TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND EXEMPLARY LADY ANNE, COUNTESS OF BALCARRES. MADAM, IN the hope of pardon of my delay, I now present you with the treatise which, at preached at your departure hence. your desire, I I knew of many and great afflictions which you had undergone in the removal of your dearest friends, which made this subject seem so suitable and seasonable to you at that time: but I knew not that God was about to make so great an addition to your trials in the same kind, by taking to himself the principal branch of your noble family (by a rare disease, the emblem of the mortal malady now reigning).* I hope this loss also shall promote your gain, by keeping you nearer to your heavenly Lord, who is jealous of your affections, and resolved to have them entirely to himself; and then you will still find, that you are not alone, nor deprived of your dearest or most necessary friend, while the Father, the Son, the sanctifying and comforting Spirit is with you. And it should * Charles, Earl of Balcarres, who died of a stone in his heart of a very great magnitude. |