The peculiar Difficulties of the Clergy in India. A Sermon, preached at the Second Visitation of the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, at St. Thomas's Church, Bombay, on Monday, March the 5th, 1821. By the Rev. Thomas Robinson, A.M. Chaplain of Poona. 8vo. pp. 24. Rivingtons. 1821.

THIS Sermon is entitled to a distinguished place among the many gratifying presents which have been recently transmitted from the East. Abundant proof has been given of the zeal and talents of the Prelate who presides over the Indian Church; and it is not a little gratifying to find, from the specimen before us, that his Clergy are worthy of such a head. In whatever light we contemplate Mr. Robin son's Discourse, it is equally admirable. As a piece of composition, it reflects credit upon his learning and eloquence-as a Sermon it bears testimony to his piety, and sound doctrine; and as an exposition of the peculiar circumstances of the country in which his lot is cast, it exhibits his judgment and discretion in a very favourable point

of view.

2

It commences with some remarks

upon the inadequacy of the word patience, to express the full meaning of St. James, chap. v. verses 7 and 8. And Mr. Robinson contrasts the mere patience of the pagan school, with the persevering and consistent energy of Christian virtue. He subjoins the following spirited paraphrase of his text.

"To encourage his readers in the performance of so arduous a duty, the Apostle proposes a familiar example from common life, in which something of a similar conduct universally prevails. The husbandman, after toiling in the preparation of the earth, and committing the seed to its bosom, is not so unreasonable as to expect its immediate growth. Though all his hopes of subsistence for the ensuing year depend upon its success, he is not impatient at the delay which is necessary to its perfection. He knows that the early and latter rain must descend upon it, that the cold of winter and the warmth of spring must shed their several influences, before the suns of summer can ripen and expand the corn. He knows by past experience the course of nature, and he In confidently expects its recurrence. the mean time he is secure in the hope of future gain, and cheers the labour of the seasons with the prospect of an abundant harvest. Be ye also patient. You have committed your immortal interests to the care of an Almighty Saviour, who will keep that which you have committed to him unto that day. This is but the seedtime of your life; and, even if you are called to sow in tears, doubt not that you shall one day reap in joy. Let not the clouds that obscure your path discourage or distress you; they may burst in blessings on your heads; and, as the rain does but descend from heaven to fertilize the earth, so these passing troubles may be intended by your heavenly Father to penetrate and soften your hearts, and to produce in them the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Your labours of obedience and love seem and indifference of the world damp your expectations. Remember, it is not from the world you look for your reward; and that its censure or applause, its honours or its disgrace, can have no influence on the blessedness of heaven, Look

now to be unrewarded; and the contempt

well to the foundation on which your hopes are built: return continually to first principles: examine whether there be in the promise and faithfulness of God any ground for distrust and fear. Let your

eye pierce through the darkness that hangs around you to the brightness of that glory which is soon to be revealed. By these reflections and these prospects stablish your hearts. Let not the husbandman, in the hope of worldly gain, shew an example of endurance which the candidate for eternal happiness is unable to follow. Be not weary in well doing. The time is short, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. While therefore your Saviour is animating you to proceed, and angels behold the contest, let it be your constant and unremitting care by patience and comfort of God's Holy Word to embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life." P. 8.

He then remarks that it would be great injustice to confine such exhortations to the first professors of Christianity, and to deprive the Church of God, in any age, of so rich a legacy and is thus led to notice those circumstances, connected with the discharge of the clerical duties in India, which render the admonitions of the text peculiarly applicable to his hearers.

"Impressed with these sublime and awful sentiments of the origin and character of our profession, and from a strong conviction of its incalculable importance to society at large, we are disposed, with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, to magnify our office. The first discouragement therefore we have to encounter is to find how little the real value of our ministry is ap preciated by the world around us. It cannot but damp the zeal of one who esteems the Gospel which he preaches to be the power of God unto salvationt, to find that, after the first gloss of novelty hath worn away, the message which he bears is received with outward respect indeed, but as a matter of secondary and inferior importance. If it was the fault of darker ages to invest the clerical profession with a mysterious and immoderate regard, it is no less the error of the age in which we live to lose sight of the pastoral character of the Clergy, as a distinct and separate relation, and to regard them only as they are men and citizens. And surely the body of our Clergy have lost much of the usefulness and comfort of their parochial labours from the change to which I allude. The feeling that prevailed in the age immediately succeeding the Reformation,

was more favourable to our general influence on the manners and sentiments of the Laity. But if this discouragement is felt in any measure in our native country, there are some circumstances inseparably connected with our situation in this diocese, which have tended greatly to increase it.

"1. Among these the smallness of our number deserves first to be mentioned. We are a small and inconsiderable body, thinly scattered through the provinces of a vast empire. Each one of us is presented to the public eye separate from the body to which he belongs; and all that respectability and moral power which accrues to every other profession from a conjunction of counsels and a concentration of influence, is in great measure lost to the Clergy of India. From this circumstance it happens not unfrequently that many who now form part of our cure,

have previously for years together been unaccustomed to the ordinances of religion; and

it is hardly to be expected that they

should at once receive us with that confidence and affection which it must ever be our interest to inspire. Besides, we need often, both in our private studies and public labours, the advice and assistance of our brethren; but these, except when we meet in Visitation, are very rarely to be obtained. Nor is it the least part of the advantage to be derived from these occasional solemnities, that it revives among us a feeling of union and brotherhood, which is never lost among the Clergy but with manifest and immediate harm.

"2. Another circumstance, tending to the same result, is the smallness of our congregations. I am well aware that many causes, over which we can have no control, may conspire to produce the effect; -the inconveniences of climate, or the necessities of military service;--but the existence of the evil is felt, I am persnaded, and deplored in every station of the Diocese. To ourselves, accustomed to numerous audiences, and anxious (in whatever sphere is assigned us) to make full proof of our ministry*, it is extremely disheartening to be surrounded by so few in the discharge of our public duties. How shall they believe except they hear? is a question that often forces itself upon us with painful interest. Under such circumstances, it requires a more than ordinary vigilance to keep alive in our own souls the holy benevolence that becomes our office, that sacred ardour for the hap piness and salvation of mankind, which

«* 2 Tim. iv. 5."

alone can impart to our public addresses more, infinitely more than the majesty and pathos of the most accomplished eloquence. We are but too apt to feel a fainter and more languid interest in our preparations for the pulpit; and, in the delivery of our sermons, our manner must naturally suffer from the want of that deep and powerful sympathy, which is reflected back upon the heart of the speaker from the countenances of a listening multitude.

"3. Another circumstance of discouragement, is the rapid change that takes place in the society over which we are placed. The great and most valuable purposes of the Christian Ministry are not to be answered by slight and occasional addresses. The moral and religious change, in the production of which it is our highest honour to be employed, is not effectedeither in the hearts of individuals, or in the mass of society-but by slow and almost insensible degrees. It is by the iteration of simple and affectionate instructions, it is by the enforcement of doctrine and precept, according to the exigencies of time and circumstance and character; it is by the daily intercourse of a pastoral charge among those from whom death only can divide us; it is, above all, by the mild but penetrating influence of example, that the best and most permanent advantages are derived from an established Clergy. The fluctuating and uncertain society of our military stations is unfavourable to this slow and gradual process; and we are often compelled to confine the range of our instructions within a space far too small for their full developement.

"4. The last cause of discouragement which I shall mention, is perhaps of all others the most powerful, if not in lessening our actual usefulness, at least in taking away some of the happiest and most characteristic employments of our profession. I mean the absence of the lower orders of society. The cottages of the poor, and the domestic circles of those who are

equally removed from affluence and want, -these, if I mistake not, form the happiest scenes for the exercise of our ministry. These look up to us as the natural guardians of their best and dearest interests; for advice in difficulties, for solace in afflictions, for the instruction of their children, and for support and comfort in their dying hour. It is among them chiefly that we are recognized as the pastors of our flock: among them the primitive feeling of our ancestors still lingers; they esteem as very highly in love for our work's Our attention to their temporal

sake *.

1 Thess. v. 13."

wants, opens their hearts to our spiritual instructions; and it is perhaps chiefly by means of this interchange of kindness and respect that our Lord's words are fulfilled, that to the poor the Gospel is preached. It would awake in many of our hearts a train of recollections full of exquisite pleasure not unmixed with pain, to remind us of all the feelings of paternal interest derived from such associations. From these interesting relations we are (generally speaking) excluded by the very nature of our service; and surely by those who have once felt the powerful advantage they afford, their almost total want must be considered among the chief trials and discouragements of our situation." P. 13.

The remainder of the Discourse is not inferior to the portions which have been extracted. The whole is well worthy of an attentive perusal, and cannot fail to prove a source of instruction to many, and of gratification to all.

The Church and the Clergy, exhibiting the Obligations of Society, Literature, and the Arts to the Ecclesiastical Orders, and the Advantages of an Established Priesthood. By George Edmund Shuttleworth. 306 pp. Riving

tons. 1820.

"My name is Bishop," said a coachman on the road to Cheltenham. "Think of the Parsons," said a traveller of saturnine countenance to his companion, " and you The will not forget his name. Bishops and the Parsons are all of the same tribe, and useless lumber they all are; it would be well, if they were all sent to Botany Bay."

It is not improbable, that this is a popular opinion with a certain class of politicians and reformers, beyond whose pale it is as unnecessary to dispute its truth, or deny its justice, as it would be vain to refute by reason the prejudices of those by whom it is entertained. The usefulness of the Clergy even in the affairs of civil life is becoming every day more obvious to those, whose senses are not obstructed by

bad interests or by worse antipathies and not only in the capacity of magistrates, with which but few -are invested, but as the superinten. dants and directors of schools and other charitable institutions, as the friendly arbitrators between the pauper and the overseer in the administration of the poor laws, and as the mediators between the higher and the lower classes of society, declaring the wants of the one and appealing to the benevolence of the other, their usefulness is felt and acknowledged in the remotest and most secluded corners of the kingdom. As scholars, without any disparagement of the learning of the Laity, the Clergy are and ever have been the main support of English literature, in the higher departments of philosophy, and profane and sacred criticism, and the instruction of youth of rank and fortune, and of those intended for the learned professions, is almost the exclusive province of the Clergy. It is need. less to assert their usefulness in the duties and the studies more immediately appropriated to their office: where it is not felt, it will not be acknowledged: but in the changes and chances of life, in the trials of sickness and sorrow it is the happiness of the Clergy to know, that they have not laboured in vain, or without receiving the gratitude of those whom they have been called to comfort and instruct.

Where the power of Religion is not felt, the necessity of contributing to the maintenance of the Clergy in an assumed condition of easy indolence and the citation of obvious examples, which have been occasionally exhibited, and which in so large a body as the Clergy may not yet be extinct, may give countenance and circulation to the opinion, that they are not worthy of the emoluments which they receive, that their office is useless, and that their character is marked, in some instances, by ignorance and bigotry, by intolerance and pride, by vain

ostentation or more vain hypocrisy. In the presence of the Clergy these opinions will naturally be suppresed, or uttered with many abatements of caution and reserve: but when they are not present to vindicate themselves, a Priest and a Parson is a common topic of mirth and ridicule, and the worst member of the convent is exhibited in caricature, as the example of all the brotherhood. Where there is a disposition to receive these misrepresentations, it is but lost labour to correct them; but it may powerfully counteract the progress of the delusion, to bring forward the real case of "the Church and the Clergy," and to exhibit "the obligations of literature, society, and the arts to the Ecclesiastical orders, and the advantages of an established Priesthood." This office has been successfully undertaken by Mr. Shuttleworth, who has fully justified the envied emoluments of the Clergy, by producing manifold instances of the munificent appropriation of those emoluments.

"In whatever direction I have travers

ed the kingdom I have discovered cause of gratitude to the CLERGY. Cathedrals, monasteries, hospitals, asylums, seminaries for learning, whatever can promote human felicity, or mitigate the sorrows of mortality, I have found the works of their hands, the offspring of their munificence; and thus forcibly impressed by the multitude of their foundations, and the magnitude of their endowments, I have ventured (with too much temerity possibly) to be

come an humble advocate of the most cul

tivated community in the world.

"Nor is it with any desire to extenuate the numerous errors and imperfections, which will doubtless be discovered in this publication, that I declare it to have been precipitated from the press, with a painful reference to passing events; instead of a few months, which have been spent in hastily arranging these materials, many years of deliberate research might have been well employed upon a subject, as gratifying, as I have found it interesting."

P. vi.

The method of Mr. Shuttleworth's argument is, to assert and

to vindicate from unjust imputations the divine origin of tythes and of an established maintenance of the Clergy. In the progress of this inquiry he refers to the reign of Henry VIII. which he considers the most distinguished period of Ecclesiastical splendour in this country, and while he infers from the selfish and indiscriminate rapacity of that monarch the danger of precipitate revolution, he maintains that the ambition of the Romish Clergy was no just warrant for the continued spoliation of the Church. In the aisles of the several cathedrals he points out the monuments of the munificence of the Prelates, who at different periods presided over them, and having taken a similar view of Episcopal and Clerical liberality in the several colleges at Oxford, and a more superficial and cursory sketch of those at Cambridge, he digresses from this captivating theme to the laborious duties and inade. quate remuneration of the Clergy, by whom the smaller seminaries and grammar schools are conducted. In a highly classical chapter, he shows that the worst superstitions of the darkest ages of Christianity are not worthy of comparison with the ordinary rites of Paganism, and in adverting to the monastic institutions proclaims the just praise of the eminent learning of the Benedictines, and from thence in an argument misplaced, but not unnecessary or inexpedient, he repels the common insinuations against the liberal establishments of the Clergy, and main tains that many fuedal tenures are mre unfavourable than tythes to te interests of agriculture. He ickly resumes the natural series nd order of his argument, and wells upon the distinguished piety and benevolence of the Reformers, and of the Clergy of the Church of England who have succeeded them.

This abstract is sufficient to shew, that Mr. Shuttleworth's design corresponds with his title, and while neither his argument nor his pur. REMEMBRANCER, No. 37.

pose requires profound research or admits of novelty and invention, he has redeemed his promise and interested and gratified his reader by the variety and perspicuity of his details, and engaged him to think well of the Church and the Clergy, to whom so many obligations are due from society, literature, and the arts.

The argument upon the divine origin of tythes with the history of tythes in England, is evidently borrowed from Comber's elaborate answer to Selden; and the succeeding refutation of the common prejudice against tythes, that they are unfavourable to agricultural improvement would be appropriately enlarged and completed by connecting it with the remarks on feudal tenures, on the absurd insinuations in favour of clerical poverty, and with the incontrovertible fact, that the envied emoluments of the Clergy have been and may be possessed by men of the humblest origin and de scent. By this arrangement the moral claim of the Clergy to their tythes would be as clearly and consistently exhibited, as their legal right is certainly established, not only on the authority of professional writers, but by the consent of men of all parties in Parliament, that there is no title so clear, so ancient, or so irrefragable as that of the Clergy to the tenth, a title which cannot be called in question, without hazard to all property in the kingdom. From a distinct and clear view of this title, it would be obvious to proceed without interruption or digression in the inquiry, whether the Clergy had made a just use of the estate thus indefeasibly secured to them. However the splendour of the monastic establishments in England, especially at St. Edmund's Bury, Glastonbury, and Malmes bury might exceed the just and necessary uses of those establishments, they afforded no apology for the indiscriminate and unspar ing rapacity of the arbitrary spoiler

H