A57970:1429
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.
MADAM.
Grace, mercy & peace be to you: It hath seemed good [as I hear] to him who hath appointed a bounds for the number of our months, to gather-in a sheaf of ripe corn [in the death of your Christian Mother] into his garner: It's the more evident that winter is near, when apples without violence of wind, do of their own accord fall off the tree. She is now above the winter, with a little change of place, not of a Saviour, only she enjoyeth him now without messages & in his own immediate presence, from whom she heard by letters & messengers before. I grant, Death is to her a very new thing, but Heaven was prepared of old: & Christ, as enjoyed in his highest throne & as loadē with glory & incomparably exalted above men & Angels, having such a heavenly Circle of glorified harpers & Musicians above, compassing the throne with a song, is to her a new thing; but so new, as the first summer-rose or the first fruits of that heavenly field, or as a new Paradise to a traveller broken & worn out of breath with the sad occurrences of a long & dirty way. Ye may easily judge, Madam, what a large recompense is made to all her service, her walking with God, & her sorrows, with the first cast of the soul's eye upon the shining & admirably beautiful face of the Lamb that is in the midst of that fair & white Army that is there, & with the first draught & taste of the fountain of life fresh & new at the well-head: To say nothing of the enjoying of that face without a date, for more then this term of life which we now enjoy. And it cost her no more to go thither, but to suffer Death to do her this piece of service: For by him who was dead & is alive, she was delivered from the second death: What then is the first death to the second? Not a scratch of the hide of a singer, to the endless second death. And now she •itteth for eternity meal-free, in a very considerable Land, which hath more then four summers ⟨p. 544⟩in the year: O what Spring-time is there! Even the smelling of the odours of that great & eternally blooming Rose of Sharon for ever & ever? What a singing life is there? There is not a dumb bird in all that large field, but all sing & breath out heaven, joy, glory, dominion, to the high Prince of that new found Land. And verily the Land is the sweeter, that Jesus Christ payed so dear a rent for it, & he is the glory of the Land.