Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

your troubles are many & great, yet not an ounce-weight beyond the measure of infinite wisdom, I hope, not beyond the measure of grace that he is to bestow; for our Lord never yet brake the back of his child, nor spilt his own work: nature's plastering & counterfeit work he doeth often break in shards, & putteth out a candle not lighted at the Sun of righteousness; but he must cherish his own reeds & handle them softly, never a reed getteth a thrust with the Mediator's hand to lay together the two ends of the reed. O what bonds & ligaments hath our Chirurgeon of broken spirits, to bind up all his lame & bruised ones with! cast your disjointed spirit in his lap, & lay your burden upon one who is so willing to take your cares & your fears off you, & to exchange & niffer your crosses, & to give you new for old & gold for iron, even to give you garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. It's true in a great part what ye write of this Kirk, that the letter of Religion only is reformed & scarce that: I do not believe out Lord will build his Zion in this land, upon this skin of Reformation: ⟨p. 507⟩so long as our scum remaineth & our heart-idols are kept, this work must be at a stand; and therefore our Lord must yet sift this land and search us with candles; and I know, he shall give and not sell us his Kingdom: his Grace and our remaining guiltiness must be compared, & the one must be seen in the glory of it and the other in the sinfulness of it: But I desire to believe and would gladly hope to see, that the glancing and shining lustre of glory, coming from the diamonds and stones set in the crown of our Lord Jesus, shall cast rays and beams many thousand miles about. I hope Christ is upon a great Marriage, and that his wooing and suiting of his excellent Bride, doeth take it's beginning from us the ends of the earth. O what joy and what glory would I judge it, if my heaven should be suspended, till I might have leave to run on foot, to be a witness of that Marriage-glory, & see Christ put on the glory of his last married Bride and his last Marriage-love on earth, when he shall enlarge his love bed and set it upon the top of the mountains, and take in the elder Sister, the Jews, and the fullness of the Gentiles!

your troubles are many & great, yet not an ounce-weight beyond the measure of infinite wisdom, I hope, not beyond the measure of grace that he is to bestow; for our Lord never yet brake the back of his childe, nor spilt his own work: nature's plastering & counterfit work he doeth often break in sheards, & putteth out a candle not lighted at the Sun of righteousness; but he must cherish his own reeds & handle them softly, never a reed getteth a thrust with the Mediator's hand to lay together the two ends of the reed. O what bonds & ligaments hath our Chirurgion of broken spirits, to binde up all his lame & bruised ones with! cast your disjoynted spirit in his lap, & lay your burden upon one who is so willing to take your cares & your fears off you, & to exchange & niffer your crosses, & to give you new for old & gold for iron, even to give you garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. It's true in a great part what ye write of this Kirk, that the letter of Religion onely is reformed & scarce that: I doe not beleeve out Lord will build his Zion in this land, upon this skin of Reformation: