SECTION 11. 613 gospel of Christ ; describe them inall their several forms, shapes, and appearances; strip them of their false pretences and disgui- ses ; shew how they insinuate and exert themselves in different occurrences of life, anddifferent constitutions ; and pursue them so narrowly as it were with a hue and cry, with such exact descriptions, that if any of these vices are indulgedbyyour hear- ers, they may be found out by strictself-examination, that the consciences of the guilty may be laid under conviction of sin, and be set in the way of repentance and reformation. Whensoever any vice has/found the way into our bosoms, and made its nest there, its proper and evil features and charac- ters had need to be marked out by the preacher with great emit- racy, that it may be discovered to our consciences in order to its destruction for these wretched hearts, of ours are naturally so fond of all their own inmates, that they are too' ready to hide their ill qualities from our own sight and conviction, and thus they cover and save them from the sentence of mortification and death, which is denounced against every sin in the word of God. And let the preacher and the hearerboth remember, that sin must be pursued to the death, or else there is no life to the soul. It is only the Christian, who by the spirit mortifies the sinful deeds of the body, has tite promise of salvation and life ; Rom. viii. 13. It would be a happy thing, if this vivacious and sprightlypower of the fancy, which too often becomes an ingenious and success- ful temper of the soul to guilt, mischief and ruin, might, by the art of the preacher, be gained over to the interests of virtue and goodness, and employed for God and salvation. Think farther, that you should take some care also to engage the memory, and tomake it serve the purposes of religion. Let your reasonings be never so forcible and convincing, let your lan- guagebe never so clearand intelligible, yet if the whole discourse glide over the ears in a smooth and delightful stream, and if nothingbe fixed in the memory, the sermon is in great danger of being lost and fruitless. Now to avoid this danger, I would recommend to you the care of a clear and distinct method, and letthis method appear to the hearers, by the division of your dis.. courses ' into several plain and distinct particulars, so that the whole may not be a mere loose harangue, without evident mem- bers and discernible rests and pauses. Whatsoever proper and natural divisions belong to your subject, mark them out by the numbers 1st, 2d, 3d, &c. This will afford you time to breathe in the delivery of your discourse, and give your hearers a short season for recollection of the particulars which have been men- tioned before. But in this matter take care always to maintain a happy medium, so as never to arise to such a number of particulars, as may make your sermon look like a tree full of branches in the aq3
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