TO TAE POOR IN SPIRIT. ,2,j` 9 much moved by their importunity, till they seconded it with their arguments ; whereof one was, the experience of the success of former writings, which might assdre me it was not displeasing to God. I had many that urged me, .I had no one but myself todraw me back. I apprehended that a writing of this nature might be useful to the many weak, perplexed Christians through the land. Two reasons did at first come in against it. The first was, that . if there were no more written on this subject than Dr. Sibbs's "Bruised Reed, and Soul's Conflict," and Mr. Jos. Symonds's " Deserted Soul's Case and Cure," there need no more. Espe- cially there beingalso Dr. Preston'sWorks, and many of Perkins's, to this use; and Mr. Ball, and Mr. Culverwell of Faith, and divers the like. To this my otvn judgment answered, thatyet these brief directions might add somewhat that might be useful to theweak, as to the method of their proceedings, if not to the matter. And my brethren stopped my mouth by tellingme, that others had written before me of heaven and baptism, and yet my labors werenot lost. Next this, I thought the crudity . and weakness of the writing was such as should prohibit the publication, it being unfit to thrust upon the world the hasty, undigested lines that were written for the use of one person. To this my thoughts replied, that, 1. For all that, it might be useful to poor women, and country people, who most commonly prove the troubled spirits, for whose sakes I wrote it. Had I writ for the use of learned men, I would have tried to make it fitter for their use; and if I could not, I would have suppressed it. 2. It was-my pride that nourished this scruple, which moved me not to appear sd homely to the worlds and therefore I cast it by.' One thing more, I confess, did much prevail with me to make these papers public, and that is, the Antinomians' common confi- dent obtrusion of their anti-evangelical doctrines and methods for comforting troubled souls. They are the most notorious mounte- banks in this art, the highest pretenders, and most unhappy per- formers, that most of the reformed churches ever knew. And none usually are more ready to receive their doctrines, than such weak women, or unskillful pepple, that, being in trouble, are like a sick man in great pain, who is glad to hear what all camsay, and to make trial of every thing by which he bath any hope of ease. . And then there is so much opium in these mountebanks' Nepenthes, or An- tidote of rest ; so many principles of carnal security and presump- tion, which tend to the present'ease pf thepatient, whatever follow; that it is no wonder if some well-meaning Christians do: quickly swallow the bait, and proclaim the rare effects of this medicament, and the admirable skill of this unskillful sect, to the insnaring of others, especially that are in the like distress. Especially when they meet with some divines of our own, who do deliver to them
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