Page images
PDF
EPUB

neither study nor invention, and leaves unfaid a great number of beautiful things, with which his text would have furnished him. Preachments of this kind are extremely disguftful. I do not mean that a preacher fhould always ufe his utmost efforts, nor that he should always preach alike well, for that neither can nor ought to be. There are extraordinary occafions, for which all his vigour must be referved. But I mean, that, in ordinary and ufual fermons, a kind of plenitude should fatisfy and content the hearers. The preacher muft not always labour to carry the people beyond themfelves, nor to ravish them into ecftacies; but he must always fatisfy them, and maintain in them an esteem and an eagernefs for practical piety.*

3.

it may not be beyond the meaneft of them. Burnet's Paft. Care.

Μαλιςα σαφη χρη την λέξιν ειναι. Demet. Phal.

De Eloc.

Oratio cujus fumma virtus eft perfpicuitas, quam fit vitiofa fi egeat interprete ? Quint. Inftit. lib. 1.

cap. 4.

*The interest which we have in what is spoken, alone, can render us attentive. All the truths which the fpeaker declares, if we cannot perfonally apply them, are only heard with difguftful wearinefs; and we figh for the close of a discourse, wherein we have no concern, and which is not even addreffed to us. -Editor of Maffilon's fermons.

Per

3. The preacher must be wife, fober, chafte. I say wife, in oppofition to those impertinent people, who utter jefts, comical comparisons, quirks and extravagancies.

*

I fay fober, in oppofition to thofe rafh fpirits, who would penetrate all, and curioufly dive into myfteries beyond the bounds of modesty. Such are thofe, who make no difficulty of delivering in the pulpit all the speculations of the schools; who fill their fermons with the different interpretations of a term, or the different opinions of interpreters on any paffage of fcripture; who load their hearers with tedious recitals of ancient hiftory; or an account of the divers herefies which have troubled the church in any matter; all these are contrary to the

X

Perhaps this is the fole reafon of that almost univerfal diffatisfaction under fermons which appears in fo many places. Whatever is not fuited to my condition has a coldness and poverty, in regard to ine.

ROBINSON.

*Such things have a very bad effect, as they deftroy the gravity of facred things in the fame proportion in which they fanctify the levity of profane ones: yet, let us not imagine, that every kind of smartness in preaching is to be avoided. See Quint. lib. vi. De Rifu.

Μπλε γέλωτα προπείη ςεργε, μηδε λόγον μετα θρασεις αποδεχε, το μεν γαρ ανοητον, το δε μανικόν. Neque petulantem rifum ama, neque audacem orationem proba, nam alterum ftultitiæ eft, alterum infaniæ. Ifocrat. Orat. ad Demon.

the fobriety of which we speak, and which is one. of the most excellent pulpit virtues.

I fay farther, chafte, in oppofition to those bold and impudent geniu ffes, who are not ashamed of faying many things, which produce unclean ideas in the mind. Chastity fhould weigh the expreffions, and make a judicious choice, in order to keep the hearers' minds at the greatest distance from all forts of carnal and terrestrial ideas.

The likelieft way of fucceeding in these cases is to beware of preffing metaphorical terms too far; to adhere to general confiderations, and, if poffible, to explain the metaphorical terms in few words, and, afterwards, to cleave entirely to the thing itfelf.*

4.

* Let us exemplify this obfervation from Mr. SAURIN. The fubject is regeneration, the text John iii. 1-5. He obferves, that the term is a trope, and muft, First, be reftrained; because it is impoffible to understand a metaphor if we do not diveft it of every thing foreign from the fubject in queftion. Secondly, it must be juftified; for the change fpoken of under the emblem of a new birth, though expreffed in figurative language, is yet a real change. Thirdly, the idea that a new birth gives of this change is fo perfect, that it might terrify timorous chriftians, it must therefore be qualified. Fourthly, the qualifications of which the fubject is capable, are apt to lull fome into fecurity, who, under pretence of infirmities, infeparable from the beft of men, allow themselves in vices incompatible with a state of grace; this expreffion therefore muft be guarded. SAURIN. Serm. Tem. vii.

4. A preacher must be fimple and grave. Simple, fpeaking things full of good natural fenfe, without metaphysical speculations; for none are more impertinent than they, who deliver in the pulpit abftract fpeculations, definitions in form, and fcholaftic questions, which they pretend to derive from their texts.

To fimple I add grave, becaufe all forts of mean thoughts and expreffions, all forts of vulgar and proverbial fayings, ought to be avoided. The pulpit is the feat of good natural fense; and the good sense of good men. On the one hand then you are not to philofophize too much, and refine your fubject out of fight; nor, on the other, to abase yourself to the language and thoughts of the dregs of the people. *

X 2

5.

*Rejice degenerem turbam nil lucis habentem, Indecorefque notas, ne fit non digna fuppellex. Vida Ars Poet. Lib. iii. 183. Yet, in compaffion to the dregs of the people,’ who, with all their ignorance, have fouls, it ought to be remembered, that their minds are acceffible only by their own way of thinking and speaking, and theirs is a different language, and a different habit of thinking from others in more cultivated life. Robinfon.

Hence Ariftotle wifely fays: Το δε πρεπον εξει η λεξις, εαν ή παθητικη, τε και ηθικη, και τοις υποκείμενοις πραγμασιν αναλογον Ηθικη δε αυτη η εκ των σημείων δειξις, ότι ακολυθεί η αρμοτίεσα εκαςω γενει και εξει. Εξεις δε, καθ' ας ποιος τις τω βίω. Ου τω βίω. Ου γαρ ταύτα, ουδ' ωσαύτως αγροικος αν και πεπαιδευμενος ειπειε. Ariftot. Rhet. Lib. iii. cap. 7.

Op

5. The understanding must be informed, but in a manner, however, which affects the heart;* either to comfort the hearers, or to excite them to acts of piety, repentance, or holiness. There are two ways of doing this: one formal, in turning the fubject to moral uses, and fo applying it to the hearers; the other in the fimple choice of the things fpoken: for if they be good, folid, evangelic and edifying of themselves, fhould no application be formally made, the auditors would make it themselves; because subjects of this kind are of fuch a nature, that they cannot enter the underftanding without penetrating the heart.

3. One of the most important precepts for the difcuffion of a text, and the compofition of a fermon, is, above all things, to avoid excefs: Ne quid nimis.

1.

Optimi ad vulgus hi funt concionatores, qui pueriliter, populariter, et fimpliffime docent. Mart. Luth. Milch. Adam, in Vita Lutheri.

Mr. Adams inferts fome of Luther's homely country rhymes, for which perhaps the author may receive a greater reward at the laft day than he would for whole fhelves of Greek and Latin folios. ROBINSON.

*Docente te in ecclefia non clamor populi fed gemitus fufcitetur; lachrymæ auditorum laudes tuæ fint. Jerom. ad Nepot.

Optimus enim orator qui dicendo animos audientium et docet, et delectat, et permovet. Docere debitum eft, delectare honorarium, permovere neceffarium. Cicero de Orat.

« PreviousContinue »