A N ADVEA.TISEMEN R E A D E R S, IHere give you notice, (which I defire you not to forget in the reading of this Para- phrafe) that it is but forme General Nikes, and note proper Expofirion of the Reve- lations, which I offer you. And that I here confers to you, that very much of it I underdand not : And if this offend any that fayI thould have better ftudied it I only fay, r. That you filler Fools gladly, feeingyour fillies are aeije. 2. That I ant far below Dionifiu;.Alexandrinar, and molt of the Ancient Fathers; even .Atigußine Win- kle, who profefs'd that they underdood it not :-Yea, incomparable Calvin profeffeth, that he underftood not theThoufandthpart of it; and his Partner Reza would give us little of it, next to nones and both refus'd to writea Comment on ir. 3. I honourthem that know more than I, and contradi& them not : i had rather fay too little (where other men have raid enough) than fay morethan I know. 4. It is not through meer Sloth that I ans igno- rant : Women and Boys think they know herein what I do not, who have Ruffled it let than I; but I confers that Defpair is much ofthe Caufe. Forty four years ago, when I was but young, I fludied it, (I doubt too Coon) and read Brightman, Napier, Farms, &c. and after that Mode, Patter, and manymore, betides filch Treatifer, as Downamsaa de .Antichriffo; Broughton, and other lucla, befides the Anfwerers ofBellarmin, &c. I fret with manyDi. vines and l ay-men, who had chofeta it out for the chiefStudy of their Lives; and I found fo great diverfity of Opinions, five of the modconfident going four ways, and fo little proof ofwhat they mod confidentlyaflerted, that I defpair'dof being fo much wirer than they, as to come to fatisfa&ion, if I should lay by more neceffary Studies, and make this the bufinefs of the redofmy Life, which yet Ydurd not do, Afterwards I convers'd with nayFellow -labourer Mr. Nash. Stephens, who bath written of ir, and was much upon it in his Difcourfes, but I dardnot be drawn to a deep fiudy of it: And when (suce I read Mr. Durham,. Dr. Moor, &c. and Grotius, and Dr. Hammond , and many Annotators, I con- fers Defpair, and more needful bufinefs, made me do it but. fuperficially : And when I had for my own life written the red ofthis Paraphrafe on the New Teftament, I propos'd td have laid nothing ofany more oldie Revelations, thanofthe three4trft Chapters, profiting that I underdood it nor. But after, being loth to omit wholly anypare of theNew Teda- ment; and thinking that the renew'd Study of that,'which fpeaketh fo m::ch of the New 7erufalem, might be fuitable to a pained dying man, I thought of it more fb,rchingly thud I had done heretofore, but have not now either the fttength of Wit, or length of Time; thatare neceffary to fohard a Work, and therefore prefume not to oppore others, but-refer the Readers to them that have more thronghly fludiedand expounded it than t can do But yet I thought that thofe Generals which I underdood might be ufelitl to unlearned Readers, the they made them no wirer than I amMy Pelf; while thofe, that are aboveme; have enough higher tô read. Ifanybe offended that I name to manyMena Opinions, I anfter them, a. Had I known which ofthem was right, I would have mention'd that only: 'Bet when Í know it note ( and their Difference tells us that they know it not rhemlèlves) how can Í honeftly be fo partial as to name one, and pars by all the -red ? And how fhoald I know which that one malt be ? When Lyra had given us the Expofrrion of much of ir, lie' plainly tells us, That there are other Mens Expo(stions, but lac thinketh them irhprób ï ble a and if ever he conic to underdand it himfelf, he will tell us the true meaning : which if he had net Paid, I &ould have thought that Lyra ddiraffr, ehbugh the Sayâ>ag. bei Si .cwa ïléii L-ir4reey tßtus flulndu3 delìraffet. My Friende Mt. Matth. Peale a in 3t x hie
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