(_THOUGHTS AS TO GOD'S ARRANGEMENTS--WINNING SOULS TO BE SUPREMELY
DESIRED--LONGINGS FOR CHRIST._)
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--I
received your letter. I bless our high and only wise Lord, who hath
broken the snare that men had laid for you; and I hope that now He
will keep you in His house, in despite of the powers of hell. Who
knoweth, but the streets of our Jerusalem shall yet be filled with
young men, and with old men, and boys, and women with child? and that
they shall plant vines in the mountains of Samaria? I am sure that the
wheels, paces, and motions of this poor church are tempered and ruled,
not as men would, but according to the good pleasure and infinite
wisdom of our only wise Lord.
I am here, waiting in hope that my innocency, in this honourable
cause, shall melt this cloud that men have casten over me. I know that
my Lord had His own quarrels against me, and that my dross stood in
need of this hot furnace. But I rejoice in this, that fair truth,
beautiful truth (whose glory my Lord cleareth to me more and more),
beareth me company; that my weak aims to honour my Master, in bringing
guests to His house, now swell upon me in comforts; that I am not
afraid to want a witness in heaven; and that it was my joy to have a
crown put upon Christ's head in that country. Oh, what joy would I
have, to see the wind turn upon the enemies of the cross of Christ,
and to see my Lord Jesus restored, with the voice of praise, to His
own free throne again! and to be brought amongst you, to see the
beauty of the Lord's house!
I hope that country will not be so silly as to suffer men to pluck you
away from them; and that ye will use means to keep my place empty, and
to bring me back again to the people to whom I have Christ's right,
and His church's lawful calling.
Dear brother, let Christ be dearer and dearer to you. Let the conquest
of souls be top and root, flower and bloom of your joys and desires,
on this side of sun and moon. And in the day when the Lord shall pull
up the four stakes of this clay tent of the earth, and the last pickle
of sand shall be at the nick of falling down in your watch-glass, and
the Master shall call the servants of the vineyard to give them their
hire, ye will esteem the bloom of this world's glory like the colours
of the rainbow, that no man can put into his purse and treasure. Your
labour and pains will then smile upon you.
My Lord now hath given me experience (howbeit weak and small) that our
best fare here is hunger. We are but at God's by-board in this lower
house; we have cause to long for supper-time, and the high table, up
in the high palace. This world deserveth nothing but the outer court
of our soul. Lord, hasten the marriage-supper of the Lamb! I find it
still peace to give up with this present world, as with an old
decourted and cast off lover. My bread and drink in it is not so much
worth, that I should not loathe the inns, and pack up my desires for
Christ, whom[312] I have sent out to the feckless creatures in it.
[312] Pack up for Christ the desires which I used to send out to the
worthless things of earth.
Grace, grace be with you.
Your affectionate brother, and Christ's prisoner,