The Psalter, or Psalms of David,

POINTED AS THEY ARE TO BE CHANTED IN CHURCHES.

ALSO, AN OUTLINE OF

ECCLESIASTICAL CANONS, ARTICLES OF RELIGION, AND CONVOCATION.

THE WHOLE FORMING

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

OF

CHURCH REFORM

HITHERTO OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC.

BY

MONTAGU ROBERT MELVILLE, ESQ.

Author of several works on church affairs, under the title of " EXPOSTULATOR, &c."

Editor of the last Edinburgh edition of the Letter from a BLACKSMITH to the

Ministers and Elders of the SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, and Author of

the REPLY to the Arguments of the IRISH PRESBYTER, in answer to the ad-

mirable BLACKSMITH.

LONDON:

ROAKE AND VARTY, 31, STRAND.

1834.

LONDON:

ROAKE AND VARTY, PRINTERS, 31, STRAND.

晒

PREFACE.

IN submitting the following pages to the public, there is
no occasion, I conceive, to make a very comprehensive
preface, as the reader will find so many of my views
apologized for, when he comes to the Ecclesiastical Canons.
My principal object is to show, that, with whatever defects
the Church, as at present constituted, may be charged, it
is capable of being made subservient to the best purposes,
both spiritual and temporal, in the hope that "those who
are given to change" (Proverbs xxiv. 21,) may be inclined
to confine themselves to legitimate change, that is, reform,
without retaining any hankering, if they have really felt
any, for subversion under the mask of the word "reform."
I address myself to Christians; for it is contrary to all
our experience of human nature, to suppose that infidels
(of which there are too many) can use the word reform in
a candid spirit. Here I will mention a line of argument
frequently adopted, by, among others, the editor of the
Examiner, whom I mention by name, presuming that he
is a Christian, consequently sincere, and because no
editor excels him in abilities of the highest order, how-
ever a few may equal him. He argues, first, from several
passages in the New Testament, that large church tem-
poralities are unscriptural. If he is right, any tempo-
ralities at all are wrong, beyond enough to procure
"food
and raiment;" and therefore he was inconsistent, a year
or two ago, in his proposed scale of stipends, I forget
exactly what, except one item of £1500 a year to the
primate; and, secondly, he, sitting down in his "fine
linen" shirt, writes as if the parable of the rich man and

A 2

1

Lazarus is conclusive against the purple, fine linen, and mode of living, of our bishops.* Now, I should like to see him point out any part of Scripture, which says any thing about wealth, or the avoiding it, which, if applying to the clergy of the present day at all, does not equally apply to the laity, to christian disciples generally. Will he begin with the mission of the Seventy, without purse, or any necessary even? He will find it said, in that very chapter, (the 10th of St. Luke,) "the labourer is worthy of his hire." Or will he prefer the chapter before, in which the same regulation is made for the twelve apostles? He will find that every lay-believer was, in the same chapter, and in various other places, required, at that time, to sell all he had and give to the poor, and take up his cross, and follow Christ through hardships scarcely supportable; and, by the 36th verse of the 22nd chapter of St. Luke, in which the diametrically opposite injunction is given, (their Lord foreseeing the necessity, from the approaching change of circumstances,) he will see how uncandid, or unlearned, it is to fasten upon one or two passages, perhaps never meant for more than a temporary purpose, instead of fairly looking at the spirit of the whole of Scripture in its common-sense meaning. Or will he go to the Acts of the Apostles, and, with the St. Simonians, or Owenites, insist upon a community of goods? If that, in his opinion, is now binding, in God's name, let him share his pecuniary emoluments with his compositors, &c.; let the capitalist also give his superfluity among the needy, and let those who have lands, sell them, or cultivate them, for the benefit of the common fund. But he will find, if he will read with that candour, in which he is never found wanting when the subject is unconnected with politics or the church, that the practice of having a common fund was never compulsory, and merely a temporary expedient; in fact, that it obtained for only so short a time, that St. Paul, in his Epistles, speaks of the saints, or baptized believers, as being some poor and some rich, and recommends among the latter a weekly collection for the former. It is true, that he will find the apostles working for their bread, and St. Paul,

The reader will find any view of this parable in my observations upon the 74th Canon.