Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1861, by the

CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF PUBLICATION,

la the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

r Ambridoe:

PREFACE TO THE WORKS.

The edition of Emmons's Works published in 1842 has for time been exhausted. And numerous calls for tlicm which could not be supplied suggested this new edition, which has been enlarged by the addition of numerous manuscripts not before published. The six volumes now presented would make more than eight volumes of tho size of those of the former edition. This enlargement has rendered necessary a new arrangement of the whole.

The Works have been revised and prepared for tho press by Rev. Mortimer Blake, of Taunton, whoso well-known industry and critical acumen are a sufficient guaranty of tho correctness of the copy. To him also are tho public indebted for tho now indexes which accompany this edition. There is a general index of the topics, one of the texts expounded, and ono of the author's definitions of theological terms. This last will bo found of great importance to those who would understand his languago as be meant to be understood.

The Memoir of Emmons in this edition is by E. A. Park, D. D., »bo has embodied the Autobiography and other notices of him in the former edition, and with great labor and care has collected other facts respecting his parentage, family, early impression*, ecclesiastical relations, preaching, pastoral life, students, and the influence he exerted upon the ministry and the church in his day. The whole now appears in a consecutive narrative, arranged and expressed with the skill and good taste for which the writer is distinguished.

In selecting the matter for the present edition, the editor has preferred some that was in manuscript to a part that appeared in the first edition, and has substituted the one in the place of the other. It is proper also to say, that several sermons selected for the first volume are necessarily omitted because of the unexpected length of the Memoir.

It is impossible, in publishing a work consisting almost entirely of sermons, preached to the same people, for more than half a century, to arrange the subjects in a strictly systematic order without any repetition of thought or language. To suppose this possible, would be to suppose that the author was very unfaithful in his efforts to meet the wants of his hearers, as the circumstances of individuals must often require a repetition of the same truth that was taught to others, years before. Equally plain is it, that there must be a necessity of repeating the same truth in different connections, in different circumstances, and in its relations to a great variety of other truths. Nor will it be denied, that his readers may be benefited by the contemplation of the same truth in all these different circumstances, times, and relations.

It will be seen by all who attentively peruse these volumes, that the author preached no doctrine that was not, at least in his view, intimately connected with Christian practice. And they will be surprised to see how obviously connected is all Christian practice with Christian doctrine. One object in the selection of so many sermons on the same doctrine, is to show how numerous are the duties which result from these doctrines, as well as the intimate relation in which one doctrine of the gospel stands

to another.

JACOB IDE. Medway, March 18,1861.