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in defence of forms of prayer, of the English Liturgy, and of certain rites in the fervice of that church. There are special lectures on thofe parts of the fervice which include the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Sacraments. There are charges to the clergy, refpecting the conduct of their temporalitics, as well as of their fpiritual vocation: And a feries of controverfial fermons against the errors of the Church of Rome. The public fituation of the Archbifhop obliged him to compofe fermons on fpecial occafions, which were preached before the Houfe of Lords, the Lord Mayor of London, the Governors of Hofpitals, and various Public Societies.

IN all the difcourfes which he drew up as a public man, it is eafy to difcern the characters of moderation, good temper, and that moral fpirit, which was the favourite object to his own mind.

IN forming a comparison of fermons according to their different fpecies, it may be allowed, that those which are occafional, or which bear an immediate refpect to times, circumftances, and events, are formed upon the foundeft views of utility, refpecting the audiences to which they are immediately addreffed; and that difcourfes of this defcription are capable of being rendered highly interefting and instructive, even to readers, in other times, and in circumftances materially different. This cannot be doubted by any perfon who reflects upon the characters of fpeciality which abound in every part even of the

New

New Teftament record. It muft, however, be acknowledged, that it is a matter of extreme difficulty to give that perfection to occafional difcourfes which may render them generally interesting beyond the circumftances to which they immediately refer. And it may be added, that discourses which regard local customs, fuch as the rites or liturgy of a particular Christian fociety, or the temporalities of an ecclefiaftical body, cannot, by any power of genius, be rendered important, in the view of men who are without that circle to which the subjects are limited.

RITES, forms of worship, ecclefiaftical arrangements, together with the fubordinate articles of theory in religion, are fubject to the variations of local fashion. Orthodoxy in these things changes fides, as we pafs the Tweed, the Rhine, or the Alps. Churches may fall; opinions may change; controverfies may ceafe; but eternal virtue remaineth, the unalterable character of the true univerfal church of Jefus Chrift upon earth.

THE works of Archbishop Secker, while they float on the ftream of time, and defcend to another generation, muft owe their fupport to thofe fermons purely moral, and effentially Catholic, which were fuggefted by his own heart, and which were dictated by the genius of the man, rather than required from the primate in his official capacity.

UNDER thefe views, the new edition of Dr. Secker's works is tendered to the public, in a

different

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different arrangement from that which was adopted by his Chaplains after his deceafe. The moral fermons, which appeared to the editors the most important in fubject, and the most perfect in execution, have been felected, and form the firft volume. Of this volume a larger impreffion has been prepared than of the reft; by which means, it is to purchafers a matter of option, either to have the felect moral fermons by themselves, in a fingle volume, or to have the whole works in four, at a much cheaper rate than they have ever been offered to the public.

THE felection of the fermons for the first volume has been made by two clergymen of a national church, different from that of England; but who own, with impartial respect, the merits of those Pastors, who, in various communions, have laboured with fuccefs in the fervice of the One Great Master of the Chriftian World.

ΑΝ

ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SECKER.

DOCTOR THOMAS SECKER was born in a small village, called Sibthorp, in Nottinghamshire, in the year 1693.

His father, a refpectable Proteftant Dissenter, lived on a fmall paternal eftate. His mother was the daughter of Mr George Brough, a gentleman farmer in the fame county.

THE intention of his father was, to qualify him for becoming a Diffenting Clergyman, in confequence of which, he was educated in the moft eminent schools and academies in that county, in one of which he became acquainted with Samuel Butler, afterwards Bishop of Durham, and contracted a strict friendship with him, which continued to the end of life.

BUT

BUT though he had made an uncommon proficiency in all the branches of literature, proper for his intended profeffion, yet, from a change of fentiment, not uncommon in that period of life, in the end of the 1716, he turned his views to the ftudy of medicine. For this purpose he went to London, and attended the lectures of all the eminent teachers in the medical line there. To compleat his medical ftudies, in the 1719, he went to Paris, where he attended the lectures of the most eminent profeffors of the art in that city. Here he first became acquainted with Mr. Martin Benfon, afterwards Bishop of Gloucefter.

His friend, Mr. Samuel Butler, had now taken orders, and, by his uncommon merit, acquired fome valuable friends, among others, Mr. Talbot, son of Bishop Talbot, through which intereft, he obtained from the Bishop a promise of patronage to Mr. Secker, in cafe he would take orders in the Church of England. This profpect he communicated to Mr. Secker while he was at Paris, who, after fome time taken in confideration, came over to England in the 1720.

BEING introduced to Mr. Talbot, by his friend, he cultivated his acquaintance with attention, till Mr. Talbot's death, which happened foon after. Mr. Talbot left a widow and child, with whom lived Mrs. Catherine Benson, the Bishop's fifter, as a friend and companion.

To enable Mr. Secker, with the greater ease, to get a degree at Oxford, by the advice of his friends, he went, in the 1721, to Leyden, where

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