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day:- "There is a gap in hell, as wide as from Calais to Dover, and it is all filled with unpreaching prelates."(5)

Let not one suppose that I have any prejudice against a bishop, or a clergyman, as such. There are some whose learning, piety, diligence, zeal, and talents I admire: and I myself am of the clerical order from the most conscientious choice; but I cannot prevail on myself to call things by wrong names, and to give

(5) Latimer's words are:-"O that a man might have the contemplation of hell, that the devil would allow a man to look into hell, to see the estate of it;-if one were admitted to view hell thus, and beholding it thoroughly, the devil should say: On yonder side are punished unpreaching prelates, I think a man might see far as a kenning, and perceive nothing but unpreaching prelates; he might look as far as Calais, I warrant you."

A learned friar in Italy, famous for his learning and preaching, was commanded to preach before the Pope at a year of jubilee: and to be furnished, he repaired a good while before to Rome, to see the fashion of the conclave, to accommodate his sermon the better. When the day came that he was to preach, having ended his prayer, he looking a long time about, at last cried with a loud voice three times-Peter was a fool !—Peter was a fool !—Pèter was a fool!-Which words ended, he came out of the pulpit. Being after convened before the Pope, and asked why he so carried himself, he answered, surely, holy father, if a priest may go to heaven, abounding in wealth, honour and preferment, and live at ease, never or seldom to preach, then surely Peter was a fool, who took such a hard way in travelling, in fasting, and in preaching, to go thither.

Most of our English bishops are unpreaching prelates. The bishop of London, and some few more, are exceptions to this general rule. If the present times, and the awful predicament in which every clergyman now stands, will not rouse us to a sense of danger, and a greater degree of zeal and diligence in our calling, we shall richly deserve our approaching, impending and inevitable fate, unless prevented by a speedy and effectual return to evangelical principles and practices. The gospel is either true or it is false. If it be false, let us cast off the mask, and appear in our true colours. If it be true, let us conduct ourselves as though we believed it to be so, and leave no stone unturned, no means untried, to promote its spread and influence among the world in general, and among the people committed to our care in particular.

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flattering titles where it is plain they are not deserved. Gravely and seriously speaking, the number of clerical characters, who will be received with approbation by the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, in the great day of final retribution will be small, extremely small. Appearances at present are against us. And this is strongly implied in our Saviour's very solemn discourse to the bishops and clergy among the Jews, in the twenty-third of Matthew, just before he left our world.

The clergy of every country in christendom have been, at the same time, the bane and the bulwark of religion; the bane, by their pride, misconduct, superstition, negligence, and spiritual domination; and the bulwark by their piety, excellent learning, and admirable defences of the doctrines of religion, or the outworks of christianity.

The popish clergy have preached and written so much in defence of the triple tyrant, and the superstitions of their religion, that scepticism and infidelity almost universally prevail among thinking men of that denomination. The more eagerly the clergy contend, the more mischief they do their cause: for really the things for which they contend are not defensible.

We of the English establishment too, who have so long boasted of the excellence of our church; congratulated ourselves so frequently upon our happy condition; paid ourselves so many fine compliments upon the unparalleled purity of our hierarchy, that a stranger would be led to conclude, that we must be the holiest, happiest, and most flourishing church upon the face of the earth: Whereas, when you go into our most stately and magnificent cathedrals, and other sacred edifices, you find them almost empty and forsaken. At best, all is deadness and lukewarmness both with priest and people.(6) In various instances

(6) Burnet says, "I have lamented, during my whole life, that I saw so little true zeal among our clergy. I saw much of

there is little more appearance of devotion, than in a Jews' synagogue. Go where you will through the kingdom, one or the other of these is very generally the case, except where the officiating clergyman is strictly moral in his conduct, serious, earnest, and lively in his manner, and evangelical in his doctrines. Where this happens to be so, the stigma of Methodism is affixed to his character, and his name is a proverb of reproach, in proportion to his usefulness, by the sceptics and infidels all around, in which they are joined by the rich, the fashionable, and the gay,

it in the clergy of the church of Rome, though it is both ill directed and ill conducted. I saw much zeal likewise throughout the foreign churches. The Dissenters have a great deal among them; but the main body of our clergy has always appeared dead and lifeless to me; and, instead of animating one another, they lay one another asleep."

Let any discerning man take a candid, yet impartial survey of the clergy, for a circuit of sixty miles round his own neighbourhood, and then let him say, whether the matter is mended since the time in which the good bishop wrote these words. Let him attend the Dissenting ordinations, and clerical meetings; the Methodist conferences, and district meetings; let him next proceed to our church confirmations, ordinations and visitations; and then let him say, on which side is to be found the greatest appearance of evangelical religion. Our confirmations are a burlesqué, our ordinations disorderly, and our visitations riotous and intemperate. These are melancholy facts. The parson and his wardens must have a good soaking together once a year at least.

I observe too, that for a circuit of many miles round our two English Universities, a greater degree of ignorance and stupidityprevails among the common people, than in most other parts of the country. This is a strange circumstance, but easily accounted for from the improper conduct of abundance of the clergy and gentlemen of those two seminaries of learning.

It holds equally true, that, all through the kingdom, wherever there is a cathedral, and a greater number of parsons than ordinary, there is usually the least appearance of real religion among the people. The general luke-warmness of the clergy is a curse to every neighbourhood where they abound! It is the same in catholic countries, and must be so, in the nature of things, through every country, unless we live in the spirit of the gospel.

with the bishop and clergy at their head. How many such,

"For their bellies' sake

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold!
'Of other care they little reckoning make,
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,

And shove away the worthy bidden guest;

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep hook, or have learn'd aught else the least

That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!

What recks it them? what need they? They are sped:
And when they list, their lean and flashly songs

Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw,
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,

But swoll'n with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace: and nothing said,
But that two-handed engine at the door,

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."

These words of Milton are certainly severe, but not more so than the occasion deserves. If they were applicable in his day, they are no less so in the present. As a body, we are, of all men in England, the most inexcusable. The great mass of the people are going headlong to the devil in their sins; the nation, because of its transgressions, is absolutely verging towards destruction; and yet a vast majority of the 18,000 parsons are insensible, both of the temporal and eternal danger, to which we, and our people, and our country are exposed. If this censure seem intemperate, let any man prove that it is not just. I sincerely wish it were wholly undeserved. I know some good fen, useful, laborious, and honourable men, among the clergy; men, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; but I know also there is a very considerable number, who are what shall I say?Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askefon; lest the sons of infidelity rejoice; lest the disci

ples of Paine triumph-they are exactly like the parsons described by the prophet, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem:-His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant: they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough; and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter. Come, ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

I have no pleasure in exposing the nakedness of the established religion of my country, or in exciting against myself the indignation of my clerical brethren; but the times are alarming; the great head of the church is evidently displeased with us; and there is no mincing the matter any longer. We ought to examine the ground upon which we stand. If it be in any respect found untenable, we should change our measures; follow the determination of Heaven; and, by complying with its high behests, put ourselves under its guardian care. If, without looking forward, or giving ourselves any concern about what is right or what is wrong, we are determined to defend whatever in former ages has received the sanction of law, and in our day, the force of custom, we must take the consequences. We shall, most assuredly, in due time, share in the general wreck of the nations. I have no more doubt of this, than I have of the authority of the Sacred Writings.

The animosity and uncharitableness, which have ever-more prevailed among the different denominations of Christians, is another cause of the growing infidelity of the present age. It is not said now, as in the days of old, "See how these Christians love one another :"-but-" See how these Christians hate one another." Catholics damn protestants, and protes

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