A Mother’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Elegies (Volume 101) (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series) 1649590881, 9781649590886

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is the first attempt to gather her known writings, prose and poetry, in a single authoritative edition — one that establishes that Carey was an active participant in probably more than one coterie network and was conversant with multiple genres of spiritual writing, from mothers’ legacies, elegies, and prayers to conversion narratives and autobiographical

M A RY C A R E Y

While Lady Mary Carey’s poetry has been available in small excerpts in anthologies, this

meditations. While Carey matches the description of a good/proper early modern woman

Mary Carey

A Mother’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Elegies EDIT ED B Y

in the period’s prescriptive writings, her volume also contains robust questioning of male

Pamela S. Hammons

superiority, as well as a poignant challenge to the God who took so many of her children at an early age. Her writings have much to show us about the ways in which literate seventeenth-century Englishwomen navigated patriarchal environments.

Margaret Ezell Distinguished Professor of English, Texas A&M University

Lady Mary Carey examined her life and expressed her views in a handwritten manuscript print publication. Her poetry and prose, composed and revised between 1650 and 1658, were important enough to her inner circle that her autograph manuscript was copied in a fair hand in 1681. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multidimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey teaches us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life — from the fears of childbearing to the sorrows over child loss to the terrors of war. Pamela S. Hammons, Professor of English and Cooper Fellow at the University of Miami, specializes in early modern English and medieval literature, manuscript culture, poetry, women’s writing, and theories of gender and sexuality. World-Making Renaissance Women: Rethinking Early Modern Women’s Place in Literature and Culture (Cambridge 2021), which she co-edited with the late Brandie Siegfried, is her most recent volume.

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 101

A Mother’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Elegies

created for self-reflection and restricted audiences of family and friends, rather than for

ISBN Placeholder FPO DO NOT PRINT!

vol_101.indd All Pages

ITER PRESS

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 101 2023-06-13 2:55 PM

A MOTHER’S SPIRITUAL DIALOGUE, MEDITATIONS, AND ELEGIES

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 101

FOUNDING EDITORS

Margaret L. King Albert Rabil, Jr. SENIOR EDITOR

Margaret L. King SERIES EDITORS

Vanda Anastácio Jaime Goodrich Elizabeth H. Hageman Sarah E. Owens Deanna Shemek Colette H. Winn EDITORIAL BOARD

Anne Cruz Margaret Ezell Anne Larsen Elissa Weaver

MARY CAREY

A Mother’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Elegies •

Edited by PAMELA S. HAMMONS

2023

© Iter Inc. 2023 New York and Toronto IterPress.org All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

978-1-64959-088-6 (paper) 978-1-64959-089-3 (pdf) 978-1-64959-090-9 (epub)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Carey, Mary, active 1649-1657, author. | Hammons, Pamela S., editor. Title: A mother’s spiritual dialogue, meditations, and elegies / Mary Carey ; edited by Pamela S. Hammons. Description: New York ; Toronto : Iter Press, 2023. | Series: The other voice in early modern Europe : the Toronto series ; 101 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Lady Mary Carey examined her life and expressed her views in a handwritten manuscript, composed and revised between 1650 and 1658. Her poetry and prose was important enough to her inner circle that her autograph manuscript was copied in a fair hand in 1681. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multidimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey’s writings teach us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2023021724 (print) | LCCN 2023021725 (ebook) | ISBN 9781649590886 (paper) | ISBN 9781649590893 (pdf) | ISBN 9781649590909 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Carey, Mary, |d active 1649-1657--Diaries. | Carey, Mary, active 1649-1657-

Correspondence. | Spiritual jounals. | Motherhood--Religious aspects--Christianity--Early works to 1800. | Infants--Death--Early works to 1800. | Parental grief--Early works to 1800 | Death-Religious aspects--Christianity--Early works to 1800. Classification: LCC BV4529.18 .C373 2023 (print) | LCC BV4529.18 (ebook) | DDC 248.8/431--dc23/ eng/20230824 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023021724 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023021725

Cover Illustration The New Born Child, late 1640s (oil on canvas), Tour, Georges de La (1593–1652) / Musée des beauxarts, Rennes, France / Bridgeman Art Library XIR2452.

Cover Design Maureen Morin, Library Communications, University of Toronto Libraries.

Contents Acknowledgments Illustrations Abbreviations INTRODUCTION

vii ix xi 1

MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF MARY CAREY, MAINLY DEVOTIONAL: BIRTHS AND DEATHS, ETC. To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body Note on the Deaths of Five Children Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657

99 104 107 109

APPENDIX 1: MARY CAREY’S LETTER TO THOMAS PELHAM

121

APPENDIX 2: POETIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN MARY CAREY AND THOMAS FAIRFAX

123

Bibliography Index

127 133

31 33 39 95 96 96 99

Acknowledgments I first encountered Lady Mary Carey’s writings when I was a graduate student at Cornell University three decades ago, and her works have influenced my thinking about the extraordinary abilities of early modern women writers ever since. The earliest readers of my work on Carey were Barbara Correll, Dorothy Mermin, William Kennedy, Rachel Weil, Andy Galloway, Bernadette Andrea, Heather White, and Timothy Billings: I am grateful to them for their crucial encouragement and insightful feedback those many years ago. I cannot express how grateful I am to Elizabeth H. Hageman for her mentorship, support, and friendship in making this edition possible. I relied upon her wisdom, scholarly knowledge, and eagle eye throughout the process. Of course, any errors in this volume are my own. Betty, it was a pleasure to spend time with you at the Folger Shakespeare Library and its environs in July 2018. My thanks also go to Margaret English-Haskin for her outstanding help in ushering this volume through the publication process, and to series editors Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil Jr. Our community will forever be deeply indebted to Albert; we lost him too soon in 2021. My thanks go to William Bowen and the members of the editorial board, who gave me excellent suggestions. Likewise, I am profoundly thankful to an anonymous reader who provided detailed, helpful feedback. Many thanks, too, to Samantha Rohrig for her precise copyediting. This project would not have been possible without the award of a Folger Shakespeare Library Short-Term Fellowship in 2018, for which I am eternally thankful, especially to Kathleen Lynch, Amanda Herbert, and Owen Williams. The Folger Short-Term Fellowship itself would not have been possible without the generous reference letters of Betty Hageman and Margaret J. M. Ezell, who, like Betty, has been a longtime mentor and has supported my research with characteristic generosity and cheer from afar for many years. I am most grateful to the many kind folks at the Folger who supported my research: Heather R. Wolfe, Rachel Dankert, Abbie Weinberg, William Davis, Meredith Deely, Jodie Pitman, LuEllen DeHaven, Nataly Cruz-Castillo, Camille Seerattan, Meghan Carefano, Kristen Sieck, and Rosalind Larry. It was delightful to spend July 2018 at the Folger with all the wonderful fellows and to chat about our work over afternoon tea. Finally, I am grateful to the Folger for giving me permission to reproduce images from MS V.a.628 and BV4831.C3 in this book. Thank you to the British Library in London for its assistance with Additional MS 33084 f51r. Many thanks to the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford for their kind permission to publish images from MS Rawlinson D. 1308; to Nick Cistone at the Bodleian for his extra help with MS Fairfax 40; and to the vii

viii Acknowledgments Bridgeman Art Library for the use of The New Born Child (oil on canvas, XIR2452) by Georges de La Tour (1593–1652) on the book cover. My profound thanks go to Dean Leonidas Bachas and the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at the University of Miami for a year-long sabbatical in 2017– 2018, during which I began working on this edition, as well as for the honor of a Cooper Fellowship, which funded a research leave in fall 2021 so that I could finish this volume. To my colleagues in the Department of English, Timothy Watson and Patrick McCarthy: thank you for your generous nominations for the Cooper Fellowship, your enduring support over the years, your belief in me, and most of all, your friendship. I am also grateful to Dean Bachas and CAS for my Chair’s Research Fund, which funded the images and permissions for this volume, and to Dean Bachas, Dean Joshua Cohn (CAS), and Chair Thomas Goodmann (English) for providing a subvention in support of the production of this book. I thank all my friends, too many to name here, whose love across the years— and especially during the pandemic—has been a wonderful gift. As always, I owe my greatest debt to my entire family: I love y’all dearly. Mom (Anna Suttle), special thanks for the chats and endless supply of gelato; Tim, special thanks for always making time to visit when I come to Tennessee, no matter how busy you are. There aren’t enough words for me to thank Gema Pérez-Sánchez, my wife and partner in all things for thirty years. Gema, you are the love of my life, and your never-ending light and cheer get me through every day and night in this wild world: mil gracias por todo, mi amor. This volume is lovingly dedicated to the memory of my stepfather, Curtis Roland Olsen (1950–2022), a biogeochemist and a man with a shining heart of gold, a joyful gleam in his eye, and the most elegant silk ties; and tío José María Veguillas Merchan (1931–2022), a charmer with a classical sense of style and grace. The world was a far better place with Curtis and José in it; they are terribly missed.

Illustrations All figures in the text are used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library and are from MS V.a.628 with two exceptions: Figure 6 is used by permission of the Folger but is from BV4831.C3; Figure 8 is used by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and is from MS Rawlinson D. 1308. Cover.

The New Born Child, late 1640s (oil on canvas), Tour, Georges de La (1593–1652) / Musée des beaux-arts, Rennes, France / Bridgeman Art Library XIR2452.

Figure 1.

Title page. “To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire.”

32

Figure 2.

Title page. “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.”

38

Figure 3.

Marginal glosses, including character names, in “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.”

40

Figure 4.

Booklet of half-size pages inserted into “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.”

54

Figure 5.

Carey’s perpendicular placement on the page of “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler.”

97

Meynell’s placement on the page in contrast to Carey’s of “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler.”

98

Perpendicular placement of final couplets, 35–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature.

115

Hutton’s perpendicular placement of final couplets, 29–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature.

116–18

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Biblical citations and mathematical calculations.

ix

120

Abbreviations Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford University BL

British Library, London

Folger

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

Fol. Folio MS Manuscript ODNB

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online version)

OED

Oxford English Dictionary (online version)

Parens Parentheses

xi

Introduction The Other Voice Lady Mary Carey (b. ca. 1609, d. in or after 1680) represents the other voice of those seventeenth-century English women who examined their lives and expressed their views in handwritten manuscripts created for restricted audiences of family and friends rather than seeking out print publication of their writings.1 Carey’s poetry and prose, composed and revised in her autograph manuscript between 1649/50 and 1657/8,2 were seen as important enough to her inner circle that her entire manuscript was copied in a fair hand (that is, a clean copy that does not show marks of revision, as does the autograph original) decades after Carey first composed her multi-generic, hybrid texts. Charles Hutton meticulously copied her manuscript in 1681, a fact that serves as a reminder that an early modern woman could, under certain circumstances, write in manuscript with patriarchal approval—indeed, her compositions might be seen as worthy of special preservation—even as she questioned mainstream patriarchal views.3 1. On women’s participation in manuscript culture in seventeenth-century England, see especially Margaret J. M. Ezell, Writing Women’s Literary History (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 39–65; Harold Love, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 54–58; Arthur F. Marotti, Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), 30–61; and Margaret J. M. Ezell, Social Authorship and the Advent of Print (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). For a fascinating account of provincial manuscript culture, see Steven W. May and Arthur F. Marotti, Ink, Stink Bait, Revenge, and Queen Elizabeth: A Yorkshire Yeoman’s Household Book (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014), 7–12. 2. Carey uses old-style dates, which means that she understood each calendar year to begin on March 25 rather than January 1. Thus, for dated entries that fall between January 1 and March 24, I indicate the year by first giving Carey’s old-style date followed by a slash mark and the appropriate new-style date. 3. Charles Hutton, ed., My Lady Carey’s Meditations, & Poetry (Bodleian, MS Rawlinson D. 1308, 1681), 1–222. Hutton copied Carey’s text in the same manuscript with others he copied; these take up the remainder of the manuscript: The Late Thomas Lord Fairfax’s Relation of His Actions in the Late Civil Wars Together with His Grace the Duke of Buckingham’s Verses upon the Memory of the Late Thomas Lord Fairfax. For Hutton to transcribe these materials into one manuscript suggests some of his coterie connections. I have not been able to discover further details about Hutton. On the importance of Hutton transcribing Carey’s complete manuscript, see Margaret J. M. Ezell,  The Patriarch’s Wife: Literary Evidence and the History of the Family (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), 67. On early modern men supporting women’s religious and familial writing, see Erica Longfellow, Women and Religious Writing in Early Modern England (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004); and Marion Wynne-Davies, Women Writers and Familial Discourse in the English Renaissance: Relative Values (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

1

2 Introduction Although Carey fits the dominant model of a good and proper early modern woman in some ways, in her many declarations of love for her second husband and hints of equality with him, she disregarded widespread views against remarriage and the corresponding demonization of widows during the English seventeenth century. Moreover, while Carey expresses what would be considered theologically and culturally appropriate self-blame as a mother for the deaths of six of her children (one of which was a miscarriage) through writing multiple elegies, she concludes her manuscript with an extraordinary poem that boldly asks God to justify his ways to her. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multi-dimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey teaches us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life— from the fears of childbearing to the sorrows over child loss to the terrors of war. Finally, through the hundreds of precisely chosen biblical glosses she adds to her compositions, she shows us how deeply learned a woman could be in theological matters.

Life and Works Carey’s father was Sir John Jackson of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland,4 and her youth was spent participating in elite pastimes. She reports that a dire illness when she was eighteen years old led her to rethink what she came to believe were frivolities and to convert to Calvinism,5 a particularly strict branch of Protestant Christianity. In Carey’s long prose work, “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” she has Soul explain that [i]t was the Lord’s pleasure to smite me with a sore sickness (in my apprehension, it was unto death), when I was about 18 years old, in the midst of my jollity, when I was taking my fill of worldly contentments and restrained my heart from nothing it fancied to follow, delighting myself and spending my time in carding, dice, dancing, masking, dressing, vain company, going to plays, following fashions, and the like. . . . I found myself in a miserable and hopeless condition, which made me wish, O, that God would spare my life until I 4. All biographical information in this introduction is from Carey’s autograph manuscript, Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Poems of Lady Mary Carey (Folger, V.a.628); and Sara H. Mendelson, “Mary Carey (b. ca. 1609, d. in or after 1680),” in ODNB (Oxford University Press, 2004), https://doi. org/10.1093/ref:odnb/45811. 5. On Calvinism, see Rachel Adcock, Sara Read, and Anna Ziomek, eds., Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Writing (New York: Manchester University Press, 2014), 23–26; and Bruce Gordon, John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion: A Biography (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016).

Introduction 3 learn to know him. O, might I live, I would forever quit all my vain company, leave my most beloved pleasures, be a careful hearer of God’s word, and give myself up to his service! (46) Mary married her first husband, Pelham Carey (ca. 1612–1642/3), son of Henry Carey, first Earl of Dover, in June 1630. After twelve years of marriage, Pelham died. In June 1643, Mary married her second husband, George Payler (d. in or before 1678), with whom she had a deeply loving, mutual relationship.6 Mary and George had seven children and at least one miscarriage. Sadly, all their children but two, Bethia (1652/3–1671) and Nathaniel (1654/5–1680?), died in infancy. Mary outlived George and her adult children. George was paymaster of the garrison at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, before Mary married him, and between 1643 and 1659 he took on many roles: he served as an officer of the ordnance and armory, went to study law at Gray’s Inn in London, worked as a navy commissioner, and became the Member of Parliament for Berwick in 1659. Because of George’s positions, Mary lived in at least seventeen different locations: I have lived in Berwick, London oft, Kent, Hunsdon, Edinburgh, Thistleworth, Hackney, Totteridge, Greenwich, Bendall Green, Clapham, York, Nun Monkton, St. James’s, Newington, Covent Garden, and dear St. Katherine’s, and in all these I acknowledge the continual receipt of all useful, comfortable, and desirable mercies and bless God for them all. . . . In all these wars, I was safe in garrisons and was not straitened, nor plundered, nor separated from my dear relations. (103) Her awareness of her good fortune during wartime, which she considered the direct result of God’s divine providence, is one among many preservations from danger that she details in this comprehensive passage: God hath taken special care of me in times of war: I ever dwelt in safety. In times of raining, raging sickness, I have been kept in health; in ill company, great protection; and much good have I seen follow to me from disappointments. And who is able to number preservations from evils known and from evils unknown? I have been oft delivered, not only from feeling but fearing evils of sundry kinds. What dangers was incident to me before my birth, in infancy, childhood, and all along my youth in all places and conditions, changes and 6. Sara Mendelson speculates that “[a]lthough deeply attached to her second husband [sic] Mary kept the surname of her first, presumably because of Sir Pelham’s titled status.” Mendelson, “Mary Carey,” para. 1.

4 Introduction companies? And considering my first estate in marriage—my then associates and inclination—I must acknowledge my deliverances and preventing mercies very great, known to God and myself. (101–2) Carey was acutely aware of and meditated repeatedly upon the many dangers she faced—for example, war, plague, and temptations to sin. That she was profoundly conscious of the precarity of her life is shown when she asks how she could possibly make a complete accounting of the ways in which she has been “preserv[ed] from evils known and from evils unknown.” Given the many threats that were all too visible and tangible to her, how many surrounded her without her ever knowing because she was silently saved from them? God has not only had to “deliver” her from “feeling . . . evils” (that is, experiencing them), but from the emotional consequences—such as terror—of living in such difficult times. Her viewpoint as a mother and the experiential knowledge that comes with motherhood shines through here as well: she has known the pain and sorrow of the deaths of multiple children and thus reflects on the fragility of her own survival from the time she was growing in her mother’s womb through her early years. During eight years of her middle age, Carey wrote in multiple, hybrid genres to cope with, to process, and to share her inner and outer worlds; in doing so, she contemplates in deeply moving ways her present, past, and future. Carey wrote her manuscript between 1649/50 and 1657/8. The items it contains are not presented in the order in which she composed them. For instance, the work she created when she first put pen to blank page was her long dramatic prose text, “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,”7 dated February 11, 1649/50; however, years later, she added as the opening text of her book her dedicatory letter to her husband, “To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire,” signed on October 17, 1653. After “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” the next entry is a simple statement from May 14, 1652: “I have now buried four sons and a daughter. God hath my all of children; I have his all (beloved Christ), a sweet change. In greatest sorrows content and happy” (95). This sad comment is followed by an elegy authored by George Payler upon the occasion of the death of the couple’s fourth child, Robert, dated December 8, 1650, and two elegies by Mary Carey: one for Robert (written on the same day as George’s poem), and one for Peregrine, her fifth child, dated May 12, 1652. Next, she includes three undated spiritual meditations: “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”; “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ”; and “A Meditation or Commemoration 7. On dialogues between the body and soul, see Rosalie Osmond, Mutual Accusation: SeventeenthCentury Body and Soul Dialogues in Their Literary and Theological Context (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990). See also Michelle M. Dowd, “Genealogical Counternarratives in the Writings of Mary Carey,” Modern Philology 109, no. 4 (May 2012): 444, https://doi.org/10.1086/665736; and Adcock, Read, and Ziomek, Flesh and Spirit, 4–11.

Introduction 5 of the Love of the Holy Ghost.” Carey’s manuscript concludes with her stunning masterpiece: a long, complex elegy, “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657” (although the miscarriage occurred on December 31, 1657, Carey signed her poem on January 12, 1657/8). Thus, the last item in the manuscript was written around eight years after she started “A Dialogue Betwixt the Body and the Soul” and almost five years after her dedication letter to George. While Carey’s writings are already complex due to their multiple genres (a dedicatory letter, a dialogue between the body and soul, spiritual meditations, and elegies), they are made all the richer by the threads of two additional major genres that run through them all: the maternal legacy and the conversion narrative.8 This volume also includes in its appendices writings by Carey that circulated independently and do not appear in her manuscript. Appendix 1 contains the transcription of a letter from Carey to Sir Thomas Pelham, dated 1644.9 Appendix 2 includes a verse exchange between Mary Carey and Sir Thomas Fairfax: “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife,” copied by Sir Thomas Fairfax after the death of his wife, Anne, in 1665, and “To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife,”10 Fairfax’s poetic answer to Carey.11 These rare copies show beyond the shadow of a doubt that Carey was part of a manuscript coterie—a group of friends and family who shared their writings.12

The Historical Context and Analysis of Carey’s Writings Carey was personally affected by the many tumultuous events that occurred in England during the seventeenth century. She was born approximately six years 8. On the relationship between “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” and the conversion narrative and maternal legacy, see Dowd, “Genealogical Counternarratives,” 444–49; and Rachel Adcock, “ ‘In order to spirituall good the body often afflicted’: Bodily Affliction in Lady Mary Carey’s Conversion Narrative, 1649–57,” The Glass 25 (Spring 2013): 18–29. 9. Mary Carey, Letter to Sir Thomas Pelham, in Correspondence of the Family of Pelham, of Sussex, Consisting of Official, Business, and Private and Domestic Letters, 1543–1722 (BL, Additional MS 33084), fol. 51r. Sir Thomas Pelham was her uncle by her first marriage to Pelham Carey. 10. Mary Carey, “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife,” in The Imployment of my Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], written in about 1600–1700 by lord Fairfax, ed. and copied by Thomas Fairfax (Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40), 596–97. 11. Thomas Fairfax, “To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife,” in The Imployment of my Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], written in about 1600–1700 by lord Fairfax (Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40), 598–600. 12. On the circulation and reception of Mary Carey’s texts, see RECIRC: The Reception and Circulation of Early Modern Women’s Writing, 1550–1700, “Mary Carey,” accessed January 12, 2022, https://recirc. nuigalway.ie/people/person/1802. RECIRC shows that the poetic exchange between Carey and Fairfax was transcribed by Fairfax’s cousin, Henry Fairfax, Dean of Norwich, in his collection, A transcript of Translations and Poems by lord Thomas Fairfax (Bodleian, MS Fairfax 38), 267–70.

6 Introduction after Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, after having famously ruled England as an unmarried woman for more than four decades. Carey was thus born during the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, James I, and lived through the entire reign of James’s son, Charles I, who acceded to the throne in 1625. James and Charles favored a strongly authoritarian form of kingship, and this monarchical absolutism—in conjunction with many complex political, religious, social, and economic conflicts—led to the start of the English Civil Wars in 1642, when Carey would have been in her early thirties. The main opponents in the Civil Wars were King Charles’s forces and the Parliamentary army. Carey and her second husband, George Payler, took the side of the Parliamentarians. Charles I’s reign ended when he was defeated, captured, found guilty of high treason, dethroned, and beheaded in January 1649. As a mature widow, remarried wife, and woman who sought fervently to be a mother as she tried to make a life in England during and after the Civil Wars, Carey was impacted directly by their uncertainties and terrors. By 1653, no monarch was officially recognized in England, and Oliver Cromwell assumed the role of the nation’s Lord Protector. In 1660, Charles II, the son of Charles I who had been in exile in France during this time, was restored to the English throne as king. Since Carey wrote her manuscript between 1649/50 and 1657/8, she did so primarily at the end of the Civil Wars and under Cromwell’s Protectorate. Carey survived the English Civil Wars in the companionship of her second husband, George, to whom she was devoted, as is evident in her loving dedicatory letter to him. This letter is complex rhetorically because it recognizes that she should display her subordinate status to her husband, as was expected according to the gender hierarchy of the day, but also suggests that they are equals in marriage. Her use of conventions of the patronage letter typically offered to a social superior implies her inferiority to the letter’s recipient: And were I to speak what you should not hear and to write what you read not, I could and would say much in thy praise, upon just grounds, but being I speak to you, I must deny myself herein. Yet shall I to avoid the false suspicion of flattery be guilty of ingratitude? Give me leave to take liberty for one word, to say that I daily bless God for thee and esteem thee the best of all my outward blessings, the sweetest of all my creature comforts, yea, as precious a mercy to me in thy relation (every way considered) as any wife doth enjoy. I wish I were to thee what thou deservest and had power to express my affection further than I can, but I hope the Lord will reward thy love and goodness towards me. (35)

Introduction 7 She shows concern that her fulsome praise of George will seem like flattery as part of a strategy that allows her to characterize that praise as gratitude. Her husband is “the best of all [her] outward blessings, the sweetest of all [her] creature comforts,” and her rhetorical framing of these words emphasizes their sincerity. This strategy is typical of patronage letters that introduce a literary work as a gift from a lowerranking person to a higher-ranking one, and its use here is one of many indicators throughout Carey’s writings that she read a variety of texts. In this brief passage, she also uses a humility trope, a standard feature of patronage texts: “I wish I were to thee what thou deservest and had power to express my affection further than I can.” It was commonplace in patronage letters for the writers—whether male or female—to state humbly the inadequacy of their abilities while simultaneously displaying the excellence of those abilities. Given the superficiality of this kind of apologetic, self-deprecating writerly stance, this line does not suggest any incapability on Carey’s part; instead, it shows her awareness of the conventions of patronage letters, which she borrows here to elevate her husband over herself, as if he were superior in social rank. Given the pervasive early modern gender ideology that expected good wives to subordinate themselves willingly to their husbands, it makes sense for Carey to borrow the already status-inflected language of the patronage letter to suggest George’s superiority as her husband. Implying an audience of one approving patriarchal figure of her manuscript also contributes to her self-representation as a proper wife who does not seek to expose her ideas to the common masses. These intimations of being a good, subordinate wife are also important because George was the second husband to the widowed Carey, and remarriage was typically frowned upon by patriarchal authorities. One of the negative stereotypes of the remarrying widow was that she would assert authority and control over her second husband.13 Using the self-deprecating features of the patronage letter thus could be Carey’s way not only of resisting this damaging stereotype but also of compensating for portraying her marriage as a balanced, mutual one of equals in the same letter. Carey strongly implies equality with George: “God hath . . . made us of one mind: our judgments are one, our wills, our way, our aims in spirituals, and it 13. On early modern stereotypes of widows, see Barbara J. Todd, “The Remarrying Widow: A Stereotype Reconsidered,” in Women in English Society: 1500–1800, ed. Mary Prior (New York: Methuen, 1985), 54–92; Sara H. Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 68–69, 175; and Barbara J. Todd, “The Virtuous Widow in Protestant England,” in Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Sandra Cavallo and Lyndan Warner (New York: Pearson Education, 1999), 66–83. On Carey’s resistance to stereotyping, see Pamela S. Hammons, “Mothers and Widows: World-Making against Stereotypes in Early Modern English Women’s Manuscript Writings,” in World-Making Renaissance Women: Rethinking Early Modern Women’s Place in Literature and Culture, ed. Pamela S. Hammons and Brandie Siegfried (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 230–43.

8 Introduction is no small mercy to be totally freed from any of those many sufferings which a married condition makes many sensible of. Now preventing mercy hath kept us from knowing them, but as we may guess by the rule of contraries” (35–36). The repetition of “one” and “our” emphasizes unity and equality in their relationship. This diction matters because married women were considered by law as being under coverture, which means that wives were treated as legally and economically eclipsed by their husbands. The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights (1632) explains coverture by asserting that husband and wife “bee by intent and wise fiction of Law, one person [i.e., the husband],” which may make “a married Woman perhaps . . . either doubt whether shee bee either none or no more then halfe a person.”14 Wives were supposed to be subsumed within the personhood of their husbands: it might have seemed to some wives as if they were not persons at all. Thus, it is striking that Carey uses her agency as a writer in addressing her husband to combine herself and George conceptually into “one” who shares “our judgments . . . our wills, our way, our aim.” As the named author of this letter asserting her voice, Carey is far from eclipsed and invisible; in fact, she is the one who has the most presence. Her words thus suggest unity and equality in her marriage with George. She notes that “it is no small mercy to be totally freed from any of those many sufferings which a married condition makes many sensible of.” Mary and George’s marriage is much better than what most couples have: the implication is that she is “totally freed from any of those sufferings” that coverture typically brings to wives. In Carey’s “Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” she goes further to suggest equality between men and women through her narrative of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. This origin story was so influential that The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights justifies coverture by grounding the concept in Genesis:15 REturne a little to Genesis, in the 3. Chap. whereof is declared our first parents transgression in eating the forbidden fruit: for which Adam, Eve, the serpent first, and lastly, the earth it selfe is cursed: and besides, the participation of Adams punishment, which was subjection to mortality, exiled from the garden of Eden, injoyned to labor, Eve because shee had helped to seduce her husband hath inflicted on her, an especiall bane. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth 14. The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, in Legal Treatises, Vol. 1, ed. Lynne A. Greenberg, in The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Women: Part I, ed. Betty S. Travitsky and Anne Lake Prescott (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005), 4. 15. On coverture, see Tim Stretton, Women Waging Law in Elizabethan England (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 129–35; Amy Louise Erickson, Women and Property in Early Modern England (New York: Routledge, 2002), 24; and Greenberg, introduction to Legal Treatises, Vol. 1, in The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Women: Part I, ed. Betty S. Travitsky and Anne Lake Prescott (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005), xxiii–xxvii.

Introduction 9 thy children, thy desires shall be subject to the husband, and he shall rule over thee. See here the reason of that which I touched before, that Women have no voyce in Parliament, They make no Lawes, they consent to none, they abrogate none. All of them are understood either married or to bee married and their desires or [sic] subject to their husband, I know no remedy though some women can shift it well enough. The common Law here shaketh hand with Divinitie.16 According to The Lawes Resolutions, because Eve’s transgression was worse than Adam’s, wives must be ruled by their husbands: as Adam “shall rule over” Eve, so shall all husbands rule over all wives. By contrast, when Carey has Soul express her beliefs to Body, she declares: I believe that God in the beginning created our first parents after his own image, holy and happy, as Genesis 1:27: “God created man in his own image; in the image of God, created he him; male and female created he them.” But they falling from God, listening to Satan, eating the forbidden fruit, brought a curse upon themselves and all their posterity being in their loins (Genesis 3): “she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (verses 6, 17, 18, 19), so that all mankind is equally guilty of all sin and liable to all miseries, curse, wrath, death, hell, as Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned,” and “death reigned from Adam” (verse 14). “By the offence of one, judgement came upon all men unto condemnation,” etc. (verse 18). “By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners” (verse 19 etc.). “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:3). (45) Soul prioritizes the first creation narrative in Genesis, which portrays man and woman as having been made in God’s image simultaneously.17 She does not even mention the story in which Eve is secondarily created out of Adam’s rib. Although 16. Lawes Resolutions, 6. 17. Adcock, Read, and Ziomek note that “Carey follows the Westminster Shorter Catechism in referencing the first of the two biblical creation stories” (Flesh and Spirit, 48n38). On women rewriting the Fall, see Michelle M. Dowd and Thomas Festa, eds., Early Modern Women on the Fall: An Anthology (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2012); and Amanda W. Benckhuysen, The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women’s Interpretation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019).

10 Introduction Soul quotes from Genesis 3, in which Eve disobediently eats the forbidden fruit, Soul frames that quotation by introducing it with the claim that “they [fell] from God” and by concluding that “all mankind is equally guilty of all sin and liable to all miseries.” She incorporates quotations that emphasize Adam’s guilt, and she never again mentions Eve or womankind. That Carey portrays Soul’s belief in the Judeo-Christian origin story by erasing the idea of Eve’s secondary nature, emphasizing Adam’s guilt, and quoting from the Bible as an authority to reinforce her claims results in the intimation that, as she and George are mutual partners, so are other wives and husbands. Carey’s revision of her era’s ideas about Genesis as the religious basis for beliefs in female inferiority answers back to documents such as The Lawes Resolutions. There is more at stake for Carey in Soul’s revision of Genesis than mutuality in marriage. Eve, of course, was the first mother, and hence, in a traditional reading of Genesis that focuses on blaming Eve for the Fall of humankind, the maternal body becomes the vehicle through which original sin is passed to future generations. Carey’s revision minimizes Eve’s guilt and thereby downplays the association of motherhood, stretching back to Eve, with sin. This is important because many seventeenth-century discourses not only associated mothers with sin but also assumed that especially sinful mothers could cause their children to die. Carey’s first three children with George had already died when she started “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.” It is no wonder that Carey downplays Eve; it is also no wonder that she turns strategically to the genres of the mother’s legacy and the conversion narrative throughout her writings to suggest that she is not a sinful mother whose spiritual shortcomings have killed her own children— or if, tragically, she is, she will do absolutely anything that God, in his omnipotence, will allow her to do to compensate for or to correct her sinful nature. Failed motherhood and dead children haunt and shape Carey’s writings. Few members of seventeenth-century English society were more likely to be demonized than mothers.18 For example, Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene and John Milton’s Paradise Lost illustrate how monstrous representations of mothers could become. Spenser’s Errour is a mother “Most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine,” and Milton’s Sin gives birth to Death himself, a “shape, / If shape 18. On early modern maternal demonization, see Margaret Olofson Thickstun, Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988), 10–13; Pamela S. Hammons, “Despised Creatures: The Illusion of Maternal Self-Effacement in Seventeenth-Century Child Loss Poetry,” ELH: English Literary History 66, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 25–49, https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.1999.0005; Kathryn Schwarz, “Mother Love: Clichés and Amazons in Early Modern England,” in Maternal Measures: Figuring Caregiving in the Early Modern Period, ed. Naomi J. Miller and Naomi Yavneh (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000), 299–300; and Pamela S. Hammons, Poetic Resistance: English Women Writers and the Early Modern Lyric (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002), 13–54.

Introduction 11 it might be called that shape had none.”19 Errour and Sin are not monsters merely because they personify spiritual depravity: they are repulsive because they are mothers whose offspring multiply their evil.20 According to Phyllis Mack, a foolproof method for making a horrible figure of any kind more horrific was to make it a mother: “the most potent image of woman’s spiritual marginality,” she asserts, “was not the deviant witch brewing potions or stroking her familiars but the ordinary mother.”21 Given the many fears surrounding childbirth and childrearing—and especially given those directed at the connection between mother and child—it is not surprising that the cultural meanings associated with the death of a child could be particularly negative. Anxieties about the mother’s role in childbirth left plenty of room to blame her in the event of disaster. As Mack puts it, “[i]f even a normal childbirth was seen as a spiritually loaded event, the death of an infant might well be spiritually catastrophic, because the exhausted mother was instructed to interpret the death as punishment for her own sinfulness.”22 The death of a child might reveal, even in the most seemingly perfect of mothers, some secret, fatal sin, a lurking, potential threat actualized at the cost of an innocent’s life. As we will see, Carey uses features of the mother’s legacy and the conversion narrative to wrestle with the pervasive tendency to blame mothers. To frame and authorize Carey’s writings, her dedicatory letter to George signals in its first sentence that it and “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” borrow from the mother’s legacy: My dear, the occasion of my writing this following dialogue was my apprehending I should die on my fourth child and undoubtedly expecting a combat with Satan at last, when he would be in the fullness of power and malice and I at weakest and desiring to be armed against him, fitted for my death, quiet and comfortable as to my spiritual condition. (33)

19. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene in Spenser: Poetical Works, ed. J. C. Smith and E. De Selincourt (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), bk. 1, canto 1, stanza 14; John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. Alastair Fowler (New York: Longman, 1989), bk. 2, lines 666–67. 20. See Spenser, Faerie Queene, especially bk. 1, canto 1, stanzas 13–26; and Milton, Paradise Lost, especially bk. 2, lines 648–889. 21. Phyllis Mack, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 35. 22. Mack, Visionary Women, 37. See also Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500–1800 (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), 495; Mendelson and Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, 151; and David Cressy, Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 37–38.

12 Introduction The mother’s legacy was a popular genre when Carey composed her manuscript.23 A defining element was the premise that a pregnant woman, fearing death in childbirth, would take pen in hand to provide the children who survived her with the moral instruction in writing that she could not give in person. Since women were expected to guide their children’s religious upbringing when they were young, the mother’s legacy gave women patriarchally approved license to write. The genre also implied that the pregnant woman in question must be a spiritually upright mother, given her demonstrated willingness—through the sheer act of writing a mother’s legacy—to selflessly prioritize her child’s religious teaching over her own physical discomfort and fear of death. In Carey’s letter to George, in keeping with the genre, she asserts that she wrote “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” because she feared that she would die during her fourth pregnancy. Interestingly, however, she builds upon the genre by directing the theological contents of the dialogue towards herself rather than towards her children: as a mother, she needs to be “armed” against Satan by her devotional writings and to be “fitted for [her] death, quiet and comfortable as to [her] spiritual condition” (33). This mother wants to ensure her “spiritual condition” through her writings; given her belief system, securing her spiritual condition would deflect the idea that maternal sin could be responsible for her children’s deaths. By the time Carey dated this letter, her fourth and fifth children had already died. Carey establishes “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” as her creative take on a mother’s legacy when Soul sympathetically asks Body, “My Sister, why art thou so sore cast down? Hath anything befallen thee but what is the lot of God’s people, whose sufferings are here only?” (39). Body responds, “Dear Sister, the Lord hath taken from me a son, a beloved son, an only son, an only child, the last of three, and it must needs affect me. . . . Besides I am now near the time of my travail and am very weak, faint, sickly, fearful, pained, apprehending much sufferings before me, if not death itself, the king of terrors” (39). Through Body, Carey indicates that she fears dying in childbirth, which frames “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” as a mother’s legacy in dialogue form: a child surviving Carey could read it as a didactic work teaching proper Protestant beliefs (as well 23. Francis Meynell argued in 1918 for the importance of printing Carey’s manuscript based on “the precedent of ‘The Mother’s Legacy,’ by Elizabeth Joscelin.” Francis Meynell, “The Printer to the Reader,” in Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657 (Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918), vii. Accessible copies of these legacies can be found in Sylvia Brown, ed., Women’s Writing in Stuart England: The Mothers’ Legacies of Dorothy Leigh, Elizabeth Joscelin, and Elizabeth Richardson (Thrupp Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1999). On the mother’s legacy, see Jennifer Heller, The Mother’s Legacy in Early Modern England (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011); and Paula McQuade, “Motherhood and Women’s Writing in Early Seventeenth-Century England: Legacies, Catechisms, and Popular Polemic,” in A History of Early Modern Women’s Writing, ed. Patricia Phillippy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 276–91.

Introduction 13 as a maternal spiritual autobiography relating Carey’s brave struggles to avoid the temptations of Satan and sin).24 Carey uses the conversion narrative, too, to wrestle with the idea that maternal sin can harm children. Threads of the Christian conversion narrative running throughout Carey’s writings forcefully condemn and renounce her sinful past, emphasize her complete transformation into a devout Calvinist, and record her ongoing struggles to resist sin. At the beginning of “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” the body in question, as noted previously, is that of a woman pregnant with her fourth baby who has already had three die. Carey was eager to highlight her conversion and to make a strong, if implicit, case that her own spiritual state was not a factor in her child loss—or if it was, that she had done and would continue to do everything possible to purify herself. Her conversion is a frequent topic in her writings, but Carey’s portrait of it early in “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” is particularly illustrative. Soul vividly depicts her sin and torment by Satan before her conversion when she tells Body, “My sins were laid before me; Satan let loose upon me so far as to tempt, terrify, upbraid, challenge me for his own, and worst of all, I believed God mine enemy, his wrath and hell my portion for eternity. O, what confusion was in my thoughts, day and night!” (47). Body, distressed by this account, prompts Soul to recount the conversion itself, asking, “When and how did God come in? This was very sad. When wilt thou show me how thou gottest assurance and how it is now with thee? Thou leadest me far about. Wert thou long in this condition?” (47). Carey highlights the anguish of her troubled state before her conversion through Body’s agitated interruption of Soul, her taut assertion, “This was very sad,” and her rapid-fire questions conveying urgency. Body’s intervention also calls attention to the passage of time pre- and post-conversion, especially through the contrast of using the past tense to declare the sadness of her previous state and using the present to ask Soul, “how is it now with thee?” (my italics). The pregnant Body, mourning her first three children and preparing to give birth to the fourth, wants to skip ahead to the present when she and Soul have already converted. Soul draws out the story before giving Body some of the assurance she desires: Truly, long it was, as I thought many months, almost a year before I got any abiding or firm comfort, and all the means I used made me still worse, for I could use none aright. I could not believe a promise, nor give obedience to any precept, nor could I pray. I knew not what to call God, nor apprehend that Christ was offered me. All God’s 24. On differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs about birth and maternity (especially the role of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism), see Mary Elizabeth Fissell, Vernacular Bodies: The Politics of Reproduction in Early Modern England (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 14–52.

14 Introduction attributes (now my comfort) was then terror. And indeed, I took part with Satan in disputing against comfort; in this sad condition of desertion I lay under the arrest of divine justice. The Lord being so gracious to me as not to let me fall back again, he also kept me from those violences that the malice of my spiritual enemy desired. Now, the first glimpse of mercy was a secret thought or wish or poor hope: yet what if the Lord will be gracious and freely merciful, even to me, chiefest of sinners? And, methinks, those that I verily believe the people of God and know they dare not lie have been something after my manner, this a little stayed me, but when the time, the sweet time came, that God did declare his free grace, his abundant love to me, in the gift of the treasure of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, he set himself so forth to my apprehension, both by his word and spirit, as a God seeking reconciliation with me in Jesus Christ, making him mine, and all Christ’s mine, and I in Christ, his, God fully satisfied . . . (48) Carey indicates that her conversion was a long, arduous process and that she was unable to become a believer on her own. Instead, God saved her from Satan’s temptations and “declar[ed] his free grace, his abundant love.” God, the all-powerful agent, “reconciled” with her: “making [Christ] mine, and all Christ’s mine, and I in Christ, his.” A spiritual exchange, highlighted by Carey’s repetition of possessive pronouns and parallel syntax, takes place: God makes Christ Carey’s, and in doing so, makes Carey God’s. Thus, in response to Body’s questioning, Soul establishes their status as God’s possession, “his.” Moreover, “God [is] fully satisfied.” Conversion is complete. Although Carey’s conversion seems to achieve closure here, her beliefs and feelings about it are far from final. As Rachel Adcock, Sara Read, and Anna Ziomek explain, “Throughout their lives, believers continued to experience the burden of sin, as well as doubts about the validity of their faith and election, in being tempted to over-value ‘fleshly’ things, whether they were loved ones, possessions, wealth, food, drink and other sensual pleasures.”25 Most of “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” concerns Soul systematically relating to Body twenty-one theological assurances, authorized by hundreds of biblical quotations and citations, regarding Body and Soul’s status as elected by God to be among those who are saved. The lengthy account of these assurances has the contradictory effect of implying rhetorically the certainty of Carey’s elected status, while also revealing—through the sheer amount of extensive biblical evidence Carey feels is needed to authorize her claims—how anxious she is to believe in her election and to convince others of it. 25. Adcock, Read, and Ziomek, Flesh and Spirit, 24.

Introduction 15 Even as God’s possession, and even though God has all the agency, power, and control in their relationship, Carey has the capacity to relapse into sinfulness. Verbally self-flagellating, Soul cruelly rails against herself in her twentieth assurance, for instance: Ah, woe is me! That I, that I should be as I am and do as I do! Alas for it! There is no staying here. Should I consider the strength of corruption, the multitude of mine infirmities, the treacherousness of my heart, the weakness and mixedness of my graces, my failings in relations, with my provocations in duties, I should be in the depth of doubtings, no comfort but in the view of God’s free love and in Christ’s righteousness. (89) This self-hating diatribe is framed by Soul exclaiming in desperation, “Ah, woe is me! That I, that I should be as I am and do as I do! Alas for it!” These short exclamations, with their agitated staccato phrasing and emphatic repetition, make it hard to ignore the source of her anguish: “That I, that I should be as I am and do as I do!” On the most obvious level of meaning, Soul acknowledges with frustration that she continues to sin. On a deeper level, however, we know from the account of her conversion that God has complete agency, and she is God’s possession. Thus, although Carey blames herself entirely (repeating “I” four times), when this series of exclamations is taken in the full context of “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” there is at least one additional faint implication at work: she wonders in astonishment how she can be a devout convert (“as I am”) and still sin; she wonders how she can be God’s “own” (“as I am”) and relapse. Given the assumptions about maternal sinfulness and child loss in play, the paradox raised by a conversion that allows for the kinds of sins she lists in the quotation would necessarily weigh heavily on her mind as she anticipates the birth of her fourth child after losing the first three. This is not the only place in Carey’s writings that hint—perhaps unintentionally or unconsciously—at the idea that if her maternal sinfulness kills her children, ultimately, it can only be because God, her creator and possessor, the agent of her conversion, allows that sinfulness to exist in her. If this is the case, then how can she be held responsible for her sinfulness, for her dead babies? When Soul relates her fourteenth assurance to Body regarding the security of her relationship to God now that they have converted, Soul takes on the difficult topic of God’s continuing afflictions despite the believer’s devotion: the key point is that “[a]fflictions have done [Soul/Body/Carey] good” (71). God deploys afflictions strategically and benevolently, albeit sometimes painfully for the believer, for her spiritual betterment. Carey uses this section to explore one particular sin that might have led God to afflict her children by taking their lives:

16 Introduction God hath afflicted what I have overaffected that himself might be the only object of all my affections and have the all—or quintessence—of every affection. Videlicet, I would not only love God, but I would have God to have all my love and that God would give out such a measure of my love to my relations, as he thinks fit, and not to entrust me with the distribution of it and all my desires, etc. (72)26 The indirectly articulated meaning is that Carey’s children died because she loved them too much, because she loved them in addition to loving God, who should “be the only object of all [her] affections.” God is a jealous god who demands all love for himself without division or competition. Pregnant and terrified that this baby, too, might die, she states her intention that, from now on, she will not only give God all her love but that she will ask God to determine how much love she doles out to “her relations.” In this acknowledgment of the sinful “overaffect[ing]” of earthly things and the accompanying offer of total submission to God’s will, Carey tries to negotiate with God to keep her next child alive. The logic of this passage raises more uncomfortable questions, though. If the next baby dies, what does that death signify, and who is responsible? Does it mean that it was not God’s will to support Carey’s intention to let him “give out such a measure of [her] love to [her] relations, as he [thought] fit,” and thus, she loved her baby too much again? Was Carey harboring some other sin that was to blame? What must she do to bear and raise a living child? Does she have any agency at all in this matter? In comparison to Carey’s prose texts, her elegies for her children wrestle more fiercely and innovatively with her feelings—grief, sorrow, resignation, anger—and with what such profound losses meant for her relationship to God. In this seventeenth-century context, a mother writing poetry over the dead body of her child should use her composition as both a cathartic and confessional exercise.27 She should write verse to express grief and self-blame, but also to find consolation in the belief that the child has gone to heaven.28 Her elegy should help her to acknowledge her fault in the child’s death and, ultimately, to allow her to reconcile herself with her culpability as a sinful mother, the child’s absence, and

26. See also Marion Wells, “The Tears of Rachel: Lament and Affective Improvisation in Mary Carey’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Poems,” ELH: English Literary History 86, no. 3 (Fall 2019): 682, https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2019.0025. 27. See Hammons, Poetic Resistance, 13–54. 28. See Sara H. Mendelson, “Stuart Women’s Diaries and Occasional Memoirs,” in Women in English Society, 1500–1800, ed. Mary Prior (New York: Methuen, 1985), 197; and Joshua Scodel, The English Poetic Epitaph: Commemoration and Conflict from Jonson to Wordsworth (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), 81.

Introduction 17 God’s will.29 Although Carey’s elegies show that she did, at least in part, what the genre and the culture of her time expected of her in writing these poems, they also creatively interrogate the conventions blaming the mother for the death of her child. Carey progressively challenges the themes of child loss poetry across her three elegies. In the first one, occasioned by the death of her son Robert and signed December 8, 1650, she undermines her initial, straightforward claim to submit to God’s will: My Lord hath called for my son. My heart breathes forth, “Thy will be done.” My all, that mercy hath made mine, Freely’s surrendered to be thine. But if I give my all to thee, Let me not pine for poverty. Change with me; do, as I have done: Give me thy all, even thy dear son. ‘Tis Jesus Christ, Lord, I would have; He’s thine, mine all: ‘tis him I crave. Give him to me, and I’ll reply, “Enough, my Lord: now let me die.” (96)30

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At first glance, her statement of resignation in line 2 could not be more formulaic. However, she reclaims her child through her multivalent references to possessed objects and indeterminate play with possessive pronouns. In the first line, she refers to “my son”; in the third, he becomes “my all.” By indicating that Robert (as her “all”) is a divine gift “that mercy hath made mine” (3), Carey satisfies the commonplace notion that all creation is ultimately God’s. Her renaming of “my son” as “my all” could, in fact, be taken as an acknowledgment of the idea that the loss of her son signifies that she can truly own nothing herself. Yet her relentless repetition of “all” in lines 3, 5, 8, and 10 arguably calls attention to the magnitude of her loss. That Carey equates giving her “all” with the possibility of having to “pine for poverty” (6) further conveys how impoverished she is by God having “called for [her] son” (1). After Carey’s first equation of Robert with her “all,” she complicates and questions the idea that everything belongs to God. Although she claims that her son is “[freely] surrendered” (4), the perfect rhyme “mine” / “thine” and 29. On maternal self-blame, see Kate Lilley, “ ‘True State Within’: Women’s Elegy, 1640–1740,” in Women, Writing, History, 1640–1740, ed. Isobel Grundy and Susan Wiseman (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992), 90. 30. On Carey’s verse, see Raymond A. Anselment, The Realms of Apollo: Literature and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England (Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1995), 83; and Wells’s dazzling formal explications in “Tears of Rachel,” 683–93.

18 Introduction their parallel placement in the couplet suggest that they are of equal weight (3, 4). The merest shade of difference separates them, and while the slippage of “mine” to “thine” across the couplet fittingly demonstrates the seeming ease with which a true believer’s illusion of personal ownership should give way to an acknowledgment of the deity as absolute possessor, it also blurs boundaries between the poet’s property and God’s. In the third and fourth couplets, which constitute the poem’s pivotal moment, the speaker participates in the elegiac convention of reconceptualizing loss as exchange. Yet instead of representing the transformation of loss into exchange as an act of reconceptualization—the recognition that one has all along had the gift of God’s son—Carey literalizes this idea by demanding a trade with God. Addressing God, she asserts, “Change with me; do, as I have done: / Give me thy all, even thy dear son” (7–8). Although the speaker demands that which is, as a result of her conversion, already hers, her use of imperative verbs in addressing God (“Change . . . do . . . Give”) strain under the requirement of total, submissive acceptance. She even repeats her demand in the penultimate line of the elegy: “Give him to me.” After thus transforming her relinquishment of her son into a demand for God’s, trading “my all” for “thy all,” the speaker refers to Christ as “thine, mine all” (10). At first glance, Carey’s repetitive play with the word pair “mine” / “thine” performs the conventional exchange of her child for God’s: in the second couplet, the speaker makes what is hers God’s (“mine” becomes “thine”); in the fifth couplet, the speaker renames that which is God’s hers (“thine” becomes “mine”). Carey loses her child but gains Christ: the generically expected trade is complete. Yet Carey destabilizes this reading by consistently calling attention to the similarity of the two words. If their status as end-rhymes and parallel placement highlight their likeness in the second couplet, their juxtaposition in line 10, so that they slide semantically and aurally into each other, does so even more. The second appearance of the pair completes a chiasmus, which further unsettles the issue of who owns what. The proximity of “thine” and “mine” in line 10—where they are simultaneously separated and joined by a mere comma—can imply a kind of joint ownership, which, due to the previous coupling of these possessive pronouns as rhymes in lines 3 and 4 in reference to Robert, seems to extend to him. Not only does Carey call attention to the similarity of the “thine” / “mine” pair and blur distinctions between them, but her first-person possessive is the final word. After all this unstable exchanging, the speaker is left with that which is “mine” after all. Carey complicates the conventional exchange with God of dead loved one with Christ to such an extent that it becomes a kind of shell game, and it is not clear in the end that the poem enacts the required acceptance in elegy of the child’s death. After demanding in the imperative yet again in the final couplet that God give her Christ (which her conversion has already given her anyway), she sounds a note of despair: “Enough, my Lord: now let me die” (12). She concludes

Introduction 19 by letting God know—perhaps in anger, perhaps in despair, probably in a complicated mix of emotions—that she has had “[e]nough”; the only death to which she is resigned is her own. Carey’s second elegy, “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine31 Payler,” signed on May 12, 1652, continues to negotiate with God: I thought my all was given before, But mercy ordered me one more. A Peregrine, my God me sent; Him back again I do present As a love token, ‘mongst my others— One daughter and her four dear brothers— To my Lord Christ. My only bless Is, he is mine, and I am his. My dearest Lord, hast thou fulfilled thy will, Thy handmaid’s pleased, completely happy still. (99)

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Although Carey composed Robert’s elegy in 1650 and Peregrine’s in 1652, she links them together visually through their placement on the pages of her manuscript and through repetition. These elegies are placed one after another with no intervening texts so that they are spatially in proximity to one another. It is easy to see the 1652 poem as a continuation of the earlier one because Carey explicitly connects them when she begins the second with the disappointed statement, “I thought my all was given before” (1). Her repetition of “my all” again magnifies her loss; moreover, in this case, it implies that God has crossed the line. Although the speaker thought she had been stripped of everything, God manages to take more from her. Carey highlights how much God has taken by enumerating her dead children in the middle of the elegy. She has given God/Christ “[a] Peregrine. . . . One daughter and her four dear brothers” (3, 6). This inventory of her “all” poignantly implies that she has given enough, as the potent last line of her poem for Robert states explicitly.32 The speaker assumes more agency in relinquishing Peregrine than she does Robert, in whose elegy she writes that her “all . . . Freely’s surrendered to be thine” (3–4). While “mercy order[s]” her to give “one more” in the form of Peregrine, she rewrites this divine order and asserts a more active stance in the exchange by reconceptualizing her maternal role; she “present[s]” the child to the divine herself: 31. “Peregrine” can mean “[a] pilgrim; a traveller in a foreign country” (OED, s.v. “peregrine”). To name her fifth baby “Peregrine” thus suggests Carey’s sad anticipation of more child loss: Peregrine will not stay with her for long but will leave her on his pilgrimage to God. 32. She counts Peregrine twice, once by name and once with his brothers.

20 Introduction “A Peregrine, my God me sent; / Him back again I do present / As a love token . . . To my Lord Christ” (3–5, 7). The speaker assumes agency by “present[ing]” or gifting Peregrine (and her other dead young ones) to Christ. This gesture implies active choice and willingness on her part instead of forced surrender. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England, love tokens, which were frequently referenced in lyric poetry, were a subset of gifts that were especially rich in meaning.33 Love tokens blurred boundaries between persons and things, and they implied the binding together of humans—or humans and the divine. Portraying her children specifically as love tokens for Christ—traditionally understood not only as the son of God but also as bridegroom of the church and individual believers—allows Carey to transform herself from sinful mother into Christ’s spiritual spouse and to bind them together: “My only bless / Is, he is mine, and I am his” (7–8). The pain of losing her “all” has transformed into her “only bless”—a mutually possessive, reciprocal relationship with Christ, which the balanced, chiastic structure emphasizes. Depicting her children as love tokens to her spouse, Christ, enables Carey not only to conceptualize loss as exchange but also to rewrite her position as a failed mother—one whose spiritual state is implicated negatively in the relentless, repeated deaths of her children—into that of a successful divine spouse. On the most superficial level, the speaker’s tidy concluding couplet—“My dearest Lord, hast thou fulfilled thy will / Thy handmaid’s pleased, completely happy still”—indicates that, in her role as Christ/God’s spouse/handmaid, she has achieved not only the expected acceptance and closure of the child loss elegy but also happiness. Close attention to detail, however, shows instead that she still negotiates with the divine. There is an implied conditional in the final couplet: if God has “fulfilled [his] will,” then his “handmaid’s pleased, completely happy still.” Carey’s opening line (“I thought my all was given before”) suggests that God has overstepped: he takes from a mother who has already given her all. In this context, one can understand this conditional ending to mean that the speaker will submit and be happy only if God is now satisfied and will stop taking her children. “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657,” the last of Carey’s elegies and the work (signed January 12, 1657/8) with which her manuscript abruptly ends, builds upon the previous poems but turns into a complex meditation upon the implications of child loss.34 In it, Carey repeatedly undermines appropriate forms of acceptance and closure in a protracted questioning 33. On love tokens in lyrics, see Pamela S. Hammons, Gender, Sexuality, and Material Objects in English Renaissance Verse (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010), 13–18, 101–3. 34. On this poem, see also Anselment, Realms of Apollo, 84–85; and Donna J. Long, “ ‘It is a lovely bonne I make to thee’: Mary Carey’s ‘abortive Birth’ as Recuperative Religious Lyric,” in Discovering and (Re)Covering the Seventeenth Century Religious Lyric, ed. Eugene R. Cunnar and Jeffrey Johnson (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2001), 261–63.

Introduction 21 of the significance of miscarriage for mothers.35 She begins in this interrogatory mode, asking, “What birth is this?” and answering herself, “A poor despised creature, / A little embryo, void of life and feature” (1–2). This child, unlike the others she has lost, marks her doubly as a miscarrying mother: the child is not only dead, but featureless—potentially a monster in the eyes of society.36 It is not surprising that Carey seems compelled to defend herself as a mother. She refers to her “Seven” successful deliveries of “living” babies—“Strong, right-proportioned lovely girls and boys”—to establish her credentials as a good mother (3, 4–5). These seven children were not only born alive, but they were far from being “void of life and feature”; they were healthy, strong, attractive. Her reference to the “Seven times [she] went [her] time” (3) both implies that she has a significant record of successful deliveries and draws a parallel between God’s original act of creation across seven days and those seven births. Alluding to God’s creative powers, Carey suggests that those “lovely girls and boys” (5) reflect not their mother’s image, but God’s. Their births represent “great wisdom, goodness, power, love, praise / To my dear Lord, lovely in all his ways” (7–8). Her use of “lovely” to qualify her children and God’s “ways” underlines the idea that those children are reflections of God, the original and ultimate creator; they are mirrors of his loveliness. Carey thus reinforces her qualifications as a good, successful, self-denying mother—omitting the fact that five of those seven “lovely girls and boys” died early in childhood— and constructs a strong link between her offspring and God’s creative powers and image. She explicitly calls attention to God’s role in all her childbirths: “This is no less,” she writes, “The same God hath it done” (9). It is to Carey’s advantage—if she seeks to evade accusations (including self-accusations) of murderous maternal sin—to erase her own creative power as much as possible given her production of “[a] poor despised creature” (1). Hence, it is not unexpected when she “[s]ubmits [her] heart that’s better than a son” (10) and claims God’s “will’s more dear to [her] than any child” (14). In the sixth couplet, however, she emphasizes the spiritual violence (and its material manifestations) to which she must submit, while she uses possessive pronouns to question God’s total agency and absolute ownership: “In giving, taking, stroking, striking 35. For medical views of miscarriage, see Jennifer Evans and Sara Read, “ ‘before midnight she had miscarried’: Women, Men, and Miscarriage in Early Modern England,” Journal of Family History 40, no. 1 (2015): 9–11, https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199014562924. They note that “miscarriage was thought to be the result of an initial weakness of the seed (reproductive material), a lack of nourishment in the womb (inadequate menstrual blood), an overly straight womb that could not hold the child, a range of external factors including fevers, inflammations, fainting, vomiting, sneezing, coughing, violent motions, strokes (blows) to the belly or back, or excessive passions such as fear, anger, and sorrow” (9). 36. On monstrous births, see Lesley Leanne Kamphaus, “ ‘A new true-born Storie’: Women’s Homosocial Resistance to Narratives of Monstrous Birth, 1520–1660” (PhD diss., University of Miami, 2020); in her conclusion, she discusses Carey’s “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth” as a rare text by an early modern woman that resists monstrous birth narratives (166–77).

22 Introduction still— / His glory and my good is his, my, will” (11–12). Although Carey begins by referring to God’s “giving,” she does not celebrate his bountiful gifts. Instead, she juxtaposes “giving” with “taking,” highlighting the ephemerality of earthly possessions. This “taking” acquires increasingly violent overtones as a semantic and aural bridge between God’s “giving” and his “stroking, striking still.” The partial alliterative similarity between “taking” and the perfectly alliterating words that follow it reinforce their semantic association. The complement to God’s giving, his taking, turns into blows. He not only strikes, but he does so continuously, or “still,” and he strikes dead or “still”-born, too, as evidenced by Carey’s “poor despised creature.” Nevertheless, the cultural ascription of blame to the miscarrying mother complicates Carey’s portrait of God’s violence. God’s and the speaker’s agency are intertwined here. The poet again uses possessive pronouns to question the relationship between God as subject and herself as subject. In the first half of line 12 (“His glory and my good”), she uses parallel syntactical structure and alliteration to suggest that whatever glorifies God is good for her. In juxtaposing the possessives after the caesura, however—“is his, my, will”—Carey undermines the differences between the possessives that she holds apart structurally in the first half of the line. On one level, she obliterates the distinction between her will and God’s, perfectly representing abject submission to divine authority. But in a sequential reading of the line, “my” displaces “his”; the line ends with an emphasis upon the speaker’s will. The tensions and indeterminacies of this couplet represent Carey’s attempt to negotiate the culturally scripted contradictions surrounding the bereaved mother’s elegy to her child. While a devout seventeenth-century English mother should acknowledge the role of her own sin in her child’s death, Carey’s miscarriage potentially signifies such grave spiritual faults on her part that she attempts, through her poem, to find a way to admit some guilt while distancing herself from society’s implied accusations. While a mother in this context should submit herself entirely to God’s will and contrast her own utter powerlessness to God’s omnipotence, ascribing to God the ultimate responsibility, even if only by implication, for an occurrence so antithetical to creative power as the production of a “poor despised creature . . . void of life and feature” would seem highly inappropriate. How can the speaker confess responsibility for her baby’s fate when her posture should be one of abject submission to God? How can the speaker celebrate God’s will as the agent behind a failed act of creation? Whose fault is this “poor despised creature”? Carey’s speaker offers herself a full range of expected consolations to smooth over the contradictions that seem so uncomfortably exposed by the occasion of an abortive birth. She affirms that God’s will is unconditionally, unquestionably good; she expresses

Introduction 23 . . . joy that God hath gained one more To praise him in the heavens than was before, 9. And that this babe (as well as all the rest), Since’t had a soul, shall be forever blessed. (15–18)37 She gives thanks that she is “made instrumental” to “God’s praise, babe’s bless” (19, 20). She speculates that perhaps God wants her to have more gratitude for the children that she already has (21–22). She even repeats, virtually verbatim, the apparently submissive, yet conditional, lines with which she ends her second elegy: “And if herein God hath fulfilled his will, / His handmaid’s pleased, completely happy still” (31–32). With these lines, one expects the poem to end, especially given how she concluded her elegy for Peregrine in 1652. The speaker has rattled off the necessary commonplaces of the genre and represents herself as having achieved acceptance (though her conditional “if ” implies continued negotiation with God). Instead, however, the speaker continues the poem and returns to the interrogatory mode with which “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth” begins: 17. I only now desire of my sweet God The reason why he took in hand his rod? 18. What he doth spy? What is the thing amiss I fain would learn, whilst I the rod do kiss. (33–36) Carey’s request is surprisingly bold, despite her submissive assertion that she goes so far as to kiss the phallic rod of God’s punishing discipline: she asks God to answer her “desire” for answers, to justify his ways to her.38 Her question’s juxtaposition with the claim that she is “completely happy still” belies that claim, exposing its artificiality. Carey’s poetic and theological project expands with her stunning interrogation of God. She dramatizes a divine response to her question by projecting God’s voice39 into her poem as he explains “[t]he reason why he took in hand his rod” (34): 19. Methinks I hear God’s voice, “This is thy sin,” And conscience justifies the same within: 37. On “when the soul comes into being,” see Josephine Billingham, Infanticide in Tudor and Stuart England (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), esp. 80. 38. For a different take on this idea, see Germaine Greer, introduction to Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Verse, ed. Germaine Greer et al. (New York: Noonday Press, 1989), 12. 39. See also Raymond A. Anselment, “ ‘A heart terrifying Sorrow’: An Occasional Piece on Poetry of Miscarriage,” Papers on Language and Literature 33, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 19.

24 Introduction 20. “Thou often dost present me with dead fruit. Why should not my returns thy presents suit? 21. Dead duties, prayers, praises thou dost bring, Affections dead, dead heart in everything, 22. In hearing, reading, conference, meditation, In acting graces, and in conversation. 23. Who’s taught or bettered by thee? No relation. Thou’rt cause of mourning—not of imitation. 24. Thou dost not answer that great means I give; My word and ordinances do teach to live.” (37–48) Carey’s ventriloquized God presents the culturally scripted interpretation of miscarriage as a sign of maternal spiritual insufficiency, emphasizing the magnitude of Carey’s failure through the repetition of “dead”: “Dead fruit . . . Dead duties, prayers, praises . . . Affections dead, dead heart in everything.” Carey wrestles with the horror of this interpretation of her spontaneous abortion of a formless embryo. While representing God as her spiritual accuser satisfies the generic requirement that she acknowledge the role of her sinfulness in her featureless baby’s demise, her approach to this theme is unusually dramatic and extensive. Rather than confessing spiritual inadequacies in her own voice, she represents them as judgments coming from God. Although this can seem cruelly self-flagellating, given that Carey’s pen animates God’s mouth, it can also be seen as a poetic strategy to escape self-punishment. The speaker confirms God’s words when she acknowledges that “conscience justifies the same within” (38), but Carey distances herself from the terrible logic of maternal sin by having God present that theory of child loss. Carey undermines her participation in the commonplaces of child loss poetry precisely when she portrays her first-person acceptance of God’s harsh judgment. While asking forgiveness, the speaker exposes the double bind that constrains her efforts to achieve consolation: 27. My dearest Lord, thy charge and more is true: I see’t, am humbled, and for pardon sue. 28. In Christ forgive, and henceforth, I will be— What? Nothing, Lord, but what thou makest me. 29. I am nought, have nought, can do nought but sin, As my experience saith, for I’ve been in 30. Several conditions—trials great and many— In all I find my nothingness; not any 31. Thing do I own but sin. (53–61)

Introduction 25 Carey pleads for God’s pardon and begins to promise that she will improve in the future. Yet she interrupts herself mid-promise: “henceforth, I will be— / What? Nothing, Lord, but what thou makest me.” The speaker exposes the contradiction in the idea that she must thank God for exposing her sins, and in response to this divinely granted self-knowledge, promise to amend, yet her agency can manifest itself only as sinfulness. She highlights this contradiction by asserting her subjectivity only to undo herself: “I am nought, have nought, can do nought but sin” (57). Carey’s speaker claims that she is and has nothing, effecting a complete erasure of herself. Her resistance to this self-undoing is not merely the dramatic emphasis of her repetition of “nought,” but her juxtaposition of lines 56 and 57. Right after she says she is “what thou makest me,” she declares “I am nought.” Her self-undoing renders her as “void of life and feature” (2) as her own “poor despised creature” (1), and God is the creative agent, the miscarrying mother, behind her negated state of being. While I do not claim that Carey would have consciously accused God of miscreating, I do suggest that this is the textual effect of her poetic interrogation of the cultural conventions that cruelly ascribed blame for the deaths of children to the mother. Ultimately, Carey finds a new logic of consolation in the abject self-negation she expresses in response to the Calvinist paradox that holds totally depraved humans responsible for their sins while only the omnipotent deity has agency. Returning to the familiar imperative with which, in her elegy for Robert, she commands God to exchange his son for hers, and which belies her negation of self, Carey requests that God “quicken” her: 40. Lord, I beg quick’ning grace; that grace afford! Quicken me, Lord, according to thy word! 41. It is a lovely boon I make to thee; After thy loving kindness, quicken me. 42. Thy quick’ning spirit unto me convey And thereby quicken me in thine own way. (79–84) Although she starts by “beg[ging] for quick’ning grace,” she repeatedly uses the imperative mood to demand that God “quicken” her. If she is nothing, if all she can do is sin, then she commands that the ultimate creator make it possible for her successfully to bear spiritual and human fruit.40 And with this demand for quickening, she concludes her manuscript.

40. On Carey as God’s child, see Hammons, “Mothers and Widows,” 230–43.

26 Introduction

Afterlife of the Manuscript Carey’s manuscript, a small volume (15 x 10 cm) bound in nineteenth-century navy-blue velvet, is currently held by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The book consists of 276 pages, most of which are fully ruled in red.41 Carey revised her work several times by inserting small booklets of extra pages. For example, “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” originally included a section in which the Soul gives the Body twenty assurances regarding their election and salvation, but Carey added another assurance later. This extra assurance, the new number twenty, is inserted in a small booklet of pages that have been trimmed to a slightly smaller size than the rest of the book; the booklet does not have its pages delineated in red. The footnotes to Carey’s writings in this volume detail the effects of her insertions (for example, renumbering pages and relocating text). The three meditations and final elegy are on a different kind of paper that has been trimmed to a slightly smaller size than the rest of the book, and they do not have their margins delineated in red. Someone other than Carey used the last few pages of the book to perform mathematical calculations (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) in pencil and ink, and to make an accounting list. There are also three biblical citations in abbreviation in ink at the top of the penultimate page: Zephaniah 3:12, John 6:[44 or 45?], and Jeremiah 31:33, 34. These biblical citations appear to be in Carey’s hand. In 1681, Charles Hutton transcribed the manuscript in a fair copy; this version is held by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.42 Hutton’s transcription suggests that Carey’s family and others perceived her works to be worthy of preservation. This speaks to the cultural centrality of the religious and personal topics she addressed and genres in which she composed. Hutton’s copy includes minor editorial changes to Carey’s original: for example, in the dedicatory letter, Hutton omits filler phrases, corrects grammar, and changes some punctuation and paragraphing. He also silently incorporates the small booklets Carey inserted. His copy is a virtually verbatim transcription of Carey’s manuscript that makes it more accessible to readers and honors it by preserving it for posterity. I do not register Hutton’s minor editorial changes in this volume; however, when his revisions could alter meaning, I indicate that in the footnotes. The first known printed excerpts of Carey’s writings were produced in the early twentieth century by Francis Meynell in a small volume, Meditations from 41. For a detailed material description, see http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID= 333780, in Hamnet, the Folger Library Catalog. The autograph manuscript was owned by Dame Alice Meynell as of 1988; before being acquired by the Folger in 2013, it was owned by Germaine Greer. Marie-Louise Coolahan, “Bodleian Library: MS Rawlinson D. 1308,” Perdita (frames-based openaccess version, 2005), https://web.warwick.ac.uk/english/perdita/html/. 42. Hutton, My Lady.

Introduction 27 the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657.43 Meynell’s letter to the reader indicates that Carey’s manuscript is “bound in contemporary covers of blue velvet” and “was lately found by Ev. M. in the six-penny pile of a bookstall.”44 Meynell printed only part of Carey’s manuscript; he omits phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and many entire pages. Notably, he leaves out the last two meditations and “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth.” Moreover, he excludes many pages of “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” including almost all twenty-one assurances. He also changes the order of some sections. In cases where his heavy redactions strongly influence meaning, I explain them in the footnotes. Although Meynell’s version is also a modernization, I do not note all the differences between his style of modernization of spelling and punctuation, and those of this volume. The overall effect of Meynell’s editorial style is two-fold: first, it emphasizes the autobiographical parts of Carey’s writing, especially those characterizing her as wife and mother over the intellectual, theological aspects of her style as a Calvinist convert; and second, it renders her texts, in Meynell’s view, more palatable for the early twentieth-century reader by fashioning them into a narrative that ends with her reassuring thankfulness for her two living children, Nathaniel and Bethia, instead of her heartbreaking, virtuoso elegy, “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth.” Meynell also omits Carey’s hundreds of biblical citations and removes most of her marginal glosses. Those he keeps are silently incorporated into the main text. In the footnotes of this volume, I indicate illustrative cases of his incorporation of marginal notes. In the last decades of the twentieth century, with the rise in feminist attention to recovering the works of early modern women writers, a strong interest in Carey’s writings, particularly her poetry, emerged. The first copies of her verse were published within a feminist framework and appeared in the groundbreaking 1988 anthology, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse.45 Since then, her poetry has appeared in at least three additional anthologies,46 and substantial excerpts of Carey’s prose and poetry were published in 2014 in Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Writing.47 This volume 43. Francis Meynell, ed., Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657 (Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918); the printer’s note at the end of the book indicates that one hundred copies were made (54). 44. Meynell, “Printer to the Reader,” v. 45. Germaine Greer et al., eds., Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Verse (New York: Noonday Press, 1989), 155–62. The first edition was published by Virago Press in 1988. 46. See George Parfitt, ed., English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. (New York: Longman Publishing, 1992), 229–31; Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson, eds., Early Modern Women Poets: An Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 309–10; and Jay Hopler and Kimberly Johnson, eds., Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013), 187. 47. Adcock, Read, and Ziomek, Flesh and Spirit, 37–57.

28 Introduction for The Other Voice series is the first complete, modernized edition of Carey’s autograph manuscript. Scholarship on Carey has focused primarily upon her verse, noting its importance to elegy as a genre, including child loss poetry, and to the religious lyric; its similarities to poetry by George Herbert and John Donne; its participation in the culturally central connection between early modern love lyrics and gift culture; its place in the literary historical tradition of maternal verse; and its relationship to early modern discourses of monstrous births.48 When analyzing Carey’s poetry and prose together, academics have attended to early modern affective responses to child loss; to the author’s engagement with mundane and secular temporality in challenging patrilineal genealogy; to her manuscript as seventeenth-century conversion narrative; and to the importance of her self-representation as God’s child to avoid accusations of maternal sinfulness.49 Finally, Carey’s writings have been used as evidence for historians making broad arguments about parental emotion and medical discourses about child birth.50

Note on the Edition In transcribing Mary Carey’s writings, I have used her autograph manuscript, which I have collated with Charles Hutton’s fair copy and Meynell’s printed edition, listing variants in the footnotes. I have attempted to balance the preservation of the content, character, and style of Carey’s writing against its modernization 48. See Anselment, Realms of Apollo, 82–85; Anselment, “Poetry of Miscarriage,” 13–45; Hammons, “Despised Creatures,” 13–54; Hammons, Gender, Sexuality, and Material Objects, 101–103; Helen Wilcox, “ ‘My hart is full, my Soul dos ouer flow’: Women’s Devotional Poetry in Seventeenth-Century England,” Huntington Library Quarterly 63, no. 4 (2000): 447–66, https://doi.org/10.2307/3817612; Long, “Recuperative Religious Lyric,” 251; Kelly M. Neil, “ ‘Doe, As I have Done’: Mary Carey’s Reciprocal Relation with the Divine” (master’s thesis, University of North Carolina Greensboro, 2006); Lisa J. Schnell, “ ‘Lett Me Not Pyne for Poverty’: Maternal Elegy in Early Modern England,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, ed. Karen Wiseman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 483, 488–91, 495–96; Elizabeth Raisanen, “Pregnancy Poems in the Romantic Period: Re-Writing the Mother’s Legacy,” Women’s Studies 45, no. 2 (2016): 103, 105, https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2015.1 122503; Jenifer Buckley, Gender, Pregnancy, and Power in Eighteenth-Century Literature: The Maternal Imagination (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 192; Andrea Brady, “Funeral Elegy,” in A Companion to Renaissance Poetry, ed. Catherine Bates (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2018), 361; and Kamphaus, “Narratives of Monstrous Birth,” 166–77. 49. See Elizabeth Clarke, “ ‘A heart terrifying Sorrow’: The Deaths of Children in Seventeenth-Century Women’s Manuscript Journals,” in Representations of Childhood Death, ed. Gillian Avery and Kimberley Reynolds (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 65–86; Dowd, “Genealogical Counternarratives,” 440– 64; Adcock, “Bodily Affliction,” 18–29; Wells, “Tears of Rachel,” 669–97; and Hammons, “Mothers and Widows,” 230–43. 50. See Billingham, Infanticide, 84–85; and Evans and Read, “Women, Men, and Miscarriage,” 9.

Introduction 29 into standard twenty-first-century American English and its regularization according to the conventions of printed books. I have modernized Carey’s spelling and regularized the letters i / j; u / v; the long s; and F and ff for upper case f. She inconsistently uses roman and arabic numerals; I use arabic ones. I have also regularized her capitalization. She is inconsistent in capitalizing “god” or “God” and “lord” or “Lord.” I have used “God,” “Lord,” “Spirit,” and “Father” for references to the divine. I have also regularized the titles in her manuscript. Carey numbered couplets in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth” but not in the other poems. I have added to those poems—and to those in Appendix 2—numbers, in square brackets, every five lines. Carey uses punctuation inconsistently and does not always write in complete sentences. I have altered or added punctuation (including commas, semicolons, colons, question marks, dashes, quotation marks, apostrophe marks, and periods) as needed to make her writing conform to twenty-first-century conventions as much as possible and to maximize clarity for a modern audience. For instance, she does not use punctuation consistently to set off biblical references; I put her biblical citations in parentheses when they appear in the main text. When biblical citations are marginal notes, I indicate that in the footnotes but do not put them in parentheses. When Carey quotes directly from the Bible, I add quotation marks to signal that the words are borrowed material; similarly, when she records her dialogues with Satan, I put their conversations in quotation marks. When the tone of a phrase indicates it is interrogative, I add a question mark. When a clause represents a specific example of the sentence preceding it, I separate them with a colon. When Carey ends a sentence with the symbol (:) or (—), I replace it with a period. When she connects the syllables in a word across a line with the symbol (=), I delete the symbol and silently combine the syllables. At times, Carey’s rhetoric suggests that a statement beginning with what appears to be an interrogative word, such as “how” or “what,” is one of awe, emphasis, or surprise; in those cases, I end the statement with an exclamation point. I have expanded contractions and abbreviations that are no longer used: for instance, I retain “etc.” but expand “ye” into “the” and “yt” into “that.” When Carey uses an ampersand, I replace it with “and.” When she writes “2ly” or “4ly,” I use “secondly” and “fourthly.” Carey abbreviates the titles of books in the Bible; I have given full titles. I retain contractions Carey uses to make her words fit the meter of her verse: for example, I keep “I’m” for “I am” to preserve the meter of her poetic line. When she uses a possessive to indicate a plural, I correct the word to the contemporary format for plurals. I have silently corrected obviously accidental misspellings (for instance, when Carey writes “privileged” but context indicates she meant “privileges”) and transpositions of letters. When I have not been able to read a word with certainty, I have used my best guess (based upon context and any partially visible letters) followed by a question mark in square brackets.

30 Introduction I have not reproduced Carey’s spacing between letters, words, or lines; the layout of her writing on the page; or her page breaks. When Carey repeats a word (that is, a catchword) at the bottom of one page and the top of the next, I do not repeat the word. While I have attempted to keep Carey’s division of paragraphs (when those divisions are clear), which she indicates by left-justifying new ones, I have formatted them by indenting their first words. Carey heavily glosses her texts with marginal notes: I do not reproduce the glosses in the margin but in the footnotes. Because she typically makes her marginal notes much smaller than her writing in the main text, it is often unclear which line of her main text is being glossed; thus, I add a footnote at the approximate location of each gloss as it relates to the main text. It is not possible to reproduce in print the exact relation between each gloss and the text to which it refers. When Carey draws a line across a page to separate one of her assurances from the next one, I indicate it in a footnote but do not reproduce the line. Carey’s manuscript shows signs of substantial revision. She occasionally includes marks indicating that particular words or phrases should be inserted, replaced, or deleted. As mentioned previously, she also inserted booklets of halfsize pages throughout her manuscript. She uses several special marks—such as a line with a hashtag, a diamond shape, or a triangle shape—to indicate where the contents of those half-size pages should be incorporated; when she makes a cross-referencing symbol, I use asterisks for consistency. It is not possible to reproduce the effects of seeing, touching, and reading the inserted half-size pages, but I have followed her marks to insert this material where she indicates with her special cross-referencing marks. In the footnotes, I explain whenever this happens. Throughout, I have silently incorporated what appear to be her latest revisions into this transcription. I have also explained these revisions in the footnotes so that anyone wishing to trace her thinking process may easily do so. Biblical references are to the King James Version. Carey quotes from it verbatim at times, but sometimes she omits or reorders words and phrases to shape their meaning to fit her personal context. I provide full citations of the verses to which she refers so that scholars and students can see how she interprets, and at times reshapes, biblical meanings.

MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF MARY CAREY, MAINLY DEVOTIONAL: BIRTHS AND DEATHS, ETC. 1 1649/50–1657/8 214 pp The last entry is a poem of 146 lines,2 “On the Sight of My Abortive Birth, Dec. 31st, 1657/8”3

1. The numbers “36–14” appear in the upper left-hand corner of the front pastedown. All the words here are in pencil in a modern hand. 2. The word “verses” has been struck out and replaced with “lines.” 3. The next page has a pencil mark across part of the middle of the page. The next five pages are blank.

32 MARY CAREY

Figure 1. Page iii. Title page. “To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 33 To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire4 My dear, the occasion of my writing this following dialogue was my apprehending I should die on my fourth child and undoubtedly expecting a combat with Satan at last, when he would be in the fullness of power and malice, and I at weakest and desiring to be armed against him, fitted for my death, quiet and comfortable as to my spiritual condition. I thought it necessary and profitable for all these ends to look back and take a view of the Lord’s work upon my soul, and so to collect my evidences that I might answer Satan and argue for myself, from mercy to mercy, from love to love, from free grace5 showed here to endless glory possessed hereafter, and truly, my dear, my endeavors herein was very successful through mercy, for I not only found what I sought (God’s dealing with me in love and faithfulness clearer than formerly, in regard of an exact calling to mind of such scriptures, and the powerful setting6 them upon my heart that the Lord made use of, as the means of my conviction, conversion, and building up), but also I gained much comfort by having so many testimonies in present sight of the dear love of my God, yea by tracking God’s method of mercy, power, and sweetness formerly to me, I was now again so feasted with it (not only by contemplating my former enjoyments) from the voice of the Spirit proclaiming pardon, peace, love, all spiritual blessings, and privileges, all future happiness an eternity of glory through Christ, I say, God did not only joy me with the remembrance of what had been, which was marvelous sweet, but did at present afresh refresh me with the same sealing, satisfying, filling, assuring consolation as did much comfort my spirit, confirm my faith, and joy me unexpressively. Now, my dear heart, I think it my duty to tell thee my experiences of God in a three-fold respect: first, that your love may be increased towards him by what you hear of him; secondly, that you may help me to praise the Lord for his goodness towards me as you hear it and read it; thirdly, that you may labor after and be partaker of those sweet and bosom comforts which are in God more than every believer knows and finds. For it is not enough to believe him to be as the word sets him forth—which I do even therefore—but I can say the Lord deserveth all our love for7 his loveliness, 4. Other than its last page, this opening letter to Carey’s second husband does not have its margins ruled in red, as do most of the pages in the manuscript. Francis Meynell reads George Payler’s last name as “Tayler.” Francis Meynell, ed., Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657 (Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918), 1. 5. “As a quality of God: benevolence towards humanity, bestowed freely and without regard to merit, and which manifests in the giving of blessings, and granting of salvation” (OED, s.v. “grace”). 6. Carey wrote over the e in “setting” to clarify it. 7. Carey appears first to have started writing something else, possibly starting with the letter b, and then wrote “for” over it.

34 MARY CAREY for by experience I know him to be freely merciful, abundantly good, excellent in beauty,8 full in sweetness, faithful in covenant, bountiful in giving, and tenderly loving; God is a sanctuary for defense, a present help in trouble; he hears me, sees me, cares for me, loves me continually and constantly. God knows and gives and does what is good. There is wisdom, there is love in all he doth to me and for me. God resolves my doubts, succors9 me when tempted, pities me in and profits10 me by afflictions, visits and heals me when sick, easeth me when pained, strengthens me when weak. God supplies my wants in all kinds; God informs my understanding, submits my will, takes my affections; God teacheth me, guides me, smiles on me, reviveth my graces, and puts them into actings by his powerful and seasonable coming in at a pinch. Ah, my dearest, that you and I could eye, study, know, admire the love of God! Ah, it is past knowledge for height, depth, length, and breadth, and the actings thereof beyond all expressions!11 O12 sweet subject for continual meditation! O sweet object for continual view! Love melts, love wins,13 love joys! Ah, dear love of God, thou precious attribute! Had it not been for thee, what had become of all God’s people? My dear14 heart, the taste of this love cures a thirst to and relish in all creature comforts;15 it will keep us in these backsliding days from leaving the fountain for broken cisterns.16 A sense of God’s love makes any condition comfortable. And makes a Christian much to love God, a temper of all other my soul desires. Lord, make me full of love, brimful; love makes us submit to any suffering, ready to surrender any enjoyment, willing to perform any duty, cheerful to bear any reproach, likes17 every disappointment, takes kindly every dispensation. O, this lovely grace, this beloved grace! My dear, let us labor for it and endeavor the increase of it in one another towards God, and in special, 8. Carey retraced the letters in “beauty” to clarify it. 9. “To help, assist, aid (a person, etc.)” (OED, s.v. “succor”). 10. Carey retraced the p in “profits” to clarify it. 11. Cf. Ephesians 3:17–19: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” 12. An ink blot obscures this word. Meynell reads it as “A” (Meditations, 5). 13. Carey wrote “wines,” probably for “wins”; Meynell also reads it as “wins” (Meditations, 5). Charles Hutton reads it as “revives.” Charles Hutton, ed., My Lady Carey’s Meditations, & Poetry (Bodleian, MS Rawlinson D. 1308, 1681), 4. 14. Hutton changes “dear” to “dearest” (My Lady, 5). 15. Carey wrote over the c in “comforts” to clarify it. “Material comforts such as food, clothing, accommodation, etc. that contribute to physical ease and well-being” (OED, s.v. “creature comforts”). 16. Cf. Jeremiah 2:13: “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” 17. Ink partially obscures “likes.” “Takes kindly” and “dispensation” also have ink blots on them.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 35 let us take care to build up one another in our most holy faith. Alas, I am a weak help,18 but I will seek the Lord that the poor mite19 of my endeavor added to the treasury of those rich spiritual means which God affords thee shall be accepted by thee and blessed20 by him for thy good. Therefore, my dear, I humbly present these lines21 to thee and have told thee my ends in so doing. I have more need and am more ready and desirous to receive from thee, and God hath done and will do me22 much good by thee every way. Truly, my dear, you are high in my thoughts and deservedly. God hath begun a work in thee which he will perform (Philippians 1:6).23 I partly know the change which God hath made in thee, both inwardly and outwardly, from what and to what. I see much in thee and praise God for it. And were I to speak what you should not hear and to write what you read not, I could and would say much in thy praise, upon just grounds, but being I speak to you, I must deny myself herein. Yet shall I to avoid the false suspicion of flattery be guilty of ingratitude? Give me leave24 to take liberty for one word, to say that I daily bless God for thee and esteem thee the best of all my outward blessings, the sweetest of all my creature comforts, yea, as precious a mercy to me in thy relation (every way considered) as any wife doth enjoy. I wish I were to25 thee what thou deservest and had power to express my affection further than I can, but I hope the Lord will reward thy love and goodness towards me. My dear, let us daily26 with thankfulness remember God’s mercy in bringing us together and for the variety of those great mercies we have since jointly enjoyed. God hath given us diverse sweet babes, and though he hath in wisdom removed them from our present sight, yet are they in the bosom of God, and we shall find them one day made perfect in glory. We have enjoyed much love and true content. We have been kept together in these separating troubles,27 a mercy I have oft begged, and God hath given it, and I value thy presence and company beyond any and all my outward comforters. Moreover, my dear, God hath always put us in safe places in these times of war and given28 us plenty in these times of wants. God hath also made us of one 18. Carey wrote the p in “help” over another letter. 19. “A small contribution of money made to a cause, charity, etc., esp. a sum which is as much as the giver can afford” (OED, s.v. “mite”). 20. Carey changed “blessing” to “blessed.” 21. Another possible reading of this word is “sins.” 22. Hutton omits “me” (My Lady, 7). 23. Cf. Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” 24. Ink partially obscures “leave.” 25. An ink blot makes “to” difficult to read. 26. Carey retraces the letters in “daily” to clarify it. 27. England’s Civil Wars (1642–1651) and their aftermath. 28. Carey appears to have written over letters to change “giving” to “given.”

36 MARY CAREY mind: our judgments are one, our wills, our way, our aims in spirituals, and it is no small mercy to be totally freed from any of those many sufferings which a married condition makes many sensible of. Now preventing mercy hath kept us from knowing them, but as we may guess by the rule of contraries. O, our good God, praised be his name as for mercies personal, so for mercies conjugal, as for the mercies of a single life, so for the mercies of our married condition. I shall now, my dear, beg thy watchfulness over me against sin and thy prayers for me. A Christian’s experience will teach him what petitions he should frame in the behalf of another: let this be thy rule; it shall be mine in my daily prayers to the Father for thee, even the Father of mercies, into whose sweet embraces I recommend thee, remaining most good and Dear Husband, thy much obliged and most affectionate wife,29 Mary Carey30

29. Marginal note: October 17th, 1653. Carey underscored the year with a flourish. 30. Carey’s signature is at least three times the size of the rest of her handwriting on the page. After this dedicatory letter, she skips one page before “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.”

38 MARY CAREY

Figure 2. Page 1. Title page. “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 39 February 11th, 1649/50 A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body Soul: My Sister, why art thou so sore cast down? Hath anything befallen thee31 but what is the lot of God’s people, whose sufferings are here only? “For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” “Whom the lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12: 6, 7, 8).32 Is not this life a Baca or vale of tears (Psalms 84:6)33? Is there not ashes, mourning, and “the spirit of heaviness” in Zion (Isaiah 61:3)34? Body: Dear Sister, the Lord hath taken from me a son, a beloved son, an only son, an only child, the last of three, and it must needs affect me. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb” (Isaiah 49:15)?35 And will there not be mourning for an only son (Zachariah 12:10)?36 Besides I am now near the time of my travail37 and am very weak, faint, sickly, fearful, pained, apprehending much sufferings before me, if not death itself, the king of terrors.

31. Meynell adds a question mark after “thee” and ends Soul’s opening words here (Meditations, 13). 32. Carey quotes partially and out of order from the lines she cites; cf. Hebrews 12:6–8: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” 33. Cf. Psalms 84:6: “Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” 34. Cf. Isaiah 61:3: “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” 35. Cf. Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” 36. Cf. Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” 37. “The effort and pain of childbirth; labour” (OED, s.v. “travail”).

40 MARY CAREY

Figure 3. Pages 4–5. Marginal glosses, including character names, in “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628. Soul: First, for the removal of the child, know that it is God’s will, to which submit, not one word, and do not only yield, but approve. God is wise and knows it best. God is loving and therefore did it. I am sure “in faithfulness hath the lord afflicted me” (Psalms 119:75).38 For thy own weakness, be not discouraged. Thy strength is no help in God’s work; faith looks at God only as all sufficient and hears him say, “Behold, I am the lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me” (Jeremiah 32:27)?39 And for thy fear of death, know Christ hath unstung him.40 Paul disputes it with him, and in a holy triumph cries out, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).41 He sees it overcome42 by Christ, both in his own person and by his own power, for all his people so that death is 38. Marginal note: the apprehension of love produceth patience. In her main text, Carey partially quotes Psalms 119:75, which reads in full: “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” 39. Carey quotes Jeremiah 32:27 verbatim. 40. Marginal note: death is nature’s enemy, but Christ hath made him the soul’s friend. 41. Carey quotes 1 Corinthians 15:55 verbatim. 42. The first e in “overcome” is partially blotted out.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 41 now no enemy, but a necessary friend, whom God hath appointed to carry us to Christ. Body: But my Sister, thou knowest that when I shall be dissolved, thou wilt leave me and go immediately43 to thy place,44 but I must lie in the grave, rot, putrefy, and have no enjoyment until our reuniting, and therefore, my dear Soul, let me know what I may then hope for that so I may lie down in peace and expectation (Psalms 16:9).45 Soul: This query, my beloved Sister, is most pleasant and welcome to me. I hope my answer shall give thee some satisfaction;46 indeed, neither thou nor I should or ought to be comforted until we can say the Lord is our God and we his and can prove it out of his holy word,47 which shall never fail. “The word of the Lord endureth forever” (1 Peter 1:25).48 Body: My dear Soul, let me know what assurance thou hast that the Lord will be with us until death, at death, and after death? When thou and I shall part,49 where is thy ground to believe thy present entering into the possession of that unspeakable happiness, which, after our second meeting, we shall inseparably enjoy together? Soul: Why, Sister, the Lord hath promised it, and I believe it. Therefore, it shall certainly be accomplished.50 Take these four scriptures in full answer to thy last questions for thy stay herein: first, unto death, “this God is our God forever and ever; he will be our guide (even) unto death” (Psalms 48:14).51 Secondly, in dying, Christ will say, “Verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).52 Thirdly,53 after death, Christ will say to me, “I will ransom thee 43. Ink obscures several letters in “immediately.” 44. Marginal note: when the soul quits the body, it goes to possess eternity. 45. Psalms 16:9: “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” 46. Meynell cuts short this part of the dialogue between Soul and Body, omitting approximately thirteen pages from Carey’s manuscript (Meditations, 16); see page 27 in this volume. 47. Marginal note: the word will tell conscience our condition. 48. Cf. 1 Peter 1:25: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 49. Marginal note: know where to meet at parting. Hutton reads “where” as “when” (My Lady, 4). 50. Marginal note: the gift of faith is a pledge of performance. 51. Carey quotes Psalms 48:14 almost verbatim; she omits “For” at the start of the verse. 52. Carey quotes Luke 23:43 almost verbatim; she omits “And Jesus said unto him” at the start of the verse. 53. Marginal note: that which is comfort after death shall be my chosen comfort whilst I live.

42 MARY CAREY from the power of the grave; I will redeem thee from death” (Hosea 13:14).54 Again,55 “thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand, there are pleasures forever more” (Psalms 16:11).56 And now let us proceed to look over our57 evidences, wherein for want of time, I will observe no method but collect what may be of use in time of need. Body: Do, dear Soul, that so through mercy, thou mayest be “drawing water out of the wells of salvation” whilst I am fighting my last battle, according to that promise, “with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).58 And I think meditation (of mercy) is a bucket which will come full up with spiritual joy. Soul:59 Mark then what I believe. I believe there is a God. I am so commanded, so informed by Hebrews 11:6: “He that commeth to God must believe that he is,” etc.60 And but one God. “Thus sayeth the Lord,61 the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of Hosts: I am the first, and I am the last,62 and besides me there is no god.” “Is there a god besides me? Yea, there is no god; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:6, 8).63 This one “God is a spirit” (John 4:24):64 “God is a spirit,” etc.65 54. Carey revises Hosea 13:14 slightly to fit her purposes; the complete verse reads, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” 55. Hutton inserts “Fourthly” after “Again” (My Lady, 6). 56. Carey quotes Psalms 16:11 verbatim. 57. Carey struck out a word, now illegible, between “over” and “our.” 58. Carey quotes Isaiah 12:3 almost verbatim; she omits “Therefore” at the start of the verse. 59. Carey made some illegible marks, possibly some kind of shorthand, in the margin under “Soul.” Hutton inserts a marginal note: “there is a God” (My Lady, 7). 60. Cf. Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” 61. Marginal note: but one God. 62. Marginal note: where God is the alpha of grace, he will be the omega of glory. Carey added these words in the margin, but because she inserted a caret in the line they appear to gloss, it raises the question of whether they are an editorial emendation or a marginal note. The sense of the main text suggests that they are probably a gloss, despite the caret. Hutton also reads them as a marginal note (My Lady, 7). 63. Carey quotes Isaiah 44:6 verbatim but only part of verse 8, which reads in its entirety, “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.” 64. Marginal note: God is a spirit. 65. Cf. John 4:24: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 43 God is holy.66 “And one cried unto another and said, ‘holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts,’ ” etc. (Isaiah 6:3).67 “And they rest not day and night, saying, ‘holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty,’ ” etc. (Revelation 4:8).68 God is infinite69 in wisdom and power, as Psalms 147:5: “Great is our Lord and of great power; his understanding is infinite.”70 “O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God,” etc. (Romans 11:33).71 God is good72 (Psalms 106:1): “Give thanks unto the Lord for he is good.”73 “Thou art my God; thy spirit is good,” etc. (Psalms 143:10).74 God is eternal.75 “Before me there was no god formed; neither shall there be after me” (Isaiah 43:10).76 “I am the first, and I am the last” (Isaiah 44:6).77 “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed78 the earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalms 90).79 “O lord God almighty, which art and wast and art to come” (Revelation 11:17).80 God is unchangeable.81 66. Marginal note: holy. 67. Carey quotes most of Isaiah 6:3 verbatim; it concludes, “the whole earth is full of his glory.” 68. Cf. Revelation 4:8: “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” 69. Marginal note: infinite. 70. Carey quotes Psalms 147:5 verbatim. 71. Carey quotes the first line of Romans 11:33 verbatim; it concludes, “how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” 72. Marginal note: good. 73. Cf. Psalms 106:1: “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” 74. Cf. Psalms 143:10: “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me to the land of uprightness.” 75. Marginal note: eternal. 76. Cf. Isaiah 43:10: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” 77. Cf. Isaiah 44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” 78. Hutton omits “formed” (My Lady, 9). 79. Carey quotes Psalms 90:2 verbatim, except that she substitutes “the earth or the world” for “the earth and the world.” 80. Cf. Revelation 11:17: “Saying, We give thee thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou has taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” 81. Marginal note: unchangeable.

44 MARY CAREY “The Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).82 God is omnipotent.83 “Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleaseth” (Psalms 115:3).84 “For thus sayeth the Lord of Hosts: yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations,” etc. (Haggai 2:6–7).85 God is merciful,86 gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, and truth (Exodus 34:6).87 God is just88 and righteous. “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints” (Revelation 15:3).89 “For true90 and righteous are his judgments” (Revelation 19:2).91 God is perfect.92 “Your father, which is in heaven, is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).93 I believe three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, yet these three but one God as 1 John 5:7: “there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.”94 “And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightaway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ ”

82. Cf. James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” 83. Marginal note: omnipotent. 84. Carey quotes Psalms 115:3 verbatim, except for omitting the first word, “But.” 85. Carey quotes Haggai 2:6 and the first clause in verse 7 verbatim, which continues, “and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” 86. Marginal note: merciful. 87. Cf. Exodus 34:6: “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” 88. Marginal note: just. 89. Cf. Revelation 15:3: “And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” 90. Marginal note: true. 91. Cf. Revelation 19:2: “For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” 92. Marginal note: perfect: all God’s attributes act for his own glory and his people’s good. 93. Cf. Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” 94. Carey quotes 1 John 5:7 verbatim, except for omitting the first word, “For.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 45 (Matthew 3:16–17).95 Again, “go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).96 I believe that God in the beginning created our first parents after his own image, holy and happy, as Genesis 1:27: “God created man in his own image; in the image of God, created he him; male and female created he them.”97 But they falling from God, listening to Satan, eating the forbidden fruit, brought a curse upon themselves and all their posterity being in their loins (Genesis 3): “she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (verses 6, 17, 18, 19),98 so that all mankind is equally guilty of all sin and liable to all miseries, curse, wrath, death, hell, as Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned,”99 and “death reigned from Adam” (verse 14).100 “By the offence of one, judgement came upon all men unto condemnation,” etc. (verse 18).101 “By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners” (verse 19 etc.).102 “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:3).103 Body: These are truths, but my dear Soul, I would know of what use God made the knowledge hereof unto thee, for this is generally known and believed, and thou hast showed me thy share in guilt, curse, wrath, hell, but not thy sensibleness of it, 95. Carey quotes Matthew 3:16–17 verbatim. 96. Carey quotes Matthew 28:19 verbatim. 97. Carey quotes Genesis 1:27 verbatim, except for omitting the first word, “So.” 98. Cf. Genesis 3:6: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:17–19 defines some of the punishments to humankind resulting from the disobedient act of eating the forbidden fruit: “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hath hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” 99. Marginal note: no difference in persons until free grace make it. Carey quotes Romans 5:12 verbatim. 100. Cf. Romans 5:14: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” 101. Cf. Romans 5:18: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” 102. Cf. Romans 5:19: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” 103. Cf. Ephesians 2:3: “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

46 MARY CAREY nor what means God showed thee to get out of it, nor how God dealt with thee, nor what case thou art now in. Soul: Sister, that was my only intention, though I have spoke a few words by the way of that which was the groundwork of what follows. Mark, then, what was the Lord’s dealing towards me, which I shall briefly and truly relate. It was the Lord’s pleasure to smite me with a sore sickness104 (in my apprehension, it was unto death), when I was about 18 years old, in the midst of my jollity, when I was taking my fill of worldly contentments and restrained my heart from nothing it fancied to follow, delighting myself and spending my time in carding,105 dice, dancing, masking,106 dressing, vain107 company, going to plays, following fashions, and the like. In this sickness, I began to think that God had given me a time108 in the world which I was now quitting, but I knew not God, nor what would become of me for eternity. I found myself in a miserable and hopeless condition, which made me wish, O, that God would spare my life109 until I learn to know him. O, might I live, I would forever quit all my vain company, leave my most beloved pleasures, be a careful hearer of God’s word,110 and give myself up to his service! God did please to call back my life from the grave111 and restored me to my health and strength, which free mercy did so win upon my heart that I found my resolutions in the time of my sickness much strengthened, but I knew not how to set one step forward in this great work, only I sequestered myself from all my former company and sinful112 delights,113 and my spirit was very restless and full of inquiry. Body: But what couldst thou do in this condition? Thou wert a stranger unto God, to his word, to his people, to all means and helps. Soul: It is very true. I neither did nor could do anything, but God did all, and thus: he removed my dwelling and set me under a powerful ministry—powerful may I call it, even the power of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing, 104. Marginal note: in order to spiritual good the body often afflicted. 105. Playing cards. 106. “To take part in a masque or masquerade” (OED, s.v. “masking”). 107. “Devoid of real value, worth, or significance; idle, unprofitable, worthless” (OED, s.v. “vain”). 108. Marginal note: this. 109. Marginal note: and this. 110. Marginal note: and all good, God’s work. 111. Marginal note: to give a mercy and affect the heart with that gift, oh sweet! 112. Ink partially obscures letters in this word. 113. Marginal note: why pulled out from others, why? Carey struck out a word at the end of this phrase.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 47 dividing soul and body, joints and marrow, a discerner of my heart and thoughts (Hebrews 4:12 and Romans 1:16).114 This word, I say, even every sermon I heard, did so find me out and discover115 me unto myself that I thought there was no reprobate116 in hell more sinful than I.117 I found myself equal with them in original sin, beyond most in actual sin. My sins were laid before me; Satan let loose upon me so far as to tempt, terrify, upbraid,118 challenge me for his own, and worst of all, I believed God mine enemy, his wrath and hell my portion for eternity. O, what confusion was in my thoughts, day and night!119 I durst not eat, nor drink but to keep life, nor take any comfort from any creature120 that I could want. I thought I had no interest in Christ, and therefore no right to any creature but was confident to suffer for the least refreshment I had (either from meat, drink, sleep, clothes, fire, company, etc.) in hell. Body: Didst thou get no comfort from the word preached, nor read, nor from other good books, nor company, nor prayer?121 When and how did God come in? This was very sad. When wilt thou show me how thou gottest assurance and how it is now with thee? Thou leadest me far about. Wert122 thou long in this condition?

114. Cf. Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Romans 1:16 reads, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” 115. The letters co in “discover” are partially obscured by ink. 116. Carey appears first to have written a b for the first p in “reprobate” and then wrote over the mistaken letter to correct it. “A person who has been rejected by God, an unredeemed sinner; spec. a person who has been predestined by God to eternal damnation” (OED, s.v. “reprobate). 117. Marginal note: had not God spoke first to my heart in his word, it had never spoke to him in prayer. Meynell incorporates a slight variation on this marginal note into Carey’s main text immediately after her statement, “he removed my dwelling and set me under a powerful ministry—powerful may I call it, even the power of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing, dividing soul and body, joints and marrow, a discerner of my heart and thoughts (Hebrews 4:12 and Romans 1:16)” (see Meditations, 19). This is an example of Meynell’s occasional tendency to relocate her glosses in her narrative. 118. Carey appears first to have written a b for the p in “upbraid” and then wrote over the mistaken letter to correct it. 119. Marginal note: none can apprehend this, but those who know it. Another illustrative example of a gloss that Meynell incorporates into the main text (see Meditations, 20). 120. “A material comfort; something which promotes well-being, esp. food” (OED, s.v. “creature”). 121. Marginal note: All means is nothing in itself but what God will have it to be and to do. 122. Carey seems to have written the first e in “wert” over another letter, possibly an h.

48 MARY CAREY Soul: Truly, long it was, as I thought many months, almost a year before I got any abiding or firm comfort, and all the means I used made me still worse, for I could use none aright. I could not believe a promise,123 nor give obedience to any precept, nor could I pray. I knew not what to call God, nor apprehend that Christ was offered me. All God’s attributes (now my comfort) was then terror. And indeed, I took part with Satan in disputing against comfort; in this sad condition of desertion I lay under the arrest of divine justice. The Lord being so gracious to me as not to let me fall back again, he also kept me from those violences that the malice of my spiritual enemy desired. Now, the first glimpse of mercy was a secret thought or wish or poor hope: yet what if the Lord will be gracious and freely merciful, even to me, chiefest of sinners? And, methinks, those that I verily124 believe the people of God125 and know they dare not lie have been something after my manner, this a little stayed me, but when the time, the sweet time came, that God did declare his free grace, his abundant love to me, in the gift of the treasure of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, he set himself so forth to my apprehension,126 both by his word and spirit, as a God seeking reconciliation with me in Jesus Christ, making him mine, and all Christ’s mine, and I in Christ, his, God fully satisfied, truly agreed full of bowels127 moaning over me as over Ephraim. “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon him, sayeth the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).128 And the Lord Jesus was showed me in that excellency, O, and in that excellency mine!129 Notwithstanding all unworthiness, the multitude of my sins, the stavings off of unbelief. O, I may say—I know not what to say—the goodness, the compassion, the love of God was unspeakable! The beauty of Christ was surpassing, especially considering my need of him and his fitness for me. 1. my need of him:130 I was a poor damned wretch, both in desert and in my own belief; no means in heaven, nor earth, to save me from guilt, from sin, from the curse of the law, from the wrath of God, from Satan, from hell, but Christ. And I durst131 not 123. Marginal note: no free will but to sin. 124. “In truth or verity; as a matter of truth or fact; indeed, fact, reality; really, truly” (OED, s.v. “verily”). 125. The phrase “of God” is inserted above the line. 126. Marginal note: to us safe seals. 127. “(Considered as the seat of the tender and sympathetic emotions, hence): Pity, compassion, feeling, ‘heart’ (OED, s.v. “bowels”). 128. Carey quotes Jeremiah 31:20 verbatim. 129. Marginal note: such a gift to such a wretch. 130. Marginal note: 1. 131. Past tense of “dare.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 49 go to him, but he came to me with outstretched arms. His word told me of him, which then I did believe.132 His Spirit did so follow me, with such sweet whisperings, strong assurances, filling comforts, unspeakable joys, especially in prayer, that my soul was as in a corner of heaven, feasted with such delicacies as none knows or can understand but by like experience again. His fitness for me in every respect.133 I was a grievous sinner.134 Christ saves “his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21):135 “Thou shalt call his name ‘Jesus,’ for he shall save his people from their sins.”136 From the guilt of sin:137 “the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin” and “from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7, 9).138 Christ saves us from the power of sin:139 as it is, “sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14).140 Christ saves us from the punishments of sin,141 for “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed.” “The lord hath laid on him142 the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5, 6).143 I apprehended God mine enemy formerly, but now in Christ reconciled to me.144 “God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.”145 “God was in Christ, 132. Marginal note: I know that faith is God’s gift by experience. 133. Marginal note: 2. 134. Marginal note: 1. 135. Marginal note: nothing can stead a sinner but Christ. “To succour, help, render service to” (OED, s.v. “stead”). Meynell silently incorporates this gloss into the main text (Meditations, 24). 136. Cf. Matthew 1:21: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” 137. Marginal note. 1. 138. Cf. 1 John 1:7, 9: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. . . . If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 139. Marginal note: secondly. 140. Cf. Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” 141. Marginal note: thirdly. Carey appears first to have written “sinnes” and then to have struck out the second s to make the word singular. 142. Carey wrote what appears to be “us,” struck it out, and wrote “him” clearly immediately afterward. 143. Carey drew a short horizontal line beneath this statement. She quotes Isaiah 53:5 verbatim. Cf. Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 144. Marginal note: secondly. 145. Marginal note: no sight of a reconciled God but through a crucified Christ.

50 MARY CAREY reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” There is a “ministry of reconciliation” given unto the “ambassadors” of Christ, “as though God did beseech” us by them and pray us “in Christ’s stead” to be “reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19, 20).146 And now in Christ Jesus, you who sometime were far off are made nigh147 by his blood, etc. to the end of the chapter 2:13.148 I saw myself before under the curse of the law,149 by the breach of the law, as in Galatians 3:10: “cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”150 But now redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ, who was accursed for me: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,151 being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).152 I looked upon myself as an object of God’s wrath,153 but by my Christ saved from the wrath of his Father: “then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:9).154 I feared, I expected wrath forever, but it was “Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).155 I was ruled by Satan,156 “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2),157 but now I see the promise in me which saith, 146. Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:18–20: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 147. “Close at hand, nearby” (OED, s.v. “nigh”). 148. Hutton clarifies this phrase by changing it to “ye, who sometime were far off, are made nigh by his blood &c. Eph:2. from ye 13th verse to ye end of ye Chapter” (My Lady, 31). In other words, the biblical citation is Ephesians 2:13–22. 149. Marginal note: thirdly. 150. Cf. Galatians 3:10: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” 151. Marginal note: free from the curse, but not obedience. 152. Cf. Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” 153. Marginal note: fourthly. 154. Carey quotes Romans 5:9 verbatim except that she omits the first two words, “Much more.” 155. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” 156. Marginal note: fifthly. 157. Cf. Ephesians 2:2: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 51 “the God of peace shall shortly bruise158 Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).159 I thought myself liable to eternal destruction,160 but being in Christ (in which station I trust free grace hath put me), “there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).161 And now I did daily see so much happiness, by an interest in Jesus Christ that the tongue of man and angel cannot express it. O, how many worlds would I have given—had I possessed them—to have been freed from my forementioned miseries and terrors! And all these were removed by my powerful savior, Jesus Christ. And yet there was more fullness in the love of my sweet Lord than to stay here, for he showed unto me what incomparable benefits I have yet further in him and by him. Body:162 Ah, dear Soul, what a large story hast thou told me of mercies! God’s dealing towards thee hath been nothing else but mercy. He began with mercy, and every step since hath been mercy. Strange, that the foresight of all thy wicked doings could not hinder him from setting his love upon thee. O, that he should smite me with a sickness when we were in such a dangerous course to make thee look to thy condition! And that God should not let us feel, as soon as fear hell, that thou shouldest not have been left to despair, when thou sawest thy sin, misery,163 and God an enemy, but that God should then, then, let thee know that there was a Christ. And give him then, at that very time, freely to thee! O, the height, breadth, length, depth164 of the mercies, free mercies of God (Ephesians 3:18)!165 And should rear thee from such a depth of confusion and terror, to such a heaven of happiness, as the assurance of God’s favor brings to thee. Much, yea, very much, 158. Carey initially left out the i in “bruise” but then inserted it. 159. Cf. Romans 16:20: “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” 160. Marginal note: sixthly. 161. Cf. Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 162. Meynell excises a few sentences and moves most of this paragraph and the two short ones immediately after it—that is, Carey’s pages 37–42—to a location near the end of the dialogue (Meditations, 33–35). He makes the following phrase Body’s final comment in the dialogue: “my parents, husbands, children, friends, food, raiment, dwelling, servants, several conditions, etc., but mercies to thee, my dear Sister, that’s love indeed” (35). The rearrangement of text is consistent with Meynell’s project, as articulated in his opening letter, of helping “the reader take heart of comfort” (xii), despite the many troubles and tragedies Carey relates. 163. Carey retraced the i and e in “misery” to clarify the letters. 164. Carey retraced the h in “depth” to clarify it. 165. Marginal note: there will be time in eternity for a particular view of mercies. Cf. Ephesians 3:18: “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.”

52 MARY CAREY may I tell of the Lord’s bountiful goodness towards me! I have had a large portion of all outward things; there’s nothing that was good for me or desired of me, but the Lord hath given it, and the best of each kind166 have I enjoyed. Indeed, God hath sometimes, for a little while, withheld a mercy that I might know the worth of what I had and the better prize it when it was restored. This I found great mercy, as the taking away of health, ease, strength, outward contentments of what sort soever—these again God did so seasonably restore. And in all times of my troubles, God came to visit me, and he ever brought me a satisfactory167 supply of all my wants. And what God hath removed, as not good for me to have, he hath made it up in himself. This should not be overlooked, dear Soul, the good things I have had. I say, what I have had hath been exceeding good and most properly good for me. My parents, husbands, children, friends, food, raiment, dwelling, servants, several conditions, etc., but mercies to thee, my dear Sister, that is love indeed.168 Soul mercies, right-hand mercies, distinguishing mercies—O let me hear of them! Thou wert speaking of the love of Christ and the benefits thou hadst by him and of thy future happiness by him. Remember my first question: where is thy grounds, where is thy evidences out of God’s word that thou and I shall be saved, glorified, for all eternity through free mercy, for Christ his sake? Soul: I will, Sister, let thee know what I have further from the word of God, the only book I have gathered these out of, and take notice of this: that at the first view, I have formerly looked upon these scriptures with despair when I saw my own unworthiness, but when I considered the free mercy of God, then with hope, and when I see my own sweet savior the Lord Jesus sealing169 the truth of them by his blood, then I apply these scriptures with confidence, knowing that all these scriptures and promises are in him, “yea, and in him, amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).170 This fetcheth in my heart to believe, and that belief fills me with joy unspeakable, for I rely upon the free mercies of God, the all sufficient merits of my Lord Christ, the Word, the promises of a true God. His love to me, his work in me—this persuades me of his unchangeable and eternal goodness towards me. And now will I set down some of my evidences of God’s love (in and for Jesus Christ, to my 166. Carey appears to have first written “king” but then retraced the g to make it a d. 167. Carey started to write something else but then struck it out and wrote “satisfactory.” 168. Marginal note: none more cause to praise God and vilify self. Meynell ends Body’s comments here (Meditations, 35); see page 27 in this volume. 169. Carey first wrote the second l in “sealling” as an s or f and then wrote over it to correct it. 170. Cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 53 everlasting happiness), those incomparable benefits, I say, and assurances, which I have and shall have in, by, and for my dear Lord Jesus Christ alone. My assurances of salvation is from my being elected.171 God the Father hath chosen me and in Christ predestinated me to be his adopted child and to be accepted in his beloved before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3, 4, 5, 6, and 11): “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” [verse] 4.172 “Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself ” [verse] 5.173 “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” [verse] 6.174 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated” [verse] 11.175 O sweet place! Now my being called proves my being predestinated; my being predestinated assures me I shall be glorified,176 as whom he did predestinate, them he also called, them he also glorified (Romans 8:30).177 My second assurance is from my redemption.178 Christ hath died for me; who shall condemn me (Romans 8:34)?179 And God hath appointed me to obtain salvation by my Lord Jesus Christ, who died for me (1 Thessalonians 5: 9, 10).180 171. Marginal note: 1. Election is a great, singular, free, and eternal mercy. “Of God: To choose (certain of His creatures) in preference to others, as the recipients of temporal or spiritual blessings; esp. to choose as the objects of eternal salvation” (OED, s.v. “elect”). 172. Carey quotes Ephesians 1:3 verbatim, as well as the first half of 1:4, the second half of which reads, “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” 173. Carey quotes the first part of Ephesians 1:5 verbatim and omits the rest, which reads, “according to the good pleasure of his will.” 174. Cf. Ephesians 1:6: “To the praise of his glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” 175. Cf. Ephesians 1:11: “In whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” 176. “To exalt to the glory of heaven” (OED, s.v. “glorify”). 177. Cf. Romans 8:30: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Carey drew a line horizontally across the page to separate her first assurance from her second. She separates most of her assurances from each other visually in this manner. Hutton does not reproduce this practice (My Lady, passim). 178. Marginal note: second. O, that wisdom that found that love that gave a Christ for me. “Deliverance from sin and damnation, esp. by the atonement of Christ; salvation” (OED, s.v. “redemption”).” 179. Cf. Romans 8:34: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” 180. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

54 MARY CAREY Therefore, I shall be saved, having “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of ” my “sins according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).181 I say, I was redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.*182

Figure 4. Pages 48–48 insert 1. Booklet of half-size pages inserted into “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628. *Satan oft sayeth, “How know I Christ suffered for me and that I shall be pardoned and saved therefore?” Here I shall take notice of the free and great mercy of my God in giving me faith and his power in drawing it forth to act upon his crucified son, my Savior, as I shall truly set down how it hath been with me at sometimes. God made me know by his word and believe it that he gave his son to save his people. Christ took our nature, stood charged with all the sins 181. Marginal note: my crucified Lord, my soul’s refuge against wrath and Satan. Cf. Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” 182. Carey inserted a hashtag here that matches an identical one with which she begins a series of halfsize pages that she inserted between her pages 48 and 49. She numbers the first of these half-size pages 48. I use an asterisk to indicate where she made her cross-referencing marks. Because the contents of the inserted pages should be read next, after her mark, I have inserted those contents immediately following it. Hutton silently incorporates the inserted material whenever Carey adds material in this way (My Lady, passim).

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 55 of those the Father had elected, suffered wrath, satisfied justice, fulfilled the law, obtained pardon for, and reconciled his people to God the Father, justified us by his righteousness, purchased for us an interest in every spiritual (and so far as is good) in every temporal183 mercy and glory for eternity with himself. Now, I say, to know and believe that thus it shall be to God’s people is no advantage but in order to further, but God made me believe and my faith did see God the Father looking on me—lost wretch—with pity, his wisdom seeking a ransom for me, his love giving his son for me, and whatsoever Christ suffered or did was for me and whatever he purchased mine. God led my faith to see Christ taking all my sins on him, and standing before his father charged with them, submitting to suffer wrath for them. My faith looks on Christ’s sufferings as properly for me, as if only for me. My faith seeth Christ fully satisfying God’s justice to its utmost demand of me. Whatever the Father sayeth in the Word, as in general184 to his people, my faith hears it as in particular to me and echoes it back to God again in the same words with confidence: as when God sayeth he “gave his only begotten son,” etc. (John 3:16),185 “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), that “he was wounded for our transgressions,” “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5), “his soul” made “an offering for sin” (verse 10) and that “with his stripes, we are healed” (verse 5),186 and the Father being pleased in him (Matthew 3:17)187 now seeks “reconciliation” with us, having “made him to be sin,” “who knew no sin,” etc. (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20, 21).188 Now to all this my faith answers, “Lord, I believe thou gave thy son for me, laid on him all mine iniquities, and therefore, he was wounded and bruised. His soul was an offering for my sin, and I healed by his stripes, justice satisfied for me, and God pleased with me, and I made the righteousness of God 183. “Of or pertaining to time as the sphere of human life; terrestrial as opposed to heavenly; of man’s present life as distinguished from a future existence; concerning or involving merely the material interests of this world; worldly, earthly” (OED, s.v. “temporal”). 184. Carey first wrote another word before “general” and then struck it out completely. 185. Cf. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 186. Cf. Isaiah 53:5–6, 10: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. . . . Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” 187. Cf. Matthew 3:17: “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 188. Carey mistakenly cites 1 Corinthians; she borrows instead from 2 Corinthians. Hutton correctly changes “1” to “2” in his biblical citation here (My Lady, 52). I have followed suit. To compare 2 Corinthians 5:19–20, see note 146. Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

56 MARY CAREY in Christ.” Now, being God hath given me this faith and made it thus to fix on my redeemer so that I can say, “My God the Father hath given Christ, my Savior, who hath borne my sins, suffered and satisfied, reconciled and justified me. Christ hath died; therefore, I shall be saved.” *II189 *II190 (1 Peter 1:18, 19) and he that died will not lose his end, his purchase, my salvation.191 My third assurance192 is from my justification,193 though I am in myself a loathsome sinner, a damned wretch. Yet in Christ, I am in God’s sight, acquit from sin, as in this sweet place (2 Corinthians 5:19), not imputing my sins unto me.194 And he hath made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God in him (verse 21).195 God sayeth, beholding me through Christ,196 “I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). I will “render unto” thee “his righteousness,” which (I understand) to be Christ’s righteousness, for which I “shall see his face with joy” (verse 26).197 Christ hath “washed” me “from” my “sins in his own blood” (Revelation 1:5);198 his “blood” was “shed for the remission of ” my “sins” (Matthew 26:28);199 189. At the end of the inserted half-size pages, Carey concludes by drawing what appears to be a small diamond, which I have represented here with an asterisk, followed by the Roman numeral “II.” She adds this same symbol in the margin of her page 48 to indicate where her writing continues. 190. This is the place on her page 48 to which Carey cross-references the end of her inserted half-size pages; see note 189. 191. Cf. 1 Peter 1:18–19: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Carey drew a horizontal line across the page to separate her second assurance from her third. 192. Marginal note: third. 193. “The action whereby human beings are freed from the penalty of sin and accounted or made righteous by God; the fact or condition of being justified in the eyes of God” (OED, s.v. “justification”). 194. Marginal note: hear this, Satan. 195. For 2 Corinthians 5:19–21, see notes 146 and 188. 196. Marginal note: and this, Satan. 197. Cf. Job 33:24–26: “Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.” 198. Marginal note: and this, Satan. Cf. Revelation 1:5: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” 199. Cf. Matthew 26:28: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 57 by Christ am I justified (Romans 5:9)200 and reconciled to God by the death of his son (verse 10).201 Justified, I say, by Christ’s righteousness: 1 passive, secondly, active: Passive:202 Christ “was wounded for” my “transgressions; he was bruised for” my “iniquities”; “and with his stripes,” I “am healed” (Isaiah 53:5).203 Active:204 Christ fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15): “thus, it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness,” etc.205 Christ’s obedience make me righteous. For, “as by the offense of one, judgement came upon all to condemnation, by the righteousness of one (the free gift) came upon all men unto justification of life . . . for as by one206 man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:18, 19),207 of which many, I am one, as the Spirit of God doth sweetly assure my faith, for Christ is made unto me “wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).208 I believe God’s act in imputing Christ’s full and perfect righteousness unto me and that God doth therefore,209 therein, and thereby justify me. This is according to his word and promise, and I do believe it a done thing, since the God of truth hath spoke it, and I therefore set to my seal even my faith (John 3:33).210 “It is Christ that died” (Romans 8:34); “it is God that justifieth” (verse 33), “and whom he justifieth, them he also glorifieth” (verse 30).211

200. To compare Romans 5:9, see note 154. 201. Cf. Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” 202. Marginal note: 1. 203. For Isaiah 53:5, see note 186. 204. Marginal note: secondly. 205. Cf. Matthew 3:15: “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.” 206. “The” has been struck out between “by” and “one.” 207. Carey quotes Romans 5:18–19 verbatim with three omissions: she omits the first word, “Therefore,” she omits “men” between “all” and “to condemnation,” and she omits “even so” between “condemnation” and “by.” 208. Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 209. Marginal note: be silent forever, Satan. 210. Cf. John 3:33: “He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.” 211. For Romans 8:30, 34, see notes 177 and 179. Cf. Romans 8:33: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” Carey drew a line across the page to separate her third assurance from her fourth.

58 MARY CAREY My fourth assurance is212 my being called.213 I brought in this before as a proof of my predestination, but I did not prove my calling, but now sayeth that when I was dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1),214 the voice of the Son of God called me in the ministry of his word, which I did hear and shall live: “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25).215 He hath “called” me with “an holy calling” because he hath saved me “according to his own purpose and grace” “in Christ Jesus,” etc. (2 Timothy 1:9),216 delivering me “from the power of darkness,” translating me “into the kingdom of his dear son” (Colossians 1:13).217 Now I follow my Christ (whose voice I have heard) with a constant218 will, though very imperfect steps, and he will give me eternal life . . . “My sheep hear my voice,” “and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27, 28).219 My fifth assurance is220 from my sanctification.221 I trust I have the spirit of Christ for these reasons: 222 first, I find that through the power thereof,223 I have gotten victory over some sins—formerly my practice; this self could never do, but Christ’s Spirit did it: “if

212. Marginal note: 4. 213. “To summon (a person) to an office, role, or duty; esp. to prompt or inspire (a person) to serve God or the church” (OED, s.v. “to call”). 214. Cf. Ephesians 2:1: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” 215. Cf. John 5:25: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” 216. Cf. 2 Timothy 1:9: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” 217. Cf. Colossians 1:13: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” 218. Carey first wrote “perfitt” for “perfect,” struck it out, and then inserted “constant” over “perfitt.” 219. Cf. John 10:27–28: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Carey’s biblical citation is written in smaller letters than the rest of the text and appears to be squeezed into the space that was left when she drew a line across the page to separate her fourth and fifth assurances. 220. Marginal note: I do not look upon these following as infallible assurances but as hopeful arguments. 221. “The action of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying or making holy the believer, by the implanting within him of the Christian graces and the destruction of sinful affections” (OED, s.v. “sanctification”). 222. Marginal note: 1. 223. Carey made illegible marks in the margin here.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 59 you (through the Spirit) do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live” (Romans 8:3,224 13).225 Indeed, “without me you can do nothing,” sayeth Christ226 (John 15:5),227 and that we know by daily experience. I am sure I can say in Satan’s hearing that I hate all sin (Psalms 119:128):228 “I hate every false way”; “I hate vain thoughts” (verse 113 and 101, 104).229 This is not natural.230 Though, through infirmity I sin, yet I love not but hate that sin231 (Romans 7): “That which I do, I allow not”; “what232 I hate, that do I.”233 It was not always so with me. Therefore, I say with the Apostle, “it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (verse 17).234 I can say I desire to give universal and perfect obedience,235 to the whole will of my God, both in doing or suffering: “O, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” “I have respect unto all thy commandments” (Psalms 119: 5, 6),236 and in suffering, I desire to say with Eli, “it is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good” (1 Samuel 3:18).237 224. Carey used a caret to insert “3” above the line. Cf. Romans 8:3: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” 225. Carey quotes the second half of Romans 8:13 verbatim; the first part reads, “For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but . . .” 226. Marginal note: continual need of Christ. 227. Cf. John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” 228. Marginal note: secondly. 229. Cf. Psalms 119:101, 104, 113, 128: “I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. . . . Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. . . . I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love. . . . Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.” 230. Instead, it is the result of divine—that is, supernatural—intervention. 231. Marginal note: thirdly. No cross grieves like sin. An ink blot obscures part of this marginal note. 232. Carey first wrote another letter, possibly a t, and then retraced it to make it the w in “what.” 233. Cf. Romans 7:15: “For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” 234. Carey quotes Romans 7:17 verbatim except for omitting the first two words, “Now then.” 235. Marginal note: fourthly. 236. Carey quotes Psalms 119:5 verbatim; cf. Psalms 119:6: “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” 237. Cf. 1 Samuel 3:18: “And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good.”

60 MARY CAREY With all humility238 and eternal thankfulness to the free and liberal mercy of my God, I dare not but acknowledge that I discern the graces of the Spirit239 and the fruits of the Spirit in my poor (and most of all) unworthy soul. Though but a small portion and that very weak, through my negligent improving the means. And mixed—yea, abundantly mixed—overmixed240 with the contrary corruptions, as one corn in a handful of chaff.241 I believe I have faith: I know when I had it not and how I came by it, and I believe also that there is as much unbelief in me242 as in any believer living. Likewise, my hope clasps above sincerity, yet, I confess, there is a world of hypocrisy runs through all my thoughts, words, and actions. And so I may say of my “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,” “meekness, temperance,” and my guilt of their opposite corruptions: now “the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace,” etc., “and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:22, 23, 24).243 “But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind,” etc. (Romans 7:23, 24). “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin” (verse 25).244 My sixth assurance is245 from the testimony of the Spirit, which beareth witness with my spirit that I am the child of God (Romans 8:16): “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).246 “And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts, crying ‘abba, Father’ ” (Galatians 4:6), “no more a servant, but a 238. Marginal note: fifthly. 239. Hutton omits “of the Spirit” (My Lady, 65). 240. Hutton reads “overmixed” as “ever mixed” (My Lady, 65). 241. “A collective term for the husks of corn or other grain separated by threshing or winnowing” (OED, s.v. “chaff ”). 242. Marginal note: unbelief is my greatest enemy. 243. Carey quotes Galatians 5:24 verbatim; cf. Galatians 5:22–23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” 244. Carey quotes Romans 7:25 verbatim; cf. Romans 7:23–24: “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Carey drew a line across the page to separate her fifth assurance from her sixth. 245. Marginal note: 6. Especially in prayer and at the Lord’s table. 246. Carey quotes Romans 8:16–17 verbatim.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 61 son”—“an heir of God through Christ” (7 verse).247 The seal of the Holy Spirit of promise is the earnest of my inheritance purchased by Christ (Ephesians 1:13, 14): “after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our248 inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.”*249 O, the voice of this Spirit! How hath it spoke peace from the Father to my poor soul, represented Christ in his beauty to me and so freely offered! How hath it brought in the promises! How quieted doubts! How answered Satan! How opposed corruption! How comforted me in affliction! How visited me in desertion250 and embraced me, quieted me, feasted me with joy unspeakable, given me full assurance, so that I could not doubt of glory but was even as much assured as if possessed, and since the Spirit of truth assures my spirit, I shall be saved upon these grounds the free love251 of God the Father, my redemption and justification by the Lord Jesus and the voice of his Spirit,252 God’s own word,253 and witness to me this gains the victory over all false fears from self and malicious objections from Satan and keeps me undoubtedly assured of salvation.254 My seventh assurance is255 from the love of God to my poor soul: “hereby perceive” I “the love of God, in that he hath laid down his life for” me (1 John 3:16).256

247. Carey quotes Galatians 4:6 verbatim; cf. Galatians 4:7: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” 248. Hutton omits “our” (My Lady, 69). 249. Carey quotes Ephesians 1:14 verbatim; cf. Ephesians 1:13: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” There is a mark after “glory” indicating that the writing Carey inserted between her pages 62 and 63 continues after that mark. She draws a line to separate her sixth and seventh assurances and draws a second, similar one, perhaps to make it as clear as possible that the sixth assurance continues on the two sides of the inserted half-size page, the first side of which is numbered “62” in the upper right-hand corner. 250. An ink blot obscures part of this word. 251. An ink blot obscures part of this word. 252. Carey struck something out after “Spirit.” 253. A word has been struck out after “word.” 254. The writing from the inserted half-size page ends here. Carey used especially small writing to finish her last statement in this insert; the phrase “all false fears . . . assured of salvation” has been squeezed into the remaining space on the inserted page. 255. Marginal note: 7. My heart stood out all blows but love: that broke it. 256. Cf. 1 John 3:16: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

62 MARY CAREY Further, I know God loveth me because he hath made me to love him, which I could not do unless he had first loved me: “we love him because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).257 Now, whom he once loves, he loves to the end. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).258 Therefore, I am sure eternal love will save me. My eighth assurance is259 from my love to God—not that that merits the least reward—but it is a sweet condition, a sweet sign, for that heart which God makes sincerely to love him here the scripture tells what God prepares for it hereafter: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).260 Now,*261 I can say that out of love to God—and no other reason—I desire to give obedience to his commands. I desire submissively to suffer262 what God thinks fit. I desire to give up what God calls for. I desire to do every duty with a heart full of love. I desire to take everything from God as coming from love, and I desire to love God dearly for everything he doth towards me. I pray for the increase of my love to God. O, that it were a thousand times doubled! Love is a sweet grace in the sight of God and his people, yea, amiable in the eyes of the wicked, a true disposition of Christ’s disciple here, and this grace continues to eternity.*263 My ninth assurance is264 from my love to God’s people because they are so: “we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14).265 The 257. Carey quotes 1 John 4:19 verbatim. 258. Cf. John 13:1: “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them until the end.” 259. Marginal note: 8. 260. An ink blot obscures the “1” in “1 Corinthians.” Carey omits the opening phrase, “But as it is written,” but otherwise quotes 1 Corinthians 2:9 verbatim. 261. Carey uses a hashtag to indicate that the additional material on the half-size page inserted between her pages 64 and 65 goes here. She also writes “64” in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of the page. 262. Carey has struck out a word—possibly “give”—and written “suffer” above it. 263. Carey marks the end of the inserted material with a small triangle and adds a second one in the margin next to the location where her text continues at the bottom of her page 64. She drew a line across the page to separate her eighth assurance from her ninth. 264. Marginal note: 9. 265. Carey quotes the first part of 1 John 3:14; the remainder reads, “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 63 Lord knoweth I honor them that fear him (Psalms 15:4).266 I delight in the company of the saints267 (Psalms 16:3).268 I truly reverence and love good ministers both for their message sake, for they “publish peace” and “bringeth269 good tidings of good.” They “publish salvation and say unto Zion” her270 “God reigneth” (Isaiah 52:7).271 They preach the gospel (Romans 10272:15),273 and therefore, they must needs be precious in the esteem of gospel lovers. And for their master’s sake,274 they are “the ministers of Christ,” “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1),275 “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20).276 “Overseers to feed the Church,” etc. (Acts 20:28),277 friends “of the bridegroom” (John 3:29),278 and certainly, these relations are my reasons to honor and love them, nor is there any that I believe (or are reported) to be saints but my heart doth truly and much love them without any other reason or other end. I dwell long upon this;279 Satan cannot stave me off it. I know God hath given me280 this 266. Cf. Psalms 15:4: “In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” 267. “In biblical use, one of God’s chosen people; in the New Testament, one of the elect under the New Covenant; a member of the Christian church; a Christian. Hence, used by some religious bodies as their own designation, e.g. by some puritanical sects in the 16–17th centuries” (OED). 268. Cf. Psalms 16:3: “But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” 269. An ink blot obscures the t and h in “bringeth.” 270. Hutton changes “her” to “Thy” (My Lady, 76). 271. Carey mistakenly cites verse 8, but Hutton corrects it to 7 (My Lady, 76). I have followed suit. Cf. Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” 272. An ink blot obscures this number. 273. Cf. Romans 10:15: “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” 274. Marginal note: secondly. 275. Cf. 1 Corinthians 4:1: “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.” 276. For 2 Corinthians 5:20, see note 146. 277. Cf. Acts 20:28: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” 278. Cf. John 3:29: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.” 279. Carey seems to have written something else first and then wrote “upon this” over it. 280. Carey appears to have first written t and then retraced it to make m in “me.”

64 MARY CAREY grace and hath made it grow. O, that I could say of other graces as of this! Well I trust the God of love—whose mercy hath given me the grace of love—will bring me to the place of love, where love shall be forever, even after faith and hope shall cease because of fruition.281 My tenth assurance is282 from my faith, which, though I confess is weak and much encumbered283 with doubtings, yet I trust it is true, for this I can say for it: God was the author of it. I could no more believe than create a world until God made me. And this was the means by which God did it: God showed me that when I was lost, then his wisdom found out, and his love gave his only son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to death for me. And that in him and by him, his justice was fully satisfied, his pledge284 against me discharged, so that God did now in Christ proclaim himself “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).285 The knowledge hereof that thus it was and for me, by this means, my heart was drawn in to believe.286 And as God was the worker of my faith, so is his word and promise the ground of it.287 For because God hath said it, I believe it, without any further dispute, “for he is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23),288 faithful that hath called (1 Thessalonians 5289:24),290 on these following scriptures do I rely: “God so loved his world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should

281. Carey drew a line across the page to separate her ninth assurance from her tenth. 282. Marginal note: 10. 283. The first few letters of this word are blurred, making them difficult to read. 284. Hutton reads “pledge” as “plea” (My Lady, 80). 285. Cf. Matthew 3:17: “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 286. Marginal note: no means could affect my heart but a sight of love. Carey struck out a word in her marginal note between “but” and “a.” 287. Carey drew a line across the page here. 288. Cf. Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).” 289. Carey appears first to have written “4” and then wrote over it to make it “5.” Hutton mistakenly reads “5” as “4” (My Lady, 81). 290. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:24: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 65 not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, 15)291 and he “that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).292 “I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).293 “By him” (that is, Christ) “all that believe are justified” (Acts 13:39),294 etc. Who believes on295 the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved (Acts 16:31).296 “He that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (Peter 2:6).297 God is the savior of all that believe (1 Timothy 4:10).298 “He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life” (John 5:24).*299 *The three arguments by which God persuaded me to believe were these. First, from God the Father, the free promiser: he is truth; he cannot lie; he cannot deceive. He means what he sayeth, and therefore, what he sayeth will do. I cannot distrust God. Whatever I have a word for from God, I believe and expect most certainly. Secondly, all promises in Christ are—yea and amen—to his people; an interest in the promises is part of Christ’s purchase. They are the sweet languish300 of the heart love of God and Christ to us, the substance and seals of the covenant, the treasure, strength, sanctuary, and armor of a Christian (I know Christ is only

291. Hutton reverses the order in which Carey includes the verses in this biblical citation; that is, he writes, “John 3:15, 16” (My Lady, 82). For John 3:16, see note 185. Cf. John 3:15: “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 292. Carey mistakenly cites verse 36, but Hutton corrects it to 37 (My Lady, 82). I have followed suit. Cf. John 6:37: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” 293. Carey quotes the first part of John 10:9 verbatim; the remainder reads, “and shall go in and out and find pasture.” 294. Cf. Acts 13:39: “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” 295. Carey first wrote “of ” but then wrote n over the f. 296. Cf. Acts 16:31: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” 297. Carey quotes the final statement in 1 Peter 2:6 verbatim; the first part reads, “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and . . .” 298. Cf. 1 Timothy 4:10: “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” 299. Carey drew a diamond in the right-hand margin to indicate that the half-size pages that she inserted between her pages 70 and 71 should be added here. A matching mark begins the additional material. She also wrote “71” in the upper right-hand corner of the first recto of the inserted half-size pages. She quotes John 5:24 verbatim, except for omitting the opening phrase, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” 300. Hutton reads “languish” as “language” (My Lady, 85).

66 MARY CAREY these to a Christian), but it is his pleasure that his people seek him in and according to his promises, and there, and so, he will be found. Thirdly, I find a power in301 the promises or the power of the Spirit drawing in my heart to believe when I hear or read a promise so that I cannot but believe, and though Satan say, “it shall not be so,” I can say, “he lies.” And to unbelieve that urgeth it may not be so, I give the same answer. I cannot say but that somewhilst I am full of doubting, when the Lord withdraws himself and leaves me to oppose Satan by my own strength, then have I experience of my weakness, of my nothingness, and the power of unbelief, but the Father comes302 again, shows me his unchangeableness, still freely merciful, still faithful, observing his part of the covenant, though I break mine, ringing in mine ears this scripture: “plead” whereby “thou mayest be justified” (Isaiah 43:26).303 Then doth my poor guilty soul (for it is guilt that weakens faith, breaks peace, and keeps the soul at a distance from God) run to Jesus Christ and so my high priest offering up himself304 a sacrifice for me to put away my sins (Hebrews 9:6)305 and hath “made” my “peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20, 21), reconciling me, and “in the body of his flesh through death,” presented me “holy and unblameable and unreprovable” in the “sight” of God the Father (Colossians 1:22).306 This I plead and herein am accepted and upon this ground can again claim an interest in and the benefit of any promise (so far as the wisdom of God seeth the performance of it good for me); the promise also sweetly tells me it is mine and for me, and the Spirit sweetly seals the truth of it, and clears307 up and confirms my faith. I have set this down as an experience to instance the goodness, sweetness, return, and power of God to me and his putting my faith into new actings after its308 low and weak condition.

301. Carey appears to have first written “it,” then struck it out, and replaced it with “in.” 302. Carey appears to have written c over another letter. 303. Cf. Isaiah 43:26: “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.” 304. After “himself,” Carey appears to have first written “for me” and then to have struck these words out. 305. Cf. Hebrews 9:6: “Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.” 306. Cf. Colossians 1:20–22: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” 307. Carey appears to have retraced the last three letters in “clears” to clarify them. 308. Carey first wrote something else, blotted it out completely, and inserted “its” above the line.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 67 Now*309 since God hath given me these precious promises and faith to believe them, I trust the author of my faith will be the finisher of my faith and will give me “the end of ” my “faith, even the salvation of ” my “soul” (1 Peter 1:9).310 God’s giving me faith assures me: he hath “ordained” me “to eternal life” (Acts 13:48).311 My 11th assurance is312 from my being at the313 Lord’s table and my entertainment there, where by faith I have eat and drunk the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the spiritual food of my soul unto eternal life the promise of Christ doth assure me hereof: “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life” (John 314 6:54). Further, Christ sayeth: “I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if any man eateth315 of this bread, he shall316 live forever” (verse 51), and “he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (verse 57). “He that eateth of this317 bread shall live forever” (verse 58).318 At the Lord’s table, there is my Lord Jesus Christ offered and given

309. Carey made a mark that looks like four plus signs connected together next to “Now” to indicate that here is where the insert of half-size pages ends. She repeats the symbol and the word “Now” on her page 71 to indicate where the reader should continue in the main text. 310. Cf. 1 Peter 1:9: “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 311. Cf. Acts 13:48: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Carey drew a line across the page to separate her tenth assurance from her eleventh. 312. Marginal note: 11. 313. There is a hole in the page between “the” and “Lord.” 314. Carey quotes the first half of John 6:54 verbatim; the second reads, “and I will raise him up at the last day.” 315. Carey appears to have first written “eateth” unclearly and then to have struck it out and written it again clearly above the line. 316. A heavy ink blot obscures part of “shall.” 317. A heavy ink blot obscures part of “this.” 318. Marginal note: I take not these places as referring only to the ordinance of the supper but to be made use of in others also. Cf. John 6:51, 57–58: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . . . As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.”

68 MARY CAREY by God the Father to the souls of believers (Isaiah 55:1, 2, 3): “Ho, everyone that thirsteth319 come you to the waters, etc.”320 “Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17 and Matthew 22:2, 3, 4).321 And believers receive whole Christ,322 crucified Christ, righteous Christ, with all his merits, passive and active. There is peace, “peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, sayeth the Lord” (Isaiah 57:19).323 There is pardon.324 “Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,” etc.? (Micah 7:18)325 There is healing of backslidings:326 “I will heal” your “backslidings” (Hosea 327 14:4). There is subduing of corruptions (Micah 7:19).328 Amendment of our conversations (Isaiah 57:18).329

319. Carey appears to have written r in “thirsteth” over another letter. 320. Cf. Isaiah 55:1–3: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” 321. Carey quotes the concluding statement of Revelation 22:17 verbatim; the first part reads, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And . . . ” Cf. also Matthew 22:2–4: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son. And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.” 322. Marginal note: 1. 323. Marginal note: secondly. Cf. Isaiah 57:19: “I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.” 324. Marginal note: thirdly. 325. Carey quotes the first part of Micah 7:18 verbatim; the rest reads, “he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” 326. Marginal note: fourthly. 327. Cf. Hosea 14:4: “I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” 328. Marginal note: fifthly. Cf. Micah 7:19: “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” 329. Marginal note: sixthly. Cf. Isaiah 57:18: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 69 Graces from Christ (John 1:16).330 O, this soul-refreshing, soul-assuring ordinance! I have found such fullness of soul satisfaction in this ordinance, I say; the Lord hath herein extended comfort suitable to331 my desires. I have seen God’s everlasting love to me in my Christ; I have awhile with John reposed my heart in Christ’s bosom; I have found such assurance and sealing by the Spirit that I have more nearly apprehended the joys of heaven by this taste than at any other time. O, I may speak well hereof! Christ hath had me unto his wine cellar332 and filled my spirit with heavenly nectar; the remembrance of this is much joy to me, and in the hour of temptation, when I bring this experience of God’s love, then Satan hath no reply. My faith fastens upon the promises hereunto for salvation: as God hath said, so it shall be.333 My 12th assurance is334 from Christ’s intercession, who is “at the right hand of God” and makes “intercession for me” (Romans 8:34).335 And hath prayed that I may be with him. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me,” etc. (John 17:24).336 Now, Christ’s prayers were heard, which he made “in the days of his flesh” (Hebrews 5:7).337 And certainly his prayer on338 earth and intercession in heaven must needs be both effectual, heard, and granted. And from both his prayer and intercession, my assurance is strong that I shall be with him in glory. My 13th assurance is339 God hath given me a true hunger and thirst after righteousness.

330. Marginal note: seventhly. Cf. John 1:16: “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” 331. Carey struck out several words—possibly “to the very [?] of ”—and inserted “suitable to” above the line. 332. There is a hole near the upper left-hand corner of Carey’s page 76. 333. Carey drew a line across the page to separate her eleventh assurance from her twelfth. 334. Marginal note: 12. Christ doth pray (shall be heard, shall be answered) for me. 335. For Romans 8:34, see note 179. 336. Carey quotes most of John 17:24 verbatim; the remainder reads, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” 337. Cf. Hebrews 5:7: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” 338. Carey appears to have first written “of ” and then to have retraced f to make it n. 339. Marginal note: 13.

70 MARY CAREY Even the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in whom I desire to be found, “not having my own righteousness,” “but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).340 Now, those in this thirsting condition hath Christ pronounced blessed. “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness,” etc. (Matthew 5:6),341 and surely, whom he calleth blessed shall be blessed forever. And to thirsters, what full promises are made for their consolations! They are called “to the waters.” They are bid to “buy and eat” “without price” or “money.” They shall have “wine and milk”; they shall eat “that which is good”; and their souls shall “delight” themselves “in fatness” (Isaiah 55:1, 2).342 And though their thirst be never so great, they “shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).343 And if we have been parched up with drought, God will “pour water” and “floods” upon us (Isaiah 44:3),344 and our souls “shall be” as “a watered garden” (Isaiah 58:11).345 He hath said that “whosoever will,” may “come” and “take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).346 And if we cannot come nor cannot take, God hath promised to give to “him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (Revelation 21:6).347 Now, since God hath made me in that condition to which he hath fixed a promise, I do certainly believe the Lord will perform348 it. God, who hath made my soul to thirst for him, he will satisfy my soul: it shall be as a watered garden, and I shall drink of the waters of life for all eternity.349

340. Cf. Philippians 3:9: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” 341. Carey quotes the first part of Matthew 5:6 verbatim; the remainder reads, “for they shall be filled.” 342. For Isaiah 55:1–2, see note 320. 343. For Matthew 5:6, see note 341. 344. Cf. Isaiah 44:3: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” 345. Marginal note: the Lord pluck up the weeds. Cf. Isaiah 58:11: “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” 346. For Revelation 22:17, see note 321. 347. Cf. Revelation 21:6: “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” 348. An ink blot obscures the second r in this word. 349. Carey drew a line across the page to separate her thirteenth assurance from her fourteenth.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 71 My 14th assurance is350 from my afflictions, or indeed, from God’s sanctifying his afflicting hand unto me. I know well that “all things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good,” “to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not, as is the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath”—“no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them” (Ecclesiastes351 9:2, 1).352 But though afflictions come to both from God, yet with a different end as all other dispensations353 do. To God’s people, afflictions come in love: “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).354 But the wicked, God vexeth in his heavy displeasure (Psalms 2:5).355 Besides, afflictions have not one and the same effect upon the children of God and such as are not. For to the children of God, “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).356 But to the other, clear contrary. Now, I have found God’s love in all my afflictions. First, by my afflictions, God hath reclaimed me from my evil ways (Psalms 119:67): “Before I was afflicted, I went astray,” etc.357 Secondly, by my afflictions,358 God hath done me a great deal of good. Is not both these love? Afflictions have done me good, as first: The loss of my comforts359 inform my judgement that as all earthly comforts were emptiness in enjoyment, so were they uncertain in duration, and surely this

350. Marginal note: 14. 351. Carey appears to have retraced the letters in “Eccle,” her abbreviation for “Ecclesiastes.” 352. Carey quotes Ecclesiastes 9:2 verbatim, except for omitting “and” between “good” and “to,” thus slightly changing the rhythm of the statement. She quotes verbatim the concluding statement in Ecclesiastes 9:1; the first part reads, “For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God . . .” 353. “Ordering, management; esp. the divine administration or conduct of the world; the ordering or arrangement of events by divine providence” (OED, s.v. “dispensation”). 354. Carey quotes Hebrews 12:6 verbatim. 355. Cf. Psalms 2:5: “Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” 356. Cf. Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” 357. Carey quotes verbatim the first part of Psalms 119:67; the remainder reads, “but now have I kept thy word.” 358. Marginal note: secondly. 359. Marginal note: 1.

72 MARY CAREY experience must needs remove me from them to seek a fullness of soul satisfactory durable comfort elsewhere, and that is nowhere to be found but in God.360 And in God, it is so that, I say,361 afflictions hath been a means whereby God hath made me to forsake “broken cisterns” and go to “the fountain of living waters.”362 And as afflictions have informed my judgement, so God hath made them in the second place to reform my affections as thus:363 God hath afflicted what I have overaffected that himself might be the only object of all my affections and have the all—or quintessence364—of every affection. Videlicet,365 I would not only love God, but I would have God to have all my love366 and that God would give out such a measure of my love to my relations, as he thinks fit, and not to entrust me with the distribution of it367 and all my desires, etc. and thirdly,368 God hath made my afflictions to try and improve those graces which free mercy hath given me, as first, afflictions have bettered my knowledge.369 For thereby, I learn much of God:370 in my afflictions, I may say with Job to God, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5).371 I find by experience the truth of all God’s attributes and how they are all set a work to accomplish his end, his glory in my good. I see wisdom, power, mercy, goodness, etc., overruling and ordering all second causes to the forementioned ends. And secondly in my afflictions, I learn much of myself:372 I little thought there had lodged so much infidelity, distrust, hypocrisy, impatience, grudging, self-love, creature-love, rebellion, disobedience, by-ends, wrong wishes, disapprovings, complainings, restlessness, failing of heart as though its prop had been 360. Marginal note: this I know. 361. Marginal note: and this I know. 362. For the full citation of Jeremiah 2:13, see note 16. 363. Marginal note: secondly. 364. “The most essential part or feature of some non-material thing; the purest or most perfect form or manifestation of some quality, idea, etc.” (OED, s.v. “quintessence”). 365. “That is to say; namely; to wit: used to introduce an amplification, or more precise or explicit explanation, of a previous statement or word” (OED, s.v. “videlicet”). 366. Carey used a caret after “love” to indicate that words in the margin should be inserted here. 367. The inserted material from the margin ends here and reconnects with the rest of her original sentence. 368. Marginal note: thirdly. This note is surrounded by the text of the partial sentence that she also wrote in the margin to be included in her main text, as indicated in notes 366 and 367. 369. Marginal note: 1. 370. Marginal note: 1. 371. Carey quotes Job 42:5 verbatim. 372. Marginal note: secondly.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 73 gone when the creature failed, fainting of spirit.373 Ah, alas, alas! Thus, is it thus, thus still? Alas, alas, what is in my heart? Did I not also see what is in Christ’s heart,374 I were375 undone, but I still see and find free, free mercy,376 after all this—I say, after all these and the actings of all these—to see and find mercy. Have not I cause to pronounce it free? O the strength of mercy that beats377 down all opposition before it and will to its beloved soul in all conditions! So that, I say, I have learned much of God and much of myself by afflictions. Secondly, God by afflictions hath bettered my faith.378 For my afflictions have set me to find out those promises fit for that condition, and mercy hath enabled me to act faith thereon, and I have ever—and in everything—found God according to his promise. So sweet in my extremities that I treasure up my experiences, and experience strengthens faith to trust God in all conditions thence forward, even to the utmost latitude of the promise. God by afflictions betters my love.379 How can I but love God, who even crosseth his own nature to express his love in doing me good? For God “delighteth in mercy” (Micah 7:18)380 and “doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33),381 but “if need be,” we “are in heaviness” “for a season” (1 Peter 1:6).382 It is my need of afflictions that causeth a loving God to send them. And love in my God makes him follow them close, so that I no sooner find a trouble, but I also find God, “a very present help in” that “trouble” (Psalms 46:1).383 And must not all this, and the good of this, increase my love to my loving God? And is not afflictions the means hereof?

373. Marginal note: unbelief takes its rise from a sight of self and guilt. Carey appears to have retraced letters in “unbelief.” 374. Marginal note: Christ and free grace, the object that cure it. 375. Carey retraced the last e in “were” to clarify it. 376. Carey retraced the y in “mercy” to clarify it. 377. Hutton reads “beats” as “breaks” (My Lady, 110). 378. Marginal note: secondly. 379. Marginal note: thirdly. 380. Cf. Micah 7:18: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” 381. Carey quotes Lamentations 3:33 verbatim, except for omitting “For he” at the start of the statement. 382. Cf. 1 Peter 1:6: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” 383. Cf. Psalms 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

74 MARY CAREY Afflictions, or “tribulations,” “worketh patience,384 and patience experience, and experience hope” (Romans 5:3, 4).385 O, what a sweet cluster! This three-fold cord is not possible to be broken by the highest386 rising seas of adversity. O, afflictions! Come ye from God, from my loving God in love, and for my good to show me:387 First, the emptiness of all creature comforts;388 A fullness in God;389 Thirdly, to inform my judgement;390 Fourthly, to reform my affections;391 To better my graces.392 Knowledge, which learns much of God, much of self.393 Faith, by finding out and trusting upon the promise and laying up experiences394 for the future. Love, which is much increased by God’s love in my afflictions.395 Patience, experience, hope, etc.396 Then welcome afflictions, my friends, my dear friends, God’s messengers, the saint’s companions. I trust the “fruit” of your company shall be the purging of mine iniquity.397 God will do all “in measure” and stay the “rough wind in the day of the east wind” (Isaiah 27:8, 9).398 The time also

384. Marginal note: fourthly. 385. Cf. Romans 5:3: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” Carey quotes Romans 5:4 verbatim. 386. Carey appears to have retraced the e in “highest” to clarify it. 387. Hutton reads this statement as a series of questions: “Come ye from God? from my loving God in love? & for my good?” (My Lady, 114). 388. Marginal note: 1. 389. Marginal note: secondly. 390. Marginal note: thirdly. 391. Marginal note: fourthly. 392. Marginal note: fifthly. 393. Marginal note: 1. 394. Marginal note: secondly. 395. Marginal note: thirdly. 396. Marginal note: fourthly, fifthly, sixthly. 397. Carey wrote the q in “iniquity” over another letter, possibly t. 398. Cf. Isaiah 27:8–9: “In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 75 shall be short—but “a moment”—and it shall work for me, an “eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).399 My 15th assurance is400 from God’s being unchangeably good to his people. Wherever God begins “a good work,” he perfects it “until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).401 Wherever God lays foundation mercy, there will he build up with mercy upon mercy, from earth to heaven, from grace to glory as the Psalmist speaks: “Mercy shall be built up forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens” (Psalms 89:2).402 God hath been merciful to me; he hath laid a foundation and built upon it. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalms 23:6),403 and God will “keep” “mercy” for me “forevermore,” for his “covenant shall stand fast with” me. This is his promise in Psalms 89:28.404 It is the nature of God’s mercy, as well as of his love, to be ever where it is once. Now, God’s mercy hath been to me from eternity, and therefore will be to me for eternity: “the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him” (Psalms 103:17).405 My 16th assurance is406 I wait and long for the coming of the Lord Jesus. And to those “that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).407 I love to hope for his appearing; it is the refreshing of my fainting spirit in the day of my adversity. 399. Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 400. Marginal note: 15. 401. Cf. Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” 402. Carey quotes Psalms 89:2 verbatim, except for omitting the opening phrase, “For I have said.” 403. Carey quotes the first half of Psalms 23:6 verbatim; the remainder reads, “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” 404. Cf. Psalms 89:28: “My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.” 405. Cf. Psalms 103:17: “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.” Carey drew a line across the page to separate her fifteenth assurance from the sixteenth. 406. Marginal note: 16. 407. Carey quotes the conclusion of Hebrews 9:28 verbatim; the first part reads, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them . . .”

76 MARY CAREY I have had many a sad day here. Many a spiritual combat, many a shroud wound, many a sore fall, which hath made me walk heavily, with a sorrowful heart, a loaden soul, a troubled spirit, but when I think of the coming of my Christ, his second appearing (for blessed be his name, he hath once appeared to me and for me already): To me, as a savior when I was lost,408 For me, as a sacrifice to his father’s justice, obtaining pardon. To me, as a freely loving Lord; for me, as a powerful mediator for God’s favor.409 To me, as a husband,410 taking me with nothing but giving me all the treasure of heaven and earth (for so himself is). For me, to God the Father, perfectly righteous, imputing his righteousness to me, whereby I am justified; in Christ I am an adopted child, a co-heir—all this by his first appearance. Now, I say, when I remember his second appearing to free me from sin and to give me “a crown of righteousness,” which “is laid up for me,” “which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not unto me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8),411 my expectation doth412 assure me God, who hath wrought the one, will give the other.413 My 17th assurance is414 from God’s singular goodness to me in his Word, which he hath made powerful to me, both in the public preaching and private reading for my profit so that I may say “the gospel came not unto” me “in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).415 God hath also wrought in my heart such preparations for the Word as I must416 needs take notice of, for I know naturally and I found it experimentally (in the former part of my life) that my heart hates 408. Marginal note: 1. 409. Marginal note: secondly. 410. Marginal note: thirdly. 411. Cf. 2 Timothy 4:8: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 412. Carey retraced do in “doth” to clarify it. 413. Carey draws lines across the entire page above and below “My 17th assurance is” to set it off from the words above and below it. 414. Marginal note: 17. 415. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” 416. Carey retraced the s in “must” to clarify it.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 77 the Word and truth of God, and no better is it in my power to make it, but I say, God hath done that for it, God I say, “for the preparations of the heart in man” “is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1).417 He hath done that for it which I desire to look upon and acknowledge and with all humbleness and thankfulness of soul to praise free mercy for it forever. First, 418 I hear it, as if the Lord did immediately419 speak to me himself or as the Lord’s own words in the mouth of man. I receive “it not as the words of men,420 but (as it is in truth), the Word of God,” etc. (1 Thessalonians 2:13).421 Secondly, 422 before I hear and in hearing, the purpose of my heart is to endeavor obedience to what God shall reveal to be his will from his Word, notwithstanding all of the objections that my carnal reason, contentments, profits, or dearest friends may make against it. “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5),423 though I should lose “house,” “brethren,” “sisters,” land, etc. (Mark 10:29).424 I believe the Word425 and can say with Christ unto the Father, “thy Word is truth” (John 17:17).426 “My heart stands in awe427 of ” God’s “Word” (Psalms 119:161).428

417. Cf. Proverbs 16:1: “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.” 418. Marginal note: 1. 419. Carey retraced the first e in “immediately” to clarify it. 420. Carey appears to have retraced a letter—possibly a—to make e instead. 421. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 422. Marginal note: secondly. 423. Carey quotes 2 Corinthians 10:5 verbatim. 424. Cf. Mark 10:29–30: “And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” 425. Marginal note: thirdly. 426. Cf. John 17:17: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” 427. Marginal note: fourthly. 428. Cf. Psalms 119:161: “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.”

78 MARY CAREY I desire the Word,429 even as that430 babe doth the breast, which can take nothing else for its nourishment, and my end is the universal and spiritual growth of graces in my poor soul (1 Peter 2:2).431 I hope in the Word,432 and my expectation doth wait upon God to perform what he “hath caused me to hope” (Psalms 119:49).433 I hide the Word in my heart.434 All that435 my memory doth retain is dear and precious to me. And my end in so doing, and the use I store it up for is that “I might not sin against” God (Psalms 119:11).436 I esteem of the Word above “silver437 and the gain thereof ” above “gold,” “more precious than rubies, and all” “things” that can438 be desired “are not to be compared” to it (Proverbs 3:14, 15).439 I love the Word of God440 exceedingly unexpressibly. “O, how love I thy law!” (Psalms 119:97).441 And for good reasons: The scriptures testify of Christ (John 5442:39).443 They are “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68 and John 5:39).444 In the Word is a Christian’s chiefest treasure, next unto Christ.445

429. Marginal note: fifthly. 430. Carey retraced the y in “yt,” which is her spelling and contraction for “that,” to clarify it. 431. Cf. 1 Peter 2:2: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” 432. Marginal note: sixthly. 433. Cf. Psalms 119:49: “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou has caused me to hope.” 434. Marginal note: seventhly. 435. Carey used a caret to insert “that” (that is, “yt”) above the line. 436. Cf. Psalms 119:11: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” 437. Marginal note: eighthly. 438. Carey wrote a word, struck it out, and inserted “can” above the line. 439. Cf. Proverbs 3:14–15: “For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.” 440. Marginal note: ninthly. 441. Carey cites the first part of Psalms 119:97 verbatim; the remainder reads, “it is my meditation all the day.” 442. Hutton silently corrects Carey’s mistaken citation of John 3 to John 5 (My Lady, 128). I have followed suit. She makes the same mistake in the next line, which I correct again. 443. Marginal note: 1 reason. Cf. John 5:39: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” 444. Marginal note: 2 reason. Cf. John 6:68: “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” 445. Marginal note: 3 reason.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 79 Yea, Christ is to be found446 in it and by it, for it is the means whereby we come to know Christ and serve447 Christ and to enjoy Christ. In the Word, there is all a Christian’s directions,448 comforts, promises, evidences. It is true that all my evidences I have gathered are out of it and are part of it, but it is the all of God’s Word my soul needs and joys in. “I esteem all thy precepts” (Psalms 119:128).449 I would not want one word of the scriptures for a world. “I rejoice” in the Word,450 and is there not reason more than can be named? (Psalms 119:162)451 The Word of God is my comfort:452 in all my afflictions, had I not sought and found comfort there, I had perished (Psalms 119:92).453 But, I may say, as my afflictions454 abounded in outward things, so my consolations in the Word did overabound,455 as in 2 Corinthians 1:5, 7.456 I desire to lay up the Word in my heart.457 O that jewel, precious jewel! O that the cabinets were fit for it! Lord make it so. Thou are able to do all things. Let thy word “dwell” “richly” in me (Colossians 3:16).458 Let it never depart out of my heart, but ever when I have use of it, let me find it there (Jeremiah 20:9).459

446. Marginal note: 4 reason. 447. Carey appears to have written “serve” unclearly, to have struck it out, and to have inserted it again clearly above the line. 448. Marginal note: 5 reason. 449. Cf. Psalms 119:128: “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.” 450. Marginal note: tenthly. 451. Cf. Psalms 119:162: “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.” 452. Marginal note: eleventhly. 453. Cf. Psalms 119:92: “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” 454. Carey appears to have retraced letters in “afflictions” to clarify them. 455. Carey appears to have retraced the d in “overabound” to clarify it. 456. Cf. 2 Corinthians 1:5, 7: “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. . . . And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.” 457. Marginal note: twelfthly. 458. Cf. Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” 459. Cf. Jeremiah 20:9: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”

80 MARY CAREY The Word of God is “sweet” to “my taste,”460 “sweeter than honey” (Psalms 119:103),461 both in hearing it, reading, conferring, or thinking thereof. And I can say the Word of God, “it is my meditation”462 (Psalms 119:97463); though, I cannot say “all the day” long.464 Now, since it is thus with me—and blessed be the Lord it is so—in a true (though, weak and small measure), yet I desire to account greatly of the Lord’s goodness herein and to bring arguments, from goodness to goodness, and to gather out and apply those promises which are made to hearers, hearing, and believers of the Word. Hearers of God’s Word are called blessed.465 “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching466 daily at my gates,” etc. (Proverbs 8:34).467 Hearers of God’s Word468 are under the promise of spiritual469 life (Isaiah 470 55:3). “Blessed are they” which “hear the Word and keep it” (Luke47111:28).472 “Hear and your souls shall live” (Isaiah 55:3).473 Promises to hearing the Word:474 God hath promised his Spirit.475

460. Marginal note: thirteenthly. 461. Cf. Psalms 119:103: “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” 462. Marginal note: fourteenthly. 463. Hutton omits Carey’s citation of Psalms 119:97 (My Lady, 131). 464. Cf. Psalms 119:97: “O how I love thy law! it is in my meditation all the day.” 465. Marginal note: 1. 466. Carey appears first to have written an extra h in “watching” and then to have retraced it to make it into c. 467. Carey quotes most of Proverbs 8:34 verbatim; she omits the concluding clause, which reads “waiting at the posts of my doors.” 468. Marginal note: secondly. 469. Carey appears to have first written “eternal” and then to have retraced the letters to turn it into “spiritual.” 470. Cf. Isaiah 55:3: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” 471. Carey first wrote J—possibly for “John”—and then retraced the letter to make it into L. 472. Carey quotes Luke 11:28 almost verbatim; she omits the opening phrase, which reads “But he said, Yea rather,” and changes “that” to “which.” 473. For Isaiah 55:3, see note 470. 474. Marginal note: secondly. 475. Marginal note: first.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 81 “I will pour out my Spirit unto you” (Proverbs 1:23).476 And a spiritual understanding of his Word.477 “I will make known478 my words unto you” (Proverbs 1:23).479 I cannot but mark the freeness of the promise, that I may thereby overcome unbelief, which is the ground of heart objections. This promise is made to “simple ones,” “scorners,” “fools” and as an aggravation. It is charged upon them, not480 only to be simple but to “love simplicity,” not only scorners, but to481 “delight” “in scorning and fools” that “hate knowledge.”482 Yet to these is this promise made (Proverbs 1:22).483 Hearers are promised484 an increase of grace or of their graces. “And unto you that hear shall more be given” (Mark 4:24).485 The “Word” will “build” us “up”486 and “give” us “an inheritance amongst” “them which are487 sanctified” (Acts 20:32).488 Promises to believing489 the Word and490 in God by the Word: “It pleased 491 God by the foolishness of preaching to save them492 that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).493

476. Cf. Proverbs 1:23: “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” 477. Marginal note: secondly. 478. Marginal note: ah, the freeness of mercy. The book’s binding makes the first word in this phrase difficult to read. 479. For Proverbs 1:23, see note 476. 480. An ink blot obscures part of this word. 481. Carey appears first to have written a letter—possibly f—and then to have retraced it into t. 482. Marginal note: how doth God, on our behalf, answer devil and unbelief. 483. Cf. Proverbs 1:22: “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?” 484. Marginal note: thirdly. 485. Carey quotes the conclusion of Mark 4:24 verbatim; the first part reads, “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you . . .” 486. Marginal note: fourthly. 487. An ink blot obscures “are.” 488. Cf. Acts 20:32: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” 489. Marginal note: thirdly. 490. An ampersand is inserted here above the line. 491. Marginal note: promises. 492. Marginal note: 1. Saved. 493. Carey quotes the concluding statement of 1 Corinthians 1:21 verbatim; she omits the opening clause, which reads, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God . . .”

82 MARY CAREY Whosoever believeth in Christ494 by the preaching of the Word, for those did Christ495 pray that they should be with him in glory (John 17:20, compared with the 21, 22, 23, 24 verses of the same chapter).496 Believing in the Word497 causeth the Word to be effectual in the believer: “the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that498 believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).499 Whatsoever part of God’s Word500 we believe,501 it shall be done unto us in that particular according to our faith: “Jesus sayeth unto him,” “thy son liveth, and the man believed the Word that Jesus had spoken unto him,” etc. “His servants met him and told him, saying, thy son liveth,” etc. (John 4:50, 51).502 There is one place of scripture which hath all these three in it503 and three sweet unions in it (John 5:24): “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life,” etc.504 1. hearing and the Word; secondly, believing and the Father (he that sent me); thirdly, the believing soul (505he that heareth506 and believeth) and eternal life. So, then, I thus read it: First, I have heard the Word. Secondly, and believed on the Father through it. 494. Marginal note: secondly. With Christ in glory. 495. Carey appears to have started this word with g and then retraced it to make C. 496. Cf. John 17:20–24: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” 497. Marginal note: thirdly. 498. An ink blot partially obscures this word. 499. Carey quotes the concluding clause of 1 Thessalonians 2:13 verbatim; the first part reads, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth . . .” 500. Marginal note: fourthly. 501. An ink blot obscures the first syllable of “believe.” 502. Carey quotes John 4:50–51 almost verbatim: she omits “Go thy way” after “him” and before “thy” in verse 50, as well as the opening phrase to verse 51, which reads “And as he was now going down.” 503. Carey struck out “them” and inserted “it” above the line. 504. For John 5:24, see note 299. 505. Carey first drew a closed paren and then corrected it to an open paren by retracing her error. 506. Carey appears to have written a word and then retraced its letters to make it into “heareth.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 83 Thirdly, there is promised to my soul eternal life.507 My 18th assurance is508 from God’s dealing with me in prayer. I509 hope I shall never forget my prayer mercies, nor that mercy: the spirit of prayer.510 Prayer was the first place where the511 promise carried me to seek God in Christ. And prayer was the first place where God appeared to me as my God in Christ and assured me of reconciliation with himself for his son’s sake by the sweet language of his own Spirit. And I found all that free, full, faithful promise had told me of made good unto me. And I have ever since found the Lord in the same place, ever I say, when I have carried my whole heart to seek him, and when my chief end, my chief concern, in those petitions I put up, were512 for his glory, as thus: When I petitioned513 for the subduing of my corruptions, I desired the healing of them chiefly that I might not dishonor God by being a scandal to my profession,514 a grief to God’s people, a stumbling to the wicked, and not only as I might be reproached and bring515 miseries to myself thereby. And so likewise,516 when I begged the strengthening of graces, or a greater measure in some graces, according to my present use of them, I did it chiefly that God might be glorified, whose name is named over me, not that517 I should be in

507. Carey drew a line across the page to separate her seventeenth assurance from the eighteenth. 508. Carey does not include her customary marginal note for numbering this assurance. 509. Meynell omits Carey’s first seventeen assurances: that is, he leaves out her pages 45 through 112. He begins his edition again with “I hope I shall never forget my prayer mercies . . .” near the beginning of the eighteenth assurance (Meditations, 26). He also omits assurances nineteen, twenty, and twentyone, plus a few additional pages of dialogue after assurance twenty-one (that is, Carey’s pages 127–40). Meynell thus shortens Carey’s dialogue by more than eighty pages. 510. The words “nor that mercy: the spirit of prayer” appear to have been added as an interlinear revision. 511. Carey used a caret to insert “the” above the line. 512. Carey appears to have started to write “where” but corrected it to “were” by retracing letters. 513. Marginal note: 1. 514. “The declaration of belief in and obedience to religion, or of acceptance of and conformity to the faith and principles of any religious community; (hence) the faith or religion which a person professes” (OED, s.v. “profession”). 515. Carey seems to have written n over another letter, possibly p. 516. Marginal note: secondly. An ink blot obscures the second syllable of “likewise.” 517. Carey used a caret to insert “not.” She appears to have written “that” near the bookbinding, to have struck it out, and to have written it clearly again on the next line of text.

84 MARY CAREY the least manner liked for it, I say, when God made me thus go to him, in his son he ever gave me a sweet return. I know when I have gone to God in a negligent, formal,518 careless, selfish manner, then I got nothing but shame of face and grief of heart. And many—yea, innumerable times519—hath been the indisposition and evil disposition of my heart to and in prayer. My memory is charged and overcharged with miscarriages in this kind— even to this day520—but whenever I have carried my heart to God, I have found immediate mercy. I must needs remember the nature and several kinds of prayer mercies shown me, as first: Prayer mercies have been free mercies.521 I have oft sought the Lord in some things wherein my conscience appeared before him with much guilt in that particular and could not522 but dictate to me much wrath and suffering. Now even in that very thing, contrary to desert and expectation, I have received wonderful mercy and therefore I must say: “He hath not dealt with” me “after” my “sins, nor rewarded” me “according to” my “iniquities” etc. (Psalms 103:10).523 Prayer mercies are free mercies. Prayer mercies are full mercies.524 Full indeed! For God hath given me first what I have asked,525 better than I have asked,526 more than I have asked,527 above what I could ask or think.528 This seems large, but it is no more than by experience I know true. And true it will ever be, because it is promised so to be. God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).529 518. “Done or adopted for the sake of form or convention; perfunctory; having the form without the spirit or substance” (OED, s.v. “formal”). 519. Carey used a caret to insert “times” above the line. 520. Carey inserted a caret after “kind,” probably indicating that the words in the margin, “even to this day,” should be added to her main text. Hutton keeps the phrase as a marginal note (My Lady, 140). 521. Marginal note: 1. 522. Carey used a caret to insert “not” above the line. 523. Carey quotes Psalms 103:10 verbatim except for replacing the first-person plural (“us” / “our”) with the first-person singular (“me” / “my”). 524. Marginal note: secondly. 525. Marginal note: 1. 526. Marginal note: secondly. 527. Marginal note: thirdly. 528. Marginal note: fourthly. 529. Cf. Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 85 Prayer mercies are sudden mercies,530 if our need be to have them so. Innumerable examples prove this throughout the scriptures, and thousands more may be produced from the testimony of God’s people in every age. If his people “call,” “the Lord shall answer”; if they “cry,” “he shall say, ‘Here I am’ ” (Isaiah 58:9).531 He is a God hearing prayer (Psalms 65:2).532 So may my soul proclaim him to be. This I can say, for I have taken special notice of it,533 that I never carried a troubled heart unto the Lord in prayer (and I think I have had as534 often535 and as greatly a distressed heart, in several536 extremities, as many have had), but I have sensibly received mercy, either easing mercy or comforting mercy or supporting mercy, or something hath been done to my heart in mercy. It hath been put in a waiting or537 an expecting frame until it got satisfaction—and was not this mercy? Prayer mercies are certain mercies.538 They are mercies in promise; we may rely on them; they cannot fail. “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee” (Psalms 50:15).539 There is preventing and delivering mercy promised: “Ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).540 There is the granting of every petitioned mercy promised. I have found it thus in time past, and therefore, now speak it and shall forever believe it. When I have foreseen and apprehended any great suffering before me—as the death of my children (a heart-terrifying sorrow)541 or some hideous temptation or death, etc.—when I looked upon the weight of the affliction or trial that was coming and looked also upon my own weakness and unfitness for to bear it, my flesh hath crept for fear, my spirit hath fainted, but blessed,

530. Marginal note: thirdly. 531. Cf. Isaiah 58:9: “Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.” 532. Cf. Psalms 65:2: “O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.” 533. Marginal note: mark this truth. 534. Carey appears to have traced the a over another letter. 535. An ink blot obscures the o in “often.” 536. Meynell reads “general” instead of “several” (Meditations, 30). 537. Carey first wrote f or s but retraced it to make o. 538. Marginal note: fourthly. 539. Carey quotes Psalms 50:15 verbatim, except for omitting “And” at the beginning of the verse and the concluding phrase, which reads “and thou shalt glorify me.” 540. Carey quotes the concluding words of John 15:7 verbatim; the first part reads, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall . . .” 541. Marginal note: and all my children were only children; each child, when it died, was all I had alive. Meynell incorporates this note into the main text before the phrase, “a heart-terrifying sorrow” (Meditations, 31).

86 MARY CAREY blessed—yea, 10,000 times 10,000 blessed—be my God, my prayer-hearing God, who hath been with me in all times and in all straits and hath ever given me: free,542 full, sudden, certain, hearing, answering mercies in prayer: “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalms 73:26).543 God hath fitted me for a cross and made that easy when it came, which, afar off, seemed insupportable. Prayer mercies are suitable mercies,544 or Christ545 will appear in prayer according to our present need. If we be in doubts546 and know not what to do, then Christ will come as a counselor (Isaiah 9:6), for that is his name and office.547 If we be under pressures,548 Christ will come as a supporter, and then we may suffer (as well as do) “all things through Christ” that “strengtheneth” us (Philippians 4:13).549 If we be disconsolate,550 Christ will come and comfort us. Go to him in prayer: he ever hath and ever will come and comfort me; he hath said it and done it and will do it. “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18).551 If we be sick,552 Christ is the Son “of righteousness” and will come “with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2).553 If we be weak or pained,554 God will give ease and strength, if good for us: “no good thing will he withhold” (Psalms 84:11).555

542. Carey marked out ff here and wrote “free” afterward. 543. Carey quotes Psalms 73:26 verbatim. 544. Marginal note: fifthly. 545. Carey appears to have retraced the letters in “Christ” to clarify them. 546. Marginal note: 1. 547. Cf. Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” 548. Marginal note: secondly. 549. Cf. Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” 550. Marginal note: thirdly. 551. Carey quotes John 14:18 verbatim. 552. Marginal note: fourthly. Carey retraced the letters in “sick” to clarify them. 553. Cf. Malachi 4:2: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” 554. Marginal note: fifthly. 555. Cf. Psalms 84:11: “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 87 If we fear death,556 call upon God, and he will “satisfy” us “with long life” (Psalms 91:15, 16).557 In case of soul weakness,558 we shall say by experience, “In the day when I cried, thou answerest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul” (Psalms 138:3).559 In case of spiritual wants,560 God, our “heavenly Father,” will “give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him” (Luke 11:13), 561 and surely all spiritual good is included therein. In case of spiritual desertion,562 when we apprehend God displeased,563 hiding his face, yet seek him: seek him in Christ, applying this promise: “Seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7),564 and we “shall find.” We “shall see” God’s “face with joy.” Mark: “he shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable to him, and he shall see his face with joy” (Job 33:26).565 Innumerable are the precedents hereof, and as many are the promises hereto. Prayer mercies are continual mercies.566 It is always term time567 in heaven. We may commence a suit568 every moment. Our advocate is always pleading and is our brother; our judge, ever ready to hear, and is our Father. We have a decree for our possession, God’s decree for569 heaven570 our inheritance. Our enemies are cast out of court—the devils, world, and flesh. 556. Marginal note: sixthly. 557. Cf. Psalms 91:15–16: “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” 558. Marginal note: seventhly. 559. Carey quotes Psalms 138:3 verbatim. 560. Marginal note: eighthly. 561. Cf. Luke 11:13: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” 562. Marginal note: ninthly. 563. Marginal note: in these nine and many other cases have I tried him, and therefore I believe, and I report, God will never fail his people. 564. Cf. Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” 565. Carey quotes the first part of Job 33:26 verbatim; the remainder reads, “for he will render unto man his righteousness.” 566. Marginal note: sixthly. 567. “The period during which a law court is in session” (OED, s.v. “term time”). 568. “The action of suing in a court of law; legal prosecution” (OED, s.v. “suit”). 569. Carey used a caret to insert “for” above the line. 570. An ink blot obscures the end of “heaven.”

88 MARY CAREY All their bills571 against us are blotted out by the blood of atonement. And I shall recover costs and charges for any loss I have suffered. The decree of this court is irrevocable, more firm than the laws of the Medes and Persians.572 O great privilege! To be at all times privileged, to go to God in prayer and receive prayer mercies! I might go much further and speak of the sweetness of prayer mercies and the peculiarness of prayer mercies, etc., but I have already writ more than in the rest, only thus since God hath made me “cry, ‘Abba, Father’ ” (Romans 8:15) by “the spirit of adoption,” and that “spirit” “beareth witness” I am his child.573 I hope for and pray for the portion of a child, my inheritance given by my father, purchased by my elder brother, which in time I shall possess. And though the gift of prayer be a common gift, yet the spirit of prayer is no common (but a peculiar574) gift, a child’s portion, and I know the promise to prayer which saith: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).575 My 19th assurance is576 that it is God’s will to give me heaven: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32),577 and if so, what can578 hinder? Not my unworthiness, nor my sinfulness, nor Satan’s malice. God is able; God is willing. I have Christ’s579 word for it. It is enough. I am safe580 and in possession, for Christ, my head, is there already. (He is gone to prepare a place for me and will come again to receive me, and thenceforth, I shall 571. “A note of charges for goods delivered or services rendered” (OED, s.v. “bill”). 572. Cf. Daniel 6:15: “Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statutes which the king establisheth may be changed.” 573. Cf. Romans 8:15–16: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” 574. Carey retraced i and a in “peculiar” to clarify them. 575. Carey quotes Romans 10:13 verbatim, except for omitting the first word, “For.” Carey drew a line across the page to separate her eighteenth and nineteenth assurances from each other. 576. Carey did not include her customary marginal note numbering this assurance. 577. Carey quotes Luke 12:32 verbatim. 578. Carey struck out something at the end of “can” to make the word clearly read “can.” It is possible that she first wrote “came” instead of “can.” 579. An ink blot obscures “Christ’s.” 580. Carey wrote an unclear mark—probably f—before “safe.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 89 be ever where he is. Christ sayeth “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go” to “prepare a place for you, I will581 come again and receive you unto myself,” [Ah sweet, dear word!] “that where I am, there you may be also!” [John 14:2, 3])582 I am sure every member of his mystical body shall be glorified with him also.583 ∞584 My 20th assurance is585 from God’s dealing with me after revolts from him and relapses into sin. Ah, woe is me! That I, that I should be as I am and do as I do! Alas for it! There is no staying here. Should I consider the strength of corruption, the multitude of mine infirmities,586 the treacherousness of my heart, the weakness and mixedness of my graces, my failings in relations, with my provocations in duties, I should be in the depth of doubtings, no comfort but in the view of God’s free love and in Christ’s righteousness. Now when I fall and Satan brings in a just charge against me587 and I know it true, he aggravates it, and his chief design is to make me add sin to sin. He questions me in the main not to be right and would fain work me to unbelief. Now in this sad—yea, saddest—condition (for what is so terrible as sin and Satan?), yet I find that God looks on, listens, and when I go and throw myself at his feet with shame, woe, and loathing, he gives in these considerations: That, as the foreknowledge of any and all my sins could not hinder God’s free love in electing, redeeming, justifying, and calling me, so nor shall these sins now committed hinder free grace and eternal love from saving me. Another consideration that hath strengthened faith as to the pardon of these sins was that Christ suffered and satisfied for every kind of sin, as well as for sins after as before believing, as well sins of revolt and relapses oft into the same offences as into other several sins, though this of all other most dishonor and most offend God and is most unkind588 and the most sad condition can befall a believer. Yet nor this shall 581. Carey appears to have retraced letters in “will” to clarify them. 582. Carey quotes the concluding statement of John 14:2 verbatim; the first part reads, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” She then quotes John 14:3 verbatim except she replaces “and” with “to” between “go” and “prepare.” 583. This statement is squeezed into the bottom margin of the page. The words “his mystical body shall be glorified with him also” were originally written at the top of Carey’s page 139, which was originally her page 131 and which someone renumbered after Carey added what is now assurance twenty as inserted pages on different paper. 584. Carey drew a tiny infinity sign beneath her last statement at the very bottom of her page 130 and repeated it again at the top of the next page to indicate that this is where the new version of assurance twenty should go. 585. Carey did not include her customary marginal note to number this assurance. The pages on which this assurance is written are slightly smaller than those around it and are not ruled in red. 586. Hutton reads “iniquities” instead of “infirmities” (My Lady, 156). 587. An ink blot obscures the space after “me.” 588. An ink blot obscures the second “n” in “unkind.”

90 MARY CAREY condemn me, for the Lord calls me to return, and he will receive me. His anger shall not fall upon me, nor will he keep it forever. He calls his people “children,” and [spokes?]589 for all their revolts and promiseth healing of backslidings. Yea, his command hath a melting power and a tempering quality to put his poor relapsed people into a sweet frame. All this will appear by Jeremiah 3:1, 12, 14, 22, 23 verses.590 God forbids me to depart from him by an “heart of unbelief ” (Hebrews 3:12),591 but promises to “heal” my “backslidings” and “love” me “freely” (Hosea592 14:4)593 and not to cast me off for them. It is a good sign when the Lord gives a sorrowful heart594 for sin yet lets us not rest in that or expect pardon therefore but go to our Savior and see our sins suffered for by him and by faith present him and his merits unto the Father, as our only sacrifice to obtain pardon. And where God pardons sin—though it be only for Christ’s sake—yet is it a sweet mercy, if together with pardon of sin, he give in a heart truly humbled for sin, sincerely loathing of sin, and constantly watching against all sin for time to come, and that we pray against and chiefly oppose our bosom iniquities, our constitution sins, our customary sins, those sins we are most prone to, most in danger of, our calling sins, our relation sins, the sins of our rank, the sins of our sex, the sins of our times in which we live and the places in which we dwell, the company we may be in, the sins incident595 to our present duties, our present afflictions, our present enjoyments, etc. Lord, let preventing grace be with us. Truly, I cannot but admire God’s patience and tender bowels of mercy to me that leaves me not to be swallowed up of unbelief upon sight of my falls. When I consider how extraordinary good God hath been to me and how extraordinary badly I have 589. This word could also be “sposes.” Perhaps Carey meant to write “speaks.” Hutton sidesteps the difficulty of deciphering this word by substituting “answers” (My Lady, 159). 590. Cf. Jeremiah 3:1, 12, 14, 22–23: “They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. . . . Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. . . . Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. . . . Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.” 591. Cf. Hebrews 3:12: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” 592. Carey retraced H in “Hosea” to clarify it. 593. Cf. Hosea 14:4: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” 594. Carey appears to have retraced the first few letters in “heart” to clarify it. 595. Carey struck out “of ” plus several letters before “incident.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 91 behaved myself to him after such receipts and such enjoyment as not everyone knows—I, being of a melancholy temper, oft assaulted by Satan with his greatest malice—and yet that God should then596 show pity and keep up my faith! Here is free love! God’s meekness, sweetness, and goodness in this case doth assure me of his597 present and future love and mercy to my poor soul, though most of all sinful and unworthy.598 My 21th599 assurance is from the free promise of my Savior to give me eternal life, and since the God of truth and power hath said I shall not perish, nor be plucked out of his hand, nor from his father’s hand as John 10:28, 29: “I give them eternal life.” “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” “No man is able to pluck them out of my father’s hand,” etc.600 Is not that safe that is in God’s hand? Then so am601 I. Can God’s hold fail? No more shall I. Is there any stronger to wrest me from him? No, no! Give over, Satan, thou shalt not prevail. It is not I that holdeth God, but God holdeth me.602 Faint not, my heart; rejoice, my spirit! The strength of Israel cannot be overcome. Nor can he break promise. Free mercy looked upon me before I could crave—yea, before God had made—any promise. But now that I am sure the Lord hath loved me and done all, all this for me and that I have his promise—his promise, I say—the Lord hath now engaged himself by his promise unto me as 1 John 2:25. “This is the promise he hath promised 596. Carey wrote something near the margin—probably “this”—struck it out and wrote it more clearly on the next line. 597. An ink blot obscures the s in “his.” Carey struck out a word after “his” and before “present.” 598. The next page—Carey’s page 138—is blank. Carey made small circles with her pen at the top of page 139 to strike out entirely two full lines of text (that is, the words “his mystical body shall be glorified with him also,” which she moved to the bottom of her page 130). She then drew a line across the page to separate her twentieth assurance from her twenty-first. She does not include her customary marginal note numbering this assurance. This last assurance continues on the same paper as all but the penultimate one, which, as mentioned in note 583, is written on a slightly smaller size of paper and was inserted after the other assurances were written. The paper on which the twenty-first assurance is written has its margins ruled in red. 599. The ink with which “1” in “21” is written is very heavy. Also, Carey wrote “th” instead of “st” after the number. Carey appears to have first written “20th” and then retraced “0” to make “1” after inserting additional pages as the twentieth assurance. This would explain why the paper is different only for the twentieth. She overlooked the need to change “th” to “st” when she changed the numbering. 600. Cf. John 10:28–29: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” 601. An ink blot obscures the m in “am.” 602. Marginal note: it is God’s holding me; that is my safety.

92 MARY CAREY us, even eternal life.”603 O sweet, comforting, certain truth for my prayer to be grounded on, for my faith to act on, with all humility be it spoken! The Lord must now be faithful, and I undoubtedly shall be happy. The promise of my Lord is the rocky foundation my faith is built upon; the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.604

done?

Body: Ah, my dear Soul! What hast thou said? Or rather, what hath God

605

O wonderful, great, free goodness to thee and me! He hath done and given above all thou couldst ask or think. Had God given me good things in this life only, it had been mercy! But alas, that would have come to an end, and misery forever might have followed. But the mercy he hath showed thee is of an endless nature—shall last forever and ever. Soul: It is true, Sister; it is true. Let us think on a little of the Lord’s dealing with us. First, that I should be born in a land of light.606 God hath not dealt so with every nation as with England. Again, that I should live in the sunshine of the Gospel.607 All times are not Gospel times. Further, that God should not only give me the Gospel608 but send his Spirit with it to convey it to my heart for its good. O, that God should show me my misery609 and not leave me to despair! That God should show me the means and, and that I—the most sinful I, the most unworthiest I that ever was—should see the way whereby I might become the child610 of God.611

603. Carey quotes 1 John 2:25 verbatim, except for omitting “And” at its beginning. She squeezed this biblical quotation between two lines in small letters. 604. The words “shall never prevail against it” are written in the page’s bottom margin. 605. Marginal note: God hath left nothing undone towards me. 606. Marginal note: 1. 607. Marginal note: secondly. 608. Marginal note: thirdly. 609. Marginal note: fourthly. 610. Carey appears to have first written G and then to have retraced it to make the c in “child.” 611. Marginal note: fifthly.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 93 Again, I might have seen it and not have tasted it, as the “lord on whose hand the king leaned” in Elijah’s612 time, saw the plenty of Samaria but eat not thereof (2 Kings 7:2613 and verse 19).614 But I had Christ given me,615 and Christ made my peace and reconciliation with the Father.616 And ever since, God hath carried on his work. Praise to his name forever and forever. Now, dear Sister, let us take up a few resolutions at the conclusion of these thoughts at this time. Resolve we often to meditate617 of God’s singular goodness to us, singular, I say, for mercies of this kind are but to few, and that I should be one of those few—“singular” mercy may I call it: “Many” are “called, but few” are “chosen” (Matthew 20:16).618 Labor we to be much affected with it,619 and let this affectation begin an endless and continual admiring of God620 and his abundant goodness. O, that the sight and consideration thereof may make us reflect upon self much to vilify ourselves,621 our wretchedness622 by nature—none worse, not one, the greatest sins and all the sins that ever was acted by any are in me and should have appeared had not restraining grace hindered! And I verily believe there is not any—no not one—that hath walked so unworthily623 (after the receipt of624 so much mercy;625 secondly,626 the sense of so much love;627 612. Given Carey’s biblical citations here, it is possible that she meant Elisha rather than Elijah. 613. Hutton mistakenly reads verse 1 instead of 2 here (My Lady, 168). 614. Cf. 2 Kings 7:2, 19: “Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. . . . And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” 615. Marginal note: sixthly. 616. Marginal note: ah, these six special mercies! 617. Marginal note: 1. Lord, let me not omit these. 618. Cf. Matthew 20:16: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” 619. Marginal note: secondly. Affect me. 620. Marginal note: thirdly. Help me to admire thee. 621. Marginal note: fourthly. And to loathe self: sincerely and extremely. 622. Carey retraced the t in “wretchedness” to clarify it. 623. Marginal note: ah, alas, break, heart, break! 624. Carey struck out a word—possibly “spirit”—after “of.” 625. Marginal note: first. 626. Carey used a caret to insert “2ly” for “secondly” here. 627. Marginal note: secondly.

94 MARY CAREY the enjoyment of so much means;628 the making of so many629 and renewing of so many vows and covenants of better obedience) as I have done. And can I think this? And can I speak this with a whole heart? Ah, hard heart! Unsensible heart! Traitorous heart! Shall not the goodness of God melt thee?630 Not thy sins of unkindness against goodness—the greatest goodness, all sorts of goodness—that can be showed to thee? My powerful Lord, work upon thee and make me sensible of this goodness, even that my heart is made sensible of God’s goodness, melted by it and much affected with it.631 Let my heart be drawn in by his mercy to a strict watch for time to come against all sin.632 O, I cannot sin, but I sin against kindness, and therefore, hate633 the unkindness of sinning. Let the consideration634 of God’s free, full, singular, continual, constant,635 eternal, best love to me stir up and increase abundantly636 my love to him, dear him.637 Let thee and I, my dear Body—all thy members, all my faculties, even the whole man—give up ourselves638 unto our God, our good God, unto his service, unto his dispose. Well may we trust him with all that is ours who hath taken care of us for here and for eternity. Let us patiently suffer his will in all things,639 willingly surrendering what he pleaseth to call for. 628. Marginal note: thirdly. 629. Marginal note: fourthly. 630. Marginal note: all mercy, love, and means on God’s part and sins—gross sins, willful sins—on thy part. 631. Marginal note: Lord, do this. 632. Marginal note: fifthly. Keep this resolution in continual memory, my Soul. 633. Carey appears to have retraced the e in “hate” to clarify it. The phrase “hate the unkindness of sinning” is squeezed between two lines. 634. Marginal note: sixthly. 635. Carey retraced the c in “constant” to clarify it. 636. Carey retraced the a and b in “abundantly” to clarify them. 637. Marginal note: Ah, love him, love him, my Soul, my Soul; love my dear Lord, and let love be the ground of all thy obedience, both doing and suffering. This marginal note begins in the left margin of the page and continues onto the bottom margin. Meynell incorporates most of this note into the main text (Meditations, 35). 638. Marginal note: seventhly. Lord, take them, and employ them, even my soul and body in thy service. 639. Marginal note: eighthly. Ah, freely, cheerfully suffer, surrender. Carey first struck out der in “surrender” and then wrote those letters again more clearly.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 95 What can we want that hath Christ? Let us labor together to glorify God whilst we abide together.640 When our parting time comes,641 let us both joy in it, for I shall go to God, and thou shall rest in thy chamber until the day of Christ’s appearing, and then, dear Sister, we shall meet again, never to part. Then we shall be reunited one to another, both unto Christ;642 then we shall be able to recount all the Lord’s goodness; then we shall perfectly praise him. Then we shall get saints and angels and all in heaven to help us praise him.643 And we shall have an eternity of time to do it in.644 And we shall enjoy God and Christ and the Spirit forever and never sin more.645 Now, to our dear and merciful God the Father, to our dear and tenderly loving God the Son, to our dear comforter and guider, God the Holy Ghost,646 be all praise, thanks, glory, honor ascribed from all in earth and in heaven, especially from my Soul and Body, for now and ever, world without end. Amen. Mary Carey647

May 14th, 1652 I have now buried four sons and a daughter. God hath my all of children; I have his all (beloved Christ), a sweet change. In greatest sorrows content and happy. M.C.648

640. Marginal note: ninthly. It is God’s end; make it thine. 641. Marginal note: tenthly. Think of it; prepare for it. 642. Marginal note: O perfect happiness! 643. Marginal note: O sweet! 644. Marginal note: O convenient! 645. Marginal note: O I cannot think, nor speak, but I shall know this and that forever! 646. Carey appears to have retraced the first three letters in “Ghost” to clarify them. 647. Carey’s signature is approximately three times larger than the rest of her writing. 648. Carey signs her initials—again, in handwriting several times larger than the rest of her text—after a flourish. The next two pages (Carey’s 146 and 147) are blank. Meynell relocates this note so that it appears after the elegies by Carey and her husband, George Payler (Meditations, 43).

96 MARY CAREY Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler649 Dear wife, let’s learn to get that sacred skill Of free submission to God’s holy will. He like a potter is, and we like clay: Shall not the potter mold us his own way? Sometimes, it is his pleasure that we stand With pretty, lovely babies in our hand. Then, he, in wisdom, turns the wheel about And draws the posture of those comforts out Into another form, either this or that As pleases him, and ’tis no matter what, If by such changes, God shall bring us in To love Christ Jesus and to loathe our sin.

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Covent Garden, December 8th, 1650 George Payler

Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler650 My Lord hath called for my son. My heart breathes forth, “Thy will be done.” My all, that mercy hath made mine, Freely’s surrendered to be thine. But if I give my all to thee, Let me not pine for poverty. Change with me; do as I have done: Give me thy all, even thy dear son. ’Tis Jesus Christ, Lord, I would have; He’s thine, mine all: ’tis him I crave.

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649. Carey copied this poem into her book perpendicular to the page (that is, the title and lines were written with the book turned ninety degrees clockwise). Perhaps she used this technique to give each separate line of verse more room on the page than it would have had if she had written it horizontally in the usual way. Hutton follows suit by imitating her vertical positioning of the poem’s lines on the page; unlike Carey, he also numbers the couplets (My Lady, 177). 650. Carey copied this poem into her book perpendicular to the page (that is, the title and lines were written with the book turned ninety degrees clockwise). She included several small flourishes at the end of her poem’s title. Hutton follows suit by imitating her vertical positioning of the poem on the page; unlike Carey, he numbers the couplets (My Lady, 178).

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 97 Give him to me, and I’ll reply, “Enough, my Lord: now let me die.” Covent Garden, December 8th, 1650 Mary Carey651

Figure 5. Pages 150–51. Carey’s perpendicular placement on the page of “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628.

651. Carey’s signature is approximately three times larger than the other words on the page. She includes flourishes under “1650” and before her first name.

98 MARY CAREY

Figure 6. Page 42. Meynell’s placement on the page in contrast to Carey’s of “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler.” Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. BV4831.C3.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 99 Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler652 I thought my all was given before, But mercy ordered me one more. A Peregrine, my God me sent; Him back again I do present As a love token, ’mongst my others— One daughter and her four dear brothers— To my Lord Christ. My only bless653 Is, he is mine, and I am his. My dearest Lord, hast thou fulfilled654 thy will, Thy handmaid’s655 pleased, completely happy still.

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Grove Street, May 12, 1652 Mary Carey656 A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost God the Father pitied me when I was lost657 and loved me when I was loathsome by sin (Ezekiel 16:5,658 Psalms 51:4),659 and as much his enemy (according to my capacity), as the devil, and although he foresaw what I660 would be, which might justly have hindered, yet free grace looked upon me with intentions of eternal 652. This poem is inscribed perpendicular to the page (that is, the title and lines were written with the book turned ninety degrees clockwise). Hutton follows suit by imitating her vertical positioning of the poem on the page; he also numbers the couplets, which Carey does not do (My Lady, 179). 653. Meynell reads “bless” as “bliss” (Meditations, 42), as does Hutton (My Lady, 179). Carey clearly spells this word with e, however, rather than i. 654. Carey retraced the second f in “fulfilled” to clarify it. 655. An ink blot obscures the e in Carey’s spelling of “handmaides.” 656. Carey’s signature, which follows a flourish, is approximately four times larger than the other words on the page. There is also a flourish under “1652.” The next page is blank. 657. Marginal note: free grace of God the Father. 658. Hutton corrects Carey’s mistaken reference to Ezekiel 16:1 to verse 5 of the same book (My Lady, 180). I have followed suit. Cf. Ezekiel 16:5: “None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.” 659. Cf. Psalms 51:4: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightiest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” 660. Hutton omits “what I” (My Lady, 180).

100 MARY CAREY goodness, having no reason out of himself, nor other reason but his will, which set wisdom on work to search for a savior for me.661 And when none was found but his own son, God equal with himself, love gave him662—even Christ his only dearly beloved son (John 3:16),663 the treasure of heaven and earth—to the greatest of sufferings (Isaiah 53:7, 10).664 O the greatness of love! And for me—a sinful enemy, an heir of curse,665 wrath, and hell! Secondly, weigh the freeness of this love,666 for all following blessings, promises, privileges were the purchase of Christ for me, but Christ himself was the free gift of God the Father, without desert, without purchase given me, that by him I might be free from misery, made capable667 of mercy, reconciled to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19, 21),668 and in him blessed forever. Thirdly, see, my soul, the singularness of this love:669 there is but a “few” “chosen” (Matthew 22:14),670 but a “little flock” to whom “the kingdom” shall be given (Luke 12:32).671 And to be one of those chosen, a sheep of that little flock: admire it, my soul! Fourthly, joy in the eternity of this love,672 for whom the Father once loves, he loves to “the end” (John 13:1).673 And since my birth,674 how hath God manifested love to my poor soul that I should be born in a land of light (what land like England for the gospel and gospel ordinances?) and to be brought up in a time675 when the gospel hath liberty and its followers and not when676 both are 661. Marginal note: first love. 662. Marginal note: 1. The greatness of first love. 663. For John 3:16, see note 185. 664. Cf. Isaiah 53:7, 10: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. . . . Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” 665. Carey appears to have written the c in “curse” over another letter, possibly s or f. 666. Marginal note: secondly. The freeness of first love. 667. Ink blots obscure the p and the second a in “capable.” 668. For 2 Corinthians 5:18–19, see note 146; for verse 21, see note 188. 669. Marginal note: thirdly. Singularness of first love. 670. Cf. Matthew 22:14: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” 671. Cf. Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” 672. Marginal note: fourthly. Eternity of first love. 673. For John 13:1, see note 258. 674. Marginal note: mercies since my birth. 675. Marginal note: born and lived in gospel times. 676. Hutton reads “where” instead of “when” (My Lady, 183).

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 101 persecuted. I was made partaker of the ordinance of baptism677 when I know no right I had to the seal of the covenant by the interest of either of my parents, but I am sure free mercy in God hath made him faithfully perform his part towards me. I have enjoyed his word all my life long678 and the sweet society of his people by a special relation to them,679 which is my honor, my benefit, my comfort, and to the ordinance of the supper,680 God hath given me sweet welcomes: I have been feasted with unspeakable delights. God hath also given me his Spirit,681 whose work hath made mercies effectual, as I shall more peculiarly name after. Outward682 mercies also I have had683 of every kind, which is not the portion of every child, as health and sickness, ease and pain, strength and weakness—all this was made684 good for me. The Lord formed me and gave me right proportion in the womb; he hath given me all my senses, food, and685 raiment, both for use, ornament, and delight. I had tenderly loving parents, good husbands686—the last is so—and good was it for me that I was wife to the first. God hath given me lovely children, sons and daughters: five in God’s bosom; two yet with me. It is best for me and them that those that died, died; it is best for me and them that those that live, live. Many were the mercies of them that died and (in some kind) more are the mercies of these that live. And all the mercies687 of them both were my mercies. God hath taken special care of me in times of war: I ever dwelt in safety. In times of raining,688 raging sickness, I have been kept in health;689 in ill company, great protection; and much good have I seen follow to me from disappointments. And who is able to number preservations from evils known and from evils unknown? I have been690 oft delivered, not only from feeling but fearing evils of sundry kinds. 677. Marginal note: partaker of baptismal grace. 678. Marginal note: ever under a powerful ministry. An ink blot obscures “I have” and “all my life.” 679. Marginal note: the church at Kat. Carey added a caret after “ym” for “them”; it is possible that this marginal note should be inserted there. Hutton also preserves it as a marginal note and clarifies it as “ye church of St. Katherine’s” (My Lady, 184). 680. Marginal note: my soul satisfied in this dear ordinance. 681. Marginal note: the Spirit. 682. Meynell begins his transcription of this meditation here (Meditations, 44). 683. Marginal note: outward mercies. 684. Carey retraced the d in “made” to clarify it. 685. A smudge obscures “in the,” “given,” and “food &.” 686. Marginal note: much was my mercy in relations. 687. Marginal note: their mercies were mine. 688. Meynell reads “reigning” (Meditations, 45), as does Hutton (My Lady, 186), but Carey clearly wrote “raining.” 689. Marginal note: London in the plague time. 690. Hutton omits “been” (My Lady, 186).

102 MARY CAREY What dangers was incident to me before my birth, in691 infancy, childhood, and all along my youth in all places and conditions, changes and companies? And considering my first estate in marriage692—my then associates and inclination—I must acknowledge my deliverances and preventing mercies very great, known to God and myself. What innumerable enemies have I to my life693—to my comfort, to my graces, to every enjoyment, to my precious soul? How powerful, how subtle, how malicious694 is Satan! O, my almighty God, my faithful, merciful Father! Were it not for thee, what a sad case should thy poor handmaid and all hers be in! Many great sufferings I never tasted, as want of any outward necessary mercy I never knew. I never wanted house, nor land, loving friends, useful servants, food, raiment, the comfort of parents, or in their absence, of children, or in their absence, of my husband. I have lived 45 years and never yet wanted695 anything that was absolutely necessary at the present one hour in all my life. Indeed, I had the greatest want of all when I wanted God, but so soon as I found a want of him, I discerned him—although as an enemy and doing terrible things against me. Yet this was the supply of my want, and I wanted the enjoyment of God no longer than his wisdom knew the fittest time. And then I had a soul satisfying presence, I bless his name. I hear Satan whisper, “thou sayest not true. I have oft known thee want the light of God’s countenance, inward peace, strengthening of some graces, and strength against some corruptions, and I have oft foiled thee at such a time.” Satan, I know it hath been thus with me, and it was best, for by my want of the sense of God’s loving countenance, I came to696 know how I prized it. It set me a seeking697 it, and that loss698 remained as an awe upon my spirit for time coming. And my want of inward peace made me search the cause, and a true search is a great advantage. Weakness of grace and want of strength against corruptions and my being foiled by thee made me know myself and sent me to God, and God gained himself much glory and me abundance of good out of such a condition. Thou knowest it. And shall I say or think that because I have not all I desire of everything at all times, I want anything that is fit? No. I have and ever had all that is and was good and best for me, and if I desired what I had not, the fault was there. I shall never indulge any desires but what is limited to God’s will. I would not have my will but as mine is, his. For I know my own will to be foolish and harmful. 691. Hutton omits “in” (My Lady, 187). 692. There are some illegible marks in the margin. 693. Marginal note: Satan, sin, heart, world, etc. 694. An ink blot—possibly Carey’s effort to retrace letters for clarity—obscures the end of “malicious.” Another possible reading is “malicing.” 695. Marginal note: a great but true word. 696. Carey wrote the o in “to” over another letter. 697. Meynell reads “a seeking” as “asking” (Meditations, 48). 698. An ink blot obscures the l in “loss.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 103 Now, as I may say by experience, I never wanted any mercy, good and absolutely necessary in time past. So, by faith, I say, I never shall for time to come. What is that further, Satan? I wanted the life of my children, which I importunately begged? I answer thee: when I importunately begged their life, I knew not but God’s will might be to spare as well as to take, but when I more clearly saw it God’s will to remove them, I wanted not a heart (of God’s giving) willingly to surrender them,699 nor did I want the comfort of them after they were gone, for God gave me more than he took from me: more enjoyment of God for some of the creature is a sweet change. And besides I want not that desired mercy of children but have now more than ever. One was my greatest number formerly: now great and tender mercy gives and continues me two,700 a son and a daughter. All my former were sickly, weak, pained, not likely to live, but these have been—and are—healthful,701 strong, enjoying ease, hopeful. Blessed be God for Bethia and Nathaniel and all their mercies, and let their births—and all the rest—never be forgotten by me and all my deliverances of each of them all. Strong and faithful was my God, good, good to mother and child at such a time. Great was mine and their danger; eminent was mine and their mercies. Blessed be God, praise to God, I never wanted nurses, keepers, doctors, etc. For all these and the success of their endeavors, I bless God, my Father, for all my mercies in every place, the love of God’s people, the courtesy of others. All is from him; he gives me favor in the eyes of others and makes one’s enemies at peace with them. I have lived in Berwick, London oft,702 Kent, Hunsdon, Edinburgh, Thistleworth, Hackney, Tottridge, Greenwich, Bednall Green, Clapham, York, Nun Monkton, St. James’s, Newington, Covent Garden, and dear St. Katherine’s, and in all these I acknowledge the continual receipt of all useful, comfortable, and desirable mercies and bless God for them all and for all my spiritual mercies in places of703 worship and closet comforts (God’s presence chambers). I have been several times near to death in the judgement of others and my own thoughts, and God hath been with me and restored me. In all these wars, I was safe in garrisons and was not straitened, nor plundered, nor separated from my dear relations.704

699. Marginal note: I first experienced self, then God; first weakness, then mercy. 700. Carey appears to have written “two” unclearly, struck it out, and rewritten it above the line. 701. Carey retraced several letters in “healthful” to clarify them. 702. Hutton omits “oft” (My Lady, 195). 703. Carey struck out a word after “of.” 704. The remainder of this page and the next two are blank. Meynell ends his edition of Carey’s writings here, thus omitting her last two meditations and final long elegy (in other words, the last twenty pages of her book) (Meditations, 53).

104 MARY CAREY A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ705 Christ loved me so dearly that he left the joys of his kingdom, the praises of his angels, the presence of his Father and willingly undertook the painful work of my redemption (Psalms 40:7, 8).706 Taking on him my nature (Hebrews 2:16, 17),707 he stood charged with all my sins before his Father (Isaiah 53:6, etc.),708 suffering all that wrath that I deserved; fully satisfying justice on my behalf, he bare the displeasure of God, the malice of men, the rage of devils—in his life, a man of sorrows; in his death, sufferings above all apprehensions or expressions. O, my soul, remember, meditate, dwell, dwell on the love of thy dear Lord. Had it not been for the love of Christ (God, man) that “humbled himself ” to the death, even the cursed “death of the cross” (Philippians709 2:8),710 that would die to save my life (John 10:11, 15),711 that became my surety, that paid my debt, I had been an irreconcilable enemy to God forever, born to miseries only, under curse and wrath, and all creatures and conditions cursed unto me, no remedy in heaven nor712 earth to help me, neither pity, nor mercy just to me. If no Christ, then no covenant; no promise, no Spirit, no spiritual blessings in heavenly places.713 I must have died to go to hell, having God my enemy, the devils my tormentors,714 the damned my companions, and exquisite torments my portion, unspeakable, unsufferable, continual for all eternity. But now by Christ’s loving me and giving himself for me and to me, I am freed from all the forenamed miseries in life, in death, and hell, and my happiness is great, my privileges many, glorious, and endless. Never can I think of all until I taste the last, yet I will name some: pardon of sin, deliverance from the guilt, power, punishment thereof; reconciliation with the Father; peace, love, grace, “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in 705. The remainder of Carey’s manuscript does not have its margins ruled in red. 706. Cf. Psalms 40:7–8: “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” 707. Cf. Hebrews 2:16–17: “For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” 708. For Isaiah 53:6, see note 143. 709. Carey retraced the l in her abbreviation for Philippians (“Phil”) to clarify it. 710. Cf. Philippians 2:8: “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” 711. Cf. John 10:11, 15: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. . . . As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.” 712. Hutton reads “and” instead of “nor” (My Lady, 198). 713. The word “places” is squeezed into the very bottom right-hand corner of the page. 714. An ink blot obscures the first syllable of “tormentors.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 105 Christ” (Ephesians 1:3);715 right to all ordinances; interest in the promises and in all creature comforts, so far as is good for me and good by every providence, dispensation, affliction, enjoyment (Romans 8:28),716 every relation. In all conditions, in all places, Christ hath and will be with me, hath and will bless me. In Christ, I shall be blessed in doing, blessed in suffering, blessed in wanting, blessed in abounding, blessed in all that is done to me by others. Yea, even Satan’s malice shall be for my good. Blessed in sickness and health, in pain and ease, when weak, when strong, in company and alone, abroad, at home, in my life, all my life, at death, after death, in the great day, and thenceforth forever. Christ is my priest, “a merciful and faithful high priest” (Hebrews 2:17).717 There is many and great mercies derived from Christ’s priestly office to my soul. Christ “offered” up “himself without spot” that his blood “might purge” my “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).718 He “himself ” hath “purged” my “sins” (Hebrews 1:3)719 and made “reconciliation” for them (Hebrews 2:17).720 He “offered up prayers and supplications” “in the days of his flesh” for me and “was heard”721 (Hebrews 5:7).722 “By his own blood he” hath “entered” “into the holy place” and “obtained” “redemption for” me (Hebrews 9:12).723 He is entered into “heaven” “to appear in the presence of God for” me (Hebrews 9:24),724 and there “he ever liveth to make intercession for” me (Hebrews 7:25). And will “save” me

715. Cf. Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” 716. Cf. Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” 717. Cf. Hebrews 2:17: “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” 718. Cf. Hebrews 9:14: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 719. Cf. Hebrews 1:3: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 720. For Hebrews 2:17, see note 717. 721. Carey used a caret to insert “and was heard” above the line. 722. Cf. Hebrews 5:7: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” 723. Cf. Hebrews 9:12: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” 724. Cf. Hebrews 9:24: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

106 MARY CAREY “to the uttermost,” for I “come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25),725 Christ’s being my priest,726 my sacrifice, my altar, my intercessor, my Jesus that hath “loved” me and “washed” me “in his” “blood” from my “sins” (Revelation 1:5)727 and saves me from “wrath728 to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).729 Here is my sanctuary; blessed be God for this sanctuary. When sin burdens me, when Satan terrifies me, when my own heart fails me, when death—even death—stares at me, yea, when the Lord himself seems730 displeased (which is more than all and the most that can be), yet here I am safe. I am hid; I am happy. Christ is my prophet also, and many high, sweet soul advantages have I by Christ’s prophetical731 office as: he “teacheth”732 me “to profit” (Isaiah 48:17);733 “he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 50:4, 5); he speaketh “a word in season” when I am “weary” (Isaiah 50:4);734 he hath preached good tidings to me; he hath both broken and bound up my heart; he proclaimed “liberty” to a “captive” of sin and Satan and opened “the prison,” set me free from law, curse, wrath, proclaimed “the acceptable year of the Lord,” “comfort,” “beauty,” “oil of joy,” “garment of praise,” etc.; he was commissioned and anointed hereto,735 as Isaiah 61:1, 2, 3.736 Christ is my king also, and I 725. Cf. Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” 726. Hutton reads “priest” as “rest” (My Lady, 203). 727. Cf. Revelation 1:5: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” 728. An ink blot obscures the r in “wrath.” 729. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” 730. An ink blot obscures the ee in “seems.” 731. Carey inserted the r in “prophetical” over another letter, probably h. 732. Hutton reads “reaches” instead of “teacheth” (My Lady, 204). 733. Cf. Isaiah 48:17: “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.” 734. Cf. Isaiah 50:4–5: “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” 735. Carey retraced the h in “hereto” to clarify it. 736. Cf. Isaiah 61:1–3: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 107 have many inestimable737 privileges738 thereby also. He reigns over me and gives me laws, makes me his subject, gives me his livery,739 and makes me a partaker of all the good things of his740 kingdom, tramples my enemies under his feet, as sin (Romans 6:14),741 Satan (Romans 16:20),742 world (John 16:33),743 death (1 Corinthians 15:56, 57).744 Christ is my all. He pitied me and loved me. He was no sooner found than ready, no sooner given than he gave745 himself. He hath washed me in his blood, redeemed me, justified me, sanctified me, saved me. Christ hath fulfilled the law, sealed the gospel, appeased the Father, sent the Spirit, quieted conscience, freed from wrath, given in grace, wounded corruptions, healed infirmities, conquered enemies, visits me when from him, welcomes me to him. He hears me, answers me, resolves me, comforts me, easeth me, strengthens me, heals me,746 gives in all as is best for me. Christ is mine; I am his, and therefore, with a heart full of joy, I pronounce myself truly and everlastingly blessed and happy in my dearest Lord Jesus.

A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost God the Holy Spirit made me the object of his love and sanctifying grace. When God the Father elected and God the Son undertook the work of my redemption, all the persons in the Holy Trinity (one glorious God blessed forever) did jointly will and orderly work my salvation, and foundation mercy (free grace and abundant love) was in time, by the Lord’s own means and strength, carried on and built up from step to step and shall be until his poor creature shall come to him in glory. 737. Carey struck out an ampersand before “inestimable.” 738. Carey wrote “priviledged,” but context indicates that she meant “privileges.” 739. “The food, provisions, or clothing dispensed to or supplied for retainers, servants, or others” (OED, s.v. “livery”). 740. Carey retraced the h in “his” to clarify it. 741. Cf. Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” 742. Cf. Romans 16:20: “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” 743. Carey retraced the “6” in “John 16” to clarify it. Cf. John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” 744. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:56–57: “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 745. Carey first wrote “gave” near the bookbinding, then struck it out, and wrote it clearly on the next line. 746. Carey retraced the letters in “me” to clarify them.

108 MARY CAREY O Holy Spirit, what great things has thou done to me and for me! How irresistibly and continually hast thou wrought upon me in thy free grace, both on soul and body! First, on my soul and its faculties, thou were pleased to dart a glimpse of light into my understanding that I might know something of God, of Christ, of self, of the world to come, what else had become of me. Secondly, that the Spirit should deal with my rebellious will, the subduing whereof was no less than a work for a god to do. Thirdly, that God the Spirit should gather my straggling affections, whose back was turned upon all that was good but running747 speed after wrong objects,748 and though often changing their seats, yet ever misplaced, always against good to its least appearance and for evil to my utmost capacity. What base, intricate labyrinths of wickednesses hath the Spirit of God traced my affections through to their depth, to their center? All my several affections, as love, joy, sorrow, fear, hope, desire, etc. have749 posted through millions of mischiefs to find out a fancied something when their success was nothing but sin, shame, and sorrow—as since my God hath declared them unto me and even me to myself. The blessed Spirit hath reclaimed these traitors750 and set them to work to act their parts another way to another end, and although much more slowly, yet safely. God the Spirit hath now fixed them upon worthy and heavenly objects and subjects that take them up.751 O, that I could say wholly that powerful and sweet change that I found in my whole man! It was wrought in me by the Spirit of grace, that change in conscience, memory, heart, tongue, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and in the actings of all these and my ends in their actings: this work and happy alteration in every752 of these owns only God the Spirit. That ever I did see, loathe, sorrow for, strive against,753 or overcome any sin, it was thy love, Holy Spirit. Any grace, all grace received is thy gift, no good in self. Thou made the word preached powerful; thou brought and spoke good tidings, pardon, peace, love, grace, glory. Thou, dear Spirit, composeth all my prayers (that are acceptable); thou appliest and sealest up to my faith all the communicated benefits in the Lord’s supper, and all the good my soul hath ever gotten by meditation, reading, conference, counsel it was by his blessing, those means, and all others, all dispensations, providences, afflictions, conditions, disappointments his pleasure and power made all effectual for good to me. Who made me repent and believe but God the Spirit? Who gave the graces754 of the Spirit but the Spirit of grace? Is not he the author, the worker, 747. Hutton inserts “full” between “running” and “speed” (My Lady, 210). 748. Carey retraced the i in “obiects” (her spelling of “objects”) to clarify it. 749. Hutton inserts “so” between “have” and “posted” (My Lady, 211). 750. Carey wrote the y in her spelling of “traytors” over another letter. 751. Carey squeezed “that take them up” into the bottom right-hand corner of the page. 752. Carey first wrote “all,” struck it out, and then wrote “every” instead. 753. Carey started to write “against,” struck it out, and wrote it clearly above the line. 754. Carey first wrote “Spirit” and then retraced the letters to change it into “graces.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 109 the giver, the actor, the reviver, the increaser, the strengthener of all the graces of his people? Yea, surely it is he, he alone; as our faith, love, humility, holiness, patience, self-denial, etc. He blesseth the ordinances and all means appointed for those purposes, which without him can do nothing except to harden. Who makes me pray or gives an answer of prayer but the Holy Ghost, the blessed messenger of God the Father to me, and from me to the Father (through Christ) from God the Father back to me again? Who resolves my doubts?755

Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657756 1. What birth is this? A poor despised creature, A little embryo, void of life and feature.757 2. Seven times I went my time, when mercy giving Deliverance unto me, and mine all living. 3. Strong, right-proportioned758 lovely girls and boys— Their father’s, mother’s present hoped for joys. 4. That759 was great wisdom, goodness, power, love, praise To my dear Lord, lovely in all his ways. 5. This760 is no less. The same God hath it done, Submits my heart that’s better than a son. 6. In giving, taking, stroking, striking still— His glory and my good is his, my, will. 7. In that then, this now, both good God most mild.761 His will’s more dear to me than any child. 8. I also joy that God hath gained one more To praise him in the heavens than was before,

755. Carey stops her meditation here abruptly. Hutton treats this final question as a final clause in the previous question, which gives the appearance of finality to the meditation (My Lady, 214). However, “Who resolves my doubts” reads like the beginning of a new question, which was never finished. The remainder of this page and the next two are blank. Perhaps Carey meant to write more later. 756. Like the other poems included in this volume, this one was written with the book turned ninety degrees clockwise (thus, when the book is turned upright in a normal reading position, the lines are vertical). Hutton follows suit (My Lady, 215–22). Carey numbered the couplets in this elegy. 757. Hutton renders the first couplet as a series of four questions, each one ending at the caesura or end of each line (My Lady, 215). 758. An ink blot obscures the e in “proportioned.” 759. Carey retraced the first T in “That” to capitalize it. 760. Carey retraced the first T in “This” to capitalize it. 761. An ink blot obscures the space after “mild.”

110 MARY CAREY 9. And that762 this babe (as well as all the rest), Since’t had a soul, shall be forever blessed. 10. That I’m made763 instrumental to both these— God’s praise, babe’s bless—it highly doth me please. 11. Maybe the Lord looks for more thankfulness And high esteem for764 those I do possess, 12. As limners765 draw dead shades for to set forth Their lively colors and their picture’s worth, 13. So doth my God in this—as all things—wise By my dead, formless babe teach me to prize 14. My living, pretty pair, Nat and Bethia, The children dear (God yet lends to Maria). 15. Praised be his name, these two’s full compensation766 For767 all that’s gone and that in expectation.768 16. And if herein God hath fulfilled769 his will, His handmaid’s pleased, completely happy still. 17. I only now desire of my sweet God The reason why he took in hand his rod? 18. What he doth spy? What is the thing amiss770 I fain would learn, whilst I the rod do kiss.771 19. Methinks I hear God’s voice, “This is thy772 sin,” And conscience justifies the same within: 20. “Thou often dost present me with dead fruit.

762. Carey first wrote “hath” and then retraced its letters to make it “that.” 763. An ink blot obscures the d and e in “made.” 764. Carey first wrote “of ” and then wrote “for” above the line without striking out either option. Hutton reproduces both options (My Lady, 217). 765. “A painter, esp. a portrait painter” (OED, s.v. “limner”). 766. Carey appears to have written the s in “compensation” over another letter. 767. Carey struck out two words before “For all that’s gone.” 768. Marginal note: Psalms 119:65. Hutton positions the note so that it clearly glosses line 1 of couplet 15 (My Lady, 217). However, the position of the note on the page is ambiguous. Cf. Psalms 119:65: “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.” 769. An ink blot obscures the lf in “fulfilled.” 770. Marginal note: Micah 6:9. Cf. Micah 6:9: “The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.” 771. Hutton adds question marks in this couplet after “spy,” “amisse,” and “learne” (My Lady, 218). In the case of “spy,” I follow Hutton and make the phrase interrogative. 772. Carey first wrote “the” and then wrote “thy” above the line without striking out either option. Hutton reads “ye” (My Lady, 218).

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 111 Why should not my773 returns thy presents774 suit?775 21. Dead duties, prayers, praises thou dost bring,776 Affections dead, dead heart in everything, 22. In hearing, reading, conference, meditation, In acting graces, and in conversation. 23. Who’s taught or bettered by thee? No relation. Thou’rt cause of mourning—not of imitation. 24. Thou dost not answer that great means I give; My word and ordinances777 do teach to live.”778 25. Lively! O, do’t! Thy mercies are most779 sweet,780 Chastisements sharp, and all the781 means that’s meet.782 26. “Mend now my child, and lively fruit bring me783 So thou advantag’d much by this will be.” 27. My dearest Lord, thy charge and more784 is true: I see’t, am humbled, and for pardon sue.785

773. Carey retraced the y in “my” to clarify it. 774. Hutton reads “present” (My Lady, 218). 775. An ink blot obscures the space after “suit,” which Carey spells “sute.” 776. Marginal note: Revelation 3:1. Cf. Revelation 3:1: “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” 777. Carey appears first to have written another word and then to have retraced the letters into “ordinances.” 778. An ink blot obscures the space after “live.” 779. An ink blot obscures the s in “most.” 780. Marginal note: Psalms 25:10. Cf. Psalms 25:10: “All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” 781. Carey appears to have retraced the y in “ye”—which is her spelling of “the”—to clarify it. 782. Marginal note: Hebrews 12:6. It is possible that this note, along with Psalms 25:10 (for which see note 780), glosses line 1 in couplet 25 instead of or in addition to this line. Carey squeezed these citations into a small space at the end of couplet 25. Hutton clearly positions this biblical citation at the end of line 2 of couplet 25 (My Lady, 219). For Hebrews 12:6, see note 32. 783. Marginal note: Psalms 119:65, 71. Carey wrote “65” beneath “119:71.” The position of this note is ambiguous; it is possible that it glosses couplet 25 in addition to or instead of line 1 of couplet 26. Hutton cites it as “Psal: 119.71.65” and positions it clearly at the end of line 1 in couplet 26 (My Lady, 219). For Psalms 119:65, see note 768. Cf. Psalms 119:71: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” 784. An ink blot obscures the m in “more.” 785. Marginal note: Psalms 25:7, 11. Cf. Psalms 25:7, 11: “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD. . . . For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”

112 MARY CAREY 28. In Christ forgive, and henceforth, I will be—786 What? Nothing, Lord, but what thou makest me. 29. I am nought, have nought, can do nought but sin,787 As my experience saith, for I’ve been in 30. Several conditions—trials great and many— In all I find my nothingness; not any 31. Thing do I own but sin. Christ is my all788 That I do want, can crave, or ever shall, 32. That good that suiteth all my whole desires, And for me, unto God, all he requires, 33. It is in Christ. He’s mine, and I am his:789 This union is my only happiness. 34. But Lord, since I’m a child, by mercy free,790 Let me by filial fruits much honor thee.

786. Marginal note: Matthew 3:17; Daniel 9:17; Philippians 2:13. It is unclear whether these citations gloss line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 28. Hutton locates them at the end of couplet 28, as if they refer primarily or only to the second line in that couplet (My Lady, 219). For Matthew 3:17, see note 285. Also cf. Daniel 9:17: “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.” And cf. Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” 787. Marginal note: Romans 7:18, 19, 24. It is unclear whether these citations gloss line 2 in couplet 28, line 1 in couplet 29, or both. Hutton locates them clearly at the end of line 1 in couplet 29 (My Lady, 220). For Romans 7:24, see note 244. And cf. Romans 7:18–19: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” 788. Marginal note: Colossians 3:11; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1, 2. It is unclear whether these citations gloss line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 31. Hutton cites Hebrews 7:2, 5. He locates the citations from Colossians and Hebrews at the end of the first line of couplet 31 and the one from 1 John at the end of the second line of couplet 31 (Hutton, My Lady, 220). Cf. Colossians 3:11: “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” For Hebrews 7:25, see note 725. Cf. 1 John 2:1–2: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” There is a flourish over the ll in “all.” 789. Marginal note: Canticles 2:16 and 6:3 and 7:10. “Canticles” is the alternate name used by Carey for Song of Solomon. Cf. Song of Solomon 2:16: “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies”; 6:3: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies;” 7:10: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” 790. Marginal note: John 15:8. Because of its ambiguous placement, it is unclear whether this citation glosses line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 34. Hutton locates this citation at the end of the couplet (My Lady, 220). Cf. John 15:8: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 113 35. I’m791 a branch of792 the vine: purge me, therefore,793 Father, more fruit to bring than heretofore. 36. A plant in God’s house—O, that I may be794 More flourishing in age, a growing795 tree! 37. Let not my heart (as doth my womb) miscarry, But precious means receiv’d, let it tarry 38. ‘Til it be formed of796 gospel shape and suit797 My means, my mercies, and be pleasant fruit.798 39. In my whole life, lively do thou make me For thy praise and name’s sake. O quicken799 me!800

791. Carey first wrote “I am,” then inserted “I’m” above the line without striking out either option. Hutton keeps “I am” (My Lady, 221). 792. Carey first wrote “o’th,’ ” but then inserted “of the” above the line without striking out either option. Hutton keeps “o’th” (My Lady, 221). 793. Marginal note: John 15:2. Cf. John 15:2: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” 794. Marginal note: Psalms 92:13, 14. The location of this citation is ambiguous: it could gloss line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 36. Hutton locates it at the end of the first line of couplet 36 (My Lady, 221). Cf. Psalms 92:13–14: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” 795. An ink blot obscures the w in “growing.” 796. Carey made an unclear mark above “of.” 797. Marginal note: Philippians 1:27. Cf. Philippians 1:27: “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” 798. Marginal note: Colossians 1:6, 10. [Eh? Eli?] 4:1. Because of their ambiguous placement, it is unclear whether these citations gloss line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 38. Hutton locates the citation from Colossians at the end of the first line of couplet 38, along with his citation of Philippians 1:27. He reads the unclear citation as Isaiah 4:1 and locates it at the end of the first line of couplet 39 (Hutton, My Lady, 221). Isaiah 4:1, however, does not seem to match the meanings of Carey’s verses here. Cf. Colossians 1:6, 10: “Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth. . . . That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 799. “To give or restore spiritual life to; to revive spiritually; to animate (the soul, etc.),” and also “Of a woman (or other female mammal): to reach the stage of pregnancy when movements of the fetus are perceptible” (OED, s.v. “quicken”). 800. Marginal note: Psalms 143:11. Because of its ambiguous placement, it is unclear whether this note glosses line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 39. Hutton locates it at the end of couplet 39 (My Lady, 221). Cf. Psalms 143:11: “Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.”

114 MARY CAREY 40. Lord, I beg quick’ning801 grace; that grace afford! Quicken me, Lord, according to thy word!802 41. It is a lovely boon I make to thee;803 After thy loving kindness, quicken me. 42. Thy quick’ning spirit unto me convey804 And thereby quicken me in thine own way. 43. And let the presence of thy Spirit dear Be witnessed by his fruits; let them appear 44. To and for thee: love, joy, peace, gentleness,805 Long-suffering, goodness, faith, and much meekness. 45. And let my walking in the Spirit say806 I live in’t and desire it to obey. 46. And since my heart thou’st lifted up to thee, Amend it, Lord, and keep it still with thee. January 12, 1657/8

Saith Maria Carey, always in Christ happy.807

801. Carey spells “quickening” as “Quikning” here, although she includes the e in “quicken” in the surrounding lines. This detail, in conjunction with the line’s meter, suggests that she did not mean for the e to be articulated as a separate syllable in this verse. 802. Marginal note: Psalms 119:25. Carey seems to have written a different number for “119”—possibly “149”—and then retraced the second “1” to clarify it. It is unclear whether this citation glosses line 1, line 2, or both lines in couplet 40. Hutton locates it at the end of couplet 40 (My Lady, 221). Cf. Psalms 119:25: “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” 803. Marginal note: Psalms 119:88, 159. Carey first wrote “559” and then retraced the first “5” to make it “1.” This citation could gloss either or both lines in couplet 41 or line 2 in couplet 40. Hutton glosses the first line of couplet 41 with the citation Psalms 119:88, 37 and the second line with Psalms 119:159 (My Lady, 222). Cf. Psalms 119:88: “Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth”; and 159: “Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.” 804. Marginal note: Psalms 119:37. Carey first wrote this marginal note as a citation for line 2 in couplet 41, struck it out, and used it as a gloss for line 1 in couplet 42. Hutton uses it to gloss line 2 in couplet 42 (My Lady, 222). As in couplet 40, Carey’s spelling and the poem’s meter suggest that her “Quickning” should be treated as two syllables. Cf. Psalms 119:37: “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” 805. Marginal note: Galatians 5:22, 23. This citation could gloss line 2 in couplet 43, either line in couplet 44, both lines in couplet 44, or all of them together. Hutton puts this citation at the end of couplet 44 (My Lady, 222). For Galatians 5:22–23, see note 243. 806. Marginal note: Galatians 5:25. This citation could gloss line 2 in couplet 44, line 1 in couplet 45, or both. Hutton locates this gloss at the end of couplet 45 (My Lady, 222). Cf. Galatians 5:25: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” 807. Carey’s signature and the following phrase are much larger than the rest of her text. She adds a flourish to the M in her first name. The next 32 pages are blank except for page numbers. At the end of the book, there are three pages that include mathematical calculations (multiplication, addition,

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 115

Figure 7. Pages 200–201. Perpendicular placement of final couplets, 35–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628.

subtraction) and a list of expenses in pencil and ink. These notations do not appear to be in Carey’s hand.

116 MARY CAREY

Figure 8. Pages 220–22. Hutton’s perpendicular placement of final couplets, 29–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature. Used by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. MS Rawl. D. 1308.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 117

Figure 8. Pages 220–22. Hutton’s perpendicular placement of final couplets, 29–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature. Used by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. MS Rawl. D. 1308.

118 MARY CAREY

Figure 8. Pages 220–22. Hutton’s perpendicular placement of final couplets, 29–46, in “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth,” plus Carey’s signature. Used by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. MS Rawl. D. 1308.

Manuscript Book of Mary Carey 119 Zephaniah 3:12 John 6:[44? 45?] Jeremiah 31:33, 34808

808. In the upper left-hand corner of the last page, there are three biblical citations in ink. They appear to be in Carey’s hand, although the mathematical calculations on the previous pages and below her biblical citations, which are in pencil and ink, appear to be in another hand. Carey first wrote “3 Zepha,” struck out something after it, and then wrote “Zepha 3:12.” The second number in the citation of the verse in book 6 of John has been written over, and thus, it is difficult to discern whether that second number is a “4” or “5.” Cf. Zephaniah 3:12: “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD”; John 6:44–45: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”; and Jeremiah 31:33–34: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

120 MARY CAREY

Figure 9. Page 238. Biblical citations and mathematical calculations. Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. MS V.a.628.

Appendix 1: Mary Carey’s Letter to Thomas Pelham This document is the earliest known piece of Mary Carey’s writing. She wrote this letter on July 4, 1644, to Sir Thomas Pelham, her uncle by virtue of her marriage to Pelham Carey, who had died in the fall or winter of 1642. Since she married her second husband, George Payler, on June 8, 1643, she was, by law, no longer a member of her first marital family when she addressed Sir Thomas. However, the letter suggests that she—along with George, and her mother and father—were grateful to continue on friendly terms with the extended family network of her previous in-laws. Carey explains her delay in writing to Sir Thomas as being due to issues related to pregnancy and childbirth. In the marginal notes, Carey also refers to a son. It is unclear whether the new baby noted in the letter and the son (who must have been very young, since Carey calls him a “little servant”) mentioned in the marginal note are the same individual. In any case, the name(s) and birth order remain unknown. According to her autograph manuscript, all of George and Carey’s children born before May 14, 1652, died as infants or young children (95). She and George had at least one tenant on their land paying rent.

Dear Uncle,1 That letter which I had from Mr. Vane,2 coming from you, was very thankfully received by me, and I had not deferred the answer of it, if not surprised with that happy occasion3 whereof my husband did then advertise you, which made me indisposed for a long time to express myself in this kind, but now—blessed be the Lord—being reasonable4 well-recovered, I have taken the first opportunity to present my service and best acknowledgement of all your former favors and good wishes to me and mine, lately represented in a letter to my husband. Sir, I apprehend the continuance of your goodness as a great addition to those mercies which God affords me, and I shall frame my endeavors as much as possible can be to give testimony of my gratitude. I did hope to have seen you before this, but my parents are so tender of me that it is a torment to mention my parting from them, but in what condition or place soever. I remain, most worthy uncle, 1. Mary Carey, Letter to Sir Thomas Pelham, in Correspondence of the Family of Pelham, of Sussex, Consisting of Official, Business, and Private and Domestic letters, 1543–1722 (BL, Additional MS 33084), fol. 51r. 2. Mr. Vane is unidentified. 3. Presumably pregnancy and childbirth. 4. Carey retraced the letter at the end of this word, making it end in e instead of y.

121

122 Appendix 1 your faithful, affectionate, and much-obliged niece and servant, Mary Carey5 Berwick, July 4, 16446

5. Carey’s signature is at least twice as large as her handwriting in the letter. Near the bottom of the page, in the space parallel to her signature, Carey includes this marginal note: “Sir, my father and mother wish my dear husband and myself present our humble service to yourself and lady, and your little servant, my son also.” This is the same son to whom the headnote refers. 6. Perpendicular to the page, down the left margin, Carey adds this note: “Sir, I desire you, when you have an opportunity, be pleased to remember my best respects to Mr. Selwine [Selwyn?] and give him thanks for his punctual payment of the rent.”

Appendix 2: Poetic Exchange between Mary Carey and Thomas Fairfax These two poems were copied by Sir Thomas Fairfax into his personal collection of writings. Mary Carey composed the first one; Fairfax answered her with the second. This poetic exchange exemplifies the commonplace practices in which members of a manuscript coterie respond to each other’s verse in similar verse, and in which they copy each other’s writings into their own books to preserve them. Fairfax almost certainly gave a copy of his poem in his own hand to Carey, perhaps as a gift on an individual piece of paper. If so, this copy has been lost or did not survive the passage of time. The occasion of this verse exchange was the death of Anne, Lady Fairfax (1617/18–1665), the wife of Sir Thomas. Carey’s elegy for Anne, which must have been written sometime during or soon after 1665, is the latest known piece of Carey’s writing. She represents Anne as a spiritually upright wife, grants her fulsome praise, and asserts that she is in Heaven. Only Anne’s body remains on earth, and Carey extends her praise further by humbly suggesting that she would like to be buried in the same churchyard. Fairfax answers by praising Carey’s elegy, humbly implying that his verse is not good enough to thank her adequately, and indicating that her poem has given him some joy in remembering Anne.

The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife1 O fatal fall, might not those heaps suffice This summer captiv’d, but thou must surprise The best of nobles, this so great, good lady? A Vere,2 a Fairfax, honor’s honor, she Did grace her birth, sex, relate,3 and degree, And4 she a nonpareil for piety, Versed in the theory of godliness, The which she did in conference express,

[5]

1. Mary Carey, “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife,” in The Imployment of My Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], Written in about 1660–1670 by lord Fairfax, ed. and copied by Thomas Fairfax (Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40), 596–97. 2. Vere was Anne’s birth name. 3. “A relative, a relation” (OED, s.v. “relate”). 4. An ampersand is added in the left margin.

123

124 Appendix 2 Its practick5 part her life to life did show6 Each way, but most excelling in all view Was faith, submission, unwear’d7 pleasantness With universal weakness, pain, sickness— Many long-lasting. Great few ever since So followed Job8 in suffering patience. But she is now most gloriously exalted Where sin and sorrow never entered: To Mount Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, The City of God to spirits of just men, To church of the first born, to angels blest, To God, to Jesus—this completes the rest. Her faith saw this, which made her smile at death,9 And with much joy, surrendered up her breath. Her body dear, her all that’s out of Heaven, To Bilbrough Church as a rich treasure’s given. Bilbrough churchyard, deign me a little room That after death, my grave wait on her tomb.

[10]

[15]

[20]

[25]

To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife10 Madam, Could I a tribute of my thanks express, As you have done in love and purer verse On my best self,11 then I might justly raise Your elegy t’encomiums of your praise And so forget the subject that did move Me to a thankfulness as’t did you to love.

[5]

5. “Practical” (OED, s.v. “practick”). 6. Fairfax retraced the e in “shew”—his (or Carey’s) spelling for “show”—to clarify it. 7. Fairfax wrote “unweared.” “Unwearied” adds an extra syllable to the verse. I use “unwear’d” to make clear Fairfax’s (or Carey’s) adjustment of “unwearied” to fit the meter. 8. Job, the protagonist in the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), was faithful to God, despite being relentlessly tested in painful ways. Job epitomizes patient suffering. 9. Fairfax retraced “at death” to clarify these words. 10. Thomas Fairfax, “To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife,” in The Imployment of My Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], Written in about 1660–1670 by lord Fairfax (Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40), 598–600. 11. Fairfax’s “best self ” is his late wife, Anne, for whom Carey wrote an elegy (see pages 123–24 in this volume).

Poetic Exchange between Mary Carey and Thomas Fairfax 125 O t’were too great a crime! But pray allow, Where I fall short, but you have reached [it?],12 Making that good, wisest of Kings hath said Th’ living’s not so13 praise-worthy than the dead. I think the reason’s this its grounded on: ’Cause mercies are not priz’d ’til they are gone. O had not hopes surpass’d my grosser sense, My loss could not have had a recompense. Yet such an influence hath your happy strain14 To bring my buried joys15 to life again. Virtue, goodness, love16 things immortalize The better part, whenas the other dies. True, souls in bodies have their being here, But loves in souls have there their proper sphere. Then is true love compos’d17 of nobler fires Than to extinguish when the life expires. But to conclude, Madam, methink you ’spire18 In humblest thoughts to raise your trophies higher19 Than hers you would attend in gelid20 mold,21 Which for her friend, the lodging seems too cold.22 But were it so it my good hap might be To lie next her, to you our choir23 is free.

[10]

[15]

[20]

[25]

12. Fairfax wrote a word, possibly “too,” and then wrote over it again in heavy ink, making the word unclear. 13. Fairfax wrote a word, probably “more,” struck it out, and then used a caret to insert “not so” above the line. 14. “A passage of song or poetry” (OED, s.v. “strain”). 15. Fairfax retraced the I and y in “Ioyes,” his spelling (with initial capitalization) for “joys.” 16. Fairfax first wrote “love” after “Virtue,” but then struck it out and used a caret to insert it above the line after “goodness,” thus changing the meter of the first half of the verse. 17. Fairfax retraced C (capitalized in his manuscript) and p in “compos’d” to clarify the letters. 18. Fairfax first wrote “aspire” but then struck out the letter a and added an apostrophe to create “’spire,” thereby changing the meter of the verse. 19. “Higher” is squeezed into the left margin, above the line. 20. “Extremely cold, cold as ice, frosty” (OED, s.v. “gelid”). 21. “The decayed remains of a human body” (OED, s.v. “mold”). 22. Fairfax ran out of room at the bottom of the page; thus, he wrote “could”—his spelling for “cold”— above the line, squeezed against the right-hand edge of the page. 23. “That part of a church appropriated to the singers” (OED, s.v. “choir”).

Bibliography Primary Sources Manuscripts Carey, Mary. “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife.” In The Imployment of my Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], written in about 1600–1700 by lord Fairfax, edited and copied by Thomas Fairfax. Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40, 596–97. ———. Letter to Sir Thomas Pelham. In Correspondence of the Family of Pelham, of Sussex, Consisting of Official, Business, and Private and Domestic Letters, 1543–1722. BL, Additional MS 33084, fol. 51r. ———. Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Poems of Lady Mary Carey. Folger, V.a.628. Fairfax, Thomas. A transcript of Translations and Poems by lord Thomas Fairfax. Copied by Henry Fairfax. Bodleian, MS Fairfax 38, 267–70. ———. “To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife.” In The Imployment of my Solitude, T[homas] F[airfax], written in about 1600–1700 by lord Fairfax. Bodleian, MS Fairfax 40, 598–600. Hutton, Charles, ed. My Lady Carey’s Meditations, & Poetry. Bodleian, MS Rawlinson D. 1308, 1681, 1–222. Meynell, Francis, ed. Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657. Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918. ———. “The Printer to the Reader.” In Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657, v–vii. Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918.

Printed Books Adcock, Rachel, Sara Read, and Anna Ziomek, eds. Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Writing. New York: Manchester University Press, 2014. Brown, Sylvia, ed. Women’s Writing in Stuart England: The Mothers’ Legacies of Dorothy Leigh, Elizabeth Joscelin, and Elizabeth Richardson. Thrupp Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1999. Greer, Germaine, Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, and Melinda Sansone, eds. Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Verse. New York: Noonday Press, 1989. Hopler, Jay, and Kimberly Johnson, eds. Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. 127

128 Bibliography The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights. In Legal Treatises. Vol. 1. Edited by Lynne A. Greenberg. The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Women: Part I, edited by Betty S. Travitsky and Anne Lake Prescott. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Edited by Alastair Fowler. New York: Longman, 1989. Parfitt, George, ed. English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century. 2nd ed. New York: Longman Publishing, 1992. Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. In Spenser: Poetical Works. Edited by J. C. Smith and E. De Selincourt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Stevenson, Jane, and Peter Davidson, eds. Early Modern Women Poets: An Anthology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Secondary Sources Adcock, Rachel. “ ‘In order to spirituall good the body often afflicted’: Bodily Affliction in Lady Mary Carey’s Conversion Narrative, 1649–57.” The Glass 25 (Spring 2013): 18–29. Anselment, Raymond A. “ ‘A heart terrifying Sorrow’: An Occasional Piece on Poetry of Miscarriage.” Papers on Language and Literature 33, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 13–45. ———. The Realms of Apollo: Literature and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1995. Benckhuysen, Amanda W. The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women’s Interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019. Billingham, Josephine. Infanticide in Tudor and Stuart England. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019. Brady, Andrea. “Funeral Elegy.” In A Companion to Renaissance Poetry, edited by Catherine Bates, 353–64. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2018. Buckley, Jenifer. Gender, Pregnancy and Power in Eighteenth-Century Literature: The Maternal Imagination. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Clarke, Elizabeth. “ ‘A heart terrifying Sorrow’: The Deaths of Children in Seventeenth-Century Women’s Manuscript Journals.” In Representations of Childhood Death, edited by Gillian Avery and Kimberley Reynolds, 65–86. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Coolahan, Marie-Louise. “Bodleian Library: MS Rawlinson D. 1308.” Perdita. Frames-based open-access version, 2005. https://web.warwick.ac.uk/english/ perdita/html/. Cressy, David. Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Dowd, Michelle M. “Genealogical Counternarratives in the Writings of Mary Carey.” Modern Philology 109, no. 4 (May 2012): 440–64. https://doi.org/10. 1086/665736.

Bibliography 129 Dowd, Michelle M., and Thomas Festa, eds. Early Modern Women on the Fall: An Anthology. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2012. Erickson, Amy Louise. Women and Property in Early Modern England. New York: Routledge, 2002. Evans, Jennifer, and Sara Read. “ ‘before midnight she had miscarried’: Women, Men, and Miscarriage in Early Modern England.” Journal of Family History 40, no. 1 (2015): 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199014562924. Ezell, Margaret J. M.  The Patriarch’s Wife: Literary Evidence and the History of the Family.​Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.   ———. Social Authorship and the Advent of Print. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. ———. Writing Women’s Literary History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Fissell, Mary Elizabeth. Vernacular Bodies: The Politics of Reproduction in Early Modern England. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Gordon, Bruce. John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion: A Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. Greenberg, Lynne A. Introduction to Legal Treatises. Vol. 1. In The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Women: Part I, edited by Betty S. Travitsky and Anne Lake Prescott, ix–lxiii. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005. Greer, Germaine. Introduction to Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of SeventeenthCentury Women’s Verse, edited by Germaine Greer, Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, and Melinda Sansone, 1–31. New York: Noonday Press, 1989. Hammons, Pamela S. “Despised Creatures: The Illusion of Maternal Self-Effacement in Seventeenth-Century Child Loss Poetry.” ELH: English Literary History 66, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 25–49. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.1999.0005. ———. Gender, Sexuality, and Material Objects in English Renaissance Verse. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010. ———. “Mothers and Widows: World-Making against Stereotypes in Early Modern English Women’s Manuscript Writings.” In World-Making Renaissance Women: Rethinking Early Modern Women’s Place in Literature and Culture, edited by Pamela S. Hammons and Brandie Siegfried, 230–43. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ———. Poetic Resistance: English Women Writers and the Early Modern Lyric. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002. Heller, Jennifer. The Mother’s Legacy in Early Modern England. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011. Kamphaus, Lesley Leanne. “ ‘A new true-born Storie’: Women’s Homosocial Resistance to Narratives of Monstrous Birth, 1520–1660.” PhD diss., University of Miami, 2020.

130 Bibliography Lilley, Kate. “ ‘True State Within’: Women’s Elegy, 1640–1740.” In Women, Writing, History, 1640–1740, edited by Isobel Grundy and Susan Wiseman, 72–92. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Long, Donna J. “ ‘It is a lovely bonne I make to thee’: Mary Carey’s ‘abortive Birth’ as Recuperative Religious Lyric.” In Discovering and (Re)Covering the Seventeenth Century Religious Lyric, edited by Eugene R. Cunnar and Jeffrey Johnson, 248–72. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2001. Longfellow, Erica. Women and Religious Writing in Early Modern England. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Love, Harold. Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Mack, Phyllis. Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Marotti, Arthur F. Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. May, Steven W., and Arthur F. Marotti. Ink, Stink Bait, Revenge, and Queen Elizabeth: A Yorkshire Yeoman’s Household Book. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014. McQuade, Paula. “Motherhood and Women’s Writing in Early Seventeenth-Century England: Legacies, Catechisms, and Popular Polemic.” In A History of Early Modern Women’s Writing, edited by Patricia Phillippy, 276–91. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mendelson, Sara H. “Mary Carey (b. ca. 1609, d. in or after 1680).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. https://doi. org/10.1093/ref:odnb/45811. ———. “Stuart Women’s Diaries and Occasional Memoirs.” In Women in English Society, 1500–1800, edited by Mary Prior, 181–210. New York: Methuen, 1985. Mendelson, Sara H., and Patricia Crawford. Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Neil, Kelly M. “ ‘Doe, As I Have Done’: Mary Carey’s Reciprocal Relation with the Divine.” Master’s thesis, University of North Carolina Greensboro, 2006. Osmond, Rosalie. Mutual Accusation: Seventeenth-Century Body and Soul Dialogues in Their Literary and Theological Context. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. Raisanen, Elizabeth. “Pregnancy Poems in the Romantic Period: Re-Writing the Mother’s Legacy.” Women’s Studies 45, no. 2 (2016): 101–21. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00497878.2015.1122503. RECIRC: The Reception and Circulation of Early Modern Women’s Writing, 1550– 1700. “Mary Carey.” Accessed January 12, 2022. https://recirc.nuigalway.ie/ people/person/1802.

Bibliography 131 Schnell, Lisa J. “ ‘Lett Me Not Pyne for Poverty’: Maternal Elegy in Early Modern England.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, edited by Karen Wiseman, 481–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Schwarz, Kathryn. “Mother Love: Clichés and Amazons in Early Modern England.” In Maternal Measures: Figuring Caregiving in the Early Modern Period, edited by Naomi J. Miller and Naomi Yavneh, 293–305. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000. Scodel, Joshua. The English Poetic Epitaph: Commemoration and Conflict from Jonson to Wordsworth. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500–1800. New York: Harper and Row, 1977. Stretton, Tim. Women Waging Law in Elizabethan England. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Thickstun, Margaret Olofson. Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988. Todd, Barbara J. “The Remarrying Widow: A Stereotype Reconsidered.” In Women in English Society, 1500–1800, edited by Mary Prior, 54–92. New York: Methuen, 1985. ———. “The Virtuous Widow in Protestant England.” In Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Sandra Cavallo and Lyndan Warner, 66–83. New York: Pearson Education, 1999. Wells, Marion. “The Tears of Rachel: Lament and Affective Improvisation in Mary Carey’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Poems.” ELH: English Literary History 86, no. 3 (Fall 2019): 669–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2019.0025. Wilcox, Helen. “ ‘My hart is full, my Soul dos ouer flow’: Women’s Devotional Poetry in Seventeenth-Century England.” Huntington Library Quarterly 63, no. 4 (2000): 447–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3817612. Wynne-Davies, Marion. Women Writers and Familial Discourse in the English Renaissance: Relative Values. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Index Page numbers in italics indicate figures. abbreviations, 29 Adam, 8–10, 45, 45n98 Adcock, Rachel, 14 agency, 8, 15–16, 19–22, 25

letter to Thomas Pelham, 5, 121–22 Manuscript Book of Mary Carey, Mainly Devotional: Births and Deaths, etc., 31 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ,” 4, 104–7 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” 4, 99–103 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost,” 4–5, 107–9 “To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire,” 4, 7–8, 12, 33–36 Other Voice series edition, 28 “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657,” 5, 20–25, 27, 29, 109–14, 115, 116–18 “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler,” 4, 19–20, 23, 97, 98, 99 “Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler,” 4, 17–19, 25, 96–97 Carey, Pelham, 3, 3n6, 121 Charles I, 6 childbearing/childbirth fears of, 2, 11, 12, 16 medical discourses about, 28

biblical references, 8–10, 29, 30, 45n98, 120 Calvinism, 2, 13, 14 Carey, Mary, 1, 3. See also Carey, Mary, works of awareness of her good fortune and precarity of life, 3–4 childhood illness of, 2 children’s deaths and, 2–5, 11–13, 15–25, 28, 95, 96–99, 109–14 equality and, 2, 7–9 historical context and analysis of her writings, 5–25 interrogation of God, 23–24 life and works, 2–5 marriage to George Payler, 2, 7, 121 marriage to Pelham Carey, 3, 3n6, 121 miscarriage and, 5, 20–25, 21n35, 109–14 model of good and proper early modern woman and, 2 poetic exchange with Thomas Fairfax, 123–25 scholarship on, 28 Carey, Mary, works of “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body,” 2–3, 4, 5, 8–9, 11–16, 26, 27, 38, 39–95, 40, 54 “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife,” 5, 123–24 133

134 Index miscarriage and, 5, 20–25, 21n35, 109–14 childrearing, 11 children, 121. See also specific children loss of, 2–5, 11–13, 15–25, 28, 95, 96–99, 109–14 contractions, 29 conversion narrative, 13–14, 15 coverture, 8 Cromwell, Oliver, 6 “A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body” (Carey), 2–5, 8–9, 11–16, 26, 27, 38, 39–95, 40, 54 Donne, John, 28 edition, notes on, 28–30 elegies, 16–21, 22, 28. See also specific elegies to Anne Fairfax, 123 to deceased children, 13–21, 22, 28 placement on the page, 19 Elizabeth I, death of, 6 English Civil Wars, 6 equality, 7–9 Eve, 8–10, 45n98 Faerie Queene (Spenser), 10–11 Fairfax, Anne, 5, 121–22 Fairfax, Thomas “To the Lady Carey Upon Her Verses on My Dear Wife,” 124–25 poetic exchange with, 123–25 feminist studies, 27–28 Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Writing, 27 Folger Shakespeare Library, 26

gender ideology, early modern, 7 Genesis, 8–10, 45n98 gift culture, 28 Herbert, George, 28 Hutton, Charles, 1, 26, 28 Jackson, John, 2 James I, 6 Job, 124n8 King James Bible, 30 Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse, 27 “The Lady Carey’s Elegy on My Dear Wife” (Carey), 5, 123–24 The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, 8–10 loss, conceptualized as exchange, 20 love lyrics, 28 love tokens, 20 Mack, Phyllis, 11 manuscript afterlife of, 26–28 revision of, 30 Manuscript Book of Mary Carey, Mainly Devotional: Births and Deaths, etc. (Carey), 31 biblical citations and mathematical calculations, 120 manuscript coterie, 5, 123 maternal sin, 13, 15–16, 21, 25, 28 maternal verse, 28 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ” (Carey), 4, 104–7 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” (Carey), 4, 99–103

Index 135 “A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost” (Carey), 4–5, 107–9 Mendelson, Sara, 3n6 Meynell, Francis, Meditations from the Notebook of Mary Carey, 1649–1657, 27, 28, 83n509 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, 10 miscarriage, 5, 20–25, 21n35, 109–14 monstrous birth, early modern discourses of, 28 mothers bereaved, 22 demonization of, 10–11 maternal sin, 13, 15–16, 21, 25, 28 mother’s legacy, genre of, 12–13 original sin, 10, 45, 47 Paradise Lost (Milton), 10 Parliamentarians, 6 Parliamentary army, 6 patronage letters, 7 patronage texts, 7 Payler, Bethia, 3, 27 Payler, George, 3–8, 12, 121 Payler, Nathaniel, 3, 27 Payler, Peregrine, 4, 19–20, 19n31, 23, 97, 98, 99 Payler, Robert, 4, 17–19, 25, 96–97 Pelham, Thomas, 5 Carey’s letter to, 121–22 pregnancy, 11, 13, 16, 121 punctuation, 29 Read, Sara, 14 religious lyrics, 28. See also biblical references remarriage, 7–8 repetition, 19

self-deprecation, 7 self-hate, 15 self-negation, 25 sin maternal, 13, 15–16, 21, 25, 28 original, 10, 45, 47 spacing, 30 spelling, modernization of, 29 Spenser, Edmund, Faerie Queene, 10–11 “To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire” (Carey), 4, 7–8, 12, 33–36 “Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657” (Carey), 5, 20–25, 27, 29, 109–14, 115, 116–18 Vane, Mr., 121 war, 2 widows, demonization of, 2 women writers, attention to, 27–28 “Written by Me at the Death of My Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler” (Carey), 4, 19–20, 23, 97, 98, 99 “Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler” (Carey), 4, 17–19, 25, 96–97 “Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler” (Carey), 96 Ziomek, Anna, 14

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Series Titles Madre María Rosa Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns Edited and translated by Sarah E. Owens Volume 1, 2009 Giovan Battista Andreini Love in the Mirror: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Jon R. Snyder Volume 2, 2009 Raymond de Sabanac and Simone Zanacchi Two Women of the Great Schism: The Revelations of Constance de Rabastens by Raymond de Sabanac and Life of the Blessed Ursulina of Parma by Simone Zanacchi Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Bruce L. Venarde Volume 3, 2010 Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera The True Medicine Edited and translated by Gianna Pomata Volume 4, 2010 Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Sainctonge Dramatizing Dido, Circe, and Griselda Edited and translated by Janet Levarie Smarr Volume 5, 2010

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Francesco Barbaro The Wealth of Wives: A Fifteenth-Century Marriage Manual Edited and translated by Margaret L. King Volume 42, 2015 Jeanne d’Albret Letters from the Queen of Navarre with an Ample Declaration Edited and translated by Kathleen M. Llewellyn, Emily E. Thompson, and Colette H. Winn Volume 43, 2016 Bathsua Makin and Mary More with a reply to More by Robert Whitehall Educating English Daughters: Late Seventeenth-Century Debates Edited by Frances Teague and Margaret J. M. Ezell Associate Editor Jessica Walker Volume 44, 2016 Anna StanisŁawska Orphan Girl: A Transaction, or an Account of the Entire Life of an Orphan Girl by way of Plaintful Threnodies in the Year 1685: The Aesop Episode Verse translation, introduction, and commentary by Barry Keane Volume 45, 2016 Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi Letters to Her Sons, 1447–1470 Edited and translated by Judith Bryce Volume 46, 2016

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Christine de Pizan The Book of the Mutability of Fortune Edited and translated by Geri L. Smith Volume 52, 2017 Marguerite d’Auge, Renée Burlamacchi, and Jeanne du Laurens Sin and Salvation in Early Modern France: Three Women’s Stories Edited, and with an introduction by Colette H. Winn Translated by Nicholas Van Handel and Colette H. Winn Volume 53, 2017 Isabella d’Este Selected Letters Edited and translated by Deanna Shemek Volume 54, 2017 Ippolita Maria Sforza Duchess and Hostage in Renaissance Naples: Letters and Orations Edited and translated by Diana Robin and Lynn Lara Westwater Volume 55, 2017 Louise Bourgeois Midwife to the Queen of France: Diverse Observations Translated by Stephanie O’Hara Edited by Alison Klairmont Lingo Volume 56, 2017 Christine de Pizan Othea’s Letter to Hector Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Earl Jeffrey Richards Volume 57, 2017

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Witness, Warning, and Prophecy: Quaker Women’s Writing, 1655–1700 Edited by Teresa Feroli and Margaret Olofson Thickstun Volume 60, 2018 Symphorien Champier The Ship of Virtuous Ladies Edited and translated by Todd W. Reeser Volume 61, 2018 Isabella Andreini Mirtilla, A Pastoral: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Valeria Finucci Translated by Julia Kisacky Volume 62, 2018 Margherita Costa The Buffoons, A Ridiculous Comedy: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Sara E. Díaz and Jessica Goethals Volume 63, 2018 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle Poems and Fancies with The Animal Parliament Edited by Brandie R. Siegfried Volume 64, 2018

Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel From Arcadia to Revolution: The Neapolitan Monitor and Other Writings Edited and translated by Verina R. Jones Volume 67, 2019 Charlotte Arbaleste DuplessisMornay, Anne de Chaufepié, and Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer The Huguenot Experience of Persecution and Exile: Three Women’s Stories Edited by Colette H. Winn Translated by Lauren King and Colette H. Winn Volume 68, 2019 Anne Bradstreet Poems and Meditations Edited by Margaret Olofson Thickstun Volume 69, 2019 Arcangela Tarabotti Antisatire: In Defense of Women, against Francesco Buoninsegni Edited and translated by Elissa B. Weaver Volume 70, 2020

Mary Franklin and Hannah Burton She Being Dead Yet Speaketh: The Franklin Family Papers Edited by Vera J. Camden Volume 71, 2020 Lucrezia Marinella Love Enamored and Driven Mad Edited and translated by Janet E. Gomez and Maria Galli Stampino Volume 72, 2020 Arcangela Tarabotti Convent Paradise Edited and translated by Meredith K. Ray and Lynn Lara Westwater Volume 73, 2020 Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve Beauty and the Beast: The Original Story Edited and translated by Aurora Wolfgang Volume 74, 2020 Flaminio Scala The Fake Husband, A Comedy Edited and translated by Rosalind Kerr Volume 75, 2020 Anne Vaughan Lock Selected Poetry, Prose, and Translations, with Contextual Materials Edited by Susan M. Felch Volume 76, 2021 Camilla Erculiani Letters on Natural Philosophy: The Scientific Correspondence of a SixteenthCentury Pharmacist, with Related Texts Edited by Eleonora Carinci Translated by Hannah Marcus Foreword by Paula Findlen Volume 77, 2021

Regina Salomea Pilsztynowa My Life’s Travels and Adventures: An Eighteenth-Century Oculist in the Ottoman Empire and the European Hinterland Edited and translated by Władysław Roczniak Volume 78, 2021 Christine de Pizan The God of Love’s Letter and The Tale of the Rose: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Thelma S. Fenster and Christine Reno With Jean Gerson, “A Poem on Man and Woman.” Translated from the Latin by Thomas O’Donnell Foreword by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne Volume 79, 2021 Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, Marquise de Villars Letters from Spain: A Seventeenth-Century French Noblewoman at the Spanish Royal Court Edited and translated by Nathalie Hester Volume 80, 2021 Anna Maria van Schurman Letters and Poems to and from Her Mentor and Other Members of Her Circle Edited and translated by Anne R. Larsen and Steve Maiullo Volume 81, 2021 Vittoria Colonna Poems of Widowhood: A Bilingual Edition of the 1538 Rime Translation and introduction by Ramie Targoff Edited by Ramie Targoff and Troy Tower Volume 82, 2021

Valeria Miani Amorous Hope, A Pastoral Play: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Alexandra Coller Volume 83, 2020 Madeleine de Scudéry Lucrece and Brutus: Glory in the Land of Tender Edited and translated by Sharon Diane Nell Volume 84, 2021 Anna StanisŁawska One Body with Two Souls Entwined: An Epic Tale of Married Love in Seventeenth-Century Poland Orphan Girl: The Oleśnicki Episode Verse translation, introduction, and commentary by Barry Keane Volume 85, 2021 Christine de Pizan Book of the Body Politic Edited and translated by Angus J. Kennedy Volume 86, 2021 Anne, Lady Halkett A True Account of My Life and Selected Meditations Edited by Suzanne Trill Volume 87, 2022 Vittoria Colonna Selected Letters, 1523–1546: A Bilingual Edition Edited and annotated by Veronica Copello Translated by Abigail Brundin Introduction by Abigail Brundin and Veronica Copello Volume 88, 2022

Michele Savonarola A Mother’s Manual for the Women of Ferrara: A Fifteenth-Century Guide to Pregnancy and Pediatrics Edited, with introduction and notes, by Gabriella Zuccolin Translated by Martin Marafioti Volume 89, 2022 Maria Salviati de’ Medici Selected Letters, 1514–1543 Edited and translated by Natalie R. Tomas Volume 90, 2022 Isabella Andreini Lovers’ Debates for the Stage: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Pamela Allen Brown, Julie D. Campbell, and Eric Nicholson Volume 91, 2022 Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation, Anne-Marie Fiquet Du Boccage, and Henriette-Lucie Dillon de La Tour du Pin Far from Home in Early Modern France: Three Women’s Stories Edited and with an introduction by Colette H. Winn Translated by Lauren King, Elizabeth Hagstrom, and Colette H. Winn Volume 92, 2022 Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, baronne d’Aulnoy Travels into Spain Edited and translated by Gabrielle M. Verdier Volume 93, 2022

Pierre de Vaux and Sister Perrine de Baume Two Lives of Saint Colette. With a Selection of Letters by, to, and about Colette Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski Volume 94, 2022 Dorothy Calthorpe News from the Midell Regions and Calthorpe’s Chapel Edited by Julie A. Eckerle Volume 95, 2022 Elizabeth Poole The Prophetess and the Patriarch: The Visions of an Anti-Regicide in SeventeenthCentury England Edited by Katharine Gillespie Volume 96, 2023 Mary Carleton and Others The Carleton Bigamy Trial Edited by Megan Matchinske Volume 97, 2023 Marie Baudoin The Art of Childbirth: A Seventeenth-Century Midwife’s Epistolary Treatise to Doctor Vallant A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Cathy McClive Volume 98, 2022 Marguerite Buffet New Observations on the French Language, with Praises of Illustrious Learned Women Edited and translated by Lynn S. Meskill Volume 99, 2023

Isabella Andreini Letters Edited and translated by Paola De Santo and Caterina Mongiat Farina Volume 100, 2023