matter, when you ftir up in him fuch difpofitions as he ought to have, to hear well, and to profit much. You infenfibly conduct your hearer to the matter, when, by the natural connexion of the fubjects of which you speak, you lead him from one thing to another, and enable him to enter into the doctrine of your fermon.

Let us advert a moment to each. The preparation must be determined by the fubject of which you are going to fpeak; for if it be a fad and afflicting fubject, in which you aim to excite the compaffion, the grief, and the tears of your audience, you must begin the exordium by im parting fuch a difpofition.

ers.

If you have to treat of a profound and difficult mystery, aim to diffufe elevation and admiration among the hear If fome terrible example of God's juftice be the fubject, endeavour to ftir up fear. If fome enormous crime, prepare the mind for horror, by a meditation on the enormity of human corruption. If you have to treat of repentance, and in an extraordinary manner to intereft your hearers in it, you must begin to difpofe them to it by general ideas of God's wrath, which we have deferved of the little fruit we have borne to his glory-or fomething of a like nature. If, on the contrary, the matter you have to treat of be common and tranquil, aim in your exordium to place the mind in its natural ftate, and only endeavour to excite honeft and Chriftian tempers, which we all ought always to have. In a word, the exordium muft always participate the spirit of the fubject that you mean to difcufs, in order to difpofe your hearers for it. Not to ufe in this manner, is to lote all the benefit of an exordium; and to ute it to an oppofito purpose, would be to renounce common fenfe, and to act like an idiot.

The fecond ufe of an introduction is, to conduct the hearer gradually to the fubject of which you are about to treat. This (as I have faid) depends on the connexion between the fubjects of the exordium with themselves, and with the matter of the difcuffion. I fav first with themJelves; for they muft, as it were, hold each other by the hand, and have a mutual dependence and fubordination, otherwife the auditor will be furprised to find himfelf fuddenly tranfported from one topic to another. I fay alfo

with the difcuffion; for the exordium is principally intended to introduce that.

The first quality of an exordium is brevity. This, however, has a proper measure; for as it ought not to be exceffively long, fo neither fhould it be too fhort; the middle way is the beft. The longest exordium may have ten or twelve periods, and the fhortest fix or seven, provided the periods be not too long. The reafon is, that, on the one hand,. proper time may be given the hearer to prepare himself to hear you with attention, and to follow you in the difcuffion of the matter; and, on the other, that in giving time fufficient for that, you may prevent his wandering out of the fubject, wearying himfelf, and becoming inpatient. If the exordium were too short, it would oblige the hearer to enter too foon into the matter without preparation enough; and exceffive length would weary him; for it is with an auditor as with a man who vifits a palace, he does not like to stay, too long in the court, or firft avenues, he would only view them tranfiently without ftopping, and proceed as foon as poffiblę to gratify his principal curiofity.

2. An exordium muft be clear, and confequently dif engaged from all forts of abftrufe and metaphyfical thoughts. It fhould be expreffed in natural and popular terms, and not overcharged with matter. Indeed, as the auditors are neither enlivened nor moved yet, you must not expect of them at firft a great degree of penetration and elevation, nor even a great attempt towards thefe, though they may be capable of them when they are animated. You must therefore, in an exordium, avoid all that can give pain to the mind, fuch as phyfical questions, long trains of reafoning, and fuch like. However, do not imagine, that, under pretence of great clearness, an exordium must have only theological matter, or confift rather of words than, things. This would be falling into the other extreme. An exordium, then, muft contain matter capable of nourishing and fatisfying the mind; to do which, it must be clear, eafy to comprehend, and expreffed in a very natural manner.

3. An exordium must be cool and grave*. Confequently

no

• An exordium must be cool. Mr. Claude's rule is undoubtedly good in general, and his reafon weighty.

no grand figures may be admitted, as apoftrophes, violent exclamations, reiterated interrogations, nor, in a word, any thing that tends to give vehement emotions to the hearers for as the difcourfe must be accommodated to the state of the hearer, he, in the beginning, being cool, and free from agitations, the fpeaker ought to be fo too. No wife man will approve exordiums full of enthufiafins and poetical raptures, full of impetuous or angry emotions, or of bold interrogations, or furprifing paradoxes to excite admiration. You muft, in the beginning, fpeak gently, remembering that your auditors are neither yet in heaven, nor in the air, nor at all elevated in their way thither, but upon earth, and in a place of worship.

4. An exordium, however, ought not to be fo cool and grave, as not to be at the fame time engaging and agreeable. There are three principal ends which a preacher fhould propose, namely, to inftruct, to pleafe, and to affect; but, of thefe three, that which fhould reign in an exordium is, to please. I own you fhould also aim to inftruct and affect; but lefs to inftruct than to please, and lefs ftill to affect than to inftruct. Indeed, if you can judiciously and properly introduce any thing tender into an exordium (efpecially on extraordinary occafions you may to good purpofe; but, be that as it may, the agreeable thould reign in this part. You eafily fee by this that you must banifh from the exordium all ill-natured cenfures, terrible threatenings, bitter reproaches, and, in general, all that favours of anger, contempt, hatred, or indifference, and, in thort, every thing that has the air of quarrelling with the hearers. Their attention muft not only be excited (you may fufficiently do fo by cenfures and reproaches) but you maft foftly infinuate yourself into their efteem, fo that they may not only not oppose what you fay, you fay, but be well fatisfied you are an honeft and well-meaning man*,

5. The

This, however, is a rule fometimes difpenfed with. Cicero begins an oration thus: "Quoufque tandem abutere, Catalina, patientia noftra? Quamdiu etiam furor ifte tuus nos illudet? Quem ad finem fefe effrenata jactabit audacia?" &c. Perhaps an exordium fomewhat more animated than ufual may be proper on fuch occafions as the first and twelfth of the Skeletons published by the Editor.

Satisfy your hearers that you are a well-meaning man. Hence Quintilian fo much infifts on his orator's being a good man. The whole

5. The whole of the exordium must be naturally connected with all the matter of the text. I fay firft the whole of the exordium; for great care must be taken to put nothing there foreign to your fubject: therefore the beft exordiums are those which are compofed of two propofitions, the firft of which is naturally and immediately connected with the fecond, and the fecond naturally and immediately with the text. Each of these propofitions may be either proved or amplified; but the last must always conduct you with eafe to the fubject in queftion, nor muft the first be very diftant. According to this maxim, all exordiums must be condemned, which, instead of leading you into the text, make you, as it were, tumble from a precipice into it, which is intolerable. Thofe alfo are to be condemned which conduct to the text by many long circuits, that is, by many propofitions chained together, which is certainly vicious, and can only fatigue the hearer. I add, in the fecond place, the exordium muft be connected with the whole matter of the text. It ought not merely to relate to one of its parts, (or to one view only, if you intend to confider it in different views) but to all. One of the principal ufes of an exordium is to prepare the mind of the hearer for the matter to be difcuffed. If, therefore, the exordium refer only to one of its parts, or to one view only, it will prepare the mind of the hearer for that one part, for that one view only, and not for the reft.

6. An exordium must be fimple. We would not entirely banifh figures on the contrary, we would always employ fuch as may render the difcourfe pleasant and agreeable: but pompous and magnificent expreffions must be avoided, as far as the things fpoken will permit. Do not use a style too elevated, bordering on bombaft-nor periods too harmonious--nor overftrained allegories-nor even metaphors too common or too bold; for indeed the hearer's mind, yet cool and in its natural state, can bear nothing

of this kind.

7. An

first chapter of his twelfth book is fpent in proving the neceffity of this; and, if this be fo needful at the bar, how much more fo is it in the pulpit! His conclufion is enough to make a Chriftian minifter blush. "Men had better be born dumb, and even defiitute of reafon, than pervert thofe gifts of Providence to pernicious purpofes. Mutos enim nafci, et egere omni ratione fatius fuiffet, quam providentie munera in mutuam perniciem convertere." Quint. lib. xii. c. i.

7. An exordium muft not be common. As this is a rule much abused, it will be needful to explain it. By a common exordium, I do not mean an exordium which will fuit many texts; for if the texts are parallel, and the fubject be managed with the fame views, and in the fame circumstances, what occafion is there to compofe different exordiums? By a common exordium, I unean, in the first place, one taken from trivial things, and which have been faid over and over again; these the people already know, and your labour will be infallibly thrown away. Such are exordiums taken from comparifons of the fun-of kings -of conquerors-of the ancient Romans, &c.-or from fome hiftories of the Old Teftament, which have been often repeated-or of fome well-known types, as the Ifraelites' paffage through the Red Sea and many more of the fame kind. In the fecond place, I mean, by a common or general exordium, one which may be alike applied to two texts of different matter, or to two contrary interpretations of the fame text. It is in this fenfe that common exordiums are vicious and diftafteful.

8. Even in metaphorical or figurative texts it is quite puerile to make an exordium join the text by a metaphor; for, whatever ingenuity there may feem to be in it, it is certain, there is no taite, no judgment difcovered in the practice; and, however it may pafs in college declamations, it would appear too trifling in the pulpit. The exordium, then, muft be connected with the text by the matter itself, that is, not by the figure, but by the fubject intended to be conveyed by the figure. I would not, however, forbid the joining of the exordium to the text fometimes by the figure, provided it be done in a chafte and prudent manner.

Let us give one example. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. John vi. 54. An exordium to a fermion from this text may be taken from the idea which Holy Scripture teaches us to form of our converfion, as if it were a NEW birth, which begins a new life-that, for this purpofe, it fpeaks of a new man, a new heaven, which illuminates, and a new earth, which fupports him-that, attributing to this new man the fame fenfes, which nature has formed in us, as fight, hearing, feeling, finelling, tafting, it attributes alfo to him objects proportioned