PREFACE. 493
entei-tained hope that, through the goodness of God, in giving me leisure, and re- tirement, and strength for study, the deficiency of genius and penetration might be made up by industry and diligence), was now so circumstanced that the career of my studies must be interrupted by more and greater impediments than ever before.
For, to mention first what certainly is most weighty and important, the task of lecturing in public was put upon me ; which would, strictly and properly, require the whole time and attention even of the most gi-ave and experienced divine ; and in the discharge of which, unless I had been greatly assisted and encouraged by the candour, piety, submission, and self-denial of the auditors, and by their respect for the divine institution and their love of the truth, with every kind of indulgence and kind attention towards the earthen vessel, which distinguish most academicians, of every rank, age, and description, beyond mankind in general, I should have long ago lost all hope of discharging that province, either to the public advantage or my own private satisfaction and comfort.
And as most of them are endowed with a pious disposition and Christian tem- per, and well furnished with superior gifts, and instructed in learning of every kind, — which, in the present imperfect and depraved state of human natiire, is apt to fill the minds of men with prejudices against " the foolishness of preaching," and to disapprove " the simplicity that is in Christ," — I should be the most un- grateful of mankind were I not to acknowledge that the humility, diligence, and alacrity with which they attended to and obeyed the words of the cross, indulging neither pride of heart, nor animosity of mind, nor itching of ears, though dispensed by a most unworthy servant of God in the gospel of his Son, have given, and still give me, great courage in the discharge of the different duties of my office.
The most merciful Father of all things shall, in his infinite wisdom and good- ness, dispose of the affairs of our university. Reports, hov/ever, are everywhere spread abroad concerning the abolition and destruction of the colleges, and efforts for that purpose made by some who, being entire strangers to every kind of litera- ture, or at least ignorant of every thing of greater antiquity than what their own memory or that of their fathers can reach, and regardless of the future, imagine the whole globe and bounds of human knowledge to be contained within the limits of their own little cabins, ignorant whether the sun ever shone beyond their own little island or not, — " neither knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm ; " and by others who are deeply sunk in the basest of crimes, and who would, there- fore, wish all light distinguishing between good and evil entirely extinguished (for " evil doers hate the light, nor do they come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved"), that they (mean lurchers hitherto) may "fill up the measure of their iniquity" with some kind of eclat. With this faction are combined those who, never having become candidates for literature themselves, yet, by pushing them- selves forward, have unseasonably thrust themselves into such services and offices as necessarily require knowledge and learning. These, I say, like the fox which had lost his tail, would wish all the world deprived of the means of knowledge, lest their own shameful ignorance, despicable indolence, and total unfitness for the offices which they solicit or hold, should appear to all who have the least degree of understanding and sense. And lastly, too, [the same reports are spread] by a despicable herd of prodigal, idle fellows, eagerly gaping for the revenues of the university. I could not, therefore, but give such a public testimony, as a regard to truth and duty required from me, to these very respectable and learned men (however much these treacherous calumniators and falsifying sycophants may rail and show their teeth upon the occasion), the heads of the colleges, who have merited so highly of the church [and of the commonwealth], for their distin- guished candour, great diligence, uncommon erudition, blameless poHteness;' many of whom ai-e zealously studious of every kind of literature; and many, by 1 "Inculpataj ?roX/Ts/af," — rather, " Blameless administration."— Ed.
494 PREFACE.
their conduct in the early period of tlieir youth, gave the most promising hopes of future merit : so that I would venture to affirm, that no impartial and unpre- judiced judge will believe that our university hath either been, for ages past, sui"- passed, or is now surpassed, either in point of a proper respect and esteem for piety, for the saving knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, manners orderly and worthy of the Christian vocation, or for a due regard to doctrines, arts, languages, and all sciences that can be ornamental to wise, worthy, and good men, appointed for the public good, by any society of men in the world.
Relying, then, on the humanity, piety, and candour of such men (who may be "afflicted, but not straitened; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;" who carry about with them the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ), though destitute of all strength of my own, and devoting myself entirely to Him " who furnisheth seed to the sower," and who " from the mouths of babes and sucklings ordaineth strength," who hath appointed Christ a perpetual source of help, and who furnishes a seasonable aid to every pious effort, — I have, in con- junction with my very learned colleague i (a very eminent man, and whose equal in the work of the gospel if the parliament of the commonwealth had conjoined with him, they would have attended to the best interests of the university), continued in the discharge of the duties of this laborious and difficult province.