you can have of mine cannot render it more perfect then it is being I can assure you that if my indeavours could take effect or my vowes accomplishment you should not long account mee in the number of your unprofitable servants though Sir of Your most obedient and most faithfull Another Answer SIR I Will never refuse the Honour which you doe me in professing to love me extreamely but since I have no merit to oblige you thereunto I dare not publish my good fortune iustly fearing to bee deprived of it every Moment Not because I beleeve you will proove fickle but reasonable and that therefore your Reason may oblige you to make me lose this good fortune which mine onely and your Courtesie acquired me But whatsoever happen I shall never be other Sir Then your most humble and most obedient servant Another Answer SIR THough I never made doubt of your friendship yet I make such esteeme thereof that you advance me to a new degree of Honour and delight every time you take the Paines to give mee fresh assurances of it by your letters 'T is true in this you doe but assure mine yet howsoever the commerce of this kind of entertainment is so delightful that if I did not apprehend I might be importune I should write unto you by every opportunity that presented it selfe being 't is the onely consolation which I have in your absence to put you in minde that I will be eternally Sir Your most humble servant M. Another Answer SIR FOR all you love me and esteeme me never so much you are still indebted to me since my object is your desert what proofes soever you give me of your friendship they are not able to diminish the price of mine being in a height of Perfection not to be valued But if my misfortune nourish you in a continuall doubt I will produce my advantage when you produce your assurances Desiring nothing so much as to witnesse unto you by effects rather then words that I am Sir Your most humble servant Letters to a Friend in favour of another SIR THe bearer of this Letter a Gentleman and one of my very good friends desiring that I would intreate you as I doe most humbly to oblige him in a businesse whose successe depends wholly in your favour I knew not how to refuse his merit and condition so poore a Demand wherefore you shall oblige me extreamely if you will be pleased to imploy some part of your credit therein without any other Consideration but only that you were Requested Sir by one of Your most humble and most obedient servants M. Another SIR YOur Desert and Condition have made you so Considerable and Necessary that your friends are alwayes subject to importune you and amongst the rest I at this Present in favour of the Gentleman who beares this Letter beseeching you to support him with your credit in a businesse of which hee will informe you I shall account his obligations into the Number of mine and Testifie to you in my owne Particular the Resentment which I shall conceive in Quality Sir Of Your most humble and most obedient servant M. Answers to the Letters of Favour SIR THis Gentleman in whose behalfe you tooke the Paines to write unto mee will tell you by word of mouth how faithfully I have served you in obliging him If you judge mee able to render you any other service wherein I may finde more satisfaction as prooving it more difficult it stands upon nothing but your selfe to give mee the Employment being very glad to witnesse unto you at all times how much I am Sir Your servant Another Answer SIR I Esteeme my selfe happy to have met with this little occasion to doe you service by making your friends businesse wherof you writ unto mee bee determined to his advantage I imployed in it equally both my Care and industry not loosing one moment of time to the end that I might thereby witnesse in what esteeme I have the honour of your Commands You may give mee new ones when you please if you desire new proofes of the Obedience Sir of Your most humble and most faithfull servant M. Letters complaining of the Absence of a Friend SIR THough true friendship bee in the Proofe of absence yet yours is of so long continuance that I imagine you purpose to cast me off since you seeme to retire your affection thus by little and little I speake confidently because I feare extreamely and you ought to pardon thiâ— boldnesse and feare since they proceed equally from the good inclination I have to your Service and the great esteeme I make of your Friendship Returne then quickly if you will free from sorrow and disquiet Sir The most humble of all your servants and the most faithfull Another SIR I Can endure your absence no longer you must of necessity shew your selfe oftner then you doe to your friend for your owne honour and my satisfaction I say for your Honour because it is thereby in Question since you keepe your selfe so long retired in a place of which even the Gazette never makes mention You must not give so much way to your humour and inclination that they interesse with them the Contentment of all that love you For my owne part I am resolved to goe seeke you if you returne not very soone to which I adjure you by all the Charmes of the Passion which I have to your service as being Sir Your most humble Servant M. Answers to the Letters which complain of Absence SIR YOu chide me with such a good grace that I could wish to see you oftner in that humor since it obliges me to beleeve that I am not altogether indifferent to you 'T is true my absence hath been something long but being my presence is unprofitable to my friends by the disability I am in to serve them I make the lesse account of my absence from the Court Yet the only means to occasion my return will be if you testifie unto me that I can be usefull to you when I am there which shall precipitate my haste being in a firme resolution to render you all manner of Service in quality Sir of Your most humble and obedient servant M. Another Answer SIR MY pride will become insufferable if you interesse your selfe often in the delay of my return I wonder you can find me wanting at the Court where you have admirers without number but if I could be perswaded that my absence did occasion your disquiet or that my presence could be necessary for your service you should not be able to detain me from the Town whither your Commands shall soon call me when you are pleased to expect proofes of my obedience as being Sir Your most humble servant M. Letters to cleare our selfes of a false report SIR I Need not much eloquence to perswade my innocency touching the report which was made to you of late since I will oblige my selfe to make them confesse the truth
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
sufficient to give you assurance that I have committed no crime whereof all men that make profession of Honour may not be justly accused and convicted together But I will be all my life Your Highnesse Most humble most obedient and most obliged servant M. Letters witnessing unto a Friend the contentment we receive in serving him SIR I Should expresse but one part of my Contentment though I should say in doing you service I receive all the satisfaction the World is able to afford for your merit is so considerable that there is no divertisment like the continuall action of executing your commands Doe not think that I complement but beleeve infallibly that my heart mouth and pen conspire together every time I give you assurance as I doe now that I am more than all the World Sir Your most humble servant An other SIR YOu are so generous that you know by experience what contentment men receive in doing their friends service for my owne particular I think nothing can be added to mine such a sensible feeling I have of it every time you are pleased to honour me with your commands I pray you then be not so sparing since it is my whole delight and since I shall importune you for nothing else in the resolution I have taken to beare beyond my grave the Quality Sir of Your most humble and most obedient servant Another SIR I Never esteem'd my selfe happy till the day wherein you were pleased to give mee an employment for your service as being the only thing in the world I aspir'd to with most passion I would you were alwayes in th' humour to honour me with your commands as I am alwayes to obey them which you shall doe me a great favour to beleeve and besides that I am unfeignedly and without reservation Sir Your most humble and most faithfull servant Answers to the precedent Letters SIR EVery time you are pleased to give me sure testimonies of your friendship I find my selfe most powerfully touched by my ordinary impatience of incountring with some opportunity to revenge my selfe but since you are extreamly reasonable I will force my selfe to beleeve that you consider rather the price of my zeale than the misfortune of my disability so that making no doubt of the passion I beare to your service you will place mee alwayes in the rank Sir of Your most obedient and most faithfull servants M. An other Answer SIR I Know 't is your ordinary delight to oblige all the World without expecting as much as thanks but I beseech you beleeve that I am too honestly envious of your noblenesse that every time you are pleased to give me new proofes thereof I live in all the tortures of the World till I have encountred with the means of requiting it And finding my selfe in that case at this present I am forced to represent unto you my disquiet that I may not be accused of ingratitude and lesse of negligence in seeking occasions to testifie unto you how perfectly I am Sir Your most humble and obliged servant M. An other Answer SIR 'T Is not enough to oblige continually your friends friendship commands that you should serve your selfe of them in all kind of encounters to which I conjure you if you desire I should beleeve that you love me extreamely I will never importune you with other things in the grief I remain to beare unprofitably the Quality Sir of Your most humble and obedient servant Another Answer SIR IT would be very hard for me to expresse how strictly I am yours for what proofes soever my obedience were able to give you they could resent but one part of the passion which I have to your service as being inimitably Sir Your most humble and faithfull servant An other Answer SIR I Am resolved to beseech you would be pleased to honour mee continually with your commands since you are pleased to produce continually new proofes of your friendship These shall be all the intreaties I will make you to the end that my obedience may serve me for an occasion in serving you according to the passion which raignes in me And to witnesse unto you that there be few in the World can vaunt with reason that they are to that height as I am Sir Your most humble and most obedient servant Another Answer SIR IT would be very hard for mee to reckon up the obligations which I have to you You are too noble in all respects and especially when it stands upon the interests of your friends that it is sufficiently seene you take great pleasure in having no equall Yet I must tell you freely that I am one of your Enviers as well as of your Admirers being Jealous of the continuall Generosity you exercise in my behalfe not leaving mee so much leasure as to ruminate upon the means of acknowledgement 'T is my turne now to let you know I am not insensible and that if you be extreamly well skill'd in the Art of obliging all the World I am not altogether ignorant of the Art of acquitting my selfe I beseech you beleeve it and that I am without Complement Sir Your most humble servant M. Another Answer SIR I Begin to grow weary of your favours the disability in which I find my selfe will not suffer me to receive any new one for feare I should be constrain'd in the End to passe for Ungratefull Wherefore except I encounter with some favourable occasion wherin I may witnesse the Passion which I have to serve you I will never adde any thing to this number of obligations This is my Humor my Resolution being to professe my selfe all my Life Sir Your most humble servant M. THE SECOND PART OF The Secretarie in Fashion A Letter Consolatory to a Father upon the Death of his Sonne SIR THE sorrowfull newes of your Sonnes Death touched mee very feelingly and the more because I had the honour of his acquaintance and particular knowledge of his Deserts The love which you have sustain'd is very great I confesse but you must likewise confesse that unavoydable evils are to be endured with constancy I speak not this to condemne your Sighes and Teares for I doe willingly approve of them yea even in excesse but to let you know that after you have satisfied your humour you must a little give place to reason being you shall receive as much glory in drying vp your Teares as you did once pleasure in shedding them I know your Sonne was the onely Comfort which remained to you in this World and that his presence meerly did make you live contented even amongst the peevishnesses of old age But all this induceth mee to beleeve that God deprived you of him for no other Reason but onely to comfort you hereafter in himselfe as being the onely Good which is subject to no Change He calls himselfe a Jealous God wonder not then if he be Jealous of the unmeasureable love you bore to your Childe And if his Providence hath found
a meanes to oblige you in robbing you of an object which possest all your affections together you on the other side are obliged this Day to make him the object of your Thanksgiving and not of your Complaints This is that which I expect at the hands of your Magnanimity and soundnesse of Judgement the weakenesse of mine detaining mee from passing further being assured that you are able your selfe to be your own Comforter It sufficeth me that I acquit my selfe of my Duty in witnessing to you the griefe I conceive for your Misfortune and the continuall care I shall have to blaze my selfe wheresoever I come Sir Your most humble servant The Answer SIR I Am obliged to you for the charitable counsell you were pleased to give me upon the Death of my Sonne But suffer me to tell you after my humble thanks that my affliction is of such a Nature that Death only is able to give me satisfaction so that I find my selfe constrained to go seek my remedy in my Grave and yet I doe not murmure against the providence of God though I must assure you that without a particular Grace and sensible miracle I shall faint under the burden of my misfortune Yet I beseech you Sir doe not deprive mee of the Comfor of your Letters knowing I cannot enjoy the Happinesse of your Company And above all things remember me in your Prayers since I expect no succour but from Heaven I am ever Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR YOur deare Letter concerning the death of my Sonne had much allayd my Greife if my affliction had been capable of any Comfort Yet I esteeme my self extreamly obliged to you for the part you seem to take in my Misfortune in which you testifie that you are equally both of a Generous Disposition and a Good Friend Sir the sorrow which oppresseth me has left mee nothing but sighes and teares to offer you up in acknowledgement it sufficeing mee since it is true that you beleeve I am and will be everlastingly Sir Your very humble servant Letters Consolatory to a Sonne upon the Death of his Father SIR THad sooner condoled with you the losse of your Father if I had sooner judged you capable of Consolation I thought it fit to afford you some time to pay with the abundance of your Teares the debt you owed to Nature but now having satisfied your selfe by the publike Testimony which you have given of your Sorrow I come amongst others to acquit my selfe of my obligation and to perswade you to patience assuring you that I am very sensible of the excesse of your Affliction I know you have practised that vertue in a thousand Encounters of Misfortune which have made you able to give lessons to all the rest of the World So that all I am to doe is to put you in mind that both you and I make all the haste possible after him whose absence we deplore with too much Lamentation and that without a particular Favour of God Almighty we shall be even at his heeles before we be worthily prepared for so great a Voyage This I made bold to remember you of and likewise that I am as much as ever Sir Your most humble servant M. Another Letter T Is not to Comfort you of the losse which you have sustained that I put Pen to Paper but rather to give Testimony of the Resentment which I feele knowing the Ability of your judgement and weaknesse of my owne It sufficeth mee to represent unto you that in the Necessity of dying or being born Nature does oblige every man to goe the Way that is Marked out for him T is no matter how long and strong some men be they all meet together at the Grave and being arived there none makes account of the Time which they imployed in going that Voyage For our owne particulars let us consider how many yeares we have already spent since we began it and in this very Moment that you read this we may propose to our selves the End of it by the Imagination of a hidden death As for your Father he dyed but for himselfe and has perhaps left you a while to play his Part here in this World which ought in my opinion to leave you more Envy than Sorrow knowing that he has already cast Anchor in that haven whether you tend with might and maine I would say more if I made no conscience to detaine your Eyes too long upon this Paper you must give them yet a little time to sleepe since your Griefe is just in which I take a large Part in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant Another Letter SIR I Am too much your Servant to remaine Dumbe and Insensible at the sorrowfull report of your Fathers death These lines in acquitting me of what I owe you wil testifie unto you the Part I take in your affliction I think it will be hard for you to comfort your selfe after such a Losse but since God does never Afflict us above our force let the force of your judgement work your Consolation The most sweet consideration you can have is that you were witnesse of the last actions which your Father did before his retreat out of this World which having either few or no examples may be a sufficient cause of your Quiet every time you consider their importance Live honestly as he did and dye in the same Manner you are in the right way to the Place whither he is gone and if he have anticipated you some few dayes those will seeme but a Moment when you are arived at the End Solace your selfe then in his absence since the innocency wherein you live is an Infallible Assurance to you that you shall see him very suddenly I will give you like undoubted Testimony of the Passion which I have to your Service whensoever you please to honour mee with your Commands as being Sir Your most humble servant Answers to the Letters of Consolation SIR I Doe not excuse the Long time that I have staid in returning you thanks for the part which you did mee the Honour to take in my affliction because the Griefe is still so sensible to mee that I cannot imploy my Spirit without Violence in any other thoughts but those of my Misfortune Not that I remaine not entirely Resigned to the Wil of God and fully Resolved to Patience but yet all this cannot hinder my Sorrow from Enjoying an absolute Possession of mee and for an Encrease of Mischiefe my griefe-sick Humour does render it so agreeable that I have not so much Liberty as to Complaine though it devour me by Little and Little Yet I cease not to be extreamly obliged to you for your Pious and Charitable Counsells which you were pleased to give mee assureing you that I will take my ordinary Lessons of Comfort out of them Notwithstanding I must tell you with my ancient freedom that as my Affliction comes from above 't is from thence onely that I
expect a Remedy How good a Physitian soever Time be I desire nothing of you but Prayers intermingled with Commands to the end that my obedience may make mee worthy the good opinion you have Sir of Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Must confesse your Charitable letter did much comfort the losse which I lately sustained and the more because it gave Testimony of your feeling in my Affliction In such accidents as these I never find more Consolation than to see my selfe lamented by my Friends amongst whom since you possesse the first rank I leave to your owne consideration whether your Letter were agreeable to me or no Yet for all that I cannot cease my Teares my Sorrow increasing upon mee daily more and more through the Remembrance of the Misfortune which was the cause of it And truly after this Losse I cannot apprehend any other which might serve me for a very effectuall admonishment if I were Capable of receiving any I would say more if my Teares did not blot out my Writing Wherefore in briefe I doe desire of you that you would be pleased to Conserve me the Honour of your Remembrance and adde not the Losse of your Friendship to this which I already sustaine since I am with Passion Sir Your most humble and most obliged servant Letters Consolatory to a Husband upon the Death of his Wife SIR I Know not in what Tearmes to begin to comfort you your Losse appearing to mee so great by reason of the excesse of your Affliction and my Resentment that I am farre more disposed to accompany your teares than able any way to solace your Misery You know Misfortune has taught mee by Experience to value a Discontent of that Nature having heretofore shed teares for the same subject So that representing to my selfe that which I have suffered in a like Incounter I must needs tell you you are not to expect your Remedy from any Place but Heaven Though I deny not but Time may worke much upon that kind of Malady yet the Terme is so long that the little remainder of Quiet which is left after the Purge of our discontent stays not so long as to give us an absolute and full Possession of it Wherefore be assured that God will not abandon you if you adore his Providence with submission a Meanes to which is if you Consider that you are continually in Election to see your Wife againe and sooner too than perhaps you imagine Pardon mee Sir for my freedome of speech I cannot flatter you being to that Point as I am Sir Your most humble servant Another SIR THough I be not able to Comfort you in your Wifes death yet it is sufficient for my satisfaction that I witnes unto you the great part which I take in your Affliction onely I will put you in Minde that in Sorrowfull Accidents Patience is the cheif Remedy after our Resignation to the Will of God Our teares and Complaints are in vaine since they doe but provoke Heaven in stead of appeasing it When you espoused that vertuous Lady the Notary who passed the Contract of your Marriage forgot not to insert this Clause that the survivor should enjoy the rights of Widdowship What reason have you then to lament a Death which you foresaw so long since as if you had been assured when you tooke her shee had not been subject to it She prevented you in an Inevitable Action and perhaps it will not be much Ten yeares more or lesse are but an instant to that of Death For which I would wish you prepare your selfe what leasure soever you have I can assure you you will have very little spare time But I must not incurre the Fault from which I promised to exempt my selfe I aske you Pardon since my Crime is occasioned by my Zeale as being Sir Your most humble servant Another SIR THe Friendship and service I vowed to you long agoe have made mee so sensible of the sorrowfull Newes of your Wifes death that I stand in need of the Consolation which all the World does administer to you Expect not then any Comfort from mee being afflicted as I am All that I can say to you is that your Wife dying in that innocency in which shee alwayes lived has left you in my Opinion a greater cause of Envy than of Sorrow Wherefore I would not have you Dreame of any thing so much as of following her and since you are every houre hastening to your end change the Nature of your teares lamenting more that she has left you behind her than that she is gone before you This is all the Counsell I can give you together with a new assurance that I will live and dye Sir Your most humble servant Answers to the Precedent Letters SIR THE Griefe which I conceived for the losse of my Wife would not permit mee sooner to render you thanks for the pious resentment you witnesse in her behalfe I always thought you would participate in my Misfortunes because you did mee the Honour to love mee And the rather because I knew you were interessed in my Sorrow as having lost a most humble Servant Yet I remaine indebted to you for the Charitable care which you took in comforting mee though it were in vaine since I cannot so soone quit the memory of a Losse so important to my repose Men may tell me as much as they please that my Misery is without reliefe 't is because of that that I am void of Comfort To cure it is a work of the Hand of God and all that Time and my Friends are able to contribute does but serve to dispose the matter which the Almighty must informe when he pleaseth Yet Sir though my Misfortunes be in their Flood they have not drowned the respectfull observance I alwayes used in your behalfe as having made a vow to coffin up with my selfe the Quality Sir of Your most faithfull servant Another Answer SIR I Could heartily wish that the Sorrow I conceive for my Wifes death were capable of Consolation that so I might make use of the Charitable precepts you were pleased to give me for which I render you most humble thanks But truly Sir my Affliction is so great that if God doe not soone play the Physitian I can expect remedy from nothing but death So that how constantly soever I beare my Misfortune the very Sorrow wherewith it is accompanied will thrust me by little and little into my Grave Not that I have not wholly resigned my selfe to the will of God but because being not able to make this Resignation in all points absolute the remainder of my Liberty serves to no other end but to torment me Make your Prayers to Heaven for me that it would please to conduct mee suddenly into that haven of Quiet where you now are I expect of your devotion this favour from the Divine goodnesse as you ohght to expect all manner of service from the friendship I have vowed to you
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
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