' It is now above a Century and Half fince this "Candle of the LORD" was firft lighted up; which (no Doubt against the Mind of Him, who lit it) has been ever fince almoft totally hidden from the Eyes of our Nation, "under the Bufbel," either of an indolent Neglect, or of a fcornful Difdain. I hope, however, that it may now at length be a feaSonable Functure " for bringing it, with Honour, forth" out of it's undeferved Oblivion and Obfcurity; and " for putting it on the Candleftic" of Publication; " that it may give it's Light to the whole Houfe" of our English Dominions. (See Prov. xx. 27. Matt. v. 15.) In very Deed, I cannot help wifhing, that, at leaft, every fincere Lover of the effential Light and Truth of GOD might hereby have a fair Opportunity given him of commencing an Acquaintance, and holding a profitable Interview with, our divinely - illuminated AUTHOR; which would be no fmall Satisfaction to myself to have contributed the very leaft Mite to. 66 Now, if any of thefe fhould, either on their own, er on Account of a certain Clafs in the religious World, have entertained a ftrong Prepoffeffion and Prejudice against all VISIONS and VISIONARIES; I am forry for it; and would only recommend it to them to learn of GOD to judge and difcriminate be"tween Cattle and Cattle." (Exod. ix. 4. Ezek. xxxiv. 17, 20, 22.) And if others, going a Degree further, and allowing JOHN ENGELBRECHT to have been a true Child of GoD, a good Vifionary, and a faithful Servant of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, for his own Time and Place; will yet fcruple whether his Teftimony is not fo much inferior to others of a later Date, as of Course to be now antiquated and inapplicable to us in England, at this Time of Day-I will only beg their Jerious Attention to what will be offered on this Head in the fubfequent Part of the prefent Addrefs. After After this, I hope it will be clear to them, from the very Nature of the Thing, that no restrictive Locality, no Antiquatednefs, no comparative In- . feriority of Difpenfation, and the like, can, in this Cafe, take Place, and be juftly alledged to depreciate it's Appearance to our Nation at this Time. For, I own, I cannot conceive how any Thing could lay a more equitable Claim to an univerfal Expediency for all Nations, for all Times, and for all Circumftances. And this of Course almost extorts a Confeffion from me, that my Heart feems to prefage, in the divine Light, that there never was, perhaps, any Time and Nation, when and where a Publication of this Nature could have appeared with greater Propriety, and with a fairer Prospect of affifting to bring poor Sinners to true Repentance, and to the Primitive Faith in our dear Lord JESUS CHRIST. For, to an obfervant, fpiritual Eye, the two Circumftances following are very apparent: 1. That our Nation, being one of the most free under the Cope of the whole Heaven, has thereby a natural Incitement and Opportunity for carrying on, as every one is difpofed, either the Work of GOD, or the Work of the Devil; and that, to the very highest Pitch of them both. This is no chimerical Notion, but a palpable Fact, and a visible State of Things fubfifting, in every Shape, before the Eyes of all Men. 2. All the Signs of the Times are every-where, through all CHRISTENDOM, confpiring to indicate the long - predicted" Hour of Temptation," mentioned Rev. iii. 10. and " the Beginning of Sorrows," or Birth-Throes, which are to make Way for the BIRTH, or Appearance of that "Man-Child, who 66 is is to rule all Nations with a Rad of Iron," (Rev. xii. 5. comp. with Ifai. ix. 6--7.) Of Confequence they portend thofe near - approaching divine Judg- ments, which are collaterally to prepare the Way for a bleffed general REVOLUTION for the better; and for a REFORMATION much more radical, real, and univerfal than any that has ever yet obtained in This then being not without fome good Grounds fuppofed, what could, I pray, be found more fuitable for thefe Nations, and at fuch an awful Crifis of Times, than JOHN ENGELBRECHT's mar- vellous Declarations concerning thefe Events; and, in Confequence thereof, his divine Enforcement of the very Doctrine our dearest and bleffed Lord him- felf preached, in fimilar Circumftances, (Matt. iv. 17.) and of that most important, and twice - re- peated Memento of his, (Luke xiii. 3, 5.) "Except that dwell upon the Face of the whole Earth. be ready to go in with the Bridegroom to the "Marriage; before the Door be (irreversibly) So much then for the prefent Propriety, or Sea- fonableness of these amazing Visions, in a comparative View to Time, Place, and Circumftance: But, exclufive of this, they carry their own innate Divinity, internal Evidence, and intrinfic Worth along with them; it being the very Nature of all divine Truth, to be fo felf-evident, as, by every properlydifpofed Subject, to be alfo intuitively difcerned. But if they had further needed any adventitious Explication, or Apology, certainly none could, after all, have done this Fart alfo with ftronger Evidence and Conviction than the divinely-illuminated AUTHOR himfelf: And surely may I alfo fay, that the Apologies he makes for himself, and the Explications of his Writings are fo copious and diffufive, as to preclude all others. But if fuch an Application, as this he makes to the Heart and Confcience, has fo little Effect upon any Reader, that he can confcientiously declare himself still unconvicted and unaffected by it; I fhall then willingly leave him to ftand or fall with his own Mafter: For forced I am to own myself quite incapable of furnifhing him with any clearer Evidence, and with a better Ground for fuitable Heart's Emotions and Affections. The very Truth 77 of the Cafe is this, Either we do not fee the thing with the fame Eyes, or in the fame Light, or in the fame Point of View, But, as to the Tranflation itself, fuffice it to fay, that I have executed it as well, and as faithfully as my Talent in this Way would admit. My general Aim, at least, has been to exhibit a juft and true Portrait of my AUTHOR to an English Eye. I have endeavoured to make him write now, as a Century and Half fince, one of his English Contemporaries and Peers might, in fimilar Circumftances, be fuppofed to have expreffed himself in Writing: Or, perhaps, more as if one of our Contemporaries and Countrymen, of the fame Order and Station in Life, were, were, under the fame Impulfe of the Holy Ghoft, to exprefs himself now, upon the fame Occafion, at this very Day. This is all that can be propofed by, and it may in fome tolerable Degree be expected of, a Tranflator. I have therefore preferred and preferved (if not perfectly, yet as well as the Nature of the Work would allow) his own native SIMPLICITY of Stile, or Diction. Although I am not in-, fenfible that it may often found unpolished and mean in the Ears of fome: Nor will his very long Digreffions, his frequent Repetitions, and his Periods, fometimes rather involved and ill-connected, prove a Whit lefs tedious and tirefome, if not vexatious, to those who regard Words only; or who, in the true Athenian Tafte and Spirit, are only feeking after "fomething NEWER STILL," in the Republic either of Religion, or Letters, (Acts xvii. 20, 21.) And yet, if I had ftudied to curtail thefe Redundancies, and to give his Sentences a better Turn, and further to dress him up in our modern Fashion; the Man himself would have been afterwards hardly known, and I fhould have only thereby difguifed and expofed him. He is as he fhould be for all rightly-difpofed Readers." To lift up a Tool upon GOD's Altar "of unhewn Stones, would pollute, or defecrate it," (Exod. xx. 25.) "To preach the very Crofs of "Chrift with Wisdom of Words, would make it "of none Effect," (1 Cor. i. 17.)-A Thing this not enough confidered in thefe degenerate Days; when too much a great Deal is refted upon the Elegancy of Words, and too little Regard is paid to the true Power of the Kingdom of GOD. (See I Cor. iv. 20.) Nothing is more plain than that the ever-blessed, ever living, and all-fovereign GOD, has referved to himself the incommunicable and indefeafible Right and Prerogative of fending his own EXTRAORDI NARY |