bearing and fcandalous competition, will render of none effect. The Rector has made fome obfervations on private patron age, and livings held by patrons, as if thefe were the fole caufe of all the irregularities that invade the church. All the livings in this kingdom are in the hands of lay, ecclefiaftical, crown and lay corporation patronage, and though the first is as extenfive as all the others put together; yet I can never confider it as the fole caufe of the abuse the Rector complains of. Are all the other fources of patronage more pure than this? Are ecclefiaftics more careful of felecting perfons who take pleasure in clerical duties? Has not the fame regard to private motives and minifterial influence as evident weight in their choice, as in the cafe of bishops? Have not rotten boroughs made as many rectors and vicars, as is infinuated they have bifhops? Is it not a notorious fact, that the greatest pluralifts in this kingdom, are thofe, whofe intereft emanated from the fink of borough corruption and election influence, whofe lives have been tinctured at the fource whence they procured their preferment? I could name, if I chose it, the fons of prelates, who have most abused their preferment and moft degraded their profeffion; which has been secured to them when children, when poffi bly in the womb, from the way in which chapters and bithops fometimes play the cards into each other's hands by exchanging turns and giving up or conferring a prefent intereft, in order to fecure the like favour at fome diftant period to ferve domeftic views. Borough managers as well as their friends, who have been preferred through their intereft, often with a couple of livings and a canonry, live aloof from their charge, purfue their old occupation, for that is indifpenfible; their preferment not only being the remuneration of past services but of future too. So that it is clear all the abufes crept into the church do not reft folely with private patronage. Would to God, Sir, matters were different amongst us! Would to God, there was no other road to preferment but talents, integrity, and piety, united; we fhould then have no reason to complain! As the matter ftands at prefent, there is no order of merit in the church; literature and genius will now and then command attention: piety will fometimes find a patron among laymen, never elfewhere. Deftroy private patronage, and the curate has no friend on earth: it is only through this intereft, that we find men who imitate primitive purity and fimplicity, being bright examples of the doctrine they preach, fometimes fometimes holding preferment. This the Rector doubtless knows, which makes him appear to be as hoftile to private patronage, as he is to the whole order of curates. The Rector hopes that no one will fufpect him of a defire to opprefs a perfon of liberal education and good principles: I fhould be forry to fufpect any one unjustly; but profeffions muft ever be held cheap, when arguments operate at direct variance with them. And I may say to the Rector, you have been liberal, it is poffible, to your curates; and they may be able to fay all that is good of you; but Sir, yours is an isolated cafe, a particular inftance; and fo far as your conduct goes, you may have been a good fample of rectorial liberality towards curates; though your remarks on the Curates' Act seem to prove the contrary: all knowledge we have of human nature, however, forbids us to apply particular instances, to general rules, especially in a matter of fuch importance where it is to deprive the general claim of curates to adequate provifion from the state, on a folitary inftance of rectorial be evolence. The law, thank God, recognizes in us fervants of the ftate, and as fuch confiders us entitled to a maintenance, though not as yet to an adequate one. If at any future time, our legiflators fhould think us unneceffary appendages of the priesthood, let them difmifs us and allow us to refort to fome fecular employment for a maintenance; but I intreat them not to deliver us up to oppreffion, or to the uncertain bene volence of the beneficed clergy, with no other title to a provision, than what beggars and menials enjoy. You have, Sir, mentioned your own cafe, as an inftance of benevolent worth to your curates. I give you credit for all you have faid on that head, it is highly honourable to your feelings; I only afk the fame credit in what I am about to fay concerning myfelf. I have been now ferving the curacy on which I was ordained deacon and priest 14 years: I attention to the eternal-welfare of my have ever directed my flock; I am conftantly in the habit of vifiting the fick, infomuch, that I have one or two under my care conftantly, fometimes four or five at a time: I have paid vifits to all my ́parishioners at their houses at various times, to exhort them to come to church and to practise the duties they owe to God and man, though the inhabitants of my parish are in number 4000, and the parish 8 miles in length: I have exerted all the poor talents it has pleafed God to bestow upon me, in exhorting them" to flee from the wrath to come," and have advanced their temporal good, as far as my fcanty purse will allow & allow: I have spent much, and am, by God's grace, ready to fpend more, and to be myself spent for the kingdom of heaven, whenever his gracious will fhall require. I have a good attendance at my church, where before I came, there were empty walls. And I am as firm to the Church of England in difcipline and doctrine as the earth on which I ftand and in this I am not a folitary inftance, for many of my own order in this neighbourhood are brighter examples of the clerical character than myself, whom I would humbly endeavour to imitare. But on this account ftill, none of us prefume to ground our expectation on any fource of patronage for preferment: we would not be guilty of fuch folly, feeing how matters go in the church; we expect not to be treated fo well as others, we know it is not usual to notice piety or induftry in our order; we expect to go through life in indigence, and when disabled by age and infirmities, to be fent empty away. As to my cafe, fo far as it relates to the conduct of my rector, this is ftrictly true: I received of him for the firft eight years 40 as my falary and furplice fees, though a great part of that time by my licenfe I was intitled to more, and this I did because he was involved, with an income accruing from two livings of nearly £1000: by which I have given up 120 though I could badly afford it. This voluntary renunciation has never been confidered by himself or friends, though they are well able to make me ample com penfation and doubtlefs long fince I fhould have been difmiffed, if my diocefan, acting by virtue of the Curates' Act, had not interfered. Before I take my leave of the Rector, I must again repeat, I give him credit for his benevolence to his curates, and the harmony in which they have always lived together, and congratulate him on never having had but one brawler. But ftill I must observe, with all these ad. vantages and two fubftantial livings, I think he has little reafon to be in the foremost ranks to call the equity of the Curates' Act in question. I am very averfe, in these times, when union amongst us was never fo neceffary, to utter any language like disrespect, on any order of the priesthood: but it is no cordial to our hard condition, that with ftipends beneath the falaries of merchant's clerks on the head fervants in noblemen's families, we fhould be reduced to the most humiliating ftate of fervitude! with regard to our beneficed brethren, I furvey in many of them eminence of talent and virtue: men who are an honour to their profeffion, and are ready to alleviate Our our condition as much as poffible: for the unworthy part of both the beneficed and inferior clergy, I fincerely pray to God to open their eyes, and bring them to a knowledge of their duty, begging Him moft fincerely to put it in all our hearts, to discharge our feveral trufts, as becomes fervants of Jefus Chrift.* Truro, Cornwall, August 24, 1807. I remain, Your obedient Servant, A POOR CURATE. * Our excuse for having omitted some passages in the close of our correspondent's letter is, that those deletions had nothing to do with the subject; and were only calculated to render controversy acrimonious.-EDITOR. ON THE BURIAL OF DEISTS, &c. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. IT SIR, T would very much gratify me to know the opinion of those I value on a queftion of a very important and at prefent of a very delicate nature. Though the Rubric fays that "The office of the burial of the dead is not to be used for those who die unbaptized,"— yet would you in the prefent day recommend a clergyman of the Church of England to refufe reading the Burial Service, when the corps of a profeffed Deift, or Socinian, is brought by his friends to be buried?-Or, when a diffenter, who has been baptized by an irregularly ordained minifter? Would the high and pure caufe which it is the intention of the Establishment to promote, be forwarded or leffened by fuch a refufal? If you would condefcend to give your advice in your next number, on the above queftion, you would greatly oblige Your obedient and faithful Servant, DOCILIS. ON THE CANONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. SIR, A CORRESPONDENT in your Number for February laft, who figns himself " A Querift" points out to the notice of his clerical brethren the 28th Canon; of which he thinks that they are not fo obfervant as they ought to be. It would be well, Mr. Editor, if every clergyman would read the Canons carefully and frequently; and compare his own conduct with what is there laid down for the regulation of it. I take the liberty of tranfcribing the 75th, which appears rather an interesting and neglected one; by inferting which (with this Letter) in your Miscellany, you will confer a great obligation on Your occafional Correspondent CAN. 75. No ecclefiaftical perfon fhall at any time, other than for their honeft neceffities, refort to any taverns, or alehouses, neither fhall they board or lodge in any fuch places.Furthermore, they fhall not give themselves to any base or fervile labour, or to drinking or riot, spending their time idly by day or by night, playing at dice, cards, or tables, or any other unlawful games: but at all times convenient they shall hear or read fomewhat of the holy Scriptures, or fhall occupy themselves with fome other honeft ftudy or exercise, always doing the things which fhall appertain to honefty, and endeavouring to profit the Church of God; having always in mind, that they ought to excel all others in purity of life, and should be examples to the people to live well and chriftianly, under pain of ecclefiaftical cenfures, to be ininflicted with severity, according to the qualities of their offences. Сс Vol. XIII. Churchm. Mag. for Sep. 1807. |