And then, miserable wilt We Be, W. Deash surprifth either doing Evil, or doing nothing, doing that w. God dos not require of him. Can one imagine 47. The Smerality of xs Belicos Sutter me not, Sud, to fall

THE

WORKS

OF THE

RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

THOMAS WILSON, D.D.,

LORD BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN.

VOL. V.

SACRA PRIVATA.-SUPPLEMENT TO SACRA PRIVATA.

MAXIMS OF PIETY AND MORALITY.-SUPPLEMENT TO MAXIMS.

OXFORD:

JOHN HENRY PARKER.

M DCCC LX.

PREFACE.

THE present volume, printed, with one slight exception, entirely from Bishop Wilson's own MSS., contains two of his works, the Sacra Privata and the "Maxims of Piety and Morality," with a Supplement to each.

I. For the Sacra Privata, four MSS., all in his own hand, have been collated. The first three are distinguished in this edition by the numbers i., ii., iii.; the fourth, which contains in comparison but few pieces, is referred to by the letters M. H., the initials of Michael Hewetson, Wilson's intimate friend, who gave him the little memorandum-book in which they are contained, at the time of his ordination. MS. i." is the fullest, and largest, and latest in date, and has been generally adopted in this reprint as the basis of the text, the various readings of the other copies being subjoined at the foot of the page. The pages, numbered, if I mistake not, by the Bishop himself, were 312, (the last by a clerical error stands as 112); each page carefully ruled in two columns. Before p. 20, there appears to have been a good deal of insertion and substitution, and hardly any of his own paging. In this part, there are thirty-four pages before we come to his p. 20. After that number the pagination proceeds regularly, with the following exceptions: a leaf inserted after p. 121; another after 141; one omitted after 159; two after 175; two after

A specimen of this MS. faces the title-page.

b

245; nine after 257, (which have been cut out with scissors,) and two after 305. The whole number of pages now in the book (a good many are blank) is 275. The references in this edition are made to them as they stand, not to Bp. Wilson's paging. Every now and then directions to the printer occur, in the hand-writing of Dr. Wilson, the Bishop's son; and it is plain that this very copy went to the press to form the text of the first edition; with sundry omissions, however, and fresh pieces from the other MSS. This MS. begins, "Sacra Privata. Math. vi. 6," and ends, " 5, 6, 12 after Trin." Throughout it bears marks of infirmities increasing with age. But, as Mr. Denton has pointed out in the Preface to his valuable edition, it was properly taken as the "base" of the published text, as being more complete and systematic than either of the others.

MS. ii., so numbered by Dr. Wilson, is the earliest after M. H., and the first in which the heading Sacra Privata occurs; and also the arrangement after the days of the week, and the assignment to each of some question in the Consecration Service. It contains, at present, 162 pages, but has had more; bearing marks of mutilation at the beginning and end, and in a few other places, and some insertions also. It begins on the cover, ""Epyov éσrì,” and finishes, "una dies."

The last ordination entered in it is dated 1713.

MS. iii. is the most neatly written, and seems to have been more leisurely put together than the others: a good part of it must have been either composed or transcribed in his imprisonment, and shews the first signs of the difficulty of holding his pen, which was caused by an ailment there contracted. It contains 255 pages, of which pp. 192, 255 are slightly mutilated. This MS. begins with "Sacra Privata. Math.