Three Treatises to Awaken Secure Sinners, To the reader 1
Chriſtian Reader,
WHen I had reſolved at the deſire of the Honorable Judge of Aſ…ize, to publiſh the foregoing Sermon, I remembred that about ſix years before, I had preached another on the like occaſion, on a ſubject ſo like and to ſo like a purpoſe, that I conceived it not unfit to be annexed to the former. I have edeavoured to ſhew you in both theſe Sermons, that Chriſt may be preached without Antinomianiſ…; that terrour may be preached without unwarrantable preaching the Law; that the Goſpel is not a meer promiſe, and that the Law it ſelf is not ſo terrible as it is to the rebellious. As alſo what that ſuper ſtructure is, that is built on the foundation of General Redemption rightly under ſtood; and how ill we can preach Chriſts Dominion in his univerſal propriety and ſoveraignty, or yet perſwade men to ſanctification and ſubjection without this foundation. I have laboured to fit all (or almoſt all) for Matter and Manner to the Capacity of the Vulgar. And though for the Matter it is as neceſſary to the greateſt, yet is it for the Vulgar principally that I publiſh it; and had rather it might be numbred with thoſe Boooks that are carryed up and down the Country from door to door in Pedlars Packs, then with thoſe that lie in Bookſellers Stalls, or are ſet up in the Libraries of learned Divines. And to the ſame uſe would I deſign the moſt of my publiſhed labours ſhould God afford we time and abily and contetious brethren would give me leave.
Auguſt the 7th, 1654. Rich. Baxter.