TO THE READER.

THE following Discourses were originally designed for private circulation in a particular parish. Being written for that purpose, their accommodation to the existing state of that parish constituted of course the principal object in view. Should, therefore, some parts of the subject be more dilated than may be thought necessary for

general information, or some circumstances noticed which might have been omitted, the candid reader will, it is hoped, make allowance for what on these accounts may be an unwelcome trespass upon his time. Thus much it may be proper to say in behalf of the Discourses before him.

As an excuse, if excuse be necessary, for the alteration of my plan in giving them to the public, I have to plead, that upon their revisal for the

press, they were

tion applicable to the general circumstances of judged to convey some informa

VOL. I.

B

Christians in this country; and that new books, though containing nothing fresh upon the subjects of which they treat, will be read; whilst old ones, more fraught with information, lie useless on the shelf.

The Postscripts subjoined to the Discourses must speak for themselves; because they were written for the purpose to which they are applied.

Upon the subject of Establishments I have nothing to unsay. Upon this subject I have written as I have been always taught to think. An uniformity of sentiment on great and momentous subjects constitutes a criterion, by which the thinking honest man will ever be distinguised. The opposite infirmity (if it may be called by so soft a name) will, I trust, never attach itself to my character. From the reader who differs from me in opinion, I have only, therefore, to crave that candour which, I trust, I shall on all occasions be ready to return.

"Errare possum, litigiosus esse non volo."

To write upon ecclesiastical subjects without censure, is what no author must expect. The chief source, therefore, from which his satisfaction must be derived, will be the sincerity of his intention.

To promote in any degree the honour of God by preserving the unity of the Church, is an object

which

every minister of that Church ought to have at heart. With this view I have placed myself at the door of the temple with my torch; in the full confidence, that whoever shall be induced to enter in, will abide there for ever.

But though I am too well acquainted with mankind to expect that, after what has been heretofore written on the subject of church communion, any thing now said upon it will produce effect on those in whose minds judgment in this matter has been already passed; yet, if I may prove the instrument of confirming one wavering member of the Church in a rational attachment to it, I shall not

think

my

time to have been wholly thrown away. Should it, however, be the will of that Divine Master, in whose service I feel myself engaged, that I succeed not even thus far; there is one consolation remaining, which I shall still enjoy in common with all those of my brethren who have exerted themselves in a similar cause, that, so far at least as this subject is concerned,

LIBERAVI ANIMAM MEAM.

PREFACE TO THE READER.

THE writer who seeks not popularity, must not expect to be popular; whilst he whose object is truth, will be satisfied with the conviction, that the positions laid down by him are capable of being substantiated by their proper proofs. Should it be his misfortune to be writing to a world too much engaged with itself, or too indifferent to the subject he is handling, to give it due attention, he will consider himself as one born out of due time; and that his words are not true only because they are not seasonable;—a consideration, which, to a man who has learned that the truth of God is of more value than the whole world, cannot, in the present day, be so much a subject for surprise, as it is for regret. An endeavour to rouse Christians from an apparent apathy to a due sense of the tremendous danger attendant on that unsettlement of principles, and unsettlement of institutions, which characterize the present revolutionary age; and to guard against the desertion of those old and tried paths, by which,