and Barbarity, fo different from its native Charms.

XVI.

The ill Succefs of moft Preachers arifes from their little Care to understand the moral Part of Christianity, and the little Talent they have to explain and enforce it; for the Draughts of this Part, if rightly made, are of all the most effectual in ftriking upon Human Minds. They are often deficient in this refpect through a vain Curiosity of over-much Reafoning, which does but obftruct and choak up their Matter. This is a way that some take to avoid the Difficulty of painting the Manners, which is the hardest Task of an Orator, though the most potent to gain him Admiration. He that would attempt it with Credit, must begin with the Knowledge of Man's Heart; he muft have a View of all its fecret Motions, to defcribe it naturally, and to draw Men fo much to the Life, as that they may know themselves in the Piece. 'Tis here the generality of Preachers fail; they reprefent the Manners in wrong Colours, and thus they lofe all Power and Influence with their Hearers, because these Pourtraicts being falfe, no Man applies them to himself, nor thinks he fat for a Picture, that does not resemble him. They address themselves to the Strict and Virtuous, as to profligate Sinners; to Courtiers, as to reclufe; they tranfplant their Country Difcourfes into the City, and vend their elaborate Compofitions, where Catechisms, and the plaineft Inftructions, would alone be ferviceable. Exery one knows the Story of the Preacher that defcanted upon all the Species

of

of Sins against the Seventh Commandment, before a Society of religious and very intelligent Women. This feems to be the most general Fault of the Pulpit; for the necessary Diftinction of Perfons, and the perfect Knowledge of the Manners, are indeed the rarest Accomplishments, as require fo large an Experience of the World, affifted with the joint Stock of Philofophy and Divinity. A Preacher ought to be intimately converfant in these Studies, as the Grounds of that Difcernment fo effential to his Profeffion, in which I am perfwaded, no Man ever fucceeds, but in proportion to the degree of true Difcernment that he is Master of, that is, fo far only as he understands the Manners and the Heart of Man.

XVII.

This Heart of Man is a great and unfathomable Deep; whatever Discoveries we can make in it, there are others daily to be made. And yet in order to the giving the true Picture of it, 'tis not enough to have dived fo far into it, as to apprehend its Cheats, its Impostures, its Diffimulations, its Weakness, its Sufpicions, its Jealousies, its Distrusts, its Irrefolutions, its Contradictions, its Turns, its Inequalities, its Niceties in Points of Intereft, its Pride, its Prefumption, the confufed Medley of all its Paffions, together with the natural, and almost inconceivable Biafs that it has towards Diffimulation and Difguife; but we must likewife pluck off its Mask of Virtue, of Candour, and of Sincerity, which it commonly wears, the more artificially to carry on its refin'd Diffimulation; we must let it fee how by

G

ап

an inexhaustible Spring of Self-love, (against which the Fathers have with fo much Warmth inveigh'd) and by a falfe and mistaken Modefty, it is wont to conceal even from it felf the Wickedness of its own Defigns, and fo to skreen off the Confufion that must otherwise follow upon them. Being in it felf void of all Virtue, and over-fpread with every Vice, we ought to convince it, that the Joy it fometimes difcovers in the Exercise of Virtue is too often counterfeit; that it does but flatter it felf with a Shadow of Grief and Penitence in its Acts of Humiliation; that its Faith, and Hope, and Charity, and all its Gifts and Graces, are fometimes but imaginary and fuppofititious, yielding only a vain Amusement and delufive Tranquillity, under the wild and groundless Schemes that it forms of eternal Happiness. In one Word, to difplay it throughout, and to fhew it fuch as it is, we ought to prefent to its Sight its pretended Modefty, and Indifference in feeking; its artificial Shifts and Excufes in avoiding; its perverfe Judgments in rating and esteeming; the Weakness of its Refolutions; its perpetual Motion and restlefs Difquiet in purfuing. I fhould be endlefs, if I farther endeavour'd to go through all its Mazes and Intricacies, and to lay open all its Folds. I have faid enough to point out the Master Springs of its feveral Motions, which ought to be exactly weigh'd and confider'd by every Preacher that would diftinguish himself in his Order. For, indeed, the Knowledge of Man's Heart, or of Human Nature, in a greater or leffer Degree, is almost the only thing that makes a real Difference in the Talents of the Pulpit, amidst that infinite Variety of the Ways and Methods of preaching.

The

The fmall Number of those who Difcourfe with Power and real Effect, is owing to their flender Proficiency in the Knowledge of Mankind. Because, while they hover in a Cloud of Generals, and defcend not to trace out the particular Lines and Features of Manners, the Audience think themselves unconcern'd in the Description. 'Tis the juft Accuracy of moral Characters, that gives the chief Weight and Influence to a Preacher's Difcourfe; and this Accuracy being fo uncommon a Secret, the Influence of Preaching cannot be much more diffus'd. But here we ought to interpofe a Caution, that no Man fhould venture upon this Work of painting the Morals, unlefs fupported by a large Genius, and as large an Experience. Both the one and the other are of fuch abfolute Neceffity in this Affair, that whofoever embarks in it without them is not fo likely to gain Admiration, as Pity or Contempt.

XVIII.

dolendum

eft. Hor.

Befide's this Exactness of the Moral, which is a Part of Eloquence, that contributes the moft to the rendring it great and admirable, the Art of raising the Affections, is of no fmall Efficacy in the fame Regard., 'Tis not Tibi, fi vis enough for a Preacher to fay great Truths, me flere, but he must say them well and heartily, and with an Air of decent Paffion and Concern. For to fpeak moving Things, and to remain onc's felf unmoved, is taken but for a Grimace, and is laugh'd at accordingly. I have formerly heard a Doctor of the Sorbonne, who preach'd very true Gofpel, in the choiceft Language, and with a conftant Vein of good G 2 Sense;

virtutis.

Pfal. 67.

Senfe; but he fpoke coldly, without any Action, without that proper Warmth, which alone can affect or move. Whence fome that were pleasantly difpos'd, took an Occafion of obferving, That fo fedate a Preacher must certainly be given up to Reprobation by his Audience, because he appear'd to have fo little Interest in what he faid. And, indeed, this languid and careless Delivery, in religious Subjects, Dabit vociis a great Obftacle to the Power and Efficacy Jua vocem of the Word of God, which unless utter'd with a reasonable Degree of Earneftnefs and Ardor, is not productive of its genuine Fruit. But among the Preachers of our Age, how few are there that can fay they have affected the meanest Auditor with a lively Senfe of the deteftable Nature of Sin, and of those heavy Punishments that await it? And yet there have been known a Ferom Savanorolla at Florence, a Lewis de Granada at Sevil, and a De Ligendes at Paris, who made whole Auditories tremble, when they open'd their Mouth on Subjects that are fo terrible in their own Natures. The Prophet Jonas alarm'd and converted all Nineveh by his firft Sermon of Repentance to that great City: He preach'd a voluptuous Sardanapalus, with his whole Court, into Sack-cloth and Ashes; and our Preachers fometimes fail of bringing over one Sinner in a whole Lent. The Reafon is, because they preach with an Air of Indifference, and are scarce ever fo ferious, fo melting, fo vehement, as they ought to be. We read of Philip de Narny, a Capucin Fryer, under Pope Gregory XV, who preach'd at Rome with fuch Force of Perfuafion, fo powerful Action, and fo frequent Zeal, that the People never went from his Sermon, without crying out for Mercy