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Let none, however, suppose that, by adopting a method too familiar for critics, I am searching after some careless passages in the Archbishop of Canterbury's sermons, in order to pass sentence upon him only for his faults. I have read the whole collection of his discourses. I have extracted thence many quotations of the same kind; and it would cost me no more than the trouble of transcribing them, were I not afraid of fatiguing the reader, and if the examples which I have adduced were not sufficient to determine his judgment.

SECTION XLVIII.

OF BARROW, YOUNG, MADDOX, &c.-STATE OF PULPIT ELOQUENCE AMONG THE ENGLISH.

I SHOULD have too many advantages if I were to investigate the merit of the sermons of Barrow,*

At this distance of time, and after a calm and unbiased reflection on the events of Charles II.'s reign, we shall feel much more disposed to acquit the Catholics of some of those plots laid to their charge, and particularly that of 1678, on occasion of which Lord Stafford suffered, than at the time, and in the violence of party animosity, it was almost possible to have done.

* Dr. DODDRIDGE's character of Barrow is as follows: "He was the most laconic writer among our old divines. His works contain an amazing number of thoughts, not always well digested or plainly expressed, yet sometimes excellent he attempted to introduce some new words, which, not succeeding, appear odd. There are many use

another orator whom the English esteem and praise, although, by their own acknowledgment, he be far inferior to Tillotson.*

ful scriptures, and fine quotations from the classics and fathers, in the margin. Nothing can be more elaborate. Most of his sermons were transcribed three times, some much oftener. Many of Tillotson's finest sermons are abridgments and quotations from him, particularly that 'Of Evil Speaking.' The first volume of Barrow's sermons contain the best."-DODDRIDGE's Characters, MS.

"Barrow, a mighty genius, whose ardour was capable of accomplishing all it undertook. The tide of his eloquence flows with smooth yet irresistible rapidity. He treats his subject almost with mathematical precision, and never leaves it till he has exhausted it. It has been said that a late most popular orator of the House of Lords asserted that he owed much of the fire of his eloquence to the study of Barrow."-Knox's Essays, No. 168.

Dr. BLAIR says, "Barrow's style has many faults. It is unequal, incorrect, and redundant; but, withal, for force and expressiveness, uncommonly distinguished. On every subject he multiplies words with an overflowing copiousness, but it is always a torrent of strong ideas and significant expressions which he pours forth."-BLAIR'S Lectures, 4to, vol. i., p. 376.

Barrow was born 1630, died 1677.-Vid. HILL's Life of Barrow.

* It is worthy of remark, that among English preachers the Abbé Maury notices but one (Barrow) who lived before the time of Tillotson. The great divines and preachers of the Reformation, such as Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and

I am not acquainted with the sermons of Young, in which we should doubtless discover that plaintive poetry, that depth of sentiment, and even those eccentric ideas which the pensive pastor of Welwyn collected together in his Night Thoughts. But Young does not appear to me to have had an imagination sufficiently pliable and versatile for the eloquence of the pulpit.

The preachers of Charles II. who happened to hear Bourdaloue at Paris, have but faintly imitated him; and even now, when his sermons are spread through the whole of Europe, the revolution which they ought to produce in Christian eloquence hath not, as yet, taken place among the English.*

Jewell, are not once mentioned; nor are those luminaries of the English Church at a later day, Hooker and Hall, Taylor and South. Even if we come down to times later than Tillotson, what shall be said of the critical knowledge and discernment of one who celebrates the oratory of Young and Maddox, and makes no mention of Secker or Smallridge, of Sherlock or Atterbury, of Horne, Horseley, or Porteus? These are names which, considering the essential difference between an English and French audience, need not fear comparison with any contemporary names of the Gallican Church.-Am. Ed.

* "The English preachers," says a very sensible writer, "are, it is certain, more distinguished by their justness of sentiment and strength of reasoning, than by their oratorical powers or talents of affecting the passions. More solicitous to convince than persuade, they choose to employ their abilities in endeavouring to impress the mind with a sense of the truths they deliver by the force of ar

The Bishop of Worcester* in 1752 preached a

gumentation, instead of rousing the affections by the energy of their eloquence. We meet with no examples in their writings of those strokes of passion which penetrate and cleave the heart at once, or of that rapid, overpowering eloquence, which carries everything before it like a torrent. They seem to have considered mankind in the same light in which Voltaire regarded the celebrated Dr. Clarke, as 'mere reasoning machines; they seem to have considered them as purely intellectual, void of passion and sensibility. This strange mistake may, perhaps, be supposed to be partly the effect of the philosophical spirit of the times, which, like all other prevailing modes, is subject to its deliriums; certain, however, it is, that while man remains compound being, consisting of reason and passion, his actions will always be prompted by the latter, in whatever degree his opinions may be influenced by the former."-Durr's Essay on Genius, b. ii., § 4, p. 238, 245.

"The French and English writers of sermons proceed upon very different ideas of the eloquence of the pulpit, and seem, indeed, to have split it between them. A French sermon is, for the most part, a warm, animated exhortation; an English one is a piece of cool, instructive reasoning. The French preachers address themselves chiefly to the imagination and the passions; the English almost solely to the understanding. It is the union of these two kinds of composition, of the French earnestness and warmth with the English accuracy and reasoning, that would form, according to my idea, the model of a perfect sermon. BLAIR'S Lectures, vol. ii., p. 119.

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* The Bishop of Worcester referred to by our author was Dr. MADDOX.

sermon on "Inoculation for the Smallpox," which hath been frequently printed at London, and since translated into French.

It is asserted that this discourse influenced the public benevolence to endow an hospital for inoculation.

If, indeed, the Bishop of Worcester hath shared this kind of glory with Vincent de Paul, it must be acknowledged that eloquence could not obtain a more excellent triumph. This sermon is an interesting dissertation, and new as to its object; but the prelate who delivered it will never be placed in the rank of orators.

Destitute of imagination and of sensibility, he wanders into abstract calculations respecting population; into low details about the secondary fever; and, after having exhausted all those combinations, certainly more suited to a medicinal school than a Christian assembly, he quotes the testimonies and authority of Messrs. Ranby, Hawkins, and Middleton, surgeons of London, of whom he speaks with as much veneration as if they were fathers of the Church.

"He was an excellent preacher, and a great promoter of public charities, particularly the Worcester Infirmary, and the Hospital for Inoculating the Smallpox at London. His sermon in favour of this latter institution, preached in 1752, was much admired, and contributed greatly to extend the practice of inoculation. He published some other single sermons. Born about the year 1696, died in 1759." -Encyclopædia Britannica.

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