Doddridge Practical Writers 4

Doddridge's final lecture on practical writers (Lecture 4) looks at writers of the established church.

§1(John) Tillotson There is such an easiness in his style and beautiful simplicity of expression as seems easy to be imitated, yet nothing more difficult. He had some puritanical expressions. Sometimes prophetic. His method admirably clear, beyond almost any other man. Many of his sermons contain nothing remarkable, especially his posthumous ones, yet there are some of them equal to any he published in his lifetime. His best pieces are at the beginning of his first and second volumes folio. His discourse on evil speaking is excellent. He made great use of Barrow and Wilkins, with whom compare some of his sermons. There is sometimes great tautology but in controversy no man found such lucky arguments nor represented the sentiments of his adversaries fully, artfully and advantageously for confutation.

§2(Isaac) Barrow The most laconic writer among our divines. He has an amazing number of thoughts, though not always well digested or plainly expressed. He is sometimes excellent in these respects. He attempted to introduce some new words but without success. Many useful scriptures and fine quotations from the Classics and the Fathers, in the margin. Nothing is more elaborate than his discourses, most of them having been transcribed three times over, and some of them oftener. Many of Tillotson's finest sermons were a kind of translation from him, particularly that on evil speaking. The first volume of his sermons is the best, but they all deserve reading.

§3(David) Wilkins His method is very exact but too scholastic. His style is almost as easy and pure as Tillotson's. Many excellent thoughts are thrown together in a very intelligible manner. His Sermons, Natural Religion, the Beauty of Providence, on Prayer, and on Preaching, are his only practical works, and well deserve a reading. Tillotson's Wisdom of being religious is taken in a great measure from him.

§4(William) Beveridge Much like Henry, but not his equal. He discovers great devotion, has many high flights but is sometimes weak. His Private Thoughts the most valuable of his works. Many of his sermons are very low.

§5(Thomas) Scott His style is long and verbose; many inelegant words, and some phrases shocking; yet, on the whole, he is excellent. His reasoning is strong and conclusive, though drawn out to an excessive length. He drives on with great warmth and pathos, yet almost all appears too much forced. His Christian Life is the best of his works, especially the first part. The prayers at the end are absolutely the best I have ever read. Many of his sermons are valuable, especially those in the first volume; the subjects being good, pretty full, and methodically handled.

§6(Robert) South Smart wit, keen satire, sometimes fine language but his arguments are often weak. All his works have the appearance of an ill spirit in controversy. He has many levities entirely unbecoming the pulpit and when most practical seems to write with spleen, and to aim very little at usefulness. The best sermons are in his first volume; though even in them, there is too great an affectation of wit and but little appearance of being in earnest for God amidst all his zeal against Heretics and Schismatics.

§7(John) Norris Excessively affected, pert and verbose, yet some good thoughts. His Sermons on the Beatitudes are most celebrated. He carries matters in general too high. His discourses on the love of God are in the mystic strain. His Sermon on Religious Discourse deserves to be read. He is in general too abstruse and metaphysical.

§8(Richard) Lucas His style is very peculiar, sometimes exceeding free, approaching to conversation; sometimes grand and solemn; and generally very expressive. His method is not clear but his thoughts are excellent. Many of them are taken from an attentive observation of human life. He wrote as being entirely devoted to God, and superior to the world. His most valuable works are his Practical Christianity and his Inquiry after Happiness, especially the second volume.

§9(William) Sherlock Strong arguments and awful representations: exceeding proper for conviction. His style is plain and manly. His best works are those on Death and Judgment.

§10(Walter) Spratt He is the least considerable as a practical writer. His language is always beautiful, but many of his sentiments are very weak. The Ciceronian style is too much laboured. Tully is translated for many sentences together in some of his Sermons, though not mentioned. All his Sermons are in one octavo volume and deserve a reading.

§11(Samuel) Clarke He slipped into very high reputation, chiefly by his peculiarities. His style is quite plain and void of pathos. His thoughts are well ranged, but many of them very obvious and frequently repeated. Scriptures often well explained, though sometimes he takes more pains to collect parallel scriptures than is necessary and with solemn parade explains others that have no difficulty. He takes more notice of grace and the atonement than most of his followers and admirers. Several of his Sermons are on subjects too near akin. He and Tillotson have made great use of the Fratres Poloni (ie Socinians), though they do not make any mention of them.

§12(Anthony) Horneck (originally from Germany) Exceeding pathetic, but not elegant. He is chiefly fit for devotional subjects but his words are too often greater than his thoughts. His best pieces are those on Consideration, and The Crucified Jesus. See his pieces also on the Commandments, on Prayer, Presumptuous Sins, and several Sermons.

§13(Ezekiel) Hopkins (of Derry) His motto, Aut suavitate aut vi (either by gentleness or force) well answers to his works, yet he trusts most to the latter. He awakens awfully; sometimes there is a little of the bombast; he bends the bow till it breaks; an error carefully to be guarded against.

§14(Robert) Boyle His style is very rough and obscure yet some words are highly illustrative by antitheses, he being very careful in the choice of them. He has many lively similes very proper to be quoted, especially in his Seraphic Love and Theodora and Dydimus. Sentences unreasonably long, abounding with parentheses and hard words of his own coining. He has, in short, many faults in his style, but some inimitable beauties.

§15(Henry) Scougal One of the first rank, though he wrote but little. Every page abounds with noble and proper thoughts; clothed with a decent eloquence, suited to the subject. He appears to be the best model of all his class. His Life of God in the Soul of Man and Sermons, should be often read. His early death, at the age of 28, was an unspeakable loss to the world.

§16(William) Law Very recluse. His productions have a severity seldom to be found in this age. His language is generally just and beautiful; very nervous, but sometimes unnatural. He is ready to affect points of wit, and strokes of satire; in which however he does not equal South. Many characters are admirably drawn. In this he comes nearer the Jesuits than any English writer. His Treatise on Christian Perfection is very famous. His Serious Call still better.

§ (William) Fleetwood Surnamed Silver-tongued, remarkable for easy and proper expressions. He considers several cases, which, though often occurring in human life, are seldom taken notice of in Sermons. On this account he may be consulted with advantage. In respect of true politeness he has been equalled by few. His Sermons on Relative Duties are good but his Four Funeral Sermons show the orator much more.

§18(Francis) Atterbury The glory of our English orators. In his writings we see language in its strictest purity and beauty. There is nothing dark, nothing redundant, nothing deficient, nothing misplaced. Trivial thoughts are avoided, uncommon ones introduced and set in a clear, strong light, and in a few words; some admirable similes and more graceful allusions to scriptures than any of this class. On the whole, he is a model for courtly preachers. His Four Volumes should be carefully read. His two last are the best. The chief Sermons are Acquaintance with God, Religious Retirement, Lady Cotes's Character, Propagation of the Gospel, Sufficiency of Revelation, Terrors of Conscience, Curse on the Jews, and Felix Trembling.

§19 (Hugh) Blair A man of plain good sense. A beautiful simplicity and great seriousness run through all his writings. A desire to spare all unnecessary words is very apparent. His Commentary on Matthew is the best extant. He has some excellent and striking similes, which are chiefly taken from the affairs of slaves, planters, or foreign colonies. He lived in Jamaica. He suggests a multitude of excellent things which he does not prosecute at large. He appears to have been a person of the utmost candour, and has solicitously avoided all unkind and contemptuous reflections on his brethren. He guards his hearers against all undue confidence in their immediate relation to, and strict attendance on the established worship, beyond almost any other divine in the Church of England. He has an excellent way of bringing down criticisms to common capacities; and has discovered a vast knowledge of scripture in the suitable application of them.

§20(Thomas) Secker is so remarkable an instance of the laconic style, that the few Sermons he has published deserve an attentive reading, especially that on the Oxford act, which is the wisest I ever read, considered in the view of a Philosophical Essay.

§21Archbishop (Robert) Leighton One of the most eminently devout and pious writers his age has produced. His Sermons indeed are not accurately digested and sometimes contain only hints not fully opened; which is the more excusable, as none of them were intended for the press by the author. His works ought to be reckoned among the greatest treasures of the English tongue. They continually overflow with love to God and breathe a heart entirely transformed by the gospel, above the views of every thing but pleasing God. There is a vast deal of spirit, and charming imagination; multitudes of the most beautiful figures; and scriptures applied with happiest allusions. Metaphors, especially those in the text, are sometimes pursued into allegory; yet very natural. Upon the whole, they are such as none but a very ingenious, learned, religious man could write; and yet, even by such an one, must have been written with great care; not the effect of any laborious efforts for particular discourses, through a habit of speaking and writing; but the guarded overflowings of a copious fountain. This attainment, however, must have been the consequence of a most resolute application both of the head and heart. Few uninspired writers have a greater tendency to mend the world. The disappointment which the learned and polite complained of, when these posthumous works were published, is chiefly to be charged upon their ignorance of the true beauties and use of Theological Writings.