Like them my well chofe Words in ev'ry Line, } N° 633. Wednesday, December 15. Omnia profecto, cum fe à cœleftibus rebus referet ad humanas, excelfius magnificentiufque & dicet & fentiet. TH Cicer. HE following Discourse is printed, as it came to my Hands, without Variation. Cambridge, Dec. 12. 'IT T was a very common Enquiry among the Ancients why the Number of excellent Orators, • under all the Encouragements the most flourishing States could give them, fell fo far fhort of the Number of those who excelled in all other Sciences. 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 Species of those Beasts that are fierce and mifchievous to Mankind are but fcarcely continued. The Hiftorian inftances in a Hare, which always either breeds or brings forth; and a Lioness, which brings forth but once, and then lofes all Power of Conception. But, leaving 6 my Friend to his Mirth, I am of Opinion, that in thefe latter Ages we have greater Caute of Complaint than the Ancients had. And fince that folemn Festival is approaching, which calls for all the ⚫ Power . Power of Oratory, and which affords as noble a Subject for the Pulpit as any, Revelation has taught us, the Defign of this Paper fhall be to show, that our Moderns have greater Advantages towards true and folid Eloquence, than any which the celebrated Speakers of Antiquity enjoy'd. THE firft 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 State of Duration. But Chriftianity, as it exalts Morality to a greater Perfection, 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 inclin'd to purfue what it imagines its greateft Intereft and Concern. If Pericles, as Hiftorians report, could hake the firmeft Refolutions of his Hearers, and fet the Paffions 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 again't thofe Evils which have no Remedy, when once undergone, cither from Prudence or Time. As much greater. as the Evils in a future State are than thefe at prefent, fo much are the Motives to Perfuafion under Chriflianity greater than thofe which meer moral Confideration could fupply us with. But 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 Sublime. In this the Chriftian Orator has the Advantage beyond Contradiction. Our Ideas are fo infinitely enlarged by Revelation, the Eye of Reafon has fo wide a Proípect into Eternity, the Notions of a Deity are fo worthy and refin'd, and the Accounts we have of a State of Happiness or Mifery fo clear and evident, that the Contempla ⚫tion ner. tion of fuch 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 Skill in the Nature of Heavenly Bodies, because, fays he, his Mind will become more extensive and unconfin'd; and when he defcends to treat of human Affairs, he will both think and write in a more exalted and magnificent manFor the fame Reason that excellent Mafter would have recommended the Study of thofe great and glorious Myfteries which Revelation has "difcovered to us; to which the nobleft Parts of this Syftem 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 State. They had indeed fome uncertain Hopes, either received by Tradition, or gathered by Reason, that the Exift'ence of virtuous Men would not be determined by the Separation of Soul and Body: But they either 'disbelieved a future State of Punishment and Mifery, or, upon the fame Account that Apelles painted Antigonus with one Side only towards the Spectator, that the Lofs of his Eye might not caft a Blemish upon the whole Piece; fo thefe reprefented the Con'dition 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 abovemention'd Orator in his Philofophical Difcourfes is led by his Argument to the Mention of Immortality, he feems like one awak'd out of Sleep, rous'd and alarm'd with the Dignity of the Subject, he ftretches his Imagination to conceive fomething uncommon, and with the greatnefs of his Thoughts, cafts, as it were, a Glory round the Sentence; Uncertain and unfettled as he was, he feems fired 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 Resolution never to part with his Perfuafion of Im ; mor mortality, though it fhould be proved to be an erroneous one. But had he lived to fee all that Chriftianity has brought to Light, how would he have lavifhed out all the Force of Eloquence in thofe noblest Contemplations which humane Nature is Capable of, the Refurrection and the Judgment that follows it? How had his Breaft glow'd with Pleafure, when the whole Compass of Futurity lay open • and expofed to his View? How would his Imagina⚫tion have hurried him on in the Purfuit of the My• fteries of the Incarnation? How would he have enter'd, with the Force of Lightning, into the AffeEtions 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? THIS Advantage Chriftians have; and it was • with no small Pleafure I lately met with a Fragment of Longinus, which is preferved, as a Testimony of that Critick's Judgment, at the Beginning of a Manufcript of the New Teftament in the Vatican Library. After that Author has number'd 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 condemns the Chriftian Religion; and, as an impartial Critick, 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 ac⚫ knowledge the Merit of that Apoftle. And, no doubt, fuch as Longinus defcribes St. Paul, fuch he appeared to the Inhabitants of thofe Countries which he vifited and bleffed with thofe Doctrines he was divinely commiffioned to preach. Sacred Story gives us, in one Circumftance, a convincing Proof of his Eloquence, when the Men of Lyfra called him Mercury, because he was the chief Speaker, and would have paid Divine Worship to him, as to the God who in ⚫ vented • vented and prefided over Eloquence. This one Account of our Apoftle fets his Character, confidered as an Orator only, above all the celebrated Relations of the Skill and Influence of Demofthenes and his ⚫ Contemporaries. Their Power in Speaking was admired, but ftill it was thought human: Their Elo· quence warmed and ravifhed the Hearers, but ftill it was thought the Voice of Man, not the Voice of God. What Advantage then had St. Paul above ⚫ thofe of Greece or Rome? I confefs I can afcribe this Excellence to nothing but the Power of the Doct• rines he delivered, which may have ftill the fame In⚫fluence on the Hearers; which have ftill the Power, when preached by a skillful 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 Ŏrator has left us so visible Marks and Footsteps 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 • beft Credit have affured us, That all Attempts upon the Affections and Strokes of Oratory were exprefly 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 his Difcourfe on the Resurrection to the Corinthians, his Harangue bef re Agrippaupon his own Con⚫ verfion and the Neceffity of that of others, are truly Great, and may ferve as full Examples to thofe excellent Rules for the Sublime, which the best of • Criticks has left us. The Sum of all this Discourse is, That our Clergy have no farther to look for an • Example of the Perfection they may arive at, than to St. Paul's Harangues; that when he, under the : Want |