An Answer to my kind Friend's Preface in his Letter

Since God Himself is pleas'd to guide my Pen,
To rectifie the Steps of unlearn'd Men,
I am much pleas'd, yet dare no Praises own,
All which (I know) are due to God alone:
But daily pray that I may take delight
To practise these great Lessons that I write.
Tho' I'm afraid this Book will have the fate,
That better Books than mine have had of late,
To be laid by, when once it is read o'er,
And ne'er be look'd on, nor e'er thought on more;
Like those Romantick Stories that are writ,
To shew their Author's Eloquence and Wit.
But when good Meditations fill a Mind,
Which by the Holy Spirit is refin'd,
Each Paragraph which such good Men shall read,
Devotion will receive, and in them breed
Fresh flaming Zeal produc'd by holy Seed,
Whose Soul's with various Joys will entertain,
And let their still-encreasing Stock remain,
Till their devout, experimental Part,
By Faith, the intrinsick value of this Art,
Shall such Angelick Fire in them create,
As may, with them, Heaven's Bliss participate;
And as their glitt'ring Bubbles do decay,
Their lightned Souls with holy Vigour, may
So fix their Minds, and all their Hopes imploy,
Make them assur'd of their eternal Joy.