A57970:209
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 28: To his Honoured & Dear Brother, ALEXAND: GORDON of KNOCKGRAY. (28)
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 his Honoured & Dear Brother, ALEXAND: GORDON of KNOCKGRAY. (28)
Dearest & truly honoured Brother,
Grace, mercy & peace be to you: I have seen no letter from you since I came to Aberdeen; I will no tinterpret it to be forgetfulness. I am here in a fair prison, Christ is my sweet & honourable fellow-prisoner, & I his sad & joyful Lord prisoner, [if I may speak so.] I think this cross becometh me well, & is suitable to me in respect of my duty to suffer for Christ; howbeit not in regard of my deserving, to be thus honoured. However it be, I see Christ is strong, even lying in the dust, in prison, and in banishment. Losses & disgraces are the wheels of Christs triumphing chariot. In the sufferings of his own saints, as he intendeth their good, so he intendeth his own glory, & that is the butte his arrows shoot at, & Christ shooteth not at the tovers, he hitteth what he purposeth to hit: Therefore he doeth make his own feckless & weak nothing's, & these who are the contempt of men, a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, to thresh the mountains, & beat them small, & to make the hills as chaff, & to fan them. Isa. 51: 15, 16. What harder stuff, or harder grain for threshing out, then high and rocky mountains? But the Saints are ⟨p. 66⟩Gods threshing instruments to beat them all in chaff: are we not Gods leem vessels, & yet when they cast us over an house, we are not broken in shards: we creep in under our Lords wings in the great shower, & the water cannot go through these wings. It is folly then for men to say, this is not Christs plea, he will lose the wed-fee, men are like to beguile him: that were indeed a strange play. Nay I dare pledge my soul, & lay it in pawn on Christs side of it, & be half-tiner half-winner with my Master: Let fools laugh the fool's laughter, & scorn Christ, & bid the weeping captives in Babylon, sing us one of the songs of Zion, play a spring to cheer up your sad-hearted God: We may sing upon lucks head before hand, even in our winter-storm, in the expectation of a summer-sun at the turn of the year: no created powers in hell or out of hell, can mar our L. Jesus his music, nor spill our song of joy: let us then be glad & rejoice in the salvation of our Lord; for faith had never yet cause to have wet cheeks, & hinging down brows, or to droop or die: what can ail faith, seeing Christ suffereth himself, (with reverence to him be it spoken) to be commanded by it; & Christ commandeth all things: