TO THE READER.

IT is the honour of the evangelical 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.