Every writer, who thinks for himself, will insensibly acquire a manner properly his own; and this manner, provided it fall not below the standard of what may be termed a respectable mediocrity, will be likely to attract some readers, amongst those whose taste and turn of thinking happen to resemble his own. Hence Sermons, which cannot aspire to the praise of an extended and permanent circulation, may yet be useful with humbler pretensions, and within a narrower sphere. But style and manner are, at best, but secondary considerations. The author feels deeply sensible that he has no title to look for the favourable regard of a christian public, and still less to expect the divine blessing upon his labour, except so far as he may have succeeded in inculcating and enforcing scriptural doctrine, as to all essential particulars. It will be perceived that he has endeavoured, in some of these discourses, to exhibit concise and compendious views of certain subjects, the importance and difficulty of which may seem to require a far more extended discussion. If, however, he shall be found, in any one instance, to have brought truth within a narrow compass, for the benefit of those who have neither leisure nor opportunity for closer investigation, he will feel that he has still done something, though it may be but very little. It may be thought, perhaps, that the titles of some of these discourses are inconveniently long. But fullness and precision, in stating the subject of a sermon, may sometimes prepare a reader for entering upon it with more relish, and for perusing it with more benefit; and the author found that he could not abridge them, without risking the loss of this advantage. CONTENTS. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, Every writer, who thinks for himself, will insensibly acquire a manner properly his own; and this manner, provided it fall not below the standard of what may be termed a respectable mediocrity, will be likely to attract some readers, amongst those whose taste and turn of thinking happen to resemble his own. Hence Sermons, which cannot aspire to the praise of an extended and permanent circulation, may yet be useful with humbler pretensions, and within a narrower sphere. But style and manner are, at best, but secondary considerations. The author feels deeply sensible that he has no title to look for the favourable regard of a christian public, and still less to expect the divine blessing upon his labour, except so far as he may have succeeded in inculcating and enforcing scriptural doctrine, as to all essential particulars. It will be perceived that he has endeavoured, in some of these discourses, to exhibit concise and compendious views of certain subjects, the importance and difficulty of which may seem to require a far more extended discussion. If, however, he shall be found, in |