Joshua Redivivus, or Mr. Rutherford's Letters

If any think, it had been more convenient, to have concealed the names of these to whom the Author wrote, for some reasons obvious, in regard of the present Lamentable posture of affairs (when it is almost sufficient, to make a man guilty, that ever he was really zealous for God) I have only this to say for my self, that I designed their honour & not their prejudice nor hurt in prefixing their names: Neither can I well imagine (what ever others may apprehend) what prejudice they can sustain, by this; since none, or very few of them, come from the Author, as returns to any thing they had written to him; & there being no law, either discharging him to write, or any persons to receive his letters, there can be no transgression upon their part, & so nothing to ground a prejudice, or found a rational plea against them: And much less in that their names are prefixed; or if there be any thing in this blame worthy, I alone am in the transgression, who have done it without consulting themselves, or asking their consent; yet in order to the satisfaction of any, who may be offended at what is done, I have this to say for my self further, that I was induced to it, first, that thereby it might appear these were indeed the very Letters, which that faithful sufferer & witness of Jesus Christ wrote (though there is sufficient in the stile & strain to put this beyond debate) & no forgeries 2. many of these worthy persons being removed (whereby the Church of God is at a seen & sad loss, in that she is deprived of so many, who would have wept & made supplication on her behalf in this day of her distress, when not a few of her friends have dealt treacherously with her, & are become her enemies) their Posterity might think themselves wronged, if I should have deprived their worthy Predecessors, by suppressing their names ⟨image 21⟩& smothering their affection to the work of God, of the honour, of making their faithfulness known to the world: And truly, I judged it the least that was due, to the memory of these, who ought to be had in everlasting remembrance, to erect this poor monument over their grave, whereby they may live amongst the posterity, when they are gone, as persons who obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful in their generation: & that when the account of such comes to be taken, it may be said, this & that man was borne there. 3.

If any think, it had been more convenient, to have concealed the names of these to whom the Author wrote, for some reasons obvious, in regard of the present Lamentable posture of affairs (when it is almost sufficent, to make a man guilty, that ever he was really zealous for God) I have onely this to say for my self, that I designed their honour & not their prejudice nor hurt in prefixing their names: Neither can I well imagine (what ever others may apprehend) what prejudice they can sustain, by this; since none, or very few of them, come from the Author, as returns to any thing they had written to him; & there being no law, either discharging him to write, or any persons to receive his letters, there can be no transgression upon their part, & so nothing to ground a prejudice, or found a rational plea against them: And much less in that their names are prefixed; or if there be any thing in this blame worthy, I alone am in the transgression, who have done it without consulting themselves, or asking their consent; yet in order to the satisfaction of any, who may be offended at what is done, I have this to say for my self further, that I was induced to it, first, that thereby it might appear these were indeed the very Letters, which that faithfull sufferer & witness of Jesus Christ wrote (though there is sufficient in the stile & straine to put this beyond debat) & no forgeries 2. many of these worthy persons being removed (whereby the Church of God is at a seen & sad loss, in that she is deprived of so many, who would have weeped & made supplication on her behalfe in this day of her distress, when not a few of her friends have dealt treacherously with her, & are become her enemies) their Posterity might think themselves wronged, if I should have deprived their worthy Predecessors, by suppressing their names