The Decades: First and Second Decades

ADVERTISEMENT.

One of the Parker Sooiety^s objectB, as stated in the first of its Laws, is ** the printing, as may appear desirable, of some of the Early English translations of the Foreign Reformers/' Accordingly, the re-publishing of the English Version of the Decades of Bollinger was announced, as in the contemplation of the Council of the Society, in a List wUch was appended to the Second Annual Report ; and the first Tolume is now, at length, presented to the subscribers. The edition, which is here reprinted, is that of 1687, which scarcely differs at all, in any material respects, from the former edition of 1684, and yery littie from that of 1677 ; but any important variations between the translation and the original Latin are carefully specified in the notes. The Ver- sion was made, as stated in the title-page, *' by H. I. Student in Divinitie," — " a person," according to Strype's testimony, " of eminency in the Church*."

These Decades, it is conceived, possess a peculiar claim on the regard of the members of the Church of England. For not only was Bullinger " well-deserving of this nation for his kind entertainment and harbour of our divines and 8cho« lars that fled abroad in Queen Mary's reign, and of note for that friendship and correspondence ever after maintained between him and them';" but several of his writings, as they became known here, were eminently appreciated by our theo- logians and religious persons of the era of the Reformation'.

* See Original Letters, Parker Soc. ed. pp. 6, 9, 64, 70, 618, 620, &c Zurich Letters, 2nd ed. pp. 89, 110, 206, 468. Strype, Ann. chap. 21, "p. 383, Yol. 'i. pari 1, and part 2. chap. 46, p. 196, and chap. 48, p. 221. Jewel styled Bullinger, "oraeulum eeeleBiarum." Zurich Letters, No. lxx. 1st series, p. 166. The Uniyersity of Oxford, also, selected Bullinger's Catechism, as one of those books which the Tutors there were required to use, for the purpose of imparting sound religious principles to their pupils: — ^^ad informandum in yera reli- YIU ADYBRTI8BHKNT.

And, above all, in the Conyocation of the province of Canter- bury, held in 1686, among the " Orders for the better increase of learning in the inferior Ministers," introduced by Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, the following direction stands fore- most : — '* Every minister having cure, and being under the degrees of master of arts, and batchelors of law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall before the second day of February next provide a Bible, and Bullinger's Decads in Latin or English, and a paper book, and shall every day read over one chapter of the Holy Scriptures, and note the prin- cipal contentes thereof briefly in his paper booke, and shall every weeke read over one Sermon in the sud Decads, and note likewise the chief matters therein contained in the said paper; and shall once in every quarter (viz. within a fort- night before or after the end of the quarter) shewe his said note to some preacher nere adjoyninge to be assigned for that purposed" And, agreebly wiUi this order, it is recorded by Strype, Dr. Theophilus Aylmer, Archdeacon of London, acted in his visitation in the early part of the year 1587,-** " the Bishop's pious and painful son'.''

Although a Memoir of Bullinger (together with indexes to the whole work) will be given in the last volume, it may be useful here to state briefly, that he was bom at Bremgarten, near Zurich, on July 18, 1504 ; commenced his studies at the University of Cologne in 1519; began to unite himself to the divines of the Reformation in the course of 1524 ; was chosen pastor of Zurich, on the decease of CEksoIampadius, in the close of 1531 ; dedicated to Rodolph Gualter and others his first volume of the Decades, March 1, 1549 ; and died September 17, 1575, in the 71st year of his age^.

N.B. The editing of these Decades having been com- menced by the Rev. Steuart A. Pears, the notes which have the initial (P) affixed to them, are due to his research.

gione juYontutem." Wood. Hist, ot Ant. Uniy. Ozon. Lib. i. p. 296. quoted in Preface, p. iv. to ** Sermons on the Sacraments by Houry Bullinger." Cambridge, 1840.

8 See AdamiVit. Germ. Thcol. in vita Bullingori ; and ^Bullinger," in Chalmem' Biograph. Diet.

FIFTY SERMONS

DIVIDED INTO

FIVE DECADES.

[bullinuek.]

F I F T I E

GODLIE AND LEARNED SERMONS, DIVIDED INTO

FIVE DECADES CONTAINING THE

cbiefe and principall points of Christian Religi- on, written in three aeverall Tomes or Sections, by Henrib Bvllinoer Minister of the Church of Tyovre in Svincerland.

WHEREVNTO ARE ADDED CER-

TAINE EPISTLES OF THE SAME

AiUhor concerning the AppareU of

Miymteri and other indi^&-

rent thingi.

WITH A TRIPLE OR THREE-FOLD Table verie fruitfull and ne-

Translated out of Latine into English, by

H. I. Student in Diuinitie.

MATTHEW. 17- Thit it my btloued Sonne in whom I am imU pUattd.- Heart him.

Imprinted at London by Ralph Newberie, dwelling in Fleete street a Uttle aboue the Conduit,

Cum gratia tfpriuiUgio Regict MaiMatit.

[' N.B. NotwithBtandiDg what is here Btaled, tbe edition of 1587 hu uot thiB Tabic prefixed to it.]

A PREFACE

TO THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND TO OTHER WELL DISPOSED READERS OF

GOD'S WORD.

That just cause there is that all spiritual shepherds, and specially these of our time, should see carefully to the feeding of the flocks committed to their charge, may easily appear to him that shall but a little stay his consideration upon this matter. For first, the commandments of the Almighty touch- ing this thing are very earnest, the authority of which should greatly enforce. Secondly, the rewards which he proposeth to vigilant and careful pastors are large and bountiful, the sweetness of which should much allure. Thirdly, the plagues and heavy judgments, which he denounceth against slothful and careless shepherds, are grievous and importable ^ the terror whereof should make afraid. Then the nature and condition of the sheep over whom they watch, the vigilancy of the wolf against whom they watch, the conscience in taking the fleece for which they watch, and this time and age wherein they watch, being rightly considered, wiU give them to understand sufficiently, that diey have good occasion to watch.