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ON THE.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND TRUTHS

OF

REDEMPTION.

TO WHICH ARE ANNEXED,

AN ADDRESS AND DISSERTATION ON THE STATE OF THE
DEPARTED, AND THE DESCENT OF
CHRIST INTO HELL.

BY

JOHN HENRY HOBART, D.D.

BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
PROFESSOR OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY AND PULPIT ELOQUENCE IN THE GENERAL
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AND RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, AND

ST. PAUL'S AND ST. JOHN'S CHAPELS, IN THE CITY OF

NEW YORK.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD,

AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL.

1824.

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PREFACE.

THE publication of Sermons, in England, by an American Clergyman, may require explanation.

It being deemed necessary by his friends, that the Author of these Sermons should enjoy a relaxation from the duties and cares of an extensive diocese and parish, and for this purpose should visit Europe, he followed the example, as he presumes, of most Clergymen under such circumstances, and took with him some Sermons; not with any intention of publishing them, but in order to be prepared to exercise the functions of his Ministry in any case, should the state of his health admit, in which this duty might reasonably be

expected from him. On his arrival in England, he found that, in various publications, some of them extensively circulated, the charge is alleged against the great body of the Bishops and Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, of not faithfully inculcating the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel; and the Author is ranked by name among those who are represented as thus neglecting the great essentials of religion, and insisting chiefly on its mere externals.

While he disclaims the justice of the charge, as it respects his brethren, he has felt it his duty, being thus publicly and particularly implicated, to vindicate himself from one of the most serious imputations which can be urged against a Christian Minister. And to this course he was also prompted by an earnest desire, that, as a Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, he should not appear to have departed from the doctrines of the venerable Church of England to whom that Church is

"indebted, under God, for her first foundation, and for a long continuance of nursing care and protection*." The most effectual mode of accomplishing these objects, he conceived, would be the publication of Sermons which, in the course of his duty as a Parochial Minister, he preached to the congregations of which he has the charge.

In justice to himself and to the printer, he must add, that his unavoidable arrangements requiring the hasty printing of the Sermons, he has not had the time, nor the opportunity, for the careful revisal of them, and for annexing to them Notes, with the view of illustrating and confirming many of the sentiments which they contain.

London, March 13, 1824.

*

Preface to the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant

Episcopal Church.

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