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III. A lamentable deficiency exists in the salary of many parishes in the Established church. Many perpetual curacies, charged with the care of an extensive population, the lands of which are in the possession of laymen, yield an income of less than 30%. a year. By the official returns of the small livings in England and Wales in 1810, it appears that 3,998 are under the value of 150l. a year. Of these,

12 do not exceed 10l. a year,

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In the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, the parishes of which average more than 2000 inhabitants, all of the Church of England, the clergy are constant in their residence, conscientious in the discharge of their office, and exemplary in their conduct. So attached are the people to the performance of their religious duties, that more than one thousand persons have presented themselves at the altar, on the two Easter Sundays in a country parish in Jersey, and have all received the Sacrament from the hands of one clergyman. Nor are the public services of the clergy confined to their clerical functions. The invasion of that island in 1779 was chiefly defeated by the skill of one clergyman, and that of 1781 by the spirited conduct of another. It is not generally known, but the Government should be often reminded, that the great tithes constitute the salary of the Governors, and that the clergy are therefore reduced to an income very inadequate to their merits.

The present funds for the increase of small livings are incommensurate to the magnitude of the object; and the late Parliamentary grants have afforded but an inconsiderable addition. The tenths, which were originally received by the High Priest from the Levites, were levied by the Pope on ecclesiastical livings, and, after the Reformation, fell, together with the first fruits, to the Crown. These funds were, by the pious munificence of Queen Anne, appropriated to the increase of small livings. But the amount of these, fixed in the reign of Edward I, is at present little more than nominal. The abolition of the first fruits would relieve the clergy from a burden, which in the case of small livings is often borne with difficulty. Instead of a tenth, if a twentieth of the net produce of the livings were impartially' levied, every living would soon be provided with a decent subsistence. But this could not be done with justice, unless some equivalent advantages, or some proportionate exemptions, were granted to the clergy.-If no clergyman

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To this contribution lay-impropriations ought, of course, to be subject. 2 The abolition of Moduses would be expedient on every principle, not only of equity, but of coinmon sense.

undertook the care of more than one church with double, or of two with single, duty, the salary of perpetual curacies in the patronage of laymen would soon be raised to a reasonable amount without any Episcopal or Parliamentary interference.

IV. The internal causes of some of the difficulties, under which the clergy often labor, arise from the changes, which time has introduced into the exercise of the offices of society, and into the mild spirit of our Courts of law, since the enactment of the ecclesiastical Canons. The gentleness of liberality, of candor, and of conciliation, has gradually smoothed the features of institutions, in their origin necessarily strict and severe. But a clergyman is sometimes perplexed in the adoption of the letter or the spirit in his practice. It happens not unfrequently that he is convinced of the propriety of following the canon and the rubric: but the fear of singularity and of obloquy deters him from his purpose. The offices of Baptism, of Burial, and of the Communion' enjoin precautions and conditions, of which the conscientious observer might be involved in legal discussions. The wholesome strictness of the primitive Church, the relaxation of which is lamented in the rubric to the office of Commination, prevented by the fear of public exposure the commission of many sins, which is tolerated by the false delicacy of the age; which the clergy lament, but which they cannot expose without the danger of more than evil report.

In a late publication, professing to point out, and to correct, abuses in the Established Church, a proposal is made to take one tenth from the amount of every benefice, without any equivalent to the Clergy, for the increase of small livings. The Author is probably not aware of the burdens pressing on the Clergy, whose profession obliges them to maintain a respectable rank in Society, to exercise hospitality, and to administer pecuniary as well as spiritual comfort to the miserable objects of their care. He does not know that every prudent Clergyman, who has a family, lays out more than a tenth of his income to preserve them from the horrors of indigence, when he shall be no more, by the Insurance of his Life. He has not seen the distressing instances of Clergymen, who were reduced, by the necessity of paying the tax on their income, to relinquish their Insurances. He appears to be as much a stranger to the clear revenues, as he is to the meritorious character, of the Established Clergy.

'The Rubric for the Communion was framed by our ancestors for the most pious purposes; but it is now disregarded, by the people from convenience, and by the clergy from delicacy. It would not be difficult to quote cases, in which decisions have been made in opposition to the directions of the Rubric in other offices of the Church. SeeArchdeacon Daubeney's Letter to Sir John Nicholl.

It is still customary in the Church of Scotland for the Minister to distribute tokens of admission to those of his flock, who have signified their intention to receive the Sacrament, a few days before that, on which it is to be administered. These tokens are delivered to those, who worthily apply for the participation of that divine ordinance by the Minister standing at the altar.

V. Another inconvenience, to which the Establishment is exclusively subject, is the difficulties, which obstruct the erection of new places of worship. Among the sectaries, no sooner is the want of a Meeting-house suggested, than a commodious edifice greets the sight; no delay can arise, if the funds are supplied. But the erection of a new Church or Chapel demands the previous assent of the Bishop, Patron, and the Incumbent and the private interests of the two last are sometimes opposed to this division, not only of the right of presentation, but of the income of the benefice. Chapels are indeed frequently built in the Metropolis by private speculation; but these are of partial benefit, for few persons can be admitted, who do not pay for their seats a price adequate to the fair expectations of the proprietors. The Gospel is not preached to the poor. And disputes sometimes arise between the incumbent of the parish and the proprietors of the chapel, on the appointment of a preacher. The proper accommodation of all ranks of people on a scale graduated by the increase of population cannot be committed, consistently with the interests of Religion, into any hands but those of the Bishops, whose knowledge of their dioceses, and whose zeal in the cause of Christianity, render them peculiarly qualified for this purpose.

These causes might perhaps be removed by external regulations. But caution and firmness are equally necessary. The clamors of prejudice and suggestions of temporising inactivity are equally to be disregarded.

THE suggestion of the internal improvements, which might promote the consolidation of our ecclesiastical strength, by checking religious dissention and drawing sectaries into the bosom of the Church of England, is a delicate subject. But firmness and sincerity will disdain to imitate the conduct of those temporisers, who would gladly see errors rectified and abuses removed, but are afraid of injuring their private interest by proposing a correction. If they ever venture to make an inquiry into the truth, they come, like Nicodemus, in the night; they do not speak openly, for fear of the Jews. In this thing they desire to be pardoned, if they bow down themselves when they go into the house of Rimmon. A zealous supporter of the Church of England will not be swayed by pusillanimous views of interest; he will eagerly sacrifice all party views and selfish expectations to the hope of being instrumental in promoting the prosperity of that Establishment, on which he is convinced that the preservation of this country depends.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. This advice of the great founder of the Christian church to its first Ministers is strictly applicable to the Clergy of the Church of England, surrounded not only by the dangers of external hostility, but by perils by their own countrymen, by perils among false brethren.

I. It is a subject of lamentation that an imperfect understanding, or a partial acceptation, of the Articles of our Church should have induced some of the Clergy to adopt the most intolerant and proscriptive tenets of Calvinism. They arrogate to themselves the exclusive title of Gospel Preachers; but in reality they preach not the doctrines of the Gospel, but lay a disproportioned stress on the doctrinal parts of St. Paul's Epistles, without a sufficient regard to his practical deductions. An examination of the progress of the Reformation in this country, and of the genuine Scriptural interpretations of the Articles, would direct their faith and practice in the knowledge and promulgation of the purest tenets and precepts of Christianity.

But this disapprobation of a dangerous doctrine must not be construed into a recommendation of an opposite extreme. This cold, formal, inanimate mode of inculcating mere morality has driven many members of the Church, particularly in the lower ranks of life, to the conventicles of Calvinists and Methodists, where their attention is roused, their imagination struck, and their passions are excited, by warm, familiar appeals, not to their reason, but to their feelings. It is this captivating mode of preaching,

"Which, without passing thro' the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its end at once attains."

But the true end of preaching is to convince the judgment, as
well as to touch the heart; to appeal to the understanding as well
as to the feelings; to inculcate the most beneficent duties of
Christian morality, as well as the most lively principles of Christian
faith. If the history of the opinions and of the modes of preach-
ing in this country is examined, an undulation will be observed,
sometimes rising to the giddy flights of enthusiasm, and sometimes
sinking to the mere enforcement of moral obligations.
At some
periods the Son of God is represented as the only object of faith
and adoration; in the Sermons of other times the name of Jesus
is scarcely mentioned. It seems that at present we are rising
from the latter extreme; many of the clergy, particularly of the
younger part, have adopted a more scriptural illustration of the
subjects of their discourses, and a nearer approximation to the

unsophisticated doctrine of Salvation by Faith. Although they fail not in general to erect on this foundation the edifice of Chris tian works, without which the principle is lifeless, and the system miserably defective, they have been stigmatised by the adherents of morality; and the title of Gospel or Evangelical preacher, which was originally assumed as a badge of Christian excellence, is in danger of being adopted to denote fanaticism and wild enthusiasm. Of this perversion of the sense of words we have instances in politics. Thus the terms of loyalty and patriotism have been used by the calumnies of party in an injurious sense: the former has been applied to friends of corruption and abuses; the latter has been attributed to the factious and the discontented. Thus Gospel preaching has been by some appropriated to the extremes of Calvinism and to Methodism. We may indulge the hope that the time will never come, when the principles of patriotism and loyalty in politics, and of the Gospel in Religion, will be considered as derogatory to the character of a citizen and a Christian. When Ministers shall cease to be Evangelic Ministers, when Preachers shall no longer be Gospel Preachers, then shall we be arrived at those disastrous times, to which our Saviour alludes, in these remarkable words: When the son of man cometh, shall he find Faith on the earth?

By the union of zeal with that knowledge, by which they are so eminently distinguished, the clergy of the Church of England may check the increase of Dissenters. With the patronage of the Establishment to stimulate their diligence; with the testimony of approving conscience, if they make a proper use of the talent committed to their care; with the hope of drawing the blessings of Heaven on their endeavours; with the certainty that their labor will not be in vain in the Lord; they may be animated in the race of exertion to extend the pure and reasonable service of God, and adorn the doctrines of the Redeemer. So many advantages, external and internal; so much dignity in her establishment, so much soundness in her tenets, characterise the Church of England, that their united power must be almost irresistible, if they are urged by her Ministers with seriousness, fervor, and perseverance. But in the midst of so much activity in her opponents, her sentinels must not slumber at their post; they must, in the words of the Prophet, stand continually upon the watchtower in the day time, and be set in their wards whole nights.

Let a Clergymen deliver the doctrines of the Gospel with fidelity and with zeal ;-let him preach Repentance towards God, and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and inculcate the practice of Christian works founded on Christian principles; let his

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