Sermon 26 August 1645, Title page – Dedication
A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE HONORABLE Houſe of COMMONS: At Margarets Weſtminſter, upon the 26. day of Auguſt 1645. being the day of their ſolemne Monethly Faſt.
By JOHN LIGHTFOOT, A Member of the Aſſembly of Divines.
London Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crook, and are to be ſold at his ſhop at the ſigne of the Greene Dragon in Pauls Churchyard, 1645.
A Catalogue of ſuch Bookes as have beene publiſhed by Mr. Lightfoot.
OBſervations on Geneſis.
—On Exodus.
Harmony of the foure Evangeliſts.
Elias Redivivus.
A Sermon on Luke 1. 17. at a Faſt before the Commons Houſe of Parliament, March 19. 1643.
A Commentary on the Acts, with an Eccleſiaſtick Hiſtory.
TO THE HONORABLE Houſe of COMMONS Aſſembled IN PARLIAMENT.
IF ever Sermon met with diſadvantages whereby it might be made unacceptable to an Auditory, this was it. For beſides mine uttter diſabilities to prepare any thing fit for ſo learned and diſcerning eares and Judgements; the two things that might ſpoile delivery when the child, ſuch as it was, was come to the birth, were come upon mee, and thoſe were ſtraitneſſe of time, and perplexity of ſpirit; for the ſear of ſtopping your other occaſions did ſo ſtill lie before me, and the feare of mine owne poore Family in the inundation of the Enemy in the Aſſociation at that very inſtant, did ſo follow me, that in this ſtrait between theſe two, I ſtood your Orator at that time.
Yet I ſee it is not in vaine, but a comfort and happineſſe to labour to ſerve and obey you, ſeeing your acceptance cheriſheth and encourageth ſuch poore endeavours.
The ſubject I fixed upon, I purpoſely choſe, that the Millenary Opinion, which I cannot but judge erroneous, might not goe on altogether uncontrolled, and one man take it at another for a truth without gainſaying; but that it might receive ſome check by the way, and it might bee ſhewed, that Poſſe vinci Hannibalem, that there is a faire poſsibility that that Opinion is but a falſhood. Errors ſometimes, and uncertainties often, doe get the repute of undoubted truths by going too long uncontradicted. As I cannot but challenge that opinion which is ſo current and common, and hath ſo long run from hand to hand for an unqueſtioned certainty, that now it is become unqueſtionable, and that is, that the ſupper mentioned in the 13 of Johns Goſpel was the Paſſeover ſupper, and that Judas his going out after the ſop, was his departure away before the Sacrament: wher as if it be not certaine, which to me it is, and I conceive may bee very well proved to others, that that ſupper was not the Paſſeover, but a common ſupper; and that it was not at Jeruſalem, but at Bethany fifteen furlongs off, and that it was not on the Paſſeover night, but two nights before: If this I ſay, be not abſolutely certaine at the firſt ſight, as to convince of its certainty, yet is it very well worth the weighing, and the contrary opinion not to bee ſuffered to goe unexamined, wh…ch among the moſt men it doth.
Your Honourable Houſe weighteth all things, the Lord hold out and reveale his will to you more and more, and crown all your Vndertakings and Conſultations with all proſperity and ſucceſſe.
Septemb. 12. 1645. Your ſervant in the Lord, Iohn Lightfoot.