Extract from the last Will and Testament of the late Rev. John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury.

"I give and bequeath my Lands and "Eftates to the Chancellor, Mafters, and Scholars " of the University of Oxford for ever, to have and "to hold all and fingular the faid Lands or Eftates

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upon truft, and to the intents and purposes herein"after mentioned; that is to fay, I will and appoint "that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ox"ford for the time being shall take and receive all "the rents, iffues, and profits thereof, and (after all "taxes, reparations, and neceffary deductions made) "that he pay all the remainder to the endowment "of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be esta"blished for ever in the faid Univerfity, and to be "performed in the manner following:

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"I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuefday in Eafter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chofen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, "in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, "between the hours of ten in the morning and

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two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity "Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement "of the last month in Lent Term, and the end of "the third week in Act Term.

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"Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons fhall be preached upon "either of the following Subjects-to confirm and " establish

b

"establish the Chriftian Faith, and to confute all "heretics and fchifmatics-upon the divine au"thority of the holy Scriptures-upon the autho

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rity of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as "to the faith and practice of the primitive Church -upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour "Jefus Chrift-upon the Divinity of the Holy "Ghoft-upon the Articles of the Chriftian Faith, "as comprehended in the Apoftles' and Nicene "Creeds.

"Alfo I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons fhall be always printed, "within two months after they are preached, and 66 one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of every 5 College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city "of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bod"leian Library; and the expence of printing them "fhall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or "Eftates given for establishing the Divinity Lec"ture Sermons; and the Preacher shall not be paid, "nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are " printed.

"Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall "be qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Ser

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mons, unless he hath taken the degree of Mafter "of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities "of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same per"fon fhall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

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LECTURE

LECTURE. I. .............

for you

JOHN xvi. 7.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

THIS was the prominent topic of consolation and encouragement among those which our Saviour suggested for the support of his earthly friends under the impending affliction of his own departure from the world; and it is evident, that to expressions thus awful in themselves, and pronounced on so awful an occasion, we must needs attach a more than common interest.

Had Jesus of Nazareth been no more than a human teacher of Virtue and Philosophy, adorned as he was with every good and perfect gift to which our nature had previously aspired in vain, we should have

attended, doubtless, with affectionate and reverential curiosity, to the latest instructions of matchless wisdom, the concluding result of a life, in every stage of its career, distinguished by more than human purity. The words of dying men have, mostly, willing auditors. The universal prejudice of mankind (and what is an universal prejudice but the voice of human nature?) ascribes to the instructions of Death a something like divinity; and he who was wise and just amid the struggle of contending passions and the confusion of worldly cares, may seem to address us with far greater effect and authority when those passions and those cares are gone by for ever. He who is himself to reap no benefit from fraud can hardly be suspected of intentional deception; he, from whom the world is even now receding, may discern, in that remoter prospect, the perfect proportions of its general form and value, which (while the mass was nearer to his eye) were lost in the minuter detail of its parts, or obscured by the intervening breath of admiration or calumny.

Nor

Nor can it be denied, that we naturally affix a greater value on that wisdom and friendship of which we are no longer to enjoy the protection; that we cling with peculiar fondness to whatever is the last of its kind, and that the recollection of the past and the fear of what is to follow, conspire, under circumstances like these, to stamp the present with a tenfold interest and importance.

But there is yet another and a peculiar reason why the latest revelations of Jesus have, of all other truths, the strongest claim to our attention.

A prophet of the most High, (for as such he is acknowledged even by those of his followers who think most meanly of his person and nature,) and the greatest of all to whom the name of prophet has been at any time applied; we cannot inquire, without the strongest and most reverential curiosity, what truth was that which he reserved to be the last of his discoveries to mankind; which, as the most important feature of his commission, he deferred to communicate till the communication would