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who it is that speaks-who are the people addressed-what ought to be the subject matter of the discourse and under what circumstances the auditory is convened. These considerations regulate the art of speaking.

The Preacher commonly speaks to instruct the assembly; he is transported with the emotions he endeavours to excite. If he feel sensibly, if he be sometimes moved to tears, he has always in view the welfare of his audience: the declamation of the Preacher will be influenced by that single motive; the whole tenor of his action will be to persuade the affections, and to impress the heart.

One successful method of an orator's conciliating · the esteem of his audience is, by the observance of oratorical decorum. It is not becoming in a young Preacher to censure old age with severity; it is not becoming in him to be austere in his system of morality, to declaim against permitted pleasures, and not to allow any thing to human weakness. It is not becoming in him whose situation in life is obscure, to inveigh loudly against riches, nor to censure, indiscriminately, the application of them, as he will only subject himself to the suspicion of envy. He must take care, at the Festivals of the Church, and on days set apart, by authority, for solemn worship, not to preach on moral subjects which have been often discussed, since they will not be esteemed judicious and appropriate.

Be attentive to what your age, your rank in the Church, your condition in society, the times, places, and persons prescribe to you to say, and you will preserve decorum. Religion does not discard, but enjoins it; Religion recommends prudence, which suggests the greatest caution in not wounding, unnecessarily, the feelings of others. The Essay of the Abbe Mallet, on oratorical decorum, is worthy of your serious perusal.

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There are many works on preaching: the æra. of Louis XIV produced many, and the seventeenth century has produced more. Much as may, confessedly, be gained by the study of Treatises on Oratory, if your object be to arrive at celebrity, as a Preacher, still, a great genius is far superior to their instructions. They will teach you to shun the defects of the art; but will they inspire you with its beauties? There exists a natural relation between the mode of speaking, and of what we speak. I have never heard an eloquent composition delivered, by the Author, in an ungraceful and uninteresting manner.

The substance of all the rules I have laid down is this, that a Preacher ought not merely to seem, but actually TO BE impressed with the truths he delivers. Let a truly religious disposition prevail throughout your discourse. Let not your preaching be such as will be flattering to yourself, but adapted to the improvement and edification of your audience. The perfection of eloquence, in a

Christian orator, consists in forgetting himself; the importance of what he is delivering, and the effect it ought to produce, should suppress all consciousness of his own talents.

Above all, let your morals be correspondent to your doctrine. Let your appearance excite the ideas of wisdom, integrity, and piety. By your virtues, attract the respect and confidence of mankind, that every heart may be disposed to profit by your instructions. Justify, by your example, the definition which Quintilian gave of an orator, when he said the upright is the eloquent man.

You asked me for instruction in the Art of Preaching, persuaded they would be useful to you. If I have been fortunate enough to answer your expectations, answer mine in return. May you make an happy application of the principles I have laid down. May your ministry flourish, and be productive of the most blessed effects! May you, by the successful cultivation of the Lord's vineyard, receive, as the reward of your labors, not the admiration and the praises, but the blessings, of those you have instructed, consoled, and nourished, with the words of life!

REYBAZ

1

THOUGHTS

ON THE

COMPOSITION OF A SERMON,

AS ADAPTED TO

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

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