ART. VIII. Difcourfes on various Subjects, delivered at the English Church at the Hague. By Archibald Maclaine, D. D. Member of fome Fareign Academies. 8vo. 6s. Cadell and Davies. 1799.

WE E have before paid our unfeigned tribute of refpect to this eftimable man, and most excellent writer, (fee British Critic, vol. ix, p. 564) and nothing could easily have afforded us greater fatisfaction, than an opportunity of recommending to the public attention an entire volume of Sermons from the fame pen. The commendation we before gave to a fingle fermon from Dr. Maclaine, is without the smallest referve true of each and all the twenty-one Sermons compofing this volume, namely, that the reader will find "juft and original thoughts, expreffed in elegant and energetic language." Upon this review of a fubftantial collection of Difcourfes from Dr. Maclaine, we might be juftified in faying much more, but his high reputation needs not our praife, and the extenfive circulation, which we understand this publication has already received, renders it fuperfluous. We will not forego the indulgence of our perfonal fatisfaction in faying, that among the numerous volumes of fermons which do exalted honour to the piety, the zeal, the talents, and the taste of numerous individuals in our church, thefe may claim a place in the very first rank. We will fubjoin a few fpecimens, which cannot be perused without the livelieft intereft, and which may prompt thofe who have but an imperfect knowledge of the merits and talents of the author, to a careful perufal of the whole volume. We have before obferved, that there are twenty-one Sermons in this publication. The two first are on the rectitude and depravity of human nature. They commence in a manner plain and impreffive, and with a difdain alike of ornament and affecta

tion.

"There are ftriking contrafts in the present ftate of human nature. If in the material world we fee light and darkness, order and diforder, growth and decay; fo, in the moral and intellectual world, we perceive a remarkable mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of love and hatred, of virtue and vice, of fuffering and enjoyment, of dignity and degradation. It has been faid, that fuch a conftitution of things is the confequence of a ftate of fociety, in which a variety of conditions and characters is neceffary, and of a ftate of imperfection and trial, fuch as the prefent ftate of man. However this may be, it is the great bufinefs of the wife obferver of human nature in its various afpects, to feparate the work of God from the work of man, how closely

foever

foever they may feem to be connected. This is neceffary, in order to our forming juft notions of the Supreme Being, and of his moral government. It will alfo lead us to fuch a falutary view of ourselves, as will infpire profound humility, excite pious effort, and contribute to our preparation for that ftate, where order and virtue shall shine forth with unclouded luftre, and fin and mifery fhall have no place.

"The wife King, in the words of our text, feparates thefe things, which ought never to be confounded. We fee, in feveral parts of this book, that the errors, diforders, and vices, which abound in the world, under the government of a Being effentially wife, good and omnipotent, aftonished and perplexed him. He applied his heart to know and to fearch out the reafon of these things; but he did not fucceed: for (as he obferves in the 24th verfe of this chapter) that which is afar off and exceeding deep, who can find it out? But what conclufion did he draw from the ignorance in which this fruitlefs inquiry left him? Did he reject truths which were evident and certain, because, in the course of his researches, he met with things that appeared difficult and inexplicable? Because he could not comprehend every thing, did he, like certain fuperficial and hafty fceptics, take it into his head to believe nothing? No.-Solomon had too much true philofophy, and good fenfe, to commit fuch a palpable fault in reafoning. He had learned to feparate what was clear and certain, from what was uncertain and obfcure; and, after many unfuccefsful inquiries, he arrived at the knowledge of, at least, one important truth; Lo, fays he, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have fought out many

inventions.

"These words naturally point out two general heads of difcourfe. In the FIRST we fhall confider the work of God, who made man upright, and unfold the ideas which are contained in this expreffion.-In the SECOND we shall take a view of the irregular work of man, who has fought out many inventions.

"1. The affirmation of Solomon, that God made man upright, may be confidered-either, as it relates to the firft man, the original parent of the human race-or, as it is, in a certain fenfe, applicable to mankind in general; and we fhall unfold the ideas implied in both these fignifications of the phrafe.

First, then, with refpect to the primitive parent of the human race, it may be faid, with truth, that God created man upright. The term upright, when applied to him, fignifies an exemption from all corrupt principles and all irregular propenfities; and this is all that is meant by the perfection, which is attributed to our first parents by the facred writers. The firft man derived his exiftence from an immediate act of divine power and goodness, without the intervention of any fecond caufe; and, furely nothing morally evil could directly proceed from God, the fource of order, truth, and good: no creature, formed with pofitive principles of malignity, injustice, or diforder, could be the immediate production of the beft of beings. He indeed, according to the Prophet's expreffion, forms the light and creates darknefs in the natural world :--he fends phyfical evil, in the wifdom of his providence, to chaftife and correct moral diforder; but far be it from God that he should Do iniquity. It was, therefore, an exemption from moral

Dd2

evil,

evil, accompanied with the faculty of reafon, the innate love of order, and alfo with kind and benevolent affections, that conftituted the rec. titude of man in his original ftate. Thefe lines of moral character exhibited a feeble refemblance of his Creator, which the facred hiftorian, accordingly, calls the image of God." P. 1.

The whole of thefe Difcourfes are excellent, but perhaps the first and fecond, the eighth, on the Love of God, the twelfth and thirteenth, on the Importance of Profeffion and Practice in Religion, and the laft, on the occafion of the French declaring war against the Stadtholder, are the best; distinguished by more originality of thought, and a greater ardour of expreffion. The eighth, on the Love of God, is incomparably good, which the following extract will fufficiently demonftrate.

"1. The reclaimed tranfgreffor, who has but recently confidered his evil ways, and turned his feet to the Divine teftimonies, will (bating peculiar circumstances or fuccours) be lefs completely delivered from painful fear, than the fervant of God, who has been long confirmed in virtuous habits, increafing in love, and perfevering in a courfe of obedience. More especially if he has been an atrocious offender, the danger he has efcaped ftill alarms him; he trembles ftill, more or less, at a reflexion on the punishment his iniquities have deferved; and, when he confiders the fanctity of that God whom he has now chofen to ferve, his remaining corruption and infirmities will fometimes excite anxious feelings. Nevertheless, the fources of comfort which difpel tormenting fear are at hand. His views of the Divine mercy, and his confcioufnefs of the grateful fentiments which this mercy excites in his heart, will gradually deliver him, more and more, from that fear which is accompanied with torment, and increase his confidence in the Rock of his falvation.

2. But where is the man, however confirmed both in his princi ples and practice, who may not, in a particular inftance, fall from his fteadfastnefs before the power of temptation? And if, at the fame time, he fell from his love, his condition would be deplorable. But this will not be the cafe of the advanced Christian, who, by affiduous culture, and the aids of grace, has carried his love of the best of Beings to as high a measure of improvement as is attainable in this imperfect ftate. When he falls from his steadfastnefs, it is the love of his Saviour and his God that will effect his recovery. It will melt his heart into a generous compunction at the view of offended goodness; it will rife from compunction to new efforts of zeal and ardour in his virtuous course, and thus reftoring the fervant of God to the paths of duty, will restore him, at the fame time, to the joy of his falvation.Caft your eye on St. Peter when he denied his Mafter; it was indeed a dreadful moment, but how did this dreadful moment affect him? His confcience, no doubt, reported to him with a faithful feverity the enormity and aggravations of his crime; but it was the love of his Mafter, more than the juftice of his God, that was his inexpreffible tormentor. He felt, no doubt, the pangs of remorfe; but the anguish of fear feems to have been totally abforbed in the forrows of love.

He

He went out and wept bitterly; for he who knoweth all things knew that

be loved him.

"It is certain that the love of God, when in a high degree of improvement, as it is the nobleft, will be alfo the predominant, if not the fole principle of obedience to the good man in the general tenor of his life; the mean of his recovery when he fails in duty, and the fource of his fubmiffion and comfort in the day of trial and adverfity. In this happy state of improvement, it will caft out every kind of fear that brings torment, and only leave in the heart of the Chriftian the filial and ingenuous fear of offending the Celeftial Father whom he loves. And in this high degree of improvement, what a pleafing ftate of mind does it produce? With what humble but ferene confidence will it encourage the good man to look up to his God for protection and fupport? To what fignal efforts of active obedience in the duties of life, and of patience and fubmiffion in its calamities and trials, will it not animate the true Chriftian? From St. Paul in affliction and chains, with the terrors of death and martyrdom before him, it drew forth those effufions of triumphant hope; I am perfuaded, that neither life nor death, principalities nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor things prefent nor things to come, nor any other creature, shall feparate me from the love of God, which is in Jefus Chrift my Lord.

You fee, from the whole of this Difcourfe, how religion, or the love of God, which is its effential and leading principle, reduces to perfect harmony affections which are diffimilar, and in appearance difcordant. Under its influence and guidance, love is reconcileable with fear; confidence, with caution; and the pleafing hope of immortality, with a falutary anxiety about our future and eternal interefts. It combines and blends thefe different affections and qualities, fo as to make them conftitute precifely that moral character and temper of mind, which is fuited to our prefent ftate of imperfection and trial; and thus they become the different parts of a whole, in which refides the true harmony of virtue. It is equally evident, that contradiction and inconfiftency accompany and degrade thofe natural affections which were implanted in us for useful purpofes, when they are not under the guidance of reafon and religious principle. Among thefe, fear, which was defigned to be a prefervative against evil and fuffering, may ferve as an example. How fatally is it mifplaced in a multitude of cafes? More especially, how notoriously is it perverted in the minds of thofe, who dread the difpleasure of men, while they infult and violate, without apprehenfion or terror, the laws and majesty of God; and of many who tremble at the profpect of death., while they go on fearless in the ways of folly and vice, which alone can render death terrible ?" P.159

The honeft warmth of genuine patriotifm, the pious confidence, without the fmalleft tincture of fanaticifm, which marks the true Chriftian, and the affectionate attachment of a pastor to his congregation, among whom he has long lived, beloved and honoured, pre-eminently characterize the last fermon, of which we cannot forbear giving a fpecimen.

"But

"But though popular commotions and tumults deferve to be ean. fidered as the greatest of all temporal calamities, and render the times dark and perilous in the highest degree, yet there is another circumstance which, as it is fomewhat related to them, and fometimes excites them, we cannot pafs over in filence. What I have here in view is a violent party-fpirit, and a want of union among the heads and members of a mation, more efpecially in the prospect of common danger, We are ordered this day, by the Sovereign, to pray to God, the author of peace and the lover of concord, that he would be pleased to remove our difcords, and heal our divifions. This emboldens us to touch that fore, that dangerous wound, which fefters in the bofom of our national health and felicity. Difcords and divifions, even in peaceable times, retard the progrefs of national profperity, particularly when they are nourished by corrupt principles and felfifh views: but in the period of danger, when the commonwealth is threatened by a foreign enemy, they are criminal and difaftrous in the extreme. In fuch a cafe, it is only when the mariners join hearts and hands to ride out the form, that the public veffel, which carries all that is dear to us as men and Chriftians, can, with the fuccours of the Almighty, be saved from fhipwreck.

We have lately feen a noble and animating proof of this in the British Ifles. They are not without their portion of party-spirit and political diffenfion. But when the profpect of common danger called for their union; when they faw a plan, equally abfurd and portentous, formed by the diftracted regicides of our day, to overturn thrones, to extirpate fovereigns, and to propagate univerfal diforder and anarchy; what happened? They forgot their divifions; they fufpended the execution of unfeasonable projects; they united, as in a phalanx, in fupport of their liberty, their laws, their conftitution, and their country, and (with few exceptions) rofe in one virtuous and majestic body, under the ftandard of their pious monarch, to play the man for the falvation of their Ifrael and the cities of their God,

"And shall not we alfo forget our divifions, the low attractions of partial views and separate interefts, while the enemies of Heaven and earth menace our peace, our conftitution, and our independence? Where fhall we find ftrength, under the protection of Heaven, to ward off the evils that threaten us, but in united hearts and in united counfels? Be Arong and ftrengthen one another, faid Samuel to the people of Ifrael, under the apprehenfion of common danger. This fpirit of union (according to the words of the Prophet) makes a little one to be come a thousand, and a small one a strong nation, and fhews that the Moft High is in the midst of a people, with a prefence of favour and protection. It was thus that your country has often been faved, even on the very brink of deftruction, and faved by inftruments (facred be their memory!) who had nothing to oppofe to the formidable legions of the Nebuchadnezzars and Sennacheribs of their day, but their patriotic union, their perfevering valour, and their truft in Heaven. Let not then their defcendants, in this hour of darkness, exhibit the dismal fpectacle of a difcouraged and divided people. We are deftroyed, if we are divided. This is the motto which we find infcribed on one of those medals which mark the virtuous and heroic period of this republic,

3

when