A57970:1407
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 a Christian Gentlewoman. (48)
MISTRESS.
Grace, mercy & peace be to you: If Death, which is before you & us all, were any other thing but a friendly dissolution, & a change, not a destruction of Life, it would seem a hard voyage to go through such a sad & dark trance, so thorny a valley, as is the wages of sin: but I am confident, the way ye know, 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 & lodging-home at the end of your journey, there is no fear ye go to a friend: & since ye have had a communion with him in this life, & he hath a pawn & pledge of yours, even the largest share of your love & 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, ye found him to be ⟨p. 536⟩here, yet he is so far in his excellency, beauty, sweetness, irradiations & beams of Majesty, above what he appeared here, when he is seen as he is, that ye shall misken him, & he shall appear a new Christ, & his kisses, breathings, embracements, the perfume; the ointment of his name poured out on you, shall appear to have more of God, & a stronger smell of heaven, of eternity, of a Godhead, of Majesty & glory there, then here: As water at the fountain, apples in the orchard & beside the tree, have more of their native sweetness, taste & beauty, then when transported to us some hundred miles. I mean not that Christ can lose any of his sweetness in the carrying, or that he in his Godhead and loveliness of presence, can be changed to the worse, betwixt the little spot of the earth ye are in, and the right hand of the father far above all heavens; but the change will be in you, when ye shall have new senses, and the soul shall be a more deep & more capacious vessel to take in more of Christ; and when means, the chariot, the Gospel that he is now carried in, and ordinances that convey him, shall be removed: sure ye cannot now be said to see him face to face, or to drink of the wine of the highest fountain, or to take in seas and tides of fresh love, immediately, without vessels, mids's or messengers, at the fountain it self, as ye shall do a few days hence: when ye shall be so near as to be with Christ,