TO THE
Most 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 please Your Grace,
I may justly put these Lectures under your Graces 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 Philosophical Matters to Theological Uses; 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 say, making it rather the diverting Exercises of my Leisure Hours, than more serious Theological Studies. This Work, (although I made a considerable Progress in it at first, whilst a Novelty, yet) having no Thoughts of Publishing, I laid aside, until your Grace, being informed of my Design by some 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 Persons in high Stations, and not at all, particularly, with your Grace. So that therefore as it pleased your Grace, not only to confer an unsought profitable Honour upon me (a Stranger) but also to continue it for Two Years, out of Your good Opinion of my Performance, in some measure, answering Mr. Boyle’s End; so I can do no less than make this publick, grateful Acknowledgment of your Grace’s great and unexpected Favour.
But it is not my self alone; but the whole Lecture also is beholden to your Grace’s kind and pious Endeavours. It was You that encouraged this noble Charity, and assisted in the Settlement of it, in the Honourable Founder’s Life-time; and since his Death, it was You that procured a more certain Salary for the Lecturers, paid more constantly and duly than it was before[a].
These Benefits as I my self have been a Sharer of, so I should be very ungrateful should I not duly acknowledge, and repay with my repeated Thanks and good Wishes And that the infinite Rewarder of well-doing may give Your Grace a plentiful Reward of these, and Your many other, both Publick and Private Benefactions, is the hearty Wish of,
Your Grace’s
Most Humble and Thankful
Son and Servant,
W. Derham.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] It may not only gratify the Reader’s Curiosity, but also be of Use for preventing Encroachments in Time to come, to give the following Account of Mr. Boyle’s Lectures.
Mr. Boyle, by a Codicil, dated July 28. 1691. and annexed to his Will, charged his Messuage or Dwelling-House in St. Michael’s Crooked-Lane, London, with the Payment of the clear Yearly Rents and Profits thereof, to some Learned Divine in London, or within the Bills of Mortality, to be Elected for a Term not exceeding Three Years, by his Grace the present Lord Archbishop of Canterbury (then Dr. Tenison), Sir Henry Ashurst, Sir John Rotheram, and John Evelyn, Esq; The Business he appointed those Lectures for, was, among others, to be ready to satisfie real Scruples, and to answer such new Objections and Difficulties, as might be started: to which good Answers had not been made. And also, To Preach Eight Sermons in the Year, 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 Christian Religion against notorious Infidels, viz. Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, not descending lower to any Controversies that are among Christians themselves. But by Reason the Lecturers were seldom continued above a Year, and that the House sometimes stood empty, and Tenants brake, or failed in due Payment of their Rent, therefore the Salary sometimes remained long unpaid, or could not be gotten without some Difficulty: To remedy which Inconvenience, his present 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.