a recorder , how prudent an observer , how sedulous a practiser of holy discourses she was , and that therefore it was , that what did slide thorow her ear , she was desirous to place before her eye , that by those windows they might enter in and dwell in her heart But because by this truth I shall do advantage to the following discourses , give me leave ( my Lord ) to fancy , that this Book is derived upon your Lordship almost in the nature of a legacy from her , whose every thing was dearer to your Lordship , then your own eyes , and that what she was pleased to beleeve apt to minister to her devotions , and the religions of her pious and discerning soul , may also be allowed a place in your closet , and a portion of your retirement , and a lodging in your thoughts , that they may incourage and instruct your practise and promote that interest , which is and ought to be dearer to you then all those blessings and separations with which God hath remarked your family and person .

My Lord , I confesse the publication of these Sermons can so little serve the ends of my reputation , that I am therefore pleased the rather to do it , because I cannot at all be tempted , in so doing , to minister to any thing of vanity . Sermons may please when they first strike the ear , and yet appear flat and ignorant when they are offered to the eye , and to an understanding that can consider at leisure . I remember that a young Gentleman of Athens being to answer for his life , hired an Orator to make his defence , and it pleased him well , at his first reading ; but when the young man by often reading it that he might recite it publikely by heart , began to grow weary and dspleased with it , the Orator bade him consider that the Judges and the people were to hear it but once , and then it was likely , they at that first instant might be as well pleased as he . This hath often represented to my mind the condition and fortune of Sermons , and that I now part with the advantage they had in their delivery , but I have sufficiently answered my self in that , and am at rest perfectly in my thoughts as to that particular , if I can in any degree serve the interest of souls , and ( which is next to that ) obey the piety , and record the memory of that dear Saint , whose name and whose soul is blessed : for in both these ministeries , I doubt not but your Lordship will be pleased , and account as if I had done also some service to your self : your religion makes me sure of the first , and your piety puts the latter past my fears . However , I suppose in the whole account of this affair , this publication may be esteemed but like preaching to a numerous Auditory , which if I had done , it would have been called either duty , or charity , and therefore will not now so readily be censured for vanity , if I make use of all the wayes I can to minister to the good of souls : But because my intentions are fair in themselves , and I hope are acceptable to God , and will be fairly expounded by your Lordship , ( whom for so great reason I so much value ) I shall not trouble you or the world with an Apologie for this so free publishing my weaknesses ; I can better secure my reputation by telling men how they ought to entertain Sermons , for if they that read or hear , do their duty aright , the Preacher shall soon be secured of his fame , and untouched by censure .

1. For it were well , if men would not inquire after the learning of the sermon , or its deliciousnesse to the ear or fancy , but observe its usefulnesse , not what concerns the preacher , but what concerns themselves , not what may make a vain reflexion upon him , but what may substantially serve their own needs , that the attending to his discourses may not be spent in vain talk concerning him , or his disparagements but may be used as a duty and a part of religion , to minister to edification and instruction . When S. John reckoned the principles of evil actions , he told but of three , The lust of the flesh , the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life . But there was then also in the world ( and now it is grown into age , and strength , and faction ) another lust , the lust of the ear , and a fift also , the lust of the tongue . Some people have an insatiable appetite in hearing , and hear onely that they may hear , and talk and make a party : They enter into their neighbours house to kindle their candle , and espying there , a glaring fire , sit down upon the hearth and warm themselves all day , and forget their errand , and in the mean time , their own fires are not lighted , nor their families instructed , or provided for , nor any need served , but a lazie pleasure , which is uselesse and imprudent . Hearing or reading sermons is , or ought to be in order to practise , for so God intended it , that faith should come by hearing , and that charity should come by faith , and by both together we may be saved . For a mans ears ( as Plutarch cals them ) are virtutum ansae , by them we are to hold and apprehend vertue , and unlesse we use them as men do vessels of dishonour , filling them with things fit to be thrown away , with any thing that is not necessary , we are by them more neerly brought to God , then by all the senses beside . For although things placed before the eye affect the minde more readily then the things we usually hear , yet the reason of that is , because we hear carelesly , and we hear variety ; the same species dwels upon the eye , and represents the same object in union and single representment , but the objects of the ear are broken into fragments of periods , and words , and syllables , and must be attended with a carefull understanding ; and because every thing diverts the sound , and every thing cals off the understanding , and the spirit of a man is truantly , and trifling ; therefore it is that what men hear , does so little affect them , and so weakly work toward the purposes of vertue , & yet nothing does so affect the minde of man as those voices to which we cannot chuse but attend , and thunder and all loud voices from Heaven rend the most stony heart , and makes the most obstinate pay to God the homage of trembling , and fear , and the still voice of God usually takes the tribute of love , and choice , and obedience . Now since hearing is so effective an instrument of conveying impresses and images of things , and exciting purposes , and fixing resolutions , ( unlesse we hear weakly and imperfectly ) it will be of the greater concernment that we be curious to hear in order to such purposes , which are perfective of the soul , and of the spirit , and not to dwell in fancy and speculation , in pleasures and trifling arrests , which continue the soul in its infancy and childhood , never letting it go forth into the wisdom and vertues of a man . I have read concerning Dionysius of Sicily , that being delighted extremely with a Ministrel that sung well , and struck his Harp dexterously , he promised to give him a great reward , and that raised the fancy of the Man , and made him play better . But when the musick was done and the man waited for his great hope , the King dismissed him empty , telling him , that he should carry away as much of the promised reward , as himself did of the Musick , and that he had payed him sufficiently with the pleasure of the promise for the pleasure of his song : both their ears had been equally delighted and the profit just none at all : So it is in many mens hearing Sermons , they admire the Preacher , and he pleases their ears , and neither of them both bear along with them any good , and the hearer hath as little good by the sermon , as the Preacher by the ayr of the peoples breath , when they make a noise , and admire , and understand not . And that also is a second caution I desire all men would take .

2. That they may never trouble the affairs of preaching and hearing respectively , with admiring the person of any man . To admire a preacher is such a reward of his pains or worth , as if you should crown a Conqueror with a garland of roses , or a Bride with Laurell ; it is an undecency , it is no part of the reward which could be intended for him . For though it be a good natur'd folly , yet it hath in it much danger , for by that means , the Preacher may lead his hearers captive , and make them servants of a faction , or of a lust ; it makes them so much the lesse to be servants of Christ , by how much they call any man Master upon earth ; it weakens the heart and hands of others , it places themselves in a rank much below their proper station , changing from hearing the word of God , to admiration of the person and faces of men , and it being a fault that falls upon the more easie natures and softer understandings , does more easily abuse a man ; and though such a person may have the good fortune to admire a good man and a wise , yet it is an ill disposition , and makes him liable to every mans abuse : Stupidum hominem quâvis oratione percelli , said Heraclitus . An undiscerning person is apt to be cozened by every oration : And besides this , That Preacher whom some do admire , others will most certainly envy , and that also is to be provided against with diligence , and you must not admire too forwardly , for your own sake , lest you fall into the hands of a worse preacher , and for his sake , whom when you admire you also love , for others will be apt to envy him .

3. But that must by all men be avoided ; for envy is the worst counsellour in the world , and the worst hearer of a wise discourse . I pity those men who live upon flattery and wonder , and while they sit at the foot of the Doctors chair , stare in his face , and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rarely spoken , admirably done , they are like callow and unfeathered birds , gaping perpetually to be fed from anothers mouth , and they never come to the knowledge of the truth , such a knowledge as is effective , and expressed in a prudent and holy life . But those men that envy the preacher ; besides that they are great enemies of the Holy Ghost , and are spitefully evil because God is good to him , they are also enemies to themselves . He that envies the honours , or the riches of another , envies for his own sake , and he would fain be rich with that wealth which sweats in his neighbours coffers , but he that envies him that makes good sermons , envies himself , and is angry because himself may receive the benefit , and be improved , or delighted or instructed by another . He that is apt fondly to admire any mans person must cure himself by considering , that the Preacher is Gods minister and servant , that he speaks Gods word and does it by the Divine assistance , that he hath nothing of his own but sin and imperfection , that he does but his duty and that also hardly enough , that he is highly answerable for his talent , and stands ▪ deeply charged with the cure of souls , and therefore that he is to be highly esteemed for the work sake , not for the person ; his industry and his charity is to be beloved , his ability is to be accounted upon another stock , and for it , the preacher and the hearer are both to give God thanks , but nothing is due to the man for that , save onely , that it is the rather to be imployed , because by it we may better be instructed , but if any other reflexion be made upon his person , it is next to the sin and danger of Herod and the people , when the ●sine Oration was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with huge fancy , the people were pleased , and Herod was admired , and God was angry , and an Angel was sent to strike him with death and with dishonour . But the envy against a preacher is to be cured by a contrary discourse , and we must remember that he is in the place of God , and hath received the gift of God , and the aids of the holy Ghost , that by his abilities God is glorified , and we are instructed , and the interests of vertue , and holy religion are promoted , that by this means God who deserves that all souls should serve him for ever , is likely to have a fairer harvest of glory and service , and therefore that envie is against him : that if we envie because we are not the instrument of this good to others , we must consider tha we desire the praise to our selves not to God . Admiration of a man supposes him to be inferiour to the person so admired , but then he is pleased so to be , but envie supposes him as low , and he is displeased at it , and the envious man is not onely lesse then the other mans vertue , but also contrary : the former is a vanity , but this is a vice , that wants wisdom , but this wants wisdom and charity too , that supposes an absence of some good , but this is a direct affliction and calamity .

4. And after all this , if the preacher be not despised , he may proceed cheerfully in doing his duty , and the hearer may have some advantages by every Sermon . I remember that Homer sayes the woers of Penelope laught at Vlisses , because at his return he called for a loaf , and did not , to shew his gallantry , call for swords and spears ; Vlysses was so wise as to call for that he needed , and had it , and it did him more good then a whole armory would in his case : so is the plainest part of an easie , and honest sermon , it is the sincere milk of the word , and nourishes a mans soul , though represented in its own naturall simplicity , and there is hardly any Orator , but you may finde occasion to praise something of him . When Plato misliked the order and disposition of the Oration of Lysias , yet he praised the good words , and the elocution of the man . Euripides was commended for his fulness , Parmenides for his composition . Phocilides for his easinesse , Archilochus for his argument , Sophocles for the unequalnesse of his stile : So may men praise their Preacher , he speaks pertinently , or he contrives wittily , or he speaks comely , or the man is pious , or charitable , or he hath a good text , or he speaks plainly , or he is not tedious or if he be he is at least industrious , or he is the messenger of God and that will not fail us , and let us love him for that ; and we know those that love can easily commend any thing , because they like every thing : and they say , fair men are like angels , and the black are manly , and the pale look like honey and the stars , and the cro●● nosed are like the sons of Kings , and if they be flat they are gentle and easie , and if they be deformed they are humble , and not to be despised because they have upon them the impresses of divinity , and they are the sons of God . He that despises his Preacher , is a hearer of arts and learning , not of the word of God , and though when the word of God is set off with advantages and entertainments of the better faculties of our humanity , it is more usefull and of more effect , yet when the word of God is spoken truly , though but read in plain language , it will become the disciple of Jesus to love that man whom God sends , and the publik order , and the laws have imployed , rather then to despise the weaknesse of him who delivers a mighty word .

Thus it is fit that men should be affected and imployed when they hear and read sermons comming hither not as into a theatre , where men observe the gestures and noises of the people , the brow and eyes of the most busie censurers , and make parties , and go aside with them that dislike every thing , or else admire not the things , but the persons : But as to a sacrifice , and as unto a school , where vertue is taught and exercised , and none come but such as put themselves under discipline , and intend to grow wiser , and more vertuous , to appease their passion , from violent to become smooth and even , to have their faith established , and their hope confirmed & their charity enlarged . They that are otherwise affected do not do their duty but if they be so minded as they ought , I and all men of my imployment shall be secured against the tongues and faces of men who are ingeniosi in alieno libro , wittie to abuse and undervalue another mans book : And yet besides these spirituall arts already reckoned , I have one security more , for ( unlesse I deceive my self ) I intend the glory of God sincerely , and the service of Jesus in this publication , and therefore being I do not seek my self , or my own reputation , I shall not be troubled if they be lost in the voyces of busie people , so that I be accepted of God , and found of him in the day of the Lords visitation .

My Lord , It was your charity and noblenesse that gave me opportunity to do this service ( little or great ) unto religion , and whoever shall find any advantage to their soul , by reading the following discourse , if they know how to blesse God , and to blesse all them that are Gods instruments in doing them benefit , will ( I hope ) help to procure blessings to your Person and Family , and say a holy prayer , and name your Lordship in their Letanies , and remember , that at your own charges you have digged a well , and placed cisterns in the high wayes , that they may drink and be refreshed , and their souls may blesse you . My Lord , I hope this , even because I very much desire it , and because you exceedingly deserve it , and above all , because God is good and gracious , and loves to reward such a charity , and such a religion as is yours , by which you have imployed me in the service of God , and in ministeries to your Family . My Lord , I am most heartily , and for very many Dear obligations