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But befides those who would prefer the life of a rector to the life of a bithop, and thofe who decline the means of advancing themfelves, there is a third fort, and they not difi contented, who judge it no bufinefs of theirs to think at all what fituation, they would with to fill ; that their only bafi. nefs is, to prepare themfelves for doing as much good as their abilities will permit, in that ftation to which they shall be called by legal Patrons. There is no more folid ground of contentment than a lively confcioufnefs of having done one's own part, and a full perfuafion that one is not obliged to do the duty of other men towards one's felf. If a perfon of this turn conceives that he is capable of doing more good than he is called to do, he feels himfelf clear of blame: he would accept of a more troublesome office than that he has, if duly called to it; not with a view to honor or profit, though he is infenfible to neither ; but becaufe it feemed his duty to obey the call of lawful authority:-whilft no call is made, his mind is at eafe, under a confcioufnefs, that he is following a rule of conduct, which if generally followed, would be productive of the greatest good.

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I fhould hope, that what I have thus faid, generally, con. cerning the writer of this Effay on Patronage, as fuch, whoever or whatever he may be, keeping quite clear of private anecdotes, and taking the idea of him merely from the things faid in the Effay itself, will be thought a fufficient reply to the objection, or taunt, that they are nothing more than the fplenetic effufions of difcontent and disappointment; and therefore unworthy of attention. If this reply feems infuf ficient, I have nothing more to advance, unlefs it fhould be allowed, that such a discontented and disappointed man as is here fuppofed to write, may always make use of the following disjunction: Either there will be a future ftate of rewards and pynifhments, or there will not : if not, the bufinefs of clerical appointments to teach the belief of fuch a ftate, is idle and vain, and may reasonably be neglected: if there will be fuch a ftate, with fuch happiness or mifery as is described in the Gofpel, the difference of ftations here, being but for a moment, (befides that it is by no means certain that a high station is now the happiest upon the whole) is perfectly trifling and infignificant (to the individual, whatever it may be to fociety,), fo long as that Faith is maintained, and that conduct purfued, which will enfure a happy Eternity. RECTOR.

August 25, 1807.

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ON THE BURIAL OF DEISTS, &c.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

A

MAGAZINE.

Correfpondent in your number for September, requefts information upon the fubject of reading the Burial Service over the corpse of a Deift, or a Diffenter. If the following obfervations be worth your attention, they are much at your service for his information.

The burial fervice is intended, not for perfons of any fort, but for Chriftians alone: that is, for perfons for whom we may confiftently and fincerely ufe all parts of the fervice, particularly that paffage to be read while the earth' fhall be caft upon the body; calling the deceafed "our dear brother, which is repeated in the collect after the Lord's-Prayer; and again, in the laft collect of the fervice. Let this then be the rule: that the Burial Service muft be read only over them, whom we may call our brethren. Now a brother, in the fcriptural and ancient ecclefiaftical fenfe, is another name for fellow Chriftian. A fellow Chriftian, is one who is admitted with us into the covenant, and fo into the household of Chrift, or Kingdom of Heaven; and this is done at baptifm: a man is then born of water and of the spirit, and so enters into the kingdom of God.

You afk, if a Deift ought to be interred with our service? I ask in return, can you call him brother in the Chriftian fenfe of the word? Perhaps, it was a doubt upon this very point, which caufed the doubt refpecting his burial. If a man has been formally admitted by baptifm, according to Chrift's pofitive inftitution, into his family, we are bound to confider him as our brother: nothing can do away his relationship, but that which will do away his privilege of faying Abba, Father; nothing but that which would do away his baptifmal privileges, by cafting him out of the family of God. But he denies Jefus Chrift, and abjures the advantages and privileges of his church; and fhall we call fuch an one brother? I reply, that as long as one mother has borne us, I cannot fee by what figure of speech we can call him by

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other name than brother. My brother may be a wicked perfon, or he may be a Deift, or a Socinian, a Calvinift, or a Churchman; but ftill he has been born my brother, by the facrament of baptifm; and as all the world could never have conferred upon him the privilege of becoming a child of God, and my fpiritual brother;-fo I cannot conceive that all the world can deprive him of it.

But fhall one who actually denies the faith of Chrift be called his child, &c. !-Now how know you, in the first place, that the deceased did fo?-But grant, that he lived profeffedly, in Deiftical or Socinian principles: How know you that he did not change those principles before his foul was taken to God?-that he did not fee and acknowledge what you would call the true faith, and fo die like the thief on the crofs,- -a penitent difciple? If this fhould, have been' the cafe, to deny him the title of brother, and refuse him the charitable hope of refting in Chrift, and the decency of Christian burial, furely would be a wrong and a cenfurable thing. This I fay merely to the feelings: for the merits of the cafe have nothing to do with this fort of circumstance. You and I, properly fpeaking, can have little to do with a man's faith, that is, with the fecrets of his heart, but as we know it by his profeffion: the reft must be left to God. But the government of Chrift's kingdom, as long as it here remains, must be carried on by vifible acts and means, fuch as flesh and blood can fee and do, and be bound by. The keys of the kingdom of God in this world, are visible; and thofe ftewards of Chrift's household, with whom they have been entrusted, have in his baptifm done their office, and have opened when this man knocked, and, feeing that he was then regenerated and grafted into the body of Christ's church,-in that ftate he must remain, till the fame keys are turned against him... But he has denied the faith:-Is every one who denies the faith," ipfo facto" excluded from Chriftian burial? Is every one who provides not for his own, and especially for thofe of his own house, to be denied the right of Chriftian fepulture, and his title of brother, and our hope of his falvation? for he," fays the apoftle, has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." But grant all this, where is your warrant for your treatment of fuch a perfon?-you will find none, I imagine, either in fcripture, or in the primitive church. As for our own church established in this kingdom by law, that knows nothing of the fort, By our rule, the burial fervice is denied to none but thofe who die unbaptifed,

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or excommunicate, (that is, with their baptifm reversed,) or who have laid violent hands on themselves.

As to the cafe of the Diffenter, that, in general will be different, I fay, in general, for it depends upon what fort of dif fenter it is, to make it proper or improper to deny the burial service. But we must be determined in the folution of this cafe by the fame rule that governed the other. I ask then, has your diffenter received true baptifm? I mean, has he received that facrament according to Chrift's inftitution, in the form he prefcribed, and at the hands of those, to whom he has entrusted that mystery?—If he has, I fee no law, or reason to refufe him the honour of Christian burial: for he has been fpiritually born, has been made a member of Christ, and a child of God, and consequently, if we are children of God, he has been made our brother; and therefore as our brother, we may commit his body to the ground, and profess our hope that he may reft in Chrift. Few of our diffenters, however, have had the happiness to receive Chriftian baptism; few therefore are entitled to that fervice, which is fuited only to fuch perfons. They have been baptifed by diffenting teachers, which you may fay, ought to entitle them to the burial fervice. Nay, this cannot in common reafon be allowed: no logic can prove that a man baptifed by the dif fenting fervice, can be entitled to the burial fervice of the church, the diffenters themselves being judges; for I am fure, that they would never admit it in the cafe reversed: he can be entitled only to the diffenting burial fervice. I know the question immediately leads to the validity of diffenting baptifm; which certainly puts the queftion upon its proper ground: nevertheless, I am quite of the excellent Wheatley's mind, who thus fpeaks upon the fubject, "I think that for determining the question before us, there is no occafion to "enter into the merits of that caufe; (viz. the baptifm of "diffenters,) for whether the baptifm among the diffenters be valid or not, I do not apprehend that it lies upon us. to take notice of any baptifms, except they are to be prov"ed by the regifters of the church. Unless therefore we "ourfelves betray our own rights, by regiftering fpurious among the genuine baptifms, perfons baptifed among the diffenters can have no just claim to the use of this office; "for the rubrick expressly declares, that it is not to be used 66 for any that die unbaptifed: but all perfons are fuppofed to die unbaptifed, but those whofe baptifms the regifters own: and therefore, the registers not owning diffenting Y Y. baptifms, Vol. XIII. Churehm. Mag. for November 1807.

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baptifms, thofe that die with fuch baptifms, must be fuppofed to die unbaptifed. But indeed, the best way to put an end to this controverfy, is to defire those that have "feparate places of worship, to have feparate places of bu "rial too; or at least to be content to put their dead into the "ground, without requiring the prayers of a minifter, whose "affiflance, in every thing but in this and marriage, they neglect and defpife."

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I cannot refrain from obferving that the opinion of this able ritualist is well fupported by the difcipline of the ancient church, and by that of our own. Every perfon, however, baptifed or unbaptifed, have a right to a burial place in the church-yard of the parifh in which he dies. But the burial fervice of the church is adapted only for the baptised, and is allowed to them alone; which is plain enough, I fhould think, to any man who will take the trouble of enquiring what the church has prescribed in her liturgy, canons and articles. But there is a maxim of the canon law, and equally a maxim of found fenfe too, which I think is conclufive upon the point. "Quibus non communicavimus, 66 vivis, nec communicamus defunctis."

I fhall be happy if what I have faid fhall fatisfy your correfpondent; nevertheless, if he require any thing further upon the fubject, and he will have the goodness to ftate his question in a fimple and direct manner, I will endeavour to refolve it, and give him all the information in my power.

Νου. 1807.

Yours, &c.

J. W.

ON THE "SPIRIT OF GOD."

I

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

HAVE been very much gratified by the greater part of your Review of Mr. Clarkfon's extraordinary Portraiture of Quakerifm; but I could not help being a little furprised, when I came to your confideration of the Quakers doc

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