Written for the Ufe of a Royal, tho' Afflicted FAMILY.

By T-K-D.D

Printed in the Year 1699.

138.f. 47

TO THE

KING.

Great Sir!

Ermit me, I befeech You, to lay at Your Royal Feet this fmall Manual, which has no other defign but the Supporting of Tour Sacred Majefty, and Your Faithful Friends and Adherents under thofe Calamities which Your Majefty has born with So much Magnanimity, Patience, and Chriftian Refolution, that it fhews You to be the Heir not only of Your Royal Father's Crown, but of his Afflictions and Sufferings; Exerting the like Conftancy and Conrage under them, as that Blessed Martyr did. 'Tis true, indeed, Your Royal Father was a Proteftant,and Liv'd and Dy'd in and for that Profeffion; and I con'd heartily wish that Your Majefty was fo too: For then we might quickly hope to fee an end of our pre

Sent Miferies in a fhort time. But tho' fo great a Bleffing be deny'd us, yet shall my Loyalty and Duty approve it self the fame, as if You were fo; for I cannot conceive (what ever fome may think) that Tour Majefty's being of another Perfwafion than my felf, can discharge me from my Allegiance to You. And I hope Your Majefty will not the lefs regard what I have here Written, because I profefs my felf, as I always did, to be a Member and an Unworthy Son of the Church of England: For as it has always been my fudgement,that he that Believes, Lives, and Prays, according to the Rules that Chrift has given us, is a True Chriftian and a happy Man; fo I believe that the next way to Heaven is not to look after Controverfie, but Confcience; and to pend our Zeal and Time not in being Contentions,but Religious: And therefore wherefoever I live in the Chriftian World, whither Eaft or Weft, it is not my being a good Scholar that will make me happy, but a good Chriftian; not a Learned Difputant for Chrift, but a Devout Servant to him: Nor the being of fuch or fuch a Party or fide in

the

any

the Church, but a True Member of his Body. AND if Your Majefty won'dVouchsafe to bear with me a little, I con'd easily demonftrate this to be the most Safe Way: For, if I am Regenerated by the holy Spirit, and made a Chriftian by true Baptifm, believing the Scriptures; can it with Colour of Reason,be Suppos'd that I fhall fuffer Damnation for not equally Believing Traditions? And if I make Confcience to ferve and Worfhip GOD, can it be thought I fhall Perifb for not Worshiping Images? If I pray to GOD, as our Bleffed Saviour bath taught me, faying, Our Father, &c. Who can think I should incur the Sentence of Damnation for not Invocating Saints and Angels? And if I receive the holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, in both kindes, according to Chrift's Inftitution, as even the Roman Church Confeffes, who can believe I fhall be damned, because the Cup is taken away by a Council?

THESE things I urge with all humility, only to let Your Majefty fee what reafon I have to believe the Proteftant Religion to be the most Safe Way: And if through the A 3 Divine