the burthen of all her clergy cares upon his shoulders, which, she was certain, he managed with prudence and piety."

I shall not keep myself within the promised rules of brevity in this account of his interest with her Majesty, and her care of the church's rights, if in this digression I should enlarge to particulars; and therefore my desire is, that one example may serve for a testimony 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 church lands, by recalling a power which was vested in others to sell or lease them, by lodging and trusting the 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 good bishop having by his interest with her Majesty put a stop to the Earl's sacrilegious designs, they two fell to an open opposition before her; after which they both quitted the room, not friends in appearance. But the bishop made a sudden and seasonable return to her Majesty (for he found her alone), and spake to her with great humility and reverence, and to this purpose :—

"I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience, and to believe that your's and the church's

safety 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 nursing fathers of the church, and owe it a protection; and therefore God forbid that you should be so much as passive in her ruin, when you may prevent it; or that I should behold it without horror and detestation; or should forbear to tell your Majesty of the sin and danger. And though you and myself are 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 will but first consider, and then you will believe that there are such sins as profaneness and sacrilege for if there were not, they could not have names in holy writ; and particularly in the New Testament. And I beseech you to consider, that though our Saviour said, '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 so zealous, that he made himself both the accuser and the judge, and the executioner to punish these sins; witnessed, in that he himself made the whip to drive the profaners out of the temple, overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and drove them out of it. And consider, that it was St. Paul

that said to those Christians of his time that were offended with idolatry, yet, 'Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?' supposing, I think, sacrilege to be the greater sin. This may occasion your Majesty to consider, that there is such a sin as sacrilege; and to incline you to prevent the curse that will follow it, I beseech you also to consider, that Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, and Helena his mother, that King Edgar, and Edward the Confessor, and indeed many others of your predecessors, and many private Christians, have also given to God and to his church much land, and many immunities, which they might have given to those of their own families, and did not, but gave them an absolute right and sacrifice to God: and with these immunities and lands they have entailed a curse upon the alienators of them.

God prevent your Majesty

from being liable to that curse.

"And to make you that are trusted with their preservation the better to understand the danger of it, I beseech you, forget not that, besides these curses, the church's land and power have been also endeavoured to be preserved, as far as human reason and the law of this nation have been able to preserve them, by an immediate and most sacred obligation on the consciences of the princes of this realm. For they that consult Magna Charta shall find, that as all your predecessors were at

their coronation, so you also were sworn before all the nobility and bishops then present, and in the presence of God, and in his stead to him that anointed you, to maintain the church lands, and the rights belonging to it; and this testified openly at the holy altar, by laying your hands on the Bible then lying upon it. And not only Magna Charta, but many modern statutes have denounced a curse upon those that break Magna Charta. And now what account can be given for the breach of this oath at the last great day, either by your Majesty or by me, if it be wilfully or but negligently violated, I know not.

"And therefore, good Madam, let not the late lord's exceptions against the failings of some few clergymen prevail with you to punish posterity for the errors of this present age. Let particular men suffer for their particular errors; but let God and his church have their right. And though I pretend not to prophesy, yet I beg posterity to take notice of what is already become visible in many families; that church land, added to an ancient inheritance, hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and secretly consumed both; or like the eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles, and herself that stole it. And, though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of your father, yet I beg you to take notice, that a

part of the church's rights, added to the vast treasure left him by his father, hath been conceived to bring an unavoidable consumption upon both, notwithstanding all his diligence to preserve it.

"And consider, that after the violation of those laws, to which he had sworn in Magna Charta, God did so far deny him his restraining grace, that he fell into greater sins than I am willing to mention. Madam, religion is the foundation and cement of human societies; and when they that serve at God's altar shall be exposed to poverty, then religion itself will be exposed to scorn, and become contemptible; as you may already observe in too many poor vicarages in this nation. And therefore, as you are by a late act or acts entrusted with a great power to preserve or waste the church's lands; yet dispose of them for Jesus' sake as the donors intended. Let neither falsehood nor flattery beguile you to do otherwise; and put a stop, I beseech you, to the approaching ruins of God's church, as you expect comfort at the last great day; for kings must be judged. Pardon this affectionate plainness, my most dear Sovereign, and let me beg to be still continued in your favor; and the Lord still continue you in his."

The Queen's patient hearing this affectionate speech, her future care to preserve the church's rights, which till then had been neglected, may