SELECTED AND ABRIDGED, CHIEFLY FROM MINOR AUTHORS, ADAPTED TO THE SAINTS' DAYS, FESTIVALS, FASTS, &c. AND TO GENERAL OCCASIONS, &c. &c. FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES. BY THỂ REV. SAMUEL CLAPHAM, A.M. RECTOR OF GUSSAGE, ST. MICHAEL DORSET; VICAR OF CHRIST CHURCH, THE SECOND EDITION. London: PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH- Law and Gilbert, Priuters, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell. DEDICATION. TO JAMES ALLAN PARK, Esq. ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNSEL, &c. &c. MY DEAR SİR, : IN a publication whose sole design is to promote the interests of the Gospel, and the welfare of the Church, I consider that I am using an additional argument in support of my design, by the prefixing of your name to it. The example of men distinguished by their fortune, their knowlege, or their station, diffuses, throughout a wide range of society, much evil on the one hand, or more good on the other, than all the arguments however powerful, and all the persuasion however affectionate, of the most judicious, and zealous, preacher. It is to the parochial Clergy that men look, and naturally, for simplicity of manners, and purity of life; but for splendid acts, and attractive goodness, they look to higher orders, and superior ranks. In an exemplary attendance on public worship, accompanied with an amiable family, you give encouragement to the well-disposed, and admonition to the thoughtless; you recommend the observance of the most solemn Ordinance of the Gospel, not merely by the example of a regular, and devout, participation, but by a solicitude demonstrated even beyond the influence of example, to impress a deep and awful sense of its obligation. The interest you take, in the midst of professional engagements, and important pursuits, in the benevolent support of the Magdalen Institution, to preserve the guilty from ruin, and to restore the penitent to comfort-the valuable time which you devote, and the sound judgment which you apply in the superintendence and direction rection of a Charity, which diffuses blessings on a part of society greatly to be compassioned, who, unhappily, have forfeited its countenance, and alienated themselves from its protectionwhilst it is a source of no common satisfaction, exhibits, to men of high station, an example of the blessings they may confer on the miserable, the deluded, and the friendless. Among the several features of your character, posterity will record with gratitude and admiration, your endeavors, laudable in their motive, and successful in their issue, to obtain, for a persecuted Church, relief from the penalties under which it had long, unworthily, suffered. The Episcopal Church of Scotland, apostolic in its origin, primitive in its manners, orthodox in its religious, and loyal in its civil, opinions, considers you as a champion to whose zeal and judgment, she is, in no usual degree, indebted for her deliverance from a yoke imposed at first through a suspicion of the principles, and continued, afterwards, as a restraint on the conduct, of her members. May Government, in its wisdom, not content itself with relieving her fro n the severity of penal laws, but, as an additional mark of A 3 favor |