THE PREFACE. THE great ufeefulnefs of Hifiory needs not many words to prove it, f eing natural inclination it felf is fòmuch for it, andreafonand experience tellmen, that they cannot/pare it, as to Natural, Civil, or Religiousafe. God himfelfhath .highly com- inendedit tous, by writing the SacredScripturesfimach H f orically 9 yeaand making fame of it part ofthe nece7ryArticles of our Creed. Children that yet underhand not the Do/lrinalpart of the Bible, do quickly take delight in the Hifloricalpart 5 which prepareth them for the ref Ignorant and ungodly perfons that have no trite feenfe of Sacred Dodrine, can yet underfland and with lef averfnefi and marine's' read the h f ory. Melancholy and fad perfons who can hardly bear long Do5drinal "ladies , are often eafed and recreated with ufeefd Hiflory. Man is a part of the Úniverfe, andevery man is a part of the worldof mankind, and therefore thivkgth the cafe of the whole to be much ofhis concerne. And were not narrow feffbnes muchof oar Pravity, we fbould take the univerfal and public( good, and Gods Love to it andPleafednef and Glory in it, to be mach more our end, and the objeli of our defire and delight, than any perfoonal felicity of our own g It is a Mother of inhumanity in the Dotirineofthe Sad- ducees, Sp.inofa, Hobbes, and their bruitifb followers, that they fet up Individual fe f interefi as a mans chiefefl end -and objeïl of rational Love and deßre7 and own vo Good, but that which Rela- tively is Good to me, that is, either my perforallife and pleafureas theend, or other things as ameans- thereto : Though Grace only f ving- ly cure this bate inhumane maladie, yet common reafon bearcthwit- nef againft it, and only fenfe, and reafon captivated by feì f do pa- tronize it. Put not the quefion to a reajánable man, though wicked, what he can do or Both But what in reafon,he íhorld do, and he cannotdeny bat that hefrould thinkoffa more excellent pérfonat the Indies, that never will do anything far-hinr, asmorea;wwiable than him- /el A 2 E
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