VILLAGE DIALOGUES.

DIALOGUE III. The Farmer goes into Thomas's Cottage, and waits till he comes home to dinner-After fome converfation with the Wife and Family, Thomas comes in.

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Thomas.

H, master! are you come into our poor cottage Farmer. Yes; for I was afraid to ftand in the field, because of the gout

T. Well, thank God, by his bleffing on my health, I am able to get bread for myself and my poor family too; for I know nothing of the gout..

Thomas's Wife. My dear, fee what a nice Haflet master has fent us. I have not boiled any bacon with the potatoes, for I am going to fry a bit of Mafter's kind prefent.

F. Why, we kill'd a pig yesterday, and I sent Sam with a little that you might tafte of it.

T. Thank you mafter, a thousand times; for a little fresh meat is very relishable to a hard working family. [The dinner is prepared.]

Betty. Come, Billy, my dear, leave your loom, it is your turn to afk a bleffing. [They all ftand up.]

Billy. By the bounty alone of our Saviour we live,

Ador'd be his name for the food we receive :

But, O may our fpirits be graciously led

To feed on himfelf-He is heavenly bread.

F. There's a good boy; I wish I had taught my girls a few fuch good things. But, Thomas, while you eat your dinner, you are to tell me about changing your religion.

T. Well then, mafter, I'll tell you as near as I can, how, as I faid, religion chang'd me.-My father, you know, was a poor working man, and died of a confumption; and then my mother went to the workhoufe with two children. I was the oldeft of them, and was put out apprentice to one old James Gripe, who ufed to work nie morning, noon, and night, and half ftarved me; and his wife Margery, was worfe than he. So I ran away from them, and went to the Juftice about them; and his Worfhip queftioned me very hard, but got me a better place at farmer Thrifty's, where I had plenty of work, but good victuals and drink : but the farmer was all for the world, and many of the family were defperate wicked; and as I grew up, I wonder they did not

make

make me as wicked as themselves. But wicked enough I was, God knows, for I never went to church, but as I was to meet fome one there, to fhew my new cloaths when I had any. I had no more notion of a Bible, or what it meant, than one of the horses I used to drive at plow.

F. Why, Thomas, you had a good heart at bottom, or you would have followed more of their bad courfes.

T. A good heart, indeed! when I never prayed, read my Bible, thought of my foul, or any thing elfe, but wickednefs. But you fhall foon hear what a heart I had; for I well remember, when I was about feventeen years old, while we were carrying barley, juft as we were going to bind, above half of the load flipt off the waggon, threw me down flat on my face, and then rolled upon me. And what

thoughts I then had, no mortal can tell! I could neither ftruggle, cry, nor breathe. There I lay till I was quite black in the face, and my breath was almoft out of my body; I thought thefe words founded like thunder in my ears, "Loft once, loft for ever!" Then my fenfes feemed almost gone from me; and before the barley was all taken off, I was quite fenfeless for a while; but when the fresh air came to me, I foon began to breathe; and when my fenfes returned, I remember, I could not, but in my blind way, make fomewhat of a prayer to God for my prefervation; and directly the waggoner and the reft of the men, began to jeer me for my devotions; for I had just before been finging one of my old foolish fongs. But terribly bruifed I was, and was obliged to keep my bed for three days, and could not go to work for a full fortnight afterwards.

But

F. It was a very narrow escape, indeed, Thomas. did it not drive you to make some good refolutions? I remember, when I had the gout deadly bad in my head and ftomach, I vowed many, and many a time, that I would mend my ways; and once I fent for Mr. Dolittle, and he told me, he thought it would be no harm if I did a little more; but the Lord knows to my fhame, as foon as I began to recover, I forgot all my vows.

T. Ah, fo did I mafter! but I have fince found that all our refolutions to mend our ways come to nothing, till God changes the heart; and fo it was with me; for directly as I could again get to work, I foon forgot my prayers, and was as light and as thoughtlefs as ever. For, though I had a little pride in me, not to neglect my work like many others, yet nothing like a fair or a wake for me. I am ashamed to VOL. IX.

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think

think what a fool I used to make myself, while I was dancing at the Golden Lion almoft all night, when I was no more fit for fuch games than one of our cart horfes.

F. But, furely, Thomas, there can be no harm in a little. innocent mirth now and then.

T. Why, I'll tell you, mafter, I am never afraid of what I do, provided I can but feel prayer while I do it. Now, at my labour I can fing and pray with a good confcience all the day long; but I never could afk God's bleffing when I went to a wake; or that he would protect me at a horfe race. Pray mafter, do you afk a bleffing over the cardtable when people come a merry-making to your house ?

F. Ah! Thomas, you come too near home, I must not tell you all we do at our house.

T. But, mafter, if you dare not tell all, the Lord knows all.

Betty. I am afraid, my dear, you prefs Mr. Littleworth rather too hard. I hope you will excufe him, Sir, for my husband means no harm.

F. No, no, Betty, I am fure Thomas means well; I fhan't be angry. He may go on with his ftory.

T. Well, on I went year by year, getting worse and worse, till about fix years afterwards, when our Vicar was removed to fome fort of a 'Thedral place, as. I think, they call it, and then fome noble gentleman, Lord Canceller, I think it was, gave Mr. Lovegood the living.

F. The Lord Chancellor you mean, Thomas.

T. Ai, ai, it may be fo: he is a great man, and amighty man with the king. May God bless him and the king too, a thoufand times, for fending fuch a good minifter among us! Well, foon after Midfummer our new Vicar came, and as it was the first time, a many people there were to hear him. Tho' we had heard nothing of him till we saw him in the church, yet it was to admiration how he read the leffons and prayers; they founded like new prayers to me-he read them fo wonderfully fine. But when he got into the pulpit, we did not know what to make of it, for he had no book with him, but a little Bible. We thought for fure he had left his fermon-book behind him, while every moment we expected he would be faft ;, but on he went for a brave long time; and it is wonderful how lovingly he spoke to us, while he preached from this text: We preach not ourselves but Chrift Jefus the Lord, and ourselves, your fervants for Jefus's fake. He told us, how he hoped he was fent purely for the good of our fouls; and how fervently he had prayed to God that

he.

he might come with a bleffing among us; that his houfe, his heart, was open to us, even the poorest of us; and that all his time and ftrength fhould be given up for our good. Never did any man furely win upon all the people by fuch a fermon in coming to a new living, like our minister.

F. Hold, master Thomas, not quite fo faft; for there was old Mr. Goodenough, the schoolmafter, he spoke against him downright at the first sermon; he said, publicly in the church yard, he had no notion of such new-fangled teachers, and that all the parish were good enough already, and he wanted to be no better; and that every tub must stand upon its own bottom and from that time to this the old gentleman has come to hear Mr. Dolittle, of our parish, and fays, his doctrine fuits him best. And again, there was that noted good old lady, Madam Toogood, after the fecond fermon your parfon preached, she went away to Mr. Blindman's church; and a notable story she told at our houfe, when he came to drink tea with my wife and daughters; how he made out all the good people to be as bad as devils; and then the told us all how many times the went to church and facrament; how often the faid her prayers, and that in regard to her giving away to the poor, the was even too good. But Thomas, I'll tell you a fecret-While Madam Toogood was cracking and boafting away all the time the was drinking fcandal broth, as you call it, her fervant, who came to light her home, was telling in the kitchen of all her ftingy tricks; how she made ever so many poor people fick with her four difh-wash, which the called broth; and how, while the was reading the palms and leffons, and doing her devotions, fhe would keep fcolding all the time; and that once upon a time, when the had made herfelf up by the week's preparation for the holy facrament, after fhe came to church, the found that it was to be put off, as it was fo near Eafter; and that then she fell into a terrible paffion and faid, "Lord have mercy, have I had all this trouble for nothing!" and that The was fuch a downright fcold that no fervant could live with her for fix weeks together.

T. Well, mafter, if this old lady can brag fhe is not like other people, like the Pharifee, let me come in with the poor publican, and cry, God be merciful to me a finner ;---his prayer will beft fuit my cafe. But if Mr. Goodenough and Madam Toogood did not fear leaving their parish churches, why fhould you be afraid, at least once in a way, to leave your's?

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F. Ah!

F. Ah! Thomas, you have me there. But go on with your ftory.

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T. Why, mafter, that very fermon which Madam Toogood found fuch fault with, was the fermon that did my foul more good than all the others I ever heard in all my life before; for it was then that faithful fervant of God ript up the deadly wound in my heart, which none but Chrift could heal. I remember well the text, The heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked: Who can know it? And plainly did he fhew from the Bible, the rueful ftate of all mankind; how that when Adam fell from God, all fell in him and this he fhewed, was the truth all the Bible over: how that before the Flood the wickedness of man was fo great upon the earth, and that all flesh had fo corrupted themfelves before God, that there was but one family in which the fear of God was preferved, that of Noah, among the many millions that were upon the earth; and that a merci ful and righteous God could never have fent down fuch a judgment, if the great wickedness of man had not deferved it at his hands: and then he fhewed, that fuch was the hardnels and wickednefs of mankind, that as foon as they began to multiply upon earth a fecond time, they became again as vile as ever: that all the waters of the flood could never wash away the filth of the world: that then he tried the fire of his wrath upon the filthy cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; but ftill man continued the fame moft wicked creature and that even after that, when God took one family to himself, that they might be his own peculiar people, as was the cafe with the Jews, though he was perpetually thewing the miracles of his power before them, and bleffing them, more than any other peopl with the gifts of his providence ; yet while the meat was in their mouths they rebelled against him, and made themfelves worfe than the heathen who knew him not; and that, even when the dear Son of God himself came down from heaven to fave us, the jews rejected him, and the Gentiles nailed him to the crois.

F. Why, Thomas, when I was a fchool-boy I used to read over my Bible then, and I remember what you fay is all very

true.

T. Then why fhould Mr. Goodenough and Madam Toogood be angry with our minifter for telling the truth?

F. To my way of thinking, people may have as much religion as they, without fo much outfide thew.

T. But mafter, I must tell you how our minifter went on.

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