AN

EXPOSITION

OF THE

XXXIX ARTICLES

OF THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

WRITTEN BY

GILBERT BISHOP OF SARUM.

OXFORD,

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

MDCCCXXXI.

10F23, schicalq

B93e

1831

TO THE

KING.

SIR,

THE title of Defender of the Faith, the noblest of all those which belong to this imperial crown, that has received a new lustre by Your MAJESTY'S carrying it, is that which You have so gloriously acquired, that if Your MAJESTY had not found it among them, what You have done must have secured it to Yourself by the best of all claims. We should be as much ashamed 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 preserved and hitherto maintained by Your MA

JESTY.

The Reformation had its greatest support and strength 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 so happily with theirs, in your royal person, seemed to give the world a sure prognostic of what might be looked for from so great a conjunction. Your MAJESTY has outdone all expectations; and 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, suffer

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