About this Item
Dedicated, by Permission, to Her Grace, The Duchess Of Buccleugh. This is Only Volume 3 of a three volume set. Still it's 461 pages and that's a lot of sermon, and I'm told he saved the best for last. This set is very rare. I saw only one for sale for $300. I've discounted this individual volume. It's in very good condition. The pages are very clean. They aren't foxed or spotted. That's pretty rare for a book published 218 years ago. Also quite rare, the book is very solidly bound. The pages are in really great shape. The front cover does have a crack between it and the spine, however it is still strongly attached by all three twines and so is at no risk of becoming detached. The leather covers have a fair amount of smooth scuffing, as you can see in the photographs I've provided. There is also rub-through at all four corners. The original lettering on the spine is no longer visible. The inside cover and front free end paper have stamps that state ' Private Library Of Lawrence B. Larsen'. Mr. Larsen has also signed his name on the front free end paper. Jean-Baptiste Massillon, Cong. Orat. (24 June 1663, Hyères ? 28 September 1742, Beauregard-l'Évêque), was a French Catholic bishop and famous preacher, who served as Bishop of Clermont from 1717 until his death. Massillon soon gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was selected to be the Advent preacher at the court of Versailles in 1699. He was made Bishop of Clermont in 1717, and two years later was elected a member of the Académie française. The last years of his life were spent in the faithful discharge of his episcopal duties; his death took place at Clermont on September 18, 1742. Massillon enjoyed in the 18th century a reputation equal to that of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and of Louis Bourdaloue, and was much praised for his eloquence by Voltaire, D'Alembert and kindred spirits among the Encyclopaedists. Massillon's popularity was probably because in his sermons he lays little stress on dogmatic questions, but treats generally of moral subjects, in which the secrets of the human heart and the processes of man's reason are described with poetical feeling. He has usually been contrasted with his predecessor Bourdaloue, the latter having the credit of vigorous denunciation, Massillon that of gentle persuasiveness. Besides the Petit Carême, a sermon which he delivered before the young King Louis XV of France in 1718, his sermons on the Prodigal Son, on the small number of the elect, on death, for Christmas Day, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, may be perhaps cited as his masterpieces. His funeral oration on King Louis XIV of France is only noted now for the opening sentence: "Dieu seul est grand." (Only God is great.) But, in truth, Massillon is singularly free from inequality. His great literary power, his reputation for benevolence, and his known toleration and dislike of doctrinal disputes caused him to be much more favourably regarded than most churchmen by the philosophers of the 18th century. Seller Inventory # 000735
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Sermons by J. B. Massillon, Bishop of ...
Publisher: Printed For Robert Morison And the Son, Booksellers, Perth; Archibald Constable, Edinburgh; And Brash And Reid, Glasgow, Edinburgh
Publication Date: 1798
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
