ISAAC. CASAUBON. in Epist. ad Card. PERRON. Regis JACOBI nomine scripta. Rex arbitratur, rerum absolute necessariarum ad salutem non magnum esse numerum. Quare existimat ejus Majestas, nullam ad ineundam concordiam breviorem viam fore, quam si diligenter separentur necessaria a non necessariis, et ut in necessariis conveniat, omnis opera insumatur: In non necessariis libertati Christianæ locus detur. Simpliciter necessaria Rex appellat, quæ vel expresse verbum Dei præcipit credenda faciendave, vel ex verbo Dei necessaria consequentia vetus Ecclesia elicuit.-Si ad decidendas hodiernas Controversias hæc distinctio adhiberetur, et jus divinum a positivo seu Ecclesiastico candide separaretur; non videtur de iis quæ sunt absolute necessaria, inter pios et moderatos viros, longa aut acris contentio futura. Nam et pauca illa sunt, ut modo dicebamus, et fere ex æquo omnibus probantur, qui se Christianos dici postulant. Atque istam distinctionem Sereniss. Rex tanti putat esse momenti ad minuendas Controversias, quæ hodie Ecclesiam Dei tantopere exercent, ut omnium pacis studiosorum judicet officium esse, diligentissime hanc explicare, docere, urgere. THE WORKS OF WM. CHILLINGWORTH, M.A. IN THREE VOLUMES: VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED BY J. F. DOVE, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE; FOR RICHARD PRIESTLEY, 143, HIGH HOLBORN. MDCCCXX. TO THE C5 1820 MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES, By the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. &c. May it please your most Excellent Majesty, I PRESENT with all humility, to your most sacred hands, a defence of that cause, which is, and ought to be, infinitely dearer to you, than all the world; not doubting but upon this Dedication I shall be censured for a double boldness: both for undertaking so great a work, so far beyond my weak abilities; and again, for presenting it to such a patron, whose judgment I ought to fear more than any adversary. But, for the first, it is a satisfaction to myself, and may be to others, that I was not drawn to it out of any vain opinion of myself, (whose personal defects are the only thing which I presume to know) but undertook it in obedience to him who said, Tu conversus confirma fratres, not to St. Peter only, but to all men being encouraged also to it by the goodness of the cause, which is able to make a weak man strong. To the belief hereof I was not led partially, or by chance, as many are, by the pre judice and prepossession of their country, education, and such-like inducements; which, if they lead to truth in one place, perhaps lead to error in a hundred; but having with the greatest equality and indifferency, made inquiry and search into the grounds on both sides, I was willing to impart to others that satisfaction which was given to myself. For my inscribing to it your Majesty's sacred name, I should labour much in my excuse of it from high presumption, had it not some appearance of title to your Majesty's patronage and protection, as being a defence of that book, which by special order from your Majesty was written some years since, chiefly for the general good, but peradventure not without some aim at the recovery of one of your meanest subjects from a dangerous deviation; and so due unto your Majesty, as the fruit of your own high humility and most royal charity. Besides, it is in a manner nothing else but a pursuance of, and a superstruction upon, that blessed doctrine, wherewith I have adorned and armed the frontispiece of my book, which was so earnestly recommended by your royal father, of happy memory, to all the lovers of truth and peace: that is, to all that were like himself, as the only hopeful means of healing the breaches of Christendom, whereof the enemy of souls makes such pestilent advantage. The lustre of this blessed doctrine I have here endeavoured to uncloud and unveil, and to free it from those mists and fumes which have been raised to obscure it, |