IT was but a little after my release from my own confinement, but I heard of yours: and now write to you, as one that hath taken a higher degree than ever, being commenced prisoner of Christ. I was once affected with the picture of a devout man, to whom a voice came down from heaven, saying, _Quid vis fieri pro te?_ To which he answered, _Nihil domine, nifi pati ac contemini pro te_. Undoubtedly, Sir, it is our real glory to be throughout conformed to Jesus Christ, not only in his sanctity, but in his sufferings. I doubt not your consolations in Christ superabound in all your tribulations for him. Yet let me add this, that you have a whole shoal of promises come in to you, which you had not before; I mean all the promises to suffering saints, in which they have not so immediate a part, unless in a suffering state. And doubtless he hath got well, that hath gotten such a number of exceeding great and precious promises. I can tell you little good of myself: but this I can tell you, that the promises of God were never so sweet to me, as since my imprisoned state. It shames me that I have let such a treasure lie by so long, and have made so little use of it. Never did my soul know the heaven of a believer’s life, till I learnt to live a life of praise, and to set home the unspeakable riches of the divine promises, to which, through grace, I am made an heir. I verily perceive that all our work were done, if we could but prevail with ourselves and others to live like believers; to tell all the world by our carriage, that there is such pleasantness in Christ’s ways, such beauty in holiness, such reward to obedience, as we profess to believe!