14 / 674
4
it
DEDICATION.
to.
review
some
of
those
discourses
which have
assisted
Your
filth
and
joy
ill
my
former
ministry, and
to
put
them
into
your
hands
f
Titus
something
of
me
shall abide
in your
several
houses, while
I
am
so
incapable
of
much
púb-
lic labour,
and
of
personal
visits.
-
This,
my
friends;
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
read
with reverence
and
improvement, yet
I
am
persuaded, that share
which
I
have
in
your
af'ections,
will
render
these
discóurses
at
least as agreeable to
your
taste,
as
those
of
superior
excellency
from
other
hands.
If
any other
christians
shall think
fit
to
peruse
them,
and find
any
spiritual
benefit,
they must make
their
acknow-
ledgments
to
God
and
you.
I
cannot invite
the loose
andfashionable
part
of
mankind,
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 they
grew angry
with Moses,
and
began to loathe the
bread
of
heaven. These
persons will
find
but
little
here
that suits their
taste;
for
I
have 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
my
ministry
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,
of
which
I
was
capable
;
but
still
in
a
humble subserviency to the
promised
influences
of
the
Holy
Spirit,
I
ever
thought
it
my,
duty
to
press
the 'conviction with
force
on the
conscience,
when
light
was
first
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 devotion
freezes 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
the
service
of
the
Lord
¢,
may
become
the
see
and
jest
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
perish
front
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
and
just.
explica-
tion
of
scripture and
a
convincing
proof of
the
doctrines proposed,
have
been
the
chief
things necessary yet
I
have
endeavoured
even
there, to
give
a
practical
and pathetic
turn,
as
far
as
the
design
of
the
text would bear
it
:
But
in
the other
sermons
I
blame
myselfmore
for
the wind
of
zeal
and
devout
passion,
than
for
the
excess
of
it.
I
will readily
confess, 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
speaking
and 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.