bonds upon himself: such a one I must have, and such a soul I cannot live in heaven without: John x. 16. If with the eyes of wisdom, as a child of wisdom, ye justify your mother, the wisdom of God, (whose child you are,) you shall kiss and embrace this loss, and see much of Christ in it. Believe and submit, and refer the income of the consolations of Jesus, and the event of the trial, to your heavenly Father, who numbereth all your hairs: and put Christ in his own room in your love; it may be, he hath either been out of his own place, or in a place of love inferior to his worth. Repair Christ in all his wrongs done to him, and love him for a husband; and he that is a husband to the widow," shall be that to you, which he hath taken from you. Grace be with Your sympathizing brother,

you.

London, Oct. 15, 1645.

S. R.

To BARBARA HAMILTON.

Loving Sister,

GRACE, mercy and peace be to you. I have heard with grief, that Newcastle hath taken one more in a bloody account, than before, even your son-in-law, and my friend; but I hope you have learned that much of Christ, as not to look to wheels rolled round about on earth. Earthen vessels are not to dispute with their Former: pieces of sinning clay may, by reasoning and contending with the Potter, mar the work of him "who hath his fire

in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem;" as bullocks, sweating and wrestling in the furrow, maketh their yoke more heavy. In quietness and In quietness and rest, you shall be saved. If men do any thing contrary to your heart, we may ask both, Who did it? and, What is done? and, Why? When God hath done any such thing, we are to inquire who hath done it, and to know that this cometh from the Lord, "who is wonderful in counsel;" but we are not to ask what or why. If it be from the Lord, (as certainly there is no evil in the city without him, Amos iii. 6.) it is enough; the fairest face of his spotless way is but coming, and you are to believe his works as well as his word. It maketh not much, what way we go to heaven; the happy home is all, where the roughness of the way shall be forgotten. He is gone home to a Friend's house, and made welcome, and the race is ended; time is recompensed with eternity. God's order is in wisdom; the husband goes home before the wife, and the throng of the market shall be over, ere it be long, and another generation where we now are; and at length an empty house, and not one of mankind shall be upon the earth within the sixth part of an hour, after the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up with fire. I fear more that Christ is about to remove, when he carrieth home so much of his plenishing before-hand. We cannot teach the Almighty knowledge; when he was directing the bullet against his servant, to fetch out the soul, no wise man could cry to God, Wrong, wrong, Lord, for he is thine own! There is no mist over his eyes, who is "wonderful in

Christ hath fewer he had, but some and the Lord's coveWhat is Christ's gain,

counsel:" if Zion be built with your son-in-law's blood, the Lord (deep in counsel) can glue together the stones of Zion with blood, and with that blood which is precious in his eyes. labourers in his vineyard than more witnesses for his cause, nant with the three nations. is not your loss: let not that which is his holy and wise will be your unbelieving sorrow. Though I really judge I had interest in his dead servant, yet, because he now liveth to Christ, I quit the hopes I had of his successful labouring in the ministry. I know he now praiseth the grace that he was to preach; and if there were a better thing on his head now in heaven than a crown, or any thing more excellent than heaven, he would cast it down before his feet who sitteth on the throne. Give glory, therefore, to Christ, as he now doth, and say, "Thy will be done." The grace and consolation of Christ be with you.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

London, Nov. 15, 1645.

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S. R.

To a CHRISTIAN FRIEND, on the Death of his Wife.

Worthy Friend,

I DESIRE to suffer with you, in the loss of a loving and good wife, now gone before (according to the method and order of Him, of whose understanding

there is no searching out) whither you are to follow. He that made yesterday to go before this day, and the former generation, in birth and life, to have been before this present generation, and hath made some flowers to grow, and die, and wither in the month of May, and others in June, cannot be challenged in the order he hath made of things without souls; and some order he must keep also here, that one might bury another; therefore, I hope, you shall be dumb and silent, because the Lord hath done it. What creatures or under-causes do in sinful mistakes, are ordered in wisdom by your Father, at whose feet your own soul and your heaven lieth, and so the days of your wife. If the place she hath left were any other than a prison of sin, and the home she is gone to any other than where her Head and Saviour is King of the land, your grief had been more rational; but I trust, your faith of the resurrection of the dead in Christ to glory and immortality, will lead you to suspend your longing for her, till the morning and dawning of that day, when the archangel shall descend with a shout, to gather all his prisoners out of the grave up to himself. To believe this is best for you, and to be "silent, because he hath done it,” is your wisdom. It is much to come out of the Lord's school of trial, wiser and more experienced in the ways of God. Christ hath skill to do, and (if our corruption mar not) the art of mercy in correcting. We cannot of ourselves take away the tin, the lead, and the scum that remaineth in us; and if the furnace go alone, and Christ, the Master of the work, be not standing nigh the melting of his own vessel,

the labour were lost, and the founder should melt in vain. God knoweth, some of us have cost much fire and pains to our Lord Jesus; and the vessel is almost marred, the furnace and rod of God split, and the reprobate metal not taken away, so as some are to answer to the Majesty of God for the abuse of many good crosses, and rich afflictions lost, without the quiet fruit of righteousness: and it is a sad thing, when the rod is cursed that never fruit shall grow on it: and except Christ's dew fall down, and his summer-sun shine, and his grace follow afflictions, to cause them bring forth fruit to God, they are so fruitless to us, that our evil ground, rank and fat enough for briers, casteth up a crop of noisome weeds. "The rod," as the prophet saith, Ezek. vii. 10, 11,"blossometh, pride buddeth forth, violence riseth up into a rod of wickedness;" and all this hath been my case under many rods since I saw Grace be with you.

you.

Yours in his sweet Lord Jesus,

London, 1645.

S. R.

To a CHRISTian Brother.

Reverend and beloved in the Lord,

As

It may be I have been too long silent, but I hope you will not impute it to forgetfulness of you. I have heard of the death of your daughter, with heaviness of mind on your behalf; so I am much comforted, that she hath evidenced to yourself and