divers excellent Orations and Poems, all in Latin. All which may, God willing, in convenient time be communicated to the Publick, to the great Advantage and Furtherance of Religion and Learning.

In the mean time, I heartily recommend thefe Sermons which are already publifh'd to thy ferious perufal; and shall only fay this of them, That as they want no other kind of Excellency, fo particu larly they are animated throughout with fo genuine a Spirit of true Piety and Goodnefs, that he muft either be a perfectly good, or prodigiously bad Man, that can read them over without being the better for them.

J. TILLOTSON.

The Preface to Mr. BURTON's Practical Difcourfes.

I

SHALL fpeak a little concerning the Author of the enfuing Difcourses, and then leave them to fpeak for themfelves. For if they be good, they need no Commendatory Preface, and if they be not, they deserve none.

I must not fay much of him, be'cause of the long and intimate Friendfhip I had with him, which may render me fufpected of Partiality towards him: And indeed I need not, fince he was a

F 3

Per

F

¿

Perfon fo well known, both in the Univerfity of Cambridge, where he was bred, and was a Fellow of Magdalen-College there, and an eminent Tutor for many Years: And likewife here in London, where he fpent feveral Years of the laft part of his Life, and was intimately acquainted with the moft eminent Perfons of his own Profeffion. He was firft Chaplain to the Right Honourable Sir Orlando Bridgman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; and afterwards Minifter of St. George's in Southwark; where befides his conftant Pains in Preaching and Catechiling, he employ'd a great part of his Time in Offices and Acts of Charity; in Vifitation of the Sick, and a moft tender and compaffionate Care of the Poor, which in that Parifh were exceeding many, befides the Two great Prifons of the ¿ King's Bench and Marfbalfea, which he often vifited; and beftowed there not only his own Charity, but all that by his Intereft and Solicitation he could obtain from others; by which means he not only continually relieved, but every Year releated a very confiderable Number of poor Prifoners for fmall Debts,to the great Comfort of many poor Families. This, together with his exemplary Converfation among them in all Humility and Kindness, and Meeknefs of Wisdom, 'made

made him to be exceedingly beloved in 'his Parish during his continuance with them, and his departure from them to be as greatly lamented: For about a Year before his Death he was removed to Barns, not far from London; where he "was feized upon by a very dangerous and malignant Fever, of which he died, and feveral of his Family.

6

It pleased the wife Providence of • God, Whofe Ways are not as our Ways, nor • his Thoughts as our Thoughts, to take this good Man from us in the ripeness of his Age, when he was capable of doing the 'greatest Service to the Church of God, and in a Time when he was most likely to have contributed confiderably to it, as being by the incomparable Sweetness of his Temper, and Prudence of his Behaviour, admirably fitted to allay thofe Heats which then began to break out, • but are fince blown up to all the Degrees of a violent and implacable Enmity, by the skill and induftry of a crafty and restlefs Party among us, playing upon our Weakness, and perfwading us to receive odious Names of Diftination, and to fling them like Squibs and Fire-balls at one another, to make the Philistines fport. So that we have great Reafon to lament the Lofs of fo ufeful a Man in fo needful a Time.

강

? I fhall only mention those good Qualities and Virtues which were more remarkable in him. His great Piety towards God, the Native Simplicity of his Mind and Manners, the fingular Kindness of his Converfation, and his cheerful readiness to every good Work: But above all, the Sincerity of his Friendfhip, for I never knew any Man that upon all Occafions ferved his Friend with that Forwardness and Zeal,and unwearied Diligence as he would do, and with lefs Confideration of himself and his own Intereft. He was infinitely troubled to fee the abounding of Iniquity, and the abatement of Charity among us; but he did not live to fee the worst of it, and to what a height our fenfelefs Heats and Animofities are fince rifen. God 6 was pleafed to take him away from that unpleasant fight, which would certainly have been as grievous to him as to any Man living.

He never, that I know of, published any Thing in print, except only a Preface to that excellent Book of his learned Friend, Dr. Cumberland, of the Laws of Nature; partly perhaps out of Modesty, but chiefly I think out of Judgment: As deeming it beft, when a Man is at his own Liberty, and urged thereto by no preffing Occafion, to defer the Business

of

of publick writing to the moft mature and improved part of his Life; but whatever his Reafon was, it is not fit that 'those weighty and well digefted Difcourfes which he left behind him fhould be fuppreffed, and the Publick defrauded of the Benefit and Advantage of them; and though they are only transcribed from his ordinary Sermon Notes, and want the exactness they would have had, if they had been defigned and prepared for the Prefs by his own Hand, yet I think in 'the main they have the Perfection which he chiefly aimed at, in that they are very well fitted to do good, and to make those that read them wifer and better. For he thoroughly understood the Nature of Religion, the excellent Defign, and the happy Effects of it, where it is fincerely embraced and entertained; and he knew how to distinguish 'genuine and substantial Piety from that which is counterfeit and fuperficial. He had likewise a juft and lively Sense of the mighty concernment and importance of Religion both to the private and publick, the present and future, the temporal and eternal Happiness of Men; which made him feek out all Sorts of Arguments to convince them of the abfolute Neceffity, and unfpeakable Advantages of Religi and all Kinds of Motives and Inducements

on,

1