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MERTHYR TYDVIL, SATURDAY,…

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MERTHYR TYDVIL, SATURDAY, Oct. 26, I833 An opinion frequently prevails, among persons who are nowise hostile to the Established Church, that the distribution of Church Revenue is con- ducted with an inequality, which is at once in- consistent with the sound principle of propor- tioning the remuneration to the labour performed, and with the reverential attachment and affection which it is so desirable that the laity should enter- tain to the Clergy. The persons who hold this opinion remark, for instance, that it is quite in- consistent that the junior clergy, men of a sacred calling, men necessarily of eminent mental ac- quirements, men also exercising a vocation no less laborious than it is dignified and important, should receive the inadequate remuneration that they frequently do receive; while the higher dig- nitaries of the Church, whose ostensible duties appear so much lighter, receive the more ample revenues that they actually possess. To us it appears that this reasoning, plausible as it cer- tainly is, and offered, we believe, with conscien- tious sincerity of heart, is- extremely fallacious and we will state our reasons for thinking so. It cannot be necessary, in the present age, to demonstrate, either that religion is indispensable, or that Christianity is that religion, which not only bears incontestable proof of its divine ori- gin, but is also the most conducive to the moral and political happiness of mankind. In proof of this it may sufiice to say, that the most polished nations of heathen times, the nations among which human intellect attained (excepting the light of revealed religion) the highest acme of perfection, possessed no knowledge of the immortality of the soul: even the few eminently grand among their philosophers, who had any glimmerings of con- ception on this subject, only floundered in confu- sion and uncertainty on the threshold of this sublime truth. Those lofty and accomplished cultivators of that frail attribute, "human in- tellect," had no other means of engrafting on their system of worship those attributes which belong to divine nature, than by adding, as occasion might require, for every newly discovered attri- bute, a new god to their pantheon. In doing this, with the same finite discretion as we have from time to time enlarged our statutes, absur- dities insensibly crept in, which reason must deride, and barbarities,at which humanity revolts In the laboured depths of their philosophy, in the magnificent range of their literature, in the im- passioned fervour of their poets and orators, we see no type, we find no word expressing the idea, of that grace and strength of Christian morals, charity. These great prototypes of human in- tellect, these exemplars of mere human virtue, slaughtered their prisoners in cold blood. Among them, the useful classes of mankind, the agricultu- rists and the manufacturers,were slaves: and that portion of society to whom in Christian Eugland the Reform Bill has extended the highest of poli. tical privileges, were born in bondage, and bought and sold. We conceive we have said enough. If such was Paganism in Greece and Rome, what must be its attributes in less polished nations? But if the Christian religion be thus, we speak it not irreverently, the most conducive to the poli- tical happiness of mankind, the Protestant re- formed doctrine is its pure essence, and Popery a corrupted usurpation. Look at the moral tone of mind, and the limits of mental endowments, of the people of Spain, of Portugal, of Italy, of Austria, or of any Catholic country, and compare them with those of England and Scotland, or of Holland, or of any Protestant people. Or, to come nearer home, compare in the same qualifi- cations, the people of Ireland with those of Eng- land or Scotland. And this distinction it is not difficult to account for. To the one, the word of God, ungarbled and incorrupt, is eternally acces- sible: to the other, it is doled. out in scanty por- tions, garbled, or perhaps interpolated to suit the purposes of a hierarchy which cannot stand but in the shade of darkness. To the one, the whole range of human enquiry lies open and unre- stricted to the other, the high dead wall of pres- cription, its summit shrouded in the clouds and night, stands on every side. In France, the most enlightened of Popish countries, we know that for centuries the more learned of the dignitaries of the Church nay more, in Rome, even in the days of Luther we know that Leo, the head of the Popish Church, disbelieved those doctrines, which themselves, for lucre and state purposes assiduously promulgated among the people pre- cisely in the same spirit as the Whig journals now palm their impostures upon their simple readers. It were easy to show, that while Christianity is essentially Protestant, of all Protestant Com- munions the Established Church is by far the most perfect: but this it is not necessary to It, however, is important that we show the cessity of a Church Establishment; both beca. in these days of Economists, it is thought wei do without one and because the importance that Institution forms a ground work of further! inferences. It is not only the duty, it is the first interest o. every state, that the people live in a due sense of religion and for this purpose it is necessary that the state take measures that Ministers be pro- vided, always to administer,. not only to those who can pay, but to all persons, that religious instruction, that religious consolation, which it concerns the state, it concerns the efficiency of the laws, it concerns the safety of the public, that all persons in the community should obtain. Who can contemplate some recent most astonishing verdicts of British juries ? Who can contem- plate some recent popular acts of glaring wrong t Who can contemplate these things, and with them the laxity of religious principle of the pre- sent day, without seeing that the very safety of the public depends on the religious principle of the people ? As it is necessary that Christian Ministers' provided, so it is also that those Ministers be of eminent mental endowments. On their the defence of their tenets against seer Now it is impossible for any co Ilylmlv much more so for a community>f, IE*, t' long to subsist in efficiency and usefulne. a subordination of ranks. A hierarcl dation of ranks, indeed is not only -pt:. necessary; it is an Institution of Script' j dinance. In England it is also to be rem. that the average remuneration (if it were divided) of clerical duties, is extreniel3 would be in fact about £180. per an, each Minister. When we consider the g pence requisite in the education of a ger" destined for holy orders; that this educatio be performed in youth, and at the expence :m parents and that this expence can be de only by persons in a certain scale of opu n it may be justly expected that very few pa would qualify their sons for holy orders if th had no brighter prospects than £ 180 per yea The distribution, therefore, of the revenues the Church in a more equal proportion woi. defeat one most important object-the s¡¡fflèli supply of ministers to serve at the altar. In estimate usually received of the revenues & Bishoprics, gross exaggerations have beta made' and admitted as trnths with surprising credulity* Few of the English Bishoprics yield a revenue of as much as £5,000 a year; some are less than 92,000 and who, that truly feels the value of 1 religion, would wish to see that portion of the I clergy whom their station in the Church and their episcopal duties expose to heavy expences, con- demned to struggle against an inadequate re- I t, venue ? There is another point, however, which is the increasing of the revenues of small livings, and of curacies. Several Right Reverend Pre- lates have commenced in their respective dioceses the increase of the revenues of the smaller liv- ings; an operation, it is to be remembered, which can only be effected progressively, as the means of doing so arise. With respect to the increase of the income of curacies, the case is one of greater difficulty than- is commonly known. The rector, who appoints a curate, is frequently cir- cumscribed by his own income and his pecuniary engagements, so that he cannot pay more than a certain stipend; and if the curate, fully cogni- zant of hia own circumstances, and at liberty either to accept or to decline the engagement' think it still for his advantage to accept it, surely it is a very injudicious, though zealous benevo- lence, which would interpose to prevent hiin. If the aggregate revenues of the Church could be augmented, every good man would rejoice to see this evil remedied; but, knowing the limitations within which the whole is confined, we confess that we doubt whether any great change in the distribution could be judiciously effected.

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