THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. I THINK it necessary to give the reader a brief ac- count of the nature and design of the -plain ensuing discourse, which may both direct him in the reading, and be some kind of apology for myself in the publish- ing of it. He may therefore know, that the thoughts here communicated, were originally private medita- tions for my own use, in a season wherein I was eve- ry way unable to do any thing for the edification of others, and from expectation, that ever I should be sa able any more in this world. Receiving, as I thought, some benefit and satisfaction in the exercise of my own meditations therein, when God was graciously pleased to restore a little strength unto me, I insisted on the same subject, in the instruction of a private congregation; and this I did partly out of a sense of the advantage I had received myself by being conver- sant in them, and partly from an apprehension, that the duties directed and presseduntoin thewhole discourse, were seasonable from all sorts ofpresent circumstances, to be declared and urged on the minds and conscien- ces of professors. For leaving others to thechoice of their own methods and ,designs, I acknowledge, that these are the two things whereby I regulate my work in the whole course of my ministry to impart those truths, of whose power I hope I have had, in some measure, a real experience; and to press those duties, which present occasions, temptations, and other cir-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=