P REFACE. Let it fuffice, to recommend it to thofe who haYe.a right ta.ft~ of&en~ine Chrifiianity,that all the A.uihor's ' notions flow {o d1reEtly f rom the facred fountmn, th~1.t it is to be doubted, if be has had ·much recou1 fe ro ~my other helps tl1an his Bible and his GoD for ailifiancc. Mean rime, I am aware of an exception from the le who ran.~:c themfe1ves among the poiite _part of mankind, as · that therd is the fame hadh peculiarity · of dialect in it,. wi1ich is com ::nonly to be ,found in books of pn:Clical divinity. But I beg leave to obferve, That tbe chalt cl:" tHey except aga~nfi:, is borrowed 1 from fJCl e;d fcri{Jmre: aod likeas it h.lS pleafed GoD, by the jcoli.fhntjs of pnach– ing, tofa.ve them that hdieve ; . fo alfo to co.untenanre , what they ~u;e dif}5lcafed with, by tbe operatiocs of hi-s Spirit on the minds of true Chxifiians, as their com– mon experience wimcueih. However, I hearrily wiib, the exception were altogether removed, by forr:e per– fon~ digdt.ing into a methodical tre?.tife, the views of -. human nature in its primitive perfeCl:ion, in its depra– ved conditio.n, and in its retritveJ fiate,. who is mafier of modero flilc, and throughly underftands the fub– jelL clifcourfed in this book, that ·by becoming all things. tO ail men, fome, viz. of all ranks a:XH.l kinds of men, may be gained. -.... I am not to, declaim at large in favours of religion ; , this were to write a book ·by way of preface lV1any ab1e pens l1ave been emp1oyed 'in recommending it TO the world, by flrong, argumer ts <)1·a'\vn from its ufeful– ,nefs ~o Cociety, its fuirab1enefs to the dignity of the ra· tional natut: e, acd the,advantages -arifing fi, men from 1.t in this and. the other 'vorJd. But aftn all, n•ay not one be allowed to. doubt, if religion be _,-j~~ htly twder– ftood by all its patrons ? May not the beauties and ex- ' ce1lencies of a precious gem be elegantly defcribed by a natura1ifi: or jeweller, who nrver faw ,the panicuhr one pc talk.ed of, and knows little of its nature, lefs of the confhullion of its parts, and nothing of i1s p1·oper ure ? Are there not m,en of bright parts, who reaIon , fin~ly in defence of re1igion,. andyet are fo much ihan– oers b , '
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=