government, which, upon the whole, now merits great commendation. No magiftrates would be enslaved to the private intereft of any individual, or party: none would be corrupt, or oppreffive: none very ignorant or foolish could push themselves into office. A pufhing man is almost always unfit for the business at which he aims; and he generally excludes fome one more fit than himself. The most foolish man I ever knew, who was not treated as an ideot, was an active juftice of the peace; and, by all accounts, had low cunning enough, with feasonable help, to make money of his trade. In your life of archbishop Whitgift (vol. xii. p. 162.) you fay, "about the fame time he was invited to court, to preach before Queen Elizabeth, who was fo pleafed with his difcourfe as immediately to appoint him her chaplain.' I abstain from all invidious comparisons; I only remark, as my fubject requires, that no preffing applications appear to have been made on the part of Whitgift; no brigue, no pufhing all was done according to the method here propofed, by invitation from the Patron.

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But although abuse of Patronage is a very heinous breach of truft, and a very important evil, yet it may sometimes feem to be abufed when a candid man would impute little or no blame to the Patron. In the firft place, the fault admits of a great variety of degrees: merit has numberlefs degrees; and fo has each branch of any fingle kind of merit; or of merit belonging to any one fituation. There may also be occafion to balance acknowledged merit in fome things, against demerit in other things. Superior abilities are fometimes rendered useless to him who poffeffes them, by his malignant or intractable temper; and one's defire to affift the just and benevolent, is often defeated by a want of the inferior virtues, fuch as cleanlinefs, courtesy, attention, cheerfulness, punctuality, orderlinefs or by a want of knowledge in trivial matters.-Modeft merit is certainly the beft, and the most to be depended on; but it appears the leaft; especially to thofe who judge haftily, which the leaft wife are the most apt to do. The Patron has to take care that he is not deceived by artful addrefs, or dazzled by flashy pretenfions; you can fee a hundred faults in a man, which are all artfully hidden from the Patron whom he courts; you have been contumelioufly neglected, or even injured, by him, but to his Patron he is all attention and fairnefs. Then, there are qualifications fhowy but not folid; there are others folid but not fhowy: thofe who judge the Patron, fhould remember, that it is no eafy matter to fee the

whole

whole truth: and particularly they should allow, that inferior merit well known, may reafonably be preferred to that which is feemingly fomewhat fuperior but not well known. Experience tells us, that some men, popular for their abilities and acquirements, have in the end difgraced their protectors. We must not forget Dr. Dodd; nor fome trials for crim. con.-Hence, though preferring a Son, as fuch, in order to provide for him, is extremely wrong; yet if the Patron has a ftrong perfuafion, that the merit which appears in his fon, is fully to be depended upon, that perfuafion may rightly be fet againft fome appearance of fuperior merit in a competitor. And this is applicable to fuch as have performed fervices:to pay any one who has ferved us, out of the church-purse, entrufted to our care, is downright difhonefly: but if a perfon has been a Tutor in our family, we have much better proof of his abilities and moral character, than we could have of thofe of a ftranger. And the fame is true of a friend. Men fhould use great caution and candor before they blame a Patron; but then the Patron fhould not prefume upon that to allow himself in what his confcience muft difapprove. There is a great difference between establishing principles and judging perfons: to ftate principles is a proper business for man; he wants them; for himself, for those whom it is his duty to inftruct, and for all who ingenuously consult him; but judging perfons requires fomething more than human wisdom it is the least hazardous on a calm review of a number of facts, or experiments. Yet though fpectators fhould be ready to confefs that Patrons have great difficulties to furmount, the Patrons themselves fhould fee their difficulties in another light; as incitements to vigilance and exertion; they fhould ufe every endeavour to obviate and overcome them; and they would find them give way to hearty endeavours, more readily than had at first been expected.

The duty here confidered, of ufing Patronage according to its true intent and meaning, has been gradually undermined, by an affectation of liberality, by falfe politenefs, and by that levity in converfation, which has relaxed all difcipline, and weakened all authority. I am no enemy to libe rality, or cheerfulness, or wit, or humour, when they are seafonable; nor to doing good without pedantic boafting; but when it becomes illiberal for a fon to respect his parents; for a man civilly to claim what is his due; or for a perfon in office to refufe a foolifh or wicked requeft; when obligations the most important are turned alide by a bon mot;

when

when the magiftrate is called churlish for impartially promoting the general fecurity and happiness; when the Patron is called upon to confer a benefice in the fame spirit in which he would give a bottle of Champagne; then I own I am jealous of all these gentlemanlike doings: I fufpect the liberality of trickishness, and the mirth of hypocrify. I then am not afhamed to profefs, that ferious evil oftentimes arifes from what wears a light appearance.-In truth, it is thus that a fpurious and frivolous morality has greatly weakened the foundations of that which is genuine and rational.

Nevertheless, however lamentable the fact may be, yet every prevailing practice fhould mitigate our rigour in condemning men's conduct, as the generality guide themselves chiefly by imitation. The morality that is in ufe, though faulty in itself, will be all that even the well-meaning, amongst those who do not think, will aspire to. And if we view the manners of many different nations, we fhall frequently have occafion to condemn the customary rules of action, when we shall be unwilling to blame, in any high degree, the individuals who comply with thofe rules. Still, thofe individuals become blameable if they continue in the fame course of action after they have clearly feen the rectitude of better principles. Men have by degrees become fo thoughtless about betraying the truft of Patronage, men who would not betray any other truft, that I verily believe faults much lefs pernicious would fhock many, who allow themfelves in that: propose to a reputable man fome venial fault, to the harm of which he has attended, and he will be greatly fhocked; he will afk, "is thy fervant a dog that he should do this great thing?" (2 Kings viii. 13.) and yet he will immediately commit a much greater offence, by perverting to wrong uses, that which the public authority hath confided to his difcretion and his confcience; and thereby will rob so. ciety of much important good,

One thing which misleads fome well meaning Patrons, is confounding the duties belonging to Patronage with the duties belonging to diftribution of favours. When we confer favours, we diftribute only what is strictly our own; but Patrons, as before fhewn, are trustees. If a guardian, who had a thousand pounds flock in the public funds, ftanding in his name, but belonging to his ward, was to give a hundred pounds of that flock to his friend in diftrefs, no one would fay that fuch a gift came under what is commonly called distributing favours; it is difhoneftly betraying a truft, in order

to.

to benefit a perfon, perhaps very deferving in himself, but by means which the giver had no right to use for such a pur. pofe. The Patron who confers a benefice as a favour or re lief is equally difhoneft. Favours ought to be distributed with a regard to the nearness of the object to ourselves; with a regard to the calls of gratitude and compaffion, as well as with a regard to merit; but the execution of any trust should ftand quite clear of all claims but those of worth and fitness. And to this exclufive regard to worth and fitness, many truflees, commiffioners, and electors, bind themfelyes exprefsly by folemn oaths.

Public Patrons, fuch as kings and bishops, may have difficulty, though they be men of perfect integrity, concerning the regard which fhould be paid to worldly Rank, in what is called diftributive juftice; that is, as I conceive, in diftributing emoluments and rewards for the public good; which may mean much the fame as according to men's merits, according as they deferve of the public. I do not by any means fay, that fuch difficulty is unreasonable, or trifling. The general end to be aimed at I fhould imagine to be this; to gain the greatest poffible benefit to the public from all the abilities of all the fubjects taken together. Now if you difcourage men of high rank, you lofe all the good which might be derived from their influence, and you turn away their property and their powers from promoting the general good, to purfuits of pleasure, or to idleness and fenfuality. If you difcourage the lower orders, you ftupify and paralyze the faculties of great numbers, many of them richly endowed by nature, able to procure the best educations, poffeffing fufficient leisure, and much more temperate, ftudious, induftrious, generally fpeaking, than their fuperiors in worldly rank. Yet putting thofe who are eminent by rank or property under thofe to whom birth or fortune has made them fuperior, unless in the way of education, or temporary difcipline, muft produce mortification and difcouragement; which is the lefs neceffary, though the inferiors may be more industrious, as the great can more eañily than their inferiors, affociate with men of improved minds, and fo acquire knowledge by converfation, inftead of hard ftudy. And I would not be thought fuperftitious if I ventured to intimate a posfibility, that high birth and polite education may produce lofty fentiments. And then, a warm and nice fenfe of honour would naturally impel the great to gain distinction by arduous and noble achievements. Nevertheless, on the

other

other hand, it feems neceffary to the public welfare, that no man should feel himself wholly excluded from public distinctions and rewards; that all men fhould perceive openings to fame and eminence; and fhould be fenfible of incitements and encouragements to cultivate to the utmoft those talents with which they find themselves born, and thofe advantages which their connections are calculated to produce. The feeling of perpetual fervility, of being deemed infignificant and defpicable, of labouring under an irreversible condemnation to obfcurity, muft deaden every mind, and make it fink into languor and liftlefnefs.-One thing in favour of raifing men of rank in the church is, that it confpires with the fuppofed design of the law in creating different orders amongst the clergy; the defign is understood to be, that the higher ranks of citizens fhould have correfponding ranks in the church; fo that he "that is taught," should never have any temptation to infult "him that teacheth," but should communicate unto him in all good things. (Gal. vi. 6.) When perfons of high rank become minifters of the church, this end is the most fully answered. For it must be confeffed, that churchmen raised from low ranks have not always given the beft fpecimens of Chriftian humility; and that ecclefiaftical dignity hath been generally found to fit with eafe and gracefulnefs upon high birth and fuperior opulence. On the whole, I know not that more can be done to alleviate the difficulty in queftion, under which the Patron may labour when worldly rank occafions his doubts, than taking the two views here given, of the great and their inferiors, keeping them in mind, and tempering them together, as circumftances may require. Only one thing fhould be well obferved; that both views militate against preferring thofe of high rank but very low merit; becaufe that would difcourage great numbers of able and worthy men in inferior ranks, and would fruftrate the whole intent of honouring their fuperiors by advancement: it would relax the efforts of all ranks; the lower would conclude merit to be wholly useless for the purpose of advancement; and the higher would fee that it was totally unneceffary. The great and noble would fet up their rank as a fufficient title to advancement; and any benefice worth their having conferred on their inferiors, they would confider as an injury done to themselves.

(To be continued.)

RECTOR: