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and works of men. I should rather begin with volition and action, which are the effects of grace; then I fhould speak of the grace itself, which duces willing and doing in us effectually; and laftly, of the fource of this grace, which is the good pleasure of God. In fhort, it is always neceffary to confult good fenfe, and never to be fo conducted by general rules as not to attend to particular circumftances. (6)

Above all things in divifions, take care of putting any thing in the first part, which fuppofes the understanding of the second, or which obliges you to treat of the second to make the first underftood; for by these means you will throw yourself into a great confufion, and be obliged to make many tedious repetitions. You must endeavour to difengage the one from the other as well as you can, and when your parts are too clofely connected with each other, place the moft detached first, and endeavour to make that ferve for a foundation to the explication of the fecond, and the fecond to the third; fo that at the end of your explication the hearer may with a glance perceive, as it were, a perfect body, or a finished building; for one of the greatest excellencies of a fermon is the harmony of its component parts, that the firft leads to the fecond, the fecond ferves to introduce the third;

(6) What a modern writer fays of expreffion and arrangement of words, may justly be applied to arrangement of divifions: "Perfpicuity ought not to be facrificed to any other beauty whatever. If it fhould be doubted whether perfpicuity be a pofitive beauty, it cannot be doubted, that the want of it is the greatest de

that

fect. Nothing, therefore, in language ought to be more ftudied than to prevent all obfcurity in the expreffion; for to have no meaning is but one degree worfe than to have a meaning that is not understood." El. of crit. chap. xviii. S. 2. p. 20. 54. 3d edit. Edinburgh.

that, they which go before, excite a defire for thofe, which are to follow: and, in a word, that the laft has a special relation to all the others, in order to form in the hearers minds, a complete idea of the whole.

This cannot be done with all forts of texts, but with thofe only, which are proper to form fuch a defign upon. Remember too, it is not enough to form fuch a plan, it must alfo be happily executed..

You will often find it neceffary in texts, which you reduce to categorical propofitions, to treat of the fubject, as well as of the attribute; then you muit make of the fubject one part. This will always happen, when the fubject of the propofition is expreffed in terms, that want explaining, or which furnish many confiderations: For example; He, that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit. This is a categorical propofition, and you must needs treat of the subject, he who abides in Jefus Christ, and in whom Jefus Chrift abides. So again, He, that believeth in me, bath everlasting life. He, that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. There is therefore now no condemnation to them, that are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the fleh, but after the Spirit. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. The two laft ought to be reduced to categorical propofitions, the fubjects of which are, they who are in Christ. In these, and in all others of the fame kind, the fubject must make one part, and must also be confidered firft, for it is more natural, as well as most agreeable to the rules of logic, to begin with the fubject of a propofition. Sometimes it is neceffary not only to make one part of the fubject, and another of the attribute; but also to make a third of the connexion of the fubject with the attribute. In this cafe, you may fay, after you have obferved

in the first place the subject, and in the fecond the attribute, that you will confider in the third the entire fenfe of the whole propofition; this must be done in these texts; If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature. He, that believeth in me, bath eternal life, &c.

Sometimes there are, in texts reduced to catego rical propofitions, terms, which in the schools are called fyncategorematica, and they relate fometimes to the fubject and fometimes to the attribute. (7)

When in a text there are feveral terms, which need a particular explanation, and which cannot be explained without confufion, or without dividing the text into too many parts, then I would not divide the text at all: but I would divide the difcourfe into two or three parts; and I would propofe, first to explain the terms, and then the fubject itself. This would be neceffary on Acts ii. 27. Thou wilt not leave my foul in the grave, neither wilt thou fuffer thy holy one to fee corruption. (8) To difcufs

(7) Syncategorematica. Of this kind are those words, which logicians call univerfal, and particular figns; an example of which presently follows; words, which of themfelves fignify nothing, but in conjunction with others in a propofition are very fignificative.

(8) The French text is, Tu ne laifferas point mon ame au Sepulchre-thou wilt not leave my foul in the grave; in our tranflation it is rendered bell. It seems we have no word in either language now to exprefs the ancient meaning of the VOL. I.

original terms; for the Hebrew fheol, the Greek hades, the Latin infra, with its derivatives, inferi, infernum, and the French enfer, feem to have been originally abstract terms, put for the fate of the dead, without any regard to the ideas of happiness or mifery: but as people, who spoke of this ftate, either spoke in reference to the body, or the foul, or the whole man indefinitely, it is easy to see how the words became equivocal, and their meaning determinable only by the fcope of a place. If 1 fay the body is gone to bades,

K

ог

difcufs this text properly, I think, the difcourfe fhould be divided into three parts, the first confifting of fome general confiderations, to prove that

Η μιν ἑλὼν ρίψο ἐς Τάρταρον περ ενίους
Τῆλε μάλ', ἦχι βάθισον ὑπὸ χθονός ἐσι βέρεθρον,
Ενθα (ιδηρειαί τε πύλαι καὶ χάλκεος ἐδὸς,
Τόσσον ἔνεςθ ΑΙΔΕΩ ὅσον ἐρανός ἐφ ̓ ἀπὸ γαίης

Τόσσον ἔνερθ ὑπὸ γῆς, ὅσον ἐρανός ἐς' ἀπὸ γαίης.

Bis patet in præceps tantum, tendit que fub umbras,
Quantus ad æthereum cœli fufpectus olympum.

Μητρὸς δ' ἐν ΑΔΟΥ καὶ πατρὸς κεκευθότοιν,
Οὐκ ἔτ ̓ ἀδελφὸς ὅσις ἂν βλαςοῖ ποτέ.

Matre autem in orco et patre conditis,
Nullus unquam frater mihi nafceretur.

the text relates to Jefus Chrift, and that Peter alledged it properly: The fecond, of fome particular confiderations on the terms, foul, which fignifies life; (9) grave, which alfo fignifies bell; on which the church of Rome grounds her opinion of Chrift's defcent into, what her divines call, limbus patrum; (1) boly,