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N° 633. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15.

Omnia profeftò, cùm fe à cæleftibus rebus referet ad humanas, excélfiùs magnificentiufque et dicet et fentiet. CICERO.

The contemplation of celeftial things will make a man both speak and think more fublimely and magnificently, when he defcends to human affairs. THE following difcourfe is printed, as it came to my hands, without variation.

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Cambridge, Dec. 11. T was a very common inquiry among the ancients why the number of excellent orators, • under all the encouragements the most flourishing ftates could give them, fell fo far fhort of the number of thofe who excelled in all other fcien6 ces. A friend of mine ufed merrily to apply to this cafe an obfervation of Herodotus, who fays, that the most useful animals, are the moft fruitful in their generation; whereas the fpecies of thofe beafts that are fierce and mifchievous to mankind are but fcarcely continued. The historian inftances in a hare, which always either breeds or brings forth; and a lionefs, which brings forth but once, and then lofes all power of conception. But, leaving my friend to his mirth, I am of opinion, that in thefe latter ages we have greater caufe of complaint than the ancients had. And fince that folemn feftival is approaching, which 'calls for all the power of oratory, and which af-. fords as noble a fubject for the pulpit as any revelation has taught us, the defign of this paper fhall be to fhow, that our moderns have greater ⚫ advantages towards true and folid eloquence, than any which the celebrated fpeakers of antiquity enjoyed.

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The first great and fubftantial difference is, that 'their common places, in which almoft the whole force of amplification confifts, were drawn from the profit or honefty of the action, as they regarded only this prefent ftate of duration.

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Chriftianity, as it exalts morality to a greater per'fection, as it brings the confideration of another life into the queftion, as it propofes rewards and punishments of a higher nature and a longer continuance, is more adapted to affect the minds of the audience, naturally inclined to purfue what it imagines its greateft intereft and concern. If Pericles, as hiftorians report, could shake the firmest refolutions of his hearers, and fet the paflions of all Greece in a ferment, when the prefent welfare of his country, or the fear of hoftile invafions, was the subject: What may be expected from 'that orator, who warns his audience against those evils which have no remedy, when once undergone, either from prudence or time? As much " greater as the evils in a future ftate are than thefe at prefent, fo much are the motives to perfuafion under Christianity greater than those which mere • moral confiderations could fupply us with.

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what I now mention relates only to the power of moving the affections. There is another part of eloquence, which is indeed its mafter-piece; I mean the marvellous or fublime. In this the • Chriftian orator has the advantage beyond con tradiction. Our ideas are fo infinitely enlarged by revelation, the eye of reafon has fo wide a profpect into eternity, the notions of a Deity are fo worthy and refined, and the accounts we have of a state of happiness or misery fo clear and evi'dent, that the contemplation of such objects will give our difcourfe a noble vigour, an invincible force, beyond the power of any human confideration. Tully requires in his perfect orator fome fkill in the nature of heavenly bodies, because,

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fays he, his mind will become more extenfive and unconfined; and when he defcends to treat of human affairs, he will both think and write in a more exalted and magnificent manner. For the • fame reason that excellent mafter would have re'commended the study of those great and glorious myfteries which revelation has difcovered to us; to which the nobleft parts of this fyftem of the 'world are as much inferior, as the creature is lefs • excellent than its Creator. The wifeft and most · knowing among the heathens had very poor and imperfect notions of a future ftate. They had indeed fome uncertain hopes, either received by tradition, or gathered by reafon, that the exiftence of virtuous men would not be determined by the feparation of the foul and body: But they either difbelieved a future state of punishment and mifery; or, upon the fame account that • Apelles painted Antigonus with one fide only towards the fpectator, that the lofs of his eye might not caft a blemish upon the whole piece; fo these reprefented the condition of man in its faireft view, and endeavoured to conceal what they thought was a deformity to human nature. I have often obferved, that whenever the above• mentioned orator, in his philofophical difcourfes, is led by his argument to the mention of immortality, he feems like one awaked out of fleep; roufed and alarmed with the dignity of the fubject, he ftretches his imagination to conceive 'fomething uncommon, and, with the greatnefs of his thoughts, cafts, as it were, a glory round the ⚫ fentence. Uncertain and unfettled as he was, he ⚫ feems fixed with the contemplation of it. And nothing but fuch a glorious profpect could have • forced fo great a lover of truth as he was, to declare his refolution never to part with his perfua* fion of immortality, though it should be proved to be an erroneous one. But had he lived to fee

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all that Chriftanity has brought to light, how would he have lavifhed out all the force of eloquence in thofe nobleft contemplations which human nature is capable of, the refurrection and the judgment that follows it? How had his breast < glowed with pleasure, when the whole compafs of futurity lay open and expofed to his view? • How would his imagination have hurried him on in the pursuit of the myfteries of the incarnation? How would he have entered, with the force of 6 lightening, into the affections of his hearers, and ⚫ fixed their attention, in fpite of all the oppofition of corrupt nature, upon thofe glorious themes which his eloquence hath painted in fuch lively and lafting colours.

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This advantage Chriftians have; and it was with no fmall pleafure I lately met with a fragment of Longinus, which is preferved, as a teftimony of that critic's judgment, at the beginning • of a manuscript of the New Teftament in the Vatican library. After that author has numbered up the most celebrated orators among the Grecians, he fays, Add to thefe Paul of Tarfus, the patron of an opinion not yet fully proved. As a heathen, he condems the Chriftian Religion; and, as an impartial critic, he judges in favour of the promoter and preacher of it. To me it seems, that the latter part of his judgment adds great weight to his opinion of St. Paul's abilities, fince, under all the prejudice of opinions directly oppofite, he is constrained to acknowledge the merit of that Apoftle. And no doubt, fuch as Longinus defcribes St. Paul, fuch he appeared to the inha• bitants of those countries which he vifited and • bleffed with thofe doctrines he was divinely commiffioned to preach. Sacred ftory gives us, in ⚫ one circumstance, a convincing proof of his eloquence, when the men of Lyftra called him Mercury because he was the chief Speaker, and would Dd 3

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⚫ have paid divine worship to him, as to the god who invented and prefided over eloquence. This

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one account of our Apoftle fets his character, 'confidered as an orator only, above all the cele'brated relations of the skill and influence of De• mofthenes and his contemporaries. Their power in fpeaking was admired, but ftill it was thought human: Their eloquence warmed and ravifhed ⚫ the hearers, but ftill it was thought the voice of a man, not the voice of God. What advantage then had St. Paul above thofe of Greece or Rome? I confess I can ascribe this excellence to nothing but the power of the doctrines he delivered, which may have ftill the fame influence on when the hearers; which have ftill the power, preached by a skilful orator, to make us break out in the fame expreffions, as the difciples, who met our Saviour in their way to Emmaus, made ufe of: Did not our hearts burn within us, when he talked to us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? I may be thought bold in my judgment by fome; but I must affirm, that no one orator has left us fo visible marks and footfteps of his eloquence as our Apoftle. It may perhaps be wondered at, that in his reasonings upon idolatry at Athens, where eloquence was ⚫ born and flourished, he confines himself to strict 'argument only; but my reader may remember 'what many authors of the best credit have affur

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ed us, that all attempts upon the affections and • ftrokes of oratory were exprefsly forbidden by the laws of that country, in courts of judicature. • His want of eloquence therefore here, was the effect of his exact conformity to the laws. But

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his difcourfe on the refurrection to the Corinthians, his harangue before Agrippa upon his own converfion, and the neceffity of that of others, are truly great, and may ferve as full examples to ⚫ thofe excellent rules for the fublime, which the best

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