A RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE SERMONS OF THE REV. JAMES BLAIR, M. A. COMMISSARY OF VIRGINIA, PRESIDENT OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, AND RECTOR OF WILLIAMSBURG IN THAT COLONY. In vols. 8vo. London, 1740. THE HE worthy author living (if he yet lives) at too great a distance to attend this edition, or to give it a new preface, I was desired to take that small trouble upon me: which I do with the more pleasure, partly, out of a grateful respect to a person, by whose pious and learned labours I have been so agreeably instructed; and partly, to excite others to give them the more serious and careful perusal. I should have been glad to have had it in my power to oblige the public with some account of the life and character of this good man; who, while he has shined abroad, in a far distant land, has been but a little known here; except it be by these his printed works, which appear to be a fair and full portraiture of his mind. As to the rest, all that I can at present learn will lie within a very small compass. He was born and bred in Scotland; and was ordained and beneficed in the episcopal Church there: but meeting with some discouragements, under an unsettled state of affairs, and having a prospect of discharging his ministerial functions more usefully elsewhere, he quitted his preferments there, and came over into England, some time in the latter end of King Charles the Second's reign. It was not long before he was taken notice of by the then Bishop of London, (Dr. Compton,) who prevailed with him to go as missionary (about the year 1685) into Virginia where by his regular conversation, exemplary conduct, and unwearied labours in the work of the ministry, he did good service to religion, and gained to himself a good report amongst all: so that the same Bishop Compton, being well apprised of his true and great worth, made choice of him, about the year 1689, as his Commissary for Virginia; a very weighty and creditable post, the highest office in the Church there: which, however, did not take him off from his pastoral care, but only rendered him the more shining example of it to all the other Clergy within that colony. While his thoughts were wholly intent upon doing good in his office, he observed with true concern, that the want of schools and proper seminaries for religion and learning, was such a damp upon all great attempts for the propagation of the Gospel, that little could be hoped for, without first removing that obstacle. Therefore he formed a vast design of erecting and endowing a college in Virginia, at Williamsburg, the capital of that country, for professors and students in academical learning. In order thereto, he had himself set on foot a voluntary subscription, amounting to a great sum: and not content with that, he came over into England, in the year 1693, to solicit the affair at Court. The good Queen (Queen Mary) was so well pleased with the noble design, that she espoused it with a particular zeal; and King William also, as soon as he became acquainted with its use and excellency, very readily concurred with the Queen in it. Accordingly, a patent passed for the erecting and endowing a college, called from the founders the William and Mary College: and Mr. Blair, who had had the principal hand in laying, and soliciting, and concerting the design, was appointed President of the College. Our author, it seems, has now been a Minister of the Gospel fifty-eight years, or thereabouts; a Missionary fiftyfour years; Commissary fifty years; and President of the College about forty-six: a faithful labourer in God's vineyard from first to last; an ornament to his profession and his several offices, and now in a good old age, hourly waiting for (if not before this gone to enjoy) the high prize of his calling. a See some account of this matter in Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Time, vol. ii. p. 119. and in Dr. Humphreys's Historical Account of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, p. 9, 10, 11. As to the Discourses here following, they had the advantage of being composed at a mature age, after a course of serious studies, after much experience in the work of the ministry, after wide and large observations made upon men and things; and, in short, after an improved experimental knowledge gained in the school of Christ. They had their first impression in the year 1722; drawn into public light by the repeated importunities of several worthy Prelates, and other Clergy of our Church, (who had perused a few of them in manuscript,) and by the particular encouragement of the then Metropolitan, Archbishop Wake, and of Dr. Robinson, then Bishop of London, to whom the Sermons were dedicated. When that impression was gone off, and copies were become very scarce, the executors of the late Rev. Dr. Bray (to whom the author had previously transferred his copyright) thought of a new impression, and communicated their design to the worthy author: who accordingly, in the year 1732, revised the work, corrected the errata of the press, added indexes of texts and matters, and prepared a new dedication, addressed to the Right Reverend Father in God EDMUND, Lord Bishop of London. How the edition then intended came to be retarded till this time, I know not; neither is it of moment to inquire: it is well that now at last the public once more enjoys this valuable treasure of sound Divinity, of practical Christianity. But when I say practical, let no one be so weak as to take that for a diminutive expression; which is indeed the highest and brightest commendation that a work can have; whether we look at the intrinsic use and value of it, or at the real difficulties of performing it to a degree of exactness, or at the talents requisite for it. A man bred up in the schools, or conversant only with books, may be able to write systems, or to discuss points, in a clear and accurate manner: but that and more is required in an able guide, a complete practical Divine, who undertakes to bring down the most important truths to the level of a popular audience; to adapt them properly to times, persons, and circumstances; to guard them. against latent prejudices and secret subterfuges; and lastly, to enforce them with a becoming earnestness, and with all the prudent ways of insinuation and address. A person must have some knowledge of men, besides that of books, to succeed well here; and must have a kind of practical sagacity (which nothing but the grace of God, joined with recollection and wise observa tion, can bring) to be able to represent Christian truths to the life, or to any considerable degree of advantage. As to the subject here made choice of, it is the highest and the noblest that could be, viz. our Lord's Divine Sermon on the Mount and as it is here explained with good judgment, so it appears likewise to be pressed with due force; in a clear and easy, but yet masculine style, equally fitted to the capacities of common Christians, and to the improved understandings of the knowing and judicious. One peculiar commendation must, I believe, be allowed to our author, that he happily hit upon a new key (which Divines before him had not thought on) for the fuller opening the occasion, the views, the retired meaning and connection of our Lord's Divine Sermon. Not that the thought. with respect to the Jewish expectations of a temporal kingdom was at all new; but the application of it to this case, and the use made of it for the unravelling some of the darker parts of our Lord's discourse, and the clearing their coherence; that was new, and appears to be of excellent service: particularly in the eight beatitudes, (for the setting every one of them upon a distinct foot, and not running several of them, too confusedly, one into another,) as also in several other texts. b But to return; our author has, in my opinion, very aptly joined the commentator, preacher, and casuist all in one: and I cannot but approve the example he has himself given, and the model which he has so handsomely recommended to others, for the composition of sermons. It is extremely proper that the text and the sermon should not appear as strangers to each other, but rather as near kindred, discovering the same features; that so the discourse itself may almost point out to discerning judges from what place of Scripture it derived its birth. This is certainly right in the general; but is yet so to be understood as to leave room for excepted cases, where excursions may be needful on account of some special occasion, season, circumstances, &c. and where any decent handle for a neat transition may prudently and properly be taken. But I cannot say any thing better, or so well upon this head, as the author himself has done in the Dedication and Preface before referred to, and therefore I dismiss it, and proceed. One particular I cannot forbear to take notice of, (which an In his Dedication to Bishop Robinson, and his Preface. attentive reader may often observe in the course of these Sermons,) how happy a talent the author had in deciding points of great moment in a very few and plain words, but the result of deep consideration, and discovering a great compass of thought. I shall single out a few instances only, from among many, for a taste to the reader. แ Of the Value of good Works. "I am apprehensive, that by our unwary confutation of the Popish errors concerning merit and supererogation, we have too "much depreciated good works themselves; whereas it is most "certain they ought to be highly had in estimation; not only as the genuine signs and fruits of a lively faith, but as necessary "conditions of salvation; and not only of salvation, but of our "growth in grace, and of our advancement to higher degrees of "glory." Here, very briefly and justly, is pointed out a dangerous extreme, with the rise and occasion of it, and the proper cure for it, or correction of it. For the justifying the term conditions, the reader, who has any scruple, may consult Bishop Bull in his Harmonia, &c. and Bishop Stillingfleet in his Answers to Mr. Lobb. Our author says that and more, improving and enforcing the same thought with two very pertinent and weighty considerations. 66 66 66 What makes a good Work. "To make any work a good work, it must be 1. Lawful in "itself. 2. Suitable to our station and circumstances in the world. "3. Designed for promoting something that is good for the service of God, for the good of our neighbour, or the salvation of our own souls. 4. Something within the reach of our own “talents and abilities. If it wants any of these conditions, it cannot be one of those good works meant in my text d." He goes on to explain the several particulars at large, in a very clear and just manner. A good work might have been more briefly defined but it could not have been more wisely, or more distinctly guarded against every evasion and illusion of selfflattery; whereby many are persuaded that they are doing good works, while they are really doing works of darkness. : e Vol. i. Serm. xxi. p. 374 d Vol. i. Serm. xxxi. p. 506. |