12

Claiming England for the Pope.

people. You and I ought to get on well together; for probably you are Irishmen descended from the Celts who lived in England, and who married the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, on their arrival here. As Englishmen feed all animals well, you must be Irish if you take to yourselves the maintenance, or rent, which you should pay me for the value which I give you.

As the Irish or Celts were at first the inhabitants of England, without a solitary "Englishman" to disturb them before the year 450, when the present English race came from Germany, they think your England is theirs by priority of right and possession. They are now hard at work to get it for the Pope. They have already one leg on your country. So it is profitable for you to feed me well to enable me to preach both them and their poverty away from you: and it is only a brother Irishman that these creatures can understand.

CHAPTER II.

God's order the standard of duty-The effects of despising poor vicars and religion-Feeding poor vicars the best way to be loyal to the Queen and to her laws-Worldliness, love of importance, bad politics, and wrong principles, the cause of neglecting poor vicars. A disendowed parish practically without a pastor, or anything of a church character.

WH

HEN I began my ministry the Primitive Methodists of my parish crowded the ruinous church; for they thought that the first of an Irishman is the best. Dissenters, in particular, run after good preaching, especially when it comes from starved ministers, who are forced to be excitable and noisy to get food. I began by preaching upon Romans xiii. 7, which tells us to render their dues to all in tribute, custom, fear, and honour.

Brethren, I cried, I will give you a short plain sermon. You require that clergymen should practise what they preach; but now it is your time to carry out what you believe.

I wish you, good people, to remember the Irishman's motto, " that England expects every man to do his duty." You think that it is the landlords or lay rectors that should maintain vicars. But, however that may be, I must charge you at the peril of your honour, as Englishmen, and of your poor soul's damnation, as sinners, not to shirk your duty by saying

14

Ministers' Claim to a Maintenance.

that another ought to do his first, or to do yours for you. A thing must be done for God, for the sake of His order, and not for man's example. So make not man your God by doing only what another does. Our good lay-rector and landlord has now given me £20 a year. So you have no excuse. God examines each man's breast separately at the door of heaven ; and the only righteousness, which He recognizes, is the blood of Christ put to your account. In the system of the Pope people are looked at in batches, and through some pretended good man, especially any big person, whose money can buy them all up. But Protestantism requires you to come to God through Christ, and to feed another as a proof that He has fed you. As you make your money in my parish, you ought to feed me for my work; and God will call each of you separately to an account for not doing so. God says He will repay you what you give me and, if you think my security good, dash down the money. I, being an Irishman, commit blunders, and do you, Englishmen, as I may call you, shew your superior correctness by doing better. You can settle this payment, like any other, with your landlord, who has kindly done his part to maintain me. I will give you full absolution for giving me a few pounds of the tithes, or rent, which you pay him. As the layrector or landlord does not live in my parish, I must look upon you as the men, who are using my road to heaven. I exhort you, therefore, in honesty, to pay here at this church toll-bar; or else my Lord, the King, will deal with you for using His religious highway on the sly. You can resign the farms, trades,

Disorders in Disendowed Churches.

15

and labouring work respectively: and you need not have taken them at all, until your pastor was sufficiently paid. I must look upon you as parties to all this. O! that you were as good as converted dissenters, who subscribe liberally to give sufficient food to a gospel minister, even in the church. It will not excuse you to have farm labourers to be preachers and priests, and their wives priestesses, without any remuneration at all, at work in the Primitive Methodist chapel. This is not a good way to pay me, and it would be far better to pay them too. No excuse, cunning, nor evasion, will please God for not doing what is right. If the fox were not so sly, he would not be hunted down so much. It is rather an Irish way of treating a person to keep him poor and degraded, on purpose, in order to be king over him.

Misfortunes, by the will of God, come sometimes upon stock, crops, and people, when a clergyman's services are not paid for. On your acres, numbering nearly 4,000, and in your trades, and earnings, God can easily take away the guinea a week which you should pay, between you, to the Lord's minister. These acres imply crops, stocks, investments, labourers' work, and dealings with the market world. You and I must be in disorder until you put things right. I do assure you that I cannot be better than the pay which I get; and I believe you value the worth of your pigs and sheep, in the market (or what is the same thing, you reckon the price they will fetch), according to the quality and quantity of food you give them. To make me and my sermons good and satisfactory, fill my stomach first. I will leave it to

16

The Nature of True Loyalty.

:

God to make you satisfactory and it is my duty to tell you that He can cause disgrace and disease, and a death in the family.

But, to let you see that I am sticking to my text, I tell you that a clergyman's fee is a guinea for each time the church bell is tolled to warn you of hell fire, and to invite you to divine service, and to heaven. The law limits me to live off you; for if I go beyond your land and houses to seek a livelihood, or to induce people to come to this church to support me, I am sure to be attacked as a poacher, and as an usurping bishop. You took your places subject to the clergyman's moral claim for his wants, under the Queen's. law, and for her government Church. True loyalty consists in observing the Queen's laws, and in attending to their intentions. Those who neglect to carry out the good which the law intended, would make use of any person or system to suit their ends, or to acquire position or power. Such creatures hang upon the Queen and the Royal family to get titles, position, popular applause, and to make good marriages. It is upon the Bible-practising Christians that the Queen can rely for real loyalty, and for securing her safety and happiness. I am Christ's ambassador to your souls, to give you the comforts of religion, and I am the Queen's vicar, to pay you homage. Sufficient food, therefore, is the least tribute, custom, respect, and honour, which you can give me for all this. Your doing this is the best way to shew your loyalty to God, to the Queen, and to her laws. Remember that clergymen are worth maintaining, being a source of blessing in various ways to our country.