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ART. VI. Sixty Sermons on plain and practical Subjects. By the late Rev. Thomas Pyle; many Years Minifter of Lynn, in Norfolk, Canon Refidentiary of the Church of Sarum, and Author of the Paraphrafe on the Acts, Epiftles, and Revelation, in the Manner of Dr. Clarke. Published by his Son, Philip Pyle, A. M. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12 S. Robinfen. 1773.

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HE Author of these difcourfes has been well known and refpected in the learned world, on account of his literary abilities in private life he appears to have been held in still higher eftimation, for his integrity, piety, and benevolence: and all thefe accomplishments and virtues are abundantly manitested in the pofthumous compofitions now before us. Thefe fermons, are not indeed remarkable for elegance of style, or brilliance of fentiment, nor do they abound in fpeculations or profound and critical refearches; but in lieu of these fhining parts of pulpit erudition, they are happy in the real beauty of fimplicity; they are well adapted to convince mankind of their true interefts, and to perfuade us to attend, duly and earnestly, to thofe important fubje&s, the true knowledge of which is fo requifite to their prefent and future welfare. We fhall give a fhort fpecimen or two, for the farther fatisfaction of our Readers:

The first fermon in thé fecond volume confiders God's fentence on Adam, as it is related, Genefis iii. 19. In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou cat bread, &c. It is the Author's endeavour to extenuate the feeming rigour of this fentence, and indeed to fhew that in fact it contains little or no curfe at all. He afks, what ground was it that was curfed? Not, he replies, the whole earth; but the ground of Paradife; that was curfed; implying, fays he, no more, than that it was lefs bleffed than before.-it was deprived of all its uncommon beauties, and spontaneous fruitfulness-it was levelled with the common ground, and laid open to the reft of the earth; but ftill it retained its natural and general virtues.' In like manner the words in forrow fhalt thou cat of it,' he confiders only as denoting that, if Adam, or any of his pofterity came again to inhabit that place, they should find it, in comparison with what it had been, a forrowful abode.'

It is thus that our Preacher comments on this part of the Old Teftament; and on the whole he concludes it to be clear in point of Scripture, that neither the pains nor the fhortness of human life were the original defign of a good Providence, but are the offspring of mens own wilful folly and vice. Labour and induftry, he adds, were adapted by almighty God to sweeten and to prolong it.' The Writer's obfervations and reasonings are ingenious, but his explication does not appear to us to amount to the full force and meaning of the paffage in question.

The

The eighth and ninth difcourfes in this volume are on Prov. xvii. 27. A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit; which words are confidered as fignifying that, piety, or the knowledge and practice of religion, is the perfection of the human mind.' The fecond of the fermons concludes with this exhortation: Let us here remark a plain and unerring rule, whereby we may all try ourselves, and learn what progrefs we have made in religion, and what flate we are in. The text teaches you to judge of your mind, as you would of a tree in your garden: by its fruits you are to know it.' If you think (as I fuppofe most men do) that your religious profeffion excels all others; afk and examine what excellencies you yourfelves have attained by it. Obferve and fee, whether it may not perhaps be very good in itself, and yet be made worth very little to you, by your ill improvement of it. Has it wrought in you the divine and focial virtues? Has it formed in you the image of your God and Saviour, in righteoufnefs, meekness, humility, mercy, and all good nature? Has it fweetened your tempers, and foftened your fpirit into fincere tenderness to all men, out of honour to God whose creatures and children, they all are ? Or has it not left you ftill cenforious, four, felfish, and uncharitable? If it has, depend upon it God is not to be mocked,' though you may deceive your felves.

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If you imagine your hearts to be fanctified by believing at random what you do not understand, or suffering others to believe and to live for you ;-if you measure your religion by the length of your creed, not by the number of your good works ;-or if you calculate your holiness by rounds of devotion, by a circulation of ftated prayers, or frequency of facraments only, without the power of this godlinefs along with the forms of it;-in all these cafes you abuse the good means, and utterly lofe the end. You have none of that spirit in you, which is the fruit of understanding; but are upon the level with a foolish husbandman, who makes a great boafting of his vineyard, without cultivating any good plants in it: and when autumn comes, he has nothing to do but to go and try whether he can gather grapes of thorns, or figs from thiftles.'

In the twenty-firft fermon this truly christian preacher urges his hearers to a diligent guard against the fnares of vice, and an improvement in piety and virtue, from 2 Pet. i. 4. There is, fays he, no chriftian, that has any meaning at all in profeffing his religion, but feeds his mind with a profpect of fome share in the benefits and rewards of it: and it would be deemed a fevere lecture, to exclude any one of you from fo precious an expectation. But, at the fame time, it infinitely concerns you all, to be well affured on what ground you ftand. Do you verily trust in God, for the bleffings of another life? Examine that truft of

yours, by the fruits it has produced. What good effects has your hope had on you? Has it quickened your endeavours to merit the bielings you with to receive? Has it made you partakers of God's holiness here, that you may be fo hereafter? Has the fenfe of his truth, juftice, goodnefs and mercy, prevailed with you to put on bowels of mercy' to your fellow creatures; to speak truth with your neighbours,' and to' do good even to your enemy?' If fuch be your cafe, you may indeed have hope, and a hope full of imortality! But if your faith and confidence be no better than this-that you may get to heaven some way or other, with all your lufts and vices about you; and may be accepted in Chrift, though you never were a follower of God;be not deceived! For though you may eafily delude yourfeif, God cannot poffibly thus be mocked!

All your other accomplishments may render you a man of the world, a man of bufinefs, or of fcience: but heaven is the reward of none but the good man. -Turn over your Bible as long as you pleafe, you will find no fuch promise in it, as,

bleffed are the learned, bleffed are the ingenious and politic;' nor yet blessed are the zealots for the articles of their church, or the formalities of devotion;' no not bleffed are the very propheciers, nor the workers of miracles in the name of Christ;' but bleffed are the merciful, for they fhall obtain mercy: blessed are the pure in heart, for they fhall fee God: bleffed are the peace-makers, for they fhall be the children of God.'-they fhall be the children of his kingdom, and the children of the refurrection'

The foregoing extracts will fuffice to give our Readers an idea of Mr. Pyle's manner; and we have only to add, that his fermons have, among other excellencies, the merit of not being long-winded, and tedious: a circumftance which will render them generally preferable to those wordy compofitions that seem rather calculated to lull people afleep, than to awake them to righteoufnefs.'

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ART. VI'. A new Hiftory of London; including Westminster and South wark. To which is added, a general survey of the Whole; defcribing the public Buildings, late Improvements, &c. Illuftrated with Copper-plates. By Joha Noorthouck. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d. bound. Baldwin. 1773.

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N Englifhman would probably be charged with partiality, and might incur the cenfure of the jealous foreigner, Thould he pronounce the capital of his own country to be the first city in Europe, if not fuperior to all others in the world; but let the unprejudiced and well-informed traveller fairly

make

make the comparison between London and any other known metropolis at this time fubfifting, and we may fafely leave the ftatelieft Spaniard that ftruts in the Efcurial, or the vaineft Frenchman that flutters at the Louvre, to draw the inference.

The hiftory, therefore, and furvey, of fo great and flourishing an emporium, cannot but excite confiderable attention, both at home and abroad; and every effay toward a complete and fatisfactory review of the rife, progrefs, and prefent state of this wonder of the modern world will, no doubt, meet with the acceptance and encouragement of the public, in proportion to the accuracy, judgment, and intelligence with which it is exe

cuted.

We have had various accounts and furveys of London and Westminster; of which Stowe's, Strype's, and Maitland's are the most confiderable;-but their compilements are too voluminous, too tedious, and dry, to fuit the general tafte, especially in the prefent age, when folios are become quite out of fashion: -and that they are fo, the groaning fhelves of every bookseller's fhop bear woeful teftimony.

The prefent judicious and intelligent Compiler, fpeaking of his laborious predeceffors above-named, briefly takes not ce of the expence and prolixity of their works, and then proceeds to explain the nature and merits of his own plan,

He profeffes that the principal intention of his undertaking was to give a connected hiftorical, and defcriptive account of our metropolis, in a convenient fize, and at an eafy price; by contracting verbose details, to bring the interesting matter closer together; and by a proper abridgment of events of lefs moment, to afford room for the due confideration of those of importance: a labour not altogether fo eafy as may at firft view be imagined, nor yet (he modeftly adds) fo honourable as to afford any great expectation of applaufe to reward the execution.

Where different perions, continues Mr. N. travel the fame journey, it will be almoft impoffible for thofe who follow laft, to avoid tracing the footsteps of thofe who went before. It will hence, therefore, he obferves, be natural to fuppofe, and it is acknowledged, that Maitland, the induftrious enlarger and continuator of Stowe and Strype, has been confulted, as a general guide, through this Work. Where the writer preferred other relations, as more fatisfactory, or where he discovered facts that efcaped Maitland,-which circumftances, (he tells us) became frequent in the latter periods of the hiftory,-the authorities from whence they are derived, are produced as vouchers for the Compiler, and for the fatisfaction of the Reader.-The feveral charters of London, with other papers of record relating to the

In the Prospectus.

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corporation,

corporation, and neceffary to be introduced,-are claffed together in the Appendix: by which method the courfe of the history remains unbroken, by the intervention of materials which those, alone, who are interested in the affairs of the city, may want to confult occafionally.

This Compiler who appears to be a warm and fteady friend to liberty, very rightly obferves, that boroughs and corporations proved, at their firft erection, excellent affylums to artizans and traders to fly to, and fecure themselves from the arbitrary laims of our antient feudal lords-In the work now offered to the public, he fays, the happy progrefs and influence of commerce in the great corporation of London, will be traced, until by the general diffufion of property, a more liberal, popular fyftem of government took place of military barbarim and feudal tyranny t. Commerce was the original parent of English liberty;

*The Author fhews, however, p. 113, that although the corporations were, at first, fo happily inftrumental in levelling the feudal diftinctions, yet, by their exclufive privileges, they foon became injurious to the liberty they had produced.

Having here hinted, to his Readers, to obferve the first effect of corporation charters, in refcuing the political constitution of this country from the feudal flavery, by diffufing perfonal liberty and protecting property, he afterwards marks the progrefs of this great change, and gives the following epitome of it, at the time of the revolution, 1689.

As by this revolution, fays he, a finishing hand may be faid to have been put to the prefent English conftitution; it will not be befide our purpose to paufe a while, in order to take a retrospective glance over the general caufes that operated in the alteration of it, after having thus traced the particular events.

The progrefs of the English government may be reviewed in few words. When William the Norman eftablished himself and his followers here, he also more extenfively established the feudal frame of government; under which the king had little authority, and the people little or no liberty. The barons not only controuled the king in council, but often oppofed him by arms; and at the fame time oppreffed the people under their territorial jurifdictions. Our infular fituation however as it fecured us greatly from external hoftilities, and confined the barons to their domeftic contefts; fo military fubordination gradually relaxed, and gave way at laft to trade and civil inftitutions. Trade gave property, property enabled the people to purchafe immunities, which difarming the barons on one fide, the regal power took advantages over them on the other: and thus, however paradoxical it may appear, the king grew more abfolute as the people grew more free. The feudal frame of government being almoft worn out when Henry VII at the end of a long civil war, obtained the crown; it is under the Tudors that we find the regal power in its largest extent. But an imperious church fill remained

for