A discourse concerning liturgies

Augustine also, not only in his Conflicts with Adversaries, but also in his Sermons to the people, used extemporali diction, as Erasmus ^wobserves, in whose judgment, he no where more appears admirable then in this; not that these Discourses are more excellent then his more elaborate Works (as if he had been, what the Historian says of Tiberius, ex tempore quam a cura praestantior), but because he could do better on a sudden, then others ⟨p. 59⟩(though well accomplished) with time and study. One remarkable instance we have in Possidonius^x, who tells us in Augustins words, of Firmus a Manichee converted by such a Discourse, as he never designed before he had begun the Sermon, Vit. August. c. 15. And that seems another, which is entitled concio super gestis cum Emerito Donat., being occasioned by an acclamation of the people at the Assembly, Tom. 7. pars 1. p. 770.

Augustine also, not only in his Conflicts with Adversaries, but also in his Sermons to the people, used extemporali dictione, as Erasmus ^wobserves, in whose judgment, he no where more appears admirable then in this; not that these Discourses are more excellent then his more elaborate Works (as if he had been, what the Historian sayes of Tiberius, ex tempore quam a cura praestantior), but because he could do better on a sudden, then others ⟨p. 59⟩(though well accomplished) with time and study. One remarkable instance we have in Possidonius^x, who tells us in Augustins words, of Firmus a Manichee converted by such a Discourse, as he never designed before he had begun the Sermon, Vit. August. c. 15. And that seems another, which is intituled concio super gestis cum Emerito Donat., being occasioned by an acclamation of the people at the Assembly, Tom. 7. pars 1. p. 770.

1. w