CONTENTS. SERMONS. I. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple MATTHEW V. 19. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in ROM. V 7, 8. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet per- adventure for a good man some would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, HEE. ii. 10. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Cap- Beautiful, but not sublime, with more of the poet's fancy than his fire, he had not discovered either the energy or grandeur of the tragic muse. To attempt that in which so few have succeeded was hazarding too far his future fame, in an effort, which, if unsuccessful, should blight the favourable expectations he had already given reason to indulge. Mr. Logan had besides to encounter with an obstacle of a different nature, in Scotland equally powerful, and which in England too has its weight, the general prejudice which, ever since the introduction of the drama into Britain, has looked with aversion to the interference of the clergy with the amusements of the stage. So sacred is this sentiment among the sober Presbyterians of Scotland, that it sanctions the conjecture of Logan's having anticipated the line of life he was afterwards compelled to adopt; for, at a time when the obloquy had not yet subsided which drove the author of Douglas from his pulpit, to no other prudential motive can we ascribe the production of the Tragedy of Runnamede. It was the author's intention that this play should be performed at Covent-Garden in 1783. He accordingly gave it to Mr. Harris, the manager, who put it immediately upon rehearsal: but the representation was prevented, by an order from the Chamberlain, occasioned by the unfavourable allusion that some passages were supposed to bear to the Court politics of the time, which for ten years had been hostile to the spirit of independence that wrested from Great Britain her American Colonies-the same spirit, Logan undoubtedly conceived, which had wrested the Charter of liberty from King John. Thus baffled before his performance could be either applauded or condemned, he resolved to commit it to the public judgment through a different channel. It was accordingly printed. It was performed soine time thereafter at the Edinburgh Theatre. The applause, b |