the Abfence of the benefic'd Minifters fhould be fupply'd by Curates that are fufficient and licens'd Preachers; that thefe Curates fhould not be employ'd without the Examination and Admisfion of the Bishop of the Diocefe, or Ordinary of the Place; that every Minifter fhould nominate and present before-hand the Perfon he defigns for his Curate, to the Bifhop or Ordinary, to be thus admitted, and then licens'd; that upon granting fuch Licence and Admiffion, a fufficient certain Stipend and Allowance fhould be appointed by the Bishop under his own Hand and Seal, to the Curate for his Maintenance; and in Cafe of any Difference between the Minifter and his Curate, that the Bishop should arbitrate upon the Point, and cause the fettled Stipend to be paid: Whereas the Act, I fay, ordains all this in the strongest Terms imaginable, we have Demonftrations too many, to let us fee how easy it is to elude its Force. 'Tis but my forgetting (as it were) to give my Curate a Nomination to the Bishop, and then he can have no Licence; he himself will not dare to demand one of me; if he does, I cafhier him at once, and the Bishop is too much a Gentleman and my Friend, to call upon me for one, or to infift on fuch trifling Niceties. While therefore I keep him from a Licence (and that I'll endeavour to do as long as I live) he's properly no Curate of the Place; and therefore I'll ufe him as I please: I will pay him as I pleafe, and send him adrift when I pleafe, in fpight of his boafted Act for the better Maintenance of Curates.

'Tis a Sh me, my Lord (I fpeak it with fome Concern) 'tis a Shame, I fay, that the Legiflature is not more publickly told, how their Authority is every Day flighted, and this Act E

of

of Favour and Benevolence towards us defeated, and made of no manner of Significance, by fuch fraudulent and evafive Practice.

NAY, well it were if this A&t were only of no Significance to us; but the Mifchief is, 'tis too commonly turn'd upon us, and made an Inftrument of our greater Abasement and Humiliation. For whereas it appoints that our Salary fhould not exceed fifty, nor fall below twenty Pound per Annum, and has left the proportioning of this to the fole Difcretion of the Bishop or Ordinary; the Bishop or Ordinary is ufually encumber'd too much with ferving elsewhere, to be at leifure to interpofe in our Agreements: Bargain then we must for ourfelves as well as we can, but are ufually brought down to the lowest Extream, and told to our Comfort, that if we like it not, others there are that will accept it; that they offer us no Injuftice, because the Act allows them that Latitude; nor can it be any Dishonour in them to take all the proper Advantages of it. We, for our parts, are forc'd to submit then, and can only lament inwardly,

That when tyrannick Ufurpation
Invades the Freedom of a Nation,
The Laws o' th' Land that were intended,
To keep it out, are made defend it.

OUR wife Legiflators, to be fure, never fuppos'd, that twenty or thirty Pounds per Ann. were an Equivalent for the Cure of a Parish, that perhaps confifts of ten thousand Souls, and may bring the Incumbent in yearly four or five hundred Pounds neat Money. They had an Eye chiefly, in this Claufe, to fmall Livings, and cheap Countries: They left the wealthy Clergy,

Clergy, in a great measure, to their own Generofity; never dreaming that they would be the firft Men to beat down the Prices of their own Vocation. They plac'd the Vigilance of the Bishop's Eye over them; as little thinking, that in a Matter of fuch Confequence to the Quiet and good Order of the Church, any Vigilance would have been wanting. Had they fufpected this, 'tis probable they had put our Stipends under another Regulation, and confidered a little farther, whether the third Part of the clear Produce of the Benefice, and that recoverable by addreffing to the civil Magiftrate (as it is now in the Cafe of fmall Tythes) be not a fitter Proportion, and a fafer Establishment for us, than what we are now upon.

FOR to take the A&t, my Lord, in its highest Elevation (what few of us I believe ever yet came up to) fifty Pounds per Annum (how big foever it may found in the whole) is no great Sum, when it comes to be parcell'd out into twenty for Board and Lodging; half as much and more for wearing Apparel; fomething for wafhing, making, and mending; fomething for Books, and other Utenfils of Study; fomething for Charity and Relief of the Poor; and fomething for feveral o her occafional Expences, that are almost unavoidable in this great Town. For unless we would be the Scoff and Ridicule of Company, we must endeavour to appear * full as well as we can, to gain Respect among our Equals, and Access to those that are above us. Unless we are minded to fink into Ignorance and Stupidity, fome Books we must buy, both to employ our vacant Hours, and furnish our

* Commune id vitium eft, hic vivimus ambitiofa paupertate

Juv. Sat. 4.

Minds with Materials for our Calling. Unless we would fortify our Hearts against all Pity and Compaffion, fome Money we must part with, when we visit the Sick and Indigent, to ease our own Bowels as well as relieve their Wants. And unless we could break through all the received Rules of Life, and turn mere Cynicks, we must think now and then of meeting with a Friend, and of taking a little fomething together 1 Tim. v. for our Stomach's fake, and our frequent Infir

23.

mities.

THUS, upon the beft Suppofition, that the Man is fingle, and has the Top-Allowance of the Law, yet he acts no unfrugal Part, I conceive, if he can but make both ends meet, as we fay, and find himself out of Debt when the Year is run round. But then, if he chance to be the happy Man that's married, and under a little lower Exhibition, how comfortable muft it be to have a Wife coming every Year upon him with a terrible Defalcation; and the Charge of one Lying-in making fuch a Gap in a Quarter's Wages, as a Twelvemonth's Parcimony afterwards will fcarce be fufficient to repair. How pleasant a Life, to be perpetually struggling to get out of Debt, and as perpetually relapfing!

Just as a Dog, that turns the Spit,
Beftirs himself, and plies his Feet,
To climb the Wheel; but all in vain,
His own Weight brings him down again.

On my Lord, how prettily and temperately may a Wife and half a dozen Children maintain'd with almost thirty Pounds per

*Vid. Contempt of the Clergy, p. 112.

Annum?

Annum? What an handsom Shift will an ingehious and frugal Divine make to take it by turns, and wear a Caffock one Year, and a Pair of Breeches another? What a primitive Sight will it be, to fee a Man of God with his Shoes out at Toes, and his Stockings out at Heels, wandering about in an old Ruffet Coat, or a tatter'd Gown, for Apprentices to point at, and Wags to break Jefts on? And what a notable Figure will he make in a Pulpit on Sundays, that has fent his Hooker and Stillingfleet, his Pearfon and Sanderfon, his Barrow and Tillotson, with many more Fathers of the English Church, into Limbo long fince, to keep his Wife's penfive Petticoat Company, and her much lamented Wedding-Ring?

To speak seriously to the Point, my Lord, 'tis impoffible to conceive how any Man, with fuch an Allowance, can maintain a Family, without being plung'd every Day into fuch or worse Difficulties as thefe, or without being engag'd in fuch intolerable Dependance upon others, or committing fuch mean and debafing Actions himself, as muft in all Probability render him and his Administrations both contemptible:

WERE he indeed in any Expectance of coming at Preferment after fuch a Course of ftarving, much might be born with Patience and Magnanimity; but your Lordship is too well acquainted with the Methods of Promotion, to think, that a poor Spectre of a Man, with a meagre Look, and long Train of Children at his Heels, can ever fucceed in his Pretenfions; where a Perfon of great Wealth and Affluence, with many Friends, and powerful Interceffions,

*

*Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obftar Res angufta domi.

Juv.