Christian letters full of spiritual instructions tending to the promoting of the power of…

O my Pylades, what shall I say unto thee now I begin to write, where shall I begin, when shall I end? methinks I am as a full Bottle quite inverted, where the forward pressing of the overhasty liquor makes the evacuation more flow, and my thoughts are like a thronging crowd sticking in the door.

O my Pylades, what shall I say unto thee now I begin to write, where shall I begin, when shall I end? methinks I am as a full Bottle quite inverted, where the forward pressing of the overhasty liquor makes the evacuatin more flow, and my thoughts are like a thronging croud sticking in the door.

Long is the song of love that I have to tell thee, I rejoice in the constancy of thy love, that the waters of so long a silence, and so great a distance have not yet quenched it, but thy desires are towards me, and thy heart is with me, though providence hath hindered me from thy much desired company. I will assure thee it hath been a pleasure to my heart a good part of this summer to hope that I should come one half of the way to give thee a meeting; but such is my weakness hitherto, that I am forced to put off those hopes till the Spring, when, if God give me strength to ride, I intend to see thee before mine own Home. I thank thee for all the dear expressions of thy fervent love: Methinks I see it, and feel how it runs through all the veins of every •etter, nay, ⟨p. 124⟩every Line? I needed not so chargeable a Testimony as thy golden Token, with which I was something displeased, because I thought thou needest more than my self: but the love thereby expressed is most dearly welcome to me. What thou talkest of Retribution, and of Justice, doth not so well relish with me, because the Phrases seem improper to the love profest between us, I never looked for any return from thee but love, which is the paying of all thy Debts: my expenses have indeed been vast and almost incredible; but surely goodness, and mercy hath followed me, and do follow me in every place, and in every change of my condition; so that as to temporals I have lack of nothing, and as for spirituals I abound and superabound, and the streams of my comforts have been full and running over; the joy of the Lord hath been my strength at weakest, and in the multitude of my thoughts within me, his comforts have refreshed my Soul, I have found God a satisfying portion to me, and have sat down under his shadow with full delights, and his fruit is most sweet to my taste: he is my strength and my Song, for I will talk of him, and write of him with perpetual pleasure. Through grace, I can say, methinks I am now in my Element, since I have begun to make mention of him, I am rich in him, and happy in him, and my soul saith unto him with Divid, Thou hast made me most Blessed for evermore, and happy is the hour that ever I was born to be made partaker of so blissful a Treasure, so endless a felicity, so Angelical Prerogatives, as I have in him; O sweet are his converses, how delightful it is to Triumph in his Love!