Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

In the entry give me leave to tell thee, that as there are many of the Authors Papers, both polemic and practical, which he intended for public use & advantage, that will never see the light; because (being like Apelles picture which was either to be perfected by his own pencil or wholly laid aside) he carried his pen away with himself, leaving few in the generation that would undertake to follow his notion and finish it, or if they should essay it, it would be in the issue; humano capit• cervicem jungere equinam: upon which account the Church of God may lament ⟨image 3⟩the loss of such a Master in Israel: as the world (I say) is, at no small loss, by being robbed of so rich a treasure, which was intended for them; so, these few, which the Author did not at all intend for public use, are here sent abroad: he did violence to the desires of many in refusing to publish them (howbeit he was known to consult the satisfaction and advantage of the truly godly, more then his own contentment or ease) not because he thought them unworthy of a scholar, as not being stuffed with a great many sterile notions: If any allege this, it's non Causa pro Causa; but the true reason why he endeavoured to suppress & conceal them from the world, was, lest any man should think of him above what was meet; because (if not of the abundance of revelation, which yet God did indeed give his suffering servant, as will be clear by comparing what he foresaw, both as to the work in general, and as to some particular persons, with the event; yet) of the abundance of soul-refreshing manifestations that he had: This was the true reason which made him inexorable and kept him from listening to the most pressing & assiduous entreaties of his friends: he had many things which commended him to the people of God; but his covering his great attainments as a Christian, and the pregnancy of his parts as a scholar, with the veil of humility (which is the chief ornament of a gracious spirit) as it did render him peculiarly & deservedly dear to them; so it made both the one and the other shine more brightly, & did besides their native and intrinsic beauty, give an adventitious brightness and lustre to all that great stock of grace, and store of Parts, which were found (rara avis interris) jointly in him.

In the entry give me leave to tell thee, that as there are many of the Authors Papers, both polemick and practicall, which he intended for publike use & advantage, that will never see the light; because (being like Appelles picture which was either to be perfected by his own pencil or wholly laid aside) he carried his pen away with himself, leaving few in the generation that would undertake to follow his notion and finish it, or if they should essay it, it would be in the issue; humano capit cervicem jungere equinam: upon which account the Church of God may lament