and will ever be the patron of the moral character in his creatures? We live among the malicious and envious, the thoughtless and imprudent, the basest and most reprobat men, yet omnipotence fecures us from mifchief, if we have fidelity. He bleffes us with the bleffings of peace, when we see no probability of efcaping from mifery, cr the hand of man. God is in the whirlwind, and in the ftorm. The clouds are the duft of his feet. He hides us in the fecret of his prefence, and delivers us from evil things and evil men. I am fure I have reafon to acknowledge his fupreme excellence and boundless perfection; and to declare and teftify my inward fenfe of his infinite power and purity, wisdom and goodness, who fo wonderfully delivered me from the abyss of mifery I was finking into. And as we have all had manifeft conviction of his awful majesty, and his amiable mercy, particularly in the late ftorm, I hope we fhall always depend on his facred word, fubmit to his righteous will, regard his providence, and reverence his laws. Here Miss West ended her relation, and every one was furprized at the strange affair. Her conclufion was quite charming, and fhewed the rational piety of her foul. We could not enough admire Califta, the fair nitent, and were delighted to find her X 3 pe amongst The death John. A dialogue Mifs West relation to the happy wicked in amongst us. But what became of honeft John, we all enquired. That generous lover, and faithful man (Mifs Weft answered) unfortunatly perished when we were not far from Eggleston. Mr. Monkhoufe, the farmer, and his amiable daughter, Maria, came with us to this town, for company, and to fhew us the way, and as John happened to stay behind fome time, and then came galloping after, he miffed the right road in the dusk of the evening, and rid to be fure into one of the dreadful bogs, or old deferted pits, that are in that place; for neither he nor his horfe could ever be found. Here the tears burft from young Mifs between Howel's eyes, and the cryed out, Oh, poor and Mifs John! Then afked Mifs Weft how the acHowel, in counted for this, as God governed the world? fudden It happened to this good man according to death, and the work of the wicked: and to cruel Comus, nefs of the and his wicked companions, it happens acthis world. Cording to the work of the righteous. They are fafe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. They live; they become old yea, are mighty in power. Alafs! poor John, like a good angel, he delivered you from deftruction, and brought his betrothed wife from the house of fin, to perish himself in a ter rible manner. My dear, (Mifs Weft replyed) you have understanding enough, young as you are, to answer this question yourself, and therefore I fhall only fay, to oblige you with my notion upon this article, that we cannot here fee the reasons why the oppreffor and destroyer are often fuffered to enjoy an envyed power and glory to extreme old age; and the be nevolent and pious frequently live in misery, and often perifh in a fad manner, like good John Crump, the gardner; yet hereafter we fhall be fatisfied it was for the wisest reasons; and we are now fure, that a day of judgment is a fufficient apology for providence. We shall then difcern betwixt the righteous and the wicked. And as to John Crump's fudden death, after doing us fuch friendly offices, if he paffed that way in an instant to the lightsome fields of Hades, or the boundlefs realms of glory, as I fuppofe his cafe to be, then he had no caufe to complain of the misfortune. And it is farther my opinion, that terrible as his death may feem to fenfe, yet it is preferable to the way many good people expire on beds of down, in the finest houses. I have known feveral of my acquaintance in the most excruciating torments for several days before they could dye: torments beyond any thing an inquifition could lay on them. And what fignifys accidental, speedy death of any kind, by fea or land, in refpect of such continued grievous mifery in dying. X 4 dying, The thing is, we must all dye, and God knows beft which is the fittest way for his fervants, Our bufinefs is to fay, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and we are fure of being for ever happy, in whatever way the paffage is opened for us to immortality. No way or manner of dying can be joyous to human nature. It is a cup that all would defire might pass from them; but fince it is the great law of nature, and that all must tafte it, though the ingredients are not to all equally bitter and offenfive, I am fure for my felf, that I had rather perifh at sea, or be fwallowed up at once, as John Crump was, then lie for many days, as an excellent lady of my acquaintance lately did, in the excruciating torments of that moft dreadful diftemper a miferere. And I knew a young gentleman of very good morals, who was feized with fo intolerable a head-ach, that after men had stood for eight and forty hours fqueezing his burning head with wet napkins, and he could find no ease by any mean, he snatched up a pistol, and fhot himself. Confidering these things, and various other almost unbearable disorders, what we call a violent or unnatural death, is not fo great an evil as it is generally fuppofed. Sudden death, in an easy way at least, I think we ought to defire, and how people came to think of praying to be delivered from fuch a good man manner of dying, is to me very furprising. May it be my fate to look through an easy fudden death to a glorious eternity: Nay, let it be a little rough, rather than not fudden. I know, my dear, (continued Miss West, fpeaking to little Mifs Howel) it is fayed, that christianity makes repentance neceffary to falvation, and a fudden death, soft or hard, interrupts it. It does fo in the case of evil people but the good can never need that repentance in order to falvation, which it is in the power of fudden death to intercept. For true repentance confifts not in fingle acts, upon particular occafions, but in an habitual change of mind, and heart, and frame, and life. This must be the character of the righteous, and fuch a character needs no fuch repentance as a fudden death can intercept; whether it happens by flipping the breath in a moment, with cafe, or by a fall, or in a falt wave. In truth, Mifs, a death-bed repentance is good for nothing. We muft fo live as to have all things ready for the great journey; if we expect a comfortable paffage, and a welcome reception. The true christian's cafe is a continued operation: there must be nothing to feek any minute of our lives. We must haften as for life and foul to obtain that holynefs without which no one fhall fee the Lord; and when this is done, we are al |