The Wife's Advocate: Preface

When the Author, if he may be excused a reference to himself, quite a youth, first went to London, and was all anxiety to hear the preachers of the fumed metropolis, he was told by a friend,

if he wished to hear a good doctrinal sermon, he must hear;

if an experimental, he must hear; and if a practical, he must

hear. And he well remembers simply asking, ‘But is there no

minister here who preaches all these? I should rather hear him.

This mode, he is conscious, he has always aimed and endeavoured to follow himself: and by this criterion he is willing to be judged, not indeed by an occasional hearer, but by his regular and constant attendants. The following discourse, therefore, is not to be taken as a specimen of his preaching, but as apart; the propriety and usefulness of which, are to be viewed in alliance with other parts, and in harmony with the whole.

A minister, who, like Epaphras, would ‘stand perfect anci complete in all the will of God,’ viust inculcate the relative duties.

And he will find his advantage in enforcing them connectedly. Each party will the better receive — especially admonition and reproof; when the corresponding party is addressed at the same time, and in the same manner: because it will show that the preacher has no private aim; and is no respecter of persons.

The apostles invariably adopted this method. If they addressed servants, they always addressed masters. If they exhorted children, they always exhorted parents also. It was the same with regard to the conjugal relations.

Bath, December 1, 1829.