Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 123
To his Reverend & loving Brother. Mr JOHN NEVAY. (123)
Reverend & Dear Brother.
GRace, mercy & peace be unto you: I received yours o… Aprile 11. As I did another of March 25. and a letter for Mr Andrew Cant. I am not a little grieved that our mother-church is running so quickly to the brothel-house, & that we are hiring lovers, & giving gift; to the great mother of fornications: Alas that our husband is like to quite us so shortly! It were my part [if I were able] when our husband is departing, to stir up myself to take hold of him & keep him in this land; for I know him to be a sweet second, & a lovely companion to a poor prisoner: I finde my extremity hath sharpned the edge of his love & Kindness, so as he seemeth to devise new wayes of expressing the sweetness of his love to my soul: Suffering for Christ is the very element wherein Christ's love liveth, & exerciseth it self, in casting out flames of fire & sparks of heat, to warm such a frozen heart as I have: And if Christ weeping in sackeloth be so sweet, I cannot finde any imaginable thoughts to think what he will be, when we clay-bodies [having put off mortality] shall come up to the marriage-hall, & great Palace, & behold the King clothed in his robes royall, sitting on his throne. I would desire no more for my heaven beneath the moon, while I am sighing in this house of clay, but daily renewed feasts of love with Christ, & liberty now & then to feed my hunger with a kiss of that fairest face, that is like the sun in his strength at noon-day. I would willingly subscribe an ample resignation to Christ of the fourteen Prelacies of this land, & of all the most delightfull pleasures on earth, & forfeit my part of this clay-God, this earth which Adam's foolish children worship, to have no other exercise but to lie in a love-bed with Christ, & fill this hungred, & famished soul with kissing, embracing & reall enjoying of the Son of God: And I think then I might write to my friends. That I had found the golden world, & look out & laugh at the poor bodies who are slaying one another for feathers: For verily, Brother, since I came to his prison I have conceived a new & extraordinary opinion of Christ which I had not before; for I perceive we frist all our joyes to Christ, till he & we be in our own house above, as married parties; thinking that there is nothing of it here to be sought or found, but onelyonly hope & fair promises: & that Christ will give us nothing here but tears, sadness, crosses: & that we shall never feel the smell of the flowers of that high garden of Paradise above, till we come there: Nay, but I finde it is possible to finde young glory & a young green Paradise of joy even here: I know Christ's kisses will cast a more strong & refreshfull smell of incomparable glory & joy in heaven; then they doe here: Because a drink of the well of life up at the wel…'s head, is more sweet & fresh by far, then that which we get in our borrowed, old, running-out vessels & our wooden dishes here; yet I am now perswaded it is our folly to f…st all, till the term day; seeing abundance of earnest, will not diminish any thing of our principal summe: We dream of hunger in Christ's house while we are here, although he alloweth feasts upon all the bairns within God's houshold: It were good then to store our selves with moe borrowed kisses of Christ, & with moe borrowed visites till we enter Heirs to our new inheritance, & our Tutour put us in possession of our own, when we are past minority. Oh that all the young heirs would seek more & a greater & a nearer communion with my Lord-tutour, the prime heir of all, Christ! I wish for my part I could send you & that gentleman, who wrote his commendations to me, in to the kings innermost cellar & house of wine, to be filled with love: A drink of this love is worth the having indeed: We carry our selves but too too nicely with Christ our Lord, & our Lord loveth not niceness & dryness & uncouthness in friends: Since need force we must be in Christ's common, then let us be in his common; for it will be no otherwayes. Now for my present case in my imprisonment, deliverance [for any appearance I see] looketh cold like: My hope if it looked to or leaned upon men, should wither soon at the root like a May-flower: Yet I resolve to ease my self with on-waiting on my Lord, & to let my faith swim where it looseth ground: I am under a necessity either offainting [which I hope my master of whom boast all the day shall avert] or then to …ay my faith upon omnipotency, & to wink & stick by my grip: And I hope my ship shall ride it out, seeing Christ is willing to blow his sweet wind in my sailes & mendeth & closeth the leks in my ship, & ruleth all: It will be strange if a beleeving passenger be casten …ver beard. As for your Master, My Lord & my Lady I will be loath to forget them: I think my prayers [such as they are] are due debt to him, & I shall be fa… more engaged to his Lo: if he be fast for Christ (as I hope he will) now when so many of his coat & quality slip from Christ's back & leave him to send for himself. I entreat you remember my love to that wo thy Gentleman A. C. who salated me in your letter: I have heard that he is one of my Master's friends, for the which cause I am tied to him: I wish he may more & more fall in love with Christ. Now for your question as far as I rawly conceive: I think God is praised two wayes: First, by a concional profession of his highness before men, such as is the very hearing of the word, & receiving of either of the Sacraments, in which acts by profession, we give out to men, that he is our God, with whom we are in covenant, & our Lawgiver: Thus eating & drinking in the Lord's supper, is an annunciation & profession before men, that Christ is our slain Redeemer: Here because God speaketh to us, not we to him, it is not a formal thanks giving; but an annunciation, or predication of Christ's death, concionall, not adorative; neither hath it God for the immediat object, and therefore no kneeling can be here. Secondly, there is another praising of God, formal, when we are either formally blessing God, or speaking his praises: And this I take to be twofold: 1. When we directly & formally direct praises and thanksgiving to God: This may well be done kneeling in token of our recognizance of his highness; yet not so, but it may be standing or sitting, especially seeing joyfull elevation [which should be in praising] is not formally signified by kneeling. 2. When we speak good of God, & declare his glorious nature & attributes, extolling him before men, to excite men to conceive highly of him: The former I hold to be worship every way immediat, else I know not any immediat worship at all: the latter hath God for the subject, not properly the object, seeing the predication is directed to men immediatly, rather then to God; for here we speak of God by way of praising, rather then to God: And for my own part, as I am for the present minded, I see not how this can be done kneeling seeing it is praedicatio Dei & Christ…, non laudatio aut benedictio Dei: But observe that it is formal praising of God & not meerly concional, as I distinguished in the first member: for in the first member any speaking of God or of his works of creation, providence & redemption, is indirect & concional praising of him, & formally preaching or an act of teaching, not an act of predication of his praises; for there is a difference betwixt the simple relation of the vertues of a thing, which is formally teaching, & the extolling of the worth of a thing by way of commendation, to cause others to praise with us. Thus recommending you to God's grace, I rest.
Aberd. June. 15. 1637. Yours in his sweet Lord Iesus. S. R.