Another Preface To The 1783 Edition.
ANOTHER PREFACE TO THE 1783 EDITION.
Christian Reader,
In each of these Epistles thou mayest perceive, how the writers heart is inflamed with a holy fire; and how his soul ascends in the smoke (as snatched up to heaven and caught up above all that is below God:) O how much drops from his pen above the ordinary attainments and experience, even of such who seem to have out-run others! So that in respect of us, this angel of the church speaks as one standing already in the Quire of angels, or as an angel come down from heaven among men, to give us some account of what they are doing above. And thus leaving thee to peruse what is made public for thy edification; and to press this pomegranate and squeeze this grape; and to suck till thou find thy soul refreshed with its spiced wine; and wishing thee an experimental knowledge of that surpassing and inconceivable sweetness which is in the fruition of God, and to be enjoyed in a fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and a full draught of these pure streams of solid joy and consolation, wherein the soul of this saint swimmed, and which run through these lines; without which, while he speaks as coming forth out of the King's banqueting-house, to perswade thee to go in thither, and feast and bathe thy soul in the same pure delights, and permanent pleasures, whereon he fed, and which flow in upon the soul, and overflow it, while the saint finds himself, with his Beloved's left hand under his head, and his right hand embracing him, he will be to thee a barbarian, I shall only wish and beg, that thou wouldst seriously seek of God, the same thing for him, who seeks this for thee, and hath his design in the pains taken in publishing these Letters, if thou be thereby provoked to seek till thou find: this is that adequate recompence, which he seeks, earnestly intreats, and expects, who is Thy soul's well wisher,
and servant in Christ Jesus.