affociation can be so perfect? what union fo delightful?—as forming with thofe moft dear to us,-a part of the family in heaven, who are permitted to live in the continual prefence. of their Father and our Father,—of their God and our God? 'If, whilst walking in this land of fhadows,-we can thus keep the eye of faith stedfastly fixed upon the city of the Living God, and looking up to our departed children,—we can esteem them,—as the best treasures we have hitherto there laid up; and make them, as it were,-the hoftages of our own future perfeverance in unspotted holiness;-though we may fometimes drop an involuntary tear,--or breathe a momentary figh. Yet will our hearts be there alfo. We shall then confider that space of life which may fill remain to us,-only as a fhort and narrow ifthmus,-which joins this world to the next. We shall indeed fometimes look back with anxiety, to fee whether thofe children we leave behind, are following us, though with flow, yet fteady steps, through the ftorms and tempefts they have to encounter, amidst the perpetual changes of this sublunary atmosphere. But, we fhall prefs forward with increafing ardour, towards that happy region, which fome of our children have reached before us ;-where," God will wipe all tears from our eyes," where, "all things are new ;"-to live for ever united in that bleffed "city," the heart of man can not conceive," which has no need of the fun, neither of the moon, to fhine in it,- for the glory of God enlightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, for there fhall be no night there.” The author of the Stri&ures feems to have been actuated by no very liberal principle: if we allow the charge, vanity is an harmless fault; and it must be owned, that the flyle of the fermons, together with the additional verses, give fome foundation for this imputation. There is a degree of cruelty, at which a benevolent heart would revolt, in accufing a father of affectation in his lamentations, and in fuppofing that a daughter's name was only made the vehicle for a partial puff of his own fame, and his own works. If we admit that Dr. Cooper afcended the pulpit with great pomp, that his fermons were preached with parade, repeated at two churches, and, heinous to relate! that the doctor wept each time at the fame place, candour furely would make allowance for ufual habits, which, though they may have been reprehenfible, could not be easily changed; and may it not have happened that his feelings were gradually excited by the accumulated pathos of one paffage may not one part have been the fentiments or the expreffions of his daughter? may not various other circumstances cumftances have occafioned uncommon emotion at that period? Though Dr. Cooper may be found guilty of fomewhat of the parade of grief, his critic will not be acquitted of a little ill-nature. Sermons on different Subjects, by the Rev. John Hewlett. 8vo, 6s. in Boards. Dilly. IT is for common writers to introduce themselves, and explain, with minutenefs, their pretenfions to public attention. Mr. Hewlett fteps forward with an uninterefting title, puts his volume into the reader's hands with a feeming indifference for applaufe, or a confcious dignity, which tells him. that an author fhould be known only from his works. In fhort he fends them into the world without an apology, or an explanation of his motives, unless we except a respectable list of fubfcribers. Whether this was real indifference or policy, we will not determine; but, on us, it had the effect of the moft refined addrefs. The volume held out fo little temptation that it was at first neglected, and at last mislaid; but it was no fooner opened again, than we perceived the real merits of the author, and we felt them perhaps with greater warmth, because we had fo long overlooked them. The Sermons are indeed ‹ on different subjects;' but each is treated with a precifion, which does honour to Mr. Hewlett's understanding; a clearness, which reflects a luftre on his judgment; and a feeling, equally creditable to his heart. As Sermons, we have not often seen more finished compofitions; for, though well adapted to common underftandings, they must be interesting to the most cultivated minds. The language is neat, precife, and often elegant. In these difcourfes we do not find any new opinions, or laboured attempts to establish refined fpeculations, by new arguments. They feem rather defigned to affect the heart, and to amend the conduct: to the heart they fpeak with force and feeling, without forgetting the dignity of the man, or the rank of the preacher. In the following paffage, Mr. Hewlett's judgment and fenfibility are confpicuous. It is one in which he has indulged himself more than ufual in defcription; and we chufe it to difcriminate his manner, left our readers may have classed him among the imitators of Sterne: even in this nearest approach he is far diftant, in his manner, from the facetious Mr. Yorick. It is not in the giddy and fantastic scenes of pleasure, that the mind improves in wisdom or in virtue; these for the moft part are acquired by habits of reflection, and by taking fuch fuch views of human affairs, as difpofe the foul to thought and meditation. For this caufe" the houfe of mourning" is a houfe replete with inftruction, and is wifely preferred to "the house of feafting." It is there that our religious principles acquire an energy, not to be derived, perhaps, from any other fource. It is there that thofe truths which were announced to us as glad tidings from heaven, and those duties which are founded on reafon and contemplation, are ftrengthened and improved by the fofteft and most powerful emotions. -It is not fufficient for us weak mortals that we know our duty, it is neceffary also that we fhould fometimes feel it. When, therefore, the calls of friendship led you to take the laft farewel of thofe you loved; when you wiped away the falling tear, and faw the anguish of a parent or a child; when you viewed the laft ftruggles of nature, faw the shades of death gathering around, and heard the shriek of woe;—then it was that the foul became enamoured of virtue, and felt the importance of piety and prayer. In these melancholy moments we feel our own weakness, and fee the vanities of life. Temptations to guilt and mifery no longer court us, under the delufive forms of pleasure, and fin appears in all its native deformity. We confefs the vice and folly of every mean purfuit, and the mind flies to religion for comfort and fupport. Awakened to a sense of danger, and terrified for our own fafety, we lament the time that has been unprofitably spent, and refolve for the future" to wake unto righteousness and fin no more." It is then that thofe divine truths, which can alone make us "wife unto falvation," are believed with ardor, and admitted with joy. We pray, with earnest devotion, for the mediation of our Lord and Saviour to fecure us from the wrath that is denounced against past fins, and we truft, with humble confidence, in the Father of mercies, for that divine grace, which is at all times neceffary" to ftrengthen the feeble knees, and to keep our feet from falling," If we were to prefer any one Sermon to another, if any can, with propriety, be pronounced excellent where all are good, we should distinguish the fecond by this epithet: it is on the twentieth verfe of the twelfth chapter of St. Matthew, A bruised reed fhall he not break, and a smoaking flax shall he not quench.'-From this metaphor, and from the example of our Saviour, Mr. Hewlett draws fome very excellent moral Jeffons indeed he applies his texts with fo much ingenuity, that he generally extracts from them more than to common eyes they feem to contain. It would be no very profitable task to select the miscellaneous fubjects of this volume; and he must be an ill-natured critic who who would look for, and expatiate on little defects, when fo much is done well. From the circumftances which we have mentioned, we fear Mr. Hewlett will not be much known beyond his own fphere; but, wherever this volume is read, we think it will be approved. The Ladies' Calling. In Two Parts. By the Author of the Whole Duty of Man, &c. 8vo. 45. Sewed. Johnson. : T would be impertinent, and improper, to introduce an eulogium on the Whole Duty of Man, to recommend a work of the fame author. It is, however, furprifing to find any one fo folicitous to do good, and yet anxious to conceal the fource, as if he would have blushed to have found it fame; to find him, in fucceffive works, fo guardedly concealed, as to be only pointed out by diftant and uncertain conjecture. The Ladies' Calling bears undoubted marks of its reputed author. It has now been published more than a century, but religion, morality, and virtue, do not depend on the mode of the day their intrinfic excellence will always command respect. Our pious and benevolent author treats of modesty, meekness, compaffion, affability, and piety: he addresses particular advice to virgins, wives, and widows. He paints virtue in her moft alluring colours; he traces the line of conduct which decorum dictates, with a frict but fteady hand; explains the leffer duties, with a molt amiable mildness; and enforces them by the ftrongest argument. On a book fo old, we must not fay more; on one fo excellent, we could not avoid faying fomething. We fhould now have concluded with earneftly recommending it to our female readers, if a paffage in the first effay had not appeared to us very ftriking. The author's opinion of female modefty is very exalted; and it is a beautiful fuggeftion, that, before it can be overcome, other principles, more eafily conquered, must be brought to the affiftance of vice. That there is, indeed, a ftrange repugnancy to nature, needs no other evidence than the ftruggling, and difficulty in the first violations of modefty, which always begins with regrets and blufhes, and require a great deal of felf-denial; much of vicious fortitude, to encounter with the recoilings and upbraidings of their own minds. I make no doubt but this age has arrived to as compendious arts of this kind, as induftrious vice can fuggest, and we have but too many inftances of early proficients in this learning; yet I dare appeal even to the forwardest of them, whether at first they could not with more ease have kept their virtue than loft it. Certainly fuch are the horrors and fhames that precede thofe first guilts, that they must commit a rape upon themselves, (force their own reluctancies and averfions) before they can become willing prostitutes to others. This their feducers feem well to undeftand, and upon that score are at the pains of fo many preparatory courtings, such expence of prefents too; as if this were fo uncouth a crime, that there were no hope to introduce it, but by a confederacy of fome more familiar vices, their pride or covetousness.' Our readers will perceive, that the language partakes of the rugged energy, the unrefined fimplicity of the former century, yet our author foars far beyond his cotemporaries in elegance. In fome parts, which relates to the manners of the last age, the language is curious. Those who do not recollect that the foppery of that time was an affected folemnity, will be surpris ed at hearing a fober parent watching over the conduct of a heedless girl, called, in derifion, a fop.' A Brief Account of the Hofpital of St. Elizabeth, annexed to the Imperial Monaftery of St. Maximin, of the Benedictines, in the Electorate of Treves. Tranflated from the Latin. 6s. Sewed. Dilly. 8vo. HE eulogium on the emperor of Germany we cannot well reconcile with the liberal fentiments of the tranflator, and his earnestnefs in fupport of toleration. If all religions are to be tolerated, it is not eafy to fay, why the Roman catholic inftitutions fhould be deftroyed; except it be a principle, that no tolerated fect should be rich or powerful: but this exception will not be allowed to the zealous advocates for the repeal of the teft act. If it be alledged, that monaftic inftitutions are injurious to civil profperity, it remains to be proved, that it is the duty of governors to destroy, what they may not think confiftent with the welfare of a kingdom, though intimately connected with fome religion. This furely is not the Spirit of toleration; and all that can be done in such cases is, by other means, to check the progrefs of opinions that may be politically injurious. Our author's particular defign in tranflating this Brief Account, we must select in his own words. • Several motives have induced me to offer this tranflation to the public. It is interesting as a point of antiquity.-It will probably foon appear, that the fubject of it is an important part of the meditated reform in the German empire: a reform, which, if conducted with equity and temper, muft be greatly bene ficial. |