proceed to action. Success will be the conse quence. 12. When the Romans heard Cicero, says Fenelon, they cried out, O le bel orateur!-O what a fine orator!-But when the Athenians heard Demosthenes, they called out, Allons, battons Philippe!-Come on, down with Philip! -The difference between the eloquence of the Grecian and that of the Roman orator is here expressed in a manner equally judicious and lively: and this is the true criterion of a sermon, as well as of an oration.--The exclamation of the audience should be, not, O le bel orateur! but, Allons, battons Philippe !-Let us attack such a passion, such an appetite, such an error; let us oppose the world, the flesh, and the devil!-Demosthenes therefore is the author who should be studied and imitated by preachers. PREDESTINATION. IT is much to be wished, that Christians would apply themselves to obey the gospel, instead of endeavouring to discover the designs of God concerning man before man was created, or the pre cise manner in which he touches the hearts of those who are converted. Salvation may be obtained without knowledge of this sort: besides, the wit of man may not be able to solve the difficulties that may be started on every side of these questions; upon which, obscure and intricate as they are, if decisions are made and enforced as articles of faith, schisms and factions must ensue. But the mischief is done, and there is no remedy; divines are therefore obliged to explain their own sentiments, and oppugn those of their adversaries, respectively, as well as they are able. Thus strifes are increased, time lost, and edification neglected. PRINGLE. (SIR JOHN) He was particularly fond of Bishop Pearce's Commentary and Notes. He was brought up in principles of virtue and piety; he was seduced to deism, but brought back again by an attentive consideration of the evidence; and settled by discovering that the doctrine of the Trinity made no part of the Scriptures; that the mercy of God was not confined to a few, exclusive of others, and that future punishments were not eternal.—See Kippis's account prefixed to his Speeches.-This is a way $0. of making matters easy; a man strikes out of the gospel what he does not like, and then is graciously pleased to profess himself a believer of the rest. After this fashion, the religion certainly bids fair to become universal. "Thus," says Kippis, "he "added another name to the catalogue of the "excellent and judicious persons who have gloried " in being rational Christians !” PROSPERITY. 1. PROSPERITY too often has the same effect on a Christian, that a calm at sea hath on a Dutch mariner, who frequently, it is said, in those circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep. 2. In describing Sallust, at one time the loud advocate of public spirit, and afterwards sharing in the robberies of Cæsar, Warburton expresses this variation of character by the following imagery: "No sooner did the warm aspect of good for"tune shine out again, but all those exalted ideas "of virtue and honour, raised, like a beautiful "kind of frost work, in the cold season of adver"sity, dissolved and disappeared.” PROVIDENCE. 1. SOMETIMES it pleaseth God to punish men for smaller sins in this life; which would not be, unless greater punishments were prepared for greater sins in the next. There must either be a future day of judgment and retribution, or no God who governs the world. 2. There is a certain part in the great drama, which God intends each of us to act; but we often take a fancy to change it for some other, by which means we become miserable or ridiculous. "It is 66 an uncontrolled truth," says Swift,“ that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own "talents, nor a good one who mistook them."See Ascham, p. 166. 3. The schemes of worldly politicians are so many spiders' webs, which, when woven with infinite care and pains, are swept away at a stroke, by Providence, with the besom of destruction. Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo, Hung on a thread, man's perishable pride 4. What inextricable confusion must the world for ever have been in, but for the variety which we find to obtain in the faces, the voices, and the handwritings of men! No security of person, no certainty of possession, no justice between man and man, no distinction between good and bad, friends and foes, father and child, husband and wife, male and female. All would have been exposed to malice, fraud, forgery, and lust. But now, every man's face can distinguish him in the light, his voice in the dark, and his hand-writing can speak for him though absent, and be his witness to all generations. Did this happen by chance, or is it not a manifest, as well as an admirable, indication of a divine superintendence ?-See Derham, i. 310. 5. When we peruse the history of Israel in the Scriptures, we behold the working of Providence in every event. The history of other nations would appear in the same light, if the same person were to write it, and unfold in like manner the grounds and reasons of his proceedings with them. At present we must learn as much as we can, by an application of parallel cases. So with regard to individuals. 6. We easily persuade ourselves that a cause is good, when its patrons are victorious, and have the disposition of things in their hands. Cicero, I |