One Hundred Select Sermons, Title page – To the reader
ONE HUNDRED SELECT SERMONS UPON SEVERAL TEXTS: FIFTY upon the OLD TESTAMENT, And FIFTY on the NEW.
By the Reverend and Learned THO. HORTON, D.D. late Miniſter of Great St. Hellens, London.
Left perfected for the preſs under his own hand.
Hebr. 11.4.
He being dead, yet ſpeaks.
2 Theſ. 2.5.
Remember ye not when I was yet with you, I told you of theſe things?
Rev. 14.13.
Bleſſed are the dead that dye in the Lord, for they reſt from their labours, and their works follow them.
LONDON: Printed for Thomas Parkhurſt at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapſide near Mercers-Chappel. MDCLXXIX.
To the Reader.
Chirſtian Reader,
OF the Author of theſe Sermons I may truly ſay (though not in ſo eminent a degree) what St. Paul intimates of himſelf, 2 Cor. 3.1 That he needeth not, as ſome others, Epiſtles of Commendation: at leaſtwiſe not to thoſe who had the Happineſs to Hear, or will take the pains to Read his Sermons. The perſon being ſo well known, and his manner of Preaching, that they are not likely to receive much advantage by my Recommendation.
His Birth and firſt Education was in the City of London; He was Son to Mr. Laurence Horton Merchant, one of the Company of Mercers.
The firſt time I had the opportunity of knowing Him, was about the year 1632, when he was fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridg; in which Colledg I had the Honour (and Happineſs) of receiving the firſt of my Academical Education, and for ſome part of it under his Tuition; which Colledg had at that time as great a reputation for ſerious Piety, ſolid Learning, and ſober Converſation, as any Houſe in the Univerſity; and had as little either of Duncery or Debauchery (conſidering the number of Students in it, wherein it was at that time ſcarce inferior to any) as any Colledg there.
In the year 1637, he was made Univerſity-Preacher.
About the year 1638, he was called back to the City of London to Exerciſe his Miniſtry there in St. Mary Cole-Church, where I remember to have obſerved the Reverend and Learned Biſhop Brownrigg, when in London, to be a very frequent, if not his Conſtant Auditor, even though he did not lodg in thoſe parts of the Town. He was Preacher to the Honorable Society of Grays-Inn; admitted alſo a Member of that Society.
He removed from the Pariſh of St. Mary Cole-Church to Great St. Hellens in the ſame City of London; where in the year 1672/3 he finiſht his life in the work of the Miniſtry.
But (what moſt concerns the preſent buſineſs) he was a pious and learned man, a hard Student, a ſound Divine, a good Textuary; very well skill'd in the Original Languages, very well accompliſhed for the work of a Miniſter, and very conſcientious in the diſcharge of it. He made the Miniſtry his whole Buſineſs; and (as David ſaid of himſelf on another occaſion) he did not ſerve God with that which Coſt him nothing: being very induſtrious in his preparations; ver ſedulous, diligent and conſtant in the Exerciſe of it; and did very rarely (unleſs upon urgent occaſions, or by ſome eminent perſon) ſupply his place by a Deputy.
He wanted not variety of Learning to embeliſh and trim up a Sermon, if he had ſo pleaſed. But he contented himſelf with ſound Doctrine, Scripture-language, and ſuch as might be underſtood by his Auditory (rather than admired), as beſt conducing to perſwade men to the practice of thoſe duties he did recommend.
For matters of Wit, though at the firſt hearing, they may pleaſe the Ear, and tickle the Fancy; yet have not that awe upon the Conſcience, nor make thoſe laſting impreſſions which ſound Doctrine plainly delivered, with clear evidence from the word of God, is known to do.
And Sermons ſo Compoſed, are like to be of more laſting uſe, than others accommodated to what the preſent Age calls Wit.
For witty expreſſions paſs for ſuch but while that way of Wit is in faſhion; but upon a ſecond hearing, or when that faſhion of Wit alters (which alters like that of clothes) that which is now thought witty, will then ſeem flat, if not unſavory. But ſound Reaſon will be ſound reaſon in all Ages; and as cogent at the Second and Third reading, as at the Firſt.
And ſure that's the beſt Rhetorick, and perſwades moſt, which moves by ſtrength of Argument, and plain evidence, rather than what depends only on what they call Ornament, and a pleaſing ſound of words; and that Langnage is moſt fit for buſineſs, which is not (either ſlovenly, ſo as to make it unſavory; or) affectedly Trimmed, ſo as to divert the mind from the ſenſe of what is ſaid, and make it dwell on the words only.
Two Volumes of his Sermons have already ſeen the light, and been received with good approbation; the one upon the whole Eight Chapter of the Epiſtle to the Romans; the other upon ſome of the Pſalms (the fourth, the two and fortieth, the one and fiftieth, and the ſixty third); and we have no cauſe to think but thoſe of this third Volume (being Select Sermons preached on ſpecial occaſions) were penned with as great care, as thoſe in his ordinary courſe of Preaching. And there is yet a fourth Volume which I ſhould be glad to ſee abroad alſo, on the whole Seventeenth Chapter of St. John's Goſpel, which were Preach'd not long ſince, and by himſelf reviſed a little before his death; and two other Volumes, One Sacramental Sermons, and another Funeral. In the mean time what is here prepared for thy uſe, if thou read with the ſame ſeriouſneſs and conſideration with which it was written, thou wilt receive the benefit of his labours, and of thine own.
Thine in the Lord, JOHN WALLIS. Oxon. Sept. 28. 1678.