Page images
PDF
EPUB

this would be only faying, that ambition and avarice are more reputable motives for accepting the office of a christian bishop, than the prospect of a bare maintenance is for taking the province of an ordinary teacher. His grace could hardly think that the colonifts are fo much ftrangers to human nature, as not to be aware, that thefe difpofitions are common to clergymen and others, both of higher and lower ranks; and that, with refpect to bishops fent from England to America, the fame hazards must be run by the fenders, to which the propagating fociety is liable in difpatching common miffionarics. So that all the good things his grace augurates from the appointment of colony-bishops would effectually be fruftrated, if the bishops were no better men (a point his grace could by no means infure to the colonists) than the miffionaries he speaks of.'

We have extracted this paffage, in particular, because it contains an answer to two of the principal arguments which the archbishop has urged in favour of his propofal, viz. those which arife from the difagreeable neceffity, under which the friends of the church of England in the colonies are at prefent, either of fending their fons a long voyage for ordination, or of contenting themselves with such minifters as may be sent from England. The former is evidently a great inconvenience *; and as to the latter, many people will be apt to believe, that the fociety will find it no eafy matter to provide the churches in America with clergymen from England, of unexceptionable characters and abilities: we are therefore inclined to think that this ingenious writer has not answered the archbishop in this point, fo fully as might be wished.

Dr. Secker affures us, that no other jurifdiction is defired for the propofed bishops, than the preceding commiflaries have enjoyed; that no fuch thing is intended as preffing for additional powers, &c. and in this affertion, he thinks there are no grounds to question the fincerity of his grace and his brethren.

[ocr errors]

To which our author replies, on this head of fincerity, I think it was as much as could be reafonably expected of his grace, to answer for himself; for affuredly he could offer no fatisfactory proof that others of his brethren might not in

It would furely have been thought a very great inconvenience, if the friends of the church of England, even in the Isle of Man, or in Ireland, had been under the neceflity of fending their fons to England for ordination.

tend,

[ocr errors]

tend, what he did not; and about the time when he thus undertook to answer for them, it is certain there were bishops who were thought to be peculiarly fond of church-power," and who when they were called upon to answer for themfelves," gave very little fatisfaction by their defences.

His grace's great argument for this fincerity is, the moderation of his contemporaries. To which I fhall fay nothing, but that his grace was probably the most improper person of them all, to offer this confideration on the behalf of his brethren.

• What his grace's moderation was, while he was bishop of Oxford, I leave to be determined by thofe who were then under his government; what it was when he came to be the head of his order, the following admonition, intended for his brethren in convocation 1761, will fufficiently fhew.

SEMPER ENITENDUM EST UT ANTIQUI REGIMINIS non modo retineamus formam, SED ET VIM INSTAUREMUS, quatenus vel DIVINO VEL HUMANO JURE FULCITUR. Atque INTERIM, MANCA, quodammodo et MUTILA erit TNITE noftra.

That is to fay, We must always STRIVE, not only to retain the form, but to RENEW THE FORCE of the ANCIENT CHURCHGOVERNMENT, so far as it is PROPPED UP either by DIVINE or HUMAN AUTHORITY, And till that be done, our POLITY will be

LAME and DEFECTIVE.

Now what was this ancient church-government? Even the model left us by fome of his grace's predecellors and their adherents, who never wanted props for it (if you would take their interpretations of fcripture) either from divine or human authority. And the force of it confifted, in putting a twoedged ford into the hands of church-governors, to execuțe vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people. In plain English, power to correct Heretics, Schifmatics, and Diffenters, with the whole fome feverities of whips, pillories, fines, and imprisonment.

Without this force, it feems our prefent ecclefiaftical polity is mutilated and lame; and it is, in his grace's opinion, not only right to have this force renewed, but abfolutely the duty of the members of the convocation, to ftrive to have it renewed.

"who

Is this the fame man," may fome people fay, feems in his letter to Mr. Walpole, to be fo well contented with the share of power enjoyed by the prefent bishops, and who would have been fatisfied with much lefs, if he had lived where much lefs had been allotted to bifhaps? Is this the man

who

who ftands forth to affure the public, that he and his brethren are not so fond of church power, as to be aiming at that point now, while they folemnly profefs they are not."

For my part, I can fee but little room we can make for the virtue of fincerity here. In the letter his grace affures us, with a folemn face and a fmooth tongue, that nothing more is required for thefe American bishops, then commiffarial jurifdiction, and authority to confirm and ordain. In the oration, the ancient church-government is to be contended for at all events; and without the force of it, the epifcopal powers must be lame and mutilated. Muft we not argue thus ? this ancient regimen either belongs to the nature of epifcepal churches, or it does not. If it does not, his grace is exhorting the convocation to ftrive for fupporting the form, and reinstating the force of an ancient ufurpation. If it does, the fame pretence which ferves for a colour to station bishops in America, will ferve for a pretence to claim for them the form and force of the ancient government, namely, the pretence that it belongs to the nature of epifcopal churches. And this, I should think, amounts to fomething more than a poffibility, that an improper ufe may hereafter be attempted, to be made of the appointment of bishops for America. Once more, what fhall we fay for his grace's fincerity and his moderation? thefe two publications are coeval, and by the time and manner of their appearance, fhould feem between them to exhibit his grace's dying fenti

ments.

[ocr errors]

Archbishop Tenifon, fays his grace, who was furely no high-church man, left 1000l. towards the establishment of bishops in America.'-To obviate this remark, our author cites the following claufe from a codicil to archbishop Tenifon's will, executed Dec. 2, 1715. "But my prefent will is, that my executors, their adminiftrators, or affigns, do well and truly pay to the said society, within one month, or two at the fartheft, after the appointment and confecration by lawful authority of two proteítant bishops, one for the continent, another for the ifles in North America, the fum of one thousand pounds, to be applied in equal portions to the fettlement of fuch bishops in the fore-mentioned fees. Until fuch lawful appointment and confecrations are compleated, I am very fenfible (as many of my brethren of that fociety alfo are) that as there has not hitherto been, notwithstanding much importunity and many promifes to the contrary, fo there never will or can be any regular church difcipline in thofe parts, or any confirmations or due ordinations, or any fetting apart in ecclefiaftical

I

clefiaftical manner, of any public places for the more decent worship of God, or any timely preventing or abating of factions and divifions, which have been and are at prefent very rife; no ecclefiaftically legal difcipline or corrections of scandalous manners, either in the clergy or laity, or fynodical af femblies, as may be a proper means to regulate ecclesiastical proceedings. In the mean time, till fuch appointment and confecration as abovefaid is compleated," my will is, that my executors do not pay the said thousand pounds, &c.'

Such, fays this writer, is the bequeft of archbishop Tenifon, in which we may observe a very different plan of American epifcopacy from that delineated by his fucceffor, Dr. Secker, in this letter. We have here the whole hierarchical apparatus of English epifcopacy enumerated in the minutest manner. Regular church difcipline.-Confecration of churches.Prevention of factions and divifions, (meaning, I suppose, provi fions for uniformity)-Due ordinations (which the colonists are fuppofed to want, for it seems till a bishop is appointed there never will be any such)—ecclefiaftically-legal corrections both of the clergy and laity. And to crown all, Synodical affemblies to regulate ecclefiafiical proceedings."

The author makes fome smart observations on the conduct of archbishop Secker, in taking no notice of the contents of this codicil, and goes through the rest of his letter with equal acuteness and spirit.

To this Commentary is fubjoined a Poftfcript, which contains fome animadverfions on Dr. Markham, at the end of his Concio ad Clerum, before the Convocation, in 1769; and Dr. Burton's Epiftola ad Amicum, five Commentariolus Thomæ Secker, &c. wherein these writers speak of the late archbishop in the higheft ftrain of panegyric. • Such, fays our author, towards the conclufion of his remarks, are the encomiums of the doctors, Burton and Markham, who, by their officious interpofition, may be fairly faid to have left their hero in a much worfe condition than they found him, and, (to borrow an expreffion from the celebrated Junius) to have injured him by their affiftance.'

This production feems to come from the author of the Confeffional. The Commentator is indisputably one of the ableft controverfial writers of the present age.

III. Letters

III. Letters of Baron Bielfeld, Secretary of Legation to the King of Prufiia; Preceptor to Prince Ferdinand; Chancellor of the Univerfitys in the Dominions of bis Pruffian Majefty, F. R. A. B. &c. Author of the Political Infiitutes. Containing Original Anecdotes of the Pruffian Court for the last Twenty Years. Tranflated from the German, by Mr. Hooper. Vol. III, and Vol. IV. 12mo. Pr. 55. Jewed. Robinson and Roberts.

ON a former occafion we reviewed the two first volumes

of this work, containing the letters which were wrote by the noble author in his earlieft correfpondence.

In the two volumes now under our confideration we behold him in a more important point of view. His understanding, which was naturally strong and comprehenfive, is ftill farther improved by an enlarged obfervation of men and things; and his life, that had formerly been diffipated in intrigues of gallantry, advances gradually in the more interefting scenes of politics and literature. We find him now appointed fecretary of legation from his Pruffian majefty to the court of Hanover, from whence feveral letters in the firft of thefe volumes are dated, containing an account of fome eminent perfonages and curious incidents, related with that agreeable vivacity which fo much diftinguishes the epiftolary correfpondence of this ingenious author. But we shall pafs over thefe, to give our readers an idea of the tafte and critical abilities of baron Bielfeld, upon a fubject which has been variously agitated in the learned world, the merit of Homer, as a poet.

LET TER XVI.

To the privy counsellor Jordan, at Berlin.

Hannover, July 30, 1740.

It is then your pleasure, Sir, that I fhoud continue to communicate to you my ideas concerning Homer, and you fufpend your judgment till you fee the conclufion. I obey, but it is with trembling; tho I flatter myself that thefe remarks will never be read by any eyes but yours: but if, contrary to my intention, they fhould tranfpire, and fhould alfo be found not strictly juft, I expect from the equity of the pub. lic, a judgment lefs fevere than that which the outrageous partifans of the ancients pronounce against the fens and taste of their adverfarys.

* See Vol. xxv. p. 469. VOL. XXIX. March, 1770.

N

• Let

« PreviousContinue »