[In the next he laments the disuse of weddingsermons, and celebrates the benefits arising from those at funerals, concluding with these words : "Ah! let not the relations of the deceased grudge the small expence of a hat-band, a pair of gloves, and ten shillings, from the satisfaction they are sure to receive from a pious divine, that their father, brother, or bosom wife, are certainly in Heaven.] [In another he draws a panegyric on one Mrs Margaret Wilkins; but, after great encomiums, concludes, "that notwithstanding all, she was an unprofitable vessel, being a barren woman, and never once having furnished God's church with a christening."] [We find in another chapter how he was much staggered in his belief, and disturbed in his conscience, by an Oxford scholar, who had proved to him by logic, that animals might have rational, nay, immortal souls; but how he was again comforted with the reflection, that if so, they might be allowed Christian burial, and greatly augment the fees of the parish.] [In the two following chapters he is overpowered with vanity. We are told, how he was constantly admitted to all the feasts and banquets of the church officers, and the speeches he there made for the good of the parish. How he gave hints to young clergymen to preach; but above all, how he gave a text for the 30th of January, which occasioned a most excellent sermon, the merits of which he takes entirely to himself. He gives an account of a conference he had with the vicar concerning the use of texts. Let a preacher (says he) consider the assembly before whom he preacheth, and unto them adapt his text. Micah the 3d and 11th affordeth good matter for courtiers and court-serving men. "The heads of the land judge for reward, and the people thereof judge for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us?" Were the first minister to point out a preacher before the house of commons,* would not he be wise to make choice of these words? "Give, and it shall be given unto ye." Or before the lords, "Giving no offence, that the ministry be not blamed," 2 Cor. vi. 3. Or praising the warm zeal of an administration, "Who maketh his Ministers a flaming fire," Psal. civ. 4. We omit many other of his texts as too tedious.] [From this period the style of the book rises extremely. Before the next chapter was pasted the effigies of Dr Sacheverell, and I found the opposite page all on a foam with politics.] We are now (says he) arrived at that celebrated year, in which the church of England was tried in the person of Dr Sacheverell.† I had ever the in *This application of texts is equal in humour to what is said on the same subject in Eachard's Contempt of the Clergy; a work that abounds in wit, and was evidently much read by Swift. It was unfortunate for Dr Sheridan that, with his usual absence of mind, he chose for his text, to a sermon on the accession of George I. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" little imagining any offence could be taken.-Dr WARTON. + Bolingbroke, speaking of Sacheverell, in his Dedication to Sir Robert Walpole, says, "You had a sermon te condemn, and a parson to roast; for that, I think, was the decent language of the time; and, to carry on the allegory, you roasted him in so fierce a fire, that you burnt yourselves; your arguments being confined to the propositions this preacher had advanced, you may seem rather to have justified resistance, or the means employ. ed to bring about the Revolution, than the Revolution itself." Dr WARTON. terest of our high-church at heart, neither would I at any season mingle myself in the societies of fanatics, whom I from my infancy abhorred more than the heathen or Gentile. It was in these days I bethought myself, that much profit might accrue unto our parish, and even unto the nation, could there be assembled together a number of chosen men of the right spirit, who might argue, refine and define, upon high and great matters. Unto this purpose did I institute a weekly assembly of divers worthy men at the Rose and Crown alehouse, over whom myself (though unworthy) did preside. Yea, I did read to them the Postboy of Mr Roper, and the written letter of Mr Dyer, upon which we communed afterward among ourselves. Our society was composed of the following persons: Robert Jenkins, farrier; Amos Turner, collar-maker; George Pilcocks, late exciseman; Thomas White, wheelwright, and myself. First, of the first, Robert Jenkins. He was a man of bright parts and shrewd conceit, for he never shoed a horse of a whig or a fanatic, but he lamed him sorely. Amos Turner, a worthy person, rightly esteemed among us for his sufferings, in that he had been honoured in the stocks for wearing an oaken bough. George Pilcoks, a sufferer also; of zealous and laudable freedom of speech, insomuch that his occupation had been taken from him. Thomas White, of good repute likewise, for that his uncle by the mother's side had formerly been servitor at Maudlin college, where the glorious Sacheverell was educated. Now were the eyes of all the parish upon these our weekly councils. In a short In a short space the minister came among us; he spake concerning us and our councils to a multitude of other ministers at the visitation, and they spake thereof unto the ministers at London, so that even the bishops heard and marvelled thereat. Moreover, sir Thomas, member of Parliament, spake of the same unto other members of parliament, who spake thereof unto the peers of the realm. Lo! thus did our councils enter into hearts of our generals and our lawgivers; and from henceforth, even as we devised, thus did they. [After this, the book is turned on a sudden from his own life to a history of all the public transactions of Europe, compiled from the newspapers of those times. I could not comprehend the meaning of this, till I perceived at last, to my no small astonishment, that all the measures of the four last years of the queen, together with the peace at Utrecht, which have been usually attributed to the earl of Oxford, duke of Ormond, lords Harcourt and Bolingbroke, and other great men, do here most plainly appear to have been wholly owing to Robert Jenkins, Amos Turner, George Pilcocks, Thomas White, but above all, P. P. The reader may be sure I was very inquisitive after this extraordinary writer, whose work I have here abstracted. I took a journey into the country on purpose: but could not find the least trace of him: till by accident I met an old clergyman, who said he could not be positive, but thought it might be one Paul Philips, who had been dead about twelve years. And upon inquiry, all we could learn of that person from the neighbourhood was, that he had been taken notice of, for swallowing loaches, and remembered by some people by a black and white cur, with one car, that constantly followed him.] |