help obferving, that if Dr. Milne facrificed elegance and neatnefs for the purpose of fecuring energy, and producing a better and ftronger effect on the Reader, we are forry his good wishes fhould have fo poorly fucceeded. We do not fo much bewail the facrifice of the fmaller beauties of language, when the defect is fupplied by the greater and more fubftantial excellencies of fentiment and argument. But, alas! Dr. Milne's loss of neatness is accompanied with a want of force; and where we mifs Hermes, we do not meet with Minerva.

These fermons are very long and for the reafon for which the Author may think them excellent, we think them tedious. The arguments employed in them, fo far from being 'placed in a ftrong point of view,' are weakened by the uncommon length to which they are drawn out: and whatever might be their effect when delivered from the pulpit with the accompaniments of voice and action, we are perfuaded they will lofe that effect on the fober and more judicious Reader; who, instead of being charmed by the fafcination of oratory, will be difgufted to see the fimple truths of the gospel gaudily decked out in meretricious ornaments, and the chafter beauties of language loft amidft a redundancy of tawdry metaphors, and glaring but infipid expletives.

The figure of rhetoric to which Dr. Milne is most indebted for his eloquence, is that which the Greeks called the Periphrafis. It is a very common and commodious figure, and generally makes a great fhew in the pulpit. It is (as our good old Scriblerus obferved long ago) the fpinning-wheel of the bathos, which draws out and spreads a thought into the finest thread." So fine, indeed, that, at times, it is fcarcely difcernible by the acuteft eye! We fhall produce feveral examples of Dr. Milne's remarkable dexterity in the working and management of this fame spinning-wheel. No matter where we turn. Every page almost presents a proof of our Preacher's fkill. In the third fermon (viz. On Death) we meet with the following very lamentable defcription of a very doleful fubject. [N. B. We fall cautiously note by a numeral mark every divifion, and fub-divifion, and fub-fubter-divifion of this curious paffage, that the Doctor's knack at amplification may be readily obferved, and the value of it arithmetically estimated.] To die:-to difappear from all the objects which furround him to be turn from the intimate

:

I

II

2

fociety in which he had lived with a father-with a family

3

4

-5

with friends-with congenial fouls-with kindred fpirits, whofe (1)

(2)

fentiments and deûres, whofe hopes and fears were the fame':

IV

vi

"to go he knows not where :

VI

-to lie in cold obftruction

and to rot:'-to be removed from a fplendid apartment, fur

nished with every accommodation and elegance, into the dark,

2

3

VII

unfurnished, contracted chamber of the grave:—from a bed

VIII

of foftness and luxury, to a dank, loathfome, fubterraneous grotto:to embark on the boundless ocean of eternity :

IX

I

2

to become from " fenfible, warm motion," a motionless, infen

3

3

2

X

5

fible, "kneaded clod"-the food of worms-the horror of men -the hideous depofit of a tomb:-this fpectacle alone held up to fancy, difturbs the fenfes-darkens the imagination-and embitters all the fweets of life." "I wifh (fays Yorick) that the Preacher had brought it in Judden death." "I have known a regiment (fays Uncle Toby) flaughtered in less time." "It is like your Honour's wound (fays Corporal Trim). 'Tis a d-n'd tedious affair. I'd forfeit my Montero cap, if I made half the ado about it that the parfon doth."

In a fermon on the Confolations of Affliction,' the Author thus expands a common thought beyond all neceffary bulk and proportion, by blowing it out with the fwelling blaft of amplification. Virtue, ftrengthened by Chriftian faith, and animated by Chriftian hope, is unchangeable. Like her eternal Fountain," the Father of lights, with whom is no variablenes nor fhadow of turning," the is "the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever:" her pleafures, her fupports, her confolations the fame. They reft upon a bafis which nothing can fubvert. They are established on a rock which the rain may batter, the floods beat upon, and the winds affail; but shall affail, beat upon, and batter in vain. Free and independent, fhe rifes nobly fuperior to chance and accident; and is equally unaffected by the frowns as by the fmiles, by the ebb as by the flow of fortune. Though troubled on every fide, fhe is not dejected; though per plexed, yet not in despair, affured as the is that the Lord of Hofts is with her, that the God of Jacob is her refuge.'

Dr. Milne, like most orators of the new school of the BATHOS, frequently runs one metaphor into another, and produces fuch a crude affemblage of heterogeneous images, that the eye can perceive no diftinct object, or any confiftent relation or fimilitude. In the above paffage, virtue is faid to iffue from a fountain; and yet the fream (for it must be a ftream that pro

5

ceeds

ceeds from a fountain) is modified into a folid mass-and that too, for aught we perceive to the contrary, without the help of congelation. This folid mafs is erected into fome kind of building, and is fixed upon a rock, and though battered by rain, keeps its station,

Another example of mixed metaphors we find in the fame difcourfe. The recollected pleasures of humanity and virtue fhall maintain their wonted vigour, "flourish in immortal youth," fupport us in the moft critical moments of diftrefs, like hope, be an anchor to the foul both fure and ftedfast, make infirmity fmile, fmooth the bed of languishing, and render the evening of life ferene and chearful.' Now what connection is there in the several images of this gaudy picture? What is it that acts like an anchor and smooths a bed? This combination of inconfiftent figures of fpeech is fuch a capital fault in language, and withal fo common with those orators who are feized with the rage of eloquence-the furor grandifonus-that we think it a duty, which as public Critics we owe to the world, to expose it to the ridicule it deferves, and thus guard, as far as our influence extends, the English tongue from every innovation that the vanity of fome and the folly of others are fo frequently attempting to make on its purity and fimplicity.

To the affectation of a pompous, high-founding, figurative ftyle, we may add another that is equally difgufting to perfons of a chafte and well-regulated tafte: and that is, the affectation of introducing scraps of plays in the very body of a sentence which treats of fome grave or awful point of religion. Thefe dramatic fragments are generally gathered from Shakespear: but however excellent they may be in their place, we think they look a little oddly by the fide of a text of fcripture. Take the following example of this abfurd and conceited mixture of fcripture and plays, &c. &c. O hope of immortality! thou art indeed our early, our anticipated heaven. Without thee we can do nothing and with thee animating, fupporting, strengthening us, we are enabled to do and to fuffer all things. "Ye good diftreft"-I addrefs you in the beautiful language of the moralift;"Ye noble few who here unbending ftand beneath life's preffure, yet bear up awhile." Difpute it bravely. Quit your felves like men: "yet bide the pelting of this pitilefs ftorm," and "lafh the faucy waves" of difcontent and murmuring, "which throng and prefs to rob you of your prize." "The ftorms of wintry time fhall quickly pafs, and one unbounded fpring encircle all."- St. Paul, Shakespear and Thomson ! Dulce fodalitium! But Dr. Milne hath the art of joining together what good fenfe, decorum, and Chriftian reverence would always keep afunder :-at leaft in the pulpit!

Dr.

Dr. Milne was not content with Job's own account of a... felf-an account fufficiently large and particular; but he muft needs make an addition to it by foifting in a quotation from a play. The patriarch defcribing his former profperity makes use of the following beautiful and fimple allufion; " My root was fpread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch." Dr. Milne fpreads out this branch only for the purpofe of blafting it in the end. In fine, fays he, Job diffused his branches like Lebanon; and the fhade of him filled the land: yet in one night "a ftorm, a robbery fhook down his mellow hangings, ftript him of his leaves, and left him bare to weather."

We are the more fevere on this puerile affectation of introducing hackneyed paffages from plays, &c. into fermons, as the evil is become a growing one-efpecially among the younger part of the clergy. The gayer tribe amongst the Diffenters too are running very faft into this abfurdity: and as we confider it as a certain mark of a vicious tafte, and a great abufe, not to fay a defecration, of the pulpit, we fhall make no apology for the freedom with which we have cenfured it; and fhall be happy if any, warned by the example of Dr. Milne, attend more feriously to a maxim of the highest authority, viz—“ Not to put a piece of new cloth upon an old garment; for that which is put to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worfe!"

It is feldom that a pompous diction can be uniformly fupported even by the greatest mafters. Though it fometimes Iwells as if it was ready to burst into blank verfe, and may perhaps take its vent and go off this way; yet we as frequently find an intermixture of low, flat words, which finks the majesty of the fentence, and repreffeth the burning ardour with which it fet out.

For example: Profperous hitherto (fays Dr. Milne), we entertain few apprehenfions that the tide of prosperity can ever be changed. We attach ourfelves to fecond caufes. The great First Cause of all we difcern not. We fee not the Sovereign Wisdom which rules among the inhabitants of the earth and Sports itself with the affairs of mortals by fubjecting them to perpetual viciffitudes.'

We have heard of an impudent fellow's Sporting a face upon an occafion at a table to which he had no invitation. We have heard alfo of a knavish inn-keeper's sporting off cyder for champaign on his guests when they have been half-drunk. But never, till Dr. Milne informed us of it, did we either read or hear of Infinite Wisdom's porting itfelf on any occafion whatfoever.

ne

One low word fpoils all the dignity and beauty of the following defcription of our Saviour's fufferings. Jefus wept: but when? Was it when he endured the contradiction of finners against himself? Was it when he was betrayed by one dif ciple, denied by another, and abandoned by all? Was it, &c. &c. &c. &c. His foul difdains the meannefs. He dropt not a tear. He uttered not a groan. He fpoke not a word. Was it then when scourged, when buffeted, when crowned with thorns, when arrayed in a ludicrous robe, when fpit upon, when hoodwinked, when addreffed with the mock honours of royalty, or when ftruck by the very fervants with the palms of their hands?'

In a difcourfe on the deceitfulness of fin' (for the beginning of which he is indebted, though he doth not acknowledge the obligation, to Yorick's fermon on Confcience), we are prefented with the following clufter of incompatible images. fofters a viper which eats into his bowels. He drinks of a cup, which though sweet as honey, like the prophet's roll, yet like the book devoured by St. John, is bitter in the belly, nay ftings as a ferpent, and bites as an adder.' Here vipers, ferpents, adders, honey, prophets, apostles, books, rolls, bowels and bellies, "dance (as Junius obferves of a fimilar mixture of ftrange figures) through all the mazes of metaphorical confufion !"

Dr. Milne fometimes condefcends to foften the high tone of Ciceronian eloquence, and plays with pretty points and antithefes. Is it (he afks) fo difficult for a man to cross himself, as to take up the cross and follow the Saviour-through the rugged roads of adverfity, as through the "primrofe path" of affluence and fplendor? Take another example of the preacher's delectable manner of sporting with words. Tell me when he began to love you, and I will tell you to what age you are permitted to offend him. He loved you before you had an exiftence, and fhall you not love him whilst you exift? It was in the flower of his years that the Saviour died for you: and in the flower of your years hall you difdain to live for him? Old puritanical "Dyer's Golden Chain"-to be worn about the necks of the babes in Chrift, is not ornamented with a prettier toy!

One would imagine that Dr. Milne had been converfant with the writings of Dr. Everard and the myftic preachers of the last century, by the propenfity which he difcovers of turning to allegory, what is related as a fact. Hence he calls our Saviour the "invincible Sampfen, who, if he had pleaf. d, could have hivered the nails and the chains to atoms,'- By the fame licence of departing from the letter, he talks of flanghtering, like Judith, our spiritual Holofernes-that mafter vice, which, though but one in ipecies, produces, chenthes, "and" fortifies many more.'

REV. May, 1780.

Ff

Dr.