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Poor Vicars not as well fed as fairies.

In doctoring the stomach men become un-English, for no less than a stipend of £300 a year is as good now to a hearty Irish eater, as the £11 and diet were in 1603, because we can get so little for our money.

You feed your wife and children on the same principle that you feed paupers or other men. The first four commandments of God are concerning "your duty toward Him," and the six last relate to your neighbour: your wife is, therefore, either God or a neighbour. As you cannot put food into the mouth of a spirit, your wife and children are your neighbours and no more; and as I am no spirit I must be your neighbour too, equally as much as your wife and children. The man that gives away but little is the surest to starve his own family. The wild Irish believe they are haunted by fairies; and they actually throw away food, when any one sneezes, to appease the fairies or to feed them, lest they should carry off the baby to fairy-land, and bring back a diseased one in its place. Perhaps this is the cause of Irish poverty. Be as good as the wild Irish by throwing away food, and I will pick it up for you. "The Spirit," Christ says, "is willing, but the flesh is weak." The power of my soul must work through my body, before you can benefit by it. My soul is locked up, therefore, in the prison of which the diet-key is in your hands. When you over-fill anything, even a bottle with milk, your work must be seen, for the bottle will burst, whether made of leather or glass, when heated. Well-fed men, especially the Irish, are forced to talk, but starved ones keep their mind to themselves, except to scream for food. So if you want sermons give me good diet and plenty of it.

Enquirers corrupt by not first giving the cure.

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The archbishop, my brethren, made this enquiry, but he was not as earnest to remove the evil as he was eager to witness it. God is a better guide for you than the bishops; for when He enquires about your soul, He gives the remedy at the same time to enable you, by His blessing of pardon and peace, to endure the inspection. Even attention to the sublime and beautiful, without any saving religion at all, teaches us to give a remedy and kindness before we hurt a man's feelings by requiring him to confess his bad state. It is on this account that I will never hear confession of sin from you. Confess to Christ, in your soul, who has the blood to cleanse, the grace to purify, and the goodness to absolve. A really clever medical man can see the sick man's wants in his face; and I know the bad heart by its effects on your movements, and,. therefore, I want no confession of sin from you. After I have forgiven my own sins, by keeping myself from committing any sin, and after I have done good to those who have done me harm, to prove I forgave them, it is time enough for me to set myself up, as the forgiver of the sins committed against my betters, both God and good men. This confessionbusiness is nothing but a secret conspiracy, between the priest and the criminal against the injured person, or against God Almighty Himself.

The archbishop and bishop, O! good people, by having enquired after the state of livings, which they had already known, from the records, to be a disgrace to England, got batches of vicars, their wives and children, to fall down before them to do them homage at their palace door, and to confess the dirty things,

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Those whose minister is starving are bad men.

which resulted from their poverty. They thus corrupted the mind of his grace and lordship, by hearing such horrible things. The rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day' (Luke xvi. 19), so treated starved Lazarus that he could not get closer to his palace than the gate, and that he could not get better friends than the dogs that licked his sores. God let him die in his cruel nature, and the devil carried him off in triumph to hell fire, without the drop of water or the crumb which he denied poor Lazarus. If God were to treat the bishops according to the way they treat the poor vicars, He would make their lordships to attend more to the fasting and praying which they have imposed on the vicars, in their ordinary interpretation of the Prayer Book.

My brethren I will stick to you, like Ruth did to her strange mother-in-law, against her will (Ruth i. 10). So, like this forlorn castaway, I will not return to my own old country, lest I should be shot. A man, that does his duty unpaid, feels that no one is his superior. Opposing wrong-doing gives a man courage and boldness, and takes away shyness. Your system is one service or little work to keep down the vicar's appetite, as it will spare the diet. A dissenting preacher, in my old country, never called a second time to preach where he got but a red-herring and two potatoes for his dinner, when his hearers could not get him to make love to their daughter. He was wrong in running away, for his mission is not to fly to a good place, but to keep pegging away to smash stony hearts, and to get love-making girls married to Christ.

CHAPTER XI.

The principles of worldly Royalists, real Churchmen, and political Dissenters-The origin of Liberalism-Enemies within and without the Church-The nature of a really National Church-Church Reform advocated in choosing Ministers, and disposing of Church Revenues by Parishioners, and in avoiding underhand Church proceedings.

A

FTER Henry VIII., the Faith-Defender, destroyed religion here, the people became divided into three classes, namely, godless Royalists, real Churchmen, and political Dissenters.

The godless Royalists, who are like rival kings against God, said that the will of the King should be done, even if he wished that all Churches should be pulled down. They held that the doings of Royalty are sanctified, and that they should be swallowed by us without even looking at these drugs, and without weighing them in the balances of God Almighty and of Holy Scripture to see if they are lighter than vanity. All worldly people, numbering nine-tenths of the upper and middle classes, belong to this party. Many of them are among the courtiers, who are the most disloyal of all, except for their own ends. These are power-seekers, who would dethrone the Sovereign if they got more for doing so.

Churchmen held that the progress, prosperity, peace, and happiness of a country depend upon having a

76 Right Church principles mean perfection.

wholesome respect for the law, and upon having regard for Church principles. They taught that the Church system, when rightly carried out, is the best means of civilizing and refining the people, both for their own comfort, and for the welfare of others. The best form of Government, they said, is a monarchy which carries out the religion of the Bible, as it had been interpreted by the whole world, until it was ruined by putting politics in the place of it. Right Churchmen are the real Royalists, for we are loyal even against our interests. We consider it a part of our religion to lose any thing in behalf of the person of the Sovereign, and the person of all the Royal Family. It is our religion to "fear God, and to honour the king" (1 Peter ii. 17), and to "be subject unto the higher powers" (Rom. xiii). When the King goes wrong-as Henry VIII. did, in ruining the Church-we protest with all the energy of our soul against his evil doing, but we are devoted to his person. We, being Christians, would incur worldly ruin rather than shrink from attacking wrong-doing, wherever found. Churchmen are the golden and practical mean between all spirits, whether devils or fairies.

The Political Dissenters set themselves up to be the fountain of all worthy things, whether the honours which come from the King, or the goodness which flows from the Church system and the laws. Lay-titheowners belong to this class, because they become big men by murdering Vicars by gradual starvation. These creatures found that they could not get much for themselves by advocating the system of the Sovereign, or by defending the Church, since the cleverest in the