OF PORT ROYAL, TO WHICH ARE APPENDED TOUR TO ALET; VISIT TO PORT ROYAL; GIFT OF AN Taken from Original Documents. BY M. A. SCHIMMELPENNINCK. FOURTH EDITION, VOL. I. LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. PATERNOSTER - ROW. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. In presenting the fourth edition of the "Select Memoirs of Port Royal" to the public, the author wishes to express, that she shall indeed rejoice if this little work may be the means of diffusing amongst her Protestant brethren, an acquaintance not only with the truly dedicated individuals, whose biography forms the subject of its pages; but of impressing them with a deep conviction, of the futility of merely notional christianity; and of the importance of not only assenting to divine truth, but of having it implanted by the spirit in the heart and soul; so that,-a circulation of the living sap of Christ, the only true vine,—it may bear its fruit abundantly unto life eternal. Every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up." O that not only the seed sown, may be the genuine word of God, but that it may be sown by the hand of the divine husbandman himself, and watered by the dew from heaven. If in the perusal of the memoirs of Port Royal, Protestant readers may think they often have occasion to thank our Lord for superior light, have we not also continually cause to prostrate ou rselves at his feet in deep compunction and 66 |