Sermons Volume 1, Frontispiece – Publishers advertisement
EZEKIEL HOPKINS EPISCOPUS DERENSIS.
…. Sturt Sculp
Printed for Nathanael Ranew
THE First Volume OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES.
By EZEKIEL HOPKINS, late L. Bishop of London-Derry.
The Second Edition Corrected.
Imprimatur.
Nov. 29. 1690. Z. Isham, R. R. D. Henrico, Episc. Lond. a. Sacris.
LONDON, Printed by J. Wilde, for Nathanael Ranew, at the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1694.
THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
Christian Reader,
ALthough the following Sermons need no Epistle to commend them to any intelligent Reader; yet Custom having made it necessary to say something, for the Satisfaction of the World, concerning the Posthumous Works of deceased Persons, I shall therefore speak a few Words briefly.
The Reverend Prelate, the Author of them, was a Person of great natural Parts, and Excellent Learning, as well as of great Piety and Charity: One that adorned the Church of England, whereof he was an Eminent Pillar, ruling well in the Church of God, & therefore deserved double Honour, as the Apostle speaks: And doubtless, his Reward is now great in Heaven, with his Lord and Master, whose Service here on Earth was accounted by him as his highest Honour, and that which he professed himself most ambitious of.
He was a Person of great Modesty and Humility; having very mean and low Thoughts of himself, and his own Abilities; which was the Reason why the World had so little Knowledge of him from the Press, having published nothing*See his Vanity of the World, and A Funeral Sermon, &c. Octavo. but what he was constrained to, either by the restless Importunity of Friends, or the Commands of those that some Time were his Superiors.
But the Intendment of this Epistle being not to give the World an Account of the Life of this Excellent Person, whose Praise is deservedly in the Church of God; I forbear to add any thing farther concerning him, hoping it will shortly be done by a more worthy Pen.
And as for the following Sermons, the excellent Style in which they are written, and the exact Accuracy with which they are penn'd, may give abundant Satisfaction unto All, in the Reading of them, that they are His Lordship's own, and were fairly written with his own Hand, and copied out from thence, since his Death, by one of his nearest Relations, and so transmitted unto the Press.
The Subject Matter of them being agreeable to the Divine Inspirations of the Holy Scriptures, will speak better for themselves, than the Words of any other can. And that they may be very useful and profitable unto those that heard them, and unto all that shall read them, is the hearty and sincere Prayer of the Publisher. Farewell.
BOOKS Printed for Nath. Ranew, at the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
THE Vanity of the World: With other Sermons, in Octavo.
An Exposition on the Ten Commandments: With other Sermons, in Quarto.
An Exposition on the Lord's Prayer; with a catechistical Explication thereof, for the instructing of Youth: With Two Discourses; the one concerning, The Mystery of Divine Providence; the other concerning, The Excellent Advantages of Reading and Studying the Holy Scriptures, in Quarto.
Discourses, or Sermons, on several Scriptures. Volume the First, in Octavo.
A Second Volume of Discourses, or Sermons, on several Scriptures, in Octavo.
A Third Volume of Discourses, or Sermons, on several Scriptures, now in the Press, and will be finished in a Month, in Octavo.
All Six written by Ezekiel Hopkins, late Lord Bishop of London-Derry; and sold by Nath. Ranew, at the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-Yard.