HAD not my right hand long since forgot her cunning, and the Almighty shook the pen out of my hand, I should long e’er this have written to thee; but it is a wonder of divine power and goodness that my soul had not before this time dwelt in silence, and that death had not put the long period to all my writing and converse. Long is the song of love that I have to tell thee. I rejoice in the constancy of thy love, that the waters of so long a silence, and so great a distance have not yet quenched it. But thy desires are towards me, and thy heart is with me, though providence hath hindered me from thy much-desired company. I will assure thee it hath been a pleasure to my heart a good part of this summer, to hope that I should come one half of the way to give thee a meeting. But such is my weakness hitherto, that I am forced to put off those hopes till the spring, when, if God gives me strength to ride, I intend to see thee before mine own home. I thank thee for all the dear expressions of thy fervent love: my expences have been vast; but surely goodness and mercy hath followed me, and do follow me in every place, and in every change of my condition; so that as to temporals, I have lack of nothing, and as for spirituals I abound and superabound, and the streams of my comforts have been full and running over. The joy of the Lord hath been my strength at the weakest, and in the multitude of my thoughts within me, his comforts have refreshed my soul. I have found God a satisfying portion to me, and have sat under his shadow with full delights, and his fruit is most sweet to my taste: he is my strength ♦and my song, for I will talk of him, and write of him with perpetual pleasure. Through grace I can say, methinks I am now in my element, since I have begun to make mention of him, I am rich in him and happy in him, and my soul saith unto him with _David_, Thou hast made me most blessed for ever more. Happy is the hour that ever I was born, to be made partaker of so blissful a treasure, so endless a felicity, such angelical a prerogative, as I have in him: O how sweet are his converses, how delightful it is to triumph in his love. ♦ duplicate word “and” removed