A57970:192
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
Part 1 › Letter 24: To a Gentle Woman after the Death of her Husband. (24)
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 Gentle Woman after the Death of her Husband. (24)
Dear & loving sister, I know ye are minding your sweet country & not taking your Inns [the place of your banishment] for your home; this life is not worthy to be the thatch or outer wall of your Lord Jesus his paradise, that he did sweat ⟨p. 57⟩for to you, & that he keepeth for you: Short, & silly, & sandblind were our hope, if it could not look over the water to our best heritage, and if it stayed only at home about the doors of our clay-house. I marvel not my dear sister, that ye complain that ye come short of your old wrestlings you had for a blessing, and that now you find it not so, bairns are but hired to learn their lesson when they first go to school; and it is enough that these who run a race see the gold only at the starting place; and possibly they see little more of it, or nothing at all, till they win to the rink's-end and get the gold in the loof of their hand: Cur Lord maketh delicates and dainties of his sweet presence and love-visits to his own, but Christs love under a veil is love, if ye get Christ, howbeit not the sweet and pleasant way you would have him, it is enough, for the well-beloved cometh not our way, he must wail his own gate himself. For worldly things, seeing they are meadows and fair flowers in your way to heaven, a smell in the by-going is sufficient: he that would reckon and tell all the stones in his way, in a journey of three or four hundred miles, and write up in his count book all the herbs, and flowers growing in his way, might come short of his journey, you cannot stay in your inch of time to lose your day (seeing you are in haste, and the night and your after-noon will not bide you) in setting your heart on this vain world, it were your wisdom to read your count book & to have in readiness your business against the time you come to deaths water-side: I know your lodging is taken, your forerunner Christ, hath not forgotten that, & therefore you must set your self to your one thing, which ye cannot well want. In that our Lord took your husband to himself, I know it was that he might make room for himself: he cuteth off your love to the creature, that ye might learn that God only is the right owner of your love, sorrow, loss, sadness, death, or the worst things that are, except sin: