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cafion, up to their genuine fources, to compare them with the peculiar opinions of their own times, and thus to determine their meaning with more certainty, by ascertaining the precise objects, which their compilers had in view. This attempt he has made in the Bampton Lectures of the year. As, however, in compositions of their nature a minute detail of particulars was not practicable, and yet as he felt himself both in reason and in duty bound to fulfil the intentions of the Founder, by printing (profeffedly as Lectures) only that, which in point of quantity and form, as well as fubftance, was actually delivered from the pulpit, he has been under the neceffity of adding notes; and of adding them to a confiderable extent, because his argument principally refted upon authorities, derived from productions not generally read, nor every where attainable.

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EXTRACT

EXTRACT

FROM THE

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

OF THE LATE

REV. JOHN BAMPTON,

CANON OF SALISBURY.

"I give and bequeath my Lands and "Eftates to the Chancellor, Mafters, and Scholars "of the Univerfity of Oxford for ever, to have "and to hold all and fingular the faid Lands or "Eftates upon truft, and to the intents and pur

poses hereinafter mentioned; that is to fay, I "will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of "the University of Oxford for the time being shall "take and receive all the rents, iffues, and pro"fits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and

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neceffary deductions made) that he pay all the "remainder to the endowment of eight Divinity "Lecture Sermons, to be established for ever in "the faid Univerfity, and to be performed in the "manner following:

"I direct and appoint, that, upon the first "Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly b 2 "chofen

"chofen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by "no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-Houfe, between the hours of ten in the "morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the "commencement of the last month in Lent Term, " and the end of the third week in Act Term.

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"Alfo I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons fhall be preached upon "either of the following Subjects-to confirm "and eftablish the Chriftian Faith, and to con"fute all heretics and fchifmatics-upon the di"vine authority of the holy Scriptures-upon "the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the pri"mitive Church-upon the Divinity of our "Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift-upon the Di"vinity of the Holy Ghoft-upon the Articles "of the Chriftian Faith, as comprehended in the "Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.

"Alfo I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons fhall be always printed, within two months after they are "preached, and one copy fhall be given to the "Chancellor 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 ex

"pence

pence of printing them shall be paid out of the "revenue of the Land or Eftates given for eftablishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons; and "the Preacher shall not be paid, nor be entitled "to the revenue, before they are printed.

"Alfo I direct and appoint, that no perfon "fhall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec"ture Sermons, unless he hath taken the Degree "of Mafter of Arts at least, in one of the two "Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that "the fame perfon fhall never preach the Divi"nity Lecture Sermons twice."

CON