Superstition, whenever the Decay of Health, or the cross Accidents of Life revive the Fears of Futurity; which may be stifled, but cannot be extinguished; such Persons not able to digest the wholesome Food of Repentance, by which their spiritual Condition might be gradually mended, greedily swallow the high Cordial of Absolution, which like other Cordials gives some present Ease, but works no Cure. And with respect to People of a serious and religious Turn of Mind, the manifest and almost general Contempt, or at least Neglect, of the Duties of Religion gives a great Advantage to the Emissaries of Rome to impose on their Weakness, and to persuade them that they can have no Hopes in the Religion of a Church, where Religion itself is hardly to be found.

Lay these Things together; and what more your own Observation and Reflexion may furnish, and much more they may furnish; and then ask your Heart, whether you have not Reason to fear, that God will visit for these Things. If your Heart misgives you, and forebodes the Time of taking Vengeance for these Iniquities to be drawing near, consider further, how graciously you have been dealt with by having had Warning of your Danger; and remember that the long Sufferance of God is a Call to Repentance.

It is purely for the Sake of this Reflexion, that I now address myself to you: I have no Pleasure in laying open the Shame of my Country, or in exposing its Nakedness either to Friends or to Foes; and when I consider my own Situation, 'tis a Prospect void of all Comfort to me to see the Condition of the People, over whom I have a Charge; and, God knows my Heart, these Considerations are a Pain and Grief to my Mind.

But, let us not despair; there is still one Remedy left, and whatever Reason we have to condemn ourselves, yet of this we may be sure, that God has not forgotten to be gracious. To him then let us turn, with hearty Repentance for our Sins; and with a Resolution to do, each of us in his proper Station, what lies in our Power to stem the Torrent of Iniquity which threatens our Ruin.

As to You my Brethren of the Clergy, who share with me the Care of the Souls in these populous Cities, let me exhort You, (though I trust you want not to be exhorted) to awaken the People, to call them from the Lethargy in which they have too long lived, and make them see their own Danger. Speak to them, perswade them as knowing the Terrors of the Lord.—Speak to their Hearts and Consciences with such Plainness as becomes the Ministers of the Gospel; tell them in Season and out of Season, that unless they repent, they must perish. If the Warnings we have had are a Call on the People to Repentance, remember they are still stronger Calls on us, to preach Repentance, and to discharge the Duty we owe to God and his Church, and to the Flock of Christ, over whom we are placed. May this Work of God prosper in our Hands!

I should be wanting to the Duty I owe to the highest as well as the lowest, should I omit on this Occasion to remind those who are entrusted by their Country, with the Government of these populous Cities, how much the Welfare of the People depends upon the faithful Execution of the Law. I pretend not to accuse them particularly of Neglect, a general Neglect of this Kind is one of the worst Symptoms of the Time; every Man is left to do what is right in his own Eyes, one would think there was no King in Israel. Could the vile abominable Pictures of Lewdness have been offered to Sale in the most frequented Parts of the City; could Books for the Instruction of the Unexperienced in all the Mysteries of Iniquity have been publickly cried in our Streets; had not the Laws, and the Guardians of the Laws, been asleep?—But surely it is high Time to awake; and to let People once more know, (what seems to be almost forgotten) that Laws are made for the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice, and for the Maintenance of true Religion.

Government is a great Trust, and the Powers of it are not