BY

JAMES YONGE, M. A.

LATE PERPETUAL CURATE OF THE UNITED PARISHES OF TORMOHAM AND COCKINGTON, IN THE COUNTY OF DEVON; AND FORMERLY

MINISTER OF TORQUAY CHAPEL.

DEDICATED TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF HIS CONGREGATION, AS A LAST TOKEN OF HIS AFFECTIONATE REGARD.

"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

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Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle."Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance."-2 Peter i. 12—15.

EXETER:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY W. C. POLLARD;

SOLD ALSO BY

MESSRS. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, LONDON ;

J. PARKER, OXFORD; UPHAM, FITZE, SPREAT, GAIN, AND STRONG, EXETER; AND J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IT was the intention of the much lamented Author of the following Discourses, to devote a portion of the small remains of his strength, in his last illness, to the accomplishment of a design, frequently and earnestly pressed upon him by many members of his congregation, and to print, for general circulation, a volume of the Sermons he had addressed to them.

Many living friends, in no way connected with him, but as members of his flock, can attest that he was himself unwilling to believe his labours to be worthy of such a distinction. His motives, in at length acceding to their request, will be best explained by the following Extracts from letters written to the Editor, within the few

last months of his life. November 17, 1829, he thus writes:" I have had many exhortations to print a volume of Sermons, and if I could make any profit thereby, most gladly would I devote it to charity, and so endeavour to do a little good in two ways at once. I confess, I am sometimes a little excited by the hope of multiplying and perpetuating, for a short time at least, my means of advancing the cause of religion. I do so little in this way, that I ought greedily to embrace any chance of being able to do more." January 12, 1830, about three months before his death, he again thus notices the subject."You will be glad to hear, that I think I shall very soon commence operations with the Printer. S advises me to write to my personal friends, and engage them to dispose of ten copies each in their respective circles, but this I look upon as an objectionable plan. I think they will be sold, if all who have been members of my congregation, should hear of their publication, because they and their friends would make a numerous party. I should like to have a month to devote to this work."

The hope of accomplishing this work himself was however never realized. Disease advanced with rapid progress, leaving the sufferer, at the age of thirty-five years, but little more than sufficient strength to engage in the solemn duties of the dying bed, and to reconcile his surrounding relatives and friends to the view of his departure, which he saw to be now near at hand.

With a few general directions, he entrusted to others the work of selection and publication, a pleasing labour indeed to those who have been employed in it, but such as would have received a better accomplishment at his own hands.

The Editor therefore, and those friends of the departed who have lent their useful aid in selecting these Sermons for the press, have but endeavoured to discharge a duty bequeathed to them by one, whose dying hours furnished a happy example of the blessedness of a Christian hope. No too fond partiality of surviving relatives, no vain desire of kindling or cherishing the flame of a mere posthumous praise, but obedience to the last wishes of a friend, has alone directed the present undertaking.