nius for
building, which began after the fire, and hath ever since continued, have
prodigiously enlarged this town on all sides, where it was capable of
increase; and those tracts of land built into streets, have generally
continued of the same parish they belonged to, while they lay in fields;
so that the care of above thirty thousand souls, hath been sometimes
committed to one minister, whose church would hardly contain the
twentieth part of his flock: neither, I think, was any family in those
parishes obliged to pay above a groat a year to their spiritual pastor.
Some few of those parishes have been since divided; in others were
erected chapels of ease, where a preacher is maintained by general
contribution. Such poor shifts and expedients, to the infinite shame
and scandal, of so vast and flourishing a city, have been thought
sufficient for the service of God and religion; as if they were
circumstances wholly indifferent.

This defect, among other consequences of it, hath made schism a sort of
necessary evil, there being at least three hundred thousand inhabitants
in this town, whom the churches would not be able to contain, if the
people were ever so well disposed: and in a city not overstocked with
zeal, the only way to preserve any degree of religion, is to make all
attendance upon the duties of it, as easy and cheap as possible: whereas
on the contrary, in the larger parishes, the press is so great, and the
pew-keeper's tax so exorbitant, that those who love to save trouble and
money, either stay at home, or retire to the conventicles. I believe
there are few examples in any Christian country of so great a neglect
for religion; and the dissenting teachers have made their advantages
largely by it, "sowing tares among the wheat while men slept;" being much
more expert at procuring contributions, which is a trade they are bred up
in, than men of a liberal education.

And to say truth, the way practised by several parishes in and about this
town, of maintaining their clergy by voluntary subscriptions, is not only
an indignity to the character, but hath many pernicious consequences
attending it; such a precarious dependence, subjecting a clergyman, who
hath not more than ordinary spirit and resolution, to many
inconveniences, which are obvious to imagine: but this defect will, no
doubt, be remedied by the wisdom and piety of the present Parliament; and
a tax laid upon every house in a parish, for the support of thei