OR, A SERIES OF DIALOGUES AND LETTER S, UPON THE Most Important and Interesting Subjects. IN THREE VOLUMES. By JAMES HERVE Y, A. M. For Zion's fake will I not hold my Peace, and for jerusalem's VOL. III. LONDON: Printed by Charles Rivington, For JoHN and JAMES RIVINGTON, at the Bible and M-DCC LV. HE laft Evening was one of the finest plete the Satisfaction, but my Friend's Company*. I could not but observe, how much your improving Converfation heightened the Charms of Nature. When Religion applied Philosophy, every Thing was inftructive, as well as pleasing.Not a Breeze fwept over the Plains, to clear the VOL. III. B * Ty quod abes excepto, cætera lætus: Sky Sky, and cool the Air; but it tended alfo to difperfe our Doubts, and inliven our Faith in the fupreme allfufficient GOOD.-Not a Cloud tinged the Firmament with radiant Colours, or amused the Sight with romantic Shapes; but We beheld a Picture of the prefent World, of its fading Acquifitions and fantastic Joys, in the mimic Forms and the tranfitory Scene. Even the weakest of the Infect-tribe, that skim the Air in sportive Silence, addreffed Us with the ftrongest Incitements, and gave Us the loudeft Calls, to be active in our Day, and useful in our Genera tion. They cried, at least when You lent them your Tongue, 1 Such is vain Life, an idle Flight of Days,- A Scene of little Cares, and trifling Paffions, 1 How often, at the Approach of fober Eve, have We ftole along the Cloysters of a fequeftred Bower ; attentive to the Tale of fome querulous Current, that feemed to be ftruck with Horror at the awful Gloom; and complained with heavier Murmurs, as it passed under the blackening Shades, and along the Root-obftructed Channel. Or elfe, far from the babbling Brook, and foftly treading the graffy Path, We listened to the Nightingale's Song: while every Gale held its Breath, and all the Leaves forbore their Motion, that they might neither drown nor interrupt the melodious Woe. From both which penfive Strains. You endeavoured to temper and chastise the exuberant Gaiety of my Spirits. You convinced me, that true Joy is a ferious Thing is the Child of Res fevera eft verum Gaudium, fedate Sen, fedate Thought, not the Spawn of intemperate Mirth: nurfed, not by the Sallies of diffolute Merriment, but by the Exercise of ferene Contemplation. I Sometimes, at the gladfome Return of Morn, we have afcended an airy Eminence; and hailed the new-born Day; and followed, with our delighted Eye, the Mazes of fome glittering Stream. Here rufhing with impetuous Fury, from the Mountain's Side; foaming over the rifted Rocks, and roaring down the craggy Steep. Impatient as it were, to get free from fuch rugged Paths, and mingle with the Beauties of the lower Vale.-There, flackening its headlong Career, and smoothing its Eddies into an even Flow. While, deep embofomed in the verdant Mead, it glides through the cherished and smiling Herbage. Sometimes, loft amidst clofing Willows; fometimes, emerging with fresh Beauty from the leafy Covert; always, roving with an Air of amorous Complacency; and careffing, as it were, the fringed Banks, and flowery Glebe. Reminded, by this watery Monitor, of that Conftancy and Vigour, with which the Affections fhould move towards the great Center of Happiness, CHRIST JESUS of that determined Ardour, with which we fhould break through the Intanglements of Temptation, and Obftacles of the World, in order to reach our everlasting Reft and of the mighty Difference between the turbuTent, the frothy, the precipitate Gratifications of Vice, and the calm, the fubftantial, the permanent Delights of Religion. Or elfe, with eager View, we have furveyed the extenfive Profpect, and wandered over all the Magnificence B2 |