Imatges de pàgina
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opponents, and, from their own wild conceptions of it, they endeavour to render that character ridiculous: And, what is still more unaccountable, and, if possible, more unjust, they connect the character of the clergy, thus abused, with the truth of the religion they profess, and undermine Christianity, through the conduct of its ministers as if the behaviour of a man, in this age, could alter or affect what happened many centuries before he was born; or as if negligence and dissipation, followed by sedition and treason, on the part of a subject, necessarily and ipso facto imply oppression and injustice in the laws. This candid and enlightened mode of argument has been used by every infidel, in every age, of whom I have heard, whose work I have seen, or whose private conversation I have had an opportunity of knowing; and T. Paine, S. Francis, and A. Macleod have in this, as in other particulars, like faithful copiers, most judiciously and carefully imitated the manners of their tribe..

"But why all this illiberal and disinge nuous abuse? who or what are clergymen? Are they not men, taken from among ourselves, with this only difference, (and indeed it is a most material one) that they have generally a better education and correcter morals? Is it not to them, or to institutions entirely clerical, that we owe almost all our knowledge, and almost all the science which

has so enlightened and improved us? If these same clergymen (the majority of whom make but a very scanty livelihood by their profession, and many of them not even that) were to turn the learning, assiduity, and abilities, of which they are generally possessed, to other pursuits,-to law, to physic, to politics, to trade, or to agriculture, -would they not, in all probability, in a worldly view, make a better figure, and rise to greater dignity, power, and emolument, than they do in the laborious, and, as the times go, despised, employment of parish priests? From a change, either in the religion or the politics of the state, they have, in general, as little, in a temporal light, to fear, as any order of men under the sun. The large majority of them could lose but little; and, in a new settlement of things, were they to support the change, their abilities, which are undeniably superior to those of any other body of men of equal magnitude, in any country, would doubtless recommend them to at least equal notice. In a political scramble, the probability is, they might be more successful. Many of them could scarce be less so than they are. But, happily for the peace and good order of civil society; for all that is decent, and of good report, it is not for the sake of their incomes, that they profess Christianity, but it is from a firm conviction of its truth, and of its happy influence on

human life and manners, that they labour often for a very scanty pittance in its support. Accordingly we find, that, in those political storms which, raised by the caballing of interested or mistaken men, have brought ruin and desolation on the world, the lowest, as well as the highest of the clerical order, have generally adhered, amidst the mighty ruin, to their professions in happier times; and, when a simple recantation might have saved them from destruction, or raised them to opulence, which they never possessed, they have, with the magnanimous. virtue which their religion inspires, spurned the paltry barter of their consciences, and endured persecution in its most horrid forms, or patiently worn out a wretched existence in pitiless exile. Can any man, or order of men, afford more convincing proofs of the sincerity of their professions, or, by a conduct so conformable to their principles, be less liable to the suspicion of hypocrisy ? Where bad clergymen occur, and some such must be found in every body of men so numerous, let them be blamed, let them be punished; but let not an illustrious, an innocent order of the community, suffer in their character (which to good men is dearer than life itself) for the faults of a few individuals. Base, indeed, must that man's mind be, who dwells only on the out-casts of the society, and who, by exhibiting the faults and foibles of the weak and the abandoned,

endeavours to obscure the virtues, and to impede the utility, of the more enlightened and respectable. The clergy feel it to be their duty to recommend morality, and every virtue of which human nature is capable, by the sanction of a religion which, on the firmest grounds, they believe to be divine. Is it just, is it liberal, because they are zealous in the discharge of this duty, that they should be considered as bigots?.or, because they are paid for the performance of it, that they should be accounted hypocrites? Must not every man, according to the order of things which exist, and ever has existed in the world, live by his profession, unless he has inherited a competency independent of all personal exertion? And must those exertions for a livelihood, which are ever praiseworthy in others, be considered as blameable only in men, who, for purposes the most important, and from convictions the most strong, deny themselves many of the pleasures and amusements of life, from a principle of duty; and who, submitting often to a laborious penury, conscientiously execute the office they have undertaken? By being the ministers of Christ, and the instructors of the poor, (who, without them, have scarce any other means of learning their duty, or acquiring knowledge,) they do not surely forfeit the common rights of humanity. When they become the servants of Heaven, they do not

cease to be men. are, without a murmur or complaint, wasted on players, mountebanks, and numerous denominations of impostors; on luxurious trifles and empty gewgaws,-What reason then can we have, to complain that the clergy have some recompence for their labour? The labourer is ever worthy of his hire; and few, perhaps none, have shewn themselves more worthy of recompence and respect, than they whose income is thus envied, and whose office is thus unjustly ridiculed. Their education is tedious and expensive, their office laborious, honourable, and useful, and their promotion precarious and uncertain. The property they possess does not belong to the public, but to themselves alone. It has been acquired in as equitable a manner; has, without controversy, been possessed by them for as long a period; has been used by them with as much propriety, and is therefore held by as just and firm a tenure, as that of any man or order of men

Immense sums of money

living.

"The clergy stand as it were upon an eminence. Their virtues, however, are often, by the very nature of them, concealed from public inspection; and, generally, when they are known, they are considered as mere matters of course, or as the necessary effects. of a particular mode of life; and therefore, as unworthy of particular notice,, or of distinguished praise. Their foibles, their vices,

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