The Pillar and Pattern of Englands Deliverances, Title page – Dedication
THE PILLAR and PATTERN OF Englands Deliverances.
Preſented In a Sermon to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, with the ſeveral Companies of the City of London, in their ſolemn Meeting at Pauls on the Lords Day, Novem. 5. 1654.
Being alſo the Firſt Sabbath after his Lordſhips entrance upon his Majoralty.
By THOMAS HORTON Doctor in Divinity, and Profeſſor thereof in Greſham-Colledge LONDON.
PSAL. 77.11.
I will remember the Works of the Lord; ſurely I will remember thy WONDERS of old.
2 COR. 1.10.
Who delivered us from ſo great a Death, and doth deliver, in whom we truſt that he will yet deliver us.
Printed at London by R. I. for Jo. Clark, and are to be ſold at the entrance into Mercers Chappel, at the lower end of Cheap-ſide. 1655.
TO The Right Honourable Chriſtopher Pack Lord Mayor, with the Honourable Court of Aldermen of the famous City of London.
Right Honourable:
THe Devil hath had a double Deſign about this buſineſs of the Gunpowder-Treaſon; the Firſt was to blow up the Parliament, the Second is to blow up the Deliverance, and to make it appear leſs to the World than indeed it is. It is true, I will not deny, but that as Corruption will be ſure to be at the end of every Action, ſo there might be poſsibly ſome Politique advantages made of the Diſcovery of this Plot, by ſome which had then the managing of preſent Affairs; but that is no Diſparagement at all to the Mercy it ſelf, nor excuſe to thoſe which were Inſtruments in the Conſpiracy. The Danger was unqueſtionable, and the Preſervation very remarkable, and ſuch as we have All cauſe very deeply to lay to heart, with the fulleſt reſentment that may be. The ſcope of this plain Sermon is a little to help us herein, which I have now at the laſt by your Order (not of mine own inclination, nay indeed with ſome reluctancies in my ſelf) brought to the publique Light, but in a deſire of the publique Good. I have purpoſedly deferred it to this Time for the publiſhing of it, that ſo, as the thing it ſelf was as the beginning of a New Life, ſo the Diſcourſe about it might fall in with the New Year, wherein our Lives are in a manner reſtored and renewed unto us. Beſides that, the time of Printing it might ſomewhat anſwer the time of Preaching it, which was New-Year in the Calendar of the City, as it is now in the Calendar of the World. And laſtly, That as the Deliverance is a Monument of Gods goodneſs to the Nation, ſo the Sermon might be a Teſtimony of mine own reſpects and thankfulneſs to your ſelves in the injoyment, and likewiſe continuance of ſo much favour and incouragement from you, as I am ſtill partaker of. I have this only to adde, That the Lord who keepeth Iſrael, and who alone is the ſafety of his people, would delight ſtill to watch over this City for good, to make the Walls of it Salvation, and the Gates of it Praiſe, and the Officers of it Peace; to eſtabliſh Holineſs and Righteouſneſs within the borders, and in the midſt of it, that it may prove an eternal excellency, and the joy of many Generations, which is and ſhall be the prayer of
Greſham-Colledge January 1. 1655/4. Your Servant in the work of the Lord:THO. HORTON.