Sermon 31 August 1685, Title page – Dedication
A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES AT CHELMSFORD, In the County of ESSEX, AVGVST 31, 1685. Before the Honourable Sir THOMAS STREET, Kt. One of the JUDGES of his Majesty's Court of COMMON PLEAS.
By JOHN SCOTT, D. D. Rector of St. Peters Poor, London.
LONDON, Printed by M. Flesher, for Rob. Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange, and Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1686.
To my Honoured Friend IOSEPH SMART, Esq High Sheriff of the County of Essex.
SIR,
I Do not think my self obliged to make an Apology to the World for the publication of this Sermon, which you very well know, Sir, is none of my act, and I am sure was far from my intention when I composed it; indeed, as for the faults of the Sermon, I alone am responsible, but then it ought to be considered that the more faulty it is, the more obedience I have shewn in the publication of it; and indeed, it would have very ill become me, especially after I had been preaching up Submission to Superiours, so far to have contradicted my own Doctrine by my Practice, as not to have complied with the repeated desires of the learned and reverend Iudge, your self and those loyal Gentlemen of the Grand Iury. I know very well that Discourses of this nature are but too needfull in such an Age as this, wherein the minds of the People, by sucking in the contagious breath of false Teachers, are so wofully infected with seditious and rebellious Principles; against which I have herein endeavoured to prescribe as much antidote as the narrow compass of a Sermon would contain; but in so short a Discourse it is a hard matter to doe justice to so copious an argument. And I am apt to think, Sir, that had not your judgment been too much bribed by the known candour and goodness of your nature, by your kindness to the Authour of it, and especially by your immoveable Loyalty to your Prince, which could never be shock'd by all the late attempts of a popular Faction, you would have found defects enough in it to have excused me for my own credit sake from publishing it to the World; but since it must be, I pray God it may answer your honest intention, which I am very sure was to doe good to the World by it, to open the eyes of those miserably misled Souls that in numerous droves have been seduced into Faction and Disloyalty, and to direct their wandring steps into the paths of righteousness and peace and obedience. I remain,
Sir, Your most obliged and affectionate Servant, IOHN SCOTT.