"themselves, or by the interposition of any other; or by "any other way whatsoever, directly or indirectly." This would go as far, as those who took it considered themselves bound by an oath, to secure elections from corruption or practice.

I will go no further to prove, that both fathers and councils, in their provisions against simony, considered the practice of application, importunity, solicitations, and flatteries, as of the same nature with simony: and therefore, though our law considers only simony, as it is a bargain in which money or the equivalent is given or promised, yet the sense of the church went much further on this head, even in the most corrupt ages. The canon law does very often mention simony in its threefold distinction, manus, linguæ, et obsequii; it being still reckoned a duty both in the giver and receiver, that the gift should be free and voluntary.

In the church of Rome a right of patronage is, according to their superstition, a matter of great value; for in every mass the patron is to be remembered by a special collect, so that it saves them a great charge in a daily mass said for them. To us this effect ceases; but still it is a noble piece of property, since a patron has the nomination of him that has a care of souls committed to him. But as it is in itself highly valuable, so a great account is to be given for it, to him who made and purchased those souls, and in whose sight they are of inestimable value, and who will reckon severely with such patrons as do not manage it with a due care.

It is all one what the consideration is on which it is bestowed, if regard is not in the first place had to the worth of the person so nominated; and if he is not judged fit and proper to undertake the cure of souls: for with relation to the account that is to be given to the great Bishop of souls, it is all one whether money, friendship, kindred, or any carnal regard, was the chief motive to the nomination.

I know it may be said, no man but one in holy orders is capable of being possessed of a benefice, and in order to that he is to be examined by the bishop, though already ordained, before he can be possessed of it: but the sin is not the less, because others come in to be partakers of it. Still a patron must answer to God for his share, if he has nominated a person without due care, and without considering whether he thinks him a proper person for undertaking so great a trust.

I will not carry this matter so far as to say, that a patron

is bound to choose the fittest and most deserving persons he can find out: that may put him under great scruples; and there being a great diversity in the nature of parishes, and in the several abilities necessary for the proper duties of the pastoral care, it may be too great a load to lay on a man's conscience an obligation to distinguish who may be the fittest person. But this is very evident, that a patron is bound to name no person to so important a care as the charge of souls, of whom he has not at least a probable reason to believe that he has the due qualifications, and will discharge the trust committed to him. Some motives may be baser than others; but even the consideration of a child to be provided for, by a cure of souls, when the main requisites are wanting, is in the sight of God no better than simony. For in the nature of things it is all one, if one sells a benefice, that by the sale he may provide for a child, and if he bestows it on a child, only out of natural affection, without considering his son's fitness to manage so great a trust. Perpetual advowsons, which are kept in families as a provision for a child, who must be put in orders, whatever his aversion to it or unfitness for it may be, bring a prostitution on holy things. And parents, who present their undeserving children, have this aggravation of their guilt, that they are not so apt to be deceived in this case, as they may be when they present a stranger. Concerning these they may be imposed on by the testimony of those whom they do not suspect; but they must be supposed to be better informed as to their own children.

It is also certain, that orders are not given by all bishops with that anxiety of caution that the importance of the matter requires. And if a person is in orders, perhaps qualified for a lower station, yet he may want many qualifications necessary for for a greater cure: and the grounds on which a presentation can be denied are so narrow, that a bishop may be under great difficulties, who yet knows he cannot stand the suit, to which he lies open, when he refuses to comply with the patron's nomination.

The sum of all this is, that patrons ought to look on themselves as bound to have a sacred regard to this trust that is vested in them, and to consider very carefully what the nature of the benefice that they give is, and what are the qualifications of the person they present to it; otherwise the souls that may be lost by a bad nomination, whatsoever may have been their motive to it, will be required at their hands.

At first the right of patronage was an appendant of the estate in which it was vested; and was not to be alienated but with it, and then there was still less danger of an ill nomination. For it may be supposed that he who was most concerned in a parish would be to a good degree concerned to have it well served. But a new practice has risen among us, and, for aught I have been able to learn, it is only among us, and is in no other nation or church whatsoever how long it has been among us, I am not versed enough in our law-books to be able to tell: and that is the separating the advowson from the estate to which it was annexed; and the selling it, or a turn in it, as an estate by itself. This is so far allowed by our law, that no part of such a traffic comes within the statute against simony, unless when the benefice is open. I shall say nothing more on this head, save only that whosoever purchases a turn, or a perpetual advowson, with a design to make the benefice go to a child, or remain in a family, without considering the worth or qualifications of the person to be presented to it, put themselves and their posterity under great temptations. For here is an estate to be conveyed to a person, if he can get but through those slight examinations upon which orders are given, and has negative virtues, that is, he is free from scandalous sin, though he has no good qualities, nor any fixed intentions of living suitably to his profession, of following the studies proper to it, and of dedicating himself to the work of the ministry on the contrary, he perhaps discovers a great deal of pride, passion, covetousness, and an ungoverned love of pleasure; and is so far from any serious application of mind to the sacred functions, that he has rooted in him an aversion to them.

The ill effects of this are but too visible, and we have great reason to apprehend that persons who come into the service of the church with this disposition of mind will despise the care of souls, as a thing to be turned over to one of a mechanic genius, who can never rise above some low performances; they will be incessantly aspiring higher and higher, and by fawning attendances, and the meanest compliances with such as can contribute to their advancement, they will think no services too much out of their road, that can help to raise them: they will meddle in all intrigues, and will cry up and cry down things in the basest methods, as they hope to find their account in them. I wish, with all my heart, that these things were not too notorious, and that they did not lay stumblingblocks in

men's way, which may give advantages to the tribe of profane libertines to harden them in their prejudices against not only the sacred functions, but all revealed religion in general. I shall end this head, leaving it on the consciences of all patrons, and obtesting them by all that is sacred, to reflect seriously on this great trust that the law has put in their hands; and to consider what account they are to give of it in the great day.

But if patrons ought to consider themselves under strict obligations in this matter, how much more ought they to lay the sense of the duties of their function to heart, who have by solemn vows dedicated themselves to the work of the ministry? What notion have they of running without being sent, who tread in those steps? Do not they say, according to what was threatened as a curse on the posterity of Eli, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread? Do they not feel these words as a character of what they say within themselves, when they come up to the altar? Can they not trust God, and go on, fitting themselves in the best manner they can for holy functions, waiting for such an interposition of Providence as shall open a clear way to them to some station in the church; not doubting, but that if God by a motion of his Spirit called them to holy orders, he will raise up instruments to bring that about, and put it in the heart of some one or other to give or to procure to them a post, without their own engaging in that sordid merchandise, or descending to any, though less scandalous methods, which bring with them such a prostitution of mind, that they who run into them cannot hope to raise to themselves the esteem due to the sacred function; which is the foundation of all the good they can do by their labours. If things turn cross to them, in a post to which such endeavours may have brought them, what comfort can they have within them? or what confidence can they have in God? when their own consciences will reproach them with this, that it is no wonder, if what was so ill acquired should prosper no better. When they come to die, the horror of an oath falsely taken, which they palliated by an equivocating sense, will be a terrible companion to them in their last minutes; when they can no more carry off the matter by evasions or bold denials, but are to appear before that God, to whose eyes all things are naked and opened. Then all the scandal they have given, all the souls

1 Sam. ii. 36.

that they have lost or neglected, all the reproaches that they have brought on their function and on the church, for which perhaps they have pretended no ordinary measure of zeal; all these, I say, will come upon them as an armed man, and surround them with the sense of guilt, and the terrors of that consuming fire, that is ready to devour them. Men who have by unlawful methods, and a prevaricating oath, come into a benefice, cannot truly repent of it, but by departing from it. For the unlawful oath will still lie heavy on them, till that is done. This is the indispensable restitution in this case; and unless this is done, they live on and die in the sin unrepented of. God is not mocked, though men are. I will leave this here, for I can carry it no higher.

:

As for those who have not prevaricated in the oath, but yet have been guilty of practice and methods to arrive at benefices, I do not lay this of relinquishing their benefices on them but certainly, if they ever come to right notions of the matter, they will find just ground to be deeply humbled before God for all their practices that way. If they do truly mourn for them, and abstain from the like for the future, and if they apply themselves with so much the more zeal to the labours of their function, and redeem the meanness of their former practices by a stricter course of life, by their studies and their diligence, they may by that compensate for the too common arts by which they arrived at their posts.

I know these things are so commonly practised, that as few are out of countenance who tread in such beaten paths, so I am afraid they are too little conversant in just notions to feel the evil of them. It is no wonder if their labours are not blessed, who enter on them by such low and indirect methods: whereas men who are led by an overruling Providence into stations, without any motions or procurement of their own, as they have an unclouded call from God, so they have the foundation of a true firmness in their own minds. They can appeal to God, and so have a just claim to his protection and blessing: every thing is easy to them, because they are always easy within. If their labours are blessed with success, they rejoice in God, and are by that animated to continue in them, and to increase their diligence. If that is denied them, so that they are often forced to cry out, My leanness, my leanness", I have laboured in vain; they are humbled under it;

" Isaiah xxiv. 16.