66 sidera terræ―sic utile recto, was, as the maxim of a domineering policy, first recognized and legitimated by the members of an Ecclesiastical College, now extinct. Other fraternities have occasionally borrowed, if they have not adopted it as a settled rule of government and discipline. The mouth-piece of its edicts, as well as the sign-manual of its authority, having ever been that EXPEDIENCY, whose effects I am about to remark on. By their fruits," it has been said, " ye shall know them." For a sample of this doctrine's fruits, we need, my Lord, look no farther, than to that "lofty independence of the praise or blame of their fellow-men," so conspicuous in its advocates and followers. Popular feelings, sentiments, and habits are, as your Lordship well knows, regulated by long-established usages and laws. For these, it is now found necessary to acquire, not only an habit of disregard, but a practised facility of contempt. What, my Lord, but a studied philosophic apathy, and such a " lofty independence" of vulgar prejudices, could have enabled any man, or set of men, to preserve, fixed and unmoved, a determined silence, a rigid abstinence from reply, though charged by an accredited organ of the public voice, an acknowledged censor of the public taste and morals, sending its judgments through every quarter, and to the utmost limits, of our empire, with having done such things as no honourable man would do. In answer to a charge so public and so loud, vain is it to whisper, that the things, so charged, have been done for the honour and dignity of the Church of England. Will any man, in this 19th century of the Christian era, come boldly forward, and tell the members of that Church, that its dignity and its honour require to be upheld by such means as the public voice cries shame upon? That the things, by public fame thus spoken of, were neither fitted nor meant to promote (as pretended) the honour and dignity of our Holy Church, your Lordship will, in the following Work, find ample testimonies: corroborated also and confirmed by those of Archbishop Secker, and the present Archbishop of Canterbury. These Most Reverend Primates and their spiritual Ministers being thus at variance, your Lordship will, I trust, not hesitate in deciding, whether the things so characterized have been done, for obtaining a gratification of these spiritual Ministers' interested" wishes," as declared by the Archbishops themselves, or for promoting the honour and welfare of the Church of England, as pretended by these their Admiralty Vicegerents in "the sacred and dreadful works of spiritual discipline." According to our Church's frame of government, by divers acts of Parliament established, all its Archbishops and Bishops, Deans, Prebendaries, and Archdeacons, assembled in Convocation, can neither make a law, nor alter a law, unless they have been called together by the King's writ, and their proceedings sanctioned by royal and legislative authority. As neither can the King decline maintaining to the Clergy, severally and collectively, such rights and privileges as do, by law, appertain to them, without infringing thereby his coronation oath. These are the fundamental laws of the English Hierarchy. Shall, then, my Lord, this autocratic EXPEDIENCY enable the Church's laico-spiritual Ministers, after passing their morning at an Admiralty session, to make and unmake, at their College dinner, our Church's laws, as they think fit? Shall these Symposiarchs have authority to decree, for carrying on our Holy Church's government, and for upholding "that gift of God, its spiritual jurisdiction, instituted for the welfare and salvation of immortal souls," any EXPEDIENCY, not grounded on that Church's laws? And shall they, withal, have power to confirm their self-constituted and unstatutable decrees, by a set of new-fangled, hocus-pocus canons, manufactured and kept ready, for any occasion, to issue from their Admiralty press? Your Lordship will, I am sure, not believe it to be so provided for in "The King's Ecclesiastical Laws of England." The means, employed for carrying on the Church's spiritual jurisdiction, are holy and sacred: its end being the " prosecution of vice and wickedness, for the benefit and good of souls." So say all the writers on our Church's government, from Lord Bacon down to Bishop Gibson. What absurdity can then equal that of the plea, set up by these lay Churchmen; viz. that, because some parts of this spiritual discipline, (being of a less sacred nature than the rest) may be performed by laymen, therefore these must; and because these, therefore the whole of that sacred discipline must either be performed by them, or, since some of its parts are still too sacred to be (even under the toleration granted by the 37th Henry VIII.) done by laymen, left undone, rather than allow the Clergy to take part in these “sacred and dreadful works." My Lord, this is playing the dog in the manger with a vengeance. Nor is it alone their legal disqualification which hinders these Admiralty Vicegerents of our Bishops from fulfilling their high and holy sub-episcopal duties. They have (as Dr. Gibson says*) too many "obligations to attend other affairs;" they are too fully occupied in making their own fortunes in the Court of Admiralty, to have either leisure or inclination for discharging the spiritual functions of their holy office, in " the prosecution of vice and wickedness," in watching over, censuring, and correcting (when needful) the manners of the Clergy in their respective dioceses, and in stemming the overwhelming torrent of adultery, uncleanness, drunkenness, profanation of the Sabbath, and other violations of God's commandments, of the Church's laws, and of the State's decrees, (now filling every sober Christian • See Address to the Visitors, page 92. with grief and shame) by opposing to them the barrier of our Church's laws, the "sacred and dreadful works" of its spiritual discipline. Yes, my Lord, far too busily engaged with " other affairs" are these Prize-Court Churchmen, to heed what either Bishop Gibson, or I, may say concerning their gross neglects of spiritual duties; or to heed even the calls of their spiritual flocks, committed "in the Bishop's absence," to their pro-pastoral care though many a sinful member of those flocks, running unrestrained the dread career of guilt and death, may well be fancied crying to them, Give us your whole employment, all your care. The province of the soul is large enough To fill up every cranny of your time, And leave you much to answer, if one wretch Yet, shall these Admiralty Churchmen, if so called on, find no shelter for their criminal neglects of our Holy Church's discipline, unless in that pliant and versatile EXPEDIENCY, which, by "bending the sun to the dial of self-interest," can protect them from that Church's and their Bishop's censures, although, instead of attending their proper duty, as sub-episcopal Ministers, "the prosecution of vice," and "the salvation of souls," their time is wholly engrossed, their attention wholly occupied with making their own fortunes, (as Dr. Gibson says) by other affairs and concerns.* Such are the powers of this EXPEDIENCY. One word, my Lord, touching its rule of action. So long as the appointments to " high and important public offices," either in the Church or State, are regulated by " the Laws in Being," there needs no silence; no one asks for secresy. But when the laws are to be over-ruled, and this EXPEDIENCY, or (in correcter phrase) what is agreeable" † to a few interested individuals, is to govern in their stead; it then often happens, that the motive acted from (and therefore candidly 66 * If I were allowed to state a supposed case, I would imagine a Judge of the Admiralty, and spiritual representative of some Bishop, to be sitting on " a case of blood" at an admiralty session of oyer and terminer, holden at the Old Bailey.-I would also suppose the criminal, on whom sentence of death had been passed, to address his laico-spiritual judge in the following words: "Sir, I was born and bred in that diocese whereof you are Vicar-general, and, as such, are charged with the prosecution of vice and wickedness. I never saw you, nor did I ever hear of your being in that diocese in my life. Had you been there attending your holy duties, and had you "prosecuted" and punished me, when, as a young man, I was living in constant habits of drunkenness, and profanation of the sabbath, and in a state of double adultery with a wicked woman, (the source of all my errors and crimes) I should not now be standing here, for you to pass judgment of death upon me."What, I would ask, on finding himself thus addressed, would probably be the spiritual and holy man's reply? + See Narrative of Facts, page 9. assigned in one quarter) is altogether at variance with that, which it is judged expedient to give out in another quarter. Which disagreement, together with a flat contradiction staring the whole transaction in the face, were an appeal allowed to "the Laws in Being," necessarily does (as your Lordship will perceive) render any public and legal hearing unadvisable.— Ample cause do I, my Lord, conceive to be thus shewn for any reluctance manifested in permitting the true principles and end of Church government (now engrossed by Laymen) to be publicly laid open. And which cause, letting alone the dread of some painful remedy, possibly, in store for Sir William Scott's "great grievance," and letting also alone any mention of the minor accidents recorded in this performance, is all sufficient, as I judge, to account for our Admiralty Churchmen's straining every nerve to hinder any public hearing of these matters of Church discipline.* So long as they shall succeed in preventing such a public and legal hearing, and shall thus be enabled to monopolize from the Clergy "the sacred and dreadful works of spiritual discipline," the great work of man's salvation being thereby turned into a " Lackeying up and down for fees,"† and into fogging procterage of money ;" and while these sub-episcopal Prize-courtmen shall (as Dr. Gibson says) be of no use whatever in that Church, whose discipline they administer, the reins of whose government they hold, except for "receiving the Fees ;"-while these things shall so remain, vain and fruitless must it be for an individual to complain of that hardship and injustice, suffered now by the whole Church and Clergy of England, under the yoke and governance of their declared enemies. For, my Lord, (as Sir Thomas Ridley says)" this is true, and ever hath been, and ever will, unto the end, Laici oppidò semper infensi sunt Clericis."§ Howbeit, our Saviour established neither freeholds nor sinecures in his Church, I know, my Lord, that, in the Church of England, the common law has declared its sub-episcopal Ministers, the Admiralty Vicegerents of our Bishops, to hold their pro-pastoral offices by such freehold faculty and tenure. Whence, I admit, it follows, that, however negligent they may prove, and should they, instead of coming to their labours in the Church's Vineyard, even at the eleventh hour of the day, never come to work at all; || still cannot * For some further remarks on this EXPEDIENCY, see Letter to a noble Lord, page § Id. page 101. 136. + See Address to the Visitors, page 92. The largest diocese in England, that containing the greatest number of souls to be watched over by the Bishop, and, "in his absence," by his spiritual Vicegerent, is the diocese of Lincoln. I their Bishops, nor the whole Church, in Convocation assembled, dispossess them of their freeholds,* nor turn them out of the Vineyard, as idle and unprofitable servants, such as Dr. Gibson says they are. Yet might their Bishops (as Dr. Gibson says their Bishops OUGHT TO DO) censure and punish them for thus neglecting their spiritual and holy duties. And in times so awfully and so calamitously momentous as the present are, it is surely, my Lord, behoveful, that " every person should (as Dr. Gibson says) be constrained to a vigorous execution of the part belonging to him."† I, my Lord, further know, that the Laity have been very successful in getting rid of the "great grievance" (complained of by Sir William Scott and his Admiralty messmate, as) suffered by them, whilst "the sacred and dreadful works of spiritual discipline" are, in any instance, done by the Clergy. Insomuch, that not above one half (if so many) of the Bishops' Vicegerents, in the holy duties of their pastoral office, are now Clergymen. All the remaining Archbishops and Bishops leave," in their absence," or "if aged and infirm," the tending of their spiritual flocks, the "prosecution of vice and wickedness," the inspection over their Clergy, and "the welfare and salvation of souls," to some lay Vicegerent. Concerning this delegated spiritual power, Dr. Gibson observes, that, "For the regular and effectual administration of the Church's discipline and government, it is highly requisite that the work be committed (so far as there is need of committing it) to faithful would like to be informed, when last, any one, who had occasion to consult the Vicar-general of this diocese, concerning" the prosecution of vice and wickedness," or any other of the "sacred and dreadful works of spiritual discipline," ever got sight of that spiritual and holy person, either in the diocese of Lincoln, or out of it. The letter, written in reply to my Address to the Visitors, by the Commissary of St. Paul's and Official of the Archdeacon of Rochester, was dated, or, at least, motto'd, from Cambridge gaol. Any persons, therefore, who had business to transact with the learned Commissary and Official, concerning matters of church government, and who would walk either from Rochester or from London to the castle-hill at Cambridge, were pretty sure of finding this freehold minister of our Church at home. * As the offices of the Church's spiritual jurisdiction are held by a freehold tenure, so in like manner are the appointments, for maintaining that church's doctrines, and for preaching the gospel of Christ, held by the same freehold right of possession and inheritance. When a sporting parson is about to purchase one of these freeholds, the questions usually put by him, before the bargain is struck, are, I understand, of the following threefold tenor : 1. Is the living in a good sporting county; are there two packs of fox-hounds kept in the neighbourhood, so that he may hunt six days in the week, if he pleases; are there plenty of pheasants, and can he have liberty to shoot on the adjoining manors? 2. What distance is it from Newmarket? and 3. What interest will the living bring him in for his purchase-money? |