We exhort all that desire to be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, that they decline from these horrid doctrines of the Papacy, which in their birth are new, in their growth are scandalous, in their proper consequents are infinitely dangerous to their souls.—But therefore it is highly fit that they should also perceive their own advantages, and give God praise, that they are removed from such infinite dangers, by the holy precepts, and holy faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland; in which the Word of God is set before them as a lantern to their feet, and a light unto their eyes; and the Sacraments are fully administered according to Christ's institution; and Repentance is preached according to the measures of the Gospel; and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles, and the measures of the Churches Apostolical; and Obedience to kings is greatly and sacredly urged; and the authority and order of Bishops is preserved, against the usurpation of the Pope, and the invasion of Schismatics and Aërians, new and old; and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preached to be necessary and inviolable; and the Commandments are expounded with just severity and without scruples; and Holiness of Life is urged upon all men as indispensably necessary to salvation, and therefore without any allowances, tricks, and little artifices of escaping from it by easy and imperfect doctrines; and every thing is practised which is useful to the saving of our souls; and Christ's Merits and Satisfaction are entirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins; and the necessity of Good Works is universally taught; and our Prayers are holy, unblameable, edifying, and understood; are according to the measures of the Word of God, and the practice of all Saints. In this Church, the children are duly Baptized; and the baptized in their due time are Confirmed; and the confirmed are Communicated; and Penitents are absolved, and the impenitents punished and discouraged; and Holy Marriage in all men is preferred before unclean concubinate in any; and nothing is wanting that God and his Church hath made necessary to salvation.

BISHOP TAYLOR.

ᏀᎬᎾᎡᏀᎬ ᎻᎬᎡᏴᎬᎡᎢ,

X VOL. IV.

B

The world o'erlooks him in her busy search
Of objects more illustrious in her view;
And occupied as earnestly as she,

Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world.
She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not:
He seeks not her's, for he has found them vain.
Not slothful he, though seeming unemployed,
And censured oft as useless.-

Perhaps the self-approving haughty world
Receives advantage from his noiseless hours
Of which she little dreams. Perhaps she owes
Her sunshine and her rain, her blooming spring
And plenteous harvests to the prayer he makes,
Thinking for her who thinks not for herself.

COWPER.

INTRODUCTION.

IN a late retreat from the business of this world, and those many little cares with which I have too often cumbered myself, I fell into a contemplation of some of those historical passages that are recorded in sacred story; and, more particularly, of what had passed betwixt our blessed Saviour, and that wonder of women, and sinners, and mourners, saint Mary Magdalen. I call her saint, because I did not then, nor do now consider her, as when she was possest with seven devils; not as when her wanton eyes, and dishevelled hair, were designed and managed, to charm and insnare amorous beholders: but, I did then, and do now consider her, as after she had exprest a visible and sacred sorrow for her sensualities; as, after those eyes had wept such a flood of penitential tears as did wash, and that hair had wiped, and she most passionately kist the feet of her and our blessed Jesus. And, I do now consider, that because she loved much, not only much was forgiven her; but that, beside that blessed blessing of having her sins pardoned, and the joy of knowing her happy condition, she also had from him a testimony, that her alabaster box of precious ointment poured on his head and feet, and that spikenard, and those spices that were by her dedicated to embalm and preserve his sacred body from putrefaction, should so far preserve her own memory, that these demonstrations of her sanctified love, and of her officious and generous gratitude, should be recorded and mentioned wheresoever his gospel should be read; intending thereby, that as his, so her name should also live to succeeding generations, even till time itself shall be no more.

Upon occasion of which fair example, I did lately look back, and not without some content (at least to myself) that I have endeavoured to deserve the love, and preserve the memory of my two deceased friends, Dr. Donne, and sir Henry Wotton, by

declaring the several employments and various accidents of their lives and, though Mr. George Herbert (whose life I now intend to write) were to me a stranger as to his person, for I have only seen him; yet, since he was, and was worthy to be their friend, and very many of his have been mine, I judge it may not be unacceptable to those that knew any of them in their lives, or do now know them, by mine, or their own writings, to see this conjunction of them after their deaths; without which, many things that concerned them, and some things that concerned the age in which they lived, would be less perfect, and lost to posterity.

For these reasons I have undertaken it, and if I have prevented any abler person, I beg pardon of him, and my reader.