346 PREFACE`: and the affectionate honours which you nowpay their memory, give nee further assurance that this is your aim, and your glorious ambition. And that you may ever keep in mind their example and your duty, you have commandedme tomake public these discourses, which were framed on the occasionof their decease. You well know, Sir, I am no friend to loose panegyric, nor am I 'wont to bestow it on the dead or the living. What I have written of the late Sir John Hartopp at the end of the second discourse, ie,the first attempt that ever I made of concluding a funeral sermon with a distinct and particular character of the deceased, through thewhole space of twenty-three years of myministry ; and surely the world will not envy nor detract from the just honours of a name so much belov- ed. As for the lady, your mother, she affected retirement to such a degree, that it would have placed her in a wrong light to have drawn out her virtues at length, and set them to public view. I have there- fore only interspersed a few hintsof her eminent piety, as the text and argument led me into them : And indeed this is the utmost that I have ever done before on such occasions. I have much reason to ask pardon that I have so far enlarged these discourses, and especially the last; for I hate the thoughts of making any thing in religion heavy or tiresome : But having entertained my- self many a time with some of these meditations on the business and the blessedness of Separate Spirits, I took this opportunity of shewing them to the world, enshrined in the lustre of two such naines as adoru any title-page. To render the reading of them yet more agreeable to yourself and to all your friends, I have cast them into distinct sections, that my rea- ders may leave off almost where they please, and peruse so much of them at one time as suits their present inclination and convenience. You know, Sir,' I pretend to no authority to pronounce effectual blessings upon you ; but you will accept the sincere good wishes of a than that loves you, and is zealous for your felicity in the upper and lowerlvorlds. Muy the best of mercies descend daily on yourself, your lady, and your little offspring ! May the closet, the parlour, and public assemblies, be constant witnesses of your piety ; and the house where n Sir John Hartopp dwells, be a house of prayer and of praise in every generation, nor thename be extinguished in your family till the hea- vens be no More ! May, the ladies, your sisters, live happily under the sweet influence of that mutual affection that has been always remark- ably cultivated amongst you! Their interests are your care : And I am well persuaded that their solicitude and tender concern for your welfare, will ever deserve and find such returns of love, as I have long observed with delight ! May the prayers of your progenitors in past ages he answered in hourly benefits descendingon you all, and be fruit- ful of blessings in ages yet to:come ! Such a lovely scene, with such a long and joyful prospect, will advance the satisfactions of nay life, and give pleasure even in a dying hour; to him who had once the honour to to your affectionate monitor, and must ever write himself, SIR, Your obliged, humble servant, ;Lay 9, I722. I. WATTS.
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