THE reception, favourable beyond my warmest expectations, with which the Public have honoured the Sermons, that I formerly published for all the Sundays and some of the principal Festivals of the year, has encouraged me to complete my plan, by composing the following discourses for such of the Festivals appointed to be observed by the English Catholics as were not noticed in that collection. I trust, the reader will find in them the genuine spirit of Religion, equally remote from superstition and impiety. It has been my constant endeavour, both in this and in the former publication, to display the native purity and beauty of the Catholic Faith, and to exhibit the doctrines, and moral precepts of the Gospel, not as disfigured by the nar row and illiberal conceptions of some men, nor as distorted by the interests and passions of others; but as defined and unfolded by that infallible authority, which Christ hath established the pillar and ground of the truth, and with which he hath promised, that his divine Spirit shall abide to the end of the world. While I have been thus employed, I have derived much comfort from observing, that, by the blessing of the Almighty, my humble labours have contributed, at least, something towards promoting the interests of religion and morality. This should be their first object. To succeed in this should be considered as their best reward. But I, nevertheless, think it my duty to acknowledge, that I am bound to much gratitude for having experienced, that, they have also universally met with the countenance and support, and, in many instances, have procured me the particular friendship, of the most virtuous, respectable, and enlightened ornaments of the Catholic Religion in this kingdom. Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Sept. 26, 1789. |