ready before the porter comes to fummon you? Reader! if this be your cafe, how furprised will you be to hear that the travellers to the far country have not half your prudence, though bound on a journey of infinitely more impor tance, to a land where nothing can be fent after them, and which when they are once fettled, all errors are irretrievable.

I obferved that these pilgrims, instead of being upon the watch, left they fhould be ordered off unprepared; inftead of laying up any provifion, or even making memorandums of what they would be likely to want, spent most of their time in crowds, either in the way of traffic or diverfion. At first, when I faw them fo much engaged in converfing with each other, I thought it a good fign, and liftened attentively to their talk, not doubting but the chief turn of it would be about the climate, or treasures, or fociety they should probably meet with in the far coun try. I fuppofed they might be alfo difcuffing about the best and safest road to it, and that each was availing himself of the knowledge of his neighbor, on a fubject of equal importance to all. I liftened to every party, but in fcarcely any did I hear one word about the land to which they were bound, though it was their home, the place where their whole intereft, expectation, and inheritance lay; to which alfo great part of their friends were gone before, and whither they were fure all the reft would follow. Inftead of this, their whole talk was about the bufinefs,

or the pleasures, or the fafhions, of the strange country which they were merely paffing through, and in which they had not one foot of land which they were fure of calling their own for the next quarter of an hour. What little estate they had was perfonal and not real, and that was a mortgaged, life-hold tenement of clay, not properly their own, but only lent to them on a fhort uncertain leafe, of which three score years and ten was considered as the longest period, and very few indeed lived in it to the end of the term; for this was always at the will of the Lord, part of whofe prerogative it was, that he could take away the lease at pleasure, knock down the ftouteft tenant at a fingle blow, and turn out the poor fhivering, helpless tenant naked to that far country for which he had made. no provifion. Sometimes, in order to quicken the Pilgrim in his preparation, the Lord would break down the tenement by flow degrees, fometimes he would let it tumble by its own natural decay, for as it was only built to laft a certain term, it would fometimes grow fo uncomfortable by increafing dilapidations even before the ordinary leafe was out, that the lodging was hardly worth keeping, though the tenant could feldom be perfuaded to think fo, but fondly clung to it to the laft. First the thatch on the top of the tenament changed colour, then it fell off and left the roof bare; then the "grinders ceafed because they were few;" then the windows became fo darkened that the owner could fcarcely

fee through them; then one prop then one prop fell away, then another, then the uprights became bent, and the whole fabric trembled and tottered, with every other symptom of a falling houfe. On fome occafions the Lord ordered his meffengers, of which he had a great variety, to batter, injure, deface, and almost demolish the frail building even while it seemed new and ftrong; this was what the landlord called giving warning; but many a tenant would not take warning, and was fo fond of staying where he was, even under all thefe inconveniences, that at laft he was caft out by ejectment, not being prevailed on to leave his dwelling in a proper manner, though one would have thought the fear of being turned out would have whetted his diligence in preparing for "a better and more enduring inheritance." For though the people were only tenants at will in these crazy tenements, yet through the good. nefs of the fame Lord, they were affured that he never turned them out of thefe habitations before he had on his part provided for them a better, fo that there was not fuch another landlord in the world; and though their present dwelling was but frail, being only flightly run up to ferve the occafion, yet they might hold their future poffeffion by a moft certain tenure, the word of the Lord himfelf, which was entered in a covenant, or title-deed, confifting of many fheets, and because a great many good things were given away in this deed, a book was made of which every foul might get a copy.

This indeed had not always been the cafe, becaufe, till a few ages back, there had been a fort of monopoly in the cafe, and "the wife and prudent," that is, the cunning and fraudful, had hid thefe things from the "babes and fucklings." that is, from the low and ignorant, and many frauds had been practifed, and the poor had been cheated of their right; fo that not being allowed to read and judge for themselves, they had been fadly impofed upon: but all these tricks had been put an end to more than two hundred years when I paffed through the country, and the meaneft man who could read might then have a copy, fo that he might fee himmelf what he had to trust to, and even those who could not read, might hear it read once or twice every week, at least, without pay, by learned men. whole bufinefs it was. But it furprised me to fee how few comparatively made use of these vaft advantages. Of thofe who had a copy, many laid it carelessly by, expreffed a general belief in the truth of the title-deed, a general fatisfaction that they fhould come in for a fhare of the inheritance, a general good opinion of the Lord whofe word it was, and a general difpofition to take his promife upon truft; always, however intending, at a convenient feafon, to enquire farther into the matter, but this convenient feafon feldom came, and this neglect of theirs was conftrued into a forfeiture of the inheritance.

At the end of this country lay the vaft gulf

mentioned before, it was fhadowed over by a broad and thick cloud, which prevented the pilgrims from feeing in a diftinct manner what was doing behind it, yet fuch beams of brightness now and then darted through the cloud as enabled those who used a telescope provided for that purpose, to see the fubftance of things hoped for; but it was not every one who could make ufe of this telescope; no eye indeed was naturally difpofed to it; but an earneft defire of getting a glimpse of the invisible realities, gave fuch a ftrength and fteadiness to the eye, as enabled it to difcern many things which could not be seen by the natural fight. Above the cloud was this infcription, "The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Of thefe laft many glorious defcriptions had been given, but as thofe fplendors were at a distance, and as the pilgrims in general did not care to use the telescope, these distant glances made little impreffion. The glorious inheritance which lay beyond the cloud, was called The things above, while a multitude of triflng objects, which appeared contemptibly small when looked at through the telescope, were called The things below. Now as we know it is nearnefs which gives fize and bulk to any object, it was not wonderful that thefe ill judging pilgrims were more ftruck with thefe baubles and tri. fles, which, by lying close at hand, were visible and tempting to the naked eye, and which made up the fum of The things below, than with the