The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the LatterWellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
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The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the Latter
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852 -- Correspondence
Thus you will perceive that when laboring under the most
favorable impression of your upright intentions, notwithstanding
your rank, etc., all of which with me are beheld in the utter
nothingness such empty things deserve, I should have hesitated
until I perceived in you that change of heart so necessary to
salvation, without which "no man can see the Lord," fearing I
ought not to consent even under the most flattering circumstances
to partake in any outward honors likely to bring the
disapprobation of God.
When I reflect on my view of the case and then in a moment the
distressing thought of one so sinful on your part darts like a
dagger into my offended spirit, I feel that I should not be
surprised (although rest assured, I do not desire it,) at any
vengeance God saw fit to shower down for such a dreadful
intention upon Your Grace's head. Oh may His Holy Spirit convince
you of the heinousness of the sin in question, leading you from
darkness to light and from "the power of Satan" (under whose
influence you so evidently at present are,) "unto God" in order
that your transgressions may be blotted out in the Blood of the
Lamb--and that consequently the present--and if I mistake not the
greatest sin as far as thought may be concerned in God's sight,
it being of so aggravated a nature arising from the consideration
of the motives which first actuated me to address you and
afterwards receive Your Grace--namely, your eternal
happiness--may never be laid to your charge. In order that such
may not be the case it will be necessary that you should
experience that "Repentance unto life not to be repented of"
which, if felt, would bring with it an unhesitating desire to
apologize with remorse and anguish for the iniquity herein
noticed and which can never be erased from my memory until you
do, feeling it a respect due to myself and Religion. I deliver
you on this second and last occasion,--for of course I here take
a final leave of one I can never wish to behold again under
present circumstances,--once more into His Hands who "is no
respecter of persons," beseeching Him to grant you not only
repentance but forgiveness. I subscribe myself by a title as far
exceeding any Your Grace can possess as the Heavens do the earth
and which I would neither exchange nor resign to become the
Empress of a thousand worlds,
A Servant of Christ and a Child of God,
A. J.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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