afflicted; admonishing the disorderly; persuading peace between neighbours offended, and endeavouring to compose differences, which require not much examination, or cannot be deferred without an apparent danger of greater mischief. These are not only permitted, but commendable, nay, commanded, upon this day. But if the business require examination, or may be deferred till to-morrow, then it is best to defer such examinations and treaties between offended parties till another day, because they will take away too much of the little precious portion of time of this day, and may be as well done to-morrow.

IV. As to the fourth-what is proper, fit, or necessary to be done, in order to the sanctification of this day—I will set down particularly; for generals seldom produce any great effect, because every man is apt to construe them according to his own mind and liking.

1. I would not have you meddle with any recreations, pastimes, or ordinary work of your calling, from Saturday night at eight of the clock till Monday morning; for though I am not apt to think that Saturday night is part of the Christian Sabbath, yet it is fit then to prepare the heart for it.

2. Rise at least three hours before morning sermon; and when you have made yourself fully ready, and washed, and fitted yourself for the solemnity of the day, read two chapters in the Bible, and then go solemnly to your private prayer, and desire of God His grace to enable you to sanctify His day; and after your private prayer, read another chapter; and let your reading be with attention, observation, and uncovered on your head.

3. When you are in the public worship and service of God, be uncovered all the while of reading, praying, or preaching; and if the weather be too cold, wear a satin cap.

4. Kneel upon your knees at prayer. Stand up at the reading of the Psalms, and the first and second Lesson, and the

Epistle and Gospel, and the two Creeds; so you shall avoid offence, and give the same honour to every part of the Holy Scripture: but stand not up at the reading of any apocryphal book, if any happen to be read.

5. Sit at the sermon, and be very attentive at your prayers and in your hearing. I commend your writing the sermon, especially till you are one or two-and-twenty years old, because young minds are apt to wander, and writing the sermon fixeth them, and makes them more attentive.

6. When the minister readeth any of the Psalms or Lessons, turn to them in your Bible, and go along with him; it will fasten your attention, and prevent wandering thoughts.

7. Be very attentive and serious at church; use no laughing, nor gazing about, nor whispering, unless it be to ask those by you something of the sermon that you slipped in writing. 8. Sing the singing Psalms with the rest of the congregation. 9. After sermon, eat moderately at dinner, rather sparingly than plentifully upon this day, that you may be fit for the afternoon's exercise, without drowsiness or dulness.

10. Walk half an hour after dinner in the garden, to digest your meat; then go to your chamber and peruse your notes, or recollect what you remember of the sermon, until it be church time.

11. If you are well, be sure you go to church morning and afternoon; and be there before the minister begin, and stay till he hath ended; and all the while you are at church, carry yourself gravely, soberly, and reverently.

12. After evening sermon, go up to your chamber and read a chapter in the Bible; then examine what you have written, or recollect what you have heard; and if the sermon be not repeated in your father's house, but be repeated in the minister's house, go to the minister's house to the repetition of the sermon. 13. In all your speeches or actions of this day, let there be no lightness nor vanity; use no running, or leaping, or playing,

or wrestling; use no jesting, nor telling of tales or foolish stories, no talk about worldly business; but let your actions and speech be such as the day is, serious and sacred, tending to learn or instruct in the great business of your knowledge of God, and His will, and your own duty.

14. After supper, and prayers ended in my family, every one of you going to bed, kneel down upon your knees, and desire of God His pardon for what you have done amiss this day, and His blessing upon what you have heard, and His acceptance of what you have endeavoured in His service.

15. Perform all this cheerfully and uprightly, and honestly, and count it not a burden to you; for, assure yourselves, you shall find a blessing from God in so doing. And remember it is your father that tells you so, and that loves you, and will not deceive you; and (which is more than that) remember that the Eternal God hath promised, "If thou turn thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

And thus I have written to you of the observation of the Lord's-day, wherein, though I have omitted many things that might have been fit to be inserted, yet you must consider that I had but a small portion of time allowed me to write while I lay at an inn, and upon that day wherein I have performed those duties which I now enjoin you. Let the original be laid up safely for your brother R, and every of you take copies of it, that you may thereby remember the counsels of

YOUR LOVING FATHER.

October the 20th, 1662.

THE HON. ROBERT BOYLE,

195

THE HON. ROBERT BOYLE.

Robert, seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard Earl of Cork, was born at Lismore Castle, January 25, 1627, His sufficient patrimony, and a leisure abridged by nothing except his constitutional delicacy, were devoted to the prosecution of experimental philosophy, and to doing good to his fellow-men. He first introduced the air-pump and thermometer into Britain; and, besides conducting researches which laid the foundations of pneumatical and hydrostatical science,* he was one of the first to exemplify the Baconian methods in practice, and took a prominent part in the formation of the Royal Society. But he was no less intent on the diffusion of saving truth than on the discovery of natural facts and phenomena. It was at his suggestion, and at his charge, that Dr Pocock translated "Grotius on the Truth of the Christian Religion" into Arabic; and in the hope that it might be useful to the inhabitants of the East Indian Archipelago, he printed the Gospels in Malay. He spent seven hundred pounds distributing the Scriptures in Ireland, and printed an edition of the Erse or "Irish" Bible, for circulation in the Highlands of Scotland. He corresponded with the apostolic Eliot in America, and was a bountiful contributor to the work in which he was engaged; and, when it could alleviate poverty or promote a good undertaking, his purse was always forthcoming. Thus we find him helping Burnet to publish his "History of the Reformation;" and when, in 1659, he heard of the straits to which Dr Sanderson was reduced, he sent him fifty pounds, with a request that he would go on and publish his "Cases of Conscience." His industrious, benevolent, and eminently honourable career terminated December 30, 1691, and

*Thomson's History of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 204.

his remains are deposited in the Church of St Martin's-in-theFields.*

The works of Mr Boyle fill six quarto volumes. They are chiefly philosophical; but many of them, such as "The Christian Virtuoso," "Considerations upon the Style of the Holy Scriptures," "The High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God," are offerings laid on the altar. Our specimen is from a little volume, with the running title, "Seraphic Love," being "Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God, patheti cally discoursed of in a Letter to a Friend."

The Greatness of God's Goodness.

I find it hotly disputed amongst divines (not only betwixt the Socinians and the orthodox, but betwixt orthodox and orthodox), whether or no God could, without violating His justice, have devised any other course for the expiation of sin than the passion and death of Christ. But, without venturing to determine whether or no God could, to redeem us, have chosen any other way, we may safely think that He has chosen the most obliging and most endearing way; displaying, in this Divine manner of rescuing us, the severest justice and the highest mercy, the greatest hatred of sin, and the greatest love to sinners; since, by those unequalled and invaluable sufferings to which He delivered up for us that Son, who is so near unto Him, that He truly said, "I and the Father are one," He at once manifested both how much He hated sin, which He so heavily punished in the person He most loved (though that surety but adopted it to free men from the insupportable vengeance of it), and how much He loved sinners, by giving up what He so loved for a ransom of those that were guilty of what He so hated. And therefore our Saviour, though He did such great things to satisfy the unbelieving and

* There is an excellent Life of Boyle by Dr Birch. London: 1744.