tor in all the diocese of Chester. If any person, in the mean time, had bestowed upon me a living of five hundred or a thousand pounds a year, I should have been under great obligations to such person, but I very much question whether I should have been made a more happy man, or a more useful minister of the gospel.(10) It is much more likely, I should have been very seriously injured, should have composed myself to rest, and cried with the rich fool, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."-The clergy with large preferments are, generally speaking, the drones of society. They neither write any thing to good purpose, nor do they take any serious pains in their vocation of preaching the gospel. If they do write, it is usually something foreign to their profession; and if they do sometimes hold forth from the pulpit, it is in such a way, as is calculated to do neither good nor harm. Not being truly in earnest for their own salvation, they have but little zeal for the salvation of others. (1) A reduction of some of our church-livings, an increase of others, with a prohibi

(10) This brings to my recollection a story of one of the popes of Rome, who seeing a large sum of money laying upon his table, said to one of the cardinals. "The church can no longer say, silver and gold have I none."-"No," answered the other, "nor can the church any longer say, Take up thy bed and walk."

(1) "I choose to speak to what falls under the observation of all serious attentive persons in the kingdom. The superior clergy are, in general ambitious, and eager in the pursuit of riches; flatterers of the great, and subservient to party interest; negligent of their own particular charges, and also of the inferior clergy, and their immediate charges. The inferior clergy imitate their superiors, and, in general, take little more care of their parishes than barely what is necessary to avoid the censure of the law. And the clergy of all ranks, are, in general, either ignorant, or if they do apply, it is rather to profane learning, to philosophical or political matters, than to the study of the Scriptures, of the oriental languages, of the fathers, and ecclesiastical authors,

tion of pluralities, would have some good effect: but, a still better thing for the real interests of religion would be, to grant the use of our churches to the people in the several districts of the country, to sequester all the emoluments to the uses of the state, and to leave the people to provide and pay their own ministers. This would make us look about us. But can any man suppose the gospel of Christ itself would be a sufferer by such a measure?

II. AFTER what has been said, I do not see how I can, either in honour or conscience, continue to officiate any longer as a minister of the gospel in the establishment of my native country. It appears to me, in my coolest and most considerate moments, to be a main branch of the anti-christian system. It is a strange mixture of what is secular and what is spiritual. And the day is at no very great distance, when the whole fabric shall tumble into ruins, and the pure and immortal religion of the Son of God, rise more bright, lovely, and glorious from its subversion.(2) The several warnings of the sacred oracles seem to be of vast importance, and necessary to be observed: "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the day of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her, and let

and of the writings of devout men in different ages of the churches: far the greater part of the clergy of all ranks in this kingdom are of this kind."

(2) We seem to have many and strong symptoms of political decay: for

"States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane,
Ev'n as God's will and God's decree ordain;

While honour, virtue, piety bear sway,

They flourish; and, as these decline, decay."

us go every one unto his own country. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains.These are remotely applicable to the business in hand. The following is directly so." I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

In obedience to these injunctions, and under a strong disapprobation of the several anti-christian circumstances of our own established church,(3) the general doctrines of which I very much approve and admire, I now withdraw; and renounce a situation, which, in some respects, has been extremely eligible. I cast myself again upon the bosom of a gracious Providence, which has provided for me all my life long. Hitherto, I must say, the Lord hath helped me. I have never wanted any manner of thing that has been necessary to my comfort. And though I neither know what to do, nor whither to go, yet

"The world is all before me, where to choose
My place of rest, and Providence my guide."

(3) Paine observes, that "all national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, are no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

The Jewish institution ought to have been excepted in this censure. It was unquestionably divine, and was appointed for the most important purposes, and attended with the most indisputable evidence.

Another author, much more capable of judging than Paine hath said, that "National churches are that hay and stubble, which might be removed without difficulty or confusion from the fabric of religion, by the gentle hand of reforma ion, but which the infatuation of ecclesiastics will leave to be destroyed by fire. National churches are that incrustation, which has inveloped, by gradual concretion, the diamond of christianity; nor can the genuine lustre be restored, but by such violent efforts as the separa tion of substances so long and closely connected must inevitably require."

G g

This extraordinary step the sacred dictates of conscience compel me to take. I am truly sorry for it. To me few trials were ever equal. I have loved the people among whom I have so long lived and laboured. And I have every reason to be satisfied with their conduct towards me. Neither hath the great

Head of the church left us without seals to our ministry. The appearance of fruit has been large. And there are some among the people of our charge, who will be our joy and crown in the great day of the Redeemer's coming. My friends must consider me as called away by an imperious Providence; and, I trust, they will be provided with a successor more than equal, in every respect, to their late affectionate pastor. I think it necessary to say, that the doctrines which I have preached unto them for six and twenty years, I still consider as the truths of God. I have lived in them myself, and found comfort from them. I have faithfully made them known to others, as thousands can bear me witness; we have seen them effectual to the pulling down the strong holds of sin and Satan, in a variety of cases; and I hope to die in the same faith, and to find them the power of God unto the salvation of my own soul in eternal glory by Christ Jesus. I mean to preach the same doctrines, the Lord being my helper, during the whole remainder of my life, wheresoever my lot may be cast. I am not weary of the work of the sacred ministry. I have, indeed, often been weary in it, but never of it. I pray God my spiritual vigour, life, and love, and usefulness may abound more and more to the end of my Christian warfare.

"Awake my dormant zeal! for ever flame
With gen'rous ardours for immortal souls;

And may my head, and tongue, and heart, and all,
Spend and be spent in service so divine.",

But, if you had so many objections to the established church, why did you enter into it? Why did

you continue to officiate so long in it? And why did you not decline it long ago?

I saw

All my habits, and the prejudices of my education run in favour of the church. My father and friends were in the same habits. All my younger days, I took for granted every thing was right, nor had I any suspicions to the contrary. If I had so seriously considered these things thirty years ago, I should have acted agreeably to my convictions. I recollect, indeed, about that time, to have had my fears that some things among us were not as they should be. with my own eyes, that almost all the clergy, with whom I was acquainted, were practically wrong at least. Between them and the precepts of the gospel there seemed a perfect contrast. My mind was but little informed upon religious subjects. I was distrustful of my own judgment, and thought it prudent to be guided by the judgment of those, of whose piety I had a good opinion. Few young persons think deeply and solidly, and fewer still have reading and experience sufficient to enable them to form an accurate estimate upon such intricate questions. Indeed, most men, in the earlier stages of life, are led by the prejudices of education, and the example of those with whom they converse. There is so much that is excellent in the Articles, Homilies, and common forms of our church, that it cannot be a matter of wonder, ifunenlightened and inexperienced young men, who, are either careless about all religion, or whose desires are good, and intentions simple, should comply with what they hear spoken of in terms of high approbation, and see-practised every day by their superiors both in age, rank, and learning. The idea too, that we have left the church of Rome because of her delusions, and are members of a reformed and Protestant community, has no little weight with the larger part of the candidates for the sacred ministry.