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SECTION VII.

OF PLANS DRAWN FROM THE TEXT.

VERY Orator possessed of original ideas, without ever attempting to astonish, will. have new and striking plans, merely by attending to the scope of his own genius.

Plans are frequently singular and whimsical, especially when they are drawn from the text.

a sermon to give such a one as naturally arises from the I subject itself, and may impart light and just order to the several parts; such a division as may easily be remembered, and at the same time help to connect and retain the whole; a division, in fine, that may shew at once the ' extent of the subject of all its parts." Dialogues concerning Eloquence, p. 4, 6, 7.

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The same writer also observes that there should be nothing refined or far fetched in a Christian Orator's in'structions; nor should he be setting up for wit and delicacy of invention when he ought to speak with the utmost 'seriousness and gravity, out of regard to the authority of the Holy Spirit whose words he borrows.'-Ibid. p. 146. 'What,' says he, could we think of a preacher who should, in the most affected jingle of words, shew sinners the divine judgment hanging over their heads, and hell 6 open under their feet? there is a decency to be observed in our language as well as in our clothes. A disconsolate ⚫ widow does not mourn in fringes, ribbons and embroidery; and an apostolical minister ought not to preach the word ' of God in a pompous style, full of affected ornaments (or quaint conceits.) The Pagans would not have endured ta see even a comedy so ill acted.'-Letter to the French Academy, p. 176.

This irksome restraint scarcely ever succeeds in moral discourses.

Massillon hath sketched out the division of his sermon on confession, where we find so many beauties in detail, upon a passage in the Gospel. He takes for his text that verse of St. John,* There was a multitude of blind, halt, and withered. Massillon compares the sinners, who surround the confessionals † to the sick people who were upon the side of the pool of Jerusalem: and he shews the analogy of those corporeal infirmities with the most usual abuse which renders confessions of no utility.

There were blind people; defect of knowledge in the examination. There were halt; insincerity in the confession. There were impotent folk, zvithered; want of sorrow in the repentance.

This application is doubtless ingenious; but it is too far fetched. The excellent taste of Massillon only yields this once to the temptation of drawing a very artificial plan from the analysis. of his text t

* John, ch. v. verse 3.

† French-les tribunaux de la penitence.

Methinks the censure of Doctor BLAIR applies to this quaint division of Massillon's Discourse, when he remarks, that the defects of most of the French sermons are these: 'from a mode that prevails among them of taking their texts from the lesson of the day, the connexion of the texts

He has made a happier use of the famous passage, it is finished, in his sermon on the Passion. But this interpretation is not his own, it having been previously unfolded in various monastic pieces.

It appears to me that the method of adapting the text to the plan can hardly ever be successfully made use of in instructions purely moral; and that it succeeds much better in mysteries*, in funeral orations and panegyrics, where the text will not suit the discourse unless it makes known the subject, and, at least indirectly, comprehends the division.

It is easy to find in the holy Scripture verses consonant to the principal idea which we intend to express; and we are always pleased with the

'with the subject is often unnatural and forced; and their ⚫ applications of scripture are fanciful rather than instructive.'-He farther remarks, that their method is stiff and cramped by their practice of dividing their subject always either into three, or two main points, and their composi❝tion is in general too diffuse, and consists rather of a very 'few thoughts spread out, and highly wrought up, than of a rich variety of sentiments. Admitting, however, all these defects, it cannot be denied, that their sermons are formed upon the idea of a persuasive, popular Oration; and therefore, (he adds), I am of opinion that they may be read with benefit.'-BLAIR'S Lectures, vol. ii. p. 119.

*Fr. dans les Mysteres. The Author probably means here, the solemn services of the church, such as feasts, fasts, communions, &c.

Orator for those successful applications which, in some measure, render sacred the plan he hath chosen.*

SECTION VIII.

OF THE PROGRESSION OF THE PLAN.

HETHER it be a moral subject that is

discussed, or one's talent be exercised upon panegyrics or mysteries, it is always necessary to observe a specified progression in the distribution of the plan, in order to impart an increasing force to the points adduced, to give weight to the argument, and energy to the rhetorical movements. It is as rare as it is difficult to render both parts of a sermon equally excellent, because the same resources seldom present themselves to the imagination of the Orator. The latter, however, ought to excel the former. Eloquence always declines when it ceases to rise. It is therefore to the second branch of the division that the most persuasive arguments and pathetic sentiments ought to be reserved.

* 'I must confess I always disliked a forced text. Have 'you not observed that a preacher draws from a text what' ever sermons he pleases? He insensibly warps and bends 'his subject to make the text fit the sermon that he has oc'casion to preach. This is frequently done, but I cannot approve of it.'-Dialogues concerning Eloquence, p. 146.

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Cicero, whose plan is very distinct in all his Orations, although seldom announced in the exordium, adopts a method very favourable to the advancement of his proofs, which obliges him to be surpassing himself continually by fresh efforts, in proportion as he proceeds in the difficulties of his subject.

Open his Orations. He at once denies the fact which is opposed to him; and afterwards he proves, that, by taking its truth for granted, nothing could thereby be concluded against his cli

ent.

I shall only quote here two striking examples of this excellent method.

· In defending Archias who had been his preceptor, and of whom he always speaks with the most lively gratitude, Cicero thus divides his Oration; "I shall prove that Archias is a Roman “citizen; and that, if he were not, he would be "very deserving to be one."

The plan of the Oration in favour of Milo is no less forcible. "Milo," says he, “hath not "slain Clodius; if he had slain him, he would "have done well." The mind of man cannot reason with more perspicuity and energy.

Nor are we to conclude that Cicero proceeds thus accidentally on some particular occasions.