The COPY of a LETTER

HOW great a Loss I had in the death of my most dear and honoured Friend, your deceased Father, no man is Edition: current; Page: [iv] able to conjecture; but he that hath suffered in the like. So affable was his Conversation, his Discourse so rational, his Judgment so exact in most parts of Learning; and his Affections to the Church so exemplary in him, that I never enjoyed a greater Felicity in the company of any Man living, than I did in his. In which Respects I may affirm both with Safety and Modesty, that we did not only take Sweet Counsel together; but walked in the House of God as Friends: I must needs say, Edition: current; Page: [v] I was prepared for that great Blow, by the Loss of my Preferment in the Church of Westminster, which gave me the Opportunity of so dear and beloved a Neighbourhood; so that I lost him partly before he died, which made the Misery the more supportable, when I was deprived of him for altogether. But I was never more sensible of the Infelicity, than I am at this present, in reference to that Satisfaction, which I am sure he could have given the Gentleman whom I am to deal with: Edition: current; Page: [vi] His eminent Abilities in these Political Disputes, exemplified in his Judicious Observations upon Aristotles Politiques; as also in some passages on Grotius, Hunton, Hobbs, and other of our late Discoursers about Forms of Government, declare abundantly how fit a Man he might have been to have dealt in this cause, which I would not willingly should be betrayed by unskilful handling: And had he pleased to have suffered his Excellent Discourse called Patriarcha to appear in Publick, it would Edition: current; Page: [vii] have given such satisfaction to all our great Masters in the Schools of Politie, that all other Tractates in that kind, had been found unnecessary.