doubts if the law would not compel a minifter to carry the body into the church. The fecond Rubric of the Burial Service might, one would think, fhew that this is optional; and, if they will refer to the law books (and perhaps it would have been candid to have done fo before they called names), they will find that it is at least fuppofed to have been made optional by the Legiflature, not for the relief of the miDifter, but the fafety of the parifh*. And a wife precaution it is; for, where leaden collins are not ufed, and friends are to be collected from a diftance fo as to delay the funeral, which in the country is often and generally the cafe, the effluvia are frequently highly offenfive, and the corple certainly not in a flate to be placed, for any length of time, in the midst of a congregation, or even for any time in a confined or crowded place.

prac

ber 31, and attending it bare-headed
from the church-yard gate in a furplice
wet enough to be wrung; nor have I
the least expectation of receiving fee or
recompence, thanks, or apology. Some
apology indeed I did receive from the
clerk for my wet furplice, as he affured
me it thould not have been fo had he
known the rector himself would have
come. P. P. and B. E. may make as
much as they pleafe of the kindness in-
tended for my poor curate, who is not
a bit lefs a clergyman or lefs refpectable
than myfelf.
E. N.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 24.

YOUR correfpondent E. O. E. vol.

LXXII. p. 1105, is little acquainted with antient brick chimnies, when he views thofe at Newport with fo much admiration. Such are feattered in various parts of Effex, Suffolk, and other counties. He will find them in Grofe's Antiquities, and a variety of Antiquarian views.

Your chimney-fweeping correfpondent, p. 1109, muft learn how they were fwept, and how differently they were conftructed in that refpect from the modern ones, which, if fwept by bushes, would burn down half London,

I with your Antiquarian correfpond. ents to inform me what name is concealed under the appellation of Scorch Beef, given to a nanor in Shipton upon Cherwell, co. Oxford, an elite of New College, and what benefacior gave it to that college.

Sir, as P. P. fays he could bring inflances of clergymen not fo mercenary, indolent, or proud, as thofe he objects to, but who are accustomed to meet the loweft pauper at the church-yard gate, I have at leaft the fatisfaction of reflecting that I might be added to the number, as I not only do fo, but carry them into the church without fee or reward, being very inimical to all unneceflary difunétions upon fuch occafions. Nevertheless, I can affure B. E. that I will for ever refift the tice of depofiting the coffin in the inidit of the congregation during the whole of divine fervice (lengthened alfo by funeral hymns, &c.); and I have done fu this very day, out of an imperious p. 1103, refpecting CapOME of the particulars in vol. Lenfe of duty. That I may, however, full part friends, I have the pleasure to conclude with affiring both your very tender correfpondents, that I am juft going to-bed with every fymptom of a ott fevere catarrh, brought on by waiting more an hour for the body of a day-labourer ou a wet evening, Deco

Mr. URBAN,

O. P.

Jun. 3.

tain Paxton, who was executed for the murder of his bailiff, are incorrect. Capt. Pastón rented a confiderable efiate of a Mr. Crotle, not a ploughboy or a brewer, but a maluter," at Malden, in Bedfordshire (which is fill in the family) upwards of 140 years

* Dr. Burn, upon the expreffion "going before, ether into the church or to the grave," oblerves, by which feems to be difcretionary in the minitter whether the corpfe shall be carried into the church or not; and there may be good reaton for this, especially in cafes of infection." Putrid effluvia may at all times be infectious.-Wheatley thinks it optional; but that, in cafe the body is not carried into church, the whole fervice fould be read at the grave, or the Palms and Leffons in the church after the burial of the body-Comber afligns a reafon for carrying the body into the church; namely, to shew that the party died in the communion thereof. I think it decorous, and perhaps orgatory on the miniiler, to meet the corple, as the Rubric feems to dire&; though, furely, it ought to be difpenfed with under fuch circumitances as i have flated above. I think no part of the Service should be omitted; and that, as the whole is short, without obvious neceffity, the body had better be carried into the church, and that without dif unction: though I fill hold it to be discretionary.on the part of the clergyman.

ago,

any

Liturgy, or any part of it, in private houfes, on any occation whatever, untels in times of perfecution, as a very great impropriety, and in fome degree a profanation of it. I certainly do not mean to fay that perfons living in country parishes at a confiderable dittance from church, who are prevented going by the weather, or by their flate of health, or other allowable caule of abfence, are to spend the whole day without devotions between their ufual morning and evening prayers; or that thofe who are not provided with properdevotional books, or unacquainted with them, may not be commended for taking the Common Prayer, as a proof of their being religioufly difpoled; but I have fometimes known it done by ignorant though perhaps well-meaning people, in fo light and irreverent a manner as to be little or no proof of fach a difpofition; and even when ufed by perfons of better education, it has always, in my mind, a tendency to letlen that veneration in which the public rites of divine fervice ought ever "to be held.

I will inveftigate the fubject in both inftances, and fubunit my objections; not from any defire to eliablith them in oppofition to fuperior judgment and betler arguments, but with a view to have my own fairly refuted or confirmed.

In the former inflance, of the Common Prayer being occasionally uled by ignorant or uneducated people in their families: I have feen a boy, becaufe he could go on without fpelling, fet up to read the whole of the church fervice, not onnitting the abfolution; and, having performed it, with many miftakes and interruptions between jeft and earnell, obtain the prailes of his father and another, and the nick-name of pardon throughout the famdy; and I have likowite, in tome cafts of this

defcription, heard it given as a reason for not going to church, that "our Jack could preach all the fervice as well or better than the curate, and that there was no call for parfons, for people could pray all the fame without 'em." I do not affert that many inftances of this nature have come under my ubfervation; but the few that I have known have fufficiently difgufted me at fuch a mode of private worship; as having an obvious tendency to bring the public fervice and public religious inftructions into contempt, and difregarded with thofe who stand moft in need of fuch inftructions: and I fhould not be furprised if on fome occafions "our Jack" fhould be thought qualified to perform any other parts

of the clerical office.

I am next to remark upon the occafional ufe of the Church Service in private families of a fuperior rank in life and better education: here I do not find the matter much mended, or any of my objections done away. The matter of the houfe perhaps reads the fervice in a devout and proper manner, and delivers a fermon to his family and domefticks, and very poffibly performs it better than the chrute. This being the cafe, he will often be induced, upon - the mott trivial pretences of having a flight cold. or fine fuch excufe, to abfent hinfelf and his family from

church, and alfo to admit foine par-
ticular friends and neighbours, who,
as well as himself, may like better to
make a party at prayers, in a warm
room by the fire fide, than in a cold,
damp, uncomfortable church; for fuch
it will pretently be voted by all who
have the honor of an invitation to the
party. The church of courfe will be
left to the lower fort of people, who
will foon think themfelves intitled to
the privilege of praying or staying at
home, after the example of their betters.
I have reafon to believe this is not an
uncommon cafe, and the confequence
nutt be evident enough to fupport my
objections upon the moft favourable
view of the fubject. I could adduce
fome facts to corroborate them: oue
of which I will felect from my own
When I was
particular knowledge.
about ten years old, I was invited to
the house of a gentleman of fortune
in the neighbourhood, who visited my
family, to pafs fome part of a fchool
vacation with his fons, one of whom
was nearly of my own age: when

Sunday

Sunday came, I was rather furprised to find no preparations for going to church, and a good deal difappointed that I was not to have a ride in the carriage. The gentleman took his horfe, and rode out; and as foou as he was gone, the lady aflembled us all in her dreffing-room, and produced a large Bible, containing the Common Prayer, which, as I was the fon of a clergy man, was offered to me to read; and having always an inclination to that profeffion (in which however, I could not be indulged) I was pleafed with an opportunity of fhewing my qualifications, and believe I fhould have gone through the office very well; but, before it was half over, a coach full of company arrived, and the lady withdrew to receive them; leaving me and the junior part of the congregation to go on in her abfence: for the reft, I can only remember that it was quite out of my power to keep them in any order, or maintain the leaft decorum; and I believe we all agreed to fhut up the book. But I was then fo ftruck with the impropriety of making thus free with the Church Service, that I was afraid to mention it at home; and fhould as foon have thought of being defired to baptize a child, or bury the

dead.

I do not, however, draw my objections wholly from thefe inftances of indecorum; which, it may be faid, afford no conclufive argument againft a practice that must be prefumed to have fo good a principle as that of Chriftian piety; which, it is to be feared, does not fo much abound in the world, as to make it advifable to throw any reftrictions in the way of a religious act, on account of its being, like all other good deeds, very imperfectly performed. I admit the force of this reafoning, but do not think it equal to oppofe to the points I contend for; which are thefe; that to affume the ufe of the Liturgy for our private devotions, however well intended or firictly guarded from any indecorous circumftances, is nearly as improper as to affume the functions of the Clergy in any other of their official duties; and has an obvious and certain tendency to leffen our veneration for the public Rites of Religion, to diminish the effect of them, to induce a habit of abfenting surfelves from church, and to deftroy that just refpect and confideration for its minifters, which is requifite to give

thofe public rites their full and proper influence upon the minds and conduct of the people.

It is unquestionably the duty and the privilege of every matter of a houfe, or father of a family, to be, as far as he is qualified, the domeftic chuplain; and I do not think him juftified, whatever rank he holds, in deputing this office to another; even to a clergyman, much lefs to children or vifitors: if he is himfelf in orders, he will fee the propriety of keeping his public and private duties perfectly diftinct, and wil! not introduce into his houfe the form of public worship, but will either compofe or felect, for his own and his parithoners ufe, a series of private devotions, to be occafionally ufed on the Sabbath-day. I know but one inftance to the contrary amongst the Clergy; but that I must acknowledge is of the most refpectable authority, to which I fhould be inclined to fubmit my own judgment, if I could implicitly do to to any.

The arguments I have adduced againft the ufe of the Book of Common Prayer in private houfes will apply in an equal if not a greater degree to a fimilar ofe of any of the facred offices therein coutained, except in particular cafes of neceffity. The miniftration of baptifm and the holy communion; the folem nization of marriages though by fpecial licence, and the burial of the dead in groves and gardens, and other unconfecrated places, by the direction of the deceafed, lofe niuch of their folemuity, and of that facred impreffion which they ought to make, by being thus performed."

The magnificent palaces of earthly potentates, the pomp and fplendour of their courts, are very rightly judged, to be requifite to give their fubjects a proper refpect for their perfons, and difpofe, them to pay a due fubmiffion to their authority. The mind of man is fo formed, as to be powerfully affected by external objects, more efpecially in matters of religion. The numerous ceremonies of the Law of Mofes, commanded by God himfelf, are an indubitable teftimony of this; and upon the fame principle, the Chriffian church admitted in their place fuch as deemed appropriate to the purer difpenfation of the Gofpel; which, in fome fucceeding ages, have been fo corruptly multiplied, as to defeat their original purpofe: but this can never be with

were

truth

fume rites; and in fome cafes, as I have been adduced, in any publication

Jan. 13. WAS much amufed on Monday, by reading, in a Morning Paper, a mott pompous and inflated account of the launch of two Eaft-Indiamen; but I had not proceeded above half way in this ftrange account, before my attention was called to a fubject which excited emotions fomewhat different from those

dertakings to nothing but imperious neceffity, fhould affume the office of fponfor."-Then follows the name of the gentleman, which is here wholly out of the queftion, although I have no doubt he deferves the character given. Am I too fastidious now, when I affert, that this ceremony, thus reprefented in a news-paper, and thus affimilated to the facrament of Baptifm, favours not a little of prophanenefs? If I am miftaken, I entreat of fome of your cor refpondents to inftruct my ignorance; and to tell me, if they can, that the words Baptifm and Sponfor are proper to be applied in a Chriftian land to any work of art, however useful. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

A CHURCHMAN.、

Jan. 22.

THE following appears evidently to have reference to the well-known ftory of the Earl of Eflex. The cir cumance, however, has only appeared in manufcript to the writer of this, but he has no doubt of its authenticity :

"An old chest of drawers was put up to auction, fome years ago, in this country, when the man who bid for it, faid one of the drawers did not thut clofe, which in

duced him to take it out; upon its not drawer, in which were between nine and going back, they fearched, found a private ten thousand pounds in Bank notes, and on further examination, another drawer was found, in which was a purfe, embroi dered with pearls, and an old-fashioned ring in the purfe, with a paper written by a Lady Cook, who had a place nnder Queen Elizabeth. It fays, he was in a 100m when Lady Nottingham would have given the ring to the queen; who was in a great pation, and Along it down; that Lady

of mere amufement. In the firft place, I think it would be quite fufficient, if we were to be told, that when a fhip is launched, fhe is named. It feems to me a wanton ufe of facred terms, to call this, as almost all the papers have done, the baptifm of a fhip; and I fhould be of the fame opinion if, instead of an Indiaman, that epithet were applied to the nobleft firft-rate flip in his Majelly's fervice. Secondly, this ceremiony, I understand, is performed by breaking a bottle of wine on the fiern of the fhip, the moment she is launched, and by pronouncing the name at the fame inftant. I trufi I need not point out, that there is here an allufion, of the mott direct and plain kind, to the facred rite of the Chriftian church. And this, if I am not miftaken, is the mode of performing the ceremony in the cafe of all fhips. But, Mr. Urban, left you fhould think ine too faftidious or pre-Cook took it up, and offered to give it to cife, I will revert again to the account in the news-paper above alluded to, the anthor of which feems to think, that the naming of a fhip is really and truly a religious ceremony. We know that our church requires certain duties to be performed by the godfathers and godmothers; but hear now the canon which this writer lays down refpecting the fenfor of a fhip! Et rifum teneatis!

The circumftances of the occafion required that fome perfon, in whom he nevolence, and all the other mild virtues of human nature, are united, with a ftrong understanding fuperior to difficulties, and fubmiffive in virtuous un

it, and defired never to fee it again."

the queen the next day, who turned from

The ring and the purfe were at Mr. Barlow's, then a mercer, who faid he had feen the paper. As to the Banknotes, it is fuppofed a Lady, who was fometimes out of her fenfes (and died about forty years after), had put them there; as her friends, when he died, never could account what she had done with her money, having nobody particular to attend on her, nor any method of difpofing of her valuable and private effects, which they knew were confiderable. HISTORICUS.

1. Tra