8I.ß AN HUMBLE ATTEMPT, &d. we may very properly bring arguments from the nature of God and man, and from the reason of things, to shew how necessary and reasonable it is to believe such a truth, or to practise such a virtue ; nor is the scripture itself barren of such reasonings, and even in thepeculiar articles of christianity, it is a most ex- ccll.nt and useful design, now and then, to shewhow consistent, and harmónious they are with reason, and how worthy of our faith and practice, since the word of God has revealed them, though thy could not be found out by the light of nature. Yet these arguments, if they are long and laboured, and not imnee- diately apprehended by the mind, are much more proper to be communicated to the world by writing than by speaking : there the reader may review and dwell upon an argument till he has grasped thtwhole chain, and admitsall the connected inferences, and sees the undoubted evidence of the conclusion: but reason- ings in the pulpit for the most part should be short and easy, that they may strike conviction into the mind almost as soon as they strike the ear, unless your hearers were all man of learning and refined education. But the bulk of our audítories, whether in the city or coun- try, are not much profited, by sermons merely made. up of rational proofs ofjny doctrine or duty, deeply and laboriously deduced from the original springs and prime .nature'of things. They do not find their minds so much enlightened, nor their hearts warmed by a tedious train of connected inferences, that are fetched from distant principles of nature and philosophy. This method, I confess, may entertain a few of the more rational, the more learned, or more polite persóns in an auditory, who can survey and comprehend the sense of such discourses, and feel the force of such long chains of argumentation ; and these per- sons, I own, ought to have due respect paid them in some parts of Our ministry. Yet it is not the great business of a preacher of the gospel only to please the few, but to become all things to all men, and if possible, to win a multitude of souls to Christ. Thegenerality of our hearers have their lives filledup with the business of their station, and have little leisure or advantage to improve their understafidings in the art of deep reasoning. These will yawn and nod, and grow weary of the sermon ; nor will such a preacher (though his discourses are never so much laboured) profit the assembly, any more than please them, if he goes on resolutely in this way : such a minister will quickly de- spise his hearers, And they will soon be tired with their preacher ; and if some providence does not remove him to another congre- gation, or if he does not betake himself to some other business of life, he will be tempted.to forsake the protestant dissenters, and throw:himself into the established church, when he has per- suaded his conscience to comply with the imposed terms wf Ministerial conforneity.
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