upon me for a confiderable space of time. My heart funk within me; for his face was ghaftly, full of horror, with an expression of such anguish as I can never defcribe : His eyes were fixed upon me, and at length with a mournful motion of his head-"Alas, alas!" he cried, " we are in a fatal error" and taking hold of the curtains with his hand, shook them violently and disappeared. --This, I protest to you, I both faw and heard, and look! where the print of his hand is left in blood upon the curtains.

Antitheüs survived the relation of this vifion very few hours, and died delirious in great ago nies.

What a forsaken and disconsolate creature is a man without religion!

Reader, whofoever thou art, deceive not thyself; let not paffion, or profperity, or wit, or wantonness, feduce thy reason to an attempt against the truth. If thou hast the faculties of a man, thou wilt never bring thyself to a fixed perfuafion that there is no God: Struggle how thou wilt against the notion, there will be a moment when the glaring conviction will burst upon thy mind. Now mark what follows-If there is a God, the government of the world is in that God; and this once admitted, the neceffity of a future state follows of confequence. Afk thyself then, what can be the purposes of that future X 3 state;

state; what, but those of justice and retribution, to reward the good, and to punish the evil? Our present life then is a life of probation, a state of trial and of discipline, preparatory to that future state. Now see what is fallen upon thee, and look well to thyself for the consequences: Thou hast let the idea of a God into thy mind, because indeed thou couldst not keep it out, and religion rushes through the breach. It is natural religion hitherto, and no more: But no matter; there is enough even in natural religion to make thee tremble. Whither wilt thou now resort for comfort, whither fly for refuge from the wrath to come? Behold the asylum is open, Christianity is thy falvation and redemption: That, which natural religion hath shadowed out to thee in terrors, Chriftianity will reveal in glory: It will clear up thy doubts, disperse thy fears, and turn thy hopes into certainty. Thy reasonings about a future state, which are but reasonings, it will not only verify by divine authorities, but by positive proof, by visible example, attested by witnesses, confirmed by the evidence of the senses, and uncontradicted by the history of ages. Now thou wilt know to thy comfort, that there is a Mediator gone before thee, who will help out thy imperfect atonement, when thou art brought to judgment in a future state. Thou wilt indeed be told for certain,

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certain, that this life is a state of probation, and that thou shalt be brought to account for thine actions; but thou wilt be taught an easy lesson of falvation; thou wilt be cheared with the mercies of thy God, and comforted with the afsurance of pardon, if thou wilt heartily turn to repentance: Thou wilt find that all this system of religion is conformable to those natural notions, which reason suggested to thee before, with this advantage, that it makes them clearer, purifies refines, enlarges them; shuts out every dismal profpect, opens all that is delightful, and points a road to Heaven through paths of peace and plea Santness.

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N° XCII.

DO not know a man in England better received in the circles of the great than Jack Gayless: Though he has no one quality for which he ought to be respected, and some points in his character for which he should be held in deteftation, yet his manners are externally so agreeable, and his temper generally so social, that he makes a holiday in every fa mily where he visits. He lives with the nobility upon the eafieft no and in the great footing,

houses

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houses where he is in habits of intimacy, he knows all the domestics by name, and has fomething to say to every one of them upon his arrival: He has a joke with the butler at the fide-board during dinner, and sets the footman a tittering behind his chair, and is so comical and so familiar-He has the best receipt book in England, and recommends himself to the cook by a new fauce, for he is in the secrets of the King's kitchen at Versailles: He has the finest breed of spaniels in Europe, and is never without a puppy at the command of a friend: He knows the theory of hunting from top to bottom, is always in with the hounds, can develop every hit in a check, and was never known to chear a wrong dog in a cover, when he gives his tongue: If you want an odd horse to match your set, Jack is your man; and for a neat travelling carriage, there is not an item that he will not fuperintend, if you are defirous to employ him; he will be at your door with it, when the builder brings it home, to fee that nothing is wanting, he is so ready and fo obliging: No man canvasses a county or borough like Jack Gayless; he is so pleafant with the freeholders, and has fo many fongs and fuch facetious toasts, and such a way with him amongst their wins and daughters, that flesh and blood canne hold out against him: In short,

he is the best leader of a mob, and of course the honestest fellow in England.

A merchant's daughter of great fortune married him for love; he ran away with her from a boarding-school, but her father after a time was reconciled to his fon-in-law, and Jack, during the life of the good man, pafssed his time in a small country house on Clapham Common, superintending the concerns of about fix acres of ground; being very expert however in the gardens and grape-house, and a very fociable fellow over a bottle with the citizen and his friends on a Saturday and Sunday, he became a mighty favourite: All this while he lived upon the best terms with his wife; kept her a neat little palfrey, and regularly took his airing on the common by her fide in the most uxorious manner: She was in fact a most excellent creature, of the fweetest temper and mildest manners, so that there seemed no interruption to their happiness, but what arose from her health, which was of a delicate nature. After a few years the citizen died, and Jack, whose conviviality had given him a helping hand out of the world, found himself in poffeffion of a very handsome sum of money upon casting up his affairs at his decease.

Jack Gayless having no further purpose to serve, faw no occafion to confult appearances any longer,