Sermons Volume 4, Dedication 1
To the Right Honourable PHILIP Lord Wharton, Baron of Wharton, in the County of Westmorland.
MY LORD,
IT is not from the common Custom and Reasons of Dedications of Books to Persons eminent for Greatness and Piety, viz. to recommend an obscure Author, or to set off a mean Work, that your Lordship's Name is inscribed to these Sermons. The Author of them, the late Reverend Dr. Thomas Manton, was a Star of the first Magnitude in our Horizon, and his Works praise him in the Gate: and though the ensuing Sermons are far short of that Politeness and Exactness that they would have had, if they had pass'd his own finishing Hand; yet such as they are, they plainly show their Author. He was a Workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth; he was a faithful Labourer in God's Vineyard; and though his Preaching was so constant, yet in all his Sermons may be observed that Solidness of Judgment, Exactness of Method, Fulness of Matter, Strength of Argument, perswasive Elegancy, together with such a serious Vein of Piety running through the whole, as few have come near him, but none have excelled him.
Your Lordship had the Opportunity of an intimate Acquaintance with him, and the Advantage of sitting under his Ministry for many Years, in whose Light you greatly rejoiced, while God continued him with us; and when he was pleased to remove him by Death, the afflictive Sense you had of that great and publick, as well as your own private Loss, showed the high Value and Esteem you had of him. But your Respects to him were not buried in his Grave, but have been upon all Occasions ever since shown to his surviving Relations, who desire hereby to make their publick Acknowledgments of your Lordship's signal Favours to them. And I beg your Lordship, upon this Occasion, to give me leave to make the like Acknowledgments of that Support, Countenance and Respects I have had from your Lordship for above sixteen Years I have been your Chaplain; since it was by the means of this Author that I had the Honour of being taken into your Lordship's Family.
My Lord, God hath set your Lordship in a very high and honourable Station, in which you have shined as a Light upon a Hill: And as he hath given you great Opportunities, so he hath also given you a large Heart to serve him; and this hath given you a large Room in the Hearts of those that fear God, and hath made your Name to be truly Great and Honourable. How amiable a thing is it to see Greatness and Goodness in Conjunction! But alas, how rare are the Instances of it in this degenerate Age! How few Great Ones are there that countenance despised Religion! But still, when it hath been under the greatest Discouragements, your Lordship hath publickly owned the Ways of God, your House hath been always open to his faithful Ministers, and your Interest hath always been improved for promoting the Interest of the Gospel.
God hath lengthned out your Life to a good old Age; And that he may yet prolong your Life for further Service to his Name and Interest, is the Prayer of all those who know your steady and unshaken Adherence to the Principles you have owned. It hath pleased the wise God to exercise you with various Troubles in your declining Years, in the Death of many of your nearest Relations, especially in the late wide Breach he hath made in your Family by taking away your Religious Lady, whose extraordinary Indowments of Mind, exemplary Piety, and singular Usefulness, made her justly dear to you, and admired by all that knew her. Such a Trial as this would shock an ordinary and common Patience, and Constancy of Mind; yet God, by the Supports of his Grace, hath enabled you to bear it. This amazing Stroak is a loud Call from God to a Recess from this World, now the less desirable, because so dear a part of your self is removed out of it; and to a Preparation for a better State, to which She is gone, and your Lordship is hastning. How pleasant will the meeting be, when you shall again see each other, and know and love one another in a better manner than in this World you could! when all those Frailties and Infirmities, which give sometimes a little Interruption to the Comfort of the nearest Relations, in this State of Weakness and Mortality, shall be fully done away!
In the mean time that God would strenghthen your Lordship's Faith and Patience, that he would increase and multiply his Blessings Temporal and Spiritual on your Lordship, and all the Branches of your Noble Family; and that he would reward all that Labour of Love that you have shown to his Servants Name and Interest, with an eternal Weight of Glory, is the daily Prayer of,
Right Honourable, Your Lordship's most Obedient and Faithful Servant and Chaplain, WILLIAM TAYLOR. February 6. 169…