is a rich Treasury of things And as it is the Character of the Spirit of man to speak much and in effect to say little so 't is the Character of the holy Spirit to speak little and therein to comprehend much all the holy Scripture hath in it most excellent things couch'd in the most humble and simple expressions which ordinarily enlarge our conceptions beyond the Letter What is more plain and more succinct then these words Verbum caro factum est Joh. 1. Joh. 19. crucifixerunt eum how many Commentaries hath been made upon these words how many dissertations at this day how great must then be the penetration of Spirit which is necessary to discover the depth of These Mysteries We stay our selves upon the superficies of words without searching to the bottom by meditation Who is at this day a Preacher so illuminated to penetrate into all these mysterious darknesses and holy obscurities of sacred Scripture to discover the hidden Treasures thereof alass our want comes from our little meditation thereof Parvuli petierunt panem non erat qui frangeret cis Lament Jer. c. 4. It is the unhappiness of this age that there are so few persons found capable to break the holy Bread of Gods word which ought to be the most ordinary nourishment of the faithful that is to say there are few Preachers so illuminated as to unfold the whole sense of the holy Scripture to the People or who know how to make use of Art which is the most certain means to succeed in their Preaching they Preach their own Imagination and thoughts abandoning the thoughts of the holy Spirit Is not this to be wanting even in the principals for we cannot have a true Idea of Christian Eloquence but from the holy Scripture which is the first original §. 11. There is required besides this reading of the Fathers a diligent study of Divinity joyned with that Art of Eloquence which is formed upon that of the Prophets that the Preacher forms a morality whereof the principles must be taken from the Gospel for all other morality is no more than a certain Pagan probity and pure Philosophy This is not only to be found by the study of the Evangelists but as well in the Epistles of Saint Paul and in the Homilies of Saint Chrysostome where it is so well explained These Homilies ought to be the most ordinary study of the Preacher whereof also he will find great instructions in Saint Austin Saint Jerome Saint Gregory the great in Saint Bernard This diligence ought not to be in the search after beautiful thoughts and shining words which is the fault of most young Preachers which in truth conduce little to the edification of the People or true compunction of heart §. 12. This true morality cannot be taken then from these pure and holy sources whereof I have spoken especially in these times where every one frames to himself morals according to his own fantasie and we find so many extravagant Preachers who impose from the Pulpit their own morose humours and sour temperaments for pure morality which are accompanied with the ridiculous Visions which their Spirit of novelty or their preoccupation inspires Have we not seen some Preachers who notwithstanding their profound ignorance in all that a Preacher ought to know undertake a decision of all things with the utmost rigour and deliver with the assurance of a Prophet and an unparalel'd confidence the greatest absurdities in the World and in matters of morality to hazzard every novelty when the Smoak of their Zeal has once mounted to their heads 'T is the custome of our Nation to run after all that is new or that has any air of singularity but when we have sounded the depth of those Preachers who practice to derive respect on their discourses an affectation of severity on themselves we shall find that they are not altogether so hard to themselves as they are to others Such a one was a young Doctor who Preached five years ago before an honourable Audience who who commenc'd his Sermon by promising in a tone of a Reformator that he would Preach nothing but severe morality and the pure rigour of the Gospel and a little after he canted forth the story of the new Pope wherein he forgot nothing that might rejoyce or give a subject for entertainment to the more sportive part of his Audience Those that would Preach this severity must do as Jesus Christ has done that is to say Preach by his example The Character of Christian severity is to be sweet to others and hard to our selves to do otherwise is to play the Impostor or Comoedian not a Preacher We have seen in this past age false Zealots who made profession to preach â—n morality more rigid than others during which they were lifting up their impure hands to Heaven and fomenting errour upon Earth Finally these Preachers who are so excessive only because they are ignorant and who make Enormities and abominations of mere trifles who will damn a Woman for wearing of Lace or colour'd Ribbonds or for having been a promenading upon a Festival day these Preachers I say dishonour their ministry by the excess of their sottish exaggerations they discourage the faithful by making false Images of crime and authorize Libertinism by these terrible Ideas they give of Vertue whereby they render it more dreadful and salvage than it is §. 13. The little success that most Preachers meet with comes from the little care they have to understand the morals of our Religion and the small Talent they have in dispensing it for nothing so sensibly touches the Spirits as the pourtracts which we make when we make them well in which we are oft rendred wanting by a vain curiosity and a too scrupulous kind of ratiocination This way we take to shun the difficulty we find in the well painting of manners whiâ—h is a thing not only the most capable to attract admiration to the Orator but also the most difficult to succeed in this he must commence by a perfect knowledge of the heart of man he must know the particular of all its motions to make a true pourtraict and to paint men so naturally that they may know themselves in the Pictures that are made of them 'T is in this that almost all Preachers are wanting who represent false Images of manners to their Auditors in making them too difficult or too easie so that they faile of the intended effect for that the Images being false we know them not and what he sayes is quite lost because no person can take it as spoken to himself they Preach to the rich as to the poor to the Courtier as to the Citizen they make the morals of a City the Subject of a Village Sermon and they make elaborate Sermons where simple Catechismes and naked instructions are most proper Every one knows the story of the Preacher who preached all the species of sin against the
patience of the Judg and make him distast that which may be good in the rest They are ordinarily the young men that are most subject to this default they wander about because they want force of spirit to enter immediately into the matter We should render them a great service if we could make them resolve to leave that length and circuit of Discourse which is so much contrary to decorum and becomes odious and insupportable A Discourse spun out with these childish amplifications becomes languishing it only makes the Judges yawn and lulls them into a slumber §. 10. It is also the delight of young men to glister in all they say But true Eloquence seeks not after that vain splendour which is only proper to dazle the spirit We alwayes fall into errour when we study too much to please That Lawyer which relies more upon a passage of Seneca for defence of his Cause than upon good Reason very much deceives himself those glistering passages have not any force to perswade they serve only to waken the spirit of the Judge when it is weary §. 11. We seldome take any care of the exteriour part which relates to action which Cicero calls the Eloquence of the Body whose perfection consists in the gesture and pronunciation because we do not enough comprehend the necessity and importance thereof Quintilian only hath given us any precepts of it which Aristotle and Cicero have omitted possibly believing that it was a gift only of Nature which could not be reduced into Art or Method and have contented themselves only to note us the importance of it which they have done in several places of their works This right pronunciation is so important that we cannot neglect it without renouncing what is most powerful and perswasive in Eloquence It is that which rules most in Discourse and which irresistibly invades the soul and in which consists the greatest force and ornament The great Talent of Hortensius who equall'd Cicero in Reputation was the skilful mannagement of the action He was so admirable in an ardent manner of speaking that Roscius and Aesop the most famous Comedians of that time went alwayes to hear his Orations to learn from him their measure Having so little care to form our selves to this action we need not be astonished that we see so few tracts of that Eloquence which wrought so many wonders in the Times of Cicero and Demoit henes who alwayes endeavour'd to express in themselves by their ardour and vehemence those passions which they intended to excite in the Spirits of their Auditors It is true we have seen Orators some years past who gave weight to all their Reasons by the force wherewith they animated their Discourse but after all their ardency was so ill mannaged that what they said lost its grace by the desire they had to be too passionate for when once the fire mounted to their faces we could understand no more their pronunciation became so confus'd by their excessive transport Some others appear too cold they shew in their greatest affairs little of that emotion which is necessary to enflame the spirit of the Judges which are not at all touched in these great Subjects but by great movements We may say to these languishing Declamators that of Cicero against Calidius who spoke things very touching with an air of tranquility An ista si vera essent sic a te dicerentar All those which speak at the Barr are subject to add to the evil pronunciation which they learn'd at the Colledg One constant and disagreeable tone and an impression of the accent in the penultima syllables which occasions rather laughter than perswasion §. 12. The Subjects which furnish the present condition of the Bar having nothing of great or elevated cannot give to Eloquence those advantages which is found in the more important matters of the Antients Such were the deliberations of War and Peace the considerations of the good of the State and the publick interest the accusations and defenses of Princes and Kings which the great Orators discoursed with so much splendour The interests which are at this time the Subjects of the Barr are sometimes so little considerable that they are not capable to furnish matters of such worth to Eloquence as made it in those times to triumph over hearts His accedebat spl endot rerum magnitudo causarun quibus ipsa plurimum elo quentia praeslat Dialog de cous co eloq Crescit cum amplitudine rerum vis ingenij nee quisquam illustrem orationem facere potest nâ—si qui causam paremi invenit 16. This was one of the advantages that Messalla notes in the Dialogue of Quintilian the antient Orators had above those of his time in effect petty Subjects make petty Orators and the Spirit of him that speaks in publick is elevated by the merit and elevation of the Subject §. 13. There is an Eloquence of pure Authority which is of very great use at the Bar and though it be not passionate and its manner of declaiming be cold and serious yet it has the dignity that is required to imprint respect and veneration we hearken to it as to an Oracle being preingaged in its favour This is the Eloquence of the Judges and those which make Orations to Princes and great Lords who ought to observe this calm and peaceful Eloquence who must speak without emotion to preserve their Character for it ought to have nothing in it but submissive and respective and ought to be regulated according to the rank and quality of those to whom it is addressed either more or less respectively according to their degree or merit REFLECTIONS UPON THE Eloquence OF THE PULPIT T Is a thing above wonder that in so great a number of Persons who apply themselves to Preaching we find so few who succeed seeing they have so many advantages infinitely above all others who speak in publick The Eloquence of the Barr cannot furnish its Orators with matters so important to treat with things so touching to speak nor with such great motives to perswade as this Eloquence of the Pulpit all those Engines which she imployes in moving the Passions are so powerful the Figures of Rhetorick which are as sanctifyed in the Mouth by the commerce it has with the holy Spirit so glorious and the mysteries that it unfolds are so transcendent and it speaks by the dignity of its Character with so much authority that if there be any Eloquence which is perfect Mistress of hearts by the power that it hath to move and by its natural independance it must be this from whence comes it then that we have so few good Preachers It is not the fault of the Auditors since Faith prepares their Spirits to a perfect submission to what they come to hear the sight of Altars inspires them with respect and they are already perswaded by the principles of their Religion of what they come to attend Finally since the Preacher speaks
as the Ambassadour of God and his words are the words of his eternal Master when he preaches everlasting recompence to those that beleive and threatens unspeakable punishments to those who disbeleive it must be his own fault if he have not all the success that his function merits But as it is too true that amongst all Professions there are the fewest in this who succeed well in this Art it will not be unprofitable to search out the way to remedy it since it is a thing of so great importance which I pretend to do by these following Reflections §. 1. We seldome enter into serious consideration of that disposition of mind which the honness of that ministry of the word of God and the dignity of a Function so sacred requires There is not only expedient a great Application and long study to replenish the mind with great Images which are necessary to form the Character of this Eloquence but there must be also long retirements from the noise of the World to prepare the heart by solitude for the reception of the holy Spirit whose Interpreter the Preacher takes upon himself to be It is from this eternal Spirit that he takes his immediate mission by the principles of the interiour life Quomodo praedicabunt nisi mittantur 5. Rom. 12. to dispose him to take his Orders from those who are established in dignity and have received the power of God to communicate it to others He must then take great care that he be not too much abandoned to himself and to his Genius but first he must passionately seek the succours of Heaven by the frequent use of Meditation and Prayer Without this divine assistance it is impossible to penetrate into the mysteries and hidden truths of the Gospel How many does this who ever thinks of it what studies or what retreats do we make to dispose our hearts or what preparations of Spirit do we bring to this holy Function do not we see every day young Preachers without Virtue or Science ascend the Pulpit with the same end that a Comaedian mounts the Theater they invite their Friends by Letters and fill a great Circle with their Relations who engage a great assembly of their honest acquaintance to grace the audience and to incourage those young Declamators they raise their Eyes to Heaven with a feigned complaisance and counterfeit admiration when they have pronounced two or three ill arrang'd periods without stumbling and when they have a little confidently said what possibly themselves have not the courage to act when these trifling Orators have done what they can they are but pittied by those who judge without preoccupation even in those performances wherein they think they have reason to triumph They have a very false Idea of so holy a Function if they think to advance its reverence by such preachings a Preacher must have other qualities to enable him to represent with success the Sword of Gods word like a flame to the Eyes of the Offendors to reduce Libertines under the sacred Yoke of the Gospel and to cast into our Spirits the terrour of the last Judgement by a vigorous representation of the pains of Hell and the dreadful consequence of our unbeleif and to sustain in some sort the Dignity Grandeur and Majesty of the Subjects whereof our Religion makes profession It is also without doubt for this reason that the two Apostles of our Lord were called the Children of Thunder for the word of God which they proclaimed with that dignity which it merited was bright and terrible in their Mouths Few of our Declamators are thus qualified they usually Preach for their recreation or to perform the Injunctions of their Physicians to discharge themselves of some troublesome Fat these are profanations so deplorable that we should with great difficulty beleive it had we not so many examples of it in this Age. §. 2. We do not enough consider that it is on Gods account we speak when we Preach by which means we deprive the Word of its weight and authority for the greatest part of Preachers speak only of their Patrons to whom they make a merchandise of themselves and extinguish in some manner the Spirit of God to give place entirely to their own exorbitant and extravagant Fancies This was not the practice of the antient Prophets who were the Preachers of the old Law they spoke not as private men to the People Pro Christo legati one fungimur tanquam deo exhortante per nos 2 Cor. 5. but as men sent from God and the grandeur of that Master whose commands they delivered attracted the respect of their Auditors I have sometime seen an Ambassador of a petty stranger Prince who had no Talent in speaking but because he was to speak on the account of his Master he assumed on himself an air of authority by which he procured attention and perswaded meerly by the address he had to make himself considered What weight then should we give to the Word of God if we know the Art to treat of it as the word of God and not as a pure invention of the wit of man he therefore that would Preach the Word with success must do as Saint Paul did Per arma Justitiae in verbo veritatis in virtute Dei Cor. 2. §. 3. As this sacred Eloquence travels in a Feild infinitely more large than Eloquence profane It proposes an eternal Kingdome for the object of our hopes and torments which indure for ever of our fears and caution The sanctity of our mysteries the purity of our morality the Majesty of the God which we adore of whom we find so many great Idaea's in the holy Scripture and all those glorious Truths which render our Religion so august are the most ordinary Subjects wherein this divine Eloquence is exercised It demands also to work the effects which it proposes to it self greater natural qualities and a genius more elevated than is required in humane Eloquence A Preacher therefore ought to have great exteriour quaties Gravity in all his Person Dignity in his countenance Devotion in his Eyes a certain ardeur in his Pronunciation a Freedome in all his Action and the Air of a Prophet but a sole assembly of these exteriour qualities is so rare that I have not known a Preacher in this Age that came near this description except one this one had an excellent natural disposition for Preaching joyned with the vivacity of imagination and a fineness of Spirit which he possessed in a soveraign degree and which gave him a wonderful facility in expressing himself the greatest that I have ever seen in any person he had yet a Talent in pronunciation the most extraordinary in the world that one might say that he was an Orator in his countenance in his voice in his gesture and in all his actions he could make his Eyes with an easie motion speak any thing give an inflection to his voice an air to his visage any
methodick soever he be hath made more ill Preachers than good for he writ in a very miserable age whose gust was universally corrupted and that difficult manner that he hath to express things is as much opposed to Eloquence as the things themselves are proper for though a simple and plain stile is fittest for instruction yet it becomes very much contrary to what we ought to use in publick if we take not great care The Divines which succeeded him have imitated the same manner and it is now become the general method of the Schools and so dangerous to this kind of Eloquence it is busied only in desertations and subtilties which may perhaps give the Nerves and force to discourse but deprives it of the grace and beauties hence it appears that Logick though it teach the Art of reasoning yet it is not absolutely necessary to Eloquence for though without it a discourse is but a pratling in the Air which signifies nothing yet its succours are not to be received in that naked manner which is usual they must be clad in the Ornaments of Eloquence to add a grace to its discourses §. 9. There may be made the same observations upon the writings of the Latin Fathers which are also much contrary to Eloquence by reason of the miserable estate of those times in which they writ every one knows to what extremities all that which was call'd good sense was reduc'd to at the time of the departure of the Barbarians from Italy All the Fathers of the first age even to Saint Bernard have writ after this hard and dry manner excepting a very little number which are not corrupted by this Gusto by reason of some tincture which they have conserved as Minutius Felix Salvian Arnobius St. Jerom to which we might add some places in the works of Saint Ambrose and Saint Austin The Greek Fathers are more Eloquent than the Latine Fathers though the order of their designs and the matters which they treat on are very little just or conformable to the precepts of Art for they have taken an Air of Eloquence more natural and easie but thereby they become more apt to be abandoned to their Genius as we may observe in Saint Basile and in Saint Chrisostome Saint Gregory of Nazianzen is indeed more polished and without doubt has more of Art but when I advertise the Preachers of the danger of reading of the Latine Fathers by exposing their Eloquence to the end to oblige them to take caution that they ruine not themselves on that part I pretend not to decry all commerce with them which is not only profitable but absolutely necessary for a Preacher to furnish his Spirit with Idea's of sanctity and of the Grandeur of our Religion which we find in all the works of these Authors In the reading of these the most pure of the Christian morality is to be found from whence the Preacher may draw it as from the proper source the most clear and undisturbed The Fathers are the Interpreters of the Evangelists and the Church honours them with the Title of holy because their works are as a heritage and patrimony which they have bequeathed to the faithful as to their true Children §. 10. 'T is not enough that the Preacher lay a foundation by a long study of Divinity and a frequent reading of the Fathers which he ought to do with method but he must also study a Rhetorick proper to the Pulpit whereof we find not any Character amongst the Antients who have not had any perfect Idea of it nor amongst the Moderns who have only copyed from the Antients The Majesty of our Religion the Sanctity of its Laws the purity of its Morality its exalted Mysteries and the importance of all its Subjects ought to give it an elevation which cannot be sustain'd by the weakness of a spirit purely humane It is in vain to search for it in the Rhetorick of Aristotle in the Idea's of Hermogenes or in the Institutions of Quintilian even that sublime kind which Longinus hath formed of all the great expressions of the Antients which he hath collected are feeble and low in comparison of that which our Preacher ought to possess to maintain the dignity of his Character That divine Air which the grandeur of Christian Religion and the Incomprehensibility of our Faith demands is only to be sought in those excellent Idea's which are to be found in the holy Scripture by those who know the secret to penetrate into the depth thereof This is that pure and plentiful Spring from whence all those magnificent expressions flow whose Author is the holy Spirit It is from hence he ought to take those glorious Images and that elevation which makes up the essential Character of this Eloquence he must read with diligence the Prophets and lay out his time in hourly meditations of them if he would preach terror Naturaliter plus valet apud plurimos malorum timor quam spes bonorum Fab. l. 3. c. 8 which must be his most general practice for to preach well he must terrifie the Sinner and awaken him from the Lethargy softness of a vitious age by casting a terror into his Spirit To this I add that the Scripture is a Fountain abounding with all the Riches and all the Ornaments whereof this Eloquence is formed and that all kinds of writing are there to be found Esaiah is elevated Jeremiah moving Ezekiel terrible Daniel tender and all the other Prophets in general contain something so great and excellent as is not in any measure to be equall'd by what is most esteemed in prophane Orators Good sense and right reason was never so clearly unvayl'd in any work of morality as in the Books of Solomon never hath any History been writ with an Air more simple and elevated mixed together nor in a manner more perfect than that of Moses whereof Longinus only cites two words in the beginning of Genesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 8 to give the greatest and most sublime Idea that conception is capable of so far above the highest elevation of profane Authors Never was any thing writ more tender or delicate for the thoughts of Devotion Piety than the Psalms of David the most refined politicks and worldly wisdom are to be found in the Book of Wisdom and Proverbs Finally nothing has been ever conceived in the utmost extent of humane capacity more profound and penetrating than those sacred and adorable mysteries of Grace and predestination which Saint Paul hath delivered in his Epistles And to say a word of the New Testament which is the most essential Book of our Religion to which all that hath been writ by the Prophets is but Preface and Introduction what can one say more great or expressive than what our Saviour himself said in two words Verba quae locutus sum vobis Spiritus vita sunt Job 6. all the other Books may be said to contain only words but this
For the too much is alwayes a mark that we are transported beyond our selves which is a great fault but the too little may seem a mark of Moderation and Reserve which is alwayes a Virtue §. 8. We think it not enough to bestow our Cares in the study of our natural disposition to follow its inclination without committing some constraint in affecting Manners which becomes us not and in forcing through violent studies wherewith we become overburdened or in fine in imposing an air of Greatness or of more Art than we are able to sustain this began as Cicero notes first to make Eloquence degenerate from that Grandeur which it had in Athens under Pericles Lysias Eschenes and Demosthenes for that Demetrius Phalerius affected more of Art than his Genius could bear Phalereus non tam armis quam Palaestra inslitutus Cicero in Brut. §. 9. The Pronunciation which is one of the most important parts of Eloquence is yet one of the most neglected It renders Eloquence sensible to the people by the composition of the exteriour part and which hath the Art to impose by the appearances when it wants the power to touch by its effects If its virtue be so great as to make impression in Subjects feigned and supposed as it doth upon a Theater in a Comedy what can she not do when things true are her object But this admirable Art becomes unprofitable to those which speak in publick because of the little care they have to use and apply it 't is true he must have much of the natural in him who succeeds well in this Art but where he wants that application may supply The Eloquence of Demosthenes became admirable by his pronunciation though he had not any natural disposition and he was obliged for his success to the pains that he took to obtain it But because we are soon weary of these constraints we cannot resolve to give our selves the pain that is required to form our selves to this exeroise whereby we lose that great advantage that the pronunciation gives to an Orator by giving a certain agreement to his person and by the passionate expressions which it inspires even into his Eyes and Visage Also we may truly say that nothing frustrates more the ordinary effects of Eloquence than the little care we have of the exterior part whose faults become so much more sensible as they are above in delicacy the other pleasures we receive from Eloquence which being an Art to please by the profession which it makes hath nothing more opposed to it than that which is violent and disagreeable in the action §. 10. Those which make profession to speak in publick are not so careful to put in use their Logick either by a pure negligence to instruct themselves in it or by a natural debility to practise it or in fine by a very blameable regret they have to put themselves in pain of a little Meditation in which the Discourses of Ceremony or of Interests of State with those of Religion have not any part and those which are purely for pomp and preparation are ordinarily those wherein Logick finds its self most defective for that they are too wandring or too abstract for the general matters whereof they treat Logick is the first Rule of Discourse and the universal Organ of Speech to discourse without this Instrument 't is but to beat the Air and make a noise we canot say any thing that 's judicious or supportable without it How oft do we abandon it and when we put it into use how many extravagances do we commit either by the confusion of the expressions wherewith we perplex it or in fine by the Idea we form of false Reasonings to supply the want of the true Reason which cannot inhabit but in a Spirit fine and penetrating The rareness of such a Character is the reason that we find Eloquence so defective in the most part of those which make profession of it for that the Reasonings on which they establish it are either too mysterious or too common or altogether false and Chimaerical and if we examine things well we shall find that commonly in the usage of Eloquence in this age there is no defect so essential as that of Reasoning to which we have no great care to form our selves This is not so much obtained by the study of Logick which we learn at the Colledge as by the reading Aristotles Rhetorick and by the frequent commerce we must have with good Books the reading whereof imprints upon the spirit a justness of apprehension which cannot be acquired without it A right judgment is sometimes a Gift which comes purely from Nature but when we have it not we must labour to find it in Books whereof we must be careful to make a good choice for we may meet with some Books which instead of rectifying may quite destroy our judgments We must therefore take counsel of the most knowing persons upon what we are not able to understand our selves The neglect of this is the reason why so few persons are capable and young men yet more than others for that their experience and the usage of things have not yet form'd their Spirit But though the want of Logick be the most ordinary defect of those that speak in publick yet it is a thing whereof there alwayes appears the least want for none but men of the finest spirits whereof there is alwayes the fewest are capable of that knowledge not but that the people perceive very well the natural order of Discourse and all that there is of Logick in it without knowing it but their Light reaches not so far to see what is false in his Reasonings or defectuous in the order and pursuit of his Design Upon which we may make three Orders of Spirits the first of those which attend only to the Words to judge of their Beauty the second of those which go further and who judge of the Thoughts the third of those which go even to judge even of the whole Design Order and Proportion of the Parts which last is not known but by the most intelligent There are some Orators who leave not their Auditors liberty to examine the bottom of their Discourse by a certain Charm of Words and of Thoughts wherewith they surprize them There are some others which quite blind us by the agreeable manner of expressing things I have known a person of this sort who alwayes pleas'd though his Discourse was very little correct either in the Order or Reasoning but after all he pleas'd none but Women and the Ignorant the more understanding esteem'd him not §. 11. When we apply our selves to the study of Eloquence we are accustomed to mistake by the false measures we take of it or of its Subject or of those to whom we address our selves For an Orator who hath a great elevation of Spirit many times takes too great a pleasure in pursuing his own Fancy without giving any care to proportion
perfect Orators since a perfect Orator cannot be form'd but in an Age happy and in a people of good Gust §. 16. The Soveraign Art of Eloquence consisteth in a scrupulous attention to Nature as to its true Model and first Original whereof we have so little knowledge by reason of the little care we take to pursue the Tracts and to observe the conduct we must study then to know well this great Model and to examine all its Resorts by a profound study of Philosophy and a long observation of natural things for so often as we depart from Nature we fall into errour and mistake the heat of our most passionate motions is but a false heat the most dazling splendour of her Figures are but a false and deceitful blaze and the greatest of her Reasons hath nothing real and is no other than a sophistical Declamation and pure Illusion §. 17. We find very little of construction in the Discourses of the most of our publick Orators because they apply not themselves to study the Rules of Speech Those which have a genius for Eloquence find it a trouble to abase themselves to those little scrupulous cares which are necessary to succeed well the natural elevation of their spirit cannot be subjected to those circumspections and those that have not that genius are subject to fall into the fault of affectation to supply by words that which they want of light to understand things well §. 18. The most ordinary source of those defects which we meet with in the expression which is so essential to Eloquence comes from the natural defects of the imagination The expression falls into a Lux and into superfluity when the Imagination is too quick and ardent she falls into galimatia's and into obscurity when the Imagination is too abundant and too profuse In fine it falls into a faint languishing and insipidness when the Imagination is too cold too heavy and enveloped §. 19. We scarce ever study that just temperament which is of so much use in the mixing in our Discourse Reason with Authority Comparison and Similitude with Example and Induction In the usage it self which we make of this great Instrument of perswasion we apply not our selves with any care to arrange our reasons in such a manner as that the one may sustain the other by the order which we give them for the stronger Reasons ought to succeed the weak and the most solid to those that are the less solid to the end that the Discourse may sustain and elevate it self the nearer it approaches to the period of its perfection This is a thing of such Importance that the only neglect of this observation renders somtimes the reasonings which are very strong and solid little effective for that they weaken themselves when the proportion of the reasons is not observed This proportion consists in the not urging of any thing that may appear weak when we have said any thing more perswasive For the latter Reasons make the most lasting impression in the spirit and ought therefore as I have said before to be the most strong Besides the mannagement of the Reasons which ought to be placed in their natural order and ought not to be confounded they must also be orderly mannaged in the use which we make of Induction least we be exposed to an inconsiderate multiplication Also our Orator must have that admirable Art which knows generously to retrench superfluities in things as well as words and to suppress too frequent Ornaments without hearkning to the transport of the Imagination which by a natural inclination suffers it self to be carryed away to a vain splendour of Discourse which usually hath nothing of solid Eloquence he cannot move with success those great Machines of het Art without these precautions which are of the highest consequence for that they reduce things to their natural estate But these Observations are but seldom practic'd because they are but little known §. 20. That Eloquence which touches not the spirit and makes not its way to the heart is not true Eloquence it is no more than a pure instruction which ought not to be used but in the School And all those Beauties which smite the spirit without affecting the heart are not true Beauties That great Air it self which Longinus teaches affects but little when it doth not dazle nor astonish as he avows himself for that it enters not into the thoughts of those to whom we speak All those great expressions without as great thoughts are like those great Ships that are not ballanced they float and never sail in safety §. 21. That Eloquence in general which bestowes too much care in the arrangment of words Cum verborum derogat affectibus fidem et ubicunq ais o lentatur veritas abesse videtur Quint. l. 10. c. 4. Non ad judiciorum certamen sed ad voluptatem aurium scripserat Isocrates Cic Orat. and of that outward splendour which glisters in the expression almost never succeeds We are usually displeas'd with all things which appear studied and artificial That great Orator Isocrates which wrote as it seems only for pleasure was not fit for affairs and had never succeeded at the Barr for that he was too polish'd This was the manner also of the Sophists upon whom Socrates rallyes so pleasantly in Plato's Phaedra and Longinus notes in the great artifice of Hiperides who used to fill his Discourse with too many Ornaments and too many beauties It is a great Art to know how to mannage these Ornaments and to dispose them in their due place when necessity obliges to make use of them The Artifice of Eloquence cannot have any effect but against it self when it is too dazling for thereby it becomes suspected and we regard it only as a Page which is gawdily drest Quae parâ—nt retia vitat avâ—s Ovid. for no other end than to surprize Besides that which strikes the spirit and the sense with too much splendor wearies and oppresses In fine 't is necessary that the matters themselves be not without beauty to bear those great Ornaments which become ridiculous in little Subjects for there is nothing more contrary to Art than to adorn what merits it not And 't is not of the least importance in this Art to know what is to be neglected and what is not To be too expensive in Ornaments is but a vain and fruitless prodigality for we often find that which glisters most in Discourse is most usually false Those studied Figures those fine Antithesies and those splendid Epithites are not alwayes conformable to good sense True Eloquence doth not dazle or surprize but insinuates by little and little into the spirit The Reasons that are most capable to move are ordinarily the most common as Aristotle teacheth us Topic. 1. And the most natural Language to which we are carried by the sole desire we have to make our selves understood is most proper and the best Those Discourses which require
grace to his gesture and an agreement to to his discourse such as he pleased and all these in such a degree as never had Orator an equal power to him to raise attention and as never any person was more Master of what he said nor of the manner wherein he spoke he could give to the Spirits of his audience what impressions he pleased The greatest places where he Preached was too little to hold the concourse of those that followed him Though this great facility he had in speaking betrayed him into a neglect of preparing himself yet by the mere power of his action in the most indifferent and neglected discourses he could impose upon the People by his manner of speaking the most common things that he said were listend to with the same applause and admiration as those which were the most extraordinary things the choisest Preachers could say He had certainly been the most accomplished Preacher that ever was had his judgment and his capacity answered to his other Talents and if he had not been so excessive in his action which was too significant and besides had not all the gravity that the sanctity of the place required §. 4. These natural Talents sometimes exert themselves in so much splendor that they rob if it be lawful so to speak the word of God of that esteem veneration which we ought to have for it they often procure themselves attention not for that it is on Gods account they speak Non in sapientia verbi ne vacuetur crux Christi 1 Cor. 3. but because they speak agreeably because they are Eloquent Preach novelties or bear some Character of dignity or advancement in the Church or for some other outâ—ard qualities like the People of Jerusalem who went to hear Ezekiel because he was Eloquent For this reason it was that Saint Austine went first to hear Saint Ambrose before he was converted The Preacher ought to shun as a thing too humane and too sensual the giving place in his discourse to the curiosity of the people which he may easily do in taking the resolution to profit rather than please He cannot faile too of success if he know how to speak of good things and to speak them with judgement and knowledge § 5. I do not intend that it is necessary for all those that are called to the ministry to have all those great qualities that I have numbred 't is good that in the Church there should be men of different capacities to be accommodated to those of their Auditors which are so various It suffices to a Preacher that preaches to the common People to know the principal duties of Christianity An indifferent Preacher is sufficiently qualified to entertain Religion and make it subsist in a Village maugre the ignorance and stupidity that reigns amongst us for that mediocrity of genius may always be in an estate to instruct especially if it have joyned with it any Talent inspeaking and though he want the Genius to raise deep concernments yet he may be numbred amongst those Preachers who have the power to make a great noise by an animated manner of speaking which oftentimes works the same effect upon the hearts of the People as the Drums and Trumpets do upon the Souldiers in a Battel The noise astonishes them and makes them run with precipitation upon the Enemy without any reflection whither they go It is not the impulse of Reason which moves the grosser Spirits and awakens them to their duty for they understand it not but it is the emotion and ardeur with which they speak and the loudness of their Exclamations which makes the impression it is not the things themselves that move but the manner of delivering them because the manner is sensible and the things are not It is also manifest that the People judge not so much by the reasons as hath been said as by the tone of the voice they beleive him that speaks most loud and with most confidence and it is to this boldness that they owe the success of their perswasions for the truth is the Soul is not ordinarily moved than by what first vigorously strikes the sense But after all this these popular Preachers must be let to understand that they become ridiculous when they strive to be numbred amongst the fine Spirits and endeavour rather to please than to edifie it suffices in Preaching to the People to propose simply to them the great verities of Religion and the sanctity of its morals without labouring so much for Forms and Ornaments which oftentimes serve only to burthen the Preacher as well as his Audience § 6. The most part of Preachers are rendred very ignorant by mingling themselvs too much in the commerce of the world neglecting to apply themselves with that diligence that is required to the work of the Ministry 't is this reduces them â—oa necessity to copy one from another to furnish themselves with matters for their Sermons They take not the pains to fetch it from the Sources nor indeed have they any knowledge of them this is the cause that they use such ill Reasons to perswade to vertue for they have not a capacity for good reasons nor the Art to make them understood when they have them They usually ruine themselves by this copying from other men and extinguish their own Genius by striving to assume that of others From hence I may say all those deformities which are so ordinary amongst them first receive their birth that which makes so many ill Preachers is the false method they choose they ought not to serve themselves with the designs nor the thoughts of others till they be able to transform them and make them proper to their own Spirits §. 7. This Eloquence only becomes solid in a great capacity nor can any hope to be fortunate in this Art who has not before replenished his mind with all the knowledges necessary to treat the word of God with dignity The most important is that of Divinity without which a Preacher cannot with that confidence and authority give clear resolutions in the subjects whereof he treats It is a great weakness in him that preaches when he cannot determine precisely what is of Faith and what is not or to hesitate when he should decide But we know that there is nothing more great necessary or agreeable in this Eloquence of the Pulpit than Divinity which is the Science of Religion and there is nothing more miserable and disgusting when it is not treated with that sufficiency and dignity with which it ought to be §. 8. A too frequent commerce with the Schoolmen brings a much greater prejudice than advantage to the Preacher when he knows not how to make use of it as he ought and wants Wisdome or a necessary precaution in the reading of them for there is nothing so contrary to Eloquence as the learning of the Schools and I am perswaded that the Lecture of Thomas Aquinas how solid and
those Preachers who are all passionate and who begin their Exordiums in thunder least they should seem to be wanting in any thing ruine all by giving themselves too much to their humour It is good to make them comprehend that they never were less capable to move than when they most striv'd to do so I have sometimes seen a Preacher who was of this humour who notwithstanding preach't with very good success indeed he had a rare talent and many tracts in his discourse which did exceedingly affect the spirits His way of speaking was very strong and his whole aire was vehement but he lost these great advantages by a too great passion that he had to move and to make vehement discourses against the Times so that his declamation became too full of Transport his gestures too expressive and his countenance too Comaedian finally his manner was so very much corrupted by the Grimaces and violent agitations and constraints of his whole body that all his motions became so many real Convulsions A Preacher must shun these extravagant transports of zeal which become blameable as oft as they are excessive he must therefore consider well this rule that he never moves less than when he betrays this too earnest desire to his Auditors it seems but a false passion which indures so long and that zeal becomes suspected which is continued with so much heat and whereof the Preacher makes too great ostentation §. 17. There is in most a too great desire to please without putting themselves to the trouble of working real concernments in their Auditors this is another extremity which ought to be avoided For he that would perfectly succeed in preaching must commence by moving first the heart before he think to please What way he should take to effect this I have already described I deny not but that there may be found in this Age a species of good sense joyned with excellent things but by a too great passion that most have to please they bring themselves in danger to loose the true fruit of things by a too careful search after the flower For that which pleases opens the heart and dissipates the spirits which only profits by its close entertainment and he looses what is solid by a too eager pursuit of what is agreeable It is without doubt from that disposition of spirit that there are so many Preachers who endeavour more to please than to perswade and who introduce into the Pulpit all those various gusto's which reign in the world which they make their study that they may appear the more al a mode We have lately seen many Preachers of this kind who prepare themselves to go to a Sermon as to a Ball where he meets all the fair world assembled whom he entertains with the morality in fashion delivered in an amorous stile and with an aire very lascivious What is the effect of these agreeable Sermons but the dissipation of the spirits than which there is nothing more opposed to devotion Unhappiness be to these Preachers al a mode The Evangelists nor the Apostles did not thus What indecence is it to preach the severities of our Religion the abjection of Christianity and the contempt of the Cross with an aire undisturbed and with fine and studied expressions and to mix these feeble ornaments with the greatness and majesty of our Religion This is the most ordinary defect of those who preach to persons of Quality they amuse themselves to make Religion agreeable to the manners of those whom they ought to terrifie in letting them understand that their condition hath an essential opposition to Salvation and that they find not any tract or footstep of the Gospel or of true Christianity in the life that they lead at Court It is true he ought to have compassion on their blindness who are poyson'd with a pestilential aire which reigns amongst them But this ought so much the more to excite the Preacher to speak the Truth For we are taught by the Fathers that the Court alwayes followed the manners of their Preachers if they were holy it fail'd not to be holy also §. 18. There are some others who fail of success because their respects are too humane and too interess'd they are more attentive to their own establishment than to the Salvation of their Auditors they preach themselves and not Jesus Christ Let those Preachers reflect that the great success the of Apostles came as St. Chrisostome saith from their disinteressment St. Paul perfected an entire conversion upon the people because he pretended no benefit by his Sermons But it happens sometimes to those who have resigned all their temporal hopes in renouncing the world yet have no power to subdue this foolish vanity which makes the Preacher labor too much after reputation who after he has renounced all cannot without much pain◠renounce the pleasure of being prais'd Let the Preacher that would cure himself of this weakness consider if all these praises that are given him were sincere which they scarce ever are that he has but preach't very indifferently whilst he has left still a liberty to his Auditors to say that he has done well and that his preaching is not to much purpose whilst he hath given them leave to say that he hath preached agreeably he has only given them a little pleasure but no fruit The greatest praises of a Preacher is the silence of his Auditors and when they rise all pensive from their seats after Sermon and depart from the Church without speaking a word this is a sure mark that they are nearly touched and that they think on what they heard This agrees with what the Great Symachus in one of his Epistles said to the Emperours Theodosins and Arcadius Magnitudo stuporis locum plausibus non relinquit Lib. 10. Epist 22. The greatness of our admiration and astonishment seals up our tongues and deprives us of the power to praise An example of this I have seen at the Sermon of a Preacher who preach't in a manner so vehement and touching that when they departed from the Sermon and astonishment of the Auditors and the compunction of heart which they suffered imposed a general silence which spoke loud to his advantage I cannot forbear the relation of an Adventure which hapned to me a few years ago I went to hear a Sermon one day in Lent to the Court the Preacher that day preach't upon the passion of our Lord with an aire very brisk and polish't The Ladies from time to time lift up their eyes to heaven during his discourse saying that was excellently express'd that was graciously spoken whilst I was almost mad with indignation to hear him discourse so pleasantly in a subject so worthy compassion and take so much pains to please his Auditors whom he ought to have endeavoured to affect with grief and compunction There is one other vanity yet more foolish and deplorable When those that have gained a reputation of good men
and to be excellent in this Art they attribute to themselves the glory and success of their perswasions when they have done no more than what is effected by the impression of the voice and the exterior part of speech upon the heart Our Religion teaches us that it is the holy Spirit alone which does the rest §. 19. Another cause of the ill success in preaching is the Preachers being too much abandon'd to himself without ever thinking to implore the assistance and succours of heaven whereby he is driven to mix his own imaginations and weaknesses with the grandeur and sanctity of our Mysteries like that impertinent Preacher who preach't one day very miserably before a reverend Bishop making this complement after Sermon that he was forced to abandon himself to the holy Spirit because he had been allowed but a little time for preparation Adding that hereafter he hoped to acquit himself better There is something so great and elevated which I know not how to name in our Mysteries that it suffices to expose them simply and without Art to the people to merit all the glory that can be hoped from Eloquence were it honest to preach for Reputation §. 20. He treats unworthily the Word of God who debases himself to the childish amplifications of petty subjects and to meer trifles amongst the great number of important matters which furnish our Religion following the example of those trifling Preachers who spend their Zeal against Paintings Garnitures Dresses and other vanities of Women A good man begins by throwing a terror into our Souls by a remembrance of the Judgments of God and making us tremble by proclaiming the dreadful consequences of our Sins this is the most powerful means to extirpate Luxury and the most capable to introduce Modesty in our Habits and Behaviour He does but trifle that thinks to effect it any other way And in truth in so great and rich abundance of great matters which the Gospel affords he must have a very low spirit who can stay and busie himself about such trivial subjects I know not by what unhappiness our Preachers become so nugatory in the great subjects they have to treat when the antient Pagans were even great and elevated in the least things that they had to say I am ashamed when I read the Oration of Eschines against Ctesiphon where that Orator makes shine with so much Art the power of a Pagan Eloquence in these Trifles We says he are come to the Feast of Corbeils the Victims are upon the Altars the Sacrifice is ready and you are all prepared to beg of the Gods what is necessary for the State But consider before with what voice with what spirit and with what assurance you can present your Vows if you leave the Impiety of those who have violated their Mysteries unpunish'd See how much spirit and how much greatness there is in solittle a subject in comparison of that languor and weakness of most part of our Preachers who instead of being elevated by the Majesty and Greatness of our Mysteries amuse themselves in little things because they have not that force of spirit to fasten upon the greater The grave and serious kind is the character most essential to the Pulpit which admits of nothing that is low cold trivial or childish to obtain this he must imitate the Apostle who in lieu of busying himself in the search of prophane Ornaments made all his Art and all his Eloquence out of the continual meditation of the greatness of Jesus Christ Non doctas fabulas seculi notam fecimus nobis Jesu Christi virtutem speculatores facti illius magnitudinis §. 21. The most refined and sublime matters are not the most proper for preaching but on the contrary those that are the most edifying and simple For these reasons we ought to blame that extravagancy of wit which reigns in this age and labours after curious designs and ingenious distributions and division of discourse which gains so much approbation from the Ladies Such was that division of the Preacher who preaching on the suffering of our Saviour thought he had acquitted himself very dexterously when he had shown in two parts of his discourse The pleasures in sufferings and the sufferings in pleasures This affectation in discourse appears so childish smells so much of the Scholler and Declamator and so little of the gravity of the Pulpit that it is pittied by every one who has the least use of their reason for in those studied oppositions there is seldom any thing that is solid though sometime possibly they may be witty yet the parts are oftentimes comprehended the one in the other when they are exactly discuss'd And this contains but one and the same thing in effect though they are two in appearance Beside they often weaken the Subject by this too curious care to give it an agreeable variety which would be more strong if it were more natural It is for the most part the younger Preachers who seek after this fineness in the division of their discourses It was not the manner of St. Chrysostome nor those great men of the Church they found the most common distributions as being most natural alwayes the best they had a noble contempt of the reputation of being witty in these kind of things which only can succeed by being natural by their simplicity and by the strength of the reasons that recommend them §. 22. Nothing so much contributed to the great success the Apostles had in preaching the Gospel than their own practise of it their example was the best instruction and their preachings were rendred more powerful by their humility by their mortification and by their poverty than by their reasonings or Discourse And indeed the most effectual way of perswasion to Christianity is by the Life and Manners of those that preach It was the Eloquence of Jesus Christ first to practise himself what he taught He that preaches a severe morality with a cheerful and vermilion countenance will not easily perswade to what he exhorts for he gives cause to believe that he practiceth not what he teacheth and his visage destroyes his Reasons All the world hath seen the little success of some who could not by all the emotion of their zeal make the least impression because the rigour of their morality had diminished nothing from their thriving Carkases for the Auditors oftentimes regard more his Countenance than his Reasons The Countenance of the Preacher gives not a little consolation to those who cannot accommodate themselves to that severity which these sanguine Complexions dispence with so much zeal I do not say but that the people whose understandings are dull may be imposed upon but the exteriour part cannot do it for they judge according to appearance and though the Preacher may speak never so great a truth if his Manners be suspected his Reasons will be so also It is somtimes necessary to speak little to perswade much for all appears false
that a Preacher sayes if he have once the reputation of one that will amplifie §. 23. Imposumus populo oratores visi sumus Cic. in Brut. Every one is very well perswaded of the Reflection that I come to make That the most ordinary Artifice of Preachers is to impose on their Auditors and to make themselves appear what they are not The morality that they practise is so much the more severe as that which they practise is sweet and commodious and because in preaching the Gospel he must necessarily edifie his Auditors to maintain the dignity of his Ministry he is constrained to take upon him at least the appearances of severity whilst the sweetness of the life he leads convinces us of the little disposition he hath to a real Mortification But of all these pretended Zelots who would be distinguished by the severity of the morals they deliver the most dangerous sort are those shallow and presumptuous Devot's who preach to the people Chimerical Devotions and their own Fantastick Visions who without distinguishing what is essential from what is not they bring all things to the last extremity I know some that have this Art to impose without understanding any thing of fineness or subtlety by a strong natural imagination which is fed by the little Light they receive from the reading of the Gospel So that it is not the Spirit that is alwayes Master it resigns it self up to the conduct of the Imagination and as oft as that is transported all that the Spirit saith by its impression is so also A Preacher must avoyd this with a particular care or else he will make very strange disorders amongst the people but especially amongst the Women who are naturally feeble and ignorant for the more extravagant a Preacher is and the more extraordinary his Conduct by so much he is rendred more capable to make the greater disturbance This disorder is but too frequent in this Age as well as in that of the false Devot's whose vertues were all counterfeit which hath given occasion to decry so very much that devotion whereby they have made at present in the world a species of Intrigue and a manner of profession to be distinguish't from others But they cannot be very devout who seek only to distinguish themselves by a bare profession that they make to be so §. 24. How many Preachers are there who by the vehemence of their discourse seem to throw stones at the heads of their Auditors to compel them to amend their faults and scarce ever think of preaching those to which themselves are subject They study the Fathers Divinity and Rhetorick and all things else that may contribute to render them renowned In fine they study all things but the knowledge of themselves Their ill pronunciation their minds their grimaces their action their gestures so little conformable to a true decorum and whatsoever else that is violent in their persons and outward behaviour to suffer to stick to them they without any care of Reformation by this negligence of their persons they corrupt oftentimes their best natural qualities which possibly might contribute to render them more successful and profitable if they would give themselves the trouble to think on it For how can they so much neglect this without making it believed that they yet more neglect their Auditors what respect can we have for what they say when we have no difference for their persons We have seen not long ago a Preacher of this kind who could not put off his air of the Village whereby he corruped his other talents because he would not take the pains to amend it §. 25. A Christian Preacher ought to shun nothing so carefully as that which is too glistring either in words or thoughts he must know how to speak in a stile polish't without affectation All that is studided and artificial is false and little agreeable to the eloquence of the Pulpit his discourse ought to be simple reasonable and natural to which the commerce with the Italilian and Spanish Simonists is very contrary This reading of the Moderns does but amuse him because he knows not the Antients and he frames to himself a false Idea of that Eloquence whose true Character is very much opposed to what is studied dazeling and witty The true Eloquence of the Pulpit ought not to endeavour to sustain it self but by the greatness of the Subjects of which it treats by its simplicity and by its reasons He does but weaken it who pretends to adorn it with the Riches of the Pagans The Preacher ought to banish from the Pulpit all Citations of prophane Authors all reflections upon their Maximes and all their stories as unworthy of so sacred a Subject The holy Scripture is rich enough to furnish him with Ornaments of all kinds which are of use to this Eloquence when he has well meditated it he will find plenty of Reasons and Examples to strengthen and establish his discourse all other Authorities ought to have no place in the Pulpit as too estranged and too little conformable to the Sanctity of his Character A Preacher which ought not to put in usuage any thing but what is holy ought to be extreamly scrupulous in serving himself with any thing that is not so He must also fly the affectation of making the entrance of his discourse too glistring whose fair thoughts surprize and dazle the spirits of their Auditors but are very far from having that junction which accompanies the Word of God reducing it to a dryness which renders it sterile and unfruitful §. 26. Finally the most essential character of this Eloquence which we likewise so miserably neglect is the Art to allot divers dayes to the same thoughts which is done by varying them after different manners for that the common people which usually makes the greater number whereof every Audience is composs'd wants prompt and easie conceptions So that it is to great purpose if the Preacher would have them reap any fruit or profit that he propose the truth of the Gospel in such a manner as may insinuate little by little into their spirits and to dispose in order their impressions upon their hearts and resolutions which cannot be effected but by those variations that he must give to the same proposition to imprint them more deep in the spirits of his Hearers insinuating by frequent repetitions the same things under different forms of speech It was thus that St. Chrysostome preach't in the first Ages of the Church and the famous Grenade in this last Age Boâ—h which have been the most perfect models that can be proposed to a Preacher A discourse to answer this Character must not be over-charg'd with matter lest it too much oppress the Auditor That rapid Eloquence which so much pleases the lesser wits and is only recommendable for its impetuosity and transport is not at all proper for the people who have neither so much penetration of spirit or promptitude to keep
pace with it and retain its fruit I cannot forbear to note that some Preachers owe all their success to the weakness and ignorance of the Auditors but that success ought not to authorize an evil custom because that it happens only from the little reason and stupidity of those to whom they speak §. 27. The choice of matters we ought to treat of in the Pulpit is of a greatter importance than we commonly think it is We seldom consider the great Importance in the choice of matters which ought to be treated of in the Pulpit They fall into an ill custom who upon that portion of the Gospel which they propose preach only what others have done before The choicest Preachers know how to distinguish themselves from the indifferent in effect it is one of the essential talents of great Genius's to make choice of great Subjects in all the matters that they treat of to which they know how to add that natural variety that it ought to have For as every Subject is only great so far as it is solid All that passes the test of a Preacher who hath a great and firm Judgment becomes proportionably solid and whatsoever is so is alwayes proper to preach But because this talent is rare and common Preachers are much wanting in the choice of worthy Subjects I have thought it not unprofitable to propose some of them that may be the most proper to this Eloquence of the Pulpit 1. The Greatness and Majesty of God as it is described in the Prophets and in other places of Scripture To give an Idea of him to the greatest part of Christians who know so little of him the Preacher must render him terrible to the wicked and amiable to the good and so by making him appear such as he is they both may be equally edified 2. The truth of our Religion which has been attested by the wisest men of the world and those which were most exempted form Interest or Passion and has never been contested but by those whose sentiments were corrupted by the contagion of their manners 3. The necessity and importance of Salvation and the difficulty to attain to it by reason of the uncertainty of death which oftentimes surprizes us in our disobedience 4. The greatness of the act of Redemption and the unspeakable bounties of our Saviour the acknowledgments and thanks that we owe to him and which he hath merited of us by his Sufferings and by the effusion of his Blood 5. The unprofitableness of the life of most part of Christians especially the rich who do so little to gain Heaven which being proposed only as a conquest cannot be gained by sloth and softness of life as is that of Courtiers and Ladies 6. The terrible account that he must render to God of his mispent life and the use of those graces that he bestowed on him when he receives from death his last arrest 7. The Sanctity of the Mysteries of our Religion as that of the Resurrection which is the establishment of our Faith the Ascention which is the motive of our Hope by the assurance of a Mediator with God the descent of the Holy Spirit which is the ground of our Charity and the love we owe to God by a bond so holy 8. The greatness and dignity of the name of Christian which we receive at our Baptism which consists in the honour we have to become the Children of God by Adoption and in the right to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven This right and that honour is a thing so glorious that we cannot given an Idea great enough to a Christian nor make him well comprehend the obligation that such a name layes upon him to lead his life answerably in all purity and holiness 9. The frequent Elogy of our Faith which only can calm the inquietudes and the eternal Agitations of curiosity to which the spirit of man is subject and which is capable to sweeten the perpetual troubles of this life by giving us a clear prospect of the Recompences which we hope for fide sperandarum substantia verum 10. The holy use that we ought to make of the Sacraments which are the most essential things in our Religion he must show in that usage what perfection the quality of a Christian which we receive by our Baptism doth obliege us he must make him understand that penitence is a sincere Reconciliation with God which oblieges us to a true Repentance for our offences and a firm resolution to offend no more He must explain that the Eucharist is not only the sacred nourishment of souls but that it ought to be taken as a lively Image to refresh in us the memory of that great act of Redemption which ought never to be effaced from the heart of a Christian That Marriage is not only a Christian society of man and woman but also a means to elevate Christians to acknowledg and honour God And in this manner to explain all the Sacraments 11. The sufferings humiliations contradictions and poverty which are the blessings of Christian Religion and the mosts certain pathes that lead to Heaven as wealth and greatness are the greatest obstacles 12. To stir up in the faithful that spirit of fear and trembling in which they must travel to their salvation according to the advertisement of the Apostle It is good to proclaim in the eares of sinners the terrour of the Judgments of God to awaken them from that sleepiness into which their crimes have plunged them and to raise a fear even in the better Christians by representing the peril to which they expose themselves by neglecting the least Graces which they receive from God who severely punisheth the least contempt or misimployment of them 13. The confidence in God which he must excite by frequent Discourses upon his Providence which we are not very apt to acknowledg by reason of the ill habitude we have got to impute all evenements to Chance or to our own industry without reflecting on what we are taught in the Gospel that there falls not a hair of our Heads that is to say there arrives nothing in the world how indifferent soever it appears to our eyes but by order of Providence which we ought to acknowledg and adore in whatever comes to pass if we would render our Duty and Obedience compleat 14. The obedience and perfect submission we owe to the Church and the authority of its Decisions without which no society can subsist and because it is the Rule of what we ought to believe and of what we ought to practise without which we are alwayes exposed to the mercy of our extravagant imaginations and our changeable and unbridled desires and Religion which ought to be the most sure and establisht thing in the World becomes the most light and inconstant 15. The vertue of the Word of God which converts sinners and humbles the wise of the World by the mouth of Babes and Ignorants 16. The Panegyricks of the
Saints which they must propose to the Faithful as the true Models of that perfection which God demands of them according to their divers Conditions and Vocations 17. Finally the strange misery of the most part of Mankind especially of great men who run after falsity and mistake and who occupy their minds in Chimera's and illusions whereof they serve themselves to maintain the Maximes of their Libertinism There are a great number of other Subjects of equal importance with these as that essential Character of a Christian which is the Iove of our Neighbour with an universal Charity which doth not exclude our greatest Enemies the pardon of injuries conformity to the Will of God in our adversity alms the distrust of our selves the good use of our time and a faithful employment of our Graces penitence humane respects which are so contrary to the profession of Christianity the horrour of sin the care of our salvation the omnipresence of God fervency in his Service prayer and all things that are most capable to move the hearts and contribute to the edification of the people we must above all things endeavour He cannot too often propose to the people the innocence of manners which the sanctity of our Religion requires which cannot easily be attained but a by holy retreat and a love of solitude The commerce of the world how holy so e're it be infects the heart with a contagion which will corrupt our manners in spite of all our precaution The purity of Christian Religion is so great that we cannot attain any perfection in it but by a desertion and holy separation from the world and from men This is that which the great Martyr of Sieily Saint Agatha had so well learned when she bless'd God with all her heart that he had taken from her the spirit and care of the world Qui tulisti a me amorem seculi In effect there is no man so good as he that lives conceal'd and the most secret way is the most secure to arrive at Heaven It remains to atchieve fully these Reflections that I propose some Model Those who have good natural disposition for this Eloquence may frame themselves To effect this I have given two examples of the most perfect Preachers that I have known in this Age though their accomplishments may appear miraculous yet those who have heard them speak will acknowledge that I have not represented them greater than they really were and that those whom I have described are not only Preachers in Idea but such as were so indeed without which I might be suspected to impose and amplifie The first had the greatest natural disposition for Eloquence that I have seen his person was graceful his visage was very agreeable he was grave and modest and all his outward behaviour was very taking his voice was not the most excellent but very clear and intelligible and I know not so insinuating as irresistably ingaged the attention The qualities of his spirit were answerable he had a great penetration and exquisite understanding a strong reason an easie comprehension a fine imagination and a judgment very solid his learning consisted in a perfect knowledge of Divinity which enabled him to decide all matters clearly and without ambiguity To this he had joyned a perfect knowledge of the Fathers of which he made use with so much happiness and address that they seem'd to have been writ purposely for him But nothing contributed so much to the renown of his learning as that admirable Eloquence wherein he was extreamly happy he could make what impression he pleased upon his Auditors by a pleasing variety he gave to every thing His reasons so mutually supported each other that the last was alwayes more strong than the first and besides he had nothing false or sophistical in his reasonings but all exceeding solid the force of his discourse increasing by degrees the nearer it approach'd to the end striking the spirit with more vigour at the conclusion than at the beginning Finally his true talent was to enlighten fully the understanding and to touch yet more sensibly the heart all his discourse was a marvelous illumination of the matters whereof he treated and after he had cast into the spirit the seed of the movements that he proposed by the wonderful power that he had he set in an instant all the engines of the soul on work by those movements that he judg'd most capable to be touched and inflamed the heart by all the heat and ardeur of the passions whereof he perfectly knew the art by a peculiar Rhetorick that he had formed they hearkned to his Sermons with pleasure because it enter'd into their minds by this pleasing artifice and he never preach't so long but his Auditors could have wished his Sermon longer and they never apprehended him near his conclusion without a very sensible Regret For in those moments that he took possession of their hearts he became absolute master to do what he pleas'd he had this Art in so eminent a degree that I have known some Libertines who could not resolve to hear him out of fear of being constrained to render themselves to his reasons for whosoever heard became without resistance his captive But nothing spoke so much to his advantage as the profound silence of his Auditors When he had finished his Sermon one might alwayes have seen them rise from their seats with their countenances pale and disfigured with their eyes heavy and dejected and to depart from the Church strangely moved and pensive without saying a word especially in the most touching Subjects and when he took occasion to speak of what was terrible he shewed that he had the same reflections with that great Master of this Art Naturaliter plus valet apud plurimus timor malorum quam spes bonorum The spirits of the people are less sensible to the hopes of good than to the fear of evil This made him alwayes say that a Preacher should generally preach terror and this indeed was his chief Character but as he sometimes preached out of humour to which the greatest men are subject he had in certain subjects such a heaviness of spirit as would not have without difficulty been understood with out that touching and pathetick Air which was his first talent The other Preacher that I have known had an equal natural disposition and I dare say all the learning of the former but he possess 't it in a very different manner I never saw more of Art in any Orator nor never more diligence to conceal it for under the appearance of a simplicity and negligence he cover'd the greatest Art that ever was This negligence was accompanied with so many graces that alwayes charmed because his Auditors were perswaded by his manner of speech that he thought of nothing less His soveraign Talent was the secret that he had found to make it believ'd that all his Art was natural because that it was couched under the most studied
negligence in the world so that his Audience easily abandoned themselves to the pleasure that they took in hearing him they suffer'd themselves to be lead without caution or any resistance as his reasons were strong and as he knew how to expose them with all their powers they made extraordinary and proportionable impressions but his manner of delivering them was so pleasing that they could not understand them without being ravished This was the ordinary effect of that Eloquence which was less in the words and things than in the manner of ordering and speaking them And as he had an Art to please in all that he said and that when he spoke he seem'd season'd with the graces which he had delivered he became soveraignly Eloquent for thereby he never failed of perswading he knew how to mix the force of his reasons with Authority and with a temper which adorned all that he said insomuch that he led the spirit of his Auditors in Triumph which way he pleased because they could not defend themselves from the pleasure by which he surprized them All his Morals were correct because his reason was so the Subjects that he treated of were alwayes rendred great by the importance of those Truths whereof they were composed he had nothing false in his thoughts nor superfluous in his words and when he made any digression he alwayes returned to his Subject with all imaginable facility and without the least maim in the sense or connexion By these agreeable wayes he went more directly to the heart than the other who fetched a larger circuit making his way first through the Spirit One was indeed more moved and struck by the force and vehemence of the former but more charmed penetrated and surprized by the graces and agreements of the second After all both the one and the other were fully accomplished in the Character that they assumed and in that Eloquence which they had formed to themselves A Preacher so perfect as these were whose Images I have drawn is one of the greatest gifts that God can bestow on his Church because it is a means to sanctifie whole Provinces and Realms by reforming the Licentious and the irregularity of manners which reigns amongst the People This is that sacred leaven which God by the care of his Providence hath opposed to all the corruptions which have course in the world So that I believe the few good Preachers that we find in these dayes proceeds from the little care they take to ask of God these kind of Graces which cannot be sought with too much passion Let us then pour out our tears at his holy Altars with a Lively Faith with ardent Vows and with a long perseverance Let us alwayes make to God that Prayer that he commended to his Apostles which after their example we are bound to practice Messis quidem multa operarii vero paucirogate ergo Dominum Messis ut mittat operarios in messem suam Luke cap. 10. Thus I have finish'd these few Reflections I have chosen this Method that I might not seem to speak like a Master of a Science which is no less universal than delicate I might be justly accused of presumption if I pretended to give my Opinions as Rules from my self on the contrary I confess I have drawn some of them from the writings of the best Oraors and some I may modestly challenge as the result of my own observation upon the little conformity I have found amongst the Orators of this Age to those antient Precepts of Demosthenes Ciceto and Quintilian whom if I have not cited so often as I approved their Opinions it is not that I would have attributed to my self any part of the glory that is their due but to avoid breaking the thred of my Discourse by too frequent Citations The death of the most excellent Mr. Cowly is very much to be lamented which with that of his Life gave an unhappy period to the design he had conceived to give us the pattern of several Stiles fitted for several Subjects His example might have put some bounds to that Poetick rage from whose invasion our holy places have not escaped Certainly none knew better than he how modestly to confine that Wanton And in this it may be truly affirmed he hath lefvery few successors The Stiles of our most witty men seem the dictates of the same spirit which inspires them in their raptures Though our Common Laws allow but very little place to this Art yet methinks the desire of glory should inflame them and the care to support the Majesty of our Law and the Dignity of its Professors should ingage the Students to lay out some time in the acquisition of this Art and those gentler Sciences that compleat an Orotar But so far are they now from it that when they enter upon that Study they think it necessary to bid adien to all those Sciences which teach Humanity Modesty and sweetens Conversation How miserable a thing is it and how ridiculous to hear in common discourse Plato and Cicero cited out of Cook and Plowden as if the treasures of the Greek and Roman wisdom were to be found couched in those mangled fragments I know not why it should be inconsistent in a well formed and tempered mind to mix these beautiful Studies with those which are more severe this I am sure would add to the honour of our Laws the want of which renders them deformed and despised For though our Law deserves those just commendations by which it is prefer'd to all the Laws of the world yet lex est mutus Magistratus saith Cicero the Law of it self is dumb and speaks not but by the tongue of a learned and eloquent Lawyer Much might be said in commendation of our Language which possibly equals the most celebrated in Europe in the plenty of soft grave and majestick expressions fit for all arguments But since it is a Subject fit for another Discourse I omit further enlarging upon it FINIS
his Discourse to the Subject or to measure the capacity of those to whom he speaks it is much more easie to abandon our selves to the impetuosity of our Genius than to regulate our selves according to the Circumstances of the things we speak of for one is the effect of Imagination the other the effect of Judgment which is a Gift more rare Also it is no marvel if those that speak in publick are so subject to this Disorder out of which spring so many Indecencies and choquant Disproportions which are jumbled together in our ordinary discourses which are made publick as the assuming of an air of greatness in the most trivial affairs and affecting grand expressions in the most petty Subjects making ostentation of the beauty of his Spirit to the people and before a gross and stupid Auditory and being ardent and pathetick in Subjects which deserve it not Eloquence ceases to be true Refert cognoscere qui sunt audientium mores quae publica recepta persuasio Fab. l. 3. c. 7. when it hath no proportion with the capacity of those to whom it is addressed The diversity of Ages Ut gubernator ad incursus tempestatum sie agenti ad varieta tem causarum ratio mutanda Quintil. l. 10 cap. 7. Sexes and Conditions and of Lights acquired or natural ought to oblige the Orator in different manners to proportion it to the Spirits of these different estates §. 12. It must be known in general to distinguish the divers Characters of Eloquence for to serve himself according to the necessity of the Subject whereof we treat lest we fall into confusion And we must be especially careful of this confusion because nothing is capable to succeed in this Art out of its place The grand Air of Eloquence ought to be in great places and iâ— great Assemblies where we find a general concourse For we must speak to persons of great quality in that kind of Discourse which hath most of esteem extention and grandeur of expression This Character ought to be used in the most elevated Subjects and in the most important matters as it ought to be simple Tenues causae tenue dicendifilum requirunt Orat. Oratio poscitur austera si accuses fusa si laudes Quintil. l. 9. c. 4. Loquendi accurata sine molestia diligens Elegantia Cic. in Brut. natural and without affectation of expression in lesser Subjects Praises demand a Stile elevated and diffused Accusations serious and austere in fine Eloquence hath arrived to its utmost perfection when it knows to adapt words proportionate to things and to conserve the care to unfold her self without difficulty or scruple There remains two things especially to be avoided the cold Stile and the Boyish for the first renders the Discourse dry and insipid by the faint languor and lowness of its expression the second renders it distastful and tedious by its affected amplifications wherewith they weary the patience of the Auditor §. 13. Thought that Longin confounds in some fashion the cold Stile and Boyish whereof I have spoken we may alwayes distinguish them in this manner in the affectation of a cold Stile we use great expressions in Subjects which demand little and in the Boyish we use little and low expressions in things that demand great But our Language is become so modest reserved and scrupulous that it rejects all expressions too strong and glistering Metaphors too hardy and the too frequent points in a cold stile as it does in the Boyish the little exultations in serious matters and the too languishing amplifications in those places of discourse which ought to be serious and concise §. 14. It is impossible to be happy in an elevated Stile when we are not entirely perswaded that it is formed of the things themselves which we have to speak of the great images which we have conceived and of the elevation of our Genius more than that of Expression the vain splendor of words or that train of studied Periphrases This is that which in Discourse in some manner is like that load of Flesh in the Body of man which serves only to charge imbarrass it with an unprofitable weight for when this elevated Stile is unnatural it degenerates into a Character low and reptile for it cannot sustain it self Pindar and Sophocles elevated themselves so high by the grandeur of their expression that they could not without much pain pursue it And when they could not bear up that elevation which is not natural for that it is not alwayes in the things they speak of they sometimes abase themselves even to a contempt and become not knowabl even to themselves This is a fault not to be pardoned for there is a presumption of appearing great without being so and a desire to elevate themselves without being able to sustain themselves in that height The Secret is to study how to think of things worthily Oratio sententiis debet esse ornatiorâ—â— quam verbis Fab. and serve our selves of no other words than of those which are capable to answer to the dignity of the Subject whereof we speak §. 15. As the great defect of the wiser sort of men is the negligence they have to measure themselves upon the capacity of the Subject or their Auditory That of the lesser Genius's is a too scrupulous care and a too affected Diligence to attach themselves more than is required to finish in particular certain parts of the Discourse they have enterprized to which they have some peculiar affection This is a pure effect of their little judgment to tie themselves to one part of a Design for they are not able nor so happy as to form a Design all entire These narrow Spirits suffer themselves to be surpriz'd into a false Principle which they would authorize by the Authority of Tyrius Maximus who pretends that Art hath alwayes something more perfect than Nature and that we cannot find any natural Beauty that can be so perfect as some of their artificial Statues I pretend not to enter into a Discussion of that Principle with this Philosopher But Eloquence being the true Art to please which she cannot do without an imitation of Nature that Maxime of those little Spirits which give so much to Art is not a very sure mean to perswade I pretend not only that Rule is false but that their too Boyish Attachment to Precepts which they have learned in their youth hath form'd in them a very vicious Idaea of Eloquence We need not then consult the Agamemnon of Petronus to comprehend the ridiculousness of that Eloquence which hath nothing of natural in it for that it fastens it self too much upon the exterior Ornaments which they would have to pass for that which is most essential The true foundation of Eloquence is a good Judgment which as it is the quality most necessary to speak in publick so it is the most rare we need not be astonished that we find so few