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more general good understanding and mutual affection between the minister and his congregation. Now it is too much the fashion to leave Providence out of the question; and to consider tithes and offerings, merely as dues settled by law, which a man may lessen as much as he can, and oppress his minister with as low and unjust an agreement as possible.: by the prevalence of which cruel policy, many of the clergy are struggling to maintain themselves. and their families on less than two thirds.of their just profits: and this under the increasing burthen of rates and taxes. If a clergyman thus oppressed endeavours to do himself justice, a confederacy is formed to distress him: the hearts of his people are alienated; separate interests take place, where there ought to be but one; his labours are no longer successful; his time and thoughts, which should be dedicated to the good of his flock, are unhappily taken up in maintaining a dispute against them: his peace of mind is destroyed, and his life in some cases rendered so uncomfortable, that many a tender hearted man must have sunk under the trial with vexation and disappoint

ment.

The clergy may have their faults, their errors, and their corruptions, like other classes of men;

(God

(God grant we may lament and reform them!) but here the fault is not in them; because no clergyman can take more than his right: the fault is in those who would compel him to take less. When the law has been applied to by clergymen for the recovery of their dues, this has rarely happened but when it was abso lutely necessary; and it has been reported, that out of seven hundred suits upon record, six hundred of them have been carried by the clergy which fact is sufficient to shew, that, whatever may be said against individuals, clergymen in general have been neither covetous nor litigious.

There is a sort of oppression long established, under which the clergy have suffered. The reformation, which took from Papists what the Pope had unjustly alienated from parochial rectors, restored little of it to the reformed ministers. It was mostly granted out to those of the laity who were early enough in their applications, and they hold it to this day. Many clergymen have a very scanty maintenance, and in some cases, it is to be feared, a very mean dependence upon lay patrons, who are rectors of parishes, and receive the tithes once due to the ministers. They were taken from those who were said to do little; but the

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matter surely was not mended, when they were given to those who did nothing.

To this grand abuse many others may be added, when we are recounting the hardships of the clergy; such as the establishment of inadequate compensations, the payment of antiquated sums in their nominal value, and such like. In short, too many advantages, which times and occasions would encourage the powerful and the avaricious to take against the clergy, have been taken against them; and if not with the malice of Julian, who plundered Christians that they might pursue their road to heaven with fewer incumbrances, yet certainly with too great an attention to worldly interest, and too little attention to the honour of God, the success of his gospel and the just rights of his church; which depended upon God before it depended upon men; and cannot be rendered independent of him by all the power and policy of the world.

It is a farther misfortune upon the families of clergymen, that the profits of their office do not bear a proportion like those of other men to the labours of it. The physician who visits more patients raises a fortune sooner than he who visits fewer: the pleader at the bar who does most business comes soonest to wealth

and

and honour. This is not the case with the pleader in the pulpit: his attention to the wel-. fare of men's souls adds nothing to the established profits of his ministry: and in many large and populous parishes, where the minister has most duty, there is nothing but a residuary vicarial revenue to support it; and that perhaps to be collected by small sums, with trouble and uncertainty: so that the advantage is least where the labour is greatest. And after the discouragements of his life, the clergyman at his death leaves no such profession as can be carried on by a surviving widow for the maintenance of the family; who are left in poverty, with a quick and afflicting sense of their misfortunes, from the advantage (or rather disadvantage) of superior sentiments and a refined education.

All these considerations recommend to your encouragement the charity of this day; which,

* To give this charity a better effect, it was found expedient, that a particular attention should be had to the education of the poor orphans of clergymen, till they are of age to be placed out in the world. A charitable society was accordingly formed for this good purpose in the year 1749, the Constitutions of which (being annually printed and distributed) do so fully explain the design, and prove the advantages, of this new Charity, that I must beg leave to recommend the little pamphlet which

contains

which, we trust, hath the good wishes, and will continue to receive the assistance of those who are here present.

But since no human institution can prosper without the Divine blessing; we who are of the clergy must secure that blessing, and engage the protection of heaven, by approving ourselves as faithful ministers of Jesus Christ ; that through our labours, our families and posterity may have a claim of relationship and dependence on the Divine Providence to the end of the world.

My station in the church gives me no right to use a style of authority; and if it did, I hope I should be tender in my reflections, through a consciousness of my own defects. But I must mention one great danger to which even serious men are now exposed in the discharge of their ministry. It arises from the scandal which has been brought upon our religion by hypocrisy in some, and enthusiasm in others. This makes us shy of appearing active in our duty, through a childish fear, lest they who never will do right should think we are doing wrong. The people who call themselves

contains them to the consideration of those who are charitably disposed; under a persuasion, that this state of the case will speak for itself, and induce them to encou rage so excellent an institution.

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