Some readers will detect a resemblance between certain passages in these Sermons and the Sermon of Archdeacon Hare, On the Law of Sacrifice. Though I have not read that Sermon recently, I may have often fallen into the train of thought which is there followed out so carefully; it is quite possible that I may have unconsciously adopted some of its expressions. Having joyfully confessed obligations to some with whom I have no natural sympathy, it must be a great satisfaction to own them in the case of a dear friend. I would observe, however, that the plagiarisms must be looked for in the ethical passages of this volume, to which, I trust, no devout reader will take exception; for whatever is offensive in the theology, I am alone responsible.
A very learned work, expressly on the theology of this subject, appeared in the course of last year. I feel that it would be an impertinence to say how far the sentiments in a book so unlearned, so merely practical as this, differ or accord with those which Mr. Thompson has put forth in his Bampton Lectures. But since no reader will suspect that our methods of thinking are similar, or that we are proposing to ourselves the same object, I hope I shall not be doing Mr. Thompson an injury, if I express the satisfaction it has caused me, as an affectionate member of the University which he adorns, to meet in a modern book of Divinity, bearing the Oxford imprimatur, such various lore, so much earnest thought, so much devout feeling, such freedom from party bias.