136 The Nature and Neceffity of Religious Refo- A SERMON PREACHD at the ASSIZES, And before the University of OXFORD, At St. Mary's, on Thursday, By WILLIAM TILLY, M.A. Fellow The Third Edition. OXFORD: Printed by Leonard Lichfield, for John Stephens, Bookfeller: Price 6d. I ΑΝ ASSIZE-SERMON Preach'd Before the University of OXFORD. PROV. XXIV. 10, 11, 12. 10, If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. 11, If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and thofe that are ready to be flain : 12. If thou fayeft, Behold, we knew it not: doth not he that pondereth the heart confider it? and he that keepeth thy foul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? T HE very Style or Manner, in which these Words are here deliver'd by the Wife Man, if we obferve it, is somewhat peculiar from the rest of this Book; and appears plainly to run with more Train and Confequence than is ufual in a Courfe of Proverbs. And the Reason of it we may juftly fuppofe to have been, the Weight and Importance of the Subject, upon which he was engaged; which might well prevail with him (as Wife a Man as he was) to go a little out of his way, to take a nearer View of it; to stand and confider it with more than common Attention, and to draw out and purfue his Reflections on it to a greater length. For 'tis Courage and Refolution of Mind in Defence, or in Pursuance of our Duty, against,or under, Difficulties, that he makes it his Bufinefs in this place to recommend: A Vertue, which, in the Accounts of mere Reafon and Nature, stood always in the first Rank, and had the highest Character: And under Christianity 'tis become of fo much more efpecial Ufe and Neceffity, as the Difficulties that lie in the way of our Obedience are liable to be A greater, |