ignorance and prejudice which long prevailed on all sides. The account of Colonel Hutchinson, by his learned and accomplished lady, illustrates those religious views and feelings which obtained among the higher class of the Non-conforming, Community; and clearly demonstrates, that even among the regicides themselves, there were men actuated by something else than the love of plunder and blood. The memoirs of the virtuous and cultivated Evelyn, have rendered an important service to the church and the cavaliers. Among the latter class, there were evidently better men than Sir Geoffrey ;-men who feared God as well as honoured the king; and who rendered more valuable services to the exiled monarch than his gay and dissipated companions.

The "Remarkable Passages in the Life of Kiffin," have no pretensions to equality with the charming effusions of conjugal attachment, or those of the classical and scientific courtier, above referred to. They discover, however, the sentiments and general conduct of another class of persons-the merchants and yeomanry of England, who were the principal actors and sufferers during the civil wars, and the following period. Kiffin, I apprehend, to be a tolerably accurate fac-simile of this numerous body-long respectable for its moral worth, its industrious habits, and its enterprising spirit.

I readily grant, that during the period in which he lived, there were many false pretenders, not a few

wild enthusiasts, and some who made gain by god

liness.

So there are still.

Religion was then also too much associated with contention about things that were trifling, and sometimes even absurd. It was too much clothed in cant phrases, expressed in demure countenances, and exhibited in affectations of dress and manners. These things we neither justify nor applaud. They did not belong exclusively to religious persons. There were then political quacks and nostrums as well as religious ones. There was court and country cant, low and vulgar enough, as well as religious cant. Every age has its peculiar vocabulary; its favourite idioms. In many of these things, we do not sympathize with the men of the seventeenth century; nor will the men of the twentieth perhaps sympathize with us. Many of the puritans would have been singular and eccentric characters, though they had not adopted a religious profession. The fruit partook of the nature of the stock, as well as of the graft; though, as far as its bad qualities are concerned, the latter has improperly received the exclusive blame.

They have very generally been reproached for their real or affected austerity and moroseness. They have been represented as a race of cynics, who waged war with all the harmless pleasantries of life, who deemed it a sin to taste the cup of earthly joy, and who were incapable of relishing the sweets of society, the refinements of science, or the charms of literature. To some of them, part of this representa

tion might, perhaps, justly apply. And it would be foolish to deny, that there was then a general stiffness and severity, perhaps a portion of harshness in the features, which made up the religious character. Without alleging that religion is a serious thing, and that in every religious character this will be a prominent feature, it ought to be remembered, that the circumstances in which the puritans were placed naturally deepened this feeling. The state of the country was long unsettled. Its government was either exercising an arbitrary and despotic power, of which they were the principal objects; or fighting for its existence; or entirely overthrown, and every thing reduced to anarchy. The people were often called to extraordinary exertion, exposed to imminent danger, or required to make the most costly and painful sacrifices. Mirth and festivity would then have been unsuitable and unseemly. Men do not usually sport on the brink of a precipice, or while surrounded by the desolations of a plague or a volcano. Religion was necessary as a source of enjoyment, and a principle of action. What, in more favoured circumstances, is resorted to for occasional comfort and direction-as an auxiliary to other things-was then the solatium, and often the only prop of human life. It was not assumed as a badge, or worn as a garment; but constituted the element in which they lived and moved. their life, their business, and their hope,

B

It was

Of nothing is the writer of these pages more strongly convinced, than that the design and tendency of the gospel are to make those who receive it happy. This is the revealed affirmation respecting its object. Its sublime discovery of the infinitely perfect and amiable character of God-its statements respecting the sacrifice and mediation of Christ, as the ground of hope, and the means of pardon and healing to the guilty-the elevating influence of the spirit which it communicates-and the grandeur of that hope which it inspires, and of which it furnishes so sure a foundation-all prove how admirably adapted it is to relieve the heart from sorrow, and to produce "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Perhaps many of the religious persons of whom we are speaking did not fully enter into this idea of Christianity, or at least experience its full influence. It was counteracted by slight mistakes, as well as by external circumstances. The attention of many of them, as well as of many religious people still, was too much fixed on themselves, and too little on the heavenly discovery. They thought of their sin, rather than of its pardon; of the disease, more than of the remedy; of the rebellion of man more than of the amnesty of God. They dwelt on the Divine holiness and justice, rather apart, than in their combination with mercy and kindness; and regarded suffering more in the light of punishment, than of

salutary restraint and merciful correction. Still, they knew the blessedness of peace with God, and of victory over the world. Their self-denial and crucifixions were never unconnected with hope. He must be very incapable of estimating happiness, who does not regard with satisfaction, the composure, the firmness, the resignation, and religious comfort of William Kiffin, as exhibited in these Memorandums. And I desire not to envy the feelings of that man, who can read the account of his grandsons without exclaiming-"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my latter end be like his."

I am aware of the great difficulty of persuading a person who knows nothing of the peculiar enjoyments which belong to a life of hope and conformity to the will of God;-that the noiseless, purifying, and I add, rational bliss of religion, is far preferable to the intoxicating and short lived joys of this world. By such, the merry cavalier will always be preferred to the solemn puritan; and the dashing, swearing Sir Geoffrey, will have many more admirers than the grave and virtuous Bridgnorth. Nothing less, than the power of the great Teacher himself, can convince men of the truth and importance of his own declaration" Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;