lent divine Mr. Fleming has declared the truth, in maintaining in his late furvey, that the confcious fcheme was the doctrine of Chrift and his apoftles; this however is certain, that my friend Stanvil is either now present with his Saviour, beholding his glory, in a vehicle refembling the body of our Lord; as the diffenter juft mentioned teaches;—or if, according to the author of the Confiderations on the ftate of the world, (Archdeacon Law) and my Lord of London, in his Sermons, the fcriptures take no account of an intermediate ftate in death, and we fhall not awake or be made alive until the day of judgment; then will my friend have eternal life at the refurrection; he was as worthy a man as ever lived; an upright chriftian deift, whofe life was one unmixed scene of virtue and charity. He did not believe a tittle of our prieftly myfteries, or regard that religion which fkulks behind the enormous columns of confecrated opinions; but, as christianity was revealed from heaven, to bring mankind to the worfhip of the one fupreme God and governour of the world, and lead them into the paths of humanity, he rejected the fuperftition of Monks and their disciples, and in regard to the voice of reafon, and the words of the gofpel, adored only the fupreme Being, manifefted his love of God by keeping the commandments, and his love of his neighbour, by doing all the good in his power. Such a man

was

was Dr. John Stanvil. If men of fortune would form their manners on fuch a model, virtue by degrees would spread through the inferior world, and we fhould foon be free from fuperftition.

§. 6. Having mentioned the fleeping and the confcious schemes, I would here examine thefe opinions, and fhew why I cannot think, a dead inconfcious filence is to be our cafe till the confummation of the ages; as a happiness so remote would weaken I believe the energy and influence of our conceptions and apprehensions, in refpect of faith, hope, and expectations. To curb defire, or fuffer feverely here, for the fake of truth and virtue, and then ceafe to be, perhaps for ten thousand years to come, or much longer; (for there is not any thing in revelation, or an appearance out of it, that can incline a rational man to think he is near the day of judgment or general refurrection); this feems to be an obstacle in the progrefs of the pilgrim: And therefore, why I rather think, we ftep immediately from the dark experiences of this firft ftate, to a blissful confciousness in the regions of day, and by death are fixed in an eternal connexion with the wife, the virtuous, and the holy: -This, I fay, I would in the next place proceed to treat of, by confidering what the fcriptures reveal in relation to death, and what is most proba

1

ble in reafon; but that it is neceffary to proceed in my ftory.

vil's belia

of her

§. 7. When the beautiful Mrs. Stanvil faw Mrs. Stan her husband was really dead, and had paid our on that decent tribute of tears to his memory, the death -which was due to a man, who left her in husband. his will all his eftates, real and perfonal, to be by her difpofed of as the pleased, she sent for me to her chamber the next morning, and after a long conversation with her, told me, she could now own who she was, and instead of acting any longer by the directions of her head, let me know from her heart, that she had ftill the fame regard for me, as when we travelled away together from her father's houfe in the Weft, to the North of England: And if I would stay at Baffora where I was, but for three months fhe muft be away, fhe would then return, and her fortune and hand I might command. This I readily confented to, and when the funeral was over the departed. For the time agreed on, I continued in the house, and to a day he was punctual in her return. We were married the week after, and I was even happier than I had ever been before; which must amount to a felicity inconceivably great indeed. Six months we refided at her feat, and then thought it beft to pay a vifit to my father in Ireland. We arrived at Bagatrogh Caftle in the western extremity of that island,

in the spring of the year 1735, and were moft kindly received.

My father longed to fee me, and was very greatly rejoiced at my coming; but I found him in a dying way, paralytic all over, and scarcely able to fpeak. To my amazement, he was become as ftrict a unitarian as myfelf, and talked with abhorrence of Athanafian religion. This was owing, he faid, to my MS. Remarks I left with him on Lord Nottingham's Anfwer to Mr. Whifton's Letter to his Lordship; which MS. of mine he had often read over when I was gone, and thereby was thoroughly convinced, on confidering my reafoning, that chriftians are exprefly commanded, upon pain of God's difpleasure, to worship one fupreme God, and him only, in the name and through the mediation of Jefus Chrift. Upon this religious practice as a fundamental rule he had at laft fixed. He faw it was the fafe way, and would never depart from it. He told me, the parfon of his parish, a right orthodox divine, who had been his chum in the univerfity, and very intimate with him, was greatly troubled at this change in his fentiments, and faid many fevere things; but he no more minded the Athanafians now, than he did the idolatrous papifts. This gave me great pleasure, and recompenfed me for what I had suffered on a religious account. I gave thanks to

God

God that truth through my means had prevailed. *

THE CONCLUSION.

AND now, my candid Reader, to take

my leave of you at this time, I have only to obferve, that as this volume is full large, I cannot add my intended XVth section, but only fay in a short summary, that foon after my arrival at Bagatrogh Caftle, my father's feat on Mall-Bay, on the coaft of Galway in Ireland, the old gentleman died, and as in a paffion, he had irrevocably settled the greatest part of his large estate on a near relation of mine, and had it not in his power to leave me more than a hundred a year, a little ready money, and a small fhip, which lay before bis door in the Bay, he defcended to the grave in great trouble, with many tears. Like old Ifaac over Efau, he wept bitterly, and wifhed in vain, that it was in his power to undo what he had done..

As foon as my father was buried, I returned to England with my wife, in the little veffel, now my own, which lay in the Bay,

*The Reader will find these Remarks of mine, on Lord Nottingham's Letter to Mr. Whifton, in my Notes relating to men, things, and books. Which will be publifhed as foon as poffible,