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and real enjoyment were ended: their friends relieved, and even comforted on the long expected diffolution.

The cafe of Mofes was perhaps without example in any age. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated: But we could reckon up not a few in our own time, who, according to the conviction of all who knew them, resembled Simeon; and might have said with him, "Now letteft thou thy fervants de"part in peace, our eyes have feen thy falva"tion." Your thoughts and mine, my brethren, are very naturally turned to a particular instance, at prefent, of usefulefs, refpect, and active duty, entire to the very last.— Has not every one of us reafon to fay, as I do, from the bottom of my foul, on confidering this very memorable, affecting, yet comfortable event,-"Let me die the death "of the righteous! Let my last end be like his !"

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PREFACE.

THE fermons here offered to the public, the subscribers, in general, know to be posthumous. That their Author might have once entertained the idea of giving a few of them to the world, is rendered fomewhat probable, from the circumstance of corrected copies of feveral having been found among his papers. But the impreffion of the prefent volume was not planned by him. It is published by his furviving friends, in compliance with the general defire expreffed among all who were acquainted with his piety and usefulness, and particularly by the members of his own congregation, that fome memorials of his teaching, and of his labours of love, might be preferved; and that, though they were deprived of his perfonal prefence, he might ftill live among them, and profit their immortal fouls, by his holy counfels, and heaven-learnt wifdom. It must fhare, therefore, in the difadvantage attending every publication in fimilar circumftances, of being unprepared by its author, for the prefs: many things must be lefs fully unfolded; many

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lefs accurately finished, than if he himself had been their editor. Every attention, however, has been used, to felect fuch dif courfes as appeared to be most complete : and trouble and pains, to a degree that has confiderably retarded the appearance of the volume, have been taken, to render it as correct, as fidelity to the originals, and to the public, would admit. Every fermon has been carefully revifed; and, in order to prevent the repeated printing of the fame things, has been closely compared with the others, upon fimilar topics. Notwithstanding this attention, however, it has been impoffible, without a daring freedom of alteration, to prevent, in a few inftances, a repetition of particular expreffions and ideas. It is naturally accounted for, from the fimilarity of the occafions on which fome of the fermons were delivered; and from the relation that fubfifts between many of the fubjects.

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But, though publifhed, doubtlefs, with various difadvantages, there is good reafon, the Author's friends affure themselves, to truft, that, in thefe difcourfes, the humble believer will receive, and will thankfully discover an abundant fupply, at once, of evangelical comfort and direction. He will perufe the exereifes of a holy mind, which believed, and which practifed, as it taught: and he will gladly perceive the great doctrines of religion, which form the chief theme of his me

ditations,

ditations, and are the foundations of his happinefs, fo fully and folemnly inculcated. Amid the tears, therefore, which the friends of the Author fhed over his memory, they rejoice to think, that many may yet be profited by his labours, and may yet thank him in the kingdom of heaven, for the inftruction and encouragement which is contained in the following pages:-inftruction and encouragement, delivered with fuch perfpicuity of language, and fimplicity of manner, as to be adapted for the benefit of every capacity, and of every rank.

It is evident, from the whole tenor of thefe difcourfes, that the author's great object was, to be profitable and inftructive to thofe whom he addreffed and it was with him a matter of confcience, and of study, to adapt every expreffion, and every argument, to the capacity of even the most uninformed amongst thein. What would be useful to them, he preferred to that ornament and polifh, which, however it might have added to the reputation of his genius and taste, would have little tended to the edification of his flock. In their hearing, he would have been forry to have employed a word or thought, that was above their comprehenfion; or to have pleased the ear of the learned and the polite, at the expence of the great body of his people. It is hoped, however, that the flyle, though plain, and fometimes even fab 2 miliar,

miliar, will never be found low; or the fentiments mean. This fimplicity is,, by no means, inconfiftent with correctnefs: and the taste, which is not altogether fastidious, may difcover, that, in thefe fermons, it perfectly accords with much energy, both of thought and of diction.

Readers, who admire only those elegant and highly finished delineations, either of virtue in general, or of particular graces, as confidered merely in themselves, will not here meet with a food much adapted to their intellectual appetite. But the devout Chriftian will find what is more for his advantage he will find univerfal excellence and particular duty, enforced from their connection with the great articles of his faith; and deriving from it a commanding influence on his heart, infinitely fuperior to all that they could receive from the most elegant defcription, and the subtlest argumentation, where that connection is difregarded, or brought but flightly into view. The Author, as a minister of the gospel, did not confider it his office to be a mere teacher of moral philofophy and ethics. While, therefore, he earnestly recommended every virtue, and endeavoured to encourage it by an unblameable example, he uniformly made the peculiar doctrines of the gospel the grand bafis of his arguments, and the leading theme of his admonitions; and in thefe,

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