Note a — 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.

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.