(_ALL CROSSES WELL ORDERED--PROVIDENCES._)
MUCH HONOURED SIR,--Howbeit I should have been glad to have seen you;
yet, seeing that our Lord hath been pleased to break the snare of our
adversaries, I heartily bless our Lord on your behalf. Our crosses for
Christ are not made of iron; they are softer and of more gentle metal.
It is easy for God to make a fool of the devil, the father of all
fools. As for me, I but breathe out what my Lord breatheth in. The
scum and froth of my letters I father upon my own unbelieving heart. I
know that your Lord hath something to do with you, because Satan and
malice have shot sore at you; but your bow abideth in its strength. Ye
shall not, by my advice, be a halver with Christ, to divide the glory
of your deliverance betwixt yourself and Him, or any other second mean
whatsoever. Let Christ (as it setteth Him well) have all the glory and
triumph His lone. The Lord set Himself on high in you.
1. I see that Christ can borrow a cross for some hours, and set His
servants beside it, rather than under it, and win the plea too; yea,
and make glory to Himself, and shame to His enemies, and comfort to
His children out of it. But whether Christ buy or borrow crosses, He
is King of crosses, and King of devils, and King over hell, and King
over malice. When He was in the grave, He came out, and brought the
keys with Him. He is Lord Jailor; nay, what say I? He is Captain of
the castle, and He hath the keys of death and hell. And what are our
troubles but little deaths? and He who commandeth the great castle
commandeth the little also.
2. I see that a hardened face, and two skins upon our brows against
the winter hail and stormy wind, is meetest for a poor traveller, in a
winter journey to heaven. Oh, what art is it to learn to endure
hardness, and to learn to go barefooted either through the devil's
fiery coals, or his frozen waters!
3. I am persuaded that a sea-venture with Christ maketh great riches:
is not the ship of our King Jesus coming home, and shall not we get
part of the gold? Alas! we fools miscount our gain when we seem
losers. Believe me, I have no challenges against this well-borne
cross: for it is come of Christ's house, and is honourable, and is His
propine. "To you it is given to suffer."--Oh, what fools are we, to
undervalue His gifts, and to lightly that which is true honour! For if
we could be faithful, our tackling shall not loose, or our mast break,
or our sails blow into the sea. The bastard crosses, the kinless and
base-born crosses of worldings for evil-doing, must be heavy and
grievous; but our afflictions are light and momentary.
4. I think myself happy that I have lost credit with Christ, and that
in this bargain I am Christ's sworn dyvour,[375] to whom He will
lippen nothing, no, not one pin in the work of my salvation. Let me
stand in black and white in the dyvour-book, before Christ. I am happy
that my salvation is concredited[376] to Christ's mediation. Christ
oweth no faith to me, to lippen anything to me; but oh what faith and
credit I owe to Him! Let my name fall, and let Christ's name stand in
honour with men and angels. Alas! I have no room to spread out my
affection before God's people; and I see not how I can shout out and
cry out the loveliness, the high honour, and the glory of my fairest
Lord Jesus. Oh that He would let me have a bed to lie on, to be
delivered of my birth, that I might paint Him out in His beauty to
men, as I dow.
[375] Admitted bankrupt; and in the next sentence, "dyvour-book" is
the bankrupt-roll.
[376] Entrusted fully.
5. I wondered once at providence, and called white providence black
and unjust, that I should be smothered in a town where no soul will
take Christ off my hand. But providence hath another lustre with God
than with my bleared eyes. I proclaim myself a blind body, who knoweth
not black and white, in the unco course of God's providence. Suppose
that Christ should set hell where heaven is, and devils up in glory
beside the elect angels (which yet cannot be), I would I had a heart
to acquiesce in His way, without further dispute. I see that infinite
wisdom is the mother of His judgments, and that His ways pass finding
out.
6. I cannot learn, but I desire to learn, to bring my thoughts, will,
and lusts, in-under Christ's feet, that He may trample upon them. But,
alas! I am still upon Christ's wrong side.
Grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,