Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal LONDON: Printed by Townsend, Powell, & Co. Crane-court, Fleet-street, THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE may THE subjects contained in these Essays have been taught the writer in the best possible way of teaching: by practical and personal experience. It be strictly said, that they were, for the most part, not learnt from man, neither borrowed from the writings of others, but derived from a higher source. And should it be found, as no doubt it will, and indeed the Author hopes it may, that the sentiments here sent forth are congenial to the sentiments of the Lord's people upon the same subjects, this will only b tend to corroborate, still more, that they are the result of divine teaching. The Writer would not be understood, by this, as speaking in any manner disparagingly of commentators; he would rather bear a cheerful testimony to the many very excellent and great men, who have served the Christain world in this way, with their writings and comments upon the Word of God: he only means to observe, that, upon the present occasion, not one of them hath been consulted. The pure Word, in the present faithful translation of it, is the only authority upon which the Author hath founded the observations proposed in these Essays. And if the Reader should discover any thing which to his view may appear new in the deep things of God here |