(No. 3 of Bibliography, Appendix XII.)

(The original copy of this letter, in Miss Blandy’s own handwriting, for the satisfaction of the public, is left with the publisher.)

March 14, 1752.

Reader,—­Condemn no person rashly.  Thou has already, perhaps, passed sentence upon this unfortunate.  But remember, that God alone knows the secrets of the heart; and that circumstances spring many times from motives which it is impossible for man to discover.

The following letter was written to this unhappy lady by a clergyman,[21] after her receiving sentence of death.

A LETTER TO MISS BLANDY.

  March 7, 1752.

Dear Miss,—­Had it been at my own option, I never would have chose to be the least concerned in your unhappy affair; but since divine providence, without my own seeking, has thought fit to order it otherwise, I shall, from obligations of compassion and humanity, offer some things to your serious consideration.  Your power of receiving benefit from my advice, is but of short duration; may God grant that you may rightly use this.  That you believe in God, in the immortal nature of the soul, in Jesus Christ, and in a future state of rewards and punishments, I am willing to persuade myself.  As to the unworthy man who has tempted you to your ruin, I have good grounds to believe him to be an infidel.  If he has communicated such principles to you, to render you more capable of executing his wicked purposes, your persisting therein will ruin your poor soul for ever.  The moment you enter into that awful state of separation, you will be eternally convinced of your error.  The very devils believe a God, and tremble.

You will, perhaps, express surprise at my entertaining a doubt of this nature.  What?  You that have been so constant at public worship, that have so frequently participated of the most sacred rite of the Christian religion, to be thought an infidel?  Alas!  Miss, externals are but the husks of piety; they are easy to the hypocrite.  The body may bow down in the house of God, yet the soul do homage to Belial.  God forbid, that this should touch you.

And indeed to be sincere, when on the one hand I view the arguments of your guilt, and, on the other, behold your strong assertions of innocence, to the hazarding of the soul, if untrue, I am greatly perplexed, I know not what to say or believe.  The alternative, I presume, is, you are either a believer and innocent, or an infidel and guilty.  But that holy religion which I profess, obliging me, in all cases of doubt, to incline to the most charitable construction; I say, that I am willingly persuaded, that you believe in the above mentioned truths, and are in some degree innocent.

You have, dear Miss, applied to temporal counsel, with regard to the determination of your body.  They have failed.  Your life is forfeited