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no, till the Year 1730, when the greatest Part of it was finished, perufed and approved by competent Judges, and at length prepared for Publica

tion.

The Reader therefore may be affur'd (and it is chiefly for his Satisfaction in this Matter that this Advertisement is prefixed to the Edition) that these are the Genuine Works of the Author, to whom the Title Page afcribes them; and that they are not rafhly obtruded upon the World, as Pofthumous Works too often are, but offered after mature Deliberation, and under a real Conviction of their being perfect in their Kind as any wherewith this laft Age hath been preSented.

Indeed, the bare avouching them to be Genuine fuperfedes any further Recommendation of them. Both the Character and Writings of the Archbishop have been generally fo well efteemed,

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efteemed, that they stand in no need of the Suffrage of the Publisher, but will be able to support themselves (even in an Age by no means favourable to good Men and good Books) fo long as Truth can ftand her Ground, and found Reafoning with Perfpicuity fhall be accounted the chief Character of Perfection in Writing, especially upon Divine and Moral Subjects.

Moft of the Treatifes in this first Volume are compounded, fome of two, Some of three Sermons, joined together in the Form of continued Difcourfes, which will account for the Length of feveral of them, as it also gave occafion to entitle them Difcourfes rather than Sermons. The Defign of this Difpofition was to preferve the Chain of Reafoning upon each Subject intire and uninterrupted without thofe Recapi tulations, which, tho' neceffary indeed under their Divifion into diftinct Sermons, in order to accommodate them to the Pulpit, yet are altogether unneceffary

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ceffary to be retain'd for the Perufal of the Reader, who would rather be incommoded than relieved by fuch unfeafonable Breaks in the Body of a juft Difcourfe. But however no more Liberty was taken with them, than would barely answer this End of Convenience, by omitting the Introductions or Preambles to the fubfequent Sermons, when more than one were form'd upon the fame Text. And because the fame Liberty could not be fo well taken with the four laft Sermons in this Volume, which are all likewife upon one Text, therefore they are publifked intire, as they were found in the Copies.

The other Volume confifts wholly of fingle Sermons, publish'd verbatim as they were preached, at least without any defign'd Omiffion or Alteration. Most of them had been deliver'd at Court, before their late Majefties King William, Queen Mary, and Queen Anne, as the Dates prefixed to them

will fhew. And feveral of them were the Sermons which he ufually preach'd in his Diocese, and elsewhere, in the latter Part of his Life, as being best calculated, in his own Opinion, (fo it may be justly prefum'd) for doing Good to Mankind, and the Discharge of his own Duty, as a Minifter of the Gospel.

Could thefe Sheets have carried any Impreffion of that Energy and Zeal with which the Living Author of thefe Difcourfes addrefs'd them to his Auditors, and to which they owed no Small Share of that Beauty and Influence which they once had from his own Mouth, they would have been more welcome and more valuable to the Reader. One Excellence indeed they cannot be depriv'd of, which, in fome measure, will fupply the Want of those external and additional Graces that accompanied and adorned them in the Pulpit, viz. that Spirit of Piety which yet enlivens and breathes through them

all,

all, and demonftrates them to be the real Iffues of his Heart, and the very Dictates of his Soul, by fuch Marks of Evidence as are eafy to be difcover'd, tho' difficult to be defcrib'd, and impoffible to be counterfeited.

CON

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