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drawn with greater zeal in passion, than judg- | the difference, if there be any, is on the other ment upon deliberation, but added also to that side. This orderly and modest manner of procharge a commination in generality, that who-ceeding, recommended by the Lycurgus of the soever drew the sword should perish by the gospel, which is Christ, was continued by the sword; his purpose was to bind the hands of reverend apostles during their time; and likehis apostles? but yet to leave the passions of wise by the godly bishops that succeeded them, those that should succeed them, at full liberty. for the space of a thousand years: for further Christ paid tribute unto Cæsar, as appeareth, than the censure of esteeming those as ethnicks as well for Peter as for himself; thereby mould- and publicans that wilfully refused to give ear ing the measures and proportions of the to the doctrine of the church, I find not that church's conformity. For strange it were, the church presumed, the popes challenged, that hæres succedens in defuncti locum,' the nor princes acknowledged. heir succeeding in the place of the deceased, St. Peter, from whose prerogative many seek should by any law be strengthened and enabled to derive this privilege of deposing kings upon to do more than the testator himself might have conviction, or rather supposition, as it happendone; or the party to whom delegation is ed for the most part, of contumacy, commands transmitted, than the principal that did dele- the faithful to obey even that prince that was a gate. One rule can never fail, That discipu- butcher of the flock, and a bloody tyrant in his lus' is not supra magistrum,' because he can time (because he was superexcellent) and all never fail that gave out that rule: and if a man magistrates that were subordinate in charges observe it well between the function of Christ and employments under him. He forbiddeth which was C magisterium,' and the scope all good pastors also, which ought to be 'forma now shot at, which is imperium,' thegregis,' the pattern of the flock, providere difference is infinite. Our Saviour acknow-coacte,' to provide by compulsion, or in cleledged to Pilate, that the power which heris dominari,' to domineer among the clergy, both had and exercised over him, was not tho' that be within the compass of their own terrestrial, nor temporary, but it was from square, much less meant he to set them over above: to which doctrine nothing can be more emperors and kings that are fixed in the highrepugnant, than the schoolmen's dream, that est element; nay, which is more, he denies our princes having at this day the like jurisdic-flatly, if we may give any credit to that author tion with piety, to that which Cæsar held with which bears the title of Saint Clement, that pride, should be subject touching their estates any of his successors were ordained by God, and dignities, to the censure of his disciples, to be cognitores negotiorum secularium,' exwho in person, whilst his conversation was here aminers or judges of causes that are secular, on earth, renounced that prerogative out of which is now become the chiefest scope and disparity to the scope and end of his office. For object of your primacy. as our Saviour doth prove à minori in another place, that his disciples ought in reason to wash one another's feet, because he that was their master had vouchsafed out of humility to wash theirs; by the same consequence I prove, that whosoever professeth to be imitator Petri,' (as Peter was imitator Christi') ought to desist from forcible intrusion upon these undue claims of more than imperial prerogatives, which were neither challenged by any Levitical predeces-jected sor, nor possessed by the testator, nor conveyed by the testament. For the grant which was conveyed by God the Father to his Son, omnis judicii,' of universal judgment both in heaven and earth, is absolute; whereas the Charter which the church of Christ receiveth of her spouse, is limited and tied to the validity of the evidence and the strength of witnesses, with the prescription of antiquity, When Christ knew that some would even in passion make him a king perforce, and maugre his affection and resolution, fugit in montem 'solus; whereas they themselves, as Succes'sores Christi, et hæredes apostolorium,' descend from the mount of contemplation into the valleys of secular agitation, to make a party for their advancement ad regalia Christi,' made a difference between his disciples, following a master that had not so much as the fox, a hole wherein to put his head, and those that dwell in regum domibus ;' whereas now

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Wherefore if Peter were commanded to put up his sword, when Christ was at his elbow to heal, as he did, the greatest wound that it could make; how much more ought his successors to keep the sword within the scabbard, since it is soberly and orderly put up, and that they may do more hurt in their passion, than they can help by their privilege? St. Paul, his fellow martyr and apostle, would never have subomnem animam,' every soul, whether they were bishops or monks, regular or secular, as Chrysostom notes, to superior authority, in case he had been privy to an exemption of some souls by express warrant. The quality of evil princes ought not in reason to extenuate the force of the inhibition, tending to the peace and order both of church and state: for then St. Peter would not have commanded servants to be subject to their lords, non solùm bonis & modestis, sed etiam dyscolis,' not only to those that are good and modest, but also to those that are perverse: "Non propter metum, sed propter conscientiam,' not for fear but for conscience, saith God's spirit. Neither would St. Jude have censured those malecontents so sharply that do spernere potestatem, blasphemare majestatem,' not in respect of their glory, but of their lieutenancy. This is not the readiest and best resolution, ‘manendi in vocatione,' of continuing in our vocation without impatience or strife, to wind our obe

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The clesia? What hath the emperor to deal or intermeddle with the church? Optatus a learned father, answers tunably to the note and ditty of Tertullian that is mentioned before, that, since God only is above the sovereign, Donatus in extolling himself above the emperor, as Antichrist out of pride shall above all that is called God, jam hominum excessit metas,' hath now transcended the bounds of humanity. The patience and piety of thirty popes laying down their heads upon the block successively, at the first planting of the church, to seal the bond of conscience with the blood of innocency, may teach those that come after, as well to follow their exple, as to claim their primacy. For though Liberius, a pastor of that rank, was unjustly banished and exiled from his church; yet he never sought to right himself by the bloody sword, but rather by that golden rule of obedi ence and patience, which our Saviour left to his

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dience out of that obligation wherein the gos- | faction and scorn, Quia imperatori cum ecpel found us, and God hath elected us. servants of God had recourse in all times to lawful remedies, upon the offer of unlawful wrongs: and tho' there could not be a worse prince, or rather a more ugly monster upon earth, than he that held the place of Cæsar in the time of Paul; yet Paulus appellavit Cæsarem,' and being taken at his word, was sent thither to be tried orderly. It was lawful for the prophet Nathan to reprove David for his sin, tho' he did not pluck him out of his chair of state. Our Saviour describing Herod's quality, in crafty circumvention of God's saints, did properly and aptly term him, vulpem,' a fox, tho' he did not undertake to hunt him out of his earth. And tho' to warn, admonish, and assure the Tetrarch, non licere,' that it was not lawful for him to keep his brother's wife, were an office fit for a John Baptist, and a worthy pastor of a holy church; yet he neither would nor durst adventure to release his sub-disciples sub sigillo,' and they to the church jects of their faith which they ought him by in deposito.' Simancha with his fellows may their homage. Polycarpus the disciple of St. perhaps answer to these passages, that the John, as we find him reported by Eusebius, church was swathed all this while in the bands dispensed with no breach of any bond, tho' in of weakness, that the sickle carried not at that cases that intend peril to salvation, as idol-time an edge sharp enough for those stubborn atry, and the like. The christians of the weeds, and that the faithful had not as yet first age were neither Albinians nor Negrians, raised themselves to that height of credit, that sayeth Tertullian; that is, stained with no fac- might give life to their execution. But if the tion either to those aspiring parties, or affec- constancy of obedience had been squared by tions of the time, but devoted the service of the liberty of men's election, and this had been the sovereign, 'quomodo licuit & ips.s expedierit,' the latitude of loyalty in those well disposed so far as it was lawful for the person, and expe- times when bishops only sought God's honour, dient for the prince himself. How far is that? not their own prerogatives: surely the church Even so far as they honour him, ut hominem a of Christ had wanted a great part of those mar'Deo secundum, & solo Deo minorem,' as the tyrs and confessors, which are ranked at this next person to God, and inferior to him alone, day in the Roman calendar. They that take without making him, as some did, a competitor this scope, may conceive and publish when it with the Omnipotent. pleaseth them, that lay subjects in like manner are no longer bound to obedience and loyalty, than they find themselves over-weak to make powerful opposition to ungodly magistrates; and so confound all laws of justice in the state, and all degrees of subjects that in private are bound to live orderly. Tertullian doth notably convince this paradox, as well of falshood as levity, by making a clear demonstration of the strength and potency of godly christians in his own time, (which was among the first) in case they would have put their forces to the strongest proof,. since all public places, as courts, consistories, camps, and forts, were stored and furnished with men of that profession and quality.

Honest men will start and shrink at those loud alarms, when they read with how great obedience and humility, that blessed father Athanasius, upon whose shoulders our aged mother the church of God leaned, in the time of sharpest persecution, to take her rest, cleared himself of the false suspicions and wrongful aspersions, that were cast on him by device of speaking evil of Constantius the great Arian emperor his dutiful respect was grounded upon that warning of the Holy Ghost, not to curse the king in the secret of our conscience, nor in the most private and inward corner of our cabinet to wish evil to him. St. Hilary would not so much as moderate or stint himself, but leaves it wholly to the discretion of a wicked emperor, quatenus et quomodo eum loqui 'jubeat,' how and how far he would bid h'm speak. St. Ambrose acknowledgeth no weapons of defence to be so proper to the priest, as tears and prayers: for I can pray, saith he, I can sigh and weep, but I cannot resist any other way. And therefore St. Jerome to Heliodorus saith, a king ruleth men whether they will or no; a bishop those that are willing. · rore subjecit, hic servituti donatur.'

The legions that were entertained by faithless princes in pay, and prospered in the greatest actions they undertook, might have purchased a far better fortune at an easier rate, in case they could have satisfied their own consciences, by opposing against order. If the godly christians that lived under Constantius an Arian, would have sought their ease, by stepping over to the service of Constance and Gratian that were religious; they might have Ille ter-caused their own sovereign to shrink at their transport, that before made advantage of their

To that question noved by Donatus out of humility. If any man will take upon him

more in these days, saith Chrysostome, than was granted beretofore to subjects that were under infidels, Quod majora sibi concredita esse dixerint,' because they say that more is committed unto them; they must be taught, non 'punc honoris sui tempus esse,' that it is not the time and place of their preferment, since they are as pilgrims in this world, but they shall in another shew appear more bright and glorious to all men, quando Christus apparuerit, et tunc cum Christo comparebunt in gloria,' when Christ appears, and they with him then shall appear in glory. Though St. Gregory confesseth himself to have been so powerful in Italy, that he needed not to have left among the Lombards either duke or count, in case he would have opposed confidently his endeavour against their rage: yet finding Theodolinda the queen to have been seduced slily by some serpent of that sort from the sincerity of her profession, and dangerously withdrawn from God to Belial, from piety to heresy; took no harder course than by forewarning her with a fatherly affection, and in humble terms to take heed in time, that she tainted not the sweet bread of many moral virtues (worthy to he served in the supper of the Lamb) with the leaven of the falshood and impiety of those mis believing teachers that abused her credulity.

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It had not been hard for Chrysostom, in respect of the tender love which was borne him by his flock, not ad aras' only, but ultra aras,' if his patience had been pliant to their desires, to have wearied that ungodly princess Eudoxia, that would never give him rest nor breath in the crooked ways of her own wickedness. But if the doctrine of some schoolmen in this age be found to differ so much from the former demonstrations of obedience and truth, why should I not complain, That nunc definit esse remedio locus, ubi quæ fuerant olim vitia, nunc mores sint? It is true that long after this, the officers of the French king, Philip the Fair, complained, and upon just cause, ⚫genda sacerdotum jura, jura regia minui,' that the king's rights or liberties were appaired by raising the rights and privileges of the priests. It may be likewise true that is written by a countryman of ours, that Gregory the seventh confessed on his death-bed, (but with what' remorse or touch of conscience God knows) 'ex minutione laicorum se sacerdotum promovisse gloriam,' which in divers words is of one effect: but yet all bishops were not of that mind, but keeping fast in memory that observation of the prophet David, That to drink of waters drawn from the springs of Bethel, with peril and hazard of men's lives, was san'guinem bibere,' to drink blood, were as cautious in quenching sparks of dissension and strife by charity, as others were to kindle them out of ambition and vain-glory. For in cases of this nature, Non est opus sævientis animæ, sed 'medentis studio: for charity is patient and courteous, Nec inflatur nec est ambitiosa.' Peter hath two keys, one of knowledge, another of power: these are prepared and fitted also

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to two locks, that is, induration and ignorance: and hardly shall we find, that without both, and a sure use of both, any strong locks of opposition or obstruction have been opened. Wherefore no man need to doubt, but that among so many godly, grave, and learned bishops, as will ever rank themselves tanquam in acie ordinata,' to discourage and affright the forlorn hopes of Simancha's school, these positions will sink and some that have been loth to yield out of humour, yet will be forced to faint out of cowardice.

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The godly learned never once vouchsafed to lend their ears to the deceitful tunes of bewitching charins; rather grounding their opinions upon the fourth council of Toledo, by which all sorts of persons are condemned without distinction or exception, Qui fidem regibus suis sacramento promissum observare contemnerent,' that contemned or scorned to keep the faith which they promised by oath to their sovereign; taking by this first part, all perfidious traitors in general.

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But that which follows, pincheth Navarre and his disciples at the very heart: Ut ore simularent juramenti professionem, cum mente retinerent perfidiæ impietatem,' and with their mouth dissembled a profession by oath, when in their minds, or mentally, to use the very word of our school-men at this day, they retained still the wicked purpose of treason. Indeed Pythagoras imprinted nothing in the minds of his scholars more deeply, than that profane verse, Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli.'

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The Epicure on the other side was satisfied modo mentem injuratam gereret, etiamsi lingua juraret.' And you, Mr. Garnet, (to make up such a triangle as can never be reduced to a cube, that is, a perfect square) divulge and publish to your auditory (which those blind philosophers durst not profess beyond the compass of their schools) that it is lawful to draw words to the sense of thoughts, to cast a mist of error before an eye of single trust, and to deceive your brother for your own security. I am very sure the learned fathers neither knew the way, nor had the will to escape by such a kind of deceptio visus,' as directly tends ad destructionem animæ. For when Athanasius was overtaken by a pursuivant, and asked 'Quantum inde abesset Athanasius?' how far Athanasius was from thence? though it stood upon his life in a time, as you make of this, of persecution, and he a person far more choice and dainty for the defence of God's own quarrel, as appeared by his quick and sharp encounters with the professed enemies of truth in that holy Nicene council, than you are in this kingdom for the justification of those bad attempts and impious actions, which you take in hand, yet he answered as freely without fraud as fear, non longè abesse Athanasium:' which was very true, because he was the man for whom the party sought, and cared little, as appears, how soon they met him. A man of weak conceit may apprehend how far our Saviour himself was

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loose, to the pope, inquiring à beatissimo Patre' (by this mild question) an hæc esset filii sui tunica?' whether this were the coat of his son? The pope surprized with a demonstration, and observing heedfully the marks which could not lye, returned a grave answer to the king, Nec hanc esse filii sui tunicam,' That neither this was the attire of his son, nor he purposed so to acknowledge the party that was taken in that coat, and therefore left him wholly to civil justice, and the king's gracious pleasure. For it is true, that ambition, which is most bold upon advantage, is most cowardly upon surprize: and howsoever humours may sometimes urge minds that are not evenly balanced with discretion and conscience, to undertake attempts ever above duty, and oftentimes above their strength; yet second wits observe the sips and errors of the first, and thereupon concluding at more leisure out of judgment, that vis expers 'consilii mole ruit sua,' they begin likewise to fear that vast desires as well as buildings, where foundations are not firm, sink by their own magnitude. It is not possible that humours should be durable, considering that materia prima,' the first matter, out of which they spring, like Proteus, is capable of as many shifts and forms as the world hath variations and accidents, wearing and consuming like a garment with incessant use: but the moral virtues which have their root in the Deity itself, and derive their influence from grace, must of necessity be co-eternal with their author, who doth not only plant, but water, and produce out of his own goodness, correspondent fruits that suit their original.

from these chytnical constructions and evasions | sophistical, by that universal proposition, Quicunque me negaverit,' whosoever denied him before men, should be denied by him before his Father, &c. For to put out cautious equivocators from all hope of succour in this streight by their distinction of verbal and mental negatives, I urge the precedent warning in that very text before, Non timere eos qui occidunt corpus, et animam non possunt occidere;' not to fear those which have power only to kill the body, and not the soul. For if our Saviour bad left his disciples such a strength of surety for retreat upon pursuit, as verbal flourishes, whatsoever were conceived or resolved in the mind, he needed not so carefully to arm them with encouragement and hope against assaults of crucity. The passages which both you and other of your complices wrest from the mouth of Christ himself for a fair countenance of cozenage in this labyrinth, would rather commovere nauseam quam bilem:' though I must tell you, that singular examples drawn from our Saviour, that was both God and man, and not only knew by his eternal wisdom, but was also by his matchless power to rectify whatsoever seemed to our dull conceits obscure, are neither rules of our encouragement, nor warrants for our imitation. I make no doubt for my part, but these eggs of equivocation and mental reservation, never engendered nor covered by fairer birds in better times, were hatched, as the poets feign of osprays, with a thunder-clap. For among the martyrs and pastors primitive, their praises were resounded with the loudest and sweetest cries, that were most resolute, without evasions or tricks, to lay down a transitory life in By these demonstrations we learn what laws a moment, to the purchase of a better in eter- were current, what bounders kept, and what nity; so far they were from forcing wit, or strain-course and manner of proceeding was observed ing craft to secure cowardice. But to pass over this just motive of digression, I will conclude the chief point, which is the care best men have ever had, to prefer obedience before security, loyalty before life, with a discreet answer of a pope to a king of ours, which may serve you for a better precedent in the course of paticuce, than that either of Gregory 7, Boniface 8, or Alexander 6, in their practices of extremity, if it so stand with your pleasure. Richard the holy warrior, having committed a Norman bishop prisoner, whom he took in field against him with his coat armour upon his back, received within a while after an urgent request, if not a powerful instance, from the pope, at the earnest desire of other bishops, for the prisoner's enlargement; whom it pleased his fatherhood in the letter, by a word of indulgency, but yet without that ground of equity which moved the apostle, obsecrare pro filio suo, quem genuit in vinculis,' to press 'hilemon for his son Onesimus, whom he begat to Christ and his church in duress, to call his son. The king wittily alluding by his answer to that place in Genesis, where Joseph's parti-coloured and pied coat was offered to the aged father stained and sprinkled with blood, sent not the prisoner who remained fast, but the coat armour, which was

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towards princes by modest bishops, which either lived very near, or imitate those that lived next to the precedents of apostolic humility. Now therefore it shall not be impertinent, the subject moving in due place and with due circumstance, to descry, not by idle imaginations, but by evident impressions, how covertly, and as it were by stealth, incroachments crept upon the carpet, before they durst by any forcible attempt invade the seat of power: et cùm ' dormirent homines, venit homo inimicus;' and when inen were in sleep, the devil came, et superseminavit zizania.' It is confessed indifferently by all persons of all sorts, that are either judicious or sensitive, that those maxims which pierce to the center, and touch the very life of conscience, ought rather to be fixed upon the poles of constancy, than carried upon the wheels of change; and that not Israel alone, but all moral and indifferent affections ought to answer Amen to the curse which God pronounced with his own mouth against all men of whatsoever quality, that dare presume to remove or put aside land-marks, or bounders of jurisdiction, which preserve peace: and yet by tract of time and long experience, we see that ab illo motu,trepidationis,' ever since that trepidation or quivering, as it is termed by

astrologers, which prevailed in the minds of fearful princes, under powerful strains, there have been many variations of degrees and distances in the conclusions of church government, especially within these last 600 years; which moves wise men to resort to the judgment of a grave philosopher, discoursing of diversity of tunes and persons that did sway those times, either by predominance or art, quo'minùs ob 'ortu aberant,' the less distant they were from the first original, the more perfectly they discerned truth: and of the same mind is Tertullian, perfectiora' prima,' the nearer the spring head, the purer streams: which is the scope of our industry.

To rip up matters therefore from the very root, without obstruction or passion, we may observe, that so long as the plough of persecution did not only make deep furrows on the backs of godly bishops by torture, (which the prophet by the text in the Psalm, Super dorsum meum fabricaveront peccatores,' seemeth to touch) but by vexation and anguish also in their very souls, which those humble spirits feel that are most sensitive of the least scratch given to loyalty; it rent up by the roots all those weeds of ambition and emulation which in calm seasons are apt to spring out of the rank grounds of original infirmity: for till the blessed reign of Constantine, wherein the rage of persecution began to cease, I find almost universally no other kind of strife among the godly fathers, than whose counsel or endeavour, by a religious and modest kind of emulation, might be of best use to the propagation of the Church's limits, and of God's glory. The Church itself (which is the body mystical of Christ) might by analogy be properly resembled to the stomach of a body natural, which though it receive much, yet makes equal distribution, by dividing and dispersing that which it receives, to the use and sustenance of all the other parts, which would otherwise decay, and by degrees waste and perish.

not to raise dissention; to prepare the subjects hearts to obedience, not to inflame it with prejudice; to be at peace with all the world, holding peace of conscience to be all in all, so they might gain to Christ, and in no case to shew themselves 'percursores,' or violentes,' which the canons of the church, beside the prohibition of Paul himself, will not suffer.

Some of the latter, but best learned, writers, finding by the curious examination of sundry passages, and infinite interpreters, how hard, or rather how unpossible it is to prove their title to this high prerogative of deposing kings, by direct evidence out of the word of God, and such witnesses of record as are above exception; resort to prove by charter, grant, and privilege from princes pieties: as for example, from Constantine the first and best, Phocas the first and worst, Ina king of the West Saxons that was religious, and king John that was impious, as well sans foye,' as his title was 'sans terre.' In which crew, some intending serious devotion, others pretending feigned satisfaction to other ends; and all, as the times then taught, that no seeds spring up more speedily than those which are sown in area Dominica, for redemption of souls, left them better earnest of their hopes by gift, than our Saviour did in his testament by legacy. Against the pretended charter or donation, which some of the canonists more zealous than judicious seek to derive from Constantine to Sylvester, though I need say little, because the best grounded judgments and most modest spirits of that sort, have torn away the painted visard from that warped face; yet because in matters of this moment too much cannot be said, I mean, more succinctly than the nature of that subject, being once undertaken, doth permit, to press some short arguments. First, how unlike it is that Sylvester, the next bishop but one to that worthy and renowned rank of martyrs that lost their lives for the profession of Christ, should upon the first pause of respiration to take breath, after so If all this while a tribune had stood up to many manful combats against God's enemies, complain against the Church of Rome, as Me-abuse the favour of so gracious a time, by huntnenius Agrippa did against the senate, com- ing after the vain tenures of principality. The paring it to the belly, which devoured all, and bishops that have kept themselves above water did no good, the poorest and the weakest mem- all this while, by the strength and favour of that ber would have utterly disclaimed and dis- powerful hand, which supported Peter on the avowed the least sense of such a wrong: but seas when he was at the point to sink, by if the belly afterwards by caring only how to learning now to swim suddenly with the bladfeed itself, did pine the other parts (as the po- ders of the world's ambition, might have cast pulars did then suggest) and by transforming themselves into greater danger of drowning in the orderly and well compacted body of the the rivers of Damascus, than in the Red-Sea state politick into a monster, by so great dis- that the saints passed over. proportion of nourishment, did violate the laws of nature, and dissolve the bords of union, we must confess, that both Menenius with them, and, if the case be like, all faithful patriots and members among us, have reason to require remedy.

It is certain, that the end of these first bishops was then to feed the flock, not to fill the pail; to spread the faith, not to extend the line; to draw kings to perfection, not to depose them from their states; to settle peace,

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Platina reports out of the pope's own records, that Sylvester refused at the band of Constantine diadema gemmis distinctum,' a crown or diadem set with precious stones, as an ornament not convenient nor agreeable to a pastor in his place. Though godly Nestor calls it only signum superbiæ, a sign or badge of pride; Sylvester should have been found guilty not of a sign, but of pride itself, and that in the highest kind, by the grand jury of all his predecessors saiats in heaven, in case he had

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