PREFACE.

To the First Edition of these Sermons I put no Preface, because I did not think it necessary to make any apology for the publication of them, and had no explanations to offer respecting either the doctrines which they contain, or the manner in which the doctrines are illustrated and enforced. And I now put a Preface to the Second Edition merely for the purpose of alluding to the treatment which they and their Author have received from certain critics, who have deemed it a duty to make them the subject of animadversion.

Far from regarding my Volume as free from faults, or as secure from all just censure, I was fully prepared for the detection of errors, both in its style and its illustrations, and for a difference of opinion in many Readers with respect

to the views of Christian truth and Christian conduct, which, from sincere conviction, I have felt myself called upon to maintain. But I was not altogether prepared for the treatment I have experienced from the Millenarian School of Theology. From the Masters and the Disciples of that School indeed, I could not look for much indulgence, and I did not wish for any approbation. I expected of course to come in for my share of those anathemas, which they so liberally denounce against all who do not worship at their shrine. I expected to encounter no small portion of that arrogant and contemptuous spirit, which is so characteristic of their mode of contending against every one who is bold enough to provoke them by opposition, or offend them by unsubmissiveness. I expected to suffer from the ignorance and recklessness and blundering which form such prominent features in most of those productions, wherewith they have laboured to dissipate the darkness that has settled over all except the happy inmates of their own half inspired and highly favoured circle. I expected all this, and I have not been disappointed. Still, however, I could not look for any violation of truth and honesty in men who assume the office, though they cannot