LETTERS Wrote by JANE COOPER: To which is prefixt Some Account of her LIFE and DEATH.

The PREFACE.

1. THE good Armelle has been heard of far and wide. Her life has been written at large, containing several hundred pages, translated into various languages, and published almost in all parts of Europe, by persons of various persuasions. Her deep, solid, unaffected piety, has recommended her to those of all denominations, who regarded not mere opinions, but the genuine work of God; righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

2. But it is impossible to give so full an account of this good young woman, whose station in life, was the same for some years. She had no such director of her conscience, who was informed (like those in the Roman church) of the minutest particulars, relating either to her internal or external walking with God. And she wrote no circumstantial account of herself. We have only some hints occasionally written, either for her own private use, or the satisfaction of her friends. And the greatest part even of her letters are lost: particularly those of which she took the most pains in writing. So that what follows are little more than fragments.

“But though they’re little, they are golden sands.”

In several respects not inferior to any thing in the life of Armelle Nicholas: in others greatly superior thereto. For first, All here is genuine; which I fear is not the case in the account given us of Armelle. For words are there put into her mouth, which I think she could not possibly utter. For instance. She is made to say, “I had always such a sense of my sins, that I never felt pride in my life.” Could any one born of a woman say this? Is it not an embellishment added by her historian?

3. Secondly, All here is strong, sterling sense, strictly agreeable to sound reason. Here are no extravagant flights, no mystic reveries, no unscriptural enthusiasm. The sentiments are all just and noble; the result of a fine natural understanding, cultivated by conversation, thinking, reading, and true Christian experience. At the same time they shew an heart as well improved as the understanding; truly devoted to God, and filled in a very uncommon degree, with the entire fruit of his Spirit.

4. Thirdly, This strong genuine sense is expressed in such a stile, as none would expect from a young servant maid: a stile simple and artless in the highest degree, but likewise clear, lively, proper: every phrase, every word being so well chosen, yea, and so well placed, that it is not easy to mend it. And such an inexpressible sweetness runs through the whole, as art would in vain strive to imitate.

So JANE COOPER wrote, and spoke, and lived! Thou that readest, go and do likewise!