Dedication to the Bishop of Salisbury

TO THE Right Reverend Father In GOD, SETH, Lord BISHOP OF SALISBURY, AND CHANCELLOUR OF THE Most Noble ORDER OF THE GARTER.

MY LORD,

I Dedicate This to your Lordship, and if any shall ask the Reason, I know no other than what all England knows as well as I, and that is the place you hold in the Church, and in the esteem of the Learned World, your great and admired worth, your skill in the profoundest sciences, of which your excellent works of Astronomy, and particularly your Praelections of Comets are an undeniable demonstration. Those that know either your Lordship or me, will not say I flatter you; for your vast merits command all that can be said, and for my part I am not inclined to fawn upon any person.

I cannot expect, my Lord, you should approve of this inconsiderable present, yet I persuade my self your Lordship will not be displeased at the good meaning of the Offerer. I need not acquaint your Lordship that it is part of one of the Canons of our Church, that poor beneficed men may go in short gowns. We mean folks, my Lord, must doe as well as we can. I submit the whole to your Lordship's censure, and hope you will not lay open those faults which, it may be, none but your self can see. But I will usurp no farther on your Lordship's patience, than only by begging your pardon that I have done it so far already.

I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most dutiful Son and Obedient Servant.