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DISTRICT OF VERMONT, TO WIT:

BE it remembered, that on the sixth day of May, in the fiftyL.Sfourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, of the said District, hath deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"Select Practical Theology of the Seventeenth Century, comprising the best Practical works of the great English Divines, and other congenial authors of that age. Collected and arranged, with biographical sketches and occasional notes, by JAMES MARSH, President of the University of Vermont. In five Volumes. Vol. I. containing The blessedness of the Righteous, and the Vanity of Man as Mortal, by the REV. JOHN HOWE, and Discourses on the Four Last Things, by DR. WM, BATES."

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."

JESSE GOVE,
Clerk of the District of Vermont.

A true Copy of Record. Examined and sealed by me,

J. GOVE, Clerk.

CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, Printer, Burlington, Vt.

PREFACE.

The general object aimed at, in republishing the works herewith offered to the public, is sufficiently obvious, and, it is hoped, will meet the approbation of every enlightened christian. Efforts, before unexampled in the history of the church, are made, at the present time, to promote the diffusion of the scriptures; and we hope soon, by the blessing of God, to be assured, that this most important means of grace and of spiritual improvement has been brought to the threshold of every family throughout our extended country. But, although we hold, as all protestants profess to do, that the Word of God is alone a sufficient rule of faith and practise, and though it might be wished, that every christian would so read and contemplate its instructions, as to need no other aid; experience teaches us, that even in the most enlightened communities, other aids are thought necessary and resorted to. Most christians not only depend on their appointed spiritual guide to explain to them the truths of the gospel, but in their most retired and serious hours of meditation upon those truths seek assistance from the meditations of others. Nor can it be doubted, indeed, that men of undisciplined minds are essentially benefited by such recourse to works judiciously prepared to aid their reflections, and may thereby elevate their devotional feelings and enlarge their views of spiritual things beyond what they would be able to do by their own unassisted efforts. Works of this kind have been produced in greater or less abundance, and with different degrees of excellence, in almost every age of the Church; and it needs but little consideration to be convinced, that they must exert an influence in the religious education of the community, scarcely inferior to the instructions of the pulpit itself. If such be the fact, it becomes a matter of practical importance to make a wise selection of such works, as are best fitted in this way to promote the spiritual improvement of christians, and to bring them, as far as may be, to the knowledge of the public and into general use. In contemplating the character and productions of the Church, in former periods of its history, and comparing them with those of our own age, it becomes us, as far as possible, to recall whatever of good

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