EX 7232 L. S. DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 22d day of March, in the fiftysecond year of the Independence of the United States of America, TIMOTHY DWIGHT, and WILLIAM T. DWIGHT, of said District, **** Administrators of the Rev. TIMOTHY DWIGHT, now deceased, and late of the said District, have deposited in this office, the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Administrators, aforesaid, and Proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "Sermons by Timothy Dwight, D.D. LL.D. late President of Yale College, in two volumes." In conformity to the Act of 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 the 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." CHA'S A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. Clerk of the District of Connecticut. E. & H. CLARK, Print....Middletown. PRESIDENT DWIGHT, in consequence of an early and permanent injury sustained by his eyes from too close application to study, was able, during no part of his ministerial life, to write out his sermons with his own hand. A few of his earlier discourses, as well as a few others prepared for occasions of peculiar interest, were written by the aid of an amanuensis; but almost all of those, which he preached before September, 1805, were delivered either extemporaneously, or from short notes. They were usually prepared in his own mind when walking, or riding, or working in his garden; and, if written at all, were drawn out in the form of a brief skeleton, during the hours immediately preceding the morning and afternoon service of the Sabbath. From that period until the close of his life, the Corporation of Yale College enabled him to employ a succession of amanuenses; through whose aid he wrote his Theology, his Travels, a considerable number of Occasional Sermons, and several other compositions which may perhaps be published hereafter. The great body of the Discourses, in the two volumes now offered to the public, were originally preached at Greenfield, and were ultimately written out at New Haven. The author, from long and habitual attention to exactness of thought, of arrangement and of language, was accustomed in conversation, in the desk, and while dictating to an amanuensis, to present the conceptions of his own mind in a form and manner so finished, as to need usually few or no corrections to prepare them for the press. This was the case with the following discourses -they are published as written down, with scarce an alteration either from the author or the editor. The last twelve discourses of the first volume are Valedictory Sermons, delivered in successive years to the members of the Senior Class, on the last Sabbath of their collegiate life--the Sabbath preceding the public commencement, just before they were admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Two of these, on The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, have heretofore been published both in this country and in England. A third, that on 1 Cor. ix. 24, has been extensively regarded as one of the fairest models of pulpit eloquence. Three of the sermons were delivered at the Ordination of different clergymen. That on The Dignity and Excellency of the Gospel, was first delivered at Milford, in 1785, at the ordination of the Rev. William Lockwood. At that time a manuscript copy of it, without the knowledge of the author, was sent, by one of his friends, to Cowper the Poet. It is the sermon of which he speaks in Letter 137, of Hayley's Life of Cowper. The sermon on Jer. viii. 20, entitled, The Harvest Past, was probably the most useful, and by many perhaps will be regarded as the most eloquent, of his discourses. At least four or five extensive revivals of religion were supposed to commence in consequence of its delivery. Should these two volumes be favourably received, it is not improbable that one or two more may hereafter be published. NEW HAVEN, Sept. 29, 1827. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 45 Life and Immortality brought to light in the Gospel.—2 Tim. i. 10. 145 On the duties connected with a professional life. Preached to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate in 1796 and 1805.—Prov. iv. 20-27. 289 |