"Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following Sub“jects—to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to "confute all heretics and schismatics-upon the divine autho"rity of the holy Scriptures-upon the authority of the writings "of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the 'primitive Church-upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ-upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost-upon "the Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in the 'Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.

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"Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lec"ture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months after they are preached; and one copy shall be given to the Chan"cellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of every "College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of Oxford, "and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library; and the expenses of printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of "the Land or Estates given for establishing the Divinity Lecture "Sermons; and the preacher shall not be paid, nor be entitled "to the revenue, before they are printed.

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"Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified "to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken "the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Uni"versities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same person "shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

ΤΟ

The Rector and Fellows of Exeter College,

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

OF MUCH PERSONAL KINDNESS AND HOSPITALITY,

AND ALSO

OF INVALUABLE AID DERIVED FROM THE

FREE USE OF THEIR LIBRARY,

I DESIRE

TO DEDICATE THESE PAGES.

PREFACE.

'Benevolentia etiam gladium iracundiæ extorquere consuevit. Benevolentia facit, ut amici vulnera utilia magis quàm voluntaria inimici oscula sint. Benevolentia facit, ut unus fiat ex pluribus.. Advertimus etiam, correptiones in amicitiâ gratas esse, quæ aculeos habent, dolorem non habent.' (St. Ambrose, de Officiis Ministrorum, lib. i. cap. 34.)

'HE purpose of Canon Bampton in founding this Lectureship seems to have been twofold. He first required that the Lectures should be delivered orally before the University: and next, he stipulated that they should be given, in a printed form, to the public. The double obligation thus imposed upon his Lecturers is one which is by no means easy of fulfilment. The celebrated saying of Charles Fox at once occurs to one's memory; that if a speech be orally effective, it cannot possibly be effective in print,—and vice versa.

The only way therefore in which a Bampton Lecturer can hope to fulfil the intentions of the Founder, and to acquit himself loyally of the important trust committed to him by the electors, is (I think) after oral delivery of the Lectures at Oxford, to spare no pains in endeavouring to make of them a volume useful and interesting to persons of average intellectual culture, not only at the University, but elsewhere. And this can best be done, by slight expansions or abridgements of the spoken text, and by appending footnotes,

appendices, and other aids towards facility and completeness of apprehension.

And

This task I have honestly laboured to fulfil. if, in fulfilling it, I have trespassed too much upon the patience of the University,—which (in ordinary cases) may fairly expect a diligent and speedy compliance with the conditions laid down by the Founder,-I venture to plead, in my defence, a simultaneous occupation of very unusual urgency and weight. The sole charge of an important Theological College, numbering from thirty to forty students, leaves a smaller margin of spare time than were desirable. But besides deficiency of time, I am too painfully aware of other deficiencies. And therefore I do not hope to have escaped some unintentional errors and mis-statements. Indeed, the subjects here passed in review are so numerous and varied, and are so historically intricate, that an apology seems rather needed for venturing on such a line of inquiry at all, than for attaining a very imperfect degree of success in following it out.

The subject, however, seemed demanded by the necessities of the Church of England at the present moment. And to strengthen her position in this country, to point out the true meaning of her connexion with the State, and (if possible) to conciliate by explanations those who are conscientiously-but, I think, under endless misapprehensions-endeavouring to subvert her influence and to destroy her vantageground for doing good, such a task appeared to me a privilege of the very highest order, and an opportunity to be (at all hazards) accepted. For, as Gregory Nazianzen said of Constantinople, 1500 years ago, so an English Churchman may with still greater reason say of his own country at the present day: Εἰ γὰρ τὸ πόλιν