_Delicta majorum immeritus lues,
Romane; donec templa refeceris,
Aedesque labentes deorum_----[2]
Several letters have been lately sent me, desiring I would make
honourable mention of the pious design of building fifty churches, in
several parts of London and Westminster, where they are most wanted;
occasioned by an address of the convocation to the Queen,[3] and
recommended by her Majesty to the House of Commons; who immediately
promised, they would enable her "to accomplish so excellent a design,"
and are now preparing a Bill accordingly. I thought to have deferred any
notice of this important affair till the end of this session; at which
time I proposed to deliver a particular account of the great and useful
things already performed by this present Parliament. But in compliance to
those who give themselves the trouble of advising me; and partly
convinced by the reasons they offer; I am content to bestow a paper upon
a subject, that indeed so well deserves it.
The clergy, and whoever else have a true concern for the constitution of
the Church, cannot but be highly pleased with one prospect in this new
scene of public affairs. They may very well remember the time, when every
session of Parliament, was like a cloud hanging over their heads; and if
it happened to pass without bursting into some storm upon the Church, we
thanked God, and thought it an happy escape till the next meeting; upon
which we resumed our secret apprehensions, though we were not allowed to
believe any danger. Things are now altered; the Parliament takes the
necessities of the Church into consideration, receives the proposals of
the clergy met in convocation, and amidst all the exigencies of a long
expensive war, and under the pressure of heavy debts, finds a supply for
erecting fifty edifices for the service of God. And it appears by the
address of the Commons to her Majesty upon this occasion (wherein they
discovered a true spirit of religion) that the applying the money granted
"to accomplish so excellent a design,"[4] would, in their opinion, be the
most effectual way of carrying on the war; that it would (to use their
own words) "be a means of drawing down blessings on her Majesty's
undertakings, as it adds to the number of those places, where the prayers
of her devout and faithful subjects, will be daily offered up to God, for
the prosperity of her government at home, and the success of her arms
abroad."
I am sometimes hoping, that we are not naturally so bad a people, as we
have appeared for some years past. Faction, in order to support itself,
is generally forced to make use of such abominable instruments, that as
long as it prevails, the genius of a nation is overpressed, and cannot
appear to exert itself: but when _that_ is broke and suppressed, when
things return to the old course, mankind will naturally fall to act from
principles of reason and religion. The Romans, upon a great victory, or
escape from public danger, frequently built a temple in honour of some
god, to whose peculiar favour they imputed their success or delivery: and
sometimes the general did the like, _at his own expense_, to acquit
himself of some pious vow he had made. How little of any thing resembling
this hath been done by us after all our victories! and perhaps for that
reason, among others, they have turned to so little account. But what
could we expect? We acted all along as if we believed nothing of a God or
His providence; and therefore it was consistent to offer up our edifices
only to those, whom we looked upon as givers of all victory, in His
stead.
I have computed, that fifty churches may be built by a medium, at six
thousand pound for a church; which is somewhat _under_ the price of a
subject's palace: yet perhaps the care of above two hundred thousand
souls, with the benefit of their prayers for the prosperity of their
Queen and country, may be almost put in the balance with the domestic
convenience, or even magnificence of any subject whatsoever.
Sir William Petty, who under the name of Captain Graunt, published some
observations upon bills of mortality about five years after the
Restoration;[5] tells us, the parishes in London, were even then so
unequally divided, that some were two hundred times larger than others.
Since that time, the increase of trade, the frequency of Parliaments, the
desire of living in the metropolis, together with that genius for
building, which began after the fire, and hath ever since continued, have
prodigiously enlarged this town on all sides, where it was capable of
increase; and those tracts of land built into streets, have generally
continued of the same parish they belonged to, while they lay in fields;
so that the care of above thirty thousand souls, hath been sometimes
committed to one minister, whose church would hardly contain the
twentieth part of his flock: neither, I think, was any family in those
parishes obliged to pay above a groat a year to their spiritual pastor.
Some few of those parishes have been since divided; in others were
erected chapels of ease, where a preacher is maintained by general
contribution. Such poor shifts and expedients, to the infinite shame
and scandal, of so vast and flourishing a city, have been thought
sufficient for the service of God and religion; as if they were
circumstances wholly indifferent.
This defect, among other consequences of it, hath made schism a sort of
necessary evil, there being at least three hundred thousand inhabitants
in this town, whom the churches would not be able to contain, if the
people were ever so well disposed: and in a city not overstocked with
zeal, the only way to preserve any degree of religion, is to make all
attendance upon the duties of it, as easy and cheap as possible: whereas
on the contrary, in the larger parishes, the press is so great, and the
pew-keeper's tax so exorbitant, that those who love to save trouble and
money, either stay at home, or retire to the conventicles. I believe
there are few examples in any Christian country of so great a neglect
for religion; and the dissenting teachers have made their advantages
largely by it, "sowing tares among the wheat while men slept;" being much
more expert at procuring contributions, which is a trade they are bred up
in, than men of a liberal education.
And to say truth, the way practised by several parishes in and about this
town, of maintaining their clergy by voluntary subscriptions, is not only
an indignity to the character, but hath many pernicious consequences
attending it; such a precarious dependence, subjecting a clergyman, who
hath not more than ordinary spirit and resolution, to many
inconveniences, which are obvious to imagine: but this defect will, no
doubt, be remedied by the wisdom and piety of the present Parliament; and
a tax laid upon every house in a parish, for the support of their pastor.
Neither indeed can it be conceived, why a house, whose purchase is not
reckoned above one-third less than land of the same yearly rent, should
not pay a twentieth part annually (which is half tithe) to the support of
the minister. One thing I could wish, that in fixing the maintenance to
the several ministers in these new intended parishes, no determinate sum
of money may be named, which in all perpetuities ought by any means to be
avoided; but rather a tax in proportion to the rent of each house, though
it be but a twentieth or even a thirtieth part. The contrary of this, I
am told, was done in several parishes of the city after the fire; where
the incumbent and his successors were to receive for ever a certain sum;
for example, one or two hundred pounds a year. But the lawgivers did not
consider, that what we call at present, one hundred pounds, will, in
process of time, have not the intrinsic value of twenty; as twenty pounds
now are hardly equal to forty shillings, three hundred years ago. There
are a thousand instances of this all over England, in reserved rents
applied to hospitals, in old chiefries, and even among the clergy
themselves, in those payments which, I think, they call a _modus_.[6]
As no prince had ever better dispositions than her present Majesty, for
the advancement of true religion, so there was never any age that
produced greater occasions to employ them on. It is an unspeakable
misfortune, that any designs of so excellent a Queen, should be checked
by the necessities of a long and ruinous war, which the folly or
corruption of modern politicians have involved us in, against all the
maxims whereby our country flourished so many hundred years: else her
Majesty's care of religion would certainly have reached even to her
American plantations. Those noble countries, stocked by numbers from
hence, whereof too many are in no very great reputation for faith
or morals, will be a perpetual reproach to us, till some better care is
taken for cultivating Christianity among them. If the governors of those
several colonies were obliged, at certain times, to transmit an exact
representation of the state of religion, in their several districts; and
the legislature here would, in a time of leisure, take that affair under
their consideration, it might be perfected with little difficulty, and be
a great addition to the glories of her Majesty's reign.
But to waive further speculations upon so remote a scene, while we have
subjects enough to employ them on at home; it is to be hoped, the clergy
will not let slip any proper opportunity of improving the pious
dispositions of the Queen and kingdom, for the advantage of the Church;
when by the example of times past, they consider how rarely such
conjunctures are like to happen. What if some method were thought on
towards repairing of churches? for which there is like to be too frequent
occasions, those ancient Gothic structures, throughout this kingdom,
going every year to decay. That expedient of repairing or rebuilding them
by charitable collections, seems in my opinion not very suitable, either
to the dignity and usefulness of the work, or to the honour of our
country; since it might be so easily done, with very little charge to the
public, in a much more decent and honourable manner, while Parliaments
are so frequently called. But these and other regulations must be left to
a time of peace, which I shall humbly presume to wish may soon be our
share, however offensive it may be to any, either abroad or at home, who
are gainers by the war.
[Footnote 1: No. 42 in the reprint. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 2: Horace, "Odes," III. vi. 1-3.
"Those ills your ancestors have done,
Romans, are now become your own;
And they will cost you dear,
Unless you soon repair
The falling temples which the gods provoke."