Most Révèrend Father ill & O D, THOMAS, Lord ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury, Primate of all England, &c. 97) No3 9m il1.5 6. polnolę enw and bas The furviving Trustee ofothe Honourable Mr. B1 Q E A A's LECTURES. Day with pleate your Grace to exewn 1 May juftly put thefe Le ctures under your Graces Patronage their Publication being wholly owing to You. For having the Honour to be a Member of the Royal Society, as well as a Divine, I was minded to try what I could do to wards the Improvement of Philofophical Matters to Theological Uses; and accord ingly laid a Scheme of what I have here published a Part of, and when I had little elfe to do, I drew up what I had to fay, making it rather the divert A 2 ing ing Exercises of my Leifure Hours, than more ferious Theological Studies. This Work, (although I made a confiderable Progrefs in it at firft, whilft a Novelty, yet) having no Thoughts of Publishing, I laid afide, until your Grace, being informed of my Defign by some of my Learned Friends both of the Clergy and Laity, was pleased to call me to the unexpected Honour of Preaching Mr. Boyle's Lectures: an Honour I was little aware of in my Country-Privacy, and not much acquainted with Perfons in high Stations, and not at all, particu larly, with your Grace. So that therefore as it pleafed your Grace, not only to confer an unfought profitable Honour upon me (a Stranger) but alfo to continue it for Two Years, out of Your good Opinion of my Performance, in fome measure, anfwering Mr. Boyle's End; fo I can do no lefs than make this publick, grateful Acknowledgment. of your Grace's great, and unexpected Favour. But But it is not my self alone, but the whole Lecture alfo is beholden to your Graces kind and pious Endeavours. It was You that encouraged this noble Charity, and affisted in the Settlement of it, in the Honourable Founders Lifetime; and fince his Death, it was You that procured a more certain Salary for the Lecturers, paid more conftantly, and duly than it was before f. These (+) It may not only gratify the Reader's Curiofity, but also be of Ufe for preventing Encroachments in time to come, to give the following Account of Mr. Boyle's Lectures. Mr. Boyle, by a Codicil dated July 28. 1691. and annexed to his Will, charged his Meffuage or Dwelling-Houfe in St. Michael's Crooked-Lane, London, with the Payment of the clear Yearly Rents and Profits thereof to fome Learned Divine in London, or within the Bills of Mortality, to be Elected for a Term not exceeding Three Years, by his Grace the prefent Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury (then Dr. Tenifon) Sir Henry Afhurst, Sir John Rotberam, and John Evelyn, Efq; The Bufinefs he appointed thofe Lectures was, among others, to be ready to fatisfie real Scruples, and to answer fuch new Objections and Difficulties as might be farted, to which good Anfwers had not been made. And also, to Preach Eight Sermons in the Tear, the firft Monday of January, February, March, April, and May, and of September, October and November. The Subject of thefe Sermons was to be, the Proof of the A 3 Chri These Benefits as my felf have been a Sharer of, folfhould be very ungrateful fhould I not duly acknowledge, and repay with my repeated Thanks and good Withes. And that the infinite Rewarder of well-doing may give Your Grace a plentiful Reward of thefe, and Your many other, both Publick and Private Benefactions is the hearty With of, Your GRACE'S Chriftian Religion against notorious Infidels, viz. Atheifts, Theifts, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, not defcending lower to any Controverfies that are among Chriftians themfelves. But by reafon the Lecturers were feldom continued above a Year, and that the Houfe fometimes ftood empty, and Tenants brake, or failed in due Payment of their Rent, therefore the Salary fometimes remained long unpaid, or could not be gotten without fome Difficulty. To remedy which Inconvenience, his prefent Grace of Canterbury procured a Yearly Stipend of 50 to be paid Quarterly for ever, charged upon a Farm in the Parish of Brill, in the County of Bucks which Stipend is accordingly very duly paid when demanded, without Fee or Reward.od or at a 198 Stilt to 7 loo то READER. A S the noble Founder of the Lectures I have had the Honour of Preaching, was a great Improver of Natural Knowledge, fo, in all probability, he did it out of a pious End, as well as in Purfuit of his Genius. For it was his fettled Opinion, that nothing tended more to cultivate true Religion and Piety in a Man's Mind, than a thorough Skill in Philofophy. And fuch Effect it manifeftly had in him, as is evident from divers of his publifhed Pieces; from bis conftant Deportment in never mentioning the Name Vid. Bp. Burnet's of GOD without a Paufe, and Faner Serm.p.24. vifible Stop in his Difcourfe; and from the noble Foundation of his Lectures for the Honour of GoD, and the generous Stipend be allowed for the fame. And forafmuch as bis Lectures were appointed by him for the Proof of the Chriftian Religion against Atheists and other notorious Infidels, I thought, when I had the Honour to be made his Lecturer,that I could A 4 not |