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PREFACE,

BY THE EDITOR.

HAVING had the Sermons of the late Reverend DAVID BROWN, Chaplain of the Honorable the East India Company at Calcutta, committed to me for the purpose of selecting a volume or two out of them for the press, it will be expected that some reason should be assigned for the delay which has taken place in the publication of them.

The following direction had been left by Mr. Brown respecting them. "Those two sets on which I have written for revision, if I live to revise them, may be considered as left for the press, if desired; but in their present state they have perhaps some extracts, or unacknowledged quotations from authors not referred to, which ought not to be the case in any thing published; and which is my chief reason for directing, as I have done, the rest of my Sermons to be destroyed, on my decease, without reserve.

(Signed) “D. BROWN, April 1812.”

Agreeably to this direction, a great number of Sermons were immediately destroyed; and when the sets above referred to were brought to England and examined, neither of them was complete, some belonging to each of them having been unwittingly mixed with those which had been unfortunately consigned to the flames. These sets, had they undergone revision by the author, and come to hand in an entire state, would have been a just specimen of his labours, and a valuable acquisition to the Christian world; but, being only unconnected parts of different sets, they would have appeared to extreme disadvantage, and would have lost all that interest, which, in a connected series, they would have been well calculated to excite. Recourse therefore was had to his other Sermons, on which less labour had been bestowed; and amongst them were found many, which, for the purpose of general edification, were excellent, but as finished productions for the press, were scarcely thought in a state fit for publication. The fact is, that the multiplicity of Mr. Brown's engagements prevented him from taking so much pains in composing his Sermons, as he would have done if his time would have admitted of it. The

labour bestowed by him on the acquisition of

languages,

languages, the care necessary for the discharge of his high official duties, and the attention which he paid to the education of his numerous family, rendered it impossible for him to devote so much time to the composition of his Sermons, as would have been necessary to prepare them for the public eye. For the edification of his hearers, this species of care was not necessary. A popular address, proceeding from the heart of an affectionate minister, did not need those embellishments which may be looked for in compositions written professedly for the press. And to send forth such productions, which the author has never had any opportunity to revise, is, however kindly intended, an injury to the person whose name they bear. Feeling this, the Editor thought it better, that the Widow of Mr. Brown should draw up a Memoir of her departed husband; which, to those who knew and reverenced his exalted character, would be far more interesting than an entire volume of his Sermons, sent forth under such disadvantageous circumstances. Not that the Sermons would have dishonoured his memory, as will appear from those which are subjoined to the Memoir: for they breathe the true spirit of a Christian minister; they state, in very forcible terms, the fundamental doctrines

of

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