"When a man comes before the world as an author, there is much danger of his being actuated by motives of which he does not like to acknowledge the influence, and people are so naturally disposed to suspect the motive to be something different from that which ought to be the leading one of all our important actions, and especially of those which are possessed by our religious actions; namely, the honour of God, and our own neighbour's good; that the common preface to such works is, to guard the author against the imputation of vanity or of self-love, in some one {xiii } or other of the contemptible forms in which it rules so widely in this poor world of ours. Such introductory apologies, on the part of an author, will not, I believe, meet with full credit with those who know the world. Those who are most obviously the slaves of self-will, will, generally, be loudest in their protestations of the purity and excellence of their motives; so that my advice to those who wish to establish in the minds of others a good opinion of their sincerity, would generally be, to say nothing about it, and let their conduct speak for itself. Yet this is not what I intend to do in the commencement of my present work. What I have undertaken is, _to give to the public_ a history of my own mind. I shall make it my study to recollect with accuracy and to state with truth the motives, the impressions, and the feelings by which I have been guided in the important passages of my past life; and therefore there seems to be some peculiar reason, from the nature of the work itself, why I should commence by stating why I have undertaken it. Yet I will not venture to say positively what are my motives. I rather shall state, in the sight of God and of my brethren, what are the motives which I allow myself to entertain in deliberately presenting a history of my thoughts _to the public_. My readers are at liberty to judge me in their own way, and suppose that I deceive myself in the view I take of my own intentions as much or as little as to them shall seem probable. Of this {xvi} which, have obliged me to leave my flock to the care of others, while my proper business is to be, for a time, to recover my health by rest and relaxation. Here then is an opportunity for undertaking something in the way of writing; and I am about to make what I conceive is the most valuable contribution in my power to the works already existing for the defence of our Holy Faith.