the want of preparation in the present case, he is conscious that what he shall deliver will be unworthy of their attention; it may seem to result from an amiable self-diffidence. But judicious hearers will suspect, and often suspect truly, that pride is speaking under the cloak of humility.

At the bar, or in the senate, the public speaker may with happy effect sometimes allude, by way of apology for himself, to his want of health, or want of time for preparation, to the inexperience of youth or the imbecility of age. But the same indulgence is by no means allowed to the Christian preacher. The exhibition of himself in any form, is so inconsistent with the sacred delicacy and elevation of his work, that it rarely fails to excite disgust.

Before I dismiss the article of delicacy as a becoming property of an introduction, allow me to say, that it absolutely forbids an angry, austere, or querulous manner of address. He knows but little of men, who does not know that harsh and acrimonious language is adapted to produce unsanctified resentment, rather than evangelical repentance. He may imagine that fidelity to the truth requires him to assume a frowning front; to arraign his hearers with a magisterial air, and bid defiance to the sentiments they may entertain of him and his doctrines. But while they may be satisfied perhaps, that his religion has made him fearless and honest, they will hardly be persuaded that it has made him either an amiable man, or a wise preacher. Love and gentleness win upon the affections, while asperity and threatening fortify the heart against persuasion. A sermon, however excellent in other respects, will be lost to the hearers, if it assails them with an angry commencement.

In the fourth place, an exordium should be JUDICIOUS

AS TO LENGTH.

I say judicious, because what is proper in each case, must be determined by the subject and the circumstances. Many of the old divines extended this part of their discourses to a tedious prolixity; while others, in modern times, both among the English and the French, have adopted the opposite extreme, and have passed from the text to the discussion, with only a sentence or two of introduction. This matter, however, should be regulated by sober principles, and not by caprice. The wise traveller will adjust the rapidity of his first movements, and the length of his stages, to the extent of his whole journey. If the subject to be discussed by the preacher is very copious, the exordium should be brief, to make room for the subsequent matter. If the sermon, on the other hand, is to contain but few thoughts, it is a very inadequate remedy for the defect, to postpone the consideration of these, by an attenuated introduction. I have sometimes been pained at the want of skill, which leads a man to select a subject extensive enough for five sermons, and then to occupy in loose prefatory remarks, one third of the time allotted to his discourse. The most common characteristic of such introductions, is sterile and languid declamation. The preacher begins perhaps with the charms of Eden, the primitive innocence and felicity of man, his fatal seduction by the subtilty of the Tempter, his apostacy, and his expulsion from Paradise. Then follow, in regular gradation, the miseries of the fall, and the wonderful plan of redemption. Besides the disproportionate length to which these tame exordiums are apt to be extended, they are too miscellaneous, and too trite, to awaken interest. The preacher is so much at leisure, that every trifle by the way-side

attracts his attention; and his subject (if indeed he has one) is forgotten. In this case, no congruity of parts is maintained, no regard to the maxim:

“Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum."

The fault indeed is not so much that subsequent matter is inconsistent with what had preceded, as that the sermon is a dull repetition of thoughts anticipated in the introduction, some of which might have been vivid and interesting, in their proper place and order.

Two hints, founded as I think on careful observation, will close this lecture. One is, that young writers of sermons are extremely apt to dilate all the first thoughts of a sermon, from an apprehension that their stock of materials to complete it will be too soon exhausted. The other is, that a similar diffuseness may be expected, when a man is too indolent or unskilful to look through his subject, and arrange its parts, before he begins to write. In this case, his introduction will almost of course be inappropriate, and tedious in length. 1

1 Note (11.)

E

LECTURE VII.

EXPLICATION OF TEXT.-THREE GENERAL PRECAUTIONS.-PROPOSITION.

As the subject is the basis of a sermon, this ought in the first place, to be very distinctly apprehended by the preacher, before he can be prepared to state it clearly; to enforce it by argument, and to apply it with power to the conscience. It ought also to be fairly contained in the passage from which it is professedly deduced, as I have shown at some length in discussing choice of texts. It is this unquestionable principle, that the subject of a Christian sermon ought to be derived from the oracles of God, which often makes the explication of the text necessary, before the subject of discourse is announced. As very few remarks will be requisite on that part of a sermon, which we call proposition, I shall defer these till I have considered what is proper in explaining a text, when this is required.

It ought then to be taken for granted, that no man will attempt to discuss a text in public, while he does not suppose himself to be possessed of its true meaning. Not that absolute certainty concerning every passage, is essential or attainable. A man of the clearest conceptions, with the best aids which learning can furnish, may sometimes be in doubt, among the different senses that have been attached to a passage, which is the true one. But instead of obtruding his doubts on his hearers, pro

fessing to enlighten their minds, while his own gropes in darkness, Christian discretion prescribes a shorter course, namely, to let that passage alone in the pulpit; -at least not to make it a subject of a sermon. A man,' says Claude, who needs to be told that he ought not to preach on a text before he understands it, needs at the same time to be informed, that he is fitter for any other profession than that of the Ministry.'

But when there is no real difficulty in the sense of a passage, it is often useful to notice the occasion and circumstances with which it is connected, for the sake of a more vivid impression. When this is done by allusion to the context, especially when a simple statement of facts is all that is required, such an explanation of the text very properly falls into the exordium. I may add, that in much the greater number of cases, this familiar preparation to announce the subject of discourse is the best that can be adopted. There must however, be instances in which a regular explanation of the text is necessary to show the hearers that it contains the sentiment which the preacher deduces from it. In such a case he must resort to those laws of sacred criticism, by which, as an interpreter of the Bible and a theologian, his inquiries should be guided. To give instruction in these, is not the business of Sacred Rhetoric. But as the great end of sacred philology is the elucidation of divine truth, and that for the benefit of common understandings, the critic and the preacher must to some extent be combined; and it often becomes a question how far the literary habits of the former are to be modified by the practical wisdom of the latter. You sit down at your study table to investigate an interesting passage of scripture, with a view to bring forth its real import in But there is an important difference between

a sermon.