At length she was seldom seen at public worship. A Christian friend perceived her declension, by her backwardness to discourse on religious subjects. She had previously been very forward to converse on the best things, but at this time was quite the reverse; yet she did not return back to the world without considerable checks of conscience. She knew that she was doing wrong, but became hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. About the twentieth year of her age, she broke a blood vessel. An apothecary was sent for immediately, but no relief could be afforded; her appointed time was now arrived. On the day after the circumstance took place, she was visited by the person who had observed her departure from the way of life, and who states the following particulars of different interviews with her : "On asking her how she was, she said, 'Very bad, very bad.' I then told her I understood there was no hope of her recovery, and proceeded to inquire how it was with her in regard to her eternal welfare. She exclaimed, That is what I want; my life I care not for, if my sins were pardoned.' I then spoke of the power and willingness of Christ to save lost sinners; but she answered, there was no pardon for her, she had been such a great sinner.' I then enlarged on the precious promises of the Gospel, and its invitations to miserable sinners; but all seemed to aggravate the feelings of her guilty conscience. She burst into tears, and said, 'O that I had repented when the Spirit of God was striving with me!--but now I am undone!' I then offered up a prayer for her; and finding that talking to her was only sharpening the stings of her wounded conscience, I left her. I again visited her late in the evening of the same day. She was much weaker from the loss of blood, and her countenance bespoke the dreadful horror of her mind, which no doubt hastened her speedy dissolution. On asking her how she felt, she answered: Miserable! miserable! I then repeated some encouraging passages of Scripture to backsliders, but alas! all in vain; her soul laboured under the greatest agonies. She exclaimed, 'O! how I have been deceived! When I was in health I delayed repentance from time to time; O that I had my time to live over again! O that I had obeyed the Gospel!-but now I must burn in hell forever. O! I cannot bear it, I cannot bear it.' "In this manner she continued breathing out most horrible expressions. "I reminded her, that Jesus Christ would in no wise cast out those sinners who come to him, and that his blood cleanseth from all sin. She said, 'The blood of Christ will be the greatest torment I shall have in hell; tell me no more about it.' I then left her with feelings not to be described. She died next morning at six o'clock. I inquired of the woman who attended her, if she continued in the same state to the last? She said she was much worse after I left her, and that they durst not stay in the room with her. She was heard to exclaim several times, about an hour before her end, Eternity! Eternity! O! to burn throughout eternity!' Thus died, at the age of twenty, this miserable mortal." In her mournful departure she adds another to the many solemn proofs which we have, that eternity demands all the care of an immortal being; and that the hours passed on a death-bed, are not the time for repentance. 6. SIR THOMAS SMITH. "O pleasures past, what are ye now And aggravate and mock my pain."-KIRKE WHITE. SIR THOMAS SMITH was born in the year 1514, and received a liberal and polished education. In 1542, he was made king's professor of civil law, in the university of Cambridge, and chancellor of the diocess of Ely. He was several times employed by Queen Elizabeth, as her ambassador to the court of France, and executed the high office of secretary of state to that princess. His abilities were excellent, and his attainments uncommonly great. He was a philosopher, a physician, a chemist, a mathematician, a linguist, an historian, and an architect. This distinguished person, a short time before his decease, was much affected by the prospect of his dissolution, and of a future state. He sent to his friends, the bishops of Winchester and Worcester, and entreated them to state to him, from the Holy Scriptures, the plainest and surest way of making his peace with God; adding, "It is lamentable, that men consider not for what end they are born into the world, till they are ready to go out of it." 7. DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, No wit to flatter left of all his store! No fool to laugh at, which he valued more! There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends."-POPE. GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of Buckingham, was a pretended atheist, and one of the most distinguished persons at the court of Charles the Second. Pleasure was his idol, and he pursued the paths of sin and folly till poverty and ruin overtook him. Not long before his death, he wrote the following letter to Dr. Barrow, whom he appears to have highly esteemed: "I always looked upon you as a man of true virtue, and know you to be a person of sound judgment. For, however I may act in opposition to the principles of religion or the dictates of reason, I can honestly assure you I had always the highest veneration for both. The world and I may shake hands, for I dare affirm we are heartily weary of each other. O doctor, what a prodigal have I been of the most valuable of all possessionstime! I have squandered it away with a persuasion it was lasting; and now, when a few days would be worth a hecatomb of worlds, I cannot flatter myself with a prospect of half a dozen hours. "How despicable is that man who never prays to his God but in the time of his distress! In what manner can he supplicate that omnipotent Being in his affliction, with reverence, whom, in the tide of his prosperity, he never remembered with dread? Do not brand me with infidelity, when I tell you I am almost ashamed to offer up my petitions to the throne of grace; or of imploring that Divine mercy in the next world, which I have so scandalously abused in this. Shall ingratitude to man be looked on as the blackest of crimes, and not ingratitude to God? Shall an insult offered to the king be looked on in the most offensive light, and yet no notice taken when the King of kings is treated with indignity and disrespect? "The companions of my former libertinism would scarce believe their eyes were you to show them this epistle. They would laugh at me as a dreaming enthusiast, or pity me as a timorous wretch, who was shocked at the appearance of futurity. They are more entitled to my pity than my resentment. A future state may very well strike terror into any man who has not acted well in this life; and he must have an uncommon share of courage indeed who does not shrink at the presence of his God. "You see, my dear doctor, the apprehensions of death will soon bring the most profligate to a proper use of their understanding. I am haunted by remorse, despised by my acquaintance, and, I fear, forsaken by my God. There is nothing so dangerous, my dear doctor, as extraordinary abilities. I cannot be accused of vanity now, by being sensible that I was once possessed of uncommon qualifications, as I sincerely regret that I was ever blessed with any at all. My rank in life made these accomplishments more conspicuous, and, fascinated with the general applause which they procured, I never considered about the proper means by which they should be displayed. Hence, to purchase a smile from a blockhead, whom I despised, I have frequently treated the virtuous with disrespect, and sported with the holy name of Heaven, to obtain a laugh from a parcel of fools, who were entitled to nothing but my contempt. "Your men of wit, my dear doctor, look on themselves |