and that satisfaction, that I would not be without for all the world. Besides, I know it will turn most to my account at the great day. Oh that all of you that yet have any opportunities and advantages in your hands to preach the everlasting gospel would make this your great business, to prompte holiness, and to exalt and lift up holiness in the world ! For as this great principle of holiness shall gain ground upon the hearts, consciences, and lives of men ; so all the things of Antichrist, and all the trade of Antichrist, and all those grand mis- chiefs and miseries that threaten the sons of men, will fail before it, as Dagon fell before the ark.
If tliis Treatise should fall into the hands of any of God's sanctified ones, of what degree or rank soever they are of, as I suppose it may fall into the hands of many such, I would then say. Dear friends, in this Treatise you will find many strong motives to provoke you to ' pe^ect hoKness in the fear of the Lord,' and many special means to enable you to ' perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord,' and many evidences whereby you may certainly and infallibly know whether you have attained to any considerable height of holiness or no; and in the opening of these things, you will find that great doctrine about degrees of glory in heaven to be asserted and proved, and the objections against it to be fairly dismissed, &c.
Reader, if thou art one that to this very day art in an unsanctified estate, and an enemy to holiness, or a scoffer at holiness, or a secret despiser of holiness, or a desperate opposer of holiness, or a bitter per- secutor of holiness, then I would commend this following Treatise, before any I know extant in the world, to the service of thy soul ; for I know none that is so calculated and fitted up for that purpose as this is. Read and judge. This I will assure thee, 0 thou un- sanctified soul, that the grand design of this book is thy salvation ; it is to make thee really holy, that thou mayest be eternally happy ; and of this thou mayest be confident — viz., that I shall follow these poor labours with my earnest prayers, that they may be blessed to the internal and eternal welfare of thy soul, and that they may issue in the conviction, conversion, and salvation of thy soul. I shall send this Treatise forth into the world with Jacob's blessing and prayer for his sons, ' God Almighty send thee mercy in the sight of the man,' Gen. xliii. 14, &c., in the sight of the proud man that he may be humbled, and in the sight of the hardened man that he may be softened, and in the sight of the carnal man that he may be spiritual- ised, and in the sight of the polluted man that he may be washed, and in the sight of the unsanctified man that he may be sanctified, and in the sight of the ignorant man that he may be enlightened, and in the sight of the stubborn man that he may be bowed,_and in the sight of the unconverted man that he may be changed, and in the sight of the lost man that he may be saved.
Christian reader, I suppose by this time that I have almost tired thee in reading, as I have myself in writing, and therefore I shall presently draw to a close ; only, before I take my leave of thee, give me leave to say, that I am much of Carthagena his mind, who to those three things which the ancients held impossible, saith, that to find a book printed without erratas, should undoubtedly have been added as
34 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY,
a fourth impossible, if the art of printing had been then invented, though the author had Briareus his hands, and the printer Argus his eyes. Notwithstanding all the care that hath been taken, thou wilt find figures misplaced, and some mispointings, with some other mis- takes of the printer. I hope the ingenuous reader will cast a mantle of love over the mistakes of the press, and do me that right, and him- self that courtesy, as to correct such eiTors of the press that the second impression may prevent. Seneca, 1 remember, is railed upon by slan- derous tongues for the faults of Nero his scholar. And the scapes ^ of Quintilian's scholars are imputed to Quintilian himself; but I know the Christian reader, that is daily sensible of the erratas of his life, hath not so learned Christ.
Jeader, I do not ofier thee that which cost me nothing. This itise that now I put into thy hand is the fruit of much prayer and serious study. If thou findest any profit and benefit by it, give Christ all the glory, the crown of praise becomes no head but his ; only when thou art in the mount, let me lie near thy heart. Oh, pray earnestly, pray fervently, pray frequently, and pray unweariedly, that I may have much of the fresh anointings of the Holy Spirit, that my communion with a holy God may every day rise higher and higher, and that all my transactions, both before God and man, may savour of some heights of hoHness : so thou wilt the more strongly oblige me to be thy soul's servant in all gospel engagements,
* = ' escapes,' or faults, or misdemeanours.— G.
THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.
Follolo peace luith all men, and holiness, without ivhich no man shall see the Lord. — Heb. XII. 14.
I REMEMBER a Saying of golden-mouthed Chrysostpm, ' If I were,' said he, ' the fittest man in the world to preach a sermon to the whole world, gathered together in one congregation, and had some high mountain for my pulpit, from whence I might have a prospect of all the world in my view, and were furnished with a voice of brass, a voice as loud as the trumpet of the archangel, that all the world might hear me, I would choose to preach on no other text than that in Ps. iv. 2, " 0 mortal men, how long will ye love vanity, and fol- low after leasing?"' i So I say, had I Clu-ysostom's tongue, head, and heart, and were I every way advantaged to preach a sermon to the whole world, I would choose to preach on this text before any other in the Bible, ' Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.'
Beloved ! the salvation of souls is that which should be first and most in a minister's eye, and that which should always lie closest and warmest upon a minister's heart. 0 sirs ! our dear Lord Jesus was infinitely tender of the souls of men. He left his Father's bosom for souls ; he trode the wine-press of his Father's wrath for souls ; he prayed for souls ; he paid for souls ; he sweated for souls ; he bled out his heart's blood for souls ; and he made himself an offering for souls: 2 and oh, what an encouragement should this be to all his faithful messengers to woo 3 for ^ouls, to mourn for souls, to pray for souls, to study for souls, and in preaching to spend and to be spent for the salvation of souls ! Ah, friends, there is no work nor wisdom on earth to that of winning souls, Prov. xi. 30, and ' he that winneth souls is wise.' There is no art, no industry to that of winning souls, of ' taking' souls, as fowlers take birds, as the Hebrew word np7l