Letter XX

Summary

From Mrs. B. to Mr. B.

My ever dear, and ever honoured Mr. B.

As I know not how it may please God Almighty to deal with me on the approaching Occasion, I should think myself inexcusable, if I could not find one or two select Hours to dedicate to you, out of the very many, in the writing Way, in which your Goodness has indulged me, because you saw I took Delight in it.

But yet think not, O best Beloved of my Heart! that I have any Boon to beg, any Favour to ask, either for myself, or for my Friends, or so much as the Continuance of your Favour to the one or the other. As to them, you have prevented and exceeded all my Wishes: As to myself, if it please God to spare me, I know I shall always be rewarded beyond my Desert, let my Deservings be what they will. I have only therefore to acknowlege, with the deepest Sense of your Goodness to me, and with the most Heartaffecting Gratitude, that from the happy, the thrice happy Hour, that you so generously made me yours, till this Moment, you have not left me one Thing, on my own Part, to wish for, but the Continuance and Increase of your Felicity, and that Imight be worthier and worthier of the unexampled Goodness, Tenderness, and Condescension, wherewith you have always treated me.

No, my dearest, my best beloved Master, Friend, Husband, my first, my last, and only Love! believeme, I have nothing to wish for but your Honour and Felicity, temporary and eternal; and I make no doubt, that God, in his infinite Goodness and Mercy, will perfect his own good Work, begun in your dear Heart; and whatever may now happen, give us a happy Meeting never more to part from one another. For, altho’, as you were pleased to question t’other Day, when you were resolving some of my Doubts—(and, Oh! what a sweet Expositor have you been to me upon all those Occasions, on which my diffident Mind led me to you for Information and Direction!) whether the Happiness of the Blessed was not too exalted an Happiness to be subjected to the poor Ties of Relationship and Sense, which now delight, and attach so much to them, our narrow Minds and Conceptions;