One of the best expedients for this purpose is a reduction of obscure matters to a natural, popular, modern air. You can never attain this ability, unless you acquire a habit of conceiving clearly of fubjects yourself, (4) and of expreffing them in a free, familiar, eafy manner, remote from every thing forced, and far-fetched. (5) All long trains nihil inconditum, nihil peregrinum, neque fenfu, neque vrbis, neque ore, geftuve poffit deprehendi. Quint.Inft.Lib.iv. Urbanity is not one fingle qualification, it is the union of all. There are vulgar notions, vulgar expreffions, vulgar geftures, vulgar pronunciations: and there are on the contrary finical airs, and fine-fpun theories, which are all oppofite to urbanity. This difcourfe is too learned, that is too common-this ftyle is too ftiff, that is too flimfythis air is too haughty, and that is too free-this fermon is too orderly, and that is too negligent-In fhort, if urbanity be not in the preacher, it will never be in his fermons, and nothing can give it him but a familiar converfe with the politer part of mankind. Wellbred women are the best tutors of this fcience: but it might be dangerous to the morals of fome young men to be put under their tuition. A refined way of thinking, a delicacy of expreffion, innumerable graces of elocution and action, belong to of fome of the fair fex; and, without finking from manly dignity into fqueaking effeminacy, a grave wife man may receive many a law from their lips. Strength and henour are their clothing-they open their mouths with wif dom, and the law of kindness is in their tongues. Prov. xxxi. 25, 26. (4) Acquire a habit of conceiving clearly of fubjects. " 1. Conceive of things clearly and diftinctly in their own natures. 2. Conceive of things completely in all their parts. Conceive of things compre3. henfively in all their properties and relations. 4. Conceive of things extenfively in all their kinds. Conceive of things orderly, or in a proper method." Dr.Watts's Logick, Chap. vi. (5) Express your thoughts in a FREE manner. A minifter of Jefus Christ should think freely. Dr. Bentley fomewhere execrates thofe, who brought free-thinking into difrepute by their abufe of the term. A fober freethinker, uncompelled by human authority, and unrestrained of arguments, all embarraffments of divifions and fubdivifions, all metaphyfical investigations, which restrained by human formu. laries, is the most likely of any man to attain that generous liberal expanfibility of fentiment, which the redeemer of the fouls of mankind every where inculcates. A minister of Christ fhould Speak freely. His language fhould be frank, open, inge. nuous, free from duplicity and fufpicion of collufion. St. Paul feems to include both in 2 Cor. iv. 12. Пan wap phosa xpaueta, multa libertate utimur, fc. in evangelio prædicando. Vid. etiam 2 Cor. v. 2. Express yourself in a FAMILIAR manner. There is a foft, domeftick ftyle, fuch as a wife parent ufes to his family: but this is nothing like the filly cant of an old nurfe. Dear fouls-precious fouls-dearly beloved-and an hundred more fuch phrafes, however proper in certain connections, have been hackneyed out of their fenfes in chriftian pulpits. Minifters, who aim at this excellence, fhould remember, there is fuch a thing as being too familiar. Express yourself in an EASY manner. Here alfo are two extremes. The formal fffnefs of a pedant, and the sareless of a man, who does not refpe&t his company, are both at a diftance are from Mr. Claude's ease. The ease of the manner of a chriftian preacher in the pulpit is not the ease of a man alone, who may loll-and hemand hawk-and cough-and fpit-and blow his nofe-but it is the ease of a well-bred man in company. The cafe of the matter, of which a chriftian fermon is compofed, is a relative idea, and must take its meaning from the perfons addreffed; for that fubj & may be very easy to fome, which is extremely difficult to others. Nothing makes fpeaking on a subject fo eafy to the fpeaker as a thorough understanding of it. With what perfect eafe to themfelves, and with what unembarraffed facility to ethers do people in all publick places of traffick communicate their ideas! The reafon is, they understand what they talk about. Express your thoughts in an UNFORCED manner. A fubject is forced, when it is made to speak the direct contrary of the text, from which it is pretended to be drawn; or when a direction is any way given it contrary to its genuine meaning. Here follows an example of each. Heb. v. 4. [as] No man taketh this honour [of high priesthood] to himself; but he that is called of God, as was Aaron : are mostly impertinent, and, like the fields, the fo alfo Chrift glorified not himJelf to be made an High-priest, but he that faid unto him, Thou art my fan, this day have I begotten thee. St. Paul means to inform the Hebrews-that the chriftian aconomy was of divine inftitution, as well as that of Mofes-that Jefus Chrift had as clear evidence of his appointment to abolif the Aaronical priesthood as Aaron had to fet it up the general meaning, therefore, of this text may be contained in this propofition, Jefus Chrift's high-priesthood had the honour of a divine inftitution; yet this very text comes from an univerfity prefs forced into a proof of the divine inftitution of --English Epifcopacy. Defence of Epifcopacy, Serm. at Oxford, 1708. By Tho. Biffe. Ifai. liii. 7. He is brought as a lamb to the flaughter, and as a fheep before his fhearers is dumb, fo be openeth not his mouth. This text is a volun teer in the fervice of Jefus Chrift: but a zealous divine preffed it into the army of his mafter, forced it into the fervice of Charles I. and made it blafpheme through twenty-five quarto pages. Dr. Langford's Serm. before the House of Commons, Fan. 30, 1697. «Tit. ii. 15. Let no man defpife thee. It is in fact as notorious, as it is unjuft and VOL. II. cities, unreafonable, that no fort of minifters are generally more despised by the laity of their own communion, than we of the established church of England. A Papift almott as much adores the facrificer, as he doth the facrifice of the mass diffenters ge nerally pay a very great deference to their minifters -but how common is it for men, that call themselves fons of our church, to fcoff at her priests - I fhall confider these words, 1. As a caution to the laity not to defpife the clergy [that is, the epifcopal clergy.] 2. As a caution to the clergy to give no occafion to despise them." Thus begins a good fermon on the above words. We think the divifion natural and the inferences juft: but the text is forced, while it is confined to the epifcopal clergy, for it is equally applicable to all minifters of other communities. Henry Newcome's Serm. preached at a vifitation at Muncheftr 1712. Serious admonition to all despisers of TAE cities, and the houses, which we imagine in the at it. Here follow two or three examples. A preacher in the latter end of the reign of Charles II. propofed to treat of patience and fubmiffion to AUTHORITY, and endea voured, in a fermon of fiftyeight quarto pages, to preach the Lord Mayor of London, and the Court of Aldermen into the doctrines of paffiveobedience and non-refiftance; and to this purpose took for his text Heb. x. 36. Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done THE WILL OF GOD ye might receive the promife. From patient fubmiflion to the will of God to paffive obedience to the will of king Charles is a long way! What a herculean labour to fetch the text about! Dr. Moore at Guildhall Chapel 1684. Bp. Beveridge had the courage to fet out at 1 Cor. xiv. 26. Let all things be done to edifying, and, in one fingle octavo fermon of twenty-four pages, the dexterity to arrive at the excellency and usefulness of the common-prayer-bock ufed in the established church of England. What rapid reafoning! "The text is an apoftolical canon-the common prayer is exactly conformable to itI, [Dr. Beveridge, Rector of St. Peter's Cornhill.] afcribe the compilation of it to the fame extraordinary affiftance from God, which afterwards clouds, enabled the compilers to fuffer martyrdom-The devil hath had a fpite against the book ever fince it was firft made because it is deftructive of his kingdom-he hath employed the utmost of his power and policy to blaft its reputation-the papifts threw it out once in Q. Mary's days, and the fanaticks outed it again in the days of king Charles-but the most high God was pleafed in a miraculous manner to restore it—” and fo all things are done to edifying. What a knack have fome men at reafoning! And did bifhop Beveridge really think, St. Paul would have taken this infpired book in one hand, and the fword of the civil magiftrate in the other, and have done all the edifying feats in the church at Corinth, which his pretended fucceffors have performed elfewhere! Edifying articles-edifying creedsedifying oaths edifying geftures-edifying habitsedifving ceremonies-edifying fpiritual courts-edifying jails-edifying fines-edifying banishments-edifying executions-Let ALL things, which relate to the English epifcopal liturgy, be done to edifying. St. Paul fays fo. Jer. vi. 16. Thus faith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and fee, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk clouds, the mere creatures of fancy, all these should be avoided. (6) 7. Care, however, must be taken to avoid the oppofite extreme, which confifts in making only poor, dry, fpiritlefs obfervations, frequently faid under pretence of avoiding fchool-divinity, and of speaking only popular things. Endeavour to think clearly, and try also to think nobly. Let your obfervations be replete with beauty as well as propriety, the fruits of a fine fancy under the direction of a fober judgment. If you be inattentive to this article, you will pafs for a contemptible declaimer of mean and fhallow capacity, exhaufting walk therein, and ye fhall find reft for your fouls "Old paths, i. e. the venerable fimplicity of the church of England, as it flood from the first days of queen Elizabeth till about the death of Charles the martyr-the good way, i. e. that divine doctrine of Chriftianity nonrefistance-walk therein, i. e. avoid a fet of odd, fingular, feparating notions, rely on. the opinions of all the wife and good men in the world, and don't trust your own fhallow, empty, bloated reafon." Well might the Oxonian, who preached thus from the above text, conclude his fermon in these words: All-feeing Spirit! thou knoweft we have a name that we live, and yet are dead, for our works are not found perfect before God. Wm. Tilly's Serm. before the Univerfity of Oxford 1710. Return to good old principles. I do not know whether this laft example be more forced or far-fetched; for neither the fouls, nor the bodies of our ancestors found reft in thefe old paths, and certainly Jeremiah never fought after them. (6) Avoid imaginary obfervations. A very accurate writer obferves" that our opinion and belief are often influenced by paffion-by propenfity-and by affection. The noted ftory of a fine lady and a curate viewing the moon through a telescope is a pleafant illuftration of the latter. I perceive, fays the lady, two fhadows inclining to each other, they are certainly two happy lovers: not at all, replies the curate, they are two fteeples of a cathedral." Elem, of Criticism, val. i. chap, 2. p. 5. |