vii THE PREFACE. 30 T HE Scriptures being written on purpose to acquaint us with the Will of God, and to inftruct us in All Things neceffary to our everlasting Salvation, there is no Doubt to be made, but that, in the Form we now have them, (which for divers wife Reasons was fo contrived by the Holy Spirit) they are fufficient to that End; fo that whoever reads them with due Care and Attention, may, without any farther Help, be truly and fully informed what he ought to believe, and do, in order to be faved. I will add alfo, that he, whofe peculiar business it is to inftruct the Ignorant, to guard the Unwary, and to flop the Mouths of GainA 4 fayers, Sayers, may be thoroughly furnished from hence, unto all thefe good Works. Nay, farther, Had the Scriptures exhibited Religion to us in that regular Form and Method to which other Writers have reduced it, there would, to me at least, have been wanting one great Proof of the Authority of thofe Writings: which being penn'd at different Times, and upon different Occafions, and containing in them a great variety of wonderful Events, furprizing Characters of Men, wife Rules of Life, and new unheard of Doctrines, all mixt together with an unufual Simplicity and Gravity of Narration, do, in the very Frame and Compofure of them, carry the Marks of their Divine Original. However, for the benefit of fuch as will not be at the pains to fearch and study the Scriptures, fuch as, by reafon of their Age, are not capable of reading them with Judgment; and fuch as through some Prejudice or evil Difpofition of Mind, may be apt to mifapply them; it hath been thought proper to draw draw up feveral Abftracts, or Summaries of Chriftian Doctrine; which being, as the feveral Authors of them affure us, exactly agreeable to Scripture, are defigned to give us a general Notion of what we fhall find more particularly and fully fet down in thofe Books'; by which means we may be enabled to read them with more Eafe, and greater Profit. The Defign is certainly very fit and good, were it but as fairly and justly executed: But the great Misfortune is, that thefe very Books, which were intended to lead us more easily and certainly into the Knowledge of Scripture, are most of them fo framed, as to represent the Religion there delivered to us, in a false Light; and, by giving a wrong Turn to our Minds at firft, to render our Endeavours to inform our felves afterwards, by our own reading, ineffectual. The chief Occafion of which Abuse, is, the many Differences and Divifions that have happened among Chriftians, both with regard to their Faith, and to their Rules and Measures of ferving God Which Differences, as they plainly rofe at firft, from a greater Deference that was paid, either to the Traditions, or Writings of Men, than to the Word of God; fo have they been kept up ever fince, by a greater care that hath been taken by the feveral Sects, to inftruct their Children in those things which distinguish them from one another, than to teach them the common Doctrines and Duties of their most holy Profeffion: From whence it follows, that the Books composed by them, for that purpose, muft needs give a very different, and the greatest part of them, for that reason, a very falfe Account, of the Chriftian Religion. But befides the many Errors, which are made part of the ftanding Doctrine of fome particular Church, or Society of Chriftians, feveral other Mistakes must be fuppofed to occur in the various Writings and Difcourfes of private Men, even of the fame Church, who take upon them to explain the common Faith, every |