Letter of Jonathan Pickes. Whitelocke communicated to some of his company a letter which he received from a member of a congregation in London, which was thus:—
“For his Excellence the Lord Ambassador Whitelocke at Sweden.
“My Lord,
“The wise and holy carriage of Solomon before the Queen of Sheba are more lasting monuments of his praise than his targets of gold, or magnificent temple. The glory of saints is a glorious name, by which, though dead, yet they speak. God will not be ungrateful, nor unfaithful to forget or not to recompense any labour of love. The interest of Christ,—what greater jewel in the world! and yet how little liked and loved by the world! All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. The best, the noblest, the most lasting, yet not minded: our own things, poor, low, uncertain, unsatisfactory, yet pursued. The heart runneth after the wedge of gold, and the mind seeks for greatness. Give me honour, or else I die: a crown here is more desired than heaven hereafter. Divine love hath great danger accompanying it, but the recompense is answerable: ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.’ Learned Paul counts all things but dung and dross to holy Christ; and Moses esteemed reproaches for Christ, and afflictions with the people of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt or the honours at Court. And now, Sir, will you have the meaning of all? It is only a Christian motive to you to eye the highest Lord and the best interest with the greatest industry; that his honour, which is best of all, be dearer to you than all country honour: life, world, are not to be named in the day of his glory. Oh mind him who will not forget you in the least! There’s none in heaven like him: can there be anything on earth compared to him? Two things are chiefly to be minded in all actings,—the springs from whence, and the centre to which, all moves. If love to God be the spring of all, and glory for God the centre of all, then the heart is upright in all. Remember the blessed sound, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful in a little, but thou shalt be enjoyer of much; enter into thy Lord’s joy.’ And truly, Sir, you have been not a little in my thoughts to God for you; so hath it emboldened me thus to speak to God for you. My soul and many more have been set a-praising God on your behalf, for that noble Christian testimony and dislike of that wicked custom of cup-health pledging; whereas a Christian’s health is God, and his cup salvation. And blessed be the Lord, that did give you to dislike the ball of pleasure, and that the Lord of that day was so precious. Go on nobly for the Lord; give your testimony against the wicked customs of a strange country or dying world; bear his image in all your transactions, and follow his steps who was the most glorious Ambassador that ever was; and in this motion the Lord fill your sails with his gales, make you holily successful, and give you to see your land and relations full of heavenly fruition, is the humble and hearty desire of one of the least sons of Zion, ready to serve the Lord in you or yours.
“Jonathan Pickes.”
March 18, 1653.
Doctor Whistler made a copy of Latin verses upon the Queen’s abdication, which, for the ingenuity and fancy, were worthy the sight of a Prince; and Whitelocke sent them to the Queen, who was much taken with them. Whitelocke was so pleased with those verses that, having a little leisure, himself turned them into English.[41]
Whitelocke having sent to know if the Queen were at leisure that he might wait upon her, she returned an excuse that she was not well: she came away sick from the public schools, where she had been to grace the disputations of a young Swedish Baron with her presence.
Effect of the peace with Holland. Senator Bundt visited Whitelocke, and discoursed with him in English, which he spake indifferently well, and was the only Swede he conversed with in that language. Part of their discourse was to this effect:—
Bundt. Mr. Beningen, the Holland Resident in this Court, acquainted me that his superiors have concluded the agreement with England: only some provinces desire a more express inclusion of the King of Denmark than is yet contained in the articles; and they are much troubled that, being upon the conclusion of the treaty, you make so great preparations of war, and have so powerful a fleet at sea; and we here do much wonder what should be your design to have so strong a fleet, and so soon out at sea.