The Epiſtle Dedicatory.
needful Epitomies are in all Sciences, chiefly in Divinity, I need not write, if either we conſider the ſhortneſſe of our time, or the largeneſſe and multitude of Volumes, which have been written of this Subject, or the weakneſſe of our memories, or the faſtidiouſneſſe that is begot in us by reading tedious and voluminous Diſcourſes, God who knows what is beſt for us, hath epitomized all Practical Divinity into X Precepts, and our Saviour hath reduced thoſe ten into two, and all that we can pray for, or againſt, into ſix heads or Petitions. The Traveller that deſiers to be ſoon at his journeys end, will ſeek out the moſt compendious way: He is an unwiſe Traveller that will clog himſelf with ſilver, if he can epitomize it into Gold, ſurely a weak Stomack wil better retain the ſmal quantity of an extract than the large draught of a nauſeating potion: He
