mighty living energy thus supplied, he lived that "life in the flesh," which, beyond that of any other man, was marked by ceaseless activity, entire devotion to the service of the church and the world-a life of intense labour, of heroic suffering, of glorious success. But the separation of what God has so joined together, would be as fatal on the other hand, and is perhaps the most common danger. In this age of religious zeal, of hearing sermons, of religious controversy; of the agency of a variety of important institutions for the reclamation of the poor from ignorance, vice, and misery; for the circulation of the Scriptures, and the support of missions to the Heathen; the duties of abstraction, recollectedness, closet prayer, devotional reading of the Scriptures, meditation on the example of Christ, the cultivation of a subdued will, and of the various branches of the Christian temper, and, as the source of all these, the maintenance of the vigour of our interior spiritual life by the habitual actings of a claiming faith, need to be enforced upon us. Awful is the possibility revealed to us, by an authority from which there is no appeal, that we may have an apostle's knowledge and a martyr's zeal, and yet be but "a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." But there is a possibility of a very different kind "to him that believeth” -the power of attaining all that the New Testament enjoins as matter of personal experience, and of doing, from the fulness of the moral power which it inspires, all that it enjoins. Strange to the Gentile philosopher, "the scribe, the disputer of this world," would many of the paradoxes in St. Paul's writings appear, "troubled on every side, yet not distressed;" "persecuted, but not forsaken;" "sorrowful, but always rejoicing;" "poor, but making many rich" and equal paradoxes may now perplex the worldly mind in the exhibition of the true and inwardly felt power of Christianity,-to be alone amidst multitudes; to be at once with man and with God; to see him that is invisible; to be careful without care, to be hurried and yet recollected; "to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in every thing to give thanks." But these are the possibilities which the Gospel opens to faith; and he only who attains them proves how "rich and precious" are its promises, and how complete are its triumphs in man. Then are the religious affections fanned by courses of holy action, and these again give to that its vigour, and infuse into it its hallowed character; then the soul finds its true centre in Christ, and abides in Him, its wisdom, righteousness, and strength; and then, to vary a sentiment of Pascal," instead of receiving into our minds the true and genuine impression of earthly things, we strike a tincture of our own spirituality on all the objects we contemplate." We then transact the affairs of life and the visible church, as the angels in the vision of Jacob, in ascents and descents upon a ladder, whose foot is indeed on earth, but whose top reaches unto heaven. LONDON, August, 1830. R. W. CONTENTS. Page PART I.-On Religion; the Natural and Divine Life; and the Exemplification of Divine Love in our blessed Saviour, 37 SERMON IX.-Of the Importance and Difficulty of the A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Rev. HENRY D. D. Page 276 307 PRIVATE REFLECTIONS AND OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS. REFLECT. I.-On the sad report of the Death of a learned and pious Friend, Nov. 1, 1668, REFLECT. II.-On the sight of the foresaid person, whom I had concluded to be dead, Nov. 10, when I had occasion to visit him at his house, REFLECT. III.-Some serious Thoughts, occasioned by the disappointment of an important design, Sept. 7, REFLECT. IV. Short time after, the temper of my soul was such as prompted me to the following Meditations, REFLECT. V.-Occasioned by the Death of a Friend, REFLECT. VI. REFLECT. VII. 373 374 375 378 382 383 386 REFLECT. IX.-Some Considerations and Directions for getting and maintaining the Tranquillity of Mind, which is so absolutely necessary to the Happiness of Man, 390 ESSAYS, MORAL AND DIVINE. ESSAY I.-Of Gratitude, and the obligations thereunto, |