By the Right Reverend Father in God
EDWARD STILLINGFLEET, D.D.

TO

HIS MOST HONOURED FRIEND AND PATRON

Sir ROGER BOURGOINE,

KNIGHT AND BARONET.

SIR,

It was the early felicity of Moses, when exposed in an ark of Nilotic papyre, to be adopted into the favour of so great a personage as the daughter of Pharaoh : such another ark is this vindication of the writings of that divine and excellent person exposed to the world in ; and the greatest ambition of the author of it is, to have it received into your patronage and protection. But although the contexture and frame of this treatise be far below the excellency and worth of the subject (as you know the ark in which Mofes was put, was of bulrushes daubed with flime and pitch), yet, when you please to cast your eye on the matter contained in it, you will not think it beneath your favour, and unworthy your protection. For if

truth

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