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O
HIS
HIGHNESSE
OLIVER
LORD
PROTECTOR
OF THE COMMON
-
WEALTH
OF
.England,
Scotland
and
Ireland,
with
the
Dominions thereof.
SIR,
HE
Wife
man tells
us,
that
no man knoweth Love
or hatred,
by all
that
is
before him.
The
great
variety
wherein God
diffienfeth
outward things
in
the
World,
with the
many changes
and
alterations,
which
according
to
the
counfell
of
his
will
,
he
continually workes
in
the difpenfátions
of
them,
will
not
allow
themnakedly
in
.
themfelves, to
be
eviden-
ces
of
the
fountaine
from
whence
they,flow
. Seeing
alto,
that
the
want,
or
abundance
of
them, may
e-
qually
by
the
Goodneffe
and
Wifdome
of
God
be
or-
dered
and
call into
an
ufefull
fubferviency,
to
a
Good
infinitely
tranfcending
what is,
or may
be
contained in them,
there is
no
nc-
cety,
that
in
the
d
Jribestion
of
them, God
fhiould
walke
according
to any
con-
Ilant
uniforme
Law
of
procedure,
all
the
variousalterations
about them,
an-.
fwering
oneeternall purpofe
for
a
determinate
end.
OfSpirituall
good things,
there
is
another
Reafon
and
Condition;
for
as they are
in
themfelves
Fruits,
Evi-
dences
and
Pledges
o
fan
Eternall,unchangeable
love; fo the
want
of
them, in
their
whole
kind,
being not capable
of
a
tendency
to
a greater
Good, than
they are
,
the
Difpenfation
of
them,
doth
fo farre
an
froer
the
eternal/ fpring and
Fountaine
from
whence
it
floweth, as
in
refpeCt
ofits
fubftance and
being,
not
to
be
obnoxious
to
any
alteration.
This is
that
which
in the
enfuing Treatife iscontended
for
.
In
the
middefi
of
all
the
changes and mutations,
which the infinitely
wife
providence
of
God, doth daily
effecî
in the
greater
and
leffer
things
of
this World,
as to
the,
communication
of
his
love
in
Jefus
Chrifi, and
the,
merci
full
&rations
diltributi-
ons
of
the
unfearcheable
Riches
of
his
Grace, and
the
hid
Treafures thereo
f
pur-
chafed
by
his blond,
he
knows no repentance.
O
f
both
thefeyou have
had full ex-
perience.
And
though
rim
concerneme,
t
in the
former,
hath
been
as eminent
as
that
of
any perfon
whatever in
thefe
latter
Ages
of
the World,
yet
your Interef9
in,
and
acquaintance
with
the
latter,
is ,
as
of
incomparable
more
importance
in
it
2
felfe,