MADAM, TO MISS KING *. Northampton, Feb. 14, 1730. THOUGH I have not the happiness of a personal acquaintance with you, your good mother has informed me at large of your character and circumstances; and it is by her desire that I address you with a freedom which would not otherwise be pardonable in one who is a stranger. You will easily imagine that the idea of your voyage lies with great weight upon her mind, and that she is tenderly solicitous that, whithersoever you go, the gracious presence of a Heavenly Parent, and a sense of pious duty, may always accompany you. And as she knows that you must resign some of those religious advantages, which you have long enjoyed, she has been urgent with me, to put something into your hand, which may be reviewed whenever you please, and which, by the Divine blessing, may be useful to you, as peculiarly suited to your present circumstances. On my part, Madam, I undertake the task with great cheerfulness; not only to oblige so valuable a friend, but with the encouraging hope that it may be serviceable to you. And shall I confess, that I enter into the case with feelings of peculiar tenderness, as it relates to a lady in the bloom of life, of an agreeable person, and a promising character. I have indeed had many anxious thoughts about you, since that conver * When she was preparing for a voyage to the Indies. sation with your mother, so that your affairs are grown familiar to my mind, and I begin to enter into them with something of the affection of a brother. I hope this concern may sufficiently justify a plainness, which in such a case becomes almost unavoidable; and I therefore persuade myself, that you will not be offended, though I tell you, that I almost tremble to think of the variety of dangers to which you are about to be exposed. I am myself young, and yet I have already learned, by a too frequent experience, that in the morning of life we naturally delude ourselves with pleasing dreams; we fix our eyes on what is most delightful in the distant prospect, but either entirely overlook the dangers threatening around us, or at most, bestow but a transient glance upon them. You, no doubt, anticipate a great deal of pleasure in seeing a variety of new objects and a fine country, vastly different from our own; and still more, in meeting a brother whom you have never yet seen*, but who has expressed the tenderest regard for you at so remote a distance. You are charmed with the prospect of meeting him in a place where he knows not a superior, of sharing with him in his magnificence, and being treated by all about you with the respect due to the sister of a Governor. I own there is something splendid and striking in such a view, and I heartily congratulate you upon it. But let me entreat you, madam, to consider how * Probably he went to India before she was born, or during her infancy. possible it is, that you may never reach the country which is to be the scene of so many entertainments. There are unknown hazards in the voyage; and it is possible that some unexpected event may happen to put a period to these hopes. Or, if you reach destination, what dangers will attend you there, and dangers which will be so much the greater, as you are the less sensible of their existence. your Many of our foreign Governors live in a kind of princely magnificence, so that you will really need almost as much wisdom as if you were going to court. You will at least hear a great deal of flattery, the shame of our sex, and too often the ruin of your own; but remember that the serpents that conceal the sharpest and most fatal stings, sometimes lurk beneath the sweetest flowers; and that the most designing enemy may accost you with the softest air, and the most smiling countenance. On the other hand, madam, it is very uncertain what advantages of a religious nature you may enjoy, to counterbalance these ensnaring circumstances. Yet I think I may venture to say, that whithersoever you go, were it even in your own country, and much more in a foreign land, it is a thousand to one, but that you exchange for the worse, when you quit the ministry of Mr. Jennings, with whose excellent character I am well acquainted. When I consider these things, I cannot but think that, humanly speaking, there is reason to fear lest the lovely flower which is now opening with so much beauty and fragrance, should be parched up by too warm a sun, and wither in that luxurious soil to which it is about to be transplanted. Or, in plainer terms, I fear, what God forbid !-that the impressions of a religious education will wear off your mind, and the vain allurements of an ensnaring world possess themselves of your heart, till by insensible degrees your soul may be endangered. I say not these things, madam, to dissuade you from the voyage, were it in my power; but I represent the case in all its dangerous circumstances, so far as I apprehend them, that you may be awakened to a proper care in providing against them. And here it is evident, that your only security is in the protection of that God who has the elements under his command; and who, by his secret, but powerful influence on the mind, can preserve it in the midst of temptation, and brighten it by trial. My advice is, therefore, that before you begin this important and doubtful voyage, you repeatedly examine into the state of your soul, with regard to God and eternity. Let it be your immediate and diligent inquiry, whether you have resolutely and entirely devoted yourself to God, with an humble dependance on the merits of his Son, and the assistance of his Spirit, to form you to a holy temper, and animate you to a zealous discharge of the duties he requires. you have not yet entered into this covenant, or are dubious whether you have done it or no, let it now be your immediate care to do it with the most serious consideration, as knowing it to be absolutely necessary for your security and happiness in the safest If and most cheering circumstances of life, and how much more so in such as have been described. Permit me humbly to advise you to confirm it in the most solemn manner at the table of the Lord. There commit your life and your hopes to his providential care. Open your heart to the influences of his grace; and publicly avow a determinate resolution that you will be the Lord's; that you will be constantly and eternally His! and that in the strength of his Spirit, neither life,—nor death, shall separate you from him! When this is done, you will be armed against the uncertainties of life, and the prospect of death in whatever form it may appear. Your soul may be calm in the midst of the tempest; when thunders roll, and the waves are foaming and roaring around you; when the hearts of the most experienced and courageous mariners are dismayed, You, madam, with all the tenderness of your age and sex, may feel a sweet tranquillity, as the charge and favourite of Him who has universal nature under his control. Or, should the dreadful moment of shipwreck come; while ungodly wretches are meeting the first death with unknown agony, as apprehending that it will transmit them to the terrors of the second, you may smile with holy transport; and when you see the rays of heavenly glory shooting through the gloomy passage; as Mr. Howe beautifully expresses it, “embrace the friendly wave, which will land you in heaven." On the other hand, should Providence, according |
