provided for the light, and serious things for the grave. Their money must be had, and, therefore, they must be accommodated. In such churches will be found an heterogeneous mass of all kinds; Jews and Greeks, Barbarians and Scythians, bond and free, all are accommodated, and all combined, until Christ is nothing in any of them.

"A further evil resulting from this, is the separation of religious interests. They thus become opposed to each other, like the competitors of this world. The minister is made the object of a shameful quackery, which places him in positions where his modesty can scarcely be maintained. If he take the infection, the misery is complete. The ambition for worldly respectability will poison all his exertions. It will warp all his views of character, and the bread that was given to feed his body will prove a poison to his soul. He who was a brother will become the rival of his fellow-labourers. Instead of labouring to edify the whole church, he will strive to raise his own department with stones torn out of the adjacent walls. Then the evils will multiply with rapidity, until the swelling bubble bursts, and tells, by the nothingness into which it sinks, the vanity of its fancied greatness.

"It is not supposed, in all this blunder, that the people have suffered their generosity to go beyond their obligation; or, that the minister has gained more than was his due. It is the duty of a people to rescue the man of their own choice from the corrosive influence of worldly care. In order to do this, they must place him in circumstances where he will not be compelled to endure a painful contrast with themselves. He need not be as rich as they, but he must not be exposed to the remark of their dependents, and the contempt of their children. He must be able to be respectable amongst respectable men; to be decent; to educate his children; and to be charitable as well as they, if not to the same extent. His wants are not what he must eat and drink, but what will secure his comfort and usefulness, in the circle in which he moves; and the station to which he is elected. This, in all probability, will require more than he gets from his ambitious people. It is not, therefore, the amount that is given or obtained, that is liable to censure; for if he has more than he needs he can give it away; and should he save a hundred pounds apiece for his children at his decease he would not sin. It is not the amount, therefore, but the motive, which deserves to be condemned. God requires every church to make their pastor as happy as they can; but they must not do it in a spirit of worldly ostentation; nor will he allow them to sacrifice the purity of the Gospel, the discipline of the church, and the spirit of Christianity for the sake of gratifying their worldly ambition.

"The last error to be noticed is, a want of delicacy in performing the duty. This can be entertained by the churches only indirectly. It rests, for the most part, with the subordinate officers. Their station is certainly one of great importance, responsibility, and self-denial. But it is made infinitely more so, by a childish love of power. This gives a sort of exclusiveness to the office, which renders active assistance obtrusive, and explanation painful. From hence, as from a fountain, streams of calamity flow into the churches. The pastor will, of course, expect his share of the common evil. But he often gets a double portion. In some cases he is reduced to the condition of a servant. His stipend is doled out to him irregularly, so that he knows scarcely when to expect it; and sometimes with great uncertainty as to the amount. In A. the pastor was obliged to call at his deacon's shop, and asking for a remittance, after it had long been due, to be told that he must call again; he returned to his distressed family, and called again in a day or two, when he obtained a part, with orders to call again for the rest. In B. C. D., &c. the pastors are obliged to come to the counting-houses of their deacons, like other servants, to be paid before all, as though they had no more feeling than stones. In E. the deacon had been offended at the pastor's refusal to sanction an unjust measure, and withheld his salary to starve him down to submission. In F. and G. the salary of the pastor is regulated by one or more of the deacons alone; who judge of his wants by the

inspection of his affairs, and he is often obliged to borrow before the remittance is due. At H, I, K, L, and M, all through the alphabet, cases occur which form most melancholy instances of human depravity, because they not only include what is unjust and cruel, but the injuries are inflicted on those very men, who live for no other object than the comfort and improvement of their tormentors.

"The cases represented by the letters are known facts, and the last word in the paragraph is strong, but let nothing be misunderstood. The causes of these evils are many and various. The two principal are-first, the characters of the men that are elected as deacons; and secondly, their treatment after their election. In the first place, too much attention is paid, in the choice of deacons, to their worldly circumstances, and too little to their moral and spiritual attainments. And where a worldly man is chosen because he is the richest in the assembly, what can be expected but a worldly and cruel administration. It often happens that the man chosen has risen from obscurity, with all the coarseness of an uncultivated mind, and all the excitement of sudden acquisition. It is scarcely possible, in such a case, that he should not often wound the feelings of his pastor, because he has never learned what delicacy is. It is also undeniable that some of the pastors have to thank themselves for the evils under which they suffer. They resign the sacred dignity of their office to seek the favour of man; and, when once gone, they find it impossible for them to regain it. Here it is easy to descend, but difficult to rise. Every minister ought, therefore, to feel that if he suffer any great wrong, in nine cases out of ten, he has reason to repent rather than complain. Still, there is a duty devolving on every church, to which the members ought to pay a special regard. Thoughtlessness, without any evil intention, will often lead to results which produce pain. It should be the care of the whole church that this never occurred. Each of the members," &c. &c.

"Instead of this, the opposite is most painfully true; sometimes the collection of subscriptions is a laborious task. They are delayed from week to week, and from month to month, until few know when to expect them. The treasurer is overdrawn more than he can afford. All parties are thus forced into difficulties, difficulty produces impatience, grief and injury soon follow; and finally the church is deprived of its pastor, who retires with a broken heart, from a sphere in which he might have finished his days in works of love and mercy."

CLERICAL INCOMES.

THE "Morning Chroniele," the favourite vehicle for all falsehoods against the clergy, insinuates (if a paragraph copied into the "Patriot" of October 21st is truly copied,) that, in the returns of income made by the clergy, many have understated their incomes. No doubt could be felt that the "6 Morning Chronicle" would say this. One who has so often invented wilful falsehoods against the clergy has no other remedy, when they come forward to state the truth, and he is thus put to shame, than to insinuate that they (like himself) are capable of asserting falsehoods wilfully. This will not avail. The "Morning Chronicle" has lost the credit which it once had for its obviously sincere but rabid defence of revolution. It is now sold to the government, and the question is, will they venture to make any such insinuation? If they do not, the "Morning Chronicle" will appear in its true light at once, as still the inventer of wilful falsehoods, but not supported in them by those whose hired organ it is. The simple fact is, that the returns overstate the present incomes of the clergy materially; for they were made when wheat was selling at 157. or 167. a load, while now it is selling for 97. or 10l. At the time, too, the clergy were not allowed to make deductions for assistant curates, payments to Queen Anne's Bounty, for houses, repairs, &c. As a single specimen it may be well to mention, that a living truly returned at 9271. last year, cleared, to the incumbent, 4701. 4 C

VOL. VIII-Nov. 1835.

ADDRESSES TO THE PRIMATE OF IRELAND.

A DR. HINCKS has written a letter to the Bishop of Down and Connor, stating that he did not agree in the address of thanks to the Primate, signed by eightynine clergy of that diocese, insinuating, that many did not sign it at all, that some did so out of a base hope of gain, others from fear, and that their opinion is worth very little, as they were biased by party. His compliments to his diocesan and the Primate are much in the same tone as these to his brethren. There is then a violent attack on Toryism, &c., &c. All this is very intelligible. The "Northern Whig" of October 15th eulogizes this Dr. Hincks for his frankness and fearlessness in attacking the Primate. Nothing, doubtless, can be more "frank and fearless" than supporting the ministry, who are the dispensers of crown patronage! Such letters, and such praise of them, are alike odious.

STEWART'S GEOGRAPHY.

(From a Correspondent.)

IN the British Magazine for this month (p. 323) a mis-statement in Stewart's Geography, as to the church of England being " Lutheran or protestant episcopacy," is corrected. Perhaps you will notice Mr. Stewart's Treatise once more, for the purpose of correcting an equally erroneous statement with regard to Scotland. He says that the presbyterian form of church government was coeval with the Reformation. It was not so. The first reformed church, established by law 15th December, 1567, was governed by Superintendants, who were bishops in all but the title; and, with the full and distinct concurrence of John Knox, and at the request of the clergy themselves, the rank and title of archbishop, bishop, &c., was restored by the convention at Leith, 12th January, 1572; and of the church so established and governed, the episcopal church in Scotland is, in doctrine and polity, the representative. The kirk, or church of Scotland, as she now exists by law, dates only from the Revolution of 1688-more correctly, from the following year.

Dundee, Sept. 20th, 1835.

THE following specimens of the spirit of the dissenting papers are worth notice :

From the "Christian Advocate," Sept. 29.

"One great objection to the Roman-catholic church is, that she refuses the Scriptures to the people; but has the church of England ever evinced any anxiety for their diffusion? And what if, through the influence of Mr. O'Connell, the interdict should be taken off from the word of God? The habit which he has of deciding every question on principle, and not with regard to a paltry expediency, persuades us that his political creed will compel him to put his religious one to the open test of Holy Scripture; and we will venture to predict that Mr. O'Connell will do more to extirpate the anti-scriptural dogmas and practices of popery from his native soil, than all the Orange Lodges, and British Reformation Societies that are, or were, or will be.”

From the "Christian Advocate," Oct. 5th.

"There is but too much reason for believing that the churches of the establishment were yesterday the scene of more hypocrisy than usual. The nature of her liturgy makes this the constant attendant of her worship. From Sabbath to Sabbath, tens of thousands of persons who habitually cherish the spirit of the self-righteous Pharisce are to be heard, as if they were penetrated with an

overwhelming sense of guilt, adopting the self-condemning language of the penitent publican, and stigmatizing themselves with frightful frequency, as "miserable sinners." But this, and others that might easily be named, were not the only acts of wholesale solemn mockery, by which the national church signalized herself on the Sabbath that has just carried its awful record into eternity.

"She pretended to make it a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God, for what is called the Glorious Reformation from popery. But the real motive of the commemoration was to promote political and party purposes. We know, and rejoice in being able to admit, that some of the clergy are truly evangelical men, who do really rejoice in the benefits which did accrue from the instrumentality of the great reformers; but they are comparatively few and uninfluential."

"So far as the established church of this country is concerned, popery was not eradicated, but merely modified. To say that the church of England is altogether as bad as the church of Rome, would be an exaggeration of the fact; but it is no exaggeration, but the naked truth, to affirm, that she has employed all her energies and all her wealth to undermine and destroy evangelical religion, the revival of which, by reviving that on which alone it can be founded, the scripture doctrine of justification by faith, the Reformation promised. She has kept the atonement and merits of Christ completely out of sight, and has substituted in their stead mere external ceremonies, not always, nor nearly always, scriptural, and having no virtue in themselves if they were; and it is upon submission to certain rites, and upon occasional attendance on certain ordinances, that she teaches her deluded disciples to rely for eternity. Nay, in the breasts of the most notorious profligates, she has in innumerable instances excited vain hopes of God's mercy, by giving them the Lord's Supper, on their death-beds, and pronouncing, in their dying ears, the absolution prayer. And yet her priests affect the greatest horror at the elevation of the Host, and presume to talk of the folly of extreme unction. Well might Mr. Binney conclude, that she has 'destroyed more souls, than she has saved!'

"Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat. Only on this principle can we account for the church having selected the printing of the Scriptures in the English tongue, for her war-cry. Here we behold her brandishing, in the face of her rival impostor, a sword- the sword of the Spirit"-which is destined to be sheathed in her own bowels. How soon, who can tell? Not an hour the later, however, for the events of yesterday."

ROMANISM.

(From the "Record," Sept. 24.)

SIR W. BOSWELL, in a letter to Archbishop Laud, dated from the Hague, in 1640, mentioned that above sixty Romish clergymen had gone, within two years, from France, to preach the Scotch covenant and the rules of that kirk, and to spread the same about the northern coasts of England, with the object of effecting the ruin of English episcopacy. Bramhall assures Archbishop Usher, that above a hundred of the Romish clergy were sent into England, by order from Rome, in 1646, and that most of them were soldiers in the army of the Parliament. Even in 1654, he affirms that there were many priests at Paris, preparing to be sent over, under feigned names, some pretending to be Independents, some Anabaptists, and some Presbyterians.

TRINITY CHURCH.

A HYMN by Mr. Montgomery has been printed" to be sung at the opening of Trinity CHURCH,Binfield." This Trinity Church is said to be a dissenting chapel. What next? Is there any peculiar object, by the way, in this assumption?

564

DOCUMENTS.

CRUELTY IN IRELAND.

Extract from Mr. Hobart Seymour's Letter to the Bishop of London,

in Reply to a Letter from Dr. M'Hale.

Ir has been my lot to have spent many years as a working curate of the established church in that very district over which this Dr. M'Hale presides as a Roman-catholic archbishop, and I have had therefore much opportunity for observing the instrumentality employed by him and his priests for the maintenance of the influence of the church of Rome; and I have now presumed to call your Lordship's attention to one paragraph in his letter, which appears to me to express, though in a faint and shadowy manner, the real spirit and feeling which he is encouraging among the people, and which has, unhappily for us, too long impeded that power of expansion,-as a great and virtuous writer has expressed it,-which is inherent to the freedom of thought and march of mind inseparable from protestant principles.

The paragraph to which I allude is as follows:

"Witness the recent abortive exertions of the Achill Missionary Society, that was to renovate the face of the island. In vain were it attempted to seduce the people from the faith of their fathers. A few strolling strangers, such as could be appropriately grouped with the fathers of the first Reforma. tion, was all they could enlist in their ranks. The contemptuous scorn with which the natives treated the pretensions of these ignorant fanatics, if adequately conveyed to your Lordship, would considerably sober your enthusiastic anticipations. Some of the brotherhood have already fled from the bitter derision of the people!-others are preparing to follow their example, finding or feigning a convenient apology in the unwholesomeness of the atmosphere. The Achill mission is already another tale of the numerous failures of fraud and fanaticism, and its buildings now unfinished are like the Tower of Babel, a monument of the folly and presumption of their architects."

This language, my Lord, demands your serious attention, and that of every Christian in England as shadowing forth, inadvertently though truly, the real cause which has impeded the progress of true religion in Ireland. It is unhappily too true, that almost every effort which love of country and love of religion has yet made to enlighten and civilize the mass of the population, has been marred by the bitter and malignant spirit that has been evoked by the priests, so that the blight of failure has too often-though the Achill mission is still a happy exception-fallen upon the labours of those who would serve that afflicted land. In solemn and melancholy truth I say it, and before my God and my country I state it, that it is the Roman-catholic priesthood that have planted this "contemptuous scorn" and this " bitter derision," which is here described as compelling men to fly from the sphere of their labours, in the minds of the people; and I here add the deep conviction of my soul-formed from an experience of ten years in the practical working of the ministry-that nothing whatever has prevented the conversion of a large body of the population except that dark spirit of persecution which is implied in the language of Dr. M'Hale, and which wields in its iron hand the awful terrors of life and death, over the heads and before the eyes of every one who has the moral daring to think for himself, and to assert the rights of conscience.

Here I take my stand. By this statement I am prepared to stand or fall. I shall state a fact to illustrate this :

I once had a parishioner whose name was D, a Roman-catholic schoolmaster, who had been led by the reading of the scriptures to see the errors of the church of Rome. He had frequently attended privately upon me for spiritual instruction, and had avowed his intention of attending openly at the