THE PREFACE; DIRECTED TO MY WORTJSY FRIEND, HENRY ASHURST, ESQ., CITIZEN OF LONDON. .e DEAR AND FAITHFUL .FRIEND, WHEN this book was printed andpassing into theworld, with- » out the ordinary ornament of a prefixed honored name, my thoughts reduced me into the common way, though not upon the common reasons ; assuring me that your name would be more than an acci- dent or ceremony to such a discourse as this ; even a part more substantial than a map is in a treatise of geography, or the well-cut figures in tractates of anatomy. Discourses of navigation, archi- tecture, music, &c., may amost as hopefully instruct the learners, without any visible operations or effects, as the characters of.well- tempered Christians can duly inform' the minds of ignorant,ungodly men, of so divine a thing as Christianity and godliness, without ac- quaintance with some such persons, in whom these characters are manifestly exemplified. Wise and holy precepts are to make wise and holy persons : it is such persons, as well as such precepts, which bear the image of God; which indeed is most perfect in exactness and integrity in the precepts ; (for in them is no imper- fection or error, as they are of God ;) but it is of greater final ex- cellency, in activity and usefulness as it is in men. And therefore, as God delighteth in his servantf, and is glorified in and by them in the world, so Satan usually chooseth such persons to reptoach and make odious to the ignorant, rather than the holy precepts immediately, by which they are directed ; both because their holiness is most exasperating by activity, and also most liable tocalumny and con- tempt, through imperfection, and mixture of that which indeed is worthy, of dislike. Till godliness and Christianity be visible in full perfection, and elevated above the contradiction of folly, and the contempt of pride, the blind, distracted minds of hardened, for- saken sinners will not acknowledge its divine, celestial nature and worth; but then it will be too late to become partakers of it : they must both know and possess it in its infancy and minority, who will
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