LETTER III.

TO JOHN BEILBY, ESQ. OF -IN YORKSHIRE.

DEAR SIR,

Eyam, November 20, 1665.

"I SUPPOSE this letter will seem to you no "lefs than a miracle, that my habitation is "inter vivos. I was loth to affright you with a "letter from my hands, therefore I made bold with a friend to transcribe thefe lines.

"I know that you are fenfible of my condition, "the lofs of the kindeft wife in the world (whose "life was truly imitable, and her end moft com"fortable). She was in an excellent pofture "when Death came with his fummons, which "fills me with many comfortable affurances "that he is now invefted with a crown of righteousness.

"I find this maxim verified by too fad expe"rience: Bonum magis carendo quàm fruendo "cernitur*. Had I been fo thankful as my con

* "Good is more perceivable in the privation than in "the enjoyment."

"dition

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dition did deserve, I might yet have had my deareft Dear in my bofom. But now farewell all happy days, and God grant that I may repent my fad ingratitude!

"The condition of this place has been fo fad, "that I perfuade myself it did exceed all history and example. I may truly fay that our town. has become a Golgotha, the place of a fcull; "and had there not been a fmall remnant of us

left, we had been as Sodom, and like unto "Gomorrah. My ears never heard fuch doleful lamentations-my nofe never finelled fuch horrid finells, and my eyes never beheld fuch "ghaftly spectacles! Here have been feventyfix families vifited within my parifh, out of wrich two hundred and fifty-nine perfons died! "Now (bleffed be God) all our fears are over, for none have died of the infection fince the eleventh of October, and all the peft-houses "have been long empty, I intend (God willing)

to spend most of this week in feeing all woollen "cloaths fuined and purified, as well for the "fatisfaction as for the fafety of the country.

"Here hath been fuch burning of goods, "that the like, I think, was never known; and indeed, in this I think that we have been too "precife. For my part, I have fcarce left myfelf apparel to fhelter my body from the cold,

«and

and have wafted more than needed merely for << example.

"As for my own part, I cannot fay that I had

ever better health than during the time of the "dreadful vifitation; neither can I fay that I

have had any symptoms of the difeafe. My "man had the distemper, and upon the appear❝ance of a tumour I gave him feveral chemical "antidotes, which had a very kind operation,

and, with the bleffing of God, kept the venom from the heart, and after the rifing broke he <c was very well. My maid hath continued in health, which is as great a temporal bleffing as could befall me; for if fhe had quailed *, I "fhould have been ill fet to have wafhed, and to have gotten my own provifions.

"I know that I have your prayers, and "queftion not but I have fared the better for

them. I do conclude that the prayers of good

"people have rescued me from the jaws of death; "and certainly I had been in the duft, had not "Omnipotency itfelf been conquered by fome "holy violence.

"I have largely tafted the goodness of the "Creator, and (bleffed be his name) the grim looks of Death did never yet affright me. I

Quailed (old English) fell fick.

"always

"always had a firm faith, that my dear babes would « do well, which made me willing to shake hands « with the unkind froward world; yet I hope that " I shall efteem it a mercy, if I am frustrated of "the hopes I had of a tranflation to a better place,

and (God grant) that with patience I may wait " for my chance, and that I may make a right use "of his mercies: as the one hath been tart, fo the "other hath been fweet and comfortable.

་་

"I perceive by a letter from Mr. Newby, that

you concern yourself very much for my welfare. "I make no queftion but I have your unfeigned "love and affection. I can affure you, that dur« ing all my troubles you have had a great deal of room in my thoughts.

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"Be pleafed, dear Sir, to accept of the pre«fentments of my kind respects, and impart them "to your good wife, and all my dear relations. "I can affure you that a line from your hand *s will be welcome to

"Your forrowful and

"affectionate Nephew

"WILLIAM MOMPESSON."

JEREMY

JEREMY TAYLOR,

BISHOP OF DOWN.

THIS pious and eloquent Prelate faid one day to a Lady of his acquaintance, who had been very neglectful of the education of her fon, "Madam, "if you do not chufe to fill your boy's head with "fomething, believe me the Devil will *. The Bishop, from the fertility of his mind, and the extent of his imagination, has been, not improperly, ftiled the Shakespeare of our Divines, He feems no less intitled to the appellation of the Fletcher of that learned order, from the following elegant and tender fentiments, which are extracted from his fermon on the Bleffedness of the Marriage Ring.

"Marital love is a thing as pure as light, facred "as a temple, lafting as the world. That love "that can cease, as faid an Antient, was never "true. Marital love contains in it all sweetness, all

The Spanish proverb fays ftrongly, "The Devil tempts every man, but an idle man ever tempts the "Devil."

"fociety,