cult his excellences are to be equaled, are proofs that he has been generally admired as a poet.

But, after all, the reader must judge of the sacred writings for himself. If he attends to what he feels, and lays aside prepossession, his judgment will be favourable and just. To remove a single prejudice, which can prevent the universal acceptance of books of universal concern, is to contribute greatly to the general happiness. An attempt to render the prophetic writers objects of particular attention, in an age when our most ingenious theologists are employed in illustrating their meaning at a lecture wisely established for that purpose, must, at least, have the merit of being well-timed.

And surely every one who wishes to promote the desirable coalition of taste with piety, must accept, with gratitude, the labours of the venerable Lowth, whose lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews, and observations on Isaiah, have displayed, in biblical literature, the unexpected charms of classic elegance.

No. CLXVIII.

On Preaching and Sermon Writers.

FEW institutions can contribute more to preserve civilization, and promote moral and intellectual improvement among all ranks of people, than the establishment of public lectures, in every part of the kingdom, periodically repeated after a short interval.

Such is the light in which are to be considered the discourses appointed by the wisdom of the church, to be every where held on the recurrence of the seventh day. By these the meanest and the most illiterate are enabled to hear moral and philosophical treatises on every thing that concerns their several duties, without expense, and without solicitation.

And whatever is urged by men who are ill-affected to all ecclesiastical institutions, there is no doubt but that great political, as well as moral, benefit is derived to society from a practice thus universal. But it is a misfortune long ago lamented, that men are incapable of estimating the real value of advantages, till experience has shown what it is to want them.

It is certainly true, that since the acquisition of books has been facilitated by their numbers, oral instruction is rendered less necessary. But though books are easily procured, yet, even in this age of information, there are thousands in the lower classes who cannot read. Besides, it is a well-known truth, that the same precepts inculcated by a living in

a serious and authoritative manner, produce a powerful effect, not to be experienced in solitary retirement. There is likewise a sympathy communicated in a numerous audience, which attaches the mind more strongly to the subject.

The obvious utility of discourses from the pulpit is proved by the decisions of experience. For, notwithstanding the complaints against the levity and profaneness of the age, churches are still frequented with apparent pleasure. And to be placed in a situation where a good preacher presides, is by many esteemed a very essential requisite to an agreeable retreat.

For excellent preachers this nation has been long distinguished; excellent, not so much in the talents of an orator, as in the composition of discourses. With an uncultivated voice, in an uncouth manner, accompanied with awkward attitudes, they have delivered harangues scarcely excelled in the schools of Athens. As the French have exhibited their characteristic levity even in their boasted sermons, so the English have displayed their natural solidity.

The sermons of the last century are indeed too long for the attention of modern indolence, but they abound with beauty that would reward it. Jeremy Taylor possessed an invention profusely fertile; a warm, rich, lively imagination; a profound knowledge of authors, sacred and profane, poetical, historical, philosophical. He has embellished his sermons with citations from them, and has interwoven their gold into the rich tissue of his own composition.

Nearly at the same time with Taylor arose Isaac Barrow, a mighty genius, whose ardour was capable of accomplishing all it undertook. The tide of

pidity. He treats his subject almost with mathematical precision, and never leaves it till he has exhausted it. It has been said, that a late most popular orator of the House of Lords asserted, that he owed much of the fire of his eloquence to the study of Barrow.

His editor, Tillotson, is more popular. His merit is unquestionably great, and his fame has been extended to very exalted heights by the praises of Addison. He writes with sufficient judgment and perspicuity; but there are those who venture to suggest, that he has been too much celebrated as a model of fine composition. They allow him every praise as a most excellent divine; but when they consider him as a writer, they think his periods might have been shorter, and his rhythm more harmonious.

Sharp has been justly celebrated for the perspicuity of his style and the ardent flow of unaffected piety.

Of a very different character from these, South has obtained a great and deserved reputation. Wit was his talent, yet he often reaches sublimity. He is, however, one of those authors who is to be admired and not imitated. To excite a laugh from the pulpit, is to inspire the hearer with a levity of temper ill-adapted to the indulgence of devotional feelings. The taste of the age in which South flourished gave countenance to a pulpit jocularity. But though it is true that the lovers of comedy have found their taste gratified in the perusal of South's sermons, yet the man of serious judgment also will discover many solid arguments, many judicious observations, and many fine expressions, intermixed with a series of prosaic epigrams.

The sagacious Clarke pretended not to wit. He

He rarely reaches the sublime, or aims at the pathetic; but in a clear, manly, flowing style, he delivers the most important doctrines, confirmed on every occasion by well applied passages from Scripture. If he was not a shining orator, according to the ideas of rhetoricians, he was a very agreeable as well as useful preacher. He was not perfectly orthodox in his opinions; a circumstance which has lowered his character among many. Certain it

is, that he would have done more good in the world, had he confined his labours to practical divinity. Speculative and polemical divinity commonly diffuses scepticism, without contributing any thing to moral reformation.

The sermons that have been preached at Boyle's Lectures are among the best argued in the language. They have been the laboured productions of the most ingenious men. But the whole collection never did so much good as a single practical discourse of Tillotson.

Atterbury was a polite writer. His sermons probably owed some of their fame, among his cotemporaries, who have lavishly applauded him, to his mode of delivery in the pulpit; for the Tatler says, it was such as would have been approved by a Longinus and Demosthenes. He seems to have introduced the very judicious method of addressing the understanding, in the beginning of the sermon, and the passions at the close.

Rogers, says his panegyrist Dr. Burton, possessed an eloquence, nervous, simple, persuasive, and beautiful. An unstudied elegance marks his style. He seems to have attained to that nice judgment, which adapted the same discourse to a rustic, a city, an academical congregation. In a professed elogium it is indeed allowable to exaggerate; yet what