To the Reader

It is the honour of the EvangeHcal Ministry, that it was
principally instituted for the service of God, not as he is

•.the Governor of the earth, but the Lord of heaven, and to
prepare men by holiness for his eternal kingdom. And it
is an excellent favour of God to his ministers, when their
labours are eminently useful for this blessed end. This
singular grace and privilege God was pleased to confer
upon his faithful servant Dr. Manton, whose life was spent
in the most precious work of converting souls to Christ,
and preparing them for the celestial paradise; and, since
his retiring from the world by death, his soul now enjoying
the blessed rest above, yet he remains with us in what was
most valuable of him, his excellent Sermons, the productions of his holy mind and heart; and the pen, having a
larger extent than the tongue in communicating them, may
be more beneficial to the church than before.

The following Sermons were preached by him in his usual course of three times a-week, which I do not mention to lessen their worth, but to show how diligent and exact he was in the performance of his duty. Indeed, his ordinary Sermons, considering the substantial matter, clear order, and vigorous, full expressions, may well pass for extraordinary. I cannot but admire the fecundity and variety of his thoughts, that the same things so often occurring in the verses of this Psalm, yet, by a judicious

observing the different arguments and motives whereby the
Psalmist enforces the same requests, or some other circumstances, every Sermon contains new conceptions and proper
to the text. Some few verses were not handled by him.
I earnestly pray that those who shall read these Sermons
may taste the sweetness of the Divine truths opened in
them, and may be transformed into the spirit of David, by
an inward feeling of the affections, and verifying in their
own breasts the words of the holy Prophet.

W. BATES.