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for, from the result of this enquiry, may appear the real cause of Mr. Nares's complaint. As far as I can gather, there are two reasons: one is, the prevailing belief, that notwithstanding the positive prohibition of the abuse of farming Briefs, contained in the clause of an Act of Queen Anne, and appearing on the back of each Brief, the abuse still exists; and, therefore, a congregation feels it no duty to enrich an individual, who makes a traffic of it's liberality. The other is, the small portion of the money collected coming to the parish or person who calls upon us for our bounty; a circumstance arising from the great expences in obtaining a Brief. If the first reason be well founded, I am persuaded that the noble Lord, whose department it is, and who, to borrow the eulogium given him by the author of the Pursuits of Literature, "knows what is right, and practises it too," will not fail to put an end to such illegality. As to the second, (I speak with diffidence,) would it not become the persons concerned, in such a noble cause as Christian Charity, to use their rights with moderation? There may be no just ground for either reason; but it is certain, that they operate as if they were just; and, therefore, before the Secretary of Briefs ventured to censure the parochial Ministers and Officers, it would have been more respectful to the parties, and, I think, more effective of his purpose, to have searched more strictly for the cause of the deficiencies in the collections; which he would then have found, to have been occasioned by what I have stated, and not by the neglect of those whom he accuses. If any of your correspondents, who reside in London, and who have the means of informing themselves on this subject, will have the goodness to explain how the business of Briefs is conducted, it may be of essential service to the benevolence of the design. If any abuses exist, by being called into notice, they may be corrected; and if any misapprehensions are entertained, they may be removed.

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I am, Sir,

Your very humble servant,

RUSTICUS.

ON

ON CRYING DYING SPEECHES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

A MIDST the various abuses which prevail in this

great metropolis, there is one, which, though exceedingly offensive to every feeling mind, has not, as far as I have learned, yet met with exposure or correction. I allude to the shocking and infamous practice of howling about the streets, the dying speeches of malefactors. If capital punishments be necessary, yet it is neither decent nor just to add to the afflictions of the parents, wives, children, and other relatives of those who have fallen victims to their crimes, Many of those unhappy culprits who suffer the vengeance of the law, especially for forgery, leave behind them friends of the purest characters and the most delicate sentiments. How dreadful must it be to them, overwhelmed as they already are by sorrow, to hear the hideous screaming of hawkers of dying speeches under their windows! For two or three successive days, perhaps, are they exposed to this painful endurance,' by which all the wounds of their hearts are opened up and lacerated afresh. Is this practice becoming a free and humane country like our's; and shall we thus apply the second commandment in its most rigorous sense, of visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children? Certainly not. The abuse need only to be exposed to be remedied; and I rely upon the humanity of our magistrates with confidence, that, upon a proper representation of the nuisance, they will take care to remove it, and wipe away a disgrace, which is, I believe, at present, peculiar to this country.

I am, your's, &c.

ON THE STATE OF POPERY IN IRELAND.

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ĮOTA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

A

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

T this critical season, when, if public rumour is to be credited, a plan is now under contemplation of

his Majesty's Ministers, for giving stated salaries, out of the public revenue, to the Roman Catholic Bishops and Clergy of Ireland, as a measure of conciliation and justice; to detach them from the Pope, and to attach them to the established government: permit an Isish Orthodox Churchman to tender to your Magazine, some strictures on an article, that lately, to my great surprize, appeared therein, for June, p. 409, on the expediency of giving support to the Irish Roman Catholic Clergy, founded, I conceive, in total ignorance and gross misconception, 1. of the nature and genius of the Romish religion; 2. of it's present state in Ireland; and 3. of the toleration allowable thereto by a Protestant government.

1. Their London advocate, W. A. maintains, that "the Papists allow the truth of Holy Scripture; they believe in the divinity of the Saviour; and shall they, then, be represented emphatically, as THE ANTICHRIST? [by the Christian Observer, Feb. p. 102, justly reprobating the measure.] They may differ from us in some matters, but they agree in essentials: and ought they not to enjoy the benefits of public worship in their own com

munion ?"

The Papists, indeed, profess" to allow the truth of Holy Scripture;" but, in several fundamental articles, they render it of none effect by their vain traditions; teaching, for the commandments of God, the doctrines of men; they add to and diminish from Scripture, in defiance of it's most awful prohibitions: They scruple not to expunge the second commandment from their general catechisms; to curtail the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, of the Cup; and to superadd five Sacraments to the

two ordained by CHRIST himself;" and to impose the spurious excrescence of Pope Pius IV. Profession of Faith, as of equal authority with the Apostles' and Nićene Creeds.

They profess to "believe in the divinity of CHRIST;" but, like their predecessors, the Pagans, they share it with "Gods many and Lords many;" in heaven, with the Virgin Mary, and a host of Saints, whom they superstitiously and idolatrously worship and invoke; and on earth, with their Lord, the Pope," blasphemously stiling himself "the Vicar or Vicegerent of CRRIST:" which is the original import of the terin Antichrist, (Anyar) the preposition a, in composition,

signifying

signifying pro, or vice; as Aduraro, a Pro-consul, or Deputy-Consul among the Romans.

In these fundamental points, and in many others, Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Indulgences, Absolutions, &c. &c. "they differ," widely and "essentially" from the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church, whose titles they' arrogate, and from the Reformed Church of England. These differences are ably and concisely expressed by the famous Baxter, in his Life written by himself: *The great and irreconcileable differences [between them and us] lie in their Church tyranny and usurpations; and in their great corruptions and abatement of God's worship; together with their befriending ignorance and If this hideous sketch of Popery be justly drawn by the masterly hand of a celebrated Dissenter, and recognized as true, by every well-informed Orthodox Churchman; and, if our Dissenting brethren differ from us chiefly in matters of Church-discipline, it may, perhaps, be expedient, to grant stipends from government to Dissenting Teachers, and not to Popish Priests.

vice."

2. By a gross misrepresentation, W. A. insinuates, that "the Irish Roman Catholics do not enjoy the benefits of public worship in their own communion:"-that "their congregations are so miserably poor and indolent that they can ill afford to pay the Priests, &c.-that "the miseries of the generality of the Irish poor are acknowledged: why not, then, attempt to relieve them, by removing the burden of the Priest, from those who can scarce subsist themselves ?”

Had this miserable advocate, and retailer of Plowden, ever visited Ireland, or read any authentic accounts of it, he would have learned, that the Romish peasantry of Ireland subsist as well as their Protestant brethren; and perhaps as plentifully, as the peasantry of England or Scotland. That they have the benefits of public worship in a fuller degree than the Protestants, in consequence of the much greater abundance of Priests and Chapels, than of Clergy and Churches: that they are both able and willing to maintain the Priests comfortably, without any aid either from the Pope" or "Government ;" and that if he had taken a tour through Ireland, (as the writer of this has done, more than once), and observed

*Letters to the Rev Doctor Troy, Titular Archbishop of Dublin, by Crito, are now in the Press, and speedily to be published, illustrative of the entire subject of this communication.

Fol. VII. Churchm. Mag. July, 1804.

G the

the splendour and magnificence of the Romish Chapels, rising in all quarters of the island, within the last twenty years; and contrasted therewith the decay and ruin, so fatally conspicuous among the parish churches; he would be apt to reverse his judgment, and to conclude rather, that the Churchmen of Ireland "were so miserably poor and indolent," that they were both unable and unwilling even to keep up those venerable and simple structures, bequeathed to them by the pious zeal of their ancestors!

3. Whether it be adviseable, at any time, to depress the Established Clergy of Ireland, and to foster and raise above them, as the reward of their loyalty and sufferings, a Hierarchy and Priesthood, from the essential constitutions of their Church, and from the allegiance they owe to a foreign and hostile head, necessarily disaffected to the established constitution of the Church and State, is a measure worthy of the most serious deliberation of his Majesty's Ministers, and of all whom it may concern. Whether it be possible to conciliate them at the present, may reasonably be doubted from the failure of all the concessions and indulgences of the present reign; and from the bitter fruits of two recent rebellions, in which Popish prelates and priests took an active part: and "whether the principle of expediency, resorted to by the advocates of this measure, would not, (as the Christian Observer shrewdly remarks) "justify the payment of Hindu Priests and Mahometan Imams, with a view to the propagation of their respective tenets in our Eastern do minions;" -as well as the Jewish Rabbis at home, recommended by W. A.

July 11, 1804.

CRITO.

ON THE NUMBER OF SACRAMENTS, &c.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE.

SIR,

HA

AVING had occasion to answer a very polite and friendly communication that I was favoured with by a brother Clergyman, whom I have not the pleasure to know, respecting a second edition of my Catechism,

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