siege in form; he drew all his lines of circumvallation and con-travallation according to the rules of art; but he was so tedious and so exact in these mathematical performances, that the season · was spent, he was forced to break up the siege, and retire without any exccution done upon the town.

Ergates is another sort of preacher, a workman that need not be ashamed: he had in his younger days but few of those learned vanities, and age and experience have now worn them all off: he preaches like a man who watches for our souls, as one that must give an account he passes over lesser matters with speed, and pursues his great design, namely, to save himself, and them that hear him; 1 Tim. iv. 16. And by following this advice of St. Paul, he happily complies with that great and natural rule of Horace, always to make haste towards the most valuable end :-Semper ad eventum festinat.-He never affects to chuse a very obscure text lest he should waste too much of the bour in explaining the literal sense of it: he reserves all those obscurities, till they come in course at his seasons of public exposition; for it is his opinion, that preaching the gospel for the salvation, of men, carries in it a little different idea from a learned and critical exposition of the difficult texts of scripture.

He knows well how to use his logic in his composures; but he calls no part of the words by their logical name, if there be any vulgar name that answers it reading and meditation have furnished him with extensive views of his subject, and his own good sense hath taught him to give sufficient reasons for every thing he asserts; but he never uses one of them till a proof is needful. He is acquainted with the mistaken glosses of expositors, but he thinks it needless to acquaint his hearers with them, unless there be evident danger that they might run into the same mistake. He understands well what his subject is not, as well as what it is; but when he would explain it to you, he never says first, negatively, unless some remarkable error is at hand, and which his hearers may easily fall into for want of such a caution.

Thus in five or ten minutes at the most, he makes his way plain to the proposition or theme on which he designs to discourse and being so wise as to know well what to say, and what to leave out, he proportions every part of his work to his time; he enlarges a little upon the subject, by way of illustration, till the truth becomes evident and intelligible to the weakest of his hearers; then he confirms the point with a few convincing arguments, where the matter requires it, and makes haste to turn the doctrine into use and improvement. Thus the ignorant are instructed, and the growing Christians are established and improved the stupid sinner is loudly awakened, and the mourning soul receives consolation: the unbeliever is led to trust in Christ

and his gospel, and the impenitent and immoral are convinced and softened, are melted and reformed. The inward voice of the Holy Spirit joins with the voice of the minister; the good man and the hypocrite have their proper portions assigned them, and the work of the Lord prospers in his hand.

This is the usual course and manner of his ministry. This method being natural, plain and easy, he casts many of his discourses into this form; but he is no slave to forms and methods of any kind he makes the nature of his subject, and the necessity of his hearers, the great rule to direct him what method he shall choose in every sermon, that he may the better enlighten, convince, and persuade. Ergates well knows, that where the subject itself is entirely practical, he has no need of the formality of long uses and exhortations: he knows that practice is the chief design of doctrine; therefore he bestows most of his labour upon this part of his office, and intermingles much of the pathetic under every particular: yet he wisely observes the special dangers of his flock, and the errors of the time he lives in; and now and then (though very seldom) he thinks it necessary to spend almost a whole discourse in mere doctrinal articles. Upon such an occasion, he thinks it proper to take up a little larger part of his hour in explaining and confirming the sense of his text, and brings it down to the understanding of a child.

At another time, perhaps, he particularly designs to entertain the few learned and polite among his auditors: and that with this view, that he may ingratiate his discourses with their ears, and may so far gratify their curiosity in this part of his sermon, as to give an easier entrance for the more plain, necessary, and important parts of it into their hearts. Then he aims at, and he reaches the sublime, and furnishes out an entertainment for the finest taste; but he scarcely ever finishes his sermon without compassion to the unlearned, and an address that may reach their consciences with words of salvation.

I have observed him sometimes after a learned discourse, come down from the pulpit as a man ashamed and quite out of countenance: he has blushed and complained to his intimate friends lest he should be thought to have preached himself, and not Christ Jesus his Lord: he has been ready to wish he had entertained the audience in a more unlearned manner, and on a more vulgar subject, lest the servants and the labourers and tradesinen there, should reap no advantage to their souls, and the important hour of worship should be lost, as to their improvement. Well he knows, and keeps it upon his heart, that the middle and lower ranks of mankind, and people of an unlettered character, make up the greater part of the assembly; therefore he is ever seeking how to adapt his thoughts and his Janguage, and far the greatest part of all his ministrations, to

the instruction and profit of persons of common rank and capacity it is in the midst of these that he hopes to find bis triumph, his joy and crown in the last great day, for not many wise, not many noble are called.

There is so much spirit and beauty in his common conversation, that it is sought and desired by the ingenious men of his age: hut he carries a severe guard of piety always about him, that tempers the pleasant air of his discourse, even in his brightest and freest hours; and before he leaves the place (if possible) be will leave something of the savour of heaven there in the parlour he carries on the design of the pulpit, but in so elegant a manner that it charms the company, and gives not the least occasion for censure.

His polite acquaintance will sometimes rally him for talking so plainly in his sermons, and sinking his good sense to so low a level. But Ergates is bold to tell the gayest of them, " Our public business, my friend, is chiefly with the weak and the ignorant: that is, the bulk of mankind: the poor receive the gospel: the mechanics and day-labourers, the women and the children of my assembly, bave souls to be saved; I will imitate my blessed Redeemer, in preaching the gospel to the poor; and learn of St. Paul to become all things to all men, that I may win souls and lead many sinners to heaven by repentance, faith and holiness."

SECT. II-A branching Sermon.

I HAVE always thought it a mistake in the preacher, to mince his text or his subject too small, by a great number of subdivisions; for it occasions great confusion of the understandings of the unlearned. Where a man divides his matter under more general, less general, special, and more particular heads, he is under a necessity sometimes of saying, firstly or secondly, two or three times together, which the learned may observe; but the greater part of the auditory, not knowing the analysis, cannot so much as take it into their minds, and much less treasure it up in their memories in a just and regular order; and when such hearers are desired to give some account of the sermon, they throw the thirdlys and secondlys into heaps, and make very confused work in a rehearsal, by intermingling the general and the special heads. In writing a large discourse this is much more tolerable*, but in preaching it is less profitable and more intricate, and offensive.

It is as vain an affectation also to draw out a long rank of particulars in the same sermon under any one general, and run up the number of them to eighteenthly, or seven-and-twentiethly.

* Especially as words may be used to number the generals: and figures of different kinds and forms, to marshal the primary and secondary ranks of partculars under them.

Men that take delight in this sort of work, will cut out all their sense into shreds; and every thing that they can say upon any topic, shall make a new particular.

This sort of folly and mistaken conduct appears weekly in Polyramus' lectures, and renders all his discourses lean and insipid. Whether it proceed from mere barrenness of thought and a native dryness of soul, that he is not able to vary his matter, and to amplify beyond the formal topics of an analysis, or whether it arise from affectation of such a way of talking, is hard to say; but it is certain, that the chief part of his auditory are not overmuch profited or pleased. When I sit under his preaching, I fancy myself brought into the valley of Ezekiel's vision; it was full of bones, and behold, there were very many in the valley, and lo, they were very dry; Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2.

It is the variety of enlargement upon a few proper heads, that clothes the dry bones and flesh, and animates them with blood and spirits; it is this that colours the discourse, makes it warm and strong, and renders the divine propositions bright and persuasive it is this brings down the doctrine or the duty to the understanding and conscience of the whole auditory, and commands the natural affections into the interest of the gospel: in short, it is this that, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, gives life and force, beauty and success to a sermon, and provides food for souls. A single rose-bush, or a dwarf-pear, with all their leaves, flowers and fruit about them, have more beauty and spirit, in themselves, and yield more food and pleasure to mankind, than the innumerable branches, boughs and twigs of a long hedge of thorns. The fruit will feed the hungry, and the flower refresh the fainting; which is more than can be said of the thickest oak in Bashan, when it has lost its vital juice; it may spread its limbs indeed far and wide, but they are naked, withered, and sapless.

SECT. III.-The Harangue.

IS it not possible to forsake one extreme without running into a worse? Is there no medium between a sermon made up of sixty dry particulars, and a long loose declamation without any distinction of the parts of it? Must the preacher divide his works by the breaks of a minute watch, or let it run on incessantly to the last word, like the flowing stream of the hour-glass that measures his divinity? Surely Fluvio preaches as though he knew no medium; and having taken a disgust heretofore at one of Polyramus' lectures, he resolved his own discourses should have no distinction of particulars in them. His language flows smoothly in a long connection of periods, and glides over the ear like a rivulet of oil over polished marble, and like that too leaves no trace behind it. The attention is detained in a gentle pleasure,

and (to say the best thing possible of it) the hearer is soothed in something like divine delight; but he can give the enquiring friend scarcely any account what it was that pleased him. He retains a faint idea of the sweetness, but has forgotten the sense.

Tell me Fluvio, is this the most effectual way to instruct ignorant creatures in the several articles of faith, and the various duties of the christian life? Will such a long uniform flow of language imprint all the distant parts of christian knowledge on the mind, in their best form and order? Do you find such a gentle and gliding stream of words, most powerful to call up the souls of sinners from their dangerous or fatal lethargy? Will this indolent and moveless species of oratory, make a thoughtless wretch attend to matters of infinite moment? Can a long purling sound awaken a sleepy conscience, and give a perishing sinner just notices of his dreadful hazard? Can it furnish his understanding and his memory with all the awful and tremendous topics of our religion, when it scarcely ever leaves any distinct impression of one of them on his soul? Can you make the arrow wound where it will not stick? Where all the discourse vanishes from the remembrance, can you suppose the soul to be profited or enriched? When you brush over the closed eyeJids with a feather, did you ever find it give light to the blind? Has any of your soft harangues, your continued threads of silken eloquence, ever raised the dead? I fear your whole aim is to talk over the appointed number of minutes upon the subject, or to practise a little upon the gentler passions, without any concern how to give the understanding its due improvement, or to furnish the memory with any lasting treasure, or to make a knowing and a religious christian.

Ask old Wheatfield the rich farmer, ask Plowdown your neighbour or any of his family who have sat all their lives under your ministry, what they know of the common truths of religion, or of the special articles of christianity. Desire them to tell you, what the gospel is, or what is salvation? What are their duties toward God, or what they mean by religion? Who is Jesus Christ, or what is the meaning of his atonement or redemption by his blood? Perhaps you will tell me yourself, that you have very seldom entertained them with these subjects. Well, enquire of them what is heaven? Which is the way to obtain it, or what hope they have of dwelling there? Entreat them to tell you, wherein they have profiled as to holiness of heart or life, or fitness for death. They will soon make it appear by their aukward answers, that they understood very little of all your fine discourses, and those of your predecessors; and have made but wretched improvement of forty years attendance at church. They have now and then been pleased, perhaps, with the music of your voice, as with the sound of a sweet in