Reader,
You are here presented with a little piece, of a great man; great indeed, if great piety, great parts, great learning, and great wisdom, may be admitted to claim that title: and we verily believe that none well acquainted with him, will deny him his right; however malevolent persons may grudge him the honor. It has been expected, and desired by many, that some account of his life might be given to the world; but we are not willing to offer violence to his ashes, by making him so public now he is dead, who so much affected privacy while he lived. You are therefore desired to rest satisfied with this brief account of him, that being very young he went to Cambridge, where in Emmanuel College, he was brought up under the tuition of the present Archbishop of Canterbury: what gracious workings and evidences of the new birth appeared in him while there, has already been spoken of by one, who was at that time his fellow collegiate and intimate. Some time he afterward spent in a private family, and a little more in the exercise of his ministry in Southwark, then removed to New College in Oxford, where he was fellow, and spent several years; being then taken notice of for his singular gifts, and had in reputation by the most learned and godly in that university, and upon that account the more frequently put upon public work. Being from there (the year after he had been Proctor) called over into Ireland to a constant public employment, he exercised his ministry for about four or five years, not with the approbation only, but to the admiration of the most wise and judicious Christians, and with the concurrent applause of such as were of very different sentiments from him in the things of religion; or rather, even those that never loved his piety, yet would commend his learning and gifts, as being beyond exception, if not above compare. About the year 1660, being discharged from the public exercise of his ministry, he returned back into England, and in and about London spent the greatest part of fifteen years, without any call to his old work in a settled way; but for about these five years last past has been more known by his constant preaching, of which we need not speak, but let them that heard him, speak for him; or, if they should be silent, his works will do it. He was a person of excellent parts, strong reason, great judgment, and (which do not often go together) curious fancy, of high improvements, and general learning, as having been all his days a most diligent and methodical student, and a great redeemer of time, rescuing not only his restless hours in the night, but his very walking time in the streets from those impertinencies and fruitless vanities, which do so customarily fill up men's minds, and steal away their hearts from those better and more noble objects, which do so justly challenge their greatest regards: this he did by not only carefully watching (as every good Christian should do,) but constantly writing down his thoughts, whereby he both governed them better, and furnished himself with many materials for his most elaborate discourses. His chief talent was his preaching gift, in which, to speak modestly, he had few equals. To this therefore, as that for which his Lord and Master had best fitted him (neglecting the practice of medicine, in which he had arrived at a considerable measure of knowledge) he did especially devote himself, and direct his studies, and even when Providence denied him opportunities, yet he was still laying in more stock, and preparing for work against the time he might be called to it. When he was in employment, none that heard him, could justly blame his retiredness, he being even when most private, continually at work for the public; and had he been less in his study, he would have been less liked in the pulpit. His library, furnished (though not with a numerous, yet) a curious collection of books was his workhouse, in which he labored hard all the week, and on the Lord's day made it appear, he had not been idle, and that though he consulted his privacy, yet he did not indulge his sloth. He was somewhat reserved where he was not well acquainted, otherwise very free, affable and communicative, where he understood and liked his company. He affected not much acquaintance, because he would escape visitors, well knowing how much the ordinary sort of friends were apt to take up of his time, which he could ill spare from his beloved studies, meeting with few that could give him better entertainment with their company, than he could give himself alone: they had need be very good, and very learned by whose conversation he could gain more than by his own thoughts and books. He was a true son of the Church of England, in that sound doctrine laid down in the articles of religion, and taught by our most famous ancient divines and reformers; and a real follower of their piety, as well as a strenuous maintainer of the truth they professed. His preaching was mostly practical, yet rational and argumentative; to his hearers' understandings, as well as affections; and where controversies came in his way, he showed great acuteness, and judgment in discussing and determining them, and no less skill in applying them to practice: so that he was indeed a workman that needed not to be ashamed, being able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince gainsayers. Some have thought his preaching too high for common hearers, and it cannot be denied but his gifts were suited to the more intelligent sort of Christians; yet it must withal be said, that if he were sometimes deep, he was never abstruse; he handled the great mysteries of the gospel with much clearness and perspicuity, so that if in his preaching he were above most, it was only because most were below him. Several considerable treatises on some of the most important points of religion, he finished in his ordinary course, which he has left behind him, in the same form he usually wrote them for the pulpit. This comes out first as a forerunner to several others designed to be made public, as soon as they can be with convenience transcribed, which (if the Lord will, and spare life) shall be attested with our hands; and whatever any else shall publish, can be but imperfect notes (his own copies being under our revisal at the request of his friends) taken from him in the pulpit, in which what mistakes do often happen everyone knows, and we have found by experience in the case of this very author, more than once. This was thought fit to be said to secure the reputation of the dead, and prevent the abuse of the living. These sermons might have come out with the solemn ceremony of large recommendations, the author's worth being so well known to, and his preaching so highly esteemed by the most eminent ministers about this city, but it was judged needless, his own works being sufficient to praise him.
One thing more is to be added, that such as he is here, such he is in his other pieces; so that you have here, reader, a specimen of the strain and spirit of this holy man, this being his familiar and ordinary way of preaching, and these sermons coming out first, not as if they were the best of what he left behind him, but because they could soonest be dispatched; and to prevent the injuries that might else be done by spurious treatises, both to him, and you; and likewise by this little [reconstructed: taste] to gratify the appetites of such who having been his hearers, did long even with eagerness, to feast themselves again upon those excellent truths, which in the delivery were so sweet to them; perhaps too it may quicken their appetites who never heard him, it may be never yet heard of him. If you like this cluster, fear not but the vintage will be answerable: if this little earnest be good metal the whole sum will be no less current. That a blessing from Heaven may be upon this work, and upon you in reading, and studying the nature, and beauty, and ends of divine providence, and that the Lord of the harvest (especially when so many are daily called home) would send forth more and more such laborers into the harvest, is the hearty prayer of
Yours in the Lord, Richard Adams, Edward Veal
