Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

and I fee no Reafon why it is not as good as inftalled) he will find that Seat, or rather Standing of Honour, a painful Pre-eminence; for, as high as he may there imagine himself, not a Creature who fits below, but thinks himself far above him. Every Man that gave you his Vote will confider you, from that Day forth, and as long as you continue in that Situation, as his Inferior: He looks upon himself as one of your Feeders, to whom you are indebted for your daily Bread, and therefore expects you will honour him accordingly; and for this fpecial Reason, because if you withdraw your Complaifance, he may withdraw his Subfcription. But let us attend a little to the precarious Tenure on which he holds his new Preferment. When a Man is in peaceable Poffeffion of a good Living, scarce any Body takes Notice of his Preaching; it matters very little whether he is as elegant as * or as contemptible as

Dr. But with a Lecturer the Cafe is extremely different: He is confidered by his Hearers as a Kind of Divinity-cook, and is expected, like other Cooks, to adapt every Thing to every Body's Palate And let him have ever fo much Merit, it is a Hundred to one he does not please one in a Hundred, for it is all Whim and Caprice. If he has a loud Voice, perhaps he may be called a Brawler, he takes too much Pains, labours, and fo forth; if he is weak and low, he is cenfured as fpiritless and inanimate; if his Action is flow and folemn, he fhall be termed liftlefs and indolent; if it be strong, and varied, it fhall be called vehement and theatrical: For the poor Judges he is talking to never confider the different Subjects to be treated; that one may require fober and compofed Behaviour in the Utterance, another lively, fpirited, and diffufed Gefture.

*The Reader is defired to fill up thefe blank Spaces with the Names of the best and worst Preacher he is acquainted with.

In most other Profeffions, those who apply for your Aid and Inftruction will at least allow you fome Knowledge in your own Business, and have Complaifance enough to fuppofe you have a tolerable Idea of and Acquaintance with the Matter of it; but in Divinity it is quite otherwife: Every Auditor in a Church is as good a Judge (or at least thinks himself fo) both of the Subject and the Manner of treating it as yourself, and will not fail to fhew his Judgment with regard to Stile, Sentiment, and Delivery, tho' he knows no more of either than the Desk you write upon.

They will tell you the Sermon you preached was borrowed from another, when it is really your own; and, vice verfa, Compliment you upon it as your own, when it is every Word of it ftolen from another.

The following, my Lord, is a Fact which happened to myself.

Being engaged one whole Week in Writing an Answer to a political Pamplet against the Dof N-, for which I had twenty Pieces (more, by the bye, than I got by Preaching in a Twelvemonth) I ventured on the Saturday Night to tranfcribe a Difcourfe of Tillotson's, and preached it on the Sunday Morning to a very polite Audience. On my coming out of Church, I was faluted by one of the Overfeers with Thank you, Doctor, for your ' excellent Sermon; but let me tell you, it was a ⚫ dangerous Topic for a young Man; to be fure you might have treated it a little more fully (abferve his Complaifance) but upon the Whole it was really a good Difcourfe, and I am fure all your own; but I remember a glorious one of Tillotson's on that very Subject. I remember'-- That you do not indeed, my Friend,' replied I (I could not help it, my Lord, for the Life of me) for the Sermon 'you just now heard is the very fame, Word for

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Word,

'Word, I affure you, and you will find it when you go home, Vol. and Page---fo and fo.'

But let a Man preach his own Sermons, or any Body's elfe, he can never expect to please for any^ Length of Time; I have scarce ever known a Lecturer continue a Favourite above two or three Years: If he always preaches himself he grows tiresome, and if he puts in another he is cenfured as Idle and Negligent: If his Deputy preaches better, or which is the fame Thing, appears to preach better than himself, it finks the Principal into Contempt; and if the Deputy does not preach fo well, Hints are given him that it would be better if fome Folks would do their own Duty; add to this, that your conftant Church-trotters and Text-markers, who take down the Heads in their Pocket-Books, are always fmoaking your ftale Divinity, and expect a new Difcourfe to tickle their Ears every Sunday. We can fee the fame Play at the Theatre, hear the fame Story abroad, or read the fame Book at home, perhaps once in a Month at least, with Pleasure; but to liften to the fame Difcourfe from a Pulpit once in three Years, though perhaps we do not actually remember a Line more than the Text, is, for what Reafon I know not, most intolerable.

I am as thoroughly convinced, as I am of my own Existence, that Lectureships greatly promote and increase Methodifm. A Defire of ftriking out fomething new and uncommon to tickle the Ears of the Groundlings, has led many a plain well-meaning Preacher into romantic Sallies, and theatrical Gestures, and infenfibly drawn them into methodiftical Rant and Enthusiasm.

There never was a duller Hound than that* Hound of King's, whom your Lordship must remember as

The Servitors, as they are termed at Oxford, or what we call in Cambridge Sizers, go, at King's College, and there only, by the Name of Hounds. Mr. Jones was a Hound of King's.

well

a

well as myself, the famous Mr. Jones of St. Saviour's: He had preached for fome Time in the old dog-trot Stile of Firft to the Firft, Secondly to the Second, and administered his gentle Soporifics to no Purpose for a Year or two, when, finding it would not do, all on a fudden he fhook his Ears, fet up loud Bark, and by mere Dint of Noife, Vociferation and Grimace, mouthed and bellowed himself into Reputation amongst the Gentlemen of the Clink, out heroded Herod, and almost eclipsed the Fame of Wefley, Whitefield, and Madan.

I fhall now proceed, my Lord (to speak in the Parfonick Stile) to my third general Head, viz. the Manner in which Lectureships are usually paid, which is equally injurious to our Character and Function.

I know a little too much of the World, my Lord, to expect that a Parfon fhould be paid like a firftrate Player, a Pimp, or a Lord of the Treasury, whose Incomes I believe are pretty near equal; but at the fame Time cannot help thinking, that a Labourer in the Vineyard is as well worthy of his Hire, as a Journeyman Carpenter, Mafon, &c. and has as good a Right to two Pound two on a Sunday as he has on a Saturday Night; and yet not one in a Hundred of us is paid in that Proportion.

The Lecturer's Box generally goes about with the reft of the Parish Beggars a little after Christmas; and every Body throws in their Charity (for it is always confidered in that Light) as they think proper. Were I to tell your Lordfhip how many paltry Excufes are made to evade this little annual Tribute by the Mean and Sordid, how very little is given even by the most Generous, and what an inconfiderable Sum the Whole generally amounts to, the Recital would not afford you much Entertainment, and, for aught I know, might even give you some small Concern.

You

You cannot imagine, my Lord, with what an envious Eye we poor Lecturers have often looked over a Waiter's Book at a Coffee-houfe, where I have seen fuch a Collection of Guineas and half Guineas as made my Mouth water: To give lefs than a Crown at leaft, would be to the last Degree ungenteel, for the immenfe Trouble of handing a Difh of Coffee, or a News-paper; whilft the poor Divine, who has toiled in the Miniftry for a Twelvemonth, and half worn out a Pair of excellent Lungs in the unprofitable Service, fhall think himself well rewarded with the noble Donation of Half a Crown.

But to illuftrate my Subject, I will give your Lordship another Story: There is nothing like a little Painting from the Life on thefe Occafions: Suppose yourself then, my Lord, an Eye-witness of the following Scene, which paffed not long fince in a certain Part of this Metropolis.

--

Enter the Church-warden and Overfeer into the Shop of Mr. Prim the Mercer---Well, Mr. Twist, what are your Commands with me?---We are come to wait on your Honour, with the Lecturer's Book, Sir,a voluntary Subfcription of the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. for the Support of — Well, well, you need not read any further; what is it?Whatever you please, Sir,-Aye, here's another Load, another Burthen: D'ye think I am made of Gold? There's the Poor's Rate, the Doctor's Rate, the Window Rates; the Devil's in the Rates, I thinkhowever, I can't refufe you; but I'll not give another Year-here, Buckram, reach me Half a Crown out of the Till-your Servant, Madam

[A Lady comes out of a back Parlour, walks through the Shop, and gets into a Chair.]

Aye, there's another Tax-a Guinea for two Box Tickets, as fure as the Benefit comes round, for my Wife and Daughter, besides Chair-hire.

[Twilt hakes his Head.]

O Mafter

« ÖncekiDevam »