And as it serves to render the mind more judicious, so it causes the memory to be more tenacious, and retentive of truths. The chain of truth is easily held in the memory, when one truth links in another ; but the loosing of a link endangers the scattering of the whole chain. We use to say, order is the mother of memory ; I am sure it is a singular friend to it : hence it is observed, those that write of the art of memory, lay so great a stress upon place and number. The memory would not so soon be overcharged with a multitude of truths, if that multitude were but orderly disposed. It is the incoherence and confusion of truths, rather than their number, that distracts. Let but the understanding receive them regularly, and the memory will retain them with much more faci- lity. A bad memory is a common complaint among Christians : all the benefit that many of you have in hearing, is from the pre- * sent influence of truths upon your hearts ; there is but little that sticks by you, to make a second and third impression upon them. I know it may be said of some of you, that if your affections were not better than your memories, you would need a very large charity to pass for Christians. I confess it is better to have a well ordered heart, than a methodical head ; but surely both are better than either. And for you that have constantly attended these ex- ercises, and followed us through the whole series and deduction of these truths, from text to text, and from point to point ; who have begun one sabbath where you left another; it will be your inexcusable fault, if these things be not fixed in your understand- ing and memories, as nails fastened in a sure place : especially as pro* vidence hath now brought to your eyes, what hath been so often sounded in your ears, which is no small help to fix these truths upon you, and prevent that great hazard of them, which com-
THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. §3
monly attends bare hearing; for now you may have recourse as often as you will to them, view and review them, till they become your own.
But though this be a great and singular advantage, yet is not all you may have by a methodical understanding of the doctrines of Christ: it is more than a judicious understanding them, or faithful remembering them, that you and I must design, even the warm, vital, animating influences of these truths upon our hearts, without which we shall be never the better ; yea, much the worse for know- ing and remembering them.
Truth is the sanctifying instrument, John xvii. 17. the mould into which our souls are cast, Rom. vi. 17. according therefore to the stamps and impressions it makes upon our understandings, and the order in which truths lie there, will be the depth and lasting- ness of their impressions and influences upon the heart ; as, the more weight is laid uj)on the seal, the more fair and lasting im- pression is made upon the wax. He that sees the grounds and reasons of his peace and comfort most clearly, is like to maintain it the more constantly.
Great therefore is the advantage Christians have by such metho- dical sytems. Surely they may be set down among the desiderata Christiawrum, The most desired things pf Christians.
Divers worthy modern pens have indeed un- * M WW
dertaken this noble subject before me, some -^ p fr + ni - .f more * succinctly, others more f copiously : these . °^r j-^ J*_ have done worthily, and their praises are in the i j ,. j ,
churches of Christ ; yet such breadth there is in . I J . . the knowledge of Christ, that not only those ° who have written on this subject before me, but a thousand authors more may employ their pens after us, and not interfere with, or straiten another.
And such is the deliciousness of this subject, that, were there ten thousand volumes written upon it, they would never cloy, or become nauseous to a gracious heart. We use to say, one thing tires, and it is true that it doth so, except that one thing be vii% tually and eminently all things, as Christ is ; and then one thing can never tire ; for such is the variety of sweetness in Christ, who is the delicice humani generis, the delights of the children of men, that every time he is opened to believers from pulpit or press, it is as if heaven had furnised them with a new Christ ; and yet he is the same Christ still.
The treatise itself will satisfy you, that I have not boasted in another man's line, of things made ready to my hand ; which I speak not in the least to win any praise to myself from the under- taking, but to remove prejudice from it ; for I see more defects in
24 THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.
it, than most of my readers will see, and can forethink more fault* to be found in it, than I now shall stand to tell thee of, or answer for. It was written in a time of great distractions ; and didst thou but know how oft this work hath died and revived under my hand, thou wouldst wonder that ever it came to thine.
I am sensible it may fall under some censorious (it may be, envi- ous) eyes, and that far different judgments will pass upon it; for pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli : And no wonder if a treatise of Christ be, when Christ himself was to some, " a stone of stum- bling, and a rock of offence." I expect not to please every rea- der, especially the envious ; magna debet esse eloquentia, quae invitis placet. It is as hard for some to look upon other men's gifts with- out envy, as it is to look upon their own without pride ; nor will I be any further concerned with such readers, than to pity them ; well knowing that every proud, contemptuous and envious censure is a granado that breaks in the hand of him that casts it.
But to the ingenuous and candid reader, I owe satisfaction for the obscurity of some part of this discourse, occasioned by the con- ciseness of the stile ; to which I have this only to say, that I was willing to crowd as much matter as I could into this number of sheets in thy hand, that I might therein ease thee both in thy pains and thy purse. I confess the sermons were preached in a more relaxed stile, and most of these things were enlarged in the pulpit, which are designedly contracted in the press, that the vo- lume might not swell above the ability of common readers. And it was my purpose at first to have comprised the second part, viz. The application of the redemption that is with Christ unto sinners, in one volume, which occasioned the contraction of this; but that making a just volume itself, must await another season to see the light. If the reader will be but a little the more intent and consi- derate in reading, this conciseness will turn to his advantage.
This may suffice to shew the usefulness of such composures, and prevent offence ; but something yet remains with me, to say to the readers in general, to those of this town in special, and to the flock committed by Christ to my charge more especially.