4987 ON THE COMPOSITION OF A SERMON; WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, AND ONE HUNDRED SKELETONS OF SERMONS, BY THE REV. CHARLES SIMEON, M. A. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. A New Edition. TO WHICH IS NOW ADDED, AN APPENDIX ON THE CHOICE OF BOOKS, DESIGNED TO AID AND ASSIST CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS IN THE LONDON: JAMES CORNISH, 1, MIDDLE ROW, HOLBORN BARS: LIVERPOOL. 1844. these days peculiar efforts ought to be made, because then the hearers come with raised expectations, which, if not satisfied, turn into contempt, and a kind of indignation against the preacher. Particular days not fixed, but occasional, are fast-days, ordinationdays, days on which the flock must be extraordinarily comforted, either on account of the falling out of some great scandal, the exercise of some great affliction, or the inflicting of some great censure. On fast-days, it is plain particular texts must be expressly chosen for the purpose: but, on other occasions, it must rest on the preacher's judgment; for most texts may be used extraordinarily, to comfort, exhort, or censure; and, except the subject in hand be extremely important, the safest way is not to change the usual text. For ordination-days extraordinary texts, and agreeable to the subject in hand, must be taken, whether it regards the ordainer, or the ordained; for very often he, who is ordained in the morning, preaches in the afternoon. 1. Do not I add one word touching sermons in strange churches. choose a text which appears odd, or the choice of which vanity may be supposed to dictate. 2. Do not choose a text of censure; for a stranger has no business to censure a congregation which he does not inspect: unless he have a particular call to it, being either sent by a synod, or entreated by the church itself. In such a case the censure must be conducted with wisdom, and tempered with sweetness. Nor, 3. Choose a text leading to curious knotty questions; then it would be said, the man meant to preach himself. But, 4. Choose a text of ordinary doetrine, in discussing which, doctrine and morality may be mixed; and rather let moral things be said by way of exhortation and consolation than by way of censure: not that the vicious should not be censured; for reproof is essential to preaching; but it must be given soberly, and in general terms, when we are not with our own flocks. CHAP. II. GENERAL RULES OF SERMONS. ALTHOUGH the following general rules are well known, yet they are too little practised: they ought, however, to be constantly regarded. 1. A sermon should clearly and purely explain a text, make the sense easy to be comprehended, and place things before the people's eyes, so that they may be understood without difficulty. This rule condemns embarrassment and obscurity, the most disagreeable thing in the world in a gospel-pulpit. It ought to be remembered, that the greatest part of the hearers are simple people, whose profit, however, must be aimed at in preaching: but it impossible to edify them, unless you be very clear. As to learned hearers, it is certain, they will always prefer a clear before an obscure sermon; for, first, they will consider the simple, nor will their benevolence be content if the illiterate be not edified; and next, they will be loth to be driven to the necessity of giving too great an attention, which they cannot avoid, if the preacher be obscure. The minds of men, whether learned or ignorant, generally avoid pain; b Perhaps by texte accoutume Mr. Claude means such a text as would come in a precomposed set of sermons. and the learned have fatigue enough in the study, without increasing it at church.c 2. A sermon must give the entire sense of the whole text, in order to which it must be considered in every view. This rule condemns dry and barren explications, wherein the preacher discovers neither study nor invention, and leaves unsaid a great number of beautiful things, with which his text would have furnished him. Preachments of this kind are extremely disgustful; the mind is neither elevated nor informed, nor is the heart at all moved. In matters of religion and piety, not to edify much, is to destroy much; and a sermon cold and poor will do more mischief in an hour, than a hundred rich sermons can do good. I do not mean, that a preacher should always use his utmost efforts, nor that he should always preach alike well; for that neither can nor ought to be. There are extraordinary occasions, for which all his vigour must be reserved. But I mean, that, in ordinary and usual sermons, a kind of plenitude should satisfy and content the hearers. The preacher must not always labour to carry the people beyond themselves, nor to ravish them into ecstacies: but he must always satisfy them, and maintain in them an esteem and an eagerness for practical piety. 3. The preacher must be wise, sober, chaste. I say wise, in opposition to those impertinent people, who utter jests, comical comparisons, quirks and extravagancies; and such are a great part of the preachers of the church of Rome. I say sober, in opposition to those rash spirits, who would penetrate all, and curiously dive into mysteries beyond the bounds of modesty. Such are those, who make no difficulty of delivering in the pulpit all the speculations of the schools, on the mystery of the Trinity, the incarnation, the eternal reprobation of mankind; such as treat of questions beyond our knowledge; viz. What would have been if Adam had abode in innocence; what the state of our souls after death; or what the resurrection; and our state of eternal glory in paradise. Such are they, who fill their sermons with the different interpretations of a term, or the different opinions of interpreters on any passage of scripture; who load their hearers with tedious recitals of ancient history; or an account of the divers heresies which have troubled the church upon any matter; all these are contrary to the sobriety of which we speak, and which is one of the most excellent pulpit virtues. I say farther chaste, in opposition to those bold and impudent geniuses who are not ashamed of saying many things which produce unclean ideas in the mind. preacher cannot be called chaste, who, speaking of the conception of Jesus Christ in the virgin's womb by the power of the Holy Ghost without the intervention of man, is not careful of saying any thing, that may shock the modesty of some, and give occasion of discourse to the profanity of others. There are I know not how many subjects of this kind; A e Bishop Burnet says, "A preacher is to fancy himself as in the room of the most unlearned man in the whole parish, and must therefore put such parts is discourses as he would have all understand, in so plain a form of words. may not be beyond the meanest of them. This he will certainly study to desire is to edify them, rather than to make them admire himself as a d high spoken man."-Past. Care, chap. 9. inion accords with that of an ancient orator: ῥητορικους μεν και τους εν τῳ πληθει λαλειν δυναμένους ; eloquentes dicimus es TUM verba facere possunt.-Isocrates Orat. at Nicoc, 3. as when the eternal generation of Jesus Christ the Son of God is spoken of; when the term regeneration is explained, which Scripture useth to express our conversion; or when we treat of that seed of God, of which, according to St. John, we are born; or when we enforce the duties of husbands to wives, or of wives to husbands; or when we speak of the love of Jesus Christ to his church, under the notion of a conjugal relation; or when eternal felicity is spoken of under the image of a banquet, or of a marriage feast. On all such subjects, chastity should weigh the expressions, and make a judicious choice, in order to keep the hearers' minds at the greatest distance from all sorts of carnal and terrestrial ideas. The likeliest way of succeeding in these cases is to beware of pressing metaphorical terms too far; to adhere to general considerations, and if possible to explain the metaphorical terms in few words, and afterwards to cleave entirely to the thing itself. 4. A preacher must be simple and grave. Simple, speaking things full of good natural sense without metaphysical speculations; for none are more impertinent than they, who deliver in the pulpit abstract speculations, definitions in form, and scholastic questions, which they pretend to derive from their texts;-as, on the manner of the existence of angels; the means whereby they communicate their ideas to each other; the manner in which ideas eternally subsist in the divine understanding; with many more of the same class, all certainly opposite to simplicity. To simple I add grave, because all sorts of mean thoughts and expressions, all sorts of vulgar and proverbial sayings, ought to be avoided. The pulpit is the seat of good natural sense; and the good sense of good men. On the one hand then, you are not to philosophize too much, and refine your subject out of sight; nor, on the other, to abase yourself to the language and thoughts of the dregs of the people. 5. The understanding must be informed, but in a manner, however, which affects the heart; either to comfort the hearers, or to excite them to acts of piety, repentance, or holiness. There are two ways of doing this, one formal, in turning the subject to moral uses, and so applying it to the hearers; the other in the simple choice of the things spoken; for if they be good, solid, evangelic, and edifying of themselves, should no application be formally made, the auditors would make it them. selves; because subjects of this kind are of such a nature, that they cannot enter the understanding without penetrating the heart. I do not blame the method of some preachers, who, when they have opened some point of doctrine, or made some important observation, immediately turn it into a brief moral application to the hearers; this Mr. Daillé frequently did: yet I think it should not be made a constant practice; because, 1st, what the hearer is used to, he will be prepared for, and so it will lose its effect; and 2dly, because you would thereby interrupt your explication, and consequently also the attention of the hearer, which is a great inconvenience. Nevertheless, when it is done but seldom, and seasonably, great advantage may be reaped. But there is another way of turning doctrines to moral uses, which in my opinion is far more excellent, authoritative, graud, and effectual; that is, by treating the doctrine contained in the text, in a way of perpetual application. This way produces excellent effects, for it pleases, d d This subject being fully handled in Chap. VII. the Translator omitted one page of Mr. Claude here, because its substance is repeated in the chapter |