Preface
PREFACE ——— THE preceding dedication is sufficient to acquaint the public that these Sacramental Discourses are the genuine productions of that great man of God, Dr John Owen, who was for some time, in the last age, vice-chancellor of Oxford. They enter the world through the same channel as his Thirteen Sermons on various occasions, published four years since,—namely, they were at first taken in shorthand from the Doctor's mouth, and, by the late Sir John Hartopp, baronet, Mrs Cooke's pious grandfather, were transcribed into longhand.
Mr Matthew Henry has this note in his annotations on 2 Kings 2, —"There are remains of great and good men, which, like Elijah's mantle, ought to be gathered up, and preserved by the survivors,— their sayings, their writings, their examples: that as their works follow them in the reward of them, they may stay behind in the benefit of them." Not that our faith is to stand in the wisdom of men;
—the Bible alone is the standard of truth; and there we are bid to go by the footsteps of the flock, and to keep the paths of the righteous.
There is a strange itch in the minds of men after novelties; and it is too common a case, that they who are for striking out something new in divinity, are ready to pour contempt on the valuable writings of those who are gone before them; and even the most learned, peaceable, and pious men, shall not escape their unrighteous