extremely clear. Terms and phrases may be familiar to you, which are quite unintelligible to them; and I fear this happens much oftener than we suspect." Let your style have the amoenity of Addison, and the simplicity of Secker; combine ornament with ease, and piety with precision, still it will not be adapted to the pulpit, unless you can unite warmth, vehemence, and persuasion. In the Sermons and Lectures of the Bishop of London, we meet with many very striking instances of religious animation, and genuine eloquence. If a Sermon is intended for a popular auditory, and the Preacher strives-and every preacher ought to strive to excel; the best models of style which can perhaps, be proposed, are the writings of Barrow, of Dr. Johnson, of Gibbon; the Bampton Lectures of Dr. White; and above all, the political works of Lord Bolingbroke. Yet in these writers, excellent as they are, there is one defect, against which the student cannot too carefully guard; and it is this-their sentences are often too long; and a Sermon consisting of long sentences, which can only be heard, is rendered, to a part of the hearers, almost unintelligible. Addison is ge.. nerally praised as among the most elegant of the English authors: but his style, to use the expression of the incomparable Johnson, "sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation," to be adapted to the pulpit. * Unless it possessed * What Dr. Johnson says of the style of Swift, is strictly applicable to all the writers of this class; among whom may, I fear, great advantages in the delivery, the congregation would scarce be kept awake. A sermon should be always animated; and it is only by reading the best authors, that a young composer can attain to excel : be ranked the excellent Secker. "He pays no court to the passions for purposes merely didactic, when something is to be told that was not known before, this easy conveyance of meaning is the best mode, but against that inattention, by which known truths are suffered to lie neglected, it makes no provision; it instructs, but does not persuade." The character of Tillotson's style is very justly delineated in Fitzosborne's Letters (XIV): "Dr. Tillotson, who is frequently mentioned, as having carried this species of eloquence, viz. persuasion, to its high est perfection, seems to have had no notion of rhetorical numbers; and may I venture to add, that I think no man had ever less pretensions to genuine oratory, than this celebrated Preacher? One cannot but regret, that he who abounds with such noble and generous sentiments, should want the art of setting them off with all the advantage they deserve; that the sublime in morals should not be attended with a suitable elevation of language. The truth, however, is, his words are frequently ill-chosen, and almost always ill-placed; his periods are both tedious and unharmonious; as his metaphors are generally mean, and often ridiculous.” I have much wished that the valuable Sermons of Tillotson-and out of his vast collection, many such might be found-were reprinted, and the objections made by the author of the Letters removed: that part of his writings might then, with unqualified praise, be recommended as models to the young clergy; and also as a family book, containing sound doctrine and genuine morality, conveyed in a pious and insinuating manner. lence; by a careful perusal of the writers I have just mentioned, he will learn to be energetic without being declamatory, and vehement without being ostentatious. Whoever wishes to become an useful and accomplished Preacher, perspicuous but not inelegant, and persuasive but not enthusiastic, must give his days and nights to the acquisition of religious knowledge, and the cultivation of evangelic eloquence. For the indispensable requisites of ornament, of figures, of the pathetic, and of the sublime, I refer the reader to Dr. Blair's admirable Lectures, which the oftener they are read, will excite greater emulation, and produce more visible improvement. All rhetorical writers recommend in the peroration or conclusion of the Sermon, peculiar warmth and animation. And it is to be lamented, that both the old, and especially the modern, authorsof Sermons, either contemptuously disregard, or intentionally overlook, what is equally indispensable to an eloquent, vehement exhortation, and to a plain practical Sermon. The conclusion, unquestionably, requires a more thorough knowledge of human nature, more address, greater power of language, than any other part of the composition; it is, therefore, proportionally difficult in the execution. The Preacher should, in the conclusion of his discourse, seize, warm, melt the heart; and should dispose the hearer by persuasion, or compel him by terror, to descend into it. He should make, as it were, a personal appeal to his auditory, and should, by the energy of his expression, and the vigor of his sentiment, attempt to infuse, as far as is possible, into every individual, a solicitude to know, and a resolution to fulfil the terms of salvation! Were. this interest excited in the breasts of our congregation, we should not have such abundant cause, as we now have, to lament the little effect produced by preaching; we should not be mortified, by observing that our several flocks, either seem to have forgotten the discourse, the moment the Preacher has pronounced the blessing; or, which we cannot sufficiently deplore, to consider their duty as discharged by a mere attendance on public worship. I am not able, unfortunately, to refer the reader to one single author, who excels in the peroration of his Sermons. Dr. Blair, who has in his Lectures, strongly recommended this oratorical conclusion, has not once, in his celebrated discourses, attempted it. To my great disappointment and mortification, I have not met with an eloquent peroration in the compositions of some distinguished living* authors, where I naturally expected to find it. The prevailing methods alas! are, either coldly to recapitulate the argu * A volume of sermons, lately published by Dr. Gardiner, abounding with much clear reasoning, and fervid piety, and at the same time interspersed throughout with the most brilliant passages-had they possessed the requisite I am recommending-might have been considered as containing the happiest, and, indeed, the most complete, specimens of pulpit eloquence. ments, which, often by eluding the attention, exer. cise the patience of the auditory; or to draw inferences, which, having no tendency to rouse the affections, and enflame the mind, are reluctantly heard, and instantly forgotten. How much higher would be the effect, were the Preacher to awaken his auditory-to a sense of their duty-to impress with all possible solemnity, the account they must give, to a righteous and just Being—and to conjure them with paternal affection, not to disappoint the expectations, and frustrate the designs of their Almighty Judge? To this part of the discourse more especially, let him direct all his judgment, and apply all his powers; let him consider his Sermon incomplete, and his duty imperfectly discharged, if he does not succeed, before the departure of the congregation, in persuading to good, or dissuading from evil. Let him consider himself in the situation of a father, who has been using the most powerful arguments to convince a beloved child-let him represent that child, as going from his presence, with a degree of conviction impressed upon his mind, but with his heart disposed to act in disobedience to it-would he not enforce these arguments, in the last words he had to utter, by the most importunate address, and the most affectionate exhortations? Would he not describe, in the most glowing colors, the ruin which awaited the child, and the misery which would, in consequence, overwhelm the parent? Or rather, let him consider himself as the Ambassador of Heaven, admitted to the honor of |