rc Preface. :.Ts it,lef 'If mid .Puffer by them ? My Life and Labours have been ' long Vowed to God .: He : bath preferved .my Life, and fr cceeded my Labours above forty "ears, by a continued courfe of remarkable Providence, beyond my own .and other Mens ex- pe çations. What he bath thus given me , is doubly due to his Service ; which bath been fill fo good to me , that it hatb macle even a painful life, a continual pleafure. .11e neverfailed or forfookme : I dare not ask any longer life of him, but for more and longer Service. And ifmy Service be at an end, why not my Life alfo? If I refufe his Service, I invite God to cut o my Life : And what Service elfe can I now do? I have neither leave nor f rength to Preach. I have thefe fourteen Months beendifabledfo much as to go to any Publiclyor Private Church, or hear a Sermon. My Body with pain and languid feeblenefe is a daily heavy load to me. I fuller more by it everyday, than fr,Pm all myEnemies in the world. Andfhall I be _guilty. of theheinous Sinof the ®mien of my Duty in a time offuch ur- gent and crying Neceffity, to five fo calamitous a Life, which I amHill looking when it endeth ? Is not a Prifon as near a Way to Heaven asmy own Houfe ? I will not do cm thofe Chrifians that Cyprian writes to Comfort, who were greatly troubled at Death,' bea sfe they diednot by Martyrdom. But I takea Death forfo páblick andprong a Caufe of Truth, Love, Innocency and Peace, to be a more comfortable fort of Martyrdom, than theirs that were Burnt in Smithfield for denying the Real Pretence, andfuch like ; and if God will fo endfich a painful Life when Sicknefs and .Ltlatural decay is ready to end it , I hopehe will teachme neither to repine, nor to be utterlyunthanbful. Andas to the uncertainty offix-cell--; He that obferveth the Windfhall not fow ; God muf be' trufed to biefs our Work while we Plant and Water ; It's my part to do my Duty , and God's part to give fuccefs : 'I commend my felf living and dying into the hands of my creator and Redeemer , and end this Preface in the words of St. Paul, Aa. 20. 23, 24. Bonds and afilitions abide me ;. But none of there things move
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