My dear Brother,
I received enclosed in your last letter the note of information, which I shall certainly keep and make use of, when occasion arises. I have a true feeling of your perplexity of mind and toil of body; but I hope that you, who have always been able so plentifully to administer comfort to others in their trials, are so well furnished for yourself that even far greater difficulties than you have yet undergone (though I conceive them to have been great enough) cannot oppress you, though they press you, as the Apostle says. The spirit of a man, sustained by the spirit of God, will sustain his infirmity, and, I doubt not, so will yours; and much the better when you enjoy the presence and help of so many godly and wise brethren, in bearing part of your burden, who will not admit into their hearts the least thought or suspicion of the least negligence, still less presumption, to have been in you, whatever they may think of others. Now what shall I say and write to you and your good wife, my loving sister? Even only this: I desire, and always shall, from the Lord unto you as unto my own soul; and assure yourself that my heart is with you, and that I will not delay my bodily coming at the first opportunity. I have written a large letter to the whole company, and am sorry that I shall not be able to speak with them; the more so considering the want of a preacher, which will be an additional spur to my hastening after you. I do ever commend my best affection to you, which if I thought you doubted, I would express in more words. And the Lord in whom you trust, and whom you serve ever in this business and journey, guide you with His hand, protect you with His wing, and show you and us His salvation in the end, and bring us in the meanwhile together in the place desired, if such be His good will, for His Christ’s sake. Amen.
Yours,
JOHN ROBINSON.
July 27th, 1620.
This was the last letter that Mr. Carver lived to see from him.
Mr. John Robinson in Holland to the Pilgrims departing from Southampton for New England:
Loving Christian Friends,
I salute you all heartily in the Lord, as being they with whom I am present in my best affections and most earnest longings, though I am constrained for a time to be bodily absent from you. I say constrained, God knowing how willingly, and much rather than otherwise, I would have borne my part with you in this first brunt, were I not by strong necessity held back for the present. Think of me in the meanwhile as of a man divided in himself with great pain, and (physical limitations set aside) as having his better part with you. Though I doubt not that in your godly wisdom, you foresee what is applicable to your present condition, I have thought it but my duty to add some further spur, even to those who run already,—not because you need it, but because I owe it in love and duty.
First, as we ought daily to renew our repentance with our God, especially for our sins known, and generally for our unknown trespasses, so doth the Lord call us in a singular manner, upon such an occasion of difficulty and danger as lies before you, both to more narrow search and careful reformation of our ways in His sight lest He, calling to remembrance of our sins forgotten by us or unrepented of, take advantage of us, and, as a judgment upon us, leave us to be swallowed up in one danger or another. Whereas, on the contrary, sin being taken away by earnest repentance, and the pardon thereof from the Lord sealed up into a man’s conscience by His spirit, great shall be his security and peace in all dangers, sweet his comfort in all distresses, with happy deliverance from all evil, whether in life or in death.