dearing dearly beloved and longed for, my crown and joy, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved;'-as if he would add to the motives of their perseverance, the transport it would afford to himself. His very existence seems to depend on their steadfastness in piety-' for now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord.' Again, as a proof how dear his converts were to him, he was desirous of imparting to them not only the Gospel of God, but also his own soul.

The spirit of Christianity is no where more apparent than in the affectionate strain in which he adjures his Roman friends only to consent to save their own souls. One would suppose it was not the immortal happiness of others, but his own, which so earnestly engaged him. How fervently tender is his mode of obtesting them?' I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God'-' I Paul by myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.'* As the representative of his Master, he implores of man the reconciliation for which it would be natural to expect that man himself, whose own concern it is, should be the solicitor.

Saint Paul's zeal for the spiritual welfare of whole communities, did not swallow up his ardent attachment to individuals; nor did his regard to their higher interests lead him to overlook their personal sufferings. He descends to give particular advice to one friend respecting the management of his health. In his. grief for the sickness of another, and his joy at his recovery, he does not pretend to a feeling purely disinterested, but gratefully acEpaphroditus.

Romans, xii. 1.

Timothy.

knowledges that his joy was partly for his own sake, 'lest he should have sorrow upon sorrow.' These soft touches of sympathy for individuals particularly dear to him, in a man so like-minded with Christ, in the instances of Lazarus and John, are a sufficient refutation of the whimsical assertion of a lively genius; that particular friendships are hostile to the spirit of Christianity.*

The capacious heart of this blessed apostle was so large as to receive into it all who loved his Lord. The salutations with which most of his Epistles close, and the affectionate remembrances which they convey, include perhaps the names of a greater number of friends, than any dozen of Greek or Roman heroes, in the plenitude of success and power, ever attracted; if we may judge in the one case by

*It is however a debt of justice due to a departed friend to observe, that no suspicion could be more unfounded than that Mr. Soame Jenyns was not sincere in his profession of Christianity. The author lived much in his very pleasant society, and is persuaded that he died a sincere Christian. He had a peculiar turn of humour; he delighted in novelty and paradox, and perhaps brought too much of both into his religion. Ingenious men will sometimes be ingenious in the wrong place. If he lays too much stress on some things, and underrates others; if he mistakes or overlooks even fundamental points, so that some of his opinions must appear defective to the experienced Christian; yet the general turn of his work on the Internal Evidence of Christianity may render it useful to others, by inviting them by the very novelty of his manner to consult a species of evidence to which they have not been accustomed. A sceptical friend of the writer of these pages, who had stood out against the arguments of some of the ablest divines, was led by this little work to examine more deeply into Internal Evidence; it sent him to read his Bible in a new spirit. He followed up his inquiries, consulted authors whose views were more matur ed, and died a sound believer.

the same rule as in the other, the narratives of history, or the writings of biographical memoirs.

But his benevolence was not confined to the narrow bounds of friends or country. He was a man, and nothing that involved the best interests of man was indifferent to him. A most beautiful comparison has been drawn by as fine a genius as has adorned this or any age, between the learned and not illaudable curiosity which has led so many ingenious travellers to visit distant and dangerous climes, in order to contemplate mutilated statues and defaced coins; to collate manuscripts, and take the height of pyramids,' with the zeal which carried the late martyr of humanity on a more noble pilgrimage, 'to search out infected hospitals, to explore the depth of dungeons, and to take the guage of human misery' in order to relieve it.

·

Without the unworthy desire to rob this eminent philanthropist of his well earned palm, may we not be allowed to wish, that the exquisite eulogist of Howard had also instituted a comparison which would have opened so vast a field to his eloquent pen, between the adventurous expeditions of the conqueror, the circumnavigator, the discoverer, the naturalist, with those of Paul, the martyr of the gospel? Paul, who, renouncing ease and security, sacrificing fame and glory, encountering' weariness and painfulness, watching, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness; was beaten with rods, frequent in prisons, in deaths oft, was once stoned, thrice suffered shipwreck, was a day and a night in the deep,'* went from shore to shore, and from city to city, knowing that bonds and imprisonment awaited him;

*2 Corinthians, ch. xi.

and for what purpose? He, too, was a discoverer, and in one sense a naturalist. He explored not indeed the treasures of the mineral, nor the varieties of the vegetable world. His business was with man; his object the discovery of man's moral wants; his study, to apply a proportionate remedy; his work, to break up the barren ground of the human soil; his aim, to promote the culture of the undisciplined heart; his end, the salvation of those for whom Christ died. He did not bring away one poor native to graft the vices of a polished country on the savage ignorance of his own; but he carried to the natives themselves the news, and the means of eternal life.

He was also a conqueror, but he visited new regions, not to depopulate, but to enlighten them. He sought triumphs, but they were over sin and ignorance. He achieved conquests; but it was over the prince of darkness. He gained trophies, but they were not military banners, but rescued souls. He erected monuments, but they were to the glory of God. He did not carve his own name on the rocky shore, but he engraved that of his Lord on the hearts of the people. While conflicting with want, and struggling with misery, he planted churches; while sinking under reproach and obloquy, he erected the standard of the Cross among barbarians, and (far more hopeless enterprise!) among philosophers; and having escaped with life from the most uncivilized nations, was reserved for martyrdom in the imperial queen of cities!

o o

CHAP. XII.

SAINT PAUL'S HEAVENLY MINDEDNESS.

TRUE religion consists in the subjugation of the body to the soul, and of the soul to God. The apostle every where shows, that by our apostacy this order is destroyed, or rather inverted. At the same time he teaches, that though brought into this degraded state by our own perverseness, we are not hopelessly abandoned to it. He not only shows the possibility, but the mode of our restoration, and describes the happy condition of the restored, even in this world, by declaring, that to be spirituallyminded is life and peace.

He knew that our faculties are neither good nor evil in themselves, but powerful instruments for the promotion of both; active capacities for either, just as the bent of our character is determined by the predominance of religion or of sin, of the sensual or the spiritual mind. Saint Paul eminently exhibited, both in his example and in his writings, the spiritual mind. He was not only supremely excellent in unfolding the doctrines, and inculcating the duties of Christianity; he was not only equal in correctness of sentiment and purity of practice with those who are drily orthodox, and superior to those who are coldly practical; but he perfects holiness in the fear of God.' He abounds in the heavenly mindedness which is the uniting link between doctrinal and practical piety, which, by the unction it infuses into both, proves that both are the result of Divine grace; and which consists in an entire consecration