publickly that have been too shamelesse to maintain the contrary in private 'T is a malice so ill contrived though black as Hell that I am perswaded it will deceive it selfe For what appearance is there that having received an infinity of favour from your goodnesse I should so irreverently contemne a thousand other noble qualities that elevate your esteem above the common I beseech you beleeve that I shall be their admirers all my life and a continuall flaile to the broachers of this Imposture I have no respect of persons when my Honor is questioned I beare a sword to defend it with the hazard of my life which I esteem far lesse But if this cannot give you satisfaction let me know the name of the reporter and I will make you sport in laying open the particulars of his knavery and the sincerity of my innocency which shall give you sufficient never to make doubt of the passion I have to serve you as being Sir Your most humble and obedient servant An other SIR IT is an easie matter for any Man to accuse me but I defie all the World together to convince me in the least respect T is true I could not speak in that Company but some must heare me but be pleased to shew me my adversary and I le engage my self to make him signe me an acquittance of my innocency with his owne blood I boast of nothing that I will not doe for let me but know the broachers of that imposture and I will easily let you know their malice which shall force you to beleeve as I most humbly intreat you that I will sooner loose my life than the honour and stile of being Sir Your most humble and most obedient servant M. An other SIR I Will not justifie my selfe with words of the aspersion laid upon me desiring by effects to let you see my innocency as clear as the malice of those that would have blemished it black and pernicious I beseech you think that I shall never be able to forget the respect I owe you and if any have the boldnesse to accuse me of it my Sword shall impose them a most rigorous pennance since I profer to be alwayes what I alwayes was Sir Your most humble Servant M. Answers to the Letter of Justification SIR T Is true I was told you abused mee behind my back but since I never gave you cause and on the other side your discretion being sufficiently knowne to me I was not so much as tempted to give credit to it you needed not then have justified your selfe of a fault whereof I esteem'd you alwayes innocent The reputation you bear in all places of the World may seem as a judge to condemne your accusers wherefore you may sleep in quiet since I account my selfe disinteressed and place me in the number Sir of Your most humble and most affectionate servants Another Answer SIR BEfore I can declare you guilty you must confesse your self faulty with your own mouth for the testimonies of all the World cannot convince the good opinion I have of your integrity Men may calumniate your reputation as much as they please but I shall alwayes hold your accusers to be in the fault since it is impossible I should lose the esteem which I conceive of your desert being Sir Your most humble servant Letters to a sick Friend SIR THe news of your sicknesse hath bred such a change in my health that I may justly count my selfe in the number of those that are not well Take courage then if you will give it me you know the intent I have in all things concerning your particular In a word if you leave not your bed very suddenly I shall be constrained to take it These are the Protestations Sir of Your very humble servant M. Another SIR I Will not tell you how extreamely sensible the sorrowfull news of your sicknesse was to me only I must put you in mind that your disease cannot chuse but be very contagious having infected one hither I could wish for your service and my contentment that I were neare you but my misfortune is such that it ties me to certain affaires in this Town which by no meanes I am able to abandon Yet all these obstacles shall not hinder me from acquitting my selfe of my duty if you esteem me usefull to render you any manner of service of which I give you most faithfull assurance as protesting to be all my life Sir Your most humble servant M. Answers to the Letters written to a sick Friend SIR IF I had sooner recovered my health I had sooner returned you thanks for the resentment you wittnessed to have of my sicknes but being it kept me very long I was constrained to delay my acknowledgement till this very present though 't is not from this encounter onely that I know how sensible you are of al things concerning your Friends which makes you have them without number but I can assure you that put them all together I am Sir The most obedient and most faithfull An other Answer SIR AS soon as ever I was able to hold a pen I served my self of the opportunity to render you thanks for the consolation which you gave me in the delightfull entertainment of your letters Yet I pray you Sir deprive me not of this contentment if you would not have me sick againe For I can assure you t is a very great satisfaction to me to see my selfe honoured with the favour of your remembrance in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M. Letters to demand the protection of a strange Prince SIR THough I have not the honour to be knowne to your Highnesse yet the esteem that al the World makes of your Royall vertues gave me the boldnesse most humbly to beseech your Majestie to grant me protection within the Lands of your Obedience I am not guilty of any crime that should make me blush and if I have violated the Lawes of my owne Prince it was but to obey the Law which Honour had imposed upon me before This makes me expect from your Highnes bounty al manner of assistance since onely the profession of Souldier made me quit my owne Country Your Highnesse will augment by this action the number of your Creatures since thereby I shall vow my selfe to live and dye in quality of Your Highnesse Most humble servant M. Another SIR THe Bruit of your Highnesse renowne occasion'd my entrance into the Lands of your Obedience not knowing where to find a more assured harbour in the World I hope your Highnesse will not violate for me alone the Lawes which your wisedome has already made in favour of distressed and guilty persons and though I be no otherwise than the right of Honour dos permit yet I most humbly implore your Majesties protection as extreamly conducing to my repose and quiet For my birth and condition I thought it not necessary to reveale them till your Highnesse command oblige me to it being
a most real friend and faithfull Servant but for as my own interest my Affliction is so great that if God do not comfort mee very suddenly I shall die very suddenly of Griefe You may judge by the state I am in at this present what Comfort I can expect from my Misery for as my Fortune and Happinesse are equally buried in my Husbands Grave except he revive I shall never be able to revive out of the Grave of Sadnesse and Discontent All that I have resolved in this extremity is to resigne my selfe totally to the Will of God and since your Prayers may be favourable to me in that behalf I beseech you for their continuation for which I shall be indebted to you all my life and in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR THrough my Teares I read the Comfortable Letter which you did me the Honour to write unto me touching the Death of my late Husband and the little space which I employed in drying them up gave me time to render you thanks I resolved to have writ more at large when I took Pen in hand but the sorrow which I endure will scarce give mee liberty to assure you that I am Sir Your most humble servant A Letter from a Widdow certifying a friend of her Husbands Death SIR THis Sorrowfull Letter shall inculcate nothing but death into your memory assuring you that you have lost a most reall admirer and faithfull servant in the Person of my Husband Pardon me if I say no more the Pen fals out of my Hand and my teares blot out my writing I am the most afflicted Woman in the World Sir and Your most humble servant A Letter from a Husband to his Wife comforting her upon the Death of their Son WIFE IT is with an extreame Sorrow that I am constrain'd to trouble your Quiet at this present with newes which at the first view wil be able to beare you into your Accustomed extremity if it be not supported by the Resignation of your will to God But knowing that you are alwayes disposed to undergoe the Lawes of his Providence I take the boldnesse to let you know that that very Providence of God has sounded a retreat out of this World to our eldest sonne This Accident how new and strange soever it seeme must not soe strictly seize upon you that you murmur against the Author You must resist the attempts of Sorrow by my example and after you have shed some Teares which the Quality of Mother will constraine you to you must adore in drying them up the Omnipotency of him that gave the blow To the end that he redouble not his Wrath in depriving us of the Comfort which as yet remaines with us Doe not think that I am insensible at this Misfortune it touched me to the Quick and the more because I am constrained to partake it with you But since God has ordaind us to this Affliction we ought to witnesse by the Moderation of our Complaints that there is no excesse in his Chastisment I leave the thought of all these Considerations to your self with assurance that I remaine Deare Wife Your most faithfull Husband LOVE LETTERS upon all sorts of Subjects And First of Presentation of Service MADAM THE inclination which I have to esteeme you more than all the rest of the World obliged mee at this Present to offer your Ladyship my most humble Service And to assure you that if you be pleased therewith I shall never change the Resolution to be all my life Madam Your most humble and most obedient servant Another MADAM I Should not take the Liberty to let you know how extreamly I honour you if the Absolute power of your Beauty did not force me to it Which relating unto you the violence it useth in my behalfe will easily I hope obtaine Pardon for my Presumption My desire in this is no other but onely to know whether you be pleased I should Everlastingly beare the Quality Madam of Your most humble and most obedient servant M. Another MADAM I Could no longer conceale the Resolution which I have taken to serve you all my life and beare the Character of your love eternally if my Service and Love bee agreeable to you You may signifie it to me when you please that I may have the Honor and Satisfaction to beare in Publick every where the Quality Madam of Your most humble and most obedient servant M. Another MADAM I Must of necessity for my owne Quiet declare the desire which I have to love and serve you if you Judge mee worthy so great an honour Your merit obliged mee and my Inclination constrained mee to it I expect only to know your will that I may perfect my determination of professing publickly the stile Madam of Your most obedient servant Answers to the Precedent Letters SIR I Am much obliged to you for the good will you witnesse in my behalfe but I have no other Liberty left mee except to give you thanks as I doe very humbly assuring you that I will conserve your Remembrance for an acknowledgement in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Have nothing but thanks to offer up to you for the Honour you were pleased to doe mee in your last Letters And though they be ordinary effects of your Civility rather then Proofes of your love yet I cannot chuse but be extreamly obliged to you which I beseech you beleeve and likewise that I am Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Doe not excuse my selfe of not answering your last letter because my Wil does so absolutely depend of my Parents inclination that you are to learne of them that which you desire to know of mee Yet your good will shall oblige mee to be in acknowledgement all my life Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR YOu know that in the state I am I must neither accept nor refuse the Offers which you make me contenting my selfe to witnesse unto you the Resentment which they left in mee with assurance that I honour so much the Merit of your Mistresse that I shall alwayes preferre it before the Condition Sir of Your most humble servant Letters to demand an Answer MADAM YOur Silence nourisheth a Continuall doubt in mee whether my Service be acceptable or noe You may Resolve me when you please by some short Answer if you Judge me worthy the favour and Quality Madam of Your most humble and most obedient servant Another MADAM IF you knew with what impatience I expect the favour of your Reply I assure my selfe your Charity would oblige you to set my Mind at Quiet But as that is an Honour which I must expect from your Goodnesse rather than the Passion I have to your Service not knowing whether it be agreeable to you or no I must have recourse to prayers beseeching you very humbly to vouchsafe an Answer which may authorize the Quality I beare Madam of Your
where wilt thou learne a more exact way of ordering Men and disposing a Battle than here where one displaced puts all the rest out of order Humanity cannot invent a more compendious way of Short writing since Stenography has here arrived to such Perfection that when a Man has but writ his Name hee has both Courted his Mistresse Comforted the Sick Defied an Enemy and Obliged a Friend Logick I am sure is here in her Auge since our Syllogismes are so powerfull that except a Man would confesse himselfe rude and unreasonable and consequently no Man he can never deny the Argument What Rhetorick is more pleasing than this where servants and Admirers are acquired in every page What Musick more Harmonious than where we are so rigorous in teaching the true art of stopps that when one only is escaped the whole Aire is nothing but a Discord I must confesse our Grammer is an Antipode to Lilly though Infinitely more Compleat for wee doe not decline Words but only Obsolecies and Barbarismes nor have wee more than two Conjugations viz. to doe you service and to revenge my selfe by which we Conjugate all our other Verbs and Nouns be they what they will Behold Reader beyond thy Expectation another Ars magna et Ultima besides the Lullian another Panace or Curer of all Deseases beside the Graecian and another Castle of Knowledge beside Records Sphere which if thou accept with a Willing mind and good Intention I le deifie thee but if thou attempt upon it with unwashed hands or a Prejudicated Opinion I defie thee and so fare thee well Thy Servant J. M. THE FIRST LETTERS OF COMPLEMENT SIR I Take such delight in rendring you my service that I remaine alwayes the first satisfied though I acquit my selfe And that which makes mee so carefull in seeking Occasions is that you should not reproach me to have omitted any Yet in this Sir I doe not implorâ— your beleife desiring so to let you see by Effects rather then Words that I am without Complement Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same Subject SIR I Defie you to accuse me of neglect in the performance of my Duty the passion which I have to your Service being so violent that it nourisheth in mee a continuall Care of seeking Opportunities to make it knowne To the furtherance of which this Letter offerd it selfe most happily having charge to assure you from my part that of all the servants which your Merits have acquired you I am Sir The most humble and most faithfull SIR I Am by so many obligations Yours that the onely want of Occasions to give Testimony of it breeds all my Discontents Esteeming my selfe unfortunate in nothing so much as that the Passion which carries me to your Service prooves as unprofitable as extreame Which forceth me to have recourse to Intreaties beseeching you to honour me with your Commands that other meanes failing my obedience may oblige you to believe that I am Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same SIR I Must discharge my heart in telling you that I honour you more then all the rest of the World T is true your desert imposed the necessity upon me but it did not give me the inclination though I beseech you to beleeve that I was very willing in the constraint having suffer'd no other violence then what my Reason and Iudgement offer'd mee You shall have daily new proofes by the Continuation of my Duty and by the Quality which I beare Sir of Your most humble servant Another upon the same subiect SIR IF you expect nothing but Complements from me you shall never receive any I am a Sworne enemy of Courtship and Civility towards persons whom I honour extreamely as I doe you It sufficing mee that I performe my Duty in their behalfe and that I take care to do it with a good Grace This is the Study in which I practice my selfe and I beseech you thinke that I will not loose the least occasion to witnesse it to you because I finde my selfe much interessed in the Resolution which I have taken to be all my life Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same SIR THough I have told you a thousand times by word of Mouth that I am your Servant yet my Pen shall once agaâ—ne assure you of the samâ— expecting till you oblige me to more Eminent proofes which I conjure you do to if you be pleased to prevent the occasion by some Command that may satisfie my Impatience to make you know and confesse at the same time that you may have more powerfull and more considerable Servants but never Sir A more humble or more faithfull Answers to the Letters of Complement SIR I Never made doubt of your Civility and Courtesie but of my owne good fortune in meeting with the meanes to require them Yet I intreat you to believe that hereafter I will imploy all my cares to witnesse unto you my good affection and if Ill meanes render them unprofitable I will dye for my owne satisfaction Sir Your very humble Servant Another Answer SIR I Esteeme to much the Honour of your Remembrance not to desire the continuation and withall to beseech you for some Employment wherein I may witnesse the Passion which I have to your service For which I will importune you hereafter desiring by deeds rather then words to let you see that I am extreamely Sir Your most affectionate servant Another Answer SIR THough this in some sort requite the favour of your remembrance yet I cannot cease to be indebted to you when I consider that your courtesie prevented my respects But I beseech you imagine that for the Time to come I will bee so carefull to disingage my selfe that you shall have greater cause to complaine of my importunity then my silence which I have resolved never to keepe when your Interests oblige me to the contrary as making Publike Profession to appeare in all places Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Will be so presumptuous since you desire it as to beleeve you love me but upon condition that you will likewise acknowledge the Passion which I have to serve you For as it onely makes mee merit the honour of your Friendship so I shall be very glad that you would everlastingly conserve the Remembrance of it Continue then in loving mee as much as you please and likewise esteeme infallibly that I am more then all the world besides Sir Your most humble Servant Another Answer SIR THough I give you very humble thanks for the Honour of your Remembrance yet I shall alwayes remaine Indebted to you as making more account of the least of your favours then all the respects I am able to render you Continue onely in obliging mee of that fashion though I be intirely yours already and beleeve if you please that I shall never bee capable of other resentment then which shall witnesse the quality that I beare Sir of Your
cause of these extravagancies I advise you to mingle it with water assoone as you can otherwise I shall bee constrain'd to force you to such a long silence that no man shall ever heare you speake hereafter 'T is the Charitable advise if you follow it Sir of Your servant M. Answers to the Letters of Complaint SIR I Doe not write this letter to give you satisfaction but to comply with my owne Humour in the Innocence I have alwayes lived you are too blame to make those false reporters my Iudges from whose sentence I appeale as from an abuse yet you may beleeve what you please being you are unwilling to explicate your selfe any further And if you be not satisfied with the Assurance I give that I never dream'd of offending you I leave you to faire Paper and Inke wherby you may signifie unto me your minde and Intention whether good or bad I care not It sufficeth me that you call to remembrance the Name and Quality which I once bore Sir of Your most humble servant M. Another Answer SIR THose that told you I abused your kinswoman abuse me I know without any Mans Intimation the respect I owe to that sex and what subject soever she had given me my reason should alwayes have forced me to hold my Peace As for the rest know that wine never made me speake and if you be so foolish as to beleeve it I know a way to punish your folly I tell you what I meane to doe that you may have no pretence to say I surprize you unawares at our next meeting where I have good hope to make you feele how worthily I can Chastize those that will not bee contented with reason 'T is the resolution Sir of Your servant as much as you please M. Letters to Iustifie ones selfe of a Reproach SIR I Wonder greatly at the injustice you have done mee being otherwise so reasonable as you are you have condemned me upon the first report of my Enemies without observing any other Formality then what your passion suggested I must tell you you appeare something too violent in this Encounter and the more because you never seem'd to make doubt of the passion I had to serve you I complaine then with reason because your Reproaches are without reason and beseech you take the Paines hereafter to ponder the informations which shall be made you of a businesse so Important as this and particularly when it touches the Interest Sir of Your most humble servant M. Another SIR I Doe so highly approve of your Iudgement that I begin to question my Innocence since it has declared her culpable yet I must assure you with your Permission that my Thoughts did never contribute any thing to the fault whereof you accuse me and likewise condemne mee without hearing me speake But though my misfortune were alwayes such that you should never incline to doe mee reason yet my conscience should alwayes that I may rest in Quiet and peaceably possesse the Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M. Congratulatory Letters to a new Married Man SIR I Reioyce extreamely at the Happy election you have made of a wife since I participate with Civility in the satisfaction which you receive being glad that you have now divided the power which you had acquired over my affections as honouring at this Present your deare halfe with the same respects that heretofore I rendred to you onely I will perswade my selfe you will make no doubt of it no more then of the Passion I have to your Service In Quality Sir of Your most humble Servant M. Another upon the same SIR DOe not expect that I should formally congratulate with you the good-fortune of your Marriage since I interesse my selfe in all your contentments It sufficeth me to put you in minde that your good and ill fortune shall be the sole cause of all my joyes and discontents as fully resolved to follow your Resentments in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M. Answers to the Letters of Congratulation SIR I Alwayes beleev'd that you loved me so much as to participate in my Contentments they are effects of your good nature and noblenesse to which I am extreamely Obliged But I can assure you that in the Election I have made of a Wife you have obtained a new servant since she partakes already in the Passion which I have to serve you being Sir Your most humble Servant M. Another Answer SIR I Know you are so Generous that you Interesse your selfe in all things which concerne mee but I am ashamed of receiving daily new proofes since I cannot Encounter with a fit Occasion to revenge my selfe All that I can say then is that I shall have the same resentment in all affaires which shall touch your Particular as being by Inclination as well as reason Sir Your most humble servant M. Letters of Protestation of Friendship SIR THough I have made a vow to bee your most perfect honourer all my life and not to remit one poynt of the Passion which I have to doe you Service yet I shall never Content my selfe except some occasion be offered very suddenly whereby these Words may be changed into effects 'T is the onely Good Fortune which I expect with Impatience being not a little grieved that I beare in vaine the Quality Sir of Your very humble servant Another SIR DOe not wonder if I importune you so often with my Letters I have no greater pleasure in the World then to assure you of the esteeme I make of your friendship and the eternity of minde 'T is true these are but words but being they are dictated by my heart I am satisfied in acquitting my selfe of that which I owe you If occasions to doe you serâ—icâ— would offer themselves as often as they doe to write to you I would give Testimony by my actions rather then my Discourse that I was never in Complement Sir Your most humble servant Another SIR SInce my ill fortune deprives mee of occasions to serve you I must for my owne satisfaction witnesse unto you the Passion which predominates in me I know your Desert and Condition have acquired you servants without number but I can assure you with as much ostentation as Reason that Ioyne them all together I am Sir The most humble and most obedient Another SIR THe inclination which I have to esteeme you more then all the World will not suffer mee to let any opportunity slip without giving you new assurances of this Truth Not that I cease to bee in a continuall impatiency of expecting occasions to give you more effectuall proofes but because they being not dependant of my will I satisfie my selfe in letting you know that shee shall never force to other thing then to make open profession of the Quality Sir of Your most humble servant Answers to the Letters Protesting Friendship SIR BE as frequent as you please in giving me new assurances of your friendship all the proofes that
as being with Passion Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Can thank you for nothing but your good will which you witnessed to me in those wholesome counsels you were pleased to give me touching the Losse which I have lately sustain'd For how powerfull soever your reasons be they can never lessen my sorrow and much lesse be able to heale it Those that see my Misfortune consider it but as an accident that arrives every day and which torments at the same time an infinite number of Husbands but if they could penetrate into the bottome of my Soule that they might know the just cause of my continual lamentations the wisest of them would be constraind to approve the Eternity of my complaints since they would know thereby how hopelesse they are of cure 'T is true there is nothing else now able to give me satisfaction which makes me find some kind of Comfort in the shortning of my dayes since I solace my selfe in my departure knowing it tends to the accomplishment of my Griefe You le tell me perhaps I speak not like a Christian I am one howsoever but the Affliction to which I have abandond my selfe will not suffer me to enjoy any other Light than that which shows the way to my Grave I returne to the obligation wherein I am bound to you for the Honour of your Remembrance and charitable admonitions and to witnesse unto you the Resentment they have left in me in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Confesse the Admonitions which you used in the last letter wherewith you were pleased to honour mee touching the losse which I have sustained of late by the Death of my Wife were so Ponderous that I could not chuse but receive thereby great Consolation 'T is needfull as you say very well that our first lesson of Constancy should be the resignation of our wils to God and that al the Study which we are to imploy therein should be but to perfect that Action I acknowledge it very willingly the experience which I have learn'd will suffer mee to make no further doubt For God laid the Affliction upon me and he himselfe is my Comforter His Justice punished me but his Goodnesse has made me find so much sweetnes in my Misery that in stead of Complaints I am bound to render him Everlasting Thanksgiving Howsoever continue me the Favour of your good Counsels with the Honour of your Friendship and beleeve if you please that I will be all my life Sir Your most humble and most obedient servant Consolatory Letters to a Lady or Gentlewoman upon her Husbands Death MADAM I Had no sooner heard the sorrowfull newes of your Husbands death but I put Pen to paper to witnesse unto you at the same time both the Sorrow which I conceive and the Resolution which I have taken to die in your Ladyships service If I thought my selfe able to comfort you I would do my endeavour most freely but the Remembrance of your Vertue forbids mee since it alone is sufficient to give you the Lessons which it made you practice heretofore in other encounters of Misfortune T is true this is more penetrating than all the rest therefore your Constancy should employ all her Endeavours to surmount your Griefe and since Grace onely can give us the greatest part of our force you have more in my opinion to hope for than to feare in this Combate What if Heaven be provoked against us it never afrights us with the noyse of his Thunder but it rejoyceth us very suddenly with the cleare shining light of his Sunnes beames But if you be pressed with impatience in this Surprisall of Sorrow dry up your teares cease the continuation of your Sighs you shall find the Soveraigne Remedy of all your Ills in the practice of these actions Mine shall be alwaies directed to your Honour and Service as being from my heart rather than Mouth Madam Your most humble servant M. Another MADAM I Find in my selfe a greater disposition to lament with you the losse which you have sustained than I judge my selfe able to give you comfort For if you be deprived of a Husband whom you loved intirely I am robbed of a Friend for whom I would have adventured a thousand Lives Truly Madam I am so wholly taken up in my own Sighes and teares that I cannot think of yours but in some intermediating Houres be they never so extreame So that in stead of giving you Comfort I am more like to perswade you to render your Complaints Everlasting You may seek an other Husband to a faire purpose the World is too narrow to find his Equall And for my selfe I may truly say the mould of my old Friend being broken I should spend my Travaile in vaine if I went about to parallell him amongst my new ones Let us then solace our selves in our affliction Madam since it is extreame the Extremity of it will soone teach us the way to our Graves where wee shall find a Remedy for our ills If it be lawfull to love perfectly no man wil hinder us to lament without cease since continuall tears are the Testimonies of a Perfect Love In the case I am in at this present I am able to give you no other advice yet if God give you the Grace to despise my Counsell I shall never reproach you for it but rather beseech you that you would make your Prayers to God for my like happinesse and to beleeve that if I be extreamly afflicted I am no lesse Madam Your most humble servant Another MADAM HAving given you a thousand Testimonies of the particular esteem I made of your Husband I hope you will not now doubt of the Resentment which remaines to mee for his Losse These lines notwithstanding shal give you a new assurance of it and likewise of the good will I have to doe you service If I were capable of giving Consolation I would begin with my selfe being sensibly touched with the same affliction which torments you But I leave that care to your Judgment and Vertue considering that the strength of the one will supply my weaknesse and the precepts of the other will exceed all the Counsell and advice I can impart to you Besides knowing you to be wholly resigned to the Will of God that Resignation will be the soveraigne remedy of your distresse The Heavens doe alwayes afford us Comfort for the ills they send us but they expect submission to make us worthy of that favour which I hope you are already in state to obtaine it being the only Meanes to live at Quiet in the middle of Distresses For my part I will alwayes interesse my selfe in yours as being with Passion the same I alwayes was Madam Your most humble and most obedient servant Answers to the precedent Letters SIR I Beleeve the Losse I sustained in the death of my late Husband does touch you very sensibly since in your own particular you are robbed of