Το OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D. OF THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY, WOOLWICH, THIS LIFE OF MELANCTHON IS INSCRIBED AS A MEMORIAL OF THAT MUTUAL ESTEEM AND AFFECTIONATE FRIENDSHIP WHICH HAVE LONG SUBSISTED BETWEEN ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL WRITERS OF THE AGE, BOTH IN SCIENTIFIC AND THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENTS, AND HIS HIGHLY OBLIGED AND DEVOTED FRIEND, FRANCIS AUGUSTUS COX. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. STIMULATED by the hope of rendering some service to the cause of literature and of religion, the author of this work commenced his researches into the history of those remarkable times to which it refers; and if he had found no other recompense of his labors than the gratification which accompanied them and the consciousness of having at least furnished the means of acquiring useful information, he would have had no reason to regret the publication of the Life of Melancthon. The author however owes his best acknowledgments to the public for the reception with which his work has been honored. The call for a second edition has induced him to review the former with care and to make such alterations as criticism and friendship, have suggested. Some additional information is given on what may be termed the minor biography of the Reformation, which would have been still more copious had not the author meditated a separate volume upon that subject which he may perhaps hereafter present to the public. Hackney, January, 1817. |