Twelve sermons preached upon several occasions by Robert South ... ; six of them never before printed.

To the Right Honourable, The Lord Mayor and Aldermen Of the City of LONDON.

Right Honourable,

WHen I consider how impossible it is for a person of my condition to produce, and consequently how imprudent to attempt, any thing in proportion either to the Ampleness of the Body you repre∣sent, or of the Places you bear, I should be kept from venturing so poor a piece, designed to live but an hour, in so lasting a Publication; did not what your Civility calls a Request, your Greatness render a Command. The truth is, in things not unlawful great Persons cannot be properly said to request, because, all things con∣sidered, they must not be denyed. To me it was Honour enough to have your Audience; enjoy∣ment enough to behold your happy Change, and to see the same City, the Metropolis of Loyalty and of the Kingdom; to behold the Glory of En∣glish Churches reformed, that is, delivered from the Reformers; and to find at least the service

of the Church repaired, though not the build∣ings; to see St. Paul's delivered from Beasts here, as well as St. Paul at Ephesus: and to view the Church thronged onely with Troops of Auditors, not of Horse. This I could fully have acquiesced in, and received a large personal reward in my Particular share of the publick Ioy; but since you are further plea∣sed, I will not say by your Iudgment to approve, but by your Acceptance to encourage the raw Endeavours of a young Divine, I shall take it for an Opportunity, not as others in their sage Prudence use to do, to quote three or four Texts of Scripture, and to tell you how you are to Rule the City out of a Concordance; no, I bring not Instructions, but what much better befits both you and my self, your Commendations. For I look upon your City as the great and mag∣nificent stage of Business, and by consequence the best place of Improvement; for from the School we go to the University, but from the U∣niversities to London. And therefore as in your City-Meetings you must be esteemed the most considerable Body of the Nation; so met

in the Church, I look upon you as an Auditory fit to be waited on, as you are, by both Universities. And when I remember how instrumental you have been to recover this universal settlement, and to retrieve the old Spirit of Loyalty to Kings (as an ancient testimony of which you bear not the Sword in vain) I seem in a man∣ner deputed from Oxford, not so much a Prea∣cher to supply a course, as Oratour to present her thanks. As for the ensuing Discourse, which, (lest I chance to be traduced for a Plagi∣ary by him who has play'd the thief) I think fit to tell the world by the way, was one of those that by a worthy hand were stoln from me in the Kings Chappel and are still detained; and to which now accidentally published by your Ho∣nours Order, your Patronage must give both va∣lue, and protection. You will find me in it not to have pitcht upon any subject, that men's guilt, and the consequent of guilt, their concern∣ment might render liable to exception; nor to have rubbed up the memory of what some here∣tofore in the City did, which more and better now detest, and therefore expiate: but my sub∣ject is inoffensive; harmless, and innocent as

the state of innocence it self, and (I hope) sui∣table to the present design and Genius of this Nation; which is or should be, to return to that Innocence, which it lost long since the fall. Briefly, my business is, by describing what Man was in his first estate, to upbraid him with what he is in his present: between whom Innocent, and Fallen (that in a word I may suit the sub∣ject to the place of my discourse) there is as great an unlikeness, as between S. Paul's a Ca∣thedral, and S. Paul's a Stable. But I must not forestall my self, nor transcribe the work in∣to the Dedication. I shall now only desire you to accept the issue of your own requests; the gratification of which I have here consulted so much before my own reputation: while like the poor Widow I endeavour to shew my offici∣ousness by an offering, though I betray my po∣verty by the measure; not so much caring though I appear neither Preacher nor Scholar, (which terms we have been taught upon good reason to distinguish) so I may in this but shew my self

Your Honours very humble Servant, Robert South.

Worcester-house, Nov. 24. 1662.