taught him," and Timothy was inftructed by his grandmother. 1 Tim. i. 5..

3d. "Pray in your family daily, that your's may be in the families which call upon God.

4th. "Labour for a meek and quiet fpirit, which in the fight of God is of great price, 1 Pet. iii. 4. 5th.

"Pore not on the comforts you want, but upon the mercies you have; look rather at God's end in afflicting, than to meafure any degree of your affliction,

6th." Labour to clear up your evidence in Heaven, when God takes from you the comforts of earth; so that, as your fufferings do abound, your confolation in Chrift may abound much more. Though it be good to maintain a holy jealoufy of the deceitfulness of the heart, yet it is ill for you to cherish fears and doubts. touching the truth of your graces.

If ever I had confidence touching the grace of another, Peter faid of Silvanus, I am perfuaded that this is the grace of God wherein ye ftand. i Pet. v. 12.

7th. "O, my dear foul! wherefore doft thou doubt whose heart has been upright; whofe walk has been holy; I could venture my foul this day in your foul's ftead, fuch a confidence have I in you.

8th. When you find your heart fecure, proud and prefamptuous, then pore upon corruption more than grace; and when you find your heart doubting and unbelieving, then look upon your graces without your infirmities.

9th. Study the covenant of grace and mercies of Chrift; and you are interested in fuch a covenant that ac

cepts purposes for performances, de fires for deeds, fincerity for perfection, the righteoufnefs of Jefus Chrift, as if it were your own alone. Oh, my love! reft, reft thou in the love of God, in the bofom of Chrift.

10th." Swallow up your will in the will of God.. It is a bitter cup we are to drink, but it is the cup our fathers hath put into our hands.

"When Paul was to fuffer at Jerufalem, the Chriftians could fay, "The will of the Lord be done! O, say ye fo when I go to Tower-hill, the will of the Lord be done!"

11th.

Rejoice in my joy. "The joy of the Lord is my ftrength!

"Oh! let it be your's also.

"Dear wife, farewell; I will call you my wife no more. I fhall fee thy face no more, yet I am not much troubled, for now I am going to the bridegroom the Lord Jefus, to whom I fhall be eternally married.

12th. "Refufe not to marry, when God offers unto you a fair opportunity; but be fure you marry in the Lord, and one of a good difpofition, that he may not grieve you, and one of a comfortable livelihood in the world.

Farewel, dear love! and again I fay farewell: the Lord Jefus be with your fpirit: the maker of Heaven and earth be a kind husband to you, and the father of our Lord Jefus Christ be a father to your children. So prays "Your dying, yet moft

affectionate friend, "CHRIST. LOVE.” From the Tower of London, the 22d day of August, 1651, the day of my glorification.

S.

proceeds :-" Who can wonder that the man whofe mind has never been imbued with just notions of the importance of true religion and virtue, fhould want the fortitude to relih the preffing calls of inclination, and yield a ready aflent to any propotal,

which promifes to relieve the languor of inactivity, more oppreffive than poffitive uneafinefs? Having loft or never acquired a tafte for innocent delights, his clamourous appetites can only be appeafed by forbidden gratifications. Thefe, ftill rifing in their demands, cannot always, or long, be indulged, without greater additions to his expences than prudence will allow; and when the bounds of economy have been once trangreffed, neceffity obliges this unhappy victim of his pleafures to continue the fame profufion, and to plunge ftill deeper into new diftreffes. To allay the fears of inftant penury, he tries to repair his loffes by the dangerous experiment of play, or, what is yet a greater infamy, prostitutes his time and talents to fubferve the interefts of a faction. But fuch refources foon failing, he is left in the end flill more entangled than before. Sorrows of every kind begin to multiply around him. Poverty comes upon him, as one that travelleth, and want as an armed man till at length, his fortune ruined beyond recovery, his body broken by intemperance, and his mind ulcerated by the corrod ing fenfe of guilt, defpair prevails over every other confideration, and an infamous act of fuicide concludes his miferies and his life.

But there is another and a worfe inftance of the general profligacy yet behind; of the numerous focieties which mankind have been led to form for the purposes of mutual advantage, none is of more importance to individuals or the public than that of marriage. The very nature of this fociety requires it to be perpetual; and befides the authority of a divine command, the most important ends of its inftitution, the production and education of children, could not at all, or could not fo well, be obtain ed, by fuffering it to be diffolved at pleafure. During the virtuous times of the Roman Commonwealth, this union was regarded as fo inviolable as to give rife to a tradition, that for the

first five hundred years not a fingle example of divorce was known; and it is an undoubted fact, that when once feparations of this fort, and for the most trifling caufes, were allowed, the permiffion was followed by the most abandoned licentioufness, that ever deformed the annals of mankind. Our laws are better calculated to preferve the purity of manners in this particular than the Roman; and nothing fhort of adultery, or the breach of what is moft effential to the contract, is with us, a ground for its total diffolution. Yet even this circumftance of the modefty of our laws may be converted into a decifive proof of the corruption of our morals. The infidelity of married women is now fo 'little of a rarity, that the granting of divorces on this account is no fmall part of the business of the legislature; and this reasonable indulgence to the husband, inftead of proving, as it ought, a punishment to the wife, is often found in fact to ferve but as a fresh incentive to her depravity: for no fooner is the injured party fet loose from the contract, but the other is at liberty of courfe: hence it has come to pafs, though contrary to the intentions of government, that the offending perfon, now freed from all connection with the man, to whom fhe had plighted an eternal conftancy, not only continues, as before, a flagitious intercourfe with her feducer, but is enabled to fanctify, as it were, the difgraceful commerce, by changing it into that of legal matrimony. This growing evil, it is hoped, has received fome check from that laudable jealoufy, which has prompted you to with-hold your

affent to every

new propofal of divorce, where proofs have been difcovered of manifeft fraud or collufion; and more particularly from a remedy in form, originating from among yourfelves, and propounded with a gravity and prudence, becoming the Upper House of Legislature of his kingdom. Why an expedient, which feemed fo feafonatle and fo falutary, was not per

mitted

If any aggravation can be made to the fpecies of impurity here alluded to, it is, that the women of fpollefs fame, and whofe characters are yet above fufpicion, inftead of uniting to exprefs their deteftation of the practice, feem, many of them, difpofed to confider it as now no longer infamous, and thus, in a degree, become the acceffaries to its guilt. In the mean time, it is fome coniolation to observe, that amidst the general licentiousness, there are not wanting the fairest patterns of domeftic excellence, which perfons of either fex, who have any generous ambition, might do well to emulate. You perceive immediately, where it is that I would principally direct attention; to that exalted flation, where fimplicity of manners, displayed in a bright affemblage of all the virtues of private life, adds a glory to the fplendors of a throne; to thofe, who are daily exhibiting, to an adulterous and finful generation, the exactelt models of conjugal as of every other duty, fupporting religion by their authority, and adorning it by their example.

your

A FRIEND.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE NEW CHRISTIAN'S MAGAZINE.

Gentlemen,

AFTER your entertaining and excellent life of M. Fenelon, it would be very agreeable to myfelf and many of your readers, if you would infert the third dialogue, from thofe published by Lord L-n:

and as you exprefs yourselves ready to oblige your correspondents, I hall hope for this favour, who

am,

Gentlemen,

Your conftant reader and admirer, S. G.

DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD. DIALOGUE III.

PLATO. 1 FENELON.

WELCOME

Plato. 7ELCOME to Elyfium, O thou, the moft pure, the moft gentle, the most refined difciple of philofophy that the world, in any modern times, has produced! Sage Fenelon, welcome! -I need not name myself to you. Our fouls must by fympathy know

one another..

Fenelon. I know you to be Plato, the most amiable of all the difciples of Socrates, and the philofopher of all antiquity, whom I the most defired to refemble.

1

P. Homer and Orpheus are very impatient to fee you in that region of thefe happy fields which their fhades inhabit. They both acknowledge you to be a great poet, though you have never written a verfe. And they are now busy in weaving for you unfading wreaths of the finest and sweetest Elyfian flowers. But I will lead you from them to the facred grove of philofophy, on the highest hill of Elyfium, where the air is most pure and moft ferene. I will conduct you to the fountain of wisdom, in which you will fee, as in your own writings, the fair image of virtue perpetually reflected. It will raife in you more love than was felt by Narciffus, when he faw his own face in the unruffled fpring. But you fhall not pine, as he did, for a fhadow. The goddess.herfelf fhall meet your embraces and mix with your foul.

F. I find you retain the fame allegorical and poetical ftyle, which

you

you were so fond of in fome of your writings. Mine run fometimes into poetry too, particularly my Telemachus, which I meant to make a kind of epic compofition. But I dare not rank myself among the great poets, nor pretend to any equality in oratory with you, the most eloquent of philofophers, on whofe lips the Attic bees diftilled all their honey.

P. The French language is not fo harmonious as the Greek: yet you have given a fweetness and melody to it, which equally charms the ear and the heart. When one reads your compofitions, one thinks one hears Apollo's lyre, ftrung by the hands of the graces, and tuned by the mufes. The idea of a perfect king, which you have given in your Telemachus, far excels, in my own judgment, my imaginary republic. Your dialogues breathe the pure fpirit of virtue, of unaffected good fenfe, of juft criticism, of fine tafte. They are in general as fuperior to your countryman Fontenelle's, as reafon is to falfe wit, or truth to affectation. The greatest fault of them is, that fome are too fhort.

F. It has been objected to them, and I am fenfible of it myself, that they are too full of common-place morals. But I wrote them for the inftruction of a young prince, and one cannot too ftrongly imprint on the minds of thofe, who are born to rule over nations, the most fimple truths becaufe, as they grow up, the flattery of a court will try to difguife and hide from them thofe truths, and to eradicate from their hearts the love of their duty, if it has taken there a very deep root.

P. It is indeed the peculiar miffortune of princes, that they are often inftructed with very great care in the refinements of policy, and not taught the firft principles of moral obligations, are taught fo fuperficially, that the virtuous man is foon lost in the corrupt politician. VOL. II. No. 15.

But the leffons you gave your young prince are fo graced by the charms of your eloquence, that the oldeft and wifeft men may read them with pleasure. All your works are embellished with a fublime and agreeable imagination, which gives to fimplicity elegance, and dignity to the most vulgar and obvious truths. I have heard, indeed, that your countrymen are less fenfible of the beauty of your genius and style than fome of their neighbours. What has fo much depraved their taste?

F. That which depraved the taste of the Romans after the age of Auguftus; an immoderate love of wit, of paradox, of refinement. The works of their writers, like the faces of their women, must be painted and adorned with artificial embellishments to attract their regards. And thus the natural beauty is loft. But it is no wonder if few esteem my Telemachus in a political light, the maxims inculcated there, being fuch as they think inconfiftent with the grandeur of their monarchy, and with the fplendor of a refined and opulent nation. They feem to be falling into opinions, that the chief end of fociety is to procure men the pleasures of luxury; that an elegant taste of voluptuous enjoyments is the perfection of merit ; and that a king who is gallant, magnificent, liberal, who builds a fine palace, who furnishes it well with ftatues and pictures, who encourages the fine arts, and makes them fubfervient to every modifh vice, who has a restless ambition, a perfidious policy, and a fpirit of conqueft, is better for them than a Numa, or a Marcus Aurelius. Whereas, to check the exceffes of luxury, thofe exceffes I mean, which enfeebled the spirit and ftrength of a nation, to ease the people, as much as poffible, of the burden of taxes; to give them the bleffings of peace and tranquillity, when they can be obtained without lofs or difhonour; to make them frugal and hardy, Gg

and

and mafculine in the temper of their bodies and minds, that they may be the fitter for war when it does come upon them: but above all, to watch over their morals, and difcourage whatever may taint or corrupt them, is the great business of government, and ought always to be the principal object of wife legiflatures. Certainly, that is the happiest country, which has the moft virtue in it; and to the eye right reafon, the pooreft Swifs canton is a much nobler ftate than the kingdom of France, if it has more liberty, better morals, a more fettled tranquillity, more moderation in profperity, more firmnefs in danger.

of

P. Your notions are juft; and if your country explodes them, the will not be long the firft nation in Europe. Her declenfion is begun, her ruin approaches.-But left you fhould think, from the praife I have given you, that flattery can find a place in Elyfium, allow me to lament, with the grief of a friend, that a man fo fuperior to all other follies, could give into the reveries of a madame Guyon, a diftracted enthufiaft, How ftrange was it to fee the two great lights of France, you and the bishop of Meaux, engaged in a controverfy, whether a madwoman was a heretic or a faint!

.F. I confefs my own weakness, and the ridiculoufnefs of the dif pute. But did not you also give into fome reveries about divine love, in which you talked unintelligibly, even to yourself?

P. I felt fomething more than I could exprefs.

F. I had my feelings too, as fine, and as lively as yours. But we had both done better to have avoided thofe fubjects, in which fentiment took the place of cool reafon and fober truth.

Madam de Maintenon, in her excellent letters, gives this fine character of archbishop Fenelon. * FENELON. is too pious not

to believe, that a man may love God purely for his fake, and has too much fenfe to think that a man immerfed in the most fhameful vices, can love him. He has protested to me, that he intermeddles in this affair (of Madam Guyon) with no other view, than that the fentiment of truly devout fouls may not be condemned through inattention. He is no advocate for Madam Guyon, though he is her friend. He is the defender of piety and Chriftian perfection. I rely on his word, because I have met with few men fo fincere.**

The following is a letter from Fenelon to her. The better to understand it, the reader muft know, that she was the fuppofed miftrefs, but real wife, of Lewis › XIV.

"Zeal for the king's falvation" muft not carry you beyond the bounds which providence feems to have marked out for you. The moments, which God alone can know, must be watched: the right' way to prepare the king for the reception of God's grace, is not to tire him with exhortations, but to edify him, to fteal infenfibly into his heart, by a mild and patient demeanour. Your application to touch his heart, to open his eyes, to preferve him from certain fnares, to give him counfels of peace and moderation, to excite him to ease his people, and love the church, and your zeal to provide it with good paftors, requires a great deal of circumfpection and much prudence. You are the centinel of God in the midft of Ifrael. Love the king, be obedient to him, as Sarah was to Abraham. Refpect him from the bottom of your heart; look upon him as your Lord in the order of God. It is true, Madam, that your ftation is a riddle; but 'tis God has made it fo: you did not wish for it to be fo; you did not chufe it, nor even imagine it:

'tis