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I fay farther chafte, in oppofition to those bold and impudent geniuffes whoare not ashamed of fay ing many things, which produce unclean ideas in the mind.

the fon, nor father or fon before the holy Ghoft, but only in order, and relation to one another, &c. Beveridge on the Trinity.

(5) Much of the ancient fchool-divinity was of this filthy kind. The angelical doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and others, have handled the following irreverend and fcandalous questions: Utrum effent excrementa in paradifo? Utrum Janeti refurgent cum inteftinis? Quare Chriftus non fuerit hermaphroditus? Utrum fi Deipara fuiffet vir, potuiffet effe naturalis parens Chrifti? Utrum verbum potuit hypoftatica uniri naturæ irrationali, puta equi, afini, &c. Bayle, Aquinas, rem. E.

I omit others more fcandalous ftill, and these are related for the fake of justifying the reformation, and its true ground, liberty of conscience. Since the reformation, people have enjoyed the right of private judgment, and, in this country, the liberty of propagating their privateopinions, by public preaching; yet no one fect has ever pretended to maintain thefes equal in abfurdity to thefe. Individuals in all parties have run into extravagances but it belongs to the infallible party

:

to dignify thefe extravagant individuals with the titles of feraphical doctors, angelical doctors, irrefragable doctors, &c. for inventing and maintaining fuch ftuff.

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It may not be improper to add an example or two. certain friar, preaching at the church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, against the antipope, Peter De-Luna, in the year 1408, among many other indecent expreffions, protested, quod ANUM fordidiffime Omazaria OSCULARI mallet quam, os Petri De-Luna. Velly hift. de France, tom. xiii. p. 42.

That farcical droll Dr. South, whofe low jokes obtained the name of wit in complaifance to the political caufe, for which he pouted, abounds with ludicrous and offenfive puns. In fpeaking of "the delights of a foul clarified by grace, he fays, no man, at the years and vigour of thirty, is either fond of fu gar-plumbs or rattles." A fage remark indeed! but the next is fupremely nafty: "No man would preferve the itch. on himself only for the pleafure of feratching." I was going to make a reflection on this dirtydoctor, but on casting my eye on the top of the page, I fee the doctor has very wittily provided for transferring

mind. (5) A preacher cannot be called chaste, who, fpeaking of the conception of Jefus Chrift in the virgin's womb by the power of the holy Ghoft without the intervention of man, is not careful of faying any thing, that may fhock the modesty of fome, and give occafion of difcourfe to the profanity of others. There are I know not how many fubjects of this kind; as when the eternal generation of Jefus Chrift the fon of God is fpoken of; when the term regeneration is explained, which fcripture ufeth to exprefs our converfion; or when we treat of that feed of God, of which, according to St. John, we are born; or when we enforce the duties of husbands to wives, or of wives to husbands; or when we speak of the love of Jefus Christ to his church, under the notion of a conjugal relation; or when eternal felicity is fpoken of under the image of a banquet, or of a marriage-feaft. On all fuch fubjects, chastity fhould weigh the expreffions,

it to the king A fermon preached at court! South's fermons. f. i. Prov. iii. 17.

How fuperior to thefe is the pagan rhetorician's example: Ego Romani pudoris more contentus, ut jam refpondi tali bus, verecundiam filentio vindicabo. Quint. inft. lib. viii. cap. 3.

Et quidem jam non etiam obfcena verba pro obfcenis funt, batuit, inquit, impudenter, depfit, multo impudentius, atqui neutrum eft obfcenum. Stultorum plena funt omnia. Cic. ad famil. lib. ix. epift. 22.

I only add what Erafmus fays of a preaching friar,

and

whom he names Merdardus, and who corpore vafto, buccis rubentibus, ventre prominente, lateribus gladiatoriis, præter effrontem improbita tem et linguam effrænam nihil habebat. --- Non eft chriftinæ mentis cuiquam imprecari male; illud potius optandum, ut clementiffimus rerum formator et reformator (qui ex Nabuchodonofor homine fecit bovem, et rurfus ex bove fecit hominem, qui afinæ Balaami dedit hominis linguam) omnes Merdardi fimiles vertat in melius, detque illis et mentem et linguam viris evangelicis dignam. Erafm. colleg. Concio, five Merdardus.

and make a judicious choice, in order to keep the hearers minds at the greatest distance from all forts of carnal and terrestrial ideas. The likelieft way of fucceeding in thefe cafes is to beware of preffing metaphorical terms too far; to keep in general confiderations, and if poffible to explain the metaphorical terms in few words, and afterwards cleave entirely to the thing itself. (6)

(6) For what regards metaphorical language fee the other note in this chapter, No. (6); at prefent let us exemplify this rule from Mr. Saurin. The fubject is regeneration, the text John iii., first five verfes. He obferves, that the term is a trope, and muft 1ft be refrained, becaufe, fays he, it is impoffible to underftand a metaphor if we do not diveft it of every thing foreign from the fubject in queftion. 2. It must be juftified, for the change fpoken of under the emblem of a new birth, tho' expreffed in figurative language, is yet a real change. 3: The idea which a new birth gives of this change is fo perfect, that it might terrify timorous chriftians, it must therefore be qualified. 4. The qualifications, of which the fubject is capable, are apt to lull fome into fecurity, who, under pretence of infirmities infeparable from the beft of men, allow themselves in vices incompatible with a state of grace; this expreffion therefore must be guarded.

1. "This refriction (adds

4. A

he) is neceffary, because there is no one author without exception, whofe opinions may not be mistaken, if his comparifons be ftretched beyond due bounds: and this, which is true of all authors, is inconteftibly true of the oriental writers; for as their imaginations were naturally more lively, their metaphors were more bold, and the bolder the metaphors, the more need of restriction."

This

he inftances in feveral things fimilar to Mr. Claude's obfervations, and clofes this part by saying, "if you do not make thefe reftrictions, you will pufh the metaphor too far, and confequently make indifcreet comparisons between this new birth and a birth properly fo called: you would form notions of it not only unworthy of being received, but even of being refuted in fuch a place as this."

Mr. Saurin then proceeds to guard against the oppofite mistake, which many have fallen into, by obferving that there is a real change actually required in order to falvation,

a change

4. A preacher muft be fimple and grave. Simple, fpeaking things full of good natural fenfe without metaphyfical fpeculations; for none are more impertinent than they, who deliver in the pulpit abftract fpeculations, definitions in form, and fcholaftic questions, which they pretend to derive from their texts; as on the manner of the existence of angels, the means whereby they communicate their ideas to each other; the manner in which ideas eternally fubfift in the divine understanding; with many more of the fame clafs, all certainly oppofite to fimplicity. To fimple I add grave, becaufe all forts of mean thoughts and expreffions, all forts of vulgar and proverbial fayings, ought to be avoided. The pulpit is the feat of good natural fense; and the good fenfe of good men. On the one hand then you are not to philofophize too much, and refine your fubject out of fight; nor on the other to abase yourself to the language and thoughts of the dregs of the people. (7)

a change of ideas, a change of will, a change of tafte; a change of hope; a change, in short, of all falfe fchemes of felicity for the one true one, &c. Saur. fer. tom. 7. fer.

onzieme.

5. The

being adorned and inriched, fhe arrived at last to the highest dignity and pre-eminence. The title of the ninthis, The mass's impeachment, and her anfwer, with the proceedings against her. The tenth is intitled, God's fentence against the mass. This dramatick method of preaching is too much in the taste of the Italians. Bayle, art. Ochin, rem. P.

(7) Apreacher mufi be grave. Bernard Ochin published 12 fermons on the Lord's-fupper. The feventh fermon is intitled, The tragedy of the mafs, and firft bow the was conceived, born, No doubt but to people of and baptized. The eighth is good education, Vida's is a entitled, How the mass was good rule, as applicable to nurfed and educated, and how, preaching as to poetry: Rejice degenerem turbam nil lucis habentem, Indecorefque notas, ne fit non digna fuppellex. Vida ars poet. lib. iii. 7. 183.

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5. The understanding must be informed, but in a manner, however, which affects the heart; either to comfort the hearers, or to excite them to acts of piety,

But yet in compaffion to the dregs of the people, who, with all their ignorance, have fouls, it ought to be remem bered, that their minds are acceffible anly by their own way of thinking and fpeaking, and theirs is a different language and a different habit of thinking from others in more cultivated life. Hence Ariftotle wifely fays, To de πρέπον έξει η λέξις, εαν η παθητική, σε και ηθική, και τοις υποκείμενοις πραγμασιν αναλογον HOIKH δε αυτη η εκ των σημείων δειξις, οτι ακολουθεί η αρμοδίασα εκατω γίνει και εξεν. Λεγω δε, γενος μεν, και ηλικίαν υιονεί παις, η ανήρ, η geçar 2011 youn, nai aung* και Aaxar, n Oerlaños as 070105 TIS TO Biw' απασαν εξιν οι Βιοι

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GITHS. Ariftot.rhet. lib. iii. 7. To the fame purpofe fpeaks Dyonifius of Halicarnaffus: Ομολογεμενα δη παρα πασιν οτι πρέπον επί το τοις υποκειμένοις αρ

μόζον προσωποις τε και πραγμα01. Dion. Halic. de fruct. orat. f. 20.

Luther's biographer, having related a faying of his on this fubject, adds, by way of expofition, the practice of this reformer in diffufing know

ledge at the reformation. Tria faciunt theologum dixit, meditatio, oratio, et tentatio; et tria verbi miniftro facienda, evolvere biblia, orare ferio, et femper difcipulum manere. Optimi ad vulgus hi funt concionatores, qui pueriliter, populariter et fimpliffime docent. In vifitatione Saxonica cum in pago rufticus fymboli verba hæc recitaret dialecto fuo, Ich glove in Gottden alunschteigen, credo in Deum patrem omni potentem; quafivit ex eo quid almacbteigen omnipotens fignificet refpondente ruftico ignoro, imo inquit Lutherus, et ego et omnes eruditi id ignoramus; tu id faltem crede, Deum effe tuum patrem, qui potest et vult to, tuofque, fer-vare, Rhythmis etiam delectatus ferr tur vernaculis, &c. Melch. Adam. vite Germ. Theol. in vita Lutheri.

Mr. Adams inferts fome of thefe homely country rhymes, for which beggarly ballads, perhaps Luther may receive a greater reward at the last day than he would for whole fhelves of Greek and Latin folios. Vanity will make a man write learnedly; but piety only can prevail on a good fcholar to rufticate his fpeech and manners for the fake of the poor. Truly, for a man who relishes polite literature,

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