were not slow to deliver their opinion, that if the present order of affairs ecclesiastical were overturned, many now living would see it restored. Meanwhile the members must suffer; and it was recollected that there had been much inertness, much supineness, much indifference! Church preferment had been made a mere political engine of; and many were thrust into her benefices with little other intent than to "eat a piece of bread.” Nay more, good men scrutinized their own doings, and sifted their own hearts, and confessed then, as they will for ever, that they had been unworthy and unprofitable servants, saying, They made me keeper of the vineyard; but mine own vineyard have I not kept! 10 The result of all this, by God's mercy, is what we now see. Individuals have suffered, and are impoverished; the revenues of the Church are curtailed, and are dispensed by other hands than they ought to be; but the Church itself suffers no damage. It rises under the pressure from without; it becomes more and more aware of its own strength and vitality: the little one becomes a thousand; the scant remnant is increased, like the widow's cruse of oil, and handful of meal. The grace of God, it may seem, and we may hope, is proportionably bestowed upon us, as upon the Churches of Macedonia, of which St. Paul tells, How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality 1o That saying of the prophet is once more verified in us: I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence: in their affliction they will seek me early1. And all this is come to pass. The stagnant waters have been moved, and the pestilence averted. New churches are springing up on every side. The great societies for the dissemination of Christian knowledge are better supported. The education of the people is made a matter of conscience. The Propagation of the Gospel is looked upon as a real thing; and when the State, by a measure as impolitic as wicked, gave up the clergy reserves in Canada ', the Church of this land put herself in the gap, and did what she could in the 9 Solomon's Song, i. 6. 10 2 Cor. viii. 2. 1 Hosea v. 15. 2 It will be seen by the Preface that these pages were written some years ago. In this day's" Times," April 29, 1853, appears the following: "The Canada Clergy Reserves' Bill was read a third time and passed, after some opposition from the Earl of WICKLOW." present distress. Doubtless it is not expedient for the Church to boast-yea, rather to mourn, for her short-comings and backwardness—but it is expedient, it is her bounden duty, to acknowledge the hand of God in all this! But is it intended to be said that the clergy of the Establishment had forgotten their duties to God and man-their high position, and their ordination vows? Is such a reproach as this to be cast on the labourers in the Lord's vineyard? and can it be truthfully averred that, some twelve or fourteen years ago, the ministrations of the sanctuary were asleep? Certainly not. As was stated, there had been great remissness in many quarters, and the heavenly functions, as well as the awful and tremendous privilege of rightly and duly administering the sacraments, had been lightly esteemed by the unworthy. But there was a remnant according to the election of grace, and a great one too. The world had its own, but so had the Church too, and it was even in accordance with that ancient answer of God unto Elias: “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal3." It is indeed a remarkable fact, that when, but a few years ago, such a hue and cry was raised against the Church and the ministry in this land, the whole body had been bestirring itself, and there was more energy and more determination to good than had been for years. There was likewise more learning amongst her sons, and more sterling divinity, than had been for a century. Something of what Lord Clarendon states to have been the case before the breaking out of the Great Rebellion was the case now. "The Church was flourishing with learned and extraordinary men, and (which other times had in some degree wanted) supplied with oil to feed those lamps." True, we had not that vast learning, or those extraordinary talents, but our Church was a seminary in which religious and useful learning was on the increase. And besides, it was an exception when the clergy did not love sermons as well as preach them, so that the parallel is again, in a sort, realized. "In those reproached, condemned times, there was not one Churchman, in any degree of favour or acceptance, (and this the inquisition that hath been since made upon them, 3 Rom. xi. 4. a stricter never was in any age, must confess,) of a scandalous insufficiency in learning, or of a more scandalous condition of life; but, on the contrary, most of them of confessed eminent parts in knowledge, and of virtuous and unblemished lives." And then, when the indiscretion or folly of some sermon preached at Whitehall was bruited abroad or commented on, despite the wisdom, sobriety, and devotion of a hundred, his words are not to be forgotten. "But it is as true (as was once said by a man fitter to be believed on that point than I, and one not suspected of flattering the clergy) that, if the sermons of those times preached in court were collected together and published, the world would receive the best bulk of orthodox, divinity, profound learning, convincing reason, natural powerful eloquence, and admirable devotion, that hath been communicated in any age since the Apostles' time.” This testimony of Clarendon, "the most authentic," as Southey calls him, "the most candid, the most instructive of English historians "," is of very great value, and when judgment begins at the house of God, is one to afford comfort. The same fact has been noted by other writers, and some there were who bore it in mind when bishops were recommended to set their house in order, and the clergy could scarce appear abroad on parochial ministrations without insult. Happily the sons of violence did us no hurt; but, on the contrary, bestired us, and bade us look to where our great strength lay. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, righteous and efficacious measures were decided on, enlarged was the place of our tent, and the curtains of our habitation were stretched forth. Good men spared not themselves to lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes of our ecclesiastical polity. And, as is ever almost the case, those that helped themselves were holpen. Environed we are at present with all sorts of difficulties; there is much to harass and distress, and much to perplex us; but in the midst of so many and great anxieties, it must be confessed, that our 4 See History of the Rebellion, b. i. vol. i. pp. 134-137. Lord Clarendon specially mentions Abp. Laud's and Mr. Chillingworth's "two books" on advancement and defence of the Protestant religion. Below he probably alludes to Selden. (See his "Table Talk," in v. Clergy.) 5 Life of Cromwell. Quart. Rev. vol. xxv. p. 347. Malachi iii. 16. estate is better than it was. The laity are alive at length to the fact that the Church is not the clergy alone, but that it appertaineth to them also, and the overshadowing of her wings is for the good of their souls and their children's. To find the laity taking the part they are now doing is a healthy symptom. To be awake to privileges is a cause for thankfulness. Already we see good effects. The clergy are better supported; their efforts are heartily seconded; their voice is heard and listened to with attention; sacred subjects are not treated lightly; the cause of the poor destitute is advocated; charity is once more considered the end of the commandment, and it begins at home without ending there, which were a sin to be repented of. And then again, the fitness of the ministry is carefully and warily scanned, and this is for their good. They cannot sleep at their posts; they must up and be doing. The Christian soldier has taken an oath for active service, and he must be on his watch. But this is not all; for a greater benefit still accrues. The laity, watchful over the ministrations of the Church and her teachers, become watchful over themselves and over the talents committed to their trust. They employ the preferment in their hands to better use. To advance one unfit to be advanced becomes a scandal and a reproach. What has hitherto been rather acknowledged than practised, is acted up to with sincerity. And then observe the blessing, even in a worldly point of view. Those that were robbed of the Church's endowments by thoughtless politicians find conscience siding with right, and individuals doing all they can to restore that patrimony one way which a body politic voted away in another. It avails not for the enemy to say, that what was abused in inefficient hands should be taken out of those hands and distributed afresh. Parliament has rather the power than the right to acquiesce in such sentiments, which, after all, are merely agrarian. The same weapons which have been turned against the possessions of the Church may, sooner or later, be turned against the landed interest by some Jack Cade or other, and then, how will they defend house added to house, and field to field? "Away, burn all the records of the land; my mouth shall be the parliament of England'!" Such things have been, such things may be again! 7 Second Part Henry VI. Act. iv. Sc. vii. If ever they should, their consciences will be the more at rest who have come to the help of a wronged and a robbed Church. Pity 'tis that 66 Wrong hath more clients than sincerity!" The pressure from without has certainly turned to our good. "At the crowing of the cock of their consciences," (it is the quaint but expressive phrase of old Fuller in the Life and Death of Berengarius,) many great landholders have come forward nobly, impressed with the truth that the detention of property usurped unjustly could not be defended, though the guilt of such an impropriation lay not on their shoulders. It is their desire rather to advance the inheritance of the Church than to rob it. And it is to be remarked, that this desire for restoration followed upon one of the most glaring acts of spoliation which modern days have witnessed. Esau has met his brother, and fallen on his neck and kissed him o. But let it not be supposed, that all blame attaches to the laity. There was a time-not so long passed-when the clergy forgot that they held the Church's property but in trust, and they ought never to have received any thing less than what was set apart from common use, and restricted to the support of the ministry. Once received, they might dispense at will; and the more abundant the distribution the better, and the more befitting their office. It was the receiving a part for the whole, and acquiescing in wrong, that, in numberless instances, curtailed our benefices. And by this means the consciences both of patrons and beneficed clergy were entrapped, though the sin of covetousness lay rather at the door of the latter,— "For men of judgment, or good dispositions, I say, there's none of knowledge, wit, or merit, That will so wrong the Church as to presume 8 See this point referred to by Gauden in his Hieraspistes, p. 493. 4to. 1653. I had forgotten it when I wrote what is in the above paragraphs. |