A57970:371
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 59: To the Lady Busby. (59)Part 1 › Letter 59: To the Lady Busbie. (59)
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 the Lady Busby. (59)
To the Lady Busbie. (59)
MISTRESS.
Grace, mercy & peace be to you. I am glad to hear that Christ & ye are one, & that ye have made him your one thing: Whereas many are painfully t•iled in seeking many things & their many things are nothing. It's only best, ye set your self apart as a thing laid up & out of the gate for Christ alone, for ye are good for no other thing but Christ, & he ⟨p. 132⟩hath been going about you these many years by afflictions, to engage you to himself, it were a pity & a loss to say him nay. Verily I could wish, that I could swim through hell & all the ill weather in the world & Christ in my arms; but it is my evil & folly, that except Christ come unsent for, I dow not go to seek, him: When he & I fall in reckoning, we are both behind, he in payment, & I in counting, & so marches lie still unrid & counts uncleared betwixt us. O that he would take his own blood for counts & miscounts, that I might be a free man, & none had any claim to me, but only, only Jesus. I will think it no bondage to be roped, comprised & possessed by Christ, as his bond-man. Think well of the visitations of your Lord: For I find one thing I saw not well before, that when the saints are under trials & well humbled, little sins raise great cries & war-shouts in the conscience; & in prosperity conscience is a Pope to give dispensations, & let out & in, & give latitude, & elbow-room to our heart. O how little care we for pardon at Christ's hand, when we make dispensations! And all is but bairns-play, till a cross without, beget an heavier cross within, & then we play no longer with our Idols: It is good still to be severe against ourselves, for we but transform God's mercy into an Idol, & an Idol that hath a dispensation to give for turning of the grace of God into wantonness. Happy are they who take up God, wrath, justice & sin, as they are in themselves: For we have miscarrying light that parteth with child, when we have good resolutions: But God be thanked that Salvation is not rolled upon our wheels. O but Christ hath a saving eye! Salvation is in his eye-lids: When he first looked on me, I was saved; It cost him but a look to make hell quite of me: O merits, free merits, & the dear blood of God, was the best gate that ever we could have gotten of hell! O what a sweet, O what a safe & sure way is it, to come out of hell leaning on a Saviour!