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ADVERTISEMENT.

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

THE former Edition of this work has been received by the British public with such flattering marks of ap probation as are highly honourable to the memory of its excellent author. In no common case has the public opinion been more correctly formed, nor more unequivocally expressed. The Editor too has had his share of the public approbation; and takes this opportunity of acknowledging his grateful sense of the praise bestowed on his part of the work. Actuated solely by the desire of doing good to his countrymen, and especially to the plain unlettered Christian, he undertook a work from which he neither expected nor received any kind of emolument. He has, however, been amply rewarded by the satisfactory consciousness of having endeavoured to promote the study of those living oracles which testify of Jesus; and the conviction that his labour has been crowned with success.

When he found from the rapid sale of the first, that a second edition would soon be called for, believing the work susceptible of still farther improvements, and consequently of being more useful to the public, he determined to spare no pains to render it fully worthy of that patronage by which it had been already so highly favoured. Having now accomplished his design, as far as circumstances would permit, he thinks it proper to inform the reader what has been done, in order to furnish him with additional pleasure and instruction.

1. The translation has been collated with three copies of the original: the first edition published by the Abbé, Paris, 1681. 12mo; the Paris edition of 1736, 12mo. with

additional references; and that in the OPUSCULES de M. l'Abbé FLEURY, Tome I. à Nismes, 1780, 5 vols. 8vo. This collation has given rise to innumerable alterations and improvements of the translation.

2. The references, not only to the Scriptures, but also to the Greek and Latin writers, have been collated with the authors themselves; and a multitude of errors have been corrected which had been increasing with every edition of the work.

3. To render these references more serviceable to the reader many of them have been produced at full length, accompanied with an English translation, where the matter appeared to be of considerable importance.

4. A great variety of notes have been added, to illustrate and confirm what is advanced in the text, and to make the meaning more easy to be understood.

5. Some supplementary chapters have been inserted, viz. On the Hebrew poetry;—Instruments of music among the antient Hebrews;-Hindoo and Mohammedan fasts, purifications, &c. to illustrate those of the antient Jews;-A short history of the antient and modern Samaritans, which was certainly a desideratum in the former editions; together with a short sketch of the present state of the Jews, and a copy of their antient Liturgy.

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6. To the work a Life of the Author is prefixed, which had not been done in the former English editions ; and which, though short, will, it is hoped, serve to bring the reader more particularly acquainted with the amiable spirit of this excellent man.

On the whole the Editor hopes the work will now more effectually answer the purpose for which it was formed, viz. to render the study of the Bible improving and delightful; and thus, especially to the young and inexperienced, prove an antidote against Deism, irreligion, and impiety of all sorts. For he thinks it would be impossible, even for a prejudiced mind, to read over the history of this antient people, and compare their political

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and ecclesiastical state with that of any other nation upon earth, without being convinced, that they had statutes and judgments such as no other people could boast of, and such as the human mind could never have devised for itself: in short, that GOD was among them of a truth; and that THEY were the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IN this new Edition, I have carefully revised the whole work; added many notes for the farther elucidation of the different subjects; given a new arrangement of the Appendixes, which I have placed, not at the end of the chapters to which they refer, but at the end of that part of the work written by the Abbé Fleury.-Some of these, especially that on the Hebrew poetry, I have newmodelled and enlarged, and given a more copious index than before; and have printed the work in the 8vo form, with a larger letter, particularly for the benefit of elderly persons. I send, therefore, the Manners of the Israelites, a third time into the public, with increasing claims on that attention and benevolence which have already been so signally exerted in its behalf.

The notes which I have borrowed from the original translation I have marked with E. F.

N. B. In this Fourth Edition, I have made many improvements. Appendix, No. v. is entirely re-written; to which are added accurate Tables of Jewish money, weights and measures of every kind: all reduced to English sterling and standard. All sums, wherever they occur in the work, have been re-calculated, and all reduced to British Standard.

Millbrook, Jan. 1, 1820.

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THOSE who have profited by the works of the learned and pious naturally wish to know who the persons were from whom they have received so much instruction; and are glad to meet with any account of lives, which they know must have been spent not only innocently but usefully. This disposition, so natural to man, has been deeply studied by the inspired writers; hence their works abound with biography and biographical anecdotes: and thus truth teaches not only by precept, but also by example, and hereby seems to assume a body, and render itself palpable. Of the Abbé Fleury I have been able to meet with few anecdotes which can be particularly interesting to the pious reader, as most accounts which have been hitherto published of him relate chiefly to his literary history. The following memoirs, which I have collected from the most authentic sources, are, I must confess, very scanty; but they are such as cannot fail to give some pleasure to those who are admirers of the invaluable work to which they are prefixed.

Claude Fleury, in Latin, Claudius Florus, was born at Paris, Dec. 6, 1640. He was son of a lawyer originally of the diocese of Rouen, and was brought up to the bar. In 1658 he was received advocate to the parliament in Paris, in which employment he continued for nine years, devoting all his time to the study of jurisprudence and the belles lettres; in which he made uncommon proficiency. This kind of life not entirely suiting his natural inclination, which was gentle, peaceable, and benevolent, he abandoned it, devoted himself to the study of theology, entered into the ecclesiastical state, and soon arrived at the order of priesthood.

From this time he devoted himself to the study of the the Sacred Writings, divinity, ecclesiastical history, canon law, and the works of the fathers. He confined himself for a considerable time to these studies alone, from a persuasion that they were most suitable to his clerical functions; and that a more extensive range in the sciences, by diffusing the attention too much, must render the judgment and understanding less profound.

His deep piety and solid learning gained him great reputation; and Lewis XIV. who was well qualified to discern great and useful talents, and well knew how to employ them, made him preceptor to the princes of Conti, in 1672: whom he caused to be educated with the Dauphin his son. These princes were, Lewis Armand and Francis Lewis, sons of Armand de Bourbon, prince of Conti, and chief of that illustrious family.

The fidelity and accuracy with which this amiable man discharged the duties of his office in this important business procured him another pupil from the royal family; for in 1680 the king made him preceptor to the Prince de Vermandois, admiral of France, one of his legitimated natural sons; but this prince died in 1683.

In 1684, the king, highly pleased with his fidelity and success in the office of preceptor to the princes, gave him the Abbey of Loc-Dieu, in the diocese of Rhodez; and

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