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To the NOBILITY, that they would be pleafed to confider, That true Greatness doth not confift in the having of fwelling Titles, high Places, great Power, or large Territories, which, tho they may be fometimes the Reward of virtuous and brave Actions as they ought to be, are often the Gifts of Nature, and it may be too frequently the Acquests of fuch Crimes as deferve Punishment, instead of Recompence: That the Perfons who in all Ages have been most beloved and reverenced when Alive, and most honoured by wife and good Men when Dead, have been those who have been most beneficent and ferviceable to the World; not those who have amaffed the greatest Estates, and acquired the loftieft Titles to themselves; the blind Heathens erected not their Altars to those that they did not think were fome way or other ufefull or ferviceable to Mankind: That they would therefore be perfwaded that nothing will render them fo much Bleffings to their Country, fo truly noble and esteemed, as their being Patrons of Religion and Virtue: That they are not in their high Stations too great for that Employment which is the greatest Glory of Princes, to fet up their Standards for Religion, and declare War against Vice and Prophaneness,

* Haud difficilius eft errare naturam-quam principem fui diffimilem formare rempublicam. Quæcunq; mutatio in principibus extiterit, eandem populo fecutam. Cic.

after the Example, and under the Conduct

of

of fuch a Prince and Leader as hath graciously declared, in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament, that He efteems it one of the greatest Advantages of Peace that he is now at Leifure to apply himself to the Suppreffing of Prophaneness and Immoralities; and hath thereby given us some reason to hope, that he may think it a far greater Glory of his Reign to be an Instrument in God's Hand of delivering us from the Slavery of our Vices, of making us a virtuous, and, by confequence, a happy People, than in procuring us any other prefent and fecular Felicities and Advantages, and at laft leaving us deluged in fuch Impieties as Infidels abhor, and which may make God our Enemy, and draw down his Vengeance upon us: That they would for this purpose confider the Influence of their Authority, their Intereft, their Fortunes, and their Example, and Employ, which they cannot without high Ingratitude omit, thefe and the other Advantages they have above Men of lower Ranks, for the Glory of. that God by whose Permission they have them, for the Noble purposes of Opposing and Suppreffing Debauchery and Prophaneness, the retrieving the Reputation of Virtue, the furthering the Interests of Religion, and the faving of their Country, which hath feemed to have declared in favour of Vice and Ruine, and thereby approve themselves to the King, (as He hath now affured them they will) to the Wife and Virtuous part of the Nation to their own I 4 Con

Confciences, to their Pofterity, and, above all, to the most High God.

To the Reverend the CLERGY, That they who are looked upon as the Ambaffadours of the Great God of Heaven and Earth,

and fent upon the most important Business of 2 Cor. 5. Reconciling Men to God, and Watching for their 18,20. Souls, and have, as I conceive, their Honour, Heb.13.17. their Dignities, and their Revenues, given

them without the common Incumbrances of other Men, in regard to their Sacred Office, and that they may attend without Worldly Cares, and with the greatest Advantage to their Spiritual Employment, would confider whether they have not a more favourable Opportunity for the Work of their Ministry, and a National Reformation, at this time, than they have had for many years paft. They cannot, I humbly prefume, but be fenfible of the most deplorable Degeneracy of this Nation, that the great Decay of Religion, and the Leprofie of Vice and Prophaneness with which it is almost overfpread, does threaten its Ruine; and that they have great reason to take to heart the no greater Succefs of their Endeavours for the Reforming of us; that their Difcipline, which if it had been in force, might have proved a Bank against the Flood of Wic kedness that is broken in upon us, is now so loft, that it is of little ufe to them for this purpofe; that there appears too great ground to

fear

Acts 20.

28.

fear that the Tide of Wickedness will not be ftopped whilft Religion is openly dishonoured, Virtue defpifed, and Vice and Prophaneness are fo daring and triumphant, that Men commit them not only with Impunity, but Glory in them, so as to esteem it an Act of Gallantry to ridicule their Sacred Office, to contemn things Sacred, and an Ornament of Style to imprecate Damnation upon themselves. Is not this a Time for them that are Spiritual Watchmen, and Overfeers of the Flock of Chrift, La. 52.8. as they have a Concern for God's Honour, and 56.10. would prevent his Judgments falling upon us; as they would confult the Honour and Interest of their facred Order, and their own Reputation, to concur with His Majefty's pious Declarations for this purpofe, and cheerfully to embrace the Affiftance of the Civil Power for the Vindicating of the Honour of God's Laws, the Stopping the Avenues to notorious Enormities, the breaking the hellish Confederacies, and the taking out of publick View the conta gious Examples of bad Men; and by these Methods to prepare Men the better for the Reftoration of godly Difcipline, for the greater Influence of their Doctrine, and good Examples upon their Minds? Is not this a Time for them to favour the fuccessfull Endeavours of the Societies of Reformation, which are levell'd at the ftrong holds of Debauchery ; and the Religious Societies, that are now spreading through the Kingdom, that seem fo directly to tend to the

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Promoting the Power of Religion, fo far as they carry on those great Ends, (wherein we may, I think, appeal to the whole Christian World whether they do not do it) and readily to accept of the Affistance that is now, or hereafter may be given them by Christians of any Denomination, in the common Cause of Christianity? And if they can think of any other or better Measures than those that are recommended in these Papers, that may promote the Glory of God, and the Good of Souls, for whom Chrift died, and their own comfortable Account of themselves to Him that will 2 Tim. 4. judge the Quick and Dead, to engage in them 1,2. without delay, with united Counfels and Endeavours, with double Diligence and Zeal, and in Conjunction with all the various Works of their Ministry, among which their going Acts 20. from Houfe to House for the enquiring into the 2021 Spiritual State of the Souls of those that are committed to their Charge, and the applying * Dr. Stil- proper Directions, and Encouragements accorlingfleet dingly, in the Judgment of the most pious Bishop of Divines I have had the Honour to know, Worce is thought to be a very usefull Method, is what one of the most *Learned Prelates of this Age Charge to the Clergy and Nation hath in his printed Charge to the of his Dio- Clergy of his Diocess put them in mind of cefs, p. 25. The Bi and which another of our Learned Bishops bop of Sa- hath told this Sacred Order, in his Paftoral lisbury's Paftoral Care, published by the particular ApprobatiCare,p. on of the late Great Primate Arch-Bishop Til

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