their measures, (their being a prescription among the ecclesiasticks against such lay follies,) but (if possible) to open the eyes of their blind and stupid adorers, and to let them see what wretched idols they are worshipping. T. NUMBER 16. The Inconsistency of the principles and practices of High-Church; with some advice to the Clergy. If the ecclesiasticks have any divine right, which is neither derived from the civil magistrate, nor the consent of voluntary societies, it must be vested in a single person; in a certain number of persons, which we all call bishops; or in common to them all: The first is popery, and the last presbytery. But I think that there is no establishment which now subsists, or ever did subsist in the world, which does or did assert the divine right of bishops, independent of the pope; and consequently it is the proprium or peculiar whimsy of our own perjured high-churchmen, not only in opposition to their oaths and subscriptions (as I have shewed already) but to the most applauded actions of their greatest champions; which 'tis the business of this paper to make out. If there be a divine right in the bishops to govern the church, it is spiritual rebellion, and the highest sacrilege, to usurp upon this great authority; but then, what will become of all the daily daubing and fulsome panegyrick upon the best established church in the world? Since I think it is agreed by all the clergy, that the power of legislation, as far as they have any thing to do with it, is vested in the convocation, which consists of two houses, one of bishops, the other of presbyters; a constitution utterly inconsistent with this divine right; which the high-clergy have been so far from regretting or complaining of, that it is one of their most essential characteristicks, to maintain the power of the lower house against the upper; that is, of presbyters against their own diocesans. They claim a co-ordinate power with them in the supremest acts of church government; an authority of acting by themselves, to choose their own time of meeting, to sit as often and as long as they please, to adjourn by their own authority, to begin what business they think fit, to choose their own committees, excuse absence, receive proxies, judge of elections, censure their own members, and do all other acts, which ought to be done by the sole authority of a house which is its own master and judge: all which, though they are rank presbytery, yet are also become the genuine principles of modern high-churchmen; at the same time that they assert a sole, divine, apostolick, and independent power in the bishops to govern the church. The asserting of these rights of the lower house, is the merit of their present champion,* supplies the want of charity in him, and covers a thousand faults; and 'tis much to be feared and lamented, that all the late zeal of a much greater man, and the present services which he is doing, will scarcely atone for his having acted formerly upon lowchurch principles, in defending the prerogative of the crown, and maintaining the power of the upper-house over the lower. What persons or party have supported the Bishops and their authority, ever since the revolution, against their own presbyters? All lowchurchmen. Who were those who have been always aspersing, calumniating and libelling the two last arch-bishops, our present metrepolitan, till very lately, the last bishop of Salisbury, and indeed every worthy prelate; but the high church priests and their followers? And who have honoured and defended their persons and characters, but low-churchmen. Who exhibited articles against a present bishop, for having impeached the King's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, (wholly inconsistent with the divine right of bishops) but the high-church clergy? Who supported the late dean of Carlisle against his own diocesan? All high-churchmen. And who defended both these bishops? All lowchurchmen. Who burnt by the hands of the common hangman, a book wrote by a right reverend bishop, which asserted King William's title upon the once genuine principles of conquest, and passed a scandulous and groundless vote upon the late learned bishop of Worcester, but high-churchmen? And who voted for these bishops? All low churchmen. Such open blunders and glaring inconsistencies must these men be reduced to, who measure all opinions by their present interest and passions; and who have no other standard of right and wrong, but what most gratifies their ambition, pride, covetousness, or revenge. I can safely say, that, as I had no interest in entering upon this design, nor can have any in continuing it, but to promote the cause of virtue and truth, and to support our present legal establishment; by shewing the laity that they are free, both by the laws of God and their country, from all the wild and enthusiastick pretensions of the high flown ecclesiasticks; as I was willing also, not wholly to despair of being able to restore again the apostate clergymen to the church of Eng Jand, and to make them really of the principles which they swear to, pretend to monopolize, and yet constantly oppose; so I shall have the utmost pleasure, if I can contribute to these great ends, and shall rejoice over such an occasion, to drop this paper. As the high-clergy can have no other motive to pursue these principles, but the temporal interest of their order, in opposition to Christianity, and the apparent laws of their country; so I shall endeavour to convince them, that they are grasping at what they can never reach; and, with the dog in the fable, losing a substance to catch at a shad ow. It was a saying of the wise lord Halifax, that Dr. Echard, in his treatise of the contempt of the clergy, had omitted the chief cause of it, * Dr. Francis Atterbury, late bishop of Rochester. namely, (not their ignorance, but) the knowledge of the laity; and it is very true, that the mists of superstition and fear, which have been so long raising before our eyes, are pretty well dissipated and dispers ed; nor will an horizontal hat, a starched band, and long petticoats, pass in this age for essential marks of wisdom and virtue. The rehearsal has long since told us, that the gravest of all beasts is an ass, and the gravest of all birds is an owl; and indeed the world seems generally of opinion now, that sound sense, polite learning, good breeding, and an easy and affable conversation, are not only consistent with true religion, but are most productive of it; and sure it cannot be denied, that the laity, for the most part, exceed in these qualities. They are resolved, at last, to see with their own eyes, hear with their own ears, and feel with their own hands: Ipse dixit will pass no longer. It is a ridiculous attempt to endeavour to deceive any one, who will not consent to be hood-winked. A jade will not be put into an horse-mill, till she is blinded; nor could Sampson be led about by the Philistines, till they had put out his eyes; I would therefore give my old friends a hint, though I doubt to little purpose, name ly, to change the course of their sailing, according to the shifting of the winds and the tides, and not run the danger of shipwreck upon those coasts, where their predecessours formerly found deep water and safe riding. I am sensible, that many of the high-church popish clergy will laugh in their sleeves at this advice, and think there is folly enough yet left among the laity, to support their authority; and will hug themselves, and rejoice over the ignorance of the universities, the stupidity of the drunken squires, the panic of the tender sex, and the never to be shaken constancy of the multitude; but I would put them in mind, that all these fine visions have once already misled and deceiv ed them, and therefore may again. I desire that they will count their gains, and recollect what addition of power they got, or were like to have got, by the late great revolution of temporal politicks, which they were so instrumental to bring about; indeed they were called together, and had a liberty given them to scold and quarrel with one another; but they were not suffered to hurt so much as a mouse; and even Mr. Whiston laughed at them. Whilst their patrons were making their court to France and the pretender, for preferments; the lower house of convocation was very usefully em ployed and diverted, in compiling forms of prayer for consecrating church-yards, and for criminals who were to be hanged; which 'tis said a certain great person then called throwing out a barrel to the whale. I am afraid that they are not well informed of what it much concerns them to know, namely, that even the tories themselves will not be priest-ridden; and those amongst them, who have any sense, laugh at high-church principles in private, though they bow to the broachers of them, and seem to admire them in publick; of the truth of which I myself have been a witness; so that of whatever importance they may scem to themselves, they are, in truth, but tools to factious meni; are only employed to do their drudgery, and run down their game; and will scarce have for their pains even the picking of the bones, when (like jackals) they have hunted down the lion' prey. I should not have thought myself at liberty to have unburthened my mind thus freely, if it had not been to have served some of my friends among these high-church clergy, by helping them to a little of that understanding, which is not to be learnt in universities, and in conversation with one another; and I wish, (though I cannot hope, much less persuade myself to believe) that when they have duly considered what I have said, they will change their style, and endeavour to atone for all the mischiefs which they have hitherto done, by being hereafter advocates for civil and ecclesiastickal liberty; will make the influence they have over the poor deluded multitude to promote true religion, as well as peace and happiness amongst mankind; and be no longer the boutefeus or incendiaries of every popular faction and tumult. Which God of his înfinite mercy grant, &c. T... NUMBER 17. Reasons why the high-church priests are the most wicked of all men. It seems natural and reasonable to suppose, that clergymen, who have a learned, ingenious, and Christian education; who are bred up in strict discipline; who in their youth study the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and other heathen moralists; as also the books of the old and new testament, which they believe to be divinely inspired; who attend daily prayers, and frequent sacraments; who pretend to have a call from the Holy Ghost to teach the world; who spend a great part of their time in composing divine discourses or sermons; who are obliged to pray and converse daily with weak, sick, and scrupulous parishoners, about heavenly matters; who, by conversation and close union with one another at visitations, and other holy meetings, and (I presume) by prayers together, have great opportunities of improving themselves in virtue and godliness; and who are under a particular obligation to set good examples, and under a sort of necessity to observe some decorum; should be better than other men. But yet, it is a matter of common observation, that they are not so; almost all in the Roman church, and too many in other churches, being in an eminent degree notoriously guilty of those vices, which are of most pernicious or most extensive ill consequences, and most anti-Christjan; such as ambition, pride, anger, hatred, malice, revenge, litigiousness, uncharitableness, hypocrisy, persecution, sedition, treason, equiv ocation, and perjury; (whereof multitudes of the laity are not only wholly innocent, but remarkable for the virtues opposite to them ;) to say nothing of their equal guilt with other men in respect to the inferiour vices of swearing, drunkenness, and such like. And this fact is honestly confessed by the late bishop of Sarum, who in his memoirs (which we expect with the utmost impatience soon to see published) tells us," that he always believes well of laymen, till he sees cause to change his mind; though, as to churchmen, it is otherwise with him; for be has seen so much amiss in that profession, that he is inclined always to think ill of them, till he sees cause to think otherwise." Whereupon it is a frequent subject of enquiry, how it comes to pass or what are the causes of this fact, which would never be credited if it was not very manifest. Some are at a loss about this matter; but, for my part, I am not. And the fact is no more surprising to me, than are other common facts concerning men; which, by being common, must have plain and manifest causes. The causes of this fact, in particular, are so plain to me, that from the mere consideration of them, I should wonder if I found the clergy better than they are; and I esteem those causes to be so necessarily productive of their effect, that I do not think it presumption to pretend to know the doings of the high-clergy, in all ages to have been wicked, even without history or testimony, which are requisite to give us the knowledge of other men's crimes. Grotius's observation,* qui legit historiam ecclestaticam, quid legit nisi vitia episcoporum? must be true, and justly applied to all other clergy as well as the Christian. It is not the design of this paper, to assign the general causes of this fact, or all the particular causes, which render so many of our clergy so bad as they are. That subject I reserve for a treatise by itself. I shall at present only assign some of those causes, which I conceive to have the most direct influence on the morals of so many of our clergy. Youth is the great opportunity of life, which settleth and fixeth most men either in a good or bad course; and the impressions, especially bad impressions, then made, are usually lasting. Youth is also a time of innocence, when men have borrour for vice, which they never com mit at first without offering violence to themselves. The first and most natural thoughts of man are to be honest and just, and reasonable, as the best things which he can do for his own sake; and it is the ine fluence of ill example, and of the common practice of the world, which, for the most part, changes his sentiments, and puts him upon ill actions. But the natural innocence of youth being once broke in upon, man by degrees grows hardened and impudent in wickedness, and commits it without shame or remorse. Nothing therefore has so direct a tendency to debauch the world, as to debauch the youth: and the earlier, the more effectual; for thereby innocence and virtue may be so effaced, as in a little time to leave no memory or trace of them, no more than Quartilla in Petronius Arbiter had, who, though a young woman, did not remember that she had ever been a maid. Now it seems to me peculiar to the clergy, in most parts of Christendom, to begin the world with the greatest breach upon the natural honesty and integrity of youth, and with the greatest violence upon their own consciences, that can be imagined; as will be evident from the following particulars. 1. First, the youth who are sent to universities are early initiated into perjury, by being obliged to take college oaths, in some respects impertinent or ridiculous, in others wicked, or impossible to be kept; by which means, false swearing becomes familiar to them, and they es Ecclesiastical history, nothing else but a detail of the villaries of priests. |