trofpect upon past actions between the deceased, whom I followed, and myself, together with the many little circumstances that strike upon the foul, and alternately give grief and confolation, have vanished like a dream; and I have been relieved as by a voice from heaven, when the folemnity has proceeded, and after a long pause I have heard the fervant of God utter, 'I 'know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though worms destroy this 'body, yet in my flesh fhall I fee God; 'whom I fhall fee for myself, and my eyes 'fhall behold, and not another.' How have I been raised above this world, and all its regards, and how well prepared to receive the next sentence which the holy man has spoken: We brought nothing into this 'world, and it is certain we can carry no'thing out; the Lord gave, and the Lord ' hath taken away, bleffed be the name of 'the Lord!' There are, I know, men of heavy temper, without genius, who can read these expreffions of Scripture with as much indifference difference as they do the rest of these loose papers: however, I will not despair, but to bring men of wit into a love and admiration of the Sacred Writings; and, as old as I am, I promise myself to see the day, when it shall be as much the fashion amongst men of politenefs to admire a rapture of St. Paul, as any fine expreffion in Virgil or Horace; and to fee a welldreffed young man produce an Evangelist out of his pocket, and be no more out of countenance, than if it were a Claffic printed by Elzevir. It is a gratitude that ought to be paid to Providence, by men of distinguished faculties, to praise and adore the Author of their Being with a spirit suitable to those faculties, and roufe flower men by their words, actions, and writings, to a participation of their transports and thanksgivings. SECTION SECTION VIII. AGAINST ATHEISM AND INFIDELITY. AFTER having treated of falfe Zealots in Religion, I cannot forbear mentioning a monftrous fpecies of men, who one would not think had any existence in nature, were they not to be met with in ordinary conversation; I mean the Zealots in Atheism. One would fancy that these men, though they fall fhort, in every other refpect, of those who make a profeffion of religion, would at least outshine them in this particular, and be exempt from that fingle fault, which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervors of religion: but so it is, that Infidelity is propagated with as much fiercenefs and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the fafety of mankind depended upon it. There is fomething fo ridiculous and perverse in this kind of Zealots, that one does not know how to fet them out in their proper colours. They are a fort of gamefters, who are eternally upon upon the fret, though they play for nothing. They are perpetually teafing their friends to come over to them, though at the fame time they allow that neither of them shall get any thing by the bargain. In short, the zeal of spreading Atheism is, if poffible, more abfurd than Atheism itself. Since I have mentioned this unaccountable zeal, which appears in Atheists and Infidels, I muft further obferve, that they are likewise, in a most particular manner, poffeffed with the spirit of bigotry. They are wedded to opinions full of contradiction and impoffibility, and at the fame time look upon the smallest difficulty in an article of faith as a fufficient reason for rejecting it. Notions that fall in with the common reafon of mankind, that are conformable to the sense of all ages and all nations, not to mention their tendency for promoting the happiness of societies or of particular perfons, are exploded as errors and prejudices; and schemes erected in their stead, that are altogether monftrous and irrational, and require the most extravagant credulity to embrace them. I would fain ask one of these bigoted Infidels, fuppofing all the great points of Atheism, as the cafual or eternal formation of the world, the materiality of a thinking fubftance, the mortality of the foul, the fortuitous organization of the body, the motions and gravitation of matter, with the like particulars, were laid together and formed into a kind of creed, according to the opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, fuppofing fuch a creed as this were formed, and impofed upon any one people in the world, whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith, than any fet of articles which they fo violently oppose. Let me therefore advise this generation of wranglers, for their own and for the public good, to act at least fo confiftently with themselves, as not to burn with Zeal for Irreligion, and with Bigotry for Nonfense. 0. COLUM IPSUM PETIMUS STULTITIA- HOR. UPON my return to my lodgings laft night, I found a letter from my worthy friend the Clergyman, whom I have given fome |