Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

i Lathrup

717

OF THE

DOCTRINES AND DUTIES

OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION,

IN FORTYNINE DISCOURSES ON

ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE to the EPHESIANS.

WITH A

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE

ΟΝ ΤΗΣ

EVIDENCES OF THE GOSPEL,

ESPECIALLY THOSE DERIVED FROM THE

Converfion, Miniftry and Writings of that Apoftle.

BY JOSEPH LATHROP, D. D.

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN WESTSPRINGFIELD.

[graphic][merged small]

PRINTED AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS:
BY ISAIAH THOMAS, JUN.
[PROPRIETOR OF THE WORK ACCORDING TO LAW.]
September-1801.

PUBLIC LIBRARY

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

PREFACE.

THE author of the following work has

made it a frequent practice, in the course of his miniftry, to felect, for the fubject of his public discourses, a large portion of fcripture, a number of chapters in a book, a whole book, or Epistle, going through it, paragraph by paragraph, in order. From this method of preaching he has contemplated these two advantages -The preacher will thus be led to treat on fome fubjects, which, in the ordinary way of felection, might be overlooked; and he will exhibit the connected train of reafoning which runs through the book, and thus will lead his hearers to obferve the connexion and argumentation of fcripture in their private reading.

AMONG the books felected for the fubjects of a feries of discourses, that entitled "The Epifle to the Ephefians," is one. Whether this Epiftle was originally written to the Ephefians, as is generally fuppofed; or written to the Laodiceans, and from them conveyed, by copy, to the Ephefians, as fome have conjectured, is a question, not neceffary here to be difcuffed; for on the decifion of this queftion neither the genuineness, nor usefulness of the Epiftle will depend. The reafons for the former opinion will be found in HAMMOND, WHITBY, and other.commentators; the reasons for the latter inay be feen in PALEY'S Foræ Paulinæ.

THIS Epiftle is more replete with fentiment, and enriched with a greater variety of matter, than Paul's other Epiftles, and, perhaps, than any other book in the facred volume. It is a compendium of the gofpel. In difcourfing upon it, the author of the enfuing fermons, has ob.

The Publisher of this work has juft reprinted WHITBY'S DISCOURSES, which are to be fold by him in Worcester,

« FöregåendeFortsätt »