on

THIS is a Profpect, one would not choose to dwell up-It is like that of a Precipice, very deep and frightful. I cannot leave it, however, without one Remark, which was made in my Hearing, immediately after the late Earthquake, by a Clergyman, who was himself without the Verge of Poverty, and, therefore, not farther concerned on this Head, than for the Peace of Jerufalem, and his Brethren and Companions Sake, to whom he wifheth Profperity: which was, That one of the crying *Sins of this Nation, which fo lately had shaken the Land, and awakened the divine Vengeance, might probably be the present wicked, Antichriftian, and, in every Shape, unprincipled Diftribution of Preferments.

FOR, can any one fhew a Caufe Evangelical or Political, why the Religion of Christ, which was intended by its Author for a common Blessing to Mankind, fhould be made an Inftrument of Ruin to hundreds of the former; and, by Confequence, the Inftrument of much complicated Hurt and Detriment to the latter.

No Church has a Right to weaken the State, by kidnabbing first, and afterwards impoverishing in its Service the Members of Society: I affirm, that any Church, which fhall be guilty of fuch a Practice, in this Part of its Conftitution, is no Church of Chrift. For, hath not the Lord ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, fhould live of the Gofpel? 1 Cor. ix. 14.

AND is it not as clear an Injunction of Christianity, that the Elders, who rule well be counted worthy of double Honour, especially they, who labour in the Tod and Doctrine, 1 Tim. V. 17.

BUT, instead of this, upon no Principle, that I can find either of Scripture or good Policy, fome among us (I name

none

none at present) take care, that thofe, who preach the Gospel, shall starve by the Gospel, and the Elders who rule well, ESPECIALLY thofe, who LABOUR in the WORD and DOCTRINE, instead of having a double Honour, fhall have no Dignity at all.

-The fame

III. BUT to proceed in my Preface.Diftrefs and Poverty, which cramp and disfigure the Writings of the Clergy, are also frequently the Occafion of their publishing fuch Writings, though much against their Inclination.

FOR there being no Hofpital for their Wives, no * Prytanéum, or proper Provifion for their Orphans, though defcended of Parents, who die a Sacrifice to the Public; thofe Parents are forced oftentimes themselves, or their Executors for them, to take an Opportunity, by the Publication of their Sermons, of raifing a fort of charitable Contribution, as a little Pittance for their poor Families.

THIS the Author thought himself particularly called upon to do, by the fenfible Decline of his Health, and the frequent Symptoms of an Apoplexy; from which ill State he has very little Hopes of recovering, fo long as the Cause remains, which occasioned it; that is to say, a Variety of Business in the Profeffion of a Clergyman, added

* The Prytanéum was one of the finest Places at Athens. There was in it, befide the Courts of Juftice, an Hospital for the Education of Orphans, and the Support of those, who had deferved well of the Commonwealth: to be a Member of this Foundation was a Matter of the highest Honour. I cannot help thinking, but that an Hospital for the Widows and Orphans of the poor and induftrious Clergy, who die within the Bills of Mortality, confidering that these are Members of the State, might be a very laudable and useful Institution, though it were not built quite fo fine as the Prytanium, or even as the Foundling Hofpital.

to

to the never-ending Confinement and Fatigue of a School, which, as yet, he holds.

public

SUCH Motives I confefs myfelf to have had in common with other of my Brethren the poorer Clergy, for putting out a Volume of Sermons. Why that Volume consisted of thefe Difcourfes, rather than any other, which I have written, the Reasons are more particular.

FOUR OR FIVE of them having been tranfcribed, and, amongst these, the three Easter-Sermons, by the People who repeated them at that Seafon before the University, they, by this Means, came into the Hands of others, to be used as their own, and called their own, if they thought convenient: and therefore, in Justice to myself, and to secure my Property in them, these make a Part in the present Collection.

AND with regard to the reft, being most of them written in a Manner and Style ACADEMICAL, there were but few among the Congregations, to which I now preach, who understood, or relished them; and therefore, if I continued in my prefent Situation, these were fuch as I could best fpare, without breaking in upon my Stock of Sermons.

FOR which Reafon, likewife, this Collection contains two others, which had been before printed: one was what they call at Oxford an A&t-Sermon; that is, preached on their Act-Sunday; the other was preached at the fame Place, by the Appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, on the 5th of November, 1745.

THE Hiftory of which Sermon is pretty remarkable. The Rebels being then at Derby, and expected in a few Days at Oxford, the Difcourfe was thought fo feasonable by the King's Friends in the University, that they fent the

Revd. Francis Webber, B. D. one of the Senior Fellows of Exeter College, to Alban Hall (whither I was retired with my Pupils, to be out of the Din of a Brawl, which had happened in Hertford College) to thank me for my Difcourse, and to defire a further Publication of it, than from the Pulpit.

I TOLD Mr. Webber it fhould be printed: but News foon arriving, that the Rebels were flying before the Duke, and having no body in the Place above-mentioned to lecture my young Gentlemen but myfelf, I deferred the Publication of it till the Bufinefs of the Term was over, and the Seeds of Rebellion were again reviving. And it might have been for my Intereft to have deferred it LONGER. Horrid Times indeed! when a Government is fo weak and dastardly, as to make it for the Interest of any Man to withhold that Service, which his Oath of Allegiance requires him to render to his Prince !

BUT fo it was, the Sermon which had given great Offence in preaching, grew more offenfive by attempting the Publication. When I went to ask the Imprimatur, or License to print, of the then Vice-Chancellor, whom I always efteemed as a very worthy Gentleman, notwithstanding he profeffed his Readiness to associate (a Word at that Time odious and ridiculous enough in Oxford) or to do any thing else for the King's Service; yet I found him so overruled by the dark Divan, his privy Counsellors, that the Sermon was not to be permitted to come in any manner, either by Connivance, or License, from the Prefs of the University, but to be ftigmatized by this Denial, as containing certain Propofitions and Reafonings not confiftent with the facred Doctrines of the Place, though they are thofe, on which our LIBERTY and CONSTITUTION stand.

THIS Repulfe occafioned the printing of it in London; and, though there was no open Prohibition of the Sale of

it

it in the University, yet one of the Oxford Bookfellers, whofe Name was in the Title, found it neceffary to reprint all the Titles, and change the obnoxious Phrase of printed for, into the more tolerable one of fold by: at the fame Time that the Author was reprefented as forced to hawk about his Work himself, and pelted continually with anonymous Letters, fetting forth the Folly of his Undertaking, and the Decay of his Understanding. The vulgar Academics had fo far fmelt the Senfe of their Superiors upon this Occafion, as to give out publicly," that tho' (as they fuppofed) "I had in my own Opinion performed gloriously, yet they 66 were well affured, that the preaching of this Sermon "was the worst Day's Work I had ever done in my Life, " and would fooner or later be my Ruin."

IF I had confidered my Father's Cafe at and about the Year 1715, how much he suffered in Oxford, for his Attachment to King George I. and how little it was regarded, I might have collected from domeftic and dear

bought

*The Author is the Son of Mr. JOHN FREE, a Citizen of Oxford, and by Profeffion a Watchmaker. He was a Person of great Honefly and Integrity, and much Ingenuity in his Business; which was very flourishing, till the Troubles broke out in the Reign of King George I. when his Zeal for that Prince occafioned him many Enemies. His House was often attacked by the Mob; himself and Family frequently in Danger of their Lives, and his Bufinefs funk, by a Combination not to employ him. So that he had nothing for fome Time to fupport himself and Dependents, but the Money, which he had faved in his Profperity.

Ir was at this Interval, as far as I can collect from his Papers, that the following Character of him was drawn up, and figned, with a View to attend a Petition for a Place in the Customs; which, however, he never had.