Motivation

This editor was given a copy of The Sum of Saving Knowledge done by another editor/author and found it to be spiritually helpful. It also occurred to this editor that it could serve as the foundation for an excellent Gospel tract. It is neither so long as to discourage readers from finishing it, nor so short as to leave readers with an incomplete understanding of the Gospel or without the means to begin to apply its teachings to their lives and examine their hearts for evidence of the true work of the Holy Spirit in them.

Unfortunately, that copy of this Sum was encumbered by a copyright,⁸⁹ precluding wide, inexpensive, and casual distribution. Other versions had the same problem, contained excessive embedded commentary, or were of uncertain accuracy. As the editor was already making a “retirement career” of translating Puritan era literature into contemporary American English, he decided to produce his own version. He has not referred to anyone else’s work to avoid suspicion of copyright violation. (Many months passed between his last reading of the Sum and beginning the present project; his senior brain thus ensured the complete independence of his work.) Use of the CopyLeft copyright license also ensures wide freedom of copying and distribution of this present version.

89 This does not imply that copyrights are somehow wrong. Intellectual property is property just as merchandise is the property of the store until fairly purchased. The choice of whether to sell or give away work or goods is the free choice of the owner as led by God for particular purposes (1 Corinthians 9:1–19).