account Hypercriticism and Excess of Delicacy. What seems moft material to obferve is:

"THAT the Heads of your Discourse should "arife eafily from the Text. That they should "be few, I fuppofe hardly exceeding four or "five at moft. That each one fhould be altogether diftinct from the others. And, if it "may be, each fpring from the foregoing."

cr

It would not be difficult to produce many Inftances from our own Writers of good Divifions; but Examples in thefe Cafes fuit ill with the Brevity of my Defign. One however of more than ordinary Exactness I fhall just mention.

THE Text is this-Judas, betrayeft thou the Son of Man with a Kifs? The Preacher confiders firft the Fact; next makes fome useful Obfervations upon it.-Upon the former Article, every Word in the Text, faith he, tends to colour the Fact with a feveral Blacknefs.

ft. Betrayeft thou, denoteth Malice. 2d. Judas, the Name prefixed pointing out the Betrayer, fheweth Perfidioufnefs. 3d. Judas betrayeft. thou THE SON OF MAN? implieth Ingratitude. 4th. Betrayeft thou, WITH A KISS? Charges him with Hypocrify.-After which, he goes on to prove under the fecond Head, that every voluntary Act of Sin in fome Degree containeth all these. The Application concerneth every Man [d].

As

This, faith Erafmus, is perfectly clear; contains nothing fuperfluous; comprehends the whole Caufe: And alfo is furnished by the Adverfary. (De arte concionandi, lib. 1.) [See Sermons by Dr, Young, Vol. 1.

As to the concealed Method before contended for, that, in which the feveral conftituent Articles are not specifyed, it is to be observed, that altho' you do not make Ufe of it in the Whole of your Sermon, yet you may, and ought in the several Parts thereof. For, as every Head hath its Method, fo is it refolvable into several Heads, which altho' you treat of in their exact Order, yet you are not to enume

rate.

THUS may your Discourse be faid to refemble an Animal Body, in which the great Parts are at first Sight diftinguished; but the many leffer Veffels which fupport and compose the greater, the Veins, Arteries, and Nerves, altho' equally distinct and effential to the Whole, are concealed from View, and appear only by Diffection.

LECTURE the Twenty-firft.

TH

On the fame Subject.

HE Proof or Reafoning Part, which is the next in Order, you are to regard as the most important of all, and accordingly take Care to be most exact herein. I fhall not

repeat the Obfervations [a] formerly made on this Head, all which are applicable here; but fome not at all, or then flightly mentioned, as being peculiar to this Place, I fhall now go on to lay before you.

In this Part you never can be too clear; the only Caution is, in feeking Perfpicuity not to become prolix. For Shortnefs is here of efpecial Ufe: It keeps up Attention by the quick Succeffion of Ideas; it renders Argument more eafy to the Memory; and alfo giveth Strength to it. For in lengthening the Chain you weaken it. Mathematicians, the great Masters of Reafon are fenfible of this Truth; the most skillful among them study, as much as they conveniently may, to abridge Demonstrations: And herein it is, that the analytick Method, in many Refpects inferior, hath a confiderable Advantage

[a] Lecture 3 and 9.

vantage over the Geometrical, being more concife.

A Fault before touched upon, and. among Preachers even of Note too common, is a Redundancy in this Article: The ufing of a Multitude of Arguments. Zeal for Truth is apt to mislead a Speaker into thinking, that no Proofs fhould be omitted; that he hath never faid enough while any Thing remains unfaid. As an Inftance of this Excefs, I believe one may cite the Works of Doctor Barrow; who having a strong Faculty of Reason, together with a vast Compafs of Learning, and a lively Imagination, abounds with excellent Arguments on every Subject: He exhausts whatever he treateth of; you can add nothing: But fuch Plenty often caufeth Confufion. If fomewhat were retrenched the reft would have more Vigour: You would fee more diftinctly, and comprehend more fully: For the Mind, like a Veffel once full, if you pour in more, runs over and lofeth: Or as the Poet well expreffeth it,

Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat.

BESIDES, in thus bringing together nume rous Arguments, it is probable, that you will employ fome that are weak, dubious, perhaps falfe; and Lord Bacon [b] juftly obferves, that one idle Reafon weakeneth all the good which went before.

You fhould choofe few, clear, and strong, and juft; fet these in the fairest Light from Order and Expreffion; drive them to a Point: Cc 2 Thus

[b] Effays.

Thus fhall their Force make ample Compenfation for the Want of Numbers. A fkillful General preferreth few, well-difciplined Troops to a raw unpractifed Multitude, whofe Number makes them unwieldy and unactive, a Crowd rather than an Army.

A Preacher after declaring that he hath demonftrated a Point, yet goes on to new Proofs: But why? At any Rate, I fhall not liften; for if he hath performed what he says, what Need of more? What can be added to Demonstration? If he hath not; how fhall I believe him now? Or, already deceived, expect better?

A fecond Fault, not lefs common nor lefs hurtful is this. Perfons who write in these Days complain, that they have come into the World too late; that there remain to them Gleanings only, to gather up, in the Harvest of Letters: They have been prevented in all Subjects; and if they would not, as too often is the Cafe, teize with endless Repetition, they find themfelves compelled to leave the beaten Road. Hence their Ambition is, on all Occafions, to fay, not that which is juft, but new; which in Morals muft needs be oftentimes falfe.

To this Cause we may attribute the extraordinary Doctrines, of which modern Times have been wonderfully and unhappily fruitful.

SUCH is the fancyed Confpiracy between Divines and Atheifts, with which the Imagination of a late Writer feems to have been as much haunted, as was that of Don Quixot by his Necromancers. Hence the chimerical Suppofiti

on,