THE :PREFACE. reader will be greater. And as the works, in regardof the generalfub= jeét, may be ufeful for all perfons of whatrank foever, fo I doubt not but it maybe offpecial ufe for the buplique difpenfers of the word, elpecially, theyounger fort of Divines, who befides manydirections forufeful and profitable Preaching, may find alto variety of excellent matter upon any practical Subjet without Poftills or Polyanthea,and direEtions for deciding moft cafes of. Confcience, which out of the grounds here laid may be eafily refolved. Now concerning this Edition, andwhat is herein performed, I amnot ignorant, what prejudice attends theprinting the pofthumous works ofa- ny ; how eafie it is tomiftake the fenfe ofanAuthor, efpecially where the workwasnot perfected by himfelf, and that divers things in mensprivate papers would havebeen thought fit to bealtered, omitted, or enlarged by theAuthors themfelves, ifthey had intended them for publick view ; for which , and divers other reafons , it might have been thought fit, not topublifh , what the Author had kept fo long by him, andhad not fitted for thePrefs,; nor thofeReverend Perfons, to whole care his Papers andWritings wereby his late M a j E sr r E committed, intend- ed todivulge ; forwhowould prefume toput aPencil toa Piece, which fuch an Apelles had begun : yet confidering, thatthere is already a rude impeded draught, or rather fome broken Notes of thefe his Leftures, which hadpalled through divers hands, already crept forthin Print, to the great wrong, bothof the Livingand theDead, and that the fame is about to be reprinted, it was therefore thought neceffary in vindication of the Author, and todifabufe the Reader, topublifh this Copy, there being no other way to prevent the further mifchiefs of that E- dition, than by another more perfeèt ;forthough I denynot but that there are many good Materials, in that indigefted Chaos, which is already fet forth, which an expert Builder may make good ufe of, yet the Reader will find thewhole to be nothing elfe, but aheap of broken rubbifh, the rudere of thofe ftately ftradures, which that skilful Architeé had made, whichhave been fomangled anddefaced, fo fcattered anddif'_membred, like Medeas A&fyrtus, that they appearfcare fhadows of themfelves, fo that had the learned Author lived to fee thofepartas ingenii, thofe divine ofhis Brain fo deformed, hemight well have called them, notBen_ jamins, Sonsof his right hand, but Benerves, Sons ofSorrow ; forI am confident, there hath not been expofed to publickviewa workof that Bulk, fluffedwithfo muchnonfenfe, fomany Tautologies, ContradiEti- ons, Abfurdities, and Incohererfees, fine Printing was in ufe : there is not a Page, fcarce a Paragraph, feldomemany lines together in the whole Book which containperfef fence; the Mothod quite loft in molt places, the whole Difcourfe like a Body whofe mgpnbers arediflocated, or out of joynt: as if ithad been tortufed upon the räck, or wheel, fo that the parts coherelike the Hammonan (ands, fomeimeswholeParagraphs, whole pa- ges, yea,divers fheets together are wanting,as in the tenthCommandment, . where the onehalfis left out,& halfofthe ninth is added to fupplÿ that de- feet ; and thewholework, focorrupted,mangled,disjoynted, falfified, inter= polated, & the fenfeof theAuthorfoperverted, that the Author might well fayofthe Publifher with the Poet, Qem recites mews eft, c c.At male dam b reciter.
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