nate to the office on which they have entered, and as little capable of judging who are fit for it, as they themselves are.

We are ready to grant likewife, that there may be certain fituations in a church, for which fomething less than a learned education may qualify a perfon; provided that he give himself wholly to his appointment, and endeavour to improve himfelf in minifterial qualifications. There are many country parishes in which a plain man of natural good fenfe, and of unfeigned piety and humility, converfant with the Scriptures, and as much informed of the fallen ftate of man and of our recovery by Chrift as every Chriftian ought to be, might without any other qualification be a very ufeful minifter; provided he took care never to go out of his depth by undertaking the difcuffion of points for which he has not fufficient learning. But little refemblance is there in this case to what we meet with in the lay-preaching of our times. Here we find men "plunged to the hilts" in fecular bufinefs, employed from Monday morning to Saturday evening in the loweft occupations, with neither books, leifure, or even inclination for acquiring knowledge, affuming on a Sunday the office of teachers; and in this office not confining themfelves within the limits of fome obvious truths, but attempting to play the Theologian, by entering upon fubjects, on which profound learning and

patient investigation have toiled in vain. Here inftead of the good fenfe, the fimplicity, the lowly confcioufnefs of defective endowment, the evident manifeftation of undiffembled piety and kindnefs, fuppofed in the former cafe, we often recognize conceit, impudence, rashness, violence, and not unfrequently an irreverent familiarity with facred things that borders on impiety.

Who that can appreciate the worth of Chriftianity, who that is impreffed with a fenfe of its importance, or is warmed with a benevolent defire to fee its influence increafe among men, behold unmoved this vile proftitution of one of the chief means ordained for its propagation? Surely Chriftians of every denomination have an intereft in the refpectable management of the Gospel ministry. "It were a great difreputation "to religion," as Bishop Jeremy Taylor obferves, "that all great and public things, and every art "or profitable fcience fhould in all the focieties "of men be diftinguifhed by profeffors, artifts, "and proper minifters; and only religion should "lie in common, apt to be bruifed by the hard "hand of mechanics, and fullied by the ruder touch of undifcerning and undiftinguifhed " perfons *."

See his Clerus Domini, page 4.

What a state of things then have we before us! an excellent church establishment, instituted by the highest authority in the state, interwoven with the conftitution, fed by the learning of two juftly celebrated Univerfities, and extending its provifions to every parifh in the kingdom, and yet the mere "form of godlinefs" fcarcely vifible in many parts of the land. The fervices of that church which for the purity of her doctrine and worship was heretofore confidered, not by thofe only who belonged to her communion, but by learned foreigners, as the glory of the Reformation, very generally forfaken; and nothing of any confiderable extent to fet against this indifference toward religion, but an earnestness in this caufe accompanied with many objectionable circumstances. Illiteratenefs, meannefs, questionable authority, attended by crowded auditories; and learning, refpectability, and regular appointment, lecturing to empty pews. The conventicle of a preaching mechanic overflowing; the parish church almost without a congregation. A kind of worship in which ignorance and affurance often prefide, preferred to that chafte as well as evangelical fervice, which defcended to us from men illuftrious both for learning and piety. To fee the fucceffors of our Reformers fallen into defertion of the common people, and to perceive withal who they are that carry the day, is furely an affecting fight; and calls for very

serious enquiry into its caufe, and how so sad a reverse may be remedied.

Return, we beseech thee, O God of hofts: look down from Heaven, and behold and vifit this vine. Pfalm lxxx. 14,

CHAPTER II.

ON THE NECESSITY OF ENCOURAGING AN
EARNEST PIETY IN THE CHURCH.

TRUE religion," as the judicious Hooker obferves, "is the root of all virtues, and the ftay "of all well-ordered commonwealths." To diffufe this through every part of the body politic, is the purpose of an ecclefiaftical establishment. And if it be not only well adapted by its constitution to answer this end, but have its native energies well drawn forth, by a correfpondent character in those who adminifter its offices, there will be little need for any one to be at the pains of fhewing, how well it deferves all the expence it may coft the state. Its force operating in every direction will give a character to laws, againft which no fair objections can be alledged; a character to thofe who make them, which will prevent their authority from becoming odious; and a character to thofe who are to be governed by them, which will prevent their numbers from becoming formidable. Such an influence does a ftate derive from a well conftituted church eftablifhment, when well adminif tered. The latter is the correcting power which antidotes all the corruptions to which the former is liable, while it quickens all the virtues neceffary