mer and Bradford! Differing as they did in nation and in their new ecclesiastical and devotional forms, yet here their aims centred, their sympathies were common, their ardour was one. This was the fire which burnt up their errors and superstitions, which purified their own hearts from secularity and selfishness, which offended and terrified their adversaries, and which distinguished them so clearly from the merely literary, and worldly, and interested, and unfaithful adherents, whom the historian has too indiscriminately placed in their company.

But we come down to later times. Here Baxter rises before us, with his almost incredible toils, all directed and consecrated to God. He sought the divine glory in his " Converse with God," and panted for its perfect promotion and complete enjoyment in the Saint's Everlasting Rest." Howe next appears, worshipping in his "Living Temple," "Delighting in God," "Yielding himself to the Lord," and thirsting for the "Blessedness of the Righteous," which in his sanctified apprehension would consist in "beholding His face in righteousness, and being satisfied with His likeness." Owen, after pouring out his effusions of penitence in the language and sentiments of the hundred and thirtieth Psalm, employing himself in the "Mortification of Sin," and the cultivation of "Spiritual Mindedness," at last refreshes his holy mind with the "Glory of Christ," before he departs to gaze upon that glory in another and a higher manner. Bates and Charnock delight their minds with the " Harmony." and bathe in the glory of the "Perfections of God." Flavel seeks the same end in the "Mystery of Providence," but more fully finds it in the Fountain of Life." Nor

by any means must Leighton and Usher be forgotten, who, in their lovely spirit and demeanour, were so eminently "imitators of God as dear children.” And shall lives so pleasant and fragrant in godliness as those of the Henries, not "be had in everlasting remembrance?" This too was the lustre which Bunyan shed around his "Pilgrim," as well as the sweet light that relieved the dreariness of his own dungeon.

But we may not linger longer on this enchanting spot of the church's history. We must descend to less favourable times. And it is pleasant to remember who, in the days of decline and unfaithfulness, filled our churches with purer and nobler "hymns and psalms and spiritual songs;" and who traced "Religion," pure and undefiled before God in its "Rise and Progress." And shall we forget Claude, whose hallowed wisdom guided Gallican piety through the rudest storms? Or Frank, that star which rose so brightly upon the rapidly gathering darkness of Continental Protestantism? Or the great Edwards of America, placing upon the majestic summits of all his other wonderful and colossal monuments to the divine praise," God's Chief End in Creation?"

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And now again a brighter day begins to dawn upon the world. Whitfield and Wesley go through the length and breadth of the land and even pass over to the new world, proclaiming that Saviour who brings glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men." The lustre of their regard for the glory of God continues to break through all the obloquy which has been heaped upon their names.

We mention this list of influential and illustrious men, not because the purpose which inspired them is less real and less powerful in the humblest and obscurest of christians, but, because it facilitates our object to mention those that are more known. We have but to glance at them, and memory and association supply the rest, and surround them instantly with a halo of spiritual glory drawn from that everblessed Sun around which they move as their everlasting Centre.

IV. Possibly however, something more specific, something individual, something avowed and attested, may be desired. We will take it from more modern instances. These, beside preserving the identity of our principle, will give us another and a nearer view of it. Without labouring to be extremely select, we will take our specimens from sources which happen just now to lie at hand. Let us hear what the excellent John Newton says, in confidential correspondence with a friend, upon the grand aims of a Chris tian. "A single eye to his glory, as the ultimate scope of all our undertakings. The Lord can design nothing short of his own glory; nor should we. The constraining love of Christ has a direct and marvellous tendency, in proportion to the measure of faith, to mortify the corrupt principle Self, which for a season is the grand spring of our conduct, and by which we are too much biassed after we know the Lord. But as grace prevails, self is renounced. We feel that we are not our own, that we are bought with a price, and that it is cur duty, our honour, and our happiness to be the servants of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To devote soul and body, every talent,

power and faculty to the service of his cause and will; to let our light shine (in our several situations) to the praise of his grace; to place our highest joy in the contemplation of his adorable perfections; to rejoice even in tribulations and distresses, in reproaches and infirmities, if thereby the power of Christ may rest upon us, and be magnified in us; to be content, yea glad, to be nothing, that he may be all in all; to obey him in opposition to the threats or solicitations of men; to trust him, though all outward appearances seem against us; to rejoice in him, though we should (as will sooner or later be the case) have nothing else to rejoice in; to live above the world, and to have our conversation in heaven, to be like the angels, finding our own pleasure in performing his. This (My Lord) is the prize, the mark of our high calling, to which we are encouraged with a holy ambition continually to aspire." Such was his judgment. Such too was his feeling, and such his life. “What thou wilt, how thou wilt, and when thou wilt"-"to do all for him, to receive all from him, and to find all in him "-were his aspirations and his dearest objects of pursuit.

A few extracts from DR. PAYSON'S Memoirs, will disclose some of the finer and higher workings of this divine principle. "Two or three plain rules I find of wonderful service in deciding all difficult cases. One is, to do nothing of which I doubt in any degree the lawfulness; the second, to consider every thing as unlawful, which indisposes me for prayer, and interrupts communion with God; and the third is, never to go into any company, business or situation, in which I cannot conscientiously ask and expect the divine presence."

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"Resolved to spend this day in fasting and prayer for greater measures of grace, and assistance to render me more humble and concerned for God's glory; for more love to God and his people, and for ministerial qualifications.....I felt the most ardent desire for God's glory, and was willing to be a steppingstone, or any thing however mean, to promote it. To be a fellow labourer with Christ in the glorious work of bringing souls to him seemed to be the most delightful and honourable of all offices: and in this service I felt willing to spend and be spent: to suffer pain, contempt and death itself." "And I do most freely give up myself, my interests, for time and for eternity, my soul and body, my friends and possessions, and all that I have, to his wise, just, and sovereign disposal."...." O my God, I want nothing but to be wholly thine." 'I could not but rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory to think that God in Christ was, and would be, infinitely and unchangeably glorious and happy." "I felt willing to go any where, or be any thing, by which God could be glorified and sinners saved. Felt my hopes of being useful in the world strengthened. O how lovely, how kind, how condescendingly gracious did my God appear. Gave myself up to him without reserve, and took him for my only portion." a transporting thought to spend an eternity in exalting God and the Lamb, in beholding their glory and hearing them extolled by all creatures, this is heaven indeed. To be swallowed up and lost in God; to have our spirits embraced, wrapt up in his all infolding Spirit; to forget ourselves and think only of him; to lose in a manner our own separate existence and exist only in him; to have his glory

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