PREFACE.
pp. v11 passages
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
PREFACE.
IT was in Compliance with the Desire of an Honourable Friend that I Wrote both, & Preached One, of those ESSAYS which I now present unto his, and the Public Acceptance. I did it from a perfect Concurrence I had with him, and many other Good men, in the Opinion, That among the Engines of Piety, wherewith our Good God has accommodated us, the Rainbow is one too much neglected with the Professors of our Holy Religion. To Recover the Rainbow unto the Use of our Faith, and Hope, and Joy, and thus to teach the Praising Tribe, the Use of the Bow, I saw to be so sensible a Service unto the Designs of Piety, that I could not but cheerfully Embrace it. A very few Hours, and not many more, than the Modern Inspection finds Colours in the Rainbow, made me an▪ Owner of such Thoughts upon my bright Theme, that I began to imagine, I had honest Old Bernards Imprimatur for them; Si metu forte, aut Segnitie, aut minus discreta Humilitat, Verbum bonum, quod possit prodesse multis, inutili, imo et damnabili Ligas Silentio, certe maledictus eris, qui Frumenta abscondis in Populis. Accordingly ⟨p. ii⟩they are now offered unto the Children of the Covenant And One of the Things wanting in the Christian Ascetics is thus brought in to the Churches Treasury.
IT was in Compliance with the Desire of an Honourable Friend that I Wrote both, & Preach'd One, of those ESSAYS which I now present unto his, and the Publick Acceptance. I did it from a perfect Concurrence I had with him, and many other Good men, in the Opinion, That among the Engines of Piety, wherewith our Good God has accommodated us, the Rainbow is one too much neglected with the Professors of our Holy Religion. To Recover the Rainbow unto the Use of our Faith, and Hope, and Joy, and thus to teach the Praising Tribe, the Use of the Bow, I saw to be so sensible a Service unto the Designs of Piety, that I could not but chearfully Embrace it. A very few Hours, and not many more, than the Modern Inspection finds Colours in the Rainbow, made me an▪ Owner of such Thoughts upon my bright Theme, that I began to imagine, I had honest Old Bernards Imprimatur for them; Si metu forte, aut Segnitie, aut minus discreta Humilitat, Verbum bonum, quod possit prodesse multis, inutili, imo et damnabili Ligas Silentio, certe maledictus eris, qui Frumenta abscondis in Populis. Accordingly