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TO THE READER.

CHRISTIAN READER,

THIS fmall treatise hath no other design but thy good, and establishment in the truth: and therefore, as laying afide that confideration Malone, I could defiroufly have been excufed from the labour of thofe hours which were spent in its compofure: fo in the work itself, I admitted of no one thought, but how the things treated of in it, might, and ought to be managed unto thy fpiritual benefit and advantage. Other defigns moft men have in writing what is to be exposed to public view, and lawfully may have fo; in this I have nothing but merely thy good. I have neither been particularly provoked, nor oppofed by the adverfaries of the truth here pleaded for; nor have any need, from any self-respect, to publish such a small plain discourse as this is: love alone to the

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truth, and the welfare of thy foul, have given efficacy to their importunity, who preffed me to this fmall fervice.

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The matters here treated of are on all hands confeffed to be of the greatest moment; fuch as the eternal welfare of the fouls of men is immediately and directly concerned in. This all those who believe the facred truths here propofed and explained, do unanimously profefs and contend for; nor is it denied by thofe by whom they are oppofed. There is no need therefore to give thee any fpecial reasons to evince thy concernment in these things, nor the greatnefs of that concernment, thereby to induce thee unto their ferious confideration. It were well indeed that thefe great, facred, and mysterious truths, might, without contention or controverfies about them, be left unto the faith of believers, as proposed in the fcripture, with that explanation of them, which, in the ordinary miniftry and difpenfation of the gospel, is neceflary and required.

Certainly these tremendous myfteries are not by us willingly to be expofed, or prostituted to the cavils of every perverfe querift

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and difputer; thofe συζητηται το αιῶνος τότε; whofe pretended wifdom, indeed ignorance, darkness, and folly, God hath defigned to destroy in them and by them. For my part, I can affure thee, reader, I have no mind to contend and difpute about these things, which I humbly adore and believe as they are revealed. It is the importunity of adverfaries, in their attempts to draw and feduce the fouls of men from the truth and fimplicity of the gofpel, in these great fundamentals of it, that alone can justify any to debate upon, or erastically to handle thefe awful myfteries. This renders it our duty, and that indifpenfably, inafmuch as we are required to contend ear'nestly for the faith once delivered unto the faints.' But yet alfo when this neceffity is imposed on us, we are by no means difcharged from that humble reverence of mind, wherewith we ought always to be converfant about them; nor from that regard unto the way and manner of their revelation in the fcripture, which may preferve us from all unneceffary intermixture of litigious or exotick phrases and expreffions, in their affertion and declaration. I know our adverfaries would, upon the matter, decry any thing peculiarly myfterious

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myfterious in these things; although they are frequently and emphatically in the fcriptures affirmed fo to be. But whilst they deny the myfteries of the things themfelves, which are fuch as every way become the glorious being and wisdom of God, they are forced to affign fuch an enigmatical sense unto the words, expreffions, and propofitions wherein they are revealed and declared in the fcripture, as to turn almost the whole gofpel into an allegory, wherein nothing is properly expressed, but in fome kind of allufion unto what is fo elfewhere; which irrational way of proceeding, leaving nothing certain in what is or may be expreffed by word or writing, is covered over with a pretence of right reafon, which utterly refufeth to be fo employed. These things the reader will find afterwards made manifeft, fo far as the nature of this brief discourse will bear. And I fhall only defire these few things of him that intends its perufal. First, That he would not look on the fubject here treated of, as the matter of an ordinary controverfy in religion.

Neque enim hic levia aut ludicra petuntur Præmia; lectoris de vita animæque falute Certatur.

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They are things which immediately and directly, in themselves, concern the eternal falvation of the fouls of men; and their confideration ought always to be attended with a due fense of their weight and importance. Secondly, Let hin bring with him a due reverence of the majesty, and infinite, incomprehenfible nature of God; as that which is not to be prostituted to the captious and fophiftical scanning of men of corrupt minds, but to be humbly adored, according to the revela tion that he hath made of himself. Thirdly, That he be willing to fubmit his foul and cons fcience to the plain and obvious fense of fcripture propofitions and teftimonies, without feeking out evasions and pretences for unbelief. Thefe requests I cannot but judge equal, and fear not the fuccefs, where they are fincerely complied withal.

I have only to add; that in handling the doctrine of the fatisfaction of Chrift, I have proceeded on that principle, which, as it is fully confirmed in the fcripture, so it hath constantly been maintained and adhered unto by the most of thofe, who with judgment and fuccess have managed thofe controverfies

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