time for no other purpose, than to adorn like idols, gratify like brutes, and waste life in fenfuality and vanity:-how contemptible and unreasonable is this kind of existence for beings, who were created to no other end, than to be partakers of a divine life with God, and fing hallelujahs to all eternity; to feparate the creature from error, fiction, impurity, and corruption, and acquire that purity and holiness, which alone can fee God. Away then with a worldly heart away with all thofe follies, which engage us like fools and madmen; and let the principal thing be, to follow the fteps of our great mafter, by patience and refignation, by a charity and contempt of the world; and by keeping a confcience void of offence, amidft the changes and chances of this mortal life; that at his fecond coming, to judge the world, we may be found acceptable in his fight.

What a scene must this fecond coming be! I faw, (fays an apoftle) a great white throne, and him that fat on it; from whofe face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was no place found for them; and I faw the dead fmall and great ftand before God; and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of thofe things which were written in the books: and the fea gave up her dead, and death and hell delivered

up

up their dead which were in them, and they were judged every man, according to their works. The fecret wickedness of men will be brought to light; and concealed piety and per fecuted virtue be acknowledged and honoured. While innocence and piety are fet at the right hand of the judge, and the righteous shall shine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their father for ever and ever, fhame and confufion must fit upon the faces of the finner and the ungodly. Damnation will ftand before the brethren in iniquity, and when the intolerable fentence is executed, what inexpreffible agonies will they fall into? what amazement and exceffes of horror muft seize upon them?

Ponder then, in time, fellow-mortal, and chufe to be good, rather than to be great: prefer your baptifmal vows to the pomps and vanities of this world; and value the fecret whispers of a good confcience more than the noise of popular applause.

Since you muft appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, let it be your work from morning till night, to keep Jefus in your hearts; and long for nothing, defire nothing, hope for nothing, but to have all that is within you changed into the spirit and temper of the holy

Jefus.

Jefus. Wherever you go, whatever you do, do all in imitation of his temper and inclination; and look upon all as nothing, but that which exercises and increases the fpirit and life of Chrift in your fouls.-Let this be your Chriftianity, your church, and your religion, and the judgment-day will be a charming scene. If in this world, the will of the creature, as an offspring of the divine will, wills and works with the will of God, and labours, without ceafing, to come as near as mortals can, to the purity and perfection of the divine nature; then will the day of the Lord be a day of great joy, and with unutterable pleasure, you fhall hear that tremendous voice: Awake, ye dead, and come to judgment. In tranfports, and full of honour and glory, the wife and righteous, will hear the happy fentence, Come, ye bleffed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

This, and the skeleton, astonished me not a little; and my wonder at the whole increased, as I could find no human creature diving, nor difcover any house or cottage for an inhabitant. This I thought exceeded all the ftrange things I had feen in this wonderful country. But perhaps, (it occured at laft,) there might be a manfion in the woods before me, or fomewhere in the groves on either fide; and therefore, leaving the library,

after.

A defcription of

after I had spent an hour in it, I walked onwards, and came to a wood, which had private walks cut through it, and ftrewed with fand. They fhewed only light enough to diftinguish the blaze of day from evening hade, and had feats difperfed, to fit and liften to the chorus of the birds, which added to the pleasures of the foft filent place. For about three hundred yards the walk I was in extended, and then terminated in meadows, which formed an oval of twenty acres, furrounded by groves, like the large plain I came from. Exactly in the middle of thefe fields, part of which were turned into gardens, there ftood a very handsome ftone house, and not far from the door of it, a fountain played. On either fide of the water was a garden-chair, of a very extraordinary make, curious and beautiful; and each of them ftood under an ever-green oak, the broad leaved Ilex, a charming shade.

§. 4. In one of these chairs fat an anJohn Hen- cient gentleman, a venerable man, whofe ley, Efq; hair was white as filver, and his countenance had dignity and goodness. His dress and manner shewed him to be a person of fortune and diftinction, and by a fervant in waiting, it appeared, he was Lord of the feigneurie I was arrived at. He was tall and graceful, and had not the leaft ftoop, tho'

he

he wanted but a year of an hundred. I could not but admire the fine old gentle

man.

tion of Std.

daughter

Efq;

§. 5. On the fame chair, next to him, Deferipfat a young Lady, who was at this time juft tia Henley, turned of twenty, and had fuch diffufive the grandcharms as foon new fired my heart, and gave of John my foul a foftnefs even beyond what it had Henley, felt before. She was a little taller than the middle fize, and had a face that was perfectly beautiful. Her eyes were extremely fine; full, black, fparkling; and her converfation was as charming as her perfon; both easy, unconstrained, and sprightly.

tween John

Efq; and

§. 6. When I came near two fuch per- A conterfonages, I bowed low to the ground, and fation beafked pardon for intruding into their fine re- Henley, tirement. But the ftars had led me, a wan- the author. derer, to this delightful folitude, without the leaft idea of there being fuch a place in our island, and as their malignant rays had forced me to offend, without intending it, I hoped they would pardon my breaking in upon them.

To this the old Gentleman replied. You have not offended, Sir, I affure you, but' are welcome to the Groves of Bafil. It gives me pleasure to fee you here; for it is very feldom we are favoured with any one's company.

D