hints pretty broadly, that it would be as well if Dissenters were clipped a little of their elective franchise, since, under the present latitudinarian system,' it is not to be expected that they will vote for true sons of the church. The precept which requires us to submit to the powers that be, Mr. Lloyd informs us,includes in those powers, ecclesiastical as well as 'civil governors.' From which we learn, that it was St. Paul's object, in addressing that exhortation to the Roman Christians, to teach them to recognize the pontifex maximus as "the "minister of God to them for good," and to conform to the decrees of Cæsar in matters ecclesiastical, by worshipping Jupiter Capitolinus and the whole rabble of the Pantheon. Mr. Lloyd thinks, that this new and impressive view of the subject may lead some candid dissenters to reconsider the grounds of their dissent from our excellent establishment.' In the second part of the Inquiry, it is Mr. Lloyd's object to shew, that the best mode of preaching Christ is, by reading precomposed discourses; on which we are at issue with him. His preference of this mode is built wholly upon two false assumptions, mingled with much misrepresentation. He assumes, that those who adopt the extemporaneous mode of address, preach for the most part with no previous preparation beyond a few general heads of division and some few remarks, perhaps, under each head, that cost them no labour of thought or serious investigation of their subject;' and he assumes further, that written discourses must needs be the result of both. Whereas the fact is, the mode of preparation which he advocates, is not less favourable to mental indolence, requires even less intellectual preparation, and, judging from its general result, involves less expense of thought, than the mode he deprecates. There is, it is true, added to the manual labour of writing out the sermon, the mechanical labour of rounding so many periods: but Mr. Lloyd well knows that the labour of thought and investigation chiefly consists in the examination of the passage to be illustrated, and the framing of the train of argument. A well digested skeleton, such as most extempore preachers are accustomed to prepare in writing, may be compared to a counsel's brief: if the speaker keep to this, he can never talk at random. We say that Mr. Lloyd knows this, for he was, in his better days, an extempore preacher himself.

'I admit,' he says, that I was accustomed to preach from a few notes, which I put into my sermon case, and to which I had recourse as to so many pregnant hints that were designed to remind me of that train of argument which I had fully considered and digested in my study; and, for the purpose of arranging my ideas with more perspicuity and effect, I frequently committed to paper some of the

more important parts of my discourse, lest my statements upon such points should not be sufficiently accurate, and consequently subject to misconstruction.'

παρρησίαν,

Now this mode of address, Mr. Lloyd adds, differs widely from extempore preaching.' What is this but a quibble? He must know that this mode is called extemporary preaching, and that it precisely describes the mode most generally adopted by Dissenters. As to his reason for deliberately abandoning it for sermons written out at full length, namely, that this latter method is more conducive to a development of the truth in its various bearings,' we confess that it is to us quite unintelligible. Yet, Mr. Lloyd is willing to concede, that a preacher even of written discourses, should possess that agenosav, that proper confidence in himself, which ' will enable him to express any sentiment or emotion that may occasionally arise in his mind in the warm prosecution of his subject, or be suggested at the time by his audience.' How is he to acquire this confidence, if he adhere to Mr. Lloyd's plan? But it is useless to reason with a Writer who admits every thing that his opponents would contend for, and, while he is professedly declaiming against extempore preaching, confesses that it is the only mode which admits of genuine eloquence. We give without comment the following passages, as falling in with the general tenor of some of our remarks in a preceding part of this article.

It may still be urged by the zealous advocates for extempore preaching, that a minister, though he should endeavour to improve his abilities, and enlarge his knowledge by close application, and by a free and liberal exercise of his talents, would not be able to rise into the sublimer parts of eloquence under the imposition of those restraints which attach to written discourses;-that the salient parts of oratory are not prepared passages, but sudden transports of passion; and passion is the life and soul of eloquence; it quickens and invigorates all the mental faculties, inspires great and lofty sentiments, and pours them forth in all that felicity of expression, which nature in her warmth and animation spontaneously suggests. There is no solicitude about appropriate words or pertinent figures: 'out of the abundance of the heart the mouth at once speaketh,' and to such nervous and glowing elocution, the heart of the hearer will always respond; for it awakens and calls up the elementary feelings, those original and retired motives of action, which invariably excite kindred vibrations. There are many interesting and indescribable circumstances brought to light by such internal and vivid emotions, which no art can imitate, and no refinement can supply. To be thus artless, is indeed the ultimate end of art.—It is a transcendent attainment illustrative of a well-disciplined and accomplished intellect,when the previous labour of preparation lies concealed, and nothing

is visible, but the fine and perfect results, the subtle spirit arising before the eye in a thousand shapes of splendour and beauty.

I willingly concede to him who is deeply impressed with the grandeur of his subject, and so ardent in the prosecution of it, as to bring me, by a manly and noble vehemence, into delightful captivity to himself, as to the voice of truth and of nature, the character of an orator;—and if he should, moreover, be qualified, according to the direction of Quintilian, to imitate the bold river, which overflows a whole valley, and where it does not find, will force a passage by its own natural strength and impetuosity,'-I allow him to be an orator of the first rate, as it is only such who can steer their course with safety amidst impending rocks and precipices. These high and elevated places have always a terrible depth at no great distance from them; and to be fearless of such dangers under the influence of an assured and self-collected spirit,-to maintain the empire of reason under an impetuous tide of passion, and all the enthusiasm of a raised and heated imagination, belongs only to that eloquence which is of the most exalted order. It is indeed, the gift of heaven, being founded in nature more than in art.' pp. 275-7.

'It cannot be denied, that some clergymen read their sermons in a dull, monotonous tone,--in the same dispassionate manner as a philosopher would deliver a lecture upon an abstract point of science; and it is no wonder that such apparent indifference in the preacher, (whether it arise from moral or physical causes,) should produce similar indifference in the hearers, and even induce some, who have no proper sense of their ecclesiastical relations, to wander from their own fold for the sake of attending a minister of a more lively cast. Now this supine mode of delivering prepared discourses is no necessary concomitant of them, and very few of the clergy are, I trust, such automatons in the pulpit.

There are others who are attentive both to their matter and their manner of preaching, but their minds are too much occupied by points of minor importance. They are ambitious of attracting admiration by glittering and meretricious ornaments; their compositions are crowded with metaphors; they not only gather the flowers that lie in their path, but wander out of their regular course for the purpose of embellishing their sermons with them. They know not, through the want of a correct taste, how to select congruous images, or to dispose, like skilful painters, of their lights to the best advantage. They are so fond of glare and magnificence, that they do not consult the sublime simplicity of nature, and its pleasing varieties. Even the heavens themselves are not so illumined by the mild effulgence of the moon and stars, as to leave no intervening spaces of comparative obscurity; nor does the greater luminary of the day lose any of its attractions by the passing shadows of those clouds which gild themselves with his rays, while they serve to moderate the intense heat of his brightness.-These are, however, juvenile redundancies of a promising nature, since such false fires generally refine themselves, and emit a more pure and genuine lustre, as the fervor of youth abates, and the imagination falls under the discipline of a VOL. XXVII. N.S.

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more cultivated and matured understanding. That excellent rule laid down by Quinctilian will be no longer neglected by them: 'Curam ego verborum, rerum volo esse solicitudinem.'

Many stand high in the estimation of their hearers for pulpit eloquence, and, indeed, deserve to do so, as far as the important attainments of a good pronunciation, a proper modulation of voice, and a courteous manner ought to command admiration. But their ministerial addresses are too studied and factitious, having an air of affected declamation about them; and nothing is more frigid than a counterfeit ardor, or an artificial elocution. Preachers of this description produce no great effects. They look more to the theatre for their models, than to the scriptures, or to the writings of the ancient fathers of the church-and they generally obtain a reward, highly grateful to their feelings, in the applause of the female sex, who are reminded, by some of their protracted and pathetic tones, of a Siddons or a Kemble; and disposed, by a sort of fashionable and contagious sympathy, to acknowledge their moving appeals to their passions in the expressive, though silent, language of tears.'

pp. 279-82.

The following passage is intended to enforce the wisdom of preaching written discourses inasmuch as they do not absolutely preclude the exercise of extemporaneous eloquence. Thus, their superior recommendation would seem to consist in the possibility of making but little use of them. The advice, however, will apply still more forcibly and appropriately to the deprecated mode of preparation.

Let the preacher, under the advantages of those intellectual attainments that a liberal education implies, carefully investigate the source and primary meaning of his subject, and deduce sound and appropriate matter from it, and in a connected chain of conclusive arguments, apply it to the diversified habits, prejudices, and wants of his hearers, and he cannot but excite their attention, and produce a conviction, more or less, of the truth of his statements. If he should, moreover, be endowed with transcendent abilities, and a natural talent for elocution, and compose his sermons as in the presence of his congregation, and under a solemn and devout sense of his ministerial responsibility, he will not be satisfied to convince their understanding, but will endeavour to kindle their imagination, and, through the imagination, to call up their passions and every active principle of their souls into lively exercise. Hence he addresses his audience, not in dry abstract terms, but in the language of nature and of the Bible,-enforcing his exhortations in all that variety of lights and colours reflected from surrounding objects, that he may, by such vivid and glowing descriptions, and the most powerful and affecting appeals, arrest the career of vice, break through all the barriers and strong holds of sin, awaken the slumbering conscience from her delusive security, and re-establish the sacred majesty of truth in its own rightful dominion. Thus the commanding mind of the speaker trans

fuses into his words an electrical power, that astounds the transgressor; it comes into such violent collision with his sense of guilt, that he stands self-condemned and subdued by the terrors of the Lord. He hears and sees nothing but the thunders and lightnings of heaven around him, and anxiously seeks a refuge from the wrath to come.'

When a Christian minister is so wrapped up in the greatness of his subject, (whether that subject be the terrors or mercies of the Lord,) that it inspires him with such lofty and magnificent conceptions, that the beauties of his style, though highly illustrated by the figures of rhetoric, seem to be lost in the superlative brightness of his thoughts;-when the most common and familiar truths are so raised and ennobled, by the new and rich combinations in which they are represented by the enchanting influence of his eloquence, that we wonder at our former indifference, and even ascribe our strong and lively emotions to the spontaneous exertions of our own mind, more than to the corruscations of his genius ;-when this sublime sympathy-this mysterious action and reaction between himself and his hearers-is thus powerfully produced, we can no longer with hold from him the praise of that exalted species of oratory, which seems to act by virtue of some hidden principle that eludes analysis, and becomes tangible only in its effects. These ethereal emanations can be reduced to no laws of criticism. The grandeur of such superior spirits is chiefly of a moral nature, having reference to the mind, as distinct from the intellect. Their ascendancy over us is felt in every look, movement, gesture; it is exuberated in all the tones and various inflections of the voice. Indeed the latent cause of all good elocution originates in the heart; it is founded in a noble simplicity and depth of feeling. These alone inspire genuine pathos, and a felicity of diction, melodiously responsive to our sentiments. And this account seems to be sanctioned by the high authority of Longinus, who gives, in his admirable treatise, this definition of the sublime: It is an image reflected from the inward greatness of the soul.' And he exhorts us, to spare no pains to educate our souls in grandeur, and impregnate them with generous and enlarged ideas.' '

The above account of eloquence may discourage some, whilst it excites only a laudable emulation in the minds of others; but the former should recollect that there are different species and degrees of eloquence. Whilst very few possess that native fire, that elevation of spirit, those strong sensibilities of heart, and that commanding power of language, which bears down, like a torrent, every thing before it;-there are many preachers of considerable reputation and influence, whose complexion is of a more calm and contemplative turn, and whose mode of delivery is marked by the mild and tranquil character of their minds. They instruct, they please, they move their auditors, by a holy simplicity and subdued fervor of address,-by a suaviloquentia, that vibrates like music on the ear, and attunes all the powers of the soul to high and solemn musing and meditation.