LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 345 



tionate care for the Church of England, ex- 

 pressed in your late message to the House of 

 Commons ; wherein your Majesty is graciously 

 pleased to declare that you will give your whole 

 ecclesiastical revenue of first fruits and tenths, 

 as it shall become free from incumbrances, to 

 be applied to the augmentation of poor benefices 

 throughout England. 



" We cannot forbear saying, that your Ma- 

 jesty has, in this surprising instance of your 

 kindness for the Church, outdone all your pre- 

 decessors since the Reformation. They took 

 care that our holy religion should be purged 

 from the errors and superstitions with which 

 Popery had corrupted it ; and they took care 

 likewise, that it should be so transmitted to us. 

 And for this their memories will be for ever 

 blessed. But your Majesty not only takes care 

 to preserve our religion in the same purity, and 

 to protect our Church in all its legal rights and 

 privileges ; but has farther taken care also, that 

 the minister of it shall in due time have a com- 

 petent maintenance. The want of which pro- 

 vision was indeed the great if not the only ble- 

 mish of our Reformation ; and therefore doubly 

 blessed will your Majesty's memory be in all 

 succeeding generations. 



" As we are sure that this pious and charita- 

 ble act of your Majesty is highly acceptable to 



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