* * * * *
_Extract from the Weekly Dispatch of May_ 2, 1813.
The statements published in the two last numbers of the Dispatch
respecting this person have excited a degree of public attention
unexampled in the history of newspapers. I am rejoiced at the
circumstance; because it serves to shew how large a mass of virtuous
feeling prevails among the people of England, and how much alive they are
to any transactions that appear to violate the morals, or profane the
religion of their country. It is impossible for any one who knows me, or
is acquainted with my character, to suppose, that I could have felt any
thing like personal hostility against this man. My sole motive for
sending forth these publications, has been to defend and preserve the
public morals. In doing so, I have disregarded all risks, and set all
threats at defiance. The reader may naturally ask whether I have not
said enough on this subject already. I thought so this day week. Since
last Sunday’s publication, however, a volume of new matter, respecting
this prophaner of religion and violator of morality has been communicated
to me.
Among the recent communications that have been made to me in the course
of the week, the following are the more remarkable, and ought to be
proclaimed through all parts of the kingdom. Several persons have been
at a loss to know by what authority this man presumed to take upon
himself the functions of a minister of the gospel. They have asked how
could a man so profligate—so notoriously criminal, come forth to instruct
others in religion. The question was natural, and I will answer it. The
practice among Dissenters is, that when any man feels a strong desire to
become a preacher, he communicates the same to several Ministers, who
make strict enquiry into his qualifications as to piety, learning,
morals, &c. and if they find these established on satisfactory evidence,
they confer on the candidate a sort of ordination, without which he can
have no authority to officiate as a minster of the gospel. I understand
that Church did receive some ordination of this kind at the town of
Banbury, in Oxfordshire; from which place, as I stated in a former
number, he was driven away for his mal-practices. Since then he has not
been under the control, and has acted in defiance of all the ordinances
of the Dissenting Church. He has in fact gone about as a mere isolated
adventurer; and I am informed that no minister will preach in any pulpit
belonging to him. Yet he continues to preach, in defiance of Christian,
as well as of moral ordinances; because he cannot be silenced by any
legal authority, and because he rejects all ecclesiastical government.
This is the reason why I labour to rescue religion from the disgrace
which he throws upon it. And I again ask if it is to be tolerated in a
Christian, in a moral country, that a man ordered by the magistrates to
be tried for the basest of all crimes, alleged against him on oath,
should be suffered to collect an assembly of English subjects around him
under pretence of giving them religious instruction? Is the government
to suffer its subjects to be thus contaminated? The magistrates of
Sparta and of Rome (which were heathen nations) would have permitted no
such sacrilege as this.
One character peculiar to the person I am speaking of is, that wherever
he has been admitted as a preacher, he has disturbed the religious
system, and upset the order of the place. No later than Wednesday last,
a gentleman from Colchester called at my office, and told me that he has
done so in that town; that he turned the whole congregation against their
minister, by preaching doctrines tending to encourage licentiousness, and
foster the worst passions. All persons acquainted with history will
recollect, that this mode of healing the consciences of profligate men
was practised by the Romish Church before the reformation, and when it
flourished in its rankest state of corruption—when indulgences for sins
to be committed, and pardon for sins past, were openly sold for money.
The manner in which the Obelisk Preacher conducts the affairs of his
chapel bears some resemblance to this practice. In other places of
worship, the practice is, for persons, who have been appointed as
trustees, to take charge of all the money collected once a mouth, and
after allowing a reasonable remuneration to the minister, apply the
remainder to the relief of the poor, and to the repairs of the place.
Hitherto, however, Mr. C— has been in the habit of putting into his own
pocket all the money which he has raised by inflaming the passions and
exciting hopes and fears. I am informed that for the purpose of
encreasing his revenue, he has even administered the sacrament to persons
who were nearly introxicated with gin!! At present my pen is unable to
proceed any further on this most disgusting subject.