blessing, and instead of showing forth the light by which we have been guided, should go about to doom the land to that moral darkness, which, in the emphatic language of scripture, might be said "to be felt." If out of presumptuous trust in secondary causes, we will not live in an humble and grateful sense of our continual dependence upon his bounty, our erring in our hearts will call cryingly for chastisement. And has not the nation had visitations? Have we not beheld the finger of God in the air? There is an hovering evil which will prove a hundredfold more terrible than the HURRICANE, the SNOW STORM, and the PESTILENCE. Oh what are we Englishmen, that we should persist in guilt, and coquet with Satan, and yet count upon exemption from God's wrath? If we heed not our steps, we may have cause to perceive and acknowledge that we have been borne with hitherto, that our punishment may be the more conspicuous. "And for very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." Exod. ix. 16. It is agreeable to the patience of God to give an erring people repeated calls, and long time and space for considering his ways, and turning their plans over in their mind; and oh that his friendly warnings should be in vain! It is written, "Before him went the pestilence," but his indignation is hard to be guessed at, "until he gives it a charge against Ashkelon and against the sea-shore, and Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of the valley." And worse than all the terrors of "plague, pestilence, and famine," are the evil passions of a people, when for some wise purpose of the Almighty, they are suffered to take their full swing. What is the awful phenomenon of these restless times? A misguided parsimony, is joined with the cæca invidia, that preyed on the vitals of the enemy of Mordecai, and with abstract utilitarian principles, which threaten our monarchical constitution, and compass its downfall. These fearful agents of the evil one are at work, throwing down, one by one, the defences of our Protestant establishment, and boasting that the Anglican depositary of the holy Catholic faith must "fall an easy prey." "Alas for the ships of Tarshish! Thy rowers (states * In the King's speech, no allusion was made to that awful infliction, the Influenza, with which the year opened. Are we living in a Christian land? Why the old Romans acted wiser according to their lights. When they were attacked with a pestilence they never, any more than ourselves, ascribed their sufferings to their misdeeds, or dreamed of repentance and amendment. But they did acknowledge the visitation, and sought to appease the incensed Deity by creating a dictator. “Dictator clavis figendæ causa." Liv. lvii. men) have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas." Ezek. xxvii. 26. Oh that our readers would hearken to us-would believe men, who have seen much and observed something. They would then perceive, that it was owing to the daughter of Tarshish having discontinued to bring her gifts to that temple of Jerusalem which she built, that she remained not a queen for ever. But, as was foretold in the day of her pride, she is now but a barren rock, whereon fishermen spread their nets. The tract or letter, which we have made the string whereon to append opinions of our own, bearing upon its subject matter, is addressed to Lord J. Russell. The Home Secretary is, perhaps, the last man in the kingdom on whom we should have wasted our reasoning; and the venerable Archdeacon of Nottingham is in error if he supposes, that his peculiar opportunities of knowing and putting forth the whole of the case and its strength, will obtain the smallest jot of influence on the understanding of his lordship, who has an inbred "instinct after grants from the surplus funds of judgments iniquitously legal, from possessions voluntarily surrendered by the lawful proprietors, with the gibbet at their door." Notwithstanding this mistake in the superscription, which argues an amiable simplicity in the writer, the letter of the venerable Archdeacon Wilkins well merits the careful perusal of every christian member of the community. The obligations implied in his rank in the Church have enabled him, from experience, to throw considerable light on this momentous question. He has likewise furnished the data for judicious legislation, and in the most christian spirit, has annexed to his pamphlet the sketch of a bill for making the law respecting Church Rates efficient. In noticing this tract, we have to deal with a man whose amiable demeanour, useful learning, and conciliatory habits of life, particularly recommend his sacred ministerial character. Archdeacon Wilkins is, in truth, an ornament and support of the Establishment, and will one day (please God) find himself elevated (sede vacante) to that bench, to which probably he may not aspire, (for "the wisdom of the serpent" is almost the only wisdom in which he does not abound,) but for which dignity no man appears to us so peculiarly marked out. We know the minister we speak of; and therefore, it is not simply from the candid, charitable tone of the present publication that we draw our conclusion. His is one of those amiable natures, whose tempered fervour seems to belong to another era and another *The words of Edmund Burke on the ancestors of Lord John Russell. + Decus et præsidium. race, and to have nothing in common with the ungodly, rancorous spirit, so characteristic of the times we live in. "I cannot," he says, "justly be accused of political animosity towards any party; for during the twenty years of my residence, I have ever deemed it my duty to confine myself strictly to my ministerial functions, to the total exclusion of all party interference whatever." Dr. Wilkins will, we fear, be surprised at our having delivered ourselves so unreservedly. He may be hurt at our personality, but it is hard for us to abstain from speaking somewhat more at large. We shall now take occasion to give a brief summary of the question of Church Rates, from the earliest ages of the world to its agitation in Great Britain at the present day. If such historical relation might otherwise seem to the reader dry, the all engrossing topic of the day will, we trust, both plead our excuse, and invest our article with a lively interest. In all ages and nations we find mankind impressed with the necessity of worshipping the Deity. The tyrants and governments of yore felt themselves the instruments of the Almighty to enforce the command, already enjoined by the conscience of every human being, and consequently wholly independent of his option, and not left, any more than obedience to mere human codes, to his caprice and ignorance, to his wilful rejection or voluntary choice. The worship of the Deity, being made up of awe and thankfulness, naturally led, even under the voluntary principle, in antediluvian times, to certain gifts and oblations of the fruits of the earth. The houses, wherein such offerings to the Lord were laid up, were afterwards termed by the Jews "his treasuries." (Mal. iii. 10.) Solomon, who knew it was not sufficient to carry religion in our hearts as fire is borne in flint-stones, "Which much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straight is cold again," borrowed from the universal law of nature his precept, "Honour the Lord out of thy substance, and the chiefest of thy revenues: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and with new wine the fat of thy press shall overflow." (Prov. iii. 9.) Again: "Honour God with thy riches." (Psalm 1. 13, 14.) So did the kings of Tarshish, and of the Isles, and the kings of Sheba and Seba obey the law written in their hearts. (Matt. xi. 11.) And *The true internal RELIGION would seem, after one mode or other, to be instinctive in the nature of man, that is to say, written on his heart by the Supreme Being himself. That consent which determined that there is an invisible intelligent power in the world lies à priori in our universal reason, and must be unfolded out of it. It is a kind of mark or stamp, which the divine Workman has set upon his work. They were consecrated r @ oikeiw, to the potential divinity in every man. so St. Augustin tells us, that in after ages Jesus had coffers to contain those dues which, he being a priest after the order of Melchisedek, his true believers offered to him. For the maintenance of God's ministry on earth, man must forego some portion of his substance; and this tribute money has in all ages been paid, partly in the shape of tenths, or tithes; an institution which sprang up simultaneously with divine worship, and is coeval with natural religion. Ten, we are told, is the highest number we can run into without iteration of numbers under it. How could man better acknowledge the God of nature than by assigning unto him that quantity which is the continent of all that nature possesses? Such is the cabalistic explanation of the matter: we lay no stress upon it, but it may go for what it is worth. Cain brought of the fruits of the ground-not the tenth. Abel's "prefigured sacrifice" consisted of "the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof." From the Hebrew word "firstlings" is inferred the tenth. That this number was fixed by divine intimation, we are very inclined to infer, from God himself having afterwards sanctioned it. Such, at all events, was the opinion of the Church in the early ages of Christianity, as we learn from Tertullian's remarks on "Cain's defect in the quantity." That Noah's sacrifice after "the waters were dried up from off the earth" consisted of the tenth, is clear, as well from the subsequent Mosaic dispensation, as from that being the number offered very shortly afterwards; whether of fruit, of cattle, of spoils of war, or of vows made for protection. The sons and descendants of Noah carried this law and number with them. Abraham paid tithe, "the top," of his spoils to Melchisedek. (Gen. xiv. 20.) Jacob vowed, the stone which he set up as a pillar "shall be God's house, and of all thou shalt give me I will give unto thee the tithe." (Gen. xxviii. 22.) The decree of Moses by command of God, simply made that a statute regulation for Israel, which was already the common law all over the world, Israel included. The right of the clergy may seem to derive additional authority from the thunders of Mount Sinai, but does not borrow a tittle of additional evidence. We find this reserve amongst the Chaldeans, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks and Romans. Savage tribes acknowledged the allocation of tenths to the support of the priesthood, as well as the most civilized nations of antiquity. Invariably upon taking possession of a new country, when it was divided among individual warriors and patriots, a reserve of the tenth was made as a consecration of the land to Heaven. The institution existed, and exists amongst the Magi; and the conformity of the *Aug. cap. 15. De Mendac. See Philo de Congress. Quær. Erud. Grat. 13 3 66 10 So a laws of Zoroaster to those of Moses, in this respect, presented a stumbling block to Gibbon, not to be explained away by his sorry ribaldry.' Cyrus consecrated the tenth of his captive spoil to Apollo. Alexander the Great sent the tenth of the frankincense he had taken to the gods. Nebuchodonosor, to the temple of Belus. Rhodopis, a Thracian matron, presented the tenth part of her goods to Delphi. Agis offered his titheun to God at Delphi. Agesilaus, the same, after his victories. The Gauls and Britons did the like with all the cattle taken in war. Croesus, when made captive by Cyrus, advised him to consecrate the tenth of the spoil of Sardis to Jove. Festus says the old world offered every tenth thing unto God." The Greeks presented a golden tripod to Delphian Apollo, out of the tenths of the spoil taken in the Persian war. golden buckler was dedicated to Jupiter after the taking of Tanagra." Varro advises every man to pay tithes diligently of the fruits." The Sicilians, " abounding in corn," rendered tithes to Ceres. In Athens, to keep up the national religion, every one of the people paid tithes of fruit and of meat." All the people of Athens celebrated the feast of first-fruits. Herodotus speaks of their consecrating to Pallas, in the shape of a chariot of brass, the tenth part of the ransom of their Chalcidian and Bootian captives. Lucian mentions the tenths of spoils dedicated to Mars. 16 We find in Xenophon, that the tenth of the product of a certain field, dedicated to Diana, was sacrificed every year." The Siphnians presented the tithe of their gold mines to Apollo. The Arabians tithed their frankincense to their god Sabis. The Ethiopians did the same.19 The Athenians paid tithes to Pisistratus.20 The Romans paid the tithe of fruits to Hercules." The Samians sent six talents, as the tithe of their gain. We refer the reader for further information to Selden and Montesquieu. Tithes were established amongst the Egyptians. (Gen. xlvii. 22, 26.) Hezekiah commanded the tithes to be brought. (2 Chron. xxxi. 4, 11, 12. Nehem. x. 32, 35, 38; xii. 43, 44; xiii. 10, 11, 12.) "Ye are cursed with a curse; 1 22 18 15 See Decline and Fall of the 2 Xenoph. in Cyrop. lib. v. Herod. Euterpe. 6 Xenoph. de Agesil. Laced. 8 Herod. Clio. xxxix. 4. 10 Didor. Biblioth. Hist. lib. xi. 12 De Re Rustica. 14 11 Pausan. Eliac. A. 16 Lucian. Dialog. de Saltatione. 20 Apud Diogenem Laertium. |