morals. Every man is a flave: he is attached to the ground on which he vegetates, and cannot leave it without dreading the fevereft penalty for his difobedience. Urged at firft to quit his family, for the commitment of a small offence, he dares not think of returning, and knows not where to fly. He has no país to entitle him to protection or employment; he feels himself an outcast of society, and looks upon every man he meets as his enemy. He robs, from hunger and diftrefs; till, grown familiar with the crime, he murders for the greater fecurity.' Our author arrives in Switzerland, and purfues his journey through various parts of the country. Thefe, with many particulars relating to the manners of the inhabitants, their agriculture and commerce, he defcribes with great tafte and judgment. He gives a fhort sketch of the petits Cantons, and cónfiders the various forms of the Swifs govern ments, particularly that of Berne.-The romantic wildness of the country, its majestic boldness, its abrupt precipices, and various form, which to a natural philofopher or hiftorian, would have fuggefted fo many hints for building up, or pulling down theories of the earth, are all viewed by our author with a moral eye. The fcenes he defcribes are confidered by him chiefly as they intereft the heart, mould the character, or affect the happiness of man. This writer informs us in an addrefs to the public, that fhould the fheets we have now reviewed 66 meet with approbation, he may be encouraged, at a future period, to publifh the reflections of his riper years, during the courfe of his fubfequent travels." This approbation, we hope and truft, will not be withheld and, in the promised Reflexions of riper Years, there will not, we prefume, be any thing of that inflation of ftyle, which now and then appears, and which forms the chief blemish in the prefent pleafing and " inftructive production. ART. IV. A Courfe of Sermons upon Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. By John Whitaker, B. D. Rector of Ruan Lanyhorne, Cornwall. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Boards. Dilly. 1783. I T has ever been the complaint of mankind hat the paffions are not to be reftrained by the fober dictates of the judgment. Poets, hiftorians, philofophers, men of different ages and countries, and of different and even oppofite turns of thinking, unanimoufly concur in bearing teftimony to this melancholy truth. The video meliora proboquedeteriora fequor of Ovid is in every mouth, and recognised. by the confenting voice of the world, as a juft picture of human nature. The fentiment which Salluft puts into the mouth of the fagacious though profligate Cataline, when he ENG. REV. Vol. III. May 1784. Y ad : addreffed his army on the eve of that action which was to decide concerning their fortunes and their lives, is worthy of the profound genius of the hiftorian, the penetration of his hero, and the good fenfe of the Roman people. "I have found, fays Cataline, that virtue is not to be infused by words, and that men are ufually governed by habit, and the early impreffions of education." The fublimeft genius of antiquity confiders man, that is, the reasoning part of man, as chained to a morifter, by which figurative expreffion he understands the appetites and paffions; and the main bufness of his life, he affirms, ought to be one continued effort to break the bonds of evil defires, and to difengage himself from fo horrible and fo fatal a companion. Xenophon, who was bred in the fame fchool, ftruck with the repugnancy between the understanding and the will, was almoft tempted to confider human nature as being double, and makes either Cyrus, or fome other perfonage in the Cyropædia, to acknowledge, that on different occafions, he feemed to himfelf to have a different foul, and to be in reality two diftinct perfons.---The fame fentiments are expreffed at greater length, and with greater energy by the Apoftle Paul in his epiftle to the Romans, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing for to will is prefent with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but fin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is prefent with me. For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man but I fee another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?" Thus is man divided against himself. He is under a strong and invincible neceffity of yielding to the impulfe of unjust and impure defires, and of ferving a mafter whofe wages is inifery, and death. He discovers in his nature only the ruins of an intellectual being: and to the mere light of reason fcarcely appears to be the work of a wife and benevolent Providence. But chriftianity unfolds this mystery in the divine conduct and the defects in natural, form a link in that chain which connects it with revealed religion. Mankind is indeed in a finful wretched and ruinous condition. Their propenfity to vice is hereditary, and is not their crime but their misfortune. In the mean time, this propenfity affords an opportunity of exercis ing the most amiable graces, and the moft heroic virtues. Without temptation to do wrong, there would not be any merit in doing right, as there can be no victory where there is no enemy to combat. A difpofition to vicé, or in other words, the animal part of our frame, or the overbearing nature of the paffions, is, in the profound and unfearchable wifdom of God oppofed to all that is great and good in the human mind, as an antagonist with whom it is difficult to wrettle; but who, being fubdued, is a fubject of triumph and glory. But what human being is equal to fuch a conteft? Agreeably to the foregoing obfervations, and to the express declaration of fcripture, we are constrained to acknowledge the existence of a law in our members, bringing us into captivity to the law of fin." Nor is the infirmity of our nature the only enemy we have to encounter. There is a fpiritual principle, there is, as it were, a patron of evil against whom we have to contend. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darknefs of this world, againft fpiritual wickednefs in high places. Such being the dreadful foes the chriftian has to engage, the captain of his falvation makes up for his inferiority, by fending him into the field of battle, clothed with divine armour. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to ftand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breaft-plate of righteoufnefs; and your feet fhod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the fhield of faith, wherewith ye fhall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of falvation, and the fword of the fpirit which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and fupplication in the fpirit, and watching thereunto with all perfeverance."+ It was by fuch armour that the primitive chriftians refifted their enemies even to death, and converted thousands to their holy faith. It was by probing the confciences of men, and holding up to their hopes and fears the grand objects of futurity that the Apostles fpread the chriftian religiFelix trembling in the prefence of a poor perfecuted Apostle, as he reafoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, exhibits, as in a picture, the true tenor, and ftyle, and effects, of the genuine preaching of the gofpel. on. *The Epifle of Paul to the Ephefians. + Ibid. Y 2 This This ftyle of preaching, in this age of falfe refinement and cold fceptifm has very generally been laid afide, and in its room pretty, neat, moral discourses, interfperfed not unfrequently with a tender fentiment from a novel or a play, have been fubftituted. Affuredly the authors of fuch compofitions do err from an ignorance, both of human nature, the hiftory of the church, and of the word of God. All the reafonings of human genius adorned with all the flowers of the livelieft fancy, and the moft fenfible heart are opposed in vain, to the inveterate malignancy of corrupt defires and evil habits. The human mind, by its own native vigour cannot attack and fubdue itfelf. The heart wants courage to prescribe, and the hand steadiness to execute thofe bold incifions and amputations which are neceffàry to the deftruction of the old man, and the emancipation of the new. A divine phyfician and divine inftruments are neceffary in this grand work. Such being our fentiments on this important fubject, it is with great fatisfaction that we find a perfon of Mr. Whitaker's talents and celebrity entertaining the fame vindicating the neceffity of ufing the grand artillery of heaven, and fhewing, by his example, the manner and the effect of afing it. Mr. Whitaker dedicates his book to Dr. Rofs, Bishop of Exeter, in the only fenfible manner in which a book can be dedicated; he defires him to accept a copy of it. His fermons he informs him, were written originally for the ufe of his parifhoners, but that they are now publifhed with the view of recommending a change in the ftructure of compofitions for the pulpit, and with the hope of promoting the caufe of our common chriftianity. The native feriousness of fpirit which diftinguishes the ENGLISH NATION, is perhaps the propereft foil, he acknowledges, for all the great and fubfime in public life, in literature, and in religion. But then, he juftly obferves, that this ferioufnefs of fpirit neceffarily takes its direction from a variety of external causes. This pofition he illustrates, and proceeds to give, what we fhall take the liberty of calling, the natural hiftory of English preaching. He fhews its prefent ftate, its deficiencies, and the means of improving it. What he fays on thefe fubjects appears to us, to be fo profound, fo juft, and of fuch importance, that we shall extract it for the benefit of our readers, particularly thofe in CLERICAL ORDERS. Nec manus nuda, nec intellectus fibi permiffus multum valet ; inftrumentis & auxiliis res perfecitur; quibus opus eft, non minus ad intellectum quam ad manum. Verulanius, de interpretatione naturæ regno bominis.- • The The eloquence, that is adapted to the mixed numbers of a congregation, is of a mixed kind itfelf. It confifts, I apprehend, not in elegance of language, not in refinement of thought, and not in both together; but in obfervations that lie level to the common intellects of mankind, in addreffes that go directly to their feelings, and in a bold, pointed, and popular language to convey them. This is the kind of oratory, which in all ages has played its magic flights fo fuccefsfully upon the heart of man. This is the kind of oratory, with which Chriftianity fo effectually arms its preachers. The tremendous fanctions of its laws; the infinite fcope which it there gives to our hopes, in the eternal felicities of Heaven; and the infinite rack with which it there stretches and trains out our fears, in the everlasting miferics of Hell; carry the power of this magic of the mind, vaftly beyond any thing that can be furnished from the fcenes of earth. What is the ruin of an empire, to the deftruction of a World? What is the fubverfion of Liberty in a nation, to the perdition of millions of immortal Spirits? What is the murder of a Cæfar, the anguish of an Othello, or the agony of a Lear, to the terrours, the fhrieks, and the groans of a condemned foul in eternity? Yet thefe, the grand engines of operation upon the hearts of the multitude, are almoft, by general confent left unhandled by our brethren. They borrow weapons, flight, fhining, and indecifive, from the petty armouries of man. But the Battering Rams of the Gofpel, the Heavy Artillery from the arfenals of Heaven, they never attempt to ufe. And, while all the other preachers of Christendom are weilding them to the best of their skill and power, they are confidered amongst ourselves, as unfit to be brought into the field by an elegant preacher, and only calculated for the rude exercifes of mechanics in their meetings. So ftrangely can phlegm, can fashion, founded upon it, distort the understandings of men! The fantaftical declaration of that petit maitre in preaching," who would not mention Hell to ears polite," and who fo justly incurred a strong ridicule for it, is yet realized by our modifh tribe of clergy at prelent. And all the grand deftinations of man in the Scriptures, and particularly the woes, the agonies, the horrors of Perdition, are feldom, very feldom dwelt upon by the voice of the Pulpit. We fee this plainly exemplified in our printed fermons. There is not one of any eminence among them, there is only one that I can recollect at all, which dwells particularly upon thefe awful points, which holds out thefe tranfporting vifions, or cails forth thefe terrible graces, of Chriftian oratory, and fo pushes in at the open avenues of the heart. And the printed fermons give the tone to all our preachings. Some of the most applauded of them were evidently, in their very first formation, deigned for the prefs; though they pafied through the pulpit to it. Many, and perhaps even fome of thele mifcreated difcourfes, are every Sunday returning into our churches again. And the rest are modelled after them. With fuch a fecret, though powerful, influence does the prefs operate back upon the pulpit! And of fo much confequence is it, in attempting to fubftitute a new mode of preaching in the room of the Y 3 pre |