signed for extraordinary occasions, were for the first twenty years chiefly unwritten. Usually, he barely noted the general divisions, and some of the most important and leading ideas. There is no doubt, that this mode had its peculiar advantages; nor that his style and manner, as an extemporaneous preacher, were more popular and captivating, than at a later period when his discourses were written at length. When unconfined by notes, the whole field of thought was before him. Into that field he entered; conscious where his subject lay, and by what metes and bounds it was limited; and enjoying also that calm selfpossession and confidence of success, which trial alone can give, and which every successive effort had only served to increase. Within these limits, his powers had full scope, his imagination was left to range at will, his feelings were kindled, and his mind became in the highest degree creative. Its conceptions were instantaneous; its thoughts were new and striking; its deductions clear and irresistible; and its images, exact representations of what his eye saw, living, speaking, and acting. When we add that these were accompanied by the utmost fluency and force of language, a piercing eye, a countenance deeply marked with intellect, a strong emphasis, a voice singular for its compass and melody, an enunciation remarkably clear and distinct, a person dignified and commanding, and gestures graceful and happy; we need not inform the reader that his pulpit efforts at this period possessed every characteristic of animated and powerful eloquence. Many instances of its effects upon large audiences are remembered and might easily be mentioned, which were most striking proofs of its power over the feelings and the conscience.

In the formation of his sermons he pursued a course in a great degree original. Texts familiar, by common use among preachers, to the minds of his audience, would form the subject of discourses, new, solemn, and impressive. The truth to be illus trated was often new; the arrangement and arguments were new, the images were always new, and the thoughts peculiarly his own. The very weakness of his eyes, which occasioned him so much pain and self-denial, was in some respects advantageous. He could not himself read the Sermons of others. Religious books of a different class were read aloud in his family on the

Sabbath. And most rarely indeed was he permitted to listen to the sermons of his brethren. Thus, deriving no assistance from the efforts of others; he was compelled to depend exclusively on the resources of his own intellect. Happily these were rich and inexhaustible. It is probably owing to this fact that his Sermons bear the characteristic stamp of his own mind, and are throughout in the highest sense his own. In this respect; in a fair claim to originality of thought, of mêthod, and of illustration; it is confidently believed that the sermons of President Dwight need not shrink from a comparison with those of any other writer.

In his extemporaneous efforts, though his fancy was ever visibly active, still it was controlled by judgment and taste. They were indeed more richly ornamented with imagery than most of his written sermons; yet figures were introduced not merely because they were beautiful; but for the purpose of illustration or impression. His own views of the duty of a minister of Christ in this respect are happily conveyed in several of the Discour ses in these Volumes; and still more fully in some of his occasional Sermons. He considered him bound to forget himself, and remember nothing but the purpose for which he is sent the salvation of his hearers. Every attempt at display; every attempt to exhibit his own talents, or taste, or fancy, or learning; in a preacher, was in his view an obvious prostitution of his of fice to private and unhallowed purposes. His rules and his conduct were in this respect harmonious.

After his appointment to the office of Professor of Theology, in 1805, when he began steadily to employ an amanuensis, he turned his attention more to writing his sermons at length. The frequent calls upon him to preach at different places, on extraordinary occasions, and a disposition to render his systematic discourses to the students as nearly correct and perfect as possible, probably had influence with him in the adoption of this course. His Systematic Sermons had cost him much labour and research. They were favourite discourses with the public at large, and with his pupils; many of whom took notes of them every sabbath. He thought, if they possessed the merit ascribed to them, that they ought to be written out. Other conside

rations also had their weight. He observed an increasing attachment in some parts of the country to a florid and highly embellished style of composition: in his own view owing to a vitiated taste; involving a substitution of ornament for thought, and of sound for sense; and wholly subversive of the very end of preaching. This mode of writing was gaining popularity among his own pupils ; and he felt desirous as far as possible to counteract it. Knowing the efficacy of a teacher's example on the conduct of those under his care; he determined carefully to avoid every thing of this nature in his own discourses; and to subject his mind, naturally fond of imagery, to a severer discipline than it would submit to in the moment of extemporaneous effort.

The Discourses in these volumes obviously required in this respect, as well as in others, peculiar care. Their primary object is to explain and prove the great truths of Theology; and their second, to enforce them on the conscience, and show their practical influence on the heart and life. They are not merely Theological Lectures; but are in the strictest sense Sermons. Yet as the purpose in the body of each discourse is the discovery of truth, the use of figurative language, except for illustration, would there have been improper. In the application, it might be admitted to enforce and enhance it. The reader will, we think, admire the good sense displayed in this particular. In the division of the subject he will never find figurative language introduced. The body of the discourse, if, as is most commonly the case, the subject be merely argumentative, is almost equally destitute of it. If, however, it be a subject rather requiring description and enhancement than proof; as in the discourses on Heaven, on the Holy Angels, on the Creation of the Earth and of Man, on the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and the future happiness of the Righteous; it will be seen that the Author's mind rises with his subject. Having heard those discourses to which we have just now referred; we have ever viewed them as distinguished models of sacred eloquence.

The Series of Theological Sermons was written out at the close of 1809. After completing it, he wrote out many of his miscellaneous Sermons both doctrinal and practical. These

were intentionally less pruned than the former, but more so than his earlier efforts. There is little reason to doubt, that these, should they ever be published, will prove more entertaining to the mass of readers, than the discourses in these volumes. They discover equal talent, present a greater variety of subject and of manner, and usually require less mental exertion in the perusal. Among them are the sermons preached on the sabbath preceding the Commencement to the candidates for the Baccalaureate, They were addressed to his immediate pupils, when just about to leave the institution; to bid an adieu to him as their instructor, and to each other as companions; and to engage in the busy scenes of life. Over their conduct he had long watched with unremitting care; and for their present and future welfare he felt the highest degree of solicitude. They contain an accurate developement of the human character, and of the temptations, follies, and vices of the world; as well as the purest moral and religious sentiments, enforced with the feeling and fervency of parental affection and accompanied by the parting counsels of a wise and experienced preceptor and friend.

Of the Miscellaneous Sermons at large, our limits forbid us to attempt a delineation. We will mention one of them which appears to have been conceived in a peculiarly auspicious moment; and has been eminently followed with the blessing of God. His students will realize that we intend the Discourse on Jeremiah viii. 20, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. In two instances, the delivery of it was obviously the commencement of a revival of religion among his pupils; in the first of which nearly half of them were united to the College Church. Similar consequences have been ascribed to its delivery on two other occasions in different places. Never have we witnessed effects on mixed audiences equally solemn and powerful from any sermon as in several instances from this. Many beside his pupils ascribed to it their first impressions on religious subjects.

His Sermons were uncommonly intelligible to all classes of people. His division of his subject was natural, neat, and easily remembered. His style, though at times highly ornamented and elevated, was still plain and perspicuous; and his delivery, though VOL. I.

occasionally rapid, was clear and distinct. Owing to these qualities, the illiterate and persons of ordinary capacity were able to understand him without difficulty.

Another characteristic of his preaching was a constant regard to practical effect. Even the sermons which compose these volumes, the object of which was primarily to exhibit to his pupils a complete system of Christian doctrines, will be found in their application to have this discriminating character. It was impossible for him to enter the desk but as the herald of reconciliation. He could not fail to discover his affecting sense of the greatness of the Being who sent him, or of the infinite importance of the message which he brought. And his most obvious purpose was to accomplish the salvation of those to whom it was delivered.

It is believed on the best evidence that this purpose was to an unusual extent accomplished by his preaching. Immediately before the commencement of his Presidency, the College Church among the students was almost extinct; it came at last to consist of only two members, and soon after his accession, it dwindled to a single person. During the greater part of his continuance in office it embraced at least one fourth, in various instances one third, and in one upwards of half, of the students. Perhaps no object of contemplation afforded him higher pleasure, towards the close of life, than the number of his pupils who had become, or were intending to become, preachers; especially when he remembered how frequently the labours of the former had been crowned with success.

In the performance of the other exercises of public worship, he greatly excelled. His manner of reading the Scriptures, and sacred poetry, was peculiarly happy and impressive. In the appropriateness, variety, fluency, copiousness, fervency, and elevation of prayer, as it regarded subjects, sentiment, and language, he was nearly without a rival. Entirely free from form, from tiresome repetition, and from lukewarmness; and under the influence of the deepest abasement and prostration of soul; his heart appeared to be melted, and "his lips to be touched as with a live coal from off the altar," when he was engaged in this sublime and delightful duty.