THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN M. MASON, D.D. IN FOUR VOLUMES. EDITED BY HIS SON, EBENEZER MASON. VOL. I. NEW YORK: BAKER AND SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET AND 36 PARK ROW. 1849. BX8915 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern C. W. BENEDICT, Stereotyper, 201 William street, cor. of Frankfort. 747566 INTRODUCTION. IN issuing another edition of the late Dr. Mason's works, we have only yielded to a repeated call for them, and sought to furnish them to the community in a respectable form, and at a reasonable price. The demand for them has not been ephemeral, but steadily uniform, beyond what might have been expected from their miscellaneous character. Most of the articles in this work arose from the exigencies of the periods in which they were written. They were thrown off currente calamo, under the pressure of varied public engagements and social claims. Essays, published in such associations, can scarcely be preserved from oblivion, or from being overlooked in the quiet enjoyment of results procured through their agency. In a few years, they are to be found, dust covered, only on the shelves of cotemporaneous friendship, of the strictly professional, and of the preservers of "things which were." In rare instances, some force of style, eloquence of thought, or skill in argument, secure a more frequent and lasting notice; but soon new events, new men, and new productions arise, and claim honors of their own. Nearly a generation has passed away since Dr. Mason withdrew from public life; and his pen, except for a few sermons, was laid aside years previous to his personal retirement. His writings have retained their value with the public. The reasons of the steady call for them are to be found, perhaps, in the wide sphere of Dr. Mason's actions, in the unquestionable results of those actions, and in the soundness of the principles embodied in his writings. Entering into public life in ecclesiastical connections, not at that time most favorable to extended opportunity and influence, he eventually occupied positions which turned the eyes of the church and the community upon him, imposed burdens he could not decline, and finally laid on him the labor of several men; so that at fifty years of age he was prematurely old, worn out in the service of his fellow men. His mind worked with great vigor and directness; it appears to have moved onward, as new and urgent drafts were made upon its energies, until its strong frame-work, deprived of its due supply of nervous influence, yielded, and forced the willing spirit to cease its efforts for human advancement in the service of its Master. Importunate friendship, and ready compliance did afresh, in his case, as it had done before, regret that the one had been so imperious, and the other so yielding. It was useless to lament. "Space for repentance was not to be found." Yet it is not to be doubted, that had Dr. Mason more considerately refused, the firmness of his attachments and the zeal of his devotion would have been questioned; as it was, this master-spirit for generosity and benevolence, as well as for conception and execution, had his readiness to do good charged upon him as the aspirings of an ambitious spirit. "But wisdom is justified of her children." It is known to us that the spirit of true Christianity, triumphing |