DR. JOHNSON ON THE ELECTION OF MINISTERS BY THE PEOPLE. AGAINST the right of patrons is commonly opposed, by the inferior judicatures, the plea of conscience. Their conscience tells them, that the people ought to choose their pastor;—their conscience tells them that they ought not to impose upon a congregation a minister ungrateful and unacceptable to his auditors. Conscience is nothing more than a conviction felt by ourselves of something to be done, or something to be avoided; and in questions of simple unperplexed morality, conscience is very often a guide that may be trusted. But before conscience can determine, the state of the question is supposed to be completely known. In questions of law, or of fact, conscience is very often confounded with opinion. No man's conscience can tell him the right of another man; they must be known by rational investigation or historical inquiry. Opinion, which he that holds it. may call his conscience, may teach some men that religion would be promoted, and quiet preserved, by granting to the people, universally, the choice of their ministers. But it is a conscience very ill-informed that violates the rights of one man for the convenience of another. Religion cannot be promoted by injustice; and it was never yet found that a popular election was very quietly transacted. That justice would be violated by transferring to the people the right of patronage, is apparent to all who know whence that right had its origin. The right of patronage was not at first a privilege torn by power from unresisting poverty. It is not an authority at first usurped in times of ignorance, and established only by succession and by precedents. It is not a grant capriciously made from a higher tyrant to a lower. It is a right dearly purchased by the first possessors, and justly inherited by those that succeeded them. When Christianity was established in this island, a regular mode of public worship was prescribed. Public worship requires a public place; and the proprietors of lands, as they were converted, built churches for their families and their vassals. For the maintenance, of ministers, they settled a certain portion of their lands; and a district, through which each minister was required to extend his care, was, by that circumscription constituted a parish. This is a position so generally received in England, that the extent of a manor and of a parish are regularly received for each other. The churches which the proprietors of lands had thus built and thus endowed, they justly thought themselves entitled to provide with ministers; and where the Episcopal government prevails, the bishop has no power to reject a man nominated by the patron, but for some crime that might exclude him from the Priesthood. For the endowment of the church being the gift of the landlord, he was, consequently, at liberty to give it according to his choice, to any man capable of performing the Holy Offices. The people did not choose him, because they did not pay him. We hear it sometimes urged, that this original right is passed out of memory, and is obliterated and obscured by many translations of property and changes of government; that scarce any Church is now in the hands of the heirs of the builders; and that the present persons have entered subsequently upon the pretended rights by a thousand accidental and unknown causes. Much of this, perhaps, is true. But how is the right of patronage extinguished? If_the_right followed the lands, it is possessed by the same equity by which the lands are possessed. It is, in effect, part of the manor, and protected by the same laws with every other privilege. Let us suppose an estate forfeited by treason, and granted by the crown to a new family. With the lands were forfeited all the rights appendant to those lands; by the same power that grants the lands, the rights also are granted. The right lost to the patron falls not to the people, but is either retained by the crown, or, what to the people is the same thing, is by the crown given away. Let it change hands ever so often, it is possessed by him that receives it with the same right as it was conveyed. It may, indeed, like all our possessions, be forcibly seized, or fraudulently obtained. But no injury is still done to the people; for what they never had, they have never lost. Caius may usurp the right of Titius, but neither Caius nor Titius injure the people; and no man's conscience, however tender, or however active, can prompt him to restore what may be proved to have been never taken away. Supposing, what I think cannot be proved, that a popular election of ministers were to be desired, our desires are not the measure of equity. It were to be desired that power should be only in the hands of the merciful, and riches in the possession of the generous; but the law must leave both riches and power where it finds them; and must often leave riches with the covetous, and power with the cruel. Convenience may be a rule in little things, where no other rule has been established; but as the great end of government is to give every man his own, no inconvenience is greater than that of making right uncertain; nor is any man more an enemy to public peace, than he who fills weak heads with imaginary claims, and breaks the series of civil subordination, by inciting the lower classes of mankind to encroach upon the higher. Having thus shewn that the right of patronage, being originally purchased, may be legally transferred, and that it is now in the hands of lawful possessors, at least as certainly as any other right; we have left to the advocates of the people no other plea than that of convenience. Let us, therefore, now consider what the people would really gain by a general abolition of the right of patronage. What is most to be desired by such a change is, that the country should be supplied with better ministers. But why should we suppose that the parish will make a wiser choice than the patron? If we suppose mankind actuated by interest, the patron is more likely to choose with caution, because he will suffer more by choosing wrong. By the deficiencies of his minister, or by his vices, he is equally offended with the rest of the congregation; but he will have this reason more to lament them, that they will be imputed to his absurdity or corruption. The qualifications of a minister are well known to be learning and piety;-of his learning the patron is probably the only judge in the parish, and of his piety not less a judge than others; and is more likely to inquire minutely and diligently before he gives a presentation, than one of the parochial rabble, who can give nothing but a vote. It may be urged, that though the parish might not choose better ministers, they would at least choose ministers whom they like better, and who would therefore officiate with greater efficacy. That ignorance and perverseness should always obtain what they like, was never considered as the end of government; of which it is the great and standing benefit, that the wise see for the simple, and the regular act for the capricious; but that this argument supposes the people capable of judging, and resolute to act according to their best judgments, though this be sufficiently absurd, it is not all its absurdity; it supposes not only wisdom, but unanimity in those, who, upon no other occasions, are unanimous or wise. If, by some strange concurrence, all the voices of a parish should unite in the choice of any single man, though I could not charge the patron with injustice for presenting a minister, I should censure him as unkind and injudicious; but, it is evident, that as in all other popular elections, there will be contrariety of judgment and acrimony of passion, a parish, upon every vacancy, would break into factions, and the contest for the choice of a minister would set neighbours at variance, and bring discord into families. The minister would be taught all the arts of a candidate, would flatter some, and bribe others, and the electors, as in all other cases, would call for holidays and ale, and break the heads of each other during the jollity of the canvass. The time must, however, come at last, when one of the factions must prevail, and one of the ministers get possession of the Church. On what terms does he enter upon his ministry but those of enmity with half his parish? By what prudence or what diligence can he hope to conciliate the affections of that party by whose defeat he has obtained his living? Every man who voted against him will enter the Church with hanging head and downcast eyes, afraid to encounter that neighbour by whose vote and influence he has been overpowered. He will hate his neighbour for opposing him, and his minister for having prospered by the opposition, and as he will never see him but with pain, he will never see him but with hatred. Of a minister presented by the patron, the parish has seldom any thing worse to say than that they do not know him. Of a minister chosen by a popular contest, all those who do not favour him, have nursed up in their bosoms principles of hatred and reasons of rejection. Anger is excited principally by pride; the pride of a common man is very little exasperated by the supposed usurpation of an acknowledged superior; he bears only his little share of a general evil, and suffers in common with the whole parish; but when the contest is between equals, the defeat has many aggravations, and he that is defeated by his next neighbour, is seldom satisfied without some revenge, and it is hard to say what bitterness of malignity would prevail in a parish where these elections should happen to be frequent, and the enmity of opposition should be rekindled before it had cooled. THE TWO BOOKS OF HOMILIES. 1. Containing 12, (tempore Edward VI.) by Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. 2. Containing 21, (tempore Elizabeth) by Jewell. A FEW MAXIMS FOR A YOUNG PERSON GOING TO SERVICE. 1. Begin and end every day with prayer.-(1. Thess. v. 17.) 2. Ask God to make Christ precious to your soul; love to Christ being the root of all Christian duties.-(2 Cor. v. 14, 15.) 3. Be not an " eye-servant."-(Eph. vi. 6.) 4. Be cheerful, and contented with your situation in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call you.-(Tim. vi. 6, 7, 8.) 5. Beware of evil company.-(1 Cor. xv. 30.) 6. Take reproof meekly.-(1 Pet. ii. 18.) 7. Be prompt and cheerful in obeying your master and mistress.-(Col. iii. 23.) Be gentle and obliging to your fellow-servants.-(Rom. xii. 10.) 9. Always speak the truth, without disguise, or equivocation.-(Prov. xii. 19-22.) 10. Be as careful of the property of your Master and Mistress, as if it were your own.-(Tit. ii. 10.) 11. Do not think too much about dress.-(1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.) 12. Let not trifling hindrances keep you from family prayer.-(Matt. xviii, 20.) 13. Have a time and place for every thing.-(Eccl. iii. 1.) 14. Never loiter on a message.-(Prov. xxv. 13.) 15. Have no lot nor part with story-tellers.(Prov. xvi. 28.) 16. Be a "keeper at home."-(Prov. xxvii. 8.) 17. Be an early riser. It will make the work of the day go on without confitsion. (Prov. vi. 6.) 18. Do not be in a hurry to quit a religious family in hope of bettering yourself. Remember there is a blessing in the dwellings of the righteous.-(Prov vii. 7; Exod. x. 22, 23.) May you so walk through life as to know, by happy experience, that the service of God is "perfect freedom;" and may you be an heir of that kingdom in which Jew and Gentile, bond and free, master and servant, are all "one in Christ Jesus." THE PROPHETIC DEW-DROP. A delicate child, pale and prematurely wise, was complaining on a hot morning, that the poor dew-drops had been too hastily snatched away, and not allowed to glitter on the flowers like other happier dew-drops that live the whole night through, and sparkle in the moonlight and through the morning onwards to noonday. "The sun," said the child, "has chased them away with his heat, or swallowed them up in his wrath." Soon after came rain, and a rainbow: whereupon his father pointed upwards: "See," said he, "there stand the dew-drops gloriously re-set a glittering jewellery-in the heavens; and the clownish foot tramples on them no more. By this, my child, thou art taught that what withers upon earth blooms again in heaven." Thus the father spoke, and knew not that he spoke prefiguring words; for soon after the delicate child, with the morning brightness of his early wisdom, was exhaled, like a dew-drop, into heaven. THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 66 A correspondent of the Liverpool Courier has been at the trouble to select from the Evangelical Magazine a few passages which serve to show how the voluntary system acts, by the confession of dissenters themselves; and he pertinently asks whether it is expedient that all Christian ministers should be paid in the same way? We borrow the following portion of his letter. "Though some congregations support their ministers liberally, yet, on an average, have they more than 701. per annum ? Or, suppose they have 807., is this enough to support a family?" "There are not thirty dissenting ministers that can lay by a penny. More than one-half cannot live on their income, and must run in debt." . The present situation of many ministers is truly lamentable." "In the greater number of congregations ministers cannot live." Many congregations are chargeable with shameful meanness, criminal supineness, yea, idolatrous covetousness, in refusing to part with a due proportion of their substance for the maintenance of their pastor." "Persons professing godliness think lightly of the obligations which the gospel has on them for its respectable support." "So much for the liberality of wealthy congregations in towns. In the country many congregations find it difficult to raise the miserable pittance by which their ministers, who have families, are kept from starving." A respected minister, in his private diary, published after his death, says "My lot has been what human nature fond of ease accounts a hard one, arising from the negligence or indifference of those who might and ought to have done otherwise. Some could but would not, others could and would, but it did not strike them. Business gave them no leisure, and I and my family have been left to shift as we could." The congregation that thus starved its pastor got great glory by sending one contribution of 2877. to the London Missionary Society; while his people, " easy themselves, and enjoying many comforts, never inquired how does the pastor live in these hard times?" "Such, then, being the facts, what are the causes assigned for this penuriousness ?" "Some think if they attend the meeting-house at all they honour the minister by their company. Some, from penuriousness, are disposed to give as little as they can possibly help. Many could be found altogether wanting. Some, of a narrow spirit, think that little is better for a minister than much. The stewards and deacons are inattentive, or do not apply to people to contribute until they think they can afford it; but if the same person, thus excused on the score of poverty, should go to the deacon's shop for a pound of tea, he does not let him have it at a lower price on the same account." being the causes, the consequences complained of are, that the ministers are rendered miserable by the cares of life; forced to keep school, or engage underhand in trade; or look out for wealthy wives! and it is said that "the general salaries of dissenting ministers are a kind of prohibition to genius and talent stepping forward in the cause. "More than one-half must run in debt,-their stipends are so narrow that they are frequently involved in distressing embarrassments." These citations from dissenting journals are enough to show how the voluntary system acts; and if the Established Clergy were reduced to it things would be worse. Rivalry shames some dissenting congregations into the duty of keeping up the respectability of their ministers, but if the clergy were reduced to the bounty of their flocks, the whole Christian ministry would be reduced to one dead level of degradation and poverty. Such PRICES OF THE ABSOLUTIONS AND DISPENSATIONS OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. (Extracted from A. Egane's Book.) A layman having murdered a priest shall be pardoned for 67. 2s. He that kills a bishop, or any other prelate, must pay 361. 9s. For murdering a layman the dispensation is 37. 2s. 4d. An absolution, or other dispensation, for irregularity, is 51. 13s. And if there be a general absolution for all sins, it is 87. 19s. Dispensation for doing contrary to the New Testament, the ordinary tax hereof is 127. 16s, 6d, VOLUNTARY INEFFICIENCY CONFESSED. THE following extract is taken from the Home Missionary Magazine (for April, 1884, p. 119), a Dissenting Periodical supported by the Independents, the noisy clamourers about the efficiency of the Voluntary System. The extract ought to be published throughout the kingdom. It is this:- "It is most clear that the voluntary system has never yet provided adequate Christian institutions for any one nation on the face of the earth; the voluntary principle provides among ourselves for a certain proportion of the population of large towns, but it leaves the mass of the community untouched; it has had fair opportunity of evincing its capabilities in this country during at least a century, while the Church of England was asleep, and while a rapidly increasing population was left with scarcely any additional churches or clergy; and yet with every advantage, with liberal contributions from many of different communions, the advocates of voluntary churches have not been able to provide for any tolerable proportion of the neglected population. You very rarely meet with a large and flourishing dissenting interest in any place where it has not either been preceded by, or is at the moment contemporary with, a pious and zealous ministry in the Establishment. The same observation applies to Glasgow, to Paisley, and to all the great towns in Scotland; while in Ireland the voluntary labourers are very few, and produce a very feeble impression. In America, however, the inefficiency of the voluntary system is evinced in the most appalling manner. Immense tracts of country, peopled by tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, are at this moment destitute of ministers, churches, and religious ordinances; and, as a natural consequence, are falling victims to intemperance and infidelity, and are thus prepared for the irruption of popery. They therefore speak ignorantly or weakly, who in the face of such astounding facts talk about the full efficiency of the voluntary principle, to supply wants so multitudinous as these." THF CORPORAL PRESENCE. Ut mihi dixisti, de Corpore Christi, Crede quod edis et edis; Sic tibi rescribo, de tuo palfrido, Crede quod habes et habes. All the particulars of this doggrel Latin stanza, together with a rhyming translation, are requested of any of our readers, to whom the occasion of it is known. THE THREE ANTICHRISTS. 1. Popery; or Western Antichrist. A.D. 666. 2. Mahommedism; or Eastern Antichrist, A. D. 606. 3. Infidelity; or Northern Antichrist, A.D. 1789. THE FIVE APOSTOLICAL FATHERS. 1. Barnabas (Joses), a native of Cyprus. 2. Clemens (Romanus). 3. Hermas (The Pastor). 4. Ignatius (Theophorus), a native of Syria. 5. Polycarp, a native and Bishop of Smyrna. N. B. These men were contemporary with the Apostles. Here we see the comparative value of a priest and layman! Monthly Register. THE first parliament of Queen Victoria's reign, stands adjourned until January the 16th., when it will meet to take into consideration the rebellion in Canada; the news of which was brought to this country just as the adjournment was about to take place. This rebellion has been brought about by the French papists who inhabit that colony, and who burn with popish hatred against the British Protest |