should be ravished with God; we should say, What is a nectarean draught, a delicious banquet, an embroidered garment, an enamelled hanger, a marble statue, a face of beauty, an arm of chivalry, a brain of policy, curious galleries, engraven chimney-pieces, stately balconies, lofty turrets, furnished wardrobes, burnished dining chambers, spacious theatres, precious jaspers, odoriferous perfumes, orient colours? No, we should call these things but the sophistry of judgement, the magic of the senses, cheats to delude under-wits, trifles to please half-sighted naturals. But when we come to look upon Him, who is all magnificence, we should say, What is worth? what is wonder? what is completeness? what is eternity? what is incomprehensibleness? What is God? What is the admirable universe to the incomparable God?"

Reeve is rather declamatory and practical, than speculative: he indulges not in the creation of theories, or the discussion of dogmas -he has matter enough without having recourse to speculation. He has, however, collected together many points of speculation on the subject of sin from the schoolmen, equally singular and unprofitable; but which are so curious, that we shall introduce them here.

"I know there are many curious questions about sin, as whether the sin of Adam, which effectively vitiated whole nature, be greater than the sin against the Holy Ghost, which objectively is not only against the love and truth of God, and that gift and union by which all graces have their influence, but against the eminent goodness of God, by which the divine relation is dissolved, and therefore expressly called the sin unto death: and whether man be obliged to the sins of all his forefathers, as well as to the sins of Adam, because we are baptized into the remission of sins, and not sin; and David (though born of lawful wedlock) saith, I was born in iniquity, and in sins hath my mother conceived me.' Or whether a man shall answer only for original sin, and not for other sins, if he do not imitate them, as Jerome holds; and whether the punishments of sin be sin, because they are not only effects of Divine justice, but a contracted depravation, as after precedent sin there doth come a subsequent corruption, and obduration oftentimes. Whether pardoned sins be quite abolished, or whether, upon reiterated transgression, they do not return: whether the preterition of good, or the perpetration of evil, or if ye will, whether the sin of omission, or commission, be the greatest; and whether to the formal deordination of sin, there be absolutely required a complete consent, because he which can resist is not enforced to yield; or a mere nescience, pausing delight or propathy, do not of itself cause sin: and, to be brief, whether a man may not sin in serving God, or sin in his sleep, or sin in thinking of his former sins, or sin in looking upon the sins of others. These and many other intricacies have been propounded concerning sin. But repentance doth answer all these problems, and take away all these scruples; for repentance is a reparation, a purgation, a remedy, a redintegration: I do not say but

the macula, the spot of sin, may remain till the day of judgement, there, to the greater glory of the Redeemer, to be covered with the righteousness of Christ; but the reatus, the guilt, is wholly removed: God doth not impute it, nor look upon it as a grievance.'

An amusing specimen of worthy Master Reeve's verbiage, will be found in the description of the dresses of the women and men of his time.

What

"The kings of Egypt were wont to give unto their queens the tribute of the city of Antilla, to buy them girdles; and how much girdles, gorgets, wimples, cowls, crisping-pins, veils, rails, frontlets, bonnets, bracelets, necklaces, slops, slippers, roundtires, sweetballs, rings, ear-rings, mufflers, glasses, hoods, lawn, musks, civets, rosepowders, jessamy butter, complexion waters, do cost in our days, many a sighing husband doth know by the year's account. ado is there to spruce up many a woman, either for streets or market, banquets or temples? She is not fit to be seen unless she doth appear half naked, nor to be marked, unless she hath her distinguishing patches upon her; she goeth not abroad till she be feathered like a popinjay, and doth shine like alabaster. It is a hard thing to draw her out of bed, and a harder thing to draw her from the looking-glass: it is the great work of the family to dress her-much chafing and fuming there is before she can be thoroughly tired; her spongings and perfumings, lacings and lickings, clippings and strippings, dentifricings and daubings, the setting of every hair methodically, and the placing of every beauty-spot topically, are so tedious, that it is a wonder that the mistress can sit, or the waiting-maid stand, till all the scenes of this fantastic comedy be acted through. O these birds of paradise are bought at a dear rate! the keeping of these lannerets is very chargeable! The wife oftentimes doth wear more gold upon her back, than the husband hath in his purse; and hath more jewels about her neck, than the annual revenue doth amount to. And this is the she-pride; and doth not the he-pride equal it? Yes, the man now is become as feminine as the woman. Men must have their half shirts and half arms, a dozen casements above, and two wide lukehomes below: some walk (as it were) in their waistcoats; and others (a man would think) in their petticoats: they must have narrow waists and narrow bands, large cuffs upon their wrists, and larger upon their shin bones, their boots must be crimped, and their knees guarded.— A man would conceive them to be apes, by their coats; soap-men, by their faces; meal-men, by their shoulders; bears or dogs, by their frizled hair. And this is my trim man.-And oh, that I could end here; but pride doth go a larger circuit: it is travelled amongst the commons; every yeoman in this age must be attired like a gentleman of the first head; every clerk must be as brave as the justice; every apprentice match his master in gallantry; the waiting gentlewoman doth vie fashions with her lady; and the kitchen-maid doth look like some squire's daughter by her habit; the handicraftsmen are in their colours, and their wives in rich silks."

The portrait of a gallant is still more whimsical.

"The gallant is counted a wild creature; no wild colt, wild ostrich, wild cat of the mountain, comparable to him; he is indeed the buffoon and baboon of the times; his mind is wholly set upon cuts and slashes, knots and roses, patchings and pinkings, jaggings, taggings, borderings, brimmings, half-shirts, half-arms, yawning breasts, gaping knees, arithmetical middles, geometrical sides, mathematical waists, musical heels, and logical toes."

What a vocabulary of dandyism is here!

We have before intimated, that if our divine's hand had been under the government of good taste, he would have written almost eloquently. The omission of a few words makes a great difference. The following passage on the efficacy of prayer, the original of which will be found in the note below, is rendered almost beautiful by mere curtailment.

"Oh, how hath prayer calmed the tempest of a troubled mind, yea, stilled the noise of the thunders at God's judgement seat! it is the penitents' balsam, and the best music in God's ears; it doth compromise differences, reconcile adversaries, put songs into mourners' lips, and fill the breasts of disconsolate souls with extasies: so soon as this Ester doth appear, the golden sceptre is stretched out; so soon as this angel doth come down, the waters are stirred, and there is virtue in the pool of Bethesda for all disabled and distressed creatures. O that devotion were but articulate, that repentance could but open her lips, and the penitent draw up all his desires into this short Enthymene: this is the true sweat of our brows, whereby we should earn our bread, the candle which should never go out in the house of the virtuous woman to enrich her family; yea, the key which doth unlock all the chests of God's treasury," &c.*

After extolling the excellence and superiority of cities, our author exhorts the citizens to corresponding superiority.

"Thus much in general; for yourselves in particular, as God hath made you a city, so do ye principle out goodness to the land; for a shame it were for the sourest fruit to grow upon the top-branch, or the

* "Oh, how hath prayer calmed the tempests of a troubled mind; yea, stilled the noise of the thunders at God's judgement seat! it is the penitent's balsam, and the best music in God's ears; it doth fright devils and exhilarate angels; it doth cancel bonds, cast indictments out of the court, compromise differences, reconcile mortal adversaries, acquit the guilty, justify sinners, cure phrenzies, ease conflicts, put songs into mourners' lips, fill the breasts of disconsolate souls with extasies, dig mines, fish for pearls, fetch pensions out of God's exchequer, nay draw the signet off from God's right hand to seal churchgrants to the faithful; so soon as this wise woman from the wall doth but speak, the city is spared; so soon as this Abigail doth present herself, the whole family is preserved," &c.

worst scholars to be in the upper form. Shall ye be taught duty from abroad, or learn conscience of the country? Shall the man in russet direct thee in thy furs, the leathern girdle instruct the gold chain? Shall there be more noble motions and pious resolutions in the rural swain than the citizen? Shalt thou mind nothing but the vent of thy ware, and the sale of thy merchandise? yes, thou hast another trade to look after; a citizen should shew to his customers the best patterns of holy life, and open the packs of religious precedents; a city should be the burse and magazine of virtuous demeanours, or else it will be said, that the citizen doth study nothing but himself, and that his counting-house is his conscience, and his penny his God. Oh, therefore God hath given you honour; maintain your honour, let the great wheel of virtue stir here, and the morning star of grace shine here. Let not the miry ways be cleaner than your paved streets, and the thatched sheds be neater built than your tiled houses. Let not the countryman, when he cometh amongst you, be loathed with the smell of your intemperance, or recoil at the sight of your fraud, or blush at your neutralizing, or be ready to deride your pride, or to hiss at your malice, or to freeze with your indevotion, or to drop down dead with seeing the blood of oppression sprinkled upon the stones of your streets; but prepare choice sights for the countryman's eye, that he may go home, and say, I have seen the phoenix of religion, the paradise of piety, the temple of the Holy Ghost, the suburbs of heaven; I have learned grace out of every citizen's mouth, and bought bargains of sanctity at every shop, enough to stock myself and supply all my neighbours. Thus shall ye shew yourselves to be a flourishing city, when ye are as full of professors as traders; and of saints as merchants; when ye have trafficked for godliness at every port, and fetched home the true pearl farther than the Indies."

He thus describes the unity of a city.

"Oh, this unity doth carry in it an universality of felicity, it is the basis and battle-axe to a city; it feareth no gusts, when it doth stand upon this sure pinning; nor enemy abroad, when there is no enemy within: Oh it is a rare thing to see a due crasis in the humours of the city, and to hear all the strings of that great instrument in tune, that the spleen doth not swell to put the whole body out of course, or the salamander doth not appear to foretell a storm coming; that the vessel be not cracked that should hold the water of the citypreservation, nor a moat gotten into the eye of it to trouble the sight in the foreseeing of dangers."

Repentance, the match that sets fire to his zeal, which blazes throughout the work with more or less fierceness, is defined in this manner.

66

Repentance is the funeral of sin and the birth-day of grace, a man then shifts himself out of the tatters of natural corruptions, and doth array himself in the bright vestment of regeneration, as Jehoshuah

put off his filthy garments, and put on a change of rayment upon his back, and a glorious mitre upon his head.”

And the want of any signs of its advent lamented in a series of energetic interrogatories.

"What adulterer hath yet unclasped his hands with his courtesan? What drunkard hath drawn his lips from his intemperate cups? What proud person hath yet shifted himself from his phantastic gawdies? And if these sinners be not yet unfettered, what shall we think of them whom the devil hath in a stronger chain? if these trespassers be inflexible, what shall we conclude of those whose neck is as iron? what is the state of them which stand in their ways, and sweat in their ways, and ride post in their ways, that an angel with a naked sword in his hand can hardly make them give a check with the bridle? Oh, if these noon-day sinners be so unreformed, then if we should search the blind corners, pry what the antients do in the dark, look through the hole of the wall, what strange chambers of imagery, and creeping things, and four-footed beasts, might there be there discerned? How many black night-birds would there be there seen pourtrayed upon the walls? where then are men's feet? do ye see any new ways trodden? will these turn? do any turn? No, the times may turn, and the face of things may turn, there may be several variations and changes in human affairs, but not in human actings; men are resolved upon their paths, settled upon their motions, constant in their extravagancies, they will not turn from their evil way."

In the midst of his lamentations, the worthy divine breaks out in a very lively strain. "Oh, that all the sins of the land, without diminution, retrusion, substraction, could be bewailed in our lips with one national yell, this were to cry mightily."

We have selected the most simple and least offensive, as well as the best written passages we could find in this very singular book, but which nevertheless contain instances of the author's perverted taste and peculiar manner. More lengthy and decided specimens of the latter we could have given, but as they have little but their singularity to recommend them, we content ourselves with the extracts we have already made.

ART. IV.-Euvres Complètes de M. Bernard. 12mo. Londres, 1777.

Although we have happily shaken off our hereditary hatred of France and Frenchmen, the leaven of our old antipathy still clings to us on certain occasions, and imperceptibly taints