for Massillon to comfort the "desolate and oppressed." They are both among the most shining luminaries of the French school of divinity.

But SAURIN must not be forgotten. He was a protestant preacher; and is said to have been gifted with one of the finest voices and persons that were ever heard and seen in the pulpit. His prayer before his sermon kept his congregation in breathless admiration. It could never be forgotten. Nor was it weakened by the discourse which followed; for there was a solidity, justness, moderation, and earnestness throughout the whole, that equally charmed and convinced his auditory.* But it is his noble-mindedness-his christian charity-his goodness of hearthis thoroughly social feelings-which form the magic of his life and of his compositions. With a leaning towards Calvinism, he did not go one-half the lengths which the gentle Sectarians, of that persuasion, wished him to go. Preaching in a Catholic country, he did not choose to call the Pope, Antichrist; or his church the✶✶✶✶✶ of Babylon. His sermons will be always read with pleasure and instruction.†

*

d'Angleterre comme ceux de France." Bourdaloue was called the Corneille of pulpit composition, as Massillon was called the Racine. This only confirms the comparison between these two great men instituted in the text.

*It is said that, the first time the famous ABBADIE heard him, he cried out "Is it an angel or a man who speaks?"

† My friend, M. Barbier, gently designates them, "as not exempt from the venom of heresy, and says that they might have been written with greater purity;" Bibl. d'un Homme de Gout, vol. ii. p. 468. A part of M. Barbier's brief account of Saurin is taken from the well known Dictionnaire Historique, from which the above account is also taken. The Sermons of Saurin were published complete at Rotterdam, in 1749, 8vo. in 12 volumes: but there were five volumes

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

I now come to touch briefly upon a few of the more celebrated and useful writers in the department of ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; choosing to introduce them here, (as rendering the theological department more complete,) rather than to incorporate them in the general department of history. I am, indeed, sufficiently aware, that in this department alone, a very copious library may be formed, and that ecclesiastical history may be said, in a great degree, to be civil history also inasmuch as the church and state are, in all countries, pretty closely and inseparably united; but, having devoted so large a portion of these pages to practical divinity, it were unfair, and might be judged unsatisfactory, to dismiss that subject, without published during his life, from 1708 to 1725. Note:-it was the same Saurin who published the two first volumes, in folio, of "Discours historiques, critiques, théologiques et moraux &c. sur l'Ancien Testament," of which the remaining four folio volumes were continued and completed by BEAUSOBRE and ROQUES, in 1728-39. This costly work is full of fine engravings, and usually finds a place in our more complete libraries. Brunet may be said to riot in his description of this magnificent publication, of which he notices sundry varieties of forms and conditions. The better taste seems to be, the acquisition of the plates, separately published in one large folio volume, which exhibit the earlier and finer impressions of them. These plates were engraved between the years 1705 and 1720, during the life time of Saurin, and are 212 in number. They have sometimes a Dutch title, and are sometimes found in three folio volumes without the text, with short descriptions in the Dutch language. The rage for ILLUSTRATION is sometimes applied, with tremendous force, to the pages of holy writ: but I will venture to affirm, with no more confidence, I trust, than the event will warrant, that where a tasteful collector shall see one GOOD illustrated Bible, he will witness more than a dozen BAD.

something more than an intimation where the histories of those churches, from which so many brilliant and distinguished characters have risen for the benefit of their fellow-creatures, may be found and consulted; but in which it cannot be dissembled, very much is to be received with caution, from a consideration of particular tenets and prejudices (and what prejudices are stronger than those called religious ?) which are inevitably mixed up with the text. Still the sagacious and the candid reader may exercise his own ingenuity to advantage; and gather, at all events, and in all seasons, a rich harvest of various and useful information.

It cannot, however, fail to be remarked-and remarked with more than transient regret-that, at the very outset of our enquiries, the British nation has less to boast of in the department of ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, than its neighbours and especially the French. Leaving out of the question what the great Mabillon hath done for the Benedictins,* let us only consider the Gallia Christiana, in thirteen folio volumes, aud the Histories of the French Church by Longueval and Le Cointe. And to these, we may

*The Annales Ordinis Sti. Benedicti, which extend only to the middle of the twelfth century, were published in six folio volumes at Paris, between the years 1703 and 1739. The ACTS of the Saints of the same order, were published at the same place in 1668, in nine folio volumes; but D'Acher was here a considerable coadjutor with Mabillon. These Acts were reprinted at Venice in 1733, in nine folio volumes. The French edition, which Brunet values at little more than 31. 3s., is dearer, because more desirable, than the reprint. The Annals are still much beneath the Acts in price; and both works are briefly noticed and coldly dismissed by Brunet. I learn, however, that a much livelier interest is taken in them, at the present day, on both sides the channel.

† I will briefly notice these works in the above order. The first

add the invaluable labours of Fleury and Tillemont,

is called Sammarthanorum fratrum Gallia Christiana, &c., which was published at Paris, in 1715, &c. in thirteen folio volumes, under the care of Scevola and Louis de Sainte Marthe, and other monks of the Benedictine order. It contains a series or catalogue of all the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of France, and is full of erudition, research, and the most curious details; but this work is yet incomplete, three more volumes being necessary to render it perfect. There are copies on large paper: yet both large and small rarely occur for purchase in this country, owing to the heavy duty attending the importation of such bulky volumes. Longueval published his Histoire de l'Eglise Gallicane, in conjunction with De Fontenay, Brumoy, and Berthier (all four being learned Jesuits), in 1730, in 18 vols. 4to.: and such was the labour attending the work, that they each, in succession fell victims to it. Longueval lived to see the first 8 volumes complete, and Fontenay the ninth and tenth, with a great part of the eleventh volume. The end of the eleventh, and the whole of the twelfth, were the achievement of Brumoy. The rest are the production of Father Berthier-" the worthy successor of Longueval, of whom he possessed the spirit, the erudition, and the good taste."

"The style of Berthier is everywhere careful without affectation and elegant without antithesis." Bibl. d'un Homme de Gout, vol. iii. 397-8. After this tempting description, I suspect and hope that

+ The first and principal projector of this new edition of the Gallia Christiana, was Father Denys de Sainte-Marthe, superior-general of the congregation of St. Maur, and editor of the works of Pope Gregory the Great, in 1699, folio. He died in his seventy-fifth year, on Good Friday, in 1725; after having witnessed the publication of the first three volumes of the Gallia Christiana, and having secured the aid of several other religious of the same order, towards the publication of the seven following volumes. His death, which took place at the abbey of St. Germain des Prez, was very generally lamented: and yet this same father published a book in 1688 (on the revocation of the edict of Nantes), "to justify the persecution of the French protestants; one of the most horrid persecutions that ever was exercised, a persecution, which has made thousands of people unhappy; a persecution advised by some clergymen, who, perhaps, were atheists, and carried on by mere political views, without any fear of God, without any respect for the Deity. How could Father Denys de Ste. Marthe justify such a persecution with a good conscience? Was he a political priest?" New Memoirs of Literature, 1725, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 148-9.

upon general ecclesiastical history*- through the pages of which Gibbon so assiduously toiled. While,

some efforts will be made, both by the young and old collector, to get possession of this work-so creditable to France, and securing such an immortality to its authors. To the best of my recollection, I never met with a copy of it on sale. It was reprinted at Nismes in 1782, in 18 vols. 8vo.,-but " commend me" to the goodly and original quarto impression! The Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum of Charles Le Cointe, published at Paris in 1665, &c., in eight folio volumes, comprehend a period of time from the middle of the third, to that of the ninth century. It is a work rarely seen, and still more rarely consulted: but that is not the fault of the author.

While upon the subject of French ecclesiastical history, I ought, perhaps, to mention the GESTA DEI PER FRANCOs, a large folio volume, published by the Wechels at Hanover, in 1611; having a thin second volume (sometimes wanting) bound with the first. Bongars was the editor of this work-aided by Pithoeus and Petavius, &c., " quos nominare sufficit," says the former. Jortin has sacrificed his usual good sense and candour, when he says, " the title of this book would have been better chosen, if it had been "Gesta DIABOLI per Francos." Remarks on Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 300. He also says, that "Guibertus, or Gilbertus, a French abbot, wrote the account of this holy war :" but he is mistaken. It is the production of several authors; of whom Robert, a monk, is the first-who wrote it " in a cell of a monastery of St. Remigius, in the bishopric of Rheims, at the command of Bernard the Abbot." See the preface, Sec. II. Brunet tells us, that copies of this work upon large paper are uncommon. In all forms it is a sorrily executed volume. A copy upon large paper is at Althorp. The small may be worth about £2. 12s. 6d; but, during the late war, I have known it pushed to £4. 14s. 6d.

*What Buffon was in natural history, and Bossuet in polemics and dogmatical divinity, the Abbé Fleury was in ecclesiastical history. He is the just and enviable boast of the French nation: and it grieves one to think that, on the authority of Brunet, his history " is less sought after than it used to be." But, whoever chooses to read Barbier's animated and excellent account of it, will not hesitate to become a purchaser upon any reasonable terms. Fleury lived to execute only twenty, out of the thirty-six volumes, of which this his