While we continue dead to the interests of religion; subscribe what we do not believe; read what we do not approve; and set the pulpit and reading desk at loggerheads one with the other: while our doctrines are unevangelical; our spirit lukewarm; our minds secular and worldly; our studies merely literary and philosophical; and our conduct immoral; far bet ter would it be that the nation were without us, and all our preferments sequestered to the purposes of the State, as they respectively become vacant, and the people left to provide at their own expence for ministers, as it is among all denominations of Dissenters. In this case, ministers in general would both be better provided for, the people would be better served, the government would gradually obtain considerable sums of money to aid them in their efforts to save the country, and all the dumb dogs, the useless and immoral part of the clergy, would be sent a packing, one to his farm, another to his merchandize.* Can any rational man say, that this would be a misfortune to the nation? At least, were I in the prime minister's place, and wanted to raise money for the salvation of the kingdom, as it is well known he must do, I should certainly turn my attention to the property of the church. What need is there that a Bishop should enjoy public money to the amount of from two to twenty thousand pounds a year? and for what? Where is the necessity too that a private Clergyman should hold a living or livings to the amount of one, two, or three thousand pounds a year? I protest my sagacity cannot discern either the necessity or propriety of these things.† If I * Dr. South very justly somewhere says, 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 prosperity of religion is different from that of civil government. A celebrated author says, that religion may be well in an afflicted state, because affliction is the true state of a Christian. To which we may add, that the humiliation and dispersion of the Church, the destruction of her temples, and the persecution of her martyrs,.are the distinguishing times of her glory. On the contrary, when she appears triumphant in the eye of the world, she is generally sinking in adversity." De la Grand et la Decad des Romains. Agreeably to this, Bishop Newton, in his learned Dissertations on the Prophecies, speaking of Constantine's open profession of Christianity, says, "Though it added much to the temporal prosperity, yet it contributed little to the spiritual graces and virtues of Christians. It enlarged their revenues, and increased their en might be permitted to speak from my own feelings, I can truly say I never took more pains in the ministry, than when I had only sixty pounds a year. Since I have been married and had a family, my income from the church has never amounted to a 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 satisfied with my condition as the fattest rector in all the diocese of Chester. If any person, in the mean time, had bestowed upon me a living of five hundred or a thousand pounds a year; to be sure I should have been under great obligation to such persons, but I very much question whether I should have been made either a more happy man, or a more useful minister of the Gospel.* It is much more likely I should have been very seriously injured, should have composed my self to rest, and cried with the rich fool, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. The Clergy with large preferments are, generally speaking, the drones of society. They neither write any thing to good purpose, nor do they take any serious pains in their vocation of preaching the Gospel. If they do write, it is usually something foreign to their profession; and if they do sometimes hold forth from the pulpit, it is in such a way as is calculated to do neither much good nor much harm. Not being truly in earnest for their own salvation, they have but little zeal for the salvation of others. A reduction of some dowments; but proved the fatal means of corrupting the doctrine, and relaxing the discipline of the Church."Vol. II. p. 164. * This brings to my recollection a story of one of the Popes of Rome, who, secing a large sum of money lying upon his table, said to one of the Cardinals, "The church can no longer say, Silver and gold have I none."--"No," answered the other, "nor can the church any longer say, Take up thy bed and walk." † I add here the account which Dr. Hartley, one of the wisest and best of men, a serious member of our church, gives of the state of the Clergy, in the year 1749. "I choose to speak," says he, "to what falls under the observation of all serious attentive persons in the kingdom. The superior Clergy are, in general, ambitious and eager in the pursuit of riches; flatterers of the great, and subservient to party interest; negligent of their own particular charges, and also of the inferior Clergy, and their immediate charges. The inferior Clergy imitate their superiors, and, in general, take little or no care of their par U u of our church-livings, an increase of others, with a prohibition of pluralities, where they are above a certain value, would have some good effect, but, in my opinion, a still better thing for the real interests of religion would be, to grant the use of our churches to the people in the several districts of the country, to sequester all the emoluments to the uses of the State, after the death of the present incumbents, and to leave the people to provide and pay their own ministers. This would make us look about us. But can any man suppose, that the Gospel of Christ itself would be a sufferer by such a mea sure? ishes than barely what is necessary to avoid the censure 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 philosophical or political matters, than to the study of the Scriptures, of the orien tal languages, of the Fathers, and ecclesiastical authors, and of the writings of devout men in different ages of the church. I say this is in general the case; that is, far the greater part of the Clergy, of all ranks in this kingdom, are of this kind.' Observations on Man, vol. ÌI. p. 450. Notwithstanding what I have observed 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 II. AFTER What has been said in the foregoing papers, I do not see how I can, either in honour or conscience, continue to officiate any longer as a minister of the gospel in the establishment of my native country. It appears to me, in my coolest and most considerate moments, to be, with all its excellencies, a main branch of the anti-christian system. It is a strange mixture, as hath been already observed, of what is secular and what is spiritual. And I strongly suspect, the day is at no very great distance, when the whole fabric shall tumble into ruins, and the pure and immortal religion of the Son of God rise more bright, lovely, and glorious from its subversion.* The several warnings of the Sacred Oracles seem to be of vast importance, and necessary to be observed: Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the day of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. Jer. li. 6.We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her, and let us go every one to his own country. Ibid. li. 9. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains. Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.-These are only remotely applicable to the business in hand. The following is more directly so.-I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev. xviii. 4. * In this happy country we seem to have many and strong symptoms of political decay: for "States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane, While honour, virtue, piety, bear sway, They flourish; and, as these decline, decay." Cowper's Expostulation. In obedience to these instructions, and under a strong disapprobation of the several anti-christian circumstances of our own established church,* the general doctrines of which I very much approve and admire, I now, therefore, withdraw; and renounce a situation, which, in some respects, has been extremely eligible. I cast myself again upon the bosom of a gracious Providence, which has provided for me all my life long. Hitherto, I must say, the Lord hath helped me. I have never wanted any manner of thing which has been necessary 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 My place of rest, and Providence my guide." This extraordinary step the sacred dictates of conscience compel me to take. I am truly sorry for it. To me few trials were ever equal. I have loved the people among whom I have so long lived and laboured. And I have every reason to be satisfied with their conduct towards me. Neither hath the great Head of the church left us without seals to our ministry. The appearance of fruit, at times, has been large.And there are some, no doubt, among the people of our charge, who will be our joy and crown in that day of the Redeemer's coming. My friends must consider me as called away by an imperious Providence; and, I trust, they will be *Thomas Paine observes, that "all national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." The Jewish institution, at least, ought to have been excepted in this censure. It was unquestionably divine, and was appointed for the most important purposes, and attended with the most indisputable evidence. Another author, much more capable of judging than Mr. Paine, hath said, in perfect conformity with my own opinion, that "National churches are that hay and stubble, which might be removed without difficulty or confusion, from the fabric of religion, by the gentle hand of reformation, but what the infatuation of Ecclesiastics will leave to be destroyed by fire. 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13. National churches are that incrustation, which has enveloped, by gradual concretion, the diamond of Christianity: nor can, I fear, the genuine lustre be restored, but by such violent efforts as the separation of substances so long and closely connected must inevitably |