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ality, activity, liveliness, and vigour to the several regions, which, the remoter they are from dull earth, must be supposed still the finer, and apt to afford fit and suitable habitations to such creatures? Whether we suppose pure, unclothed spirits to be the natives in all those heavens, all comprehended under the one name of angels, or whether, as some think of all created spirits, that they have all vital union with some or other vehicles, etherial or celestial, more or less fine and pure, as the region is to which they belong, having gradually associated unto them the spirits of holy men gone from us, which are said to be loáyyedot, angels' fellows (Luke xx. 36), it is indifferent to our purpose.

Let us only consider them all as intelligent spiritual beings, full of holy light, life, active power, and love to their common Lord, and one another. And can we imagine their state to be a state of torpid silence, idleness, and inactivity, or that they have not much higher and nobler work to do there, than they can have in such a world as this, or in such bodies as here they lug to and fro ?

And the Scriptures are not altogether silent concerning the distinct orders of those glorious creatures that inhabit all the heavens, and which this upper hades must be understood to contain. Though it hath not provided to gratify any one's curiosity, so far as to give us particular accounts of their differences and distinctions; and though we are not warranted. to believe such conjectures concerning them, as we find in the supposititious Dionysius's "Celestial Hierarchy," or much less the idler dreams of Valentinus and the Gnostics about their Eons, with divers more such fictions; yet we are not to neglect what God hath expressly told us, viz., that giving us some account of the creation, in the Hades, or the invisible part of it, there are thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, angels -and elsewhere archangels, authorities (Col. i. 16, with 1 Pet. iii. 21)-which being terms that import order and govern

ment, can scarce allow us not to conceive that, of all those numberless multitudes of glorious creatures that replenish and people those spacious regions of light and bliss, there are none who belong not to some or other of those principalities and dominions.

Whence, therefore, nothing is more obvious than to conceive, that whosoever is adjoined to them, ascending out of our world, presently hath his station assigned him, is made to know his post, and how he is to be employed, in the service and adoration of the sovereign Lord of all, and in paying the most regular homage to the throne of God and the Lamb. It being still to be remembered, that God is not worshipped there, or here, as though He needed anything, since He "gives to all breath and being and all things" (Acts xvii.); but that the felicity of His most excellent creatures doth in great part consist in acting perpetually according to the dictate of a just and right mind, and that therefore they take highest pleasure in prostration, in casting down their crowns, in shrinking even into nothing, before the original, eternal, subsistent Being, that He may be owned as the All in All, because they follow herein a most satisfied judgment, and express it when they say, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. iv. 11); and, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive riches, and wisdom, and strength," &c. (Rev. v. 12).

And they that rest not night nor day from such high and glorious employments, have they nothing to do? Or will we say or think, because we see not how the heavenly potentates lead on their bright legions, to present themselves before the throne, to tender, their obeisance, or receive commands and despatches to this or that far remote dynasty, or, suppose, to such and such a mighty star-(whereof there are so numberless myriads; and why should we suppose them not replenished

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with glorious inhabitants?)-whither they fly as quick as thought with joyful speed, under the all-seeing Eye, glad to execute wise and just commands upon all occasions? But alas in all this we can but "darken counsel with words without knowledge." We cannot pretend to knowledge in these things; yet if, from Scripture intimations, and the concurrent reason of things, we only make suppositions of what may be, not conclusions of what is; let our thoughts ascend as much higher as they can, I see not why they should fall lower than all this. And because we cannot be positive, will we therefore say or think there can be no such thing, or nothing but dull inactivity in those regions? Because that other world is Hades, and we see nothing, shall we make little or next to nothing of it? We should think it very absurd reasoning if we should use it, in reference to such mean trifles in comparison, and say there is no such thing as pomp and state, no such thing as action or business in the court of Spain or France, of Persia or Japan, because no sound from thence strikes our ear, or the beams of majesty there dazzle not our eye.

I should, indeed, think it very unreasonable to make mere magnitude, or vast extent of space, filled up with nothing but void air, ether, or other fine matter-call it by what name you will-alone, or by itself, a very considerable note of excellency of the other invisible world above this visible world of ours. But I reckon it much more unreasonable and unenforced (to say no more) by any principles, either of philosophy or religion, finding this world of ours (a baser part of the creation) so full of life, and of living inhabitants, of one degree or another; to suppose the nobler parts of the universe, still ascending upwards, generally unpeopled, and desert; when it is so conceivable in itself, and so aptly tending to magnify our Creator and Redeemer, that all the upper regions be fully inhabited with intelligent creatures-whether mere spirits, unclothed

with anything material, or united with some or other matter, we need not determine.

And whereas Scripture plainly intimates, that the apostate revolted spirits that fell from God, and kept not their first stations, were vastly numerous; we have hence scope enough for our thoughts to conceive, that so spacious regions being replenished with intelligent creatures, always innocent and happy, the delinquents compared with them may be as despicable for their paucity, as they are detestable for their apostasy; and that the horrid Hades, wherein they are reserved to the blackness of darkness for ever, may be no more in proportion, nay, inexpressibly less, than some little rocky island, appointed as a place of punishment for criminals, in comparison of a flourishing, vast empire, fully peopled with industrious, rich, sober-minded and happy inhabitants.

Hope for England.

[The Platonic elevation and spiritualism of Howe have been the subject of frequent remark, and amidst his prevailing poverty of style few can fail to recognise an opulence of imagination almost Oriental. In these cold latitudes, and amongst our Western races, few metaphors are borrowed from the sense of smell; but the writings of Howe are almost as fragrant as the Psalms, or the Song of Solomon. "How pleasant should it be to our souls often to remember and think on that name of His which we bear, and draw in as vital breath the sweet odours of it!" And in the following extract-"What a balmy memory will one generation leave to another, when the savour of the knowledge of Christ shall be diffused in every place, . . . and the branches of religious families, whether sooner or later transplanted, shall leave an odour, when they are cut off, that shall demonstrate their nearer union with the true Vine, or speak their relation to the Tree of Life!"]

There is great reason to hope God will not finally abandon England. But is there not equal reason to fear that, before the day of mercy come, there may be a nearer day of wrath coming a day that shall "burn as an oven," and make the hemisphere about us a fiery vault. In our recovery from a lapsed state, which the religion professed among us aims at, there are two things to be effected, viz., the restoring reason to its empire over the sensitive nature, that it may govern that; and the restoring religion and love to God to its place and power, that He may govern us. While the former is not done, we remain sunk unto the low level with the inferior creatures; and till the latter be effected, we are ranked with the apostate creatures that first fell from God. The sensuality of brutes, and the enmity of devils, rising, and springing up observably among us, import the directest hostility against the Redeemer's design; and them that bid this open defiance to Him, He hath every moment at His mercy!

In the meantime, is this Emmanuel's land? His right in us He will not disclaim, and because He claims it, we may expect Him to vindicate Himself. His present patience we are to ascribe to the wisdom and greatness of an all-comprehending mind. He counts not an heap of impotent worms His match; but when the besom of destruction comes, one stroke of it will sweep away multitudes. Then contempt will be answered with contempt. They cannot express higher, than to oppose and militate against a religion introduced and brought into the world by so clear, Divine light, lustre, and glory, not by arguments, but by jests. O that we could but see their arguments to dispute those keys out of His hands that holds them! But do they think to laugh away the power of the Son of God? He also will laugh at their calamity, or expose them to the laughter of men wiser than they (Prov. i.; Psalm lii. 5, 6). "Tis little wit to despise what they cannot disprove. When we find a connexion between death and judgment, how