trials incident to being deprived of his dignities and possessions by the legislation of the Commonwealth; we find his true character, as one of God's children, shining with an uncommon lustre. His magnanimous mind, though he differed in many conclusions from the great men among the Nonconformists, yet led him to form sanctified friendships with them. Some of his sayings on prayer will serve to show the secret of his strength and peace :"No honey is sweeter to the taste than spiritual prayer to God." "God's children, let Him deny them ever so long, yet they will never leave knocking and begging: they will pray, and they will wait still, till they receive an answer. Many will pray to God, as prayer is a duty; but few use it as a means to obtain a blessing. Those who come to God in the use of it, as a means to obtain what they would have, will pray and not give over petitioning till they receive it."*

So do we get an insight into his spiritual condition by the following passage on meditation from one of his

sermons:

"If but half the precious time we impertinently trifle or squander away upon employments that will be sure to cost us either tears or blushes were carefully laid out in the cultivating of this kind of thoughts, it might often save our ministers the labour of insisting so long upon the uses of their doctrines, when the whole world would be a pulpit, every creature turn a preacher, and almost every accident suggest all use of instruction, reproof, or exhortation. No burial but would toll a passing-bell to put ns

* Life of Usher; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

in mind of our mortality, no feast but would make us aspire to the marriage feast of the Lamb; no cross but would add to our desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ; no mercy but would be a fresh engagement unto obedience to so good a master as the author of it; no happiness of others but would prove an encouragement to serve Him that can give that and much greater; no misery of others but would awaken and heighten our gratitude that we are privileged from it; no sin in our neighbours but would dissuade us from it, though it looks so rich and comely in others, nor any virtue of theirs but would excite our emulation and spur us on to imitate or surpass it."

In the year 1656, at the hospitable priory house at Reigate, the mansion of the Countess of Peterborough, this great man, one of the noblest of the ancient lightbearers, was slowly going down into the dark valley, and closing his life of study and effort by the calm, clear, simple expression of personal faith and hcpe. The last words of one who was so habitually strong in the assurance of an interest in the Redeemer's work, so anxious throughout life to redeem the time for his Master, were, -"O Lord, forgive me! especially my sins of omission!"

How he had kept open the affections of his heart amidst the din of great controversies in which his mind had been engaged, may be ascertained from his habit of suspending discussion with his friends on difficult points in theology, history, or chronology, by saying, "Come, let us talk a little now of Jesus Christ."

One of the finest spectacles in the course of the succes

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sion of spiritual life, is that which is, from time to time, displayed by men with rare intellects and rich acquirements in philosophy, such as Anselm, Usher, Boyle, and Chalmers, becoming as "little children” before the majesty of the divine oracles, using all their mental endowments. as aids to faith, and making all that is written there, conducive to the paramount duty of winning mankind to the loving knowledge of the Saviour, and to the vindication of His cause in the world. Never is man so truly great as when he makes himself of no account in order to magnify his Lord; thus decorating the triumphant car of religious progress with the spolia opima of his own moral ability, after he has wandered far and gathered much in the realms of mind and matter.

About the year 1620, Hanserd Knollys was passing through the halls of Cambridge as an under-graduate. He was well born, skilled in polite literature, of engaging manners and address. He began work as master of a grammar-school. Having scruples respecting the Prayer-book, he relinquished his charge; but his diocesan allowed him for two years to preach. Embracing Baptist views, he left the Establishment altogether, and for the remainder of his active life of ninety-three years was eminent as a preacher. Driven once to New England, and at another time to Germany; deprived of his property, harassed and worried by persecution; yet he kept up a constant effort and influence to do good, which was combined with much of the power of religion in his own personal experience. He was a warm-hearted, useful, blameless Christian among his fellows, and before the

world. Everywhere, and at all times, he preached the Gospel. Frequently, when preaching in Great St. Helen's, in Bishopsgate-street, he would have a thousand hearers. Persecuted by the Presbyterians, interdicted from his favourite occupation, he managed to disobey without creating any uproar. He was a man of learning, goodness, and force of character, notable in his age.

Such was also Kiffin, the London citizen who began life as a child, left an orphan by the Great Plague. A London apprentice without friends, life dawning upon him without any sunshine, he resolved to run away from turbulent John Lilburne, his master. He fulfilled his design, and used his liberty to wander into a church and hear the preacher discourse on the fifth commandment, which had the effect of sending him back to "honest John" again. He went to the church again, and then heard about peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; he saw himself as a sinner in need of this provision, and, as yet, knew not how to attain it. He went again, and heard a sermon from the text, "And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." He says that he found this sermon to be a great satisfaction to his soul; his heart closed with the offer of these true riches, his fears vanished, his heart filled with love to Jesus Christ. After some years, he began to visit the sick and to exhort the outcasts in the low parishes of the City to turn to God. He was committed to prison for preaching. He became a successful merchant, trading to Holland; amassed a fortune, but still preached, itinerating through the country for the same purpose. Neither the purity of his motives, nor his

known attachment to the Government, nor his loans to Charles II., could save him from frequent annoyance. He always avowed and maintained his principles with courage, -interfered for the oppressed, vindicated the character and claims of evangelical religion through a long and troubled life of eighty-six years.

Baxter, in his "Duty of Pastors and People," published in 1643, argues from Acts viii. 1-4, the obligation of preaching to be incumbent on all faithful brethren. From Boyle's Life, we learn that before the Restoration, Sir Harry Vane used to have preaching in his own house, which was thronged to excess on these occasions. After sermon,

discussions were held. Vane was doubtless a fanatic in some of his opinions; but the habit then obtaining amongst the educated class, of meeting together to study the highest of all sciences, was surely not fanatical.

Dr. Gouge's Wednesday morning lecture at Blackfriars, continued from 1608 to 1643, was much frequented by citizens, lawyers, and strangers. It was considered that no well-disposed visitor to the Metropolis had completed his business there until he had been to Blackfriars lecture. The worthy lecturer's "Guide to goe to God" was printed in 1626. Its dedication shows the pains-taking care and diligence with which he inculcated the habit of personal devoutness in the families of his large flock.

Philip Henry, who was trained at Oxford at this time, says that the scholars of Dr. Owen, the then chancellor, used to meet together for prayer and Christian conference, "to the great confirming of one another's hearts in the fear and love of God, and the preparing of them for the service of the church in their generation."