Letter 16. To my very dear friend in the Lord, Doctor Hill, Physician
The God of mercy and Father of all comfort, at this present and for ever, engraft in your heart the sense of his mercy in Christ, and the continuance of his consolation, which cannot but enable you to carry with joy whatsoever cross he shall lay upon you. Amen.
Hitherto I could have no such liberty as to write unto you, as I think you know; but now, since through God's providence I have no such restraint, I cannot but write something, as well to clear me of this suspicion of unthankfulness towards you, as also to signify my carefulness for you in these perilous days, lest you should wax cold in God's cause, which God forbid, or suffer the light of the Lord once kindled in your heart, to be quenched, and so become as you were before, after the example of the world, and many others, which would have been accounted otherwise in our days, and who still beguile themselves, and still would be so accounted, although by their outward life they declare the contrary, in that they think it enough to keep the heart pure, notwithstanding that the outward man does curry favour. In which doings, they deny God to be jealous, and that he therefore requires the whole man, as well body as soul, being created for immortality and for society with him, and also redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and now sanctified by the Holy Spirit, to be the temple of God, and member of his Son. By their parting the stakes to give God the heart, and the world the body, they deny God to be jealous, for else they would give him both, as the wife would do to her husband, whether he is jealous or not if she be honest; so they play the dissemblers with the church of God, by their acts offending the godly, whom either they provoke to fall with them, or make more careless and conscienceless if they are fallen, and occasion the wicked and obstinate to triumph against God, and the more vehemently to prosecute their malice against such as will not defile themselves in body or soul, with the Romish rags now revived amongst us. Because of this, lest you, my dear master and brother in the Lord, should do as many of our gospellers do, for fear of man whose breath is in his nostrils, and has power only over the body, and not fearing the Lord, who has power both of soul and body, not only temporally, but also eternally,oI could not hut write something unto you, as well because duty deserves it, for I have received of God many benefits by your hands, (for which may he reward you, for I cannot,) as also because charity and love compel me;onot that I think you have any need, for as I may rather learn of you, so I doubt not but you have hitherto kept yourself upright from halting; but that I might both quiet my conscience from calling upon me about this, and signify unto you my carefulness for your soul, as painfully and often you have done for my body.
Therefore I pray you to call to mind that there are but two masters, two kinds of people, two ways, and two mansion-places: the masters are Christ and Satan; the people are servitors to either of these: the ways are strait and wide; the mansions, heaven and hell. Again, consider that this world is the place of trial of God's people and the devil's servant; for as the one will follow his master, whatsoever comes of it, so will the other. For a time it is hard to discern who pertains to God, and who to the devil: as in the calm and peace it is hard to learn who is a good shipman and warrior, and who is not; but when the storm arises the expert mariner is known, and as in war the good soldier is seen, so in affliction and the cross God's children are easily known from Satan's servants; for then, as the good servant will follow his Master, so the godly will follow their Captain, come what will come: whereas the wicked and hypocrites bid adieu, and desire less of Christ's acquaintance; for which cause the cross is called the probation and trial; because it tries who will go with God, and who will forsake him: and now in England we see how small a company Christ has in comparison of Satan's soldiers. Let no man deceive himself; for he that gathers not with Christ, scatters abroad. No man can serve two masters; the Lord abhors double hearts. The lukewarm, that is, such as are both hot and cold, he spits out of his mouth; none that halt on both knees does God take for his servants. The way of Christ is the strait way, and so strait, that as few find it, and few walk in it, so no man can halt in it, but he must needs go upright: for as the straitness will suffer no reeling to this side or that side; so, if any halt, he is like to fall off the bridge into the pit of eternal perdition.
Strive therefore, good Master Doctor, now you have found it, to enter into it; and if you should be called and pulled back, look not on this side or that side, or behind you, as Lot's wife did, but straight forwards to the end which is set before you, as if it were even now present, though it be to come. Like as you do, and desire your patients to do in your ministrations, to consider the effect that will ensue; whereby the bitterness and loathsomeness of the physic is so overcome, and the painfulness in abiding the working of that which is ministered is so eased, that it makes the patient willingly and joyfully receive that which is to be taken, although it is never so unpleasant. So, I sat set before you the end of this strait way, and then doubtlessoas Paul says, "it shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory," whilst we look not on the thing which is seen, for that is temporal, but on the thing which is not seen, which is eternal. So does the husbandman in ploughing and tilling, set before him the harvest-time; so does the fisher consider the draught of his net, rather than the casting-in; so does the merchant the return of the merchandise; and so should we in these stormy days set before us, not the loss of our goods, liberty, and very life, but the reaping-time, the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment; the fire that shall burn the wicked and disobedient to God's gospel; the blast of the trump, the exceeding glory prepared for us in heaven eternally; such as the eye has not seen, the ear has nor heard, nor the heart of man can conceive. The more we lose here, the greater joy we shall have there; the more we suffer, the greater triumph; for corruptible dross we shall find incorruptible treasures. for gold, glory; fur silver, solace without end; for riches, robes royal; for earthly houses, eternal palaces; mirth without measure, pleasure without pain, felicity endless. We shall have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. O happy place! Oh that this day would come! Then shall the end of the wicked be lamentable; then shall they receive the just reward of God's vengeance, then shall they cry, "Woe! woe" that they ever did as they have done! Read Wisdom, ii. iii. iv. v.: read Matthew xxv.: read 1 Corinthians, xv. 2 Corinthians, v.; and by faith (which God increase in us,) consider the thing there set forth: and for your comfort read Hebrews, xi. to see what faith has done; always considering the way to heaven is by many tribulations; and that all they which will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. You know that this is our alphabet. He that will be my disciple, says Christ, must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me; not this bishop, nor that doctor; not this emperor, nor that king; but me, says Christ; for he that loves father, mother, wife, children, or very life, better than me, is not worthy of me. Remember that same Lord says, He that will save his life shall lose it. Comfort yourself with this, that as the devils had no power over the swine, or over Job's goods, without God's leave, so shall they have none over you. Remember also, that all the hairs of your head are numbered with God. The devil may make one believe he will drown him, as the sea in his surges threatens the land; but as the Lord appointed bounds for the one, over the which he cannot pass, so has he done for the other. On God therefore cast your care; love him and serve him after his word; fear him, trust in God; hope at his hand for all help, and always pray, looking for the cross; and whenever it comes, be assured the Lord is faithful, he will never tempt you further than he will make you able to bear, but in the midst of the temptation will make such a way to escape as shall be most to his glory, and your eternal comfort. God, for his mercy in Christ, with his Holy Spirit endue you, comfort you, shadow you under the wings of his mercy, and as his dear child guide you for evermore; to whose merciful tuition I commit you with my hearty prayer: and I doubt not but you pray for me, and so I beseech you to do still. My brother P. tells me you wish to have the last part at Saint Jerome's works, to have the use thereof for a forts night; I cannot for these three days well spare it, but on Thursday next I will send it you, if God hinder me not, and use me, and what I have, as your own. The Lord for his mercy in Christ, direct our ways to his glory. Out of prison, by yours to command,
John Bradford.
Letter 17. To Mistress M. H., a godly gentlewoman, comforting her in that common heaviness and godly sorrow, which the feeling and sense of sin works in God's children
I humbly and heartily pray the everlasting God, and Father of mercy, to bless and keep your heart and mind in the knowledge and love of his truth, and of his Christ, through the inspiration and working of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Although I have no doubt but that you prosper and go forward daily in the way of godliness, drawing more and more towards perfection, and have no need of anything that I can write; yet because my desire is, that you might be more fervent, and persevere to the end, I could not but write something unto you, beseeching you both often and diligently to call unto your mind as a mean to stir you hereunto, yea, as a thing which God most straitly requires you to believe, that you are beloved of God, and that he is your dear Father, in, through, and for Christ and his death's sake. This love and tender kindness of God towards us in Christ, is abundantly herein declared, in that he has beside the godly work of creation of this world, made us after his image; redeemed us being lost; called us into his church; sealed us with his mark and sign manual of baptism; kept and conserved us all the days of our life; fed, nourished, defended, and most fatherly chastised us; and now has kindled in our hearts the sparkles of his fear, faith, love, and knowledge of his Christ and truth; and therefore we lament, because we lament not more our unthankfulness, our frailness, our diffidence and wavering in things wherein we should be most certain.
All these things we should use as means to confirm our faith of this, that God is our God and Father, and to assure us that he loves us as our Father in Christ. To this end, I say, we should use the things before touched upon, especially since that, of all things, God requires this faith and persuasion of his fatherly goodness, as his chiefest service; for before he asks anything of us, he says, "I am the Lord thy God:" giving himself, and then all he has, to us to be our own. And this he does in respect of himself, of his own mercy and truth, and not in respect of us, for then were grace no grace. In consideration whereof, when he says, "Thou shalt have none other gods but me; thou shalt love me with all thy heart," &c.; though of duty we are bound to accomplish all that he requires, and are culpable and guilty if we do not the same, yet he requires not these things further of us, than to make us abound more in love, and more certain of this his covenant, that he is our Lord and God. In certainty whereof, as he has given this whole world to serve for our need and commodity, so has he given his Son Christ Jesus, and himself in Christ, to be a pledge and gage, whereof the Holy Ghost now and then gives us some taste and sweet smell to our eternal joy.
Therefore, as I said, because God is your Father in Christ, and requires of you straitly to believe it, give yourself to obedience, although you do it not with such feeling as you desire. Faith must first go before, and then feeling will follow. If our imperfection, frailty, and many evils, should be occasions whereby Satan would have us to doubt, let us abhor that suggestion as much as we can, as of all others most pernicious, for so indeed it is; for when we stand in a doubt whether God be our Father, we cannot be thankful to God; we cannot heartily pray or think anything we do acceptable to God, we cannot love our neighbours, and give ourselves to care for them, and do for them as we should do; and therefore Satan is most subtle herein, knowing full well, that if we doubt of God's fatherly eternal mercies towards us through Christ, we cannot please God, or do anything as we should do to man; he continually casts into our memories our imperfections, frailty, falls, and offences, that we should doubt of God's mercy, and favour towards us.
Therefore, my good sister, we must not be sluggish herein; but, as Satan labours to loosen our faith, so must we labour to fasten it, by thinking on the promises and covenant. of God in Christ's blood; namely, that God is our God, with all that ever he has; which covenant depends and hangs upon God's own goodness, mercy, and truth only, and not on our obedience or worthiness in any point, for then should we never be certain. Indeed, God requires of us obedience and worthiness, but not that thereby we might be his children, and he our Father; but because he is our Father and are his children, through his own goodness in Christ, therefore requires he faith and obedience. Now, if we want this obedience and worthiness which he requires, should we doubt whether he be our Father? Nay, that were to make our obedience and worthiness the cause, and so to put Christ out of place, for whose sake God is our Father; but rather because he is our Father, and we feel ourselves to want such things as he requires, we should be stirred up to shame-facedness and blushing, because we are not as we should be, and thereupon should we take occasion to go to our Father in prayer in this manner:
Dear Father, thou of thine own mercy in Jesus Christ hast chosen me to be thy child, and therefore thou wouldst I should be brought into thy church and faithful company of thy children, wherein thou hast kept me hitherto; thy name therefore be praised! Now I see myself to want faith, hope, love, &c. which thy children have, and thou requirest of me; wherefore, though the devil would have me to doubt, yea, utterly to despair of thy fatherly goodness, favour, and mercy, I come to thee as to my merciful Father, through thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and pray thee to help me, good Lord, help me, and give me faith, hope, love, &c.; and grant that thy Holy Spirit may be with me for ever, and more and more assure me that thou art my Father; and that thou madest this merciful covenant with me in respect of thy grace in Christ and for Christ; and not in respect of any my worthiness, is always true to me, &c.
On this sort (I say) you must pray and use your cogitations when Satan would have you to doubt of salvation,o he does all he can to prevail herein; do you all you can to prevail herein against him;othough you feel not as you would, yet doubt not, but hope beyond all hope, as Abraham did; for always, as I said, faith goes before feeling. As certain as God is almighty; as certain as God is merciful; as certain as God is true; as certain as Jesus Christ was crucified, is risen, and sits on the right hand of the Father; as certain as this is God's commandment, "I am the Lord thy God, &c.;" so certain ought you to be that God is your Father. As you are bound to have no other gods but him, so are you no less bound to believe that God is your God. What profit should it be to you to believe this to be true; "I am the Lord thy God" for others, if you should not believe that this is true for yourself? The devil believes thus; and whatsoever it is that would move you to doubt, whether God be your God through Christ, that same comes undoubtedly of the devil. Wherefore did God make you, but because he loved you? Might not he have made you blind, dumb, deaf, lame, frantic, &c.? Might not he have made you a Jew, a Turk, a Papist, &c., and why has he not done so? Verily, because he loved you. And why did he love you? What was there in you to move him to love you? Surely nothing moved him to love you, and therefore to make you, and hitherto to keep you, but his own goodness in Christ. Now then, since his goodness in Christ still remains as much as it was, that is, even as great as himself, for it cannot be lessened; how should it be, but that he is your God and Father? Believe this, believe this, my good sister, for God is no changeling, those whom he loves, he loves to the end.
Cast, therefore, yourself wholly upon him, and think, without all wavering, that you are God's child; that you are a citizen of heaven; that you are the daughter of God, the temple of the Holy Ghost, &c. If you are assured hereof, as you ought to be, then shall your conscience be quieted; then shall you lament more and more that you want many things which God loves; then shall you labour to be holy in soul and body; then shall you go about, that God's glory may shine in you in all your words and works; then shall you not be afraid what man can do unto you; then shall you have wisdom to answer your adversaries, as shall serve to their shame and your comfort; then shall you be certain that no man can touch one hair of your head, farther than shall please your good Father for your everlasting joy; then shall you be most certain that God, as your good Father, will be more careful for your children and make better provision for them, if all you have were gone, than you can; then shall you, being assured of God's favour towards you, give over yourself wholly to help and care for others that are in need; then shall you contemn this life, and desire to be at home with your good and sweet Father; then shall you labour to mortify all things that would spot either soul or body. All these things spring out of this certain persuasion and faith, that God is our Father, and that we are his children by Christ Jesus. All things should help our faith herein, but Satan goes about in all things to hinder us.
Therefore let us use earnest and hearty prayer; let us often remember this covenant: "I am the Lord thy God." Let us look upon Christ and his precious blood, shed for the obsignation (sealing, editor) and confirmation of his covenant; let us remember all the free promises of the gospel; let us set before us God's benefits generally, in making this world, in ruling it, in governing it, in calling and keeping his church, &c.; let us set before us God's benefits, particularly how he has made us creatures after his image, how he made us of perfect limbs, forms, beauty, memory, &c.; how he has made us Christians, and given us a right judgment in his religion; how he has, ever since we were born, blessed, kept, nourished, and defended us; how has often beaten, chastised, and fatherly corrected us; how he has spared us, and now spares us, giving us time, space, place, grace. This if you do, and use earnest prayer, and so flee from all things which might wound your conscience, giving yourself to diligence in your vocation, you shall find at length, (which God grant to me with you!) a sure certainty of salvation, without all such doubts as may trouble the peace of conscience, to your eternal joy and comfort. Amen, Amen.
Yours to use in Christ,
John Bradford.
Letter 18. Another letter, full of godly comfort, written to the same person
The good Spirit of God, which guides his children, be with you, my good sister in the Lord, for ever. Amen.
Although, as I am to you, so you are unknown unto me in person; yet to Him, whom we desire to please, we are not only known in person, but also in heart known and thoroughly seen, and therefore, as for his sake you desire, by what you sent to me, it should be perceived in God you bear to me a good will; so that I might be seen in God to bear you the like, I send to you these few words in writing, wishing that in all your doings and speech, yea even in your very thoughts, you would labour to feel, that they are all present and open before the sight of God, be they good or bad. This cogitation being often had in mind, and prayer made to God for the working of his Spirit, thereby, as a mean, you shall at the length feel more comfort and advantage, than any man can know but such as are exercised therein. Howbeit, this is to be added, that in thinking yourself, and all you have and do, are in the sight of God; this, I say, is to be added, that you think his sight is the sight not only of a lord, but rather of a father, which tenders more your infirmities than you can tender the infirmities of any of your children. Yea, when in yourself you see a motherly affection to your little one that is weak, let the same be unto you a trace to train you to see the unspeakable kind affection of God your Father towards you.
And therefore, upon the consideration of your infirmities and natural evils, which continually cleave unto us, take occasion to go to God as your Father through Christ, and lay open your infirmities and evils before his merciful heart, with desire of pardon and help, after his good will and pleasure, but in his time, and not when you will; and by that means he will, not by what way you would. In the mean season, hang on hope of his fatherly goodness, and surely you shall never be ashamed. For if a woman, that is natural, cannot finally forget the child of her womb, be sure God, which is a Father supernatural, cannot, and will not, forget you. Yea, if a woman could be so forgetful, yet God himself says, he will not be so.
This opinion, yea rather certain persuasion, of God your Father through Christ, see that you cherish; and by all means, as well by diligent consideration of his benefits, as of his losing corrections, whether they are inward or outward, see that you nourish it. Know for certain, that as the devil goes about nothing so much as to bring you into doubt whether you are God's child or no, so whatever shall move you to admit that dubitation, be assured the same comes from the devil. If you feel in yourself not only the want of good things, but also plenty of evil, do not therefore doubt whether you are God's child in Christ, or no.
For if you should believe or doubt, for your goodness' or illness' sake, which you feel or feel not, then should you make Christ Jesus, for whose sake only God is your Father either nothing, or else but half Christ.
But rather take occasion from your want of good, and your plenty in evil, to go to God as to your Father; and to pray to him, that inasmuch as he commands you to believe that he is your God and Father, so he would give you his good Spirit, that you might feel the same, and live as his child, to his glory. And cease not, upon such prayers, to look for comfort in God's good time, still hoping the best, and rejecting all dubitation, and all evil works, words, and cogitations, as the Lord shall enable you by his good Spirit and grace, which I beseech him to give unto you, my good sister, for ever. And farther I pray you, that as he has made you to be a helper unto your husband, so you would endeavour yourself therein to show the same, as well in soul as body, and beg grace of God that your endeavour may be effectual to both your comforts in Christ. Amen.
John Bradford.
Letter 19. To my well beloved in the Lord, W. P.
Grace and peace from God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brother, God most justly has cast me now into a dungeon, but much better than I deserve; wherein I see no man but my keeper, nor can see any except they come to me. Something in the earth my lodging is (a dungeon partly underground, editor), which is an example and memorial of my earthly affections, which God, I trust, will mortify; and of my sepulchre, whereunto I trust my Lord God will bring me in peace, in his good time. In the mean season, may he give me patience, lively hope, and his good Spirit. I pray you, pray for me, for the prayer of the godly, if it be fervent, works much with God: I thank God my common disease troubles me less (this disease was a Rheum, with a feebleness of stomach, wherewith be was much troubled whilst at liberty; Note in Letters of the Martyrs) than when I was abroad, which teaches me the merciful providence of God toward me. Use true and hearty prayer, and you shall perceive God at length will declare himself to see, where now many think he sleeps. Out of the Tower by the Lord s prisoner,
John Bradford.
Letter 20. A Letter which he wrote to a faithful woman in her heaviness and trouble, most comfortable for all those to read that are afflicted and broken-hearted for their sins
Ah my dearly and most dearly beloved in the Lord, how pensive is my heart at present for you, by reason of the fearful judgment of our God, which even now I heard of for truth. May God our good father for his great mercies' sake in Christ have mercy upon us, and comfort you, my dear heart, with his eternal consolation, as I desire to be comforted by him in my greatest need. Amen.
The bearer can tell you the cause why I have not sent to you since the receipt of your letter. Yea, if I had not heard for truth of this heavy chance, you had not heard from me as yet. For I began of late, a piece of work for your comfort, whereof I send you now a part, because my heart is heavy for your sake, and I cannot be quiet till I hear how you do in this cross, wherein I beseech you, my dear sister, to be of good comfort, and to be no more discouraged than David was by Absalom's death; the good Jonathan, by his father Saul's fearful end; Adam by that of Cain; Noah of Ham; Bathsheba by the terrible end of her father or grandfather Achitophel, &c. Not that I utterly condemn and judge your father, for I leave it to God, but because the fact of itself declares God's secret and fearful judgment and justice towards him and all men, and his great mercy towards us, admonishing all the world how he is to be feared, and that Satan does not sleepoand especially warning us his children, how weak and miserable we are of ourselves, and how happy we are in him, who have him to be our father, protector, and keeper, and shall have for ever more, so that no evil shall touch us, further than shall be to our Father's glory and to our everlasting advantage. And therefore let this judgment of God be an occasion to stir us up, to walk more carefully before God, and to cast our whole care unfeignedly upon our dear Father, who neither can, nor will leave us; for his calling and gifts are such that he can never repent of them, Romans, xi.
Whom He loves, he loves to the end; none of his chosen can perish, of which number I know you are, me dearly beloved sister. God increase the faith thereof daily more and more in you: may he give unto you to hang wholly on him, and on his providence and protection. For whoso dwells under the secret and help of the Lord, he shall be quite sure for evermore. He that dwells, I say; for if we are flitters, and not dwellers, as Lot was a flitter from Zoar, where God promised him protection if he had dwelt there still, we shall remove to our loss, as he did to the mountains.
Dwell therefore, that is, trust in the Lord, my dear sister, and that finally, unto the end, and you shall be as Mount Sion. As mountains compass Jerusalem, so does the Lord all his people. How then can he forget you, which are as the apple of his eye, for his dear Son's sake? Ah, dear heart! that I were now but one half hour with you, to be a Simon to help to carry your cross with you. God send you some good Simon to be with you and help you.o
You complain in your letters of the blindness of your mind, and the he troubles you feel through talk with some. God make you thankful for that which he has given unto you: may he open your eyes to see what and how great benefits you have received; that you may be less covetous, or rather less impatient, for so I fear it should be called, and more thankful. Have you not received at his hands sight to see your blindness, and a desirous and seeking heart, to see where he abides in the midday, as his dear spouse speaks of herself in the Canticles? Oh! Joyce, my good Joyce, what a gift is this! Many have some sight, but I know none that have this sobbing and sighing, none this seeking which you have, but such as he has married unto him in his mercies. You are not content to kiss his feet with the Magdalen, but you would be kissed even with the kisses of his mouth. Cant. i. You would see his face with Moses, forgetting how he bids us seek his face. Psalm xxvii. Yea, and that for ever, Psalm cv. which signifies no such sight as you desire to see in this present life, which would see God now face to face; whereas he cannot be seen but covered under something, yea, something in that which is as you would say, clean contrary to God, - as to see his mercy in his anger. In what appears bringing us to hell, faith sees him bringing us to heaven; in darkness, it beholds brightness; in hiding his face from us, it beholds his cheering countenance. How did Job see God, but as you would say under Satan's cloak? For who cast the fire from heaven upon his goods? Who overthrew his house and stirred up men to take away his cattle, but Satan? And yet Job pierced through all these, and saw God's works, saying, "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away, etc."
In reading the Psalms, how often do you see that David in the shadow of death, saw God's sweet love! And so, my dearly beloved, I see that you in you darkness and dimness, by faith do see charity and brightness. By faith I say, because faith is of things absent, of things hoped for, of things which I appeal to your conscience, whether you desire not. And can you desire any thing which you know not? And is there any other true knowledge of heavenly things than by faith?
Therefore, my dear heart, be thankful, for (before God I write it) you have great cause. Ah, my Joyce! how happy is the state wherein you are! Verily, you are even in the blessed state of God's children. For they mourn, and do not you so? And that not for worldly weal, but for spiritual riches, faith, hope, charity, etc. Do you not hunger and thirst after righteousness? And I pray you, says not Christ, who cannot lie, that happy are such? How should God wipe away the tears from your eyes in heaven, if now on earth you shed no tears? How could heaven be a place of rest, if you found it on earth? How could you desire to be at home, if in your journey you found no grief? How could you so often call upon God, and talk with him, as I know you do, if your enemy slept all day long? How should you elsewhere be made like unto Christ, I mean in joy, if you sobbed not with him in sorrow? If you will have joy and felicity, you must needs first feel sorrow and misery. If you will go to heaven, you must sail by hell. If you will embrace Christ in his robes, you must not scorn him in his rags. If you will sit at Christ's table in his kingdom, you must first abide with him in his temptation. If you will drink of his cup of glory, forsake not his cup of ignominy.
Can the head cornerstone be rejected, and the more base stones in God's building be esteemed in this world? You are one of his lively stones. Be content therefore to be hewn and snagged at, that you may be made more meet to be joined to your fellows which suffer with you Satan's snatches, the world's wounds, the accusations of conscience, and threats of the flesh, through which they are enforced to cry, Oh! wretches that we are, who shall deliver us? You are of God's corn, fear not therefore the flail, the fan, millstone, nor oven. You are one of Christ's lambs. Look therefore to be fleeced, hailed at, and even slain.
If you were a market sheep, you should go in more fat and grassy pasture. If you were for the fair, you should be stall-fed, and want no meal. But because you are of God's own occupying, therefore you must pasture on the bare common; abiding the storms and tempests that fall. Happy, and twice happy are you, my dear sister, that God now hales whither you would not, that you might come whither you would. Suffer a little, and be still. Let Satan rage against you, let the world cry out, let your conscience accuse you, let the law load you and press you down, yet shall they not prevail, for Christ is Emmanuel, that is, God with us. If God be with us, who can be against us? The Lord is with you; your Father cannot forget you; your spouse loves you. If the waves and surges arise, cry with Peter, "Lord, I perish!" and he will put out his hand and help you. Cast out your anchor of hope, and it will not cease for all the stormy surges, till it take hold on the rock of God's truth and mercy.
Think not that He, who has given you so many things corporally, as foretastes of spiritual and heavenly mercies, and that without your deserts and desire, can deny any spiritual comfort you desire. For if he give to desire, he will give you to have and to enjoy the thing desired. The desire to have and the going about to ask, ought to certify your conscience, that they are his earnest of the thing which if you ask, he will give you; yea, before you ask, and while you are about to ask, he will grant the same, as Isaiah says, to his glory and your eternal consolation. He that spared not his own Son for you, will not and cannot think any thing too good for you, my heartily beloved.
If he had not chosen you, as most certainly he has, he would not have so called you; he would never have justified you; he would never have so glorified you with his gracious gifts, which I know, praised be his name therefore; he would never have so exercised your faith with temptations, as he has done and still does, if he had not chosen you. If he has chosen you as doubtless, dear heart he has done in Christ, for in you I have seen his earnest and before me you could not deny it, I know both where and when; if, I say, he has chosen you, then neither can you, nor ever shall you, perish. For if you fall, he puts under his hand: you shall not lie still, so careful is Christ your keeper over you; never was mother so mindful over her child as he is over you; and has not he always been so?
Speak, woman, when did he finally forget you, and will he now, think you, in your most need do otherwise while you are calling upon him, and desiring to please him? Ah! my Joyce, think you that God is mutable? Is he a changeling? Does not he love to the end them whom he loves? Are not his gifts and callings such that he cannot repent of them? For else, he were no God. If you should perish then he would want poorer; for I am certain his will towards you is not to be doubted. Has not the Spirit, which is the Spirit of truth, told you so? And will you now hearken with Eve to the lying spirit, which would have you, not to despair (no, he goes more craftily to work, howbeit to produce that end if you should give ear unto it, which God forbid;) but to doubt and stand in a mammering (hesitating, editor), and so should you never truly love God, but serve him of servile fear, lest he should cast you off for your unworthiness and unthankfulness; as though your thankfulness or worthiness were any cause with God why he has chosen you, or will finally keep you.
Ah! mine own dear heart, Christ only, Christ only, and his mercy and truth. In him and for him is the cause of your election. This Christ, this mercy, this truth of God, remains for ever, is certain for ever, I say, for ever. If an angel from heaven should tell you the contrary, accursed be he. Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and effects of your election, they are no causes; these fruits and effects shall be so much more fruitful and effectual, by how much you waver not.
Therefore, my dearly beloved, arise, and remember from whence you are fallen; you have a Shepherd which neither slumbers nor sleeps; no man nor devil can pull you out of his hand; night and day he commands his angels to keep you. Have you forgotten what I read to you out of the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I can want nothing?" Do you not know that God barred Noah in the ark on the outside, so that he could not get out? So has he done to you, my good sister, so has he done to you. Ten thousand shall fall on your right hand, and twenty thousand on your left hand, yet no evil shall touch you. Say boldly therefore, "Many a time, from my youth up, they have fought against me, but they have not prevailed;" no, nor ever shall prevail; for the Lord is round about his people; and who are the people of God, but such as hope in him? Happy are they that hope in the Lord; and you are one of those, my dear heart; for I am assured you have hoped in the Lord; I have your words to show most manifestly; and I know they were written unfeignedly; I need not say, that even before God you have simply confessed this to me, and that oftentimes no less. And once if you had this hope, as you doubtless had it, though now you feel it not, yet shall you feel it again; for the anger of the Lord lasts but a moment, but his mercy lasts for ever. Tell me, my dear heart, who has so weakened you?osurely not a persuasion which came from Him that called you. For why should you waver? Why should you waver, and be so heavy-hearted? Whom look you on? On yourself? on your worthiness? on your thankfulness? on that which God requires of you, as faith, hope, love, fear, joy, &c.? Then can you not but waver indeed; for what have you as God requires? Believe you, hope you, love you, &c. as much as you should do? No, no, nor ever can in this life. Ah! my dearly beloved, have you so soon forgotten thaw which should ever be had in memoryonamely, that when you would and should be certain and quiet in conscience, then should your faith burst through all things, that you have in you, or which are in heaven, earth, or hell, until it come to Christ crucified, and the eternal sweet mercies and goodness of God in Christ? Here, here is the resting-place, here is your spouse's bed; creep into it, and in your arms of faith embrace him, bewail your weakness, your unworthiness, your diffidence, &c. and you shall see he will turn to you. What said I you shall see? Nay, I should have said, you shall perceive he will turn to you. You know that Moses, when he went to the mount to talk with God, entered into a dark cloud, and Elias had his face covered when God passed by: both these dear friends of God heard God, but they saw him not; but you would be preferred before them! See now, my dear heart, how covetous you are. Ah! be thankful, be thankful; but, God be praised, your covetousness is Moses' covetousness. Well, with him, you shall be satisfied: but when? Forsooth, when he shall appear. Here is not the time of seeing, but, as it were, in a glass. Isaac was deceived, because he was not content with hearing only.
Therefore, to make an end of these many words, wherewith I fear I trouble you from better exercises:oinasmuch as you are indeed the child of God, elect in Christ before the beginning of all times; inasmuch as you are given to the custody of Christ, as one of God's most precious jewels; inasmuch as Christ is faithful, and thereto has all power, so that you shall never perish, no, one hair of your head shall not be lostoI beseech you, I pray you, I desire you, I crave at your hands, with all my very heart, I ask of you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for his name, blood, mercies, power, and truth's sake, my most entirely beloved sister, that you admit no doubting of God's final mercies towards you, howsoever you feel yourself. But complain to God, and crave of him, as of your tender and dear Father, all things, and in that time which shall be most opportune you shall find and feel, far above what your heart, or the heart of any creature can conceive, to your eternal joy. Amen, Amen, Amen.
The good Spirit of God always keep us, as his dear children: may he comfort you, as I desire to be comforted, my dearly beloved, for evermore. Amen.
I break of thus abruptly, because our common prayer-time calls me. The peace of Christ dwell in both our hearts for evermore. Amen.
As to the report of W. P. if it be as you hear, you must prepare to bear it. It is written on heaven's door: Do well, and bear evil. Be content therefore to hear whatsoever the enemy shall imagine to blot you withal. God's Holy Spirit always comfort and keep you. Amen, Amen. This 8th of August, by him that in the Lord desires you as well and as much felicity as to his own heart,
