the other side of the water, upon account of the loss of our dear niece, your daughter.
This world is a kind of warfare, where we meet with good and evil, and both dispensed by the same kind hand, to loosen our affections from it, and remind us that we have no abiding place here, but are reserved for a better. May we all make it our chief study to prepare for a blessed change.
I very much approve of your wise disposal of your boys to good trades. Labor was ordained by our good Creator to quell the impetuosity of our passions, lest they should run into riot if left unsubdued and unemployed; for which reason, considering our present degenerate state, that part of Adam's curse which condemned him to labor, hath to him and his posterity proved a remarkable blessing ever since ; and, if I may be indulged in one thought more, even his fall was of no small advantage to all those who will make right reason and divine revelation their guide, since the happiness of heaven infinitely surpasseth the bliss of Paradise, even in the state of innocence.
As age comes on, my distemper gains ground, and warns me to prepare for my change. Last fit of the gout confined me to my bed almost three months. I am but just upon the recovery, and still very weak, so that without any pretence to the spirit of prophecy, I may say, in all probability, this will be the last letter you will receive from me.
The rest of the grave, had not God some wise purpose for detaining me here, for my own good or the good of others, or both, would be preferable to my present state. For the greatest of earthly blessings, of which I must acknowledge I partake infinitely more than I deserve, in the prosperity of our families here and elsewhere, do not afford
