DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT:
District Clerk's Office.

BE it remembered, that on the fifteenth day of February, A.D. 1814, and in the thirty eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, William Wells of the said District, has deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the Right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the Words following, to wit:- Sermons by the late Rev. J. S. Buckminster. With a Memoir of his Life and Character."

In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the Ensouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned:" and also to an Act entitled," An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical, and other Prints."

WILLIAM S. SHAW,

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE HE collection of this volume of posthumous discourses was undertaken in compliance with the general wishes of those, who had the privilege of hearing the preaching of Mr. Buckminster, and particularly of the society in Brattle Square. About sixty sermons were first selected, from the whole number found among his papers, by two distinguished members of his parish. From among this number, those, which compose the present volume, were taken and prepared for the press by two of his brethren in the ministry. In performing the difficult and delicate task of revision, every other liberty has been very sparingly used, except that of omitting such passages, as appeared not to have received the usual degree of the author's care and attention. The only general principle of selection, which could be adopted, was, to take those sermons, which, with regard to their literary execution, were found to be in a state most fitted for publication. Many discourses, therefore, have been necessarily neglected, containing passages not inferiour to the best

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in the present volume, but which appear not to have been laboured throughout with equal felicity. One or two have been admitted, where the author, in some of his leading ideas, may seem to have been indebted to other writers. But his thoughts, where these coincidences exist, appear always to have passed through and taken an original colouring from his own mind; and he has adopted nothing which he has not embellished and improved. The sermons alluded to are those on Faith, which bear some resemblance to the discourses of Cappe on the same subject. Of the sermon on the character of our Saviour, also, the general argument has been often stated by different writers, particularly by Mr. Belsham, in his chapter on the internal evidences of christianity.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

SO favourable has been the reception of this volume by the public, that a new edition has become necessary within the short space of six months. The publishers have added to this edition, an Oration on the Dangers and Duties of Men of Letters, which will be found at the end of the Memoir; and "The Right Hand of Fellowship," delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Charles Lowell, at the end of the volume.