cbjects of mortification. But you want none fuck in your folitude, and I, being unprovided of other, will leave you to your own thoughts, and ever continue, Sir, your obliged fervant.

My neighbours and tenants are under fome diftrefs, being queftioned about accounts, and several laves found torn out of the books, 'o that Kingdome and Trant offered 40,ocol. for atonement, but having confeffed two more were privy to this cutting out leaves, the King will have them discovered: till Monday they have time given them. You had given Lady Julian one of those books.

Duty 1634-5. , all ways of my afflicted me to think the better temper ce found me in, when e me a week of your You are highly in the quick a fenie as harp 2 sand, and to derveis on can caufe, I labour der, and leve, to the end of my life, to anfortunate in the close of it. trive to reflect how large my pornos of good things has been, and noga they are paffed away no more to eng yet I have a plenfant work to do, I aeis op my foul for my defired change, at it for the converfe of angels and the fpirits of just men made perfect. Anorga whom my hope is my loved Lord is one; and my often repeated prayer to my God is, that if I have a reaionable ground for that hope, it may give a refreshment to my poor foul.

Do not prefs yourself, Sir, too greatly fecking my advantage, but when your papers do come, I expect and hope they will prove fuch. The accidents of every day tell us of what a tottering clay our bodies are made. Youth nor beauty, greatness nor wealth, can prop it up. If i could, the Lady Offory had not fo early left this world; the died (as an expreis acquainted her father this morning) Sunday laft, of a flux and mifcarrying. 1 heard alfo this day of a kinfman that is gone; a few years ago I fhould have had a more concerned fenfe for Sir Tho

tas Vernon, his unfitnefs (as I doubt)

1 do lament indeed.

Thus I treat you, as I am myfelf, with

Sir Thomas Vernon, on the jury against Sir Barnardifon, knighted for his fervice in it, then made foreman to convict Oates of perSir Sam. Barnardiston, 14th February 4. was fined 10,000l. for writing fome letwhich he used thefe expreffions (inter alia) Lord Howard appears defpicable in the eyes At men-The brave Lord Rutlell is a-freth

wented It is generally faid the Earl of Effex was murdered-The plot is loft here-The Poke of Monmouth faid publicly, that he knew

Lord Ruffell was as loyal a fubject as any in *gland, and that his Majefty believed the fame

The printer of the late Lord Ruffell's

LETTER VI. From the jame to the fame. RECEIVED your letter and papers inclofed, and I defire, good Doctor, you would receive my thanks for both, in particular that part concerns my immediate wants; and for the other you would give me the first fight of, and then the office of delivering it to others; which I did faithfully as you directed, and could not but receive an equal approbation. As you are kind in believing what thoughts I had entertained of you, fo I affure you, you are but just in it. And I with from my foul I may keep as fted fast to the truth, as I believe you intend to do; and as I doubt not that your ftrength will fail, fo pray mine may be as firm under all trials our heavenly Father may permit us to fall, but not fink under I truft. Man paffeth away, but the truth of God endureth for ever. The faddeft ftate to a good foul will one day end in reft. This is my best comfort, and a greater we cannot have, yet the degree is raifed, when live in regions of unfpeakable blifs. This we confider we fhall not only reft, but fhould lead us fweetly through the dark paffage of the world; and fuffer us to fears fuggeft may happen to us. I am tart at nothing we either meet, or our forry my fifter Alington will not difpofe herfelf to receive your compaffionate vifit. Pray God comfort her with his Spirit working in her heart, that she may evi

"fpeech was paffed over with filence-The fham "proteftant plot is quite loft and confounded, &c." He was committed for his fine to the King's Bench, continued prifoner four or five years, and great wafte and deftruction made on his estate. Display of Tyranny.

dence

dence to her foul fhe is bettered by affliction. After the firft changes following our great one, all is filent; your friends are the rifing men; Lord Ormond intends to be at fea by 10th March, but who goes I hear not. It is now in juftices hands, the Chancellor and a Lord Grenard. Lord Campden is gone this day to Hampshire. Moft are moving about elections. God direct the fpirits of all men in fo difficult a time as this. My Lord Gainsborough told me to-day he is bespoke to give Lady Mary Compton in marriage to the Lord Dorfet, and about ten days hence he goes to Titchfield. His fon will be housekeeper, he fays, which I was forry to hear, but I muft fubmit to forrows of all degrees, with as much of that excellent virtue of patience you recommend, and with fo pious a zeal as I can attain, who am, Doctor, very fincerely your friend and fervant.

From the fame to the fame.

Southampton-house, 17th July 1685,

NE EVER fhall I, good Doctor, I hope, forget your work (as I may term it) of labour and love; fo inftructive and comfortable do I find it, that at any time, when I have read any of your papers, I feel a heat within me to be repeating my thanks to you anew, which is all I can do towards the difcharge of a debt you have engaged me in; and though nobody loves more than I to stand free from engagements I cannot answer, yet I do not with for it here, I would have it as it is, and although I have the prefent advantage, you will have the future reward; and if I can truly reap what I know you defign me by it, a religious and quiet fubmiflion to all providences, I am affured you will effeem to have attained it here in fome measure. Never could you more feafonably have fed me with fuch difcourfes, and left me with expectations of new repafts, in a more feasonable time, than thefe my miferable months, and in thofe this very week in which I have lived over again that fatal day that determined what fell out a week after, and that has given me fo long and fo bitter a time of forrow. But God has a compafs in his providences that is out of our reach, and as he is all

James Butler, Duke of Ormond; James Forbes, Earl of Granard,

good and wife, that confideration should in reafon flacken the fierce rages of grief. But fure, Doctor, it is the nature of forrow to lay hold on all things which give a new ferment to it; then how could I chufe but feel it in a time of fo much confufion as these last weeks have been, clofing fo tragically as they have done; and fure never any poor creature, for two whole years together, has had more awakers to quicken and revive the anguish of its foul than I have had; yet I hope I do most truly defire that nothing may be fo bitter to me, as to think that I have in the least offended thee, O my God, and that nothing may be fo marvellous in my eyes as the exceeding love of my Lord Jefus; that heaven being my aim, and the longing expectations of my foul, I may go through honour and difhonour, good report and bad report, profperity and adverfity, with fome evenness of mind. The infpiring me with these defires is, I hope, a token of his neverfailing love towards me, though an unthankful creature for all the good things I have enjoyed, and do ftill in the lives of hopeful children by fo beloved a huf band. God has reftored me my little girl, the furgeon fays she will do well. I fhould now haften to give them the advantage of the country air, but am detained by the warning to fee my uncle Ruvigny here, who comes to me, fo I know not how to quit my house till I have received him, at least into it; he is upon his journey.

My Lady Gainsborough came to this town laft night, and I doubt found neither her own daughter nor Lady Jane in a good condition of health. I had carried a furgeon on the day before to let my niece blood, by Dr. Loure's direction, who could not attend by reason my Lord Radnor lay in extremity, and he was last night paft hopes. My niece's complaint is a neglected cold, and he fears her to be fomething hectic, but I hope youth will ftruggle and overcome; they are children whofe leaft concerns touch me to the quick; their mother was a delicious friend; fure nobody has enjoyed more pleasure in the converfations and tender kindneffes of a husband and a fifter than myself, yet, how apt am I to be fretful that I must not ftill do fo! but I must follow how unacceptable foever it may be to me. that which feems to be the will of God, A a 3

I must

I must ftop, for if I let my pen run on I know not where it will end. I am, good Doctor, with great faithfulness, your affectionate friend to ferve you.

LETTER VIII.

Lady Rafell to Dr. Fitzwilliam.

NOW

Woborne Abbey, 11th Oct. 1685.

children of fo excellent a friend, giving them hopeful understandings, and yet very tractable and fweet difpofitions; fpared my life in usefulness I truft to them; and being I am to linger in a world I can no more delight in, has given me a freedom from bodily pain to a degree I almost never knew, not fo much as a strong fit of the head-ach have I felt fince that miferable time, who used to be tormented with it very frequently. This calls for praifes my dead heart is not exercifed in, but I hope this is my infirmity; I bewail it. He that took our nature, and felt our infirmities, knows the weakness of my perfon, and the fhai pnefs of my for.

rows.

I should not forget to mention, Sir, I did receive your papers and a letter I ne. ver had the opportunity to tell you of, dated 13th Auguft; and another letter after that, where you write of your being in London within a fortnight; fo that time flipping, I know not where to find you, no how I came to let time do fo.

ow I know where to find you, good Doctor (which I do by your letter written at my coutin Spenfer's), you must be fure to hear from her who is still not athamed to be on the receiving hand with you. God has given you the abilities, and opportunity for it, and not to me; and what am I that I fhould fay, Why is it not otherwife? No, I do not, nor do I grudge or envy you the pious and ingenious pleafure you have in it; my part in this world is of another nature, and I thank you, Sir (but God muft give you the recompenfe), you inftrust me admirably how to overcome, that I may once make application of that text Rev. iii. 12. and raife fuch hopes as cannot mifcarry. The great thing is to acquicice with all one's heart to the good pleafure of God, who will prove us by the ways and difpenfations he fees beit, and when he will break us to pieces we mutt be broken. Who can tell his works from the beginning to the end? But who can praife his mercies more than wretched I, that he has not cut me off in anger, who have taken his chatlifements fo heavily, not weighing his mercies in the midst of judgments! The ftroke was of the fiercet fure; but had I not then a reasonable ground to hope, that what I loved as I did my own foul, was raifed from a prifon to a throne? Was I not enabled to fhut up my own forrows, that I increafed not his fufferings by feeing mine ? How were my finking fpirits fupported by the early compaffions of excellent and wife christians, without ceafing admonishing me of my duty, inftructing, reproving, comforting me! You know, Dottor, I was not deititute; and I muft acknowledge that many others like your-rious thing, Doctor, it is to live and die felf, with devout zeal and great charity, contributed to the gathering together my scattered spirits, and then fubjecting them by reafon to fuch a fubmiflion as I could obtain under fo aftonishing a calamity: and further he has fpared me hitherto the

I know not if you have heard fome unwifhed-for accidents in my family have hurried me into new diforders. A young lady my uncle Ruvigny brought with him falling ill of the fmail pox, I first removed my children to Bedford-houfe, then followed myfelf, for the quieting of my good uncle's mind, who would have it fo; from thence I brought my little tribe down to Woborne, and when I heard how fatal the end was of the young lady's distemper, I returned myself to Bedford-houfe to take my last leave (for fo I take it to be) of as kind a relation, and as zealous tender a friend as ever any body had. To my uncle and aunt their niece was an inexpreffible lois, but to herself death was the contrary: fhe died (as most do) as fhe lived, a pattern to all who knew her. As her body grew weak, her faith and hope grew Trong, comforting her comforters, and edifying all about her, ever magnifying the goodnefs of God, that he died in a country where he could in peace give up her foul to him that made it. What a glo

as fure as the did! I heard my uncle and aunt fay, that in feven years she had been with them, they never could tax her with a failure in her piety or worldly prudence, yet he had been roughly attacked, as the French Gazettes will tell you, if you