THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 11
it, and zeal dispended for its suppoi'tment and propagation, than about all olhei* most necessary points of Christian religion. Have we not a deplorable cloud of examples of men contending about some circumstance or other in the adminis- ti'ation of an ordinance, biting and devouring all that stand in their way, roving up and down to gain proselytes unto their persuasion, and in the meantime utterly ignorant or negligent of the great doctrines and commands of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are, as in him, the head and life of souls ? How many a man seems to have no manner of religion at all, but some one error ! That is his God, his Christ, his worship; that he preaches, that he discourseth of, that he labours to propagate, until, by the righteous judgment of God, it comes to pass that such men in all other things wither and die away, all the sap and vigour of their spirits feeding that one monstrous excrescency, which they grow up daily Into. Desire of emerging and being notable in the world, esteem and respect in the hearts and mouths of them whom peculiarly they draw after them, with the like un- worthy aims of self-advancement, may, without evil surmising (when such at- tempts are, as in too many, accompanied with irregularity in conversation), be supposed to be advantages given into the hands of the envious man, to make use of them for the sowing of his tares in the field of the poor seduced world.
That this procedui'e is also furthered by the burdensomeness of sound doctrine unto the generality of men, who, having " itching ears," as far as they care for these things, do spend their time in religion in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing, cannot be denied. Besides, to defend, improve, give and add new light unto, old truths (a work which hath so abundantly and excellently been laboured in by so many worthies of Christ, especially since the Reformation), in any eminent manner, so as to bring praise and repute unto the undertakers (which, whether men will confess or no, it is evident that too many are enslaved unto), is no easy task. And for the most part of what is done that way, you may say, " Quis leget hajc ? " The world, says every one, is burdened with discourses of this nature. How many have we in our days who might have gone to the grave in silence among the residue of their brethren, and their names ha,ve re- mained for a season in the voisinage, where they might have done God the ser- vice required of them in their generation, would they have kept themselves in the form of wholesome words and sound doctrine, that have now delivered their names into the mouths of all men, by engaging into some singular opinions, though perhaps raked out of the ashes of Popery, Socinianism, or some such fruitful heap of error and false notions of the things of God !
I desire not to judge before the time ; the day will manifest all things, and the hidden secrets of the hearts of men shall by it be laid open, when all the ways, causes, and occasions, of their deceiving and being deceived shall be bi-ought to light, and every man according to his work shall have praise of God: — only, I say, as to the present state of things, this is evident (not to speak of those locusts from the bottomless pit that professedly oppose their strength to all that is of God, his name, word, worship, truth, will, and commands, razing the founda- tion of all hopes for eternity; nor of him and his associates who " exalteth him- self above all that is called God," being " full of names of blasphemy," sealed up to destruction), very many amongst ourselves, of whom we hoped better things, do, some in greater, some in lesser matters, give up themselves to that unhappy laljour we before mentioned, of opposing the truth of God, and exalting their own dark- ness in the room of his glorious light.
" €t jugulent homines, surgunt de nocte latroacs: Ut teipsum serves, non expei'gisceres ?" '
Reverend brethren, if other men can rise early, go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness, spend their lives and strength to do their own A\'ork, and
1 Hor. Ep., lib. i. 2,
12 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.