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The
`Preface
to
the
Reader.
main
End
and
Scope,
of
what they did
:
what
they pretendedly or
really defign'd
what
was
the ConduEt,Tendency
and Refult
of
their Confults and
A
&ions: where-
in
they truly failed, and how, and why
?
Such things
as
there call
for
the greaten
Clearnefs, Freedom and Sincerity, Pains and
Judgment;
and
I
may
add, a great
Concern
for
"Publicly Good,
which
is
the
Ioveliefl Property,
and
dearefi
Symptom
of
a large
and
noble
Soal.
Hinory
fhould
inform, admonifh innru&,
and
reclaim, reform,
en-
courage Men that
read
it.
And therefore
they
tiat
write it
fliould dJa¢ic,tla
Banedr
{r,
i.
e.
difcern thingsExcellent
, and thole
things in
their
difference each from
other,
and
in
their importanceto the Reader
; and fo take
care
that nothing
doubtful
,
falte,
impertinent, mean,
injurious, cloudy, or needlefly provoking
or
reflecting
be
expofed to Publick View by them
;
nor
any
thing
excef
live
or
defeEtive,
as
rela-
ting to
the
jun
and
worthy
Ends
of
Hiftory.
The
Author
of the
fubfequent
Hifto-
ry
(
now with
God)
had an
Eagle's
Eye,
an
honer
Heart,
a
thoughtful
Soul,
a
fearching and confiderate
Spirit,
and
a
concerned frame
of
Mind to
let
the
prefenc
and
fucceeding Generations duly
know the
real and true Rate
and
iffues
of the
Oc-
currendps
and
TranfaRtions
of
his Age
and Day
;
andhow much
Judgment,
Truth,
and
Candour
appear
in
his
following Accounts
of
Things, the Candid and Impar-
tial Reader will
eafily
and quickly be refolved about. Scandals,arifing from Igno-
rance and mifreports
of what
related to our
Church
and State greatly
affedted
his
very tender Spirit
;
and the removal and prevention
of
them, and
of
what
Guilt,
Calamities and Judgments might or did attend
chofe
Scandals, was
what induced
Mr,
Baxter
to
leave
Pofterity
this
Hiftory of
his
Life
and Times.
§
III.
Memorable
Perfons,
Confultations,
A&ions, and Events
(
with their
refpe&ive
Epochs,
Succeltions and
Periods)
are the
Subjet
Matter of
Hinory:
Propriety,
clearnefs
and vigour
of
Expreflion
is
what duly andgratefully reprefents the
Matter
to
the Reader. Accurate Method
gives
advantage
to theMemory,
as
well
as
fatisfa-
&tion
to the Judgment.
The
faithfulnefs, fulnefs, and freedom
of
relation conci-
liates
a
good Reputation to
the
Writer
by
'its
convincing
Influences
upon the
Rea-
der's
mind ;
and
thus
it
powerfully
claims
and extorts
his
Submillion
to the evident
credibility
of
what he
erufes
:
and the weight and
ufefulnefs
of
the
Things
rela-
ted
makes
the Reader ferious, and concerned to obferve what he
reads
:
for finding
the
Matter great, the Expreflion proper
and lively, the
Current of the
Hinory
or-
derly and
exa&,
and the
Purpofes and Ends various and
important which the Hi-
Rory,
fubferves,
he accordingly
values
and
ufes
it
as
a
Treafure. And from thence
.
he
extras
fuch Maxims and
Principles
as
may
greatly behead him in every Exi-
gence, and in
every
Station and
Article
of
Trait
and Concern, and Negotiation.
Hiftory
tells
us
who
have been upon
the
Stage,
how they came into
Bufinefs
and
Truft,
what
was
the Compafs
and
Import oftheir Province, what they
themfelves
therein
fignified
to others
;
and
what,
others to them
;
and
what
all availed
to Po-
sterity, and how they went
off,
andfo what Figure
they molt
deferv'd
to
make
in
the
Records''
of Time.
§
1V.
He
that
well confiders
the Nature
of
Man,
his
Relation
to God,
God's governing
of
Man,
and the Condu&
of Providence
purfuant
to God's
concerns
with Men, and
their
concerns
with him,
as
allo
the
Difcipline and
Interens
of
the Holy War with
Satan,
will read
Hiftory with
a finer
Eye
and to better purpofe
than
others can.
To
covet,endeavour and obtain ability andfurniture from
Hiftory,
Philology
,
Divi-
nity,erc.
to
minifter to
difcurfive
Entertainment,
or
Self.conceitednefs,
Ambition,
Preferment, or Reputation with Men,
is
a defign
(when ultimate)
fo
mean in God's
Eye,
fo odious and noyfom
toothers, when
by them
difcerned,
and lò uncomforta-
ble and fatal to
our
felves
when at
lan
accounted for,
as
that
no
wife
Man
would
terminate
and center
himfelf,
or his
Studies
there.
I
have feen
all forts
of
Learning
differently placed, ufed, and
iffued.
I
can Ray patiently ro
fee
the
Ian Refults
of
all.
I
havefeen
Learning
excellently implanted
in
a
gracious heart
:
(So
it
was
in
Mr.
Baxter, and
in
feveral
Prelates,
and Conformins and Non-conformifts, and o-
thers:
it
is
fo at this
day).
I
have feen
it without Grace; or not
fo
evidently
un-
der the
influences
and conduis
of
Grace,as
I
have greatly
defred it
might havebeen
:
and here what
Partiality,
Malignity, Fa
&ion
, Domination,
Supercilioufnefs
and
Inve
&fives
bath
his
Hiltory
and other Learning miniftred unto
!
Indeed
fansified
Learning
bath
a lovely
Ihow:
And the Learning of
gracelefs Perfons hash
in
many
lnitances and
Evidences greatly befriended God's
'ravel
in the Chriftian
World.
And