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BY

JEAN-BAPTISTE MASSILLON,

BISHOP OF CLERMONT.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

SELECTED AND TRANSLATED

BY WILLIAM DICKSON;

AND

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,

ΤΟ

HER GRACE

THE DUTCHESS OF BUCCLEUGH.

COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOLUME I.

BROOKLYN:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS S. ARDEN, No. 186, PEARL-STREET, NEW-YORK.

T. KIRK, PRINTER.

1803.

TO HER GRACE

THE DUTCHESS OF BUCCLEUGH.

MADAM,

IN confequence of your permitting me to addrefs my Tranflation of the following Sermons to your GRACE, the general approbation will be fecured to at least one part of my Publication.

It is not your rank in the world, Madam, elevated as it is, which renders your protection of any part of the amiable MASSILLON'S Works fo eminently proper; it is your rank in the hearts of the good and virtuous, fuch as he was, who will unanimously acknowledge the propriety of the Dedication.

Were

4

Were I at liberty to mention instances, within the sphere of my own knowledge, of your GRACE's humanity and benevolence, the pleasure with which I feize this opportunity of expreffing my veneration for your character, would be little wondered at; nor would the fincerity be doubted, with which I fubfcribe myself,

Madam,

Your GRACE's most refpectful,

And most obedient fervant.

William Dickson.

TRANS

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

TO THE

PUBL I C.

Ir is equally proper for a Tranflator, as for an Author, to give fome explanation (not apology, for furely a generous Public will require none, when the diffemination of virtue is evidently the purpofe) of the production which he obtrudes upon the public.

This Tranflation was at firft undertaken, merely for the recreation, during illnefs, of the Tranflator; his admiration of Maffillon's abilities, increafing as he went on, he was induced to continue, far beyond his first intention; that animation, that unction, as D'Alembert fays, which flowed from his pen on every fubject, that gentle, yet feeling addrefs to the hearts of his hearers, and to which the most indifferent could not refuse attention, struck him fo forcibly, that he could not reflect, without surprise, that no tranflation of his works had as yet appeared in English. Impreffed with a conviction of their moral tendency, he determined, in confequence of the approbation of some respectable clergymen, his friends, to publifh a felection of fuch as, unconnected with local or temporary events in France, would, in his opinion, be an acceptable present to Christians of every denomination. He now offers the present volume to the public; and fo impreffed is he with a sense of their merit, that he is con

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