EXTRACT

FROM

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

OF THE LATE

REV. JOHN BAMPTON,

CANON OF SALISBURY.

"I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to "the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University "of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular "the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents "and purposes hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, "I will and appoint, that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the time being shall take "and receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, "and (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions

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made) that he pay all the remainder to the endowment "of Eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be established "for ever in the said University, and to be performed "in the manner following:

"I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday "in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the "Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours "of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to "preach Eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol"lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the com"mencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the "end of the third week in Act Term.

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EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON'S WILL.

"Also I direct and appoint, that the Eight Divinity "Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of "the following Subjects-to confirm and establish the "Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schis"matics-upon the divine authority of the Holy Scrip"tures-upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church-upon the Divinity of our Lord and "Saviour Jesus Christ-upon the Divinity of the Holy "Ghost-upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as "comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.

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"Also I direct, that thirty copies of the Eight Divinity "Lecture Sermons shall be always printed within two "months after they are preached, and one copy shall 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 expense of printing "them shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or "Estates given for establishing the Divinity Lecture "Sermons; and the Preacher shall not be paid, nor be "entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.

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"Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, "unless he hath taken the Degree of Master of Arts at "least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

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PREFACE.

THE importance of the matters discussed in the following lectures cannot well be over-estimated. For every one who looks by faith to that complete redemption which was achieved by Christ, when he came the first time in great humility, must regard with deepest interest the objects for which that same Jesus shall come again the second time with power and great glory.

Shall this earth and this dispensation pass away when he returns? shall sin, the world, and Satan, from that hour, for ever cease from troubling? Shall the redeemed then at once enter upon the perfect and eternal fruition of their glorious rest? Or shall the earth continue? and shall generations of men continue? and shall sin, the world, and Satan be merely placed in abeyance, but not yet be utterly vanquished? In short, shall "the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" be "the end" and consummation "of all things," or shall it not? These are the questions involved in the Millennarian controversy.

And they are questions of an eminently practical character. For the several articles of the Christian faith have a mutual dependence one

upon another; and each should be preserved in its simple integrity, its right place, and its due proportion; else will the general soundness of our whole ministerial teaching be imperilled. How much more so, when tenets really incompatible with the first principles of the doctrine of Christ are (inadvertently) propounded as Scriptural truths.

Nor let it be affirmed, that herein we refer to extreme cases. For the author has taken pains to make himself acquainted with the Chiliasm of the present day, as taught by its most able and most soberminded advocates. And, even when he has thought it right to advert to the volumes of their more imaginative brethren, he has ever been careful to note where the latter stand alone in their speculations.

He can truly say, that he has, in every instance, scrupulously endeavoured to deal fairly by his opponents. If it shall be proved that he has in any case failed in the attempt, no one will regret it more deeply and acknowledge it more readily than himself. For, though personally acquainted with but few among them, he has always regarded them as men of God, worthy in many points of all respect and imitation. Nor will it be found that he has been backward to do homage to the talent which is displayed in some of their treatises; and to shelter himself beneath the authority of many important statements which those treatises contain.