aordinary cases, to listen to the voice
of Providence._

We read in the holy writings, how God speaks to men by appearance of
angels, or by dreams and visions of the night. As God appeared to
Abraham, Lot, and Jacob: so angels have appeared to many in other cases,
as to Manoah and his wife, Zechariah, the Virgin Mary, and to the
apostles; other have been warned in a dream as king Abimelech, the false
prophet Balaam, and many others.

It is certainly a very great and noble inquiry, _What we shall be after
this life?_ for there is scarce a doubt, that there is a place reserved
for the reception of our souls after death: for if we are to be, we must
have a where, which the scriptures assert by the examples of Dives and
Lazarus. The doctrine of spirits was long believed before our Saviour's
time; for when the disciples of the blessed Jesus perceived our Saviour
walking on the sea, they were as much surprised as though they had seen
a spirit. Nay, in those ages of the world, it was believed that spirits
intermeddled in the affairs of mankind; and, throughout the Old
Testament, I do not find any thing that in the least contradicts is. All
the pains and labour that some learned men have taken, to confute the
story of the witch of Endor, and the appearance of an old man
personating Samuel, cannot make such apparitions inconsistent with
nature or religion; and it is plain, that it was either a good or bad
spirit, that prophetically told the unfortunate king what should happen
the next day; for, said the spirit, _The Lord will deliver thee into the
hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be
with me._

Abundance of strange notions possessed me, when I was in the desolate
island; especially on a moonshine night, when every bush seemed a man,
and every tree a man on horseback. When I crept into the dismal cave
where the old goat lay expiring, whole articulate groans even resembled
those of a man, how was I surprised! my blood chilled in my veins,
a cold sweaty dew sat on my forehead, my hair stood upright, and my
joints, like Belshazzar's knees, struck against one another. And, indeed,
though I afterwards found what it was, the remains of this surprise did
not wear off for a great while; and I had frequently returns of those
vapours on different occasions, and sometimes without any occasion at all.

One night, after having seen some appearance in the air, as I had just
lain down in my bed, one of my feet