have reference to sins in our sense at all,) mean more than this,—­Whenever you discover, by the spirit of knowledge which I will send unto you, repentance and faith, you shall declare remission of sins; and the sins shall be remitted;-and where the contrary exists, your declaration of exclusion from bliss shall be fulfilled?  Did Christ say, that true repentance and actual faith would not save a soul, unless the priest’s verbal remission was superadded?

‘In fine.’

If it were in my power I would have this book printed in a convenient form, and distributed through every house, at least, through every village and parish throughout the kingdom.  A volume of thought and of moral feelings, the offspring of thought, crowd upon me, as I review the different parts of this admirable man’s life and creed.  Only compare his conduct to James Wadsworth (probably some ancestral relative of my honoured friend, William Wordsworth:  for the same name in Yorkshire, from whence his father came, is pronounced Wadsworth) with that of the far, far too highly rated, Bishop Hall; his letter to Hall tenderly blaming his (Hall’s) bitterness to an old friend mistaken, and then his letter to that friend defending Hall!  What a picture of goodness!  I confess, in all Ecclesiastical History I have read of no man so spotless, though of hundreds in which the biographers have painted them as masters of perfection:  but the moral tact soon feels the truth.

[Footnote 1:  In one of the volumes of this work used by the Editor for ascertaining the references, the following note is written by a former owner.

“October 12, 1788.  Begged of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to take my salvation on herself, and obtain it for Saint Hyacinthe’s sake; to whom she has promised to grant any thing, or never to refuse any thing begged for his sake.”

It would be very interesting to know how far the feeling expressed in this artless effusion coexisted with a faith in the atonement and mediation of the one Lord Jesus Christ.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

NOTES ON BAXTER’S LIFE OF HIMSELF.

1820. [1]

Among the grounds for recommending the perusal of our elder writers, Hooker—­Taylor—­Baxter—­in short almost any of the folios composed from Edward vi. to Charles ii.  I note: 

1.  The overcoming the habit of deriving your whole pleasure passively from the book itself, which can only be effected by excitement of curiosity or of some passion.  Force yourself to reflect on what you read paragraph by paragraph, and in a short time you will derive your pleasure, an ample portion of it, at least, from the activity of your own mind.  All else is picture sunshine.