THE author has been repeatedly urged to print a volume of his Parochial
Sermons; and perhaps he owes some apology to those friends, whose kind
advice, on this head, has been for years neglected. He was apprehensive,
that the interest, excited by his discourses from the pulpit, would not
be adequately revived by their appearance in print; or at most, that they
would be impressive only upon those who had heard them: and he moreover
thought, that the christian world was already provided with more than a
sufficiency of such publications. However, whether these opinions be
well founded or not, he has been at length prevailed upon to defer to the
wishes and judgment of others.
It is almost needless to observe, that the Sermons were written without
any, the most distant, view to publication; they pretend to nothing, but
the simple and earnest inculcation of christian principle and practice;
and as this is the author’s sole object, so does he pour forth his humble
prayer, that what, by God’s help, he has planted and watered, may, by
God’s blessing, be increased to the glory of His own great name, and the
edification of His Church.