I am very sensible how much easier it is to give advice against affliction and trouble in the case of others than to take it in my own. It hath pleased God to exercise me of late with very sore trials, in which I do, I think, perfectly submit to His good pleasure, firmly believing that He does always that which is best. And yet tho' my reason was satisfied, my passion was not so soon appeas'd; for to do this is a work of some labour and time. But since that God hath thought fit to warn me of my own mortality by giving me a summons to die a violent and barbarous death by the hand of man, I thank God for it; it hath occasion'd in me no very melancholy reflections. But this perhaps is more owing to my natural temper than wise considerations. [Sidenote: _fol._ 4.] But yet, methinks, both reason and religion do offer you, my dear mother and sisters, considerations of that solidity and strength, as may very well support you under all the afflictions of this present life. Pray then consider:-- That God is perfect love and goodness; that we are not only His creatures, but His children, and as dear to Him as to ourselves; that He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, and that all evils of afflictions which befal us, are intended for the cure and prevention of greater evils, of sin and punishment. And therefore we ought not only to submit to them with patience as being deserved by us, but to receive them with thankfulness as being design'd by Him to do us that good and to bring us to that sense of Him and ourselves which perhaps nothing else would have done. That the sufferings of this present life are but short and light compar'd with those extreme and endless miseries which we have deserved, and with that exceeding weight of glory which we hope for in the other world, if we be careful to make the best preparations for death and eternity. Whatever hardships and afflictions we suffer for our attachment to truth and righteousness bring us nearer to our everlasting happiness, and how rugged soever the way may [Sidenote: _fol._ 5.] be, the comfort is that it leads to our Father's house where we shall want nothing that we can wish for.