Chapter 31.—Apology for the
Length of the Work.
64. This book has extended to a
greater length than I expected or desired. But the reader or
hearer who finds pleasure in it will not think it long. He who
thinks it long, but is anxious to know its contents, may read it in
part. He who does not care to be acquainted with it need not
complain of its length. I, however, give thanks to God that with
what little ability I possess I have in these four books striven to
depict, not the sort of man I am myself (for my defects are very
many), but the sort of man he ought to be who desires to labor in
sound, that is, in Christian doctrine, not for his own instruction
only, but for that of others also.
