BEING Published more particularly at their Defire, and dedicated to them. By JONATHAN MAYHEW, D.D. MAKE no tarrying to turn to the LORD, and put not off from JESUS the Son of SIRACH. BOSTON, NEW-ENGLAND: Printed by RICHARD and SAMUEL DRAPER, in Newbury-Street : The Author C To the YOUNG MEN who ufually attend his Ministry; and, more particularly, To thofe of them, at whofe REQUEST the following Difcourfes are published. I My dear young Brethren, HAVE now before me a paper directed to me, figned by a confiderable number of you; in which you exprefs both a full perfwafion, and a grateful sense of my friendly defign in preaching the followlowing fermons : At the fame time defiring a copy for the prefs, in terms at once too refpectful to me to be here repeated, and too plainly indicating a ferious turn of mind, to permit me to deny your request.† ་་ I SHOULD, indeed, do an injury to myself, if I denied that my aim in them was, as you suppose, "the bettering your minds and morals." And the manner in which you attended to them, when preached, together with your being fo well fatisfied with them as to defire to read them in print, affords ground to hope that, by the blessing of GOD, the fountain of truth, light and wisdom, The paper here referred to, was figned by about fifty perfons of the younger fort. the intention of them will be in fome meafure answered. This agreeable profpect has much alleviated the trouble I have been at in reviewing, correcting and tranfcribing them; which would otherwife have been a tedious labor to me, efpecially in fo cold and severe a season. But if they are only a quarter part fo useful to you as I pray GoD to make them, I fhall be very amply rewarded. IN compofing them, I must own, I had no other fermons in view as a model; which may, perhaps, be one reafon that they are no better. They were written intirely from the fcriptures, and from my own heart; of the latter of which at least, they are a true, tho' imperfect reprefentation. Least of all had I in view as a model, either the fermons of any bigotted devotees to particular fyftems of religion, diftinct from the general and glorious one of the gospel; or fuch cold, uninteresting difcourfes as hit the frivolous taste of thofe, who value fermons only for an imaginary delicacy of fentiment and expreffion, without folidity, without force or energy; without entering into the fpirit and importance of religion. I do not think mine the worse, for not being imitations of fuch as either of thefe. The The former are my averfion, as the illiberal productions of flaves, who defire to tyrannize over other mens confciences The latter my contempt, as the fuperficial, infipid, empty harangues of vain men ; which do not deferve the name of fermonsi If difcourfes from the pulpit are adapted only to please the ear and the fancy, likd many of the modern fafhionable ones; int ftead of having a direct tendency to alarm the confcience of a finner, to warm the heart of a faint, or to enlighten the under standings of any; they serve, in my opi nion, to no better purposes, than thofe of unfeafonably amufing the hearers, difgraci ing the places in which, and the perfons by whom they are delivered, as frivolous, con+ ceited declaimers; who feek only the api plaufe of men, by their founding brass and tinkling cymbals; inftead of defigning tỏ do good, by manifestation of the truth, and commending themselves to every man's confcience in the fight of GOD. I must own, I fhould be a little mortified, as well as greatly disappointed, if any persons who are charmed with fuch lullabies and opiates to the conscience from the pulpit, fhould think the following difcourfes in any mea fure tolerable. |