[751] We do not know a state of mind more to be deprecated than what is indicated in this passage. It is the science of self-tormenting, that withers every joy, and blights all our happiness. That Satan tempts is a scriptural truth; but the same divine authority also informs us, that "every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed," James i. 14: that God suffereth no man to be tempted above what he is able, and that if we resist Satan he will flee from us. The mind that feels itself harassed by these mental temptations must take refuge in the promises of God, such as Isaiah xli. 10; xliii. 2; lix. 19; 2 Cor. xii. 9, and plead them in prayer. Resistance to temptation will weaken it, faith will overcome it, and the panoply of Heaven, if we be careful to gird ourselves with it, will secure us against all its inroads.
[752] Afterwards Lord Chief Justice, in the Court of Common Pleas, and created Lord Walsingham.
[753] It could hardly be called irreverent, unless the manner in which it was uttered rendered it such.
[754] Samuel Roberts.
[755] There is a considerable improvement in public manners since this period, and oaths and blasphemies would not be tolerated in well-bred society. May the hallowed influence of the Gospel be instrumental in producing a still happier change!
[756] Cowper adopted a profession, but never pursued it with perseverance.
[757] Shortness of life seems to have been peculiar to this family. The writer well remembers the two last baronets, viz. Sir John Russel, whose form was so weak and fragile, that, when resident at the University of Oxford, he was supported by instruments of steel. He died at the early age of twenty-one. 2ndly. Sir George Russel, his brother, who survived only till his twenty-second year. The editor followed him to his grave. The family residence was at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, an ancient seat, and restored at great expense by these last direct descendants of their race. Chequers was formerly noted as the place where Hampden, Cromwell, and a few others, held their secret meetings, and concerted their measures of opposition against the government of Charles I. The estate afterwards devolved to Robert Greenhill, Esq.
[758] Poems, the Early Productions of William Cowper.
[759] See p. 36.
[760] See p. 264.