PREACHING.

haberi velit musicum, hoc turpior sit, quod in

1. A church stocked with unpreaching eo ipso peccet, cujus profitetur scientcam: sic divines is like the city of Nibas in the neigh- philosophus in rita ratione peccans, hoc turpior borhood of Thessalonica in Macedonia, where, est, quod in officio, cujus magister esse volt, Ælian tells us, the cocks were all dumb.-labitur; artemque vite professus, delinquit in Lib. xv. cap. 20.

2. It is as necessary for a preacher, in the composition of his sermon, to take into consideration the passions and prejudices of nis audience as it is for an archer to choose his arrows with an eye to the wind and weather.

3. Preachers would do eminent service to religion, if, instead of laboring to prove plain points, which nobody disputes, such as the obligations of duty, they would employ their powers in stating its measures, discovering the various ways men have of eluding it, and showing them their conformity or nonconformity to it.

4. The art of fine speaking is one thing, that of persuasion another. The prudent and affectionate address of a parent or a friend, however plain and unpolished, will do more towards inclining the will, than all the tropes and figures, the logic and rhetoric of the

schools.

5. "Scarce anything," says Dr. Trapp, "has of late years been more prejudicial to religion, than the neglect of the theological part of it, properly so called: and it is very greatly to be lamented, that some writers, even of our own church, out of an undue fervor in opposing some erroneous doctrines of Calvin, have run into the other extreme, and have too little regarded the necessary doctrines of religion." Pref. to Preservative, p. 5.

6. To preach practical sermons, as they are called, i. e. sermons upon virtues and vices, without inculcating those great Scripture truths of redemption, grace, &c. which alone can incite and enable us to forsake sin, and follow after righteousness, what is it but to put together the wheels, and set the hands of a watch, forgetting the spring which is to make them all go?

vita. See the whole passage.-Tust. Quæst. lib. ii. sect. 4. non procul ab init. Glasg. p. 58.-As a grammarian, who should speak barbarous language, or a musician, who should sing out of tune, would be the more despicable for failing in the very art in which he professed to excel; so the philosopher, whose conduct is vicious or immoral, becomes an object of greater disgrace; since, while inculcating the duties of life, he fails in their performance; and, undertaking to reform the lives of others, sins in the regulation of his own.

9. Terse moral essays, opposed to the overflowings of ungodliness, remind one of the Chinese, who, in tempestuous weather, throw feathers into the sea, to quiet the storm, and drive away the devil. See Travels of the Jesuits, by Lockman. ii. 58.

10. It is much to the honor of the

Athenians, that they had a law among them, obliging every man, who found a stranger that had lost his way, to direct him into it again. A Christian is under obligation, by the divine law, to do the same in spirituals.

11. At the critical moment of that night, when Count Lestock, in 1741, was going to conduct the Princess Elizabeth to the palace, to dethrone the regent, and put her in possession of the Russian empire, fear preponderated, and the princess refused to set out. The count then drew from his pocket two cards, on one of which she was represented under the tonsure in a convent, and himself on a scaffold on the other, she appeared ascending the throne, amidst the acclamations of the people. He laid both before her, and bade her choose her situation. She chose the throne, and before morning was empress of all the Russias. A preacher should take the same method with his people, which the count took with the princess. Before the eyes of those who halt between God and the world, through fear or any other motive, should be placed pictures of the joys of heaven, and the pains of hell. It remains only for them to choose right, and proceed Success will be the consequence. to action. 12. When the Romans heard Cicero, says Fenelon, they cried out, O le bel orateur! But when the 8. Tully's censure, passed on immoral phi-O what a fine orator! losophers, comes home to the business and Athenians heard Demosthenes, they called bosoms of wicked clergymen. Ut enim, si out, Allons, battons Philippe !-Come on, grammaticum se professus quispiam barbare down with Philip! The difference between loquatur; aut si absurde canat is, qui se the eloquence of the Grecian and that of the

7. St. Austin did not think himself bound to abstain from all ornaments of style, because St. Paul said, that he preached the Gospel "not with the enticing words of man's wisdom." Non prætermitto istos numeros clausularum.—I do not neglect the music of my periods. He studied to make his language sweet and harmonious.-See Donne's Sermons, p. 48.

:

Roman orator is here expressed in a manner | 2. In describing Sallust, at one time the equally judicious and lively and this is the loud advocate of public spirit, and afterwards true criterion of a sermon, as well as of an sharing in the robberies of Cæsar, Warburton oration. The exclamation of the audience expresses this variation of character by the should be, not, O le bel orateur! but, Allons, following imagery: battons Philippe! Let us attack such a passion, such an appetite, such an error; let us oppose the world, the flesh, and the devil! Demosthenes therefore is the author who should be studied and imitated by preachers.

PREDESTINATION.

It is much to be wished, that Christians would apply themselves to obey the Gospel, instead of endeavoring to discover the designs of God concerning man before man was created, or the precise manner in which he touches the hearts of those who are converted. Salvation may be obtained without knowledge of this sort: besides, the wit of man may not be able to solve the difficulties that may be started on every side of these questions; upon which, obscure and intricate as they are, if decisions are made and enforced as articles of faith, schisms and factions must ensue. But the mischief is done, and there is no remedy; divines are therefore obliged to explain their own sentiments, and oppugn those of their adversaries, respectively, as well as they are able. Thus strifes are increased, time lost, and edification neglected.

PRINGLE (SIR JOHN.)

;

"No sooner did the warm aspect of good fortune shine out again, but all those exalted ideas of virtue and honor, raised, like a beautiful kind of frost work, in the cold season of adversity, dissolved and disappeared."

PROVIDENCE.

1. Sometimes it pleaseth God to punish men for smaller sins in this life; which would not be, unless greater punishments were prepared for greaters sins in the next. There must either be a future day of judgment and retribution, or no God who governs the world.

2. There is a certain part in the great drama, which God intends each of us to act; but we often take a fancy to change it for some other, by which means we become miserable or ridiculous. "It is an uncontrolled truth," says Swift, "that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them." See Ascham, p. 166.

3. The schemes of worldly politicians are so many spiders'-webs, which, when woven with infinite care and pains, are swept away at a stroke, by Providence, with the besom of destruction.

Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo,
Et subito casu, quo valuere, ruunt.

OVID.

Hung on a thread, man's perishable pride
Trembles, and falls as fate and chance decide.

He was particularly fond of Bishop Pearce's Commentary and Notes. He was brought up in principles of virtue and piety; he was seduced to deism, but brought back again by an attentive consideration of the evidence and settled by discovering that the doctrine of the Trinity made no part of the Scriptures; 4. What inextricable confusion must the that the mercy of God was not confined to a world for ever have been in, but for the few, exclusive of others, and that future pun- variety which we find to obtain in the faces, ishments were not eternal. See Kippis's the voices, and the handwritings of men! account prefixed to his Speeches. This is a No security of person, no certainty of pos way of making matters easy: a man strikes session, no justice between man and man, no out of the Gospel what he does not like, and then is graciously pleased to profess himself a and foes, father and child, husband and wife, distinction between good and bad, friends believer of the rest. After this fashion, the male and female. All would have been exreligion certainly bids fair to become univer-posed to malice, fraud, forgery, and lust. sal. "Thus," says Kippis " he added another But now, every man's face can distinguish name to the catalogue of the excellent and him in the light, his voice in the dark, and judicious persons who have gloried in being his handwriting can speak for him though

rational Christians !”

PROSPERITY.

1. Prosperity too often has the same effect on a Christian, that a calm at sea hath on a Dutch mariner, who frequently, it is said, in those circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep.

absent, and be his witness to all generations. Did this happen by chance, or is it not a manifest, as well as an admirable indication of a divine superintendence? See Derham, i. 310.

5. When we peruse the history of Israel in the Scriptures, we behold the working of Providence in every event. The history

of other nations would appear in the same | its faults, prays to be forgiven, is desirous to light, if the same person were to write it, and be informed; is less adventurous; more cirunfold in like manner the grounds and reasons cumspect; sensible of its own frailty; forof his proceeding with them. At present we must learn as much as we can, by an application of parallel cases. So with regard to

Fitzosborn, 122. Solitude is certainly a fine | thing? but there is a pleasure in having some one whom we may tell from time to time, that solitude is a fine thing. It is the disadvantage of retirement and solitude, that men fall into erroneous and fantastical opinions and systems, for want of sifting and proving them in conversation and friendly debate. This is well stated in Letter lxxiv. p. 365. W. Law was a remarkable instance of it.

6. Conversation should certainly be more practised than it is, on subjects of science, morality, and religion. The less a man converses, the less he will be able to converse. Selkirk, who spent three years alone on the Island of Juan Fernandes, had almost lost the use of his speech. Thuanus used to say, reading was not of that use to him as conversing with learned men, which he did daily. Why was the style of Sallust artificial and dark, when that of Cæsar and Cicero was natural and plain? Because the two latter, by being accustomed to harangue senates and popular assemblies, gave themselves to use such speech as the meanest should well understand, and the wisest best allow: whereas Sallust wrote in his study, and from books only. Sir John Cheeke, in Ascham, p. 339. Cited also by Lord Monboddo.

2. Dr. Green of St. John's College, trying to skate, got a terrible fall backwards. "Why doctor," ," said a friend who was with him, "I thought you had understood the business better." "Oh," replied the doctor, "I have the theory perfectly; I want nothing but the practice." How many of us, in matters of a much higher and more important nature, come under the doctor's predicament!

3. "You have the word, and we have the sword," said Weston to the reformed divines in Queen Mary's time.

4. Cardinal Wolsey's reflection, made just before he expired, should be laid to heart by every man, when tempted to bestow upon the world, or any thing on it, that affection and service which are due to God." Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, HE would not have given me over in my grey hairs."

5. To those, who would win men to religion by fire and faggot, may be applied the remark of the Earl of Huntley, when protector Somerset marched into Scotland with 18,000 men, to effect a marriage between the young queen of that kingdom and Edward VI.-"That he disliked not the match, but hated the manner of wooing."

6. A person coming into Melancthon's house, found him holding a book with one hand, and rocking a child with the other. Upon his expressing some surprise, Melancthon made such a pious discourse to him, about the duty of a father, and the state of grace in which children are with God, that this stranger went away, says Bayle, much more edified than he came.

7. Very striking is St. Augustine's reflection, on the effect produced by our Lord's answer to those who came apprehend him."I am he. Eya ui" Quid judicaturus faciet, qui judicandus hoc fecit !-How will he act as a judge, who acted thus as a criminal!

8. Melancthon, when he went to the conferences at Spire, in 1529, made a little journey to Bretten, to see his mother. The good woman asked him, what she must believe, amidst so many disputes? and repeated to him her prayers, which contained nothing superstitious. "Go on, mother," said he, "to believe and pray as you have done, and never trouble yourself about controversies."-The advice of a wise and a good man.

9. Three or four English gentlemen on their travels through Italy, happening to be at St. Marino, on a fish day, applied to a butcher, to procure for them, if possible, a joint of veal. The butcher said he would do anything to oblige them, but could not kill for them, as nobody would buy but themselves. They continued very importunate, and offered to take any quantity. "Well then, gentlemen," said the fellow at last, “I will venture to kill a calf; and, if you will take half of it to-day, I will trust to THE REPUBLIC for the other half to-morrow."

10. Bajazet, upon the march, at the head of his mighty army, after the capture of his favorite city Sebastia, by the enemy, hearing a poor shepherd playing on his pipe on the side of a hill, exclaimed,-"Happy shep

herd, who hast no Sebastia to lose!"- what the latter had been saying? The earl Knolles.

11. Mahomet II. after he had taken Constantinople, being reproached for spending all his time with Irene, a captive Greek, forgetting his intended conquests, and neglecting the concerns of empire, ordered a convention of all his great men; produced Irene before them; asked them, if they could blame him, when they beheld her? and then, to convince them he could master his passions, seizing her by the hair with his left hand, chopped off her head with his right.

12. Very shrewd and sensible observations are often made by persons disordered in their senses. Dr. Heylyn used to apply, upon this occasion, an old Spanish proverb, which says, that light makes its way into a dark room, through a CRACK.

13. "Nec vero ego," says Sadolet, "aliud medius fidius statuo esse sapientiam, quam meminisse unumquemque quid sui officii et muneris sit, idque cum fide et cum integritate præstare." Epist. p. 21.-That, that alone I deem to be wisdom, which enables a man to keep present to his mind a sense of his duty, and with integrity and firmness to perform it.

14. Many of those fighting heroes, so celebrated in story, may be compared, as Mr. Boyle observes, to worthless gnats, considerable only for their noise and stings with which they disturb men's rest.

gravely replied, "Sir, my Lord Craven did. me the honor to whisper, but I did not think it good manners to listen."-This was exactly in the spirit of Charles's own witticisms. Ibid. p. 97.

20. When the same Lord Dorset was dying, Congreve, who had been to visit him, being asked how he left him, replied, " Faith, he slabbers more wit than other people have in their best health." Ibid. p. 97.

21. Shaftesbury (author of the Characteristics) attempting to speak on the bill for granting counsel to prisoners in cases of high treason, was confounded, and for some time could not proceed; but recovering himself, he said, "What now happened to him, would serve to fortify the arguments for the bill— If he, innocent, and pleading for others, was daunted at the augustness of such an assem bly, what must a man be, who should plead before them for his life?" Ibid. p. 106.

22. When the lieutenant of the Tower offered Strafford a coach, lest he should be torn to pieces by the mob, in passing to execution; he replied, "I die to please the people, and I will die in their own way.”— Royal and Noble Authors, p. 163.

23. Henry Lord Falkland being brought early into the house of commons, and a grave senator objecting to his youth, and "to his not looking as if he had sown his wild oats;" he replied with great quickness, "Then I am come to the properest place, where are so many geese to pick them up." Ibid. p. 221.

15. Valeria being asked, why, after the death of her husband Servius, she would not marry again? answered, "Ideo hoc facio quia Servius meus, licet aliis mortuus sit, 24. "My dear Pouilly," says Bolingbroke, apud me vivit, vivetque semper."-This I" of all the men I ever knew in my life, do, because my Servius, though dead to others, lives, and will ever live, to me."See Dieterich. ii. 435.

16. Dr. Johnson being asked what he thought of the Scotch universities: "Why, sir," said he, "they are like a besieged town, where every man has a mouthful, and no man has a bellyful."

17. The same person, being asked by some Scotch philosophers, whether he thought a man would exist by choice, or necessity? replied "If an Englishman, by choice; if a Scotchman, by necessity."

there are but three fit to take upon them the task of governing nations-you and I and Pope."-Pope had resigned his understanding to Bolingbroke; who was so pleased with the sacrifice, that he thought Pope, of all the men in the world, qualified to be a prime minister. This was most undoubtedly Pope's title; and it is natural for us to suppose, that M. Pouilly de Champeaux held his estate by the same kind of tenure.-The letter containing this very curious passage was lately published in the preface to an edition of the works of Champeaux. On the 18. Rochester said, with astonishment, same principle of vanity, Bolingbroke palmed "that he did not know how it was, but Lord upon his friends a silly mistress of his for Dorset might do anything, and yet was never a wit, because she repeated good things which to blame." Every body excused whom he had said, and pretended to have forgotten. every body loved for the tenderness of his Ah la pauvre humanité ! nature.-Royal and Noble Authors, p. 96. 25. Repentance and renovation consist not 19. On Lord Dorset's promotion, King in the wish, or purpose, but in the actual Charles, having seen Lord Craven (a proverb operations of a good life. As Dryden observes, for officious whisperers to men in power) pay that speculative painting, without the assisthis usual tribute to him, asked the former, ance of manual operation, can never attain to