Letters in Two Parts, Part 2 · LETTER 3
To a Christian Gentlewoman. (3)
MISTRESS.
MY love in Christ remembred to you: I was indeed sorrowfull at my departure from you, especially since ye were in such heaviness after your daughters death; yet I doe perswade my self, ye know, that the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you, lieth upon your strong Saviour, for Isaiah saith 62. 9. In all your afflictions …e is afflicted: O blessed second who suffereth with you! & glad may your soul be, even to walk in the fiery furnace with one like unto the Son of man, who is also the Son of God. Courage, up your heart, when ye doe tire he will bear both you & your burden, Psal. …5. 22. Yet a little while & ye shall see the salvation of God. Remember of what age your daughter was, as long was your lease of her: if she was 18, 19, or 20 years old, I know not, sure I am, seeing her terme was come & your lease run out, ye can no more justly quarrel your great Superior for taking his own at his just termeday, then a poor farmer can complain, that his Master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired. Good Mistress, if ye would not be content that Christ would hold from you the heavenly inheritance, which is made yours by his death, shall not that same Christ think hardly of you, if ye refuse to give him your daughter willingly, who is a part of his inheritance & conquest? I pray the Lord to give you all your own, & to grace you with patience, to give God his also: he is an ill debter who payeth that which he hath borrowed, with a grudge: indeed that long loan of such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member of Christ [as I beleeve] deserveth more thanks at your Creditor's hand, then that ye should gloom & murmure when he craveth but his own: I beleeve ye would judge them to be but thankless neighbours, who would pay you a summe of money after this manner. But what, doe ye think her lost, when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty? think her not absent who is in such a friend's house: Is she lost to you who is found to Christ? If she were with a dear friend, although ye should never see her again, your care for her would be but small: Oh now, is she not with a dear friend, & gone higher upon a certain hope that ye shall in the Resurrection see her again, when [be ye sure] she shall neither be hectick nor consumed in body! Ye would be sorry either to be, or to be esteeemed an Atheist, & yet not I, but the Apostle, 1 Thess. 4… 13. thinketh these to be hopeless Atheists who mourn excessively for the dead: but this is not a challenge on my part, I doe speak this onelyonly fearing your weakness; for your daughter was a part of yourself, & therefore nature in you being as it were cut & halved, will indeed be grieved, but ye have to rejoyce that when a part of you is on earth, a great part of you is glorified in heaven: Follow her, but envy her not, for indeed it is self-love in us that maketh us mourn for them that die in the Lord: Why? because for them we cannot mourn, since they are never happy till they be dead; therefore we mourn for our own private respect: take heed then that in shewing your affection in mourning for your daughter, ye be not out of self-affection mourning for your self. Consider what the Lord is doing in it, your daughter is plucked out of the fire & she resteth from her labours, & your Lord in that is trying you & casting you in the fire: Goe through all fires to your rest, & now remember that the eye of God is upon you, beholding your patience & faith: he delighteth to see you in the burning bush & not consumed, & he is gladly content that such a weak woman as ye, should send Satan away frustrate of his design: Now honour God & shame the strong roaring lion, when ye seem weakest: Should such a one as ye faint in the day of adversity? Call to minde the dayes of old, the Lord yet liveth, trust in him although he should stay you: faith i… exceeding charitable & beleeveth no evil of God. Now is the Lord laying in the one scale of the ballance your making conscience of submission to his gracious will, & in the other your affection & love to your daughter, which of the two will ye then chuse to satisfie? Be wise then, & as I trust ye love Christ better then a sinfull woman, pass by your daughter & kiss the Lord's rod. Men doe lop the branches off their trees round about, to the end they may grow up high & tall: The Lord hath this way lopped your branch, in taking from you many children, to the end ye should grow upward like one of the Lord's cedars, setting your heart above where Christ is at the right hand of the father: what is next, but that your Lord cut down the stock after he hath cutted the branches? Prepare your self, ye are nearer your daughter this day then ye were yesterday, while ye prodigally spend time in mourning for her, ye are speedily posting after her: Run your race with patiēce: let God have his own, & ask of him in stead of your daughter which he hath taken from you, the daughter of faith, which is Patience, & in patience possess your soul. Lift up your head, ye doe not know how near your redemption doeth draw. Thus recommending you to the Lord who is able to establish you, …st.
Anwoth. April 23. 1628. Your loving & affects not f… in the Lord Iesus S. R.