Note 111 — Chapter VI

Let me by no means be understood to censure all the sectaries without discrimination. Many of them, and some who by the unhappy circumstances of the times became objects of notice in a political view, were men of great erudition, deep views of Religion, and unquestionable piety: and though the writings of the puritans are prolix; and according to the fashion of their age, rendered rather perplexed than clear by multiplied divisions and subdivisions; yet they are a mine of wealth, in which any one who will submit to some degree of labour will find himself well rewarded for his pains. In particular the writings of Dr. Owen, Mr. Howe, and Mr. Flavell, well deserve this character: of the first mentioned author, there are two pieces which I would especially recommend to the reader’s perusal, one, on Heavenly Mindedness, abridged by Dr. Mayo; the other, on the Mortification of Sin in Believers. While I have been speaking in terms of such high, and, I trust, such just eulogium of many of the teachers of the Church of England; this may not be an improper place to express the high obligations which we owe to the Dissenters, for many excellent publications. Of this number are Dr. Evans’s Sermons on the Christian Temper; and that most useful book, the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, by Dr. Doddridge; also, his Life, by Orton, and Letters; and two volumes of Sermons, one on Regeneration, the other on the Power and Grace of Christ: May the writer be permitted to embrace this opportunity of recommending two volumes, published separately, of Sermons, by the late Dr. Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey.