true happiness, present and eternal. In later times, I find such examples generally in our own Church; but I cordially acknowledge one, at least, of this class among Dissenters; I mean the excellent Doddridge. The characters to which I refer have been spiritualists rather than theologists. If imbued with modern theology, they have either (as Doddridge) sat loose to it, or (as Leighton) risen fairly above the trammels which they had once borne. I must not multiply names: yet I cannot but specify Herbert, Taylor, and Kenn; each of these excellent persons (as well as Doddridge and Leighton, with the whole happy class who have been like minded) pursued religion not merely on account of the evils which it averts, but for the sake of the good, even the present good, which it confers they felt the force of that admirable saying of St. Augustin, "Fecisti nos tibi, et cor semper irrequietum donec requiescat in te." They were at the same time fully aware of the frailty of human nature, which they well knew could only be surmounted by the infused grace of God; and this they sought by daily and hourly prayer. But they were not less sensible of the capability of human nature; and they accordingly placed no narrow limits to their spiritual prospects even in this present world. The good things which they have brought forth out of the good treasure of their heart give ample evidence that they did not hope in vain.

From these men, then, I am able to take an estimate of spiritual peace here, and form a reckoning of consummate happiness hereafter. I con

sider their records of themselves to afford the best and surest comment on the evangelical promises, both spiritual and eternal, because they aspired with peculiar ardour to the fulness of spiritual blessings; and while corporeally on earth, lived mentally in eternity. The more attentively I examine and compare these almost transparent characters, the more deeply I am satisfied that Christian piety is in them an anticipatory Paradise; and had I no other ground, I must, in all reason, conclude, from such blessed first fruits, that the full harvest will be replete with happiness and glory.

Had the religious feelings of those persons been ecstatic and impassioned, I could never think of making them the ground of an argument. The comforts which are derived from supposed manifestations, rapturous impressions, or inward assurances, may, most safely, not be rejected by wholesale; but, whatever certainty may be felt by the immediate subject of them to others, they afford no rational satisfaction. It is the solid rationality of those good men's happiness in religion, which justifies our estimation, and warrants our reliance. The uniform principles which animated their virtues, and established their hearts and minds, are, in their own way, as demonstrable as mathematical truths. We see every ingredient of moral happiness for which ancient philosophy panted and its brightest visions realised through means which human reason never could have anticipated, but which prove themselves, by their effects, to be, as St. Paul has expressed it, "the power of

God and the wisdom of God." In a word, we behold those persons, under the quickening and sublimating influences of the Christian dispensation, deriving, from a commerce of heart with the Infinite Good, such a knowledge of him, such a likeness to him, and such a delight in him, as can only differ in degree, but cannot possibly differ in nature, from the perfect fruition of him in the eternal kingdom. It cannot, I say, differ from this in nature; for nothing more excellent in its nature, than the complacential and assimilating love of God, can possibly be conceived. But it is also true, that he who is vitally imbued with this love here, must proportionally advance in it hereafter; because love being once kindled, fuller knowledge must increase its ardour, as fresh fuel is sure to raise a thoroughly lighted fire.

I conclude then, on the whole, that there is one happiness for both worlds; namely, " He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him :" and I equally rely on the uninterrupted growth and complete consummation of this divine principle, not merely on general grounds of reason and Scripture, but because it is expressly declared, that "the path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

I hope I have now said enough to establish the two points which I intended; namely, 1st. that the spiritual promises of the Gospel have been literally and completely fulfilled in such Christians as have given their whole hearts to that object, and (I would now add) who have not been impeded by some rooted error of judgment, or borne down

by some constitutional depression; and, 2d. that the happiness attained and enjoyed by such mature Christians on earth gives decisive evidence of the consummate beatitude which awaits the righteous in a future world. But though I doubt not that you, my dear sir, are well acquainted with the excellent persons whom I have named, yet as you may not have thought of adverting to them in the precise point of view in which I have been contemplating them, I wish to illustrate my meaning by a very few of those expressions of feeling which their lives or writings afford us.

Herbert I must quote in the way of reference, rather than of transcription, as the matter he offers is copious, and I dare say you have his poems. His poem, entitled "the Pearl," I cannot but regard as one of the brightest exemplifications of "the faith that overcometh the world" that could be found in any human writer; and you will observe how the concluding words bespeak a heart enjoying present access to the very essence of Heaven. You will find the same feeling labouring for utterance (as it were) in the conclusion of a poem, entitled " Prayer," which begins" Prayer, the Church's banquet." It is, in fact, the common character of those poems, that they express a delight in religion, as the only one solace of the human heart, and as a substantial anticipation of Heaven. But what most deserves remark is, that Herbert, on his death-bed, appears to regard his poems as mere descriptions of the struggles through which he had ascended to that more excellent Pisgah on which he then found himself. "Tell my dear brother, Farrer," said he,

"that he will find in this little book a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom." What, then, we may ask, was this perfect freedom which Herbert thus distinguishes from the bright beamings of spiritual happiness which had so signally irradiated the former advancing steps of his pilgrimage? Could it be less than a conscious fulfilment of all the spiritual promises, and an undelusive earnest and foretaste of unalloyed future felicity?

I have little of Bishop Kenn at this moment within my reach, but that little furnishes me with a passage strictly apposite to one of the points (indeed the chief one) on which your question about the future turns. He says, from the full feelings of his own heart (in a poem on "The Divine Attribute of Truth")—

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Thy promises of hearing prayer,

Of pardon and paternal care,

Of efficacious aids

When hell our souls invades ;

Of bliss ecstatic, unconfined,

Of thy good spirit templing in the mind,

They all infallibly are true;

All are perform'd in season due :
My God much sooner I

My thinking would deny,

Than of thy glorious promise doubt—

The steady anchor of a soul devout."

Taylor, in a peculiar degree, aimed at advanc