views of it which are brought forward in this work, would require a hundred volumes instead of three. I hope, therefore, that the critic will not charge me with culpable. omissions, even if he should find some important subjects not treated of in these volumes.
There is one subject to which I wish the above remarks to be especially applied. I mean the great subject of progress in personal holiness I should be very sorry, if, by devoting my concluding volume to instructions on the Way to Do Good, I should convey the idea that the proper performance of outward acts of benevolence constitutes the sole, or even the principal work of the Christian life. To describe the believer's inward conflicts with sin, his trials, and temptations, and struggles; his fears, and hopes, and joys; to delineate, in a word, the road by which he finds his way from step to step, to the highest degree of personal sanctification attainable here, is a task of a very far higher character than any which I have attempted in these volumes. That road is one which can be described only by one who has travelled it; and years of extended Christian experience, or else very uncommon spiritual qualifications, could alone justify the attempt.
Though these works are thus necessarily limited in respect to their range, I have endeavored to exhibit nothing in them but truth. I have endeavored to exhibit that truth too, which is most obvious, and most important in its bearings; and which may have the most immediate and direct influence upon the feelings of the heart, in promoting intelligent, devoted and happy piety.