16 / 674
PREFACE.*
I
AM bound
to
give
thanks to
God always,
for
the acceptance
that,
my
sermons
have found among the
more pious
and religious
part of
nman-
kind.
As
it
hath
been
the chief
design of my ministry
to
explain
the
common and most
important
things
of
our religion,
to
the understanding
of
every
christian, and
to impress
the
most
necessary duties
of
it
on
the
spirit and
conscience,
so
when
lam
solicited
to
make
my labours yet more
public,
J
would
repeat
the
same
work;
I
would
fain give
my readers
the
clearest conceptions of
some
of the great articles of
christianity, and
draw
out
the plain principles of
truth
which are
in
the head,
to a
powerful
and
holy
influence over
the heart
and
life.
These
discourses
have but
a
little
hope to
gratify
those
curious minds,
who
turn
over
the
leaves superficially
to
search if there
be
,any new disco-
veries
in
them,
anal
being disappointed, lay
down
the
book
with disdain
:
My
chief intent
was
to
entertain
and assist those
humble christians, who
converse
in
secrét with God
and their
own souls.
And
since
it is
the custom of many
persons to
read
a sermon in
the
evening
of the
Lord's-day,
as
part of their family-worship,
I was desirous
also to suit
the'sermons which
I
publish
to
such
a pious service.
Now when
the
discourses
which are rehearsed
in families
have much of criticism
and
speculation
in
them,
or long and difficult trains of reasoning, every one
may
observe,
what
a
negligent air
sits
impon
the
faces of
the
hearers,
what
a
drowsy
attention
is
given
to
this religious exercise,
and the greatest
part
of
the
household
finds
very
little
improvement.
I
grant,
it
is
sometimes necessary
to preach,
and print such
discourses
which
are more
critical and
laborious
in
exposition of difficult
texts,
and
which,
by
artificial trains of argument, may
penetrate
deep into
the hid
-
den things of God,
and
"
bring
forth things new
as
well
as
old."
But
I
am
content
to wave
the
honour of
such
performances in
the
more
general
.
course of
my
labours,
whether of the pulpit
or
the
press,
and chiefly to
pursue
those
methods which more
directly tend
to
the
edification
of the
bulk
of
mankind
in
the knowledge
of
Christ and
in
practical
godliness.
We
are
too
often
ready
to
judge that
to
be
the
best sermon, which has
many
strange thoughts
in
it, many
fine
hints, and
some
grand
and
polite
sentiments.
But
a
christian
in
his
best temper of
mind
will
say,
"That
is a good
sermon
which brings
my
heart nearer
to
God, which
makes
the
grace
of Christ
sweet to
my
soul,
and
the. commands
'of
Christ
easy
and
delightful:
That
is
an
excellent
discourse
indeed which enables
me to
mortify
some
unruly
sin, to
vanquish a strong temptation, and weans
me
from all
the
enticements
of
this
lower world
;
that
which bears
me
up
above
all the disquietudes of life, which
fits
me
for
the hour of death, and
makes
me
ready and
desirous
to
appear
before
Christ
Jesus
my
Lord."
if
In. the
fifth
edition
the three
volumes in 12mo. were
reduced
into
two
in
8vo.
and
the
prefaces abridged and united
by
the author.