the national rent of Ireland*. But he continues, a refumpa tion would meet with no more determined opponents, than in the landed intereft of the Catholics of Ireland: they hold five-fixths of their eftates under the act of fettlement, which the objection supposes them to be defirous of repealing, and now, after the lapfe of a century and a half, not five hundred of the defcendants of thofe who were originally ejected, can prove their titles.

Another confideration had been urged against conceding votes to the freeholders of the Romish Church, drawn from the incapacity of bodies of men to enjoy perfect freedom, who had not made certain advances in civilization. The principle that nations of improved knowledge, and manners, are capable of higher degrees of liberty than others, of which the former is the converfe and the legitimate confequence, was, we believe, laid down by Montefquieu, and certainly does not merit to be treated as " filly fpecious cant, and unphilofophical jargon." Mr. M'Kenna fhould have endeavoured to prove it falle, in which, we prefume, he would not have fucceeded; or that it did not affect the present caufe of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, which it is to be fuppofed he would have found the easier task.

It had been alledged likewife, that the repeal of the popery laws would endanger the church established; to the examination of this objection, the author has allotted a chapter by itfelf. It had been contended, as he informs us, that the precedency of the church of England, will be no longer fubmitted to by the Roman Catholics, if they be restored to the entire privileges of the free citizens. To this he replies by obferving, that when four fifths of the landed property were poffeffed by the members of the latter communion, their clergy were ejected, and the reformation eftablished. The weight there may be in this anfwer is much diminished, by a comparifon of the state of Ireland, then and at prefent. At the first period, that country was in effective fubjection to England; by whofe force the change was impofed: but now that kingdom is admitted to poffefs an honorary pre-eminence only; without any interpofition in the internal arrangements of Ireland. Apprehenfions likewise are stated by him to have been entertained, of future attempts to reftore the poffeffions of the eftablished church, to the Romish ecclefiaftics: and to his anfwer to these we fubfcribe without hesitation, that the weight

* Young's Tour in Ireland, Vol. II, pp. 91,—193.

of

of the whole Proteftant party in Ireland, aided by the infuence which Great Britain must still retain there; would form an obstacle to such an attempt not to be overcome. The uncommon importance of these tracts which has led us to dwell fo far upon them, will oblige us to refume the confideration of them in our next number.

[To be continued.]

ART. V. Difcourses, preached before the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, by the Affiftant Preacher Robert Nares, A. M. Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, c. 8vo. PP. 350. Price 6s. Rivington, 1794.

ΤΗ

THESE Difcourfes, as the title page relates, were preached before the fociety of Lincoln's Inn, and the circumstance of their being favorably received by fo intelligent and refpectable an auditory, induced the author to publish thein in a volume. They are twenty in number, and with the excep tion of two or three, are upon popular and familiar fubjects, and may be reckoned among that fpecies of fermons, which has generally been fecure of extenfive circulation, from uniting perfpicuity with forceable and ferious argument.

There can be very little doubt, that the style of sermon writing is confiderably improved in the progrefs of the last fifty years. To be fatisfied of this, we have only to examine the productions of this kind, which were the most popular before that period; we fhall find them perplexed with numerous quotations, and protracted fentences; fometimes obfcured by pedantry, and generally extended to a length beyond the common reach of attention. Whereas, the great distinction of thofe fermons which are beft received at the prefent day, is, as it ought to be, fimplicity. We mean that fimplicity which refults from a clear comprehenfion of the fubject, and the conscious ability to explain it. How far Mr. Nares has fucceeded in this branch of compofition, we fhall enable the reader to decide from a few fpecimens.

2.

The fubjects of the difcourfes in this volume, are these. 1. The Means of reviving the true Spirit of Piety. The Sublimity of Devotion. 3. The Mercy of God. 4. Rational Chriftianity. 5 Agency of Spirits. 6. Importance of Religion, 7. Hiftory of the feduced Prophet. 8. Proving all Things, 9. God's Regard for Man's Temporal Welfare. 10. Concealing

10. Concealing our Religion. 11. Letter and Spirit. 12. Holding faft the Faith. 13, 14, 15. Love of God and our Brethren, how they arife. 16. &c. On the Five great Days of Chriftian celebration.

The fecond difcourfe, on the fublimity of devotion, is upon this text, "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens," Sam. Jer. iii. 41. A fplendid but perilous. fubject, because the middle courfe between the extravagance of enthufiafm, and religious apathy, confined to the good fenfe of fober piety, requires fome fagacity to difcover, and no fmall firmnefs to purfue. Mr. N. treats this fubject as if perfectly aware of the truth of our remark, and satisfies himself with enforcing temperately, yet with a fuitable fervour, the important and falutary doctrine that the moft fublime fenfations of which the foul is fufceptible, are connected with the principle of devotion. He thus illuftrates his position.

"To be convinced of this, let us, instead of pursuing the devout man to his closet, attend him to the field. There, when he beholds the beauteous order of creation, the fplendor and magnificence of the fky above him, the richness and variety of the earth beneath, the vigour of life and health that glows around him, and the materials of abundant enjoyment, confiftent, if rightly ufed, with nature, with reafon and religion, and poured out on every fide with unbounded profufion; then, when his heart exulting in the profpect and participation of fo much collected good, yearns towards the Divine Beftower, and exclaims with fervour, Thefe are thy glorious works, Almighty Father, and these thy bounties!" who fhall deny that his fenfations are fublime, or perfuade him that the fame objects, without this reference to heaven, without this affiftance from the feelings of devotion, can poffibly excite an equal tranfport. Another may enjoy the contemplation of magnificence, may be pleafed with the profpect of beauty, order, and variety, and feel the warmth of admiration; but on the devout man alone will these confiderations operate with their fulleft influence. He only will proceed, by a rapid tranfition, from the creatures to the Creator, and regard the perfections of his works as a reprefentation, and, as it were a foretafte, of the infinitely higher excellencies of their holy Author. To him most truly it is that "the heavens declare the glory of God!"

Or, if from great and general views of expanded nature, he defcend to a more minute examination of its parts, fenfations of the fame exalted kind will fill continue to be excited. He will never, in the minutest of his researches, lofe fight of the great and admirable contriver; but tracing the unerring wifdom and unbounded power of the deity in the fmalleft fubdivifions of his works, will find a dignity in objects ufually defpifed, and will perceive the trueft magnificence, the marks of the moft fublime intelligence, united with apparent meannefs. -Such are the fenfations raised by the view of nature, whether gene

ral

ral or particular, in the mind of the pious Chriftian; who, though he love not the world, when under that name are comprehended the follies, the paffions, and the vices, of those who are too truly its children: yet when he furveys it as the theatre of Almighty Providence, as a fpecimen of unbounded power, the refult and the difplay of unerring wisdom, cannot fail to have produced within him the tranfports of rational wonder, and the exalted fervour of grateful admiration." P. 25.

One more fpecimen will be fufficient, and this we select from the 15th difcourfe, on the love of our neighbour. This, fome perhaps may be induced to confider as an exhausted fubject: but it is not fo, nor can it ever be exhaufted while our happiness muft depend upon the due performance of the focial duties. The author, however, does not expatiate on the practical utility of the precept, love thy neighbour as thyself, but immediately enters into the lefs obvious confideration; "how deep an infight into the whole nature of man is difcoverable in this injunction." We think that he has no where shown bettér powers of reafoning than in his management of this difcourse, of which the following is an example.

"The most enlightened of the ancient philofophers talked much of living according to nature, as a general rule of moral virtue. Modern enquirers have fuppofed a moral fenfe, by which we are enabled instinctively to diftinguish between right and wrong; and at the fame time are inclined to approve the one, and to abhor the other. The truth is, I believe, that both these systems are contained within the more comprehensive view of our divine inftructor. I am perfuaded that to live according to nature, is to be guided by that natural affection for our fpecies, which is undoubtedly inftinctive in us; and that the moral fenfe itself is derived from, and totally dependent on, thefe natural feelings.

"Man is a focial animal, not by his own choice, nor by accident, but by the neceffity of his nature. Solitude is in itself painful to him; he cannot live in total feparation from his fellow-creatures, or at least he cannot live happily; not only because he is in want of their affistance, but also because he has a natural want of their affection, and feels an urgent neceffity to interchange his own with them. Paradife itself could not be a place of blifs for him, without a partner in it; and had he continued in it, the further increase of numbers, in a state of innocence, would conftantly have augmented his felicity.

"We may divide our natural affections into two great branches; love for ourselves, and love for our fpecies. The former, natural, as we cannot but fuppofe, to all living creatures; the latter, certainly natural to us, as human creatures : both, in us, equally original, equally implanted by the hand of the Creator. They ought alio, as U u

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. IV. DEC. 1794.

my

my text declares, to be maintained equal in degree; "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf."-Nor is it, undoubtedly, contrary to nature that these affections fhould be thus equally divided. A powerful inftinct leads us to affociate with our fellow-creatures; the habit of living in ftrict union conftantly increases the inftinctive affection, till we become neceffary to each other. By fuch progreffion we not only arrive at the point of loving others as ourselves, but we even go beyond it; and the enthusiasm of regard which makes us more anxious for those others than even for ourselves, more provident of their good, and more apprehenfive of their fuffering than of our own, is among the moft natural movements of the uncorrupted heart. It is by depravity of heart only that we learn to love ourselves too much, and others too little; and hence arifes the neceffity of the precept.

"The great increase of attachment above stated, though not to be expected in every cafe, is at least a proof what nature will admit. In a more general way, a certain interchange of feelings, called Sympathy, is natural to us. We participate in the joys and fufferings of others, even involuntarily, and we expect the fame return of fympathy from them. Our joy is not perfect joy, unless there be fome one to partake it, and our forrow almost ceases to be forrow, when others manifeft a lively intereft in it. Thefe natural fympathies are the general bond of affection among human creatures; we love those who feel them ftrongly, we difapprove and dislike thofe in whom we find them lefs or more deficient. But they are found almost in all, because they are an original part of our nature, and confequently our affection is naturally united to all, by this common bond of interest.

Here then, methinks, we find our moral fenfe, or natural love of virtue and abhorrence of vice. Our feelings concerning them are not general at firft; we learn to love and hate them from specific inftances: we fee or feel them in their confequences upon ourselves and others; and they raife in us affection or abhorrence, as proofs of the perfection or the deficience of the focial fympathy. If another do evil to us, we confider it as a demonftration that he wants that kind feeling towards us, which nature teaches us to expect from all. The general bond of fympathy appears to be broken between us; we are difunited; but the feparation is unnatural, and it is painful. Dwelling with abhorrence apon what we feel to be an offence againft nature, we applaud our own hearts for having expected different treatment, and exclaim, though with bitterness, yet with internal exultation, "I could not have dealt fo by him!" Thus it is true that we abhor the evil, but the reason is also evident. We abhor it as a proof that Social Sympathy and the natural affections of humanity have been contemned and violated. Thus alfo if we hear of evil done to another, our feelings are of the fame kind. It is fympathy that fpeaks. We put ourselves in the place of the injured perfon, we feel for him, we represent to our imaginations his diftrefs and fufferings, and exclaim, "How cruel! how unnatural!" and we confider both the fact and the perpetrator of it as odious, on account of this notorious difregard of natural feelings. In the fame manner are we affected concerning good. Inftances of it exhibited towards ourfelves produce regard directly they act in the fame tendency with nature, and rapidly affift the original difpofition