cessation of all business, from the king upon the throne, to the school-boy, and to the beggar in the street: all should fall on their knees together like the people of Nineveh.

M. O that such a sight were to be seen! I am so fully persuaded that the plague that is coming, and that I say is now begun among us, is a messenger sent from God to scourge us for our crying sins, that if the voice of this nation were as universally sent up to heaven as was that of the citizens of Nineveh, and with the same sincerity of humiliation; I firmly believe that, as was then the case, God would repent him of his fierce anger, that we should not perish.

S. But you will not see that here, madam.

M. No, child, I fear not; and therefore I am not talking of national humiliations, but of family and personal humiliations and repentance and that, not on expectation that God should withdraw the judgment from the country wherein we live, but that he may withhold his hand, and the hand

of his destroying angel from our houses, our families and our persons.

S. Why, madam, you would put us all into confusion you would fright and terrify us so, that we must shut up our shops, embargo our ships, close our ports: the customhouse would have no business, the exchange no merchants, the merchandize no market: we should be all frighted out of our wits.

M. Ay, ay, I wish I could see people so far out of their wits as that comes to: I should then expect that some miracle of deliverance would follow, as was the case with Nineveh. But it is not to be expected here.

S. No, indeed, madam, I believe not.

M. No, no, there is not a spirit of national humiliation among us; but I see national sins rather come up to such a height as they never were at in this nation before the dregs of the late wars1 are not purged out, and will not be purged out but

1 The civil wars,

by fire; that is to say by the fire of God's judgment, which is already begun among

us.

S. But they have been as bad formerly, madam.

M. They may have been as bad formerly in the revelling days of king but never worse than now; and this even under the pretence of greater reformation! all manner of wickedness and public debauchery being let loose among us, and breaking in upon us like a flood, encouraged even by those who ought to suppress it, and by the example of those from whom we hoped to find examples of good; or at least to have profaneness and immoralities punished and discouraged.

S. The world was always as wicked, I think as it is now, madam, since I remember it.

M. But we hoped the late turn of affairs should have given a blow to the wickedness of the times: but I think it has rather made them worse.

S. That That lies upon the great men, madam, who should have reformed us, and who should have shewn better examples to the people. And you see they have appointed days of humiliation for us: what can they do more ?

1

M. Well, and God may visit our magistrates as well as others: but certainly this judgment will fall upon the people too; for, though the other are principal, the people are guilty and it is from them that God expects a general repentance: and therefore national humiliations are the duty of the people on these occasions.

S. I see nothing in these public humiliations but formality, and making a kind of holiday of it; a day of idleness and sloth.

M. As to that, I hope among serious people it is otherwise; but in the general what you say is too true: and therefore, to enter no further into a complaint of what we cannot mend, one thing we can do ; every one may reform for himself, and

repent for himself; and this is what I would fain see in our families, every one mourning apart. (Zech. xii. 12—14.)

S. But even that is not likely to be seen in the manner you would have it.

M. No, son; and therefore I am for having all individually prepare for the plague, by preparing for death; as seriously and with as much application as if they were actually infected, and had the distemper upon them.

S. Preparations for death, madam! What do you call preparations for death? -In the first place, if I am to prepare for death, I must make my will.

M. Dear child, do not make a jest of it. I am speaking with a heart full of grief, upon an event which, when it comes, will perhaps be as terrifying to you as to me.

S. Ay, and more so too, madam: I am

not jesting with it, I assure you. But I would hope it may not come : it may please God to prevent it: and therefore I cannot think of such a solemn entering upon pre