to his own Image and Likeness! a flagrant and barbarous Inftance appear'd to me, when the Flames were at the fierceft, in the late dreadful Fire, and gave me more Horror, even when I thought I was not capable of receiving more. Juft when the Fire had gotten among the Sugars, making Spoils of the Works of many Mens Hands, and triumphing over the Cries of the ruin'd Beholders, and giving them notice, by a Burst of every. Veffel that came to its Turn, of Destruction; a Man,, properly named Anthropophagus, ftood by, and answer'd every Crack that told him the News of more Ruins and Loffes, with a Peal of Laughter; and cry'd out, at eve-, ry Noife, My Stock rifes, and is fafe. His infolent Joy was, like the Fire, fo raging, and fo fierce, that the Tears of forrowing Neighbours could not quench it; he, fet on Fire my Soul, loaded as it was with Compunction, and too wet, as I may fay, to catch; I was fo full of Pity, that 'till then, I thought I could have no Room for Anger and Indignation. The Memory of the Brute has ftill fo great an Effect upon me, that I feel it feverely in the bare Relation of it; and I would name him by way of Punishment, but he would not be afhamed of his Name if I fhould tell it, but rather thank me for recommending him to Cuftomers. He can't be punish'd as he ought, but only by not being permitted. among Men, nor admitted into Society. I have great Confolation in receiving a few Lines from the very Reverse of this Man, who makes great and warrantable Advantages from the Sufferings of his Fellow-Crea

tures.

very

WE may certainly reap great Profit, in a spiritual Way, from fuch great publick Loffes, and fo may the Lofers themselves! It teaches us not to be too much puffed up with Prosperity, but to be upon our Guard; and because no Human Providence can forefee, or prevent the Strokes and Accidents of Time, to arm ourfelves, in our good Days, with a Refignation and a Poverty of Spirit, which if we are once rightly grounded in, no Change can mafter us, no Deceit of Fortune, no Calamity be too hard for us. In this Religious Manner we may do our felves Good by our Neighbours Harm, and learn a thousand Virtues out of me Ill Accident.

>

But the most admirable Contemplation, that can arise from this dreadful Subject of the Fire, is very pathetieally fet forth in the following Difcourfe, fent me by a Perfon of fingular, Virtue and Discretion.

SIR,

OUT of all the Evils of this Life, great Good

may be extracted by a right Application. For the great Purposes of the Creator incline to the Good of the Creatures; fo that nothing is will'd or permitted, but what is for our Inftruction, Reformation, or the Satisfaction of his. Juftice. Upon, this Reflexion,. vast Advantages accrue to me from the Memento that came out of the late dreadful Fire; for,

THE Cry of the People, was, as the Sound of that Trumpet, that fhall call upon every Grave, to deliver up its Dead to Judgment.

THE united Shrieks of thofe, that could not escape. the Flames, gave me a ftrong Idea of the laft great Crack, with which the World fhall end; for it look'd as if all were loft, and the World furpris'd in that • dreadful Day.

L

THE Terror of every Countenance, in that con• fufed Concourfe of People, feem'd, as if they were: but just let out of their Graves, with their Sins, upon their Heads, and they fleeing to the Rocks; into • Holes and Corners, to hide themselves from the Countenance of an angry God, or for Shelter from the • Sentence, which they expected from the Great Tri• bunal.

ITS Beginning in the Clofe of Day, made it look, as if the Lights of Heaven were grown dim and • when no other Light appear'd, than that, which proceeded from a confuming Fire, it look'd, as if the Lamps of Heaven were quite out, and the laft great Period had approach'd us, and we in the Bowels of that Fire, which we are affured fhall deftroy the Univerfe.

THE Blowing up of Houfes, was like the Bursting of Mountains; and the Reports, as if the Rocks ⚫ were in Conflict, and beating each other.

THE

THE Trembling of the Ground I stood on, was, as if the whole Earth was grown feeble, or broken from its Bafis, and expiring in its laft Agony.

THE Flames forcing and confuming all manner ⚫ of Ways, by the Power and Driving of a ftrong Wind, • that veered and fhifted from Point to Point, seemed to be a Fire kindled by the Breath of an incens'd Go D, to burn up this Globe of Earth, and bring • that Life to an End, that could not subsist without it. THE very Heavens redden'd, as if they were kindled too, and were to be melted down upon our Heads.

THE Flames reflecting upon the Waters, made them look like a Sea of liquid Fire, or as if the Mouth of Hell were broken up, and yawning for our Destruction.

THE fmall Rains that fell, were as if the extin guifhing Orbs were distilling away, by the Operations of that Fire that was beneath 'em.

THE great Fright, the Hurry, Noife, the Lamentations and Confufion of the People, reprefented our eternal Existence in a Place of Torment.

ALL this feems to me as perfect an Imagery of the Last Day, as this World can afford, before the Coming of that Great Day; and works with so much Advantage upon my intellectual Man, that I promise my felf a faving Instruction from it as long as my • Remembrance will retain it; and that the Reflexion may be of the fame Service to others, is the Reason why it is communicated by,

N° 644. Monday, January 31.

I

Nil babet Paupertas durius in fe, Quàm quòd ridiculos Homines facit

Juv.

Have been frequent in my Animadverfions, upon a Gaming Temper in general, whether found in Men or Women; but, whenever I defcended to Particulars, I took the leading Sex to Task, and lafh'd off the married Man, for fetting fo ill an Example to his Fair Confort, and laying the profperous, the white happy Hours, nay, oftentimes the very Bread of a Family, upon the Turn of a Die, or the Rolling of a Bowl.

MY Reprehenfions were the more fevere, because I confidered the fad Effects, which this ill kind of Hufbandry had, in one Family, upon two of the prettieft, young, innocent, and beft deferving Ladies, I ever knew. The Hiftory is but fhort and small, but the Example and Edification, founded upon the Moral flowing from ́it, very great and important; and therefore, fince the young Ladies, concern'd in this Relation, have been beholden to Providence in a better manner, for rewarding their Virtues with a happier Difpofal of them in this World, than they could have expected, after the Misfortune of a Gaming and Lofing Relation, I fhall tell it in as ludicrous a manner as fuch Men deserve, and as if, to the two Beauties, no fuch Difafter had ever happen'd. Their Misfortunes indeed gave me just such Touches, and fuch inward Feelings, as do my own, while they lay under the ill Confequences thereof; the Caufe could not take an eafy Place in my Remem brance, but it crouded a Flood of Tears into my Eyes. And even now they have escaped a Shipwreck in the World, I look back upon those Days, with a kind of gloomy Pleafure, and with a Transport that hath fomething in it, like an Allay of Terror, of what might have befallen them.

EUSEBIUS,

EUSEBIUS, when he came to Town, came hither with an Ignorance of all its Vices, and with a Knowledge of all those Virtues which a Country Life, well difciplin'd by a plain and honeft Chaplain of his Father's, could infpire. His Father died, left him a very competent Estate, and all the Money, he being his only Child. He married a very virtuous Woman, who left him a Widower in less than a Year, dying in Childbed, and the Child with her. The Remembrance of her was too dear to him, ever to be raz'd from his ́ Heart, and he refolv'd to live and die faithfully wedded to her Memory. His Father's Sifter having married a younger Brother, and both of them likewife dying, and Teaving two virtuous, beautiful, poor Orphans, his Coufins, to the wide World, Eufebius generously took them under his Protection, and firmly and religiously intended his Money fhould make them a Portion, and fettle them happily in the World. For this End he came to Town, took a Houfe, fet up, not a glaring, but a decent Equipage, and endeavour'd to play off his Fair Coufins in a difcreet Manner, and to the best Advantage, at all the most harmless publick Affemblies, where the Affections of Men of Honour were moft likely to be engaged by their native Beauty and charming Simplicity of Behaviour.

IT happened Eufebius was betray'd into more Company than was good; and a Sharper, called Dolomedes, that had been upon the hunt after juft fuch a Man to ferve his Turn, promised himself to make a Hand of him. This Villain, by artfully cloking every Vice he had, and pretending all the Virtues, which he hated, became, in a little time, the most fatal Friend of Eufebius, by being the most loving, fawning, and doting Adverfary that ever any Man had.

AND at laft, to cut the Story fhort, by a great many charitable Advices, he prevailed upon him to lose his Estate, under the Pretence of doubling it.

ALL this while his Coufins, being given out for handfom Fortunes, a Match was concluded between a young Baronet, and the beautiful Lelia; there wanted nothing but the Payment of her Portion, and fhe was

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within