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make an end of me, or of itself. You may imagine, that whilft I am in this bad ftate of health, there are none of your works which I read with greater pleasure than your Saturday's papers. I should be very glad if I could fur-· • nifh you with any hints for that day's

' entertainment. Were I able to dress · up feveral thoughts of a ferious nature, which have made great impreffions on my mind during a long fit ' of fickness, they might not be an improper entertainment for that oc• cafion.

Among all the reflexions which usually rife in the mind of a weak man, who has time and inclination to confider his approaching end, there is none more natural than that of his going to appear naked and unbodied before Him who made him. When a man confiders, that as foon as the vital • union is diffolved, he fhall fee that Supreme Being whom he now contemplates at a distance, and only in his works; or, to fpeak more philofophically, when by fome faculty in the Soul he fhall apprehend the DiP 5 • vine

vine Being, and be more fenfible of his Prefence, than we are now of the Prefence of any object which the eye beholds, a man must be loft in carelefnefs and ftupidity, who is not a• larmed at fuch a thought. Dr. Sherlock, in his excellent treatise upon death, has reprefented in very ftrong and ، lively colours, the ftate of the Soul in its first feparation from the Body, with regard to that invifible world which every where furrounds us, tho' we are not able to discover it through this groffer world of matter, which is accom⚫modated to our fenfes in this life. His < words are as follow.

• That Death, which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but our putting off thefe bodies, teaches us, that it is only our union to these bodies, which intercepts the fight of the other world: The other • world is not at fuch a distance from us, as we may imagine; the throne of God indeed is at a great remove from this earth, above the third heavens, where he difplays his glory to those blessed Spirits •which encompass his throne; but as foon

as

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as we step out of thefe bodies, we step • into the other world, which is not fo properly another world, (for there is the fame heaven and earth ftill) as a new State of life. To live in these bodies is to live in this world; to live out of them is to remove into the next: For while our Souls are confined to thefe bodies, and can look only through these material casements, nothing but what is material can affect us; nay, nothing but what is fo grofs, that it can reflect light, and convey the shapes and colours of things with it to the eye: So that though within this • vifible world there be a more glorious Scene of things than what appears to us, we perceive nothing at all of it; for this • veil of flesh parts the visible and invifible world: But when we put off thefe bodies, there are new and surpris ing wonders prefent themselves to our views; when thefe material fpectacles are taken off, the Soul with its own naked eyes fees what was invifible before: And then we are in the other world, when we can fee it, and converfe with it: Thus • St. Paul tells us, That when we are at home in the body, we are abfent from

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'the

the Lord; but when we are abfent from the body, we are present with the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 6, 8. And me• thinks this is enough to cure us of our fondness for these bodies, unless we think it more defirable to be confined to a prifon, and to look through a grate all our lives, which gives us but a very narrow profpect, and that none of the best neither, • than to be fet at liberty to view all the glories of the world. What would we give now for the leaft glimpse of that invifible world, which the first step we take out of thefe bodies will prefent us with? • There are fuch things as eye hath not • seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it • entered into the heart of man to con

ceive: Death opens our eyes, enlarges our "profpect, prefents us with a new and more glorious world, which we can never fee while we are shut up in flesh; which Should make us as willing to part with this veil, as to take the film off our eyes, which binders our fight.

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As a thinking man cannot but be · very much affected with the idea of his appearing in the Prefence of that

• Being,

• Being, whom none can fee and live; he • must be much more affected when he • confiders that this Being whom he appears before, will examine all the actions of his paft life, and reward or punish him accordingly. I must confefs that I think there is no fcheme ' of Religion, befides that of Chriftianity, which can poffibly fupport the • moft virtuous perfon under this thought. Let a man's innocence be what it will, ⚫ let his virtues rife to the highest pitch of perfection attainable in this life, there will be ftill in him so many fecret fins, fo many human frailties, fo many offences of ignorance, paffion and • prejudice, fo many unguarded words and thoughts, and in fhort, fo many • defects in his best actions, that, with6 out the advantages of fuch an expiation and atonement as Chriftianity has revealed to us, it is impoffible that he fhould be cleared before his Sovereign Judge, or that he fhould be able to Stand in his fight. Our holy Religion fuggefts to us the only means whereby ⚫ our guilt may be taken away, and our imperfect obedience accepted.