LONDON: WAUGH AND INNES, EDINBURGH; CHALMERS AND COLLINGS, GLASGOW; M. KEENE; 1824. TO THE VERY REVEREND JOHN PLUMPTRE, D.D. DEAN OF GLOUCESTER, &c. &c. THIS EDITION OF THE REV. P. SKELTON'S WORKS IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, AS A TRIFLING MARK OF ESTEEM. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION. If our To those who admire sound argument and genuine piety, illustrated and enlivened by genius, we trust that we shall perform an acceptable service in presenting a new and uniform Edition of Skelton's Works, which, as their merit is rare, have lately become proportionably scarce. To make this more complete than former edi. tions, all the productions of the Author have been inserted, with his Life prefixed; and, doubtless, if any man is entitled to the tribute of Biography, Skelton possesses an undeniable claim. Author had not been distinguished for any intellectual superiority, if he had not appeared as the zealous and acute defender of religious truth, but had been satisfied with the glory of good actions, without aspiring to the reputation of an, able writer ; bis life was a specimen of such extraordinary virtue, as should never be forgotten in a Christian community. To devote, as he did, his wbole energy of body and mind to the laborious and unostentatious duties to be discharged in obscure parishes of a desolate country--to divest himself of self-interest so entirely, as to consider bis poor and ignorant parishioners as his |