AUTHOR OF THE VELVET CUSHION," PUBLIC FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION, NEW YORK: 139 Broadway. 1843. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. In the preface to a former volume of Sermons, the author ventured to intimate an intention of preparing before long a second volume for the press. That intention he has been permitted, through the kindness of Divine Providence, to fulfil; and he accordingly now presents to the public a somewhat larger number than before of those plain and unpretending. Discourses, which have been delivered in the parish where he has the happiness to reside. In a criticism on his former volume, for which, on the whole, he has great reason to be grateful, a wish is expressed that the author would endeavour to produce a volume of a somewhat more elaborate nature. But, even if he could presume to consider himself as capable of satisfying the wishes of those who think more profoundly than the mass of society, he should exceedingly hesitate as to the lawfulness, especially in this species of composition, of |