gance and insolence has then reached its farthest limit, when a clergyman, in his pulpit in the house of his God-in the actual exercise of his ministry, where an overwhelming sense of his own littleness, in respect to the sacred service about which he is occupied, ought, methinks, to bow down his heart of flesh to the dust, and prostrate every selfish thought within him, looks only to his present elevation above his audience, and discovers plainly, by his gestures and grimaces, that he is solely taken up with a pragmatical conceit of his own consequence, and forgets his Maker's glory in the mistaken pursuit of his own. What bosom does not swell with indignation, to behold a clerical fop, whose week has been passed in the stye of Epicurus, or consigned to the meanest amusements, and most barren occupations, suddenly start up in his pulpit in all the pride of office, and all the plenitude of pudding sleeves, blown out like a bladder with pursy conceit, unable to subdue the effervescence of his folly, or restrain his obstreperous ignorance within any bounds of decency, and tearing unmercifully to rags and tatters one of Tillotson's best sermons, with the fury of his mock zeal, and the unsparing vengeance of his emphatical blunders!

I would, with all my soul, that the manes of those reverend gentlemen, who have done honour to their profession, by so many wise and profitable sermons, might rest in peace; but if any thing, methinks, could disturb their shades, it must be the galling necessity of beholding their meaning so miserably murdered in some of their most laboured and finished performances. It is thus that spendthrift heirs throw away their ancestorial property, and make ducks and drakes of that gold, which, in wise and charitable hands, might answer a thousand useful purposes. I

think we want some legal restriction, by which such valuable relics might be preserved from the rude touch of the vulgar and profane; and these clerical Goths should no more be admitted to such a repository, than a blind bullock into a glass manufactory.

But there are many other classes of abuse through which the church is wounded in its dignity and its interests, by the ignorance and affectation of its professors. Sometimes the mischief is done by turbulent and tempestuous folly; sometimes by smooth and adulating ignorance. Religion has its petits-maîtres, as well as its swaggerers. Thus it is regarded by the mass of its votaries, under different aspects, according to the character of the minister who sets it forth; for, at present, such is the rage for fine preaching, that, in the contemplation of the greater part of sermon-fanciers, their devotion is fastened upon the pulpit, or pinned to the sleeve of the minister. Religion undergoes a kind of personification in their imaginations, that depends upon the complexion of the teacher. It has sometimes a red face and a fiery deportment; sometimes a sleek countenance and a white hand; and sometimes a saturnine pomposity of aspect, that can afford to dispense with knowledge and with wit.

It would be pleasant to observe, could we draw pleasure from a ridicule which touches the concerns of religion, the various methods adopted by those ministers, who "give not God the glory," to play upon the doting imbecility of their auditors. I have known the heart of an elderly lady taken captive by a clergyman's manner of walking to his pulpit; another has fallen a victim to his method of making himself up; another has held out till the cambric handkerchief has begun its operations; and some are

proof against every thing but the coup de main, or slapping-to of the book after the second lesson. My curate distinguished himself, upon his first arrival in my parish, by a most irresistible roll in his reading: he would begin with a simple motion of his lips, which at length rose to such a solemn mutter, as announces a thunder-clap; and presently such an uproar would succeed, as threatened to dispart the earth and discover the realms of Pluto. The discipline of our club, however, and particularly the chastisement of the Echo, has sobered down his tones to so reasonable a pitch, that ladies in any state may venture to be present, and the parish is no longer in pain for the foundations of the church. He retains only, now, a sort of whining recitative, a kind of opera tone, which I understand is in high esteem in the metropolis; where, I am told, it has been in contemplation to invite over a certain number of Italian youths, to be educated for eveninglecturers.

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It is my plan in general to preach comfortable and cheerful doctrines to my congregation; not that spare them either, when I see grounds for severity and reprehension. But I find that the minister of the next parish has drawn off a part of my audience by the very winning manner of his denouncing them to perdition he tosses about his damns with such a grace (as Addison says Virgil, in his Georgics, did his dung), that his church is crowded with voluntary victims, who repair to this sacred executioner, to be launched into a dreadful eternity, with as much cheerfulness as to a christening.

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Indeed it is a sad truth, that the church has of late years been considered, both by the preacher and his congregation, as a place rather of amusement than instruction, as a kind of show or spectacle, where we

hear and see, and do a great many fine things, without a reference to any other end than that of showing ourselves to each other to the best advantage. In this view therefore it signifies not, whether the subject of the day be cheerful or melancholy: whether it be tragedy or comedy, we are equally amused and equally impressed; our object is to see fine acting, and splendid scenery. On the same principle, but little regard is had, in the adoption of candidates for holy orders, to their characters or their knowledge; and Mr. Allworth says that a bishop will ordain a priest with less inquiry into the state of his morals, than he uses in the appointment of his butler. what this gentleman says be true, who never asserts rashly, there shoots up with every new prelate a fungous cohort of ecclesiastics, whose only pretensions are the want of provision, and the dignity of their new connection. Thus the diocese of a newmade bishop is crowded with a hasty growth of clerical adventurers, like a nabob's park with Lombardy poplars.

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N° 58. SATURDAY, JUNE 22.

Ξενιων δε τε θυμος αρισος.

Welcome is the best cheer.

THE manner in which my return home has been welcomed, has been truly grateful to my feelings. I find that every member of the club is resolved upon giving me an entertainment at his own house. That my readers, however, may be in no mistake about the spirit of these meetings, it may be as well to assure them that the institutes of our general society furnish the model to these private parties; and though here we are under no dread of forfeits or the Echo, a kind of loyalty to the cause in which we have embarked keeps us firm in our adherence; and we pique ourselves upon showing that our habits are mellowed into principles, and are no longer the fruits of coercion. Nothing has more contributed to spread the honour, and propagate the advantages of our institution, than these little volunteer corps, which I am assured have already begun to make a sensible impression on the character of this part of the country.

It has been more particularly remarked of the members of our society, that no men entertain so well, or, in other words, are so perfect in the art and mystery of rendering their houses comfortable to their guests. This I take to be the natural result of the rules by which we are governed, which, as their in