A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

The FIFTH TOME.

MOst of St. Augustin's Sermons being Homilies upon the Scripture, they are with a great * 1.1 deal of Reason brought in to make up this Volume, which follows immediately after St. Augustin's Commentaries upon the Holy Scripture. They had hitherto been in great confu∣sion, because new Collections of them were still Printed, as new Sermons were discovered. There was a great number of Supposititious or Doubtful ones among the True; most Editions were full of Faults, so that it was necessary, that Persons so exact, learned, and versed in such Matters as these Benedictines are, should undertake to set them in order, to distinguish St. Au∣gustin's from those that are Supposititious, and to Correct the Text from the best and ancientest Manuscripts. This they have performed most happily in the Fifth Tome, which containeth all St. Augustin's Sermons, placed in very good order, and divided into five Classes.

The First containeth 183 Sermons upon several Passages both of the Old and New Te∣stament.

The Second is made up of 88 Sermons upon the great Festivals of the Year.

In the Third are 69 upon the Festivals of the Saints.

The Fourth comprehendeth 23 upon various Subjects, as, The Love of God, Fear, Penance, Contempt of the World, Behaviour of the Clergy, Peace and Concord, Resurrection from the * 1.2 Dead, &c.

The last Classis is composed of such Sermons, as cannot be certainly affirm'd to be St. Augustin's, though there is no certainty that they are none of his; among these, there are some of which we have more reason to doubt, which are Printed in a smaller Character; there are not above 31 of them.

They have also added at the latter end, Fragments of some other Sermons of St. Augustin's, which are taken out of the Collections of Eugyppius, Bede, Florus, and John a Deacon of the Church of Rome: Another Fragment, of the Sermon upon the Ascension, and a Sermon of Heraclius, a Disciple of St. Augustin's.

The Addition contains 317 Spurious Sermons, divided into four Classes, according to the order observed in the true ones; At the Head of each, is a very exact Critick; Several of them are restored to Caesarius their true Author; Some are found to belong to Rhabanus, and some others are taken out of Origen's Homilies, or out of the Works of St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, St. Maximus, St. Leo, Faustus, St. Gregory, Alcuinus, and Ivo Carnutensis.

St. Augustin's Sermons are written neither Artificially nor Methodically, They are not regular Orations composed of all their Parts; They are familiar Discourses, spoken without much Pre∣paration; Most of them are very short, and made up of concise Sentences and Phrases; He doth not go to the depth of Points either of Doctrine or Morality, as the Greek Fathers do, but contents himself to speak of them succinctly, and in few words. Interrogations, Antitheses, and Quibbles, are almost all the Figures that he beautifies his Discourse withal; He doth not assert the Truth strongly, nor inculcate it Pathetically; but barely proposes it with agreeable Expressions, and impresses it with some pleasant Thoughts. This kind of Eloquence is much inferior to that of the Greek Orators, but it may be that it relished best with the Men of St. Au∣gustin's Age, and agreed with the Genius of the Africans; who not only admired his Sermons, but were moved by them. It would not be so now, and I question whether a Sermon of St. Au∣gustin's preached in our Pulpits would draw many Auditors: Yet it must be confessed, That few Latin Preachers are to be compared with him, and that if he be much inferior to the St. Basils, or the St. Chrysostomes, he is much above the St. Maximus's, the St. Chrysologus's, and several other Latins that came after him. I shall not enter into particulars upon his Sermons, which were both a tedious and an endless Work.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Tome V.
• * 1.2

  St. Au∣gustin. Tome V.