[ Erasmus Middleton, Evangelical clergyman. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Squire of Wragby full of pious sentiment.

3pp., folio. Bifolium. Addressed, on reverse of second leaf, 'To | Mrs. Squire, | Wragby, | near Lincoln.' In fair condition, aged and worn, with Middleton's seal cut away from the second leaf (without any loss to text) and a number of closed tears along creases. Seventy lines of neatly-written text. A letter filled with pious sentiment, beginning: 'Mr. Squire favored us To-day with a Call, and it gave us a peculiar Pleasure to see that he is so well recovered from that Fit of Illness in which my Brother & I saw him, notwithstanding the uncommonly severe Winter we have since had. But, at the same Time I observed Mr. S. lookt so well, I thought I discovered great Anxiety in his Face; which led me, without knowing the Particulars of the Court's Decision against his Suit in Law, to presume on offering a few Hints for his Consideration, with a View to reconcile his Mind to the Divine Providence, upon a Supposition of the worst. Duty & the Use of Means are our's; but the Event is GOD's.' Exhortation and anecdote follows, with Middleton writing midway through the letter: 'I hope Mrs. Squire will have Grace, to exercise a good Understanding, with which She is so eminently blessed, in reasoning scriptorally, & consequently wisely, upon the present, as well as all other the Vicissitudes of this mortal Life; remembering, that there is a Design & a Voice in every Affliction we meet with. The Design (through GOD's LOve), is our Good. The Voice is, To sit more loose, in Your Affections, to the perishing Things of Tme & Sense (which, at most, are Your's & mine but for a little While [...]'. The postscript reads: 'Mrs. Middleton begs a Tender of her Compliments You and the Miss Squires.'