Sermon Preached 23 April 1680, Title page – Dedication
A SERMON PREACHED UPON APRIL xxiii. MDCLXXX. IN THE Cathedral Church OF BRISTOL, BEFORE THE Gentlemen of the ARTILLERY-COMPANY, newly raised in that CITY.
By SAMUEL CROSSMAN, B. D.
LONDON, Printed for Charles Allen, Bookseller in Bristol. 1680.
To the Right Worshipful and Much Honoured, the Gentlemen of the Artillery Company, newly raised in Bristol, by the favourable allowance of his Sacred Majesty.
Gentlemen,
YOur voluntary undertaking this honourable loyal Exercise of Armes, is in order to render your selves thereby the more useful to your King and Countrey.
That Government which preserves us (that it may so do) must be inviolably preserved by us: And certainly 'tis a great Debt and Duty which we all owe to it.
'Twas long since the wonder of an ingenious Platonist,Max. Tyrivs foreign, &c. Speaking of Man, says he, Oh God! the Creator of all things, what a strange, temerarious, rash, unmanageable kind of Creature is this which thou hast placed upon the earth!
We may resolve his Riddle, and answer as Solomon, Eccl. 7. 29.God made man upright at first But ever since the wretched Fall of our First Parents, all manner of Distempers and ill humours are like the Sons of Zerviah, too hard for us; and even inherent in our corrupt Natures.
Experience shews us,Jam. 3. 7, 8. all other Creatures are and have been tamed by Mankind; but (as holy Scripture observes) we our selves remain still in many things too unruly.
The All-wise God hath given us the harmony of Government (as David's Harp in Saul's Case) to charme this unquiet and evil Spirit; That we might go the journey of life, not as Savages but as Men. And (which is far more) as the professed Servants of that God, who is not the Author of confusion,1 Cor. 14. 33. but of peace, as in all the Churches of the Saints.
My Endeavours have been, inoffensively to strengthen so Divine a Concern in this ensuing Sermon. As your desires occasioned the composing of it at first, and your importunities the publishing of it at present; so You must now please (such as it is) to accept of it from,
Gentlemen, Your cordial and very humble Servant, Samuel Crossman Bristol, May 10. 1680.