To the much Honoured and truly Religious

LADY

THE

Lady LETTICE WENDY,

OF

Wendy in Cambridgeshire.

MADAM,

WO or Three Reasons induce me to prefent this Difcourfe to your Ladyship, and to make choice of you for its Patronefs: First, Becaufe I owe it to the Liberality of your honoured Brother, that I have this Leifure to write any Thing. Secondly, Because alfo your many and fignal Favours, feeing I am not in a Capacity to requite

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them,

them, feem to exact from me at least a Pub lick Acknowledgment, which fuch a Dedication gives me an Opportunity to make. Thirdly, Because of such Kind of Writings, I know not where to choose a more able Judge, or more candid Reader. I am fenfible that you do fo much abhor any Thing that looks like Flattery, that out of an Excess of Modefty, you cannot patiently bear the hearing of your own juft Commendations; and therefore, fhould I enlarge upon that Subject, I know I fhould have but little Thanks for my Pains.

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Indeed, you have much better Motives to do well, than the Praife of Men, the Favour of God, Peace of Confcience, the Hope and Expectation of a future Reward of Eternal Happiness; and, therefore, I had rather write of to others, to provoke them to imitate fo excellent an Example, than to Yourfelf, to encourage You in Your Chriftian Courfe, and to fortify You in Your Athletick Conflicts with the greatest of Temporal Evils, Bodily Pain and Anguish; tho' I do not know why You fhould reject any Confideration that may conduce to fupport You under fo heavy Pressures, and of fo long Continuance; of which, to ingenuous Natures, true Honour, that is, the current Testimony and Approbation of good Men, is not the meaneft. No lefs Man than St. Auguftin was doubtful, whether the Extremity of Bodily Pain were not the greatest Evil that Humane Nature was capable of fuffering: Nay (faith he) I was fometimes compelled to

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consent to Cornelius Celfus, that it was fo; neither did his Reasons feem to me abfurd; we being compounded of two Parts, Soul and Body, of which, the first is the better, the latter the worfer: The greatest Good must be the best Thing belonging to the better Part, that is, Wisdom; and the greatest Evil the worst Thing incident to the worfer Part (the Body) that is, Pain. Now, tho' I know not whether this Reafon be firm and conclufive, yet I am of Accord with him, that of all the Evils we are fenfible of in this World, it is the foreft; the most resolute Patience being baffled and proftrated by a fierce and lafting Paroxyfm of the Gout, or Stone, or Cholick, and compelled to yield to its furious Infults, and confess itself vanquished, the Soul being unable to divert, or to do any thing elfe but

Yet

pore upon the Pain. And, therefore, those Stoical Vaunts of their Wife Man's being happy in Perillus's Bull, I utterly reject and explode, as vain Rhodomontades, and chimerical Figments; for that there never was fuch a Wife Man among them, or indeed could be : do I not fay, that the Patience of a Good Man can be fo far conquer'd by the fharpeft and severeft Torments, as to be compelled to deny or blafpheme God, or his Religion; yea, or fo much as to complain of his Injustice, tho' perchance he may be brought with Job to curfe his Day, yet not curse his God, as his Wife tempted him to do.

Now that the great ̓Αγωνοθέτης, and Βραβευ Ts, the most just Judge and Rewarder, would

be pleas'd fo to qualify and mitigate your Sufferings, as not to exceed the Meafure of your Strength and Patience, or elfe arm you with fuch an high Degree of Chriftian Fortitude, as to be able to grapple with the most Extreme; and when You have finifh'd Your Course in this World, grant You a placid and eafy Paffage out of it, and dignify You as one of His Victors, with a Crown of Eternal Glory and Felicity, is the Prayer of,

MADAM,

Your LADYSHIP's most devoted

in all Service,

JOHN RAY.