A PREFACE,
OR
Children, grace be with you. Amen. I being taken from you in presence, and so tied up that I cannot perform that duty that from God doth lie upon me to you—ward for your further edifying and building up in faith and holiness, etc.,yet that you may see my soul hath fatherly care and desire after your spiritual and everlasting welfare; I now once again, as before, "from the top of Shenir and Hermon," so now I "from the lions' den, and from the Mountain of the leopards" (Cant. iv. 8), do look yet after you all, greatly longing to see your safe arrival into the desired haven.
I thank God upon every remembrance of you, and rejoice, even while I stick between the teeth of the lions in the wilderness, that the grace and mercy and knowledge of Christ our Saviour which God hath bestowed upon you, with abundance of faith and love, your hungerings and thirstings after further acquaintance with the Father and Son, your tenderness of heart, your trembling at sin, your Sober and holy deportment also before both God and men, is a great refreshment to me; for ye are my glory and joy! (1 Thess. ii. 20).
