§ 80. It may also be well for such men, such innovators of the doctrines of the Church, to reflect (in the

words of a learned Prelate, used indeed for another purpose), that, while they bring every thing within private suggestion, they encourage in religion the very principle, which in politics has proved so fatal to the peace and good government of states; being no other than that of giving the reins to

PRIVATE OPINION IN OPPOSITION TO

PUBLIC (and, I may add, long-established) AUTHORITY."*

81. There is also another point, which may strike some of these persons with the more attention, as it may affect their own private or temporal interest. The world cannot be expected to value any means, but for the end to which they serve.

The end of

Bishop of Oxford's Charge.

a

a public ministry is the due worship of God, including in that idea the promotion of human happiness and salvation. Now, if land-holders and others, who think they have an interest in whatever they pay to the Church, observe, in those appointed to instruct them and their households in the principles and practice of religion, a vehement and predominant regard for honours, wealth, pleasure, or other low and sordid pursuits, with small concern for the sublime duties of their holy office; what can such ministers expect, and how will they answer for themselves? They have indeed the law, at present, on their side; and, as a sincere member of the esta blihed Church, I pray God that they may always have it; for, it will be a deplorable day to the nation as well as to them, when a proper maintenance is denied to the ministers of the Gospel, or when the present system of maintenance,

maintenance, agreeable as it is to the primitive institution of God's Church, shall be changed or mutilated: But, will not the infidel, the scoffer, the irreligious, and the yet more irreligious by clerical neglect, find some additional weight to their base designs against the establishment, in the very conduct of those clergymen, who not only forget the importance of their own character and the honour of the Church to which they belong, but really that private interest, which seems most of all dear to them, and which, when their principles and belaviour shall be thought either intolerable or unnecessary, must also fall to the ground? I most heartily hope, that no schisms on the one hand, nor heterodoxies and ill conduct (which generally go together) on the other, may ever pull down the sacred pile to which I allude: And I am persuaded, that, if an event of so much misery

should

should ever occur, it will be principally owing to the faults and vices of the clergy themselves. Were they more generally what every good man must wish them to be, dissension and schism would be put out of countenance, and lose the worst part of their influence in the land.

None but a vitiated appetite can fancy a nauseous or insipid hash, made up of foul and unwholesome ingredients, accompanied with a viand of some liquor, either vapid, putrid, or dead. Apply this to the feeling of the mind, which hath tasted the good word of life, and obtained a spiritual discernment; and can it be supposed that such a one can relish the heterogeneous compound of Arianism, Socinianism, and Pelagianism, mingled with some hard and dry scraps from Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, and other heathens altogether ignorant of divine revelation, and served up, perhaps now and then,

with some

maggots of corrupted texts;" all of which is more or less too much the dish and the sauce of many? But, can this be wholesome diet for a Christian? Is it likely to incline those, who regard no religion, to partake of such tasteless and unprofitable fare? Or, does it not rather deserve the name of poison itself than of food, or spiritual nourishment, which is the proper use of all preaching?

Much complaint has been made of the conduct of the Laity, and, it must be owned, too justly. But no reforma. tion, however, can fairly be expected in the members, unless it begin at the head. To censure, therefore, the one, without a due correction of the other. is such a υςερον πρότερον, such a hope. less inversion of order, as may discover indeed great zeal for the interests of à profession, but not too great earnestness for the proper success or employment of it.

These