Preface

Friendly Reader,

As a Charge of the Nature contain'd in the Title Page to theſe Sheets, thou may'st be affured, is no more pleaſing to me, than it can be acceptable to the Perſons concerned, on account of my Profeſſon to be one in Communion with the Faithful amongst them; It may well be expected, that I would not thus publiſh the Inſtances I have to affign amongst others at a publick Conference in proof of the fame, had I not first tried all the Christian Means I could think of to prevent it; in order whereto, as thou wilt find a large Catalogue of fuch Letters and Papers at the end of my Charges, as I have from time to time preſented to their feveral Meetings of Diſcipline; and for that righteous Purpoſe, I have not been wanting to renew my Entreaties therein to Richard Claridge, and others of their Preachers, on the Third and Sixth of this instant Auguſt, to examine the Truth of the ſeveral Inſtances I refer to in proof of them, in order to their Defence or Condemnation, to prevent its further Publication in Print, now that I was come up to London for that purpoſe; which Task neither he or they being to be prevailed on to undertake any more than heretofore, in a well grounded Suſpicion, I doubt not, of their great Guiltineſs; in the generality of thoſe Matters they then permitted me to read in their Audience; I durſt not any longer delay to commit the ſame to the Pref, in diſcharge of my Duty to God and his abuſed People, as I then told them, as I had done others of their guilty Partakers before them.

Wherefore, Christian Reader, hoping thou wilt not ſlight the Matter contained herein, upon account of my unpoliſh'd Method; ſince, though fome few of the Instances I refer to in proof of my Charges, may not in ſtrictneſs be altogether free from Exception; yet as I have mention'd none, but fuch, as collectively taken in their Native Senſe, ought to be allowed as good Evidence by their own Precepts and Precedents, I doubt not, but that on Examination thou wilt find all my feveral Charges made good against them, by fo many unexceptionable ones as thou wilt allow ſufficient, whatever they in their quibbling Defences, as their manner is, may pretend to the contrary, to prepoſſeſs their Auditors against all Christian Enquiry into the Truth of them; in confidence where of I conclude, and proceed to the Matter in Hand.