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London. Published August 150. by R. Edwards. Crane Court Fleet Street.

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THE

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

TO THE

THIRD GERMAN EDITION.

MORE than a hundred years have elapsed, since the pious SCRIVER published a work, entitled, Occasional Meditations on the Works of Nature and Art. I make no scruple to declare, that I value this work highly, and prefer it to a multitude of modern books of devotion, which are equally destitute of taste and accuracy. It is true, that in some respects, the form and style of SCRIVER's work are unsuitable to the refined taste of the present age, yet it has a number of advantages, well calculated to com

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pensate the reader for any faults he may find in it. The Author's zeal for practical religion, his manly sense, his comprehensive knowledge of the works of Nature and Art, and the pains he took to adapt his language to the apprehension of illiterate people, are advantages which are rarely found in any book of devotion, either of the past or present century.

It was the esteem I always had for SCRIVER's work, which first inspired me with the desire to compose one similar to it. I had a twofold design in writing Meditations on the Works of God in the Kingdom of Nature and Providence: 1. That those who had little time for study, might find a treatise, pointing out whatever was most essential to be known, relative to the objects which God daily presents to us in the widely extended Empire of Nature. For this purpose, I have chosen out of the vast mass of Natural History, the objects which daily surround us, the historical knowledge of which requires no extraordinary depth of capacity. I have endeavoured so to express myself, and to represent my subjects in such a manner, as should at once render my work intelligible and interesting to all orders of Christians, the most enlightened not excepted. In endeavouring to accomplish this end, I proposed a second, viz. To shew the reader how he may derive les

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