Letter from William Cowper, Huntingdon, to Judith Madan, 1767 June 4 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing that when "I might have enjoyed your Company as often as I pleased, not being fit for it I declined it, and now that I should rejoice to see you, my heavenly Father having in his great Mercy in some measure qualified me for the Society of them that beleive, I have it not in my Power to converse with you in Person;" explaining that this is his excuse for writing and saying "I know you will not be sorry to hear from a person, not only nearly allied to you by Blood, for that is little, but now more closely united to you I trust, by the unspeakable Gift of God, in the same Spirit;" recollecting her past kindness to him; adding "I beg your Pardon of my strange behavior my dear Aunt, and can venture to assure you without Danger of Dissimulation, that were it in my Power to give Proof of the Change I have undergone in this respect also, that Proof should not be wanting;" describing his spiritual struggles: "I had Eyes to see the Holiness & Beauty of a Christian Character, but neither a Will to imitate it, nor a Heart to be pleased with it. The Light of the Father of Lights shining in his Elect People, is too much for the feeble Sight of a Child of Wrath whose Delight is to walk in Darkness;" describing his redemption through Christ in depth; adding "But I am still what I ever was, a chief Sinner, and shall be so while I inhabit a Body of Death ; an ungratefull, unthankfull, wrath:provoking Sinner. But there is abundance of grace and of the Gift of Righteousness for all who are content to be saved as such, therefore I pray that I may be saved as the worst of the Lord's People, as indeed I beleive I am."