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EXPOSITION

OF THE

XXXIX ARTICLES

OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

WRITTEN BY

GILBERT BISHOP OF SARUM.

OXFORD,

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

1814.

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THE title of Defender of the Faith, the nobleft of all those which belong to this imperial Crown, that has received a new luftre by Your MAJESTY's carrying it, is that which You have fo glorioufly acquired, that if Your MAJESTY had not found it among them, what You have done must have fecured it to Yourself by the beft of all claims. We fhould be as much afhamed 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 preferved and hitherto maintained by Your MAJESTY.

The Reformation had its greatest support and ftrength 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 fo happily with theirs, in your Royal Perfon, feemed to give the world a fure prognoftic of what might be looked for from fo great a conjunction. Your MAJESTY has outdone all expectations; and

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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 stand, 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 lefs 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

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