From Bramhall's address 'To the Christian Reader' (at the outset of a work rejecting a Roman apologist's contention that the Church of England was schismatical and not part of the Church Catholic), a characteristically Laudian statement combining gratitude for the Church of England with an expression of what it is to be - to use a term from Richard Baxter much more appropriate for a Laudian than for Baxter - "a Catholick Christian". Also present is the generosity of the Laudian desire for the re-union of Christendom. And finally, there is the Laudian rejection of any notion that confessional precision and absolute doctrinal uniformity are more important than the Church's peace. No man can justly blame me for honouring my spiritual mother the Church of England; in whose womb I was conceived, at whose breasts I was nourished, and in whose bosom I hope to die. Bees, by the instinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their nests ... My desire hath been ...
Old High - Burkean - clerk in holy orders