Sermon 5 November 1673, License – Dedication
Hooker Mayor.
Cur. specialis tent Mercurii vo. die Novemb. 1673. Annoque Reg. Car. sec. Angl. &c. XXVo.
It was Ordered by this Court, That Mr. Scot be desired to print his Sermon, this day preached at the Guild-hall Chappel, before the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of this City.
Wagstaffe.
A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor, AND COURT of ALDERMEN; At Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 5th of November, 1673. IN Commemoration of ENGLANDS Deliverance from the Gun-powder Treason.
By John Scott Minister of St. Thomas's in Southwark.
LONDON, Printed for Tho. Taylor, at the Hand and Bible in the New Buildings on London-Bridge, 1673.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY To the Right Honourable Sir William Hooker, Lord Mayor of London, and to the Right Honourable the Court of Aldermen.
Right Honourable,
THough I esteem my self as much as I deserve, and perhaps a little more, yet I thank God I was never yet so partial to my self, or fond of my own Conceptions, as to think the Publication of them an Act of Charity, either to the world, or to the Bookseller; and as for this Discourse, I assure you, had not you had a better opinion of it then I; I should have been so charitabl as to have kept it within doors, and not to have exposed it to the open Air, in which I have known many wiser discourses to have gotten their bane; but I shall not be so unmannerly as to controul your opinion, wch yet I doubt had not been so favourable to me, had not your Judgments been bribed by your Zeal to the Protestant Religion, against the Adversary whereof this discourse was designed, perhaps the Protestant Reader, who is unacquainted with the transactions of the last 600 years, may think I have been too severe upon the Roman Religion, charging it with such bloudy Principles, and Practises: to which I shall say no more then this; that if I have falsified its Character, or represented it fouler than it is: let me indure the shame, and punishment of a common Calumniator; but if I have drawn it according to its own natural Features, and Complexions; it is not my fault that it appears deformed, and if it be as bad as 'tis represented, it makes invectives enough against it self, and carries its Satyrs in its own bosom: But what I have said of it is all matter of Fact, which I have proved by the testimony of their own Authors, who cannot be supposed to be false witnesses against themselves, and if, after this, any one should be so obstinate as to suspect me of forgery; let him peruse the Martyrologies of the six last Centuries, and compare them with the bloodiest of all the ten Pesecutions: and I doubt not but he will be of my opinion, viz. that Domitian and Dioclesian were but puny Persecutors, and Bunglers in cruelty compared with the infallible Cut-throats of the Apostolical Chair.
Having thus accounted for the honesty of this discourse; I have no more to say for it, but only this; that however it may succeed, it was well intended; and if it prove any way instrumental to alay the un-Christian heats, and Animosities among us, to promote the peace of the Church, and the interest of the Protestant Religion, I have my design: and though I should be defeated in this, it will be some satisfaction to me, that I have honour'd my self before the world by this address, and testified by my ready compliance with your commands how really I am,
RIGHT HONOURABLE Your most humble and Faithful Servant John Scott.