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Recommendatory Preface.

DEAR FRIENDS,

THE following miscellaneous collection, has been written by a pious godly woman; whom, I really believe, fears God above many. In many of her writings her style is rather masculine than otherwise; and therefore she has been suspected of publishing works under her name, which were not her own, but had some minister for their author :....whoever thus judged, I am persuaded, were altogether mistaken. Being frequently in the company of ministers, it is not to be wondered at if she should imperceptibly speak or write, in some respects, after their manner. The pieces in prose and verse that are here presented to thee, are not controversial; but they will be found to be of such a nature, that I think all unprejudiced friends of the Lord Jesus Christ will cordially receive them.

A warm attachment to and no inconsiderable zeal for the glorious doctrines of the trinity....of the divinity of the Lord Jesus, and of the divinity and divine personality of the Holy Ghost, are discernable throughout the work: nor are the other truths of the gospel sparingly introduced....If thou, beloved reader, art one of the followers of the lamb; if Christ be very precious to thee; if his name be as ointment poured forth to thy soul; then, most probably, the perusal of this

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RECOMMENDATORY PREFACE.

publication will afford thee both pleasure and profit ; especially if thou lookest up to the blessed Spirit of God for a divine blessing upon it.

If it should be asked, what was my inducement to write this recommendatory address? I must inform the reader, that it was not from any supposition that the name at the close hereof, had any weight, which would render any capital service to the performance or to the spread thereof; or that either the one or the other needed such help; but the particular desire of the writer constrained me; she having been, for some years a worthy member of the church of Christ among whom I have long laboured....with whom I hope to live and die. I was the more disposed to accede to her request, as the matter that follows appears to me to be agreeable to the word of God, and calculated to promote the manifestive glory of God, and the good of precious souls.

That some poor sinners' minds may receive benefit from her labors....that she may have the pleasure of knowing this to be the case, if not in this world, at least in the world to come...that the Redeemer's honor and his kingdom may spread far and wide, and all his enemies be scattered, is the sincere desire and prayer of Thy sincere friend in our common Lord, JOHN TOWERS.

Clerkenwell, July 25, 1791.

Preface to the Reader.

AMONGST all the grand doctrines the bible reveals to fallen man, that of the trinity in unity, a triune God, is perhaps the most sublime, and therefore it may appear somewhat like presumption in a woman to exercise her pen upon such a subject: but in times like the present, when this glorious truth is so awfully denied by many, when arianism, sabelianism and socinianism is pouring in upon us like a flood, and some even dare to stand forth in public and blaspheme that worthy name by which we are called; it ought not to be wondered at, if even the stones in the street rose up with indignation, and found a voice to bear testimony to the dignity and to assert the Deity of their divine Creator....Let this consideration plead my ex

cuse.

Impressed with a deep sense of the importance of the subject, and conscious of my own utter inability to defend so illustrious a truth, fearing to darken council by words without knowledge; I wished, but dared not for several years attempt any thing of this kind, though requested by several friends to do it: however, an unexpected solicitation from a gentleman, at that time a perfect stranger to me, prevailed upon

me to take up my pen....I viewed it as the voice of providence, and therefore dared not refuse. So far as I am capable of knowing my own heart, I know this, that I do not write from interested motives; I feel the highest satisfaction in the testimony of my conscience, that I write not for the gain or applause of the world: if the Lord Jesus Christ, the great God my Saviour, is glorified in the smallest degree....if his cause is any way promoted; and any, if it be only one, of his children edified by any thing he has enabled me to write, my labor will be richly repaid, and he shall have the glory. Conscious as I am of the many improprieties of language and deficiencies in point of grammar, which are very discernable in these poems and tracts; I feel myself constrained to put in a humble claim to the candid attention of my readers, from the consideration that I am a woman....that I have not enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education.... that some of the pieces were written many years ago, and that I have not had the kind assistance of any judicious friend in preparing them for the press, or even in revising or correcting the proof sheets; but have gone through the whole fatigue of this work myself, and that in the midst of such weakness and indisposition of the body; when these facts are duly weighed, I flatter myself, that the soft and gentle hand of candor will draw a veil over the inacuracies of the following pieces, and screen them from the severity of the keen eye of criticism. However, such as they are, I commit them to the care and blessing of heaven; and I am encouraged to do this, because I know the Lord of Hosts is a God of unlimited power; he can

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