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OF THE

XXXIX ARTICLES

OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

WRITTEN BY

GILBERT BISHOP OF SARUM.

Burnet,

OXFORD:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

MDCCCXLV.

KM4

396 1845

TO

SIR,

THE KING.

HE title of Defender of the Faith, the noblest of all those

THE

which belong to this imperial crown, that has received a new lustre by Your MAJESTY's carrying it, is that which You have so gloriously acquired, that if Your MAJESTY had not found it among them, what You have done must have secured it to Yourself by the best of all claims. We should be as much ashamed not to give it to Your MAJESTY, as we were to give it to those who had been fatally led into the design of overturning that, which has been beyond all the examples in history preserved and hitherto maintained by Your MAJESTY.

The Reformation had its greatest support and strength from the crown of England; while two of your renowned ancestors were the chief defenders of it in foreign parts. The blood of England mixing so happily with theirs, in Your royal person, seemed to give the world a sure prognostic of what might be looked for from so great a conjunction. Your MAJESTY has outdone all expectations; and has brought matters to a state far beyond all our hopes.

But amidst the laurels that adorn You, and those applauses that do every where follow You, suffer me, GREAT SIR, in all humility to tell You, that your work is not yet done, nor your glory complete, till You have employed that power which God has put in your hands, and before which nothing has been able hitherto to stand, in the supporting and securing this Church, in the bearing down Infidelity and Impiety, in the healing the wounds and breaches that are made among those who do in common profess this faith, but are unhappily disjointed and divided by some differences that are of less importance: and, above all things, in the raising the power and efficacy of this religion, by a suitable reformation of our lives and manners.

How much soever men's hearts are out of the reach of human authority, yet their lives, and all outward appearances, are governed by the example and influences of their Sovereigns.

The effectual pursuing of these designs, as it is the greatest of all those glories of which mortals are capable; so it seems to be the only thing that is now wanting, to finish the brightest and perfectest character that will be in history.

It was in order to the promoting these ends, that I undertook this work; which I do now most humbly lay before Your MAJESTY, with the profoundest respect and submission.

May God preserve Your MAJESTY, till You have gloriously finished what You have so wonderfully carried on. All that You have hitherto set about, how small soever the beginnings and hopes were, has succeeded in your hands, to the amazement of the whole world: the most desperate face of affairs has been able to give You no stop.

Your MAJESTY seems born under an ascendant of Providence ; and therefore, how low soever all our hopes are, either of raising the power of religion, or of uniting those who profess it; yet we have often been taught to despair of nothing that is once undertaken by Your MAJESTY.

This will secure to You the blessing of the present and of all succeeding ages, and a full reward in that glorious and immortal state that is before You: to which, that Your MAJESTY may have a sure, though a late admittance, is the daily and most earnest prayer of,

May it please Your MAJESTY,

Your MAJESTY's most loyal,

most obedient, and most

devoted subject and servant,

GI. SARUM, C. G.

PREFACE.

IT

T has been often reckoned among the things that were wanting, that we had not a full and clear explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles, which are the sum of our doctrine, and the confession of our faith. The modesty of some, and the caution of others, may have obliged them to let alone an undertaking, that might seem too assuming for any man to venture on, without a command from those who had authority to give it. It has been likewise often suggested, that those Articles seemed to be so plain a transcript of St. Austin's doctrine, in those much disputed points, concerning the decrees of God, and the efficacy of grace, that they were not expounded by our divines for that very reason ; since the far greater number of them is believed to be now of a different opinion.

I should have kept within the same bounds, if I had not been first moved to undertake this work by that great prelate, who then sat at the helm and after that, determined in it by a command that was sacred to me by respect, as well as by duty. Our late primate lived long enough to see the design finished. He read it over with an exactness that was peculiar to him. He employed some weeks wholly in perusing it, and he corrected it with a care that descended even to the smallest matters; and was such as he thought became the importance of this work. And when that was done, he returned it to me with a letter, that, as it was the last I ever had from him, so it gave the whole such a character, that how much soever that might raise its value with true judges, yet in decency it must be suppressed by me, as being far beyond what any performance of mine could deserve. He gave so favourable an account of it to our

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