Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

Grace, mercy & peace be to you: I long to hear how it goeth with you & your children: I exhort you not to lose breath nor to faint in your journey: The way is not so long to your home as it was, it will wear to one step or an inch at length, & ye shall come ere long to be within your armlength of the glorious crown. Your Lord Jesus did sweat & pant ere he got up that mount, he was at father save me with it, it was he who, Psal. 22: 14. said. I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint [Christ wa• as if they had broken him upon the wheel] my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels v. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd: I am sure ye love the way the better that his holy feet trod it before you: Crosses have a smell of crossed & pained Christ. I believe your Lord will not leave you to die your alone in the way. I know ye have sad hours when the comforter is hid under a veil & when ye inquire for him, & find but a tom nest: This I grant is but a cold good-day when the seeker misseth him whom the soul loveth; but even his unkindness is kind, his absence lovely, his mask a sweet fight, till God send Christ himself in his own sweet presence: make his sweet comforts your own, & be not strange & shame fast with Christ: homely dealing is best for him, it is his liking. When your winter storms are over, the summer of your Lord shall come: Your sadness is with child of joy, he will do you good in the latter end. Take no heavier lift of your children then your Lord alloweth, give them room beside your heart, but not in the yolk of your heart, where Christ should be; for then they are your idols, not your bairns: if your Lord take any of them home to his house before the storm come on, take it well, the owner of the orchard may take down two or thr apples off his own trees before midsummer & ere they get the harvest sun, & it would not be seemly