ADVERTISEMENT.

WHEN the Editor first announced a new edition of the Works of the Rev. John Howe, he promised one volume, at least, from unpublished manuscripts. The sources whence these are derived, are stated in his preface to the First Volume. His original intention, was to have published the sermons which he obtained from the late Rev. S. Palmer, of Hackney, with a selection only of such, from Dr. Williams’s library, as might appear most worthy of publication. But, on further examination, he found these manuscripts to consist chiefly, of a regular course of Lectures on “The principles of the oracles of God,” which were delivered weekly, and commenced in the year 1690. He therefore determined to publish the whole; a determination which he has no doubt, the religious public will approve.

The Author had, doubtless, intended a complete system of Theo logy, though the design does not seem to have been carried fully into effect. He has, however, continued a regular course, as far as to the consideration of “The general and special grace of God in order to the recovery of apostate souls.” There are, in the whole, seventy Lectures: and about fifty Sermons on the most interesting and important subjects. Of their authenticity, the Editor is convinced there will be no doubt entertained by the public, when they are in formed, that in. addition to the evidence derived from their preservation in a public library, as the works of Howe, some of the lectures and sermons are in his own hand writing, (a facsimile of which will be given,) as appears from comparing them with the letters of a correspondence between him and the Rev. Mr. Baxter, which are preserved in the library. To those acquainted with his former works, the internal evidence of these lectures will be conspicuous. The Editor thinks it not too much to say, they bear all the marks of Howe’s comprehensive, peculiar, and extraordinary mind. So strikingly is this the fact, that had he found them on a desert he conceives he could not possibly have mistaken their “image and superscription.”

Chichester, August 16. 1815.