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name: and accordingly, the expressions alluded to ought not in reason to be understood of religious opinions, any further than as they were connected with arbitrary domination and made subservient to its views. It is to the two editions mentioned, that the testimonies from British publications of that remote period refer.

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Next to those testimonies, there will be inserted an extract from a letter of the late Dr. Franklin, relative to the Idea of the College of Mirania:" a letter, which must have been highly gratifying to our Author, at that early period of his life; and probably contributed to the "zeal bordering on enthusiasm," as he has himself called it in one of his publications, with which he devoted himself to the dissemination of science; and particularly to the carrying into effect of his own plan of a liberal education in the tract alluded to. It may seem hardly necessary to mention, for the information of the present generation, that he continued to an advanced age in the duties of philosophical instruction, and in labours for the erecting and endowing of literary institutions. Of his ability in the former, there are monuments in some of the most distinguished ornaments of this age and country: and of his success in the latter, some proofs are still visible, in the endow Iments which have survived him.

Between the times of the publications above referred to, and the period to be hereafter mentioned, several of the ensuing sermons and of the other public addresses appeared from the press in a detached form. They had been composed and delivered on occasions which excited general attention; and the publishing of them was in consequence of the applause with which they were received, and of subsequent solicitation.

In the year 1789, the Author contemplated an edition of such of his sermons, as he judged the most worthy of the public eye: a design which was suspended from time to time, by a multiplicity of engagements. With that view, however, he submitted his proposals to the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal church, at their session in this city, in the summer of the aforesaid year and on this was grounded the act of that body, which will be inserted below, in approbation of the design. Although the suspension of it was a disappointment to many, and solicitations have been continually made for a fulfilment of the excited expectations; yet the Editor flatters himself, that the work, as now at last appearing, will have an advantage over the projected work, in those excellent discourses which stand between numbers four and twelve, inclusive. And here it will not be improper to mention that, in ad

dition to the circumstances of solemnity indicated in the titles and in the bodies of these discourses, there were others in the domestic situation of the Author, which impressed his mind, interested his feelings, and, no doubt, heightened the sentiment and the eloquence of his compositions. Not long before this period, he had lost a son, just risen to manhood; on whose natural and acquired accomplishments he had founded the most sanguine hopes; and a married daughter, who was every way worthy of his affections: and during the epidemic sickness to which the sermons relate, one of its many victims was the companion of his life and mother of his children; a woman adorned by a cultivated understanding, by agreeable manners, and by the discharge of her domestic duties. At a time of general mourning, himself being in a signal measure interested in the occasion of it, his mind, to use his own words in a document now before the editor," was carried forward to the consummation of earthly, and the final establishment of heavenly things." These circumstances may be supposed to have enhanced the merit of his compositions; as they undoubtedly rendered them the more. interesting to his hearers.

To proceed to the testimonies: The authors of the Critical Review for August 1759, express themselves as follows:

"The pulpit orators of France, have in general surpassed those of England in a torrent of rhetoric and overbearing eloquence; whilst, on the other hand, they have been greatly inferior to them in the didactic and moral part of preaching. In France, a sermon is an animated harangue; in England, a serious and instructive lecture. Tillotson, Clarke, and Watterland, inform the understanding; Bossuet, Massillon, and Flechier, rouse the passions. Both talents should unite to make a complete preacher; since dry instructions are too dull and unawaking, and rhetoric often but an empty sound. ·

"The author of these discourses seems to have been aware of the deficiency of our English preachers in point of eloquence, and to have used his utmost efforts to avoid incurring the same imputation. In his first dicourse, which is a funeral sermon preached upon the death of a beloved pupil, there are some strokes equal to any in the Oraisons Funebres of Bossuet."

It was surely very encouraging to a young man, as our author was in 1754, when this Sermon was composed, to find his eloquence would bear the being mentioned at the same time with that of Bossuet!

The Monthly Reviewers also who had noticed our Author much earlier, "marking him with their approbation as a writer from his first appearance in

the London press; viz. in their Review for April 1754, on the publication of a small pamphlet, containing, inter alia, the celebrated speech of a Creek Indian; then in their Reviews for July 1759, and July 1763."

"The principal design of these Discourses is to shew the value of the blessings, arising from the enjoyment of the Protestant Religion and Civil Liberty, and to inspire a becoming zeal for their defence. They are written with an excellent spirit, and in a sprightly animated manner; the language is clear and forcible; the sentiments generally just, and often striking."

And again, after some extracts from these Sermons, "Sentiments such as these must do honour to the preacher; and are essentially necessary to the progress of science and true religion, in any part of the world. As far as the schemes in which this gentleman is engaged, are calculated to promote, or are consistent with, these truly Christian and Protestant principles; we rejoice in his success, and heartily wish the increase of it."

Both the Critical and the Monthly Reviewers, at the same time that they thus bear testimony to our Author's merit, give specimens of it in long quotations, the inserting of which in this place would be an unreasonable enlargement of the Preface.

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