promising purity. The man who dislikes all this, will reject Christianity, and replace the veil, and endeavour to forget the awful secrets which it conceals; and may perhaps be only at last roused from his delusion, by finding himself face to face before the God whose warnings he had neglected, and whose offers of friendship he had disregarded,—offers which, had they been accepted, would have brought his will into concord with that sovereign will which rules the universe, and fitted him to take a joyful and sympathizing interest in every part of the Divine administration.

Of the attractive and overcoming loveliness of the character of God, as revealed in his word, and of the invitations which he makes to sinners, I shall speak afterwards; but in the mean time, I would draw the attention of the reader to the serious consideration of the fact, that a dissonance in principle from the Ruler of the universe, cannot but be connected with some degree of unhappiness. Although I believe that few minds will feel much difficulty in acquiescing in the truth of this remark, and although there is no intricacy in the reasoning connected with it, yet as distinct conceptions on this subject are of prime importance in all views of religion, I shall illustrate it by an anal

ogy drawn from the more palpable and better understood affairs of this material world, with which we are surrounded. We may find striking examples to this purpose in a period of English history which was distinguished above all others for the remarkable contrasts which it exhibited in public sentiment and principle amongst the different classes of the nation, and is therefore peculiarly fitted for elucidating the effects produced on happiness, by an opposition in principle between the ruling power and a part of its subjects.

It is easy to imagine the stern and composed satisfaction with which a thorough partisan of Cromwell would contemplate the rigid and formal solemnity which overspread the Government and the people of England during the Protectorship. But whence did this satisfaction arise? Certainly from that concord which subsisted between his own habits and those of the ruling power. His views and inclinations coincided at all points with those of the Government: and therefore every measure of administration was a source of gratification to him, because it was in fact an expression of his own will. He was thus in a state of political happiness; and had there been no higher government than the Commonwealth, through the

universe or through eternity, he must have been perfectly and permanently happy. Now, let us carry forward this same individual to the days of Charles the Second, and place him in the near neighbourhood of that gay and dissolute Court. We can in this situation suppose him moving about with a double measure of gloom in his countenance, and with a heart embittered by the general mirth and irritated by the continual encounter of character and opinions and habits directly opposed to his own, He retires to a distance from the seat of Government, and endeavours to hide himself from these painful conflicts in the bosom of his family. There the arrangements are all conduct ed according to his own principles and his own taste; and he enjoys a tolerable state of happiness, though liable to occasional interruptions from puplic news, from whispers that he is to be apprehended on suspicion of treason, from the intrusion of Government officers, and from a want of thorough sympathy on political subjects even perhaps in the members of his own domestic circle. All at once, his quiet is disturbed by an order from Court to leave his seclusion, and reside in the metropolis, that he may be more immediately under the eye of Government. Here again he is brought face

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to face with all he hates and despises. aversion is increased by a sense of his inability to resist; and he learns even to cherish the feeling and habit of misery as the only testimony that his soul is unsubdued. He is politically miserable. I have given this sketch as

an illustration of those natural laws which make our happiness dependant on our sympathy with a power which overrules us; and also as an example of the form and the precariousness of that process by which we can in some circumstances contract our horizon, as it were, and shut out from our view those things which give us pain, and withdraw ourselves from the encounter of those principles which are in opposition to our own. In the field of this world, there are many divisions and subdivisions, separated by strong barriers from each other, and acknowledging different authorities, or the same authority perhaps in different degrees. These are so many shelters to which men may betake themselves, when pursued by the justice or injustice of their fellow creatures. But whilst we continue within the scope of one authority, although we may find a temporary asylum against its enmity in a narrow circle or more private society, we are continually liable to be confronted by it and dragged

from our hiding-place; and must therefore, from the nature of things, be in some measure dependant on it for our happiness.

Whenever the material world and its concerns are made use of to illustrate the concerns of the mind and of the invisible world, it is of importance to preserve in lively recollection the essential difference which separates the two subjects. The one embraces outward actions exclusively; whilst the prominent feature in the other is the principle from which the actions spring. Thus, in the example which has just been given, we can easily suppose that Cromwell's followers were actuated by a great variety of motives, and that the solemnity of the Commonwealth might captivate different minds on very different principles. Some pivus people might have liked it, from having associated it in their minds with true religion; some, from the fanatical idea, that this outward form would atone for more secret sins; some, from its mixture with republican sturdiness; and some, from a hatred of Popery or of the Stewart family. Now, these principles are all very different in their nature, although their external results might in some particulars resemble each other; and therefore the happiness of the citizens did not proceed from an