“Now, my dear, I desire willingly and cheerfully to resign my right in you to your Father and my Father, who has the greatest interest in you. And confident I am, though men have separated us for a time yet our God will ere long bring us together again where we shall eternally enjoy one another, never to part more. O let me hear how God bears up your heart, and let me taste of those comforts that support you, that they may be as pillars of marble to bear up my sinking spirit. I can write no more. Farewell, farewell, my dear, till we meet there where we shall never bid farewell more; till which time I leave you in the bosom of a loving, tender-hearted Father, and so I rest till I shall forever rest in Heaven,
Mary Love”
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was executed.
Showing posts with label The Love Letters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Love Letters. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The Love Letters, #3, part 2
"And be not discouraged when you shall see a guard of soldiers triumphing with their trumpets about you, but lift up your head and you shall behold God with a guard of His holy angels, triumphing to receive you to glory. Be not dismayed at the scoffs and reproaches that you may meet with in your short way to heaven, for be assured that God will not only glorify your body and soul in heaven but He will also make the memory of you to be glorious on earth!
O let not one troubled thought for your wife and babies arise within you. Your God will be our God and our portion. He will be a husband to your widow and a father to your children; the grace of your God will be sufficient for us."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was executed.
O let not one troubled thought for your wife and babies arise within you. Your God will be our God and our portion. He will be a husband to your widow and a father to your children; the grace of your God will be sufficient for us."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was executed.
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Love Letters, #3
"My Heavenly Dear,
I call you so because God has put heaven into you before He has taken you to heaven. You now behold God, Christ and glory, as in a glass; but tomorrow, heaven's gates will be opened and you shall be in the full enjoyment of all those glories which eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, neither can the heart of man understand. God has now swallowed up your heart in the thoughts of heaven, but ere long you shall be swallowed up in the enjoyment of heaven. And no marvel there should be such quietness and calmness in your spirit while you are sailing in this tempestuous sea, because you perceive by the eye of faith a haven of rest where you shall be richly laden with all the glories of heaven.
O lift up your heart with joy when you lay your dear head on the block in the thought of this: that you are laying your head to rest in your Father's bosom which, when you do awake, shall be crowned not with an earthly fading crown but with a heavenly eternal crown of glory."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love, the night before he was to be executed.
I call you so because God has put heaven into you before He has taken you to heaven. You now behold God, Christ and glory, as in a glass; but tomorrow, heaven's gates will be opened and you shall be in the full enjoyment of all those glories which eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, neither can the heart of man understand. God has now swallowed up your heart in the thoughts of heaven, but ere long you shall be swallowed up in the enjoyment of heaven. And no marvel there should be such quietness and calmness in your spirit while you are sailing in this tempestuous sea, because you perceive by the eye of faith a haven of rest where you shall be richly laden with all the glories of heaven.
O lift up your heart with joy when you lay your dear head on the block in the thought of this: that you are laying your head to rest in your Father's bosom which, when you do awake, shall be crowned not with an earthly fading crown but with a heavenly eternal crown of glory."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love, the night before he was to be executed.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Love Letters, #2
“More Dear to Me than Ever,
It adds to my rejoicing that I have so good and gracious a wife to part with for the Lord Jesus. In your grief, I have been grieved; but in your joy I have been comforted. Surely, nature could never help you to bear so heavy a stroke with so much silence and submission to the hand of God! Oh, dearest, every line which you write gladdens my heart. I dare not think that there is such a creature as Mary Love in the world. For Kit and Mall [the two living children], I can think of them without trouble, leaving them to so good a God and so good a mother.
Be comforted concerning your husband, who may more honor God in his death than in his life. The will of the Lord be done; he is fully satisfied with the hand of God. Though there is but little between him and death, he knows that there is but little between him and heaven, and that ravishes his heart.”
- Christopher Love, in a letter (1651) to his wife Mary Love while in prison in a tower awaiting execution. The letter ends, “The very things I thought to have written you, you have written to me. I have had more comfort from your gracious letters than from all the counsel I have had from anyone else in the world. Well be assured that we shall meet in heaven.”
It adds to my rejoicing that I have so good and gracious a wife to part with for the Lord Jesus. In your grief, I have been grieved; but in your joy I have been comforted. Surely, nature could never help you to bear so heavy a stroke with so much silence and submission to the hand of God! Oh, dearest, every line which you write gladdens my heart. I dare not think that there is such a creature as Mary Love in the world. For Kit and Mall [the two living children], I can think of them without trouble, leaving them to so good a God and so good a mother.
Be comforted concerning your husband, who may more honor God in his death than in his life. The will of the Lord be done; he is fully satisfied with the hand of God. Though there is but little between him and death, he knows that there is but little between him and heaven, and that ravishes his heart.”
- Christopher Love, in a letter (1651) to his wife Mary Love while in prison in a tower awaiting execution. The letter ends, “The very things I thought to have written you, you have written to me. I have had more comfort from your gracious letters than from all the counsel I have had from anyone else in the world. Well be assured that we shall meet in heaven.”
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Love Letters
"Be not troubled to think what shall become of you and yours after my death, for be assured that my God, and the God of the widows and fatherless, will not forsake you, but will wonderfully provide for those and be comforted in this, that though men take your husband from you, they cannot take your God from you; and so do not think that you have lost your husband, but only parted with him for a while, and in the meantime your Savior will be a husband unto you and a father unto your children."
- Christopher Love (1618-1651). Love's execution was delayed for a month from July 15th to August 15th, and then for another week after that. On August 21st, the night before his death, he was able to see his wife. These were some his last words to her before they prayed together and she departed.
- Christopher Love (1618-1651). Love's execution was delayed for a month from July 15th to August 15th, and then for another week after that. On August 21st, the night before his death, he was able to see his wife. These were some his last words to her before they prayed together and she departed.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Love Letters, #1, part 5
"Be comforted, my dear heart. It is but a little stroke and you shall be there where the weary shall be at rest and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember that you may eat your dinner with bitter herbs, yet you shall have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto you, I do not hereby undertake to teach you; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by you. I will write no more, nor trouble you any further, but commit you into the arms of God with whom ere long you and I shall be.
Farewell, my dear. I shall never see your face more till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at that great day."
- The end of Mary Love's letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was to be executed. She said of him, "He lived too much in heaven to live long on earth."
Farewell, my dear. I shall never see your face more till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at that great day."
- The end of Mary Love's letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was to be executed. She said of him, "He lived too much in heaven to live long on earth."
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Love Letters, #1, part 4
“And when you lay down your precious head to receive your Father’s stroke, remember what you said to me: Though your head was severed from your body, yet in a moment your soul should be united to your Head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father, and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again.”
- Mary Love in a letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was to be beheaded. Only three days before she had written to him, “One comfort I would have of you to carry to your grave, if ever God did good to my soul, you were the chief instrument of it, for I never looked after God till I saw your face.”
- Mary Love in a letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love the night before he was to be beheaded. Only three days before she had written to him, “One comfort I would have of you to carry to your grave, if ever God did good to my soul, you were the chief instrument of it, for I never looked after God till I saw your face.”
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Love Letters, #1, part 3
"My dear, I know God has not only prepared glory for you, and you for it, but I am persuaded that He will sweeten the way for you to come to the enjoyment of it. When you are putting on your clothes that morning, O think, 'I am now putting on my wedding garments to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer.'
When the messenger of death comes to you, let him not seem dreadful to you, but look on him as a messenger that brings you tidings of eternal life. When you go up the scaffold, think (as you said to me) that it is but your fiery chariot to carry you up to your Father's house."
- Mary Love, in a letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love, who was awaiting death by beheading the following day. Remembering him after his death, she wrote, "after he had a family of his own, he made it a little nursery for God, resolving that whatever others did, yet that he and his house would serve the Lord, and that his family should be among the number of those that know God and call upon His name."
When the messenger of death comes to you, let him not seem dreadful to you, but look on him as a messenger that brings you tidings of eternal life. When you go up the scaffold, think (as you said to me) that it is but your fiery chariot to carry you up to your Father's house."
- Mary Love, in a letter (1651) to her husband Christopher Love, who was awaiting death by beheading the following day. Remembering him after his death, she wrote, "after he had a family of his own, he made it a little nursery for God, resolving that whatever others did, yet that he and his house would serve the Lord, and that his family should be among the number of those that know God and call upon His name."
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Love Letters, #1, part 2
"I dare not speak to you, nor have a thought within my own heart of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed upon your inexpressible and inconceivable gain. You leave but a sinful, mortal wife to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory. You leave but children, brothers, and sisters to go to the Lord Jesus, your elder brother. You leave friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory. You do but leave earth for heaven and change a prison for a palace.
And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within you will quell them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know you keep your eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes your feet trample on the loss of earth."
- A letter (1651) of Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love the day before he was to be executed. Mary petitioned the English parliament four times. The first asked that he be pardoned, citing friends who said that he would live a peacable life. In the second she asked for banishment instead of death. In the third she asked for his banishment to New England so that he might be used of God in the conversion of the Indians. Lastly she asked that she might trade her life for his own on the scaffold. Each petition was read before parliament and voted down.
And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within you will quell them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know you keep your eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes your feet trample on the loss of earth."
- A letter (1651) of Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love the day before he was to be executed. Mary petitioned the English parliament four times. The first asked that he be pardoned, citing friends who said that he would live a peacable life. In the second she asked for banishment instead of death. In the third she asked for his banishment to New England so that he might be used of God in the conversion of the Indians. Lastly she asked that she might trade her life for his own on the scaffold. Each petition was read before parliament and voted down.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Love Letters, #1, part 1
"My Dear Heart,
Before I write a word further, I beseech you not to think that it is your wife but a friend now that writes to you. I hope you have freely given up your wife and children to God, who has said in Jeremiah 49:11, "Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let your widow trust in me." Your maker will be my husband, and a Father to your children. O that the Lord would keep you from having one troubled thought for your relations. I desire freely to give you up into your Father's hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for you to die for Christ, but as an honor to me that I should have a husband to leave for Christ."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love (1618-1651) the day before he was to be executed. Love, a presbyterian pastor and brief member of the Westminister Assembly, was charged with other ministers, including William Jenkyn and Thomas Watson, for treason in being involved in a plot to restore Charles II to the throne of England. Love was the only one executed. He left his wife, 8 months pregnant, and three little ones.
Before I write a word further, I beseech you not to think that it is your wife but a friend now that writes to you. I hope you have freely given up your wife and children to God, who has said in Jeremiah 49:11, "Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let your widow trust in me." Your maker will be my husband, and a Father to your children. O that the Lord would keep you from having one troubled thought for your relations. I desire freely to give you up into your Father's hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for you to die for Christ, but as an honor to me that I should have a husband to leave for Christ."
- A letter (1651) from Mary Love to her husband Christopher Love (1618-1651) the day before he was to be executed. Love, a presbyterian pastor and brief member of the Westminister Assembly, was charged with other ministers, including William Jenkyn and Thomas Watson, for treason in being involved in a plot to restore Charles II to the throne of England. Love was the only one executed. He left his wife, 8 months pregnant, and three little ones.
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