A Posing Question Put by the Wise Man, Title page – Dedication
A POSING QUESTION, PUT By the Wiſe man, viz. SOLOMON, to the Wiſeſt men.
Concerning making a JUDGMENT of TEMPORAL CONDITIONS.
WHEREIN YOU HAVE The Ignorance of Man (in knowing, What is Good, or Evil, for man in this Life) DISCOVERED; Together, with the Miſtakes that flow from it: And the great Queſtion RESOLVED, viz. Whether the Knowledg of, What is Good for a man in this Life, be ſo hid from Man, that no man can attain it.
Preached at the Weekly Lecture at Ʋpton upon Severn, in the County of Worcester, by BENJAMIN BAXTER, late Miniſter of the Goſpel there.
Eccleſ. 9. 1.
No man knoweth either Love or Hatred, by what is before him.
Eccleſ. 5. 13.
There is a ſore Evil I have ſeen under the Sun, namely, Riches, Kept for the Owners thereof to their Hurt.
Pſal. 119. 71.
It is good for me that I have been Afflicted.
LONDON, Printed for George Sawbridge, at the Signe of the Bible on Ludgate-Hill, 1662.
To the much HONOURED, AND TRULY VERTUOUS, Mrs. PENELOPE LECHMERE; Wife to Nicholas Lechmere, of HANLY-CASTLE, Eſq
Madam,
AS nothing is more uſual, then for thoſe, who write Books, to Dedicate them to ſome Perſon or other: So it's as uſual with thoſe that do it, to make known to the World, the Reaſon of ſuch their Dedication; and, Why to ſuch a Perſon. Among other reaſons, none are more frequently alleadged, then Eminent Favours received. Madam, If I would make theſe the Reaſons of my Dedicating this Book to you, it were ſufficient to ſatisfy any, Why I have pitched upon you, rather then upon another. I could tell the World, What a grear Debtor you have me to you, eſpecially in this day, wherein the Hand of the Lord hath been, and ſtill is, very heavy upon me: You have been a Nurſe, and very much of a Phyſitian to me; You have miniſtred to my Neceſſities; You have often cheared me with your Viſits; Yea, you left not, till you had found out, an Able and Eminent Phyſitian, and brought him to me, under whoſe hands I at preſent am, waiting upon God for the Iſſue. Certainly, theſe are Favours that are not to be forgotten; and might very well be alleadged, as the Reaſon of my Dedicating this inconſiderable Peece to you. But, Madam, under favour, I muſt tell you and the world, that this Dedication, neither reſpecteth, nor relates to, any of theſe. The only Reaſon, is, truly this, That there is none, can claim ſuch an Intereſt in the Book, as your ſelf; and if it be worth ſeeing the Light, you muſt be thanked for it. You were the Perſon, who, for ſome years laſt paſt, did with much importunity, ſolicit me to the Printing and Publiſhing of theſe Sermons; You reſted not, till you had obtained a promiſe from me, of doing it; When my Copy was finiſhed, you were impatient till it were ſent to the Preſs; and when it was in the Preſs, in all your inquiries after it, you were pleaſed to Stile it by the Name of Your Book. So many wayes have you been pleaſed to make it your own, that I ſhould have wronged you very much, if I ſhould have denied you, the right you have to it. And now Madam, having given you this accompt of the Reaſon of my Dedicating this Book to you, I ſhall next give you, a brief accompt of the Book it ſelf. It Treats of a Subject, which few or none (that I know of) have written of, (I mean) ſo as to make it the ſole Subject, of a full and juſt Diſcourſe. It is a Subject, that Univerſally reſpecteth all, of what Degree or Quality ſoever, High and Low, Rich and Poor; yea, the Higheſt, and the Loweſt; The King that Sits upon the Throne, and the Beggar that fits upon the Dunghill. GOD, the Great Founder, and Framer of Conditions, hath not made all men, equal and alike in reſpect of Stature, (Saul, was taller than the people, by the head and ſhoulders) no more hath he made all equall, in page missing