view of the friends of the deceased."

And now

my attention was wholly engrossed with what passed among them, the most of whom were bathed with tears.

God rest his soul! says one, he was as good a natured man as ever lived.--Ay, that he was, says a second; and as good a husband as any in the world, and minded that which was good too-though, to be sure, poor man, he was not without his failings; but the best have their failings as well as he. Very true says a third; God help us, we are frail creatures: Poor man! it is well for him that he has got safe out of this troublesome world: it is better for them that are dead than for us that are alive to be sure, he is the happiest of us all! Thus they reasoned, and occasionally threw in consultations in regard to the order of the funeral.

I turned to my guide, with amazement on my countenance, and stared him full in the face; on which he stopped me short, before I had time to speak, and thus it was that he addressed me:

These people have no notion at all of sin being punished after death; but whatever course of life a person has led while here on earth, they take his admission into heaven, when he dies, as certain. Hell might never have been made as a place of punishment, for any notion which they have of it. If you, or any other person, were to tell these people, that their departed friend had taken up his aobde in those dismal, unfathomable depths, where the worm of conscience dieth not. and where the fire of unspeakable torment cannot be quenched; they would look on you as an uncharitable and hard

hearted wretch, unfit for the society of mankind. After what you have heard and seen, you will, no doubt, think it strange that the minister who shall perform the funeral rites, should commit the body of this man under the name and character of brother, to the dust, in a sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection with the just, notwithstanding he is forever separated from them; and yet I can tell you, that such are the ecclesiastical establishments of some nations, that was not the minister thus to bury him, it might cost him no less than degradation from his sacred office.*

*I have often thought it a very great hardship upon conscientious ministers of the church of England, that by the office for burying of the dead, they are tied to use the very same form over the greatest of saints and the vilest of sinners, which must be a heavy burden to an honest, intelligent mind. The form is admirably adapted to the burial of a saint, but in the highest degree preposterously false and absurd, when used in the interment of a wicked man, who dies impenitent and in his sins.

"For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed. "This is true of the departed saint; but with what propriety can it be said of a wicked man, that he is a brother to the faithful? Is the death of such a man in mercy, in great mercy? Hath God, indeed, taken the soul of the wicked sinner to himself, instead of denouncing upon him the sentence exhibited in the words: "Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire?" &c. Is this a taking of the soul to himself in great mercy, as expressed in the ritual?

"We therefore commit his body to the ground-in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jusus Christ. "

How can this hope of resurrection to eternal life, be sure and certain, seeing the wicked shall certainly be raised to everlasting punishment, and shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God? It would be well, if some expedient was found for easing the minds of the conscientious part of the clergy, either by accommodating the rites to the death of a sin

But, my beloved friend, may it please you to inform me, whether any reason may be assigned why this uan, although wicked. should be so troubled at his death? for I have somewhere read, that the wicked have no bands in their death, and are not troubled as other men. To which he replied, Yes, young man, you have so read, if you have read your Bible; but you must know that poor Contumacio was thoroughly awakened to a sense of his wrath, on account of his sins, and they appeared to him worse than so many dreary ghosts, or hideous spectres, which made him, as you saw, so terribly alarmed when the invincible skeleton approached, and presented the point of his envenomed shaft. A world, ten thousand worlds, would he have given, could he for them, have been told how to evade the fatal thrust. But the stroke not to be evaded, he was obliged to sustain; but, oh! may you never know such a latter end!

His great disorder of mind, was partly owing to his being possessed of a larger degree of moral knowledge than some of his neighbours; so that very many of his sins were committed against the light of his own conscience, which made them the more dreadful unto him. But, the chief reason is, God doth sometimes alarm the conscience of a departing sinner, that he may manifest his judgments for the convincing of some, and leaving of others without excuse.

ner as was that of a saint, or leaving the minister at liberty to use or not use this form, as his discretion might dictate, from his knowledge of the party deceased.

If you please, I would have you observe yonder woman, who sits pensive at the other end of the room; perhaps her conversion is one end which the Lord purposed by his judgments manifested in this unhappy man: and let me tell you, Novitio, I am of opinion, that she will never forget this awful providence while she herself is continued in being. Believe me, Jehovah's ways are in the deep waters, and by far more intricate than the paths of the whirlwind. The great, the sovreign Householder, hath an indisputable right, if he sees meet, to burn his wooden vessels, that with their ashes he may brighten his vessels of gold and silver. Now you have seen this man, and his end; come along with me and another scene shall be unfolded.

PART III.

I thought in my dream, that according to his directions, I followed my guide through divers turnings in this stately mansion, till we arrived at an apartment, where was an old gentleman laid on a couch, dictating to an attorney, who sat by him, writing his last will and testament. He signed, sealed, and delivered the deed; and then with the greatest vivacity proceeded to relate the various virtues of his life, seemingly extremely pleased with the recapitulation.

He willed his children to follow his example; and the better to encourage them to such an imitation, he told them, that it was but a small sum of money, which he and their mother possessed at the first entrance on the marriage-state; and how, by their diligence and frugality, they had saved so and so, mentioning the legacies which he had bequeathed in his will; adding, that if they were diligent and frugal, they might also proportionably increase that which, he blessed God, he had procured for them. He added farther: "My dear children, I am very ill, and doubt I cannot recover: the doctor gives me but little hope; but it is what we must all come to; and you are witnesses of my conduct, ever since you were capable of discerning between right and wrong. I have been just in all my dealings; never imposed on any man; and now, God help me, I am dying, none