A57970:1314
Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters
Joshua redivivus, or, Mr. Rutherford's letters divided into two parts, the first, containing these which were written from Aberdeen, where he was confined by a sentence of the high commission ... partly on account of his non-conformance : the second, containing some which were written from Anwoth ... / now published for the use of all the people of God ... by a well-wisher to the work & people of God.Joshua redivivus, or, Mr. Rutherfoord's letters divided into two parts, the first, containing these which were written from Aberdeen, where he was confined by a sentence of the high commission ... partly on account of his non-conformance : the second, containing some which were written from Anwoth ... / now published for the use of all the people of God ... by a wellwisher to the work & people of God.
Rotterdam? : s.n., 1664
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
To Mr JAMES WILSON. (31)
Dear Brother
Grace, mercy & peace be multiplied upon you: I bless our rich & only wise Lord, who careth so for his new creation, that he is going over it again & trying every piece in you, & blowing away the motes of his new work in you. Alas! I am not so fit a Physician as your disease requireth: sweet, sweet, lovely Jesus be your Physician, where his under-Chirurgeons cannot do any thing for putting in order the wheels, paces, & goings of a marred soul. I have little time; but yet the Lord ⟨p. 499⟩hath made me so concern my self in your condition that I dow not, I dare not be altogether silent. First, ye doubt from. 2 Cor. 13: 5. whether ye be in Christ or not, & so whether ye be a reprobate or not? I answer three things to the doubt. 1. Ye owe charity to all men, but most of all, to lovely & loving Jesus, & some also to your self, especial to your renewed self; because your new self is not yours but another Lord's, even the work of his own Spirit: therefore to slander his work is to wrong himself: Love thinketh no evil: if ye love Grace, think not ill of Grace in your self; and ye think ill of Grace in your self, when ye make it but a bastard and a work of nature: for a holy fear that ye be not Christ's, and withal a care and a desire to be his & not your own, is not, nay cannot be bastard nature. The great Advocate pleadeth hard for you, be upon the Advocate's side, O poor feared client of Christ! stay & side with such a lover, who pleadeth for no other man's goods but his own [for he, if I may say so, scorneth to be enriched with an unjust conquest] and yet he pleadeth for you, whereof your letter [though too too full of jealousy] is a proof: for if ye were not his, your thoughts, which I hope are but the suggestion of his Spirit (that only bringeth the matter in debate to make it sure to you) would not be such nor so serious as these, am I his? or whose am I? 2. Dare ye forswear your owner, and say in cold blood, I am not his? what nature or corruption saith at starts in you, I regard not: your thoughts of your self, when sin and guiltiness round you in the ear, and when ye have a sight of your deservings, are Apocrypha and not Scripture, I hope. Hear what the Lord saith of you, he will speak peace: if your Master say, I quite you, I shall then bid you eat ashes for bread and drink waters of gall and wormwood.