as all your predecessors were at their Coronation, so you also were sworn before all the Nobility and Bishops then present, and in the presence of God, and in his stead to him that anointed you, to maintain the Church-lands, and the rights belonging to it:  and this you yourself have testified openly to God at the holy Altar, by laying your hands on the Bible then lying upon it.  And not only Magna Charta, but many modern Statutes have denounced a Curse upon those that break Magna Charta; a Curse like the leprosy, that was entailed on the Jews:  for as that, so these Curses have, and will cleave to the very stones of those buildings that have been consecrated to God; and the father’s sin of Sacrilege hath, and will prove to be entailed on his son and family.  And now, Madam, what account can be given for the breach of this Oath at the Last Great Day, either by your Majesty, or by me, if it be wilfully, or but negligently violated, I know not.

“And therefore, good Madam, let not the late Lord’s exceptions against the failings of some few Clergymen prevail with you to punish posterity for the errors of the present age; let particular men suffer for their particular errors; but let God and his Church have their inheritance:  and though I pretend not to prophecy, yet I beg posterity to take notice of what is already become visible in many families; that Church-land added to an ancient and just inheritance, hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and secretly consumed both:  or like the Eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and herself that stole it.  And though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of your Father, yet I beg you to take notice, that a part of the Church’s rights added to the vast treasures left him by his Father, hath been conceived to bring an unavoidable consumption upon both, notwithstanding all his diligency to preserve them.

“And consider, that after the violation of those laws, to which he had sworn in Magna Charta, God did so far deny him his restraining grace, that as King Saul, after he was forsaken of God, fell from one sin to another; so he, till at last he fell into greater sins than I am willing to mention.  Madam, Religion is the foundation and cement of human societies; and when they that serve at God’s Altar shall be exposed to poverty, then Religion itself will be exposed to scorn, and become contemptible; as you may already observe it to be in too many poor Vicarages in this nation.  And therefore, as you are by a late Act or Acts of Parliament, entrusted with a great power to preserve or waste the Church-lands; yet dispose of them, for Jesus’ sake, as you have promised to men, and vowed to God, that is, as the donors intended:  let neither falsehood nor flattery beguile you to do otherwise; but put a stop to God’s and the Levites’ portion, I beseech you, and to the approaching ruins of His Church, as you expect comfort at the Last Great Day; for Kings must be judged.  Pardon this affectionate plainness, my most dear Sovereign, and let me beg to be still continued in your favour; and the Lord still continue you in His.”