Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

I Bless you for your letter: it was a shower to the new mowen grass: The Lord hath given you the tongue of the Learned: Be fruitful & humble: It is possible ye come to my case, or the like; but the water is neither so deep, nor the stream so strong as it is called: I think my fire is not hot, my water dry land, my loss rich loss. O if the walls of my prison be high, wide & large, & the place sweet! No man knoweth it, no man I say knoweth it [my Dear Brother] so well, as he & I, no man can put it down in black & white as my Lord hath sealed it in my heart: My poor stock is grown since I came to Aberdeen: And if any had known the wrong I did in being jealous of such an honest lover as Christ, who withheld not his love from me, they would think the more of it; but I see he must be above me in mercy: I will never strive with him: To think to recompense him is folly: If I had as many Angel's tongues as there have fallen drops of rain since the creation, or as there are leaves of trees in all the forests of the earth, or stars in the heaven to praise; yet my Lord Jesus would ever be behind with me: We will never get our accounts sitted: A pardon must close the reckoning; for his comforts to me in this his honourable cause, have almost put me beyond the bounds of modesty; howbeit I will not let every one know what is betwixt us: Love, love [I mean Christ's love] is the hottest coal that ever I felt: O but the smoke of it be hot! Cast all the salt sea on it, it will flame, hell cannot quench it: Many, many waters will not quench love: Christ is turned over to his poor prisoner in a mass & globe of love: I wonder he should waste so much love upon such a