from fo 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, fuffer 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 ftand, in the fupporting and fecuring 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 fome differences that are of less importance and above all things, in the raising the power and efficacy of this Religion, by a fuitable reformation of our lives and manners.

How much foever 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 thofe glories of which mortals are capable; fo it feems to be the only thing that is now wanting, to finish the brightest and perfecteft character that will be in history.

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

May

May God preferve Your MAJESTY, till You have gloriously finished what You have fo wonderfully carried on. All that You have hitherto fet about, how small foever the beginnings and hopes were, has fucceeded in your hands, to the amazement of the whole world: the most desperate face of affairs has been able to give You no ftop.

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

This will fecure to You the bleffing of the present and of all fucceeding ages, and a full reward in that glorious and immortal state that is before You to which, that Your MAJESTY may have a fure, though a late admittance, is the daily and most earnest prayer of,

May it please Your MAJESTY,

、

Your Majefty's most loyal,

most obedient, and most

devoted Subject and Servant,

GI. SARUM, C G.

PREFACE.

I

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 fum of our doctrine, and the confeffion of our faith. The modefty of fome, and the caution of others, may have obliged them to let alone an undertaking, that might seem too affuming for any man to venture on, without a command from those who had authority to give it. It has been likewise often fuggefted, that thofe Articles feemed to be fo plain a tranfcript of St. Auftin's doctrine, in those much difputed points, concerning the Decrees of God, and the Efficacy of Grace, that they were not expounded by our Divines for that very reafon; fince the far greater number of them is believed to be now of a different opinion.

I should have kept within the fame bounds, if I had not been first moved to undertake this work, by that great Prelate who then fate at the helm: and after that, determined in it by a command that was facred to me by refpect, as well as by duty. Our late Primate lived long enough to fee the defign finished. He read it over with an exactness that was peculiar to him. He employed fome weeks wholly in perusing it, and he corrected it with a care that defcended even to the smalleft matters; and was fuch 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, fo it gave the whole fuch a character, that how much foever that might raife its value with true judges, yet in decency it must be fuppreffed by me, as being far beyond what any performance of mine could deferve. He gave fo favourable an account of it to our late bleffed Queen, that she was pleased to tell me, she would find leisure to read it and the last time that I was admitted to the honour of waiting on her, the commanded me to bring it to her. But he was foon after that carried to the fource, to the fountain of life, in whose light fhe now fees both light and truth. So great a breach as was then made upon all our hopes, put a ftop upon this, as well as upon much greater defigns.

This work has lain by me ever fince: but has been often not only reviewed by myself, but by much better judges. The late most learned Bishop of Worcester read it very carefully. He marked every thing in it that he thought needed a review; and his cenfure was in all points fubmitted to. He expreffed himself fo well pleased with it, to myself, and to fome others, that I do not think it becomes me to repeat what he faid of it. Both the moft reverend Archbishops, with feveral of the Bishops, and a great many learned Divines have alfo read it. I muft, indeed, on many accounts own, that they may be inclined to favour me too much, and to be too partial to me; yet they looked upon this work as a thing of that importance, that I have reafon to believe they read it over feverely and if fome small corrections may be taken for an indication that they faw no occafion for greater ones, I had this likewife from several of them.

Yet after all these approbations, and many repeated defires to me to publish it, I do not pretend to impofe this upon the reader as the work of authority. For even our most reverend Metropolitans read it only as private divines, without fo fevere a canvaffing of all particulars as must have been expected, if this had been intended to pafs for an authorised work under a public ftamp. Therefore my defign in giving this re