OF THE SUCCESSION OF SACRED LITERATURE, IN A Chronological Arrangement OF AUTHORS AND THEIR WORKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS, TO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1300. Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. T. AND J. TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE; R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW; AND JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN. PREFACE. I HAVE now brought to a conclusion, a Work which has been the result of great labor and much research; and the labor has been the greater, because I resolved from the commencement that what I published in my own name should be the result of my own reading and study and though possibly others may have written better, because in some cases more at large than the limits of my design enabled me to do, yet I did not consider that their having toiled well and successfully was to excuse me from the like labor, as I was not a republisher of other men's opinions, but an examiner and reporter for my own satisfaction and the information of the Reader, who, I trust, will have no cause for disappointment in his expectations founded on the title-page, as the Author has no reason to regret the early and late hours he has spent in reading, condensing, and judging of the theology of past ages. In the midst of darkness, which gradually deepened after the first seven or eight centuries into the most cheerless gloom, I found men, filled with the spirit of holiness and devotion, unravelling the mysteries of the human heart, and speaking forth the riches of God's mercy in Christ Jesus, with a strength of feeling and language such as only a theme like this can cause and inspire:-such men I cannot contemn, nor should such writings be treated with neglect; and though the Fathers, unfortunately for both MOV 251901 154022 |