ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW; DELIVERED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, WESTMINSTER, IN THE YEARS 1798, 1799, 1800, AND 1801. BY THE RIGHT REVEREND BEILBY PORTEUS, D. D. BISHOP OF LONDON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. THE EIGHTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL & W. DAVIES, STRAND; F. & C. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 1805. Koninklijke INHABITANTS Ο LONDON AND WESTMINSTER, THESE LECTURES, WRITTEN PRINCIPALLY FOR THEIR BENEFIT, AND FAVOURED WITH THEIR UNREMITTED ATTENDANCE FOR FOUR SUCCESSIVE YEARS, ARE, WITH VERY SINCERE SENTIMENTS OF REGARD AND ESTEEM, AND WITH FERVENT PRAYERS FOR THEIR HAPPINESS HERE AND HEREAFTER, INSCRIBED, THEIR FAITHFUL AND AFFECTIONATE FRIEND AND SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. A T the time when the following Lectures were first begun, the political, moral, and religious state of this kingdom, wore a very unfavourable aspect, and excited no small degree of uneasiness and alarm in every serious and reflecting mind. The enemies of this country were almost every where triumphant abroad, and its still more formidable enemies at home were indefatigably active in their endeavours to diffuse the poison of disaffection, infidelity, and a contempt of the holy Scriptures, through every part of the kingdom, more especially among the lower orders of the people, by the most offensive and impious publications; while at the same time it must be acknowledged, that among too many of the higher classes, there prevailed, in the midst of all |