And drop my blood for drachmas, than to plant
In the kind bosom of a friend a thorn,
By any indirection."
J.I.
REV. WM. STEPHENS' SERMONS.
Sir,—Amongst the books wanted in your sixth number is "a Tract or Sermon" of the Rev. Wm. Stephens. It is a sermon, and one of four, all of which are far above the ordinary run of sermons, and deserving of a place in every clergyman's library. They are rarely met with together, though separately they turn up now and then upon book stalls amongst miscellaneous sermons; it is a pity they are not better known, and much is every day republished less deserving of preservation. The author's widow published her husband's sermons in two volumes; but, strange to say, these, which are worth all the rest, are not included in the collection. The titles of the four sermons are—
"The Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost proved from Scripture, and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, St. Matthias' Day, 1716-17. Third Edition, 1725.
"The Catholic Doctrine concerning the Union of the Two Natures in the One Person of Christ stated and vindicated." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Oxford, 1719. Second Edition, 1722.
"The Divine Persons One God by an Unity of Nature: or, That Our Saviour is One God with His Father, by an External Generation from His Substance, asserted from Scripture and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, 1722. Second Edition, 1723.
"The Several Heterodox Hypotheses, concerning both the Persons and the Attributes of the Godhead, justly chargeable with more inconsistencies and Absurdities than those which have been groundlessly imputed to the Catholic system." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Exeter, 1724.
I shall be glad to learn from any of your readers whether the author published any other sermons or tracts which are not included in the two volumes of his sermons.