Two Treatises 2, Dedication 2
To the right Worſhipfull, the Lady ANNE WENTWORTH, at her houſe in Somerleyton, in the County of Suffolk.
Madam,
I Can not, I may not forget thoſe reſpects which my ſelfe ſome years ſince found from your late honoured Husband, and your ſelfe; how, during my exile (in the late difficult times) from the *Great Yarmouthplace to which God firſt called, and hath ſince returned me, you were pleaſed to provide me a reſidence and ſubſiſtance in your neighboring *The Iſland of Lovingland.Patmos; where for ſome time I exerciſed my Miniſtery, firſt as a Teacher, in a *LowndeVillage near you, and after as a Paſtor in the *Somerleyton.place of your owne habitation. As a gratefull acknowledgement of that immerited favour (not having a better preſent) I doe here put this ſmall Tract into your Ladiſhips hand. The ſubject matter whereof (what ever the Workmanſhip be) is ſuch, as may deſerve a reception. Acquaintance with God, it is the cheif happineſs of the reaſonable creature. This, (I truſt) your Ladiſhip is not altogether a stranger to. My deſire is, that you may grow up to a further degree of this bleſsed familiarity. And to that end I ſhall crave from you a ſerious peruſal of this ſmal Manuall; wherein you ſhall find, as the Nature of this great Duty opened, ſo the Practice of it Incouraged, directed, Cautioned. May my labours in this way prove uſefull to your Ladiſhip, I ſhall look upon it as the beſt retribution that I am, or ever ſhall bee able to make you. In the deſires and hopes whereof, I humbly take my leave, reſting
Your Ladiſhips Obliged to ſerve you in all Chriſtian Offices, JOHN BRINSLEY. Yarmouth 14. July Anno. 1653.