the fentence had been delayed but a fingle day after hearing the caufe, he would perhaps have given a very different award.

Is it to be wondered at, that when the paffions of the people were agitated by the perfuafive powers of a Demofthenes, whilft the thunder of his eloquence was yet founding in their ears, the orator fhould be abfolute mafter of their refolves? But an apoftle or evangelift, (for there is no anachronism in a bare fuppofition) might have thus addreffed the celebrated Athenian, You

do, indeed, fucceed to admiration, and the addrefs and genius which you difplay in fpeak'ing, justly entitle you to our praise. But, however great the confequences may be of the • measures to which, by your eloquence, they are determined, the change produced in the people is nothing, or next to nothing. If you 'would be ascertained of the truth of this, allow

the affembly to difperfe immediately after

you

hearing you; give them time to cool, and then collect their votes, and it is a thousand to one, fhall find that the charm is diffolved. But very different is the purpose of the Chriftian It is not a momentary, but a permanent effect at which he aims. It is not an im

· orator.

'mediate

• mediate and favourable fuffrage, but a tho rough change of heart and difpofition, that

⚫ will fatisfy his view. That man would need to

be poffeffed of oratory fuperior to human, who ⚫ would effectually perfuade him that ftole, to fteal no more, the fenfualift to forego his pleafures, and the miser his hoards, the infolent and haughty to become meek and humble, the vin• dictive forgiving, the cruel and unfeeling mer'ciful and humane.'

I MAY add to thefe confiderations, that the difficulty lies not only in the permanency, but in the very nature of the change to be effected. It is wonderful, but is too well vouched to admit a doubt, that by the powers of rhetoric you may produce in mankind, almoft any change more eafily than this. It is not unprecedented, that one should perfuade a multitude, from mistaken motives of religion, to act the part of ruffians, fools, or madmen; to perpetrate the most extravagant, nay, the moft flagitious actions; to fteel their hearts against humanity, and the loudest calls of natural affection: but where is the eloquence that will gain fuch an ascendant over a multitude, as to perfuade them, for the love of God, to be wife, and juft, and good? Happy

the

the preacher, whofe fermons, by the bleffing of Heaven, have been inftrumental in producing even a few fuch inftances! Do but look into the annals of church-history, and you will foon be convinced of the furprifing difference there is in the two cafes mentioned, the amazing facility of the one, and the almost impoffibility of the other.

As to the foolish or mad extravagancies hurtful only to themfelves, to which numbers may be excited by the powers of persuasion, the history of the flagellants, and even the hiftory of monachifm, afford many unquestionable examples. But what is much worse, at one time you fee Europe nearly depopulated, at the perfuafion of a fanatical monk, its inhabitants rushing armed into Afia, in order to fight for Jefus Chrift, as they termed it, but as it proved in fact, to difgrace, as far as lay in them, the name of Chrift and of Chriftian among infidels; to butcher those who never injured them, and to whofe lands they had at least no better title, than those whom they intended, by all poffible means, to difpoffefs; and to give the world a melancholy proof, that there is no pitch of brutality and rapacity, to which the paffions of avarice and ambition, confecrated and inflamed by religious

enthu

enthufiafm, will not drive mankind. At another time you fee multitudes, by the like methods, worked up into a fury against their innocent countrymen, neighbours, friends, and kinfmen, glorying in being the most active in cutting the throats of those who were formerly held dear to them.

SUCH were the crufades preached up but too effectually, first against the Mahometans in the Eaft, and next against Christians whom they called heretics, in the heart of Europe. And even in our own time, have we not feen new factions raised by popular declaimers, whofe only merit was impudence, whofe only engine of influence was calumny and felf-praife, whose only moral leffon was malevolence? As to the dogmas whereby fuch have at any time affected to difcriminate themselves, these are commonly no other than the Shibboleth, the watch-word of the party, worn, for diftinction's fake, as a badge, a jargon unintelligible alike to the teacher and to the learner. Such apostles never fail to make pro. felytes. For who would not purchase heaven at fo cheap a rate? There is nothing that people can more easily afford. It is only to think very . well of their leader and of themselves, to think very ill of their neighbour, to calumniate him freely, and to hate him heartily.

I AM fenfible that fome will imagine, that this account itself throws an infuperable obftacle in our way, as from it one will naturally infer, that oratory muft be one of the most dangerous things in the world, and much more capable of doing ill than good. It needs but fome reflec tion to make this mighty obftacle entirely vanish. Very little eloquence is neceffary for perfuading people to a conduct, to which their own depra vity hath previoufly given them a bias. How foothing is it to them not only to have their minds made easy under the indulged malignity of their difpofition, but to have that very malignity fanctified with a good name. So little of the oratorical talents is required here, that those who court popular applaufe, and look upon it as the pinnacle of human glory to be blindly followed by the multitude, commonly recur to defamation, especially of superiors and brethren, not fo much for a fubject on which they may difplay their eloquence, as for a fuccedaneum to fupply their want of eloquence, a fuccedaneum which never yet was found to fail. I knew a preacher who, by this expedient alone, from being long the averfion of the populace, on account of his dulness, awkwardness, and coldness, all of a fudden became their idol. Little force is neceffary