ANother Three Months are now run-out, and the whole twelve of your Lordship's Great Office at the Eve of their Expiring; while our poor Orphans remain in the same reliefless State I left them in with your Lordship, in my Letter of the 5th. of April last. Wherein nothing more was propos'd of Trouble to your Lordship towards the remedying it (and that too of your Lordship's own seeking) than the accompanying with your Authority my Report thereof to the Gentlemen of Christ-Hospital (to whom it was specially di­rected) and to the Body-Corporate of the City, which, as I have heretofore noted, stands originally answerable for the same, to the Crown.

In neither of which, though abundantly apply'd-to in both, has your Lordship thought fit to express any regard to your Vndertaking to me. But so much the contrary; as to have arraign'd my late Me­morial to you concerning it (even after your Own and the Court of Aldermen's solemn Thanks to me for it) as a Libel, and the only Oc­casion of the No-Voice given your Lordship, at the late Parliament-Election for the City. And this deliver'd me from your Lordship, and my Lady Mayoress too, as your Joint-Message, by the same Worthy Citi­zen, and Member both of your Common Council and Hospital, whom your self was first pleased to employ to me, on those Pious Errands I was misled by, to the submitting the Execution of this Matter singly to your Lordship.

My Lord, I shall not offer at the asking-after, or even aiming at the Ground of this your so extraordinary Dealing, in a Cause of so Religious an Import; as leaving that to God, the City, and your Self, to be reckon'd-for. It shall suffice me, My Lord, to observe, That it has arisen from neither of those Causes, whereto the Court of Aldermen were led to joyn with your Lordship in the assigning it, and in the yet unper­form'd Undertaking for its Recovery; your Sickness, I mean, My Lord, and Sir Tho. Stamp's Absence.

[Page] Give me leave only, to bewail the Consequences of it to the Poor; whatever it may end-in to the City. Namely, the Continuance here­by occasion'd to the Imposure upon the Gentlemen of the Hospital; whose better Information could not but e're this have produc'd some good Ef­fects towards its Relief. Next, the more confirm'd Admission of their Methods, whose Interest (and therefore Business) it seems to be, to sup­press that Information. And lastly, the rend'ring the Poverty, Disor­ders, and Impieties of the Place, so much less superable than they ap­pear'd to me when first laid before your Lordship; as to put me beyond all Hopes of their Redress, from any lower Hand than that of a Royal Visitation.

The Power of which (after so glorious a Proof of it as I have lately seen, to the lasting Honour of his Lordship, the present Lord Chancellor, in the Case of St. Katherines) I cannot, on behalf of our distress'd Orphans, and in right to their Holy Benefactors, but bless Almighty God for; and henceforward direct my self wholly to; without offering either your Lordship, my Lord Elect your Honourable Successor, his Brethren the Court of Aldermen, the Gentlemen of the Hospital, or my Self, the Interruptions I have been so long driven, at the end of every Three Months, fruitlesly to repeat on this Subject. But apply my self to the speedy bringing-up to this Day what is now behind of my Report, for the Six Months your Lordship has thus unhappily added to the Time I had last adjusted it to, relating to the Moral Part of this House's Misery: In order to such Vse to be made thereof, as a like Royal Inspection may, I trust, find it convertible to.

It remains; That in taking my Leave of your Lordship (which I would do with all the Respect due to your Lordship's Just Character) I beg you to consider, Whether what I either have done, am now doing, or may have further to do, in Exposing my Observations and Sentiments in this Matter, be either more or other, than what my Cha [...]ge as a Go­vernour obliges me to; and what my self alone, through my closer Ap­plications to the Service of the House, am inlighten'd to do; or otherwhere, than by my immediate Duty I am bound; or, which is yet more, in any other manner, than what is alone left me to do it in.

Especially, after the Miscarriage of all other Methods (Personal and Writ­ten) employ'd by me with those I thought most concern'd to improve them; whether at their Committees and Courts, or separately as Private Governours and Superior Ministers; viz. the Treasurer, President, and last of all your Lordship, both alone, and in Conjunction with your Brethren the Alder­men: For preventing ( if possible) the obvious Consequences of my being compell'd to the carrying them elsewhere.

And even this too, with such a degree of Tenderness, as, after all that has been said of its being made the Entertainment of Coffee-houses, (to the Offence, I find, of my Lady Mayoress as well as your Self, and not a little to my own too, for the sake of the Poor,) to stand ready with a Reward of Five Pounds to whoever shall shew me any one of my Printed Copies, other than what were strictly deliver'd by Mr. Town-Clerk to Your Self, the Aldermen, and the Assistants of that Court; and those severally indors'd by a Hand of my own, with the Name of each Person intitled to the same.

[Page] And if this, My Lord, be a Libel; I shall not undertake for its being my last, where nothing gentler will be hearken'd to; rather than be conscious of an approaching Ruin to a Foundation like this I'm concern'd for, and be Dumb.

Next, My Lord, for avoiding any unnecessary Repetition of Trouble to the Court now sitting, where Your Lordship has yet the Honour of Pre­siding; permit me to pray, That in the Notice you may see reasonable to take there, of this Paper: You will please to be its Remenbrancer, in what, for the Considerations assign'd in my last, I then bespoke its Fa­vour in reference to the disburthening me of a Charge, in which I am at the end of any Hopes of seeing my self further serviceable.

Lastly, let it be no Offence to Your Lordship, that I end with an Observa­tion, impossible for me to over-look. Namely; That while I am here la­menting the Misfortune of our Poor, from the Suppression of this Report of mine, calculated for their Relief; I find so much of it (and so much on­ly) as seemed to me the properest Introduction to it, in Advancement of Charity; transferr'd in terminis to the Head of a Sermon and made the Text of it, preach'd before your Lordship, and published by Your Command, in express Diminution thereof. And not that only; but to the doing vio­lence to the Memory of One (scarce yet Cold in his Grave) whose Good Works have been too many and too conspicuous, not to have covered Er­rors of a much greater Magnitude (for no Man thought him Infallible) than any I hear him charg'd with. Especially, in a Point of Faith; wherein 'tis hard to say, which raised the greater Dust, and most to the offence of Weaker Eyes: His single Departure from the Doctrine of Our Church, towards the Wrong; or that of our own Doctors from One ano­ther, in their Determinations touching the Right.

So far only I shall adventure to interpose, in the particular Doctrine advanced in this Sermon by Your Lordship's Chaplain (whom I take to be the first that ever raised it from that Text) as with all deference to recommend it back to Your Lordship, with this only Improvement, for the rendring it more apposite and edifying in the present Case; Viz. That the Neglect of the Poor is as little an Evidence of a True Faith, in any Body else; as the Care of them is a Justification of a Mistaken one, in Mr. Fermin.