more readiness, and would give their Pastors more unequivocal proofs of its efficacy, both upon their minds and behaviour. Let the general characters of those who profess themselves members of the Church, be considered; and will the fondest attachment, and the blindest partiality, pronounce, that they are what the Gospel requires them to be-that their love abounds more and more, in all knowledge and in all goodness? It is a reproach cast upon the Establishment, that her adherents are as lukewarm in the profession of faith, as remiss in the practice of duty-that they are, from want of religious knowledge, unable to defend her doctrines, and from want of religious principle, negligent in the observance of her Ordinances. We allow the justice of the reproach, for we cannot deny it. And what is still more to be lamented, many seem to think they have Religion enough, provided they go, generally, to Church, and live as well as their neighbors, although they obviously are strangers to that vital, inward, piety, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the Gospel. The state of such men, which we cannot believe to be a state of salvation, may it not be attributed to the moral Essays, and argumentative Discourses to which the Clergy are, with such an unaccountable in. fatuation, attached? How greatly then, is it to be lamented, that all this deplorable* ignorance

"

* "Teach your People what is grievously wanted in the present Age, to value their Bibles more, and understand them better, and to read them both with Pleasure and Profit." Abp. SECKER.

and astonishing insensibility, cannot prevail with them to renounce the mode of writing and speaking, which has had so powerful a tendency to produce, what we cannot but esteem a disgrace to the Church, and which is, to its enemies, a cause of exultation! The improvement that every one acknowledges necessary to be made in the established Church, is evidently this-to impress its members more generally, with a sense of the importance of salvation-to persuade them that re ligion does not consist in mere profession, but in a renewal of the heart and mind, and that it is of them, that God hath spoken, saying-" I will "dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will "be their God, and they shall be my people." To produce this blessed effect, the natural effect of preaching,* animation must stand in the place of dulness, and zeal in that of indiffer

ence.

It is a lamentable consideration that moral, uninteresting discourses have been so long preached, that the apostolic declaration-that many men "will "not endure sound doctrine," is literally verified in our own Church. If a Clergyman "speak the "truth as it is in Jesus"-if he illustrate the genius, and enforce the precepts, of the gospel; they

*❝I would have every Minister of the Gospel," says the amiable Fenelon, "address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother-Soyez peres, ce n'est pas assez Boyez meres,"JERNINGHAM.

are scandalized. They discover their own ignorance, they vilify his labours, and confer the highest honor on the sectaries, by representing him as a fanatic, and an enthusiast. There is not, perhaps, one single Clergymen, who is distinguished by the excellence of his Sermons, and the impression of his elocution, whom ignorance has not industriously proclaimed, and suspicion cautiously received, as preaching the distorted doctrines, and pernicious errors of the conventicle.

I shall not be misunderstood, in deprecating cold, moral discourses, and recommending, in their stead, lively and animated exhortations, to encourage vague and empty declamation, such as we hear sometimes delivered by some Clergymen, whose sole object seems to be, to display their own superficial talents, and excite the unmeaning admiration of their auditors. I am solicitous to introduce a very different mode of preaching-to impress the preacher with the awful consideration-that he stands as the ambassador of God, between the living and the dead-that he is entrusted with the word of God, to awaken the obdurate, and alarm the impenitent, to encourage the desponding, and confirm the believing, Christian; and which seems to be unaccountably neglected by the Clergy, to console and bind up the broken-hearted-to comfort them that mourn, and to speak peace to the afflicted soul. "Eter"nity? heaven! hell! death! these are scenes

"which cast around an awful and universal interest."* If a sermon be declamatory, it may dazzle the imagination, and strike the ear, but will not interest the affections-if it be diffuse, it may bewilder the mind, but cannot improve it. Genuine eloquence, on the contrary, being addressed to the heart, leads it captive-the glory of God, the salvation of men, the welfare of society suggest the thought, and not infrequently, give it expression.

French Sermons, which, upon the whole, I consider more useful, than even the best of those in our own language, are liable to objections; and therefore should be read with care; the Catholic, which are more oratorical, abound with declamation, with point, and antithesis; the Protestant, which are more doctrinal, are verbose, and often, by consequence, tiresome in the perusal. There is, however, another objection, which applies more especially to the Catholic-their† system of theology

*"I beg, I may not be understood, that I am recommending to the Preacher to diffuse a gaudy colour over his composition."-JERNINGHAM.

"The severe precepts, the austerity of doctrine, the unremitted rigour, that prevails in the moral discourses of the French Preachers, carry with them something of a repulsive Those moralists survey the christian institution with a splenetic eye; a sombrous, monastic melancholy broods. over their religious instructions: they dwell on the terrific part of the christian doctrine, deepening those clouds, which

nature.

is gloomy, unsocial, and forbidding. Like our own Sectaries, they do not consider religion as interwoven with all the acts of life; their godliness consists in tautological prayers, and extatic raptures. But this is not the religion of the New Testament. Religion is to be the governing principle, to direct us in our several stations, as preparatory to a future, or eternal state of bliss or misery. When, therefore, the young Divine studies, or translates, or abridges French writers, he must not suffer himself to be so far transported with their beauties, as to forget their defects.They may, by a due exercise of judgment, be admirably adapted to the English pulpit; and when they have the advantage of being well delivered, they will not merely ensure attention, but also affect the heart.

Another objection made to the Catholic sermons is, that they are all peroration; and that they contain very little reasoning. Allowing this objection in its full force, they will, being persuasive and highly oratorical, be listened to with more eagerness, and applied with more efficacy, both by a rustic and a polite auditory, notwithstanding this imputed defect,

appear to the affectionate believer, little more than relieving shades to attemper the blaze of mercy.-JERNINGHAM.

It may be further added, that the French Catholic Preachers are much too sparing of Scripture language, which, when judiciously introduced, is, in practical sermons, the highest ornament. See a preceding Note, page 264.