To the right honourable my Lords, of his Majesty's Commission Ecclesiastical Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription B05946 of text R24613 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing S5064). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 2 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 B05946 Wing S5064 ESTC R24613 52614960 ocm 52614960 176197 2240859652

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Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. B05946) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 176197) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English Books, 1641-1700 ; 2764:7) To the right honourable my Lords, of his Majesty's Commission Ecclesiastical Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [London : 1688] Caption title. Signed at foot: Rochester. Rochester = Thomas Sprat, Lord Bishop of Rochester. Place and date of publication from National Library of Scotland. Wing (2nd ed.) incorrectly gives publication date as 1698. Reproduction of original in: National Library of Scotland. eng England and Wales. -- Ecclesiastical Commission (1686) Great Britain -- Church history -- 17th century -- Sources. Broadsides -- England -- 17th century. eebo Sermons preached on several occasions. By the right reverend Father in God, Thomas, Lord Bishop of Rochester. Sprat, Thomas, 1697 1 343 7 0 0 0 0 0 204.08 F The rate of 204.08 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2008-01 Assigned for keying and markup 2008-02 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-03 Sampled and proofread 2008-03 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE My LORDS , of His Majesty's Commission ECCLESIASTICAL .

I Most humbly Intreat your Lordships Favourable Interpretation , of what I now Write , That since your Lordships , are resolved to Proceed against those , who have not complyed with the Kings Command , in Reading His Declaration . It is absolutely impossible , for me to Serve His Majesty any longer , in this Commission : I beg leave to tell your Lordships , that tho I my Self , did submit in that particular , yet I will never be any way Instrumental , in Punishing those , my Brethren , that did not . For , as I call God to Witness , that what I did , was meerly in a Principal of Conscience : So I am fully satisfied , that their forbearance , was upon the same Principle . I have no Reason to think otherwise of the whole Body of our Clergy , who upon all Occasions , have signaliz'd their Loyalty to the Crown ; and their Zealous Affections to His Present Majesty's P●rson , in the worst of Times . Now my Lords , the safety of the whole Church of England , seeming to be exceedingly concerned in this Prosecution : I must declare , I cannot with a safe Conscience , Sit or Judge in this Cause , upon so many Pious and Excellent Men , with whom ( if it be God's Will ) it rather becomes me to Suffer , then to be in the least , Oc●●●●on to their Sufferings . I therefore , earnestly request your Lordships , 〈◊〉 ●●terceed with His Majesty , that I may be Graciously dismissed , from any 〈…〉 her Attendance at your Board : And to assure him , that I am still rea●● to Sacrifice , what ever I have to His Service , but my Conscience and ●●ligion .

My Lords , I am Your Lordships , Most Faithful , and Obedient Servant , Rochester .