he generates, insomuch that the glory of the world would be lost in oblivion if God had not provided mortals with a remedy in books. Alexander the ruler of the world, Julius the invader of the world and of the city, the first who in unity of person assumed the empire in arms and arts, the faithful Fabricius, the rigid Cato, would at this day have been without a memorial if the aid of books had failed them. Towers are razed to the earth, cities overthrown, triumphal arches mouldered to dust; nor can the king or pope be found, upon whom the privilege of a lasting name can be conferred more easily than by books. A book made renders succession to the author; for as long as the book exists, the author remaining &ávaros, immortal, cannot perish; as Ptolemy witnesseth in the prologue of his Almazett, he (he says) is not dead, who gave life to science.

What learned scribe, therefore, who draws out things new and old from an infinite treasury of books, will limit their price by any other thing whatsoever of another kind? Truth, overcoming all things, which ranks above kings, wine, and women, to honour which above friends obtains the benefit of sanctity, which is the way that deviates not, and the life without end, to which the holy Boetius attributes a threefold existence, in the mind, in the voice, and in writing, appears to abide most usefully and fructify most productively of advantage in books. For the truth of the voice perishes with the sound. Truth, latent in the mind, is hidden wisdom and invisible treasure; but the truth which illuminates books, desires to manifest itself to every disciplinable sense, to the sight when read, to the hearing when heard: it, moreover, in a manner commends itself to the touch, when submitting to be transcribed, collated, corrected, and preserved. Truth confined to the mind, though it may be the possession of a noble soul, while it wants a companion and is not judged of, either by the sight or the hearing, appears to be inconsistent with pleasure. But the truth of the voice is open to the hearing only, and latent to the sight, (which shows as many differences of things fixed upon by a most subtle motion, beginning and ending as it were simultaneously.) But the truth written in a book, being not fluctuat

ing, but permanent, shows itself openly to the sight passing through the spiritual ways of the eyes, as the porches and halls of common sense and imagination; it enters the chamber of in tellect, reposes itself upon the couch of memory, and there congenerates the eternal truth of the mind.

Lastly, let us consider how great a commodity of doctrine exists in books, how easily, how secretly, how safely they expose the nakedness of human ignorance without putting it to shame. These are the masters that instruct us without rods and ferulas, without hard words and anger, without clothes or money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they cannot laugh at you.

Examples of Spiritual Perfection.

BATES.

[DR WILLIAM BATES was one of the most eminent of the divines whose con scientious scruples removed them from the Church of England in 1662, under the Act of Uniformity. He had previously been one of the king's chaplains; had been offered the deanery of Lichfield and Coventry; and at the time of his ejectment was vicar of St Dunstan's in the West. There is something exceedingly touching in a passage in his farewell sermon to his parishioners: "It is neither fancy, faction, nor humour, that makes me not comply: but merely the fear of offending God. And if, after the best means used for my illu mination (as prayer to God, discourse, and study) I am not able to be satisfied as to the lawfulness of what is required; if it be my unhappiness to be in error; surely men will have no reason to be angry with me in this world, and I hope God will pardon me in the next." After his secession from the Established Church, Dr Bates became the minister of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Hackney, at which place he died in 1699, in his seventy-fourth year. His works were collected in 1700, in a folio volume, which has been several times reprinted.]

The gospel proposes the most animating examples of perfec tion.

Such are

We are commanded to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. There are some attributes of God, which are objects, not of our imitation, but of our highest veneration. His eternity, immensity, omnipotence, immutability. There are other attributes, His moral perfections, which are imitable-holiness, goodness, justice, truth. These are fully declared in His law, and visibly in His providence. This command, as was before explained, is to be understood, not of an equality, but of a resemblance. God is essentially, transcendently, and unchangeably holy, the original of holiness in intelligent creatures. There is a greater disproportion between the holiness of God and that of angels, though it be unspotted, than between the celerity of the sun in the heavens and the slow motion of the shadow upon the dial regulated by it. It should be our utmost aim, our most earnest endeavour, to imitate the Divine perfection. Then is the soul godlike, when its principal powers, the understanding and the will, are influenced by God.

The heathen deities were distinguished by their vices-intemperance, impurity, and cruelty; and under such patronage their idolaters sinned boldly. The true God commands us to "be holy, as He is holy; to be followers of Him as dear children." Love produces desires and endeavours of likeness.

The life of Christ is a globe of precepts, a model of perfection, set before us for our imitation. In some respects this is more proportionable to us; for in Him were united the perfections of God with the infirmities of a man. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." His purity was absolute, and every grace in the most divine degree was expressed in His actions. His life and death were a compound miracle, of obedience to God and love to men. Whatever His Father ordered Him to undertake, or undergo, He entirely consented to; He willingly took on Him the form of a servant; it was not put upon Him by compulsion. In His life humility towards men, infinite descents below Him, selfdenial, zeal for the honour of God, ardent desires for the salvation and welfare of men, were as visible as the flame discovers fire. In His sufferings obedience and sacrifice were united. The will.

ingness of His spirit was victorious over the repugnance of the natural will in the garden. "Not my will but thine be done," was His unalterable choice. His patience was insuperable to all injuries. He was betrayed by a disciple for a vile price, and a murderer was preferred before Him. He was scorned as a false prophet, as a feigned king, and as a deceitful Saviour. He was spit on, scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified; and in the height of His sufferings never expressed a spark of anger against His enemies, nor the least degree of impatience. Now consider, it was one principal reason of His obedience to instruct and oblige us to conform to His pattern, the certain and constant rule of our duty. We may not securely follow the best saints, who sometimes, through ignorance and infirmity, deviate from the narrow way; but our Saviour is "the way, the truth, and the life." What He said, after His washing the disciples' feet, (an action wherein there was such an admirable mixture of humility and love, that it is not possible to conceive which excelled, for they were both in the highest perfection,) "I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so do ye," s applicable to all the kinds of virtues and graces exhibited in His practice. He instructs us to do by His doings, and to suffer by His sufferings. "He suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we may follow His steps." He levels the way by going before Those duties that are very harsh to sensible nature, He instructs us in by His preaching and by His passion. How can we decline them, when performed by Him in whom the glorious Deity was personally united to the tender humanity? His life was a continual lecture of mortification. It is the observation of the natural historian, that the tender providence of nature is admirable in preparing medicines for us in beautiful fragrant flowers; that we might not refuse the remedy, as more distasteful than our diseases. But how astonishing is the love of God, who sent His Son for our redemption from eternal death; and in His example has sweetened those remedies which are requisite for the cure of our distempered passions! Taking up the cross, and submitting to poverty and persecution, are made tolerable by considering that in enduring them we follow our Redeemer. Can any motive

us.

more engage and encourage our obedience, than the persuasive pattern and commanding example of our Sovereign and Saviour? Can we be averse from our duty, when our lawgiver teaches us obedience by His own practice? Can any invitation be more attractive than to do that from love to Him which He did for love to us and our salvation? We are His subjects by the dearest titles, and our own consent; we are dedicated to His honour; and, as the apostle tells the Galatians, "If ye are circumcised, ye are debtors to keep the whole law;" by the same reason, if we are baptized, we are obliged to obey the law of faith, to order our lives according to the doctrine and example of Christ. An unholy Christian is a contradiction so direct and palpable, that one word destroys another: as if one should say, a living carcase, or a cold calenture. We must adorn the gospel of Christ by the sacred splendour of our actions. A life innocent from gross notorious sins is a poor perfection; we must "show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us to His kingdom and glory." Men usually observe what is eminently good, or extremely bad. The excellent goodness of Christians recommends the goodness of the gospel, and ought to convince infidels that it came from the Fountain of goodness.

The primitive Christians endured the fiery trial with insuperable constancy; and the most powerful argument that inspired their courage, despising life and death, was, that Christ was their leader in those terrible conflicts; He was their spectator, when they encountered fierce beasts, and fiercer tyrants for the defence of His truth, and glory of His name; and while they were suffering for Him He was preparing immortal crowns for them. This, St Cyprian, in his pastoral letters to the Christians in Africa, represents with such powerful eloquence, as kindled in their breasts a love to Christ stronger than death.

The angels are propounded to us as a pattern for our imitation. Our Saviour directs our desires, that "the will of God may be done on earth, as it is done in heaven." The will of God is either decretive or preceptive. The decretive extends to all events; nothing falls out at random, nothing by rash chance and