HE Design of these pages is ng if the Observations and Refle&tions of so good a Discerner will have any In. fluence upon their depraved Appetites. The Liberty I have taken with the Wrie tings of this Great Man, will , I doubt not, be excused:by. Him, when it is an Altempt of making more extensive those excellent Precepts, which He inculcated only within the Narros Bounds of the Pulpit. It was the opinion, of the Reverend and Pious Mr. Herbert, That, A Verse may find him whom a Sermon flies And turn Delight into a Sacrifice, Which is only saying, in other Words, “ That " the different Method of conveying Instru" etiox will be regarded, with the utmost 66 Attention, by the same Persons, in one " Way, which would be heedlesly neglected " and despised by them, in another. ? Besides, what I have attempted, is nä other, than what has been done by the Works of several other Great Men (particularly, those of Arch-Bishop TILLOTSON, Dr. South, and Mr. ADDISON.) The reducing of whose Maxims, &c. into the Compass of small Volumes, have been looked upon as useful and commendable Undert akings: [v] if I have not failed in the Performance, I dare venture to affirm, That what is herein offered, will not appear inferior to any thing that has been produced of the like Kind, Herein will be found, That the Duties of the Christian, and the Accomplishments of the Gentleman, are explained with an equal Luftre; and likewise, That what is herein advanced in Defence of our Establisb’d Church and Conftitution, will be an indisputable, Proof that the Author is no PAPIST, nor can have the least Tendency towards, or Affection for, the Principles of the Church of Rome, which He hash fo Judiciously, and Nervously exposed. In Justice to the Author, before I contlude, I must inform the Reader, That, in some Places, I have added a Line or Two of my own, for the better Connecting of Passages taken from several Discourses, which are here reduced under one Head; and in other Parts of this Collection, I have, now and then, taken the Liberty to speak in the Præterperfect-Tense, where the Time obliged the Author to speak in the Present ; having no other Motive for so doing, than to make this little Tract appear Regular and Uniform. taken |