THE

PREFACE.

I

CAN'T give a greater Commendation of the following Sermons, than to affure the Reader that they are what they pretend to be; and that they were all defign'd and prepar'd for the Prefs (as feveral others are, which may follow in due Time) by the ingenious, learned, and judicious Dr. Rogers himself, whofe Name is prefix'd to them.

But indeed every Reader, who is in any Degree acquainted with the Writings of this excellent Author, or who has read, with any Attention, his View of the vifible and invifible Church, or his moft admirable Review of the fame Argument, will foon be convinced, from the internal Marks of thefe Difcourses, that the Author of those vaA 2 luable

luable Treatifes was indifputably the Author of the following Sermons. That clear and juft Manner of arguing, that Nicenefs and Accuracy in diftinguishing, that true Solidity of Judgment which he always fhewed in guarding and limiting every Propofition, and that great Propriety and Elegancy of Stile, which fo eminently distinguished his other Writings, and which gave fo much Satisfaction to every judicious and unprejudiced Reader, appear fo evidently in every Page of thefe Difcourfes, that they foon difcover the great and masterly Hand they were finished by, and render it unneceffary for me to inform the Reader who was the Author of these Sermons, after he has once given himself the Pleasure to peruse them.

Several of the Difcourfes contain'd in this Volume are upon the Subjects of thofe Controverfies, which gave Occafion to the excellent Books he obliged the World with in his Life-time;

and

and which, I prefume, will be read, when most of the Pieces wrote in that Controverfy are forgot. And no Doubt it will be a great Pleasure to the Reader, to fee fome Particulars relating to those Controverfies more fully enlarged upon, and farther open'd and purfu'd in these Sermons, (by an Author who had thought fo well and fo much upon those Subjects, and who, from the Merit of his former Performances, had the fingular Felicity to receive the Commendations of the greatest Writers on both Sides of the Queftion) than in the Books themselves, which he had before published: And other Cafes again ftated and determined with his great Exactness of Judgment, which he had not then perhaps fo proper an Occafion to touch upon.

There are few Writers of this or any Age, who were bleffed with greater natural Talents of all Kinds, and who had acquired and laid in a greater

Store

Store of useful and folid Learning, and who could apply it to better Purposes, than our late excellent Author. The learned World, by the Manner in which they have received his former Writings, have done Juftice to his Character, as a Writer in Controverfy: And the following Sermons, as well as those which were publish'd by himfelf,* will continue as a lafting Monument of his great Abilities for the Pulpit, and that Controverfy was neither his only, nor his greatest Talent. Had God been pleased to have continued Dr. Rogers longer amongst us, what might not the World have expected from a Writer who had fo early made himself a perfect Master of all that Learning which is neceffary to the finishing a great Divine! and who return'd to Town, where he was recalled in fo honourable a Manner, with fuch firm Refolutions to confe

* See the Neceffity of Divine Revelation, and the Truth of the Chriftian Revelation, in Eight Sermons.

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