that part incumbent upon me, in faithfulness to him to whom I owe as much as can be due to man.  It may be that I may obtain grace to live a stricter life of holiness to my God, who will not always let me cry to Him in vain.  On Him I will wait till He hath pity upon me, humbly imploring that by the mighty aid of His Holy Spirit He will touch my heart with greater love to Himself.  Then I shall be what He would have me.  But I am unworthy of such a spiritual blessing, who remain so unthankful a creature for those earthly ones I have enjoyed, because I have them no longer.  Yet God, who knows our frames, will not expect that when we are weak we should be strong.  This is much comfort under my deep dejections.”  And in a letter to Doctor Tillotson she said:  “Submission and prayer are all we know that we can do towards our own relief in our distresses.  The scene will soon alter to that peaceful and eternal home in prospect.”

It is interesting to know that one who helped to bring her to this state of mind was the Rev. John Howe, a man noted for wisdom as well as piety, who had been chaplain to Oliver Cromwell and to his son Richard Cromwell.  Although too long to insert in full, some sentences selected from the letter are worthy of quotation.

“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 is 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?’ (Psalm lxxiii. 25).  Herein the state of your ladyship’s case is still the same, if you cannot with greater clearness and with less hesitation pronounce these latter words.  The principal causes of your joy are immutable, such as no supervening thing can alter.  You have lost a most pleasant, delectable earthly relation.  Doth the blessed God hereby cease to be the best and most excellent good?  Is His nature changed?  His everlasting covenant reversed or 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? (2 Samuel xxiii. 5).

“Let, I beseech you, your mind be more exercised in contemplating the glories of that state into which your blessed consort is translated, 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; but you may thus every day ascend and partake with him in his joys.”