A Remedy Against Ruin, Title page – Dedication
A REMEDIE AGAINST RUINE: OR, A SERMON PREACHED At the Aſsiſes at LANCESTON in Cornwall, March 17 1651.
Before the Right Honorable Henry Rolls, Lord chief Juſtice of the upper Bench, And Robert Nicholas, Judges for the Weſtern Circuit.
BY THOMAS PETERS M. A. and Paſtor of the Church at Mylor, in Cornwall.
With an APPENDIX, Vindicating the Author from an horrid imputation caſt on him by Samſon Bond, Rector of Maugon, and Martin in Meneague, in the ſaid County.
ESAI 51.6.
My Salvation ſhall be for ever, and my righteouſneſſe ſhall not be aboliſhed.
Vel Sile, vel dic aliquid Silentio melius.
London, Printed by Tho. Maxey for Samuel Gellibrand, at the ſigne of the Ball in Paul's Church-yard. 1652
To the Right Worſhipfull RICHARD LOBB Eſquire, and High Sheriffe of the County of CORNVVALL.
Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplyed from our Lord Jeſus Chriſt.
Sir,
TWill be quered, why in the autumn of my dayes, and in this Preſſe-ſweating generation, I ſhould thruſt my ſelf into print, who never before peep'd in the Preſſe, beyond the letters of my name. To the reaſonable and religious I render theſe accounts: ſome whereof point the finger at
1 Your ſelf.
2 My ſelf.
3 Your and my Antagoniſt.
4 Your and my Chriſtian Friends.
1. For your ſelf. I muſt confeſſe I owe you Pauls praiſes and Pauls prayers, as he to Oneſiphorus, 2 Tim. 1.15. At my return from New-England to London, you ſought me diligently and found me out, And ever ſince have refreſhed me with an annuall as perſonall countenance to my Lecture at Penrin, and contribution to my Labours at Mylor.
Let theſe lines (when I am dead) ſpeak Pauls prayers;ver. 16. The Lord give mercy to the houſe of Oneſiphorus; the Lord grant you may find mercy in that day. In the mean, may you honour your God (who hath honoured you) with the choiſeſt of your increaſe,Pro. 3.9. pracipuum pro ventuum. with your perſon, poſterity as purſe. And may your and my Enemy, who hath perſecuted you for malignity, me for perjury, be therein ſtill found (as he is found already) a liar.
2. For my ſelf. I have not been without ſolicitations to commend ſome of my late labours to a publick viem, but could not be induced to ſuch condeſcendency, till providence put into my hand this medium to purge my repute from the venome of that ſlanderous tongue, which hath bedirted my fame through many places of this nation. I was loath my poſterity ſhould have a rotten fathers name flung in their faces, while my aſhes mouldred in the grave, when a living opportunity bids me cleer my blaſted innocency.
3. For my Doctoriall, *S. B. D. Featly. Don.martial Adverſary (ſo his name and books proclaim him,) I ſhall uſe Martials weapons to foile him with, Stat contra, dicitque tibi tua pagina, fur…es. You know, Sir, and many knowing Miniſters here, that his Sermon on Rom. 12.1. is done, horis furtivis, without trope or figure, being ſcored from the two Doctors, verbatim, paginatim, lineatim: ſed ſi forte ſuas, &c. and the Jack-dawes furtivity is nakeded. Though he imprecate curſes on himſelf, if ever ſtole two lines from them;Rom. 12 1. yet to a runner as reader, 'tis evident mo then half of that Sermon preached before the Committee of Aſſembly of Divines, May 20. 1646. is as the hatchets helve, borrowed; or he robbed a theef, who inhumanely ſtole the ſheets from the two Doctors, after they ſlept in their Graves. foreign
Surely,Jer. 24. if he be one of Jeremies figs, 'tis of the worſt basket;Jer. 6.1. if of Eſops tongues, 'tis not the beſt in the Market; or if of Jeremis fronts, 'tis ſuch as cannot bluſh.
For his Alarme at Pendennis, on Pſal. 106.9. both title, text, ſome of the Epiſtle, and main proſecutions, with ſmall variation of phraſe, are formerly beaten by Doctour Featly, as is cleeer to an unprejudiced comparer. But I'le leap him over in the front, till I meet him in the reare.
4. For your and my Chriſtian friends, Juſtices, Gentry, Miniſters, and Corporations, and my endeered pariſhioners, who have atteſted my life and labours beyond my deſires, and deſerts; let theſe ſyllables re-atteſt my gratefulneſſe; truely, you came forth timely to help the Lord againſt the mighty, even the Lords Truths againſt one of the mightieſt falſhoods was ever dawbd in the teeth of a Goſpel Miniſter.
'Tis well mine adverſary ſhuns godly Miniſters ſocieties, by this they ſhun the gunſhot of a fiery ſerpentine Arrow. For moſt of them know, what places he hath lived in, he hath appeared cometicall, carrying a Titio of Contention in the tail: the Lord quench it, make him truly humble, and fit him better for the labours of Chriſts vineyard: which will be the rejoycing of
From my Study in Mylor, the 27 of May, 1652. Sir, Your weak, and unworthy Chaplain, Pro tempore. THO. PETERS.