LIBRARY #SITY OF MICHIG OUR CHRISTIAN CLASSICS: READINGS FROM THE BEST DIVINES, WITH NOTICES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL BY JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. VOL. III. LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. M.DCCC.LVIII. PREFACE. THE next volume will be devoted to the Eighteenth Century. Although in some respects an unattractive period, it yielded many a noble spirit and many a great divine. Amongst its Theologians and Biblical Scholars it numbers Bull and Waterland, Hurd and Warburton, Jortin, Lowth, and Horsley; amongst its Apologists and Illustrators of the Christian Evidence, Bentley, Leslie, Butler, Leland, Lardner, Bishop Newton, West, Lyttelton, Watson, Paley; amongst its Preachers, Atterbury and Sherlock, Whitfield, Berridge, and Romaine, Fletcher and the Wesleys. Its Practical and Experimental Writers include the names of Law and Berridge, of Bishop Horne, of James Hervey, and John Newton; and amongst its Sacred Poets, besides Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts, stand out conspicuous, Kenn, Addison, and Young, Augustus Toplady, and William Cowper. These illustrious authors and their cotemporaries will conclude the present series, unless, on some future day, the pleasant memories of his native land should induce the compiler to give a volume to the worthies of North Britain. The names of Knox and Buchanan, of Rollock and James Melville, of Leighton, Scougall, and Hugh Binning, of Boston and the Erskines, of Logan, Beattie, Pollock, of Thomson, Chalmers, and M'Cheyne, are enough to shew that the Christian Classics of Scotland have their own characteristics, and a sufficient claim to a distinctive notice. Meanwhile, and in bringing the work thus near its completion, the Editor gratefully acknowledges the good offices of those friends who have helped and encouraged him in his pleasant toil. To the choice and recherché libraries of T. Taylor, Esq., and W. Bonar, Esq., he has been indebted for many a rare and precious volume; and, besides similar obligations of no common kind, from B. C. Pierce Seaman, Esq., he has received so many valuable suggestions and so much information as have given to many portions of the work any value they possess. His labours have also been essentially lightened by the kindness of Messrs Nelson and Mr Kennedy of Edinburgh. For the "Select Puritans" of the former the Editor had written biographical sketches of Bunyan and Matthew Henry, and to "The North British Review," of which Mr Kennedy is proprietor, he had contributed articles on Owen, Watts, Doddridge, and Simeon; and, as soon as he expressed a desire to include the materials in the present work, permission was granted in the most liberal and handsome manner. To these generous friends, as well as to several esteemed correspondents, the compiler returns his heartfelt thanks. LONDON, June 1, 1858. |