Having these scattered Discourses in my custody, and wholly at my disposal, either to republish, or suffer them to sleep in that darkness wherein they lay; I thought it very incongruous to the necessities of this degenerate age, to let the excellent works of so learned, pious, and worthy a Prelate be extinct, and lye hid from the open view of the World; sith they are none of the worst of which this Great Man was pleased to bless our times with.
These Sermons were fram’d for, and preached before a Great and Regal Auditory; though by their plain, natural, and unaffected Style (a thing he always delighted in) one would have thought the contrary; since the Chappels as well as Courts of Princes, are by byass’d and self-interested principles so often flatter’d.
And now I thought no man so fitting as your Lordship to shelter these Discourses from the rage and fury of the Atheistical Male-Contents of the Age; they being the Fundamentals of Religion that he treats of; which I am very sensible your Lordship well knows, are not only slighted, but bid open defiance to, and the Authority of their Institution call’d in question.
That man would certainly be held a notorious Delinquent, that should openly affront the King, and disown that Authority, and Legislative Power, by which he commands Obedience to his Laws. The Consequent may be justly applicable, in the words of a Reverend and Learned1 Writer of our times, But to Blaspheme God, and Deride his Service, seems to have a much greater malignity in it, inasmuch as our obligations to his Honour and Service, are much greater than they can be to any created Being. And to such kind of men it may be said, in the words of a2 Noble Author, Agnoscant vero hanc, suam formam, tanquam in speculo, miseri & perditi illi, qui Deum obliviscendo, se sui oblitos non vident; quia formam naturamque, essentiam, quantum in se est, obliterarunt.
That I make this DedicatoryEpistle proceeds not from a desire thus publickly to expose my self, (for as I can have no interest to court the applause, so neither have I any reason to value the censure of the World) but it is from a sincere principle to express that Reverence I bear your Lordship; whom I know as you have Goodness to pardon, so I presume to, your Honour will be both ready and willing to stand in the defence of this bold Address.
That Length of Days may be in your Right Hand, and in your Left, Riches and Honour, is the Hearty and Affectionate Prayer of him, who desires nothing more, than to subscribe himself, (in all the circumstances of a becoming Devoir.)
My LORD, Your Lordship’s most Humble and most Obedient Servant, J. G.