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rity enough to give a pofitive Decifion in the Subjects that come before him. 'Tis a great Weakness in a Preacher, not to be able to declare precifely, what is a Matter of Faith, and what not: For then, he must hesitate when he ought to determine. But we are likewise to confider, That as nothing is fo great and noble, and, indeed, nothing fo agreeable in facred Eloquence, as Divinity, when explain'd in a due Manner, and when 'tis properly the Knowledge of our Religion; fo there's nothing more unhappy, nothing more disgusting, if it be not treated with that Profoundness of Understanding, and that full Sufficiency of Strength which its Dignity might challenge,

X.

Yet too great a Familiarity with the Schoolmen, may rather turn to the Prejudice than to the Advantage of a Preacher; if he is not skill'd in the right Ufe of them, and cannot apply them to his Bufinefs with Caution and Management. For the Air of the Schools is really quite oppofite to Eloquence; and, I believe, the Reading of Thomas Aquinas, though fo very folid in his Judgment, and exact in his Method, has made more bad Preachers than good, because he writ in fo dark and miferable an Age, the Taste of which was wholly vitiated and corrupted. His hard and jejune Way of faying Things, is no lefs improper for an Orator, than the Things which he fays are proper. Not but that his Simplicity of Style is in it felf the fittest for Inftruction; but 'tis certainly very different from that which we ought to follow in publick Speaking. The Divines

Divines who fucceeded him, and upon his Authority establish'd the fcholaftick Way, are equally dangerous to the Eloquence of the Pulpit, which would be impoverish'd, and quite dried up by thefe fubtle Reasonings, that may give Nerves to a Difcourse, yet that take away all its Grace and good Complexion. True Logick, or the Art of Thinking, is, as I have before obferv'd, abfolutely neceffary to Eloquence, which without it can be no better than Impertinence and empty Prattle. But then we are not to make ufe of Logick in its own Stiffnefs and dry Formality; but we must soften it by a due Mixture of Ornament, to render a Difcourfe fine and palatable.

IX.

The fame Remarks may be pafs'd on the Study of the Latin Fathers, who are no lefs oppofite to the Art of Preaching than the School-Divines, by reafon of the low and wretched Estate of Eloquence in their Days. Every one knows to what Extremities all that we Term good Senfe, or all that is Polite in Learning, was reduced by the Inundations of the barbarous People which broke in upon Italy. All the Fathers of the firft Ages, as low as St. Bernard, writ in this dry and fapless Manner, excepting a very few, who preferv'd themselves from the falfe Tafte by fome little Vein and Tincture of Antiquity, fuch as Minutius Felix, Salvian, Arnobius, and St. Jerome, to whom we may add St. Ambrofe and St. Auftin, in fome Parts of their Works. The Greek Fathers are better Orators than the Latin; though the Conduct of their Design, and the Management of their Subjects, is commonly

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very plain and fimple, never very juft, or conformable to the Rules of Art; most of them being contented with an easy and natural Strain, and even too much indulging their free Genius, as may be obferv'd in St. Bafil and St. Chryfoftom. I fay, most of them, for St. Gregory Nazianzem feems more artful and refined. But while we thus admonifh Preachers of the Danger to which their Eloquence may be expos'd by reading the Latin Fathers, only to invite their Caution in this Affair, we are by no means for prohibiting all Commerce with them. The Fathers are not only of excellent Ufe, but of abfolute Neceflity to a Preacher, to fill his Mind with thofe juft Ideas of the Holinefs and Grandour of our Religion, which occur in those venerable Writers. It is from them, as from the pureft Source of Chriftian Morals, that we are to derive our Knowledge of the Doctrines which we preach. The Fathers are the natural Interpreters of the Gofpel; and the Church has for no other Reason, adorn'd them with that reverend and facred Name, but because their Works are, as it were, the Patrimony and Inheritance which they have bequeath'd to the Faithful, as to their genuine Ofspring.

XII.

A Preacher muft not only improve and enrich his Judgment by a long Study of Divinity, and frequent Converfe with the Fathers, whom he should take care to read in a good Method: But he must likewife endeavour to form to himself fuch a Chriftian Rhetorick, aş we don't find defcribed by the ancient Masters, who had not the leaft Idea of it; nor by the Modern, who have only copied from the An

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cient. The Majefty of our Religion, the San&ity of its Laws, the Purity of its Morals, the Loftinefs of its Myfteries, and the Importance of all its Subjects, ought to give fuch an Elevation to facred Eloquence, as is not to be fustain'd by the Weakness of a meerly human Capacity. There must be a great, and noble, and majestick Air, and a Language, if poffible, not inferior to the Theme. For no Man ought to speak of God, and of Heavenly Things, without the utmost Dignity of Style, and fuch a Voice of great Words as the Prophet mentions. .'Twould be in vain to seek this Pitch of Eloquence in Ariftotle's Rhetorick, in the Ideas of Hermogenes, or the Inftitutions of Quintilian.

Even that fublime Manner which Longinus has framed, by heaping together all the great Expreffions of the Antients, is but low and creeping, in comparison with that which a Preacher ought to follow, if he would truly reach and maintain his Character; That exalted Mien which becomes the Greatness of Christianity, and the incomprehenfible Myfteries of Faith, can only be reprefented by those Divine Images which occur in the Holy Scriptures, to all fuch as have the Gift of fearching its Depths. It is only in this pure and fruitful Stream, that a Preacher can find those magnificent Expreffions, which have the Holy Spirit for their Author: 'Tis hence he must take thofe bright Ideas, and that true Sublimity, which compofe the effential Chara&ter of the Oratory of the Temple, fuch as recommended Apollos to the Approbation of St. Paul, and to the Honour of being his fellow Labourer, as an eloquent Man, and mighty in the Scriptures. A Preacher then, who would

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would attain the Eloqnence, peculiar to his Function, must be conftant and affiduous in reading the Prophets, and must allow himfelf Time to meditate on what he reads: efpecially if he is defirous of exciting Terror, which he will almoft perpetually have Occavalet apud fion to do. For we are not skill'd in the Art plurimos of Preaching, unless we can alarm the Conmalorum fcience of a Sinner, and by cafting proper quam fpes Fears into his Spirit, can awaken him out of bonorum. that Slumber which was brought upon him by Quintil. the Softness of a licentious Age. The Holy

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Scripture is fo plentiful a Fountain of all the Riches, and all the Ornaments of Eloquence, as to afford a proper Model for every Way, and every Style.

Thus Ifaiah is Lofty, Jeremiah is Pathetical, Ezekiel is Terrible, Daniel Mild and Gentle and as for the other Prophets, Greatnefs is their general Character; nor have we any thing written with the like Force by Pagan Authors. Good Senfe, and true Reafon was never difplay'd to fo much Advantage in any moral Treatife, as it is in the Books of Solomon.

γενηθήτω No History was ever written with fuch s, a mixt Air of Simplicity and Majesty, as that yvelo. of Mofes: A few Words cited from the Be

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ginning of which, fupplied Longinus with his nobleft Example of the fublime Kind, fo vaftly fuperiour to the greatest Elevation of human Style. Nothing was ever compos'd with more tender Paffions, or with a greater Delicacy of pious and devout Strains, than the Pfalms of David. The most refin❜d Policy of worldly Sages, never carried its Views fo far, as the Books of Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes. In a Word, the utmost Extent and Capacity of human

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