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health will admit of exertion; and no one need wait for the concurrence of his brethren. As matters, however, are now managed, a large proportion both of our Bishops and Clergy are, in a very confiderable degree, a ufelefs burden upon the public. We not only do little or no good, but we do a great deal of harm. While we continue dead to the interefts of religion; fubfcribe what we do not believe; read what we do not approve; and fet the pulpit and reading deík at loggerheads one with the other while our doctrines are unevangelical; our spirit lukewarm; cur minds fecular, worldly; our ftudies merely literary, or philofophical; and our conduct immoral; far better would it be the nation were without us, and all our preferments fequeftered to the purposes of the State, as they respectively become vacant, and the people left to provide at their own expence for minifters, as is at prefent among all denominations of Diffenters. In this cafe, minifters in general would both be better provided for, the people would be better served, the Government would gradually obtain confiderable fums of money to aid them in their efforts to fave the country, and all the dumb dogs, the useless and immoral part of the Clergy, would be sent a packing, one to his farm, and another to his merchandife*. Can any rational man fay, that this would be a misfortune to the nation? At least, were I in the Prime Minifter's place, and wanted to raise money for the falvation of the kingdom, as it is well known he must do, I fhould certainly turn my attention to the property of the Church. What need is there that a Bishop fhould enjoy public money to the amount of-from two to twenty thousand pounds a year? and for what? Where is the neceffity too that a private Clergyman fhould hold a living or livings to the amount of one, two, or three thousand pounds a year? I proteft my fagacity cannot difcern either the neceffity or propriety of these thingst. If I might

* Dr. SOUTH very juftly fomewhere fays, if my memory fail me not, that "many a man has run his head against a pulpit, who would have "cut an excellent figure at a plough tail."

+ The ingenious MONTESQUIEU tells us, that "the profperity of religion is different from that of civil government. A celebrated author

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might be permitted to speak from my own feelings, I can truly fay I never took more pains in the ministry, than when I had only fixty pounds a year. Since I have been married and had a family, my income from the church has never amounted to an hundred and twenty pounds a year. Notwithstanding this, I have been, thank God, not only content, but happy. I have laboured hard, studied hard, and, probably, have been as useful, and well fatisfied with my condition as the fatteft rector in all the diocese of Chefter. If any perfon, in the mean time, had bestowed upon me a living of five hundred or a thousand pounds a year, to be fure I fhould have been under great obligation to fuch a perfon, but I very much queftion whether I fhould have been made either a more happy man, or a more useful minifter of the Gospel. It is much more likely, I fhould have been very ferioufly injured, fhould have compofed myself to reft, and cried with the rich fool, Soul, thou haft much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. The Clergy with large preferments are, generally fpeaking, the drones of fociety. They neither write any thing to good purpose, nor do they take any ferious pains in their vocation of preaching the Gospel. If they do write,

fays, that religion may be well in an afflicted state, because affliction is the true ftate of a Chriftian. To which we may add, that the humiliations and difperfion of the Church, the deftruction of her temples, and the perfecutions of her martyrs, are the diftinguished times of her glory. On the contrary, when the appears triumphant in the eye of the world, fhe is generally finking in adverfity."

De la Grand et la Decad des Romains.

Agreeably to this, Bishop NEWTON, in his learned Differtations on the Prophecies, fpeaking of CONSTANTINE's open profeflion of Chriftia nity, fays, "Though it added much to the temporal profperity, yet it contributed little to the fpiritual graces and virtues of Chriftians. It enlarged their revenues, and encreased their endowments; but proved the fatal means of corrupting the doctrine, and relaxing the discipline of the Church.

Vol. 2. p. 164.

This brings to my recollection a ftory of one of the Popes of Rome, who, feeing a large fum of money laying upon his table, faid to one of the Cardinals, "The Church can no longer fay, Silver and gold bave I "none."- No," answered the other, "nor can the Church any longer fay, Take up thy bed and walk.”

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it is ufually fomething foreign to their profeffion; and if they do fometimes hold forth from the pulpit, it is in fuch a way as is calculated to do neither much good nor much harm. Not being truly in earnest for their own falvation, they have but little zeal for the falvation of others*. A reduction of fome of our church-livings, an increase of others, with a prohibition of pluralities, where they are above a certain value, would have fome good effect: but, in my opinion, a ftill better thing for the real interefts of religion would be, to grant the ufe of our churches to the people in the feveral diftricts of the country, to fequefter all the emoluments to the uses of the State, after the death of the prefent incumbents, and to leave the people to provide and pay their own minifters. This would make us look about us. But can any man fuppofe the Gospel of CHRIST itself would be a fufferer by fuch a measure?

• I add here the account that Dr. HARTLEY, one of the wifest and beft of men, a serious member of our church, gives of the ftate of the Clergy, in the year 1749.

"I choofe to fpeak," fays he, " to what falls under the obfervation of all ferious attentive perfons in the kingdom. The fuperior Clergy are, in general, ambitious, and eager in the purfuit of riches; flatterers of the great, and fubfervient to party intereft; negligent of their own particular charges, and alfo of the inferior Clergy, and their immediate charges. The inferior Clergy imitate their fuperiors, and, in general, take little more care of their parishes than barely what is neceffary to avoid the cenfure of the law. And the Clergy, of all ranks, are, in general, either ignorant, or, if they do apply, it is rather to profane learning, to philofophical or political matters, than to the ftudy of the Scriptures, of the oriental languages, of the Fathers, and ecclefiaftical authors, and of the writings of devout men in different ages of the church. I fay this is in general the cafe; that is, far the greater part of the Clergy of all ranks in this kingdom are of this kind."

Obfervations on Man, vol. 2. p. 450. Notwithstanding what I have obferved above, and what is here advanced by this learned man, we have had, in the present age, a few noble exceptions to the general rule.

APPENDIX

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FTER what has been faid in the foregoing Papers, do not fee how I can, either in honour or confcience, continue to officiate any longer as a Minifter of the Gospel in the Establishment of my native country. It appears to me, in my coolest and most confiderate moments, to be, with all its excellencies, a main branch of the anti-chriftian fyftem. It is a ftrange mixture, as has been already obferved, of what is fecular and what is fpiritual. And I ftrongly fufpect, the day is at no very great diftance, when the whole fabric fhall tumble into ruins, and the pure and immortal religion of the Son of GOD rife more bright, lovely, and glorious from its fubverfion*. The several warnings of the Sacred Oracles feem to be of vaft importance, and neceffary to be obferved: Flee out of the midft of Babylon, and deliver every man his foul; be not cut off in ber iniquity; for this is the day of the LORD's vengeance; be will render unto her a recompence. Jer. li. 6.We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forfake her, and let us go every one unto his own country. Ibid. li. 9.-When ye fhall fee the abomination of defolation, spoken of by DANIEL, the prophet, ftand in the holy place, then let them which be in Fude flee to the mountains. Mat. xxiv. 15, 16.-These are only remotely applicable to the bufinefs in hand. following is more directly fo.-I heard a voice from heaven, faying, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, THAT YE BE NOT

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PARTAKERS OF HER SINS, AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES. Rev. xviii. 4.

In this happy country we feem to have many and strong symptoms of political decay: for

"States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane,
"Ev'n as GoD's will and GOD's decree ordain;
"While honour, virtue, piety, bear fway,

"They flourish; and, as thefe decline, decay."

CowPER'S Expoftulation.

In obedience to these injunctions, and under a strong difapprobation of the feveral anti-chriftian circumstances of our own Established Church*. THE GENERAL DOCTRINES OF WHICH I VERY MUCH APPROVE AND ADMIRE, I now, therefore, withdraw; and renounce a fituation, which, in fome refpects, has been extremely eligible. I caft myself again upon the bofom of a gracious PROVIDENCE, which has provided for me all my life long. Hitherto, I must fay, the LORD hath helped me, I have never wanted any manner of thing that has been neceffary to my comfort. And though I neither know what to do, nor whither to go, yet

"The world is all before me, where to choose

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My place of reft, and PROVIDENCE my guide."

This extraordinary ftep the facred dictates of confcience compel me to take. I am truly forry for it. To me few trials were ever equal. I have loved the people among whom I have fo long lived and laboured. And I have every reafon to be fatisfied with their conduct towards me. Neither hath the great Head of the church left us without feals to our miniftry. The appearance of fruit, at times, has been large. And there are fome, no doubt, among the people of our charge, who will be our joy and crown in the great day of the REDEEMER's coming. My friends

THOMAS PAINE observes, that "all national inftitutions of churches, whether Jewish, Chriftian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions fet up to terrify and enflave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

The Jewish inftitution, at leaft, ought to have been excepted in this cenfure. It was unqueftionably divine, and was appointed for the most important purposes, and attended with the moft indifputable evidence.

Another author, much more capable of judging than Mr. PAINE, hath faid, in perfect conformity with my own opinion, that " National Churches are that hay and ftubble, which might be removed without dif ficulty or confufion, from the fabric of religion, by the gentle hand of reformation, but which the infatuation of Ecclefiaftics will leave to be deftroyed by fire. 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13. National churches are that incruftation, which has inveloped, by gradual concretion, the diamond of Christianity; nor can, I fear, the genuine luftre be restored, but by fuch violent efforts as the feparation of fubftances so long and closely conpected must inevitably require."

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