I Reverend Brethren, AM very fenfible, that you cannot meet together on this Occafion, without making deep Reflections on the Lofs, which you have fuffered, for the public Good, by the Removal of a Pastor, whom the Experience of so many Years hath taught you to esteem and honour fo highly. It is your farther Unhappiness, that He is fucceeded by a Perfon, very unequal to the Care of this confpicuous and important Diocese. But your Humanity and your Piety will, I doubt not, incline you, both to accept and to affift the Endeavours of one, who can affure you, with very great Truth, that he is earnestly defirous of being as useful to you all, as he can; and feriously concerned for the Interests of Religion, and of this Church. Would to God there were lefs Need of expreffing A 2 prefling a Concern for them, than there is at prefent! Men have always complained of their own Times: and always with too much Reason. But though it is natural to think thofe Evils the greateft, which we feel ourselves; and therefore Mistakes are easily made, in còmparing one Age with another: yet in this we cannot be mistaken, that an open and profeffed Difregard to Religion is become, through a Variety of unhappy Caufe's, the diftinguishing Character of the prefent Age; that this Evil is grown to a great Height in the Metropolis of the Nation; is daily fpreading through every Part of it; and, bad in itfelf as any can be, muft of Neceffity bring in most others after it. Indeed it hath already brought in fuch Diffoluteness and Contempt of Principle in the higher Part of the World, and fuch profligate Intemperance, and Fearleffnefs of committing Crimes, in the lower, as muft, if this Torrent of Impiety ftop not, become abfolutely fatal. And God knows, far from stopping, it receives, through the ill Defigns of fome Perfons, and the Inconfiderateness of others, a continual a continual Increase. Christianity is now ridiculed and railed at, with very little Referve and the Teachers of it, without any at all. Indeed with Refpect to Us, the Rule, which most of our Adverfaries appear to have set themselves, is, to be, at all Adventures, as bitter as they can: and they follow it, not only beyond Truth, but beyond Probability: afferting the very worst Things of us without Foundation, and exaggerating every Thing without Mercy: imputing the Faults, and fometimes imaginary Faults, of particular Perfons to the whole Order; and then declaiming against us all promifcuously with fuch wild Vehemence, as, in any Cafe but ours, they themselves would think, in the highest Degree, unjuft and cruel. Or if fometimes a few Exceptions are made, they are ufually made only to divide us amongst ourfelves to deceive one Part of us, and throw a greater Odium upon the other. Still, were thefe Invectives only to affect Us perfonally, dear as our Reputations are and ought to be to us, the Mifchief would be fmall, in comparison of what it is. But the Confequence hath been, as it naturally must, that Disregard to Us hath greatly increased the Disregard to public Worship and Instruction that many are grown prejudiced against Religion; many more, indifferent about it and unacquainted with it. And the Emiffaries of the Romish Church, taking the Members of ours at this unhappy Difadvantage, have begun to reap great Harvests in the Field, which hath been thus prepared for them by the Labours of those, who would be thought their most irreconcileable Enemies. But Yet, however melancholy the View before us appears, we have no Reafon to be difcouraged: for let us take Care of our Duty, and God will take Care of the Event. we have great Reason to think seriously, what our Duty on this Occafion is; and ftir up each other to the Performance of it: that where-ever the Guilt of these Things may fall, it must not fall on our heads. For it muft needs be, that Offences come: but wo to that Man, by whom the Offence_cometh". Our Grief for the Decay of Religion might be attended with much Comfort in Regard to Matth. xviii. 7. ourfelves, |