"It may be proper to advertise the reader, that he is not to look for any particular reason for the choice of these discourses; their being taken from amongst others, preached through a course of many years, being in great measure accidental.
"Neither is he to expect any other connection between them, than that uniformity of thought and design which will always be found in the writings of the same person, when he writes with simplicity and in earnest."-BP. BUTLER, Preface to Sermons.