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foul, and to make him her confeffor; of which the gave many fair teftimonies; and of which one was, that " fhe would 66 never eat flesh in Lent, without obtain"ing a licence from her little black huf"band:" and would often fay, " fhe pitied "him because she trusted him, and had "thereby eased herself by laying the bur"then of all her clergy-cares upon his "fhoulders, which he managed with pru"dence and piety."

I fhall not keep myself within the promifed rules of brevity in this account of his intereft with her Majefty, and his care of the Church's rights, if in this digreffion I should enlarge to particulars; and therefore my defire is, that one example may serve for a teftimony of both. And, that the reader may the better understand it, he may take notice, that not many years before his being made Archbishop, there passed an act or acts of Parliament, intending the better preservation of the Church-lands, by recalling a power which was vefted in others to fell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the future

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future care and protection of them only in the Crown and amongst many that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queen's, the Earl of Leicester was one; and the Bishop having, by his interest with her Majefty, put a stop to the Earl's facrilegious defigns, they two fell to an open oppofition before her; after which they both quitted the room, not friends in appearance. But the Bishop made a fudden and a seasonable return to her Majefty, (for he found her alone,) and fpake to her with great humility and reverence, to this purpose.

"I beseech your Majefty to hear me "with patience, and to believe that yours "and the Church's fafety are dearer to "me than my life, but my conscience "dearer than both: and therefore give "me leave to do my duty, and tell you, "that Princes are deputed nurfing Fa"thers of the Church, and owe it a pro"tection; and therefore God forbid that

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you should be fo much as paffive in her ❝ruin, when you may prevent it; or "that I fhould behold it without horror

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"and deteftation; or fhould forbear to "tell your Majefty of the fin and danger "of facrilege. And though you and "myself were born in an age of frailties, "when the primitive piety and care of "the Church's lands and immunities are "much decayed; yet, Madam, let me "beg that you would firft confider that "there are fuch fins as profaneness and "facrilege; and that, if there were not, "they could not have names in holy writ, ❝ and particularly in the New Testament. "And I beseech you to confider, that "though our Saviour faid, He judged no "man; and, to testify it, would not judge "nor divide the inheritance betwixt the "two brethren, nor would judge the "woman taken in adultery; yet in this "point of the Church's rights he was "fo zealous, that he made himself both "the accufer and the judge, and the "executioner too, to punish these fins; "witneffed, in that he himself made the 66 whip to drive the profaners out of the 66 Temple, overthrew the tables of the 66 money-changers, and drove them out

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"of it. And I befeech you to confider, "that it was St. Paul that faid to those "Chriftians of his time that were offended "with idolatry, and yet committed facri

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lege; Thou that abborreft idols, doft thou "commit facrilege? fuppofing, I think, "facrilege the greater fin. This may "occafion your Majefty to confider, that "there is such a fin as facrilege; and to "incline you to prevent the curse that "will follow it, I beseech you also to "confider, that Conftantine the firft "Christian Emperor, and Helena his mo"ther; that King Edgar, and Edward "the Confeffor; and indeed many others "of your predeceffors, and many private "Chriftians, have alfo given to God, and "to his Church, much land, and many "immunities, which they might have

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given to those of their own families, and "did not; but gave them for ever as an "abfolute right and facrifice to God: and

with these immunities and lands they "have entailed a curfe upon the alienators "of them: God prevent your Majesty "and your fucceffors from being liable to

"that

"that curfe, which will cleave unto "Church-lands, as the leprofy to the "Jews.

"And to make you, that are trusted "with their preservation, the better to "understand the danger of it, I beseech

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you, forget not, that, to prevent these

curfes, the Church's land and power "have been alfo endeavoured to be pre"ferved, as far as human reason and the "law of this nation have been able to "preserve them, by an immediate and "most facred obligation on the consci

ences of the Princes of this realm. For "they that confult Magna Charta shall “find, that as all your predeceffors were "at their coronation, fo you also were "fworn before all the nobility and bi"shops then present, and in the presence "of God, and in his ftead to him that "anointed you, to maintain the Church"lands, and the rights belonging to it; "and this you yourself have testified "openly to God at the holy altar, by "laying your hands on the Bible then

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lying upon it. And not only Magna

VOL. I.

Charta,

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