at all take no Tobacco nor drink I between meals unless very thirsty whereby I enjoy my health I bless God very well And although our Physicions be without doubt the best in the world as having the best Medicines that nature and art can afford what of their own preparation in their Laboratory and what is handed down to them from the Sophy those Adepti and Masters of the greatest Hermetick Secrets yet for my own part I had much rather enjoy my health wherein I can by an orderly diet and temperance preserve it than be sick to make trial of their skill I commended the Bishops prudence in that matter and wisht his president was exemplary to our European Countries Why saith he you have excellent good Physicians amongst you Yes Sir said I but for all that we are somewhat of your mind have no great stomack to be sick if we can help it At which the Bishop smil'd When Dinner was over the Bishop rose up and return'd thanks himself A while after Dinner the Bishop betook himself into a withdrawing-room and ordered one of his servants to whisper in my ear his desire of my leaving the company to discourse a while in private with him mean while had taken care the company should be entertain'd with discourse by the Doctor and some other persons Come Sir saith he you may perhaps think somewhat strange of me for my pleasantness and cheerfulness at Dinner I am usually so to help the digestion of my meat for I think it quickens and invigorates the ferment if I may borrow a word or two with you in your noble faculty the ferment of the stomack oyls the wheels of the digestion procures the most laudable nutritive juices helps forward the circulation of the blood and all this the better in order to health But now I am willing to be very serious with you for I have some weighty things to acquaint you with which when you return into your own Country may perhaps if our King and his Sophi do permit you the liberty of publishing thereof be of great use to your people who as we are inform'd are so much divided in their judgments and opinions about matters of Religion we have the state of your Church-affairs we think truly represented to us and wherein I shall err through any mistake shall beg the favour at your hands to set me right My method shall be first to shew you the rectitude and uniformity of ours and the genuine consequences thereof viz. peace unity Christian charity and the exercises of other heavenly Graces Next how much yours comes short and deviates from ours then shall shew you the reasons and last if we have time shall propose some expedients in order to the healing your clashing differences towards the ratifying a Christian union amongst you First as to ours it is Episcopal which rightly understood we have great reason to conclude from Scripture and other Testimonies to be truly Apostolical and according to Divine institution which with the Presbytery and other Substitutes together with their modes of connexion to the people are sufficient to the constitution of our Church We have no universal Bishop or Pope but only own Christ Jesus to be the supreme Head of our Church Our Council of Bishops with some of the Elders or Presbytery do determine all our differences both as to Doctrine and Discipline 2. And for the continuation and promotion of our unity and peace we avoid all Scholastick disputations and verbal janglings as much as possible as seeing it by the doleful effects thereof throughout Europe to be the bane of Christianity the mother of dissention animosities contention and discord yea the very parent of all the enmity and war found amongst those whom charity would enforce us to call Christians whose lives and well-meanings more than the similarness of their opinions must speak them Christians or they will difficultly be found having by such contentions even rent the seamless coat of Christ the very badg of their Christianity viz. Love Peace and Unity We by a Law prohibit all disputes and controversies about Predestination viz. Election and Reprobation and other disputable Doctrines as observing them to be the mother of many animosities and contentions amongst brethren yea and well remarking that no History can give us any instance of persons converted to the true Christian faith thereby or of any already converted whose lives have thence been rended better But many Histories are fill'd with instances to the contrary I call to mind we had once a learned Philosopher happened to be cast ashore on our coasts who disputing with some of our Bishops they notwithstanding all their learned arguments although they might convince him which yet was hard to make him or any who stand out for victory confess yet they did not convert him till a zealous â—ishop less learned than the rest in great power and demonstration of the Spirit repeated to him the Creed and as I remember the Lords-prayer which done queries the man saying Philosopher dost thou now believe who by such power being conquered answer'd according to Naked Truth Yes I do believe and so became a Proselyte 3ly And because we would not offend our weak brethren we dispense with many Ceremonies which you of the Church of England as we are well informed are so stiff in defending as rather than you will abate any thing therein you will adventure the loss of hundreds yea perhaps thousands of the weaker brethren suffering them for the sake of some dispensible Ceremonies to depart from you by whole sholes to the great rending of the unity of your Church which by all means possible should have been preserved in the bonds of love and unity by your condescending to them in some things allowable both by Scripture and reason as well as from the different Genius of people both as to time and place As if the union of your brethren and consequently peace of your whole Church was not of more value to you than the stiff adhering to many indifferent and in cases aforesaid unnecessary Ceremonies If any amongst us be upon any occasion offended or dissatisfied we make it our business presently to pour in oyl and wine the Samaritan Balsom to heal up the wound using all the suppleing and soft means we can by friendly visits prayer and all tender demeanor to satisfie their scruples of Conscience and like good Physicians never leave them till they be made whole We beseech exhort admonish and rebuke according as necessity requires being instant with them in season and out of season And as Fathers for so in a spiritual sense we look upon our selves we are tender and affectionate to them using all fatherly admonition We by our tender bowels of compassion melt them down if they have the least grain of the Spirit of God in them and they know right well we make no prey of them but as Ministers and servants of Jesus Christ serve them in
bounty you are likely to partake of in this Country and to shew you we are kind to strangers and that we not only talk but do I return'd my humble thanks and acknowledgment of double obligation to the Bishop Now saith he before we return to your company I would only add that if you shall have the honour of being admitted to discourse with any of the Sophy those Fathers of Solomon's house and Knights of the Noble Order of the Golden Fleece I doubt not but they will give you an account of the greatest secrets and rarities attainable in nature by art which will doubtless strike in you no small admiration to view those wonders and grand Arcana of nature and art they are possessors of they being Adepti of the choicest secrets within the orb of Visibles Now saith he we will return to your Company To whom he was pleased to make a short Apology for his absence having saith he had somewhat of great import to relate to your friend the English Doctor at which I hope you are not offended Then we all acknowledging the Bishops free kind and noble Treat took our solemn leave and departed A LETTER from the Bishop of Bensalia to the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to the healing our Church differences My LORD HAving by the advice and consent of our King of Bensalia and his Sophi had lately a Conference with your beloved friend and your Country-man an English Doctor providentially cast upon our hitherto unknown Coasts about matters relating to ours and your Church c. who since that discourse has been so highly favour'd by the King and Council as to be indulg'd the liberty of looking into and taking cognizance of the Government Laws Customs and other grand affairs of our thrice happy Country yea has been thought worthy of taking a prospect of Solomon's house that glorious fabrick of the world and there to view the admirable improvements of Art and Nature to their utmost perfection they are capable of And to whom the Sophi has been free to impart some of their grand Hermetick Arcana otherwise by Writers upon that subject wrapt up in Hieroglyphicks and other dark Enigmatical Characters also has had conference with some of our Physicians who doubtless for their high knowledg in the Theory and great skill in the curing of Diseases may without any affected Hyperbole be reputed the best in the world As to which what advantage he may thereby reap in the influencing his practice at his return will be afterwards known What was then left imperfect in my late discourse with him shewing the difference betwixt our happy Church of Bensalia and yours of England in the late thing there propos'd viz. the propounding some happy Expedient in order to the healing your clashing differences and what might most tend towards the begetting a Christian charity and love union among you is now I say the main scope of these lines And indeed our King his Sophi and our Bishops men doubtless gifted with high and noble endowments from God do all unanimously consent and concur in the matter of advice I am by their appointment now to propound to you which is in the particulars following First That you will set your Church-doors not only achar but wide open by cuting off at halves or rather indeed the whole 〈…〉 ll of dispensible Ceremonies in your Church discipline and Worship no way essential to the Apostolical Doctrine of Christ Jesus 2ly That you will expunge or eject all idle dronish drunken lend ignorant scandalous Ministers who in publick only serve to read over a Transcript scarce daring to cast their eye off it and whose evil examples as they are bad presidents to the vulgar and more loose wickedly inclin'd so they are also offensive and scandalous to the sober good and well inclin'd people and thence become a great block of offence 3ly That in lieu of the aforesaid debaucht or otherwise scandalous Ministers you would admit of as many honest conscientious sober judicious vigilant and able Ministers now as the present state of affairs are secluded such whose Doctrine is sound agreeable to Scripture and the known Truthe thereof and whose lives for piety are exemplary in all good Christian conversation 4ly In order thereto that in all your Visitations you have a stricter eye to the Doctrine and Morals of the Preachers than to the demeanor of the people 5ly That all manner of force or compulsion be forbidden whereby no other than soft gentle tender bowel-like means may be us'd 6ly That you impose no heavy burdens in matters of Religion upon the consciences of your people but that that may be kept free whose singular prerogative it is to be subject to God alone as being his Kingdom and jurisdiction and in the main solely accountable to him 7ly That the path to Ecclesiastical preferments may never be way laid by interest Symony or other indirect courses but that every man according to the demerit of his conversation learning gifts and qualifications may himself and not by proxy interest c. gradually ascend those steps of preferment 8ly That no one person have two Livings nor no one able Preacher to be without one 9ly That you forbid all manner of disputes and scholastick janglings in controversial points of Religion keeping a middle road betwixt the extreams of the severest Galvinism and extravagant Arminianism in matters of Election Reprobation and Free will rather acquainting the people with and pressing them to the great necessity of their obedience to the requirings of the Gospel than too much prying into the secrets of Gods council preaching the Doctrine of Christ in the evidence of the Spirit with demonstration and power And by this wide manner of opening the Church-doors and the milder treats you will surely find by a wise but honest stratagem manag'd by a gentle and genuine method the most of other sorts of perswasions who at present are at a remote distance from them brought over to be one with you Those who will not hereby yet come in will in probability be scarce more than two sorts who still are to be treated with all gentle means imaginable And because those who remain are generally such as are much tutor'd and led by their Teachers whose example and Doctrine doth strangely influence their proselytes therefore your vein of policy must chiefly tend towards them and that first in lieu of Citations Excommunications Capias's Gaols c. by studying all manner of interweavings of interest and traffick with them by making use of them in their imploys if they have any or by kind invitations inter-marryings of yours with their Sons and Daughters therehy and other familiar treats to remove all bars or lets in communication want of which is the very gate to prejudice and private feuds whence from a free intercourse all strangeness private heats and animosities from not rightly understanding each other will quite be remov'd and they consequently reduced to a mutual firm unity and Christian charity with you the great end of all Christian conversation Add to all which if a score or two of the eminentest heads be taken off not by an ax but by preferring them to places of trust and repute viz. either by conferring places of trust at Court or making them Noble-mens Stewards Subtreasurers c. will mightily win upon them and put a stop to the current of the present animosities the bane of Christianity Thus by your innocent and Christian like policy you may without a peradventure gain such a conquest over all your separated Brethren as all the ruder and more severe methods in the world could if complicated never effect and would thereby alter the whole series of affairs make a new but lovely scene of friendship amity and unity to appear of the truth of all which by matter of fact upon trial you would be abundantly satisfied Thus my Lord I have with great humility and sincerity perform'd my charge And whit other conference your English Doctor has had with Masters of the Arts and Sciences whom he has converst with and what discourse has past between him and some of our Doctors and Apothecaries relating to the great improvements of the practice of Physick As also what mutual intercourse he has had with some of our Sophi those masters in wisdom relating to the highest Hermetick Arcana attainable by Nature and Art he has liberty from our King and Council at due seasons to divulge and what improvements may thence redound to your people we leave to the future issue of time If any scruples should arise wherein you would be further satisfied concerning what I have said in the behalf of our so happy Church the difference betwixt ours and yours and expedients here propos'd your Lordship may write it down and send it to your English Doctors who knows ways of sending to us and you shall as speedily as may be receive further satisfaction Mean while desiring that your people may be the first who shall write after our original Copy I take leave and remain My Lord Your most affectionate and humble Servant in all Christian Charity Theophilus Do-well FINIS
all we can For we no sooner understand that any one is offended dissatisfied or hath done any thing amiss contrary to the Doctrine of our Church if it be in such matters as renders them offenders of our Civil Law we leave them to that Law only take care by friendly admonition for their souls But if in matters which relates to spiritual things we viz. one of our Bishops or Elders presently go to the dissatisfied person whom we treat with tender bowels of compassion and endeavour by fatherly admonition to reduce and reclaim them But if that will not do which seldom happens but our private tender and affectionate addresses to them becomes effectual then we admonish them publickly which is several times perform'd If it be about some new opinion that he would broach and that he is very pertinacious in we consult some of our eminent Physicians or if the case be high some of our Sophi to know whether indeed somewhat of Hypochondraism has not infected or tainted the mans fancy which if they conclude in the affirmative they take him under cure and by rectifying the Humours new moduling the spirits and inverting or reverting or expunging the dement and Irregular Idea's which they perform with a great deal of curiosity treating them variously according to the nature and different manner of Hypochondraism return them well and sound to us again If any person has a new opinion and keeps it to himself and questions of that nature being askt him he answers according to that opinion only endeavours not to publish it abroad we concern not our selves in that matter but let him alone to enjoy his own fancy yet we endeavour as occasion offers to put him upon more right and orthodox notions as being well satisfy'd that as long as there is any variety to be found in nature it will be discernable in the difference of thoughts and opinions of men it being as congeneal to men many times to think variously concerning the same thing as it is natural for them to differ in Physiognomy We no more can always think or opine alike than we can look alike Faces and thoughts plead variety as their great and indispensible prerogative Scarce two faces in the world are in every lineament and feature alike Nor are there two men throughout the world who have the same Identical notions about all things and indeed variety and disputableness of the objects of our thoughts and understanding doth truly solve the chief reason of our great variety in opinions But if the man designedly for ostentation sake and to make himself popular not only affects but blazons abroad new opinions that are destructionable to the fundamental Principles of Christianity if after private and publick admonition he be not reclaim'd we pronounce the sentence of Excommunication against him all other persons are forbidden any manner of Traffick with him after a time if still he persist he is apprehended by a Bailiff of the Civil Law which is our Jus Gentium and at their Quarterly Sessions try'd where if he yet prove obstinate he is ordered to the Staffee and thence at the next Shipping is transported to some of the Eastern Islands of America But if he shew any token of recantation and penitence he is received again upon the reality thereof into the Church 4ly We have no vexatious Courts for Citations Capias's or Pleadings by Proctors as your Church to it 's great disparagement has Nor is any person upon any misdemeanor to pay a peny of money no charges plac'd to his account We have a natural aversness to all money-mulcts for we think it the bane of any Church to be entail'd with such Courts and Officers as like Rome's sin-scourgers grieve the people either with imprisonment or punish them with fines For with us if a man be Excommunicated as he is not own'd in common societies so neither can he with all the moneys he has buy off the Excommunication no nothing will do it but a penitency and humble submission and then he is most affectionately receiv'd into the arms of the Church without being put to one farthing of charge If we should have such a Court as that you call how improperly let others judg your Spiritual-Court our people would fall off from us in spite of all our force and compulsion and each competent number would make themselves Churches to which our people would flock as fast as they do to your dissenting brethrens Churches which we foreseeing shall we hope never be mindful to run our selves and Church upon such rocks 5ly Our Visitations are perform'd twice every year where we go in person to every particular Church under our care Where our great work is next to our earnest and serious admonition of them to love unity and peace the main scope of all our Doctrine to examine whether any particular Church be dissatisfied with the Pastor and Teachers we have plac'd over them and to know what such Pastors c. have against their people that so we may by all means possible reconcile their differences that if the people can justly accuse their Teachers of any debauchery or bad example in their conversation upon sufficient proof and testimony thereof the Pastor or Teacher is displac'd sent to the Staffee and another more pious sober good man of sufficient abilities is put in by the Bishop or propos'd from amongst themselves to the Bishop which if approv'd of is admitted and plac'd over them So that hereby we take care to remove all scandalous Ministers lest they should offend and by their bad example lead our people astray into bad practices and lest others being dissatify'd thereat should thence endeavour a separation schism or rent in our Church which we study as much as possible to prevent and if any of the people are refractory and of dissolute disorderly lives we take care to admonish them and if tender bowels will not do which we by all means attempt to chastise them with the threats of Excommunication and the Staffee But we impose no fines or money-mulcts upon them at all have no sorts of sin swindgers Thus we endeavour to keep up the unity of love in the bond of peace amongst our people the great and main scope of every Visitation all true and faithful Bishops should aim at 6ly We the Bishops our selves always preach sometimes in one otherwhile in another place within our Jurisdiction We are never idle but desire to shew our selves true Over-seers Bishops indeed over our flocks We in our preaching and reading of Divine Service which we have as it springs purely without any adulteration from the Gospel of Jesus Christ always omit the Ceremony of the Surplice as knowing that it grates against the natural Genius of our people and therefore we wave it And because many of our people are dissatisfied with the sign of the Cross in Baptism we omit that also and many are offended at kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper
have in the first place shewed you the happy and florid state of our Church with the amiable effects and fruits thereof which like a wholsome and fruitful tree whose leaves and fruits are for the healing of our whole Nation So my next work according to my propos'd method is to shew you how your Church of England as you call it comes short of and deviates from ours First Therefore my Son although yours be Episcopal which so far is well yet you differ from us in your Head and you see what little alterations made in Heads whether Ecclesiastical Civil or Natural begets great changes and alterations in all Bodies appertaining thereto To instance first in Ecclesiastick Bodies do not you observe that in the Romish Church the Head thereof viz. the Pope doth by his pretended Succession in Peter's Chair to be Christs Vicar upon Earth and as such assumes to himself that title competible to no man but to our Lord Jesus Christ who as God and Man is the true Head of his Church of Infallibility which Headship and Infallibility thereof what influence hath it not I pray upon the whole and how much I would ask doth that make their Church to differ not only from the Primitive Church of God but also from all others in the world We shall say nothing by reflection upon your Church as it stands related to its head leaving the suitableness of such a Head to such a Body and the symmetry of the proportions thereof to your own consideration And as to Civil do not you observe what alterations Tyrants those monstrous heads make in their body Politick And lastly as to the body Natural what influence Cephalick diseases have upon the whole Body is evident in Paralytick Apoplectick and Convulsive maladies what these slight touches upon things may hint to you I shall leave to your further and more leisure consideration 2ly How much your Church of England differs from ours of Bensalia by admitting Scholastick Disputations and verbal janglings your Universities and many books of Controversie put forth by them and their dissenting Brethren doth testifie with what effects they have had your late intestine broils Civil Wars yea and present animosities doth too much declare and we fear if not seasonably prevented may eat out the very marrow and pith of Christianity even love unity and peace from amongst you 3ly So much differs your Church from ours wherein yours are guilty of offending their weak brethren by strictly imposing upon them many indifferent Ceremonies neither agreeable to Scripture Reason nor the natural Genius of your people and thereby of making them sin by forcing to a separation and splitting of themselves into Parties Churches or Congregations of their own is too evident in the sophisms and factions of Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers c. of all which divisions how much your Episcopal Church what through your stiff adhering to some dispensible Ceremonies and through some other causes yet to be toucht upon has been and is the Patron let your speedy pouring in of oyl into the wounds of your offended and dissatisfied brethren be by the effects the Judg. Do your Bishops and their Substitutes by friendly visits prayer and tender demeanor endeavour the satisfying the scruples of Conscience in their dissenting Brethren Do they by abating or cutting off their bill of Ceremonies at halves which they may well enough afford to do and by opening wide their Church doors make way to take in those they have formerly so peevishly thrust out And lastly do they by their good lives pious example and other requisite suitable means study the reclaiming of their dissatisfied Brethren 4ly So much doth your Church differ and deviate from ours by how much you endulge and keep up those Courts of vexation call'd by you improperly enough Spiritual Courts Your Citations Excommunications Capias's Absolutions all to get money with we except what we hear of you know nothing of An Excommunicated person of your Church may so byassed are you by gain buy it off with money which in our Church without repentance is impossible to be done and when done it 's without charge to the offender Can your Bishops and their Vicegerents through a sound judgment in Spiritual things that differ distinguish aright between these three sorts of persons viz. 1. Those who are Hypochondriack and thereby fall into different notions 2. Those who for ostentation sake and to make themselves popular designedly blazon their new and lately coyn'd opinions diametrically opposite to the fundamental Principles of Christianity or Gospel of Christ And 3ly such as truly out of a Conscientious zeal establish and confirm some Doctrines and Disciplines different from the received ones Do they not only know I say how rightly to distinguish these but also by proper expedients how to reduce them to their proper Classis and bring them to rights again Do they not only know of which they cannot well be ignorant but do they likewise study to make it practical and are they solicitous to satisfie your peoples scruples without putting them to a peny charge 5ly Yours differ from ours in your Visitations and that first your Bishops rarely visit in person as we do 2ly Your Bishops Deputies search more into the faults and lapses of the people than into the errors debaucheries and bad exemplary lives of their Pastors and Teachers which is quite the contrary to what we do And how much care should be taken for the purging and expunging all scandalous Ministers in order to the health peace unity and welfare of the several Churches we preside the difference betwixt our Church-State where such care is taken and yours by the due consideration of matters now under discourse will easily determine 6ly Ours differ from yours particularly in relation to the dignity and function of the highest Ministers of the Church and that first as to dignity yours are Lords ours not yours make sure of a Kingdom here ours are as sure as they but with this difference ours is to come and only foresee it by faith yours have it present which requires not much faith for that which is of faith is not seen Therefore perhaps yours may think themselves on the surer side of the bush however as to that Kingdom of Christ we are willing to live by faith in view of it and do not envy yours their present temporal Kingdom 2ly As to the function we the Bishops of Bensalia always preach in our own persons which few of yours do but by proxy as we have the state of your Church represented to us contradict me in matters of fact if you can being willing in every respect by our care to shew our selves Episcopi Overseers Bishops indeed and Pastors over our belpved flocks one sheep in which flock we value more than a thousand if there were so many dispensible Ceremonies 7ly Compulsion in matters of Religion makes yours to differ from ours for you compell and drive by force as much as
you well can But we compel not at all and yet our flock by such soft tender means as we treat them with is much larger yea more secured and fixt to us than yours by your severer method is or in probability ever can be For we chain them to us by our friendliness Christian charity and tender affection shewn to them upon all occasions by which we purchase more love from them than yours can ever do by all threats of Citations Excommunications Capias's and other vexatious browbeaâ—ing modes of treating them all which sets them more aloof off you and confirms them more in their several Classis of Separation Thus our Bishops good old and reverend Fathers are they are not only afraid lest the pomp of the world should steal away their hearts from God and they thereby should become dronish Shepherds who thence should not only not feed the flock of Christ but perhaps through idleness and the heaping up of worldly wealth might give way to that error as to endeavour to hinder others from feeding the flock whom God had fitted with endowments and gifts for that purpose but also are afraid lest by too stiff maintaining arbitrary and disputable Ceremonies they should give cause to the beginning of divisions in our happy and peaceable Church Now my Son what remains to be spoken according to my propos'd method is next to shew you the reasons hereof and lastly to propose some expedients in order to the healing your long contracted differences in your Churches As to the first of which you may if you observe take notice that I have most-what interwoven the reasons with the differences I have been acquainting you with And that in the main the reasons of your differences and divisions amongst your selves chiefly if not solely springs from the deviation of your Church of England from ours of Bensalia as you may easily and with much perspicuity see in the lately quoted seven Heads to which we have reduc'd the most remarkable differences and deviations of your Church from ours which is obvious to any one who reads them Which I shall here only in short recount viz. 1. In your Head 2. In your permission and indulgence of dubious Controversies and jangling Disputations 3. In your strict imposition of dispensible Ceremonies upon your weak and dissatisfied Brethren 4. By your upholding those vexatious Courts call'd Spiritual Courts that newly furbished Inquisition or Religious-house of Correction where your sinswindgers from money-mulcts got by Citations Excommunications c. raise their fortunes out of the ruins of your weak and distressed Brethren whom you should rather pity commiserate and receive into tender bowels of compassion 5. In your Visitations by your scourging the people rather than removing bad exemplary and therefore scandalous Ministers the great eye-sore of your people 6. In that your Bishops as to dignity are Lords and as to function rarely preach Lastly By your compulsion in matter of Religion In all which I say you differ and deviate from us and our Church-discipline And therefore no wonder that you have not enjoyed those expected fruits which we constantly possess of love unity and peace but rather have been imbroiled in Domestick dissentions animosities and intestine Wars the bane and reproach of Christianity For can you expect to gain the credit of being endowed with Christian charity while you shew so much of a spirit of enmity as to impose burdens upon weak Consciences and not condescend in matters dubious and therefore indifferent to the weaknesses of your dissatisfied Brethren And can you think to procure a happy unity amongst your selves which we always enjoy while in the forenamed Heads you take away the very basis and foundation thereof Lastly can you upon serious consideration perswade your selves that ever you shall possess peace while you vex disquiet and sit upon the skirts of your Brethren in matters indifferent wherein they ought in all Christian tenderness not only to be received but to be as well satisfied as your selves But I hast lest your company will wonder what is become of us therefore as to the last thing I propos'd to discourse viz. to propound some happy Expedient in order to the healing your clashing differences and towards the begetting a Christian charity and firm union amongst your discording Churches which because it would be too tedious now to insist upon as also would I fear too much intrench upon your Companies patience I shall therefore refer to its due place in a Letter which I intend if it shall be permitted by our King and Sophi to write to one of your Arch-Bishops in England To conclude at present take notice my Son that I have not discours'd these matters to you without both the knowledg yea and advice of our King and his Sophi whose leave and consent we desire before we discourse any thing of this nature to strangers But in as much as you are my Son highly favour'd by them more than any stranger that ever yet came upon our happy Island I was I say not only permitted but indeed advised to make this relation of the state of our Church and to compare it with yours that thereby you may legibly view the difference Whether at your return from us you may have leave to publish this relation in your own Country in order to their good I know not as to which you are to wait our King with his Sophy's pleasure therein Only this on the by I may take leave to acquaint you with that none of your Country-men that we call to mind was ever before cast upon our coasts except one which was my Lord Verulam whose stay in the Country was so short as he took but a transient view and therefore gave but a slight and imperfect account thereof to the world Now in order to your more through information I have perform'd my charge and hope others according to their several incumbent tasks will do the like and if it shall be permitted to come abroad I pray God what I have said of ours may become exemplary to your distracted Churches in Europe especially to England that happy Country if they knew their own good to which place we seem with a joint consent I had almost said harmonically to wish well and to write the first copy after our original pattern which with a great deal of seriousness concluding the great God of Heaven for his beloved Sons sake bless unto you Amen Which done I made my Obeysance to the Bishop and humbly thank'd the Reverend Father for his great condescention love and familiarity in his late admirable discourse As I was coming forth of the withdrawing-room the Bishop thrust a heavy paper well lin'd with red into my hand What mean you Reverend Father said I the fee is rather due to you for you have given the advice while I have been your Auditor and our Church your Patient Come come saith the Bishop this is only a small pledg of the kindness and