My Dear M^rs Bateman,
It was my intention to have written to you
Immediately after I got home, & am much ashamed to think that I
should have so long omitted it; I have no sufficient apology to make
but hope you will pardon me, & believe that tho’ I am so bad a
correspondent, my respect for you is not in the least diminished.
I think myself under additional obligations to you for your very
kind & pressing invitation to Man^r & fully intended to indulge myself
in paying you a visit on my return to London; I sent you a few
Lines from Newcastle, which I suppose you {^received} & having waited there four
days for Company to Leeds; (& the Diligence setting off at Night) as
none at that time were going, I neither thought it safe or prudent to
go alone, therefore took my place in the flying Mercury for York, in=
=tending to go from that to Man^r the Company I had with me
were very agreeable & going to London, there I considered the weather
was daily expected to Change, & as I had so good an opportunity of getting
[new page]
up to Town comfortably, I thought on all accounts it was best at so late
a Season in the year to persue my journey as the situation of my health
{^required} good Weather to travail in; & through much Mercy I got home safe;
I think you will say with me it was best I did not go out of
my way; for if I had I should have been oblig’d to travail in
the storm which began almost immediately after I got home; I sent
you a Line from York (which I hope you received) that you might not
expect me - - & now my pleasure of seeing you is I hope yet to come
but we dare not presume to say we will do this or that; I trust
grace has taught us better things, yet how much does self prevail,
& often drag us as slaves to do those thing which we would not
& so {^leave} undone those things that we would do; I don’t know how
you find it, but for my own part I feel such strength of {?impiety}
& such depths of depravity that I could not have supposed to exist
in me, had not the Lord in much Mercy discovered it to me by little
& little; I am often constrained to cry out, Oh Wretched Creature
that I am, shall it be always this? when will deliverance from this
Body of Sin & Death come? I am weary of my self & wonder at the
Lord’s patience in bearing with me, but here is the consolation, that He
is the Lord, & He changeth not, therefore the Sons of Jacob are not
[new page]
[damaged]
& how [damaged]
always be thus [damaged]
=eing will come; & they [damaged]
Himself will wipe away all [damaged]
more sorrow nor Death nor Sin [damaged]
of your Cousin who is left with Six small [damaged]
but as you justly observe the “Judge of all the Earth [damaged]
right” & when He calls to peculiar sufferings, He gives [damaged]
& strength to endure; & tho’ for the present few can rejoice [damaged]
[cut]
And now my dear M^rs Bateman, I must bid you adieu; I need
not tell you I am a bad correspondent the reading these few uncon=
=nected lines is full proof ; pardon my sending them, I am in a very
stupid state of mind & don’t know when it will be otherwise with me; I
sat down to write without a single Idea & as I began, so I finished;
I hope you’ll soon favor me with letter; & give my Respectful Comp^ts to M^r B
[new page]
M^rs Thomas Bateman
Piccadilly
Manchester

My Dear M^rs Bateman,
It was my intention to have written to you
Immediately after I got home, & am much ashamed to think that I
should have so long omitted it; I have no sufficient apology to make
but hope you will pardon me, & believe that tho’ I am so bad a
correspondent, my respect for you is not in the least diminished.
I think myself under additional obligations to you for your very
kind & pressing invitation to Man^r & fully intended to indulge myself
in paying you a visit on my return to London; I sent you a few
Lines from Newcastle, which I suppose you {^received} & having waited there four
days for Company to Leeds; (& the Diligence setting off at Night) as
none at that time were going, I neither thought it safe or prudent to
go alone, therefore took my place in the flying Mercury for York, in=
=tending to go from that to Man^r the Company I had with me
were very agreeable & going to London, there I considered the weather
was daily expected to Change, & as I had so good an opportunity of getting
[new page]
up to Town comfortably, I thought on all accounts it was best at so late
a Season in the year to persue my journey as the situation of my health
{^required} good Weather to travail in; & through much Mercy I got home safe;
I think you will say with me it was best I did not go out of
my way; for if I had I should have been oblig’d to travail in
the storm which began almost immediately after I got home; I sent
you a Line from York (which I hope you received) that you might not
expect me - - & now my pleasure of seeing you is I hope yet to come
but we dare not presume to say we will do this or that; I trust
grace has taught us better things, yet how much does self prevail,
& often drag us as slaves to do those thing which we would not
& so {^leave} undone those things that we would do; I don’t know how
you find it, but for my own part I feel such strength of {?impiety}
& such depths of depravity that I could not have supposed to exist
in me, had not the Lord in much Mercy discovered it to me by little
& little; I am often constrained to cry out, Oh Wretched Creature
that I am, shall it be always this? when will deliverance from this
Body of Sin & Death come? I am weary of my self & wonder at the
Lord’s patience in bearing with me, but here is the consolation, that He
is the Lord, & He changeth not, therefore the Sons of Jacob are not
[new page]
[damaged]
& how [damaged]
always be thus [damaged]
=eing will come; & they [damaged]
Himself will wipe away all [damaged]
more sorrow nor Death nor Sin [damaged]
of your Cousin who is left with Six small [damaged]
but as you justly observe the “Judge of all the Earth [damaged]
right” & when He calls to peculiar sufferings, He gives [damaged]
& strength to endure; & tho’ for the present few can rejoice [damaged]
[cut]
And now my dear M^rs Bateman, I must bid you adieu; I need
not tell you I am a bad correspondent the reading these few uncon=
=nected lines is full proof ; pardon my sending them, I am in a very
stupid state of mind & don’t know when it will be otherwise with me; I
sat down to write without a single Idea & as I began, so I finished;
I hope you’ll soon favor me with letter; & give my Respectful Comp^ts to M^r B
[new page]
M^rs Thomas Bateman
Piccadilly
Manchester