ncy of the subjects therein treated, shall know this work, or lamp,
to have its weight and light and though small, yet as a candle, shall
increase, and add to those lights already burning upon the table of his
memory or museol.(156) There is but one Spirit, one faith, one baptism,
yet about and in these, there are diversities of gifts, and though all men
naturally have but one face, yet the variety to be seen in each one,
procureth both wonder and delight, there being in every one something new,
something which makes it differ from all other. There is here to be found
something enlarged, enlightened, and applied, which in other volumes may
not be heeded, or but slenderly touched, or if it were otherwise, here it
is in some other way, method, or expression; besides which, there is no
new thing under the sun. And have we not, nay, choose we not, to have
variety of gems, agates, rubies, and diamonds shining about us, some
squared, some angled, each having their own excellency, because so formed?
If this instance take not, it is because the children of this generation
are wiser than the children of light.

That the work is imperfect, is for a lamentation save for this, that while
the author was contemplating upon the Spirit of adoption, and being with
God, the Spirit called upon him by death, as the voice did upon the
divine, saying, "Come up hither, and I will show thee," Rev. iv. 1. So
that what David said of the waters of Bethlehem, may be said of this lame
orphan, "Is not this the blood of this good man?" The great and wise
Master builder of the church, giving this young man order to lay the
foundation, and raise the building but thus high, appointing, it must be,
some others to perfect and lay on the roof, yea, possibly it is squared
and framed already for thy use in other treatises, and thyself to perfect
the edifice of the salvation, by joining this and that together in thy
practice. Mr. Hugh Binning, showing thee in his lot, how to be rid of, or
delivered from the law's condemnation, ver 1, and some other in his
quarter to demonstrate because of that, "neither height nor depth shall be
able to separate thee from the love of God," ver. 39 of this chapter.

Had this work come directly from the authors own hands, he had spoken in
his own style, his own mind; but that being denied, receive this posthume
infant, as David did Mephibosheth, first, for its father's sake, next for
its own. Though it be lame in the feet, yet i