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circle, if they serve, by association, to recal to the mind the same serious and heavenly frame, which it is accustomed to maintain at church.

In this selection the author has also purposely embodied several of those amongst his Sermons, which have been digested from the publications of others. For these he reckons among the best that he has to offer to the public. And he is glad to take an opportunity of remarking to beginners in the ministry, how profitable they would find it, both to themselves and to their congregations, to take often some of the sermons of our many excellent divines for the foundation of their own compositions. In the general diffusion of ability to write, and the general disuse of merely copying a printed sermon, there seems to be risk, that many will write rashly for themselves, who might do better to borrow from their neighbours. There is risk, too, that our hearers may lose the benefit of what has been so well preached by our predecessors, that no man, however able, can put it better. The following references will point to the several sources, from which the contents of this volume have been in some instances derived.

Sermon II. See a sermon on this text by Baxter, published singly, London, 1660. No doubt it is to be found also in his Works.

Amongst these, the Saints' Rest judiciously abridged would form an invaluable manual of edification.

Sermon III. See a treatise entitled The Art of Divine Contentment. By Thomas Watson. Reprinted. Seely. 1829. A most striking tract, in the old style of strong language, but forced conceits.

Sermon XII. See the skeleton of a sermon in p. 35. of Cox's Life of Fletcher. Butterworth. 1822. A most interesting memoir; but rather a Panegyric than a Life.

Sermon XV. See Skelton. Works, IV. p. 300. Dublin. 1770. This will be found a valuable writer as a guide in the composition of sermons.

Sermon XIX. This sermon is designed to convey the benefit of an application of the text, which appears to have been greatly overstrained, in A View of the Scripture Revelations concerning a Future State. By a Country Pastor. Fellows. 1829. Lect. 12.

Sermon XX. See here Skelton, Works, VII. 395. Also Hooker's Discourse on Justification. Works, III. 435. Oxford. 1820. A treatise above all censure; an author above all praise.

In the Appendix also it is to be observed, that the prayers relating to the Cholera, No. II, are merely those put forth by authority, with some

PAROCHIAL SERMONS

ADAPTED TO

THE USE OF FAMILIES;

WITH

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING HELPS FOR FAMILY DEVOTION.

BY THE

REV. CHARLES GIRDLESTONE, M. A.

VICAR OF SEDGLEY, STAFFORDSHIRE.

SECOND SERIES.

OXFORD,

PRINTED BY S. COLLINGWOOD, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY,
FOR THE AUTHOR,

AND FOR J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD,
AND WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON.

SOLD ALSO BY J. H. PARKER, OXFORD; AND H. C. LANGbridge,
BIRMINGHAM.

1832.

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