PUBLISHED BY PEIRCE & PARKER, NEW-YORK: H. C. SLEIGHT. PHILADELPHIA: TOWAR, J. & D. M. HOGAN. 1832. 4 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by PEIRCE and PARKER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PRESS OF PEIRCE & PARKER. Mhc9 1832 PREFACE. The design of this volume is to bring within the reach of private Christians the most practical and interesting portions of Archbishop Leighton's Complete Works. The selection is in reg In ular order from every part of his writings, and we have endeavored to make it in reality rather his select works, than a mere compilation of his beauties; supposing that no person of intelligence would be satisfied with a meagre list of scattered extracts. the account of his life we have extracted several successive pages from the memoir prefixed to the last edition of his works, and have made free use of the interesting notices to be found in Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times. The remark on page xl, in regard to the difference between. Christians of this and the seventeenth century may be liable to misapprehension. Whoever at this day is a biblical Christian, must of necessity be a revival Christian; a Christian who prays with fervor and acts with energy for the conversion of his fellow men. But there is a tendency in the external religious effort of this age to stand in the place of prayer and the study of the Bible, instead of proceeding from the steady performance of those duties, as their inevitable, legitimate result. Our religion, then, is in danger of becoming bustling and superficial. Now if there be a thoughtful being in the universe, certainly the Christian ought to be such an individual. The Christians in Leighton's time were so. The Nonconformists especially united pro found study and much meditation with great external energy. To make the Christian character complete, both these are necessary. Our danger is that of neglecting prayer and the Bible, the only means that can fit us for usefulness, and of entering on external effort, too much because the general current sets that way, and to be consistent we must go with it, whether cur hearts are humble, broken, and contrite, or not. We are in danger of endeavoring to promote revivals, not because, by the acquisition of scriptural wisdom, and by habits of fervent, frequent, persevering prayer, our heads and hearts are prepared for it, and would naturally constrain us to it, but because others are working, the world is busy, and we ask, what will men say of us. La société, la société ! says Madame De Stael, (and oh how much melancholy truth there is in it, even in regard to social religious effort,) comme elle rend le cœur dur et l'esprit frivole! comme ella fait vivre pour ce que l' on dira de vous! Society, society! how it renders the heart hard and the mind frivolous! how it makes you live for what people will say of you! We As external effort increases, Prayer and the thoughtful perusal of God's word ought to increase in proportion. are in danger of acting on a theory directly opposite, and of arguing ourselves into the belief that the frequency and variety of external duty excuses us from spending so much time as usual over the Bible and in prayer. If the Christian would do much for Jesus in this dying world, he must be vigilant, he must be thoughtful, he must labor in secret, and become eminently a man of prayer. Amidst all Paul's journeyings, perils, and labors, he was night and day praying exceedingly. |