give good, heaped-up measure, and caring less for the sentiment than the sound. We must, however, do him the justice to say, that he never forgets that he has to declaim on the subject of repentance; and although, when he commences a paragraph, he is like a man running down a hill, unable to stop himself until he gets to the bottom, yet he invariably returns to the course with unabated vigour, again to run the same race.

Some of our readers may, perhaps, think there is a want of application in comparing the state of London to that of Nineveh, unless worthy Thomas were himself the prophet sent to the former. He treats them, however, throughout his diatribe, as parallel cases, and particularly laments that London did not make her beasts to fast and wear sackcloth, a regulation which he more especially commends in the Ninevites. His subject gives him the opportunity of inveighing against all vices, customs, and fashions; against excessive eating, drinking, and dressing; in short, against almost every thing that can be seen or acted in a city, not excepting even his own vocation. This has produced some curious accounts of the manners and fashions of his day as well as of its vices, our extracts from which, we think, will be found entertaining.

The following passage, in which the author describes the insignificance of man compared with the Deity, is rather fine.

"Indeed man doth bear a name for a very prudent creature; yea some are so famed up for judgement, that they are called sages; but what are these seeing persons to the all-seeing God? no, this shutter of the flesh doth hinder man's light from shining, the form is straightened by the matter; but God being wholly immaterial, a pure spirit, he cannot but transcend man in wisdom. Man doth know all things eternally, for acquisite knowledge is gotten from abroad, and infused knowledge is communicated, but God hath no derivative knowledge; to know any thing, he doth but reflect upon his own essence; those ideas which are conceived to be in God, do contain all intellectual species; therefore, who hath been his counsellor, or taught him at any time? Man's knowledge doth come with much tediousness; for how long is he learning of his lesson? But God's knowledge is instantaneous; He doth understand all things in one, for the intellect being in act, there is an end of further inquiry. God's present intuition is fixed upon every thing that is to be known. Man doth but know things in time, and which do really exist; but God calleth things that are not, as if they were: for whereas his knowledge is measured only with his eternity, what is there from everlasting to everlasting, that is out of the verge of his knowledge? no; entia, things that have any being with all the limits of time, he doth understand by the knowledge of vision; and non entia, which are not, nor ever shall be, he doth understand by the mirror, that is, by the knowledge of his own unlimited wisdom. Man doth understand but few things, for we do boast of wisdom; but how short principled are we? there is an un

known land which we have not yet coasted, there is a labyrinth that we want yet a clew to pass through. If wisdom should unlock her great library door, we would think, that we had many authors yet to peruse, yea, Decades and Pandects yet to turn over.",

And again, in a bolder and finer tone.

"Oh how is the world potentate-struck? Grandee-inchanted? we are only waiting at man's heels, listening to the thunderclaps of his lips, fearing his cold irons, and strangling gibbets. But hath not man his equal? yes, though man do swell upon the thought of his high deserts, (and great is the haughtiness of this Achillean race,) yet man doth but stand upon the lower ground, he is but an inferior; for wipe thine eyes, chafe thy temples, expostulate with reason, awaken conscience, and see if man be the object to whom all thy regard and reverence ought to be limited. No, if thou canst lift up thine eyelids, pry into the heavens, and behold afar off that great tribunal, where thy last account must pass, thou wilt say thou hast mistaken thy awe, misplaced thy dread. For let there be never such tremebundoes below, yet this earth hath not the face of authority which thou oughtest to stoop unto; no, there is One higher than the highest. It is a dangerous thing to fall under man's displeasure, but it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the everliving God. What are man's fetters to God's chains of darkness? man's executioners to infernal fiends? man's vengeance-corners to God's tormenting tophet? Fear not them then that can kill the body and can go no further, but fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire. Let summoning and sentencing man go, and tremble thou at the judging and cursing God. Here fix thine eye, and fasten in thy conscience the doomsday-nail."

66

But, alas! what is all this but loss of breath? but charming in the ears of deaf adders, deaf pulpit-haunters? We may preach ourselves speechless, and our auditors breathless, before we shall sermonup God's pre-eminence. Where is that effectual teacher, spirit-lipped lecturer, that hath gotten God the precedency, and preferment above man? And yet is not this generally known? is it not the cry in every congregation? the reverberation of the very walls of the sanctuary, the noise in every ear? the principle in every conscience? Do not wise men hear it, and fools understand it? Do not old men learn it, and children confess it, as their known lesson? Doth not common reason instruct us, that if God be great, the greater, the greatest, he should be made superior, supreme? If man must have his due, must not God have his right? Hadst thou?* and should not I? Yes, else never think of God, or speak of God, or avouch a God, if man must be the such, the non-such. How can we walk with God, if we do not consider his power, or acquaint ourselves with our God, if we be strangers

*

Referring to the verse in Jonah, preceding the text, “Then the Lord said, thou hast had pity on the gourd," &c.

to his perfections? or stir up ourselves to take hold of our God, if we have no feeling of his greatness? What a creature is man amongst his fellow-creatures? For, oh, that dumb nature doth magnify God, and that we are silent in his praises, that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work; that one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another, that there is neither speech nor language where their voice is not heard, that their line is gone forth throughout all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world; yea, that tigers and unicorns, stones and rocks, fields and wildernesses, fire and hail, snow and vapours, storms and tempests, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, creeping things, and feathered fowls, do in their kind set out God in his excellencies; and yet that the fool hath said in his heart there is no God, and he that is a little wiser than he (even the reasoning formalist) hath not God in all his thoughts, that he is not made a superior, nor used like a God, for he hath not an eye to look upon him, nor an heart to reach up high enough to him--no, he is far above out of his sight. That people in general do not think of God out of devotion, but conviction; not out of pure honour, but amazing horror. Oh, to such a contemning people, who would ever be a superior? to such an undevout people, who would ever be a God? Here is a strange creed and a worse catechism. Is not every temple a scandal, and every pulpit an infamy to such livers? Deserve they scriptures, or sacraments, the knowledge of God, or so much as to hear his name? Take away God's praises, and what is profession? silence his honour, and what is religion? deprive him of his glory, and what is his Deity?"

Although the preceding extracts are in better taste than the greater part of the volume, they show, in some measure, the peculiar style of the author. Å still stronger tincture of it will be found in the succeeding passage, which combines great richness of phraseology with excessively bad taste: it forms part of the section from which the last quotation is taken, and enjoins us to leave all the fairest and most attractive things of the earth, and dwell only upon the glories of God.

"The earth should seem barren, and God fruitful; the sea dry, and God moist; the cedars low, and God high; the mines poor, and God rich; the stars dark, and God bright. Or, if Nature hath any thing in it singular, God should be more fragrant; if the nightingale doth sing pleasantly, God should seem to be more melodious; if the lions do roar, God should be more terrible; if the pearls have lustre, God should have the more splendour; if the air be spacious, God should be infinite; if the marbles be durable, God should be everlasting; if the giants be strong, God should be omnipotent; if princes be majestical, God should have the true crown and sceptre. We should take off our sight, and delight from these things, and our eye-strings and heart-strings should be only towards our God; if we look upon these, we should gaze upon God; if we be affected with these, we

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."