begin, and so many willing informers since, and from
them, and others, such helps and encouragements to proceed, that when
I found myself faint, and weary of the burthen with which I had loaden
myself, and ready to lay it down; yet time and new strength hath at
last brought it to be what it now is, and presented to the Reader, and
with it this desire; that he will take notice, that Dr. Sanderson did
in his Will, or last sickness, advertise, that after his death nothing
of his might be printed; because that might be said to be his, which
indeed was not; and also for that he might have changed his opinion
since he first writ it. And though these reasons ought to be regarded,
yet regarded so, as he resolves in that Case of Conscience concerning
Rash Vows; that there may appear very good second reasons why we may
forbear to perform them. However, for his said reasons, they ought to
be read as we do Apocryphal Scripture; to explain, but not oblige us
to so firm a belief of what is here presented as his.

[Sidenote: Tracts and a Sermon]

And I have this to say more; That as in my queries for writing Dr.
Sanderson's Life, I met with these little Tracts annexed; so, in my
former queries for my information to write the Life of venerable Mr.
Hooker, I met with a Sermon, which I also believe was really his, and
here presented as his to the Reader. It is affirmed,--and I have
met with reason to believe it,--that there be some Artists, that do
certainly know an original picture from a copy; and in what age of the
world, and by whom drawn. And if so, then I hope it may be as safely
affirmed, that what is here presented for their's is so like their
temper of mind, their other writings, the times when, and the
occasions upon which they were writ, that all Readers may safely
conclude, they could be writ by none but venerable Mr. Hooker, and the
humble and learned Dr. Sanderson.

And lastly, I am now glad that I have collected these memoirs, which
lay scattered, and contracted them into a narrower compass; and if I
have, by the pleasant toil of doing so, either pleased or profited any
man, I have attained what I designed when I first undertook it. But I
seriously wish, both for the Reader's and Dr. Sanderson's sake, that
posterity had known his great Learning and Virtue by a better pen; by
such a pen, as could have made his life as immortal, as his learning
and merits ought to be.

I.W.

THE LIFE
OF
DR. ROBERT SANDERSON,