ny myriads of closets and family circles its
author when dead has spoken. And as his death in a foreign land
forfeited the insurance by which he had somewhat provided for his
family, we confess to a certain comfort in knowing that the loss was
replaced by this literary legacy. But the great source of complacency
is, that He to whom the work was consecrated had a favor for it, and has
given it the greatest honor that a human book can have--making it
extensively the means of explaining and endearing the book of God.

Whilst this great undertaking was slowly advancing, the author was from
time to time induced to give to the world a sermon or a practical
treatise. Several of these maintain a considerable circulation down to
the present day; but of them all the most permanent and precious is "The
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." The publication of this work
was urged upon him by Dr. Isaac Watts, with whom it had long been a
cherished project to prepare a manual which should contain within itself
a complete course of practical piety, from the first dawn of earnest
thought to the full development of Christian character, But when
exhaustion and decay admonished Dr. Watts that his work was done, he
transferred to his like-minded friend his favorite scheme; and, sorely
begrudging the interruption of his Commentary, Doddridge compiled this
volume. It is not faultless. A more predominant exhibition of the Gospel
remedy would have been more apostolic; and it would have prevented an
evil which some have experienced in reading it, who have entangled
themselves in its technical details, and who, in their anxiety to keep
the track of the Rise and Progress, have forgotten that after all the
grand object is to reach the Cross. But, with every reasonable
abatement, it is the best book of the eighteenth century; and, tried by
the test of usefulness, we doubt if its equal has since appeared.
Rendered into the leading languages of Europe, it has been read by few
without impression, and in the case of vast numbers that impression has
been enduring. What adds greatly to its importance, and to the reward of
its glorified writer--many of those whom it has impressed were master
minds, and destined in their turn to be the means of impressing others.
As in the instance of Wilberforce, this little book was to be in their
minds the germ of other influential books, or of sermons; and, like the
lamp at which many torches and tapers are lighted