CHAPTER IX.

THE SECOND RECTORSHIP.

THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND.

With the period commencing with the year 1722 to which we have now come, there are associated many particulars interesting, not because they are pleasing to contemplate, but because they present certain aspects of church life greatly in contrast with our own. The church in England was at this time passing through great trials; for after the death of Queen Anne in 1714, who was devoted to the church, and under whom churchmen were favored, whose reputation also in America was fostered by various gifts to the parishes, there arose by patronage of the first of the Georges, an entirely new class of men, professing latitudinarian views of an extreme type, and as much as possible depreciating church authority. How far this was the outgrowth or reaction from the Jacobite tendencies of the High Church party, cannot be said; but certain it is, the state favored the new school, recognizing its members ás safer instruments for its purposes; and they obtained a large part of its patronage, being given the most eminent positions in the gift of the government.

In harmony with this was the principle on which the government was administered by Sir Robert Walpole. His determination was to preserve everything in quietness, regarding the internal prosperity of the state as being the highest consideration for an officer of the government. Acting on this principle he refined down differences, he avoided in legislation every thing that might irritate one or the other of the great classes into which society was divided, the church and non-conformists. Where he could not directly do away with the obstacles to peace, he temporized, as in some of the older repressive laws enacted after the Restoration; and either violations of the laws were overlooked, or else their operation was suspended for a season. This policy had begun before Walpole became Prime Minister, but after he had become influential in the government on the accession of George I.; and it continued to be the policy throughout his long administration, and afterwards.

Among other things done during this time was the suspension of convocation in 1717, chiefly because it had dared to raise its voice against the growth of extreme latitudinarian views as set forth by the Bishop Hoadly of Bangor. Convocation had been the church's appointed and legal means of expressing its views and desires upon matters of its own concern, and was the great preservative agent of the church against laxity of views and practice. The Bishop of Bangor's views were offensive in the extreme, contending as he did, "against the notion of the existence of any visible church, and scoffing at the mainte

nance of tests of orthodoxy and the claims of ecclesiastical government." Convocation protested against such views, with the result that it was prorogued, either because the government did not want agitation in the kingdom, or because the whole school to which Bishop Hoadly belonged, were regarded as being more favorable to whig principles.

This policy had a very pernicious influence upon the condition of the church. Discipline ceased, and laxity both in doctrine and practice became common. We have often heard of the fox hunting parsons of the eighteenth century, but fox hunting was not the only thing in which remissness was shown. The whole tone of the clergy sank. There was nothing to regulate or define doctrine or practice. Men were exalted to station, not because they were fitted for it either by learning or devotion, but because they were in harmony with the prevailing principles of the government, and might be useful to the party in power. One result of this condition of things, was the great agitation upon the doctrine of the Trinity, in which Dr. Waterland bore such a leading part, and at this time an attempt was made even so to alter the Prayer Book as to make it harmonize with Arian tenets. Deism also had its strong advocates, and the religion of nature was set up as the antagonist sufficient to displace christianity. It was this controversy that called out in defence of the truth Bishop Warburton in his Divine Legation of Moses, and Bishop Butler in his Analogy. It was a time of extreme agitation, everything Christian being impugned, frequently by those who held the honors and emoluments of the church.

And practice tallied with laxity in principle. Residence by the Bishops in their dioceses, in some instances when we would least expect it, was felt to be a burden, and was avoided as much as possible. The church was not felt to be a living body. Truth was more a matter of philosophy than a guide of life; while practical precepts were rather moral apothegms than the voice of the Master and Savior calling, This is the way, walk ye in it. So far had the church lost her vitality that when Secker, who became Archbishop in 1758, attempted to send over bishops to the American colonies, he found himself antagonized by the church to that degree that he had to abandon his intention. The church had become only the creature of the state for certain functions, the contests of her members were often only the battles of philosophers for certain ideas; spiritually she was cold.

One result of this was inevitable. The tone of the clergy and people fell. We hear a good deal about the condition of the clergy in the colonies, and many were painfully derelict, though there has been a very great deal of exaggeration. It was not America, however, that was alone so afflicted. For we find in a description of the clergy of England at this time, that they figured as "courtiers, politicians, lawyers, merchants, usurers, civil magistrates, sportsmen, musicians, stewards of county squires and tools of men in power." They were completely secularized, lived as men of the world, with all the deadening influence of such connection. Their separation was a lost fact; and

with the loss there was the depreciation of character. The social position of the clergy was then very different from what it is now, and with the difference there was less to restrain them. A clergyman now has many more safeguards thrown around him; for as a class, from the highest to the lowest, his calling makes him the equal of any other class, and gives him a defined position, which it is easy for him to keep if he will, and which he sacrifices at his peril. All men honor his calling, all men take it for granted that he honors it, as the vast majority of his brethren do, and so none look down upon him or despise him. And all this is a great moral influence about him, irrespective of other considerations, to support him in his position.

Just the opposite was the case in that day and before. For according to a picture drawn by Dean Swift, in the days of Queen Anne, "the recognized social position of a clergyman and his family was about that of a tradesman. He made no attempt to keep up the status of a gentleman. The vicar' says he, will probably receive presents now and then from his parishioners, and perhaps from his squire, who although he may be apt sometimes to treat his parson a little superciliously, may probably be softened by a little humble demeanor. The vicar is likewise generally sure to find, on his admittance to the living, a convenient house and barn in repair, with a garden and a field or two to graze a few cows and one horse for himself and his wife. He has a market probably very near him, perhaps in his own village. No entertainment is expected by his visitor beyond a pot of ale and a