VERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN THE YEAR 1858.

CLAUSES directed by the FOUNDER to be always prefixed to the HULSEAN DISSERTATION.

CLAUSES from the WILL of the Rev. JOHN HULSE, late of Elworth, in the County of Chester, clerk, deceased: dated the twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven; expressed in the words of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes, thought proper to draw and write the same himself, and directed that such clauses should every year be printed, to the intent that the several persons, whom it might concern and be of service to, might know that there were such special donations or endowments left for the encouragement of Piety and Learning, in an age so unfortunately addicted to Infidelity and Luxury, and that others might be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions.

He directs that certain rents and profits (now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly) be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master of Arts, as shall compose, for that year, the best Dissertation, in the English language, on the Evidences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles in particular, or any other particular Argument,

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whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the Christian Religion, in order to evince its truth and excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of them, on New Year's Day annually; and that such Dissertation as shall be by them, or any two of them, on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also printed, and the expense defrayed out of the Author's income under his Will, and the remainder given to him on Saint John the Evangelist's Day following; and he who shall be so rewarded, shall not be admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in the same way, to the intent that others may be invited and encouraged to write on so sacred and sublime a subject.

He also desires, that immediately following the last of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this invocation may be added: "May the Divine Blessing for ever go along with all my benefactions; and may the Greatest and the Best of Beings, by his all-wise Providence and gracious influence, make the same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my fellow-creatures!"

Subject proposed by the TRUSTEES for the Year 1858: The History of Christian Oratory during the First Five Centuries.

PREFACE.

THE provisions of the foregoing document will have

made plain both the occasion of my writing, and the reason of my publishing, this 'Inquiry.' But even when going into print has not been directly a matter of his own choice, an author would be glad to think that his pains have not been quite thrown away upon others. And I will here very briefly state how far it seems to me that these pages may be of use.

They may serve, first, to map out for the reader the five earliest centuries of our era; or to suggest new thoughts about their divisions and characteristics, where a tolerably distinct conception of them exists already. They may help also to bring out into greater prominence-obviously not for theological scholars, but only for less accurately informed persons-the large amount of literary and antiquarian interest which is bound up with the study of Patristic Literature. On this point I will quote some words of Mr Isaac Taylor, a writer who will not be suspected of an undue reverence for the relics of ancient Christianity,' but who has recently expressed himself thus1:—

'Treasures, convertible to the purposes of Christian edification, as well as of entertainment, are yet entombed in

1 See the paper called Nilus in the series entitled Logic in Theology and other Essays.

the folios of the Patristic Literature. But if it be so, why have not these riches been made more generally available for the benefit of the Christian community of these times? This is a question which it is natural and reasonable to ask, and for an answer to which we need not go far. The reader of this Essay, for one, and the writer of it for another, may each of us find it in or among his own prepossessions, his preoccupations-whether theological or ecclesiastical : or let now the reader and the writer be quite candid and confidential-for no one is listening at the door; it is in your prejudice, kind reader, perhaps, and in mine, that we must look for the obstruction which shuts us out from the enjoyment of an inheritance whereupon otherwise we might forthwith enter an inheritance left to us by our predecessors in the Christian life.

'If, in opening the voluminous records and remains of the Christian life of the early ages, I seek to enhearten myself for a labour so arduous as is implied in the perusal of this mass, by help of some new-born zeal in behalf of this or that religious whim, or superstition, or sectarian beliefif I do this, I shall gather, as I go, the chaff-I shall leave untouched the precious grain.'

That is a true testimony, as it certainly is an unbiassed one; and it is hoped that the pages of this 'Inquiry' may do something to corroborate it. They may help to suggest the important place which the Church Fathers may fairly challenge, not only as an interesting study, but as a personally useful one. The extreme of neglect with which their works have been treated is even harder to be accounted for, when they have grown to some extent upon our acquaintance, than the extreme of veneration. For, when we are reading Tertullian or Chrysostom or Augustine, we