nation; and, whatever may be thought of other considerations, every friend to the prosperity of religion must rejoice in the advancement of that liberal and enlightened policy under which alone it is favoured and fostered. It is only under a free representative government that this can be the case. Never did religious liberty flourish in the chilling, deadly atmosphere of despotism: it can open and spread only in the sunshine of political freedom. As the greater includes the less, the civil implies also the religious liberty of a state. Religion grows and blooms among the highest and most palmy branches of the tree of liberty, and ripens in luxuriance among its topmost boughs. This is the natural, established, order of things, in the present world: and, let it be remembered, we are not entitled to expect any miracles, properly so called, to facilitate the coming of our Saviour's kingdom. In the whole course of missionary enterprise there has not been a single check upon the accustomed laws of providence, not one interruption of the connexion which subsists betwixt primary and secondary causes, not one deviation from the ancient course of nature. It is by a favourable arrangement of political circumstances that religion is most likely to be advanced; by the establishment of that genuine and legitimate freedom, which is equally removed from the extremes of anarchy on the one side, and tyranny on the other. It is this that seems to be the precise temperature, the genial climate, of religion: and doubtless God will prepare his own way in this as in every other respect :

every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked rendered straight, the rough places plain; and all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken

it.

In glancing at the different institutions which have arisen in these later times for the moral and spiritual benefit of mankind, it is pleasing and striking to observe how exactly they have fitted in, and, as it were, dove-tailed with each other. First appeared the missionaries, as pioneers to break up the ground and open the way; then the Bible Society followed; and, at last, the system of education completed the design. Each arose, in its order, to sustain and aid the others. Had any one of these existed alone, it would have proved inefficient for want of the rest. As it is, the finger of Providence is discernible in the very succession in which these institutions made their appearance; while, in their union and cooperation, they constitute an apparatus completely adapted to promote the christian renovation of the world: regarded in the order of means, the teachers, the lesson, and the power of reading it, appear well adapted to make the man of God perfect in every good word and work. We speak, you will observe, of external, instrumental preparations: there is still needed, as you are aware, another and a higher preparation of the heart in man; a spirit within us, which must be imparted from above. The machinery is provided, but the Spirit alone can move the wheels.

If

With respect to the institution for which I have the honour to be an humble advocate on this occasion, if there be any force in the preceding remarks, few words are necessary to recommend it to your patronage. As you would live in a land of Bibles and readers of the Bible,-in a nation dignified as a seminary of religious instruction; as you would desire, when called to quit the present stage of being, to leave your children in a nation of christians; it becomes you, more especially in a season of public alarm, to support an institution which justly assumes the name of national, the man who rescues from barrenness a neglected portion of the country, and spreads over its face fertility and beauty, deserves and obtains our praise, shall that society solicit our support in vain, which rescues from all the evils of ignorance multitudes of those in the humbler walks of life, who might otherwise perish for lack of knowledge; while it opens their understandings, at least in a degree, to understand the Scriptures of eternal truth and life? It is impossible to doubt that such an institution is one of the great means which the Divine Being employs for the accomplishment of his own great end. He does not christianize the world by magic: we are not to expect religion to descend from heaven, or to rise upon the earth like a beautiful vision! It will indeed descend from heaven, and arise upon the earth; but this will be by regular, appointed, adapted means; by means such as those which are now set at work, and require our continued assistance:

means which afford an omen of the desired success; since we cannot conceive why all this energy should have been impressed on the minds of men, if not for the providential accomplishment of one grand result-the transformation of the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

XII.

THE LOVE OF LIFE.*

[PREACHED AT BRISTOL, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONS, NOVEMBER, 1820.]

JOB ii. 4.-And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

THOUGH these words were uttered by the father of lies, they are no lie. The truth of a communication does not always depend on the character of those who convey it.

The expression might perhaps be more properly rendered, "skin upon skin," or "skin after skin:" skins, of which the uses are not easily enumerated, being the principal article of property and exchange in a primitive and pastoral state of society.

I propose briefly to consider the principle of attachment to life, so emphatically asserted in these words; some of the reasons for which it is implanted; and some improvements which may be derived from the subject.

* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.

I. The love of life is the simplest and strongest principle of nature. It operates universally, on every part of the brute creation, as well as on every individual of the human race; perpetually, under all circumstances, the most distressing as well as the most pleasing; and with a power peculiar to itself,-while it arms the feeble with energy, the fearful with courage, whenever an occasion occurs for defending life, whenever the last sanctuary of nature is invaded, and its dearest treasure endangered. This mysterious principle does not act with a variable force, dependent on the caprices of will or the dictates of reason: it operates with a steady, constant influence, as a law of nature, insensible and yet powerful. It corresponds, in the animated world, with the great principle of gravitation in the material system, or with the centripetal force, by which the planets are retained in their proper orbits, and resist their opposite tendency to fly off from the centre. The most wretched, not less than the most prosperous,those who seem to possess nothing that can render life desirable, not less than those who are surrounded by all its pleasures,—are bound to life as by a principle of central attraction, which extends its influence to the last moments of expiring nature. We see men still clinging to life, when they have lost all for which they appeared to live. A striking instance of this has been recently exhibited by that extraordinary individual,* who, rather than lose his life in the scenes of his

*Buonaparte.