TO THOSE HEARERS OF THE LATE REV. WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, S. S. : CIRCUMCISED. CHRISTIAN READERS, THE gracious and undeserved providence of God having made choice of, and called me forth, to publish the Works of your late Pastor, which trust my conscience bears me witness I have faithfully executed to the utmost of my ability, and who has also further extended his goodness towards me in committing to my care many valuable letters of his; with lively feelings of hope and confidence I most respectfully dedicate the Gleanings of the Vintage to you. To those friends whose hearts God inclined to favor me with letters written by your de ceased Minister, to copy, I beg to express my sincere gratitude for that tribute of respect to his memory; not only on my own account do I tender it, but also on behalf of the church of God, to whom they will prove a peculiar treasure. Should this pamphlet fall into the hands of any friend, who may have by him any original letters, I humbly request the loan of them for a short period, that they also may be added to the following parts of this work. I purpose, by the blessing of God, to continue publishing the Letters that I am now in possession of, and others that fall into my hands, that may tend to your edification, till the whole of them are printed, which I am confident will prove a most acceptable service to you. His last Sermon God hath enabled me already to give you; an earlier one delivered many months ago, for the taking of which in short hand I employed a professional person of the first practice, I have also by me, and shall appear when leisure permits. "He which hath begun a good work in you," says the apostle, "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;" and it is elsewhere expressly declared, "That the needy shall not alway be forgotten, that the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever." I had intended to have given with this a brief statement of his last illness and death, but being so closely engaged in copying letters |