The Book of Common Prayer of our reformed church declares to us, that it "is meet for Christian men to marry." It tells us, that "little children are

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as arrows in the hand of the giant, and blessed is the “man that hath his quiver full of them." One of the principal causes of dissenting from, and protesting against, the Church of our fathers, was, that it did not permit priests to marry, though the prohibition was, as we have before seen, sanctioned by, and founded on, the express and urgent recommendation of Saint Paul, who added his great example to the precept; and though, as we have also before seen, the recommendation was backed by numerous and most cogent reasons, connected with the diligent and zealous discharge of the duties of teachers of religion. There have been those who were of opinion, that this was, at bottom, the main point with many of those who made the reformation. But, be that as it may, it is a fact not to be denied, that one great ground of objection to the Catholic church, was, that she did not permit the priests to marry. And, what was the foundation of the objection? Why this; that, if not permitted to marry, they would, they must, be guilty of criminal intercourse; for that, it was to suppose an

1

impossibility, it was to set reason, nature and God at defiance, to suppose, that, without marrying, the priests could preserve their purity.

This is a fact notorious in every part of the world whither the sound of the words Catholic and Protestant has reached. Well, then, if this objection to the Catholic church were well founded, what becomes of the powers of that "moral restraint," which these speakers of "lies in hypocrisy," have now, all of a sudden, discovered for the use of the whole body of the labouring classes of this kingdom? If men, few in number, educated for the purpose of the ministry, bound by the most solemn vows of chastity, jealous to the last degree, for the reputation of their order, practising fasting and abstinence, early and late in their churches, visiting constantly the sick, superstitious in their minds, having the awful spectacle of death almost daily under their eyes, and clothed in a garb which of itself was a deep mortification and an antidote to passion in the beholders; if such men could not contain; if it were deemed impossible for such men to restrain themselves; and, if this impossibility were one of the grounds for overturning a

church that had existed amongst our fathers for six hundred years, what hypocrites must the reformers of this church have been! or, what hypocrites are those who now pretend, that mere “moral restraint” is, under a prohibition to marry, of sufficient force to preserve the innocence of farmers' men and maids!

No adopt this impious doctrine, pass a law to put it in force, and all the bands of society are broken. Stigmatize marriage, and promiscuous intercourse is warranted and encouraged by law. To stay the current of the natural and amiable passions is to war against nature and against God. If the terms of the gratification be changed from the obligations of marriage to the voluntary offerings of affection or caprice, the indulgence can only be the more frequent and followed by effects more - calamitous. From a community of fathers, mothers and families of children, this kingdom, so long and so justly famed for kind busbands, virtuous wives, affectionate parents and dutiful children, will become one great brothel of unfeeling paramours, shameless prostitutes, and miserable homeless bastards. Such

is the point at which the greedy and crafty speakers of "lies in hypocrisy" are aiming; but, to that point they will never attain as long as there shall remain amongst us any portion of that justice and humanity, which have always heretofore been inseparable from the name of England.

ON THE

DUTIES OF PARSONS,

AND ON THE

INSTITUTION AND OBJECT OF TITHES.

"Woe to the idle Shepherd that leaveth the flock!" ZECHARIAH, Ch. XI. V. 17.

"Woe be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! "Should not the Shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, "and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed:, "but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strength“ened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither "have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye "brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye "sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty "have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because "there is no shepherd." EZEKIEL, Ch, 34. V. 2-5.

BLASPHEMY is the outcry of the day. To blas pheme is to revile God. But, according to the modern interpretation of the word, blasphemy means the epressing of a disbelief in the doctrines of the Christian