iv DEDICATION. the 'trolling of Officers of Churches from one flock to an- other (to do good they fay) with many other little unworthy Practices. Thefe things, Dearly Beloved, with many others too many to be enumerated in this Place, are the Grief of many fincere Chriftians, whole Defire it is that God would give the Spirit of Wildom and Knowledge of himfelf, and the Way of his Houle, fo that the Breaches may be repaired : and the Houfe of the Lord clean fed, and reftored to that Beauty and Splendor as become it, that thofe who are with- out may fee the Excellency of the Ways of the Lord, that they may have a Defire of a Place and a Name therein, and dwell in the Houfe of the Lord all their Days, and inquire in his Temple; when on the contrary the Selfifhnefs and Worldlinefs of thofe that fhould be Watchmen therein, like the Sons of Eli, have made many to abhor the Ordinances of theLord, i Sam. ü. 12 -17. Therefore it concerns you all, that have tailed that the Lord is gracious, to be zealous and alive for his Glory, and to ftir up one another to this Work, ai Nehemiah in Chap. ìi. 17. And if thofe that fhould go before you in it, refufe, laying, It is not Time, do you put your Shoulders to the Work, the Lord will be with you, for his Name is con- cerned. And left any lhould fay, We underhand not the Way and Order of it, I may fay the. Lord hath furred up the Spirit of this Servant of his, the Author now in Glory, plainly to lay down the Nature and Order of God's Houfe, with a folid Confirmation of it deduced from plain Texts of Scripture, and a Vindication of it from the Oppofition made againfl it, with prauical Improvements of it, fitted to the meaneft Capacity of every one that defires to be found in the Ways of the Lord, by which it feems to be the Mind of God that the leaft in his Houfe might be left without Excufe. And therefore I heartily commend it to the Confideration of every fincere- hearted Chriftian, as very inflruëtive and teaching; and as exalt, according to the Pattern laid down in Scripture, as any Book of this Kind I have met with, the Author appearing to have a more than ordinary Guidance of the Spirit of God in the penning of it. I am your's in. the Lord, J. NOBLE.
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