at home and abroad, (for the Dutch war was

were happy for Christendom if it were so again) ministers of the Gospel were by nothing else distinguished from other Christians, but by their spiritual knowledge and sanctity of life, for which the church elected them to be her teachers and overseers, though not thereby to separate them from whatever calling she then found them following besides. As the example of St. Paul declares, and the first times of Christianity. When once they affected to be called a clergy, and became, as it were, a peculiar tribe of Levites, a party, a distinct order in the commonwealth, bred up for divines in babling schools, and fed at the public cost, good for nothing else, but what was good for nothing, they soon grew idle; that idleness, with fulness of bread, begat pride and perpetual contention with their feeders, the despised laity, through all ages ever since, to the perverting of religion, and the disturbance of all Christendom. And we may confidently conclude, it will never be otherwise, whilst they are thus upheld undepending on the church, on which alone they antiently depended, and are, by the magistrate, publickly maintained, a numerous faction of indigent persons, crept for the most part out of extream want and bad nurture, claiming, by divine right and freehold, the tenth of our estates, to monopolize the ministry, as their peculiar, which is free and open to all able Christians, elected by any church. Under this pretence, exempt from all other employment, and enriching themselves on the public, they last of all prove common incendiaries, and exalt their horns against the magistrate himself that maintains them, as the priest of Rome did soon after against his benefactor the emperor, and the presbyters of late in Scotland. Of which hireling crew, together with all the mischiefs, dissentions, troubles, wars meerly of their kindling, Christendom might soon rid herself and be happy, if Christians would but know their own dignity, their liberty, their adoption, and let it not be wondered, if I

say, their

not terminated, though the English, for the

a

spiritual priesthood, whereby they have all equally access to any ministerial function, whenever called by their own abilities, and the church, though they never came near commencement or university " Mr. Wall, in his fine letter to Milton, dated Causham, May 26, 1659, has the following passage. "I have sometimes thought (concurring with your assertion of that storied voice that should speak from heaven) when ecclesiastics were endowed with worldly preferments, Hodie venenum infunditur in ecclesiam: for, to use the speech of Genesis iv. ult. according to the sense which it hath in the Hebrew, then began men to corrupt the worship of God. I shall tell you a supposal of mine, which is this: Mr. Dury has bestowed about thirty years time in travel, conference and writings, to reconcile Calvinists and Lutherans, and that with little or no success. But the shortest way were, take away ecclesiastical dignities,' honours and preferments, on both sides, and all would soon be hushed; the ecclesiastics would be quiet, and then the people would come forth into truth and liberty." These were the sentiments of some of the sons of liberty in the age of which I am now speaking: sentiments proceeding from minds full of concern for truth and virtue, though they had little prospect of being hearkened to by the bulk of mankind, who prefer wealth, pomp and ease to every thing rational, virtuous and manly.The scheme of the parlia ment pretended not to this high perfection. It only suppressed the dignity, state and excessive wealth of the lordly" ecclesiastics, whilst it left them enough for every virtuous' and laudable purpose, and prevented them from feeling the want of the real necessaries their stations were thought to require. Were I to deliver my own sentiments for the real good of ecclesiastics of all sorts and kinds, I would say with

* Milton's Prose Works, vol. I. p. 636. clastes, 2d edit. Lond. 1756, 4to.

6

Preface to Milton's Icono

most part, were successful) the lord-general a late writer concerning the Jesuits in particular; "render them poor, and they will be humble; render them poor, and they will be useful; render them poor, and they will become holy." But to go on.-Besides the care taken of their parochial clergy, the parliament shewed their benevolence to the universities, by enacting, "That the trustees, in whose hands the dean and chapter lands were vested for the use of the public, shall, from time to time, pay (out of the abovementioned twenty thousand) two thousand pounds yearly, for the increase of the maintenance of the masterships of colleges in both universities, where maintenance is wanting, regard being to be had unto the number of houses of learning in each university, that are fit to have an increase of maintenance, and to make an assignment of maintenance unto them accordingly; provided it do not exceed one hundred pounds per annum to any one of them."-This bounty was not ill bestowed. For never, perhaps, were there men of more real merit in the university of Cambridge than now. Witness the names of Cudworth, Whichcott, Wilkins, and many others mentioned by the very ingenious Dr. Salter, who educated a race of men that were an honour to their country; I mean Tillotson, Barrow, Smith, More, and such like, who opposed themselves to popery in the most trying times, and taught men the principles of true religion and virtue. Whether Oxford was quite so happy, I know not; though, it is certain, many eminent men were educated there in these times, particularly Mr. Locke, whose writings on toleration and government will be for ever read and admired by men of sense and honesty.What the sum total produced by the sale of the lands of the bishops, deans and chapters, amounted to, I cannot say. -But here follows an account of the sale of the bishops' lands in the province of York, as given by Mr. Brown Willis.

* Reflections of a Portuguese upon the Memorial presented by the Jesuits to Clement XIII. p. 152. 8vo. Lond. 1760. b Preface to Tuckney's and Which

cott's Letters, 8vo. Lond. 1753. See also note 51.

of York, &c. 4to. 1727.

Survey of the Cathedrals

Cromwell, attended by some soldiers and offi

Sale of the lands of the see of York in the years: 1647, 1648, 1649, 1650, 1651, Durham, in the same years,

Carlisle,

Chester,

Man,

From this some tolerable guess may be made of the value of the rest of the bishops' lands, which are those of the province of Canterbury, consisting of that archbishopric and twenty-one bishoprics. A proposal, some years since, by a nameless writer, was made "for vesting the whole present property of the church in England and Ireland in the crown, not to enrich or add to its power, but as a trustee for the people, who should be always uppermost in the consideration of all true lovers of their country .— -Is it essentially necessary," says that author, "that bishops should have three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten thousand pounds a year? Is it necessary that an archbishop should die worth 90,000l. besides providing very honourably for his family, in consequence of his power and influence? Is it necessary that one churchman shall enjoy a string of benefices, while numbers have none and starve? I am willing to suppose episcopacy to be an essential branch of the Christian system; and therefore hold the order in all the veneration due to it. But I cannot bring myself to think that the Holy Ghost delights more to abide with them in coaches and palaces, and in parliament, than if they had abided by the primitive simple way of living, practised and inculcated by the apostles. I am no less willing that our prelates retain their seats in parliament, if it shall be thought that they have been always heretofore inspired

2 The State preferable to the Church, p. 12. 8vo. Lond. 1748.

cers, entered the house, upbraided the mem

with the spirit of truth and righteousness in their legislative capacity. But admitting, as I do very willingly, that our good lords the bishops add a lustre to the upper house, will they shine the less there for being placed more on the level with each other than they are at present? The poorest of them can afford clean lawn sleeves in their present situation; and if the two metropolitans should be levelled to an annual stipend of 1,500l. each, and their respective suffragans to 1,000l. I don't see but they might keep a coach in parliament time, notwithstanding the duty on carriage wheels, provided they reside with their flocks the rest of the year. Is it necessary that the bishoprics and other church-livings of Ireland, a cheap and plentiful country, should exceed even those in England? or, is it necessary, that, in the north of that kingdom, where there are scarce ten protestants of the episcopal church in a whole parish, many of the incumbents should possess livings of four, six, and eight hundred pounds a year? It is no uncommon sight in that country, to see a parson preach, I should say, read prayers, preaching being disused, to his clerk, and such of his own family as had accompanied him from the parsonage house in his coach and four. Though the value of livings in that kingdom be well known to our clergy, who are never wanting to themselves in pushing their way thither, where they bask in plenty and ease, it would seem as if our statesmen had acquired none or very little knowledge of the treasure that might be raised there by sale of the present possessions of the church. To mention but the primacy there, lately conferred on a very young churchman, but, I suppose, of distinguished piety and erudition, it would sell, at twenty years purchase only, for above 200,000l. no contemptible aid to a bleeding country, obliged to raise above ten millions annually, though already above four-score in debt. From this specimen may be seen how greatly the trading and industrious part of the people, that is, the laity, might be eased, if the revenues of the church, tithes and all, were