this glorious rest, in which all our labour and sorrow shall eternally cease! Is this the heaven I have so often heard preached? This glorious place! O heaven! How often have I heard of thy divine excellencies, when sojourning in the world below! But now I behold thy refulgent glories without an interposing cloud, and lo! the thousandth part of thy beauties was never disclosed. Happy are thine inhabitants, thou imperial city, for the great King is in the midst of thee; his uncreated glories irradiate every corner of thy blissful streets. Blessed and unsullied mansions of the disembodied spirits of the just! Happy I, who was predestinated to the possession of this divine inheritance! Is this the Saviour whom I formerly denied? Ever, till the day of thy unspeakable grace, did I say unto thee, thou adorable Lord, I will not have thee to reign over me.

And O my Lord, I am now at last blest with the immediate vision of thee, thou Sharon rose divine! Thy beauties, Lord, how amiable! O how transcendently great are thine excellent glories! Eternal and all-conquering Saviour, I am now at last ravished with thy superabundant goodness, which on earth I could scarcely with coolness admire, but now I behold thee to be all-excellent and divine! Is this the crown, the end of all my former crosses ? Massy treasure! Glorious lustre ! How striking is the stupendous blaze! In the world below, my eyes were dreadfully obscure; but now I behold all the excellencies of Godhead, all the radiant beams of unclouded divinity, in their fullest resplendency, shining forth in thy immaculate person,

thou adorable Jesus: Blessed thou! happy I! Blessed afflictions, which in thy all-powerful hand, thou eternal Spirit, have fitted me for those unsulliable mansions of uninterrupted felicity.

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Sin and Death, where are ye now? trampled forever beneath my victorious feet. Adorable Saviour, the conquest is thine! Ye tempting fiends, the promised time is now come that I scorn forever your envious rage. No more, ye malignant infernals, shall your cruel buffetings be able to shake the tranquillity of this ever-peaceful and glorified mind. Nor shall your spear-like tongues, ye sons of violence and deceit, evermore be able to tarnish my conduct with blame. Ye children of perfidy, ye treacherous persecutors of the gracious church, the gulf is fixed, and here you can never come a second time to perplex me with sorrow; nor shall the tumultuous rage of fiery lusts and impetuous passions evermore be able to separate between my best beloved and me.

"I am now secure within thine insurmountable walls, O thou blessed Jerusalem! Overwhelmed with the insupportable blaze of delighted divinity, here let me bask forever, though the bliss is insufferable. Already filled with the fullness of manifested and imparted love, let me drink forever at the fountain of life. Ever, forever, my God, will I praise thee; incessantly praise thee, while eternity endures. Grace and providence, providence and grace, shall fill up the measure of mine eternally-delightful song. This is my employment; this is the task prescribed by the sweet obligations of gratitude!"

Having gathered up this most imperfect fragment of what I heard, I thought that the scene was withdrawn, and the vision departed from me; and I, astonished at what I had heard and seen, turned to my guide, and in transport, said: No wonder, sir, if Balaam, who saw the visions of the Almighty, desired to die the death of the righteous, and enjoy such a latter end as theirs. No wonder, if Judas, the traitor, despaired and hanged himself, after having betrayed such a glorious Saviour as this. Ah, Veratio, my good Veratio, may I enjoy the divine favour, whatever else I may lack! May I endure all sorrow which both earth and hell can inflict, rather than miss of the glory which shall be revealed! Fall short of heaven! O! I tremble at the thought! Fall short of heaven! If I should, I should be of all creatures the most emphatically wretched and miserable. To love, to see, and not enjoy, ah, what intolerable anguish would it give! If it depended less or more on works of my performing, I could not avoid falling short; but it is of grace, all of grace, of nothing but grace, and so let grace have the glory for ever secure. Yet, O let me never deceive myself in a matter of such grand importance; but raw and inexperienced as I am, I think I have something of the same hope which the good Stabilius expressed; and O Veratio, may my latter end be like his!

PART VI.

HERE my guide addressed me, and said: Now, Novitio, you have seen something of DEATH transformed into life, and it is glorious in your esteem; but if you will follow me, we may yet make farther discoveries relating to the departure of the sanctified. By this time my curiosity was stretched to the utmost pitch; therefore I needed but little persuasion to attend to further discoveries, seeing the departure of Humilius and Stabilius was so very agreeable, at least to myself: therefore I said to my guide--Lead, Veratio, lead wherever you will, and I will follow you.

Are you sure of that, replied Veratio; perhaps you may be mistaken: a much stronger person than Novitio appears to be, hath deserted me before now; and the strongest have found it difficult enough to adhere to me at certain times. Pardon me, sir, replied I; I meant while you unfolded such agreeable scenes; for I perceive, sir, their influence is attractive. Well, Novitio, replied he, I agree with you in that; for when you are strongly drawn, I do not doubt but you will run apace. However, at present let us attend to the matter in hand.

Accordingly he led me from this to another, but mean apartment; and as we entered, he said, Now, Novitio, prepare yourself for seeing the wondrous works of the Almighty. I admired what miracle I was now going to behold; but ere long I beheld

a miracle of grace; a poor woman and three small children were the humble inhabitants of this small hut. As I learned from my guide, the poor, but tender mother, whose name was Fidelia, had been confined to her bed by a deathly disorder, for the space of six weeks or upwards; and by this time she seemed almost conquered by the fatal enemy to nature, though she still retained the perfect use of her reason, and still was capable of speaking to her visitants. At the time of our going into her mean apartment, some few of her friendly acquaintances, some of them meanly, others of them better attired, were come to visit her, desirous to perform the best offices of Christian friendship, expecting that her departure from earth was at hand. One of them, who stood by her bed-side, spoke to her thus: 66 My dear friend Fidelia, I see your body is very low, and in all appearance the hour of your departure is approaching near; but if strength will permit, I should be glad to know how it is with your soul: for I have sometimes known the soul to be most healthful and vigorous, when the outward man has been in the very arms of DEATH." To whom I thought Fidelia replied: "O my friend! we have a kind and compassionate Lord; "his comforts to me, a poor, unworthy creature, are neither few nor small. I may well say, he feedeth me with his grace, and all his paths drop fatness to O my friends! my root is in the best soil, and the dew lies all night upon my branches. O let me ever be thankful for that sweet and transporting day, on which I found freedom of soul to rely upon Christ alone for salvation, as he is held

me.

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