THIRD PART.

LETTERS TO AND FROM WIDOWS.

LETTERS TO WIDOWS.

THE first which I shall introduce is an extract of a letter from the Rev. John Howe, to Lady Rachel Russell, shortly after the execution of her husband. The whole letter is too long for insertion, but is well worthy of perusal, being one of the noblest and most pathetic pieces of epistolary composition in our language.

“MADAM,

* * * "It is, then, upon the whole, most manifest, that no temporary affliction whatsoever, upon one who stands in special relation to God, as a reconciled (and which is consequent an adopted) person, though attended with the most aggravating circumstances, can justify such a sorrow, so deep or so continued, as shall prevail against, and shut ort a religious holy joy, or hinder it from being the

vailing principle in such a one. What can make that sorrow allowable or innocent, what event of Providence, (that can, whatever it is, be no other than an accident to our Christian state,) that shall resist the most natural design and end of christianity itself? that shall deprave and debase the truly Christian temper, and disobey and violate most express Christian precepts? subvert the constitution of Christ's kingdom among men, and turn this earth (the place of God's treaty with the inhabitants of it, in order to their reconciliation to himself, and to the reconciled, the portal and gate of heaven; yea, and where the state of the very worst and most miserable has some mixture of good in it, that makes the evil of it less than that of hell) into a mere hell to themselves, of sorrow without mixture, and wherein shall be nothing but weeping and wailing.

The cause of your sorrow, madam, is exceeding great. The causes of your joy are inexpressibly greater. You have infinitely more left than you have lost. Doth it need to be disputed whether God be better and greater than man? or more to be valued, loved, and delighted in? and whether an eternal relation be more considerable than a temporary one? Was it not your constant sense in your best outward state? 'Whom have I in heaven but thee, O God; and whom can I desire on earth in comparison of thee!' Herein the state of your ladyship's case is still the same, (if you cannot rather

with greater clearness, and with less hesitation pronounce those latter words). The principal causes of your joy are immutable, such as no supervening thing can altar. You have lost a most pleasant, delectable earthly relative. Doth the blessed God hereby cease to be the best and most excellent good? Is his nature changed? his everlasting covenant reversed and annulled? which is ordered in all things and sure,' and is to be all your salvation and all your desire, 'whether he make your house on earth to grow or not to grow.' That sorrow which exceeds the proportion of its cause, compared with the remaining true and real causes of rejoicing, is, in that excess, causeless; that is, that excess of it wants a cause such as can justify or afford defence unto it.

* * * * ** * * * * * * * *

"Such as he hath pardoned, accepted, and prepared for himself, are to serve and glorify him in an higher and more excellent capacity, than they ever could in this wretched world of ours, and wherein they have themselves the highest satisfaction. When the blessed God is pleased in having attained and accomplished the end and intendments of his own boundless love, too great to be satisfied with the conferring of only temporary favours in this imperfect state, and they are pleased in partaking the full effects of that love; who are we, that we should be displeased? or that we should oppose our satisfaction to that of the glorious God, and his glorified creature? Therefore, madam, whereas you cannot

avoid to think much on this subject, and to have the removal of that imcomparable person, for a great theme of your thoughts, I do only propose most humbly to your honour, that you would not confine them to the sadder and darker part of that theme. It hath also a bright side; and it equally belongs to it, to consider whither he is gone, and to whom, as whence and from whom. Let, I beseech you, your mind be more exercised in contemplating the glories of that state your blessed consort is translated unto, which will mingle pleasure and sweetness with the bitterness of your afflicting loss, by giving you a daily intellectual participation, through the exercise of faith and hope, in his enjoyments. He cannot descend to share with you in your sorrows; you may thus every day ascend and partake with him in his joys. He is a pleasant subject to consider. A prepared spirit made meet for an inheritance with them that are sanctified, and with the saints in light, now entered into a state so con-natural, and wherein it finds every thing most agreeable to itself. How highly grateful is it to be united with the true centre, and to come home to the Father of spirits! To consider how pleasant a welcome, how joyful an entertainment he hath met with above! How delighted an associate he is with the general assembly, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect! How joyful an homage he continually rays to the throne of the celestial King

"Will your ladyship think that an hard saying of our departing Lord to his mournful disciples, ‘If ye loved me, we would rejoice, that I said I go to the Father; for my Father is greater than I?' As if he had said, he sits enthroned in higher glory than you can frame any conception of, by beholding me in so mean a condition on earth. We are as remote, and as much short in our thoughts as to the conceiving the glory of the supreme King, as a peasant, who never saw any thing 'better than his own cottage, from conceiving the splendour of the most glorious prince's court. But if that faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, be much accustomed to its proper work and business-the daily delightful visiting and viewing the glorious invisible regions; if it be often. conversant in those vast and spacious tracts of pure and brightest light, and amongst the holy inhabitants that replenish them; if it frequently employs itself in contemplating their comely order, perfect harmony, sublime wisdom, unspotted purity, most fervent mutual love, delicious conversation with one another, and perpetual pleasant consent in their adoration and observance of their eternal King! who is there to whom it would not be a solace to think I have such and such friends and relatives, some, perhaps, as dear as my own life, perfectly well pleased, and happy among them! How can your love, madam-so generous a love towards so deserving an object!-how can it but more fervently sparkle