190 SOME REMARKS ON THE, &C. 



their lives. To the same source must also be traced the plurali- 

 ties, non-residence, and scanty provision for unbeneficed ministers, 

 which furnish the envious, the ill-informed, and the malignant ad- 

 versaries of our church establishment with a never-failing supply of 

 specious topics for illiberal declamation."* 



But, according to the judgment of many, these emphatic censures 

 lose half their force by the putting of this single question. What 

 would have become of your established church, if there had been no 

 Lay Impropriators in the Houses of Lords and Commons to protect 

 it ? Our answer is, if this species of temporal corporation is to be 

 its strength of guardianship — if it is to exist only by such wills and 

 agencies — if this is to be its transcendent element of safety — then, 

 we fear not to say, better, far better, it should fall into ruins around 

 us — be demolished entirely. We would not put forth a finger to 

 uphold a religious system, "upon the mere ground of maintaining 

 property." Those who are inclined to place worldly on a level with 

 religious considerations, may reject these opinions for their injudi- 

 ciousness and extravagance, and as repugnant even to the no- 

 tions of all high churchmen. They are, however, fully shared — 

 they are potently confirmed by a writer, whose orthodoxy stands 

 forth so prominently in his productions, that to hint a suspicion 

 against it, would as much expose the person to the imputation of 

 being bereft of sense, as if he were to advance this unqualified po- 

 sition, that Howard was no philanthropist, or Burke no orator. 

 These are his striking and weighty words; and with them we shall 

 bring our remarks to a close. "I had rather the church were levelled 

 to the ground by a nation really, honestly, and seriously think- 

 ing they did God service in doing so, (great as the sin would be,) 

 than that it should be upheld on the mere ground of maintaining 

 property; for I think this a much greater sin. I think that the wor- 

 shippers of Mammon will be in worse case before Christ's judgment 

 seat than the mistaken zealot. If a man must be one or the other 

 (though he ought to be neither), but if I must choose for him, I 

 had rather he should be Saul raging like a wild beast against the 

 church, than Gallio caring for none of these things, or Demas lov- 

 ing the present world, or Simeon trafficking with sacred gifts, or 

 Ananias grudging Christ his substance, and seeking to be saved 

 as cheaply as possible/'t 



i£ 



* Soames' History of the Reformation, vol. ii, p. 296. 

 •f Newman's Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 232. 



