Six sermons preached in Ireland in difficult times by Edward, Lord Bishop of Cork and Ross.

THE PREFACE.

TOuching these Sermons, which I here publish, Two things there are, an account whereof I thought convenient to preface to them; The Occa∣sion of publishing them, and their Frame or Nature: where, if I digress a little touch∣ing some ways of Preaching, more usual than profitable, I hope my design, of do∣ing thereby a publick good, may plead my Excuse.

They were preached with a very single Eye, or sincere Intention of conscientious performing my Duty, and approving my self to God in my station, by doing what lay in me (at a time of exigence) to con∣firm the wavering, to animate the diffi∣dent, to contain, excite and advance all

in their Loyalty and firm Adhesion to His Gracious Majesty, our present alone right∣ful liege Lord and Sovereign. And this End having been, God be blessed, happily attained (and perhaps would have been, by other means without these Sermons, at least, I am not so vain as to think other∣wise) there was therefore, for this pur∣pose, no need of their publication; nor had they for me ever been more heard of, much less publickly seen, but that the pre∣sent Humours and Menage of some, make it necessary for Churchmen not only to do their Duty, but to let the world know they do it, and that they are and will be honest: And though I am well assured these Discourses will not only in such times as they were preached in, but ever, be serviceable to the Royal Interest, and very beneficial to the Soul health of as many Subjects as will rea•• them, yet I will ingenuously confess, th•• conceit I had of the efficacy of them to these ends, was not so great as would have prevailed with me at present to have publish'd them, but that I thought it needful, some people should hear, of both Ears, at what rate we poor Irish Protestan•• Bishops in the Country preach.

It happened that being at Dublin in the

month of March, Ann. Dom. 1684. where with weeping Ireland I took my leave of the great and good Duke of Ormond, I was, according as usually when there, in∣vited to preach before the State at Christ-Church; and having in that short stay of the few days I had made there, met with divers Books, some even in English, which fell foul upon the Holy Scriptures, especially upon the present Original of the Old Testa∣ment, together with all Translations that closely follow it (as our English Translati∣ons for the most part does) and observing some men taking part with these Writers, admiring and applauding their Books, o∣thers (some of whom should have under∣stood better) shaken by them (so that some since have declared themselves to have been long in quest of Scriptures, and not∣withstanding all our Divines pretences, not yet to know where to find them) nay some further to have preached against the Peoples having and reading Scriptures in vulgar Languages, I thought I could not, by any one Sermon, do a more seasonable service to our Church, and indeed to the common Christianity, than by drawing to∣gether the sum of the more considerable Plea's which have been brought chiefly by Spinosa, Is. Vossius, and P. Simon, (the

three Chieftains whose Spittle other less people lick up and vent) against the va∣lidity or integrity of the Books of the Old Testament, (and consequently much ener∣vating the New) and by shewing the con∣temptible vanity, the gross falsity or unsound∣ness of them all. This I did briefly; and have since publisht the Discourse, with an Appendix (I may say) demonstrating the most suspicious Points asserted in it. In this Discourse it could not be, except I should have been grosly partial, but that some passages must fall justifying our esta∣blisht Church against her adversaries of Rome. But the main scope and design of my Sermon was plain enough against An∣tiscripturists in general. And, of the a∣forenamed Authors, whom I mainly struck at, and whose Doctrine I overthrew, one was an Atheistical Apostate Jew; the other a craz'd Admirer of Greek and Philology, (his Religion, if any, I may be confident is not Roman.) The third indeed a pro∣fest Son of Rome, but so Heterodox, that (as I understood then and have yet heard nothing to the contrary) that very Church has censured him and his Writings. Now who could ever have thought that defend∣ing Scripture, and the Hebrew Text, against such Adversaries, of whom not one man

was an Oxthodox Roman Catholick, could have been termed Imprudence, Disloyalty, ••nd fomenting Rebellion against the King? Yet so it was, that a certain Dignitary, ••n August last, as I have been informed, ••resented a Paper to a Person of Ho∣••our, wherein not only that Discourse, ••nd its Author, but certain Irish Prote∣••tant Bishops indefinitely were charged as follows.

I cannot understand the Policy of some Irish Protestant Bishops, during the Heat of Argiles and Monmouths Rebel∣lion, which threatned the Ruine of their whole Order, instead of preaching the Christian Doctrine of Loyalty and Al∣legiance, at that time seasonable, to go into into the Pulpit and amuse the Peo-with apprehensions of Popery, which, how Loyal soever their Intentions might be, was doubtless no Disservice to Mon∣mouth, nor good Service to His Majesty, because manifestly tending to alienate the Affections of the Subjects. And of these Irish Protestant Bishops, I hear, I was the first named in the Margin of his Paper.

To this Imputation Civility and good

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Manners will not suffer me to return th•• Language it deserves: but in short as to the truth of matter of fact; If the Bisho•• of Cork did not in that season preach u•• Loyalty and Obedience with all his migh•• (and possibly more, than any one man •• Papist or Protestant, within the Kingdom •• or if either at that time, or any else, h•• did ever preach, what may be justly term¦ed the amusing the people with apprehen¦sions of Popery, the said Bishop offer himself to the severest Animadversions ima¦ginable. To the point then: If the Lon∣don Gazzetts may be credited, Argile land¦ed at Campletown in the Highlands of Scot¦land May 20. Ann. Dom. 1685. and se•••• out his Treasonable Summons May 2•• (which day news came of his arrival t•• Dunluce in the North of Ireland) and o•• June 21. ensuing, he was brought in Pr••¦soner to Edenburgh. So that the Heat •••• his Rebellion must fall between May 20. an•• June 21. 1685. Further,

Monmouth landed at Lyme in the Even¦ing June 11. and was routed July 6. b••¦twixt which days must also fall the He•••• of his Rebellion. My Sermon at Chris•• Church Dublin, which was the only o•• that Gentleman heard of me about tha••

time, and which certainly he aimed at, was preached March 22. 1684. that is two full months not only before the Heat of Argiles Rebellion, but before any, except Traytors, knew of it; and three months, within three days, before the Heat or com∣mencing of Monmouths Rebellion, or any saving the Rebels Traiterous Accompli∣ces knew of that. Therefore this Gen∣tleman was fouly out in regard of time: and the main point in his Accusation, which will fix Imprudence or Disloyalty upon me, being the timing my Sermon, the whole Accusation must on this score fall. For how could I by that Sermon, preach∣ed at that time, be serviceable to Mon∣mouth in the time of his Rebellion, and disserviceable to the King, when the times fell at such distance, and his Rebellion was not in being, or thought of? By what account will March the 22. be made the middle of June? I am sure, if I had in the least sowed any Seeds of Rebellion, there were above an hundred wiser, and loyaller and greater men, than the Ac∣cuser in that Audience, from whom I should both have heard of it and felt it.

But waving this Answer from the Timt, which yet that Gentleman can never ge••

over, was it all true, that that Discours•• did tend to amuse the minds of men with th•• apprehensions of Popery? If I understand English, to amuse the minds of men wit•• the apprehensions of Popery, is to posses•• them with fears that Popery will be introduce•• or imposed upon them. Now let me be deal•• justly with, and let not men be false to their own Sense in this point also. Was there in that Discourse any one word pointing at or meddling with Designs of State or Sta∣tists? Is the modest and peaceable endea∣vouring to settle the Grounds of our common Christianity, and to confirm to mens Reason and Judgments the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture, against the Wiles or Bra∣vadoes of men who oppugn the Doctrine, not only of our own, but of the very Ro∣man Church; is this, I say, possessing the people with fears, that the Government in∣tends to establish Popery? If it be said some parts of your Sermon were levell'd against certain Doctrines of the Papists, as well as against the Tenets and Argu∣ments of those men named, I do not de∣ny it: but those parts tended only by strength of Argument, and without any one virulent expression, to confute those Doctrines, or prove them to be none of the genuine Christianity: Now certain∣ly

a man may endeavour to disprove a ••hing, which he does not at all think of perswading men the Government has a design to impose upon them. At this rate, I might have been as justly taxt of possessing the people the Government had a design of bringing in and imposing Infi∣delity or Irreligion, because I said what I could pertinently to overthrow both Infi∣delity and Irreligion. So that, had the time taken been so far right, as that it would have grounded any suspicion of me, yet had this Imputation been (otherwise) in it self most unjust and unreasonable. But what shews the Gentlemans Disinge∣nuity to the height, and renders his Mis∣representations of me and my Sermon most inexcusable is, that in this very Ser∣mon, which he loads with so unjust Asper∣sions, I having occasion to produce that Text, Prov. 16. 10. where Solomon tells us, A Divine Sentence is in the Lips of the King, his Mouth transgresseth not in Judg∣ment: asserted and maintained there (though as my Discourse would suffer me, only in transitu) the Kings Supremacy, and the Doctrine of Non-resistance it self; af∣firming that,

No persons of our Church ever thought of an Appeal from a Roy∣al Decree, or in any case, of Resistance

to the Royal Authority.

Whether this Doctrine in its own nature were doubtless no Disservice to such as Monmouth, nor any good Service to His Majesty, let the world judge.

Having thus far vindicated and avowed what indeed was not preached in the times of Argiles or Monmouths Rebellion, nor, as God knows, when either could be so much as thought of by me (who meddle not with, nor have insight into or fore∣sight of Affairs of State) may it be on this occasion lawful for me, to let the world know, what and how, where and how instant∣ly I did then preach; where also and how I spent my time, in the very heat of both those Rebellions: I was not therefore nei∣ther all nor any of that time, not within an hundred miles of my Charge, idling away good hours, hunting after Prefer∣ments, fawning and scraping, studying little Cavils at the Doctrines of my Mo∣ther Church to ingratiate my self with her Adversaries, nor calumniating my Bre∣thren; but upon Week-days I was at home, daily either in my Closet, Chappel, or the Cathedral Church of my Diocess, or in all successively, praying for the Success of his Majestys Arms: and on Sundays, be∣sides the Office of Prayer, I was, without

••••termission of one, imployed either in the ••athedral or in other more populous Con∣••regations in the neighbouring City, or in ••e several populous Towns of my Dio∣••ess, riding up and down from place to ••lace, as I thought my presence or preach∣••g, as I thought my Doctrine, my Ex∣••ortation, my Example or my Interest ••ight do good and serve my King. In a ••ord, I did what in me lay to keep the Countrey Loyal; I left no stone unmov∣ed, whereby I thought I might strengthen or assist the Kings Cause, as my whole Diocess will witness. Here are some of my Sermons; diverse of them, as mentioned, ••reached more than once; but here are not half. For I have not such an opini∣on of my self, or of what I do, as to load the Press, or glut the World with my Labours: yet if I had in the first nine months of our present Sovereigns Reign, come up into the Pulpit, as my good Friend phrases it, no oftner in His Majesties be∣half, than, by the following Papers, it appears I did, I had in that space nine times, in the largest Congregations of the Countrey, appeared for him. But I might have above doubled the number: For of five Sermons preached within that time at Bandon, here are but two: of two at Kin∣sale,

here is but one: of more than I wil•• speak of, lest I should be deemed ostenta∣tious, at Cork, the place of my more con∣stant residence, here are comparatively very few. I pray God, they who have styled me disserviceable to His Majesty may themselves be more serviceable.

Further; After all this, I may with the greatest truth avow these not to be my first endeavours of any sort, to serve our pre∣sent most Gracious Sovereign. When in some of the late Parliaments the Jehu's of of the Faction drove on furiously, and no∣thing would serve them but a Bill of Ex∣clusion, the English Bishops, who there (with many of the renowned Nobility and Gen∣try) loyally stemm'd the torrent in its proudest strength, and were by the Facti∣on styled Papists for their pains, had a∣mongst others of more ability and interest elsewhere, an unworthy Brother in this City, who defended their Votes, and His present Majesty in the same person a poor Servant, who asserted his undoubted Rights and most just Title, both from the Pulpit and the Press. Nor only so, but in ordinary pub∣lick Meetings of the Gentry, or in common Conversation with others, if at that time I chanced to perceive any, who through

meer Error of Judgment, or want of due ••nformation, seemed to approve of the Exclusion-design, what Diligence and Zeal •• used to convince such persons of the Ini∣quity and scandalous Injustice of the thing, there are many can testifie; and the Ef∣fect of such Discourses I will not speak of: So far have I ever been from disserving His present Majesty. God of his mercy in Christ Jesus forgive me all my other Sins of O∣mission: as to the witting neglect of any Act or Office, by which I could serve His Majesty, I can, upon the strictest exami∣nation of Conscience, sacredly profess I cannot deprehend in my self any one the least instance.

But it is perhaps the sense of more ju∣dicious persons than my self, that, in the business of Loyalty, some men at present have taken very wrong measures. We of the Church of England avow and protest we will be Loyal, should we be put in never such circumstances; yea even in the worst circumstances, wherein any Adver∣saries we have could wish us. It is and ever has been our Doctrine, it is and e∣ver has been our Practice to be Loyal ab∣solutely and without exception. And we can challenge the world to shew any in∣stance of us to the contrary. Wherefore we

are amazed to hear our selves charged o•• Disloyalty for being firm in the Religio•• of that Church which much more faithfu••¦ly asserts the Rights of the Sovereign, an•• more inviolably in all her members, pay•• them, than any Church on Earth. An•• we appeal in this case from the incompe¦tent Judgment of our partial Fellow-Sub¦jects to the Sentence of our Just and toge¦ther most Wise and Gracious Sovereign I know, said he in his Royal Declaration o•• his Mind to his Privy Council, the Princi¦ples of the Church of England are for Mo¦narchy, and the Members of it have shewe•• themselves Good and Loyal Subjects. Now should all the world go about to perswad•• us, that these words were only Comple¦ment, we must beg the Excuse of such un∣advised multitudes: we are no less confi∣dent of the Sincerity and Veracity of this great Judge, than of the Justice of his Sentence. In other terms, as our Lord the King is wise, according to the Wisdom of a•• Angel of God, to know all things that are be∣fore him; so we believe he spoke herein with the Sanctity of an Angel, and no less ac∣cording to the Sense of his Royal Heart, than according to the Truth of the thing. Wherefore undoubtedly, let some men think or say what they please, he does not

estimate his Subjects Loyalty by a warp∣••g Conscience, or versatil humour in Re∣••gion. No good or wise man, Much less ••rince, can in his heart approve either ••redulity and Rashness in believing, or ••nstability in what is once on sober ••rounds believed. There is nothing more ••oathsome to a person of any sense of Worth or Honour, than a readiness to ••hange a mans Perswasion, because he ap∣prehends it may turn to his Rise or secu∣••ar Advantage. To be free and open, and use that Parrhesy which Honesty and Ʋprightness ever may: I took not up my Religion from the Placits of Man, but from ••he holy Scriptures of eternal Truth, deliver∣ed to the world by inspired men, and faithfully transmitted to us by Gods holy Church; which Scriptures I have been in∣structed in from a Child, and have read over diverse times upon my knees be∣fore God, as well as otherwise, with all the care I could. I have thence learnt a∣mongst other parts of my Duty, my Duty to God, and my Duty to my King; and if any man catch me wittingly and delibe∣rately tripping in either, I decline no Cen∣sure nor Punishment. But I am almost dai∣ly told, by men (whose Insolence, I be∣lieve, His Majesty if he understood would

little approve) that my King is not of my Religion. I still answer thereto, I canno•• tell, nor am I busie to enquire: but I bles•• God, and night and day pray to him to bles•• our Gracious King, for that Liberty, Prote∣ction and Encouragement, which we Prote∣stants of the establisht Church enjoy in our Re∣ligion, under his sweet, wise & happy Go∣vernment. And as to His Majesties Religion, I say, he is no more accountable to his Subject•• for that, than he is for his Crown; nor may they any more censure, than prescribe to him therein. All that concerns them, is to pray God would guide him, and inspire with all Christian Temper and Counsel those, to whom under God he commits the Guidance of his Conscience. And having said thus much, I will only add,

As to my Religion from henceforth let no man trouble me. For ought I know, I pro∣fess the Religion the King would have me. For if I should profess my self of any other, I should dissemble, and that I believe His Majesty, with reverence be it spoken, would no more approve in me or any man else, than God does.

I have thus said what I had to say of the Occasion of publishing these Sermons: It remains to the full discharging my Pro∣mise, that I say a few things of their frame or make.

They consist not then of any profound, cu∣••••us or refined Notions; nor is their Style ••curate or correct: But they are what I ••prehend Sermons ought to be, plain, ho∣••st and strong: I mean their Language is ••sie, natural, and such generally which is •• soon understood as heard. Their Mat∣•••• nothing, but what in the Subjects ••andled is the sum of our certain Christi∣••••ity. And the Reasonings used in them, I ••ope, such as may convince.

There is at present a great complaint a∣••ongst the Book-sellers, that there is nothing ••lls so dully as Sermons: And yet I remem∣••er my Lord Verulam somewhere says, in ••ommendation of the English Preaching, ••hat if Preambles, Transitions, and passages which are purely matter of form, with some such like particulars were taken out, and the substance of our English Sermons extant col∣lected into one Book, it would certainly be one of the best Books in the world; or words to this purpose. Now what is the reason of the former complaint? 'Tis certain Ser∣mons were no such Drugs in his days. Has there then befallen any universal Degene∣racy amongst us, since his time, which has altered the case? None certainly universal: for there have been better Sermons by far publisht since the death of that great Judge

(for such he was in all kinds of Learning than any I know before: and particularl•• those of the (before at least) matchless Bi¦shop Sanderson. And there are at this time in present being, a great number of as ex¦cellent Preachers, both in the City of Lon¦don and disperst through the Kingdom o•• England, as most we can find to have live•• since the Apostles days; many of whos•• Sermons are in print: But the truth of th•• matter is this.

In the late days of the Liberty of Prophe¦sying, when every one took on him the ho¦nour not only of the Priesthood, but even o•• Apostleship that would, and a bold pretenc•• to Grace & Inspiration was enough to quali¦fie any man for the Pulpit, there came fort such a swarm of putid and nonsensical, as we•••• as too often unchristian Abortions of Preach¦ments, that mens stomachs then in a sor•• turn'd, many begun to abhor and ridicule th•• Word of God, and even the most sober sor•• could not but loath such vile Entertain¦ments. Of this kind were all the Millenar•• and generally all the Antinomian Rabble o•• Preachers, with more, who followed the Par∣liament Camp, whom I will not name. Ano∣ther sort there were who had some kind •••• learning, and seem'd at first hearing, to hav•• something of soundness in them, but in pro∣cess,

all the Divinity you should find in their Sermons was pickt out of little Systems and Annotators (beyond which very few of the men of those days ever went; Henderson himself confessing to Arch-Bishop Ʋsher he had never read the Fathers) and lay all in some Geneva-opinions servilely taken up, a few terms of Art and Notions ill applied, (possibly not half digested or understood) and in words and phrases of uncertain sig∣nifications; a vein of Canting running thro the whole. Of these two kinds were, I be∣lieve one tenth part of the Sermons preached and printed for neer twenty years together from the beginning of our late unhappy Civil Wars in England.

But, God be blessed, though such preach∣ing was general, yet was it not universal. There were all along these times a secret stock of profoundly learned Divines & ex∣cellent Preachers, (compel'd to be too secret God knows) the remains of the old scatter∣ed Church, and the Seed of our restored & present establisht Church of England. Arch-Bishop Ʋsher, Doctor (afterwards Bishop) Saunderson, Bishop, and after the Restau∣ration, Arch-Bishop, Bramhall, Bp. Brown∣••ig, Dr. Hammond, Doctors and Bishops Jeremy Taylor, John Pierson, with many o∣thers; these mens Sermons (and many of

their Discourses, which though not printed Sermon-wise, yet were divers of them first delivered in Sermons before ever printed in the form we have them) no one I hope will account Drugs, cast by, or not think to deserve a very good place in his Study. Besides these great persons of the first rate, it cannot be denied, but that there were in both Ʋniversities, even for 7 or 8 years be∣fore His Majesties happy Restauration, some choice men of admirable parts and im∣provements, who, as they had wonderfully retrieved Learning there in all its parts & kinds, so when they came out after into the world, soon advanced Preaching to that degree of perfection, which I know not whether ever before it so universally at∣tained. I could name many of them, some now dead, others still living, but possibly it is yet too early: however I must say of the Sermons of these men (though for the pre∣sent nameless) what I did of theirs of the former rank, I do not believe but they will ever be valued by all persons who have ei∣ther a sense of Religion or tincture of Lear∣ning as long as the world stands.

But these great and admirable precedents had not been, during the rage of the Rebel∣lion and Schism, nor at the expiration of it were they, of force or prevalence sufficient,

to keep out a third sort of faulty or unprofita∣••le Preaching, which begun to creep in pre∣••ently upon his Majesties Restauration. For as it usualy comes to pass, that from one ex∣tream men run into another, so about that time the whole Order almost of such, who were then, as I may call them, Inceptors in Preaching, hearing the common Systems by judicious persons decried (and not unjustly, for that thereby all other Divinity in a manner, save only a few modern Commenta∣ries or Controversies of the times was justled out of doors) and being by politer Studies prejudiced against both those unsavory strains of Preaching before mentioned, these young Gentlemen made up pretty little moral Dis∣courses (I wish I could justly give that chara∣cter to all the Essays I have heard & read of such mens: sometimes there's too much in∣discreet invection, too much puerility or boyish imitation to deserve the name) made up, I say, Discourses, with little or no Divi∣nity, but all the flashes of Wit and flowers of Rhetorick they could in them; or if a Text of Scripture now and then by chance came in, it was rather by way of allusion, mistaken in its superficial sense, than ma∣sterly applied according to its true intent and purport: which barrenness of fit mat∣ter hence came to pass; They having not

read the Ancients, and digested Christian Doctrine as delivered by them (a business that requires long time and a large mea∣sure of preliminary Learning to qualifie a man for it) and having learnt to defie and scoff at, without distinction, all systematical Divinity, it is plain they could have no Di∣vinity, but what they had confusedly and at random chanced to take in by the by, in the course of their Education. This poor pittance they drest up in choice words, gay allusions, and what other trimming their knowledge in History, their reading in Classick Authors, and the course of Philo∣sophy they had gone through, would fur∣nish them with, and a little above half an hours Discourse of this nature they called a Sermon: Hereof also a multitude have sated the world, and I wish we did not hear too many of them, to this day, from the Pulpit.

Of the florid Preachers a second sort there was, and still is, more judicious persons men well studied in Arts, Sciences and all Hu∣manity (it were to be wished equally skil∣led in Divinity) who yet labouring unde•• the same 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 with the former, immode∣rately affect a neat and correct Style, and ge∣nerally cannot descend to speak plain and easie Truths or Practicals, seem to study

that their Discourses may only hang in the ears and fancies of their Hearers, not at all touch their hearts; as if to deal with Con∣science, and work in men a sense of Sin or of Duty, and concerns for their future e∣state, belonged only to Enthusiasts and Fa∣naticks. I must confess I am ignorant what good either of these kinds of Sermons, (I mean, the Flanting and Romantick, or the spruce and curious) do, either from the Pul∣pit or Press? and I could instance in a great deal of evil they do, especially from the former (for the later it may be they only clog). The Poet design'd Et prodesse & delectare; but these kind of artificious Preachers forget usually the former, which is the chief and worthier part, and their best Sermons are too commonly but pretty sacred divertisements, I will not say, labo∣rious toys;

—Versus inopes rerum, nugaeque canorae.

Generally there is no one thing of moment driven on, no main point of Christian Doctrine or Practice opened, proved or perswaded, through the whole Discourse: I will be bound to produce some such Sermons as these, every line of which a man shall read over with singular delight; and I will for∣feit

a good wager, that at the end an or∣dinary judicious and attentive Reader shall not be able to repeat any one entire Sen∣tence, or give an account of any substanti∣al point he has learnt. So that one would truly wonder, how such learned men should be able to speak so long, so curiously, and so seemingly all to the purpose, and yet in the end to no purpose at all: 'Tis but Read my Riddle what's that? some neat ex∣pressions, or pretty flights of fancy, may stick for an hour, or day, or two, but no man's a jot wiser, or better for all that's said.

These, and some other too commonly pleasing evils (of which, God blessing me, I will some time or other speak more large∣ly, and as far as I can more perspicuously and elenchtically, for many Preachers need it) I will not say, I was never guilty of my¦self; at least not of some of them, and in some Sermons; but I can say, I have long studied and endeavoured conscienciously to avoid; and now perhaps through study (particularly) of plainness, may be not un∣justly thought to have run into a contrary extreme, that of a poor jejune and trivial way: yet I have the great Apostles practice herein to plead in the behalf of what I have endeavoured. 1 Cor. xiv. 19. In the Church I had rather speak five words with my

understanding (that is, with being under∣stood) that I might teach others, th••n ten thousand words in an unknown tongue; and an artificial, florid, or affectedly lofty stile, is, to the common people, ever such, be it in what language it shall. I may without vanity say in each of these Sermons, there is substance; there is at least some one necessa∣ry or profitable design carried on (how far at∣tained, or perfected, I leave the Reader to judge:) And as to Style, though all be humble enough, yet nothing I hope so sor∣didly plain, as to be nauseous or unsavory. Some people may be pleased to think I could have raised the Character of Speech, if I had pleased; but in such case I should have thought my self thereby the more un∣profitable: However whether I could, or whether I could not, it signifies not a far∣thing as to doing service in the Church of God, nor as to my own satisfaction; pos∣sibly neither, as to the thoughts wise and good men will have of me.

I value not my self the more, because, I think, I know how to put on Buskins; and no man of judgment will value me the less, be∣cause, either for ease to my self, or that I might be more readily serviceable to the ge∣rality of men, I thought good to go without them. Preachers ought to consult the Ca∣pacity

of the most, and that I am sure is of the unlearned. This being conscious to my self that I have done, I will add very little more to justifie my plain Preaching; it is in fashion, or it ought to be.

The Character of the Preachers Sermon (saith Divine Mr. Herbert) is Holiness. He is not witty, or learned, or eloquent, but holy. He spoke of what the Preacher ought to study. And if this way to any seem too low for, or beneath, their Parts and Ac∣complishments, let such remember that of Seneca; Cujuscunque Orationem vides poli∣tam & sollicitam, scito animum in pusillis oc∣cupatum. 'Tis not such kind of speaking is low, but their minds are little who think so.