TOUCHING HIS MAJESTY S STILE. 181 



true but an imaginary separation, being both situate 

 and comprehended in one most famous and renowned 

 island of Great-Britany, compassed by the ocean, 

 without any mountains, seas, or other boundaries of 

 nature, to make any partition, wall, or trench, be 

 tween them, and being also exempted from the first 

 curse of disunion, which was the confusion of tongues, 

 and being people of a like constitution of mind and 

 body, especially in warlike prowess and disposition : 

 and yet nevertheless have in so many ages been 

 disjoined under several kings and governors, are now 

 at the last, by right inherent in the commixture of 

 our blood, united in our person and generation ; 

 wherein it hath pleased God to anoint us with the 

 oil of gladness and gratulation above our progenitors, 

 kings of either nation. Neither can we sufficiently 

 contemplate and behold the passages, degrees, and 

 insinuations, whereby it hath pleased the eternal 

 God, to whom all his works are from the beginning 

 known and present, to open and prepare a way to 

 this excellent work ; having first ordained that both 

 nations should be knit in one true and reformed reli 

 gion, which is the perfectest band of all unity and 

 union ; and secondly, that there should precede so 

 long a peace continued between the nations for so 

 many years last past, whereby all seeds and sparks 

 of ancient discord have been laid asleep, and grown 

 to an obliteration and oblivion ; and lastly, that our 

 selves, in the true measure of our affections, should 

 have so just cause to embrace both nations with equal 

 and indifferent love and inclination, inasmuch as our 



