.

"Whatever truth there may be in the proposition which asserts that the multitude is fond of innovation, I think that the proposition which asserts that the priesthood is averse from reformation, is far more generally true."* This is the cause. They who have the power of reforming, are afraid to touch the fabric. They are afraid to remove one stone however decayed, lest another and another should be loosened, until the fabric, as a political institution, should fall. Let us hear again episcopal evidence. Bishop Porteous informs us, that himself with some other clergymen, (amongst whom were Dr. Percy and Dr. York, both subsequently bishops,) attempted to induce the bishops to alter some things "which all reasonable persons agreed stood in need of amendment." The answer given by Archbishop Cornwallis was exactly to the purpose-"I have consulted, severally, my brethren the bishops; and it is the opinion of the bench in general, that nothing can in prudence be done in the matter."+ Here is no attempt to deny the existence of the evils-no attempt to show that they ought not to be amended, but only that it would not "be prudent" to amend them. What were these considerations of prudence? Did they respect religion? Is it prudent to purify religious offices? Or did they respect the temporal privileges of the Church? No man surely can doubt, that if the Church had been a religious institution only, its heads would have thought it both prudent and right to amend it.

The matters to which Bishop Porteous called the attention of the bench were," the Liturgy, but especially the Articles." These Articles afford an extraordinary illustration of that tendency to resist improvement of which we speak.

"The requiring subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles is a great imposition." ‡ "Do the Articles of the Church of England want a revisal? — Undoubtedly."§- In 1772, a

* Bishop Watson: Misc. Tracts, v. 2.

+ Works of Bishop Porteous: vol. 1.

Bishop Burnet: Hist. Own Times, v. 2, p. 634.

§ Bishop Watson: Misc. Tracts, v.

2, p. 17.

clerical position was presented to the House of Commons for relief upon the subject of subscription: and what were the sentiments of the House respecting the Articles? One member said "I am persuaded they are not warranted by Scripture, and I am sure they cannot be reconciled to common sense.' Another-" They are contradicted, absurd, several of them damnable, not only in a religious and speculative light, but also in a moral and practical view."† Another-" The Articles, I am sure, want a revisal; because several of them are heterodox and absurd, warranted neither by reason nor by Scripture. Many of them seem calculated for keeping out of the Church all but those who will subscribe any thing, and sacrifice every consideration to the mammon of unrighteousness."+ And a fourth said-"Some of them are, in my opinion, unfounded in, some of them inconsistent with, reason and Scripture; and some of them subversive of the very genius and design of the Gospel." The Articles found it appears, in the House of Commons one, and one only defender; and that one was Sir Roger Newdigate, the member for Oxford.||—And thus a" Church of Christ" retains in its bosom that which is confessedly irrational, inconsistent with Scripture, contradictory, absurd, subversive of the very genius of the Gospel :-for what? Because the Church is allied to the State; because it is a Religious Establishment.

There is such an interest, an importance, an awfulness in these things, resulting both from their effects and the responsibility which they entail, that I would accumulate upon the general necessity for reformation some additional testimonies.

In 1746 was presented to the convocation, "Free and

*Lord George Germain.

Lord John Cavendish.

Sir William Meredith. § Sir George Sackville.

Parl. Hist. v. 17. The petition, after all this, was rejected by two hundred and seventeen votes against seventy-one. Can anything more clearly indicate the fear of reforming?-a fear that extends itself to the State, because the State thinks (with reason or without it) that to endanger the stability of the Church were to endanger its own.

11

Candid Disquisitions by Dutiful Sons of the Church," in which they say, "Our duty seems as clear as our obligations to it are cogent; and is, in one word, to reform." Of this book Archdeacon Blackburn tells us that it was treated with "much contempt and scorn by those who ought to have paid the greatest regard to the subject of it;" and that "it caused the forms of the church to be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, where they have been found greatly wanting."*

"Our confirmations, and I may add even our ordinations for the sacred ministry are dwindled into painful and disgusting ceremonies, as they are usually administered."+

Another archdeacon, who was not only a friend of the Church but a public advocate of Religious Establishments, says, "Reflection, we hope, in some, and time we are sure in all, will reconcile men to alterations established in reason. If there be any danger it is from some of the clergy, who would rather suffer the vineyard to be overgrown with weeds than stir the ground; or, what is worse, call these weeds the fairest flowers in the garden." This is strong language: that which succeeds it is stronger still. "If we are to wait for improvement till the cool, the calm, the discreet part of mankind begin it; till church governors solicit, or ministers of state propose it I will venture to pronounce, that (without His interposition with whom nothing is impossible) we may remain as we are till the renovation of all things." Why "Church governors" and "ministers of State" should be so peculiarly backward to improve, is easily known. Ministers of State are more anxious for the consolidation of their power than for the amendment of Churches; and Church governors are more anxious to benefit themselves by consolidating that power, than to reform the system of which they are the heads. But let no man anticipate that we shall indeed remain as we

*The Confessional.

Simpson's Plea.

"A Defence of the Considerations on the propriety of requiring a subscription to Articles of Faith." By Dr. Paley: p. 35.

are till the renovation of all things. The work will be done though these refuse to do it. "If," says a statesman, "the friends of the Church, instead of taking the lead in a mild reform of abuses, contend obstinately for their protection, and treat every man as an enemy who aims at reform, they will certainly be overpowered at last, and the correction applied by those who will apply it with no sparing hand."* If these declarations be true (and who will even question their truth ?) we may be allowed, without any pretensions to extraordinary sagacity, to add another: that to these unsparing correctors. the work will assuredly be assigned. How infatuated, then, the policy of refusing reformation even if policy only wereconcerned !

The next point in which the effect of the State alliance is injurious to the Church itself is by its effects upon the ministry.

"The

It is manifest that where there are such powerful motives of interest to assume the ministerial office, and where there are such facilities for the admission of unfit men-unfit men will often be admitted. Human nature is very stationary, and kindred results arose very many centuries ago. attainments of the clergy in the first ages of the Anglo-Saxon church were very considerable. But a great and total degeneracy took place during the latter years of the Heptarchy, and for two generations after the union of its kingdoms." And why? Because "mere worldly views operated upon a great proportion of them; no other way of life offered so fair a prospect of power to the ambitious, of security to the prudent, of tranquility and ease to the easy-minded." + -Such views still operate, and they still produce kindred effects.

It is manifest, that if men undertake the office of Christian teachers not from earnestness in the cause, but from the

* Letters on the subject of the British and Foreign Bible Society by the present Lord Bexley.

Southey: Book of the Church, c. 6.

desire of profit or power, or ease, the office will frequently be ill discharged. Persons who possess little of the Christian minister but the name, will undertake to guide the flock, and hence it is inevitable that the ministry, as a body, will become reduced in the scale of religious excellence. So habitual is the system of undertaking the office for the sake of its emoluments, that men have begun to avow the motive and to defend it. "It is no reproach to the Church to say that it is supplied with ministers by the emoluments it affords."* Would it not have been a reproach to the first Christian Churches, or could it have been said of them at all? Does he who enters the Church for the sake of its advantages enter it" of a ready mind?"-But the more lucrative offices of the Church are talked of with much familiarity as "prizes," much in the same manner as we talk of prizes in a lottery. "The same fund produces more effect—when distributed into prizes of different value than when divided into equal shares." + This "effect" is described as being "both an allurement to men of talents to enter into the Church, and as a stimulus to the industry of those who are already in it." But every man knows that talent and industry are not the only nor the chief things which obtain for a person the prizes of the Church. There is more of accuracy in the parallel passage of another moralist. "The medical profession does not possess so many splendid prizes as the Church and the Bar, and on that account, perhaps, is rarely, if ever, pursued by young men of noble families." Here is the point: it is rather to noble families than to talent and industry, that the prizes are awarded. There are, indeed, rich preferments, but these, it is observed, do not usually fall to merit as the reward of it, but are lavished where interest and family connection put in their irresistible claim."§ That plain-speaking man Bishop Warburton writes to his friend Hurd," Reckon upon it that Durham goes to some noble ecclesiastic. 'Tis a morsel,

* Knox's Essays, No. 18. Gisborne's Duties of Men.

Mor. and Pol. Phil. b. 6, c. 10. § Knox's Essays, No. 53.