"THIS is a vast business in this large diocese, and requires great diligence and application of mind; and I have often been much concerned and grieved that I want that assistance of which the constitution and external regimen and administration of the church has been provided;-I mean the assistance of Rural Deans, which office is a part of our constitution, and is yet exercised in some dioceses of this kingdom, but has unhappily been disused in this, (for how long time I know not) to the great loss and hindrance of ecclesiastical administration. "By the impartial and diligent execution of this office, the bishop might be eased in a great part of that duty, which is too heavy a burden for his own shoulders. The ignorant, the factious, the scandalous, the negligent, the dissenting, might easily be detected in a small deanery; and being signified to the bishop, or rather first of all and immediately to the archdeacon, might be timely and duely corrected and reformed. For the archdeacon inhabiting within his archdeaconry, as is most proper, might easily be resorted to upon occasion, and so hear and amend many faults which might be brought to him by the rural dean, without application to the bishop. "If a bishop of this extensive diocese was provided of active and faithful persons in the several deaneries, which retain the name yet, his business might be manageable, and his authority and government useful; whereas, for want of these, no bishop here can do so much and so well as he might be willing and glad to do."-BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S Charge, 1697, p. 7. - BISHOP OF LINCOLN. [The Chancel.] "As there is in every church a font for baptism, so there is a part of the church very convenient and proper, and generally fitted and prepared for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which we call the Chancel. Here the Communion Table may be placed, and the communicants receive with greater order, decency, and convenience for devotion, than in the body of the church, and the I doubt not but you, my seats there. Brethren, are sensible of this, and satisfied in it, finding great inconvenience in consecrating in so strait a place as an ally of the Church, and delivering the bread and wine in narrow seats over the heads and treading upon the feet of those that kneel; when by removing into the Chancel at the time of that solemnity, every one may kneel without disturbance, and receive with easiness, and see the whole office performed. "This is so proper and so becoming, that one cannot but wonder that the parishioners in any place should be averse to receive the Sacrament in this order, and that Rectors, as well impropriate as propriate, should not take more care to fit their Chancel for this purpose, but that some lie wholly disused, in more nastie manner than any cottager of the parish would keep his own house; others are employed for keeping school, by reason of which the seats, pavement, and windows are commonly broken and defaced, not to mention other rudenesses and indecencies which are not fit to be permitted in a place set apart for God's worship. "But the reason that some give, as I have been informed, why they except against the use of the Chancel at the time of celebrating the Lord's Supper, is still more to be wondered at. They say it is Popery, and that ministers that use their Chancels for this office are Popishly inclined. But why Popery? Is it because the Romish priests before the Reformation made use of the Chancel to say Mass? So they used the body of the church to perform other BISHOP OF LINCOLN - SHAFTESBURY. parts of the Popish service, and for that reason they may as well except against the use of the church for reading the Scriptures and preaching, as against the use of the Church for administering the Communion; and there want not those who carry the argument so far as to cry down the use of Churches in general: But how weak and how unreasonable is this? What if the Popish priest said Mass at the altar in the Chancel, may not the ministers of the Church of England for that reason perform the Communion Service there without the imputation of Popery? If there be any Popery, it must be in the Communion office, and if that have anything of Popery in it, why do they receive the communion in the Church? If it have not, why may they not receive it in the Chancel? For there cannot be Popery in the Fabrick, nor in the seats, or table, it must be in the Office, or nowhere; and one may safely affirm that no man can prove it to be there."-BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S Charge, 1697, p. 21. [Considerations on Religious Pomp and "I SHALL conclude with observing how ably the Roman Christian and once Catholic Church, by the assistance of their converted emperors, proceeded in the establishment of their growing hierarchy. They considered wisely the superstitions and enthusiasms of mankind; and proved the different kinds and force of each. All these seeming contrarieties of human passion they knew how to comprehend in their political model and subservient system of Divinity. They knew how to make advantage, both from the high speculations of philosophy, and the grossest ideas of vulgar ignorance. They saw there was nothing more different than that enthusiasm which ran upon spirituals, according to the simpler views of the Divine existence, and that which ran upon external proportions, magnificence of structures, ceremonies, processions, quires, or 69 those other harmonies which captivate the eye and ear. On this account they even added to this latter kind, and displayed religion in a yet more gorgeous habit of temples, statues, paintings, vestments, tapers, mitres, purple; and the cathedral pomp. With these arms they could subdue the victorious Goths, and secure themselves an Attila, when their Cæsars failed them. "The truth is, 'tis but a vulgar species of enthusiasm, which is moved chiefly by shew and ceremony, and wrought upon by chalices, candles, robes, and figured dances. Yet this, we may believe, was looked upon as no slight ingredient of devotion in those days; since at this hour the manner is found to be of considerable efficacy with some of the devout amongst ourselves, who pass the least for superstitious, and are reckoned in the number of the polite world. This the wise hierarchy duly preponderating, but being satisfied withal that there were other tempers and hearts which could not so easily be captivated by this exterior allurement, they assigned another part of religion to proselytes of another character and complexion, who were allowed to proceed on a quite different bottom; by the inward way of contemplation and Divine love. They are indeed so far from being jealous of mere enthusiasm or the ecstatic manner of devotion, that they allow their Mysticks to write and preach in the most rapturous and seraphic strains. They suffer them, in a manner, to supersede all external worship, and triumph over outward forms; till the refined religionists passed so far as either expressly or seemingly to dissuade the practice of the vulgar and established ceremonial duties. And then, indeed, they check the supposed exorbitant enthusiasm which would prove dangerous to their hierarchal state. 66 "If modern visions, prophecies and dreams, charms, miracles, exorcisms, and the rest of this kind be comprehended in that which we call fanaticism or superstition; to this spirit they allow a full career; whilst to ingenious writers they afford the liberty, on the other side, in a civil manner to call in question these spiritual feats performed. in monasteries, or up and down by their mendicant or itinerant priests, and ghostly missionaries. "This is that antient hierarchy, which in respect of its first foundation, its policy, and the consistency of its whole frame and constitution, cannot but appear in some respects august and venerable, even in such as we do not usually esteem weak eyes. These are the spiritual conquerors, who, like the first Cæsars, from small beginnings established the foundations of an almost universal monarchy. No wonder if at this day the immediate view of this hierarchal residence, the city and court of Rome be found to have an extraordinary effect on foreigners of other later churches. No wonder if the amazed surveyors are for the future so apt either to conceive the horridest aversion to all priestly government; or, on the contrary, to admire it, so far as even to wish a coalescence or reunion with this ancient Mother-Church. "In reality, the exercise of power, however arbitrary or despotic, seems less intolerable under such a spiritual sovereignty, so extensive, antient, and of such a long succession, than under the petty tyrannies and mimical polities of some new pretender. The former may even persecute with a tolerable grace. The latter, who would willingly derive their authority from the former, and graft on their successive right, must necessarily make a very awkward figure. And whilst they strive to give themselves the same air of independency on the civil magistrate, whilst they affect the same authority in government, the same grandeur, magnificence, and pomp in worship, they raise the highest ridicule in the eyes of those who have real discernment, and can distinguish originals from copies. O imitatores, servum picus!" SHAFTESBURY'S Characteristics, vol. 3, p. 90. [Sheep called by Name.] "I HAVE met with an illustration of Scripture which interests me. Having had my attention directed last night to the words, John x. 3, The sheep hear his voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name, &c. I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to the sheep: he informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I had put to my servant and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep: he did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep in this country, that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still wild; that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they would all learn them. The others which knew their names he called tame. How natural an application to the state of the human race does this description of the sheep admit of! The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep; but many of them are still wild; they know not his voice. Others have learned to obey his call and to follow him; and we rejoice to think that even to those not yet in his fold the words are applicable, Them also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."-Church Missionary Record, p. 98. almost one and the same. Yet by a small mis-guidance of the affection, a lover of mankind becomes a ravager: a hero and deliverer becomes an oppressor and destroyer. sophical object. That greater community | ployed. For heroism and philanthropy are falls not easily under the eye. Nor is a national interest, or that of a whole people, or body politic, so readily apprehended. In less parties, men may be intimately conversant and acquainted with one another. They can there better taste society, and enjoy the common good and interest of a more contracted public. They view the whole compass and extent of their community; and see and know particularly whom they serve, and to what end they associate and conspire. All men have naturally their share of this combining principle: and they who are of the sprightliest and most active faculties, have so large a share of it, that unless it be happily directed by right reason, it can never find exercise for itself in so remote a sphere as that of the body politic at large. For here perhaps the thousandth part of those whose interests are concerned, are scarce so much as known by sight. No visible band is formed; no strict alliance but the conjunction is made with different persons, orders, and ranks of men; not sensibly, but in idea; according to that general view or notion of a state or commonwealth. "Hence other divisions amongst men. Hence, in the way of peace and civil government, that love of party and subdivision by cabal. For sedition is a kind of cantonizing already begun within the state. To cantonize is natural, when the society grows vast and bulky: and powerful states have found other advantages in sending colonies abroad than merely that of having elbow-room at home, or extending their dominion into distant countries. Vast empires are in many respects unnatural; but particularly in this, that, be they ever so well constituted, the affairs of many must, in such governments, turn upon a very and the relation be less sensible, and in a manner lost, between the magistrate and people, in a body so unwieldy in its limbs, and whose members lie so remote from one another, and distant from the head. few: ""Tis in such bodies as these that strong factions are aptest to engender. The asso "Thus the social aim is disturbed, for ciating spirits, for want of exercise, form want of certain scope. The close sympathy and conspiring virtue is apt to lose itself, for want of direction, in so wide a field. Nor is the passion anywhere so strongly felt, or vigorously exerted, as in actual conspiracy or war; in which the highest genius's are often known the forwardest to employ themselves. For the most generous spirits are the most combining. They delight most to move in concert; and feel (if I may so say) in the strongest manner, the force of the confederating charm. new movements, and seek a narrower sphere of activity when they want action in a greater. Thus we have wheels within wheels. And in some national constitutions (notwithstanding the absurdity in politics) we have one empire within another. Nothing is so delightful as to incorporate. Distinctions of many kinds are invented. Religious Societies are formed. Orders are erected; and their interests espoused and served with the utmost zeal and passion. Founders and patrons of this sort are never wanting. Wonders are performed in this wrong social spirit, by those members of separate societies. And the associating genius of man is never better proved, than in those very societies which are formed in opposition to the general one of mankind, and to the real interest of the state."-SHAFTESBURY'S Characteristics, vol. 1, p. 111. [Question of revived Prophecy.] "THE new prophesying sect pretend, it seems, among many other miracles, to have had a most signal one, acted premeditately, and with warning, before many hundreds of people, who actually give testimony to the truth of it. But I would only ask, Whether there were present, among those hundreds, any one person who, having never been of their sect, or addicted to their way, will give the same testimony with them? I must not be contented to ask, Whether such a one had been wholly free of that particular enthusiasm? but whether before that time he was esteemed of so sound a judgement and clear a head, as to be wholly free of melancholy, and in all likelihood incapable of all enthusiasm besides? For otherwise, the panic may have been caught; the evidence of the senses lost, as in a dream; and the imagination so inflamed, as in a moment to have burnt up every particle of judgement and reason. The combustible matters lie prepared within, and ready to take fire at a spark; but chiefly in a multitude seized with the same spirit. No wonder if the blaze rises so of a sudden; when innumerable eyes glow with the passion, and heaving breasts are labouring with inspiration: when not the aspect only, but the very breath and exhalations of men are infectious, and the inspiring disease imparts itself by insensible transpiration. I am not a divine good enough to resolve what spirit that was which proved so catching among the antient prophets, that even the profane Saul was taken by it. But I learn from Holy Scripture that there was the evil as well as the good spirit of prophecy. And I find by present experience, as well as by all histories, sacred and profane, that the operation of this spirit is everywhere the same, as to the bodily or gans, "A gentleman who has writ lately in defence of revived prophecy, and has since fallen himself into the prophetic ecstacies, tells us, 'that the antient prophets had the Spirit of God upon them under ecstacy, with divers strange gestures of body denominating them madmen, (or enthusiasts) as appears evidently says he, in the instances of Balaam, Saul, David, Ezekiel, Daniel, &c.' And he proceeds to justify this by the practice of the apostolic times, and by the regulation which the apostle himself applies to these seemingly irregular gifts, so frequent and ordinary (as our author pretends) in the primitive church, on the first rise and spreading of Christianity. But I leave it to him to make the resemblance as well as he can between his own and the apostolic way. I only know that the symptoms he describes, and which himself (poor gentleman!) labours under, are as heathenish as he can possibly pretend them to be Christian. And when I saw him lately under an agitation (as they call it) uttering prophecy in a pompous Latin style, of which, out of the ecstacy, it seems, he is wholly incapable, it brought into my mind the Latin poet's descriptions of the Sibyl, whose agonies were so perfectly like these. Subitò non vultus, non color unus, Non compte mansére comæ ; sed pectus anhelum, Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri. Nec mortale sonans: aflata est numine quando Jam propriore Dei· And again presently after. Immanis in antro Bacchatur Vates, magnum si pectɔre possit Excussisse Deum : tanto magis Ille fatigat Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo." SHAFTESBURY's Characteristics, vol. 1, p. 44. [Correspondences in Nature,-how they lead on to proper Thoughts.] "A MAN who looks at nature with an attentive eye, will observe in it many correspondences. Some of these correspond |