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BY AARON BANCROFT, D.D.

FASTOR OF THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN WORCESTER.

DIVINITY SCHOOL

LIBRARY.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

WORCESTER:

Printed by William Manning & Son.

ΜΑΣ, 1822.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the sixth day of May, A. D. 1822, in the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, AARON BANCROFT, D. D. of the said District, has depos ited in this office the Title of a Book, the Right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit: "Sermons on those Doctrines of the Gospel, and on those Constituent Principles of the Church, which Christian Professors have made the Subject of Controversy. By AARON BANCROFT, D. D. Pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Worcester."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, 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 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.” JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts,

582 Brise 1822 сезг

INTRODUCTION,

BY THE PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.

THE discourses contained in this volume are presented to the publick by an association of gentlemen, belonging to the Second Congregational Society in Worcester, of which their Reverend Author is Pastor. Having solicited and obtained the manuscripts, to be disposed of at their discretion, some explanation of their views of the importance of the publication seems to be demanded by the occasion. At no period in the history of New-England, has there existed so active a spirit of inquiry on subjects of religion, as at the present time; a spirit, not confined, as formerly, to men of science and leisure, but pervading almost every grade and condition in society. The advantages of education, which have been so long enjoyed, in common, at our publick schools, by all classes of citizens; the increasing facilities for obtaining literary distinction in our Academies and our Colleges, and the perfect security guarantied by our laws, to the right of private judgment and of publick discussion, have produced an obvious change in the intellectual as well as the physical state of our country. There are now comparatively few individuals, capable of moral distinctions, who do not esteem it their duty as well as their privilege to examine the doctrines proposed for their belief, and to form opinions for themselves, in the all-important concerns of a future life. Doctrinal discourses from the pulpit are now seldom heard with satisfaction, or even with patience, if the preacher proposes to do more than to aid the inquiries of his hearers. They will hardly suffer him to prescribe a creed for their adoption, or to denounce them for the independent exercise of

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