would have done. You may be in his eyes a hero or a martyr, without undergoing the labours of the one, or the fufferings of the other. His infpection, therefore, opens a much wider field for praife than what the world can afford you; and for praife, too, certainly far more illuftrious in the eye of reafon. Every real artift ftudies to approve himself to fuch as are knowing in his art. To their judgment he appeals. On their approbation he refts his character, and not on the praife of the unfkilled and rude. In the highest art of all, that of life and conduct, fhall the opinions of ignorant men come into the most diftant competition with his approbation who is the searcher of all hearts, and the standard of all perfection?-The teftimony of his praife is not indeed, as yet, openly bestowed. But though the voice of the Almighty found not in your ears, yet by confcience, his facred vicegerent, it is capable of being conveyed to your heart. The foftelt whisper of divine approbation is fweeter to the foul of a virtuous man, than the loudest fhouts of that tumultuary applaufe which proceeds from the world.

"Confider, farther, how narrow and circumfcribed in its limits that fame is which the vain-glorious man fo eagerly purfues. In order to fhew him this, I fhall not bid him reflect that it is confined to a small district of the earth; and that when he looks a little beyond the region which he inhabits, he will find himself as much unknown as the most obscure person around him. I fhall not defire him to confider, that in the gulph of oblivion, where all human memorials are fwallowed up, his name and fame must foon be inevitably loft. He may imagine that ample honours remain to gratify ambition, though his reputation extend not over the whole globe, nor laft till the end of time. But let him calmly reflect, that within the narrow boundaries of that country to which he belongs, and during that small portion of time which his life fills up, his reputation, great as he may fancy it to be, occupies no more than an inconfiderable corner. Let him think what multitudes of those among whom he dwells are totally ignorant of his name and character; how many imagine themselves too important to regard him; how many are too much occupied with their own wants and pursuits to pay him the least attention; and where his reputation is in any degree spread, how often it has been attacked, and how many rivals are daily rifing to abate it: Having attended to thefe circumftances, he will find fufficient. materials for humiliation in the midst of the highest applause.From all these confiderations it clearly appears, that though the efteem of our fellow-creatures be pleafing, and the pursuit of it, in a moderate degree, be fair and lawful, yet that it affords no fuch object to defire as entitles it to be a ruling principle.

"In the fecond place, an exceffive love of praife never fails to undermine the regard due to confcience, and to corrupt the heart. It turns off the eye of the mind from the ends which it ought chiefly to keep in view; and fets up a falfe light for its guide. Its

influence

influence is the more dangerous, as the colour which it affumes is often fair; and its garb and appearance are nearly allied to that of virtue. The love of glory, I before admitted, may give birth to actions which are both fplendid and useful. At a diftance they ftrike the eye with uncommon brightnefs; but on a nearer and stricter furvey, their luftre is often tarnished. They are found to want that facred and venerable dignity which charac terizes true virtue. Little paffions and felfith interests entered into the motives of thofe who performed them. They were jealous of a competitor. They fought to humble a rival. They looked round for fpectators to admire them. All is magna

nimity, generofity, and courage, to public view. But the ignoble fource whence thefe feeming virtues take their rife, is hidden. Without, appears the hero; within, is found the man of duft and clay. Confult fuch as have been intimately connected with the followers of renown; and feldom or never will you find that they held them in the fame efteem with those who viewed them from afar. There is nothing except fimplicity of attention, and purity of principle, that can ftand the test of near approach and ftrict examination.

But fuppofing the virtue of vain-glorious men not to be always falfe, it certainly cannot be depended upon as firm or fure. Conftancy and steadiness are to be looked for from him only whofe conduct is regulated by a fenfe of what is right; whofe praife is not of men, but of God; whofe motive to difcharge his duty is always the fame. Change, as much as you pleafe, the fituation of fuch a man; let applaufe or let cenfure be his lot; let the public voice, which this day has extolled him, to-morrow as loudly decry him; on the tenour of his behaviour these changes produce no effect. He moves in a higher sphere. As the fun in his orbit is not interrupted by the mifts and ftorms of the atmosphere below, fo, regardless of the opinions of men, through bonour and difhonour, through good report and bad report, he purfues the path which confcience has marked out. Whereas the apparent virtues of that man whofe eye is fixed on the world, are precarious and temporary. Supported only by circumstances, occafions, and particular regards, they fluctuate and fall with thefe. Excited by public admiration, they difappear when it is withdrawn; like thofe exhalations which, raised by heat from the earth, glitter in the air with momentary fplendour, and then fall back to the ground from whence they fprung.

"The intemperate love of praise not only weakens the true principles of probity, by fubftituting inferior motives in their tead, but frequently alfo impels men to actions which are directly criminal. It obliges them to follow the current of popular opinion whitherfoever it may carry them; and hence Shipwreck is often made both of faith and of a good confcience. According as circumstances lead them to court the acclamations of the multitude, or to pursue the applaufe of the great, vices of different.

Gg 2

kinds

kinds will stain their character. In one fituation they will make hypocritical profeffions of religion. In another, they will be afhamed of their Redeemer, and of his words. They will be afraid to appear in their own form, or to utter their genuine fentiments. Their whole character will become fictitions; opinions will be affumed, fpeech and behaviour modelled, and even the countenance formed, as prevailing tafte exacts. From one who has fubmitted to fuch prostitution for the fake of praife, you can no longer expect fidelity or attachment on any trying occafion. In private life, he will be a timorous and treacherous friend, In public conduct, he will be fupple and versatile; ready to defert the cause which he had efpoufed, and to veer with every fhifting wind of popular favour. In fine, all becomes unfound and hollow in that heart where, inftead of regard to the divine approbation, there reigns the fovereign defire of pleafing men."

Sermons. By Colin Milne, L. L. D. Reclor of North Chapel, in Suffex; Lecturer of St. Paul's, Deptford, and one of the Preachers at the London lying-in Hofpital. 8vo. 5s. boards, Cadell,

The Doctor, in order to apologize for the great length of his fermons, and to avoid the imputation of defigned Plagiarifm, hath with all bumility and fubmiffion prefixed the following advertisement :

Few of the following fermons were delivered in exactly the fame form in which they are now offered to the public. The time ufually allotted for inftructions from the pulpit feldom permitted the author to exhauft his fubject in a fingle difcourfe. When the intreaties, therefore, of fome partial friends had perfuaded him to fubmit the leaft incorrect of his compofitions to the infpection of the public, he judged he fhould be guilty of no great impropriety, by incorporating feveral difcourfes upon the fame fubject into one or two, which, though thereby rendered longer than fermons generally are, might, yet, he imagined, by conjoining the feveral arguments employed, and placing them before the reader in one rong point of view, gain, perhaps, in point of energy and effect, what they loft in elegance and neatnefs. He has, occafionally, through the volume, particularly in the third, feventh, and ninth fermons, availed himself of the best and most approved models of pulpit eloquence, both English and French. Intermixed with the moft exquifite beauties of compofition, there runs a vein of fervent, unaffected piety, through all the writings of a Maffillon, a Bour, dalone, a Boffnet, a Saurin, a Cheminais, a Neuville, often interrupted, however, by the abfurdities of popular fuperftition, or involved in the duft of metaphyfical fubtleties and polemical acri

mony,

mony. In the course of these fermons, he owns, he has more than once been tempted to endeavour to difencumber that rich vein of part of the furrounding impurities, and to clothe a few of thofe beauties, however inelegantly, in an English drefs. Whether the fincerity of an acknowledgment, which, he confeffes, notwithstanding, it would have been highly difingenuous to have fuppreffed, juftly entitles him to expect, that the ftrict feverity of criticifm will be fomewhat relaxed towards this his first effay; or, how far he has been fuccessful in the difficult undertaking of uniting the fentiments of others with his own, without destroying the uniformity of the whole, the author pretends not to determine. The work, fuch as it is, he leaves on the candour and indulgence of the public. It is theirs to decide. It is his with all respect and humility to refign himself to their decifion."

The work before us, fuch as it is!' confifts of nine Sermons on the following fubjects. On the Confolations of Affli&ion.-On Death-On the Nature and Extent of Chriftian Charity-The Chriftian Patriot-On the Deceitfulness of Sin-Piety the best Principle and firmeft Support of Virtue-The Conceffions of the Enemies of the Gospel a Proof of its Truth.

In this volume, the Doctor displays but few marks of a refined genius. We perceive a great inequality of language, and his ftrange tranfpofitions are harsh and grating to a delicate ear. A ftudied affectation pervades almoft the whole performance. He plays a little about the heart, and tickles it as it were, but this effect is only momentary, it leaves no lafting impreffion. This is an effential of the mock-pathos.

The Doctor, when he has ftarted a thought, that is really and intrinfically beautiful, eagerly runs it down, and by that means fatigues his readers with a tedious repetition of particulars, which indicates a genius fond of trifles. However, to give the Doctor his due, he has fome fine ftriking paffages; but they are too few to counterbalance those that are trifling and futile.

The fituation of the finner, labouring under the difappointments of life, and that of the Chriftian in the fame. circumftances, is not badly illuftrated in the following con

traft.

"The injustice of the world, fo afflicting to thofe who live only by its fmiles, when they fee themfelves forgotten, neglected, and facrificed to unworthy competitors, is a new fource of peace and confolatory reflections to the Chriftian, who has learned in the fchool of the meek and patient Jefus to defpife the world, and to feek his happinefs in the confcioufnefs of integrity, and the fear of God. I faid, afflicting to those who live only by its fmiles. Whither, in effect, fhall the finner betake himself, who, after hav

ing for frivolous hopes, and promises never intended to be fulfilled, fubmitted to every meanness of flattery, fervility and vile fubjec tion, which the pride or caprice of his patron could exact, fees, on a fudden, his moft fanguine expectations defeated, and the gates of elevation and fortune fhut against him, when he thought to have entered them in triumph; fees himself fruftrated of preferment, which his affiduities had merited, which in imagination he already enjoyed, and which is now forcibly wrested from his grafp; threatened, if he murmurs, to lofe what he actually poffeffes; obliged to bend before his happier rivals, and to depend perhaps on those whom he thought not worthy formerly to receive his commands? This is a mortifying fituation; yet in the intercourfe of the world, not more mortifying than common. In circumstances fo diftreffful, how fhall the finner have confolation, or where fhall he derive it? Shall he court retirement, and there revenge himself by perpetual complaints of the injuftice of men? Thofe complaints will only fefter the wound, and retirement furnish means of indulging them. Shall he comfort himself by the example of those many, who have been equally buoyed up with hopes, and been equally difappointed? But our misfortunes in our own eftimation, always exceed the misfortunes of other men? Shall he then have recourse to a vain philofophy, and entrench himself in his pretended fortitute and strength of mind? But it is religion alone which imparts real fortitude, and Chriftian philofophy which can only alleviate his anguifh. Shall he banish from his remembrance the blows which his ambition has fuftained, by deadening and ftupifying his faculties with the low and infamous pleafures of fenfuality; pleafures which difgrace the man and affimilate him to the beaft? But the heart, in changing its paffion, only changes its punishment. In a word, the finner, when unfortunate, is unfortunate without refource; and the man of the world every thing fails, when the world itfelf has failed him.

"It is not thus with the Chriftian. Vifit him with difappointments ever fo great, place him in a fituation the moft mortifying to his hopes, and even his deferts; a fituation where those deferts are overlooked, unfelt, perhaps unknown, and where delicacy of fentiment, and gentleness of manners are daily infulted, and fuffer the most cruel martyrdom from the fhafts of infenfibility, vulga rity, rudeness, and low-minded pride." From religion he derives confolation. This reminds him, that he ferves a more equitable master, who can neither be deceived nor prepoffeffed, who fees us as we are, not as we appear to men, and decides of our destiny, not by the fplendor of actions, but by the rectitude and honesty of intentions: a master whose ingratitude he needs not to apprehend; and who, far from forgetting our labours and fervices, neglects not even our defires, but registers our wishes for the honour and welfare of men, as if actually realized. With fuch confolations and fuch fupports, how light, in his estimation, feem all the difcouragements of virtue! How he congratulates himself on the shelter which religion hath procured him! and how un

able