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TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH

OF

THE LATE REV. JAMES SAURIN,

PASTOR OF THE FRENCH CHURCH AT THE HAGUE,

2857

BY HENRY HUNTER, D. D.

VOLUME VI.

ÓN SACRAMENTAL OCCASIONS.

SECOND AMERICAN

FROM THE FIFTH LONDON EDITION.

SCHENECTADY:

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM J. M'CARTEE.
E. & E. Hosford-Printers-Albany,

1040

1813.

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PREFACE.

THE name of SAURIN, as a Preacher and a Scripture-Critic, is so well known, and so highly respected, as to render any panegyric or recommendation of mine altogether unnecessary. His great work entitled, Discourses Historical, Critical, Theological and Moral, on the most memorable Events recorded in the Old and New Testaments, is in the hands of almost every Protestant divine who understands the French language. Of this the first volume only has been given to the English public, by a respectable layman, John Chamberlayne, Esquire, of the City of Westminster, presently after the publication of the original at the Hague, in 1723. Unhappily for the world, Mr. SAURIN did not live to accomplish that arduous undertaking; his valuable labours being interrupted by the stroke of death, before he had quite finished the Sixth Discourse of Vol. III. which contains the period of Solomon's piety and prosperity. The work was, however, very creditably continued and completed by Messrs. Roques and De Beausobre. A republication of Mr. Chamberlayne's volume, and a translation of the other five, would be an important and, no doubt, an acceptable addition to English literature.

The late Reverend ROBERT ROBINSON, of Cambridge, has given a very good translation of five vol

umes of the Sermons of SAURIN, selected from twelve, of which the original consists; to these he has prefixed Memoirs of the Reformation in France, and of SAURIN'S Life. This work has been so well received all over Great Britain, that a third large impression of it is already nearly exhausted: a striking proof, surely, of the author's extraordinary merit as a Christian orator, especially if it be considered that this approbation is expressed in an age and a country daily enriched with original displays of pulpit eloquence, and whose taste is rendered fastidious by profusion and variety of excellence.

But the Public, it would appear, is still disposed to receive more of Mr. SAURIN'S Serinons, for ĺ have been frequently and importunately solicited to undertake the translation of what remains: a request with which, I acknowledge, I felt no great reluctance to comply; being thoroughly convinced that no compositions of the kind are more calculated to be useful to mankind. By the reception given to this volume, I shall be enabled to determine whether it is proper to desist, or to go on.

The attentive Reader will readily perceive that I have made the arrangement of the subjects part of my study. When I found any of the links of my chain anticipated by my respectable predecessor in the works of translation, I refer to it, that those who choose to read in a series may be saved the trouble of tracing it from volume to volume.

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