her exertions to attain it. She would take nothing upon trust but what she knew was supported by the word of God; and in order to know this, she would "search the Scriptures to see whether these things were so." In this pursuit she persevered till her marriage, in January last; since which she has, in this respect, continued unaltered; although she has frequently lamented that her new and necessary employments left her so little time for reading and reflection. It has, however, for some time past, been her usual practice regularly to retire alone to her room, in the evening, for purposes to which none but herself were privy; though she has often, on such occasions, been overheard engaging in prayer. Soon after her arrival at Wellington, whither she went on her marriage, she was eager to resume her accustomed delightful employment of Sunday-School instruction. With this view she exerted herself to raise such an institution, under the sanction of the Independent interest, with which she was connected, in that town. And this she did, amidst such difficulties as might naturally be expected to present themselves in a place where the principles of Nonconformity are but sparingly acted upon, even admitting that they are there generally known. Having, however, partially succeeded in her object, she spared no pains to superintend the female department of the school, to the duties of which she perseveringly attended, till increasing inability obliged her gradually to relinquish her charge.

Her conscience was extremely and uniformly tender. Some allusion to this circumstance has already been made, in the mention of that scrupulous regard to truth which she

evinced from her earliest childhood. Another fact to the point, however, presents itself, and the mention of which, at this time, may not prove

A

either unseasonable or useless. short time before her marriage, some pamphlets, relative to the abolition of slavery, were put into her hands. This led her to consider the subject: on which she became fully convinced of the criminality of her encouraging the use of slave-grown produce. Consequently, she has carefully abstained from having, if she knew it, any sugar, or other articles, but such as were produced by free labour, in her own house; and whenever she may have been anywhere, where she was not assured that such produce was preferred, she conscientiously altogether declined the use of every thing that might, as far as she knew, have been the produce of slavelabour. This fact will not fail to have its due weight on the minds of many readers.

Since her death, her Diary has been found. The fact, however, of her having kept such a memento of her feelings was, during her life, a secret even to her husband. From these occasional memorandums, the following extracts are made. And these extracts may be regarded as a fair specimen of her habitual feelings relative to the question of her own personal religion. She could always trust; but it was not known to any besides herself whether she ever triumphed. But, alas! how many are there who habitually triumph, who have never yet been truly taught aright to trust. What numbers rejoice (falsely) in the "full assurance of hope," who are living proofs that they are still utter strangers to the assurance of faith."

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Most of the remarks appear to have been made on Lord's-days. The first which we shall notice is dated

"Lord's-day, Oct. 6, 1822. Again am I permitted to enter on another Lord's-day ; but how little is my mind impressed with its solemnities. May my heart be more devout, and may I this day hold communion with the King of Kings in his house of prayer. Surely our minds should be filled with rever

ence when addressing Him who has power both to create and to destroy. It is strange that this is not the case; and were He to

deal with us as we have deserved, he would long ago have cut me down as a cumberer of the ground. But

'Jesus lives to intercede,

Before his Father's face;

Give Him, my soul, thy cause to plead, Nor doubt the Father's grace.' "Once last week I seemed to enjoy greater liberty in prayer; oh that this were more frequently the case with me!"

"Sabbath-day, Nov. 17. As the natural sun has this morning arisen over the face of the earth, and enlivens all nature by its cheering beams, so, O 'Sun of Righteousness,' arise on my soul with thy quickening influence, and that will dispel the mist of ignorance and carnality which now surrounds it. It is from God that all my mercies spring, even those temporal comforts that flow from friendship and affection; for He has the hearts of all men in his hand. O, how good is God! for we see, in all his works, that He designed the happiness of man."

"Sabbath-day, Feb. 2. Still in a dead state of mind. But why is this the case? Surely it is because God hides his face from me; and how little am I affected by it, if at all; while the frowns or slights of any earthly being whom I love, affect me so much! Surely this ought not to be the case. O that my soul were filled with the love of

Christ!"

But one more extract shall be made; and that one that will not be uninteresting to those Christians who, amidst similar experiences, have found that "when the enemy has come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord, &c."

"Sabbath-day, May 12. Again do I record the dealings of God with my soul. Since I last did this, I have, indeed, had reason to speak of judgment and mercy; for during these six weeks past, I have been so racked with blasphemous and wicked thoughts, that I have frequently felt as if I should go out of my mind. But I am still preserved. May it be to please the Lord!"

But we now come to notice the closing scenes of her life. And here, with respect to every thing estimable in herself, she renounced it all, except to deplore its deficiencies. On the morning of Saturday, October 14, 1826, she considered herself to be, as indeed she was, alarmingly ill. This consideration

On

appeared to urge her to the utmost seriousness. To her afflicted husband, who stood weeping near her, she exclaimed-"This is indeed a solemn hour. Nothing but real religion will do now. O that I had lived nearer and walked more closely with God; that I had thought less of I had lived more abstracted from the body, and more of the soul; that earth, and devoted to heaven !” her now being reminded that she had habitually retired to her room, as has been noticed, she replied, "I did, it is true, but that was more from a sense of duty than a feeling of love." "I have not," said she, "I have not loved God as I ought." “You," addressing herself to her husband, she exclaimed, “you have been my idol I have idolized you; and God has said, 'Thou hast loved idols, and after them thou shalt go.' She was then told that such a denunciation was never applicable to those who, like herself, whatever might have been their sins, hated those sins, and deplored them; and she was reminded of an all-sufficient Saviour. “Look unto me, and be ye saved," &c.

66

66

1;

For God so loved the world," &c. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth," &c., and "He is able to save to the uttermost," &c. These were some of the texts mentioned to her about this time. To which, however, she replied, "I know he can save me, but will he do so? No, he will not save me; I have not served him as lought;" and then she added, "And as the tree falls, so it lies.” She was now told, that nothing more dishonoured the Redeemer, than for any to doubt either his willingness or power to save all who go to him in faith; she was told that her sin was no ground why she should despair of salvation by Christ. "For the whole need not," &c. and "Christ came not to call the righteous," &e. Moreover, it was argued with her, that, by looking on any thing in herself on which to rest, she was, in the

ON MILTON'S TREATISE

ON

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

ESSAY VI.

ON VERACITY AND FALSEHOOD. A VALUABLE lesson which we may learn from the perusal of this extraordinary and interesting volume, is, that inconsistency and paradox have some advantage for the intruding of themselves into those minds which are gifted with the highest and most exquisite genius. A soul less qualified to soar in its own splendid creations, less tuned to thrill to the finest notes of beauty and majesty, a mind of humbler and more plodding order than that of England's immortal poet, would have been more ready to perceive incoherencies and more careful to expurgate them. We conceive, also, that other causes, in addition to this and those which have been mentioned in former papers, are reasonably to be assigned as having exercised a noxious influence over the mind of this great man, and given an unconscious bias to his deductions; and they were such as could not fail to operate with peculiar strength on a mind of such exquisite sensibility and uncompromising frankness. One was the state of religious parties during the whole period of his active life. It scarcely required his eagle eye to see the blemishes which, in one respect or other, deformed them all. He could find none with whom he could unite, with the full satisfaction of his too susceptible mind. Another very active cause of aberration from the fair dictates of evidence, we conceive to have been that occasional weakness of extraordinary minds which prompts them to take pity, so to speak, upon a forlorn cause-to become enamoured of arguments possessing plausibility, indeed, but whose tried insufficiency had caused them to drop into oblivion. Of this chivalrous logic, the literary world has seen other examples. Johnson, Burke, Windham, and Byron, are familiar and recent instances. the soul of Milton far transcended those men in tenderness and sincerity. While, therefore, it was likely to receive the impulse of this unsuspected principle with a greater effect, it would adopt

But

and push the results with an heroism of conviction which men of lower moral principle could not feel. Hence it is that, throughout these pages, we are delightfully carried on by evangelical doctrines, sweet charity, and prescriptions of virtue the most elevated, and morality the most magnanimous: yet ever and anon, in all these respects, dark blots and defacements break upon us. Upon what we conceive to be the principal of them, we have, according to the best lights and convictions that we can attain, exercised that freedom of examination which any liberal man would have employed upon himself, and which no man would have welcomed more than the illustrious author into whose sanctuary we have thus adventured to look. A variety of minor points we have passed over. In this, our last Essay, we shall principally animadvert upon a sad obliquity of our author with respect to the Obligation of Veracity.

"Not only the dissimulation," says he, "or concealment of truth, but even direct untruth with the intention of deceiving, may, in many instances, be beneficial to our neighbour. No rational person will deny that there are some individuals whom we are fully justified in deceiving. Who would scruple to dissemble with a child, with a madman, with a sick person [to induce him to submit to medical treatment], with one in a state of intoxication, with an enemy, with one who has himself a design of deceiving us, with a' robber (unless, indeed, we dispute the trite maxim, Cui nullum est jus, ei nulla, fit injuria)? When, instead of injuring a person by a false statement, we either confer on him a positive benefit, or prevent him from inflicting or suffering injury, we are so far from being guilty of deceit towards him, however often the fiction may be repeated, that we ought rather to be considered as doing him a service against his will. [There are cases in which] by an honest and beneficial kind of falsehood, we may be enabled to avert injury or danger from ourselves or our neighbour." On these principles he vindicates the feints and fictions which were resorted to on some occasions, recorded in the Scriptures, by Abraham, Rebecca and Jacob, Joseph, the Hebrew midwives in Egypt, Rahab, Ehud, Jael, Jona