Members at their own entire liberty to choose their Religion as they please without being accountable to the Church for it These I must confess are very common Opinions among us but then they are very new too and as great Strangers to the Church of England as to the Church of Rome being at first started about his Majesties Return when some young Men that had been fanatically Educated seeing the Church of England Restored and either having a mind to its Preferments or to bring themselves off from the Principles of their Education pretended that there was no such thing as any particular Form of Church-Government setled by our Saviour or his Apostles and therefore that it was left entirely to the power of the Civil Magistrate to Establish what Form He Himself liked best And for that Reason and for that alone seeing his Majesty was pleased to restore Episcopacy they thought it their Duty to submit to that as to all other Civil Laws and Constitutions But alas these are not Church but State-Divines and not only Traytors to the Liberties of the Church of England but profest Enemies to the very Being of a Christian Church which as such subsists merely upon our Saviour's own Charter and Institution by virtue whereof all Christians are bound to associate in a visible Society and to submit to the Decrees and Ordinances of those Governors that he hath set over it This I say is the first Principle of a Christian Church and is owned by all Men that either own any such thing as a Church or understand what they mean by the word So that the only true State of the Controversie in this Case between Church and Church is to discover how the Government of the Catholick Church was at first setled by our Saviour how it descended to after Ages and who at this time stick closest to the Primitive Institution And for Your Highnesses full Satisfaction herein I will make a faithful Representation of the true State of the Primitive Church and then compare the present Constitution of the Church of England and the Church of Rome and thereby shew how enormously the Church of Rome notwithstanding all its high Pretences hath departed from it and how honestly the Church of England endeavors to keep to the original Platform and when I have done this I shall with all Humility submit it to Your Royal Highnesses Wise and Impartial Judgment For I know that in matters relating to Your Souls welfare You design nothing but Truth and the best way to secure it This I am assured of not only from the fam'd Integrity and Generousness of Your Princely Temper that scorns to admit of the Alloy of Secular Interest into the great Concerns of Conscience but by that great Courage and Resolution You have shewn for the Maintenance of Your present Perswasion whatever that is to Your great Detriment and Disadvantage of Your Affairs in this World But though I think it most apparently Your present Interest to quit that Church yet I think it too a very Ignoble as well as Irreligious Attempt to make that an Argument for it And I am afraid That is one of the highest Prejudices that Your Royal Highness may have conceived against the Church of England that some Men in it have insisted upon Your worldly Interest too much in a point of Conscience And yet if by a true and sincere Account of things I can bring Your Conscience over to the Church of England though I shall not bring Your Conscience to Your Interest yet I shall make them meet for if that were satisfied it is obvious on which side the Advantage lies And though upon the Supposition of Conscience being satisfied Interest might be admitted as an accessional Motive yet I shall entirely wave all worldly Considerations and disdain any Assistance that is Foreign to the cause of Religion and if I did not I am sure Your Highness would And therefore I shall only humbly crave leave to represent the true State of the Christian Church and from thence remonstrate to Your Princely Wisdom that Your Highness can have no Reason either as a Christian Man or a Christian Prince to concern Your Self for the Interest or join with the Communion of the Church of Rome and that on the contrary you have all the Reason in the World upon both Accounts to love and value the Church of England First then Christianity supposes the Temporal Power of Princes Civil Government being setled in the World by the general Providence of God antecedently to our Saviour's particular Institution And as he found it so he left it with an express declaimor of any Pretence to it in the first place declaring that the Kingdom that he came to establish was not of this World that is that he was not invested with any Temporal Jurisdiction And the truth is if he had laid claim to any such Power his Religion had stood upon no better foundation than Mahumetanism it self that was at first propagated and hath been hitherto maintained merely by the Power of the Sword But the Design of our Savior's Institution was pure and unmix'd Religion and therefore abetted it Self and its Laws with no other Sanctions than only the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to come And the same Power that he exercis'd himself he devolv'd upon his Apostles from them to descend upon their Successors to the End of the World so that all their Power whatever it is is of the same Nature with that which himself claim'd whilst on Earth that is purely spiritual and void of all temporal Coertion And for this Reason it is evident that if any Church pretend to any such Power by Virtue of his Grant or Commission that it is not only a Contradiction to the Nature of Christianity but an Atheistical Abuse put upon the whole Design of his Institution Now upon this Supposition there are and must be in all Kingdoms and Commonwealths where Christianity is entertained and protected two distinct Jurisdictions so as that if one entrench upon or invade the other it is an equal Violation of Christianity for if the temporal Prince assume to himself the Exercise of that Power that is peculiarly invested in the Officers of the Church instead of governing the Church he destroys it when every Church as a Church is capable of no other Government but what is purely spiritual and delegated to it by our Saviour's special Commission after the full Settlement of the Power of Princes And the same Violation of Christianity is it if any of the Governors of the Church should challenge any such Power by Virtue of our Savior's Authority for that were to turn a spiritual into a temporal Kingdom Now these two Powers being so plainly distinct both in their Nature and Original they must continue so notwithstanding the Union of Church and State into one Society For if the Prince take upon him the sole Government of the Church as such he acts not only
within themselves Of which there were great Numbers in the World and some of as large Jurisdiction as the Patriarchates especially in Asia But as for the Patriarchate of Rome it never extended its Power beyond Italy and its adjacent Islands And therefore it is very observable that the Writers of the Church of Rome care not that it should be known to the Christian World So that hereafter all their Brags of Universal Pastorship when they come to make it out their Manuscripts still fail them Carolus à Sancto Paulo hath taken most Pains of any in this Argument and hath done well enough in other Parts but when he comes to the Church of Rome there his Manuscript is so worn out and defective that it was not worth publishing Now doth not this look oddly that their Books should fail them thus only in their own Cause and doth it not rather give suspicion that themselves are too well aware that they would do them no real kindness However it is a very preposterous thing for a Man to pretend to a Title to a great Estate by virtue of some antient Writings and yet when he comes to try his Title should only plead that indeed such Writings there once were but that they are now so impair'd that they are not legible And yet this is the very Case of the Church of Rome here All Christendom at least the Western Empire ought to be subject to him as their Patriarch Why so Because he ever was so How doth that appear By the ancient Notitiae of the Church Produce them So we can for all the other Patriarchates but those that concern the Church of Rome are unhappily lost Are they so Then you have lost the Evidence of your Title and for ought you do or can know never had any But instead of this shifting and prevaricating that we meet with in the Writers of the Church of Rome there is not long since publish'd by a very learned and a very honest Gentleman of our own Church and Nation an accurate Description of all the Patriarchates out of an ancient and authentic Manuscript which reckons to the Patriarchate of Rome only Italy and the adjacent Islands but not a syllable of Spain or Germany or Gaul or England or any other of the large Territories in Europe which if they had belonged to this Patriarchate at that time could never have been omitted in this exact Catalogue that hath so carefully set down every petty City in Italy In this posture stood the Government of the Church for many Years without any considerable Alteration For tho some of the Bishops of Rome would have been usurping upon the Churches of Africa by pretending to a Right of Appeals from them they were repulsed with great Shame and Dishonour And were it not that I am unwilling to trouble Your Highness with any more Disputes than what concerns our own Church with the Church of Rome there is nothing more easie than to shew that this Controversie with the African Churches is a notorious Instance of both the Frauds of the Roman Church and of other Churches abhorring his remotest aim at any Supremacy But tho he missed his design at that time his Successors were ever after watchful of all other Opportunities to compass it And to that purpose they happen'd to have two very lucky Advantages the first was the fatal Division of the Empire into East and West from whence S. Gregory Nazienzen a Man both wise and pious foretold a more fatal Division in the Church and accordingly in a little time it came to pass that the whole Body of it was divided into East and West as well as the Empire and the Division was quickly heightned by the mutual Jealousies of the Emperors who would not suffer the Bishops under one Government to repair to Councils conven'd under the other And that in a short time grew to alienations of Minds so that they kept their Councils apart and if any Bishop of the East repair'd to a Synod of the West and so for the contrary He was look'd upon as a Betrayer of his own Church And this was the occasion of the after-greatness of the Church of Rome in these Western Parts because that alone of all the five Patriarchates happen'd to go along with the Western Empire For having no Competitor for the Supremacy or so much as the equality of Power in the Western Church it was no hard matter to advance it self to any degree of Power that it pleased to challenge especially when the Western Churches were forward enough of themselves to advance its Dignity for the Honor of their own Patriarchate in opposition to that of Constantinople which being the Seat of the Empire and enjoying the Favor of the Emporors soon over top'd all the other Eastern Patriarchates so that all the Competition that remain'd was between Rome and Constantinople Till at last in the Sixth Century Iohn Bishop of Constantinople first obtained of Mauritius the Emperor the Title of Universal Bishop which very Title was quickly and vehemently oppos'd by Gregory Bishop of Rome as a Piece of Antichristian Pride and Insolence But Mauritius being murdered by Phocas and Cyriacus then Bishop of Constantinople being fallen under the new Tyrant's Disfavor for declaring against his execrable Murder the Bishop of Rome seizes that Opportunity to flatter and caress him in all his Wickedness for which Civility the Usurper takes the Title of Universal Bishop and settles it upon the See of Rome And when once they had obtained the Title they resolv'd to make it good by gaining the Power too Tho by what degrees they encroach'd upon other Churches it is not at all to my purpose here to represent it is enough to have shewn the late Original of the Title which was never given them till above 600 Years after our Saviour This then being the true and real state of all the Christian Church the Conclusion plainly makes it self as to any English Christian's Obligation to communicate with the Church of England or the Church of Rome For as it is the indispensible Duty of every Man to joyn in visible Communion with the Society of the Church so is the first visible Society of the Church settled in the Communion of the Bishop of the Diocess And thence evident it is that the first Duty of every Christian as to external Communion with the Church is to joyn in Communion with the Bishop of the Place where he lives For if our Saviour setled the Government of the Church in the Apostles and if the Episcopal Order succeeded them in their Office then hath every Bishop Apostolical Authority And then is every Christian Man bound to submit to his Bishop as to an Apostle from whence the Bishop derives the Succession of his Order and Authority So that the Episcopal Society is the first visible Communion of the Christian Church and a Man becomes a Member of the Church-Catholic by joyning in visible Communion
A DISCOURSE Sent to the Late King Iames To persuade him to Embrace the Protestant Religion BY Dr. SAMVEL PARKER Late Lord Bishop of OXFORD To which are prefixed TWO LETTERS The FIRST From Sir Leolyn Ienkins on the same Subject The SECOND From the said Bishop with the DISCOURSE Printed from the Original Manuscript Papers without Observation or Reflection LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXC To the READER THese Papers accidentally falling into my hands 't were injustice to conceal them from the World when so much benefit may be reap'd from their Publication and though there are many Reasons to be alledged for Printing so useful a Discourse yet none was so prevalent with me as the thoughts of doing our dead Author Justice at least as to that part of his Accusation wherein he has been adjudg'd if not professedly yet a well-wisher at least to the Roman Catholick Religion that he was so to the Person he sends these following lines is evident from the Design of them which was to bring him over to the Communion of the Church of England a Design considering the Circumstances of those distracted Times so very seasonable and honest that the D Himself was forc'd to acknowledge as much and afterwards thank'd the Dr. for it and had God given it its due Effect we might all have thank'd him too But however the Discourse may have miss'd of its aim where intended I hope it may not want some Proselytes of the same Persuasion for whose sake 't is chiefly publish'd As to what concerns the Author himself I shall be wholly silent the World labouring under too great a Prejudice to hear his Panegyrick with Patience The following Tract with his other Learned Writings are his best Orator but if any Mans Curiosity should lead him to a farther desire of knowing his Character if he pleases he may better take it from himself DEPOSITUM SAMUELIS PARKER Nuper Episcopi Oxoniensis Qui hoc Elogio posteris commendari voluit SImultates privatas inimicitias Non modo non fovi Sed contempsi Solâ integritate fretus Nec vivere Erubesco Nec mori reformido Divinam Providentiam Non minùs credo quam opto Hanc vitam utcunque sustineo Meliorem expecto Fide non infelix Spe felicior Multa legi cogitavi scripsi Omnia ab ipsis rei cujusque Principiis exorsus Nec tamen ulla scire videar meliùs Quam quae per fidem accepi Sir Leolyn Jenkins His Letter to the late King THIS Discourse or what else you please to call it was brought me by the Canterbury Carrier your R. H. will see in the loose Leaf join'd to this how it comes to be addressed to my Hands The Author I have known long since he was Chaplain to my late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Name is Dr. Samuel Parker at present Arch-Deacon of Canterbury as I have not had any Communication with him of any kind these many Years so the coming of this Treatise to my Hands is a perfect Surprise yet seeing the Subject matter of it is that which we pray and contend for I durst not but commit it to this present Conveyance beseeching Almighty God to give a Blessing upon it For Sir Leolyn Jenkins SIR HAving been lately confin'd with a great Indisposition of Health and not knowing how the Divine Providence might be pleased to dispose of me after I had setled my own private Affairs as well as I could an Extravagant Thought thrust it self vehemently upon me to leave a Legacy for His Royal Highness which in those better Intervals I enjoyed I composed and out of that eager Zeal I have for the true Settlement of the Church of England cannot forbear to present it And in order to it make bold 〈◊〉 it to your Honor and if your Curiosity will support your Patience to peruse it I submit it entirely to your Wisdom to dispose of it as you please And though I have no reason to expect any success from so weak on Endeavor yet the very 〈◊〉 of the Design in a Priest of the Church of England will at least 〈◊〉 it self◠for I have only addrest my self to His Royal Highnesses Conscience without any regard to his worldly Interest and that is a thing that any Church-man that has any sincere love for his Religion is not only authorised but obliged to do and as for the Event of such unlikely Attempts they are to be entirely left to the over ruling 〈◊〉 god I request the favor of your Perusal and if you 〈…〉 utterly ridiculous to convey it to His Highness If you are tempted to smile at my Folly I beseech you to impute it to my present Weakness and when I am in a better Condition of Health for which I thank God I am now in a very fair way perhaps I shall be as forward as any to laugh at the oddness of the Attempt But whatever it is I am sure it has the warrant of a good meaning from Sir Your most Humble Servant S. PARKER SIR WHat Addresses or whether any at all have been made to Your Royal Highness by the Divines of the Church of England for the Satisfaction of your Conscience I am altogether ignorant Tho I cannot suppose that none have been made because I know great numbers of Learned Men of our Communion both Zealous for their Religion and also for Your Highnesses Service here and Souls welfare hereafter But then this I have too much Reason to fear that some of them may not have taken that Method nor have proceeded upon those Principles that they ought For the Men that have ever since his Majesties Return been or at least appeared most forward in defiance of the Church of Rome have been so unhappy in their Zeal and Opposition against it as together with the Papal Usurpations to dig up the very Foundations of the Christian Church or at the same time that they endeavor to pull down the Pope's present high and uncanonical Pretences destroy all that Divine Authority that was vested by our Blessed Saviour in the Apostles and their Successors for the Guidance and Government of Souls so as to make every private Person the only Judg of his own Faith without any defence to the Direction of his Spiritual Guides and Governors which is in effect no less than really to cancel that Promise that our Blessed Saviour made to be assistant to them in the Execution of their Office to the End of the World for if he make good his Promise that alone is more than enough to challenge the regular Submission of private Christians to their Decrees as they would not Rebel against our Saviour's own Institution This I know has been the great stumbling Block to the Roman Catholicks that the Church of England neither pretends to nor owns any such Power as that of a living Judge but that it either resolves all its Authority into the State or leaves all its
without but against our Savior's Commission who hath appropriated that Power to another Order of Men and if the Priest challenge any temporal Jurisdiction as deriv'd from our Savior he in effect disclaims him in that he becomes our Savior purely by Virtue of his spiritual Power and Supremacy over his Church and therefore to pretend to any other Power deriv'd from him as Head of it is another way of turning Christ into Mahomet But tho the Civil Magistrate have no share of spiritual Authority yet hath he a Sovereign Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State otherwise he would abate of his Power by the coming of Christianity into the World which contradicts the first Principle of a Christian Church that it makes no Alteration as to Civil Rights but then this Power over the Church is purely civil too and relates only to the Ends of Peace and Government in this Life and is the same that every Prince would have had tho our Savior had never come into the World but as for that which he hath peculiarly granted as he hath granted no part of it to the Civil Magistrate so it is plain that he hath designedly setled it upon another Order of Men and it is they alone that have any Right to exercise it But notwithstanding this new Power they are never the less Subjects than they were before and therefore all Christian Princes have the same Supremacy over all the Powers of the Church as to the Ends of Civil Government and as far as concerns the Affairs of this Life as they could have had if there were no such Powers at all The grand Difficulty in this Case is the Danger of Competition between these two Powers for if they happen to contradict each other as they too often do Which shall over-rule If a Man obey his Prince contrary to the Prescription of his spiritual Guide he may endanger his Soul if he obey the Bishop he disobeys his Prince and so deservedly forfeits his Neck to Justice But this Difficulty as big as it may appear is clearly remov'd by this one Consideration That the Christian Church and all the Authority in it is founded upon the Cross of Christ and that not only claims no Power in this World but obliges to an entire Submission to all the Powers of it so that no Opposition can lawfully be made even to the most unlawful Commands of Sovereign Princes but all Christians are still bound to do as they did in the Primitive Times to lay down their Lives with all manner of Meekness if their Governors whether right or wrong require it This is the true and honest State of the Christian Church That every Christian Man be faithful to the Laws of his Religion and if he suffer for it he shall be compensated for it with those Rewards that his Religion promises So that in all Cases of Competition both Powers so prevail as to attain their respective Ends. The Civil Power over-rules as to all Effects of this Life and being thus gently submitted to secures the Peace and Quiet of this World and that is the End for which it was instituted And the spiritual Power attains its Effect as to the World to come the Salvation of the Souls of Men by their conscientious Loyalty to their Religion and that is all that it aims at or pretends to and every Man that professeth Christianity takes it up upon this Condition So that all Resistance to secular Powers upon pretence of Religion is a direct Contradiction to the nature of the Christian Faith and another open Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetanism And that I am afraid will prove a gross Blemish upon the Church of Rome that it pretends to a Power not only equal but superior to Princes so that the Popes as the Vicars of Christ may not only contend with them by force of Arms but may in some Cases depose them from their Thrones which if truly consider'd is no less than rank Blasphemy against our blessed Savior by turning his pure Religion into an Artifice of secular Interest But beside this this Point of Competition is to be chiefly determin'd by the Matter about which it is employ'd If the Contest be about an Article of Faith or any Fundamental Rule of Religion and the Prince will interpose his Power tho no Man is oblig'd to obey him because it is certain he never was entrusted with any such Power by our Saviour yet is he to be submitted to with all Meekness by virtue of the former Principle that requires peaceable Submission to Government from Christians in all Cases for the quiet of the World But if the Contest be about a Ritual of Worship or an emergent Rule of Discipline about which the Governors of the Church have a Power in themselves to make Canons and new Provisions yet are they indispensibly bound to submit the Exercise of it to their Prince because that 's the first Principle of Christianity as far as they can without Violence to the Laws of their Religion to comport with Civil Government so that tho this Power be seated properly in the Church yet out of that great Respect and Duty that the Christian Law requires to Princes they are bound to make use of it with all Deference to Sovereign Authority especially because the Church is accountable to it for its peaceable Behavior in the Commonwealth and therefore ought to give Security that it will neither disturb the State nor invade the Sovereign Prerogative upon this Pretence which because it is possible for them to do and some have done they are concern'd both in Duty and Modesty to submit all their Proceedings to his Judgment And this as far as I understand is the true State of the Church of England in the Act commonly called the Submission of the Clergy in which they do not alienate ar grant away their Power of making Canons but only for preventing all future Jealousies in the State against them they give all the Assurance they can that they will not presume to publish their Decrees without their Sovereign Lord's Consent and Approbation This short Account is the true State of the Bounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and that being setled the next thing to be considered is to find out what was the true and original Settlement of the Christian Church and by that we shall be able to inform our selves of the good or bad state of any present Church as it agrees or disagrees with it First then there is no one thing more clear and evident in the Christian Religion than that our Saviour vested the whole Apostolical Order with a Supremacy of Power over his Church and that they in pursuance of this his Divine Institution ordained Bishops to succeed them in their Supremacy of Power through all following Ages That the Apostles were superior to all other Officers in the Church is out of question and granted on all hands and that the Bishops succeeded them is as
unquestionable from all the clearest Records of Antiquity their Succession especially in the most famous Churches being derived by the most ancient Writers from the Apostles themselves and was as easily and certainly known to those Men that have transmitted it to us as any learned Man may know the Succession of the Archbishops of Canterbury from the Reign of Queen Eliz. to this time But as this Power was at first given to the Apostles so was it equally divided among them so that every one exercis'd supreme Power within the Bounds of his own Jurisdiction and all together in the Catholick Church or as S. Cyprian states it that as there was but one Church founded by Christ throughout all the World but this Church was made up of several distinct Members so was there but one Episcopacy and that consists in the Agreement and unanimous care of all Christian Bishops So that the whole Body of the Church was governed by the whole Body of the Apostles and their Successors but the several parts of it were allotted to the Charge of single Bishops who governed them with particular Care but so as to have regard to the Peace and Unity of the Whole This is the only Notion that this wise and good Man than whom there is not a more eminent Example for both upon Record seems in all his Writings to have had of the Catholick Church And as for the Apostles who were the first Representatives of it I cannot find the least Footsteps in all the holy Gospels of any particular Prerogative granted to one above the rest It is true indeed that our Savior often addresses himself to S. Peter in particular but then it is evident that this is done upon particular Occasions and as evident too that all the great things that are occasionally spoken of him are in the Scripture ascrib'd to all the other Apostles Thus whereas Matth. xvi our Savior gives him the Keys of Heaven upon his confessing him to be the Messias He vests all the Apostles with the same Power and that with particular solemnity Iohn xx 21. And whereas he stiles S. Peter the Rock or Foundation upon which he would build his Church the same Title is given to all the Apostles in other Scriptures as Ephes. ii 20. Built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone And Revel xxi 14. The Wall of the City had twelve Foundations upon which were the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. And in all the Gospels unless when he applies himself particularly to S. Peter upon the Occasion of his Zeal and Forwardness in the Faith our Savior invests them all with an equal Power especially when he gave them their grand Commission to convert all Nations Matth. xxviii 19 20. So that the Men of the Church of Rome strein the Scriptures with too forc'd a Violence when out of such slight and accidental Occasions of our Savior's particular Speeches to S. Peter they would settle such great and high Privileges upon his Person so as to make him sovereign Lord of all the other Apostles and sole Monarch of the Universal Church This Foundation is too slight for the Weight of so great a Building and so big a Claim requires somewhat a clearer Evidence of Title and if our Savior had intended any such absolute Sovereignty to S. Peter and made that the Fundamental Principle of his Church certainly he would have declared it a little more expresly and not have left so weighty a Point to be merely surmis'd out of occasional Discourses of which there are such easie and obvious Reasons to be given without his ever intending any such design So that in truth to make so much Noise as the Romanists do about the personal Privileges of S. Peter upon such poor and slender Pretences is at once to impose upon the Wisdom of God as if he had laid the Foundations of his Church so slightly and to affront the Understandings of Men as if they thought them so weak as to be persuaded to any thing by such poor and precarious Arguings But yet however I will grant more than can with any decent modesty be demanded from these Texts and yield that our Savior designed some considerable Precedency to S. Peter above all the other Apostles Yet what is this to that omnipotent Sovereignty that his Holiness challenges over the whole Christian Church who takes upon himself not only the supreme but almost the sole Disposal of it whereas it is too well known that S. Peter after the Privileges granted to him was commanded by an Order of the other Apostles Acts viii 14. which could never have been done if his Power had been Monarchical over them all Neither do we find him any where exercising any such Sovereignty over them for tho by reason of his ready Faculty of Speech he was usually the first Speaker yet we do no where find that he either challeng'd or practis'd any other Precedency So that tho he was the first that delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem yet it was S. Iames that determined and pronounced the Decree in that he was Bishop of the Place as is undeniably evident from the most undoubted Records of Antiquity Which yet he ought not to have done if S. Peter had been endued with the same Superiority over all the rest of the Apostles that the Bishop of Rome challenges over all the other Bishops of the Christian Church But not to insist upon these remote and obscure Footsteps of S. Peter's Primacy in the Scriptures I will freely grant him out of the Holy Text it self some considerable Precedency tho when I have done that too what is it to the Bishop of Rome more than it is to the Bishop of Antioch or Alexandria or the Bishops of several other Places in which S. Peter first planted the Christian Faith so that the Bishops of all those Places have as fair a Title to be S. Peter's Successors as the Bishop of Rome And yet this great point I shall be so civil as to admit and grant that the peculiar Right of Succession to the Privileges of S. Peter if any such there were was appropriated to the See of Rome but still What is this to that universal Jurisdiction that is challenged by the Bishops of this to this See as the supreme and infallible Governors of the Catholick Church For after all other Disputes 't is this that is the only dividing Point between us 't is this that is the only Fundamental Article of their Church 't is this for which they load us so heavily with their honorable Titles of Hereticks and Schismaticks And so no doubt are we if his Holiness be vested by Divine Right with that universal Supremacy that he challenges over the whole Christian Church In a word if we take this one Controversie away I for my part know no other difference between the Church of England and the Church of
Rome as to Ecclesiastical Constitution But now if this one Point of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome were the great Foundation of the Christian Faith as it must be if his pretences to it by divine Right are true it is a very strange thing that there should not be so much as the shadow of any such Authority in all the Records of the Primitive Church Is it not very odd that when so many Controversies were started in the Christian Church both in the Apostles own time and in the Ages next and immediately following and that when Almighty God had appointed S. Peter and his Successors in the See of Rome the certain and undoubted Judges for ending all Controversies that yet none of the Apostles or Primitive Doctors of the Christian Church that labor'd so much against Schisms Heresies and Divisions should ever so much as think of or mention such an effectual nay infallible Remedy against them all One Appeal to the Bishop of Rome had put an End to all further Trouble and certainly had God vested him with that Power over the whole Christian Church they could never have been so stupid as never to have taken any notice of it And yet we find not the least mention of it for many hundred years after the settlement of Christianity in the World And perhaps the Bishops of Rome themselves had never thought of it had it not been first put into their Heads by the Bishop of Constantinople by whom it was as I shall shew in the sequel of this Discourse first claimed Some small glimmerings indeed we meet with of some honorary Preeminence or Dignity allowed to the Church of Rome upon the score of its being the Imperial City and by reason of the great resort to it of its being one of the most competent Witnesses of the true Tradition of Christianity But that it should have any Jurisdiction over any other Churches out of its own Province much more such an universal power over all Churches in the World as is now challeng'd is a Notion so utterly strange and unknown to all Antiquity that the bare silence of it alone is an irrefragable demonstration of the Novelty of the Pretence But for the greater Evidence of this thing which indeed is the first point of Controversie between us I shall make bold as briefly as I can to give Your Royal Highness a true and impartial account of the State of the Christian Church from the beginning and then of the several and gradual Alterations that were by Ecclesiastical Constitutions made in it in after times and lastly how and how late the Popes of Rome climb'd up to that infinite Authority that they have for some Ages exercised and still claim over the Christian Church And when I have done all this I may safely leave it to Your Royal Highnesses Princely Wisdom to judge what Obligation You can have in Conscience to leave the Communion of the Britannick Church for that of Rome And in the first place there is nothing more evident in all the Records of the Primitive Church than that the Apostles and first Doctors of the Christian Faith modell'd the first Settlement of Churches according to the then present State and Division of the Roman Empire For though our blessed Saviour settled the Supreme Government of his Church upon his holy Apostles and their Successors yet he no where prescribed the bounds and limits of every Man's Jurisdiction but left it as indeed the Nature of the thing required to Humane Prudence ot divide the Provinces among themselves as they should judge most convenient for the Advantage of their common Christianity And accordingly we find from the very beginning that they formed the Jurisdiction of Churches according to the Civil Judicatures of the Empire common Prudence directing them so to do not only for the more speedy Propagation of Christianity by the resort of all People to the Metropolis of the Province which they therefore constituted the Mother Church of it but that whenever the Powers of the World should come in to own Christianity the better Correspondence might be maintain'd between the States Civil and Ecclesiastical And beside this by making the Head City of every Province the Metropolis of the Church within that Province upon which the inferior Cities depended as the Centre of Communion they thereby admirably secur'd the Unity of the whole Body while every Episcopal Church exercised ordinary Jurisdiction within it self but was bound either in cases of great Difficulty or such as concerned the common Christianity to have recourse to the Mother-Church And this was apparently the Original of the Privilege and Preeminence of some Churches above others from the beginning not that they ever pretended to any Sovereignty over them in their particular Jurisdictions but only as the Centre of Ecclesiastical Unity so as to decide Controversies whenever any inferior Church appealed to them for their Advice or to summon Councils and preside over them in all Debates that concerned common Christianity And that this Distribution of Provinces and Bishopricks was setled by the Apostles seems evident from their own Writings who every where describe the bounds of Churches according to the Constitution of the Empire Thus St. Peter directs his Epistle to the several Churches of the Christian Iews with respect to so many several Provinces Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bythinia which as they were distinct Provinces in the Civil Division of the Empire so were they from that time forward so many distinct Provincial Sees in the Communion of the Church And nothing is more obvious in the Epistles of St. Paul than that whenever he makes mention of any Church he either calls it by the name of the Province it self or the Metropolis or Head City of it And as this design of conforming the Ecclesiastical State to the Civil was first set on foot by the Apostles so was it carefully prosecuted by their Successors of which we have an eminent Instance in the Apostolical Canons which though they were not compiled by the Apostles themselves yet they were by Apostolical Men and such as immediately succeeded them where it is decreed in the 34 Canon That the Bishops of every Nation should acknowledge their Primate or Metropolitan and honor him as their Head and do nothing of moment in the Christian Church wthout his consent nor he without theirs Now that this was prescribed by the Apostles themselves is evident in that as this Canon was made a very short time after their Decease so it is not a new Law but a Ratification of an old Custom as indeed most of the Apostolical Canons seem to be This was apparently the Constitution of the Christian Churches in all places of the Empire for the first three hundred years or the whole interval of time from our Saviour to Constantine that as every City was governed by its own Bishop so was every Province by its own Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops of which
only a Member of it and in that Station it is as large a Church as any were in the Primitive Times Neither then did the Communion of the Catholick Church consist in an Union of all Churches under one Head but in brotherly Love and Correspondence with one another and for that the Church of England is ready to offer it to the Church of Rome or any other upon the old Condition that they will give her leave to admonish them of their Faults and Miscarriages as Churches did one another of old But this is a Civility that the Church of Rome is too proud to accept of it must be all Churches or it will be none at all It allows no Equals in Communion and condescends to no Treaty but upon Terms of absolute Subjection neither is it content to enslave all its Neighbors to its own imperious Decrees unless they be submitted to as the infallible Dictates of God himself Now this seems too much for Men to swallow that have any sense or care of their Salvation for by this means the whole Faith of Christendom shall be left entirely at the Disposal of one single Person and the Pope alone shall be the whole Catholick Church This I say seems too much to venture upon one single Security especially unless it were confirmed by some clearer Commission than those remote and obscure Texts of Scripture that are alledg'd for the Papal Supremacy But to return from the Pope to the Church As the first Constitution of Churches was conform'd to the civil Government so indeed no other is practicable For upon that Supposition that Christianity makes no Abatement as to the civil Rights of Men especially of Princes provincial Churches cannot be justly extended beyond the Dominion of the State because in that case if Metropolitans or Patriarchs have power to call their Subject-Bishops to Councils the King's Subjects may be summoned out of his Dominions without his leave which is not only to diminish but to destroy his Power over his own Subjects for when they are out of his Dominions they are none of his So that the very State of Christianity naturally implies as it would not be inconsistent with it self the Conformity of the Church to the State in its bounds of Jurisdiction And this is the true meaning of that known Saying of one of the Fathers That the Church is in the Commonwealth and not the Commonwealth in the Church for the Civil Government being first constituted and the Church being afterwards taken into it it must for that Reason keep it self within it otherwise it breaks down its old Bounds of Settlement But beside that the Nature of Government confines every Church within the Prince's Dominions in which it is so it is highly convenient if not absolutely necessary to the due and effectual Exercise of Discipline that the Society of the Church be confined within some moderate Circuit of Government for great Governments are slow and unweildy in their Motions the very distance of Place makes all Proceedings uneasie and Determinations difficult and of this our Nation was sufficiently sensible when all Ecclesiastical Appeals were carried to Rome the Journey was tedious and chargable and by reason of the distance of Witnesses and other Inconveniences Proceedings infinitely dilatory I might say endless Causes depending there from Age to Age this is too notorious from the sad and open Complaints of those Times and I my self enjoy a small Office in this Church wherein my Predecessors had a Suit for a Privilege belonging to it hanging in the Court of Rome for some hundreds of Years till the very time of the Dissolution of the Pope's Power These are intolerable Grievances to Mankind and heavier Burthens than were ever imposed upon them by the most barbarous civil Government If therefore his Holiness will challenge a Supremacy over all Christian Churches let him not exercise his Jurisdiction in ordinary Causes that is contrary to all the Canons of the Church and Quiet of the World We will not contend with him about his Patriarchical Preheminence if that would give him Satisfaction tho we know he hath not the least pretence of any claim to it over us But when under that Pretext he takes to himself the Office of Universal Bishop that is to be all the Bishops of Christendom 't is that exorbitant Usurpation that is not our Complaint alone but the universal Complaint of Christendom it self And therefore if he would keep within his Patriarchical Bounds and Privileges which yet he enjoys not by divine Right but humane Institution we would give him all that Respect and Reverence that is due to the Primacy of his See But if instead of Brotherly Communion with us nothing less will serve his Turn than absolute Dominion over us and if Submission to that must be made our only Title to the Catholick Church as if we had no Right to Christianity but by Subjection to the Bishop of Rome these cannot but seem too hard Terms of Communion or if they are not it is enough that they are unwarrantable or if they are not so it is enough that they are not necessary And that they are not is evident from the Premises where I have demonstrated that the first Duty of every Christian as a Member of the Christian Church is to joyn Communion with his own Bishop as the first Political Society of a Church And that the next is a Combination of all the Bishops within one civil Government under one Metropolitan That this Polity was set on foot by the Apostles themselves and every where put in practice in the Primitive Church that the Ecclesiastical Province cannot extend beyond the Precincts of the Civil without infringing the Authority of Sovereign Princes and therefore that no foreign Prelate can have or exercise any Ecclesiastical Power over his Majesty's Subjects because that would give them Power to command them out of his Dominions So plainly doth the Nature of Civil Government set Bounds to Ecclesiastical Societies which one thing if duely consider'd must cut off all Claims of Papal Supremacy over this Church because by virtue of it he would have such a kind of Power over His Majesty's Subjects as the Christian Religion doth by no means allow any its Officers And as this was the Settlement of National Churches from the beginning of Christianity so is it the present Constitution of the Church of England that is or would be govern'd by its Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops subject to one Civil Government And as this is all the Political Society that a Christian Church is capable of so all the Communion that it can have with other Churches consists in brotherly Love and mutual Correspondence And this way was the Christian Church in the first Ages of it preserv'd in competent Peace and Unity And whatever other Power was afterward erected in the Church was founded upon humane Institution and therefore is alterable in it self at least not necessary to the
the very first time that we meet with any mention of any such Order in the Church is in the second Canon of the second general Council held at Constantinople under Theodosius the Great where at the same time that it institutes this new kind of Dignity it secures the old Jurisdiction of Metropolitans So that notwithstanding this new Order was brought over their heads in conformity to the Empire yet was every Metropolitan Church to be governed by it self and its own Synod in the same manner as it was accustomed of old and was confirmed by the decree of the Council of Nice Which Council positively asserts the Supremacy of Power to every Metropolitan within his own Province And therefore all the Preeminence of this new Order of Men above them could consist in nothing but Title and Dignity And it is sufficiently known to all that know any thing of the ancient Records of the Church that they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Preeminences of Respect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Preeminences of Power and Authority And it was usual upon particular occasions to give the former without conferring the latter as the great Council of Nice gave to the Church of Ierusalem Metropolitical Honor because it was the Mother of all Churches without giving it any Metropolitical Jurisdiction for that was reserved entirely for the Bishop of Caesarea which after the Destruction of Ierusalem had been made the Civil Metropolis of Palestin by the Emperor Vespasian so this present Council of Constantinople of which we are speaking in the Canon next following that we last mentioned gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Preeminencies of Honor next to the Bishop of Rome to the Bishop of Constantinople because Constantinople was new Rome and yet gives it nothing of Metropolitical Power because it expresly confirms the old Rights of the three Metropolitans of Asia Pontus and Thrace to which it belonged in the Canon immediately foregoing In short all the Privileges of the ancient Metropolitans were divided into two sorts those of Honour and those of Power the former the Fathers of this Council gave to the Bishop of Constantinople out of Complement to the new Imperial City but neither could nor would give any thing of the latter because that was not to be done without violating and alienating the real Rights and Priviledges of other Men. But yet however when once they had gor an higher Title it easily made way to advance themselves to an higher Power insomuch that in a short time after he swallow'd up all the three Metropolitans of Thrace Pontus and Asia into his own Jurisdiction And now this superior Order of Primates to Metropolitans being thus set up by Ecclesiastical Constitution it in a little time made way for the Patriarchical Dignity the Title whereof was at first borrowed from the wandring Jews of those times who wherever they settled in any considerable Number after their dispersion from Ierusalem chose a supreme Governour whom they stil'd their Patriarch but about the fourth Century or somewhat after this Title and Authority was taken from the Jews and applyed to the new supra-Metropolitan Bishops that it seems as yet had obtain'd no peculiar Name in the Christian Church Thus Socrates the Historian of the Church at that time reckons up Nectarius of Constantinople Helladius of Pontus Gregory of Nyssa Ottreius of Melitina Amphilochius of Iconium Optimus of the Pisidian Antioch Timotheus of Alexandria Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus and many more Tho in a little time the Title came to be appropriated to the five most eminent Sees Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Ierusalem and they were made superior not only in Title but in Jurisdiction to all Metropolitans within their Diocess because it seems those Cities being the five chief Cities in the World had their Claims to higher Dignity in the civil Government than all others Rome the Seat of the Empire Alexandria the head City of Africk and Seat of the Great Ptolomys Antiochia Queen of the East and Seat of the Great Seleucus and his Successors Ierusalem the Mother City of all Christian Churches and Constantinople the new Rome of the Empire that had at that time over-topt old Rome in Greatness and Authority Now the Rights that were peculiar to these Patriarchs above Metropolitans were these First that wherever they presided they had many Metropolitans under their Jurisdiction Secondly that they only had right to ordain the Metropolitans within their own Patriarchate as Metropolitans had Bishops within their own Province Thirdly that as Metropolitans had power to call the Bishops of their Province to Synods so had Patriarchs to call their Metropolitans Fourthly that they were the supreme Judicature within their own Patriarchates no farther appeal being to be made from a Patriarch And thus was the Church for a long time govern'd every Patriarch enjoying supreme Power within his own Precincts and no farther insomuch that the Rule was adopted into the imperial Law A Patriarcha non datur Appellatio No Appeal from a Patriarch and yet that alone is a plain Bar to the Supremacy of the Pope or any other over the whole Christian Church But then as for the Bounds of Jurisdiction they still follow'd the Division of the State and there it so happen'd that the Bishop of Rome tho for the sake of the old imperial City he had Precedency in Honor above all the rest had one of the narrowest Jurisdictions of all his Patriarchate extending at the farthest not beyond Italy and the adjacent Islands tho according to the true account it was not at first above half so great Italy being divided into two Parts under two Governours one residing at Rome who governed the Suburbicarian Provinces so call'd because of their lying nearest to the City the other at Milain who govern'd the more remote Parts And after the same manner was the Government of the Church divided into the Roman Diocess that was subject to the Bishops of Rome and the Italic Diocess of which Milain was the Head over which we do not find that the Bishop of Rome in antient time ever pretended any Patriarchical Supremacy nay on the contrary that S. Ambrose was ordained in the Year of our Lord 555. Bishop thereof by a Synod of Bishops of the Italic Diocess which he could not have been had the Bishop of Rome been his Patriarch the power of Ordination being the chief Branch of Patriarchical Jurisdiction But how great or little soever was the Circuit of his Patriarchate it was limited within certain Bounds as the other Patriarchates were And as the Patriarchs were Supreme within their own Diocess so were most of the Metropolitans within their own Province For tho where Patriarchs were erected the Metropolitans within the compass of their Patriarchate were subject to them yet all the other Metropolitans of the Christian Church enjoy'd their own antient Supremacy and continued as they were before Head-Churches exercising Supreme Power
with the Church-Episcopal for it is impossible to be a Member of the Universal Church without being first a Member of some particular Church both because the Universal Church is made up of the Combination of particular Churches and because there is no way of Communicating in the Offices of Religion but under some limited Societies The Bishop then in every Diocess is as Successor in the Apostolical Office Head of the Communion within his own Diocess and for that Reason the ordinary Judge and Guide to all Christians within his Jurisdiction So false is that Calumny of which the Romanists pretend to make so much Advantage against the Constitution of the Church of England that She doth not so much as pretend to any living Judge of Faith For what Judge She owns as to the Catholic Church I may shew in its proper place But as for every particular Christian She commits him to the Care of his Bishop as his ordinary Guide and Governour in the things that concern his Salvation Now if this be the setled Constitution of the Christian Church as it was from the beginning I cannot understand how any Christian can leave the Communion of his own Bishop to communicate with any other without being guilty of Schism against the Church that he lives in For tho he may advise with any other Bishop about the Welfare of his Soul and follow his Advice as a Friend yet by the original Constitution of the Church none but his own Bishop can have any authoritative Commission for his Guidance and Instruction So easie is the Answer to that solemn Question Who is the living Judge and Guide of your Faith For if it be put to a private Christian it is plain that from the Constitution of the Catholic Church as it was setled by the Apostles that it is the Bishop under whom he lives to whom God hath committed the ordinary means of the Salvation of his Flock and promised to be assistant to him and the Successors in his Office to the end of the World This is the first visible Society or Communion of a Christian Church and was evidently laid and design'd by our Blessed Saviour in his Institution of the Episcopal Office The next is founded upon Apostolical Prescription and that is the Association of the Bishops of a Province with their Metropolitan for in the Plantation of Churches as they cut out the Communion of Christians into particular Bishopricks so they again united the several Bishopricks of every Nation into one Communion under one Head who as he is superior to every single Bishop within his Resort so is he is his Synod of Bishops Supreme Judge of all Controversies within the Province These Provincial Assemblies I have shewn were the highest Power of the Primitive Church in all Places neither indeed setting aside the Promise of divine Assistance to them is there need of any further Appeal upon humane accounts for the Controversives in Christianity are not so monstrously difficult but that a competent Number of grave and sober Men may determine well enough without calling together all the wise Men in the World and if Twenty are not sufficient to decide any Controversie I know not what Number is And as this was the standing ordinary Jurisdiction in the first Ages of the Church so the Christians of those Times suppos'd the means of Salvation sufficiently secur'd in such Hands and certainly that which was sufficient to them is so to us And as this was the highest Government in the Church for the first three Hundred Years so those more diffusive Assemblies that were afterward summon'd and that we call general Councils were really of the same nature for as a Provincial Assembly was national so were these Imperial and therefore subject but to one civil Government So that as the Empire was indeed but one great Kingdom so was the Church in it but one great Province they being both under the same extent of Government And this is the true Use of Councils whether greater or less by the Decree of the Representatives of Churches to bind those Churches that they represent And that is but a reasonable thing in all Societies that they should be determin'd by their Governours especially when they are set over them by the appointment of God himself Neither is it so very material how large Councils are as to their Obligation for whether they be greater or less they equally bind all that are involv'd within the compass of their Authority And tho there may be greater Presumption in the Decrees of the greater Councils yet are they for the most part meetings rather of Grandeur than Necessity but especially those that we call General Councils are now so difficult to be summon'd that they are become almost impracticable Whilst indeed the Roman Empire stood entire it was not so hard to convene them yet even then was it a Business of so much Time and Charges as made it too burthensom to be born by any thing less than the Roman Greatness and that too in very rare and extraordinary Cases But if so it could never then be intended for the standing and perpetual Government of the Christian Church But now that Christendom is divided into so many civil Governments the Difficulties are so great and so many through the various Interests of Princes either to promote or hinder it as to render it next to impossible Tho if it could be fairly had the Church of England would not refuse her Concurrence in it both as being assured of the Goodness of her Cause in that she owns no other Rule of her Reformation but the Practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and as well knowing that the greatest part of the Church of Rome would as willingly rid themselves of those Abuses that have been put upon them by the Court of Rome as we have done And this the Spanish and French Bishops had carried through even in that pack'd Council of Trent had not the Pope poured in a number of Titular Italian Bishops to over-vote them But it is none of my present Business to rake into the Faults of the Church of Rome 't is enough to my purpose to vindicate the Communion of the Church of England Granting therefore the Church of Rome to be a pure and uncorrupted Church yet because it is a Foreign Church no Man can be under any Obligation to leave the Communion of his own to joyn with that In this one point I fix the State of this whole Address and say nothing at present to persuade any Person that lives within the Communion of the Church of Rome to forsake that my only Concernment is with the Members of the Church of England to keep them to their own Church according to the Rule from the Beginning If it be objected That the Church of England be a narrow Thing in comparison of the Catholick Church I answer That the Church of England doth not pretend to be the Church Catholick but
Being of a Christian Church Of this nature were the several Patriarchates so that whatever Power the Bishop of Rome can challenge by virtue of his Patriarchical Dignity is of an humane Original and so not necessary to the Constitution of a Christian Church Nay tho he once had such a Power yet upon the Dissolution of that Civil and Ecclesiastical Government that gave it him it ceases with it For it was granted him by the Emperors and Imperial Councils and so extended only to the Subjects of the Empire for they could not give him any Power in other Princes Dominions The Empire therefore being broken into many independent Kingdoms the Patriarchate dissolves with it because otherwise a Foreigner would have an Authority in all Princes Dominions to the Prejudice of the Sovereign Power which is the first thing that Christianity disclaims and therefore is principally inconsistent with it But however if the Pope have his old Patriarchical Power still he had it not of old over us and therefore cannot have it now and though he have yet it is but of Humane Institution And then we are a true Church without it and if we are then can no Man be obliged in Conscience to forsake the Communion of this Church that is setled as all other Churches were by the Apostles to join with one another only for the sake of some alteration made in it by Humane Authority And thus having truly and impartially laid before Your Royal Highness the State of the Christian Church especially as to the prime Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome concerning the Guide of Faith I have so great confidence in the Power of Truth over an upright and generous Mind as to flatter my self with some Hopes of settling Your Royal Highnesses Conscience in the Communion of this truly ancient and Apostolical Church Nay I hope not only to see You a Zealous Son but an eminent Patron of the best but most abused Church in the Christian World so as to be the principal Author of rescuing her from those horrid Indignities and Oppressions that she daily suffers from the Barbarity of popular Atheism and Profaneness But whatever the Success of this small Endeavor may prove it is not a little Satisfaction that I reap from having done my Duty to Your Royal Highness and mine own Conscience For I have no other design than to promote the Salvation of Your Soul and my own But though I am so fully conscious to my self of mine own Integrity yet when I reflect upon what I have done I blush and am confounded in my self at the Presumption of obtruding my crude Thoughts upon the Wisdom of a Mighty Prince and therefore had utterly stisled them after they were finished had not the great Fame of Your Highnesses Princely Candor emboldned me to present them as being at least secure of a gracious Pardon to a well-meant Presumption I intended when I had shewn the No-Necessity of Comminion with the Church of Rome upon his own Terms because its Pretences are a manifest Usurpation upon the Christian Church in the next place to have represented the gross Abuse that his Holiness puts upon Christianity by pretending some way or other directly or indirectly to a temporal Power over Sovereign Princes whereas to pretend to it by virtue of any Power deriv'd from our Saviour only over Subjects is no less than Blasphemy my against him but over Princes it adds to that Rebellon So that how many Notes soever there may be of a true Church this is an infallible Note of a false one But then considering with my self that Your Royal Highness is the second Branch of an Imperial Family and Heir to several Crowns I thought my self obliged according to my Resolution declar'd in the beginning to wave the Advantage of this Argument because Your Highness is here a Party and it concerns Your worldly Interest more nearly than Your Conscience to which alone I have made bold to make this Address and in it I assure my self that 〈◊〉 the Kingdoms in the World would weigh nothing And therefore without giving Your Royal Highness any farther trouble more than once more of craving Pardon for this great Presumption I shall submit the Consideration of the Premises to Your 〈◊〉 and impartial Thoughts and daily pray for Your Happiness both here and hereafter and while I live shall ever be Your Royal Highnesses Most Humble and Devoted Servant FINIS Epist. 52. Mr. Beveridge