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pany, if any Man that is called a Brother, (or Fellow-Chriftian) be either a Fornicator, or Covetous, or an Idolater, or a Railer, or a Drunkard, not to eat with him. Now there is one flagrant Instance of this Vice however, in the Bishops and the fuperior Clergy, which is open and publick; I mean, when they waste thofe Ecclefiaftical Revenues that are intrufted with them, for the Ufe of the Poor and the lower Orders, and raife their Families to great Riches and Dignities by this Abuse of them: This Practice is abfolutely forbidden in the Canons of the Apostles, where this Christian Law is deliver'd in the following Words: [Can. xxxix.] Let the Bishop bave the Care of Ecclefiaftical Revenues, and adminifter them as in the Prefence of God. But 'tis not lawful for him to appropriate any Part of them to himself, or to give the Things of God to his own Kindred. But if they be poor, let them fupport them as poor. But let him not, under fuch Pretences, alienate the Revenues of the Church.-[Can, xl.] Let the proper Goods of the Bishop, if he has any, and thofe belonging to the Lord, be openly diftinguished, that he may have Power, when he dies, to leave bis own Goods as he pleases, and to whom he pleases; that under Pretence of the Ecclefiaftical Revenues the Bishop's own may not come short, &c. Now this being certainly the Cafe, and thefe Canons, at least the first fifty, of which thefe are two, being Part of the Ecclefiaftical Laws of Christendom, and even of this Nation at this Day, I fhould think it a Duty plainly incumbent on our present Bifhops, and fuperior Clergy, in this Time of Di

ftrefs,

ftrefs, and under the present Admonitions of Providence, to separate what they have of their own paternal Inheritance, from what they have gotten unjustly by the Church, and to restore to the Church, or to the Poor, what they have so long used as their own, contrary to the exprefs Laws of Christianity. If the prefent Clergy of London, as Bishop Sherlock, like a Chriftian Bishop, charges upon them, Letter, Pag. 12, 13. are to awaken the People, to call them from the Lethargy, in which they have too long lived, and make them fee their own Danger, to speak to them to perfuade them, as knowing the Terror of the Lord

to speak to their Hearts and Confciences, with ⚫ fuch Plainnefs, as becomes the Minifters of the Gospel, to tell them, in Seafon and out of Seafon, that unless they repent they must perish.' With what Advantage may all this be done, if once the Bishop himself, and the reft of his Brethren and fuperior Clergy, many of which refide in great Part in his Diocese, in the fame City of London, will heartily comply with this well-meant Admonition? Which I earneftly beg they will not take ampifs at my Hands. And on the contrary, how flight and poor will all thefe Exhortations appear among the Laity, if it be rejected? And fo much fhall fuffice for an Account of those heavy Enormities, which now lie upon us, as Breaches of the everlasting Covenant of God, or the Ten Command

ments.

But now, it may not be improper to enquire here, what are thofe particular Judgment, which N 2

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the foregoing Signs suppose to be foon, very foon, coming upon the Jews and Chriftians at least, if not on the reft of the World alfo? And which the horrid Crimes already specified most justly deserve. And 'tis the more neceffary for me to specify them, as far as I am able, because I have not observed, that among the terrible Threatnings or Denunciations in the Prophecies relating to these Times, and appearing above, even fuch as are to deftroy the Wicked, that is the greatest Part of Mankind, I have not taken Notice, that the particular Sorts of those Judgments are diftinctly mention'd. And because in my Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, of Jan. 23d, 1747-8, already fet down, Pag. 405, 406, 407. I intimated my Knowledge, of at least some of them, in the Words following: If our thirteen Times in a Year curfing the Eufebians or Primitive Chriftians, by publick Authority in the Athanafian Creed, were once corrected, our Manners in Court and Country throughly amended, and • our Prayers, on all fuch Occafions, were more fo• lemn and serious than they now are, we might hope that God Almighty would pity us, and our poor dumb Creatures, and procure both them a Release from this Distemper, and ourselves a Deliverance from the Effects of it, and from those other great and amazing Judgments, which I fully and fuddenly expect as a Confequence of what is already begun; and this upon the most • authentick Evidence; [I meant of Scripture Prophecies."]

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Now as to that particular Judgment, I mean the Murrain, upon the horn'd Cattle, which this Letter was especially concern'd about; we know that all which has been done by the Publick of a religi ous Nature, has been the bare ordering a fingle Collect to be added within the Bills of Mortality, in the publick Worship, without any farther Attempt for a through Reformation in the other Inftances there mention'd. And that this is in Reality, One of thofe Judgments intended by God Almighty, at this critical Time, appears by its large Spreading, and long Continuance, notwithstanding all the medical and political Means for its Stopage, made Ufe of till this very Day. Nay, by its still spreading farther and farther, in fome Places, at this very Time. But that Almighty God has not been fatisfied with that poor and mean Thing, of the Addition of a single Collect, is evident, not only by this spreading of the Contagion ever fince it has been used, but by the latest. Storms and Earthquakes as Signals of the Divine Difpleafure, continuing against us, particularly in or near Italy, and in England, and its Plantations, and the Borders of France and Spain; which Countries have been greatly fubject of late to thofe terrible Judgments. And indeed, the Crimes above-mention'd are vaftly foo great to be aton'd after foarifling a Manner. Shall I not vifit for thefe Things, faith the Lord? Shall not my Soul be avenged on fuch a Nation as this? [Jer. v, 29] Nay, when these two latest Earthquakes had greatly alarm'd the Citizens of London, and requir'd the most importunate and

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folemn Prayers and Humiliations; I hear not that the Publick has done any Thing more, when fomewhat was to be done for Form's Sake, than the Appointment of that fingle, tho' very good Collect, to be used in Lent only, through that City and within the Bills of Mortality, but no farther; furely, this is affronting God Almighty, instead of propitiating him, and appealing his Anger, which is for certain very great already, and if not regarded, will for certain be much greater against us. As I know the Diffenters in general have long had weekly an appointed Place and Time of publick Supplication at London, on Purpose to deprecate the Displeasure of Almighty God, as to the Murrain among the Cattle; and in which, they do not now forget the Earthquakes and other Marks of God's Anger against us; fo I reckon this Murrain among the Cattle as the first of thofe terrible Judgments already come upon us, and upon Europe, for our heinous Offences. The Hand of the Lord has certain

ly been upon the horned Part of our Cattle, [Exod. ix. 3.] as it was upon the Horfes, and upon the Alles, upon the Camels, upon the Oxen, and upon the Sheep, in the Days of Pharoah King of Egypt, even a very grievous Murrain. However, Pharoah's Heart, [v. 7.] like that of many of ours, espe cially of our Courtiers now, was harden'd, and did not let the People of Ifrael go. Whether, if we ftill harden our Hearts under our present partial Murrain, we may not thereby provoke God to make it univerfal as to the other Cattle; nay, as to a Plague

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