Samuel TO THE Forman Moft Reverend Father in GoD, THOMAS, Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY, Primate of All ENGLAND, &c. The Surviving TRUSTEE of the Honourable Mr. BOYLE'S LECTURES. May it pleafe Your GRACE, MAY juftly put these LECTURES under Your GRACE'S 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 towards the Improvement of Philofophical Matters to Theological Ufes and accordingly laid a Scheme of what I have here Published a Part of; and when I had little else to do, I drew up what I had to fay, making it rather the diverting Exercifes of my leifure Hours, than more ferious Theological Studies. This Work (although I made a confiderable Progress in it at first, whilst a Novelty, yet) having no Thoughts of Publishing, I laid afide, until Your GRACE, being informed of my Defign by fome 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 particularly with Your GRACE. So that therefore as it pleafed Your GRACE, not only to confer an unfought profitable Honour upon me (a Stranger) but also to continue it for two Years, out of Your good Opinion of my Performance, in fome Meafure, answering Mr. Boyle's End; fo I can do no less than make this publick, grateful Acknowledgment of Your GRACE's great and unexpected Favour, But it is not myself alone, but the whole LECTURE alfo is beholden to Your GRACE'S kind and pious Endeavours. It was You that encouraged this Noble Charity, and affifted in in the Settlement of it, in the Honourable Founder's Life-time; 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 *. These Benefits, as I myself have been a Sharer of fo I fhould be very ungrateful, fhould I not duly acknowledge, and repay *It many 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 the 28th, 1691. and annexed to his Will, charged his Meffuage, or DwellingHouse, 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 Archbishop of Canterbury (then Dr. Tenifon) Sir Henry Afhurst, Sir John Rotheram, and John Evelyn, Efq;. The Bufinefs he appointed thofe Lectures for, was, among others, To be ready to fatisfy real Scruples, and to anfwer fuch new Objections and Difficulties as might be farted, to which good Anfwers had not been made. And alfo, To Preach Eight Sermons in the Year; viz. the first Monday of January, February, March, April, and May; and of September, October, and November. The Subject of these Sermons was to be, The Proof of the Chriftian Religion against Notorious Infidels ; viz. Atheists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometants; fcending lower to any Controverfies that are among Chriftians themselves. 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 50l. 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. A 3 not de with |