If ye be humble and deny your own 
 will, wit, credit, ease, honor, the world, and the 
 vanity and glory of it. 4. Your profession must 
 not be barren and void of good works. 5. Ye 
 must in all things aim at God's honor ; ye must 
 eat, drink, sleep, buy, sell, sit, stand, speak, pray, 
 read, and hear the word, with a heart-purpose 
 that God may be honored. 6. Ye must show 
 yourself an enemy to sin, and reprove the works 
 of darkness, such as drunkenness, swearing, and 
 lying, albeit the company should hate you for so 
 doing. 7. Keep in mind the truth of God, that 
 ye heard me teach, and have nothing to do with 
 the corruptions and new guises entered into the 
 house of God. 8. Make conscience of your call- 
 ing, in covenants, in buying and selling. 9. Ac- 
 quaint yourself with daily praying; commit all 
 your ways and actions to God, by prayer, suppli- 
 cation, and thanksgiving • and count not much 
 
14 LETTER. 
 
 of being mocked; for Christ Jesus was mocked 
 
 before you. 
 
 Persuade yourself that this is the way of peace, 
 which I now suffer for. I dare go to death and 
 eternity with it, though men may possibly seek 
 another way. Remember me in your prayers, 
 and the state of this oppressed Church. Grace 
 
 be with you. 
 
 Your soul's well-wisher, 
 
 S. R. 
 
 Aberdeen, 1637. 
 
 r, 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 PILGRIM MARKS. 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 But the just shall live by his faith. — Habakkuk ii. 4. 
 
 T)UT in this trial — all honor to our princely 
 ■*-* and royal King — faith saileth before the 
 wind, with top-sail up, and carrieth the pas- 
 senger through. I lay inhibitions upon my 
 thoughts, that they receive no slanders of my 
 only, only Beloved. Let him even say out of his 
 own mouth : "There is no hope" ; yet I will die 
 in that sweet beguile (delusion). " It is not so. 
 I shall see the salvation of God." Let me be 
 deceived really, and never win to dry land : it is 
 my joy to believe under the water, and to die 
 
 with faith in my hand gripping Christ. 
 
 15 
 
16 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Faith is exceedingly charitable, and believeth 
 no evil of God. 
 
 It is faith, indeed, to believe without a pledge, 
 and to hold the heart constant at this work. 
 And when we doubt, to run to the Law and to 
 the Testimony, and stay there. 
 
 All that I dow [am able to] do is to hold out a 
 lame faith to Christ, like a beggar holding out a 
 stump, instead of an arm or leg, and crying, 
 " Lord Jesus, work a miracle ! " Oh, what would 
 I give to have hands and arms to grip strongly, 
 and fold heartsomely, about Christ's neck, and 
 to have my claim made good with real posses- 
 
 It is faith's work to claim and challenge lov- 
 ing-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of 
 God. Do that for the Lord which ye will do for 
 time ; time will calm your heart at that which 
 God hath done, and let our Lord have it now. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 17 
 
 Honest sighing is faith breathing and whisper- 
 ing him in the ear : the life is not out of faith, 
 where there is sighing, looking up with the eyes, 
 and breathing toward God. (Lam. iii. 56) : 
 "Hide not thine ear at my breathing." 
 
 Borrow joy and comfort from the Comforter. 
 Bid the Spirit do his office in you ; and remem- 
 ber that faith is one thing, and the feeling and 
 notice of faith another. 
 
 I find it hard work to believe, when the course 
 of Providence goeth cross-wise to our faith, and 
 when misted souls in a dark night cannot know 
 east by west, and our sea-compass seemeth to fail 
 us. Every man is a believer in daylight ; a fair 
 day seemeth to be made all of faith and hope. 
 What a trial of gold is it, to smoke it a little 
 above the fire ? But to keep gold perfectly yel- 
 low-colored amidst the flames, and to be turned 
 from vessel to vessel, and yet to cause our furnace 
 to sound, and to speak, and to cry the praises of 
 the Lord, is another matter. 
 
18 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 SELF-BENUNCIATION. 
 
 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after 
 me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, aud follow me.— 
 Matthew xvi. 24. 
 
 Let me in treat you in Christ's name, to keep 
 a good conscience in your proceedings in that 
 matter, and beware of yourself. Yourself is a 
 more dangerous enemy than I or any without 
 you. Innocence and an upright cause is a good 
 advocate before God, and will plead for you and 
 shall win your cause ; and count much of your 
 Master's approbation and his smiling. 
 
 Be patient. Christ went to heaven with many 
 a wrong. His visage and countenance were all 
 marred more than the sons of men. Ye may 
 •not be above your Master. Many a black stroke 
 received innocent Jesus, and he received no 
 mends, but referred them all to the great Court- 
 ■day, when all things shall be righted. 
 
 It is not many years since the apostate 
 angels made a question, whether their will or 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 19 
 
 the will of the Creator should be done ; and 
 since that time forward mankind hath always in 
 that same suit of law, compeared [appeared in 
 court] to plead with them against God, in daily 
 repining against his will; but the Lord being 
 both party and judge hath obtained a decreet, 
 [sentence] and saith, (Isa. xlvi. 10): "My coun- 
 sel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." 
 
 Free-will, a weather-cock, turning at a ser- 
 pent's tongue, a tutor that cowped [upset] our 
 father Adam, unto us; and brought down the 
 house and sold the land ; and sent the father, the 
 mother, and all the bairns through the earth to 
 beg their bread. Nature in the Gospel hath but 
 cracked a credit. 
 
 Sanctification and mortification of our lusts is 
 the hardest part of Christianity. 
 
 I think I would fain let Christ alone, and give 
 him leave to do with me what he pleaseth, if he 
 would smile upon me. Verily we know not what 
 
20 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 evil it is to spill [spoil] and indulge ourselves, 
 and to make an idol of our will. I Mas once 
 that I would not eat except I had waled [care- 
 fully selected] meat ; now I dare not complain 
 of the crumbs and parings under his table. I 
 was once that I would make the house ado, if I 
 saw not the world carved and set in order to my 
 liking ; now I am silent when I see God hath set 
 servants on horseback and is fattening and feed- 
 ing the children of perdition. I pray God that 
 I may never find my will again. Oh, if Christ 
 would subject my will to his, and trample it 
 under his feet, and liberate me from that lawless 
 lord ! 
 
 PKAYER. 
 
 Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. — Luke xviii. 1. 
 
 Say, " I shall rather spill [spoil] twenty prayers 
 than not pray at all. Let my broken words go 
 up to Heaven ; when they come up into the 
 Great Angel's golden censer, that Compassionate 
 Advocate will put together my broken prayers, 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOUHNEY. 21 
 
 and perfume them." Words are but accidents 
 of prayers. 
 
 The word of God maketh reading (1 Tim. iv. 
 13), and praying (1 Thess. v. 17,) two differ- 
 ent worships. In reading, God speaketh to us 
 (2 Kings xxii. 10, 11); in praying, we speak to 
 God (Psalm xxii. 2, and xxviii. 1). 
 
 A promise to hear any prayer, except the 
 pouring out of the soul to God, we can never 
 read. 
 
 It were good that we should knock and rap 
 at the Lord's door ; we may not live to knock 
 oftener than twice or thrice — he knoweth the 
 knock of his friends. 
 
 WATCHFULNESS. 
 
 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. — Mark xiii. 37. 
 
 Look for crosses ; and while it is fair weather, 
 mend the sails of the ship. 
 
22 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 This is the accepted time, this is the day of 
 salvation. Play the merchant; for ye cannot 
 expect another market-day when this is done. 
 
 PATIENCE. 
 
 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will 
 of God, ye might receive the promise.-Hebrews x. 36. 
 
 Run vour race with patience; let God have 
 his own, and ask of him instead of your daughter, 
 w hom he hath taken from you, the daughter of 
 faith, which is patience; and in patience possess 
 your soul. m . 
 
 Put on love, and brotherly kindness, and long- 
 suffering Wait as long upon the favor and 
 turned hearts of enemies as your Christ waited 
 upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's 
 door with dewy and rainy locks, the long cold 
 night Be angry, but sin not. I persuade myself 
 that that holy unction within you, which teacheth 
 you all things, is also saying, " Overcome evil 
 with good." 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 23 
 
 Give Christ time to end his work in your 
 heart. Hold on in feeling and bewailing your 
 hardness ; for that is softness to feel hardness. 
 
 But there is required patience on our part 
 until the summer fruit in heaven be ripe for us. 
 It is in the bud, and there be many things to do 
 before our harvest come : and we take ill with it, 
 and can hardly endure to set our paper-face to 
 one of Christ's storms, and to go to heaven with 
 wet feet, and pain, and sorrow. We love to 
 carry a heaven to heaven with us, and we would 
 have two summers in one year, and no less than 
 two heavens ; but this will not do for us : — one, 
 and such a one I may suffice us well enough : — 
 the man, Christ, got but one only, and shall we 
 have two ? 
 
 INWAKD LIFE. 
 
 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts : and in the hid- 
 den part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. — Psalm li. 6. 
 
 The wound of a wounded conscience is a most 
 inexpressible terror ; none can describe it but he 
 
24 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 that hath tasted the same. It inipaireth the 
 health, drieth up the blood, wasteth away the 
 marrow, pineth away the flesh, consumeth away 
 the bones, maketh pleasure painful, and shorten- 
 eth life. No wisdom can counsel it, no counsel 
 can advise it, no advice can persuade it, no as- 
 suagement can cure it, no eloquence can move 
 it, no power can overcome it, no spectre affray 
 it, no enchanter charm it. 
 
 Think well of the visitations of your Lord : for 
 I find one thing, which I saw not well before, 
 that when the saints are under trials and well 
 humbled, little sins raise great cries and war- 
 shouts in the conscience; and in prosperity con- 
 science is a pope to give dispensations, and let 
 out and in, and give latitude and elbow-room to 
 our heart. 
 
 Keep a good conscience, as I trust ye do. Ye 
 live not upon men's opinions : gold may be gold, 
 and have the king's stamp upon it, when it is 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 25 
 
 trampled upon by men. Happy are ye when 
 the world trampleth upon you in your credit and 
 good name, yet ye are the Lord's gold, stamped 
 with the King of heaven's image, and sealed by 
 his Spirit unto the day of redemption. Pray for 
 the spirit of love. (1 Cor. xiii. 7.) Love " bear- 
 eth all things, believeth all things, endureth all 
 things." 
 
 It is easy to put religion to a market and pub- 
 lic fair, but, alas ! it is not so soon made eye- 
 sweet for Christ. 
 
 The Bible beguiled the Pharisees, and so may I 
 be misled. Therefore as night-watchers hold one 
 another waking by speaking to one another, so 
 have we need to hold one another on foot : sleep 
 stealeth away the light of watching, even the 
 light that reproveth sleeping. I doubt not that 
 more would fetch heaven if they believed not 
 heaven to be at the next door. The world's 
 negative holiness, no adulterer, no murderer, no 
 thief, no cozener, maketh men believe they are 
 
26 LIGHT FOR TIIE JOURNEY. 
 
 already glorified saints ; but the sixth chapter to 
 the Hebrews may affright us all. When we hear 
 that men may take of the gifts and common 
 graces of the Holy Spirit, and a taste of the powers 
 of the world to come, to hell with them. Here is 
 reprobate silver, which yet seemeth to have the 
 King's image and superscription upon it. 
 
 False under-water not seen in the ground of 
 an enlightened conscience, is dangerous ; so is 
 often failing and sinning against light. Know 
 this, that those who never had sick nights or days 
 in conscience for sin, cannot have but such a 
 peace with God as will undercoat and break the 
 flesh again, and end in a sad war at death. Oh, 
 how fearfully are thousands beguiled with false, 
 hide-grown-over old sins, as if the soul were 
 cured and healed ! 
 
 If men would have something to do with their 
 hearts and their thoughts, that are always roll- 
 ing up and down like men with oars in a boat, 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 27 
 
 after sinful vanities, they might find great and 
 sweet employment to their thoughts upon Christ. 
 If these frothy, fluctuating, and restless hearts of 
 ours would come all about Christ, and look into 
 his love, to bottomless love, to the depth of 
 mercy, to the unsearchable riches of his grace, to 
 enquire after and to search into the beauty of 
 God in Christ, they would be swallowed up in 
 the depth and height, length and breadth, of his 
 goodness. Oh, if men would draw the curtains, 
 and look into the inner side of the ark, and be- 
 hold how the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth 
 in him bodily ! 
 
 JOY. 
 
 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might re- 
 main in you, and that your joy might be full. — John xv. 11. 
 
 Faith may dance, because Christ singeth ; and 
 we may come into the choir and lift our hoarse 
 and rough voices, and chirp, and sing, and shout 
 for joy with our Lord Jesus. We see oxen going 
 to the shambles leaping and startling ; we see 
 
28 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 God's fed oxen, prepared for the day of slaugh- 
 ter, go dancing and singing down to the black 
 chambers of hell ; and why should we go to heaven 
 weeping, as if we were likely to fall down 
 through the earth with sorrow ? If God were 
 dead, (I may speak so with reverence of him 
 who liveth forever and ever), and Christ buried, 
 and rotting among the worms, we might have 
 cause to look like dead folks : but " the Lord 
 liveth, and blessed be the rock of our salvation." 
 Ps. xviii. 46. Kone have right to joy but we ; 
 for joy is sown for us, and an ill summer or har- 
 vest will not spill [spoil] the crop. 
 
 Oh, what a sweet step were it up to my Father's 
 house, through ten deaths, for the truth and 
 cause of that unknown, and so not half well- 
 loved Plant of Renown, the man called the 
 Branch, the chief among ten thousand, the fair- 
 est among the sons of men ! Oh, what unseen 
 joys, how many hidden heart-burnings of love 
 are in the remnants of the sufferings of Christ ! 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 29 
 
 CONFESSION. 
 
 Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. — Isaiah xliii. 10. 
 
 Oh, that every hair of my head, and every 
 member and every bone in my body, were a man 
 to witness a fair confession for him ! I should 
 think all too little for him. When I look over 
 beyond the line, and beyond death, to the laugh- 
 ing side of the world, I triumph and ride upon 
 the high places of Jacob ; howbeit, otherwise I 
 am a faint, dead hearted, cowardly man, often 
 borne down, and hungry in waiting for the mar- 
 riage supper of the Lamb. Nevertheless, I 
 think it the Lord's wise love that feedeth us with 
 hunger, and maketh us fat with wants and de- 
 sertions. 
 
 Ye are many ways blessed of God, who have 
 taken upon you to come out to the streets with 
 Christ on your forehead, when so many are 
 ashamed of him, and hide him, as it were, under 
 their cloak, as if he were a stolen Christ. 
 
 3* 
 
30 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 ATTACHMENT TO CHKIST. 
 
 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth 
 that I desire beside thee. — Psalm lxxiii. 25. 
 
 And among many marks that we are on this 
 journey, and under sail toward heaven, this is 
 one, when the love of God so filleth our hearts 
 that we forget to love and care too much for the 
 having and wanting other things ; as one extreme 
 heat burneth out another. By this, madam, ye 
 know that ye have betrothed your soul in mar- 
 riage to Christ, when ye do make but small 
 reckoning of all other suitors or wooers, and 
 when ye can, (having little in hand but much in 
 hope) live as a young heir during the time of 
 his non-age and minority, being content to be as 
 hardly handled and under as precise a reckoning 
 as servants, because his hope is upon the inher- 
 itance. 
 
 Grace upon you and your children. Lord, 
 make them corner-stones in Jerusalem, and give 
 them grace in their youth to take band with the 
 fair, chief Corner-stone, who was hewed out 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 31 
 
 of the mountain without hands, and got many a 
 knock with his Father's fore-hammer, and en- 
 dured them all, and the stone did neither cleave 
 nor break. Upon that Stone your soul doth 
 well to lie. 
 
 It is easy to master an arrow, and to set it 
 right ere the string be drawn ; but when once it 
 is shot, and in the air, and the flight begun, then 
 ye have no power at all to command it. It were 
 a blessed thing, if your love could now level only 
 at Christ, if his fair face were the black of the 
 mark ye shot at; for when your love is loosed, 
 and hath taken a gadding journey to seek an 
 unknown and strange lover, ye shall not then 
 have power to call home the arrow, or to be 
 master of your love — and ye will hardly give 
 Christ what ye scarcely have yourself. 
 
 PILGKIM PATHS. 
 
 For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered 
 for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. — 
 1 Peter ii. 21. 
 
 Madam, I persuade myself that this world is 
 
32 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 to you an unco [strange] inn ; and that ye are 
 like a traveler, who hath his bundle upon his 
 back, and his staff in his hand, and his feet upon 
 the door-threshold. Go forward, honorable and 
 elect lady, in the strength of your Lord, (let the 
 world bide at home and keep the house), with 
 your face toward him who longeth more for a 
 sight of you than ye can for him. 
 
 Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way 
 to heaven that ye have started to the gate in 
 the morning. Like a fool, as I w T as, I suffered 
 my sun to be high in the heaven, and near after- 
 noon, before ever I took the gate by the end. I 
 pray you now keep the advantage ye have. 
 
 Little holiness in our balance is much because 
 it is our holiness; and we love to lay small 
 burdens upon our soft natures, and to make a 
 fair court-way to heaven ; aud I know it were 
 necessary to take more pains than we do, and 
 not make heaven a city more easily taken than 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 33 
 
 God hath made it. I persuade myself that many 
 runners will come short and shall get a disap- 
 pointment. Oh ! how easy is it to deceive our- 
 selves, and to sleep and wish that heaven may 
 fall down into our laps. 
 
 It is a mercy in this stormy sea to get a second 
 wind, for none of the saints get a first ; but they 
 wust take the winds as the Lord of the seas 
 causeth them to blow : and the wind as the Lord 
 and Master of the winds hath ordered it. If 
 contentment were here, heaven were not heaven. 
 . . Ye ought to bless your Lord that it is not 
 worse ; we live in a sea where many have suffered 
 shipwreck, and have need that Christ sit at the 
 helm of the ship. It is a mercy to win to heaven, 
 though with much hard toil and heavy labor, 
 and to take it by violence, ill and well as it may 
 be. Better go swimming and wet through our 
 waters than drown by the way; especially now 
 when truth suffereth, and great men bid Christ 
 sit lower and lower and contract himself into 
 less bounds, as if he took too much room. 
 
34 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 If ve were not strangers here, the dogs of the 
 world would not bark at you. Ye shall see all 
 the windings and turnings that are in your 
 way to heaven out of God's word : for he 
 will not lead you to the kingdom at the nearest ; 
 but you must go through " honor and dishonor, 
 by evil report and good report ; as deceivers and 
 vet true; as unknown yet well known; as dy- 
 ing and behold we live ; as chastened and not 
 killed ; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing." 
 
 It must be a way narrower and straighter than 
 we conceive, for the righteous shall scarcely be 
 saved. It were good to take a more judicious 
 view of Christianity ; for I have been doubting, 
 if ever I knew any more of Christianity than the 
 letters of the name. I will not lie on my Lord. 
 I often find much joy and unspeakable comfort in 
 his presence who sent me hither ; and I trust this 
 house of my pilgrimage shall be my palace, my 
 garden of delights ; and that Christ will be kind 
 to poor, sold Joseph, who is separated from his 
 brethren. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 35 
 
 I heartily desire that ye would mind your 
 country and consider to what airth [point of 
 compass] your soul setteth its face ; for all come 
 not home at night, who suppose that they have 
 set their face heavenward. It is a woful thing 
 to die, and miss heaven, and to lose house-room 
 with Christ at night ; it is an evil journey where 
 travelers are benighted in the fields. I persuade 
 myself that thousands shall be deceived and 
 ashamed of their hope ; because they cast their 
 anchor in sinking sands, they must lose it. 
 
 We run our souls out of breath and tire them 
 in coursing and galloping after our night-dreams 
 (such are the rovings of our miscarrying hearts) 
 to get some created good thing in this life, and 
 on this side of death. We would fain stay and 
 spin out a heaven to ourselves on this side of the 
 water ; but sorrow, want, changes, crosses, and 
 sin are both woof and warp in that ill-spun web. 
 
 Read over your life, with the light of God's 
 
36 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 davlight and sun ; for salvation is not casten 
 down at every man's door. It is good to look to 
 your compass, and all ye have need of, ere ye 
 take shipping ; for no wind can blow you back 
 
 Faint not; the miles to heaven are but few 
 
 and short. 
 
 But I hold my peace, because he hath done it. 
 My shallow and ebb thoughts are not the com- 
 pass which Christ saileth by. I leave his ways 
 to himself, for they are far, far above me. 
 
 Only let us not weary — the miles to that land 
 are fewer and shorter than when we first believed. 
 Strangers are not wise to quarrel with their host 
 and complain of their lodging. It is a foul way, 
 but a fair home. Oh, that I had such grapes 
 and clusters out of the land as I have sometimes 
 seen and tasted ! ... but the hope of it in the 
 end is a heartsome convoy in the way. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 37 
 
 It is either the way of peace, or we are yet in 
 our sinSj and have missed the way. 
 
 PILGEIM GUIDE. 
 
 He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the 
 springs of water shall he guide them. — Isa. xlix. : 10. 
 
 But I entreat you in Christ's name when my 
 soul is under wrestlings, and seeketh direction 
 from our Lord, whither I shall go, give me lib- 
 erty to advise, and try all airts (points of com- 
 pass) and paths, to see whether he goeth before 
 me and leadeth me; for if I were assured of 
 God's call to your town, let my arm fall from my 
 shoulder-blade and lose power, and my right eye 
 be dried up, which is the judgment of the idol 
 shepherd (Zech. xi. 17), if I would not swim 
 through the water without a boat ere I sat his 
 bidding. 
 
 Your guide is good company, and knoweth all 
 the miles, and the ups and downs in the way ; — 
 the nearer the morning the darker. 
 
38 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Oat of whatever quarter the wind blow it will 
 blow us on our Lord. No winds can blow our 
 sails overboard; because Christ's skill, and honor 
 of his wisdom, are empowered and laid down at 
 the stake of the sea-passengers, that he shall put 
 them safe off his hand on the shore, in his Father's 
 known bounds, or native home ground. 
 
 There be many Christians, most like young 
 sailors, who think the shore and the whole land 
 do move, when the ship and they themselves are 
 moved ; just so not a few do imagine that God 
 moveth, and saileth and changeth places, because 
 their giddy souls are under sail, and subject to 
 alteration, to ebbing and flowing — but thefounda- 
 dation of God standeth sure. 
 
 Your old Guide will go before you and take 
 your hand — his love to you will not grow sour or 
 wear out of date as the love of men, which grow- 
 eth old and grey-headed often before themselves. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 39 
 
 The Christ that saveth you is a speaking 
 Christ ; the church knoweih him by his voice, 
 and can discern his voice among a thousand. I 
 say this to the end that ye should not love those 
 marks of anti-Christian ceremonies, which the 
 church where ye are for a time hath casten over 
 the Christ whom your soul loveth. This is to set 
 before you a dumb Christ. But when our Lord 
 cometh, he speaketh to the heart, in the simpli- 
 city of the gospel. 
 
 But who can blame Christ to take me on be- 
 hind him, if I may say so, on his white horse, or 
 in his chariot, paved with love, through a water ? 
 Will not a father take his little dawted Davie 
 [fondled boy] in his arms and carry him over a 
 ditch or a mire ? My short legs could not step 
 over this lair, or sinking mire; and therefore my 
 Lord Jesus will bear me through. 
 
 If Christ had, in this matter, been as wilful 
 and short as I was, my faith had gone over the 
 
40 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 brae, and broken its neck. But we were well 
 met, a hasty fool, and a wise, patient, and meek 
 Saviour. He took no law-advantage of my folly, 
 but waited on till my ill blood was fallen, and 
 my drumbled [muddied] and troubled well began 
 to clear. He was never a whit angry at the 
 fever-ravings of a poor, tempted sinner ; but he 
 mercifully forgave, and came, as it well becom- 
 eth him, with grace and new comfort to a sinner 
 who deserved the contrary. 
 
 I see that infinite wisdom is the mother of his 
 judgment, and that his ways are past finding out. 
 
 Sinners can do nothing but make wounds that 
 Christ may heal them ; and make debts that he 
 may pay them ; and make falls that he may raise 
 them; and make deaths that he may quicken 
 them ; and spin out and dig hells that he may 
 ransom them. Now I will bless the Lord, that 
 ever there was such a thing as the free grace of 
 God, and a free ransom given for sold souls ; 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 41 
 
 only, alas ! guiltiness maketh me ashamed to 
 apply Christ, and to think it pride in me to put 
 out my unclean and withered hand to such a 
 Saviour. 
 
 PILGKIM COMPANY. 
 
 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the liv- 
 ing God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- 
 pany of angels, 
 
 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are 
 written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits 
 of just men made perfect, 
 
 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. — Hebrews xii. 
 22-24. 
 
 Ye are now your lone ; but ye may have, for 
 the seeking, Three always in your company, the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. — I trust they are 
 near you. Ye are now deprived of the comfort 
 of a lively ministry ; so was Israel in their cap- 
 tivity, yet hear God's promise to them, (Ez. xi. 
 16): "Therefore say, thus saith the Lord God, 
 ' although I have cast them far off among the 
 
 heathen, and although I have scattered them 
 4* 
 
42 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 among the countries, yet I will be to them as a 
 little sanctuary in the countries where they shall 
 come ! ' " 
 
 In my prison he hath shown me daylight ; and 
 he dought not [was not able to] hide his love 
 any longer. Christ was disguised and masked, 
 and I apprehended it was not he ; and he hath 
 said " It is I, be not afraid ! " and now his love 
 is better than wine. 
 
 Go where ye will, ye cannot go from under 
 your Shadow, which is broader than many king- 
 doms. Ye change lodgings and countries ; but 
 the same Lord is before you, if ye were car- 
 ried away captive to the other side of the sun, or 
 as far as the rising of the morning star ! 
 
 He would captivate and gain the affection of 
 any creature that saw his face. Since he looked 
 on me, and gave me a sight of his fair love, he 
 gained my heart wholly, and got away with it ; 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 43 
 
 well, well may he brook [enjoy] it ; he shall 
 keep it long ere I fetch it from him. But I shall 
 tell you what ye should do. Treat him well, 
 give him the chair and the board-head, and make 
 him welcome to the mean portion ye have ; a 
 good supper and kind entertainment maketh the 
 guests love the inn the better. 
 
 Come in, come in, to Christ, and see what ye 
 want, and find it in him : — he is the short cut, 
 and the nearest way to an outgate of all your 
 burdens. I dare avouch ye shall be dearly wel- 
 come to him ; my soul would be glad to take part 
 of the joy ye should have in him. I dare say 
 that angels' pens, angels' tongues, nay, as many 
 worlds of angels as there are drops of water in 
 all the seas, and fountains and rivers of the 
 earth, cannot paint him out to you. 
 
 There are many heads lying in Christ's bosom, 
 but there is room for yours among the rest ; and 
 therefore go on, and let hope go before you. 
 
44 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 How can we be enlightened when we turn our 
 back upon the sun ? and mustwe not be withered 
 when we leave the fountain ? 
 
 Take as' many to heaven with you as ye are 
 able to draw ; the more ye draw with you, ye 
 shall be the welcomer yourself. Be no niggard 
 or sparing churl of the grace of God. 
 
 PILGKIM TKIALS. 
 
 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is 
 to try you, as though some, strange thing happened unto you.— 
 1 Peter iv. 12. 
 
 Oh, what owe I to the file, to the hammer, to 
 the furnace of my Lord Jesus ! who hath now 
 let me see how good the wheat of Christ is, that 
 goeth through his mill and his oven, to make 
 bread for his own table. Grace tried is better 
 than grace, and it is more than grace ; it is glory 
 in its infancy. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 45 
 
 Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, 
 that maketh deep furrows on ray soul ? I know 
 that he is no idle husbandman ; he purposeth a 
 crop. Oh, that this white, withered lea-ground 
 were made fertile to bear a crop for him, by 
 whom it is so painfully dressed ; and that this 
 fallow-ground were broken up! 
 
 Keep an ear open to Christ, who can speak for 
 himself, howbeit your visitations, and your own 
 sense should dream hard things of his love and 
 favor. Our Lord never getteth so kind a look 
 of us, nor our love in such a degree, nor our faith 
 in such a measure of steadfastness, as he getteth 
 out of the furnace of our tempting fears and 
 sharp trials. 
 
 Through many afflictions we must enter into 
 the kingdom of God. Not only by them, but 
 through them, we must go ; and wiles will not 
 take us past the cross : — it is folly to think to 
 steal to heaven with a whole skin. 
 
46 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 They are blessed who suffer and sin not, for 
 suffering is the badge which Christ has put upon 
 his followers. Take what way we can to heaven, 
 the way is hedged with crosses ; there is no way 
 but to break through them. 
 
 It is but our soft flesh that hath raised a slander 
 on the cross of Christ ; I see now the white side 
 of it ; my Lord's chains are all over-gilded. 
 
 And, madam, if ye love him, ye will keep his 
 commandments ; and this is not one of the least, 
 to lay your neck cheerfully and willingly under 
 the yoke of Jesus Christ ; for I trust that your 
 Ladyship did contract and bargain with the Son 
 of God, to follow him upon these terms, that by 
 his grace ye should endure hardships, and suffer 
 affliction as the soldier of Christ. They are not 
 worthy of Jesus who will not take a blow for 
 their Master's sake. As for our glorious Peace- 
 maker, when he came to make up the friendship 
 betwixt God and us, God bruised him, aud struck 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOURNEY. 47 
 
 him; the sinful world also did beat him, and cru- 
 cify him : yet he took buffets of both the parties : 
 and — honor to the Lord Jesus — he would not 
 leave the field until he had made peace betwixt 
 the parties. I persuade myself that your, suffer- 
 ings are but like your Saviour's (yea, incompar- 
 ably less and lighter), which are called but a 
 bruising of his heel (Genesis iii. 15), a wound far 
 from the heart. 
 
 We expect a trial ; God's wheat in this land 
 must go through Satan's sieve, but their faith 
 shall not fail. 
 
 Be content to wade through the waters betwixt 
 you and glory with him, holding his right hand 
 fast ; for he knoweth all the ford3. Howbeit ye 
 may be ducked, yet ye cannot drown, being in his 
 company ; and ye may, all the way to glory, see 
 the way bedewed with his blood, who is the Fore- 
 runner. Be not afraid, therefore, when ye come 
 even to the black and swelling river of death, to 
 put in your foot and wade after him. The cur- 
 
48 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 rent, how strong soever, cannot carry you down 
 the water to hell ; the death and resurrection of 
 the Son of God are stepping-stones, and a stay 
 to you. Let down your feet, by faith, upon these 
 stones, and go through as on dry land. 
 
 Our sins withhold good things from us. 
 
 Whether God come to his children with a rod 
 or a crown, if he come himself with it, it is well. 
 Welcome, welcome, Jesus, what way soever thou 
 comest, if we can get a sight of thee. And sure 
 I am that it is better to be sick, providing Christ 
 come to the bed-side, and draw by the curtains 
 and say, " Courage ! I am thy salvation ! " than 
 to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never 
 be visited of God. 
 
 And take you no fear that he will take your 
 part, and then you are strong enough. What ? 
 Howbeit ye receive indignities, for your Lord's 
 sake, let it be so. When he will put his holy 
 hand up to your face in heaven, and dry your 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 49 
 
 face, and wipe the tears from your eyes, judge ye 
 if ye will not have cause then to rejoice ? 
 
 Ye will find in Christianity that God aimeth 
 in all his dealings with his children to bring them 
 to a high contempt of, and deadly feud with the 
 world ; and to set a high price upon Christ, and 
 to think him one who cannot be bought for gold, 
 and well worth the fighting for. . . . When 
 he is striking you in love, beware to strike again ; 
 that is dangerous, for those who strike again shall 
 get the last blow. 
 
 Be exceedingly charitable of your dear Lord. 
 
 As there be some friends worldly of whom ye 
 
 will not entertain an ill thought, far more ought 
 
 ye to believe good evermore of your dear Friend, 
 
 that lovely, fair Person, Jesus Christ. The thorn 
 
 is one of the most cursed, and angry, and 
 
 crabbed weeds that the earth yieldeth, and yet 
 
 out of it springeth the rose, one of the most 
 
 sweetly smelled flowers, and most delightful to ' 
 
 the eye, that the earth hath. Your Lord will 
 5 
 
50 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 make joy and gladness out of your afflictions, for 
 all his roses have a fragrant smell. 
 
 I know that an afflicted life looketh very like 
 the way that leadeth to the kingdom ; for the 
 apostle hath drawn the line, and the King's mar- 
 ket-way is through much tribulation, to the 
 kingdom. 
 
 It is better to weep with Jerusalem in the fore- 
 noon than to weep with Babel after noon, in the 
 end of the day. Our day of laughter and re- 
 joicing is coming ; yet a little while and ye shall 
 see the salvation of God. 
 
 Love thinketh no evil ; if ye were not Christ's 
 wheat, appointed to be bread in his house, he 
 would not grind you. But keep the middle line, 
 neither despise nor faint (Heb. xii. 6). You see 
 that your Father is homely with you. Strokes 
 of a father evidence kindness and care — take 
 them so. 
 
 If ye would lay the price ye give out (which 
 
LIGHT FOB THE JOURNEY. 51 
 
 is but some few years, pain and trouble) beside 
 the commodities ye are to receive, ye would see 
 that they were not worthy to be laid in the bal- 
 ance together; but it is nature that maketh you 
 look to what ye give out, and weakness of faith 
 that hindereth you to see what ye shall take in. 
 Amend your hope, and trust [credit] your faith- 
 ful Lord awhile. He maketh himself your debt- 
 or in the New Covenant ; he is honest — take his 
 word (Nahum i. 9) : "Affliction shall not rise up 
 the second time." (Rev. xxi. 7.) — " He that 
 overcometh shall inherit all things." 
 
 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. 
 
 And howbeit I may possibly prove a faint- 
 hearted, unwise man in that, yet I dare to say 
 that I intend otherwise ; and I desire not to go 
 on the lee-side, or sunny-side of religion, to put 
 truth betwixt me and a storm — my Saviour did 
 
52 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 not so for me, who in his suffering took the windy 
 side of the hill. 
 
 This is your glory that Christ hath put you 
 into the roll with himself, and the rest of the 
 witnesses, who are come out of great tribulation, 
 and have washed their garments, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Let us be putting on God's armor and be strong 
 in the Lord. If the devil and Zion's enemies 
 strike a hole in that armor, let our Lord see to 
 that ; let us put it on and stand. We have Jesus 
 on our side, and they are not worthy of such a 
 Captain, who would not take a blow at his back. 
 We are in sight of his colors ; his banner over us 
 is love. Look up to that white banner and stand ; 
 I persuade you in the Lord of victory. 
 
 Rebuke your soul as the Lord's prophet doth 
 (Psalm xlii.): " Why art thou cast down, O my 
 soul! why art thou disquieted within me?" 
 That was the word of a man who was at the 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOUENEY. 53 
 
 very overgoing of the brae and mountain, but 
 God held a grip of him. Swim through your 
 temptations and troubles, to be at that lovely, 
 amiable Person, Jesus, to whom your soul is dear. 
 In your temptations run to the promises ; they be 
 our Lord's branches hanging over the water, that 
 our Lord's silly, half-drowned children may take 
 a grip of them. If you let that grip go, you will 
 go to the ground. 
 
 I see that grace groweth best in winter. This 
 poor, persecuted Kirk, this lily among thorns, 
 shall bloom and laugh upon the Gardener ; the 
 Husbandman's blessing shall light upon it. 
 
 When we shall come home, and enter to the 
 
 possession of our Brother's fair kingdom, and 
 
 when our heads shall find the weight of the 
 
 eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look 
 
 back to pains and sufferings, then shall we see 
 
 life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride 
 
 from a prison to glory ; and that our little inch 
 
 of time-suffering is not worthy of our first night's 
 
 welcome-home to heaven. 
 5* 
 
54 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Yet I say not this as if our Lord always meas- 
 ured afflictions by so many ounce weights, answer- 
 able to the grain weights of our guiltiness ; I know 
 that he doth in many (and possibly in you) seek 
 nothing so much as faith that can endure summer 
 and winter in extremity. Oh, how precious to 
 the Lord are faith and love, that when threshed, 
 beaten, and chased away, and boasted [threat- 
 ened], as it were, by God himself, doth yet look 
 warm-like, love-like, kind-like, and life-like, 
 home-over to Christ and would be in at him, ill 
 and well as it may be. 
 
 Sin not in your trials, and the victory is yours. 
 
 Be honest, brother, in your bargaining with 
 him ; for who knoweth better how to bring up 
 children than our God? For (to lay aside his 
 knowledge, of the which there is no finding out) 
 he hath been practiced in bringing up his heirs 
 these five thousand years, and his bairns are all 
 well brought up, and many of them are honest 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 55 
 
 men now at home, up in their own house in 
 heaven, and are entered heirs to their Father's 
 inheritance. Now, the form of his bringing-up 
 was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nur- 
 turing ; and see if he maketh exception of any 
 of his bairns. No ; his eldest Son and his Heir, 
 Jesus, is not excepted (Heb. ii. 10). Suffer we 
 must ; ere we were born, God decreed it, and it 
 is easier to complain of his decree than to 
 change it. 
 
 Cold is northern love, but Christ and I will 
 bear it. 
 
 Till ye be in heaven, it will be but foul 
 weather — one shower up, and another down. 
 The lintel stone and pillars of the New Jerusa- 
 lem suffer more knocks of God's hammer and 
 tool than the common side-wall stones ; and if 
 twenty crosses be written for you in God's book, 
 they will come to nineteen, and that at last to 
 one, and after that to nothing. 
 
56 LIGHT FOR THE JOUKXEY. 
 
 Faith has cause to take courage from our very 
 afflictions ; the devil is but a whetstone to sharpen 
 the faith and patience of the saints. I know that 
 he but heweth and polisheth stones all this time 
 for the New Jerusalem. 
 
 Put Christ's love to the trial, and put upon it 
 our burdens, and then it will appear love indeed ; 
 we employ not his love, and, therefore, we know 
 it not. 
 
 I never knew, by nine years' preaching, so 
 much of Christ's love as he has taught me in 
 Aberdeen, by six months' imprisonment. 
 
 I know that this shower of his free grace be- 
 hooved to be on me, otherwise I should have 
 withered. I know, also, that I have need of a 
 buffeting tempter that grace may be put to exer- 
 cise, and I kept low. 
 
 And ye do well not to doubt if the ground- 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 57 
 
 stone be sure, but to try if it be so ; for there is 
 great odds between doubting if we have grace, 
 and trying if we have grace : — the former may 
 be sin, but the latter is good. We are but loose 
 in trying our freeholding of Christ, and making 
 sure work of Christ. Holy fear is a searching 
 of the camp, that there be no enemy within our 
 bosom to betray us, and a seeing that all be fast 
 and sure ; for I see many leaky vessels, fair be- 
 fore the wind, and professors who take their con- 
 version upon trust, and they go on securely, and 
 see not the under-water, till a storm sink them. 
 
 Their sin is that they love their inability to 
 come to Christ, and he who loveth his chains, 
 deserveth chains. 
 
 It is common for men to make doubts, when 
 they have a mind to desert the truth. 
 
 If the idol reign, and have the whole of the 
 heart, and the keys of the house, and Christ only 
 
58 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 made an underling to run errands, all is not 
 right ; therefore examine well. 
 
 " For we know that all things work together 
 for good to them that love God;" ergo, ship- 
 wreck, losses, etc., work together for the good of 
 them that love God. Hence I infer that losses, 
 disappointments, ill-tongues, loss of friends, 
 houses, or country, are God's workmen, set on 
 work to work out good to you, out of everything 
 that befalleth you. Let not the Lord's dealings 
 seem harsh, rough, or unfatherly, because it is 
 unpleasant. When the Lord's blessed will 
 bloweth across your desires, it is best in humility 
 to strike sail to him, and to be willing to be led 
 any way our Lord pleaseth. 
 
 As for weakness, we have it, that we may 
 employ Christ's strength, because of our weak- 
 ness. Weakness is to make us the strongest 
 things ; that is, when having no strength of our 
 own, we are carried upon Christ's shoulders, and 
 
LIGHT FOB THE JOURNEY. 59 
 
 walk, as it were, upon his legs; if our sinful 
 weakness swell up to the clouds, Christ's strength 
 will swell up to the sun, and far above the 
 heaven of heavens. 
 
 We see his working and we sorrow. The end 
 of his counsel and working lieth hidden, and 
 underneath the ground, and therefore we cannot 
 believe. Even amongst men, we see hewn 
 stones, timber, and a hundred scattered parcels 
 and pieces of an house ; all under-tools, hammers, 
 axes, and saws ; yet the house, the beauty and 
 ease of so many lodgings and ease-rooms, we 
 neither see nor understand for the present ; these 
 are but in the mind and head of the builder as 
 yet. We see red earth, unbroken clods, furrows, 
 and stones; but we see not summer lilies, roses, 
 and the beauty of a garden. If ye give the Lord 
 time to work (as often he that belie veth not 
 maketh haste, but not speed), his end is under 
 ground. 
 
 Faith is the better of the free air, and of the 
 
60 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 sharp winter storm in its face. Grace withereth 
 without adversity. The devil is but God's 
 master-fencer, to teach us to handle our weapons. 
 
 I rejoice that he has come and has chosen you 
 in the furnace; it was even there where he and ye 
 set tryst. That is an old gate [custom] of Christ's ; 
 he keepeth the good old fashion with you that 
 was in Hosea's days (Hosea ii. 14). " Therefore 
 behold, I will allure her, and bring her to the 
 wilderness, and speak to her heart." There was 
 no talking to her heart, while he and she were 
 in the fair flourishing city, and at ease; but out 
 in the cold, hungry, waste wilderness, he 
 allureth her; he whispered news into her ear 
 there, and said, " Thou art mine." What would 
 ye think of such a bode [offer] ? 
 
 PILGRIM CROSSES. 
 
 And be that taketh not his cross, and followeth after uie, is not 
 worthy of me.— Matthews. 38. 
 
 Blessed are they who are content to take 
 strokes with weeping Christ ; faith will trust the 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 61 
 
 Lord and is not hasty or headstrong : neither is 
 faith so timorous as to flatter a temptation, or to 
 bud and bribe the cross. It is little up or little 
 down that the Lamb and his followers can get 
 no law-surety, nor truce with crosses ; it must be 
 so, till we are up in our Father's house. 
 
 Christ hath borne the whole complete cross, 
 and his saints bear but bits and chips: as the 
 apostle saith, "the remnants" or "leavings" of 
 the cross (Col. i. 24). 
 
 Joy, much joy may ye have of him ; but take 
 his cross with him cheerfully. Christ and his 
 cross are not separable in this life, howbeit Christ 
 and hi3 cross part at heaven's door, for there i3 
 no house-room for crosses in heaven. One tear, 
 one sigh, one sad heart, one fear, one loss, one 
 thought of trouble cannot find lodging there : 
 they are but the marks of the Lord Jesus down 
 in this wide inn, and stormy country on this side 
 of death. 
 
62 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 I do persuade' myself that ye know that the 
 weightiest end of the cross of Christ, which is 
 laid upon you, lieth upon your strong Saviour : 
 for, Isaiah saith (lxiii. 9.) " In all your afflic- 
 tions he is afflicted." O, blessed Second, who 
 sufTereth with you ! and glad may your soul be, 
 even to walk in the fiery furnace, with one like 
 unto the Son of man, who is also the Son of God. 
 Courage ! up your heart ! When you do tire, he 
 will bear both you and your burden ! (Ps. lv. 
 22.) Yet a little while, and ye shall see the sal- 
 vation of God. 
 
 Some have written me that I am possibly too 
 joyful of the cross, but my joy overleapeth the 
 cross — it is bounded and terminated on Christ. 
 
 And believe me, brother, I give it to vou under 
 my own hand-writ, that, whoso looketh to the 
 white side of Christ's cross, and can take it up 
 handsomely with faith and courage, will find it 
 such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a 
 bird. I find that my Lord hath overgilded the 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 63 
 
 black tree, and hath perfumed and oiled it, with 
 joy and consolation. 
 
 Christ's cross is neither a cruel nor unkind 
 mercy, but the love-token of a father. I am sure 
 that a lover chasing us for our well, and to have 
 our love, should not be run away from, nor fled 
 from. God send me no worse mercy than the 
 sanctified cross of Christ portendeth, and I am 
 sure that I should be happy and blessed. 
 
 PILGRIM EXERCISES. 
 
 And exercise thyself rather unto godliness. — 1 Timothy iv. 7. 
 
 Remember that ye are in the body, and it is 
 the lodging-house, and ye may not, without 
 offending the Lord, suffer the old walls of that 
 house to fall down, through want of necessary 
 food. Your body is the dwelling-house of the 
 spirit ; and, therefore, for the love ye carry to the 
 Sweet Guest, give a due regard to his house of 
 clay. When he looseth the wall, why not ? wel- 
 
64 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 come, Lord Jesus ! but it is a fearful sin in us, 
 by hurting the body by fasting, to loose one 
 stone, or the least timber in it ; for the house is 
 not our own, the Bridegroom is with you yet ; so 
 fast, as that, also, ye may feast and rejoice in 
 him. 
 
 Ye have reason to take in good part a lean 
 dinner and spare diet in this life, seeing your 
 large supper of the Lamb's preparing will recom- 
 pense all. 
 
 Ye hold, that Christ must either have hearty 
 service, or no service at all. If ye mean that he 
 will not half a heart, or have feigned service, 
 such as the hypocrites give him, I grant you 
 that, — Christ must have honesty or nothiug, — but 
 if ye mean he will have no service at all, where 
 the heart draweth back in any measure, I would 
 not that were true, for my part of heaven, and all 
 that I am worth in the world. If ye mind to walk 
 to heaven, without a cramp or a crook, I fear that 
 ye must go your lone. He knoweth our dross 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 65 
 
 and defects ; and sweet Jesus pitieth us, when 
 weakness and deadness in our obedience is our 
 cross, and not our darling. 
 
 All the creatures, all the swords, all the hosts 
 in Britain, and in this poor globe of the habit- 
 able world, are but under him single cyphers 
 making no number of the product, being nothing 
 but painted men, and painted swords in a brod, 
 [board] without influence from him. And oh, 
 what of God is in Gideon's sword, when it is the 
 sword of the Lord ! 
 
 Ye cannot be too often awakened to go forward 
 toward your city, since your way is long, and, 
 (for anything ye know) your day is short ; and 
 your Lord requireth of you, as ye advance in 
 years and steal forward insensibly towards eter- 
 nity, that your faith may grow and ripen for the 
 Lord's harvest. For the great Husbandman 
 giveth a season to his fruits, that they may come 
 to maturity ; and having got their fill of the tree 
 
66 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 that they may be then shaken, and gathered in 
 for his use. 
 
 I have now made a new question whether 
 Christ is more to be loved for giving sanctifica- 
 tion, or for free justification ? I hold that he is 
 more and most to be loved for sanctification. It 
 is in some respect greater love in him to sanctify 
 than to justify ; for he maketh us most like him- 
 self, in his own essential portraiture and image 
 in sanctifying us. Justification doth but make 
 us happy, which is to be like angels only ; neither 
 is it such a misery to lie a condemned man, and 
 under unforgiven guiltiness, as to serve sin, and 
 work the works of the devil; and, therefore, I 
 think sanctification cannot be bought, it is above 
 price. God be thanked forever, that Christ was 
 a told-down price for sanctification. 
 
 I beseech you, in the Lord Jesus, to make every 
 day more and more of Christ ; and try your 
 growth in the grace of God, and what new ground 
 ye win daily on corruption; for travellers are 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOUPwNEY. 67 
 
 day by day either advancing farther on, and 
 nearer home, or else they go not right about to 
 compass their journey. 
 
 PILGEIM SAFETY. 
 
 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt 
 thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. — Psalms 
 xci. 4. 
 
 Your life is hid with Christ, in God (Col. iii. 
 3), and therefore, ye cannot be robbed of it. Our 
 Lord handleth us as fathers do their young chil- 
 dren. They lay up jewels in a place above the 
 reach of the short arms of bairns, else bairns 
 would put up their hands and take them down, 
 and lose them soon. So hath our Lord done with 
 our spiritual life. Jesus Christ is the high coffer, 
 in the which our Lord hath hid our life ; we, chil- 
 dren, are not able to reach up our arm so high 
 as to take down that life and lose it ; it is in our 
 Christ's hands. 
 
 Since all the weight of heaven and earth, of 
 
OS LIGHT FOR THE JOURXEY. 
 
 redeemed saints and confirmed angels is upon 
 his shoulder, I am a fool, and brutish to imagine 
 that I can add anything to Christ's special care 
 of, and tenderness to his people. He who keepeth 
 the basins and knives of his house, and bringeth 
 the vessels again to the Second Temple (Ezra i. 
 8, 9, 10), must have more tender care of re- 
 deemed ones than of a spoon, or of Peter's old 
 shoes, which yet must not be lost in his captivity. 
 (Acts xii. 8). 
 
 We are not come, as yet, to the mouth of the 
 Ked Sea; and howbeit we were, yet for his 
 honor's sake he must dry it up. It is our part 
 to die gripping and holding fast his faithful 
 promise. If the Beast should get leave to ride 
 through the land, and to seal such as are his, he 
 will not get one lamb with him ; for these are 
 secured and sealed as the servants of God. 
 
 God's seed will come to God's harvest 
 
 I persuade myself that the Son of God's wheat 
 shall not be blown away. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 69 
 
 Believe his love more than your own feeling, 
 for this world can take nothing from you that 
 is truly yours, and death can do you no wrong. 
 Your rock doth not ebb and How, but your sea. 
 That which Christ hath said he will bide by. 
 
 Now if we would ever so fain escape out of 
 Christ's hands, yet love hath so bound us that we 
 cannot get our hands free again ; he hath so 
 ravished our hearts that there is no losing of his 
 grips ; the chains of his soul-ravishing love are 
 so strong, that the grave nor death will break 
 them. 
 
 I am sorry for our desolate kirk ; yet I dare 
 not but trust, that so long as there be any of 
 God's lost money here, he will not blow out the 
 candle. The Lord make fair candlesticks in his 
 house and remove the blind lights ! 
 
 The Church hath been, since the world begau, 
 ever hanging by a small thread, and all the 
 hands of hell and of the wicked have been 
 
70 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 drawing at the thread; but, God be thanked, 
 they only break their arms by pulling ; but the 
 thread is not broken, for the sweet ringers of 
 Christ our Lord have spun and twisted it. Lord, 
 hold the thread whole. 
 
 It is time now that the lambs of Jesus should 
 all run together, when the wolf is barking at 
 them. 
 
 God grant that in my temptations I come not 
 on his wrong side again, and never again fall 
 a raving against my Physican in my fever. 
 
 But, I pray you, comfort yourself in the Lord ; 
 for a just cause bideth under water only as long 
 as wicked men hold their hand above it ; their 
 arm will weary, and then the just cause shall 
 swim above. 
 
 But truly, I find that we have the advantage 
 of the brae upon our enemies : we are more than 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 71 
 
 conquerors, through him who loved us ; and 
 they know not wherein our strength lyeth. 
 
 We creep under our Lord's wings in the great 
 shower, and the water cannot come through 
 those wings. 
 
 Oh, how sweet were one line or half a letter 
 of a written assurance under Christ's own hand! 
 But this is our assurance daily, that guiltiness 
 shall overmist and darken assurance. 
 
 His book keepeth your name, and is not 
 printed, and re-printed, and changed, and cor- 
 rected. 
 
 It is good that there is a heaven, and it is not 
 a night dream and a fancy : it is a wonder that 
 men deny not that there is a heaven, as they 
 deny there is any way to it but of men's making. 
 You have learned of Christ that there is a 
 heaven ; contend for it and for Christ. 
 
~'l LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Providence hath a thousand keys, to open a 
 thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of 
 his own, when it is ever come to a conclamatwn 
 est [all is over]. Let us be faithful, and care 
 for our own part, which is to do and suffer for 
 him, and lay Christ's part on himself and leave it 
 there. 
 
 I see that providence runneth not on broken 
 wheels ; but I, like a fool, carved a providence 
 for mine own ease, to die in my nest, and to sleep 
 still till my gray hairs, and to lie on the sunny 
 side of the mountain, in my ministry at An- 
 worth ; but now I have nothing to say against a 
 borrowed fireside, and another man's house, nor 
 Kedar's tents, where I live, being removed far 
 from my acquaintance, my lovers, and mv 
 friends. I see that God hath the world on his 
 wheels, and casteth it as a potter doth a vessel 
 on the wheel. I dare not say that there is any 
 inordinate or irregular motion in providence. 
 The Lord hath done it. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 73 
 
 Oh, what wisdom it is to believe and not to dis- 
 pute; and not to repine at any act of his justice. 
 He hath done it, all flesh be silent ! It is impos- 
 sible to be religiously submissive and 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 ! " Look up to the 
 master-motion and the first wheel ! 
 
 Thank your God who saith (Rev. i. 18,) " I 
 have the keys of hell and of death ; " (Deut. xxxii. 
 39,) "I kill and I make alive;" (1 Sam. ii. 6,) 
 " The Lord bringeth down to the grave and 
 bringeth up!" If Satan were jailer, and had 
 the keys of death and of the grave, they should 
 be stored with more prisoners. Ye were knock- 
 ing at these black gates and found the doors 
 shut ; and we do all welcome you back again. 
 The Lord knew that ye had forgotten something 
 that was necessary for your journey ; that your 
 armor was not as yet thick enough against the 
 stroke of death. Now, in the strength of Jesus, 
 7 
 
74 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 dispatch your business; that debt is not forgiven 
 but fristed [credited]; death hath not bidden 
 you farewell, but has only left you for a short 
 season. End your journey ere the night come 
 upon you, have all in readiness against the time 
 that ye must sail through that black and im- 
 petuous Jordan ; and Jesus, Jesus who knoweth 
 both those depths and the rocks, and all the 
 coasts, be your pilot. The last tide will not wait 
 for you one moment; if ye forget anything when 
 your sea is full and your foot in that ship, there 
 is no returning to fetch it. What ye do amiss 
 in your life to-day ye may amend it to-morrow ; 
 for as many suns as God maketh to arise upon 
 you ye have as many new lives; but ye can die 
 but once, and if ye mar or spill [spoil] that busi- 
 ness ye cannot come back to mend that piece of 
 work again. No man sinneth twice in dying ill. 
 Ye see how the number of your months is 
 written in God's book ; and as one of the Lord's 
 hirelings ye must work till the shadow of the 
 evening come upon you, and ye shall run your 
 glass even to the last pickle [grain] of sand. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 75 
 
 PILGEIM DESIKES. 
 
 And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth. 
 
 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a 
 country. — Heb. xi. 13, 14. 
 
 Oh, for a long play-day with Christ, and our 
 long-lasting vacance [vacation] of rest! Glad 
 may their souls be that are safe over the firth, 
 Christ having paid the fraught [freight.] Happy 
 are they who have passed their hard and weari- 
 some time of apprenticeship, and are now free- 
 men and citizens in that joyful, high city, the 
 New Jerusalem. Alas ! that we should be glad 
 of and rejoice in our fetters, and our prison- 
 house, and this dear inn, a life of sin, where we 
 are absent from our Lord and so far from our 
 home. 
 
 I would give him my bond, under my faith 
 and hand, to frist [postpone] heaven a hundred 
 years longer, so being, he would lay his holy 
 face to my sometimes wet cheeks. Oh, who 
 would not pity me, to know him fain I would 
 
76 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 have the King shaking the tree of life upon me, 
 or letting me into the well of life with my old 
 dish, that I might be drunken with the fountain, 
 here, in the house of my pilgrimage ! I cannot, 
 nay, I would not, be quit of Christ's love. 
 
 Lord, give the thirsty man a drink. Oh, to 
 be over the ears in the well ! Oh, to be swat- 
 tering and swimming over head and ears in 
 Christ's love! I would not have Christ's love 
 entering into me, but I would enter into it, and 
 be swallowed up of that love. But I see not 
 myself here ; for I fear I make more of his love 
 than of himself; whereas himself is far beyond 
 and much better than his love. 
 
 And be content, and withal greedily covetous 
 of grace, the interest and pledge of glory. 
 
 Oh, how sweet to be wholly Christ's and wholly 
 in Christ ! to be out of the creature's owning and 
 iade complete in Christ ; to live by faith in Christ, 
 
 m 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 77 
 
 and to be, once for all, clothed with the created 
 majesty and glory of the Son of God, wherein 
 he maketh all his friends and followers sharers ; 
 to dwell in Immanuel's high and blessed land, 
 and live in that sweetest air where no wind 
 bloweth but the breathings of the Holy Ghost ; 
 no seas nor floods flow, but the pure waters of life, 
 that proceedeth from under the throne and from 
 the Lamb ; no planting, but the tree of Life, that 
 yieldeth twelve manner of fruits every month ! 
 What do we here but sin and suffer ? Oh, when 
 shall the night be gone, the shadows flee away, 
 and the morning of that long, long day, without 
 cloud or night, dawn ! The Spirit and the bride 
 say " Come." Oh, when shall the Lamb's wife 
 be ready and say " Come " ? 
 
 PILGEIM JUDGMENT. 
 
 And they that use this -world, as not abusing it ; for the fashion 
 of this world passeth away. — 1 Corinthians vii. 31. 
 
 (1 Corinthians vii. 31) : " The countenance or 
 fashion of this world passeth away." In which 
 
78 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 place our Lord compareth it to an image in a 
 looking-glass, for it is the looking-glass of Adam's 
 sons. Some come to the glass and see in it the 
 picture of honor, and but a picture indeed, for 
 true honor is to be great in the sight of God ; 
 and others see in it riches, and but a shadow 
 indeed, for durable riches stand, as one of the 
 maids of Wisdom, upon her left hand (Proverbs 
 iii. 16) ; and a third sort see in it the face of 
 painted pleasures, and the beholders will not 
 believe but the image which they see in this glass 
 is the living man, till the Lord come and break 
 in pieces and remove the face ; and then, like 
 Pharaoh awakened, they say: "And behold, it 
 was a dream." 
 
 Be like the fresh river which keepeth its own 
 sweet taste in the salt sea. This world is not 
 worthy of your souls, give it not a good-day, 
 when Christ cometh into competition with it. Be 
 like one of another country. Home ! and stay 
 not ; for the sun is fallen low, and nigh the tops 
 of the mountains, and the shadows are stretched 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 79 
 
 out in great length. Linger not by the way. 
 The world and sin would train you on, and make 
 you turn aside ; leave not the way for them — and 
 the Lord Jesus be at the vovage. 
 
 Satan layeth upon men a burden of cares above 
 a load, aud maketh a pack-horse of men's souls, 
 when they are wholly set upon this world. We 
 owe the devil no such service. It were wisdom 
 to throw off that load into a mire, and cast all 
 our cares over upon God. 
 
 Be greedy of grace. Study above everything 
 to mortify your lusts. Oh, but pride of youth, 
 vanity, lust, idolizing of the world, and charming 
 pleasures, take long time to root them out ! As 
 far as ye are advanced in the way to heaven, as 
 near as ye are to Christ, as much progress as ye 
 have made in the way of mortification, ye will, 
 find that ye are far behind, and have most of the 
 work before you. When the day of visitation 
 cometh, and your old idols come weeping about 
 
80 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 you, you will have much ado not to break your 
 heart : it is the best to give up in time with them, 
 so ye could at a call quit your part of this world 
 for a drink of water, or a thing of nothing. 
 Verily, I have seen the best of this world, a 
 moth-eaten, threadbare coat; I purpose to lay it 
 aside, being now old and full of holes. Oh, for 
 my Father's house above, not made with hands. 
 
 Consider that your idol sins and ye cannot go 
 to heaven together ; and that they who will not 
 part with these cannot indeed love Christ at the 
 bottom, but only in word and show, which will 
 not do the business. 
 
 Bits of lordships are little to him who hath 
 many crowns on his head, and the kingdoms of 
 the world in the hollow of his hand. Court, 
 honor, glory, riches, stability of houses, favor of 
 princes, are all on his finger ends. 
 
 We seek to thaw our frozen hearts at the cold 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 81 
 
 smoke of the short-timed creature, and our souls 
 gather neither heat nor light; for these cannot 
 give to us what they have not in themselves. 
 
 Let all the world be nothing, (for nothing was 
 their seed and mother) and let God be all things. 
 
 As for friends, I will not think the world to be 
 the world if that well go not dry. I trust in God 
 to use the world as a canny, or cunning master 
 doth a knave-servant, (at least, God give me 
 grace to do so ;) he giveth him no handling nor 
 credit, only he entrusteth him with common 
 errands, wherein he cannot play the knave. I 
 pray God that I may not give the world the 
 credit of my joys, and comforts, and confidence — 
 that were to put Christ out of his office. 
 
 Join as ye do with Christ ; he is more worth 
 to you and your posterity than this world's may- 
 flowers, and withering riches and honor, that 
 
82 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 shall go away as smoke, and vanish in a night 
 vision, and shall, in one half-hour after the blast 
 of the Archangel's trumpet, lie in white ashes. 
 Draw by the lap of time's curtain, and look in 
 through the window, to great and endless eter- 
 nity, and consider if a worldly price (suppose this 
 little round clay globe of this ashy and dirty 
 earth, the dying idol of the fools of this world, 
 were all your own), can be given for one smile 
 of Christ's God-like and soul-ravishing counte- 
 nance, in that day when so many joints and knees 
 of thousand thousands wailing shall stand before 
 Christ, trembling, shouting, and making their 
 prayers to hills and mountains, to fall upon them, 
 and hide them from the face of the Lamb. Oh, 
 how many w T ould sell lordships and kingdoms 
 that day and buy Christ ! Eut, oh, the market 
 shall be closed and ended ere then ' 
 
 Nay, I think that this world, at its prime and 
 perfection, when it is come to the top of its excel- 
 lency, and to the bloom, might be bought with an 
 half-penny ; and that it would scarce weigh the 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOURNEY. 83 
 
 worth of a drink of water. There is nothing 
 better than to esteem it our crucified idol, that is 
 dead and slain, as Paul did, (Galatians vi. 14). 
 Then let pleasures be crucified, and riches be 
 crucified, and court and honor be crucified. 
 
 This world looketh not like heaven, and the 
 happiness that our tried souls would be at ; and, 
 therefore, it were good to seek about for the wind, 
 and hoist up our sails toward our New Jerusa- 
 lem, for that is our best. 
 
 PILGEIM CHOICE. 
 
 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
 thou hast the words of eternal life.— John vi. 68. 
 
 Then after this day convene all lovers before 
 your soul, and give them their leave ; and strike 
 hands with Christ that thereafter there may be no 
 happiness to you but Christ; no hunting for any- 
 thing but Christ ; no bed at night when death Com- 
 eth, but Christ — Christ, Christ, who but Christ! 
 
84 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 I know this much of Christ, that he is not ill to 
 be found, nor lordly of his love. Woe had been 
 my part of it forevermore, if Christ had made a 
 dainty of himself to me. But God be thanked, 
 I gave nothing for Christ ; and now I protest 
 before men and angels, that Christ cannot be 
 exchanged, that Christ cannot be sold, that 
 Christ cannot be weighed. "Where would angels, 
 or all the world find a balance to weigh him in ? 
 Ail lovers blush when ye stand beside Christ ! 
 Woe upon all love but the love of Christ ; hunger, 
 hunger forevermore be upon all heaven but 
 Christ; shame, shame forevermore be upon all 
 glory but Christ's glory! I cry death, death 
 upon all lives, but the life of Christ. Oh, what 
 is it that holdeth us asunder! oh, that once we 
 could have a fair meeting! 
 
 And, go withersoever ye will, if your Lord go 
 with you, ye are at home; and your lodging is 
 ever taken before night, so long as he, who is 
 Israel's dwelling-house is your home (Psalm 
 xc. 1). 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 85 
 
 Nay, he is unchangeable, and the same this 
 year that he was the former year. And his Son 
 Jesus, who upon earth ate and drank with pub- 
 licans and sinners, . . . and put out his 
 holy hand and touched the leper's filthy skin, and 
 came evermore nigh sinners, even now in glory, 
 is yet that same Lord : his honor and his great 
 court in heaven have not made him forget his 
 poor friends on earth ; in him honors change not 
 manners, and he doth yet desire your company. 
 
 Our love to him should begin on earth, as it 
 shall be in heaven. For, as the bride taketh 
 not by a thousand degrees so much delight in 
 her weddiug-garment as she doth in her bride- 
 groom, so we in the life to come, howbeit, clothed 
 with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much 
 affected with the glory that goeth about us as 
 with the Bridegroom's joyful face and presence. 
 
 And my own mind is, that if comparison were 
 made betwixt Christ and heaven, I would sell 
 
86 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 heaven, with my blessing, to buy Christ. Oh, if 
 I could raise the market for Christ, and heighten 
 the market a pound for a penny, and cry up 
 Christ in men's estimation ten thousand talents 
 more than men think of him ! But they are 
 shaping him, and crying him down their un- 
 worthy half-penny; or else exchanging and 
 bartering Christ with the miserable old fallen 
 house of this vain world. 
 
 What iron gates or bars are able to stand it 
 out against Christ? for when he bloweth they 
 open to him. 
 
 Go where ye will, your soul shall not sleep 
 sound but in Christ's bosom. Come in to him, 
 and rest you on the slain Son of God, and in- 
 quire for him. He hath made me a king over 
 the world. Princes cannot overcome him. 
 
 I think the angels may blush to look upon 
 him; and what am I, to defile such infinite 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 87 
 
 brightness with my sinful eyes ! Oh, that Christ 
 would come near, and stand still and give me 
 leave to look upon him ! for to look seemeth the 
 poor man's privilege, since he may for nothing 
 and without hire behold the sun. I should have 
 a king's life, if I had no other thing to do than 
 forevermore to behold and eye my fair Lord Jesus ; 
 nay, suppose I were holden out, at heaven's fair 
 entry, I should be happy for evermore to look 
 through a hole in the door, and see my dearest 
 and fairest Lord's face. Oh, great King, why 
 standest thou aloof? 
 
 Make him welcome, since he is come. " The 
 wind bloweth where it listeth," all the world's 
 wit cannot perfectly render a reason why the 
 wind should be a month in the east, six weeks, 
 possibly, in the west, and the space only of an 
 afternoon in the south or north. You will not 
 find out all the nicks and steps of Christ's way 
 with a soul, do what you can. 
 
 I know that as night and shadows are good for 
 
88 LIGHT FOR THE JOURXEY. 
 
 flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than 
 a continual sun, so is Christ's absence of special 
 use, and that it hath some nourishing virtue in 
 it, and giveth sap to humility, and putteth an 
 edge on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field to 
 faith to put forth itself, and to exercise its 
 fingers in gripping it seeth not what. 
 
 Put the beauty of ten thousand thousand 
 worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden, in 
 one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all 
 colors, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all love- 
 liness in one; oh, what a fair and excellent thing 
 this would be ; and yet it would be less to that 
 dear and fairest well-beloved Christ, than one 
 drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and 
 fountains of ten thousand earths. Oh, but 
 Christ is heaven's wonder and earth's wonder! 
 What marvel that his Bride saith, " He is al- 
 together lovely " ! 
 
 Oh, so long a chapter, or rather, so long a vol- 
 ume as Christ is, in that divinity of glory ! 
 
LIGHT GOR THE JOURNEY. Si* 
 
 There is no more of him let down now, to be 
 seen and enjoyed by his children, than as much 
 as may feed hunger in this life, but not satisfy it. 
 
 I fear that I adore his comforts more than 
 himself, and that I love the apples of life better 
 than the Tree of Life. 
 
 I had rather that a cloud .went over my com- 
 forts by these messages than that my faith should 
 be hurt ; for if my Lord get no wrong by me, 
 verily, I desire grace, not to care what become 
 of me. 
 
 But I wish he would give me grace to learn to 
 go on my own feet, and learn to do without his 
 comforts, and to give thanks and believe, when 
 the sun is not in my firmament, and when my 
 Well-beloved is from home, and gone on another 
 errand. 
 
 I but lie here living upon his love ; but cannot / 
 get so much of it as I fain would have ; not be- 
 
 8* 
 
90 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 cause Christ's love is lordly, and looketh too high, 
 but because I have a narrow vessel to receive his 
 love, and I look too low. 
 
 There is more to be had of Christ in this life 
 than I had believed ! We think all is but a 
 little earnest, a four-hours' [afternoon refresh- 
 ment] a small tasting, which we have, or that is 
 to be had of Christ in this life (which is true 
 compared with the inheritance) : but yet I know 
 it is more, it is the kingdom of God within U3. 
 
 God hath made many fair flowers, but the 
 sweetest of them all is heaven, and the flower of 
 all flowers is Christ. Oh, why do we not flee up 
 to that lovely one ? Alas, that there is such a 
 scarcity of love, and lovers of Christ among us ! 
 
 Oh, that our eyes and our soul's smelling 
 should go out after a blasted, and sun-burnt 
 flower, even this plastered fair-outsided world ; 
 and then we have neither eye nor smell for the 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 91 
 
 Flower of Jesse, for that Plant of Renown, for 
 Christ, the choicest, fairest, the sweetest rose that 
 ever God planted ! 
 
 And what an excellent smell doth Christ cast 
 on his lower garden, where there grow but wild 
 flowers, if we speak by way of comparison ; but 
 there is nothing but perfect garden flowers in 
 heaven, and the best plenishing that is there is 
 Christ. We are all obliged to love heaven for 
 Christ's sake. He is a Rose that beautifieth all 
 the upper garden- of God — a leaf of that rose of 
 God for smell is worth a world. 
 
 Let your soul put away your old loves, and 
 let Christ have your whole love. 
 
 I see Christ's love is so kingly that it will not 
 abide a marrow [a companion] ; it must have a 
 throne all alone in the soul. And I see that 
 apples beguile bairns, howbeit they may be worm- 
 eaten; the moth-eaten pleasures of this world 
 
92 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 make bairns believe ten is a hundred ; and yet 
 all are shadows. 
 
 And for myself, I am pained at the heart, that 
 I cannot find myself disposed to leave myself, 
 and go wholly into Christ. Alas, that there 
 should be one bit of me out of him, and that we 
 leave too much liberty and latitude for ourselves, 
 and our own ease, and credit, and pleasures, and 
 so little room for all-love-worthy Christ. 
 
 The Bridegroom himself is better than all the 
 ornaments that are about him. 
 
 PILGKIM EEST. 
 
 For we which have believed do enter into rest.— Hebrew iv. 3. 
 
 I know that in spiritual confidence the Devil 
 will come in, as in all other good works, and cry, 
 " Half mine!" and so endeavor to bring you under 
 a fearful sleep, till he, whom your soul loveth, be 
 departed from the door and have left off knock- 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 93 
 
 ing ; and, therefore, here the Spirit of God must 
 hold your soul's feet in the golden mid-line, be- 
 twixt confident resting in the arms of Christ and 
 presumptuous and drowsy sleeping in the bed 
 of fleshly security. 
 
 Oh, if we could take pains for the kingdom of 
 heaven ! but we sit down upon some ordinary 
 marks of God's children, thinking we have as 
 much as will separate us from a reprobate, and 
 thereupon we take the play and cry " Holiday," 
 and thus the Devil casteth water on our fire and 
 blunteth our zeal and care. 
 
 The Lord send us to the shore out of all the 
 storms, "with our silly souls whole and sound with 
 us; for if liberty of conscience come, as is ru- 
 mored, the best of us all will be put to our wits 
 to seek how to be freed. But we shall be of 
 those who have their chamber to go in unto 
 spoken of (Isaiah xxvi. 20). Read the place 
 yourself, and keep you within your house till the 
 storm be past. 
 
94 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Your faith may be boldly charitable of Christ, 
 that however matters go, the worst shall be a 
 tired traveler, and a joyful and a sweet welcome 
 home. The back of your winter-night is broken. 
 Look to the east, the day-sky is breaking ; think 
 not that Christ loseth time or lingereth unsuit- 
 ably. Oh, fair, fair and sweet morning ! We 
 are but as sea-passengers ; if we look right we 
 are upon our country coast. 
 
 I believe that the Lord tackleth his ship often 
 to fetch the wind, and that he purposeth to bring 
 mercy out of your sufferings and silence, which 
 (I know from mine own experience) is grievous 
 to you. Seeing that he knoweth our willing 
 mind to serve him, our wages and stipend is run- 
 ning to the fore, with our God, even as some sick 
 soldiers get pay when they are bedfast, and not 
 able to go to the field with others. " Though 
 Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in 
 the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my 
 strength." (Isaiah xlix. 5). 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 95 
 
 Christ seemed to cast me over the dyke of 
 the vineyard as a dry tree, and separated me 
 from the Lord's inheritance ; but high, high and 
 loud praises be to our royal crowned King in 
 Zion, that hath not burnt the dry branch. I 
 shall yet live, and see his glory. 
 
 PILGRIM FAEE. 
 
 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat : and 
 with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.— Psalm 
 lxxxi. 16. 
 
 The silly [poor] stranger in an unco [strange] 
 country, must take with smoky inn, and coarse 
 cheer, and a hard bed, and a barking, ill-tongued 
 host. It is not long to-day, and he will be to his 
 journey to-morrow, and leave them all. In- 
 deed, our fair morning is at hand, the day-star is 
 near the rising, and we are not many miles from 
 home ; what matter of ill entertainment in the 
 smoky inn of thi3 miserable life ? We are not to 
 stay here, and we shall be dearly welcome to him 
 whom we go to. 
 
96 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Christ's honey-combs drop so abundantly , that 
 they sweeten my gall. 
 
 Would ye have more than the Son of God? 
 and ye have him already; and ye shall be fed 
 by the carver of the meat, be that who he will ; 
 and those that are hungry look more to the meat 
 than to the carver. 
 
 God never thought this world a portion 
 worthy of you ; he would not even you to a gift 
 of dirt and clay; nay, he will not give you Esau's 
 portion ; but reserve the inheritance of Jacob for 
 you. 
 
 We buy our own sorrow, and we pay dear for 
 it, when we spend our love, our joy, our desires, 
 our confidence, upon a handful of sun and ice, 
 which time shall melt away to nothing, and go 
 thirsty out of a drunken inn, when all is done. 
 Alas, that we enquire not for the clear fountain! 
 but are so foolish as to drink foul, muddy waters, 
 even until our bed-time. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 97 
 
 Oh, what I want ! I want so many things 
 I am almost asking if I have anything at all. 
 Every man thinketh he is rich enough in grace 
 till he take out his purse, and tell his money, 
 and then he findeth his pack but poor and light 
 in the day of a heavy trial. I found that I had 
 not enough to bear my expenses, and I should 
 have fainted, if want and penury had not chased 
 me to the Storehouse of all. 
 
 I know not what to do with Christ ; his love 
 surroundeth and surchargeth me. I am bur- 
 dened with it, but oh, how sweet and lovely 
 is that burden ! I cannot keep it within me : I 
 am so in love with his love, that if his love were /\ 
 not in heaven, I should be unwilling to go 
 thither. Oh, what weighing and telling is in 
 Christ's love. 
 
 A misty dew will stand for rain and do some 
 good, and keep some greenness in the herbs, till 
 our Lord's clouds rise upon the earth, and send 
 down a watering of rain. Truly, I think Christ's 
 
98 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 misty dew a welcome message from heaven, till 
 mv Lord's rain fall. 
 
 The cooling well-spring, and refreshment from 
 the promises, are more than the frownings of the 
 furnace. . . . hold a distance from carnal com- 
 positions ; and much nearness to the Fountain, to 
 the favor and refreshing light from the Father 
 of Lights speaking in his oracles : this is sound 
 health and salvation. 
 
 Why none cometh dry from David's well. 
 Let us go among the rest, and cast down our 
 toom [empty] buckets into Christ's ocean. 
 
 But suppose my wishes were poor, he is not 
 poor ; Christ, all the season of the year is drop- 
 ping sweetness. If I had vessels I might fill 
 them, but my old, riven, and running-out dish, 
 even when I am at the well, can bring little 
 away. Nothing but glory will make tight and 
 fast our leaking and rifty vessels. How little of 
 the sea can a child carry in his hand ! As little 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOURNEY. 99 
 
 I dow [am able] to take away of my great sea, 
 my boundless and running-over Christ Jesus. 
 
 All our songs should be of his free grace. We 
 are but too lazy and careless in seeking of it ; it 
 is all our riches we have here, and glory in the 
 bud. I wish that I could set out free grace. I 
 was the Law's man, and under the law, and 
 under a curse ; but grace brought me from 
 under that hard load,. and I rejoice that I am 
 grace's freeholder. I pay tribute to none for 
 heaven, seeing my land and heritage holdeth of 
 Christ, my new King 
 
 My Lord now hath given me experience, 
 (howbeit weak and small) that our best fare here is 
 hunger. We are but at God's by-board in this 
 lower house, we have cause to long for supper 
 time, and the high table, up in the high palace ; 
 this world deserveth nothing, but the outer court 
 of our soul. Lord, hasten the marriage-supper 
 of the Lamb. 
 
100 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 Take with you in your journey what ye may 
 carry with you — your conscience, faith, hope, 
 patience, meekness, goodness, brotherly kindness, 
 for such wares as these are of great price in the 
 high and new Country whither ye go. As for 
 other things, which are but the world's vanity 
 and trash, since they are but the house-sweepings, 
 ye will do best not to carry them with you. Ye 
 found them here, leave them here, and let them 
 keep the house. 
 
 God send a joyful meeting ; and in the mean- 
 time the traveler's charges for the way, I mean a 
 burden of Christ's love to sweeten the journey 
 and to encourage a breathless runner ) for when 
 I lose breath climbing up the mountain, he 
 maketh new breath. 
 
 Christ once condemned sin in the flesh, and we 
 are to condemn it over again. And if there had 
 not been such a thing as the grace of Jesus, I 
 should long since have given up with heaven and 
 with the expectation to see God. But grace, 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 101 
 
 grace, free-grace, the merits of Christ for noth- 
 ing, white and fair, and large Saviour-mercy 
 (which is another sort of thing than creature- 
 mercy, or law-mercy, yea, a thousand degrees 
 above angel-mercy) have been and must be the 
 rock that we drowned souls must swim to. New 
 washing, renewed application of purchased re- 
 demption, by that sacred blood that sealeth the 
 free covenant, is a thing of daily and hourly use 
 to a poor sinner. 
 
 And thus I know it shall not stand upon my 
 want of money ; for Christ upon his own charges 
 must buy my wedding garment, and redeem the 
 inheritance which I have forfeited, and give his 
 wwds for one the like of me, who am not law- 
 biding of myself. Poor folks must either borrow 
 or beg from the rich ; and the only thing that 
 commendeth sinners to Christ is extreme neces- 
 sity and want. Christ's love is ready to make 
 and provide ransom-money for a poor body who) 
 hath lost his purse : " Ho, ye that have no money, 
 come, and bay," (Isaiah lv. 1) — that is the poor 
 man's market. 
 
102 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 I thought the guiding of grace had been no 
 art ; I thought it would come of will ; but I 
 would spoil my own heaven yet, if I had not 
 burdened Christ with all. I but lend my bare 
 name to the sweet covenant ; Christ, behind and 
 before, and on either side, maketh all sure. 
 
 PILGKIM PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one 
 thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching 
 forth unto those things which are before. 
 
 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God 
 in Christ Jesus. — Philippians iii. 13, 14. 
 
 Believe me that I find it hard wrestling to 
 play fair with Christ, and to keep good quarters 
 with him, and to love him in integrity and life, 
 and to keep a constant course of sound and solid 
 daily communion with Christ : temptations are 
 daily breaking the thread of that course, and it 
 is not easy to cast a knot again, and many knots 
 make evil work. Oh, how fairly have many 
 ships been plying before the wind, that in an 
 

 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 103 
 
 hour's space have been lying at the sea-bottom ! 
 How many professors cast a golden lustre, as if 
 they were pure gold, and yet are, under that skin 
 and cover, base and reprobate metal! And how 
 many keep breath in their race many miles, and 
 yet come short of the prize and the garland ! 
 
 For worldly things, seeing they are meadows 
 and fair flowers in your way to heaven, a smell 
 in the by-going is sufficient. He that would 
 reckon and tell all the stones in his way in a 
 journey of three or four hundred miles, and write 
 up in his count-book all the herbs and flowers 
 growing in his way, might come short of his 
 journey. Ye cannot stay, in your inch of time, 
 to lose your day (seeing that ye are in haste ; 
 and the night and afternoon will not bide you), 
 in setting your heart on this vain world. 
 
 I exhort you in the Lord, to go on in your 
 journey to heaven ; and to be content with such 
 fare by the way as Christ and his followers have 
 had before you ; for they had always the wind on 
 
104 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 their faces: and our Lord hath not changed the 
 way to us for our ease, but will have us following 
 our Sweet Guide. Alas, how doth sin clog us in 
 our journey and retard us! 
 
 / Set forward up the mountain to meet with 
 God ; climb up, for your Saviour calleth on you. 
 
 " To the overcomer I will give to sit with me 
 on my throne, as I overcame and am set down 
 with my Father on his throne." Consider, if ye 
 are not high up now, and far ben [admitted to 
 great familiarity] in the palace of our Lord, 
 when ye are upon a throne, in white raiment, at 
 lovely Christ's elbow. Oh, thrice fools are we, 
 who, like new-born princes weeping in the cradle, 
 know not that there is a kingdom before them !. 
 Then let our Lord's sweet hand square us, and 
 hammer us, and strike off the knots of pride, 
 self-love, and world-worship, and infidelity, that 
 he may make us stones and pillars in his Father's 
 house. 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 105 
 
 PILGEIM HOPES. 
 
 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stead- 
 fast, and which entereth into that within the veil. — Hebrew 
 vi. 19. 
 
 Surely it cannot be long till day. Nay, hear 
 him say, "Behold, I come, my dear Bride ; think 
 not long, I shall be at you at once ; I hear you 
 and am coming." Amen! Even so, come, Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly ; for the prisoners of hope 
 are looking out of the prison windows, to see if 
 they can behold the King's ambassadors coming 
 with the King's warrant, and the keys. 
 
 Ye will whisper it over betwixt yourselves, and 
 agree again ; for the anchor-tow abideth fast 
 within the veil ; the end of it is in Christ's ten 
 fingers — who dare pull if he hold ? " I, the Lord 
 thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying, Fear 
 not; I will help thee. Fear not, Jacob, (Isa. 
 xli: 13, 14.) The seasick passengers will come 
 to land — Christ will be the first that will meet 
 you on the shore. 
 
106 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 I cannot think but that at the first sight I shall 
 see of that most lovely and fairest face, love will 
 come out of his two eyes, and fill me with aston- 
 ishment. A borrowed vision in this life would 
 be my borrowed and begun heaven till the long- 
 looked-for day dawn. It is not for nothing it is 
 said, (Col. i. 27,) '"Christ in you the hope of 
 glory ! " I will be content of no pawn of heaven 
 but Christ himself; for Christ possessed by faith 
 here, is young heaven and glory in the bud. 
 
 . A land that has more than four summers in 
 in the year ! What a singing life is there ! There 
 is not a dumb bird in all that large field, but all 
 sing and breathe out heaven, joy, glory, domin- 
 ion, to the High Prince of that new-found land ! 
 And verily the land is sweeter that he is the 
 glory of that land. 
 
 Ye have lost a child — nay, she is not lost to 
 you, who is found to Christ; she is not sent 
 away, but only sent before ; like unto a star, 
 which, going out of our sight, doth not die and 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 107 
 
 vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere ; ye 
 see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. 
 If her glass was but a short hour, what she want- 
 eth of time, that she hath gotten of eternity ; and 
 ye have to rejoice that ye have now some plenish- 
 ing up in heaven. Build your nest upon no tree 
 here ; for ye see that God hath sold the forest to 
 death ; and every tree whereupon we would rest, 
 is ready to be cut down, to 'the end that we 
 might flee, and mount up, and build upon the 
 Rock, and dwell in the holes of the Rock. 
 
 But I cannot tell you what is to come ; yet I 
 may speak as doth our Lord of it. The founda- 
 tion of the city is pure gold, clear as crystal ; the 
 twelve parts are set with precious stones : if or- 
 chards and rivers commend a soil upon earth, 
 there is a paradise there wherein groweth the 
 Tree of Life that beareth twelve manner of fruits 
 every month, which is seven score and four har- 
 vests in the year ; and there is there a pure river 
 of water of life proceeding out of the throne of 
 
108 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 God and the Lamb ; and the city hath no need 
 of the light of the sun, or moon, or of a candle ; 
 for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are 
 the light thereof. Jesus is saying in the gospel, 
 '• Come and see ; " and he is come down in the 
 chariot of truth, wherein he rideth through the 
 world to conquer men's souls (Psalms xlv. 4), 
 and is now in the world, saving " Who will go 
 with me ? Will ye go ? My Father will make 
 you welcome, and give you house-room ; for in 
 my Father's house are many dwelling places." 
 Madam, consent to go with him. 
 
 Go up beforehand and see your lodging. Look 
 through all your Father's rooms in heaven ; in 
 your Father's house are many dwelling-places — 
 men take a view of lands ere they buy them. 
 I know that Christ hath made the bargain al- 
 ready ; but be kind to the house ye are going to, 
 and see it often. Set your heart on things above, 
 where Christ is at the right hand of God. 
 
 I know that ye are minding your sweet country, 
 
LIGHT FOE THE JOUKNEY. 109 
 
 and not taking your inn (the place of your ban- 
 ishment) for your house. This life is not worthy 
 to be the thatch or outer wall of the paradise of 
 your Lord Jesus, that he did sweat for to you, 
 and that he keepeth for you. Short and silly, 
 and sand-blind were our hope, if it could not 
 look over the water to our best heritage, and if 
 it stayed only at home, about the doors of our 
 clay house. 
 
 He must go and come, because his infinite 
 wisdom thinketh it best for you. We shall be 
 together one day. We shall not need to borrow 
 light from sun, moon, or candle. There shall be 
 no complaints on either side in heaven ; there 
 shall be none there but he and we, the Bride- 
 groom and the Bride ; devils, temptations, trials, 
 desertions, losses, sad hearts, pain and death, shall 
 all be put out of play ; and the devil must give 
 up his office of tempting. Oh, blessed is the soul 
 whose hope hath a face looking straight out to 
 that day ! It is not our part to make a treasure 
 here; anything under the covering of heaven 
 10 
 
110 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 which we can build upon, is but ill ground and a 
 Bandy foundation. 
 
 Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted 
 
 thread, as " I imagine so," or " It is likely ;" but 
 the cable, the strong towe of our fastened anchor, 
 is the oath and promise of him who is eternal 
 verity ; our salvation is fastened with God's own 
 hand and with Christ's own strength, to the 
 strong stoup [post] of God's unchangeable nature 
 (Malachi iii. 6). 
 
 PILGKIM WAGES. 
 
 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is your reward in 
 Leaven.— Matthew v. 12. 
 
 One year's time of heaven shall swallow up 
 all sorrows, even beyond all comparison. What 
 then will not a duration of blessedness so long as 
 God shall live, fully and abundantly recompense? 
 
 His gold is better than yours, and his hundred- 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. Ill 
 
 fold is the income and rent of heaven, and far 
 above your revenues : ye are not the first who 
 have casten up your accounts that way. Better 
 have Christ your factor than any other, for he 
 tradeth to the advantage of his poor servants. 
 But if the hundred-fold in this life be so well 
 told — as Christ cannot pay you with miscounting 
 or deferred hope — oh, what must the rent of that 
 Land be ! 
 
 Keep that which ye have, ye will get more in 
 heaven. 
 
 I would not have believed that there is so 
 much in Christ as there is. " Come and see," 
 maketh Christ to be known in his excellency and 
 glory. I wish all this nation knew how sweet 
 his breath is. It is little to see Christ in a book, 
 as men do the world in a card [chart] ; they talk 
 of Christ, by the book and tongue, and no more ; 
 but to come nigh Christ, and embrace him, is 
 another thing. 
 
 I know that his comforts are no dreams : he 
 
112 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 would not put his seal on blank paper, nor de- 
 ceive his afflicted ones that trust in him. 
 
 Nay, since I came to Aberdeen, I have been 
 taken up to see the New Land, the fair palace 
 of the Lamb ; and will Christ let me see heaven 
 to break my heart, and never give it to me : I 
 shall not think that my Lord Jesus giveth a 
 dumb earnest. 
 
 It is the infinite God-head that must allay the 
 sharpness of your hunger after happiness ; other- 
 wise there shall be a want of satisfaction to your 
 desires ; and if he would cast in ten worlds with 
 your desires, all shall fall through, and your soul 
 will still cry — " Red hunger, black hunger " — 
 but I am sure there is sufficient for you in Christ, 
 if ye had seven souls and seven desires iu you. 
 
 If God has given you the earnest of the Spirit, 
 as part payment of God's principal sum, ye have 
 to rejoice ; for our Lord will not lose his earnest, 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 113 
 
 neither will he go back nor repent him of the 
 bargain. If ye find sometime a longing to see 
 God, joy in the assurance of that sight, howbeit 
 that feast be but like the Passover, that cometh 
 about only once a year. Peace of conscience, 
 liberty of prayer, the doors of God's treasure 
 casten up to the soul, and a clear sight of himself 
 looking out, and saying, with a smiling counte- 
 nance, " Welcome to me, afflicted soul," this is 
 the earnest that he giveth sometimes, and which 
 maketh glad the heart, and is an evidence that 
 the bargain will hold. 
 
 I am believed to be something, and I am 
 nothing but an empty reed : wants are my best 
 riches, because I have these supplied by Christ. 
 
 I could not wish a sweeter life, or more satis- 
 fying expressions of kindness, till I be up at the 
 Prince of Kindness, than the Lord's saints find, 
 when the Lord taketh up men's refuse, and lodg- 
 
 eth this world's outlaws, whom no man seeketh 
 10* 
 
114 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 after. His breath is never so hot, his love cast- 
 eth never such a flame, as when this world, and 
 those who should be the helpers of our joy, cast 
 - water on our coal. It is a sweet thing to see 
 them cast out, and God take in ; and to see 
 them thrown away, as the refuse of men, and 
 God take us up as his jewels and his treasure. 
 Often he maketh gold as dross, as once he made 
 the castaway Stone, the Stone rejected by the 
 builders, the Head of the corner. The princes 
 of this world would not have our Lord Jesus as 
 a pinning in the wall, or to have any place in 
 the building; but the Lord made him the Master- 
 stone of power and place. 
 
 I dare avouch to all that know God, that the 
 saints know not the length and largeness of the 
 sweet earnest, and of the sweet green sheaves 
 before the harvest, that might be had on this side 
 of the water, if we would take more pains ; and 
 that we all go to heaven with less earnest, and 
 lighter purses of the hoped-for sum, than other- 
 wise we might do, if we took more pains to win 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 115 
 
 further in upon Christ, in this pilgrimage of our 
 absence from him. 
 
 Half a draught, or a drop of the wine of con- 
 solation, that is up at our banqueting house, out 
 of Christ's own hand, would make our stomachs 
 loathe the brown bread and the sour drink of a 
 miserable life. Oh, how far are we bereaved of 
 wit, to chase, and hunt, and run, till our souls be 
 out of breath, after a condemned happiness of 
 our own making. 
 
 Kemember when the race is ended, and the 
 play either won or lost, and ye are in the utmost 
 circle and border of time, and shall put your 
 foot within the march of eternity, and all your 
 good things of this short night-dream shall seem 
 to you like the ashes of a bleeze of thorns or 
 straw, and your poor soul shall be crying, " Lodg- 
 ing, lodging for God's sake !" then shall your soul 
 be more glad at one of your Lord's lovely and 
 homely smiles, than if you had the charter of 
 three worlds for all eternity. 
 
116 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 I perceive we frist [postpone] all our joys to 
 Christ, till he and we be in our own house above, 
 as married parties — thinking that there is noth- 
 ing of it here to be sought or found, but only 
 hope and fair promises ; and that Christ will 
 give us nothing here but tears, sadnesses, and 
 crosses ; and that we shall never feel the smell 
 of the flowers of that high garden of paradise 
 above till we come there. Nay, but I find that 
 it is possible to find young glory, and a young, 
 green paradise of joy, even here. 
 
 Is it not great art and incomparable wisdom in 
 my Lord, who can bring forth such fair apples 
 out of the crabbed tree of the cross? Nay, my 
 Father's never-enough admired providence can 
 make a fair feast out of a black devil. Nothing 
 can come wrong to my Lord in his sweet working. 
 
 Necessity must not blush to beg. 
 
 Blessed be my rich Lord Jesus, who sendeth 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 117 
 
 not away beggars from his house with a toom 
 [empty] dish. Pie filleth the vessels of such as 
 will come and seek. We might beg ourselves 
 rich (if we were wise) if we could hold out our 
 withered hands to Christ, and learn to suit and 
 seek, ask aud knock. 
 
 PILGRIM'S VALUE. 
 
 I will make a man more precious than fine gold : even a man 
 than the golden wedge of Ophir. — Tsaiah xiii. 12. 
 
 Gold may be gold and bear the king's stamp 
 upon it, when it is trampled upon by men. 
 
 God be thanked, that this world has not power 
 to cry us down so many pounds, as rulers cry 
 down light gold or light silver ; we shall stand 
 for as much as our Master-coiner, Christ, whose 
 coin, arms, and stamp we bear, will have us — 
 Christ hath no miscarrying balance. 
 
 We forget that as our gifts and light grow, so 
 
118 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 God's gain, and the interests of his talents should 
 grow also. 
 
 PILGRIM END. 
 
 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive 
 me to glory.— Psalm lxxiii. 24. 
 
 If our dear Lord pluck up one of his roses, and 
 pull down sour and green fruit before the harvest, 
 who can challenge him? for he sendeth us to his 
 world, as men to a market, wherein some stay 
 many hours, and eat and drink, and buy and 
 sell, and pass through the fair till they be weary; 
 and such are these who live long, and get a 
 hearty fill of this life ; and others again come 
 slipping in to the morning market, and do neither 
 sit nor stand, nor buy nor sell, but look about 
 them a little, and pass presently home again; 
 and these are infants and young ones, who end 
 their short market in the morning, and get but a 
 short view of the fair. Our Lord, who hath 
 numbered man's months and set him bounds that 
 he cannot pass, hath written the length of our 
 
LIGHT FOE, THE JOUPwNEY. 119 
 
 market ; and it is easier to complain of the decree 
 than to change it. 
 
 Write up your depursements [disbursements] I 
 for your Master, Christ, and keep count of what 
 ye give out, whether name, credit, goods, or life, 
 and suspend your reckoning till nigh the even- 
 ing ; and remember that a poor weak servant of 
 Christ wrote it to you, that ye shall have Christ, 
 a King, caution [surety] for your incomes and \ 
 and all your losses. Reckon not from the fore- ^ 
 noon. Take the word of God for your warrant, 
 and for Christ's act of cautionry [suretyship] 
 howbeit, body, life, and goods go for Christ your 
 Lord, and though ye should lose the head for 
 him ; yet there shall not one hair of your head I 
 perish ; in patience therefore possess your soul. 
 
 Violent death is a sharer with Christ in his 
 death, which was violent. It maketh not much 
 what way we go to heaven ; the happy home is 
 all, where the roughness of the way shall be for- 
 gotten. He is gone home to a Friend's house, and 
 
120 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 made welcome ; and the race is ended ; time is 
 recompensed with eternity, and copper with gold. 
 God's order is in wisdom. The husband goeth 
 home before the wife; and the throng of the 
 market shall be over ere it be long, and another 
 generation where we now are ; and at length an 
 empty house, and not one of mankind, shall be 
 upon the earth; within the sixth part of an hour 
 after, the earth and the works that are therein 
 shall be burnt up with fire. 
 
 " Such a one I must have, and such a soul I 
 cannot live in heaven without," And believe it, 
 it is incomprehensible love that Christ saith, "If 
 I enjoy the glory of my Father, and the crown 
 of heaven far above men and angels, I must use 
 all means, though ever so violent, to have the 
 company of such a one forever and ever." 
 
 As some corn is not lost, for there is more hope 
 of that which is sown than of that which is eaten, 
 (1 Cor. xv. 42,) so also is it in the Resurrection 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 121 
 
 of the dead ; " the body is sown in corruption, 
 it is raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dis- 
 honor, it is raised in glory." I hope that ye wait 
 for the crop and the harvest, " for if we believe 
 that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
 who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 
 
 Death is but an awsome step over time and sin 
 to sweet Jesus . Christ, who knew and felt the 
 worst of death ; for death's teeth hurt him. We 
 know death hath no teeth now, no jaws, for they 
 are broken. It is a free prison, citizens pay 
 nothing for the grave; the jailor who had the 
 power of death, is destroyed : praise and glory 
 be to the First-begotten from the dead. 
 
 If death, which is before you and us all, were 
 any other thing than a friendly dissolution and a 
 change, not a destruction of life, it would seem a 
 hard voyage to go through such a sad and dark 
 trance [passage], so thorny a valley is the wages 
 of sin. But I am confident, the way ye know, 
 
122 LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 
 
 though your foot never trod in that black 
 shadow. The loss of life is gain to you. If 
 Christ Jesus be the Period, the End, and Lodg- 
 ing-home, at the end of your journey, there is 
 no fear, ye go to a Friend. And since ye have 
 had a communion with him in this life, and he 
 hath a pawn or pledge of yours, even the largest 
 share of your love and heart, ye may look death 
 in the face with joy. If the heart be in heaven, 
 the remnant of you cannot be kept the prisoner 
 of the Second Death. But though he be the same 
 Christ in the other life that ye found him to be 
 here, yet he is so far in his excellency, beauty, 
 sweetness, irradiations, and beams of majesty, 
 above what he appeared here, when he is seen 
 what he is, that ye shall misken him, and he 
 shall appear a new Christ. 
 
 Ye would no doubt bestow a day's journey, 
 yea, many days' journey, on earth to go up to 
 heaven, and fetch down anything of Christ ; how 
 much more may ye be willing to make a journev 
 to go in person to heaven (it is not lost time, but 
 
LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY. 123 
 
 gained eternity), to enjoy the full God-head? 
 And then, in such a manner as he is there, not 
 in his weekdays' apparel, as he is here with us in 
 a drop or tenth-part of a night's dewing of grace 
 and sweetness ; but he is there in his marriage- 
 robe of glory, richer, more costly, more precious, 
 in one hem or button of that garment of Foun- 
 tain-majesty than a million of worlds. Oh, the 
 well is deep ! Ye shall then think that preachers 
 and sinful ambassadors on earth, did but spill 
 [spoil] and mar his praises, when they spoke of 
 him, and preached his beauty. 
 

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