sary duties of my station, which took up all the time I could devote to study. It hath been often quite laid aside, without hope of pursuing it; and, through repeated solicitations from some persons of eminence abroad, who knew the doctor only by his writings, hath, at some lucidintervals, been resumed. As it hath been executed with great care and honesty, and those of my brethren, who have revised it, have thought it adapted to serve the cause of religion and charity, I now, notwithstanding all its defects, venture it abroad into the world; following it with my earnest prayers, and desiring the concurrent intercessions of my friends, that God would be pleased to prosper this feeble attempt to quicken the ministers of Christ in their Lord's work, and to promote the holiness and happiness of all his disciples, into whose hands it may come. Shrewsbury, Nov. 6, 1765. Amen. JOB ORTON. |