Dedication

MADAM,

THIS Sermon doth of right intitle it self to your Honour’s Tutelage, as being ..de by the Word of your Command; who said, Let it be, and it was so. The Weaning of your hopeful and only Son, was the occasion of that Meeting which this Discourse ..ve a plain and ..ly Entertainment to. That as Guests that come upon us uninvited take in good part such as they find, if a chearful Look and a hearty Welcome be but the Sauce to such Dishes as a Surprize can set upon the Table; so I know your Honour liked the Treat, which this Discourse gave you, not the worse because it was plain, and ...ch as could be soonest got ready; but the ...ter, because of your hearty Welcome, and ...ecially because it was (like Jacob’s Venison Gen. xxvii. 4.) savoury Meat, such as your ...d loved. This an ...tes my Presumption ...set it before your Honour a second time for ...r Entertainment; only I wish that I have (like some penurious Houswife that ...tches to spend Meat till it will keep no longer) kept it so long by me till it hath lost its first savour. I must confess it hath hung the Pen nigh half as many Months as thy dear Son did upon the Breast. That which relieves me is, that it hath broken of your Honour’s Commands, it not be called for in Paper: so that it being a 80d Free-will-offering, I know your Honour will give it the readier Acceptance, though it be otherwise but a mean Present: Yet Goats-hair was accepted in the Building of the Tabernacle, Exod. xxxv. 5,6. from such has had no better to offer, if it came from a willing Heart.

Madam, It is for the compleating the Temple of God in your Soul, that this Offering is made; and I can truly say, it is with as wiling an Heart as ever Israelite offered, from him that brought Goats-hair to him that brought Silver and Gold to the Tabernacle.

One thing that inclined me to a Willingness to put it into your Honours hands, was the Use God made it of to my own Soul in the review of it; for I can say, I found God teaching my Heart by it, and giving me some Experience of that in the Transcribing, which lay only in the Notion in delivering: which made me cry out, What rare Christians would Ministers be, could we but believe all we Pray, and experience all we Preach.

Now, Madam, if the Heart of one Christian answers another’s (as the Wise-Man averrs it doth, Prov. xxvii. 19.) who knows but God may bless this plain Sermon into a greater Success upon your Soul than it hath had upon mine: I know God hath given your Honour a teachable Heart, and a Love to his 80eWord; and what greater Mercy? For where there is a teachable Heart, here God will ...l Instruction; and where there is a love to Word, there the Soul will bear Instruction. The Lord (whose Prerogative it is to teach Hearts of the Children of Men) instruct your Honour into this great Duty of Wean-...ess from the World.

Madam, Would God prosper me into a ...acity of Serviceableness to Your Honours ...cious and immortal Soul, I should value self more upon such an Happiness, than upon any other I can think of in this World: the unparallel’d Acts of Nobleness by which have so often borne witness to the Greatness of your Respect to me (which I must ...ays thankfully mention) have so far out my Merits, that unless God (who ha not Suretiship for his Servants) will ...ise to see Satisfaction made (and your Honour may take his Word) I must live die your Debtor.

Lord make your Honour as good as ...t, that in you Nobility and Godliness may ...t together, and Grace and Grandure may each other, (this being that which will ...er your Honour truly lovely in the eye of and Man;) so prayeth daily and incessantly,

Madam, Your ever obliged

and most humble Servant,

MATTH. MEAD.