1 the character and conduct of the lowly Saviour of mankind? Matt. xi. 28-33; xxiii. 1-12. How much calculated are such high sounding titles to swell the pride of frail mortals? Popes, and Bishops, and Parsons are made of like stuff with other men? And then, what shall we say to the secular, and lukewarm condition of the generality of the Clergy of the land?—to the patronage of benefices before mentioned?-to the common and abominable sale of livings?—to our simoniacal contracts?—our sinecures, pluralities, non-residences?*-to our declaring we more bloody, libidinous, and detestable head of the church, than was Henry VIII. the self-created Pope of our own ecclesiastical constitution. Shew me a worse man among all that abhorred race, or a more consummate tyrant over the consciences of men. *The Curates of our church, in many cases are as culpable with respect to non-residence, as the Bishops and Rectors, and Vicars. In my own neighbourhood, and mostly in my own parish, we have upwards of twelve chapels, where there is no resident Clergyman. It is much the same in other parts of the kingdom. The reader will find several of these defects of the Church of England, touched upon by Burnet in the conclusion of the history of his Own Times.-I add, My lord S-h has got a mistress, of whom he is grown weary. On condition the Rev. A. B. will marry her and make her an honest woman, he shall be Rector of such a living in the gift of his lordship. The living of C-h is in the gift of Mr. G-t; he has got a daughter; if the Rev. Ch. P-s will marry her, he shall be presented to the church. Mr. G-n has a son, who is neither fit for law, physic, or the army. He has such a living in his patronage. This rip of a son shall be trained to the church, and be the incumbent of the family Rectory. My Lord D-n has got four sons; one shall enjoy the title and estate; another shall go into the army, and be made a general; another shall go to sea, and become an admiral; the fourth shall be trained to the church, and be promoted to a bishopric. Sir P―r P―r has left his gift in a Rectory, of the value of 2000 pounds a year. The Rev. G. W. agrees to give him five thousand pounds in hand, and five hundred a year for ten years. In this manner are daily bartered the souls of men, like sheep in a market! Is it probable that such a state of things should be maintained for many ages or years longer? Surely the Legislature of the country ought to take these abuses into consideration, and endeavour to remove them. If there be a God who judgeth the earth, he cannot look upon such abominations with indifference. are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel, when we are moved by nothing more than a desire to obtain a goodliving, and, perhaps, even deny that there is any Holy Ghost? -to our reading one species of doctrines in the desk, and preaching directly opposite in the pulpit. Abundance of persons, moreover, object to several things in the 39 Articles of Religion-to several things in the book of Homilies-and, above all, to the imposition of subscription to any human creeds and explications of doctrines whatever.* No man, or set of men upon earth, as it seems to them, has a right to demand any such thing of a fellow Christian, Abuses of a similar kind have brought destruction upon other countries, and shall England alone be permitted thus to play the devil, and no notice taken of us by the moral governour of the world? Such things are indefensible, and make one blush for the church, in which it is possible they should take place. The valuable preferments in our Church, are almost universally obtained by money, or by interest; merit having little or nothing to do in the business. There are, however, several exceptions to this general rule, under the government of his present Majesty. But, my indignation constrains me to add, that Maurice, the present worthy author of Indian Antiquities, &c. &c.-O shame to a venal age!-is left to starve upon a distant and laborious curacy fifty pounds a year. See his own account in the History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 119, 120, quarto. "Ye bards of Britain, break the useless lyre, And rend, disdainful, your detested lays; of See Maurice's fine elegiac Poem on the death of Sir Wm. Jones. * It may be farther observed, that subscription to the 39 Articles hath kept many a good man out of the church, but not many bad ones. "The requiring subscription to the thirty-nine articles," Bishop Burnet says, "is a great imposition.' I remember an anecdote concerning the famous William Whiston and Lord Chancellor King, which is not foreign to our purpose. Whiston being one day in discourse with the Chancellor, who was brought up a dissenter at Exeter, but had conformed, a debate arose about signing articles which men do not believe, for the sake of preferment. This the Chancellor openly justified, “because," said he, "we must not lose our usefulness for scruples." Whiston, who was quite of an opposite opinion, asked his lordship, "If in his court they allowed of such prevarication?" He answered, "We do not." "Then," said Whiston, "suppose God Almighty should be as just in the next world, as my lord Chancellor is in this, where are we then?” Can any thing in the whole absurd system of Popery be more improper, than to make every young man, without exception, subscribe, when he becomes a member of either of our English universities, he believes from his soul, ex animo, that every thing contained in the articles, homilies, common prayer, and offices of ordination, is agreeable to the word of God? when in all ordinary cases, he has never seriously and attentively read either one or another of them? How is it likely, that a boy, raw from school, should be competent to such a task? And, if he is to subscribe upon the faith of others, on the same principle he may subscribe to the Mass-book, the Koran, or any other book whatever. After a careful examination, I, for my own part, am constrained to object, pede et manu, to several things in the 141 Canon, and consider the requirement, on oath, of canonical obedience to the Bishop of the diocese where we officiate, as one of the most detestable instances of antichristian imposition that ever was exercised over a body of Clergy.* And yet, after we have gotten our education, at a considerable expence, possibly at the expence of our whole fortune, we must take this abhorred oath, or renounce the profession to which we have been trained, after our fortune, with which we should have begun business, is gone, and the proper time of life expired. These things ought not so to be. Let it be observed, however, that this is not the fault of the Bishops, but of the Constitution. It is one of the existing laws of the establishment, and cannot be dispensed with as things now stand; and the Bishops are as much bound to administer the oath, as we are to take it. Moreover, there are not a few persons again, who object to some things in the Baptismal office-in the office of Confirmation-in the office for the sick-in the Communion *The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 38th, 58th, 72d, 139th, 140th, and 141st, Canons, are most of them peculiarly objectionable. Prior to experience, it would appear highly incredible, that conscientious and liberal-minded Clergymen should be able to swear such kind of obedience. The good Lord pardon his servants, for we surely consider not what we do. Let any man seriously read, and soberly consider these several Canons, and then judge of their tendency. They contain the very worst part of popery, that is, a spirit of infallibility. They proceed, at least, upon the infallibility of our own church, while we disavow that infallibility, and condemn the pretension in the church of Rome. office-in the Ordination office-in the Burial office-in the Common Prayer-in the Litany-in Athanasius's Creed -in the Calendar-in our Cathedral worship-in our Spiritual courts-in the management of our Briefs.* * Many persons have an objection to contribute any thing to Briefs, because they suppose a principal part of the money collected goes into the hands of improper persons. The usual charges attending them, with the collections thereupon, will be best understood from the instance given in Burne's Ecclesiastical Law. For the parish church of Ravenstondale, in the county of Westmoreland. Lodging the certificate ...... ..... Printing and paper .... £. s. d. Portage to and from the stampers ..... Portage to the waggons Carriage to the undertaker at Stafford Postage of letters and certificate Total of the patent charges Salary for 9986 briefs at 6d. each Additional salary for London The expence of a brief for St. Mary's Church, in Colchester, is stated in the Gentleman's Mag. for Feb. 1788, at 5461. 19s. 10d. Thus we see, that according to the more moderate of these cases, if ten briefs are issued in the course of a year, there would be collected upon them the sum of 61461. 7s. 6d. of which 33081. 5s. is expended in clearing 28381. 2s. 6d. for the ten charitable purposes. But if we take the more extended of these cases, the expence of collecting ten briefs would be 54691. 18s. 4d. which is within 6761. 9s. 2d. of the whole money in the former case collected? There is a deduction of a similar kind from public money in St. Michael's Chapel in this town. Fifty pounds a year are ordered by royal grant, to be paid out of the Exchequer to the Mayor of the corporation, for the time being, for the use of the Minister, without fee or reward. Instead of fifty, however, he never receives more than three and thirty. Seventeen pounds are deducted for fees of office. So much for, "without fee or reward!" Charitable dona -in the Test and Corporation Acts*-in our Tithe laws.f There are some again, who earnestly deplore our total want of discipline, and our incomplete toleration-that our Church holds out other terms of communion than the Scripture hath enjoined—and that she is a mightier encourager of ambition among the superior orders of the Clergy, by the several ranks, degrees, honours, and emoluments, which prevail among us. They are firmly persuaded, that the people of every age and country have an unalienable right to choose their own ministers; and that no king, no ruler, no bishop, no lord, no gentleman, no man, or body of men upon earth, has any just claim whatever, to dictate, who shall administer to them in the concerns of their salvation; or to say-You shall think this, believe that, worship here, or abstain from worshipping there. tions, of every kind, should be reduced as little as possible by those through whose hands they must naturally pass. An undue deduction is a sort of sacrilege, and must be accounted for as such before the Judge Supreme. The number of Church and Chapel Wardens in England and Wales must be considerably above 20,000. Every one of these takes a solemn oath when he enters upon his office. And who will undertake to prove that nine in ten of these church-officers are not perjured? Certain it is, that the oath is of such a nature, it is next to an impossibility to keep it inviolate. Very few of those gen tlemen ever attempt to fulfil their engagements. They make no efforts to avoid the grievous sin of perjury. *"Hast thou by statute, shov'd from its design, The Saviour's feast, his own blest bread and wine, An office-key, a picklock to a place, Cowper's Poems, vol. 1. p. 122. See Dr. Sherlock, Dean of Chichester, in favour of the above two Acts, and Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, in answer to Sherlock. This celebrated Bishop used to say, "Our liturgical forms ought to be revised and amended, only for our own sakes, though there were no Dissenters in the land." + See the article Tithe in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law; whence it appears that Tithes were not paid in England till the eighth century, and were then given to the Clergy by an act of tyrannical power and usurpation, by two of our Popish and superstitious kings; and, in one of the instances, as a commutation for murder. |