PREFACE

TO THE

FOLLOWING WORK.

§. I.

An ornate drop-cap 'H' is decorated with scrolling foliage and floral motifs.
The Work that is here brought before the eyes of the Public is the last labor that the Renowned Writer had prepared for the service of the Common Good; and shortly before his sudden Passing had thus brought to a conclusion, just as it is now brought to light, printed according to the Author’s own manuscript.

To have some report of the Life and Death of this Great and Pious Writer, there shall be added after this Preface the announcement made in the Monthly Book-Hall of Amsterdam Boekzaal van Amsterdam of the year 1718, in the month of June, page 744. This report was prepared by a hand unknown to us, yet it is sufficiently accurate.

§. 2. It was much wished that the Blessed Author might have seen this Work published during his Honorable Life. Not so much to make any significant changes in the work itself, as His Honor, having transcribed it in this form, told me just before his illness that he intended to deliver it to the printing press in this manner. But mainly because His Honor intended to add a Preface or Foreword: in which he would perhaps have treated, with some breadth, such preparations for this work as he judged necessary to instruct the understanding and mind of the Readers, so that they might make use of the following Work with more fruit and without prejudice.

But since this Worthy Man was snatched so hastily from life, and His Honor on his deathbed requested me as his intimate Friend to take the publication of this Work upon myself, I have willingly carried it out. The more so, because through