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 West

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 3308l. 5s. is expended in clearing 28381. 2s. 6d. for the ten charitable purposes.

But if we take the more extended of these cases, the e pence 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

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in the Test and Corporation Acts-in our in our Tithe laws +.

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 mighty 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 persuadad, 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 gentlemen 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,
And made the symbols of atoning grace,

An office-key, a picklock to a place,
That Infidels may prove their title good
By an oath dipp'd in sacramental blood?
A blot that will be still a blot, in spite
Of all that grave apologists may write,
And though a Bishop toil to cleanse the stain,
He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain."

COWFER'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 fiturgical 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.

i

*

For much more than a thousand years, the Christian world was a stranger to religious liberty. Even Toleration was unknown till about a century ago. The Clergy, especially, have usually been unfriendly to religious liberty. And when the Act of Toleration was obtained in King WILLIAM's time, great numbers of men were much against it.-It appears to me, however, that both the name and thing are inconsistent with the very nature of the Gospel of CHRIST. For, have not I as much right to controul 'you in your religious concerns, as you have to controul me? To talk of tolerating implies an authority over me. Yet, who but CHRIST has any such authority? He is a tyrant, a very pope, who pretends to any such thing. These matters will be better understood by and by. The whole Christian world lay in darkness, upon this subject, we have observed, for many ages. Dr. OWEN was the first I am acquainted with, who wrote in favour of it, in the year 1648. MILTON followed him about the year 1658, in his Treatise of the Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. And the immortal LOCKE followed them both with his golden Treatise on Toleration in 1689. But notwithstanding these, and many other works which have since been written on the same subject, much still remains to be done in this country. LoCKE's book has not yet been generally read and understood. Though we have had the honour of being among the first of the nations, which ob tained a large portion of civil and religious freedom, others are now taking the lead of us, on the rights of conscience. And it does not appear to many, that we ever can be a thoroughly united and happy people, till every good subject enjoys equal civil privileges, without any regard to religious sects and opinions. If a man be a peaceable, industrious, moral, and religious person, and an obedient subject to the civil government under which he lives, let his religious views of things be what they may, he seems to have a just claim to the enjoyment of every office, privilege, and emolument of that government. And till this is in fact the case, I apprehend, there never can be a settled state of things. There will be an eternal enmity between the governing and the governed; an everlasting struggle for superiority. But when every member of society enjoys equal privileges with his fellow members, the bone of contention is removed, and there is nothing for which they should any longer be at

enmity. Equal and impartial liberty; equal privileges ́and emoluments, are, or should be, the birth-right of every member of civil society; and would be the glory of any government to bestow upon all its serious, religious, and morally-acting citizens, without any regard to the sect or party to which they belong. Talents and integrity alone should be the sine qua nons to recommend any man to the notice of people in power. This, it should seem, would make us a united and happy people.

As we have been speaking on the subject of the Patronage of Livings, it may be worth while still farther to observe, that the Bishop of -- enjoys very considerable privileges of this nature, which have, on a late occasion, been shamefully abused. Not less than 130 presentations belong to him! A certain episcopal Gentleman of that diocese, knowing the extensive emoluments he was likely to be possessed of in this way, brought his son up to the church; and when he came of proper age, bestowed first one living upon him, and then another, as they became vacant, to a very considerable amount, which this son enjoys at this day. He is now one of our dignified Clergymen, and in possession of a very unreasonable number of valuable preferments, to most of which he pays extremely little personal attention. He takes care, however, to secure the. fleece, the devil may take the flock. John x. 1-18.

Another Son of AARON, in a neighbouring district, which might be named, possesses preferments in the church, by the procurement of his episcopal father, to the amount of 2000 pounds a year. He has for a long season been extremely attentive to his tythes; but hardly ever man paid less attention to the salvation of the souls of his people, and the sacred duties of his office. Seldom, indeed, does he appear among the former, less frequently still does he attend the proper duties of the latter. Fifty or sixty pounds a year he reluctantly pays to a journeyman Parson, to supply his own lack of service; but like master, like man; they are a miserable couple together; the one is penurious, the other dissolute. What must the condition of the flock be, under the care of two such wretched shepherds?

I will mention a third curious instance of clerical sagacity. A certain Rectory not fifty miles from this place, is said to

be of the value of near 2000 pounds a year. A kind young lady, whose friends have sufficient interest with the patron, falls in love with a wicked, swearing, dashing officer in the army, and marries him. That a comfortable maintenance

may be secured for the happy pair, it is agreed, that the gentleman shall change the colour of his clothes, apply bimself to the attainment of a smattering of Latin and Greek, and admit himself a member of one of our famous Universities. There he actually now is, qualifying himself to take possession of the bouncing Benefice. The incumbent being dead, a pliable parson is put in for a time as a locum tenens. And when the quandum officer has obtained his proper credentials, this worthy Levite must resign all his fat vigs in favour of this Son of Mars. The white washed officer will then come forward, and declare in the face of GOD and man, with a lie in his mouth, that "he trusts he is moved by the HOLY GHOST to preach the gospel."

If these were solitary instances of improper proceedings in church-matters, it would not be worth while to notice them in this manner. But, alas! they are only specimens of what is by no means uncommon, where valuable livings are concerned. O! were the business of private Patronage and Presentation thoroughly investigated, and laid before the public, the picture would be highly disgusting to every serious mind, and call for reformation with a tone not easy to be resisted..

It is remarkable, that the ecclesiastical and civil parts of our constitution are, in some respects, in opposition one to the other; for the former, in the book of Homilies, especially, holds forth the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, while the latter is founded, by the compact at the Revolution, on the reciprocal rights of King and People. In this respect, therefore, as well as in several others, a reformation is highly desirable. Every Clergyman particularly should see and feel this, who is obliged to subscribe ex animo, that all and every thing contained in the book of Common Prayer, &c. is agreeable to the Sacred Writings.

I add a second circumstance, which seems a hardship to the enlightened and conscientious part of the Clergy. When we baptize children, we thank GOD "that it hath pleased him to regenerate them with the HOLY SPIRIT,