His style is dignified and earnest, but it is not eloquent, though many of the passages in his sermons are very graceful. And he is perfectly free from the bombast which supplied the place of eloquence among certain preachers of his day.
Matthias Faber does not shrink from telling a story, and a story with a good practical moral to it, but he does not attempt simile to any extent.
There is an apparent crudity in his discourses. Probably this is owing to their being printed from the abstract which he drew up before preaching; so that when delivered, the apparent abruptness and ruggedness of this outline may have been smoothed away.
Few ancient preachers would be more serviceable to a clergyman of the present day, or more acceptable to an English congregation. Unfortunately, the volumes are somewhat scarce, and consequently expensive.
The following is a list of Faber’s works and their several editions:
1. Controversiæ contra Altorfienses Professores.
2. Concionum opus tripartitum; Ingolstadii, 3 vols. fol., 1631; Cracoviæ, 1647.
3. Auctuarium Operis Concionum Pars; Græcii, fol., 1646; Antverpiæ, 2 vols. fol., 1647.
Auctuarium pro Dominicis et Sanctis; Cracoviæ, fol., 1647.
Opus Concionum, Pars Hiemalis; Antverpiæ, 3 vols. fol., 1650.