Preach'd before the

UNIVERSITY of OXFORD:

Or before the

HONOURABLE SOCIETY

O F

LINCOLNS-INN

WITH TWO

DISCOURSES

ON

Natural and Reveal'd Religion.

By EDWARD MAYNARD, D. D.
Formerly Preacher to that HONOURABLE
SOCIETY: Now Rector of Boddington in
Northamptonshire.

LONDON:

Printed for JONAH BOWYER at the Rofe
in St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1722.

.D.

THE

PREFACE

TO THE

READER.

T

HE following Sermons and
Difcourfes were all of them
Preach'd, (long fince,) be-

fore very Learned Auditories; as the
Reader has been told in the Title-
page; But there are Some of them
which he may very reasonably expect
a Particular Account of; especially
the Two Last Discourses, which,
tho' now Printed the Laft in this
Collection, were, (in Subftance,) the
two First Sermons I ever preach'd.

When I was to begin the Study of Divinity, I thought, (and do ftill think,) that I could not lay a better Foundation for fuch Studies, than by Examining and Confidering diftinctly, in the first place, How far the Light of Nature is able to carry Men in Matters of Divine Knowledge; Then, what Advances were made therein by the Mofaical Revelation; And finally, what New Lights were given the World by the New Revelation of the Gofpel of Chrift; and how All was Improv'd and brought to Perfection by That Revelation. Afterwards my First Preaching happening to be before the Univerfity, I thought the fame Subject (the Subject of Natural and Reveal'd Religion) not Improper to be treated on before fuch an Audience, and accordingly made it the Subject of my two First Sermons. But fome Tears after, when the Storm (which threatned the whole Nation,

Nation,) fell fo terribly upon Magdalene College, (in King James's Reign, 1687.) and we were all inftantly Scatter'd from the Beloved Place of our Education, as I chanc'd, in that Unhappy Year of Leisure, to entertain my felf moftly, during that Retirement, with the Ancient Moralifts, That Sort of Reading naturally put me in mind of my Firft Sermon; and gave me occafion to make a Review of it; Upon which I fam Sufficient Canfe to make some Alterations in it, with many Additional Quotations to it; and fome Additions to the Second alfo. This therefore being the Cafe, I hope the Reader will eafily pardon me, that I now present them to him, not according to the First Draught, as they were drawn up for fbort Difcourfes from the Pulpit, but as it were in a Second Edition, with all their Enlargements, the in this Drefs, the First Part especially, looks more like a Tract than a Sermon.

But