4 it DEDICATION. to. review some of those discourses which have assistedYour filth andjoy ill my former ministry, and to put them into your hands f Titus something of me shall abide in your several houses, while Iam so incapable ofmuchpúb- lic labour, and ofpersonal visits. - This, myfriends; is the true design of sending this volume to the press: And though many of my brethren may compose far better sermons than I, whose persons I lore and hanour, and their labours I readwith reverenceand improvement, yet I am persuaded, that sharewhich I have inyour af'ections, will render these discóurses at least as agreeable to your taste, as those of superior excellencyfrom otherhands. Ifany other christians shall think fit toperuse them, and find any spiritual benefit, they must make their acknow- ledgments to God and you. I cannot invite the loose andfashionablepart ofmankind, the vain censors . of the age, and the deriders of the ministry, to become my readers : Too -many of them grow weary of christianity, and look hack upon heathenism with a zvi.shfìtl eye, as Me Jews did of old upon thé leeks and onions of Egypt, when theygrew angry with Moses, and began to loathe the bread ofheaven. Thesepersons will find but little here that suits their taste; for Ihave not entertained you with lectures of philosophy, instead of the gos- pel of Christ ; nor hare I afected that easy indolence of style which is the delight of some modish writers, the cold and insipid pleasure Of meta who pretend to politeness. You know it has always been the business of myministry to convince and persuade your 'souls into practical godliness, by the clearest and strongest 'reasons derived from the gospel, and by all the most moving methods of speech, ofwhich I was capable ; but still in a humble subserviency to thepromised influences of the Holy Spirit, I ever thought it my, duty to press the 'conviction with force on the conscience, when light wasfirst let into the mind. A statue hung round with moral sentences, or a marble pillar with divine truths inscribed upon it, may preach coldly to the Understanding, while devotionfreezes at the heart: But the prophets and apostles were burning and shining lights; they were all taught by inspiration to make the words of truth glitter like sun-beams, and to operate like a hammer, and a fire, and á two-edged sword*. The movements of sacred passion may be the ridicule of an age which pretends to nothing but calm reasoning. Life and zeal in the ministry of the word, may despised by men of luke-warm and dying religion: Fervency of spirit in theservice of the Lord ¢, may become theseeandjest of the critic and the profane: But this very life and zeal, this sacred fervency, shall still remain one bright character of a christian preacher, till the names of Paul and Apollos perishfront the church; and that is, till this bible and these' heavens are no more. la some of these discourses indeed I have not had the opportunity of so warm and affectionate an address to the hearers. A true andjust.explica- tion of scripture and a convincing proof of the doctrines proposed, have been thechiefthings necessary yet I have endeavoured even there, togive a practicaland pathetic turn, as far as the design of the text would bear it : But in the other sermons I blame myselfmorefor the wind ofzeal anddevout passion, than for the excess of it. I will readilyconfess, there are here and there some periods where the language appears a little too elevated, though not too warm; I know it not the proper style of the pulpit; but there is some difference between speakingand writing. In one the ear must take in the sense at once ; in the other, the eye may review what the first glance did not fully receive' s 2 Cor. iv. 4, 6. John v. 35.. Jer. xxiii. 29. - kleb. iv. 12. f Acts xvüi. 25. Rom. xü. 11.
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