Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/137

Rh and honour. But farther: if preaching in general be all old and beaten, and that they are already so well acquainted with it, more shame and guilt to them who so little edify by it. But, these men, whose ears are so delicate as not to endure a plain discourse of religion, who expect a constant supply of wit and eloquence on a subject handled so many thousand times; what will they say when we turn the objection upon themselves, who with all the rude and profane liberty of discourse they take, upon so many thousand subjects, are so dull as to furnish nothing but tedious repetitions, and little paltry, nauseous commonplaces, so vulgar, so worn, or so obvious, as, upon any other occasion, but that of advancing vice, would be hooted off the stage? Nor, lastly, are preachers justly blamed for neglecting human oratory to move the passions, which is not the business of a Christian orator, whose office it is only to work upon faith and reason. All other eloquence hath been a perfect cheat, to stir up men's passions against truth and justice, for the service of a fiction; to put false colours upon things, and by an amusement of agreeable words, make the worst reason appear to be the better. This is certainly not to be allowed in Christian eloquence, and, therefore, St. Paul took quite the other course; he "came not with the excellency of words, or enticing speech of men's wisdom, but in plain evidence of the spirit and power." And perhaps it was for that reason, the young man Eutychus, used to the Grecian eloquence, grew tired, and fell so fast asleep.

I go on, Thirdly, to set forth the great evil of this neglect and scorn of preaching, and to discover the real causes whence it proceedeth. . X.