GIVE me leave, who am the least of all the servants of Jesus Christ, for the love wherewith God hath loved us in his Son, to dedicate to you the following treatise. For though I be the meanest member in the spiritual body of Christ, (if so much may be allowed me) yet am I thereby made partaker of the life, spirit, and power residing in him as our ever-blessed head. If there be any thing herein conformable to the mind of our great Shepherd, and proceeding from the energy of his Spirit, why should it not be readily received; and if, after a true spiritual trial thereof, you find any thing faulty or imperfect, commend it to the mercy of our great Shepherd, to correct in me, by the gracious influence of his Spirit. I do not offer this as a piece of great learning. Indeed, the plain truth of my God, set forth in its natural lustre, and the least communication of his power affecting the heart, is infinitely more valuable to me, than all the learning of this world. And my only boasting in the Lord is this, that I have betaken myself to that school wherein the highest wisdom is; to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. And though I, who have scarce learned the first elements thereof, have the boldness to repeat this my lesson in the hearing of all, yet ought it not to be deemed an effect of pride; but the love of my neighbour constraineth me. My soul hath been many times grieved at the apparent corruption, as of men in general, so of our order in particular; and more especially when I saw that the fear of man is become the epidemical distemper of our teachers. When I reflect on the one hand, with what spirit, with what joy, with what undaunted courage and boldness the antient servants of God set aside all regard of man, and delivered as the ambassadors of the Lord, their message fully and plainly, tho’ it exposed them to the evident hazard of their lives; and on the other, how gently and softly we go about it now, and how little we manifest the truth to the conscience of every man: when I, moreover, consider, how much they suffered with Christ their Lord, for the sake of their testimony; and how the most of us take care to preach so smoothly, as not to incur the least shadow of their sufferings, the difference between us and them ♦appears so exceeding great, that I ♠can not but be astonished at it. ♦ “appeared” replaced with “appears” per Errata ♠ “could” replaced with “can” per Errata