deep humiliation and repentance, and what for a fure truft in God, thro' Chrift; what opinion I ought to have of this tranfitory life, and its unfatisfactory and perishing enjoyments, and what of the inconceive able glories of the other; as alfo what indifpenfable obligations I and all mankind are under, (d) to labour not for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures to everlasting life; more convincingly, than by all the fermons that I have ever heard him preach.

Theoph. You fee therefore the advantage of private conversation with fuch a man. It is not to be fuppofed, his unpremeditated difcourfe fhould be really better than his ftudied fermons, wherein he had well confidered beforehand, what he has to fay. And that it proved more useful to you, might proceed, in part, from your prefent circumstances, which might not: improbably make you more attentive to what he said, and fo it might make a greater impreffion upon you, than at other times. For what I take to be the chief cause of the benefit you mention, from your conversation with him, is, that you had the convenience of propounding your doubts and fcruples to him, and begging of him, to explain himself in any point, wherein you did not take him right at firft which is a liberty you could not have, when he fpake from the pulpit.

Anchith. It may be fo. But this I am fure of; what he told me feemed clearer to me, and more affecting, than any thing I ever heard from him before.

Theoph. I take it for granted, you will not forget to return your unfeigned thanks to God, for fetting home what he faid, upon your heart, to fo good an advantage.

Anchith. By no means. I look upon it as a great mercy of God, and defire to be truly thankful to him for it, and to blefs and magnify his holy name, for youchfafing to take fuch care of me. My doubts, concerning my future ftate, are now in fome measure (d) John vi, 27.

5

fatisfied;

fatisfied; and I hope to have them more fo, when he fhall be a little better at leifure for it. He also promised to discourse me farther to-morrow, and then to adminifter to me the holy facrament of the Lord's Supper, whereby to create in me a clofer union be twixt my foul and my Saviour; and then, upon my bumble and bearty requeft, he gives me hope of receiving abfolution for my fins. And, by God's grace, I am fully refolved never more to indulge myself in any of them, but to ferve God in boliness, and newness of life, for what farther time I may have to spend here.

Theoph. A virtuous and truly Chriftian refolution! And nay the Almighty give you grace immoveably to perfift in it!

Anchith. Thefe are the principal advantages I received from Theodorus's vifits. But these are not all; for there is another of no fmall importance, tho' in no wife to be compared with what relates to my God, my Saviour, my foul, and eternity. He has put me in mind of a great neglect of a different nature, that might have proved of very ill confequence, if it had pleafed God to have fnatched me away without warning; or if I had had time, but had not met with fuch a faithful monitor.

Theoph. I begin to fufpect you had not minded to make a difpofition of your temporal coucerns, as every wife man ought to do.

Anchith. You have hit it. I confefs I have put off making my will, till my latter end, as too many others do, and fo was in great danger of leaving all in confufion, and very much contrary to my mind.

Theoph. This, as you fay, is too general a fault, that men put off their wills, as they do their repentance, to a fick bed; and fo, too frequently, never make them at all. But, fince you are now fenfible of the bad effects of fuch a neglect, I truft you will not defer it any longer, left you fhould happen to die inteftate, and your estate should defcend otherwise than you intended, and perhaps a great part of it be spent

in costly and deftructive law-fuits; and moreover, left fuch animofities arise hereby amongst those relations, whom you would most wish to live in friendship and mutual affection, as may never be quite healed whilft they live, or for fome time afterwards. Some of them, alfo, may be exposed to extremity of want, when you are gone; whom a fmall feasonable legacy might relieve, and put into a way of living. And if any debts be owing, they may not be fo punctually and duly, or at leaft, fo timely paid, as they ought to be, for want of your directions concerning them. And in a word, more and greater inconveniencies might enfure for want of a will, than perhaps you are yet aware of.

Anchith. You fay very right, good Theophilus.

Theoph. Befides, the Scripture itself teaches this duty, of fettling our worldly concerns, before we be called to take our leave of them. For we not only find it recorded of the patriarch Abraham, (e) that he difpofed of his estate before he died, the estate itself to Ifaac, and legacies to the fons of his concubines : and noted afterwards of Achitophel, as an inftance of common prudence, that he (f) put his boufe in order, before he went and hanged himself; that is, fays Bishop. Patrick upon these words, be fettled bis affairs, and difpofed of his eftate; but the prophet Isaiah was fent to King Hezekiab, with a pofitive commiffion to fet his house in order before his death. For fo it is written: (g) In those days was Hezekiah fick unto death; and the prophet Ifaiah the fon of Amos came to him, and said unto bim, Thus, faith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Hezekiah was like to die, and one requifite, you fee, in order to his doing it aright, was first to fet bis house in order, or, in other modern terms, to make his will: a work which ought to be done by every one, who has any ftore of worldly goods to dispose of, and does not refolve, that they should all defcend as the law directs, to the next heir or heirs; but which never can be done at all, if (e) Gen. xxv. 5, 6. (ƒ) 2 Sam. xvii. 23. (g) 2 Kings xx. 1.

not

hot done before death comes; and hardly aright, and as it ought to be, if not before the man is very fick, and near his end. And accordingly (b) Buxtorf tells us of the Jews, that when any of them who happens to be dangerously ill, is vifited whether by the rabbi, or other of his friends; if he be a rich man, their first advice to him is about the fettlement of his estate. Our church, I confefs, does not fo, but allows the precedence to that which is of infinitely greater concern to the fick man, the care of his immortal foul. But then it fubjoins this rubrick: If we have net before difpofed of his goods, let him then be admonish'd to make his will, and to declare his debts, what he oweth, and what is owing to him, for the better difcharging of his confcience, and the quietness of his executors; adding, moreover, that men fhould be put in remembrance, to take order for the fettling of their temporal eftates, whilst they are in bealth.

Anchith. I wish I had confider'd this fooner; for fo I fhould have taken other measures than I have done.

Theoph. I add farther, it will be a fatisfaction to yourleif to think, that as you have been preparing for another ftate, that you may die in peace, and be everJailingly happy in a better world, fo you have not been wanting to do your part, towards making your relations and friends, and whatfoever objects of your charity, as eafy and happy as you can in this.

Anchith. Your reafons feem to me verv. juft, and I have nothing to fay against them. And I must therefore acquaint you, that I have already fent for my neighbour Nomicus, just before you came in; and, for aught I know, he may be in the house by this time.

Theoph. This fhould have been done before, it being the proper work of one in pertect health, when he is able rightly to confider all he does, and has most time for it, whereby both to do it the more completely, and to eafe himself of the trouble of it, when he shall come to languifh upon a fick bed; at which time he (b) Synag. Jud. c. 42.

will be fure to have business of another nature upon his hands.

Anchith. I am now truly convinced of my error, in having deferred it thus long; and therefore think it time to do it now, without any farther delay. And if it' fhall please God to restore me to my health, which at prefent I fee little reason to expect, and will not therefore truft to any hopes of it; if it should pleafe God, I fay, to reftore me to my health, I will never be without a will by me, to prevent all the before-mentioned inconveniencies. I did not think my life to be fo fhort, as I now apprehend it may be ; and this made me more careless and dilatory than I ought by any means to have been.

Theoph. Wherefore now you fee cause to blame yourfelt, for having fo long trufted to fo great an uncertainty; and to be thankful, that you was not totally difappointed by it. Now you may fee, no man is fure of his life for any time; and none therefore but ought to have all things in readiness for a change, whenfoever it fhall come; as poffibly it may very fpeedily. (i) We know not what shall be on the morrow: for what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away.

Anchitb. I am fo thoroughly fenfible of my folly, that I will delay this neceffary work no longer. Somebody there, defire our friend Nomicus to come up.

Theoph. Then, Anchithanes, I will take leave of you till Thursday next, when, as I told you, we have appointed to be here again, as you defir'd.

Anchith. I beg of you, by no means to leave me. Theoph. A business of such a nature, as you are now going about, ought, for divers reafons, to be done with privacy: and it will therefore be best to leave you and Nomicus to yourselves: I called as I was paffing not far off, to fee how you were; but had no thoughts of interrupting any affairs you should have -to dispatch.

(i) James iv. 14t

Anchith