LECTURE VI.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.-EXORDIUM.

Preliminary remarks. Necessity of a sound judgment in a preacher; to preserve him from a mechanical uniformity in his sermons; and from disregard, on the other hand, of all settled principles, through a studied peculiarity. Necessity of pious feeling; what character will be imparted to his sermons by the want of this; and by the possession of it. Principal parts of a sermon,-what. This classification only general, to be more or less used, according to the subject.

Exordium. Its chief object,-what. Chief obstacles to the preacher's success, stated. Prejudice against his talents, character, or opinions; how to be treated. Ignorance and indifference of hearers; the regard which these require, as to the mode of presenting a subject.

An exordium should possess, 1. Simplicity; this forbids, Pomp and studied ornament. Warm appeals to passions. Ostentation of learning. Abstruse thought and language. Abruptness. Examples of proper and improper abruptness.

2. Pertinence; it should not be foreign from the subject or occasion. Nor general and trite. Influence of pertinence on variety. Introduction from the context,advantages of.

3. Delicacy; This should arise from Reverence towards God, &c.; respect to hearers. It does not require timidity; nor formal apologies for defects of the preacher; objection to these. It forbids an angry, austere manner.

4. Judicious length; Practice of old divines; of some modern ones. The kind of matter common in long exordium. Two brief reasons why inexperienced preachers are apt to dilate the first thoughts of a sermon.

LECTURE VII.

EXPOSITION.-PROPOSITION.

Exposition of the Text. When, after due examination, we suppose ourselves still not to understand a text, what course is proper. Explanatory remarks, may be useful where no difficulty is to be removed; and may fall in with the exordium. Where a regular exposition of the text is

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called for, there is a difference between the office of the critic and of the preacher.

Practical principles to be observed by the latter.

1. He may err by supposing too many difficulties in his way. Tendency of this state of mind in a preacher. To what extent the Bible is a plain book; how the supposition, that, on essential points, it is necessarily unintelligible to plain, pious men, is inconsistent with the grand principle of Protestantism. Why reasonable to expect that it would be intelligible to such men, if we consider by whom, for whom, and for what purpose, it was written. Evidence that it has been correctly understood by such men. Yet,

2. He may err by taking it for granted, that the obvious is always the true sense. Reasons why this ought not to be expected; great diversity of matter and phraseology in the Bible; local customs, figures. Examples of allusions to oriental customs, in which the terms do not obviously convey the true meaning, viz. from language of Moses, and of Christ.

3. He may err by aiming to find a new sense to his text. Motives that may lead to this course. Random censures, in sermons, of the received translation; why improper. Excess of criticism in the pulpit,-condemned by Campbell; his reasons. What was the example of Christ and the Apostles in relation to this subject? How a man's critical knowledge, without any ostentation of it, may benefit his hearers.

When the sense of the text is ascertained, and exhibited, it is announced in the

Proposition. Difference in the signification of this term as used in logic, and as used in oratory. Examples of each -Either is proper in a sermon; which most favourable to unity. Manner of announcing propositions. Two suggestions of cautions.

LECTURE VIII.

UNITY.

Unity. Why is it that some do, and others do not consider divisions as inconsistent with unity? Unity different from sameness. Unity with and without variety. Illustrations. Applied to a dull uniformity in the matter and method of sermons.

Unity in a sermon requires that it be,

1. One in subject. Violated, by too many preparatory

topics, diverting hearers from the main point, when there is one. Violated by introducing a system of religion into each

sermon.

2. One in design. Design a distinct thing from subject. Example; It is this which should leave on the hearers some one distinct and predominant impression.

3. One in adjustment of its parts to the principal end, and to each other. Grand principle in preaching, viz.—a sermon should produce an effect as a whole. How accomplished. Its materials should be chosen and arranged with a view to this. Illustration from works of art;-from architecture ;-from landscape gardening;—from historie and portrait painting;-from epic and dramatic poetry. Character of a sermon made up of a succession of good remarks, unconnected :-or of striking sentences,-or brilliant passages,-independent of a main object.

4. One in mode of Illustration. Every topic, figure, &c. should serve to fix the main subject more deeply in mind. Does unity forbid divisions?

LECTURE IX.

DIVISIONS.

1. Objections to divisions. They give an air of stiffness, and take away the interest which an intelligent hearer has in discovering the method for himself. Ans. To intelligent hearers, divisions are not useless ;-and to plain hearers they are indispensable;-especially in a spoken discourse. Obj. Divisions are a scholastic device,-unknown in ancient oratory. Ans. Ancient orators, though not formal, had method. Examples from Cicero, in which his method was distinctly announced.

2. Utility of divisions. By these is meant, not occult but obvious divisions. Not essential that heads be always marked numerically; several ways of marking them to hearers. Doddridge's advice and example. Method promotes Perspicuity; Beauty; Brevity; how promoted; Energy;-order strengthens impression by combining the power of separate arguments; by relieving attention; and promoting vivacity. Memory, is aided; viz. of the preacher, and hearers. Illustrated. Kind of sermons that are in fact most easily remembered by common people. Test from the practice of note-taking-and of repeating sermons in families.

LECTURE X.

DIVISIONS.

3. Kinds of divisions. The verbal or textual; The topical. The principle of each stated. Example of the kind of division required by each. The scholastic; principle of; Example. Example of a deliberate oration on the same plan.

4. Rules by which divisions should be conducted. They should be Necessary. When they are so. Well arranged. Chief principles of arrangement in different cases, according to order of cause and effect ;-order of time; of genus and species. In some cases, the order of heads is nearly indifferent,-in others it is essential. Examples of both kinds. Complete. What is meant. Illustration from light and colours; from a geographical description of a whole by its parts. Few; Illustrated by a map. Multiplication of divisions in the seventeenth century. Concise in terms. Reason of this rule. How brevity of terms is promoted by aid of grammatical ellipsis. Examples of brevity in the form of heads, by such an arrangement as to suspend them all on some one connecting term, or clause.

LECTURE XI.

ARGUMENT.

Some who allow reasoning to be proper in secular oratory, object to it in the pulpit; Why? The objection not well grounded. Influence of such an opinion; — on the preacher, on the hearers. Moral evidence, and not demonstration, is appropriate to the reasoning of pulpit. Still it does not follow that a knowledge of intellectual philosophy, and of geometry, are useless to the preacher ;nor that religion does not admit of certainty.

Sources of argument.

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1. The Bible is the chief source of argument in the pulpit. On some subjects the only source. In regard to subjects and evidence of this sort, what is the proper province of reason. How may we fail in giving prominence to the divine testimony. Examples of this defect. On some sub

jects proofs are mixed, partly from the Bible, partly from other sources.

2. Consciousness.

Distinction between this and conscience. Strength of this evidence. To what purposes this kind of evidence is most applicable.

3. Common sense. Why propositions of this class are called self-evident. Example from Tillotson, to show how this sort of evidence may be employed in sermons.

LECTURE XII.

ARGUMENT.

4. Evidence of facts;-including experience, testimony and authority. A general law of the material and intellectual worlds stated, according to which facts become the basis of argument. To what extent this sort of evidence may be used in sermons. Cases in which testimony, as proof in sermons is liable to abuse. Authority,-its abuse, -its true weight. Practical bearing of this last topic on the evidence of what doctrines are taught in the Bible. Rules of Argument.

I. In reasoning from the Bible, its unperverted meaning must clearly support the point to be proved.

1. In adducing proofs from the Bible, the grand principle of Protestantism must be adhered to, that our faith must conform to the Bible, and not the Bible to our faith. Violations of this principle ;-Their tendency ;—

2. But though there be no perversion, the proof may be obscured, by quoting-too many texts;-or too few ;-or by bare quotation of the text, where comment also is necessary to show its bearing. Examples on the last point. Cases in which scriptural proof is made out by comparison and induction.

II. In reasoning, from whatever source, we should consider the influence of passion and prejudice on belief.

This influence illustrated. Advantage of Analytic method in such cases.

LECTURE XIII.

ARGUMENT.

III. Arguments should be simple,—that is, not complicated, nor abstract; Grounds of this rule. Prejudices against