more than conquerors through him things, we are that loved us! For I am perfuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jefus Chrift our Lord."* A con *Conclufion may be mixed. Example of a mixed conclufion from MASSILLON. The annihilation of the foul is the laft refource of impiety. But what punishment would it be for a wicked man to be no more? He wishes for annihilation, and propofes it as his highest hope. He lives tranquil in the midft of his pleafures in this agreeable expectation. What! will the juft God punish a finner by giving him what he defires? Ah! it is not thus that God punishes. For what can the wicked find fo very bad in annihilation? Would it be the privation of God? But a wicked man does not love him, he does not know him, he will not know him, for his god is himself. Would it be annihilation? But what more pleasing to fuch a monfter, who knows that if he lives after death, it is only to fuffer, and expiate the horrors of an abominable life. Would it be the lofs of worldly pleasures, and of all the objects of his paffions? But when he ceafes to be, he must ceafe to love. Imagine if you can a more defirable lot for the wicked, and fhall this after all be the fweet end of his debaucheries, horrors and blafphemies! No, my brethren, the hope of the wicked fhall perifh: but his crimes fhall not perish with him. His torments will be as endless as his pleasures would have been, if he had been master of his fate. He would fain perpetuate upon earth his fenfual pleasures: death A conclufion fhould be diverfified. I mean, we fhould not be content to move one fingle chriftian paffion; many must be touched, and a proper length of difcourfe affigned to each, in order to ftir up the paffion. Too long time, however, muft not be spent; but when the effect is evidently produced, pass to another paffion. As the conclufion ought to death limits his crimes, but does not limit his criminal defires. The juft Judge, who fearches the heart, will proportion then the fuffering to the offence; immortal flames for intentionally immortal pleafures, and and eternity itself will only be a juft compenfation, and an equality of punishment. Thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment. What is the conclufion of this difcourfe ?--That a wicked man is to be pitied for placing his higheft hope in a frightful uncertainty about revealed truths. He is to be pitied, in that he is not able to live peaceably, unless he lives without faith, without worthip, without God, without hope-that he is to be pitied if the gofpel must be a fable, the faith of all ages credulity, the confent of all men a popular error, the firft principles of nature and reafon childish prejudices, the blood of fo many martyrs, whom the hope of a futurity fupported in torments, a concerted fcheme to deceive mankind; the converfion of the nive human enterprize, the accomplishment of prophecies a lucky hit; in one word, if all that is best established in the universe must be found false, so that he may not be eternally miferable. What madness to be able to contrive a kind of tranquillity made up of fo many foolish fuppofitions! O man! I will fhew you a more excellent way. Fear this futurity, which you force yourfelf to doubt. Ask us to be compofed at least of four or five reflections, (naturally arising from the text, either general, from the whole text, or particular, from fome of the parts, into which it is divided) fo, if possible, these reflections must be placed in prudent order, fo that the weakest and leaft powerful may be the firft, and the strongest laft, and fo that the dif courfe may become more rapid as it runs. I think, however, it would be vicious to finish with motives too violent, as fubjects tending to horror-indignation-or heavy cenfure. It would be much better in general to close with a tender, or even with us no more what paffes in that other life, of which we fpeak but afk yourself frequently what you are doing in this. Calm your confcience by the innocence of your manners, and not by the impiety of your fentiments. Set your heart at reft by calling upon God, and not by doubting whether he fees you." The peace of the wicked is only a frightful defpair; feek your happiness, not in fhaking off the yoke of faith, but in tafting how sweet it is. Practife the maxims it prefcribes, and your reafon will no longer refufe to fubmit to the myfteries it propofes. Futurity will ceafe to be incredible to you, when you cease to live like thofe that confine all their felicity within the narrow bounds of life. Then far from fearing this futurity, you will haften to it in defire, you will figh after the happy day, when the Son of man, the Father of the world to come, will appear to punish infidels, and to receive into his kingdom all fuch as have lived in expectation of a bleffed immortality. MASSIL, Ser, Car, Tom. i, with an elevating motive. Different motives may be (and indeed they ought to be) mixed in the same conclufion, that is, violent, tender, and elevated, in order to ftir up many paffions of different kinds. Conclufion fometimes delights in examples, fimilitudes, fhort and weighty fentences, the inventions of a fine imagination, and, in one word, it need not be fo regular as the body of the fermon, where more accuracy must be observed. There is no danger when a preacher in a conclufion gives himfelf up to the fire of his genius, provided he say nothing extravagant, or capricious, nothing that favours of enthufiafm, or declamation. *The Archbishop of Cambray, that fine, cool reafoner in his other works, is remarkable for this fire in his fermons, particularly in the conclufions of them. The following rules for obtaining facility of fpeaking, and a few remarks on the manner of preaching, may not appear an unsuitable close to this work. As to the firft of thefe, Do not content yourself with general knowledge: but endeavour to fettle in your mind the genuine notion of all the doctrines and duties of religion. If you be thus mafter of the fubject, you will be able to speak readily and diftinctly on all occafions. Want of clearness of fpeaking generally arifeth from a defect of clear thinking.-Be much in the ftudy of the fcriptures; this will furnish you with matter, and it will give your ftyle a tincture, that will render it more acceptable to the pious.-Converse with the writings of those practical, preffing, awaken ing divines, who fpeak moft naturally to the fouls of men. Here you will acquire the best sort of pulpit eloquence. Preach conftantly. Frequency will render the work eafy to be performed by yourfelf, and what is fo will be more eafy to be understood by the hearers. Glanvil's Effay on Preaching, Part I. Manner of preaching, fays Mr. ROBINSON, is known to be an article of great confideration to auditors; divines, therefore, who write on the fubject, never fail to exhort preachers to acquire an agreeable manner of delivering their difcourfes. Cardinal Borromeo, who was alfo archbishop of Milan, drew up a plan of preaching for the ufe of the clergy of his diocefe, and very properly; having firft given inftructions concerning the matter, or the doctrine of a fermon, he treats of what we call manner, under the article form, by which he means ftyle, elocution, voice, action, and whatever elfe may belong to expreffing and deliver ing a fermon: Elocutionis genus exquifitum ne affe&tet-fucum omnem fugiat-imperitæ multitudinis confuetudinem : loquendi ne fequatur-verba antiqua et peregrina fugiat-fati, fortuna, infortunii nomina, aliaque ejus generis omnino cavebit-Epithetorum item nimium ufum, et poeticum dicendi genus ne confectetur-anicularum non adhibeat proverbia-ejufdem rei repetitionem vitet.Cum de peccatis, ad luxuriam pertinentibus, agit, cautionem adhibeat, ne imprudens in obfcana verba incidat-videat ne loquendo turpes cogitationes injiciat-adulationis verba omnino fugiat -ambitiofum dicendi genus caveat. Ne ambigue, ne concife item, ut auditores incerti fint, ne obfcure loquatur vocem et actionem ita temperare concionator conabitur, ut non ex arte petere, fed vere, et ex natura dicere videatur-non importune fuggeftum palmis feriat fed cum rei magnitudo pofcit-non per fuggeftum quafi volitabit, nunc ex hoc, nunc ex illo angulo profiliens.-Rectus in fuggeftu ftet-ne nares Corruget-ne labra lambat-ne mentum pectori affigat -ne |