DEDICATION. ix by what struggles these blessings have been acquired, and at what price they have been obtained, you will know how - to estimate their value; and you will regard the men to whom we are indebted for them as dis- tinguished benefactors to the English nation and the church of God. For the sacred cause of religion, the Pu- ritan divines laboured and prayed, wrote and preached, suffered and died ; and they have transmitted it to us to support it, or to let it sink. With what feelings will you receive this precious inheritance ? Will you lightly esteem what they so highly valued ? Will you stand aloof from the cause which they watched with jealous vigilance, and defended with invincible courage ? If the blood of these men run in your veins, if the principles of these men exist in your souls, most as- suredly you will not. That you may learn the wisdom, and imbibe the spirit of the Puritans ;-that you may take them as patterns, imitate them as
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