of tender concernment to us, we cannot but bewail [unr]
incomparable Loss which the Nations have suffered in the
removall of so good a Prince, and your Highness in the
departure of so dear and precious a Father. Which sad dispensation
we do yet bear with the greater measure of Patience
and submission, in regard of that Seal of all his former
goodnesses to us, the nomination and Election of your most
Serene Highness to succeed him (according to the humble
Petition and Advice presented to him by the Parliament of
the three Nations) which doth not only asswage those deep
resentments we might justly have of the said Loss, but encourages
us also to congratulate your Highnesses sweet and
peaceable entrance into the Government, with the full, free
and unanimous consent of the people, hoping and beleeving
that the same good hand of Almighty God will go along
with your Highnesses, to carry on his own great work, and to
perfect what your most glorious Father hath begun with so
much prudence and zeal for his Country, and with such a
visible demonstration of the Divine suffrage. Yet apprehending
either that the old Spirit of malice and envy against
the peace and honor of the Nations may still be working,
and take this conjuncture as seasonable for the practicing of
their perverse and discontented designs, to involve the Nations
in new disorders, by cunning Insinuations, and colourable
pretences of or from that Family which hath, been so eminently
and remarkably laid aside both by God and man; or
that a new Spirit of division may creep in among some of
the good people, and by mistaken ayms lead them into such
Counsels and Actions as may by consequence and contrary
to their own intentions weaken their support, and insensibly
undermine that Power and Authority which your Highnesse
renowned Father received by the importunate desires
and Addresses of the People, having justly merited the same
by the innumerable good things he had wrought for them:
Therefore we, who dare not speak our selves so considerable
for Number as for Fidelity, do hereby testifie our thankfulness
to the God of Heaven for those abundant mercies he