which most of them receive, so ill calculated to maintain even a distant appearance of the state of a gentleman in these expensive times; and the consideration, that they may toil all their life for the public benefit, without advancing one step in the ladder of preferment, are but weak inducements, we must confess, to any gratuitous efforts for the instruction of their fellow creatures: circumstances unquestionably painful and humbling in every point of view to the individuals to whom they may happen, yet serving forcibly to point out the necessity of personal residence, for the keeping alive a due sense of religion in a parish.

Now, on the other hand, a resident incumbent, if the qualifications of his heart be equal to those of his head, is naturally impelled, from a variety of motives, to seek the promotion of the spiritual interest of his flock by the different means of inspection and remonstrance: the cure of souls with him is a charge of no small responsibility. The command of St. Paul to Timothy, to" be instant in season and out of season," is constantly fresh in his remembrance: he considers it, therefore, as essential a part of his duty as preaching, to lose no favourable opportunity of cultivating a friendly intercourse between himself and those who are committed to his charge, in order that he may be en

abled to remedy certain disorders and irregularities, which are of such complexion as cannot be openly redressed; and especially for the sake of acquiring that honourable sort of influence over their minds, which will gradually dispose them to read religious books, to strengthen and enlarge their faith by private and family devotion, and not to forget, in the commerce and business of active life, the unalterable principles of christian charity and love: this, and much more good, will be found on examination to be done by many of our resident parochial clergy; and we may confidently add, that those who possess good means of information respecting that valuable class of men will likewise perceive, that this spiritual acquaintance with their parishioners is not effected by any of those low arts by which the Romish priests obtained such an absolute sway over their laity, and by which the religionists who form the subject of this Essay have such a surprising ascendancy over their followers; but by those free and unconstrained methods, equally suitable to their characters as gentlemen, and to their reputation for learning, common sense, and rational piety*.

* It is the remark of Bishop Watson, whose liberal spirit corresponds with his solid judgment and extensive erudition, that "there are many

Were then the clergy induced to reside in sufficient numbers, not by compulsatory statutes, but by their having proper houses of residence secured to them, through the means of public and private patronage, our church would be fully enabled to resist every open and insidious attack of its enemies, and especially of those sectaries who, unhappily for themselves and the community, have forsaken her sound tenets to embrace others which, while they conspire to puff them up with the vain belief, that to them alone is given the inestimable privilege of discovering the true path of salvation, have no tendency, upon investigation, to render them better men, better christians, or better members of society, than those are, who have not been led, by artful insinuations or audacious invective, to depart from the national religion.

The domestic irreligion of the great is the last of the causes to which may be referred the quick and extensive diffusion of Methodism. That the fundamental principles of christianity are not in general early, strongly, and awfully impressed upon the minds of

among the poorest of the parochial clergy whose merits as scholars, as christians, and as men, would be no disgrace to the most deserving prelate on the bench."--See his admirable Letter to the Bishop of Canterbury, in 1783.

the children of the rich, the powerful, and the noble, is a fact as notorious as it is lamentable: and if they are not trained from the tender morn of their infancy to a knowledge of God, and to habits of piety, we cannot reasonably expect to see the precepts of the gospel exemplified in their conduct, upon their attaining the age of manhood. Devoted to pleasure, the love of which, as Aristotle* justly observes, is so nourished up with us from our very childhood, that it is difficult to withdraw the mind from sensual objects, and to fix it upon things remote from sense, they then want the leisure, as much as the ability, to enter into the examination of the eternal truths of the christian religion. Should one of these sons of rank and fashion, on occasion of any great sickness or domestic affliction, reflect with some contrition on his riotous proceedings, that false modesty, or, in other words, that shame which hinders men from doing what they know to be their duty, and the dread of offending against custom, the law of fools, will inevitably suppress the virtuous intention he may have formed of amending his life. On the pagan principle, too, that

* 6 Ετι δε ἐκ νηπίε πᾶσιν ἡμῖν συνλεθραπείας ηδονη, δύο και χαλεπον αποτριβασθαι τέλο το πάθος εγκεκρωσμένον τωβιω.”

Ethies, Lib. ii. cap. ii.

the religion of the multitude is entitled to external reverence, he sometimes attends public worship; yet he never hesitates to avow the impious opinion, in the freedom of private conversation, that the christian religion is no more than a system of superstition, invented only to keep the vulgar in obedience, and supported by statesmen for political purposes. In this lamentable ignorance, in this frightful delusion, he probably continues until his "sins are as scarlet;" for if he keeps a mistress, his chaplain, more ambitious of temporal than spiritual honours, and consequently more complacent than sincere, will not dare to tell him that the gospel designates it as whoredom, and that the same unerring book calls his intriguing, adultery, and his duelling, murder.

Now the irreligion of the master is soon communicated to the servant; for there is the same aptness in the latter to adopt the sentiments and principles of the former, as there is to catch and imitate his manners. Is it any wonder, then, that when such a person is led to the Tabernacle by curiosity, the love of novelty, or any other motive, he should imagine himself placed in a new world; should in time mistake the jargon of fanaticism displayed there, for the perfection of real piety; and that, from having no religion at all, he