OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET, AND FORMERLY ASSISTANT ΒΟΣΚΕ ΤΑ ΑΡΝΙΑ ΜΟΥ-ΠΟΙΜΑΙΝΕ ΤΑ ΠΡΟΒΑΤΑ ΜΟΥ. LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL. 1830. TO HIS GRACE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MOST REVEREND LORD J. GEORGE DE-LA-POER BERESFORD, D.D. ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND AND METROPOLITAN, PRELATE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS ORDER OF ST. PATRICK, &c. &c. &c. IN ADMIRATION OF HIS FAITHFUL DISCHARGE OF HIS GREAT AND ONEROUS DUTIES; IN RESPECT FOR HIS UPRIGHT, UNCOMPROMISING, CONSISTENT, AND ENLIGHTENED ATTACHMENT TO THE CHURCH WHICH HE ADORNS; IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF HIS LIBERALITY AND KINDNESS, THIS VOLUME, DESIGNED TO SUBSERVE THE INTERESTS OF GENUINE RELIGION, IS, BY HIS GRACE'S OBLIGING PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS GRACE'S GRATEFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, HENRY THOMPSON. PREFACE. THE Composer of the following pages has not the folly to imagine himself capable of instructing his brethren of the Clergy: nor, if he could entertain so preposterous a notion, would he be insensible that this has been already done in the most ample, luminous, and satisfactory manner, by theologians, scholars, and pastors, all of first-rate accomplishments. The endeavour to follow in the wake of a Herbert, a Taylor, or a Burnet, if it proved not the seamanship of the mariner, and the tightness of his vessel, could only discover his incompetency and presumption, and terminate in wreck and ridicule. Nothing so adventurous is here attempted. The failure, if such it should be pronounced by those for whom this volume is designed, (who are qualified to make the judgment, and from whose decision the |