PREFACE TO THE FORMER EDITION. 1828. THE first of the following Discourses was delivered as a Sermon, at a Monthly Lecture of Protestant Dissenting Ministers, in the year 1813; and was published at the request of my brethren in the ministry who had heard it, and who were pleased to express the hope that it might be of some use in the confirmation of a great branch of Christian truth. It is now republished, in compliance with repeated requests from valued friends in England and Scotland. In revising the Discourse with this view, I could not satisfy myself to lay before the public a mere reprint. Many thoughts appeared to admit of being more fully developed, or pursued to further consequences. These objects I have attempted to accomplish, partly by interspersed additions, but principally in the Three Dis |