ΤΟ THE MASTER AND OTHER MEMBERS OF TRINITY COLLEGE THESE SERMONS ARE DEDICATED BY ONE WHO OWES THE BUILDING UP OF HIS MIND, AND MUCH HAPPINESS FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS, TO THE FRIENDS HE HAS FOUND AMONGST THEM, AND WHO PRAYS THAT THEY AND THEIR SUCCESSORS, AS LONG AS ENGLAND ENDURES, MAY STILL EVER BE IN THE FOREMOST RANK AMONG THE DISPENSERS OF KNOWLEDGE, BOTH OF THAT KNOWLEDGE WHICH TREATS OF THIS WORLD, AND OF THAT WHICH GUIDES TO HEAVEN. PREFACE. THE Sermons on Faith, with which this Volume opens, are an expansion of a Course preacht before the University of Cambridge in the month of February last. Being called upon to publish them, I deemed it my duty to develope the argument somewhat more fully than my limits had allowed me to do in the pulpit. When I chose the subject, my wish was to shew that the office assigned to Faith in the Christian scheme is not at variance, but in harmony with the rest of man's nature, by tracing the influence of Faith, as exemplified in the relations of our natural life, as well as in the religion of the heathens, and of the Jews. I was desirous of assisting my youthful hearers in extricating themselves from a difficulty often felt by those who begin to reflect about religion, namely, how Faith, of which they hear so little in the affairs and duties of ordinary life, should in religion be all in all. According to my original last three sermons of the plan, the subjects treated in the present series were to be preceded by an introductory one, speaking generally of Faith in its relation to the other parts of our being. But being led to look into Mr Newman's Lectures on Justification, for the sake of ascertaining the view of Faith taken in a work which has excited so much attention, and which represents opinions held by a large body of our Church, I found myself compelled to enter much more at length than I had intended into the argument for establishing the practical power of Faith. Hence the latter part of the subject, which had been my chief reason for undertaking it, was very imperfectly brought out: several paragraphs, among others the Cloud of Christian Witnesses, were omitted in the delivery, lest I should too far exceed the term ordinarily assigned to modern sermons: and some leading topics were merely glanced at, or left altogether untoucht. These imperfections I have endeavoured in some measure to remedy, in order that the exposition of the power of Faith in its manifold offices might be less unworthy of the glorious theme. The first two Sermons are printed nearly as they were preacht: the third and fourth of the original course have each been divided into two. I trust however that my hearers, who requested me to print them, will not be dissatisfied with the alterations that have been made. Precision and completeness are of greater importance in a printed discourse, than in a spoken one: for the ear can seldom follow the steps of a long and complicated argument. The other Sermons in the Volume were preacht on various occasions several years ago. Wishes for their publication were exprest at the time by a greater or less number |