+

We are to" contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints ;" and we must " declare" to the church and to the world, "the whole counsel of God," keeping back" nothing that is profitable." Yet this may be done, and we are bound to do it, in a manner consistent with another equally express apostolic rule-"the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men ; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." These sermons were delivered in 1693. The "Preface" to them is not less excellent than the discourses themselves. In several parts of it Howe asserts his views of Christian communion. He represents "excluding those whom Christ would admit, and admitting those whom Christ would exclude," as " in itself a real sin." He describes Christians as "a sort of men tending to God and blessedness under the conduct of Christ, to whom they have by covenant devoted themselves, and to God in him." "The Lord's table," he tells us, "certainly ought to be free to his guests, and appropriate to them. And who should dare to invite others, or forbid these?" Let these principles be carried out; let Churches recognize "Christian communion" as "being of Christians as such;" let their fellowship be "made up of persons that with judgment, and in practice, own the very substance of the Christian religion." Then we shall soon see 66 every pot in Jerusalem holiness unto the Lord," "and there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." Churches will be brotherhoods of saints, all prepared to blend as parts of "the whole family in heaven and earth." But till that principle be recognized, fellowship among all Churches, as such, there cannot be; we must be content with fellowship among those Churches, as such, who do acknowledge it. Beyond that line we must take the fellowship of individuals, making that, however, wide as the fellowship of " the saved."

In the above" Preface," speaking of his having, in publishing the discourses, "complied with a sort of necessity," he says, "my own memorials and preparations were, indeed, imperfect enough, as it cannot but be in the case of one, so often in the week engaged in such work." What the sermons were which he preached" so often in the week" from "memorials and preparations" "imperfect enough," we have other and more ample means of judging. Between the years 1690 and 1694, were delivered the several courses of sermons which form the latter part of the sixth, and the whole of the seventh and eighth volumes, in the octavo

edition of his works, edited some years ago, by the Rev. John Hunt, now of Brixton. To that gentleman ministers and others are under great obligations, for placing within their reach so large a store of precious materials. In 1694, were also preached the sermons on "Family Religion and Worship."

The years 1694 and 1695 produced Howe's pieces on the Trinity. The first and principal is entitled "A Calm and Solemn Inquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead.” It contains a summary of the evidence from Scripture in proof of a Trinity, but the object and scope of it are precisely what the title expresses the "possibility" of a Trinity. The "inquiry" is, indeed, " calm and sober"-a model of writing on such a subject. The concluding sentences of the " Postscript" will serve as a specimen. They regard the "simplicity" of the Divine nature, which some affirm excludes a Trinity. After explaining what simplicity may, and what may not, be believed as essential to God, the writer proceeds "I judge human (and even all created) minds, very incompetent judges of the divine simplicity. We know not what the divine nature may include consistently with its own perfection, nor what it must, as necessary thereto. Our eye is no judge of corporeal simplicity. In darkness it discerns nothing but simplicity, without distinction of things: in more dusky light the whole horizon appears most simple, and every where like itself in brighter light, we perceive great varieties, and much greater if a microscope assist our eye. But of all the aerial people that replenish the region (except rare appearances to very few,) we see none. Here we want not objects, but a finer eye. It is much at this rate with our minds, in beholding the spiritual sphere of beings; most of all the Uncreated, which is remotest, and furthest above, out of our sight. We behold simplicity and what do we make of that? vast undistinguished vacuity! sad, immense solitude! only this at first view. If we draw nearer, and fix our eye, we think we apprehend somewhat, but dubiously hallucinate, as the half-cured blind man did, when he thought he saw men like trees. But if a voice which we acknowledge to be divine, speak to us out of the profound abyss, and tell us of grateful varieties and distinctions in it; good God! shall we not believe it? Or, shall we say we clearly see that is not, which only we do not see? This seems like somewhat worse than blindness."

This extract proves that at "sixty-five" the author's faculty of acute and dignified argument was in no degree impaired. Neither was there the semblance of failure in his pulpit minis

trations. The celebrated antiquary, Ralph Thoresby, visited London in 1695, and made this entry in his diary-" May 19, Die Dom. Heard the famous Mr Howe, both morning, and afternoon, who preached incomparably."

6

When nearly "sixty-eight" his large heart retained in full freshness those generous sympathies which are the soul of friendship. Under date of " March 18, 1698," he thus wrote to the Rev. Mr Spilsbury of Bromsgrove. "May I once more hope to salute my dear brother in this world? Whether I shall or not, I must leave to Him to whom greater, and all things must be left. Thou mayest have taken thy flight before this reaches thee, but the soul and spirit from whence it comes may in due time; through the infinite riches of freest grace, and the atoning blood of that sacrifice which once for all was offered up. We come to the general assembly and to the spirits of just men made perfect,' but as we come to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament, and to the blood of sprinkling.' By his own blood he is entered into the holy of holies, as the forerunner, and for us.' Upon such terms may sinful unprofitable servants hope to enter, and be received under the notion of faithful, and as those that are graciously counted such, into the joy of their Lord. Thou art ready to enter, and wilt shortly be adoring before the throne: oh, with what complacency! receiving the end of thy faith, having fought the good fight of it! And must thy poor brethren left behind, sigh and groan still? amidst their drowsy hearers, and too drowsy fruitless labours? But I envy thee not; and those that are dearest and nearest to thee owe thee so much as to rejoice in thy joy, while they cannot as yet in their own. Thou art upon my heart, if God saw it good, to live and die with thee. This day se'nnight thy worthy brother B. and my brother F. dined with me, when thou wast most affectionately remembered; but art no day forgotten, by thy sincere lover, and of all thine, hoping and aiming (though faintly) to be thy follower, J. Howe. If there be joy in heaven for a converted sinner, shall there not for a glorified saint! and the leader and teacher of many such ! some that are in glory, and others that shall shortly be! O the triumph at thy abundant entrance!" That "abundant entrance" was granted in about three months afterwards.

Mr Howe's seventieth year (1699) produced his "Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World." The sublime subject accorded with his taste. It was also in keeping with his circumstances; for the friends of his youth and companions of his toils and sufferings, Bates and Mead, and Baxter and Adams, and

66

others were fast disappearing from around him and entering that world; and he was himself approaching upon its confines. But the immediate occasion of the discourse was the death of a most lovely and promising youth, the eldest son of Sir Charles and Lady Houghton. The dedication of it has been already quoted. Of the admirable piece itself, Professor Rogers says truly, "as it was one of the last, so it is one of the richest and maturest fruits of our author's genius." As if to leave behind him another and condensed testimony on themes that are the instruments of awakening and salvation to the race, in 1701 he gave forth his "Discourses on Man's Enmity against God and Reconciliation to Him;" these are introduced last in the present volume. As if to clear off arrears before he bade us adieu, in 1702 he published the "Second Part” of his “ Living Temple,” referring to his sermons on "Self-dedication," as appropriately completing what he had contemplated in preparing the former work. To the last, however, the press wanted not employment from his pen. Late in 1702, appeared his funeral-sermon for the Rev. Peter Vink, who died at Hackney in September. It is founded on Acts v. 20, and begins, "The present speaker in this text is an angel of God; one of those blessed spirits from among the principalities and powers in heavenly places, who greatly delight (as you have lately heard, and I hope are, God willing, farther to hear) to be concerned about the affairs of God's Church on earth." A note at foot of the page says, "Having a discourse in hand about this time, on Ephesians iii. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities," &c. Can this" discourse," or any memorials of it, be possibly found? What a subject for Howe! His sermon on " Deliverance from the Power of Darkness," was preached November 5, 1703, Mr Howe being then in his seventyfourth year.

At length, in the spring of 1705, came out his last publication, a treatise on "Patience in Expectation of Future Blessedness." He had preached from the text, Hebrews x. 36, some time before, on the death of Dr Henry Sampson, who had been a member of his church for thirty years. In an Appendix, giving "some memorial" of this friend, he mentions, " my own long languishings," and "God affording me, at length, some respiration from the extremity of those painful distempers that had long afflicted me." The "respiration" was very temporary. The " spirit" retained all its vitality and strength unimpaired; it was "fat and flourishing." But the "flesh" had been long labouring under infirmity; as the reader has observed, it had been more than

"The earthly

once tottering; and now it rapidly gave way. house of this tabernacle," was to be " dissolved," and exchanged for a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But before we go to see him die, we will retrace our steps a little, to notice an instance or two of the foretastes that had been granted him of the joy on which he was about

to enter.

Rarely has there existed such a combination of great devotional susceptibility with great intellectual power, as in the case of Mr Howe. This may be gathered from his writings, which abound with bursts of hallowed fervour. And other evidence is at hand. On the fly-leaf of his study Bible were found, after his death, some memoranda in Latin, which have been thus translated:" Dec. 26, '89. After that I had long seriously and repeatedly thought with myself, that besides a full and undoubted assent to the objects of faith, a vivifying savoury taste and relish of them was also necessary, that with stronger force and more powerful energy, they might penetrate into the most inward centre of my heart, and there being most deeply fixed and rooted, govern my life; and that there could be no other sure ground whereon to conclude and pass a sound judgment on my good state Godward; and after I had in my course of preaching been largely insisting on 2 Cor. i. 12; this very morning I awoke out of a most ravishing and delightful dream, that a wonderful and copious stream of celestial rays, from the lofty throne of the divine majesty, seemed to dart into my expanded breast. I have often since, with great complacency, reflected on that very signal pledge of special divine favour vouchsafed to me on that memorable day, and have with repeated fresh pleasure tasted the delights thereof. But what on Oct. 22, 1704, of the same kind I sensibly felt, through the admirable bounty of my God and the most pleasant comforting influence of the Holy Spirit, far surpassed the most expressive words my thoughts can suggest. I then experienced an inexpressibly pleasant melting of heart; tears gushing out of mine eyes, for joy that God should shed abroad his love abundantly through the hearts of men, and that for this very purpose my own should be so signally possessed of and by his blessed Spirit, Rom. v. 5." In addition to these private memoranda of matters which were at the time secret within his own breast, it was observed that in his last illness, and when he had been declining for some time, he was once in a 66 most affecting, melting, heavenly frame," when administering the Lord's Supper, and was carried out into "such a ravishing and transport