I fay farther chaste, in oppofition to those bold and impudent geniuffes who are not ashamed of faying many things, which produce unclean ideas in the mind. the fon, nor father or fon before the holy Ghoft, but only in order, and relation to one another, &c. Beveridge on the Trinity. (5) Much of the ancient fchool-divinity was of this filthy kind. The angelical doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and others, have handled the following irreverend and fcandalous queftions: Utrum effent excrementa in paradifo? Utrum fancti refurgent cum inteftinis? Quare Chriftus non fuerit hermaphroditus? Utrum fi Deipara fuiffet vir, potuiffet effe naturalis parens Chrifti? Utrum verbum potuit hypoftatica uniri naturæ irrationali, puta equi, afini, &c. Bayle, Aquinas, rem. E. I omit others'more scandalous ftill, and thefe are related for the fake of justifying the reformation, and its true ground, liberty of confcience. Since the reformation, people have enjoyed the right of private judgment, and, in this country, the liberty of propagating their privateopinions by public preaching; yet no one fect has ever pretended to maintain thefes equal in abfurdity to thefe. Individuals in all parties have run into extravagances : but it belongs to the infallible party to dignify thefe extravagant individuals with the titles of feraphical doctors, angelical doctors, irrefragable doctors, &c. for inventing and maintaining such stuff. It may not be improper to add an example or two. A certain friar, preaching at the church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, against the antipope, Peter De-Luna, in the year 1408, among many other indecent expreffions, protested, quod ANUM fordidiffima Omazaria OSCULARI mallet quam os Petri De-Luna. Velly hift. de France, tom. xiii. p. 42. That farcical droll Dr. South, whofe low jokes obtained the name of wit in complaifance to the political caufe, for which he pouted, abounds with ludicrous and offenfive puns. In fpeaking of "the delights of a foul clarified by grace, he says, no man, at the years and vigour of thirty, is either fond of fugar-plumbs or rattles." A fage remark indeed! but the next is fupremely nafty: man would preferve the itch on himself only for the pleafure of feratching." I was going to make a reflection on this dirty doctor, but on cafting my eye on the top of the page, I fee the doctor has very wittily provided for transferring "No mind. (5) A preacher cannot be called chafte, who, fpeaking of the conception of Jefus Chrift in the virgin's womb by the power of the holy Ghoft without the intervention of man, is not careful of faying any thing, that may shock the modesty of fome, and give occafion of discourse to the profanity of others. There are I know not how many fubjects of this kind, as when the eternal generation of Jefus Chrift the fon of God is spoken of; when the term regeneration is explained, which fcripture ufeth to express our converfion; or when we treat of that feed of God, of which, according to St. John, we are born; or when we enforce the duties of hufbands to wives, or of wives to hufbands; or when we fpeak of the love of Jefus Chrift to his church, under the notion of a conjugal relation; or when eternal felicity is spoken of under the image of a banquet, or of a marriage-feaft. On all fuch fubjects, chastity fhould weigh the expreffions, it to the king A fermon preached at court ! South's Jermons. f. i. Prov. iii. 17. How fuperior to thefe is the pagan rhetorician's example: Ego Romani pudoris more contentus, ut jam refpondi talibus, verecundiam filentio vindicabo. Quint. inft. lib. viii. cap. 3. Et quidem jam non etiam obfcena verba pro obfcenis funt, batuit, inquit, impudenter, depfit, multo impudentius, atqui neutrum eft obfcenum. Stultorum plena funt omnia. Cic. ad famil. lib. ix. epift. 22. I only add what Erafmus fays of a preaching friar, and whom he names Merdardus, and who corpore vafto, buccis rubentibus, ventre prominente, lateribus gladiatoriis, præter effrontem improbitatem et linguam effrænam nihil habebat. --- Non eft chriftianæ mentis cuiquam imprecari male; illud potius op tandum, ut clementiffimus reium formator et reformator (qui ex Nabuchodonofor homine fecit bovem, et rurfus ex bove fecit hominem, qui afinæ Balaami dedit hominis linguam) omnes Merdardi fimiles vertat in melius, detque illis et mentem et linguam viris evangelicis dignam. Erafm. colloq. Concio, fie Merdardus, and make a judicious choice, in order to keep the hearers minds at the greatest distance from all forts of carnal and terreftrial ideas. The likelieft way of fucceeding in these cafes is to beware of preffing metaphorical terms too far; to keep in general confiderations, and if poffible to explain the metaphorical terms in few words, and afterwards cleave entirely to the thing itself. (6) (6) For what regards metaphorical language fee the other note in this chapter, No. (6); at prefent let us exemplify this rule from Mr. Saurin. The fubject is regeneration, the text John iii. firft five verfes. He obferves, that the term is a trope, and muft Ift be restrained, becaufe, fays he, it is impoffible to underftand a metaphor if we do not divest it of every thing foreign from the fubject in queftion, 2. It must be justified, for the change fpoken of under the emblem of a new birth, tho' expreffed in figurative language, is yet a real change. 3. The idea which a new birth gives of this change is fo perfect, that it might terrify timorous chriftians, it must therefore be qualified. 4. The qualifications, of which the fubject is capable, are apt to lull fome into fecurity, who, under pretence of infirmities infeparable from the best of men, allow them felves in vices incompatible with a ftate of grace; this expreffion therefore must be guarded. 1. This restriction (adds, I. 4. A he) is neceflary, because there is no one author without exception, whofe opinions may not be mistaken, if his comparifons be ftretched beyond due bounds: and this, which is true of all authors, is inconteftibly true of the oriental writers; for as their imaginations were naturally more lively, their metaphors were more bold, and the bolder the metaphors, the more need of reftriction." This he inftances in feveral things fimilar to Mr. Claude's obfervations, and clofes this part by faying, "if you do not make thefe restrictions, you will push the metaphor too far, and confequently make indifcreet comparisons between this new birth and a birth properly fo called: you would form notions of it not only unworthy of being received, but even of being refuted in fuch a place as this." Mr. Saurin then proceeds to guard against the oppofite mistake, which many have fallen into, by obferving that there is a real change actually required in order to falvation, a change 4. A preacher must be fimple and grave. Simple, fpeaking things full of good natural fenfe without metaphyfical fpeculations; for none are more impertinent than they, who deliver in the pulpit abItract fpeculations, definitions in form, and fcholaftic queftions, which they pretend to derive from their texts;-as on the manner of the existence of angels, the means whereby they communicate their ideas to each other; the manner in which ideas eternally subsist in the divine understanding; with many more of the fame clafs, all certainly oppofite to fimplicity. To fimple I add grave, becaufe all forts of mean thoughts and expreffions, all forts of vulgar and proverbial fayings, ought to be avoided. The pulpit is the feat of good natural fenfe; and the good fenfe of good men. On the one hand then you are not to philofophize too much, and refine your fubject out of fight; nor on the other to abase yourself to the language and thoughts of the dregs of the people. (7) a change of ideas, a change of will, a change of tafte; a change of hope; a change, in fhort, of all falfe fchemes of felicity for the one true one, &c. Saur. fer. tom. 7. fer. "Onzieme. 5. The being adorned and inriched, fhe arrived at last to the highest dignity and pre-eminence. The title of the ninth is, The mafs's impeachment, and her answer, with the proceedings against her The tenth is intitled, God's fentence against the mafs. This dramatick method of preaching is too much in the tafte of the Italians. Bayle, art. Ochin, rem. P. (7) Apreacher must be grave. Bernard Ochin published 12 fermons on the Lord's-fupper, The feventh fermonis intitled, The tragedy of the mafs, and firft Low he was conceived, born, and baptized. The eighth is entitled, How the mass was qurfed and educated, and bow, Rejice degenerem turbam nil lucis habentem, Indecorefque notas, ne fit non digna fuppellex. No doubt but to people of good education, Vida's is a good rule, as applicable to preaching as to poetry: Vida ars poet. lib. iii. l. 183, But 5. The understanding must be informed, but in a manner, however, which affects the heart; either to comfort the hearers, or to excite them to acts of piety, But yet in compaffion to the dregs of the people, who, with all their ignorance, have fouls, it ought to be remem bered, that their minds are acceffible only by their own way of thinking and fpeaking, and theirs is a different language and a different habit of thinking from others in more cultivated life. Hence Ariftotle wifely fays, To de πρεπον εξει η λέξις,εανη παθητική, σε και ηθικη, και τοις υποκείμενοις πραγμασιν αναλογον HOIKH δε αυτη η εκ των σημείων δειξις, οτι ακολουθεί η αρμοτίεσα εκατω γένει και εξει. Λεγω δε, γένος μεν, καθ ηλικιαν οιονει παις, η ανηρ, η γερων και γυνή, και ανηρ και Λάκων, η Θετίαλος· εξεις δε, καθ' as Wolos TIS TO BIW & yag nad απασαν εξιν οι Βιοι ποιοι τινες. Εαν ουν και τα ονόματα οικεία λεγη τη εξει, ποιήσει το ήθος ου γαρ ταυτα, ουθ ωσαύτως ΑΓΡΟΙΚΟΣ αν και ΠΕΠΑΙΔΕΥΜΕΝΟΣ ledge at the reformation. Tria faciunt theologum dixit, meditatio, oratio, et tentatio; et tria verbi miniftro facienda, evolvere biblia, orare ferio, et femper difcipulum manere. Optimi ad vulgus hi funt concionatores, qui pueriliter, populariter et fimpliffime docent. In vifitatione Saxonica cum in pago rufticus fymboli verba hæc recitaret dialecto fuo, Ich glove in Gottden alochteigen, credo in Deum patrem omnipotentem; quæfivit ex eo quid almochteigen omnipotens fignificet refpondente rufticoignoro, imo inquit Lutherus, et ego et omnes eruditi id ignoramus; tu id faltem crede, Deum efe tuum patrem, qui potest et vult te, tuofque, fervare. Rhythmis etiam delectatus fertur vernaculis, &c. Melch. Adam. vita Germ. Theol. in vita Lutheri. Mr. Adams inferts fome of thefe homely country rhymes, for which beggarly ballads, perhaps Luther may receive a greater reward at the last day than he would for whole felves of Greek and Latin folios. Vanity will make a man write learnedly; but piety only can prevail on a good scholar to rufticate his fpeech and manners for the fake of the poor. Truly, for a man who relishes polite literature, who |