tly it was my duty to write mine down,
that they might serve as a warning to others also. I therefore returned
to my home, and whilst overwhelmed with melancholy, I was endeavouring to
collect some of my frightful reminiscences, I happened to give a yawn
over my paper, and this gave master Sleep an opportunity to glide upon
the top of me. Scarcely had Sleep closed my senses, when, behold! a
glorious apparition came towards me, in the shape of a young man, tall
and exceedingly beautiful; his garments were seven times more white than
snow, his countenance was so lustrous that it rendered the very sun
obscure, and his curling locks of gold parted in two lovely wreaths upon
his head, in the form of a crown. "Come with me, mortal man," said he on
coming up. "Who art thou, my lord?" said I. "I am," he replied, "the
angel of the countries of the North, the guardian of Britain and its
queen. I am one of the princes who are stationed beneath the throne of
the Lamb, who receive commands for the protection of the gospel, against
all its enemies in Hell and in Rome, in France and Constantinople, in
Africa and in India, and wheresoever else they are devising artifices for
its destruction. I am the angel who conducted thee below to castle
Belial, and who showed thee the vanity and madness of the whole world,
the city of Destruction, and the excellence of the city of Emmanuel, and
I am come once more by his command, to show thee other things, because
thou art seeking to turn to account what thou hast seen already." "How,
my lord," said I, "will your illustrious majesty, which superintends
kings and kingdoms, condescend to associate with such a poor worm as
myself?" "O," said he, "we respect more the virtue of a beggar than the
grandeur of a sovereign. What if I be greater than the kings of the
earth, and higher than many of the countless potentates of heaven? As my
wonderful master deigned to humble himself so inexpressibly as to wear
one of your bodies, and to live among you, and to die for your salvation,
how should I presume to be dissatisfied with my duty in serving you, and
the vilest of the human race, since ye are so high in favour with my
master? Come out, spirit, and free thyself from thy clay," said he, with
his eyes directed upwards. And with that word, I could feel myself
becoming extricated from every part of my body. No sooner was I free,
than he snatched me up to the firmament of heaven, through the region of