PREFACE.

IN stating that the following discourses were not written with a view to publication, I do so, not to propitiate the severity of criticism, but merely to avail myself of the opportunity of observing, that it is very probable I may, in these Sermons, have occasionally appropriated the sentiments of others without acknowledgment; I have not, however, done so designedly. The fact is, that wherever I have remembered any such debts, I have admitted them by a reference to the respective authors to whom they are due; but, not having noted where I may have borrowed a sentiment or illustration when the Sermons were written, not thinking that they would ever meet the public eye, it is possible that I may have borrowed without recollecting it. I hope, therefore, that I shall be acquitted of wilful plagiarism, should the ideas of others be occasionally detected in this volume