THE BROKEN CISTERN, AND THE SPRINGING WELL: OR, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAD NOTIONS, AND HEART RELIGION, VAIN JANGLING, AND SOUND DOCTRINE. ADDRESSED TO THE REV. JOHN RYLAND, SENIOR, AT ENFIELD. By WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, S. S. MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT PROVIDENCE CHAPEL, LITTLE TITCHFIELD-STREET, AND AT MONKWELL-STREET MEETING. SECOND EDITION. of Gad, NY Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered 2 COR. iii. 3, 5, 6. LONDON: PRINTED BY T. BENSLEY, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET. Sold at Providence Chapel on Monday and Wednesday Evenings, and at Monk- 1800. 141.505 PREFACE. To the Rev. JOHN RYLAND, Sen. し 1 T REVEREND SIR, HE reason of my addressing this to you, is because, some time ago, you faid, (as I was informed) in a barber's shop, that "You had prepared a pill for WILLIAM HUNTINGTON; and, if that did not do, you would give him a bolus." Soon after which your little " Body of Divinity" appeared, which I took to be the Pill; and, after that, "Antinomianism Unmasked" fell into my hands, which I took to be the threatened Bolus. However, I could not help fmiling when I saw your Maid's name affixed to it, for I thought that was done in order to try my sagacity, or the strength of my eye-fight. I perceived that there was a woman's name ftanding on the title, and a man's voice fpeaking in it. I faid, "Come near to me, and let me handle thee, and fee whose child thou art: thou art called the handyworks of Efau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob." How A 2 1 However, the Maid affirms that, by a miraculous conception, she compassed this production without the help of man; whereas, if family likenesses express or mean any thing, the first nine or ten pages will speak for themselves. Many of the features of this child are Mr. Ryland's own: he is known, whether he appears in a Magazine or in this piece. I think I may warrantably say of these pages, as we commonly say of a log of feather-edge boards, that it is the work of two; or of a pair of fawyers, one on the top, and the other in the pit. The Maid, by name, is the top woman; but Mr. Ryland worked under ground. There was a conjunction of heads in the production of this pamphlet. This discovers itself in the seventh page, where the noun plural appears-" We have taken a short but comprehenfive view of it, but who hath believed the report?" It might have been rendered, our report. Now, though I am no grammarian, yet I know that two are more than one, and that we implies a plurality. But it seems that Mr. Ryland refuses to father this little one, left it should be overlaid, or found dead: but the Maid lays claim to the whole of it, having no doubt but it is a living child. But I say, " Divide it," feeing the Girl has confessed to Mr. King that it contains Mr. Ryland's sentiments. You You should be a little more private, reverend Sir, in your matters, and not let your fecret things get abroad, as they do. Your threatening me in the barber's shop; the former convention and council against me, when the calf's head fell into the ashes; the good works that appeared in your servant, and another, when the seventeenth squib of candour went off in a fortnight at Islington; your refusing to fee any body but your maid when this chick was hatching from the egg; the printer's boy bringing a proof to you at a friend's house, where you did not expect him; your acknowledging to Mrs. Terry that you had a hand in the first squib that your Maid discharged at me, befides your own mode of writing appearing in it-ferve to confirm me in my opinion of its having been a joint work. The above hints I have dropped [a hint to the wife is enough] only to let my friends know that I was privy to many of their secret counsels-Wist ye not that fuch a man as I can certainly divine? I suppose your fervant thinks me not so competent a judge of physiognomy as herself, because the "Answer to the Daughter's Defence" was addressed to the father; but she seems to wonder that the answer to the Maid's Mask should be addressed to the Maf A 3 ter. |