For my own Part, I cannot but think the very fingle Circumftance of trapefing about from Door to Door in one's Canonicals, perhaps for a Week, is fufficient to deter any Man, who has the leaft Regard for Cleanlinefs and Decorum, from canvaffing for a City Lectureship. There is not in Nature a more ridiculous Sight than a draggletail Divine, holding up his fpattered Sacerdotals, and dabbling through dirty Streets and blind Alleys, in Search of Civic Preferment.

And now I am upon this Head, my Lord, you must pardon me

A

SHORT DIGRESSION

CONCERNING

GOWNS AND CASSOCK S.

A certain right reverend Prelate, now with God, (that I think, my Lord, is the Phrafe when we fpeak of departed Epifcopacy) had, amongst other reforming Schemes, entertained a Design of obliging all the Clergy, and especially those of the Metropolis, to appear conftantly in their proper Uniform, and on no Account permitting them to be feen in publick without a Gown and Caflock. Of what Service this Reformation could poffibly be to Religion and Virtue, I must own I could never difcover, whilft the Inconveniencies attending it to the poor Clergy are fufficiently obvious. It has been faid, I know, by the Advocates for this Plan, that whenever a Clergyman appears as fuch, he will always meet with the Refpect due to his Function; and that if he is not treated with Civility, he may thank himfelf for it. But let us examine a little, and fee if thefe Things are fo.

You, my Lord, I make no doubt, meet with all the Deference and Refpect which are due to your

exalted

exalted Station and Character: But I muft beg your Lordship not to attribute it to wrong Motives, or imagine that the Bows made to you in the Street are a Tribute to your Rofe and Beaver: The Incense, I affure your Lordfhip, is offered to the Mitre only. The Reverence is not paid to you as a Paftor of the Flock of Chrift; it is your temporal, and not your fpiritual Dignity, that attracts the Attention, and commands the Homage of the Multitude: It is not because you have Three thousand Souls under your Care, but that you have Three thousand Pounds per Annum. I have read, my Lord, and do verily believe, that there was a Time, though not within our Memory, when the Clergy of all Ranks, dignified or undignified, met with fome Degree of Refpect, as fuch, even in this Kingdom; but those Days are gone and paft, and fo very different are the Manners of this Age, that I would venture one of my beft Sermons against your Lordship's laft new Gown and Caffock, (we Philofophers, my Lord, confider one another's Wants) that if your Lordfhip, when you go next to the Houfe of Peers, will step out of your Chariot at Charing-Crbfs, without your purple-fringed Gloves, your Footman behind, or any other external Mark that might betray your Quality, you fhall walk from thence to Palaceyard, without once being obliged to pull off your Hat, in Return for any Compliments paid to your Cloth. Nobody, my Lord, in thefe our Days, takes any Notice of a Gown and Caffock, except perhaps a Parish Girl, a Chimney-fweeper's Boy, who falutes you as a Brother Black, or now and then a common Soldier, who does not know, (as Chaplains feldom attend) but you may belong to his Regiment. On the other Hand, it is at least forty to one that you meet with fome grofs Affront before you get half way: It is odds but a Hackney Coachman gives his Horfes a Lick as foon as he fees

you,

you, fplashes you all over, and then winks to his Brother, with Smoke the Doctor's new Caffock.' Add to this, that if you do not give the Wall to every Tinker and Taylor you meet, you will be called a proud Prieft: If you happen to be fat, they will be fure to fay you have got the Church in your Belly; if you walk faft, you are in a d-d Hurry for your Dinner; if you go flow, and pick your Way, it is,- Mind Parfon Prim, how gin

gerly he fteps.' If your Gown is draggled, a Čarman will call out to you to hold up your Petticoats; and if you chance to turn up an Alley on any neceffary Occafion, the Witticifms upon you are innumerable: For after all, my Lord, it is a strange Thing, and what all the World wonders at, that Parfons fhould eat and drink, and fleep, and do a hundred vulgar Things, juft like other Men.

And now, my Lord, do you ferioufly think it would be any Advantage, or contribute to the Honour and Dignity of the Cloth, to be for ever scarfed and caffucked in the Streets of London? For my own Part, till I am forced to do otherwife, I fhall content myself with fkulking unnoticed in my Iron Grey; as, whilft I am miftaken for a Parish Clerk, a Grazier, or an Undertaker, I may at least escape without Ridicule and Abufe, which, if I appear in my Regimentals, as Things are now circumftanced, I can never expect.

But to return to my Subject, or, as we fay every Sunday, to proceed to my fecond Head, and confider

What is expected from Lecturers, and how they are generally treated when they become fo. Let us now then fuppofe that the poor Candidate, after going through all these fiery Trials, fhould at length be fo fortnnate as to make his Calling and Election fure; behold him chofen, licensed, and in-pulpited, (there, my Lord, is another new Word for you,

252

LETTER TO A BISHOP.

and I fee no Reason why it is not as good as inftalled) he will find that Seat, or rather Standing of Honour, a painful Pre-eminence; for, as high as he may there imagine himfelf, not a Creature who fits below, but thinks himself far above him. Every Man that gave you his Vote will confider you, from that Day forth, and as long as you continue in that Situation, as his Inferior: He looks upon himself as one of your Feeders, to whom you are indebted for your daily Bread, and therefore expects you will honour him accordingly; and for this fpecial Reafon, because if you withdraw your Complaisance, he may withdraw his Subfcription. But let us attend a little to the precarious Tenure on which he holds his new Preferment. When a Man is in peaceable Poffeffion of a good Living, scarce any Body takes Notice of his Preaching; it matters very little whether he is as elegant as * or as contemptible as Dr. But with a Ledurer the Cafe is extremely different: He is confidered by his Hearers as a Kind of Divinity-cook, and is expected, like other Cooks, to adapt every Thing to every Body's Palate: And let him have ever fo much Merit, it is a Hundred to one he does not please one in a Hundred, for it is all Whim and Caprice. If he has a loud Voice, perhaps he may be called a Brawler, he takes too much Pains, labours, and fo forth; if he is weak and low, he is cenfured as fpiritlefs and inanimate; if his Action is flow and folemn, he shall be termed liftlefs and indolent; if it be ftrong, and varied, it fhall be called vehement and theatrical: For the poor Judges he is talking to never confider the different Subjects to be treated; that one may require fober and compofed Behaviour in the Utterance, another lively, fpirited, and diffufed Gefture.

*The Reader is defired to fill up thefe blank Spaces with the Names of the best and word Preacher he is acquainted with.

In most other Profeffions, those who apply for your Aid and Inftruction will at least allow you fome Knowledge in your own Bufinefs, and have Complaifance enough to fuppofe you have a tolerable Idea of and Acquaintance with the Matter of it; but in Divinity it is quite otherwife: Every Auditor in at Church is as good a Judge (or at least thinks himself fo) both of the Subject and the Manner of treating it as yourself, and will not fail to shew his Judgment with regard to Stile, Sentiment, and Delivery, tho’ he knows no more of either than the Defk you write upon.

They will tell you the Sermon you preached was borrowed from another, when it is really your own; and, vice verfa, Compliment you upon it as your own, when it is every Word of it stolen from another.

The following, my Lord, is a Fact which hap pened to myself.

Being engaged one whole Week in Writing an Answer to a political Pamplet against the D of N-, for which I had twenty Pieces (more, by the bye, than I got by Preaching in a Twelvemonth) I ventured on the Saturday Night to tranfcribe a Difcourfe of Tillotfon's, and preached it on the Sunday Morning to a very polite Audience. On my coming out of Church, I was faluted by one of the Overfeers with Thank you, Doctor, for your 'excellent Sermon; but let me tell you, it was a dangerous Topic for a young Man; to be fure you might have treated it a little more fully (obferve his Complaifance) but upon the Whole it was really a good Difcourfe, and i am fure all your own; but I remember a glorious one of Tillotson's on that very Subject. I remember'. That you do not indeed, my Friend,' replied I (I could not help it, my Lord, for the Life of me) for the Sermon 'you just now heard is the very fame, Word for • Word,

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