Vol 16 - TO JOHN KENNEDY.

TO JOHN KENNEDY
My loving and most affectionate Brother in CHRIST,
I SALUTE YOU with grace, mercy, and peace, from GOD OUT FATHER, and from our LORD JESUS CHRIST. I heard with grief of your great danger of perishing by the sea, but of your merciful deliverance with joy. Sure I am, Brother, SATAN will leave no stone unrolled, to roll you off your rock, or, at least, to unsettle you: for at the same time, the mouths of wicked men were open against you by land, and the Prince of the power of the air was angry with you by sea. See then how much you are obliged to that murderer, who would beat you with two rods at one time; but, blessed be Go), his arm is short; if the sea and winds would have obeyed him, you had never come to land. Thank your GOD, who says, (Revelation 1:18; Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6.) " I have the keys of hell and of death:" " I kill and make alive:" " The LORD bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." If SATAN were gaoler, and had the keys of death and of the grave, they would be stored with more prisoners. You were knocking at these black gates, and you found the doors shut; and we do all welcome you back again. I trust you know it is not for nothing that you are sent to us again: the LORD knew that you had forgotten something which was necessary for your journey; that your armour was not yet thick enough against the stroke of death. Now, in the strength of JESUS, despatch your business; that debt is not forgiven, but delayed; death has not bidden you farewell, bnt has only left you for a short season. End your journey before the night come upon you; have all in readiness against the time when you must sail through that black and impetuous Jordan; and may JESUS, who knows both these depths, and the rock, and all the coasts, be your pilot! The last tide will not wait for you one moment: if you have forgotten any thing when your sea is full, and your foot in that ship, there is no returning again to fetch it. What you do amiss in your life to-day, you may amend to-morrow. For as many suns as Go]) maketh to arise upon you, you have as many new lives: but you can die but once; and, if you mar that business, you cannot come back to mend that piece of work again. No man sinneth twice in dying ill; as we die but once, so we die ill or well but once. You see how the number of your months is written in GOD’s book; and, as one of the LORD's hirelings, you must work till the evening come upon you, and you run out your glass even to the last sand. Fulfil your course with joy; for we take nothing to the grave with us, but a good or evil conscience. And although the sky clear after this storm, yet clouds will engender another. You contracted with CHRIST, I hope, when you first began to follow him, that you would bear his cross; fulfill your part of the contract with patience. Be honest, Brother, in bargaining with him; for who knows how to bring up children better than our Gon For, to lay aside his knowledge, which there is no searching out, he has been practiced in bringing up his heirs these five thousand years; and many of them are now at home in their own house, in their father's inheritance.. Now, the form of his bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, and correcting;—his eldest son and his heir, JESUS, is not excepted. Suffer we must: before. we were born, GOD decreed it; and it is easier to complain of his decree, than to change it. Tribulation and temptations will almost loose us at the root; and yet without tribulations and temptations we can no more grow, than herbs or corn without rain. Forward then, dear Brother; hold fast the truth; for the. world, sell not one dram of GOD’s truth, especially now when most men measure truth by time, like young seamen setting their compass by a cloud. The GOD of truth establish us; for, alas! now there are none to comfort the prisoners of hope, and the mourners in Zion. We can do little, except pray and mourn for JOSEPH. And let their tongue cleave to the roof of their mouth, who forget Jerusalem now in her day. MARION MACNAUGHT Both remember most heartily her love to you. Blessed be the LORD, that I found in this country such a woman, to whom JESUS is dearer than her own heart. Good Brother, call to mind the memory of your worthy father, now asleep in CHRIST; and, as his custom was, pray continually, and wrestle for the life of a dying church. Now I commend you, your whole soul, and body, and spirit, to JESUS CHRIST and his keeping; hoping that you will die and live, stand and fall, with the cause of our Master, JESUS. The, LORD JESUS himself be with your spirit!
Your loving Brother,
Anwoth,
In our LORD JESUS, Feb. 2, 1632.