THE serious consideration of the immortality of your Souls; the captivity of many amongst you to Satan and to sin; the eternity you are approaching to; the necessity of being made free from spiritual bondage; the shortness and uncertainty of your abode upon earth; your capacity of being set at liberty by Christ (whilst you are on this side the grave); th• impossibility of redemption and deliverance• […] sinful and hellish thraldom after death; moved me at first t[…]a•h these Sermons on this Subject to your […], and now to present them to your eyes; hoping that as the having of them in your hands to view what hath been said unto you, will be an help unto your memories, so also a means to continue, further, and increase that sense of the evil of Soul-captivity, that sorrow that you had been Capti•• •o Sat[…]ong▪ and those ⟨image 3⟩desires to change your Master, and have your fetters knocked off, and be brought into the liberty of the Sons of God, by Christ the Son of God; all which many of you (through the grace of God, for his work it was, and the glory thereof is due alone to him) did manifest and declare; •ot only in your earnest desires for Gods sake, and for Christs sake, that the Congregation, if they had any l••e for, o••ity to miserable enthralled Souls, would so•••nly and fervently pray to God, that the chains of sin, wherewith you▪ had been held, might now be cut, and the bonds broke; but also in your private converse with me: Which is here related (the Lord knows) not that I may be accounted any thing (for I know that I am nothing), or that I do put any great esteem upon any thing that I can do; for I do judg my self, as to gifts or grace, or both, to be the meanest […]see employed in the work of the Lord, and ••vice of immortal Souls: But that if God be pleased to work by a weak and silly man, the Glory might be ascribed unto him […].
THE serious consideration of the immortality of your Souls; the captivity of many amongst you to Satan and to sin; the eternity you are approaching to; the necessity of being made free from spiritual bondage; the shortness and uncertainty of your abode upon earth; your capacity of being set at liberty by Christ (whilst you are on this side the grave); th• impossibility of redemption and deliverance• 〈…〉 sinful and hellish ••raldom after death; moved me at first t〈…〉a•h these Sermons on this Subject to your 〈…〉, and now to present them to your eyes; hoping that as the having of them in your hands to view what hath been said unto you, will be an help unto your memories, so also a means to continue, further, and increase that sense of the evil of Soul-captivity, that sorrow that you had been Capti•• •o Sat〈…〉ong▪ and those ⟨image 3⟩desires to change your Master, and have your fetters knocked off, and be brought into the liberty of the Sons of God, by Christ the Son of God; all which many of you (through the grace of God, for his work it was, and the glory thereof is due alone to him) did manifest and declare; •ot only in your earnest desires for Gods sake, and for Christs sake, that the Congregation, if they had any l••e for, o••ity to miserable enthralled Souls, would so•••nly and fervently pray to God, that the chains of sin, wherewith you▪ had been held, might now be cut, and the bonds broke; but also in your private converse with me: Which is here related (the Lord knows) not that I may be accounted any thing (for I know that I am nothing), or that I do put any great esteem upon any thing that I can do; for I do judg my self, as to gifts or grace, or both, to be the meanest 〈…〉se employed in the work of the Lord, and ••vice of immortal Souls: But that if God be pleased to work by a weak and silly man, the Glory might be ascribed unto him 〈…〉.
