Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

& in this low ebb, ye see how the patient, is pained with absence; & what a panting there is for a sensible presence; the soul as it were is evaporate in such wishes as these, O when wilt thou come unto me! Or, O when shall I come & appear before thee, & be put once for all, & for ever beyond the fear of the arising of any cloud to eclipse the light of thy countenance! The soul in this absence, is scorched with the fever & flame of burning desires; but to keep it from being burnt up, there is hope, this holds the soul in life that it expire not; this saves from swooning & preserves from sinking into despondency: And though while hope is deferred, the heart be sick; yet there is ease in this very pain, for an unerring expectation of a future good, yields a present ease to the expectant, & makes the man give himself the Check thus, why art thou cast down O my soul? This sickness was never yet unto death, but ever to the glory of God, therefore hope thou in him, for I shall yet praise him: In a word that which is principally insisted upon, in these short summaries of a communion with God, is this on the one hand, how a hungry & longing soul is filled & feasted with the Consolations of God, & when in that posture, how pufled & non-plus'd, as to what to think, or say of God: It knows not what to do, or how to lay out it self for him, the satisfaction that it hath in him, & the obligation it sees it self under to him, making it look one very thing it doth for ⟨image 17⟩him, sayeth or thinketh of him, with a kind of regrate & holy dissatisfaction: It doth not please it self in pleasing him, & though he accept what love offers, yet love desiderates so much in the offering, that it presents all with a blush: & suitable to this amiable & orderly confusion of spirit, it's greatest Oratory & Eloquence, is, a kind of abrupt, concise, & broken discourse: It is most desirous to speak, but not knowing what to say, which is not unworthy of him, it falls into silent admiration, & yet some thing it must say; wherein though, it do not please it self; yet it makes good sense before him, & is a most pleasant melody in his ears; it's then, when he seems to be so taken with that, wherein the soul finds so many failings & defects, that he says speak on, let me see that blushing countenance, ••t me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice & thy countenance is comely.

& in this low ebbe, ye see how the patient, is pained with absence; & what a panting there is for a sensible presence; the soul as it were is evapourate in such wishes as these, O when wilt thou come unto me! Or, O when shall I come & appear before thee, & be put once for all, & for ever beyond the fear of the arising of any cloud to eclipse the light of thy countenance! The soul in this absence, is scorched with the fever & flame of burning desires; but to keep it from being burnt up, there is hope, this holds the soul in life that it expire not; this saves from swooning & perserves from sinking into despondency: And though while hope is deferred, the heart be sick; yet there is ease in this very pain, for an unerring expectation of a future good, yeelds a present ease to the expectant, & maks the man give himself the Check thus, why art thou cast down O my soul? This sickness was never yet unto death, but ever to the glory of God, therefore hope thou in him, for I shall yet praise him: In a word that which is principally insisted upon, in these short summaries of a communion with God, is this on the one hand, how a hungry & longing soul is filled & feasted with the Consolations of God, & when in that posture, how pufled & non-plus'd, as to what to think, or say of God: It knowes not what to doe, or how to lay out it self for him, the satisfaction that it hath in him, & the obligation it sees it self under to him, making it look one very thing it doth for