Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…

On this Occasion, I would recite a Paragraph in the Life of the very Rev. Mr. James Fraser of Brea in Scotland, published at Edinburgh in 1738; as follows— The Lord hath blessed the Reading of Practical Writings to me; and thereby my Heart hath been put into Frame, and much Strength and Light gotten: Such as Isaac Ambrose, Goodwin, Mr. Grey, and very much by Rutherford's above others: But most of all by Mr. Thomas Shepard of New-England his Works; he hath by the Lord been made the Interpreter one of a Thousand; so that under CHRIST I have been obliged to his Writings as much and more than to any Mean whatever, for wakening, ⟨p. 6⟩strengthening and enlightening my Soul; the Lord made him a Well of Water to me in all my Wilderness Straits.

On this Occasion, I would recite a Paragraph in the Life of the very Rev. Mr. James Fraser of Brea in Scotland, published at Edinburgh in 1738; as follows— The Lord hath blessed the Reading of Practical Writings to me; and thereby my Heart hath been put into Frame, and much Strength and Light gotten: Such as Isaac Ambrose, Goodwin, Mr. Gray, and very much by Rutherford's above others: But most of all by Mr. Thomas Shepard of New-England his Works; he hath by the Lord been made the Interpreter one of a Thousand; so that under CHRIST I have been obliged to his Writings as much and more than to any Mean whatever, for wakening, ⟨p. 6⟩strengthening and enlightening my Soul; the Lord made him a Well of Water to me in all my Wilderness Straits.

Both the Two former of the following Pieces, viz. The First Principles and Select Cases, were published together in one Book, first at London and then at Edinburgh in 1648. They have been also printed since at divers Times in both those Cities, and always went together. But all have many Mistakes, both in Figures, Words, and especially Pointings that much obscure the Sense and puzzle the Reader: All which, from the two first Editions mentioned, with two others both at London and Edinburgh, upon comparing them together, I have so corrected; that this, which as far as I find, is the first in America, is the most correct Edition extant. But in the Letter containing the Cases, for the Reader's clearer View, I have taken the Liberty to insert the Titles of the several Cases and Questions, as they here appear in Italica at the Heads of their several Subjects. In the Title-Pages of the two first Editions, the Letter; is said to be sent from New-England to a Friend in England: Yet by several Passages at the Beginning and End, which I have italica'd, compared with the Accounts above, it plainly appears, 'twas wrote in England a little before his coming away, and probably at Bastwick in the Spring of 1635.