- Jeads them, are 
302 
double ecclefiaftical eftablifhment to fup- 
port, is the leaft part of the evil. It tends. 
equally to corrupt the effablifhed clergy, 
# body of men whofe eeneral pereeclabaty 
is a credit tothe nation, and the people 
who are under their charge. . Nothing is 
‘more ready to degrade a man in his own 
eftimation, and to blunt the delicacy of 
his moral feelings, than the coni{cioufnels 
that he is enjoying the emoluments of a 
place, more efpecially of a fun&tion of 
fuch awful importance as the rgligious 
initruGion of a diftri&, without fulfilling 
the duties which it impofes. A clergyman, 
in this fituation, will either exert himfelf to 
rout his antagonift, and bring back the de- 
ferters from his ftandard——a mode of war- 
fare which prefents ftrong temptations to 
low intrigue and malevolent animofity— 
or, difpirited by the {mallnefs of his au- 
dience, he -wil]l become neghgent and re- 
mifs. in the difcharge of his public func- 
tions.. The people will bedeprived of the 
benefit of liftentng to the initructions of 
men of ju% tafleand enlightened underftand- 
ing; by which their minds might have 
been gradually formed to more ratiozal 
modes of thinking on religious fubjects. 
Having the power of chocfing their own 
fpiritual guides in thefe affociations, they 
will naturally appoint. only fuch as, re- 
femble themfelves in manners and opini- 
ons; men who muft fatter the prejudices 
of their hearers in order. to enfure a fub- 
fiftence, and wnofe example will power 
fully tend to keep alive that fanatical 
fpirit with which the lower, and fome of 
the middle, clafs of people in Scotland are 
{till deeply tinétured. ° 
Tt is not only a queftion of curiofity, but 
of the firft importance, to inquire what 
are the caufes which have led to this uni- 
verfal defectiomof the people from the efta- 
blifhed church. Thofe who look no far- 
ther than their own confined experience, 
apt to afcribe it, in each 
particular inflance, to perfonal prejudice 
and difguf againft the minifter of the pa- 
rifh; but this folution is too bride to 
apply to fo general an effect. A circum. 
flance which affords grounds for a better 
explanation, is, that iuch of the clergy as 
have participated leat in the literary pro- 
grefs of the country, and whofe manner of 
preaching has more of the laft age than of 
the prefent, reta: in the oreatelt fhare of 
popularity, and have fuffered leaft by the 
defertion of their bearers. From this faé& 
it would appear, that the real caufe of the 
difagreement betwixt the eftablifhed cler- 
y and the common people is, that they no 
ona bear any refemblaace to each other; 
On tbe Unpopularity of the Scotch Clergy: 
the improvement of the people not having 
kept pace with the progrefs of the clergy. 
Prior to the Reformation, the peafantry 
of Scotland pofleffed no general intellectual 
character. That i important event firft in- 
cited them to inquiry, and to mental ac- 
tivity; but unfortunately, the fubjeéts of 
their difcuffion; and the models which they 
had for imitation, were not calculated to 
refine the tafte, or to induce liberahhabits ,. 
of thinking. The manners of the clergy 
of that period were auftere and fanatical5. 
their notions of religion, gloomy and un-' 
amiable; and they impreffed their own 
character on the minds of the people. 
Since that time the clergy and higher 
ranks in Scotland have made rapid ad- 
vancements in tafte and liberal knowledge, © 
but the common people have remained 
neatly ftationary. The fame religious 
books which inflamed the zeal. of their 
forefathers, occupy the leifure of the pre- 
fent race of Seottifh peafantry: and as 
thefe performances have ufually been hand- 
ed down through feveral generations of the 
fame family, and are connected with many 
traditional ‘anecdotes of the piety of theiz 
anceftors; their veneration for them is 
naturally exceffive. Vulgar minds can 
never feparate a’ fubje€t from its accefia- 
ries; hence the peculiar ftyle and manner. 
of thefe compofitions become infeparably 
affociated with alltheir ideas of religious 
fanctity. Though a preacher, therefore, 
fhould deliver the very fame doétrines that 
are contained in their favaurite authors, yet 
if he adhere not likewife to their anti- 
quated and often abfurd phrafeology, the 
people are never fatisfied of the foundnefs 
of his theology. But no man of tafte and 
candour can ever do fuch violence to the 
ices and dignity of his mind, as to imi- 
tate the low cant and vulgar rhapfodies 
that, for the moft part, charaterife thefe 
writings. Hence, if we trace back the 
hiftory of she church for the laft fifty years, 
we thall Gnd, that the difpofition of the 
people to defert the eftablifhed places of 
worfhip originated with the firft “dawn 
of tale and elegant literature among the 
clergy; and has fince gradually increafedy 
as thefe qualities have been more whet me 
diffated. 
A regard to juftice, however, obliges 
_meto remark, that the complaint of infi- 
pidity and want of interelt, which the 
‘pecple prefer againft the fermons of the 
eftablifhed clergy, is not altogether with- 
out foundation. There isa period in the 
hiftory of the human mind,. when the tafte 
has outftripped the other powers, and the 
mind is labouring after elegaace, but has 
; us not 
[May ae 
