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SELECTED FROM THE

WORKS OF THE MOST EMINENT DIVINES

OF THE

16th, 17th, and 18th CENTURIES,

ABRIDGED,

AND RENDERED

IN A MODERN AND APPROPRIATE STYLE.

BY THE

REV. EDWARD ATKYNS BRAY,

VICAR OF TAVISTOCK.

Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is
like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of
his treasure things new and old.—Matt. xiii. 52.

London:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON,

NO. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD;

By R. and R. Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

OUR language has undergone such recent changes; and so different is our present mode of preaching; that few, it may safely be asserted, are sufficiently acquainted with the merits of our old Divines.

The most celebrated Preachers among the French lived, fortunately, when their language was already fixed; and therefore, perhaps, are as fully appreciated as they deserve by all (foreigners as well as natives) who have any pretensions to a knowledge of their best writers *.

*As a proof that the remark is at least applicable to the French themselves, I shall only refer to Maury (Essai sur l'Eloquence de la Chaire, tome 2. p. 43,) who does not

iv

ADVERTISEMENT.

Our own Divines, however, as they justly may contend with them for genius; in soundness of true Christian doctrine, are indisputably superiour.

It is hoped, therefore, that an attempt to adapt some of their compositions to what may be deemed, perhaps, the present style of preaching, may bring them into more general notice. At any rate, if the following short Discourses, in which, it is presumed, the spirit of their great originals must in some degree exist, shall meet the eye of those who may have no other means of knowing them; or shall induce those who are more fortunately circumstanced, not only to consult but to study them; the design of the present publication will be fully answered.

Some Discourses from Authors of a more recent date are admitted, not only for the

hesitate to assert that "the second class" of French Preachers would "incontestibly form the first among all "the other nations of Europe."

And, perhaps, till

sake of variety, but to prove that the latter must have familiarized themselves with the writings of the former. they thus can rival their illustrious Predecessors, the younger Clergy, by this selection of their beauties, as specimens of Pulpit Eloquence, may be prevailed on to adopt a similar plan, before they venture on original composition.

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