Accordingly we find,
about a year after her decease, that he thus addressed the Supreme
Being: 'O LORD, who givest the grace of repentance, and hearest the
prayers of the penitent, grant that by true contrition I may obtain
forgiveness of all the sins committed, and of all duties neglected in
my union with the wife whom thou hast taken from me; for the neglect of
joint devotion, patient exhortation, and mild instruction.' The kindness
of his heart, notwithstanding the impetuosity of his temper, is well
known to his friends; and I cannot trace the smallest foundation for
the following dark and uncharitable assertion by Sir John Hawkins: 'The
apparition of his departed wife was altogether of the terrifick kind,
and hardly afforded him a hope that she was in a state of happiness.'
That he, in conformity with the opinion of many of the most able,
learned, and pious Christians in all ages, supposed that there was a
middle state after death, previous to the time at which departed
souls are finally received to eternal felicity, appears, I think,
unquestionably from his devotions: 'And, O LORD, so far as it may be
lawful in me, I commend to thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed
wife; beseeching thee to grant her whatever is best in her present
state, and finally to receive her to eternal happiness.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141