To the Honourable Mr. Juftice HALEes, One of the JUDGES of the Common-Pleas; And to the much Honoured Edward Heywood, John Vaughan, and Rowland Jerks, Efqrs; Moft Worthy Gentlemen, WER ERE you not Executors to that Perfon, who (while he liv'd). was the Glory of the Nation, yet I am Confident any thing of his would find Acceptance with you, and truly the Sense and Notion here is wholly his, and most of the Words.. I had the opportunity to hear his Difcourfes twenty Years together, and left all those Excellent things that ufually fell from him might be loft, fome of them from time to time I faithfully committed to Writing, which here digested into this The Epiftle Dedicatory. this Method, I humbly prefent to your Hands; you will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar Illuftrations wherewith they are fet off, and in which way you know he was fo happy, that, with a marvelous delight to thofe that heard him, he would prefently convey the highest Points of Religion, and the most important Affairs of State, to an ordinary apprehenfion. In reading be pleas'd to distinguish Times," and in your Fancy carry along with you, the When and the Why, many of these things were fpoken; this will give them the more Life, and the smarter Relifh. 'Tis poffible the Entértainement you find in them, may render you the more inclinable to pardon the Prefumption of, Your most Obliged and moft Humble Servant RI. MILWARD. THE |