SERMON, a form of time Latin sernw, which denotes a discourse of any kind, and even common talk or conversation. It is now however applied only to a discourse of a particular kind, namely, one delivered to an assembly of persons who are gathered together for purposes of devotion, or in the character of a Christian and religious congrega tion. Nor is any address delivered on such occasions properly a sermon, though the word is very loosely used, and addresses delivered on such occasions, which can hardly be called sermons, are not 'infrequently so denominated; but it seems to be essential to a sermon that it shall be a discourse grounded on some particular passage of holy Scripture which more or less influences the preacher in the whole of his dis course. This passage is called the text, that is, it is the portion of the text of Scripture, of which the sermon in the long paraphrase and commentary, with suitable application and exhortation intermixed or appended.
The sermons delivered in the English church before the Reformation wero very short, probably seldom requiring more than ten minutes for the delivery of them. Many specimens remain in manuscript, but few are generally accessible by having been printed. Perhaps the most remarkable and the most easily consulted are the sermons at the opening of each parliament, of which there are notices in the printed rolls.
But with the Reformation a great change in this respect took place; and in many eases the ministers of religion came to consider them selves rather as persons whose peculiar duty it was to exhort and preach, than to conduct the devotions of a Christian assembly and to minister time sacraments. The consequence of this was that the ser
mons ran out to a great length, and assemblies were gathered together rather for the purpose of listening to them than of entering into the devotions of the church ; and the term " preaching minister" was invented to designate those ministers who changed the nature of their office, from one which was instituted for the administration of the Christian ordinance and the assisting the people in their devotions, to one which was of teaching, if not exclusively, yet principally. It was not very unusual in the 17th century for congregations to listen to sermons which occupied one, two, or even three hours in the delivery. Many of these sermons are in print, and may therefore be now read and judged of.
There is a singular work by a minister of the French Reformed church at Charenton, Monsieur Claude, entitled ' An Essay on the Composition of a Sermon.' This was translated by Robert Robinson, a Baptist minister at Cambridge, who has illustrated the rules by numerous quotations from English sermon writers. This translation is in two volumes, 8vo., 1779.