as made his conversation have all the pleasantness of a comedy, and all the usefulness of a sermon; his soul was made up of harmony, and he never spake but he charmed his hearers, not only with the clearness of his reason, but all his words, and his very tones and cadences, were strangely musical." He was equally amiable in domestic life, as appears from the manner in which he speaks of the death of his sons, and his frequent allusions to domestic happiness. His kind heart is eloquently exhibited in the following passage, extracted from his sermon called "The Marriage Ring." "Nothing," he says, can sweeten felicity itself but love; but when a man dwells in love then the breasts of his wife are pleasant as the droppings on the hill of Hermon, her eyes are fair as the light of heaven; she is a fountain sealed, and he can quench his thirst, and ease his cares, and lay his sorrows down upon her lap, and can retire home to his sanctuary and refectory, and his gardens of sweetness and chaste refreshments. No man can tell but he that loves his children, how many delicious accents make a man's heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear pledges-their childishness, their stammering, their little angers, their innocence, their imperfections, their necessities, are so many little emanations of joy and comfort, to him that delights in their person and society."
Few have been so anxious to extend their sphere of usefulness, and few have obtained so much success in their endeavours as Taylor. Though belonging to an ecclesiastical establishment, and naturally desirous not to differ from its canons; yet where truth required it, he shook off the trammels of authority, and boldly stated his views and opinions to the world. To his heterodoxy on the subject of original sin, we have before adverted. Our warmest gratitude is due to him for the principles of toleration which he advocated in his "Liberty of Prophesying," and which established the right of every sect to freedom of conscience; he, indeed, claims toleration for those only who acknowledge the Apostles' creed, which he lays down as the rule of faith; but his arguments are of general application: and the whole spirit of the work is in favour of universal toleration.