Sermon 2 December 1697, Title page – Dedication
A SERMON PREACH'D ON THE LATE DAY OF Thanksgiving. Decemb. 2. 1697. By JOHN HOWE, Minister of the GOSPEL. To which is Prefix'd, Dr. BATES's Congratulatory Speech to the KING, Novemb. 22. 1697. In the Name of the Dissenting Ministers in and about London.
LONDON: Printed by S. Bridge, in Austin-Fryers, for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside▪ near Mercers Chapel. MDCXCVIII.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Haversham.
I Offer this Discourse, My Honoured Lord, to Your Perusal, in Confidence that the Subject and Design of it will be so far Grateful to Your Lordship, as in some Degree to Atone for the Imperfections of the Management.
I Believe it will not Offend against Your Lordships very Accurate Judgment of Things, that I have not been so sway'd by an Authority, which hath signifi'd much in our Age; as to represent the Natural State of Man, as a State of War, which either must signifie Man in his Original Constitution, to have been a very ill-natur'd Creature, or must signifie his Nature to be less Ancient than Himself.
FOR I cannot Doubt, but the Author of that Maxim, would have Disdain'd their Way of Speaking, who by Nature Mean Vice. Or to have been Guilty of so Pious a Thought, that God at first made Man any better Thing than we find Him.
I Shall the less passionately Lament my Infelicity in losing the good Opinion of Men of that Sentiment, if I stand Right in Your Lordships. Not knowing any of your Rank and Figure, in the World, with whom I Count it a greater Honour to Agree in Judgment, or do less Fear to Disagree.
IN Matters of Secular Concernment, it becomes Me not to Profess any Judgment at all, besides the Publick, unto which in Things of that Nature, every Private Mans ought to be, and is professedly Resigned.
YET within that Compass, notwithstanding the Just Esteem Your Lordship hath of the Noble Endowments, which do then Illustriously Shine in the Military Profession, when there is a Necessity of their being red…c'd to Practice: I Apprehend that otherwise Your Lordship hath no more gratful Thoughts of War, than I, nor more ungrateful of the Necessary Means of Preserving Peace. That which is the Reproach of Humane Nature could never Originally belong to it. Nor can any thing more expose its Ignominious Depravation, than it should ever be Necessary the Sword should Dispute Right, and the Longest, Decide it.
IN the Matters of Religion which is every Mans Business, and whose Sphere as it is Higher, must be proportionably Wider and more Comprehensive; I Hope it is Your Lordships constant Care to add unto Clearness and Rectitude of Thought, the Pleasantness of Taste; and that you apprehend it to consist not more in a Scheme of Notions, than of Vital Principles; and that your Love to it proceeds from hence, that you Relish it and Feel you Live by it; You are hereby Fortified against the Reproach that attends it, from their Contempt of it who are every Day assaulting Heaven, and would have the War not ended, but only transferr'd thither-ward.
THAT which though some Vent, and others admire as Wit, even Paganism it self has Condemn'd as Foolishness. Your Lordship is in no more Danger to be alter'd hereby from your chosen Course, than a Man in his Health and Senses, by Satyrs against Eating and Drinking.
I Reckon Your Lordship is so much taken up with the great Things of Religion, as to be less taken with the Adventitious Things Men have Thought fit to affix to it. I do not more Emulate Your Lordship in any Thing, than a Disdain of Bigotry; nor more Honour any thing I Discern in You than True Catholicism.
AND Recounting what Things and Persons do truly belong to a Church, I Believe Your Lordship is not professedly of a Larger Church, as Counting it too Large for You but too narrow, and that You affect not to be of a Self-distinguisht Party. Nor, besides the Opportunity of avowing the Just Honour, and Obligations I have to Your Lordship, and Your Noble Consort, with my Sincere Concern for Your Hopeful and Numerous Off-spring, did any Thing more Invite this Address to Your Lordship, than the agreeableness of such Your Sentiments to the Mind and Spirit of
My most Honoured Lord, Your Lordships Most Justly Devoted, and Most Faithful, Humble Servant, John Howe.