been accustomed to read their sermons from their notes. This mode possesses some advantages. It admits of greater correctness, and is better adapted, than any other, to preserve unbroken a chain of reasoning, and to prevent repetition. It provides against any incidental dissipation of ideas, which may proceed from weakness of nerves, or any sudden cause of perturbation. Sermons preached before Courts, and before men of highly cultivated talents, as at the Assizes, may perhaps be delivered in this manner, with more propriety and effect, than in any other. In the addresses that are made to ordinary congregations, its disadvantages are considerable. It will hardly admit of that action, which gives energy to a discourse. It is with difficulty that it is susceptible of animation, and generally appears stiff and awkward, making the Preacher seem like a man moving in armour. It wants the vivacity and the fire, that are necessary to awaken and engage the attention of the hearers. The style is generally too laboured, and by this means, the ideas escape the observation of those, who cannot search for truths that do not present themselves at the first view, and float on the surface of the subject. It has almost been peculiar to the Clergy of the Church of England. A considerable number of the Clergy of the Church of Scotland, have lately adopted it; but there it is extremely unpopular, though it has been recommended by Dr. Campbell, and some other writers of literary eminence. Preachers among the Roman Catholics never adopt it; and in almost all the Foreign Churches, the teachers of religion employ another mode of religious instruction. The same thing may be said of the English Dissenters, with the exception of those who have embraced Pelagian, Arian, or Socinian sentiments. The

celebrated Dean Swift, in a letter to a young Clergyman, expresses his decided preference of another manner of address.

Another mode of preaching is, ten and committed to memory.

from notes fully writThis method supposes

the language as well as the sentiments to have been previously adjusted, and the structure of the sentences to be preserved in the elocution. This mode of address is not without its advantages. It appears more natural and free than a discourse read from a manuscript. The gesture and action of the speaker are less incumbered, and generally more impressive and animated. It is attended however with one almost insuperable difficulty, that the memory of most men is not sufficiently retentive for so arduous an undertaking. Bishop Jewel is said to have possessed such powers of retention, that with the assistance of art he could, with once reading over his discourses, pronounce them exactly as they were composed. This method accustoms the mind to think accurately, to clothe its ideas with correctness if not with elegance, and the preacher to say no more than what is necessary. Every preacher who does not read his discourses, will do well to habituate himself to this method as much as may consist with the frequency of his public exhibitions.

Another method of preaching is to compose fully, and to commit to memory the train of ideas, without overwhelming it with the load of words, trusting that the ideas will clothe themselves, with proper words in proper places. This mode gives scope to mental energy, but will hardly admit of the correctness and compression of the other two.

A fourth mode of preaching consists in arranging the

plan and in setting down the heads of discourse, and either carrying them to the pulpit in short notes, that at the different pauses of the sermon they may meet the preacher's eye, or in fixing them on the memory, without carrying notes to the pulpit, and filling up the illustrations in such words as present themselves on the spur of the occasion. This method requires accuracy in forming the plan; promptness, and vigour of mind in prosecuting it; considerable stores of knowledge at the preachers command, and a copious and easy flow of diction. This manner of address will generally attain a less degree of accuracy, both in the thoughts and language, than any of the former; but it will, if ably conducted, generally be found to pierce more forcibly, and to sink more deeply into the minds of the hearers. It is perhaps the best calculated to rouse and to alarm the inconsiderate; to awaken attention; to strike the mind with sentiments of awe and reverence; to melt into pity; to elevate the affections; to storm the citadel of the heart that has long been fortified by infidelity; to impress and to rivet conviction; to convey instruction, and to fix the seal upon it. Great care should however be taken to lay it under such restraints, as will neither suffer it to evaporate into enthusiasm, to swell into the turgid, to rise into the boisterous, nor to sink into the coarseness of violent and vulgar eloquence. It has one considerable disadvantage. Though it admits of care in forming the plan, in dividing and arranging the heads, in ramifying the principal ideas, in giving order and dependence to the whole discourse; yet as that case extends only to the leading sentiments, it leaves the secondary ones to be formed in the hurry of reasoning or declamation, and in the agitation and fervour of address, a speaker has neither time nor calm

ness to weigh or to cull his thoughts. It is much better adapted to those who have long been familiar with the heads of divinity, who have often reflected and written upon its awful truths, and are possessed of ample information with respect to its doctrines, the state of Theological controversies, and the intellectual system of moral combinations, than to such as possess but a small stock of knowledge, and that stock very imperfectly arranged. Young preachers should be extremely cautious how they form their habits of composing. Penury of sentiment, and incorrectnesss of language are likely to result from a habitude of this kind. Men, whose habits of thinking and speaking have been matured by study and time, may use it with propriety and effect. Bishop Beveridge has composed four volumes of Skeletons of this kind, but as he intended them only for his own use, their posthumous publication was exposed to many disadvantages. Mr. Simeon has furnished students and young preachers with, we think, six hundred Skeletons; the merits of which rise far above any other specimens of the same kind that our language supplies. Archbishop Secker, speaking of reading sermons and of extempore discourses, observes, "There is a middle way, used by our predecessors, of setting down, in short notes, the method and principal heads, and enlarging on them in such words as present themselves at the time. Perhaps, duly managed, this would be the best." Dr. Johnson in his life of Dr. Watts, observes of that eminent Divine, "Such was his flow of thoughts, and such his promptness of language, that in the latter part of his life he did not precom pose his cursory sermons; but having adjusted the heads and sketched out some particulars, he trusted for success to his extempore powers,"

In common Congregations, an address that is pronounced without reading, is generally much more popular and impressive, than one which is read. The former was among the means employed by the fathers and followers of the Methodists; and in the formation and extension of their societies, its influence is acknowledged to have been great. The same method of teaching is generally employed with success by the Evangelical Dissenters. It seems wonderful that so few of the Clergy should oppose, with arms so powerful, the inroads made upon the Church; and that the attack should be so seldom repelled with the same weapons with which it is made. If, while the fervour of the war rages, and some are every day deserting the Church, and swelling the number of those who have abandoned her interests, the Clergy are employed in balancing the niceties of language, they may come to find abundance of employment, when they shall have nothing else to attend to. No Clergyman should be ignorant of the laws of composition, or unskilled in the arts of reducing them to practice. But the art of composing with elegance, is a rare talent, and even the most successful attempts of the general part of those who have had the advantage of a liberal education, will not be found in composition, to rise above the state of mediocrity. To a common Country Congregation, the refinements of style are both uninteresting and useless. The attempt, as a great wit expresses it, is like that of hewing blocks of wood with the fine edge of a razor. A common axe will do infinitely better.

The last mode of address is when the preacher, with little or no adjustment of plan, either in his mind or committed to paper, ventures into the pulpit trusting