the college-walks, or the commencement.
Concludes with a remark on a notion which the author of the Fable of the Bees had broach'd, viz. That the drunkard, the fop, and other extravagants, are the most useful members of society; this is maintain'd by Carus, who in a public company asserted that young Lucilius was no more to blame in keeping a leash of misses, than a man is for eating veal, mutton, and pork, to assuage his hunger, since the appetite in nature is just alike: Your speech, reply'd old Nestor, seems to give the company uneasiness; revenge is a passion and natural, and therefore in justice we may break your neck down stairs.
Fog's Journal, Saturday March 27. No. 135.
A Correspondent informs him in a letter of a representation made to him by a wealthy farmer, that whereas the tythes of his land are very considerable, they are taken away by the lord of the manor, and the parish-church endow'd with but 8 l. per ann. for the maintenance of a minister, who supplies it but once a month. From hence the writer takes occasion to consider the state of vicarage churches, and is concern'd to find that several hundred thousand miserable souls have liv'd and dy'd (as many thousands now are) destitute of the means of instruction in the christian religion.
As an evidence of this sad truth, observes, that in a large, populous town, where a sufficient provision ought to be made for all the parts of divine service, the whole income remaining to the church, is but 15, 20, or 30 l. yearly: Which is a starving support for a gentleman who has spent 8 or 900 l. in his education. The bishop, in this case, must take some raw young man, perhaps a servitor in a college, who, on his being made Batchelor of Arts, petitions his Lordship in the Stile of Eli's posterity, Put me I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread: Whereby the parishioners, thus poorly supplied, the more loosely given fall into atheistical profaneness, and the more soberly inclin'd, are liable to be drawn into separate congregations.
Yet worse in the condition of many lesser vicarage churches, in villages, which are shut up two or three sundays in the month. Of such he reckon 2000 cures within this kingdom that exceed not 10 l. yearly. But allowing the church open'd every other sunday, yet as many of 'em are too meanly endow'd to support a resident Vicar, the miscarriage of many unhappy souls, may be justly charg'd on the alineation of tythes from their proper use.
The Guilt we are under on account of these alienations, and their consequences, he compares with Saul's slaying the Gibeonites, in violation of a national oath, which was punish'd by a three year's famine; and from thence infers, what a number of souls have dy'd in the state of spiritual Destitution, on account of this national act? Says, we are likewise charg'd with a contemptuous disregard to God's worship, by disabling our fellow christians from performing their publick duty, and shutting up and causing many churches to be deserted.
Adds, that the late Queen's bounty was a vast relief to the ministers of these small cures, but of little benefit to the people, because it will not help 'em to a better qualified, much less a resident ministry.
Expresses his concern, that at the reformation so little regard was shewn in this matter, when it was in the power of the then Vicar-general, under Henry VIII. and A. Bp. Cranmer, very easily to have adjusted this grand affair, and settled it upon another foot.
Is more sensibly affected, that another opportunity offer'd at the Revolution, when many favourable circumstances concurr'd, and the bishops had endear'd themselves to the nation bytheir
